5 Things I Did That Were Frugal This Week

1. I had 3 stay at home days! 

2. We ate leftovers for most of the week. We have started having Sunday " family" dinners with some friends. We take turns at each other's houses. Sunday was our turn. We provided the main course and everyone else brought something. We had a lot leftover. 

3. I started working on a quilt which will be a Christmas present. So far I have been able to use up material I already own :) 

4. My husband wears bow ties when he plays in his band. I made him 3 new ones this week using scrap material I already had. 

5. I finished one of my projects I had been working on, spray painting some light fixtures in our house. This was cheaper then buying new fixtures in the color I preferred. Saved me approximately $40 a fixture :) 

Thrifty Thursday

I had to drop my car off to be fixed this morning. I posted last week about having a issue with my car. We had to wait for a part to come in to have it fixed.  Turns out it was a wheel barring that is bad.  The shop we use is about a 1 mile from our house.  I frequently walk during the day at the minimum of 2 miles.  So I just walked home from the shop so that I can get some of my exercise in. It was a nice sunny morning, although kinda chilly.  When  it is time to pick my car up later today I will just walk to do that also.  Easy exercise and it saves on gas.

What did you do that was thrifty today?

My Goals With EBay

Two post in one day..say what??!!

My first mini goal I set for myself when I started selling on eBay in June was to be able to make enough profit to buy both of our cars new tires.

 Today after mailing my packages from sales over the weekend I realized I have now made enough to get our first car new tires!  Woohoo! one car down, one more to go!

Reaching this point totally helps keep me motivated to keep at it. Even if my sales are slow and I only sale 3 or 4 items a week.  I am still making a profit!

Happy Tuesday!

Well I didn't manage to post over the weekend or yesterday which was a holiday from school for Kid #5.  Today we are back to our normal schedule.  Nothing to exciting happening this week.  We just have our usual schedule until the weekend.

 I do have a few projects I am hoping to finish.

 One is the recovering of our dinning room chairs.  I have 3 left to do so I plan to work on them today.

 The second is I am spray painting some of our light fixtures that I really wanted to update but discovered they would cost us about $40 a piece to do that.  We have 4 of them.  The can of spray paint cost me about $5. This was a much cheaper option.

The third project is finishing up the painting of my half bathroom vanity. I was waiting on my husband to help me with the holes for the new handles I bought, which he did over the weekend. So now I can paint the primer on them and then purchase the actual paint.

I need to run to the Post Office at some point today as I have 3 packages from my eBay sales to mail off.  EBay  has been slow going for me but at least I am making some money doing it. Every little bit helps!

Hope you all are having a great day!

5 Things I Did That Were Frugal This Week

1. I prepped some fruit and veggies for the week for easy eating! 

2. Yesterday I had to take my dog to the Vet due to an eye infection. Had the money already to pay for it out of her sinking fund. 

3. Our Vet is very close to our house. Instead of driving there I walked with my dog. That way we saved gas and we both got exercise. 

4. I hung out 3 loads of laundry this week even though the temperature is starting to get cooler. 

5. I talked with the Vet about feeding my dog and what the right amounts were. Turns out I am feeding her maybe a little to much. Adjusting the amount will be healthier for her and make her food last longer for me :) 

Murphy Is Calling........

Murphy is knocking at our door and I wish he would just go away. 

First item is that our Escrow account was short for the second time and I will now need to pay about $300 extra.  Thank you high IL property taxes!

The next is my Anti Lock Brake system light is on in my car.  I am pretty sure my back brakes need replacing :/  My Hubs is gonna call and see about taking the car in today.

A few years ago these would have been BIG issues with our finances. Now they are minor annoyances.  It still is the pits to have to spend money that we were not planning on but at least now the money is there when we need it and we will not have to charge it on a credit card.

Rainy Day

It is raining today so that kind of puts a damper on my house projects that involve spray painting.  I typically like to do that outside.  I have tried to take advantage of nice weather when we have it to get my painting projects completed before the cold sets in.

I am in the process of recovering my dining room chairs though so I guess I can get that finished up today instead. 

I also want to paint my half bath vanity. We have stripped wallpaper, painted and added new fixtures since moving here a little over a year ago. The vanity is the last project to complete that room.  I will post pictures when it is all done.  I have the primer to start painting it so I think maybe I will work on that also today.

I will need to make a run to the post office also.  I have an eBay sell item I need to get mailed.  I have consistently sold 4-5 items a week since June.  Not a ton but at least it is something.  My goal with my profits is to buy new tires for each of our cars.  I have enough now to pay for my husbands car.  Every little bit of extra money helps!

Well those are my plans for the day. What are yours?

Food Prep

This morning I have spend a lot of time prepping some of our food so that it will not go to waste.

 I have cut up a pomegranate which Kid #5 loves and I sent some to school with her in her lunch.

 I have washed and hulled a carton of strawberries.  Some of which I will use here in a minute for a smoothie.  The rest will be used this week. 

Next up is a avocado with is starting to get to soft so I will try to use most of  it in my lunch today and tomorrow.

I plan to go through our refrigerator and see what leftovers are needing to be eaten in the next day or two and I will make those into lunches for my husband.

Keeping up with our perishable food allows for no waste and in the long term saves us money.

It's October Already...Say What!?

This year has just flown right by hasn't it?  For several years I have tried to write every day in October.  I had intentions of doing the same this year but as you can see it is now the 3rd of October and I am just now writing my first post. I may keep at it for the rest of the month though, we will see.

So what has been happening here....as of right now we are getting to stay in our new city and my husband still has a job with the railroad.  Great news huh? It was a big relief when we got that news.  So now let the house projects begin :)

We recently found out that Kid #5 has a chance to take a trip with her classmates to Washington DC next summer.  This will cost us $2,000.  At first I was not happy about it and not planning to let her go.  It is not really in our budget and it is a lot of money for a 13 yr old.  We have sense decided that she can probably go and we will be doing several things to fund this trip with her helping of course.  First up is a yard sale before it gets to cold.  That is our project for this week, getting everything priced and ready to go, she is going to help of course with every part of the yard sale!

I am hoping to add $4,000 to our Babystep 3 before the end of the year.  We previously had decided we had completed Babystep 3 but then we had the job loss scare and so have since decided to add to it a little bit. 

Anyway, this is where we are at at the moment.  Hope you all are doing well.