5 Things I Did That Were Frugal This Week

1. I found 2 aprons I can use for work at Goodwill this week for $3.99 each :)

2. Paid over $1000 towards our car loan. All from snowballing found money this month!

3. Bought a Mohu Anntenna and Roku for our tv. Paid cash and used our Amazon Prime membership for free shipping! This upped our viewing capablities since we are now 6 month into being cable free. This purchase will pay for itself in one month and still allow us to save over $1000 this year by not having cable.

4. Made my Mom a birthday present using items I already had! Yeah for free and using up things!

5. Recieved another $5 off of $30 coupon for our Aldi which has moved into a brand new building, I used it to stock up on some items we use regularly.

0 no spend days this week- total for February = 8

5 Things I Did That Were Frugal This Week

1. Made Kid # 5 a new duvet cover for her room out of a sheet I picked up at Goodwill for $2.16.  I will post pics of it in the next day or two

2. Ate at home even though I did not menu plan this week.

3. Took a box to Goodwill.  This may not seem like a frugal thing but having less clutter helps save money in the long run.

4. Packaged up some food items and put them in the freezer.  I knew we would eat them eventually but would not get to them before they went bad in the refrigerator.

5. Made a big batch of  laundry soap and a spray bottle of  All-Purpose Cleaner . Both last a long time and save me money :)


PS: I also had 2 no spend days.  My total for February is now at 8 :)

Sunday Night Chit Chat

Carla at My 1/2 Dozen Daily hosts Sunday Night Chit Chats, so I thought I would play along this week :)

• Reading: nothing at the moment. I really need to make a trip to the library.
• Listening to: Kid # 5 talking to the dog lol

• Watching: nothing, have not had the tv on much today
• Cooking/Baking: We had a roasted whole chicken for dinner. I really need to get some granola made too.
• Happy you accomplished this week: got our first round of Girl Scout cookies picked up. Now just need to deliver them
• Looking forward to next week: it is a short work week and suppose to be warmer!
• Thankful for today: My family and no work tomorrow 
• Bonus Question: If you could have Carla (that's me!) make you anything what would it be? I would love an iPad case in shades of orange :)

Frugal Valentines Day

We don't usually go all out for Valentine's Day. This year I think we did pretty well staying frugal.

Kid # 5 is still young enough to have Valentine's Day parties at school. In her class they exchange cards and make boxes to use as mailboxes for the card exchange. She is all about Minecraft this year so I found some cards to make on Pinterest and printed them for her from here. She did the rest of the work.

I just had to buy a bag of miniature candy bars for approximately $3, otherwise I had the card stock and green paper. 

For her Valentine box we used an empty cracker box and green construction paper. 

I made some homemade toffee for my hubby for his gift the recipe can be found here . I put it in a cellophane treat bag which I already had and then a Valentine gift bag which I also already had. It turned out wonderful and he loved it. 

My hubby gave me the same thing he has given me for the last 10 years. A love letter he wrote to me. It is my favorite gift and I love getting them! 

He also gave me some candy and some new ear buds for my iPad. 

It was a fantastic and frugal Valentine's Day!

5 Things I Did That Were Frugal This Week

1. Went to a "hair cutting" gathering at a friends house and got Kid #5 and my hair cut for $30. Which is cheaper then if we went and had it done at the salon we usually go to.

2. Had a leftover night and any thing that was left became my husbands lunches for the week.

3. Have had 2 no spend days this week. That would equal 6 so far this month :)

4. Made my husband a Valentine gift using items I already had.

5. Moved over $100 from the grocery budget and gas budget for the last two weeks into savings! Ya for no spending/ no going anywhere days!

Meal Plan Feb 10-16

I had planned to post my meal plan yesterday but then got busy.

Monday - leftovers. What we didn't eat has been turned into lunches for my husband for the week :)

Tuesday- Lasagna Toss and Salad

Wednesday- We usually have some sort of crockpot meal but I am at a loss as to what we will have.  I will update this when I think of something :(

Thursday - Taco Ring ( Kid# 1, daughter in law and grandson will be joining us)

Friday- dinner out

Saturday- dinner out

Sunday- Roasted chicken, Potato and Salad

5 Things I Did That Were Frugal This Week

1. Brought home some chicken wings and legs which were going into the garbage at work. Threw them in the crockpot with water.  Made some chicken in rice soup and got a quart size ziplock for shredded chicken meat for the freezer. 

2. Had 4 no spend days this week. ( I think I will keep track of this each week)

3. Got enough chips and taco meat from work to make nachos for dinner with.  Again saving food from being thrown in the garbage. 

4. Found a free valentine pattern online that I knew kid # 5 would love.  Printed them on my home computer.  Now we just need to finish them :)

5. Reset our programmable thermostat to drop down a few degrees while I am gone to work.  Saving a little money I hope on the power bill

January Low/No Spend/I Didn't Update :(

It seems I have not updated on how we did in the low/no spend challenge for January.  I haven't been blogging much and need to get back to it.  This cold and snow is depressing and I am having a hard time feeling like blogging :(

Anyway, my goal was to save $100 off or our grocery budget.  I am happy to report that I saved that and $50 extra.  So $150 total which I have put towards my car loan.

I also managed to save an additional over $400 by just not spending.  I lost track of how many no spend days I actually had but I am pretty sure I meet my goal of 10.  We have had a ton of snow days here for the month of January so I have easily stayed home all of those.

The $400 addtional money I have set aside for car maintance.  I need to have 100,000 mile work done on my car and so I am saving up to do so.  I plan to do this over Spring Break when I am off work and won't have to worry about how long the shop needs my car to do it.  Whatever money is left from this fund when the work is done will then be applied towards the car loan.

I am continueing this low/no spend challenge into Febuary.  Actually for pretty much now until at least school is out for the summer.  I really want to get this car loan paid off by the end of the year.  My husband doesn't think this is a reasonable goal but I am gonna try like hell to do it.  We will see....

Meal Plan Feb 3-7

I am going to try to be better about posting our meal plans for the week.  Oh and just making a plan in general would be most helpful to me lol :)

Monday- Chicken Sanwiches ( baked chicken breast and buns brought home from work.  Anything I bring home from work we are just saving from the garbage at the end of the day), Salad

Tuesday- Chicken and Noodles ( from the freezer), Mashed Potatoes, Green Beans

Wednesday - Crockpot Ranch Porkchops, Broccolli/Cheese Sauce, Rice

Thursday - Pizza Pasta Bake ( from freezer), Salad

Friday- Snack Night

Saturday- Leftovers

Sunday - ?? no idea yet :)

Snow Day Project

We have had several snow days in January here in the midwest.  This has given me time to work on a few projects that I had bought supplies for but not completed.  I have decided that this is the year that I will finally complete and purge my craft room of supplies I have bought to make certain things with but then never finished or sometimes even started.

Kid # 5 and I were in need of a chart not only for chores but for other things that she needed to get done before bedtime each evening.  

Here is what I created for her:

This is a magnet board made from a old burner cover. I used modge podge to glue scrapbook paper and rick rack on it.  I then made some little cards that I glued magnets on the back of for the "to do" and "done" and the "letter explanation ".  That way if I wanted to use the magnet board for something else in the future they were not permanate.   The letter tiles are old scrabble tiles and each letter represents an item that Kid # 5 must complete before she goes to bed.  

I have hung this in the kitchen so that not only does Kid # 5 have access to it but I also see it regularly though out the evening also and can keep up with what is left to do.

So far it is working well :)