We picked peaches from our Desert Gold peach tree. This is a low chill tree that is the second tree to ripen in my garden in the spring (the first is the Dorsett Gold Apple, which will ripen in another 6 weeks or so. My other peach tree, an Early Elberta, ripens in late July).

I also harvested Swiss chard, green onions, sugar snap peas, bolted lettuce and bolted cilantro from the garden.

I made a skirt for Wren using a small bit of green fabric from my grandmother’s stash that was just the right size, with thread from my grandmother, too.

I made minestrone soup, cranberry almond granola, museum pasta salad, stir fry, pasta salad, Asian-style dumplings with homemade wrappers (and Swiss chard instead of cabbage), bean burritos, peach salsa, Italian dressing, French Bread, biscuits, and wheat crackers.

I used pineapple juice from canned pineapple, whey, home-canned grape juice, and leftover syrup from canned peaches and pears to make popsicles.

My father-in-law gave us apricots from his tree. We ate several and then I made a batch of apricot-vanilla jam with them.

He also gave a book to my husband that my husband has been wanting for a long time (unbeknownst to my father-in-law!) My husband was delighted!

When we attended my sons’ Pinewood Derby this week, we brought stove-popped popcorn for refreshments to share. Popcorn is always well-received and is a super inexpensive snack to bring to a large group gathering.

I watched a show on Hulu for free.

I received a pickup truck load of good dirt from a friend who ripped out her raised garden beds to make room for her rv. I put it in the front yard where the lemon trees will be, and it filled most of the front bed in front of the wall. That will save me about $600 in dirt.

We bought no food or toiletries this week. I have not bought any this month.

What did you do to save money last week?

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25 Comments

  1. Sakura, I don’t know if you carry a balance or not, but if you do, you can also apply those rewards towards paying down your debt. We had to put hospital bills on a card, and we transferred our balance to Discover for 0% interest. I used the rewards to pay off our balance faster.

  2. Brandi, I just remember way back when my first daughter was a newborn, my husband would come home and I would be near tears and depressed because I felt like I had done nothing but feed and change the baby, important yes, but as we all know so much more needs to be done. He would look around our home and start ticking off the things he could see that I had done, and then laugh and say he wished his nothing was as full of accomplishments as mine.Fast forward to now, with 3 kids and homeschooling and I again I get to the end of the day and it is hard to not think of the things I wanted to do but didn’t, a list helps me see that indeed I did do things, and that the things I want to do won’t be forgotten just checked off on another day.At least that is how I feel when I take the time to make the list!

  3. I have been reading posts for quite some time but never left my list. I am not as good as saving as most of you wonderful ladies. So here goes. i made 10 freezer meals with food on hand. I made homemade crockpot bath soap that we all love. Laundry soap. I am working on needing to purchase less at the store every week. I have chickens so the eggs have been wonderful. That is about it for this week, hope to accomplish more as I get great ideas from Brandy and all of you1 Brandy-thank you so much for having this every week.

  4. Brandy, that is what we do, I apply the rewards towards paying down the account. We are trying to get debt free but we have had a few set backs like needing an airconditioner. I also found out you can apply your discover points towards amazon purchases.

  5. We didn’t use it for purchases, so I didn’t have rewards from that. We only used it for the hospital bill. Every 6 months they give a reward for paying on time that you can use as you want; I used it for paying off the bill. It’s all paid off now :)An air conditioner is not cheap; I understand that!

  6. That’s great to know. Luckily this is one card that’s paid off. And yes AC is expensive in Vegas, but you need it. I was out there last week and it was very warm and windy.

  7. This is my first time commenting. I am so inspired by your blog 🙂 My frugal accomplishments this week are – I made a batch of granola for breakfast. I sewed a small hole in my favourite cardiganI have crooked all of our meals from scratchI planted some wild flower seeds to brighten the garden up- we moved in to our first real home (military before) in January and it needs a lot of work. Hubby painted the front door and porch way. I cooked a chicken to last us for a few mealsSome girlfriends came round for a coffee and cake instea of going out for a coffeeI received a bedroom chair and ottoman free from free cycle I used a few coupons for my shopping – here in the uk coupons are not very popular I am trying to build a small stockpile. I don’t have a pantry and my kitchen is small. I got the ottoman to put extra canned goods in. It may sound silly but I have no where else for it to go. Can I ask do you repeat a lot of your recipes and do you meal plan. I am trying my hardest to be a better homemaker all of the time but sometimes I am just overwhelmed by how much work this house needs doing and I just procrastinate all of the time. Any advice on your homemaking would be greatly received. Thank you for your weekly frugal posts I enjoy them so much.

  8. You are such an encouragement to me. I made your bagels 2 weeks ago and LOVED them. I’m learning a lot from you. I love your posts of what you did frugal. It makes me look at being frugal as a challenge instead of being deprived…instead of viewing something that feels “poor” it’s more of an accomplishment.THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!

  9. Brandy, I thought about your apricot jam this past weekend when I saw apricots at our Co-op! I want to wait until the price goes down a bit more before I get any.This week:-we used a $10 off coupon to get a discount on an oil change.-we had to purchase a new washer/dryer a few weeks ago. We took advantage of a 12 month interest free offer to get a more efficient set, but the interest free period was wrong on the bill. My husband called, and they offered to give us an 18 month interest free period to make up for the error.-our city’s cable company changed ownership. We were using DSL and called to see if the cable company could give us a deal. We got a faster connection for $5 less per month.-accepted three tomato plants from a neighbor who had too many for his garden.

  10. Make sure that if he doesn’t give you a blackberry that you get the bb service charge off your phone bill. Its something like $20 a month here! Just a thought, but awesome that he can gift you a”new” mobile!

  11. Shannon, I agree, a list helps us see what we accomplished. So long as we keep our sights on that positive side of the list, they are great.Brandy, I miss your list as well, but can understand how it could feel, for lack of better words…pointless? Or frustrating? No pressure to add it back, but thought if add I loved reading and being inspired by them as well.

  12. I don’t have a list. I can’t think that through right now as a dear friend is in very bad shape in ICU. I have a tip for you all to consider. About a month ago the 25 year old refrigerator in our garage died. We found a man through Craigslist to haul it away for free. Our utility bill was EIGHTY DOLLARS LESS!!! I wish I had known a long time ago what an energy hog that thing was. We have decided that one refrigerator will do if we think through our purchases at the store. We used to know a man who worked in research at GE. He replaced their refrigerator every 5 years because he said it would pay for itself in energy savings. I thought he was nuts but I guess he was right. Our inside one is 15 years old. All of the savings from getting rid of the old one are being saved for a new one for inside as I am sure it is nearly as bad.

  13. I think using the ottoman is a fantastic idea! I love it!I know a family in France who used a little spot in the wall in the hall in front of their apartment. There wasn’t much room anywhere else.I have 4 1/2 months of menus on my site, so I use those when deciding what to make, but I also have to watch to see what is ripe in my garden, so my meals revolve around that. Also, my day often goes much differently than I planned, so I have learned to be flexible.

  14. After our car insurance provider raised our rates again based on nothing but “cost increases” we decided to switch. Our new car insurance saves us $16 per month based on what we would have paid with the increase, and saves us $8 per month on what we had been paying.Got three new-to-me shirts from a friend who was giving them away.Started working a part-time second job. I make sure to bring plenty of food with me if I have to go to this job after my first job so that I don’t have to eat out anywhere.My mom lent me some books to read.Sold a few old books back to a used book store.Got a free cup of yogurt with a coupon.

  15. I haven’t posted in a while, and last week shaped up to be more frugal than this week has so far. Last week, I- was better about meal planning/deliberately using up leftovers. a) Turned some lunchmeat that needed to be used up into filling for turkey and cheese crescents with a can of crescent rolls that was in the fridge. b) used blueberries (that had been in the freezer from a previous summer) that hadn’t been used up in a recent blueberry pancakes meal, to make blueberry muffins c) used some of sauerkraut that had been sitting in partially used jars in fridge to make German casserole (pork sausage — from our freezer, sauerkraut, apples and onions are the basic ingredients) d) used cream cheese that had been purchased on an earlier sale and in our freezer to make the cheesy enchiladas that someone else posted in these comments a while back (sorry, I don’t have access to the recipe right now — I did write down who it was but can’t remember off the top of my head!)- also used things on hand for food for end of the school-year celebrations and other events a) brought strawberries and raspberries in the freezer from last summer as ice cream toppings for end of the year church youth choir party b) used rhubarb from freezer and other ingredients on hand to make rhubarb coffee cake for potluck at final Girl Scout troop leader meeting of the school year c) used strawberries from the freezer and Jell-O and sour cream that were on hand to make strawberry Jello salad for a church funeral luncheon Also, acquired a free banana from quarterly meeting snacks at work (kid ate it); used graham cracker snacks passed out at church celebration for lunchbox snacks; and fed child on Sunday by delivering her to a classmate’s birthday party after church. 🙂 She found a free kid’s book in husband’s Cheerios box; I registered her for before-school childcare for next school year during the timeframe when the registration is free (even if we need to change our timeslots later); and we found free downloadable printable invitations for her upcoming birthday party. Earned $33 from this spring’s consignment sale. Read free Kindle and library books, and watched a code for a free Redbox DVD rental for the family (“To the Arctic”). The 6-year-old and I also harvested dandelions, and made dandelion fritters, before I mowed (with a reel mower — no gas expense required).

  16. This was a progressive frugal week….we have been having a lot of rain, so though I have very intention of setting more pallets beds up for us I will be forced to plan some more and wait it out…planned to plant stwo types of pumpkin,squash and peppers…as well as some herbs, can never be enough…We harvested our first harvest of butterhead lettuce before we had a 30 degree jump in temp with a heat wave which wilted most of it out, that I will have to compost it and start over in August. I am hard at work trying to get rid of the slugs which seem to be plentiful this year. Open to tips to getting rid of them.Made liquid hand soap and leave in conditioner which makes me wonder why I did not do this earlier.i also made laundry detergent….My plan to get some money from amazon for some old DVDs flopped…they did not want many of my DVDs so will have to find another outlet to get some cash for them…Got a free face wash from Olay as well as a coupon for some free Pepsi next which I will be using for the potluck memorial BBQ. Perfect timing as we stopped buying soda a long time ago except for occasions where we do not spend out of pocket.I just wanted to make a note here that may affect your family as per gifting for kids.i always. Am on a look for cheap board games or fantastic deals on kids stuff but on occasion I run out on tween gifts.in the past we used to always give twenty- five gift cards which we did get from our points awarded on our credit cards but these days even that is ridiculously “exorbitant” for a lot of reasons. These days I prefer picking up practical themes from the dollar sections as it becomes appropriate for kids who have everything. The parties we attend, the parents never say ” no gifts or state charity causes…it’s tiresome financially…also my family has adopted the idea of milestone big parties such as 5 th, 10 th birthdays to be celebrated with friends and all other years of the kids to be personal family celebrations….so my 4 y.o so far has had only one big celeb so far and for other years in between has been trips o amusement parks, zoo,museum and even just chuck e cheese…wonder if other parents have felt the pressure…BlessingsSheeba

  17. Thanks, Brandy! I will look into that, though I have been able to find many free tutorials right on the internet. As an added bonus, I earned a lot of Swag Bucks searching for tutorials! 🙂

  18. My husband and I also bought a home that needs LOTS of work. Just takd one room or project at a time. It helps the overwhelmed feelings. At least a little. Good luck!

  19. We got rid of our 15 year old refridgerator and we were delighted. Though for us the main savings was that our food was not getting frozen and destroyed.

  20. I agree with the popcorn comment – I always send popcorn to school when the kids’ teachers request a snack. When we have friends over, it’s always popcorn. Cheap, healthy, delicious. Yay!

  21. Hello, I have just put your blog on my Blog List, Your Blog is very rich and filled with wisdom and warmth. You are an inspiration to the homemakers of America!! God has blessed you and you are providing wisdom to so many! My children are grown and we are not hurting for anything. Our cost of living has gone down just because we do not consume as much and most things we own. I love it all and I want to share with those who visit my blog.Blessings, Roxy

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