I often get asked where I find pretty items, such as glass bowls, that I use in my photos. Most of my bowls have come from my grandmother, who picked them up at garage sales.
I went with my mom to the twice-a-year community garage sale near us on Saturday. I found several great things, including two small glass bowls that exactly matched one that I had from my grandmother. They were $0.25 each.
I purchased 3 blouses for myself at $1 each (two of them are linen blouses). I found a corkboard in exactly the long shape I wanted for $2. I hung the chore assignments on this board. I found some tools for Ezrom (.25 each!) and a toolbox ($3; I am planning to repaint it) that will be gifts for him for Christmas. I purchased some books for the children. Two of those will be Christmas gifts. I purchased a brand-new-looking backpack for $0.50. I found a 1000 piece puzzle for my grandma for Christmas for $1, and a 1500 piece one for Cyrus for $3.
I also got some things for free, including a book, two picture frames, and a bracelet that needs to be restrung with elastic. The bracelet will be a gift for Winter.
I cut zinnias from the garden to put on my table.
I hand-pollinated 3 zucchini in the garden in the front yard. The plants I planted in the backyard still have not put forth any female flowers.
I cut basil and Swiss chard from the garden.
My husband cut my hair for me.
I made 5 pies last week, including pumpkin, lemon meringue, and pecan. We had my parents over for dinner and pie one night.
What did you do to save money last week?
We had many frugal accomplishments for the week:1. My dad helped my husband repair the broken door handle on my husband’s car. The repair quote was 4 hours of labor at $89/hour, plus the part would have been marked up. 2. Also on my husband’s car, the battery went bad, but it was covered by the warranty, and my husband replaced it with no out-of-pocket cost. It has been beneficial for us to pay a little more for a battery with a longer warranty, as we have had several over the years that died.3. We went to a nursery that had free pumpkins for the kids. They were giving away pie pumpkins for the kids to decorate, so after Halloween, I will cook the ones my children received.4. I found some good deals on Christmas gifts and kids clothes and shoes at garage sales on Saturday. 5. I price-matched ads at Walmart for the Mexican grocery stores and Aldi. The produce is much better at our Walmart.6. I made jelly from wild plums my mom saved for me. I never got around to it when they were ripe, so they’ve been stored in the freezer for a while. 7. Kept the A/C off until it got too hot in the house.8. Continued to use cloth diapers and hang them out to dry.9. Used coupons to get some free items at the drugstores.10. Started divided our monthly grocery money in half, saving half of it until after the 15th of the month. We need to get away from festing at the beginning of the month only to eat from the pantry at the end of the month, based on my bad shopping/budgeting habits.11. Packed up outgrown kid summer clothes to loan to a cousin.12. Enjoyed some leftovers my mom shared that she brought home from my sister’s house.
Awesome! Thank you Marivene!
Not sure if my comment posted already regarding the bowls… But I have the same bowl, except it’s a large one. Bought it on clearance at Kmart years ago for $2 or $3. Love it, it’s a favorite serving bowl.I’ve been procrastinating. But will make low-sugar jelly tomorrow since I don’t have to work. I’ll be using the quart of juice from my dad’s grapes from the freezer from last summer.I bought my husband a civil war book from a school book sale for about a third of the retail price. I also ordered several chunky notepads with pens for about the same discount to be used as Christmas gifts. Money spent, of course, but for usable gifts and at fantastic prices.I’m hoping to remember to keep the cardboard roll from a roll of paper towels I have so I can make at least one or two more small gifts. Saw them in the most recent issue of Redbook. You cut off about 2″ sections, fill with potpourri or herbs, staple shut – sachets! Not sure yet as to how I want to decorate them, but will make them prettier than just plain cardboard.I’ve been trying to use apples from our trees and have not bought nearly as many from the store as I had been. Yay! My dad’s made dried apple slices, my mother’s done a batch of applesauce for the freezer. I still intend to pick the rest tomorrow or Friday to make jarred applesauce. The bluejays are moving in so there’s no time to wait for a good freeze to sweeten them up more. (I’ve tried them, they’re good already.)
Thank you for the Zinnia help! I’ll be patient. That’s so interesting about the zucchini being hard. I had no idea the sun would do that to them! It makes me grateful for my harvest and our ease of growing them. I hope yours that you fertilized do well for you and that you’ve found a good planting time!
Your table decor looks especially nice against the dark wood. Did you grow the white mini pumpkins?We are all moved into the new house. Last week with help from 2 of the girls, Eliana’s mother in law and 1 sister in law, 2 of my aunts, my mother, a friend from work and 1 of my sister in law we cleaned the old house top to bottom. Her husband and father in law did some painting,,,entries, stairwells, kitchen. Now the move in is Friday/Saturday for them. A good number of male relatives and friends lined up for that. We will have food and beverages for the helpers. Continued to add mulched leaves to garden beds. Warm and dry the last couple weeks so onions are cured and ready to be braided. Will hang most in basement, just not in root cellar. Root cellar is ready. Pumpkins, gourds and squash all harvested and beds cleared out. Had our first real frost Sun night/Mon am…right on schedule. Sunflower heads dried so harvested seed and filled 4 5qt ice cream pails. Put the heater into the bird bath. Burned the veg garden debris…we do not put end of the year clean out into the compost piles to prevent any possible disease transfer. Decorated inside with gourds and mini pumpkins. Bought 2 new fall garlands at the Shopko , orig 19.99 ea, on sale 9.99 each. Got both for 9.99+tax as had a 10.00 off coupon issued when reach 10 RXs. Decorated outside with JOL pumpkins , though we do not carve them. Also bundled up some cornstalks. All our extra pumpkins and gourds are sold at the family farm stand. My youngest handles that. She also sells bags of zinnia seeds. Do not do Trick of Treat so no money spent on candy for that, or costumes etc.Borrowed dehydrator again and dried apple rings. Have 5 quart jars full, older son especially likes them so will give him a couple jars. I may have to buy a dehydrator soon. The last of our apples are picked and in storage. Using up tomatoes as they ripen, just in cooking. Put the canning supplies away. Cooked up 4 pie pumpkins, toasted the seeds, pureed the pulp and froze. Washed and froze cranberries in quart and pint freezer bags. Will try dehydrating some. Cooked all from scratch. Made spaghetti carbonara (without bacon), pizza, 2 loaves white bread, 2 loaves cranberry bread, vegetable fried rice (served with plum sauce), toasted pumpkin seeds, cranberry orange scones, pumpkin pudding. Was gifted a bread bag full of rhubarb stalks. I have never picked rhubarb this late in year myself. But made a 2 crust pie and a 1 crust custard pie with it. Made an apple pie and gave to husband of a friend for fixing my shredder. Made fried green tomatoes.Mended another sheet, more underwear, went through the mittens box and darned thin spots etc. Got out the warmer quilts and aired them last week. House temp inside about 65 now. Will need to use furnace soon as too cold for my arthritis. But we seldom use air in summer so OK with me. Did no grocery shopping except again 2 gal of milk for 2.50each deal and bunch of celery. Bought 3 doz eggs from the farm. Bought 5 lb bag of cranberries for 5.00. Bought another 100 pounds of potatoes. Bought 3 cases of Pepsi products, 3 for 11.97 and used 3 50cent off coupons, each doubled. (Soda for the weekend work project).Bought 2 long sleeve robes of brand and style I always buy at the JCPenney. Knit material, snap front. Do not like wrap. Originally 34.99 on sale for 24.99. But they rang up at 19.99 each. My last robe was full of holes so worn out could no longer mend it. Gas down to 3.37/gal so bought a full tank, drive more when school on. Had to drive Saturday to a Church Library Assoc conference, carpooled with 2 other ladies from other churches in town who chipped in for gas. Lunch and snacks provided for 7.00. Fun day, got to see another church’s library and get ideas from lots of other librarians. My library actually serves the K-8 school and the church, so is a bit different.
I cut my husband’s hairFound all grammar work for free online or through college daughter’s text.Made yogurt a couple of times. I’ve been able to use from the batch before each time instead of buying a new starter. Strained it for a cream cheese type product to put in a dessert I made. Used the whey for waffles.Went through one daughter’s clothing so far, along with hand me downs. No need to buy anything but church shoes. (nothing held up well enough to hand down there)Sugar was on one of the best sales I’ve seen so I stocked up.My oldest helped pull my iris so it can be distributed to new beds in the yard rather than buy new plants.My husband replaced our van battery that was still on warranty, so the cost was half. Also found out the trouble with his car through the internet and fixed it himself.Also found the trouble with our old game system and fixed that as well.Soaked beans for use in meals. Made bread.Bought material on 40% discount for the dress for my daughter I am making.
I ended up buying the mini white pumpkins. I planted some months ago but they are just now starting to make female flowers. It’s been too hot for them before this. I don’t know if the two that flowered today will grow much; I hand pollinated them and if they take they might be a little something in a month but they take more days than that. I plan on trying again next year.
All my mini pumpkins are orange. We save seed and grow each year. But I ended up with a bunch of albino gourds from seeds of gourds that used to be orange and green…the orange half is almost white and the green end is a pale pale green. We also have the normal colored ones. Must have been a mutant seed in one of last year’s gourds.
Bought paint with a discount code and now painting, and painting and painting. I know the end results will be well worth it, but I am on room 5 in 3 days and I am getting crabby. ( G-r-r-r-r popcorn ceilings) I keep telling myself the savings will more than offset the cost of the extra Ben Gay.
I made my oldest some new pj pants this week, also finished her some cotton house shoes, debating on putting soles on them for her to wear outside. I have dress shoes cut out for middle daughter made her a pair of leather soled shoes, she is using them for dance class, I wanted to make “practice” shoes using scraps to make sure I get the fit right before cutting into nicer fabrics. I only made one pair that won’t fit anyone in our house. I have also have a pair cut out for my youngest daughter and trying to decide on a scrap fabric for me.Will use the scrap long pieces of flannel left from oldest daughter’s pj’s to make new bottoms for youngest, not all of the pj’s survived the two oldest girls, so need new one’s for youngest.Have started sorting patterns and fabric to make Christmas gifts,Cut out and sewed two felt “paper” dolls for youngest using your post from last Christmas as inspiration, still need to make clothes and felt doll house.Will hopefully blog about Christmas gifts soon.I did blog about doing the math on canning this year, I now have a price point that I will buy fruit at, experience and jars. at http://www.sillygeesedesigns.blogspot.com/2013/10/frugal-challenge-is-canning-really.html
Good find on the bathrobes. I also only want the kind that close in the front as well because then I can do things while I am wearing it and still stay warm and covered. Right now mine zips up the front. My husband found it a few years ago and bought it for Christmas, and I probably don’t want to know what it cost, because they are so hard to find. He knew how much I preferred this kind, though. So, I’m glad you could get 2!!!
Becky , I know! I have nightgowns as my children found me 2 new ones last year but the robes were gone. So that is why I have continued with my threadbare robe for another year. It has gone into the garbage…it was not even salvageable as rags, it was so bad. I prefer 3/4 length sleeves and these are long so I rolled them twice and then tacked them up over the elbow area. Gives little extra cushioning to the elbows and keeps the sleeves out of the way. I had a front zipper robe once, it is so hard to find robes that are not wrap, in my experience.
10 made me smile. I thought I was the only one who did that. 😉
When I first started making bread I had a similar problem. All my loaves were rather flat and never rose above the rim of the tin. The yeast was bubbly, so that wasn’t the issue. Come to find out I was using 1.5 lb. loaf tins with a 1lb. Bread recipe. I changed out my tins and now I get beautiful loaves every time. Just something to think about. Happy Baking!
My what a week you’ve had. I ought to begin my thrifty week posts again. They were some of my most popular ones.Blessings,LauraHarvest Lane Cottage
I can’t remember a lot from last week. I need to write them down . Here are some things I remember. Hang good clothes to dry instead of drying completely.It cooled down significantly due to the Tropical Storm, so we turned a/c off for 3 days.I’ve been unplugging computers and printers at night time. We did our landscaping instead of paying for the service. We bought a house back in Feb the previous owners didn’t do anything to shrubs, trees, or mulch the previous year. We didn’t have time this year. The pros wanted $700 just for the front and back around the house! We have all the equipment and the city picks up the waste. I couldn’t justify paying for it. Around the circular drive (they wanted close to $300), there’s a large mulched area. We took all the old MOUNDED up mulch out, trimmed shrubs and trees, and added new mulch for the grand total of $50. It took us 4 days just to do that area. We still have the front that is up and around house and back to do. Hopefully, in the next coming weeks we can finish all of it. Digging the old mulch out was the tedious of the work and the longest. Our immediate 2 neighbors both came out to tell us what a good looking job we are doing :)I’m looking for a good bread machine. Hopefully, some of your readers can chime in on a good machine. I don’t need all the bells and whistles. A good brand, decent price, has a dough setting, and makes the bread is all I need.
We all (the females)have long hair. I only wash mine every four to five days in the winter, more often in summer. Otherwise just too dry and why wash to take all natural oil out and then pay for conditioner to put fake oil back in. I don’t have bangs and I wear it up in a bun. I think that keeps it cleaner.
Katie I looked over your blog. The yellow rice recipe looks good and I will try that. What rice mix though are you copying from the store, just interested.
Another thing that can affect bread rising is if you are using old flour. When my stored flour gets to be about 5 years old (in Utah), it has trouble raising.
MJ , how long are those Wendy’s coupons good for? Is there an expiration date?
I love those glass bowls. I really would like a set of nice glassware.I didn’t get a frugal post up but I got a post about grocery budgeting posted.http://themoxleyfamily.blogspot.com/2013/10/grocery-budgeting.html
There has only been one time that I had a problem with making bread and that was due to the yeast being expired! Imagine that ~ lol. Since then no problems because I always make sure of the expiration date prior to purchasing. I also store all my yeast in the freezer. Keep trying it will happen and you will be so hooked:)
The Wendy’s coupons are good until February 2014. I stuck my thermometer in to check the water temp in my bread baking but realized my gauge starts at 130 i saw it nearing that but i didn’t realize that if the water was over 110 it could be a problem…i just thought it had to be at least 110 and that it didn’t matter if it was over. I will try again…thanks for the tips everyone!!!
You’re definitely killing the yeast, then! My candy thermometer starts much lower. It sounds like a new thermometer is in order 🙂
Just a quick comment as you must be busy getting ready for the garden tour…I remembered to use your link to CBD when I ordered 10 DVDs and 1 book last week for the library …can’t guarantee I will always remember , but I will try. Hope you all have a lovely day tomorrow for the tour with a great bunch of folks in attendance.