Frugal Accomplishments This Past Week


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This post was written over the last week, and as you can see, towards the end of the week, I had less and less to write about as I was just involved in getting the baby to come already, and then dealing with a newborn, so... I'm not elaborating on the notes I jotted down as the week went on, as I usually do. This'll have to suffice. Not sure if I'll be keeping track of frugal accomplishments for this current week, because I'm taking it easy after birth, using disposables, and getting meals from community members, so not doing cooking or meal prep... and if I am, its super easy stuff that aren't necessarily so cheap. Being the recipient of communal help doesn't cost me money, but I don't think I can honestly call that a "frugal accomplishment". It just means that what goes around comes around, and we take turns helping each other out after we have babies, etc... and now it's my turn to be on the receiving end. But we'll see. Maybe I will keep track of this current week's frugal accomplishments, if there are any.
Anyhow, here it is.


Sunday-
Mike finished making a box used to store shoes, out of scrap wooden beams, we had lying around, dumpster dived cabinet drawers, and a thick tarp type material my husband rescued from the trash that had a sign from construction they were doing near his work....

Foraged a bouquet of olive leaves, rosemary, mustard flowers, and redbud to give to a relative as a gift.

Monday-
Went on a long walk for exercise, and on the walk, foraged a bunch of organic lemons.

Picked up 2 hats from near the trash for my kids to use.

Took a few bottles and cans that someone littered... which I can use at a grocery store and redeem them for cash.

Mike fixed a chair with a plasticky cover that had its seat ripped... by covering it with contact paper we had lying around the house.

Tuesday-
Redeemed bottles and cans at the grocery store for cash.

Stocked up on groceries, and EVERYTHING purchased was either with a great sale, or cheap to begin with, or both. Including already cheap legumes on sale even further, gluten free pasta at 3/4 of its usual price, toilet paper (for guests... we use family cloth) on sale, gizzards and turkey wings- the cheapest meat available, reduced rack apples and oranges and tomatoes, etc....

Foraged wild arugula/wall rocket.

Got 20+ pounds of free almonds that someone was giving away.

Chopped up and froze a bunch of sale eggplants to use at a later date.

Bought ~15 lbs of strawberries for the cheapest price they've been this season, and probably the lowest they'll get. Cleaned, chopped, froze them to use throughout the year, and saving the mushy parts but not yet spoiled parts to use to make jam, etc...

Made a tea from the strawberry leaves/tops.

Bought eggs from a special sale so they're cheaper.

Bought dirt cheap oranges and grapefruits and artichoke and bananas and butternut squash. Oranges and grapefruit were only 13 cents a pound!

Made a red lentil and ground turkey bolognese to stretch my ground turkey that i bought cheaply...

Mike fixed his broken cell phone charger.

Wednesday-

Ground a bunch of flours, both for myself, and to sell.

Experimented to try to figure out a recipe for gluten free, xanthan gum free buckwheat and sticky rice flour bread.

Kids dumpster dove a scarf and a cute hair clip.

Served leftovers for lunch.

Thursday-
Wanted to get labor started, so instead of paying for herbs, etc... to induce labor, went on a very long up and down steep hills walk and did accupressure on myself with certain pressure points to get labor started. It worked.

Made 2 simple 1 pot meals, stretching 1 package of ground beef into both pots. Made meatballs with some of the meat, together with leftover experimental bread from the day before.

Friday-
Labor started then stopped, etc. Baby born, and I used the cheapest experienced midwife I could find, who costs less than half the price of other homebirth midwives in my area. Used only hand me down clothes, blankets, etc... for baby, bought nothing new.

Used cloth diapers for new baby.

Used only cloth, homemade postpartum pads.

Exclusively nursing baby, no money on formula needed.

Saturday-
Spend nothing day.

What did you do to save money this past week?

Penniless Parenting

Mommy, wife, writer, baker, chef, crafter, sewer, teacher, babysitter, cleaning lady, penny pincher, frugal gal

13 Comments

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  1. KellyK(@RNCCRN9706)March 24, 2014 at 5:18 PM

    Well....I'm not exactly frugal. But, we celebrated my nephew's first birthday. He was born 10 weeks early with hydrocephalus and has spent 7 of his first 12 months on earth in the hospital so this was a special day for him! He's sooo cute!! Was a fun party! Had to buy a present. My sister and I chipped in and bought him a portable DVD player.

    They want books for him so I got Green Eggs and Ham by Dr Seuss. It was one of my Son's most favorite books as a kid and since his birthday is so close to St Patrick's Day, it was on sale at Target. I had my son write a special inscription on the inside for his only male cousin :)
    --got a free magazine in the mail
    --didn't go out to eat on my weekend off
    --did my own hair color (gotta cover them grays)
    --watched Chasing Maria Menounos thru On Demand after it aired as I worked
    --ate all meals at home last week
    --hung clothes to dry in our basement

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  2. A Reader From BeitarMarch 25, 2014 at 8:56 AM

    Congrats on the new baby.
    I'm glad that the birth went well.
    You already realize this, but please take it easy for at least a few weeks to give yourself time to recover. It's better to invest in recovering than to push yourself and take forever to heal. Once you recover you can gradually get back into your super frugal, do it yourself lifestyle, working around the increased demands placed on you by the new baby. Remember that your own definition of frugality is not "don't spend money," but "only spend money on the things that are really worth it." IMO, not being overwhelmed is "worth it." So is having relatively healthful food for yourself and your kids which is available when you need it.
    Now that you have another baby, you will have a lot more laundry (diapers, spit up, clothing, spit up on your clothing, cloth pads...) It might be a good idea to buy another laundry rack. It will pay for itself if you use it instead of the dryer, and if it makes cloth diapering more convenient. For a "penniless" version, you can scrounge a broken one and prop it up on or tie it to something outside. Life gets easier when you don't have to stagger the loads of laundry so as to be able to dry them. The weather is heating up, so laundry will dry quickly.
    I realized that although normally being GF makes things more difficult, it's probably working to your advantage now : )

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    Replies
    1. Don't worry- i am taking it easy. Any frugal stuff that i'm doing is stuff that doesnt take extra energy.

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  3. All I say is wow! How you make strawberry tea from tops & leaves,sun brewing?

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    Replies
    1. Just boiled it in water. Probably sun brewing would work as well.

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  4. You had a baby? Girl/Boy?

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    Replies
    1. Girl. http://www.pennilessparenting.com/2014/03/introducing.html

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    2. link says page does nto exist.

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  5. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  6. This week I;

    - used Money Saving Mom's tip to get a free 8x10 print from Wallgreens of my two nieces so that when they come to my house they can see that I love them so much that I keep a big pic of them on my piano:)
    - used MSM tip to order a free custom calendar for my mom for Mother's Day. It was only $6 for shipping as compated to $22.
    - I bought gift cards at Safeway since it was giving 4 points for each dollar spent on gift cards. Then I used the points to get .70 off per gallon on gas and saved around 11.00. I bought Amazon gift cards to use for the things I buy each month on Subscribe and Save, so it was money I would have spent anyway
    - bought greeting cards for .50 each at the Cancer Care Thrift Shop. I used one and then saw the same card for sale at the drug store for $2.95.
    - used a credit to buy a gift
    - downloaded a free book to read on my trip out of town
    - entered a contest for a free e-book and won!
    - made home made granola
    - taking a free 5 day class at the Mac store
    - continue to collect clothes that my daughter has grown out of, launder then and iron with sizing to pass down to my nieces

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  7. congratulations on your new baby girl!!

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  8. congratulations on your new baby girl!!

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