July Frugals

Bunnys: I'll be interested in hearing how you make out with the car. We have never negotiated a car purchase (one of the reasons we loved Saturn), but we're going to have to do it someday!
Just saw that the dragonfly shirt is now marked down to $19.99 online, but I'm feeling strong, at least for tonight!
Have you ever noticed how home magazines this time of year frequently feature big beautiful beach houses with vases full of blue hydrangea? Well I don't have the fancy beach house, but I do have the vase full of hydrangea from the garden. :cool:
I also cut some phlox - the smell is wonderful!

Ooh Rosa I love hydrangeas.

I finally did have to go to the grocery store, but I made it until Thursday night, so that's pretty good. I did my grocery shopping for next week too.

Today some friends are coming over to go swimming, so that will be some FFF. Isabella is getting her birthday dinner tonight since I'm pretty sure the waterpark will wear me out tomorrow. She requested tuna casserole, so that's pretty inexpensive. Tomorrow I am making crockpot chicken for mediterranean chicken pita sandwiches. It will sit in the crockpot all day and when we are done with the waterpark it will be waiting for us. That should cut down on any temptation to eat out.

I think we are going to have movie night tonight, since my Dad is home. We're going to watch The Parent Trap. The girls love Hailey Mills ever since they saw The Trouble with Angels.

Zach got an extra $200 in his check as a thank-you for hanging in there in a very busy season. I thought that was really thoughtful of his employer. I want to see if we can save most of it. I did my usual payday transfer to savings and added some extra. I have managed to get our weekday spending down to almost nothing. I think that's going to be pretty easy to keep up.

After this weekend we don't have any more birthdays until Zach's and mine in October and that's it until March. Birthday season is almost done. That will save us some cash. I am already starting to think about how I'll handle Christmas. Last year on our trip we did all experience gifts. I'm thinking that would be a good tradition to keep up.

tonight ends my twelve day stint of being alone in the house as DH has been out of town. In that time I managed to largely eat out of the garden, and I only drove eight miles each way to a friends house once. I was helping her with a project and the roads to her house are pretty dangerous by bike. I learned to use my solar cooker and it was fun and cheap, now that I have the unit. When I was in the car I did all my errands that necessated a car, the rest of the time I walked or rode my bike.

I am not used to being alone and it gave me a lot of time to think about where my life is going and what personal goals I have for myself. Time well spent. I also listened to four books on CD as I worked around the house.

I also have not turned on the TV or air conditioning.

I did make a quilt with materials I had on hand- it came out really cute.

So all in all a very low spend few weeks.

Back after 3 days/2 nights at a friend's lake home near Alexandria MN. It was so relaxing and fun with a total of 7 women getting to know each other better. Surprisingly we ate almost none of the many, many snacks we brought with us but left the unopened ones with her since their adult children and friend come nearly weekly and she provides all the food. We brought all the food for meals except the fabulous walleye dinner that her husband prepared for us.

We did spend $5 each to go to a tasting at a nearby winery - not tempted to buy any to take home. Went to her beloved outlet store and I bought very little - some fabric and bamboo pillow forms for 50% off - but enjoyed this ENORMOUS warehouse - we kept reminding each other "it's not a good deal if you don't really need it". Chipped in for gas and that was the extent of my spending.

Home yesterday in time to work a shift at the occasional sale shop where my sister and I have a space. Never tempted to spend $ in other vendors space. I did go to a few garage sales this morning and spent $4 on 5 items that I will re-sell either at the shop or on etsy.

Rosaruga,

Not exactly advanced budgeting (I wish :) ). I shoot to do the bigger stuff when my DH has that "extra" paycheck every few months. I saved some of it from our income tax refund (we claim the highest, but he did a contract job last year and those really get hit hard with taxes). We won't have as much of a refund next year. Our neighbor I think charged us a very fair amount for the garage and tree removal and it looks like we will get some money back from excess shingles.

Next on my list is new electrical in our basement, what we have is scary!

I was able to grocery shop alone today, so no mistakes with forgetting something or not using a coupon. My sons went golfing with their grandparents this morning and then my in' laws took them out to lunch.

For those that shop at Meijer, they have a good deal going with gift cards and fruit of the loom. If you spend $25 in gift cards you get $10 off fruit of the loom items. I bought a $25 Meijer gift card since I had some other items to buy and just broke up my purchases into three. I had a $2 coupon good off anything (except gift cards) so 3 packs of badly needed socks for the boys (18 pairs in all) cost me $3.90.

Meijer is also running a deal on their toilet paper, napkins and paper towel (I use both paper and cloth, just depends on what we are eating ;) ). I ended up getting 12 rolls of tp, 4 rolls of paper towel and 2 packs of napkins for $5.82. I'll be picking up another 6 rolls of tp, 2 more paper towels and another napkin tomorrow for an additional $.82. Coupons were curtesy of their MPerks site.

Grabbed some free vinegar at Target today, along with some free hydrogen peroxide. And managed to be there to get a free tall sample of Starbucks new refresher drink (I think that is what it called)

While I don't "need" the wine, I do trials through Bzz Agent and one that I am doing is for Be. Wine (it's by Berringer Wines). I bought 2 bottles for $7.99 each and will get back $5 per bottle. It's normally priced at $17/bottle at Kroger but was on sale since it's new.

Another trip to the library last night. DH grabbed the final book in the Eragon series on cd, he'll listen at work. More of my inter library loan books came in, lots of great reading. Tomorrow we will ride our bikes up to the library to return a couple of movies, the audio cds and a few books. I have more holds to pick up ;) .

We have no other plans thankfully tomorrow. It is supposed to rain....hope so :) Oh I am going to call our cable company and see if I can get our bundle price lower.

Mara, You rock with the $2.99 wine - I'll be over for drinks a little later, OK? ;)
No dragonfly shirt purchases made this week - and no other nonessential spending = bolstered my cash stash fund (my 1k self challenge) to $800. And I think I've got a really cool goal to target it towards, but I'm still contemplating. Actually, I could come up with 100k worth of goals for it . . .but if I come up with one good focused objective, I think that will help to motivate me.
I also left $20 of my allowance in the bank so that I can do a SLF donation this weekend via Paypal. Putting my money where my mouth is, so to speak.

July 13
Have not been on for the last week had company from out of town....
--mostly had food in the house to make nice meals and snacks...coupon 2/1 to take her out for coffee and treat one day and
she bought us ice cream sundae treats the one night. Bought beer and wine but only drank a few of the beers..very frugal week.
Also, had a great time
--A/C stopped working yesterday but, repairman was here within 24 hours and had it fixed no charge (I have a plan)...said the A/C unit was a very good one (I wasn't sure and bought in 2005) so that is good to know. The problem was a part (that he said was a battery as an easy way to explain what it did) and he had seen serveral this week I guess this heat has been hard on them.
--Thur Dgrandson had a program at the library so when I picked them up I spent a hour reading this months magazines Free have to love that.
--using up samples of shampoo and conditioner and not using my supply it will make it last longer
--discovered the smaller Hardware Store close to us and could not believe how easy it was to shop there...had a list of 4 items and I had found them (actually had sales help and advice on one item in particular) and was out of there in 20 minutes without feeling like I had walked a couple of miles. They had everything I needed and the prices were conparable. I think this will be my new hardware store...
--was suppose to go out for supper tonight but, really didn't feel like it so didn't go and was glad and saved the price of a not so good meal.
--cleaned out the fridge after company left and have been using up since yesterday.

The dragonfly shirt reminded me of a FFF sight this week. There were 50+ dragonflies flying over the garden. Very beautiful.

Stella, wanted to recommend the more recent version(1998) of The Parent Trap. It's a very fun update. I think your girls would get a big kick out of it.

recent high winds left our yard full of large branches. DH is seldom up to using our chainsaw, and I can't really handle it well - it's very heavy and temperamental. The cost to have the yard cleared, even by teenagers, was over $50. Instead, we put that money towards a $120 battery operated chain saw. We have LOTS of batteries, as it runs on the same system as most of our other battery tools. It's a little slow, but lightweight, easy to handle, does a good job, and best of all - doesn't tax DH nearly as much! He was able to cut up a lot of the branches yesterday, as he was having a really good day. Not being able to help much around here is harder on him than his pain, I think! He struggles with depression and all this makes it sooo much worse... so being able to cut up the wood yesterday really made him feel good. Hauling them into the field is not a problem, once they are small enough to get in the truck! DD and I will probably do that this AM.

Thanks for the tip Amaranth! We'll have to check that out.

Today is Miss Isabella's 7th birthday, so it is just not going to be a frugal day. Unfortunately, we will be saving some money because her friend that she invited to come with us to the water park got a stomach bug and can't come. We'll be eating out for lunch at a drive-in we like near the water park. This is Bella's birthday present and party in one. We like experience gifts. Tonight we'll have the cake grandma bought us at the pool at our house with anyone who wants to have some.

I was talking with my friend's mom yesterday and we are thinking of having a water fight sometime this summer. That would be some good FFF. My friend's mom is awesome. She always has cool, fun ideas of stuff to do and she has such a spirit of whimsy. She and her sisters (in their 50s and 60s) still go and do things like going to a trampoline place, passing out awards to random houses in the area for the best Christmas decorations and zip lining, with or without kids. I want to be them when I grow up.

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Originally Posted by rosarugosa

Bunnys: I'll be interested in hearing how you make out with the car. We have never negotiated a car purchase (one of the reasons we loved Saturn), but we're going to have to do it someday!

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Just made my purchase today. I got the Fiat 500 Sport. It is sssooo cute even if it's being hawked by J-Lo.

How guilty do I feel about buying this new, cute car? Not a bit. I am 48 years old and this is my 3rd car. Drove 1st 13 years and last 12 years. So I think that's frugal. So I'm going to run this bad boy into the ground. I got it with a sunroof (which I've always wanted and never had--I will enjoy this and get my money's worth.) Also got stick shift (cheaper and more fun.) I think this is my mid-life crisis.

Here's how my purchase was frugal. I saved all my pennies this past year and paid cash for this car. When the time came to purchase I was so scared to deal with all those sharks. So I did a tremendous amount of research on the specs of the car and how much the average person pays. Then I researched the process of car buying and the car sales industry. I was so informed when I walked into the first dealership. I felt so confident. I was the one in control and I know I did a good job. At the second dealership I knew so much more than the saleswoman I was embarrassed for her. I was also annoyed that she was wasting my time. On the first trip to both dealerships I walked out the door even though I knew I was ready to buy this week.

I cannot emphasize enough how informing myself about this process totally empowered me. I had thought of going through one of those "no haggle" programs that they have with USAA or Costco and in fact did get a quote for one of the cars I was looking at this way. But the reality is that I truly believe I got a better deal on my own by being informed (which translated to assertiveness and confidence.)

Those of you who are buying "no haggle" or are afraid to go into that kill or be killed arena, educate yourself (it really will only take about 24-36 hours [internet research, asking friends questions and processing what you've learned]) and you'll be ready to go in there and get a great deal.

I know I walked away having gotten the absolutely best deal I could possibly get for myself, bought the car of my dreams and was poised and unemotional throughout the entire process. And I know I will enjoy this car for many years in the future. What more could I want? I feel I have made a truly frugal buy.

WTG bunnys! That is awesome! I really don't like car haggling - thanks for the tips. I hope I won't be in the market for a long time, but sometimes things happen...

That is so great bunnys that you informed yourself and did all you could to prepare yourself with purchasing! Great job! By the way I LOVE that car!!!! Lucky you!

Tussie: Yeah, the car is pretty cute!

Thanks both of you. I love feeling empowered. And this, I think, is a lesson we all can learn from, especially if we ever buy a used car from a salesman. As bad a reputation a new car sales are, the world of used car sales is MUCH worse!

Yesterday was a fun day, if not a frugal one, and the expenses were all planned. Isabella ended up getting into the water park for free because it was her birthday, so that was a bit less money than we were planning to spend. We ended up having card night with our friends after the pool party. I had made a crockpot chicken for pita sandwiches, so we brought it over for everyone for dinner. It was a lovely, exhausting day.

Today we are going to be a bit more low-key. We are going to the evening mass and Grandpa and I are going to take Bella to get her ears pierced, but most of the day we are going to rest and putter around the house.

My Dad gifted me a meal planning app that I think I will get a lot of use out of. I thought that was nice of him.

I opened an envelope today with a check for $300 from Travis' Godfather, who is a Jesuit priest. I had been talking to him about how I am trying to help the kid I am watching and how I love being able to help him, but it is definitely hard on the grocery budget. He said that people often give him money to put towards a good cause and he has decided that helping me with the expense of taking care of this kid is one of those good causes! I am so blown away. I am heading to Costco today to stock up on food.

Home from our annual family camping trip. A frugal weekend aside from gas to get there. We and 4-5 other families share a group campsite at a state park. The kids play together all day and the adults enjoy relaxing and chatting and sitting by the campfire late into the night, watching the stars without light pollution. I far prefer this to camping at a regular campsite; the group campsites are large and separated from each other by bits of forest, and there are usually only 3-5 group campsites per park, compared to 100 family campsites at a typical park with little to no separation. When we split the reservation fee, it's about $20 per family. Cheap for the memories it's making!

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Originally Posted by Rosemary

Home from our annual family camping trip. A frugal weekend aside from gas to get there. We and 4-5 other families share a group campsite at a state park. The kids play together all day and the adults enjoy relaxing and chatting and sitting by the campfire late into the night, watching the stars without light pollution. I far prefer this to camping at a regular campsite; the group campsites are large and separated from each other by bits of forest, and there are usually only 3-5 group campsites per park, compared to 100 family campsites at a typical park with little to no separation. When we split the reservation fee, it's about $20 per family. Cheap for the memories it's making!

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That sounds really fun and frugal. I bet the kids had a blast.

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Originally Posted by Stella

Yesterday was a fun day, if not a frugal one, and the expenses were all planned. Isabella ended up getting into the water park for free because it was her birthday, so that was a bit less money than we were planning to spend. We ended up having card night with our friends after the pool party. I had made a crockpot chicken for pita sandwiches, so we brought it over for everyone for dinner. It was a lovely, exhausting day.

Today we are going to be a bit more low-key. We are going to the evening mass and Grandpa and I are going to take Bella to get her ears pierced, but most of the day we are going to rest and putter around the house.

My Dad gifted me a meal planning app that I think I will get a lot of use out of. I thought that was nice of him.

I opened an envelope today with a check for $300 from Travis' Godfather, who is a Jesuit priest. I had been talking to him about how I am trying to help the kid I am watching and how I love being able to help him, but it is definitely hard on the grocery budget. He said that people often give him money to put towards a good cause and he has decided that helping me with the expense of taking care of this kid is one of those good causes! I am so blown away. I am heading to Costco today to stock up on food.

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That is so nice to hear. How is the boy doing so far? It sounded form your previous posts you were coming up with some cool activities to get him out of the summer doldrums.

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Originally Posted by try2bfrugal

That is so nice to hear. How is the boy doing so far? It sounded form your previous posts you were coming up with some cool activities to get him out of the summer doldrums.

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He is doing great! He has made some friends in the neighborhood and when it isn't 100 degrees like it is supposed to be today :) he has been getting some exercise and having some fun. We've had some good conversations too. He's a good kid.

Today should be a pretty frugal day. Almost all of my weekdays are no spend days and I am not even remotely tempted to drive in this heat. I think dinner is going to be BLTs with lettuce and tomato from our garden.

For those of you in the MSP area looking for some FFF: http://www.twincities.com/ci_2106908...ine-fine-about

Hahaha! cdttmm that cracks me up. That could be fun.

Awesome, cdttmm!! I just might have to go!!!

Well hello everyone! Back from a week or so in the Upper Peninsula of MI and Door County, WI. Both lovely and different, yet similar places. We camped almost all the nights in MI and saw the beautiful Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore out of Munising, MI and hiked, swam, and took two boat rides in the area. We were there with a friend of mine from Girl Scouts from years ago and her husband and cute little baby. They were as frugal-minded as us so the trip fit us all perfectly.

In Door County we stayed in my SiL and BiL's cabin (they charge $25/night) and mostly ate our meals in with my FiL and MiL who were also up there and didn't do too much that cost a whole lot - lots of antiquing but little buying. One memorable experience was kayaking on a sunset tour, about 5 miles in all. We took the money we had saved by being refunded one of our MI boat trips (a little boat fender-bender caused our tour to be delayed an hour, and so they refunded everyone's money and still took us out). Haha, of course now I have it in my head that I want a kayak! All-in-all, a successful trip!

I don't want to call this next one a non-frugal, because in the long run it is a frugal, hmmmm, we should think of a name for that kind of expenditure. Sometimes we get into thinking that spending money is not being frugal when in fact it often is frugal to spend more on something better that will last longer/work better/etc. Anyway, we had our back door replaced on the house and a new screen door installed. DH scored the beautiful door on CL a few months ago for only $65 (solid wood reproduction arts & crafts style door) and we did buy the screen door full price at Home Depot back in May. Our woodworking guy installed a new frame, threshold, etc. as well as the door and the screen door. In all I think we had about $800 into the project spread out over a few months. We are so happy with it! The old doors and frame were garbage - drafty, not secure, etc. These doors will last us many, many years, save on energy, and save on worry about break-ins. Pics on the blog if you are interested. We have yet to paint.

One last recent frugal - we had to have DH's car towed before our trip. We called today and indeed the insurance will reimburse the cost of the tow. We actually pay for this in the form of roadside assistance add-on but the fact that we actually will turn in the stuff and get the reimbursement is what is frugal - taking advantage of what we have paid for. It's tempting to just let that stuff go sometimes and not bother. = $80 back in our pockets.

I am really trying to have a fun frugal summer. It is our 'summer of adventure' so we are doing so much! My boys and I just came back from a marvelous 3 days on Wolfe Island but we stayed with family-so all 3 meals were cooked at home and we only ventured out once for ice cream and small treats for the boys-they paid for the toys with their own pocket money. Lots of swimming in the lake, campfires and watching neat programs on Netflix

The entire 3 days only cost me the price of the train tickets to get there and maybe another $20.

We are also doing a lot of camping-again another frugal fun holiday

Our 'big' trip for the summer has already been paid for earlier this year so I don't really feel the pinch. We're renting a cottage on our favourite beach. I will try to bring as much from home as I can.

And finally, still bringing in lunch every single day to work. Even days I don't feel like it-it's not worth it to me to buy the $8 salad. We're concentrating on socking away as much as we can to savings for the tighter years ahead (dh was laid off end of June)

oh, but now I totally want Netflix-haha-but only $8 per month so am researching as much as I can

Welcome back, Kelli! It's good that you and your family had a fun vacation (boat accidents and car-towing aside).

As for the high-dollar frugal expenditure (the door), well, IMHO it's frugal to do the right thing once. You will walk in and out of those doors multiple times a day. You will expect them to help keep the treated house air in and the outside air/rain/snow out. Over the life of those doors -- and it easily could be 20-30 years -- the price differential between the doors you got and the cheapest doors that would get the job done functionally is minimal. So you spent money on something attractive. Nothing wrong with that.

If frugal was all about not spending money, none of us would be here. We'd be too busy gathering nuts and berries to take back to our sod huts.

Kelli & Mighty Frugal: It sounds like you've both been having wonderful summers enjoying the great outdoors - good for you!
Steve: That was very well said and totally true. If it was always just a matter of not spending money, that would be a no-brainer. The challenge is in differentiating, and saving where you can and should so that you have the money to spend on the things that really matter.
My frugal for today: At work, we take on a lot of high school interns for the summer, and the company pays for the Kaplan pre-SAT prep classes to be held for them in-house. Apparently they're also putting out quite a spread for these sessions, because bags and bags of leftover baked goods from Panera were sent to my dept after the class. I took home a loaf of bread, 8 bagels, a muffin and some cookies. Free bakery bread makes my heart go pitter-patter! I understand that this will be a regular occurrence this summer :)

Thanks all! I feel better about it. Well, I felt ok about it before. I like the name "high-dollar frugal expenditure." :)

Scored some pork ribs for $1.49/lb. tonight and grilled a few. Yummy but tough. We'll crock the rest, maybe in the fall. DH already froze them.

We've been spending our evenings fixing up the other house. We're painting almost the entire house inside. One of our customers mentioned to me that she got a quote to have 2 rooms in her house painted. $1400! Even if this figure is exagerated we're saving a ton of money doing this ourselves.

We have a huge lawn to mow there as well. Dh and ds spent 3 1/2 hours with two push mowers to do the yard yesterday. Best offer I had on hiring it out was $150 a mow. There is no way we can spend $300 a month on lawn maintenence.

We bought a new mower Monday night. By driving 30 minutes we saved $40 off the price of the mower. I also discovered that they are putting in a CVS pharmacy which should be another opportunity for me to do some really cheap stockpiling. Plus, the new Panera opened which is the only place around here to get decent bagels which is a super duper improvement to my quality of life even if its about spending. Hey, I did get there customer card and already have a freebie waiting for me at my next visit-haha~!

My father had a utility trailer for sale and well, we need some way to haul lawnmowers around. He didn't want us to pay him for it so we struck a deal. I'm going to buy the license plate for it and allow him to use it anytime he needs it. Its a pretty good deal for all involved.

Kelli, welcome back! I love the UP. Really want to go to Door Co - I'm a lighthouse buff... bke, we have a huge yard that I used to push-mow, too - about 6 hours worth. Funny how when DH had to take it over, we immediately HAD to have a riding mower!:~)

My frugals are mostly the same old stuff, but I've accepted a new position at work which will have me visiting other sites, so I'll get mileage. As my car gets in the mid to high 30s mpg, I should come out ahead on that. And our microwave died - our 30 yr old, huge, hangs on the wall microwave. *sigh* So until we fix or replace it, I have a nice breadbox. BUT we had a nice, nearly new trashpicked microwave stashed behind a chair in the living room, so we pulled that out and plugged it in. We used it the last time DH had to discombobulate our wall-mounted one. But this is a different problem, but at least we don't need to go buy something new right now! And YES, we really need a microwave, especially in this heat! We use it a lot, far more than the stove, oven, toaster, and grill combined.

Thanks for all the warm welcomes back to the boards!

early, Door County is a neat trip. Lighthouses abound!! It can be pricey but if you pick reasonable accommodations where you can cook, it could be ok cost-wise. There is some camping but I heard it is super hard to get spots. (P.S. I hope you can get your micro replaced soon)

bke, awesome on the trailer share. You will indeed save a lot of money painting yourself. One thing we learned the hard way when redoing the house is to paint from top to bottom. You didn't mention if you are doing ceilings, but if you are, do them first, then any molding, then walls. Best of luck! If I don't have to paint anything for the rest of my LIFE I'll be happy. :) Are you still planning to sell, or going to rent out the house?

Nothin' much here in frugal-ville. We were going to buy meat to grill tonight but pulled some out of the freezer instead. We are headed to the BWCA (a canoe area wildnerness in northern MN) for a few days and when we get back I have a lot of food plans - eating down the freezer and cupboards again, doing some experimentation with the GF flours I have bought, and learning some new food prep things like coconut milk ice cream in the ice cream maker, and spring rolls in rice wraps! I also want to expand my mental repetoire of foods that are cool with GF, dairy free, and thyroid-friendly foods. It's all a learning process. Baby steps. I have been GF for over 7 months. Unbelievable! People get all sad for me when they find out, like I was when I started. But I feel so good I have no self-pity. It no longer feels like a sacrifice - more like so lucky that we figured it out.

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.