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I took advantage of the heat today to hide in the house and do some planning and cleaning. I had bought myself a three ring binder and dividers during the school supply sales so I could make myself an organizer that would actually work for me. I could do something like that on the iPad, but if I'm going to the iPad to do things like check lists and menus, I often end up sucked onto Facebook or surfing the internet. Better to just avoid that temptation during work times. Today I got my menu, chore schedule, recipes for the month of September, celebrations for the month of September, school schedules, event schedules and calendars filled out. I have an envelope in my planner to keep handouts like colouring pages, worksheets, handouts for the Well Read Mom book club I just started and things like that and I am planning to use my three hole puncher for flyers with information I need, or assignments for my own school stuff. I printed off four colouring pages I think will be useful this month for the kids and some recipes I plan to use. I think it's going to help me keep everything sorted during this busy season and it cost me, I think, $5 total plus ink and paper used.
I also inventoried my freezer today and put the list in my new planner. I plan to update it as I go along and reinventory once a month to make sure I am making the best use of my resources. There was some stuff in there I had forgotten about that I will be making an effort to use up.
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Had a garage sale yesterday and today with my sister - made just under $200 which is essentially free money!! Made a lot of folks happy cause we did a bag sale starting at noon today. Lots of stuff out of the yard and less to pack to take to Value Village. And spent no money all weekend!
I was the lead at a funeral reception at church last evening and ended up with a quart bag of lovely fresh fruit cause there was a huge overage on the food. Family took what they wanted and we split the rest between the workers. I was there for 5.5 hours and am washing the tablecloths as we speak/write to return tomorrow. Had a great crew to work with and spent lots of time getting to know each other - and maybe, hopefully, enlarging the group of volunteers!
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Sep 05-06
Everyone is doing so good!!
--Pot of soup from freezer carcus and fresh produce
--The Bay sent me a spent $30.00 get $15.00 off so I managed to buy 5 Blouses (3 for gifts and 2 for me) org. price over $300.00 for $55.00 incl taxes
very pleased with them all. All women's all ready marked down clothes were an extra 50% off. I don't usually shop here because the prices are usually too
high for my budget. I will need to look closer at their sales at least for gifts. They also, now have a very large department of what they call "Above Average Sizes".
--Mac and cheese for supper using up some eggs, cheese, tomatoes, zucchini, and milk that was on its last day.
--frugal it was raining today so I didn't yardsale...lol
Stella I hope you get some better news soon...waiting is really hard. I have been going through a lot of this with my dsisters..so hard to not be
there to help all the time.
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Set up at a flea market today. We sold quite a bit of stuff, which was surprising as there were tons of dealers and not so many buyers. I found the exact style of small VB purse I have been wanting in a nice pattern, $10 and like new ($50!), so I bought it. I was going to have DD make me one, and still may, but now she knows exactly what I've been talking about, lol. Other than pecan rolls from our favorite baker, that was all we bought. Well, the coffee fund bought us frappes on the way home, but that doesn't count as out of my money, lol.
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I'll echo what Kelli said; it sure is nice to hear from so many of you on this thread!
Our town held our annual fair yesterday. DH was at work so I walked down to it myself (and probably enjoyed it more because he doesn't particularly like that kind of thing). I donated $5.00 to the cat rescue group who hooked us up with our two boys, and I bought two bouquets of alstroemeria from the garden club for $3.00 each. So I was pleased with only spending $11. and pleased with how I spent it.
My sister is coming up today for our annual crafts fair outing, which will probably be less frugal than the town fair, but something of an annual ritual that we always enjoy together. She also asked if I would help her draw up a budget! I'm excited about that. She is a really high earner who spends pretty mindlessly, so I also think she would benefit from tracking her spending for a little bit. I bet she would be surprised on what her recreational spending equals. She would like to sell her condo and move closer to me and Mom, and I would love to see that happen! She bought at the height of the real estate bubble, so getting her financial house in order would be a critical element in accomplishing this. She is really smart, but one of those people who just doesn't give money the attention it deserves. I told her once that none of those great deals from Marshall's or TJ Maxx were great deals if you pay with a credit card on which you are carrying a balance, and she had never considered it that way. She also was amazed when she realized that we had no more mortgage or car payments or other debt and that DH was going to continue to work part time, because we were in a position to make that choice. I think I'll also give her my copy of YMOYL.
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Thanks for the good wishes Kelli and Danna. It's been a rough year with one thing after another.
We are having a quiet day together. I have a whole chicken marinating to roast for dinner with some potatoes and carrots. Today is the feast of the Nativity of Mary so I am also making a cake. The kids are planning to put on a little play. I think we are going to play cards when the little kids nap. It should be nice and relaxing. I am hoping at some point to take a walk, too, but the sky is looking a little foreboding.
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Sept 08
--for exercise today...1 hour of pulling and cutting back English Ivy, that wants to take over my house
--food...ate leftovers and fresh fruit (last of monster local watermelon bought for $1.88) great quality and good varity
--snacks..fresh banana, walnut, chocolate chip bread made by Dd...very yummy
and a couple of glasses of boxed on sale wine while I watched
--entertainment....last of new Master Theater Mystery "Silk" free and finished a book bought at a yard sale for $.25 "Arlington Park" good read.
I think that covers most needs and wants for a day...lol
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Brought home some leftovers from the family reunion for DH, who didn't go. Trashpicked some lovely large silk plants and donated them to a local historical society for their lobby; they had been looking for some inexpensive ones, and these are nicer! Bought gas this AM before the price went up. And the same old things - have lunch packed for tomorrow, coffee pot ready so I can take a cup w/me on the drive to town; will drop DH at his pain clinic appointment and then he will spend the day with his brother, who will return him to the parking garage where I work, saving another vehicle trip to town (about 70 miles round trip).
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Just some minor frugals lately:
- I helped a friend prep his property for a wedding reception/dance. It was a lot of work (no need for a gym those two days!) but I was fed lunch and dinner each day and got to do a little gleaning from his (vegetable) fields. Had fun visiting while we worked, too!
- Over the weekend, DW suggested going to Subway to get salads for dinner. I suggested instead making a salad from veggies and leftovers already in the fridge. I made a huge salad that left enough for my lunch the next day. Much less expensive and made with largely-local/organic ingredients rather than whatever shows up at the back door of the restaurant. I made clean-out-the-fridge chicken soup; very frugal and very satisfying. And we took a dessert to a get-together last night that required only purchasing a cup of whipping cream; everything else came out of our freezer or pantry.
- Did more research on our next mobile-phone carrier. Looks like the big decision will be how much network we want: most of the providers I'm looking at rely on one carrier's network and no roaming. Roaming costs more; wider networks cost more. Looks like we can get our smartphone/dumbphone bill down from around $120/month to about $20/month for the two of us. So maybe we'll add a few dollars a month for a Verizon-network phone which we'll share for road trips which will have coverage in far more places. DW and I are eligible to move now, but DD's part of the contract goes till spring 2014, so we have to figure if what we can save by leaving the T-Mo plan compensates for adding another phone bill for several months.
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Fairly frugal weekend overall. We did eat out one night--tacos and ice cream--but it was pretty inexpensive. Cooked and ate at home the rest of the time. I've been using up what we have around here and haven't been to the grocery store in over a week. I am hoping to just swing by Aldi's and buy a few things and avoid a huge Walmart trip.
We are getting ready to start potty training DD. If we can get her potty trained, we can save quite a bit on diapers (since cloth diapers irritate her skin, we have to use disposables). I am going to give cloth diapering a shot with DS now that he is a bit bigger. Hopefully I can dig them out of storage and get them washed up this week. I wish Mrs. M was still around here. She always had such great advice for cloth diapering!
Other than that, just cleaning and organizing. DH cleaned our living room carpet himself this weekend, saving us $50-75. We are headed to our in-laws for dinner tonight. It is my MIL's birthday. I plan to make a dessert using up some of the stuff I have in the pantry. I will have DD color a picture for her as well.
