We enjoyed some rain on Monday. I collected 20 gallons of water from the roof and used it to water plants. The children enjoyed floating a few corks (it wasn’t deep enough for their cork boats, so they took them apart and floated individual corks; I found the corks a few years back at a garage sale).
We enjoyed a beautiful rainbow and a wonderful sunset.
My husband was able to watch a football game online for free on ESPN3. He was thrilled!
I downloaded 10 free worksheets from Education.com (the limit for the month).
I printed a model project for school that I downloaded for free several years ago (a $10 off $10 deal while they were having the e-books on sale for $1 each; Scholastic regularly has these on sale for $1 each) for school. Ezrom made the model above from this book.
We showed Grandpa what Ezrom was learning about the Pueblo Indians, and since my parents had recently been to see the real thing, my dad came over to show the children some photographs they had taken there, and to teach a lesson about the people.
I was able to glean pears. I made a batch of pear butter.
There is a picture that my husband has liked for a long time. I ordered a poster of the image from All Posters.com. I went through Ebates first for 12% cash back, plus a 30% off coupon code. I paid for the whole thing with money I made through taking Pinecone Research surveys.
I canned 17 pints of dill pickles with the cucumbers from our garden.
We celebrated Liberty’s birthday this week. I hung the banner that I had made for Cyrus’ birthday. I made her a necklace, and also gifted her one of my old necklaces. I also made her some bookmarks. Her other gifts were much more than we usually spend for birthdays, but something she had long looked forward to: she got her ears pierced and she received her own set of scriptures. For dessert, I made brownies from scratch (I’ll be making some adjustments and testing these several more times, and then they’ll be up on the website!) and topped them with small white chocolate frogs. I didn’t get any pictures, though! We had a great time and had her grandparents over for lunch and the party.
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| Blouse: free from clothing exchange. Sweater: purchased this week at a garage sale for .25. Skirt: gift from youth leader, from the thrift store. |
Winter did a service project with her church youth group at the thrift store where one of her leaders works. Afterwards the leader bought each of the girls one thing from the thrift store. Winter came home with a beautiful skirt.
I went to a three garage sales on Saturday morning, all very close together. I found several books and articles of clothing, for which I paid .25 each. I found a sweater for $2. I found a length of fringe for $2, two picture frames for .50 each, and a beautiful, amazing queen’s dress for $2, that my girls loved at first sight; it fits my 6-year-old perfectly. I also bought a dresser and a mirror.
Earlier in the week I found two brand-new matching dust ruffles for $5 on a Facebook garage sale site. These will go in the same girls’ room after I am done ironing them.
I set a few of the books aside as Christmas gifts for Ezrom and the sweaters as birthday gifts for Winter.
What did you do to save money last week?
We live in Indiana, too, and have a heat pump and electric furnace. We have a programmable thermostat set at 64 at night, 68 when we are away and 70 when we are at home. We had an energy audit a few years ago and found out that it costs more to get the temps up to 70 if we keep it at 64 (which we did) when we are away. They showed us a graph of our usage and how much more it cost to bring temps up 6* during peak time as opposed to keeping it at 68 then bringing it up to 70.
Dear Anna, I will join in praying for you, your sick daughter and the rest of your family as you go through this difficult time and the surgery. Your “Words of Wisdom” are a blessing. I trust and pray that God with give you the calm and strength you need. Sending love and hugs, too!
Marivene, your turkey rice casserole sounds delicious. Didn’t you use to make a casserole with summer squash? I can’t remember the details. A coworker brought in a bag of small yellow summer squashes and I have 5 of them, also some small zucchini at home.
Anna,sending prayers for your daughter and her upcoming surgery.. I pray God be with her and each of you. Hugs.
Dear Anna,You are such an inspiration . I will continue to pray for you and your family. I pray for Gods peace that passes all understanding. I am praying for healing for your daughter. Blessings,Patti
Yes, I did. I sautéed the slices of yellow summer squash with sliced green onion, then layered them in a casserole dish with shredded cheese. Swiss, cheddar, pepper jack and mozzarella are all good. The casserole will hold in an oven if need be, and you can brown the top if you want, but since the squash and onion are already sautéed, you don’t have to if you don’t want to. It is a pretty forgiving meal.
Brandy, I am totally enjoying your blog/ web sight.. Thank you so much for all the information that you and the readers share. I have learned so much. Winter looks so pretty in her new skirt /outfit. And her pretty ear rings.Also, loved the photos of the kids playing in the rain.. How fun. My fugal accomplishments this week are:1-Had electricity cut off at one of hubby’s out buildings.. [he rarely used it, and agreed to have it cut off]. This will save us $20 month.2-Bought Broadcloth at Hancock Fabric for $1.08 yd . I got enough for gowns for granddaughters. I sew some for ebay, so needed it for those sales also.. Great bargain since it is normally $2.99 yd.3-Made 5 pints of grape jelly [from the grapes that I picked last week]4-Made blueberry scones, blueberry muffins, and an apple pie.5-Hung all clothes out to dry… 6-Cooked all meals.- no eating out7-Cut the AC off a couple days.. [we had a cool spell…so nice]8-Ate from the pantry/freezer.. No grocery shopping.9- Picked mustard/turnip greens from garden.. Cooked some for supper, and put one bowl in the freezer.I will be grocery shopping next week.. [I normally buy once a month and stock what is getting low]My husband’s retirement will be changing this next month.. And our income will be decreasing a considerable amount.. So, I will be making more changes to our lives/budget]
Miss Frugal I visited your nice blog. Tried to leave a comment, but could not figure out how or where to click to do that. 🙁
My husband was so happy when My cellphone took a dive into te toilet. He had been trying to get me to upgrade for ages. So that meant HE got the latest iphone, and I upgraded to his old phone. Ha!
Sending prayers your way today. Believing for perfect protection and healing for Your daughter.
Anna, I will be praying for you and your daughter. May the Lord continue to give you strength in you time of worry.Cheryl
When my 3 boys were little I’d often go through all the names while calling for one and usually the one would say ” You mean which ever one we are, Mom?” Still laugh.
It doesn’t always work but sometimes if you put a drowned cell phone in a bowl of rice overnight, you can bring it back to life.
Oh My! If I only lived 1 block from library I would go every day. Our library is 15 miles away (I live on a farm in rural MS) and I go to library every time I go to or through town. I would think I was in heaven one block away, one block from us in every direction is nothing but corn, soybeans or cotton or the equipment needed to farm.
Anna, I will be sending my prayers to God for your daughter, you and all your family. May The Lord be with you all the time and give you strength and confidence in His love.
For my daughter who really had a run of bad luck with phones (one in toilet at zoo, stepped on a straight pin and dropped phone and broke the screen, etc), we were able to buy used phones on eBay with great success and for a lot less.
I am praying for your daughter and your family that all will go well tomorrow, that she will experience healing and the you all will have peace.
Dear Anna,I am praying for you, your daughter and your family today.Heidi
Marivene, I made one dish of it for last night dinner. Since you suggested pepper jack I went with a Mexican theme and added diced poblano peppers with the onions and used the spicy cheese and served with leftover rice and beans. It was well received and eaten up.
Congratulations on your driveway…I wish we had a real one. We have a large apron in front of the garage but the actual drive is gravel. At least it is not mud. All the roads on the property are gravel. Concrete would be nice but totally unaffordable.
Thank you for the suggestions! I’ve started pricing out ‘christmas palms’ their formal name is andondia, they’re very popular and dont get too large, 10 to 15 feet (the spot is near the house). I’m considering selling my house in the next year to property ladder a bit, so I want the house to be appealing to the most buyers and still economical upgrades for me. I found these for 150 at the Home Depot.
Lol over thermostat wars. Here it’s when we will turn heater on for the first time each season, usually towards end of October I start getting cold, husband wants to put off until November…We generally cave and agree in the last week of October, lol, if it’s a normal year.
I love my Friday evening time for checking in here. It’s getting late and I’m going off to bed, but wanted to share my link: http://bluehousejournal.blogspot.com/2014/09/my-frugal-week-living-well-september-13.html Brandy I love the photo of the children playing in the rain. Not rare here but I remember a week of rain when my Grandmother turned all seven of us grandchildren out of house to play in the mud one day. I suppose the laundry and showers seemed a small price for the peace and quiet of two hours to herself, lol.
Anna, please let us know how your daughter’s surgery went! Praying you guys are ok!
Hello ladies!This wk:-i was able to buy 2 bracelets for my daughters christmas gifts. -cooked at home all wk but one breakfast for my daughter & myself at mcds, free coffee til sept 29. And its pretty good. :)-we got breakfast on our way to get my car tires rotated and car washed for free since i bot it there. Service wouldve cost me $55. -i signed up for the smithonian museum day. My oldest and i wil be going to gardens in RI. -my oldest brought home 3 pears and coffee from a work mtg. -i signed up for 2 classes at church. One based on the book, Boundaries and the other is Dave Ramseys class, FPU ( hubby &i are taking it together!) both are free but have to drive 30 mins to church but thats okay. – saved $2.20 per gal on gas. Putting in the max of 35 gal came to $50. I spent $25 to save that much so total of $75. Still pretty darn good as gas is $3.63. -my neighbor asked us to get her mail again, as a thank u she made us chocolate cake and bot us a beautiful mum. -started to make a list of items we will need to buy such as new fitted sheet, new paper shredder…-continue to reduce our soda drinking. I dont buy the 12 pks anymore. If i want one, i have to go to the gas station. -stocked up on tp, bot green beans and corn on case lot sale and kidney beans. Have a great wkend!!-Adriana