5 Things I Did That Were Frugal This Week

Don't forget if you want to you can play along.  Please be nice and link back to me in your post and leave the link so we all can read what you have done in the comment section :)

1.  I got a free collage print from Walgreen's with Kid # 3's dance pictures.  I had been meaning to have them sent off and printed for a while now.  Glad I waited cause you can't beat free :)

2.  I have begun to research the best way to shop Target. We have a brand new one with in walking distance of my house.

3. Finished up most of the leftovers and have very little food waste this week

4.  After getting out the Easter decorations and baskets I realize I will not need to buy any dye kits this year since there were 3 in my Easter box :)  Yeah for after holiday clearance.

5. Found a local source for food grade buckets.  We could use some to store some of our bulk purchases from Costco.  The 5 gallon buckets with lids will only cost me $2 each :)

5 Things I Did That Were Frugal This Week

1. Worked an extra day this week, which means more money in my pocket :)

2.  Brought home a few things from work that were just going to be thrown away, my family will use them

3.  Baked Kid # 3's birthday cake from scratch

4. Spray painted a few things to finish up my bedroom decor and re purpose some items.  Post to come on this room soon :)

5.  Found a bathroom light on clearance for $35.  I am planning a frugal bathroom remodel in the near future!

Don't forget you can play along with your own 5 Things.  If you do post the link in the comments!

18 Things I Want My Daughter To Know On Her 18th Birthday

1.  Always be yourself, don't ever try to be someone you aren't just to please other  people.

2.  You can be anything you want.

3.  If you don't like your life, only you can change it.

4. Don't ever think you need a boy to be happy.  Happiness comes from within your own self.  If you don't know this already figure it out fast, it will make your life so much easier.

5. Sex does not equal love.

6. Don't go into debt for stuff except maybe a house.  But even then don't buy more house then you can afford.  Bigger is not always better.

7. Love your siblings, forgive them when they make you mad. Be a good sister to them even when you think they are not being good to you.  Someday when I am gone they will be the link to your past, your childhood and someone to share memories and be extended family with.  Value your relationship with them!

8. Learn how to be alone and entertain yourself.  There will be times in your life where this skill may come in handy.

9.  Don't be in a rush to make life choices.  18, 19 and your early 20's are for figuring out who you are as an adult, finding a career path that interests you and for having fun.  Don't rush it.

10.  Don't settle for the first boy who you think you love. There is a great big wide world out there with many different people.  You do not always have to be in a relationship, but when you are don't do it half-ass.  Always remember what it felt like when you had the broken heart.

11.  Be a great friend. When you are a great friend you have great friends in return.

12. Find hobbies you love.

13.  Go to school and get a degree so that if need be you will always be able to support yourself.

14.  Eat well, learn to cook, it will save your health as you get older and save you money :)

15. Keep dancing even if it is only a exercise class.  When you are my age you will be glad you have.

16. Never pay full price for something if you don't have to.

17.  Don't be afraid to be thrifty, buy used and use coupons :)

18.   You will make mistakes and life will not always go your way.  " If your lost you can look- and you will find me, time after time.  When you fall, I will catch you -I'll be waiting, time after time"  I will always be here......I love you, always and forever no matter what ♥

Update On My Daughter In Law

My daughter in law is now home but on strict bed rest for the rest of her pregnancy.

Lets hope my Grandson stays put for the next 10 weeks or so until the Dr says it is safe for him to be born.

Thank you everyone for thinking of me and my family and all of your well wishes!

Good Thoughts For My Family Please

My daughter in law is 24 weeks pregnant.  She is in the hospital now with what is called funneling of the cervix.  She is also having contractions but they are far apart.  They are giving her medication to try to stop them. 

Please send some good thoughts our way, it was just 9 months ago at 21 weeks she lost my granddaughter.

5 Things I Did That Were Frugal This Week

Before we start Carla from My 1/2 Dozen Daily has suggested I do this as a link up party.  Might be kind of fun.  So for now if you would like to play along, link back to me and then leave the link to your post in the comments here, that would be awesome :) 

Here we go....

1. Made a big batch of home made laundry soap.  The powdered version.

2.  Had one stay at home day :)

3. Add all my bills to my online bill pay as they came in this week.  No late fees for me

4.  Stayed out of the stores since I did all my shopping last week for the month

5.  Adjusted my monthly menu plan as needed to accommodate everyone schedules

New Furniture Pictures

I had been meaning to post pics of our new to us furniture.  I found this on a local Facebook yard sale group.  There were originally 3 pieces that I got for $250.  The over sized chair was to big for the space we needed it in so I resold it for $50.  So I ended up with a super, nice, looks brand new couch and love seat for $200.  I didn't stage the pics.  Figured might as well keep it real.  This is what it looks like most days.  That is my cute little doggies favorite spot.  She loves to look out the window :)

Fabric Covered Shades.......

In the last few months I have slowly been working on finishing up the decorating I started a long time ago in my bedroom.  I wanted to add something to the cheap frugal curtains I had made for this room.  I posted originally about them here.  It is actually one of my most viewed posts of all time :) 

 

Anyway, I had seen a few pins on Pinterest about covering my simple, white, roller shades with fabric and decided to give it a try.  I followed the tutorial found here on Cottage and Vine.  I did use fabric glue instead of a glue gun.  It was easy to do and so here is how they turned out

 

Before

 

                          Tada-After :)

 

 

 

 

Closer view :)

 

 

I bought the fabric for around $10 at Hobby Lobby.  It was 30% off and I had a gift card from Christmas to use.  Total spent on two windows for the fabric shades ( I have had the white roller shades for years and years) and curtains $20.  I love how they turned out.  Sorry the pictures aren't the best but I think you get the idea :)

 

I am linking up to

 

Weekly To Do List - 5 Things

I am inspired by Diary Of A School Nurse and her to-do list to make my own.  I thought if I did a weekly one and only listed 5 things I would like to accomplish then this may be more doable :)  So here they are

1. Finish the touch up painting on my baseboards in the kitchen.  There is really not much left to do and should only take me about a  half hour to accomplish

2.  Finish the deep clean of Kid # 5's room.  This really should only take me about an hour.  Most of it is already done.

3. Sew 3 scarves

4. Post some of the things I have already taken pictures of on my local Facebook sites to sell

5. Dust ( I hate dusting!  I put is off for as long as a I possibly can)

5 Things I Did That Were Frugal This Week - Late :(

1. Took a mental health day on Friday and got several things done :)

2. Asked my husband for help in putting up some chicken I had bought on mark down.  He cooked some of it in the crock pot to use later this week.  He also ground some of it in our new meat grinder,  which my parents got us for Christmas, to use for chicken burgers next month.

3. Used several coupons at the fabric store which saved me a ton of money.

4.  Stuck to our menu plan

5.  Entered all bills as they came in to my online bill pay so that they are already scheduled for payment :)

Feeling A Bit Overwhelmed

My husband is gone long hours for his new job, plus it is tax season.  This means that all household/child related tasks fall onto me.  I am also working 4 days a week most weeks, sometimes even 5.  Although, my hours are not long and my job is not hard, I do spend all that time on my feet and by the time I get home my feet ache!  Add this to trying to cut the grocery budget, deep clean each room of my house and just save money in general, it is overwhelming. 

I am a homebody and I have always known that I am not cut out to work a full time job and raise a family.  I have a great respect for those woman who do this.  I rarely have a day anymore to just stay home and I miss it.  I am looking forward to spring break and being able to have a few days to stay at home.

I have slowly been working on filling my freezer with crock pot meals that I can just dump in a turn on.  I think this will help me alot to not have to worry about food costs and what is for dinner. 

I have also slowly been deep cleaning each room and then making sure to maintain it so that it is not such a daunting task to get done the next time.  Hopefully this will help also.

OK I feel better now getting that off my chest.  I'll be back with a couple project posts soon :)

Few Recipes We Tried in February

I post about the Black Bean Soup , we had in February.  My goal was to try a new recipe every week this year.  So here are few other things we tried for February.

We had this Chicken Spaghetti , made by The Pioneer Woman.  It was fabulous and we will definitely be having it again.  I did a few things differently of course. I used one can of cream of mushroom and one can of cream of celery because that is what I had.  I didn't have any pimentos so I added grated carrots.  Because of the cooking of the chicken it made the meal more time consuming to make but it does make alot and we easily got two dinners from it.

One busy week night I made these Baked Chicken Fajita , these were pretty good.  I believe I saw that Kim at SKAMM Life, had these one time for dinner also, not sure if it was the same recipe or not.  Btw, once upon a time,  Kim and I use to be sister in laws ♥, go check out her blog, it is good :)  Anyway, these were easy to make and pretty tasty also.

Next up was " OMG Chicken" , this link takes you to the original recipe using Mayo.  On the Pinterest pin there is direction to do this with sour cream which is what I tried.  This recipe was OK, probably not something I will go out of my way to make again.  Maybe if I do the next time I will try it with mayo.

So there you go, maybe you might find something you want to try out........happy eating lol :)

5 Things I Did That Were Frugal This Week

1. Took home some free food that was offered to me.  My husband used it for his lunches this week

2. Finished my menu plan for the month of March

3.  Tallied my receipts from February and came in $13.09 under budget.  I then quickly transferred that amount to my savings account.

4. Planned my driving so that I could make the most of my trips and save gas

5.  Cooked dinner every night and used the leftovers for other dinners/lunches