April daily frugal's

Like Madge I have been feeling like I've been neglecting my social life lately. I am thinking of putting out a call on facebook to have a "Coming Out of Hibernation" potluck at the picnic tables by the pond. It will give me a chance to make those cupcakes without having to eat them all. :) I'm hoping to start a monthly potluck picnic this summer. It would be a great way to socialize without much in the way of cost.

I think either today or tomorrow I'm going to teach Cheyenne to make omelets. I'm on an omelet kick lately and she wants to learn how to make them. She'd be heavily supervised, of course, but she's been doing well with stove safety so far. This is a long term frugal. Someday it's going to pay off to have a bunch of people in this house capable of making dinner.

We've been invited for Easter to Travis' Godfather's parents house. That is great. As much as I love cooking I don't really like holiday cooking and Little Tony (the Godfather...doesn't really call up an image of a Jesuit priest, does it?) comes from a big Italian family and his mom is a fantastic cook. Travis is being baptized at the Easter Vigil so it will double as a celebration of the baptism. Two less things I have to worry about, Easter and a Baptism party. Love it!

April 07
--DH, Dd and grandson went to a afternoon movie using a gift card and bought no food--fun and free
--I went shopping and spent a lovely 2 1/2 hours all by my self (priceless right now), bought a beautiful apple green curtain for $1.00 that I am going to make into cushion covers for my living room. The room has the need for a nice bright splash of colour.
--bought DH socks, using a gift card total purchase $.31
--grilled sandwich and coffee at Second Cup (special of the day) $5.50 including tax, very relaxing and great value for the money

Zach and I are going to start selling some of the stuff we're decluttering on craigslist. Dad has a whole storage locker he wants to get rid of filled mostly with my mom's old stuff. Mom has very good taste, so the stuff is pretty nice. We're thinking of selling it and splitting the profit with my dad. Dad really, really doesn't want to deal with the storage locker, but he wants to get rid of it. I don't want to deal with it for nothing after four years of decluttering all the stuff mom left at the house. I think it's a good solution.

I taught the girls how to make omelets and quesadillas today. They were so proud of themselves! It's going to be so nice to have kids who can cook.

The other day for a snack I made a pot of ginger pear iced tea. When the pot was empty I filled it again with hot water and left it in the fridge overnight. It made a really nice ginger pear iced tea. The box of tea was $3 and if each pot makes two pots of tea, one hot, one iced, that's 16 pots of tea. That makes each pot of tea about $.18, or about $.03 a cup. That makes for a nice, inexpensive afternoon treat. Another afternoon treat I've been enjoying is vanilla iced coffee. I just take the coffee no one drank in the morning, put it on ice and add a spoonful of my homemade vanilla sugar and some milk. Yummy! Easy! Cheap! It doesn't get much better than that.

I put out the facebook call for the Spring potluck and there has been some interest. Zach is talking about starting a walking group for the neighborhood. I think it's going to be a nice, simple, frugal summer.

I can't remember if I said this one yet, but I am all set for Easter baskets and I haven't spent a penny. My dad bought the kids some special handmade chocolate Easter eggs from a monastery he supports and when my mom was here she bought them a package of bubble gum eggs, a big bag of Easter M&Ms and a package of peeps to share. I think that's enough candy. I have saved the girls' Easter baskets and they are making an Easter basket for James from recyclables. We'll attend the free egg hunt at church and probably donate a batch of homemade cupcakes to the cause. If they aren't on the same day we'll probably attend the neighborhood egg hunt too.

I haven't spent money since Monday. Four no spend days in a row!

It's been a really frugal week. I think I spent about $10, all told.

I'm making a list of things to do when my mom visits in a few weeks. She likes shopping, but I don't, and I don't want to spend unnecessarily, so I want to have alternatives at hand that she will enjoy.

I learned today that DD needs to get glasses. Unplanned expense. We'll get one pair locally so that she has them as soon as possible, but I will order a spare pair online to have in case the others become damaged or scratched.

I've been making a list of gifts needed this year so I can plan ahead and make at least a subset of them. I'm going to start some herb seeds with DD - we'll give her teachers an herb garden in a pot at the end of the school year.

Planning ahead for next week's food - DD wanted some turkey sandwiches in her lunch. I had chicken in the freezer, so I'm poaching it and will slice it for sandwiches, and use the poaching water as a soup base. Also planning the menu, as much from the freezer and pantry as possible.

Danna,
Quiet time alone is definitely a gift, and a frugal one at that. And shopping for free (or nearly free) with gift cards is the best!
Stella,
It sounds like your kids are being given such a great roadmap for becoming thoughtful, creative people. I wonder if they will make it through their teens without succumbing to the materialistic pressures of our society - I hope so. (And I wonder if we'll all still be chatting here then?) Maybe they will help set the standards for a new and better "cool" in their peer groups. That would be wonderful.
Rosemary,
That's an interesting challenge that I can relate to. My sister and some of our friends practically live for recreational shopping. I think I've done a really good job getting away from that, and I don't miss it at all. But I do like to shop on occasion; I am definitely susceptible, especially in a cute high-end boutique environment. So coming up with frugal alternatives, in order to socialize with these people that I love without blowing away our more fragile budget (now that we're living on one income), is something I need to do.
Madgeylou,
Potluck pizza parties are definitely the way to go! We've done this a couple of times now, and it's been so successful! It helps that DH is a great cook, of course. It would be a lot less appealing if yours truly was doing the cooking :(
On the frugal front at our place: I figured that I have saved us $13.64 YTD on stamps by paying our bills online. However, the $569. vet visit today pretty much wiped out those savings, along with many more years of stamp savings.
I also spent all afternoon working in the garden. Totally frugal fun that puts me in my own personal nirvana :)

i precooked, rice, millet and vegetable soup early in the week; so dh took more things into work then what he normally does
also did three errands using the bus and walking which saved dh from having to drive me; so that saved on gas as well; our bus system has a nice thing where if you are transfering in the same direction; you can transfer twice without having to repay!

Travis is back in the hospital for jaundice. It's not a huge deal for the most part, but it's a wrench in the weekend for sure. On the plus side I got a full night's sleep, my milk supply seems to be doing quite well in spite of the challenges and Travis is going from bottle to breast without any confusion. He actually seems to like laying under the lights. He likes warmth.

In the meantime I'm trying to use this time wisely. We're trying to have a mix of fun stuff and chores today. The girls and I are going to paint a spring window display on the patio windows and build a pretend airplane out of a cardboard box. If they ever come in from outside, that is. :) I am going to make a lasagne I have in the freezer for dinner tonight. I was going to cook, but now I have a baby to visit in the hospital and that is infinitely more important to me. I am grateful to have easy options on hand.

I'm going to make a trip to Aldi today for a few groceries. I've spent $68 on food so far this month and I don't need much. I think I might make a quick batch of granola today.

I am hoping my money for the double stroller comes from my grandma this week because it's on sale at Target for $20 off.

Bella needs a new bike helmet. Her old one broke. I found one on craigslist for $2 and it comes with brand new elbow, knee and wrist pads too.

Dad is taking us out for dinner tonight! That helps!

I decided that if I was going to make the effort of going to two grocery stores I was going to make it worth my time and stock up on staples. I used to really enjoy grocery shopping, and maybe I will again, but at the moment I really just want to avoid it as much as possible. I spent $170 and got a ton of great deals. Aldi had Hebrew National kosher hot dogs for $2.50 a package. That's about half what they are at Cub. I got 6 packages, since we can freeze them and use them for grilling this spring/summer. Most of what I got was pretty basic stuff. Baking supplies, salt, cooking oil, raisins, cheese...stuff like that. Stuff I know I'll really use. I'm going to take a tip from the food processor thread and use the food processor to grate the cheese.

James really needed some mom time today so I took him to the store with me. We shared a few graham crackers and sang some songs on the way there. It totally filled the need for a mommy date.

Rosa, I hope your pet is OK! Taking an animal to a vet is kind of like taking a car in for repair to me. Same kind of "Oh no, what am I in for now" kind of anxiety. It seems like it adds up really fast.

Quote:

---

Stella,
It sounds like your kids are being given such a great roadmap for becoming thoughtful, creative people. I wonder if they will make it through their teens without succumbing to the materialistic pressures of our society - I hope so. (And I wonder if we'll all still be chatting here then?) Maybe they will help set the standards for a new and better "cool" in their peer groups. That would be wonderful.

---

I hope so too! The suburb I live in is actually not as materialistic as some other places. It benefits greatly from being on the border of an area that caters to a lot of artists and immigrants. Creativity and resourcefulness are valued a little more here than in other places I've lived.

Woohoo! I just one a blue ray disc player on an on-line sweepstakes ARV: $181!

Today is a no driving/spending day.

I recieved my free postage stamps for the quadreaders program today.