5 Frugal Things I Did This Week

1. I made Kid # 5 a " Dairy Queen" ice cream cake myself for about $6 vs buying one for her birthday this week 

2. We are having our finish basement shower rebuilt because it leaks. I paid cash for this project :)

3. Watered the few plants I have managed to get planted so far with water from my rain barrel

4. We ate our leftovers

5. I have been drinking smoothies for breakfast using up fruit and some spinach that might otherwise have been thrown away

5 Things I Did That Were Frugal This Week

1. I stuck to my grocery shopping list and had $45 left of my 2 week budget :)

2. We ate our leftovers

3. I stumbled upon a great deal on mulch for my yard. 25 cents a bag because they had come open or had holes in the bag. I bought 5 more bags ( which is all they had left in the red color I like) to use in my yard.

4. I went on a Girl Scout outing to a paint your own pottery place with Kid # 5. Because so few showed up I got to paint a piece for free along with Kid # 5. I made my grandson one of his birthday presents for free :)

5. Used some material scraps to make Kid # 5 some birthday presents. I will post some pictures soon :)

5 Things I Did That Were Frugal This Week

1. Finalized our new homeowners and car insurance saving us over $600 a year.

2. Kid # 5 and I made cookies using pantry items we already had

3.  Boxed up and priced 4 more boxes of items for our garage sale we are having in June

4. Made a big pot of homemade chicken and alphabet soup all with pantry items. We ate it for dinner twice this week

5. Planned most of my driving so I didn't waste gas

5 Things I Did That Were Frugal This Week

1. We ate our leftover food so there was 0 food waste.

2. I make my husbands birthday cake. He requested a jello cake. I made the white cake from scratch. Purchased 1 box of cherry jello and one container of Cool Whip. Nice cake for really cheap!

3. I made my own chalk board labels with items I already had.

4. I sold a box of toys Kid # 5 no longer played with for $25. I put this right into the school tuition envelope for Kid # 3. She attends community college and we split the price of tuition. We are getting ready for a yard sale which she is helping with. Anything we make goes towards tuition and then we will split what is left.

5. I found us new homeowners and car insurance saving us over $550 a year. Just waiting to finalize all the paper work!

Skirts....

Last week I sat down and made Kid # 3 and # 5 each a skirt.

I have many craft supplies that I have bought and not followed threw on making. 

This is going to be my year of changing that! 

Anyway here are the skirts :)

This one is Kid #3's.  The waist is made from an old white tshirt.  The striped part is from some material I had in my stash.  I read several tutorials on Pinterest to figure this out but didn't really follow any one.  It turned out cute I think 

The next one is Kid # 5's and she loves it.  She has already worn it to school one day. I even got her to model it for me :)

Orginally I followed this tutorial I found on Pinterest.  However I didn't measure correctly and ended up modifying it to correct my mistake.  It still turned out pretty cute and Kid # 5 really likes it which is what matters :)

5 Things I Did That Were Frugal This Week

1. Coordinated some driving so as not to waste gas.

2. I needed some supplies to do a few projects.  Went to Hobby Lobby, with my phone app I used the 40% off coupon.  I also had a few dollars left on a gift card I had recieved for Christmas.  Spent less then $10 on my supplies :)

3. My co-worker loaned me a movie to watch this week. So Kid # 5 and I had free entertainment one evening watching it.

4. I had to pick Kid # 3 up at school yesterday.  I coordinated that with some yard sales I wanted to stop at.  Saving us gas because we were in the neighborhood.  Plus we found some needed items on our list for a great price.  My best purchase was an electric skillet for $10 ( I really would have liked to get it cheaper but it was in like new shape so it was probably a fair price).  Kid # 3 got a crockpot for her boyfriends house for $4.

5. I made Kid # 5 a skirt from items I already had.  She must really like it cause she has worn it to school already :)

Searl House Happenings...

I haven't felt much like blogging lately.  I am not sure why.  I guess just the busyness of life.

We have 5 weeks of school left.  I am looking forward to having the time off.  I am also looking forward to spending it with Kid # 4 and 5.  Not that kid #4 really wants to spend it with me lol.  He will turn 17 over the summer and is much more interested in his friends :)

We are moving right along in our debt snowball.  In January we paid $100 towards the car ( not so great of a snowball there but better then nothing). February we paid $ 1080 ( now that is more like it!!), March - $ 246 ( small but ok) and April - $ 1251.50.  So we are moving right along.  Hopefully the snowball will keep rolling in the bigger numbers.  

We got a pretty good size tax return this year.  I have it in our savings account.  We are first shopping for new car and homeowners insurance which I hope to have done in May.  Once that is complete we will transfer all the rest of the return towards our debt repayment.  I THINK that will knock our balance down to half way being paid off which would then put us right on track to be debt free by the end of the year.  We really need to start considering what we will do when the debt payment is done.  Last time we became debt free we didn't have a plan for what to do after and got side tracked.

I have not been doing well with meal planning.  The first couple of months at the beginning of the year I did really well and we cut our grocery budget by almost half.  I am working on getting back to that, especially for the summer.  I would like to be able to save as much as I can even in the warm months.  We always tend to spend a lot when the weather is nice.  I am hoping to curb that this year.

I posted before that we are going to participate in a yard sale with my daughter in law and her sister.  I have fallen off the wagon of preparation.  This week I hope to get at least 4 more boxes ready.  Of course it is mid week already so I need to get on that :)

Over the weekend I sewed Kid # 3 and Kid # 5 some maxi skirts.  I am trying to clean out my craft stash and actually make some of the things I have bought supplies for!  It is time to get rid of some of this junk in my life!!  I will post some pics of the skirts soon.  I think I will have to make a couple for myself also :)