Sunday, January 4, 2015

Frugal Accomplishments This Past Week and Accountability for My Struggles

Hello there again, and thank you for tuning in to this week's frugal accomplishment roundup, as well as my accountability challenge for the areas in which I struggle frugality-wise.
Thankfully, it's been a good week, where I haven't slacked too much, and have been relatively productive in the frugal arena.


So, as to accountability first of all...
I haven't had to rewash any loads of laundry because of forgetting them in the machine! Yay! And I haven't used the dryer at all, despite it raining outside a couple of days- and I don't have my laundry piling up too badly! So I'm excited about that!
And on a related note, I did well with my cloth diapering challenge. I've been exclusively cloth diapering all week long and haven't bought any new diapers. I used two disposables this week when we went away for the weekend (after my daughter soaked through her diaper and clothes overnight and I was afraid we'd run out of clean clothes if I wasn't on top of changing her cloth diapers enough), so that's great. I probably will buy disposable diapers either today or tomorrow since this week is supposed to have really bad weather, and I'm afraid that if I find out my diapers aren't drying fast enough, I won't even be able to go to the grocery store to buy 'sposies, so I'm going to buy just in case, and hide them away so I don't have easy access, just in case of emergencies.
As for food I tossed- I will be starting next week a full reckoning, so nothing to share about that for now. But it wasn't much. (Just stuff that had gone off before I posted about starting this challenge.)

So, here's what I did to save money this week, in addition to all that above:



Foraging
The kids and I foraged hollyhocks leaves.
The kids and I foraged lambsquarters and sow thistle.

Frugal Shopping
I went to the farmer's market and bought a bunch of cheap, grade B produce- scouting around for the best prices, doubling and even tripling back to ensure the lowest prices possible. I bought zucchini, persimmons, avocados, apples, and bananas for between 13 and 52 cents a pound.
I went to the scratch and dent store and bought risotto rice, tomato paste, wine, and canned peas for dirt cheap.
Ordered some electric sheets to use to warm our bedrooms instead of heating them with heaters. I got them from a bargain site (with free shipping to boot!) and then they called me up to tell me that they were out of the brand I ordered, and asked if I'd be willing to have them replace the cheaper stuff that I ordered with a more expensive brand, at no extra cost. Of course! And yay!
Mike bought some great towels on sale at a great price!

Frugal in the Kitchen
I ground some short grain rice flour.
I made a bunch of homemade gluten free bread mix.
I shopped from the stockpile instead of heading out to the store for something I needed.
Made fried rice with leftover rice, chicken, and past prime veggies.
I served homemade buckwheat granola for breakfast.
Made red lentil and peas vegan bolognese for my kids with a package of gluten free pasta that I'd bought on sale (and burst open, so it needed to be used up) and past prime veggies. Everyone loved it, and my pickier kid even had 5 servings of it!
I made a salad with foraged chickweed and past prime veggies.
I put buckwheat bread in the crock pot overnight on a timer to have a hot breakfast waiting in the morning (using less electricity than baking in the oven- more on that in a future post).
I made rice with cheapo chicken wings and hollyhocks in the crock pot for lunch.
I served a shake made from cheap produce from the farmer's market instead of cereal and milk for breakfast.
I served the kids leftover waffles that I had frozen, for breakfast.
I made hollyhocks and salmon heads for brunch for myself.


Free Things
I got some free canned goodies from a neighbor who was giving them away.
I inherited a cute cloth diaper cover from a neighbor.
I made t-shirt yarn out of a stained t-shirt.
I made a t-shirt yarn bracelet/sensory chew toy for my kid.
My boys were interested in playing Minecraft, but its expensive. Even though people were trying to convince me that it's worth the money, I found a free version of an open source game similar to Minecraft, called Minetest, and my kids are loving it.
I downloaded a free storybook for my kids for my free Kindle e-book reader on my phone.
Trash picked a cute sparkly sweatshirt for Anneliese.


Other
I decluttered a ton of shoes, donating some to the thrift store, tossing some, and offering some others up for sale- making my small cheap house more pleasant to live in.
I reorganized and took inventory of my stockpile so I don't lose things in it.

What did you do to save money this week? Any frugal accomplishments you're particularly proud of? Any frugal related thing you're particularly struggling with and trying to work on? How's that going?

8 comments:

  1. We've had a few frugal accomplishments this week. My dishwasher has been broken for a few months and I refused to buy another one. My hubby has taken it apart, done all kinds of tests and research on it, but we couldn't figure out what was wrong. Anyway, we bought this dishwasher for like $300 and knew it must be the computer inside. We checked the manufacturer and a new one would have been about $200..which I wasn't willing to spend, not sure if that was the problem or not. We checked ebay and found one for $80. I figured that we could buy it and if that wasn't the problem, just resell it back on ebay. Well, it was the problem and now it's fixed. And it only cost $80..woohoo.

    I also made home made yogurt (with a yogurt maker we picked up at a thrift a long time ago for $4.99). And I also made home made hashbrowns for the freezer from a 10lb bag of taters. Super quick and easy...and all natural.

    I really like the idea of frugal accomplishments. I'd like to include that somehow into my posts as well. Thanks for the inspiration.

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    Replies
    1. Awesome! Good job for you with replacing that computer on the dishwasher- that would have intimidated many people!
      I love homemade yogurt and awesome with the hash browns! Have a good freezer friendly recipe?

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    2. Thank you. I sure do have a recipe. I took photos and just posted the recipe on my blog. Super easy!

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  2. I love the idea of keeping track of frugal accomplishments.
    I tend to buy groceries and household items once a month. This month I'm trying to buy few groceries and use more stored food. So all I've bought is milk, coffee, chocolate mix, yogurt, and 3 lbs. of sausage. I plan on going to the produce sale next week and buy mushrooms and celery to dehydrate and eat fresh.

    Thanks to unusual weather, I am canning my last few quarts of tomatoes next week. This week, I canned leftover ham, a home raised chicken I killed last week, and lots of broth. Also two pints of leftover beans. I have two more chickens to kill, and I am done for the year. I also have a large pumpkin left from halloween to do next week.

    I might add something like this to my site. You have a clever idea here.

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  3. I love your Blog, it has helped me be even more frugal.
    Please pass along the link where you got your Electric Sheets would love to order some.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you! I'm so glad it has helped you out! I would love to pass along the link, but I don't live in the US, so the link wouldn't help you...

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  4. I broke out the old sewing machine for my 9 year old who is obsessed with sewing (learned from her stepmom at her dad's). I've used it to hem drapes in her room and stitch up a blanket that was ripping at the seams.

    I also got some great grocery deals on apples and oranges, entertained at home, and went to the library. :)

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