I cut flowers from the garden for the house.

I cut lots of basil and made a large batch of pesto. What we didn’t use on sandwiches, I put in the freezer in several bags to use later. I armed the sandwiches on the panini press that I bought earlier this year at a garage sale (for $5). I’ve wanted to make these for years, and I finally have enough basil and a press to make them! I’m planning to make several batches of pesto with the rest of the basil and freeze it to make these again in the future.

I collected seeds from my basil plants to plant next year.

The weather was milder than it has been, so I only needed to run the air conditioner for a few hours on two days last week (saving me $65, according the the electric company’s weekly report).

My husband mended one of my clothes drying racks this week. I have a gas dryer and dry most things in the dryer, but I also wear a lot of thin clothing (as we have 5-6 months of above 90º temperatures) that cannot go in the dryer, so I use these to hang those to dry.

Winter downloaded two free songs from the library’s website.

I dumped the compost into the garden. I’ll be working it in this week, but dumping it out allowed Cyrus to start filling it, layering shredded paper and grass as he cut the grass.

I bought two pairs of jeans for Cyrus and four for Ezrom for $2 a pair from a Facebook garage sale post. The jeans were in like-new condition. On the way home from picking these up, I stopped at three actual garage sales. At one I bought three necklaces ($5 total), which I will give to three daughters for Christmas. At another, I bought two small carry-on size suitcases (that looked brand-new) for $2 each.

Thanks to the Facebook garage sales, I was made aware of a couple of neighborhood garage sales on Saturday. I took my list with me. I was not able to find a lot from my list, but I did find three t-shirts for the girls for .50 each, and a handful of other small items, including a blue and white Chinese vase ($2) that I filled with zinnias from the garden. I had been wanting something like this, and was delighted when I found this one.

I canned 12 quarts of pears.

My husband and I watched the pilot episode of a new show for free on Hulu. It’s called Forever, and U.S. readers can watch it here. We liked the first episode enough that we will keep watching.

What did you do to save money last week?

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25 Comments

  1. Perhaps you can offer the apples to a food kitchen or food bank in the area. Some schools have breakfast programs as well, which may appreciate a healthy snack to offer the children. It seems such a waste of good food to let them rot.

  2. We have neighbors who simply put their apples out on a table on the sidewalk with a sign that says “FREE” – if you have enough traffic maybe that will do? Or put them on Freecycle or Craigslist, if those are used in your area.

  3. Theresa F, yes I know about BROADCHURCH, but it is not on HULU. My son watched it and told me to try GRACEPOINT. So I am going to watch that for now and try BROADCHURCH later on DVD from the library. Thanks. I do like British series.

  4. We’ve had this for over 20 years but we are not in a high heat zone. It can feel pretty hot because of humidity. They have a random schedule for turning off and it comes out to a $32 credit every summer so just 20+ x $32 we’ve saved $640+ over the years. I don’t ever remember thinking it was a bad problem so must be working for us.

  5. mdoe, can you offer them on freecycle? Can you take them into church Sunday am with a sign”for the taking”? Can you drop them off at Salvation Army mealsite or other church mealsite in your area? Call a preschool or head start program and ask if they can use them? Offer on Craigs list? (If you don’t want to meet strangers at your house for pickup, meet at grocer parking lot or such…I always use our school parking lot when I have an item someone is picking up or dropping off ) If you can’t find people that want to eat them offer them as deer apples for hunters. Drop them off at the food pantry? Call the Country Extension and see if a 4H group wants them to make pies or applesauce for a project. If you have a technical college call the culinary program and see if they would like them or the “Home Ec” classes at the high school or middle school. How could somebody not want them? Call the Boys and Girls club, the Laos-Hmong society, call the local zoo and see if they will take them for animal treats or a stable. Makes me sad to think of them not used…I know the birds and squirrels will use some over the winter, but not bushels. Good luck!

  6. When I did the shopping this morning, there was an unadvertised special of Triscuits for $1 a box. The regular price is at least $3.50. These are one of my husband’s favorite snacks, and one of the healthiest snack items in the store. With a little cheese and some cherry tomatoes, they are a good lunch on a hectic day.With snack tray season coming up, I bought 15 boxes. The date on them was well up into January.

  7. Our weather is mild so we haven’t had to run our air conditioner or our heater- I love this time of year. Frugal activities last week included:— Bought Bountiful Baskets and planned our meals around what we got in our basket. I also shopped at Winco and used coupons and got iBotta and Checkout 51 credit on some items. I am also completing a “freezer challenge” of sorts so I am trying to not purchase more things that will go in the freezer until we use up a lot of what we already have in our freezer. — I had to go out of town overnight on business so I made sure to preplan a dinner for my husband and daughter that she could stick in the oven so that it was ready when her Dad got home. This saved them from the temptation of eating out or doing my husband’s other favorite activity when I am out of town- he goes to the grocery store and buys everything he needs to make their meal without checking what we already have.— Didn’t drive as much as usual so I got a couple of extra days between fill-ups.—- Rented movies at Hastings and returned them in time to get credit which is an improvement over what we used to do which was to return them late and have to pay late fees.—- Worked on the items I am making for Christmas presents.—- Used amazon credit earned from Swagbucks to order a new hair dryer to replace my dead hair dryer.— This weekend my daughter wanted breakfast out so we went to Krispy Kreme and used my punch card credit to get free doughnuts and took them home to eat- she also had a free drink coming to her from Dutch Brothers so we stopped by there- she loved having a “free breakfast”. That is all I can think of for right now- hope everyone is having a wonderful week!

  8. Thanks for all the wonderful ways you help to enrich others lives with this blog. I needed hairspray and went to the drug store and bought the strongest hold type in a spray bottle and came home and poured almost half in another spray bottle and added distilled water and was able to make 2 spray bottles of hair spray. Since I had a coupon and the hairspray was on sale too it made it really cheap. I have been looking everywhere for some new kitchen towel and couldn’t find any that weren’t outrageous in price so I went digging in my Christmas boxes and pulled out the towels that have Christmas decorations on them and started using them. I couldn’t believe how many I had and havehad them for years. Also, started looking on you tube for art lettering classes so I can start making different projects to teach at church. I think that is all the new things this week. Thanks!

  9. From the gardens we are still picking squash and pumpkins, gourds, we are waiting til it gets colder to pick the Brussels sprouts and carrots, found some missed zucchini under the vines…a few of them were great but one was 2 feet long. I use those anyways…they keep well, like a squash does, for a couple months and I grate up as needed for breads etc. Traded blackberries (my youngest is positive she found the last, but it is impossible to know as they just grow wild along the fields) for more pears and traded an apple slab pie (I will make at future requested date) for some more plums. (I highly recommend making the plum sauce that Brandy does, I can’t make enough of it).

  10. What are your thoughts on line-drying laundry? Probably doesn’t take long for it to dry, in your neck of the woods! Was just curious… (BTW, love your blog and your beautiful photos!)

  11. Paula, you are SO lucky! I would love that deal. Our sale price last week was 2/5.00. The store used to sell their own brand of “woven wheat” crackers, identical to triscuits for .99 a box but they discontinued them.

  12. Athanasia, when I have a little mushrooms left over I saute them lightly in butter and freeze them. When I make pizza I thaw them out and use as a topping. Love buttered mushrooms on top!

  13. Linda, I am not a real mushroom fan, but I do have to cook before eating. I usually do only buy for a recipe. I don’t know about pizza, but I could cook them in butter and then freeze and we could put on top of hamburgers. Not sure whether to say this or not, since there are mushroom fanatics out there, but we actually have morrels going unpicked in our woods every year. Sometimes a family member will get out there to pick them but sometimes often not.

  14. Brandy we do have the HULU+. We started with the HULU but after the free trial of + we decided to keep it. Our TV is old and even with the converter box we only get 5 local channels and then not very well. Too many trees? Cant’t seem to angle the antenna the right direction? The HULU+ works for us. Oh and I don’t think I could wait for a week more to see CASTLE!!!

  15. Here in the humid south, it is very different from line drying where the air is dry. I haven’t done much line drying for twenty years. Our previous house had no good place for a dryer and I line dried all the time. Clothes dry soft and unwrinkled when it is windy. It is not always windy. By the time we moved to this house, I was sick of the line drying routine and thrilled to have a dryer. We don’t notice the cost of running it. A few extremely delicate items I hang in the laundry room to dry.At the other house, it seemed like dozens of times a day, I had to step into yard shoes at the door (to keep from tracking in wet grass) go to the clothes line, come back and change shoes at the door. If anyone in the neighborhood had a fire in the fireplace, I always thought the clothes smelled like bacon. I’m probably the only person in the world who thinks that; most people like the smell of line dried clothes.You had to watch to see that no one nearby was mowing a dusty area where a breeze could carry it to the laundry. Birds could eat berries, then poop on the laundry and you had to do it over.I’ve been there, done that, and don’t care to do it anymore unless it is necessary. I like doing laundry when it is convenient for me, not depending on dry weather or being finished by sundown, or hoping for wind.

  16. I Used to do the same thing as u do.. But now i have them park beside me where the hose can reach and not do the whole musical cars. Lol. I usually Take my daughters car and one other car then fill remaining into gas cans. Useful for lawn mowers, generator or jus to top off hubbys truck. Our max is 35 gal of gas pt savings. -Adriana

  17. I have fine thin short hair and I can use 1/2 the color to get really good coverage on my hair. Because I split the color and the base, I usually opt for the liquid color. I keep an old bottle and eyeball very carefully the mixture. Like you I find it quite easy to do at home and feel the savings is well worth it. If I find a good sale/ECB/Coupon deal at CVS I can color my hair twice for as little as $1.50 each time. I don’t think I’ve yet managed a FREE hair color. I am impressed! Glad that your dog is doing so well.

  18. I freeze in 8oz jelly jars as that is only way I use it. We have it 4-5 times a year on Angel hair pasta; I don’t use in other cooking. I try to make six jars minimum so I have at least 1-2 for presents. I toast the pine nuts before grinding…I don’t add the cheese until it is thawed, so I am adding fresh grated Romano at that time. I have heard that if you just use part of jar at time you should pour a layer of olive oil on top to block out air contact.

  19. It’s been a mix of frugal and not-so-frugal around here. Whoops! I’ll start with the good stuff.– The biggest thing I’m doing is a self-imposed spending freeze for clothes, shoes, and accessories until January 1st. I honestly don’t need anything else and I kept buying things because they’re a good deal. Now I can make new outfits with what I already have. I actually think it will be a lot of fun.– Cashed in some Swagbucks for two $5 Amazon gift cards and used them to buy stuff I need for upcoming holiday craft shows.– Cashed in travel points for a $25 Amazon gift card and a $100 gift card for Lowes. The Amazon card is going to my mom for her birthday, and we’ll use the Lowes money for new ceiling fans.– Stacked several coupons at JoAnn when I was buying fabric and interfacing, also for the craft shows.– Went out to eat with my in-laws and used a Groupon.– Trying out some new sewing projects that are small enough to make with scraps. So far I’ve done bookmarks and I want to try hand warmers next.– My husband cleaned out a closet off the kitchen (we live in a split-level so it’s actually in the “basement”) and now we have a spot to put anything we buy in bulk. We don’t really do this yet because of our bizarre storage situation in this house, but I’d like to try a few things.On the not-so-frugal side, we ate dinner out several times this week because we were both too busy to make it at night and we didn’t really plan ahead. I also know that our next trip to the grocery store will probably go over the $50 food budget I like to stay under because we’re out of meat AND fish at the same time. Whoops. Not great planning there, either!

  20. We had a frugal and not so frugal week… We were blessed to be able to purchase the lot behind our 2 lots, which now joins everything together. The owner worked with us on the down payment and was willing to break it up into smaller chunks without starting the interest on the note. We left closing, and my sweetie surprised me with a beautiful engagement ring!!! Frugal went out of the door, and we went and had mimosas to celebrate. I managed to drag frugal back into the doorlater yesterday afternoon. We are literally living in a construction zone right now.. Our bed is in the middle of what will eventually become a pantry and bathroom. Storage is a laughing matter in our cabin, because right now, I have things tucked into the studs, and rafters. We have a new puppy who somehow managed to jump up on the counter, and pull down a few things that I had set aside to wash. One of which included a top that had a black lace overlay. She shredded a few spots on the bottom of the top, and I was so upset that I threw it away. Once I thought about it a while, I realized that I had some burlap that I was planning to make a table runner with, and that I could salvage the black lace off of the top and use it to trim out the burlap. I pulled the top out, cut the lace off and realized tha tI could stitch the spots she had torn and use the top as a layering piece.

  21. Hey Mandy!I would love your deodrant recipe. I had a nasty allergic reaction last week, to the point of briefly losing all motor skills. It was a big scare to us. We have narrowed it down to either a new deodarant I tried, or butter beans that had been sprayed. Either way, I am trying to remove all none natural products from our household and diet.

  22. Kind of random, but I was wondering if one of your children is actually named Winter, or if that is a nickname for the blog? The reason I ask is that my baby is named Winter Rose. Her name is very meaningful to our family. Our children gave her the name. Winter Rose is an actual plant which blooms in the winter. She was born in the middle of a deep heavy winter. She has been such a gift and blessing to us. Anyhow, I love the name Winter!

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