April daily frugal's

April 18
Stella so sorry to hear of you unlce; 50 is way too young and it is so hard not to believe in the damage from some workplaces.
Congradulations to the rest, on all the good finds and frugals.
For us there have been a few frugals in the last week and a few unfrugals.

I start the thread this month declaring it was going to be a good month for us and it has been in many ways.

We saw the Dr. at the Cancer Clinic last Thur. and the results of the CT scan DH had the week before were good.
There are no new growths and there are a few less in the lungs and the original three tumours show a slight improvement. It was such a relief to hear some good news, after eight months of bad news it was hard to even get our hopes up.....
She is leaving him on the same amount of the drug, but the schedule will be 2 wks on and 1 wks off....This is mostly because his white count is not coming back fast enough after being on for the 4 wks on and 2 wks off.
Nice to being giving some good news...Thank you all so much for being there I have really aprreciated all the support ...

Actul frugals have been
--sourced out some repairs and have got a fair price from a layoff factory worker to do serveral things we need done. It will be a false savings to not keep the house up.
--finally have all the papers together for Income Tax and will be going this week
--only ate out once this past week but it was just hamburgers that were on sale 50% off
--planning Easter dinner for 5 of us and have most of what we need in the house or can get it on sale this week.
--busy following the elections and going to a few local candidate's meetings...free information and entertainment...hehe
--still watching movies from the library and reading books all free how I love that word...
--sold a couple of items on Kijiji for a big old $15.00 and have decided it is not a productive use of my time anything, and everything else we do not need or don't use are going to friends, family or charity.
--filled up with gas last week before it went up at Superstore .02 cheaper and they give you back .02 on litre...not much but it all adds up..

Danna I am so happy you finally got some good news! It is about time!

Thanks to everyone for the condolences. The wake is tonight and the funeral is tomorrow. It's hard not to be there.

Kelli, can you share your Mexican Noodle Soup recipe?

Zach and I are going on a lenten retreat tonight and Dad found us a babysitter. She's a friend of his who loves kids and is doing this for free. Dad will take her out for dinner as a thank-you. I got a bunch of roasts in the last meat pack I got from the butcher, so I tossed one in the slow cooker for dinner for the kids and babysitter. They'll have pot roast, noodles, gravy and a veggie. Tomorrow we'll have the leftover pot roast and gravy over spaetzle with some green beans I got on sale for $1 a pound. I used up the last of the red wine my mom was drinking when she visited in the roast. Zach and I are being fed at the retreat.

Our spending has slowed to almost nothing over the last few weeks. Outside of a piece of pie and a coffee when Travis was in the hospital we haven't spent money on anything non-essential pretty much the entire month of April. It hasn't been hard, either. We're feeling pretty contented.

I made a big pot of oatmeal for breakfast today. It's supposed to snow today and it's gloomy outside. It's a good day for oatmeal.

I brought out the duplos and blocks that had been out of rotation for a while. The older three kids are happily building together while the baby naps. I need to figure out what to take out of rotation for a while. It's such a good way of keeping toys new and exciting without buying more stuff.

I was mentioning my unit on sacred art to my Dad this morning and he told me to go up to his room and borrow some books he got at the Vatican exhibit they had a while back at the Minnesota History Center.

None of my frugals lately are spectacular, but they're working. We're keeping spending to a minimum and still really enjoying ourselves.

I didn't do so well today. I had to go to town and had to buy gas, and then I ended up eating out...but I did eat lunch late enough that I could wait for supper until I got home.

We've been doing better this week. Yesterday was a no drive/no spend day. I talked DH out of ordering pizza for dinner since we are out of date money until Thursday. He's been working a lot of overtime, and i have been working a lot, too. So at night we prety much just lay around and watch TV until bedtime. I guess being tired and boring is one way to save money! ;-) Next week I don't have to work as much, so I am planning on getting some things done around the house.

Later today I do have to mail some letters, but I am going to zip over to the nearest mailbox instead of crossing town to the post office. I thought about walking, but it is cold and rainy, and I don't really have time for a long walk today, anyway--too much work to do. So today I will drive, but I will be consider walking more in the future. It saves gas, and I need the exercise.

returned a pair of sneakers that became unglued and were only a month old. They gave me full credit. I was very happy.

Hurt my foot and MD wanted me to go to therapy and gave me a sheet of exercises to do- therapist closest to my house was out of the office for the week. I was 100% faithful with the exercises, icing and elevation and it has improved so much I will need little to no therapy which is little to no copay. I hope to keep it up all week so I can cancel the appt I have for next Wednesday.

Still rainy, cold and snowy here so I have been working on some quilts for charity with fabric I had in the house. They came out cute. Two for a silent auction for my quilt guild, one for a Livestrong cancer affair.

Zach took the morning off of school to rescue me. I've been getting a little worn out acting like I'm not two and a half weeks post partum. :P Of course I didn't actually rest. :) We went to AxMan Surplus to get stuff for Bella's Kindergarten egg drop. She wisely chose to get the car wash sponges that worked successfully for Cheyenne last year, although she was briefly tempted by the whoopie cushions. I was happy with the car wash sponges because they have another use.

I made the girls take their own money this time. They always beg for stuff at AxMan and I sometimes give in if things are cheap enough and kind of fun. Today they bought themselves a variety of pretty coloured marbles. Bella chose entirely iridescent marbles and Cheyenne went with an ocean inspired mix. When we got home they each put them in a jar and used my label maker to label them Magical Mermaid Jewels. (I must say, the combination of whimsy and organization makes me proud of them) They are writing a story about mermaids and pirates and magical mermaid jewels. They are going to make a movie about it with Cheyenne's video camera and edit it on iMovie. They also made paper fish, paper seaweed, a paper clam and a paper sea anemone to do a photo shoot for movie posters. Lots of good free fun.

This is holy week so church is pretty much taking up the rest of my week. :) Travis is being baptized at the Easter Vigil (very unusual for a baby) and his Godmother lent me her son's baptismal outfit for him. Her mom made it. It's absolutely gorgeous and it will save us some money. She also dropped off some diapers her DD outgrew. Size 3, but eventually T will be able to use them.

Another friend from church is getting rid of baby stuff. She's giving me her breast pump and some size 5 diapers her kiddo has outgrown for James. He's in size 4 now.

J, another friend from church is babysitting the older 3 kids plus our friend D's kids for the Friday afternoon Solemn Liturgy. J has two teens to help with the babysitting.

Tomorrow we're colouring Easter eggs. I didn't buy the tablets. I have a lot of food colouring we can use. We're also going to make hot cross buns to freeze for Easter.

Danna, So glad for your good news. I'm sure many of us were hoping to hear something good from you after Merski's good news!
Kat, Cutting out takeout meals has been a real boon to our budget as well. It's certainly cheaper than eating restaurant meals, but it adds up.
Stella, I hope you all enjoy your Easter festivities.
So our squirrel strategy has proved good, but not perfect. The critters can still get on the feeder occasionally, but a fill-up lasted five days instead of one, so that's a significant improvement. Plus we got to see a lot more birds on the feeder instead of squirrels.
A friend gave us about 30 cans of cat food because he's switching his cat to a different diet, so that will save a bunch on our grocery expenditures this week.
It's my b'day this weekend, so I'm taking a long weekend. DH is making me a cake (his baking is the best ever, I know I'm biased, but it really is). I wanted lobsters for dinner, but we're also trying to be more in control of our grocery budget. I got a $75.00 check in the mail from doing a lengthy, tedious online survey on pet food, so that's going to cover the lobsters - and I think some steamed clams - which we'll have at home instead of eating out. So we can have guilt-free lobsters without busting the budget:)

Happy birthday Rosa! Enjoy your lobsters!

We went the short route on the hot cross buns and used the breadmaker. Yay for shortcuts! I used to feel lazy when I did things like that, but I'm over that. The reality of having a toddler and newborn is that if I didn't take shortcuts a lot of things just wouldn't get done.

The art books my Dad lent me are amazing! The girls and I sifted through 107 pages of one before they wanted to do something else. Even James was into it for a while. Their favourite was a photo of Michaelangelo's Pieta, which there is a reproduction of at the Cathedral in St Paul. We will definitely have to visit that. Art Month is turning out to be a brilliant success and I haven't really spent any money on it at all. Next month is Science Month. Conveniently enough we are spending Easter with the elementary school Science Specialist, who is Travis' godfather's mom. I am going to ask for some ideas. June is probably going to be History Month, which will cost us about $100 for the Historical Society membership. July is Outdoors Month, which should be pretty much entirely free.

Zach is getting off of school early today and tomorrow. This is actually frugal because I can accomplish about 6 times as much when he is home as I can when he isn't. I may make use of the time to make some banana bread and finally organize my sewing space.

Happy birthday, Rosa! Those squirrels sure can be little stinkers, can't they? We love ours, though, and we feed them along with the birds.
@ stella--yum! I have been thinking about getting a bread maker. My MIL said I could borrow hers for awhile to see how I like it.

Things haven't been all that frugal lately since we ran into a couple of more problems with the kitchen (imagine that!). I'm not really surprised; this has been the home remodel from you know where! But the first phase--the kitchen--is nearing completion. I hope that next weekend we can move back in.

This weekend shouldn't be too bad, though. We have family coming into town--yay!--so we will be visiting them and heading to church. I resisted temptation to buy a maternity Easter dress. No sense in spending $30 on a dress I will only wear once or twice. I can get by with what I have for Easter and a wedding we have to attend next week.

My MIL works at a thrift store and is the person in charge of baby and toddler stuff (sorting, pricing, etc.). Yesterday she picked me up a boppy-type pillow, brand new in package (with washable cover) for $10. They cost around $30 in stores and the covers are another $10, so I think that was a pretty good deal. It's blue, but who cares? It's been kind of fun "collecting" things for the baby. I figure when we get closer, we'll reassess and see what we really still need.

Oh, I picked up some more contracts for this summer, so it looks like I will have steady work until the baby comes. That is nice; sometimes contractual work can be a little scary since there is no real guaranteed stability. That is why we try to sock away while work is available--something I learned from seasonal/contracted workers on this board. Boy, was that good advice!

Kat, good luck on finishing the kitchen remodel! I hope when it is all over you have a kitchen you really love.

Today is a church heavy day. Services at 3:00PM and 8:30. I might go with our neighborhood Vital Living group to an olive oil tasting at a locally owned specialty shop. A neighborhood friend offered to let me ride with her, so it wouldn't even cost me gas money and I'd get to hang out with friends.

Zach and Dad are fasting today, so that saves some money. :) I am breastfeeding, so I am exempt. I made a big pot of mango coconut oatmeal this morning for breakfast. Yum!

Nothing too much happening today, frugal or otherwise.