August Frugals

[early morning]

Spent two days at the World's Longest Garage Sale (DD and Dsis spent three, so they found more stuff). Bought some great items to resell, and some practical stuff to keep. Picked up some birthday gifts for DD and a couple items for DH - some C-clamps and two funnels with long flexible metal ends. Got a few things I've been wanting - some plants for my tiny pond, a small cupboard to put by the fridge, yet another picnic basket for storing stuff. DD bought a huge amount of lovely Waverly fabric for $5, in the form of drapes. It will make great overnight bags, purses, etc. Also got a half-peck of red plums for $1. They are delish!

[Rosemary]

Got a free wire rack that I'm going to use as a potting bench. Also bought a used garden cart to use for the mulch I'm having delivered next week, and the seller had a bunch of free gardening supplies too (Kelli, think I was in your neck of the woods getting this used gardening stuff!). We've gotten by without a wheelbarrow but this is a major project. I cleared about 400 sq ft of lawn and am making a flower/edibles bed. Also planning to mulch some areas of the yard that we want to landscape next year - will cover the grass with cardboard, then mulch.

DD wanted to have a "summer party" so some of her friends are coming over tomorrow. Entertainment: badminton and croquet, and just running around of course. Food: watermelon. Frugal summer fun!

We had been talking about having a porch built on our house since moving in, and never landscaped that side of our house (nor had the previous owner - just lawn).. well, we finally did it this summer. To keep costs down, it is unfinished inside (3-season porch); we'll eventually finish it. And we're painting the outside ourselves - I started on that project today. It is lovely to have a refuge from the mosquitoes.. and with the sun exposure it will get, we should be able to use it most of the year even though it's unheated. I'm planning to grow some spinach, kale, etc in there and see how it does this winter.

We told the builder that he could leave any scrap wood that they wouldn't use on another project, so now we have some wood for a few small projects. DD has been wanting an insanely costly doll bed - so today DH and she built one based on the catalog photo.

Otherwise... line-dried 3 loads of laundry, ate at home despite working (garden/painting) most of the day from 8am-7pm.

[Stella]

Kelli, that art store is so much fun! Thanks for the suggestion. We went back when you first talked about it and it's a great place to go when you want to do something creative, but you aren't totally sure what.

We had such a nice FFF kind of evening. Zach hauled the canoe across the street to the lake to take the older three canoeing and I wandered over to the live music they had at the amphitheater. It was a Scottish/Irish band. I met a friend of mine, a lady about my mom's age who is from France. Her husband is the one from Japan who has been teaching Cheyenne some Japanese. We had such a nice time chatting and listening to music. She played with baby Charlotte. Cheyenne is obsessed with languages and now wants to learn French too and my friend is willing to spend time conversing in French with her. One of Cheyenne's friends, a girl her age, moved here about two year years ago from France and also spends time with this lady speaking in French, just to keep their skills sharp, so Cheyenne may join them.

In the evening Zach went to bed early because he had an early start today, so I went to another friend's house and watched the Olympics. It was fun.

This week is full of FFF. I'm going to work on the front garden area this week. Thursday evening I am going to attend a neighborhood swap party/potluck at the house of the friend I was hanging out with at the park. We are also planning to make some watermelon sculptures this week. I am looking forward to that.

For our date this week, since Dad is gone so we don't have a sitter, we are going to feed the kids a simple dinner one night and make steaks for ourselves out on the deck after the kids are down.

I have freezer meals ready for Tuesday and Friday. Tuesday Zach has basketball, so I have some frozen turkey fried rice. Fridays I'm usually tired, so I have some homemade macaroni and cheese frozen. I also made a big batch of muffin batter yesterday and put a bunch of it in the fridge. We had muffins for breakfast today and will have them again tomorrow. My mom used to do that and I don't know why I had forgotten that. It's a good, simple way to have a homemade breakfast without much work.

Today is the Feast of the Transfiguration, so I am making a sour cream raisin pie because grapes are traditionally blessed on this day. I am going to use a package of badly broken graham crackers to make the crust.

[Rosemary]

DD's summer party was a lot of fun for the girls, and cost was $4 for the watermelon, a small amount of which remains.
3 loads of laundry line-drying outside. Probably dry and waiting for me, since it's very warm and not humid today.
I'm planting the new landscape bed bit by bit. I bought a few perennials on sale and split them before planting; also moved and split plants already in our yard.

[fidgiegirl]

That reminds me, Rosemary - I was going to make a little chart to put by the dryer to track how many loads we save of dryer use by hanging up the laundry outside. We're already at 5, and I read somewhere that it's approximately a .50/load savings to hang. Plus, it's meditative.

[Mrs-M]

Originally posted by Fidgiegirl.
I read somewhere that it's approximately a .50/load savings to hang.

I wish data like this was made more readily available to consumers.

Re: the .50/load savings... seems low to me, surprisingly low. I would have guessed a buck or two.

[fidgiegirl]

I wish data like this was made more readily available to consumers.

Re: the .50/load savings... seems low to me, surprisingly low. I would have guessed a buck or two.

Well, I think it was some blogger, so it was probably highly individualized to the person's situation. It would depend on your local utility rates, as well as the efficiency of your dryer. And older one will be less efficient, and electric is less efficient (right?). How would each of us do the math on this one?

[Stella]

early morning that's a good deal on those plums. I love plums.

Rosemary, the party sounds like fun!

Last week my friend, who works at a company that makes displays for Target, Walmart, etc. brought us some of those little tents that they use to display what the full-size ones will look like in the store. Her company was getting rid of them and they are a good size for AG dolls. She brought three, but I don't want that many so we asked a friend who's DD is friends with the girls if she would like one. Our kids will share the other two. Only Cheyenne and Bella have AG dolls, but James likes them for his bears and things too.

Cheyenne and I had a mom/kid date. We got some inexpensive fleece ($3 or so for a half a yard) for her to make a sleeping bag for Isabella's doll. Bella's birthday was last month, but Cheyenne hadn't had a chance to make her present yet. Isabella made Cheyenne a sleeping bag for her doll, so Cheyenne feels it's only fair now that they have tents. After we got the fabric we went to the Adoration Chapel at church for a little quiet prayer time together. Cheyenne likes that and so do I.

[Rosemary]

I am loving the porch and not being eaten by mosquitoes as I type this.

"It typically costs 30 to 40 cents to dry a load of laundry in an electric dryer and approximately 15 to 20 cents in a gas dryer." -- from
http://www.laundrylist.org/en/faq/35...-clothes-dryer
Of course this will vary from year to year based on local utility rates.

We had to replace our dryer a few months ago and the new one is clearly more efficient than the old one - dries in about 75% of the time. So I will be interested to see how our gas bill changes this winter, when I use the dryer.

The other benefits of line-drying - the meditative time, the amazing stain removal power of sunshine, and the wonderful scent - are incalculable bonuses!

[fidgiegirl]

Aw, sweet Miss Cheyenne.

Rosemary, how wonderful about your porch!!

We just had some fun watching a comic book close on eBay. It was sitting at $51.00, and we watched it during the last minute. At 6 seconds left it jumped up to $82.00. WOO! Love those snipers!

New garage door installed today. We had bought it on Craigslist for $50. It cost $125 to have it installed and the old one taken away. We were going to have them install a used garage door opener we had trash picked, but it wouldn't work with sensors and they are required to install them. So either we'll install it, or even if we have to buy a newer one with sensors we'll save a bunch by installing it ourselves. It would be good to have the sensors, truthfully.