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Stopped using toilet paper, using organic sheet cut into smallish squares instead. Did this last year for 3 months, until logistical life change intervened. It's fine, easy, and I bought no TP during that time. TP is expensive, plus use of paper not environmentally great.
@Kat - aha!
@Stella - either would be fun. I wonder if Franconia will be muddy. Well, I suppose both could be muddy.
Here I made up a pot of beef barley soup to put in the slow cooker tomorrow. Too bad I didn't realize my stock was bad because our recent delivery could have included a new one at a good price. Oh well, I will have to go grab one tonight. The rest of the ingredients were all stuff that we needed to use up and we did! Yippee!
We passed on going out to dinner tonight as well, so that was at least $20 that stayed in my pocket.
Not much else, but that's pretty good for lately compared to how we were doing.
Apr 05/11
--no spend exceptfor finally getting the leak in the basement fixed deep breath $983.83 but that is the lowest ii could have turned out to be; so frugal in we priced around and got a really reputable company, it looks good and they left the place very clean. The wall they took out was in a bedroom cupboard so so can fix it when we are ready.
--as everything is out of the closet I am sorting and have put many books on Kijiji for sale
--leftovers from last night supper for tonight
We are starting what I hope is our final remodeling project for a very long time-the yard.
We drove 45 minutes to order supplies last night. We purchased over 300 paver stones at a different Home Depot store last night. ( I will not go back to the store that treated us so badly this winter.) I used a 10% coupon from Lowes which they were kind enough to honor and saved about $70 because they were already almost 10% cheaper than the Lowes down the street.
I have to fax some more information to the gentleman at Lowes who was helping us last night. We're putting up a 6 ft. high privacy fence around the area that is going to be our yard and he is going to help make sure we order everything we need and not too much of anything at the same time. Fencing at Lowes is $7 cheaper a section. I have another 10% off coupon that I will use there PLUS my credit card is offering 5% back on these types of purchase. I don't know exactly how much we will save there but the figure I had in my head last night was about $250.
We also saved money by talking to this guy by not buying extra boards to re-enforce (inforce?) the fence as had been recommended by a friend of ours. This guy could have increased his sale but instead was nice enough to talk us out of spending the extra money.
You know, I get alot of grief from people who know me for being cheap and using coupons and such but, I just feel smug, and frankly smarter than some of them when I pull something like this off and save a ton of money.
Dinner last night was at the mall. We all ended up having chinese food which is about the cheapest thing there. $22 for the 3 of us and ds and I brought home leftovers.
Today I am off work and relaxing. Free after rebate coffee and cereal for breakfast, some beautiful piano music on the stereo, and the only plan for this afternoon is a nap. Have a great day everyone.
Fidgiegirl I was thinking about the mud factor while we're out today to. I think we'll wear boots.
Excellent savings bke!
A friend from church brought over a casserole this morning. She also brought a picnic lunch for all of us, which is perfect because, of course, we are actually going on a picnic today. Score!
I've been saving all kinds of recyclables to use for an art project tomorrow. We're going to make sculptures out of them. All of this art stuff got me thinking and I think I'm going to call an old friend of mine who is a poured metal sculptor and see if we can attend sometime when they do a metal pour. That would be a cool experience for the kids and it wouldn't cost anything.
The crockpot pork I made for last night's sandwiches made enough for a second night. We'll have the rest tomorrow night in soft tacos. I also finally got around to cutting up a loaf of french bread that dried out. It's sitting in a pan waiting to be made into bread pudding for tomorrow morning's breakfast.
We had so much fun today! The picnic and sculpture park were fantastic. It was a little muddy, but not as bad as I was afraid it would be. It was fun watching the kids interact with the art and be inspired by it.
We went home and Cheyenne began a series of sculptures she wants to do with an egg theme. She was so into it, very carefully choosing her materials and arranging them in a thoughtful way. She wants to use her sculptures as a sculpture park for her dollhouse.
Further frugal fun with art this week and next week will be painting the patio windows with a spring/Easter theme and doing a fun staged photo shoot with props and scenery.
I found a recipe tonight for a chocolate chip cupcake with chocolate cookie dough filling and cookie dough frosting. I believe I have successfully talked Zach out of running to the store to buy the ingredients. :) I am feeling good for being 6 days post partum, but it may be another week or two before I am once again spontaneously churning out baked goods. :P I will probably make them later this month for a neighborhood get-together.
I have been trying to spend a little time with each of the older kids since I got home. Cheyenne came with me yesterday to the store. This morning James woke up at 5AM and we spent an hour or so snuggling and then had breakfast together. This evening when Cheyenne went to faith formation I told Bella it was her turn for a Mommy Date. She wanted to play "American Train" with me. Otherwise known as Mexican Train. We had a great time and she even won. It was nice to be able to have special time with the kids that didn't involve spending money. Well, other than the grocery store, but that was money we would have spent anyway.
Apr 06
-no spend, no gas..it felt really good
-cleaning out draws and decluttering as I go..that feels really good
-supper was previously made and in the freezer with enough leftover for lunch tomorrow
I had a stay-at-home day too, and made honey/vanilla/cinnamon yogurt. So good! And just mellowed out. It was very nice.
nice, redfox!
i'm having a stay-at-home day today -- i have a bunch of sewing to catch up on. and i want to tidy up the house because tomorrow night we are having a pizza party! we were doing these every month last year, but this is the first we've managed this year. homemade pizza with caramelized onions, ricotta cheese, mushroom sauce, pepperoni ... and some homemade plum ice cream. easy and not too expensive! and it will be great to see our friends. i've been so busy lately, i've kind of been ignoring social life.
my grandma's 88th birthday is next week, and i'm making her a purple silk shift. she will look really beautiful in it, and she can wear it to her red hat parties. we're going to have a dinner at my brother's restaurant for her, then my brother and i are taking her to the casino the next day to play the slots -- that was her request, and i think it will be pretty fun. and not too spendy :)
Happy birthday to your Grandma Madgey!