I cut flowers from the garden.

I cut rosemary and Swiss chard from the garden.

We picked blackberries, apricots, lemons, and figs from the garden.

I had my son spray for bugs. Spraying the outside of the house rather than having a bug service saves us hundreds of dollars every year.

We watched children's shows on PBS.org and YouTube.

We had friends visit from out of town that we had not seen for many years. Before they came, I checked to see if their children had any food allergies. One of her children is allergic to beans, and I was planning to make bean burritos. I planned a different meal instead (Baked potato bar and salad), using ingredients that I had on hand.

I returned 1-gallon and 5-gallon plastic pots to the nursery, where they will be reused. I received a credit of $1.08, which I used towards my purchase of some flowers for the garden. Several of the plants I purchased were on sale.

I sowed seeds in the garden for two kinds of basil.

I gave a daughter and a son each a haircut.

My husband has been needing some new clothes for several years. We found him a wallet (for $7) at Walmart that he liked. The next morning, when I was entering the receipt into Quicken, I noticed that I had been double charged for the wallet. I went back to the store, hoping to get the money back, but having no proof of being double charged, I wasn't sure if they would give me the money back or not. Customer service used the information on the receipt to look up the transaction on the register on their security camera footage to see that I was, indeed, telling the truth, and I got my $7 plus tax put back on my card (I found out this is their standard policy for being double charged; I don't know how many days of footage they have on hand, so I was glad I went the next day, just in case). We found him some dress pants at Sam's Club. The manufacturer's price on the pants was $75 a pair; we paid just under $20 a pair for them (Sam's Club's price).

I took advantage of the Father's Day sales to purchase two shirts for my eldest son at Target, on sale for $5 each (a polo shirt and a t-shirt) which will be some of his birthday gifts for his birthday next month.

We had lots of fun taking short rides in my dad's "pre-owned," new-to-him, 1925 Model T!  I plan to take some proper photos in the future, but the first ride is documented over on my Instagram account.

We celebrated my son's Eagle Scout ceremony rather simply, decorating with flags of two sizes that I already had (some of which had been purchased for my oldest son's Eagle Scout ceremony last year) and some large flags that were borrowed. We also used the patriotic ribbon medallions that I made years ago with ribbon that I received from my mother-in-law. Our dessert was simply ice cream, which we purchased on sale.

I've had several readers ask about his project. I hope to share his project as well as my eldest son's project in an upcoming post or two.

What did you do to save money this past week?

I harvested Mission figs, Royal apricots, Meyer lemons, peppermint, green onions, New Zealand spinach, Swiss chard, hibiscus flowers, and blackberries from the garden.

I worked in the garden, weeding and sowing seeds for sunflowers, Armenian cucumbers, Genovese basil, and vincas. 

I collected green onion seeds from my green onion flowers and planted a new row of green onions in the garden. We are using these more and more often as they can be harvested year-round. I am wanting to grow enough green onions in the garden to make it easy to harvest them several times a week every week of the year.

I made a batch each of orange extract and vanilla extract.

I finished sewing a table runner that I had started last year and set aside in my sewing room.

I took pictures of my second son for his Eagle Scout Court of Honor invitations. My husband designed an invitation on the computer and we ordered the invitations as photo prints, which were much less than printing them as invitations would have been ($0.17 each).

What did you do to save money this past week?

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I cut flowers from the garden.

We harvested Katy apricots, blackberries, chocolate mint, peppermint, chamomile, green onions, and Mission figs from the garden.

I planted seeds for Dark Opal basil and Armenian cucumbers in the garden.

I received an email advertising a discount for season tickets for the Philharmonic. Purchasing them, even with a 10% discount, is not in my budget. I read through the concerts and noticed that one of them was for Dvorak. I love Dvorak's "New World Symphony," so I decided to enjoy it now. I looked up the piece on You Tube and enjoyed listening to and watching the New York Philharmonic perform the piece.

We spent Memorial Day organizing and tidying several things inside and out, so that we can enjoy our home more. 

I used garlic ear oil to treat my ear infection. One dose is usually all it takes, and that was the case this time too.

I opened the windows each morning to air out and cool the house. I was able to keep them open until 9:30 a.m. each morning before the house heated to 79°F/26°C, which is how hot I keep the house in summer (that won't be the case this week, as that was the low temperature this morning!)

My husband took several of our children with him to help his sister (who recently moved and downsized considerably) load a trailer of items to donate. He brought home several items, including tools and tool boxes, a package of balloons, and some white paper lunch bags. 

I bought nothing at all last week.

What did you do to save money last week?

This month in the garden, I'll harvest blackberries, Mission figs, and apricots.

I'll cut and pick Swiss chard, green onions, grape leaves, chives, oregano, rosemary, sage, elderberry flowers (and possibly elderberries, if I can beat the birds to them), New Zealand spinach, peppermint, and tomatoes.

I'll collect seeds from open-pollinated spinach, three kinds of lettuce, leeks, green onions, and nasturtiums to plant later--though most of the green onion seeds will be planted in the garden this month.

I'll sow seeds for zinnias, sunflowers, green onions, vincas, butternut squash, pumpkins, zucchini, marjoram, and thyme in the garden.

I'll buy a few staples this month, but the rest of my $200 budget will be spent on produce, eggs, and meat that I find on sale.

There should be several good sales on meat around Father's Day.

Corn on the cob should go on sale this month; I'll look for sales of six and possibly eight ears for a dollar.

June is a hot month here; most days, if not every day, will be over 100°F/ 38C° (Monday will be 105°). We plan on eating lots of bean burritos, pasta salads (using a combination of sale produce and garden produce; I like my pasta salads to be more vegetables than noodles), homemade yogurt with homemade cranberry almond granola, 

You can see my summer menu here. I don't follow my menus exactly; instead, I use them to plan my meals based on what is ripe in my garden, what I have in my pantry and freezer, and what I can add that is on sale.

Winco:

Milk

Greek yogurt (small container to use as a starter to make yogurt)

Spreadable margarine (3-pound tub for $2.27)

Flour tortillas

Potatoes

Onions

Smith's:

Ice cream (I buy the big buckets labeled "Kroger party pail" when they go on sale for $4.99 or less; sometimes the sale price is $4.49 and sometimes it is $3.99!)

Costco:

Almonds (our Sam's club appears to have stopped carrying almonds, so I'll have my mom pick some up at Costco for me)

Walmart:

Oxiclean spray

 What seasonal recipes do you have planned for this month? What sales do you look for in June?

A month ago, I gave birth to a baby boy.

We now have five daughters and four sons.

This baby boy was our biggest child! He was 9 pounds, 1 ounce (4,11 kg) and 22 inches long. He was born at home on April 27th at 8:20 p.m.

His name is Hamish.

Curious about how we choose our children's names? Read Our Baby Naming Day Tradition.

Love the washtub? You can get it here (affiliate link).

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I mended seven leaks in the drip irrigation. I had accidentally cut these last year when pruning hedges.

I planted seeds for Armenian cucumbers, pumpkins, zucchini, and Thai basil in the garden.

I harvested apricots, lemons, tomatoes, lettuce, spinach, green onions, garlic chives, oregano, parsley, and chocolate mint from the garden.

I cut flowers from the garden to enjoy inside.

My husband and I had an at-home date night playing a game of Rummikub. My mom found that she had a duplicate of this game when she went through her closets earlier this year when I had a garage sale, and we kept the game back from the sale.

I redeemed free coupons from the grocery store Monopoly game tickets for five free 8-ounce cans of tomato sauce, three pounds of egg noodles, four free store-brand AAA batteries, two small bags of potato chips, a bag of free hamburger buns, two free containers of aspirin, and an 8-ounce container of sour cream.

I used a coupon for a buy one, get one bottle of shampoo to get a free bottle of shampoo.

My sister-in-law is moving house and downsizing. She offered to let me go through several boxes of children's clothes before she had a garage sale. I found several pairs of jeans for daughters number 2 and 3 (they wear the same size, plus my second daughter is very hard on clothes, which has meant a shortage of clothing for a few years for these two daughters; it seems they are always wearing everything through!) I also found a few other clothing items for other children.

My children helped their aunt with her garage sale on the actual day, and in return, she allowed them each several items to keep from her sale. They brought home several more items of clothing.

My husband arranged to borrow the bike rack that his brother made for the same sister for us to use at our house. There isn't a place for it at her new house and she's not using it right now. My husband was planning to make one for us with his brother; this will work well for us for now without any outlay of money.

My husband cut my hair for me.

My husband painted our front doors.

What did you do to save money this past week?