July Frugals

Cut DH's hair.
Postponed going to the grocery store as long as possible. We put a serious dent in the freezer. The garden isn't producing much right now or we'd have been able to wait longer.
Carpooling with a friend whose son is in the same day camp this week as DD. That will save a couple gallons of gas.
Most of my entertainment this week is helping my friend paint some rooms inside her house. Another friend is helping so it's social time while we paint. She keeps her A/C much lower than we do so that's an added bonus. She also bought me lunch today.

Haven't driven my car in so long. Facebook and these boards have been my source of entertainment. Don't buy a ton of groceries and try to make sure we eat tem all...

Yesterday was a no spend day. When Zach got home I was thinking about running a couple of errands to get some household stuff we need, but it's not urgent and I mostly just wanted a break so I took a nap instead.

My big splurge for the week was two $10 puzzle mats for rolling up partially finished puzzles. So totally worth the money. The kid I am watching and my oldest kids spent hours working on puzzles and when it was time for dinner, we just rolled them up and put them away. Puzzles can be had quite cheaply at the thrift store, about $.50-$1, and they are hours of screen-free entertainment. We just didn't do them because we didn't have a dedicated space for them. Problem solved.

Isabella got her birthday present from my mom. It's the Lego Friends Olivia's House. The girls are likely to spend hours with that too. They love Lego Friends.

Speaking of Legos, yesterday while we were cleaning the girls room, I made a reading nook under their lego table, which is built into one of their closets. We have a lot of people here and the kids like to have a lot of little nooks where they can go to read or just be by themselves for a bit. The Lego table is higher than usual to keep little hands off of it and is accessed by a big window-seat type bench that is pulled in front of it when it is in use and pulled away when it isn't. The new reading nook can be sheltered from sight by pulling the bench in front of it. We're going to put in some LED tap lights for lighting, but it uses an otherwise unused space. This qualifies as a frugal to me because using our space efficiently helps us happily fit 8 people into this space.

Along those same lines, the family room is almost finished and I am thinking about how I want to arrange it. We already have furniture for it, a couch, a comfy chair, a coffee table and a foosball table. In thinking about how we use the space it seems to have two main purposes. One is for games, everything from board games to foosball. The other is for large muscle play. The coffee table down there is a trunk that is full of yarn I got for free, but not really nice yarn, just acrylics. Those are useful for some crafts, but I don't really like knitting with them all that much. The yarn takes up a lot of space, so I think I am going to get rid of most of it and move what I keep to my craft room. Then I can store games and puzzles in the trunk and it will be much lighter and easier to move. Now, instead of feeling like I have to divide the room up, we will just be able to move the couch and trunk for large muscle play and I can position the couch and coffee table in front of the fireplace. That will be nice for playing games by the fire in the winter.

The kid I am watching is helping me teach a unit on marine life to my kids. He is obsessed with fish and marine animals and is very knowledgeable. He is so excited about the project that he gets the other kids excited about it too. Since I have banned myself from spending money on homeschool stuff, I figured, I'd take advantage of his knowledge and excitement and channel it into something good for all the kids. I found a free printable lapbook on coral reefs, so we started those yesterday. The kids are really into the lapbooks.

We are also studying the Revolutionary War, so we are doing some Revolutionary War era cooking. A lot of it is actually pretty inexpensive stuff and the food we're eating serves double duty as a teaching tool and a meal. Bella found some YouTube historical cooking videos that we have been watching for inspiration.

Finally, last night we used up the last of the root beer from Bella's birthday having root beer floats. Yum!

Early morning-we had a riding lawn mower but sold it when we moved. And now it just isn't worth it to buy another.

Fidgiegirl-the house is definitely going to be sold and not rented. When it sells we will be able to pay off the restaurant and be 100% debt free. So excited about that !!!! And I totally get what you said about never wanting to paint again. I say that during every project it seems.

I spent several hours cleaning up the kitchen cabinents. They had 3 young kids and I don't think they ever wiped down a cabinent the entire time they were there. Ugh! Anyways, I found a bottle of Old English here at home and used it on the cabinents and they look beautiful again-even dh was impressed by how well they turned out.

Last night we seemed to bleed money. We went to get the license plate for the trailer. We had to go to the local grain elevator and have it weighed. (I'll say it again, man I live in the middle of nowhere!) Anyways, here we are parked on this big scale and the car dies and refuses to start. Some nice guy jumped us twice before I could get it to stay running long enough to drive down the street and buy a new $65 battery. Then it was down the street a ways further to give someone $35 to put the new battery in the car. Once we did that and went to the DMV it was $75 for the plate instead of the expected $30. I just kept reminding myself to be thankful that we were in an area that we could get the necessary help and that we were together and it wasn't just me alone, at night kind of thing. This is our only vehicle so its not like dh could have just come running if I needed him.

On a happy note, once we got home I read about some more sweepstakes sites in a magazine and entered several that I hadn't heard of before.

In the mail this week I have recieved postage stamps, a gallon of BBQ sauce and a 12 oz bottle of a new dijon sauce.

I went to Riteaid today to use up a $10 reward. I bought 8 rolls of bathroom paper to add to our stockpile as well as a couple of other things.

The library was also a frugal sucess. I know have a copy of The Man Who Quit money to read as well as season one of The Big C. I had watched the first few episodes on one of those free trial deals with cable and refused to pay for the upgrade just to watch a show. Still, it will be fun to watch-and free!

I started a couple of the items in the Making It: Radical Home Ec (checked out from the library) this week and made my own vegetable stock for soup and beans from dried beans instead of cans.

Yesterday we walked around the small lake and public gardens at a local park, and took our dog to the dog park next door to the lake. So that was an evening of free and frugal fun. Instead of buying patio lights my husband put up white Christmas lights in a big tree in the back yard and after our walk we had cheap wine on the patio under the lights.

Sunday we went to open houses to potentially downsize our house. We found a newer house on a hill with water views much cheaper than ours in a city with a cute downtown area. We walked around downtown and stopped for ice cream. The city is really nice but it is a further out from the main job area so the home prices are much lower. Since we work from home we do not care about the commute so I think that will be our target city to move to next spring. We were excited about this discovery because before that we wanted to move but hadn't found exactly the right spot. Between the houses in this area being much newer (less repair costs), hopefully more energy efficient, and getting a smaller house and yard we should save a lot of money in retirement. So decluttering our house and selling it next spring is our current plan.

I made home made dish soap from Castille soap and some natural ingredients. It turned out okay so we won't be buying commercial dish soap any more.

I found that the company that makes the natural bar soap I buy is local so I bought a case for half price directly from the factory office.

We went shopping at Safeway with the personalized shopping discounts from their web site and saved 40% off the retail prices just buying mainly the personalized price items. I could have saved 50 - 60% if I had not brought my husband since he adds things he likes to the cart that aren't on sale.

We bought the rest of our groceries at the pack it yourself warehouse store. They match all of the local sales of others stores so the prices are great. I wanted some olive oil to make my own essential oils and they had some marked down to $4 a bottle, $8 off retail price. It probably isn't the best tasting brand at that price but since I won't be eating it I am just glad to save the money.

I grilled chicken in a cast iron grill pan on the stove for dinner so that saved spending money on charcoal. Earlier in the day I made home made soup.

I bought cheap decorative soap dispensers from Ross and Target for every sink in the house and a bulk bottle of natural liquid soap from Amazon. The bulk soap is only about $10 for a huge bottle. I saw that the price of hand soap at the local retail grocery store is about $5 a pump bottle so this will save us a lot of money on hand soap in the future.

I have a potluck this evening and I made a dulce de leche banana pie and I am making a chocolate tart as I type this. Rosemary, I am using your Grandma's tart crust recipe that you posted some time back. I love that crust. Both desserts are pretty easy to make and this potluck is such a fun monthly gathering.

Zach got off work early today and one of my friends randomly has the day off, so I am going out to the bookstore with her. I am going to try to restrain myself. I might buy a cup of tea, but nothing else. Famous last words. :) I am really needing some kid-free time and Zach is working tomorrow, so that cup of tea is totally worth it to me. Sweet, precious sanity!

I found something on Pinterest for restoring messy doll hair. It's basically liquid fabric softener and water. I tried it today on an old doll of mine we are saving for Charlotte and on Cheyenne's AG doll and it really did work.

I went to Target last night and stayed on-list. I got stuff like toilet paper, sponges and glue. Nothing too frivolous.

BKE: That worked out well about the car. I'm sure the expenditure was unwelcome, but glad you didn't get stranded alone at night in the middle of nowhere!
T2BF: I was going to try a recipe for homemade dishwashing liquid, but the recipe includes washing soda, which kind of made me hesitate. Can I ask what the ingredients are for your recipe, and whether it has been working satisfactorily for you? I did stop making laundry detergent because I wasn't convinced that it was very effective, although I've been happy with all the other homemade household cleaning recipes.
Stella: I've peeked at Pinterest, but I've honestly been unsure what to do once I get in there, and I understand that it's a big marketing tool aimed primarily at women, so I've hesitated to pursue. Can I ask how you use it, or is that too much of an "essay question?"
I was off from work yesterday for an appointment, and DH and I went to Whole Foods to pick something up on the way home, and $65.00 later . . . That store is so seductive! And it didn't really cover any of our grocery needs for the week; it was definitely recreational food shopping, although we did get a nice lunch and dinner out of the deal, so I guess it was cheaper than going out to eat (as she stretches for the longshot rationalization)!
On a brighter note, I got credit card statements from the two cards with the special offers, and we did get the $150 credit on one and the $25 credit on the other, so that is certainly welcome "free money."

Rosarugosa,

Stella may have a different take on pinterest, but to me it's like a collage of interesting ideas/recipes/etc. that I might want to try and I don't have to print or cut out those ideas. I can just pin them. Now I don't go out there that often because it can be a HUGE time suck. But I have found some really interesting cool things because of it.

Thanks Mara - and I'm trying to work on the computer as time suck thing as it is, so I might be better off without it, although inspiring ideas are always nice!

Mara that is pretty much how I view Pinterest too. I use it for recipes, craft ideas, garden ideas, tips and daydreams (tiny houses, places I want to visit). I have done a lot of recipes and projects from Pinterest. It can be addicting though.