I cut zinnias, iceberg roses, and rose hips from my garden.

I gave all 5 girls haircuts this week. Everyone but Winter asked me to bob their hair, so it seems 4 out of 5 girls prefer bobbed hair.

I used a coupon code to order twenty-five 4 x 6 prints for free at Walgreen’s. I used this to order pictures of the children that I will give to my grandmothers and a great-aunt.

I began planting my fall garden. I planted lettuce, arugula, spinach, Swiss chard, and radish seeds.

I hand-pollinated three female zucchini plants. I am very excited to see them start to produce female flowers.

I made chocolate wafer cookies, crepes, spaghetti sauce, Greek yogurt, pizza, blueberry muffins, eight loaves of French bread, ham sandwiches, popcorn, and oatmeal.

I cut green onions from the garden. We continude to eat apples from the garden that I picked in August and July (I’ve been keeping them in the refrigerator).

A reader who has been giving us things from her pantry as she prepares to move gave us a few more items, including a book that I have been wanting to read for several months. No one but God knew that I wanted to read this book. I feel very blessed.

I purchased 20 dozen eggs at $0.85 a dozen and over 15 pounds of bananas at .39 a pound. I gave one dozen eggs and 2 bananas to my mom. The bananas will be quickly eaten and I will try to make the eggs last a couple of months by carefully using them. Because there are 9 of us, I could go through them in less than 2 weeks if we were to eat eggs for breakfast every day. By being conservative with my use of eggs, they will last longer.

I used a $5 off coupon from the local nursery towards my purchase of bone meal and manure for my garden.

I watched a few shows for free on Hulu.

Thanks to cooler weather, I turned off the air conditioner for the rest of the year!

What did you do to save money last week? How is your fall garden growing? (Or spring garden, for those of you south of the equator!)

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25 Comments

  1. my mom used a good knife and cut the frozen packages of bacon in half or thirds…(3rds as she got older and the food more expensive) so all the halves were in a large freezer bag..and she could pull out enough for a few sandwhiches. or meals

  2. Potatoes should be cooked before freezing or they will turn black in the freezer.I slice the bell peppers and put them on a silicone baking sheet on top of a cookie sheet. Then I put the whole thing in the freezer. When they are frozen, I take them out and pull the peppers off the silicone mat, and transfer them to a Ziploc freezer bag. By doing it that way, I can take out a little or a lot without having them all frozen in one big lump. I use them in stir fries and in fajitas. If you use yours chopped smaller than that (say, for sticking in diced potatoes) then I would chop them smaller before freezing and just spread them out on the silicone mat.The monogrammed diaper bag—I remember having another beautiful diaper bag being the big deal when I had my first. I had a diaper bag, and it worked, and I really didn’t need the other very expensive one that people suddenly started carrying, but they were pretty. Funny, but now I don’t usually carry a diaper bag. I carry everything in a little purse and I keep diapers and wipes in the car. My purse is from a free clothing exchange in which I participated, so it didn’t even cost me anything.

  3. I use the Martha Stewart bath fizzles recipe. I use a regular plastic ice tray and pop the fizzies out (very gently!) after about 15 minutes and then let them dry overnight on parchment paper. The other trick is that when you mist, only spritz a few squirts at a time and knew and it in with your hands. It will become mold-able much more quickly than you might think! I will say that we didn’t use much food coloring, so the bath water doesn’t turn colors, but the orange essential oil smells really nice.http://www.marthastewart.com/271871/bath-fizzies

  4. Not accomplishing much, but I am shopping as little as possible (mostly fruit/veggies) and trying to use mostly from pantry for meals.Making breads that we eat.Still using some from the garden. Had a slight freeze so we don’t have much longer on the tomatoes. I got only 3 pumpkins, but they will help to decorate for the month and a baptism and then hopefully we can eat them.I have been worried about my pasta supply. Today I found our local grocer had pasta 50 cents/lb. I bought 210 pounds. I was so thrilled to see this price! I hope it lasts me a year. I use about 2 lbs per meal. With rice at a similar price, I am considering purchasing more pasta for more variety.

  5. With my first I didn’t carry a diaper bag. The infant carrier car seat had a little compartment in the back where I put wipes, a couple of diapers, a onesie, and a teether. I carried a blanket over the car seat when I went out. This was before I ‘knew’ I was suppose to carry multiple outfits, 3 days of full meals, and our entire toy stash in a diaper bag that other mothers would drool over. lolAnd you are right, that parent pressure can be down right intimidating. I have found that most of the things I was pressured to do as a young mother were more for the benefit of someone’s business or private judgement than it ever was for the benefit of me and my child.

  6. I have a non-soup eating husband too. I LOVE soup.. I would eat it for two meals a day if I could. It’s kinda of a perfect delivery method for food. I have asked him to fix “his” chili recipe and it’s on the menu plan for this coming two weeks. I have figured out how much he likes black beans though… he will make himself a meal from black beans with cut up chicken in it. He loves that… so I remembered to put Liquid Smoke on the grocery list and I am going to make Brandy’s black bean burgers… I think it will be a winner for him. I do sometimes make soup for my daughter and I and then I leave him to fend for himself since he won’t eat soup. He has tried a potato soup I made once and a cream of broccoli one…. his Mom made lots of soup (and according to him, she was not good at making soup). I try to give him grace on this subject because he will eat fish and seafood and I am not a fan of it.

  7. Peer pressure is hard. Everyone here enrolls their children in lots of classes (which are really expensive). I had Maddie take swimming through our local Parks & Rec program and she did great. I have not signed her up for lots of dance or cheerleading or even sports. I’ve asked her and she does not want to take those classes even though lots of her friends do. She told me that she’ll let me know if she wants to take something. She likes short one-time classes at our local zoo where she gets up close sessions with the animals. They are very affordable, so we are sticking with those for now. At 6 years old, she insists that she wants to be a zookeeper or veterinarian someday. So much pressure to sign up for all those classes, but I resist for many reasons.

  8. No, but I sure will! Just realized how much he loves black beans. I am definitely going to try those recipes. He LOVES burritos with refried beans, so I am sure he will love the black bean one. Maybe I will get him to eat some soup yet… thanks for the suggestions!

  9. Shannon, you are so right that in a sense our time is money/valuable. I am a SAHM of two toddlers so I just need to develop a better routine, become more efficient, etc. I know once I can figure it out it will feel better/be easier. . Sounds like you have had some great success saving money this year!

  10. Hi Ladies, Just food for thought. I keep a bottle of Mrs. Wrights Blueing in my laundry room just for those dingy loads that nothing else helps. It doesn’t take much and I find it really helps. You can use it for a rinse if you have white hair that is turning yellow, or a white dog that needs brightening or your husbands beard that looks “off”. It’s not a bleach, it’s a brightener. Good luck.

  11. I don’t blame you, the classes are ridiculous! That’s great that she is so into animals. I wish more kids spent more time outside these days. I am resisting a WII, Nintendo game system, and Ipad/Kindle (for my 5 year old?!?!) even though all my friends have one for their kids and swear by them, even saying they can’t believe I am not getting him one. I’d rather figurines and outside time- use imagination! I only let him use computer for sesame street enrichment games for math and phonics (free by the way!)

  12. The “Boss Lady” print reminds me of all 3 of my daughters when they were younger, so it seemed like a perfect fit. My youngest daughter brought home a pair of white sheets, full sized, that she found on clearance, for me to use on “her bed” in the guest room. Since the bed was given to her, it is “her” bed, but we both agree it will keep in good shape better by being used than by remaining in the back of the cubby.

  13. My oldest grandson is 12 and goes to Jr High. His classmates all have cell phones or I Phones and his parents asked him if he wanted one, since his school is a good distance from home. He replied, “Why, I can always use the school phone if I need to contact you?” This is why he is at the top of his class and skipped a grade. Thank you, God!

  14. Vinegar has so many uses! I have also heard, though never tried, that you can make a pan non stick by heating it and then wiping it down with vinegar. It is said to make the pan non stick for that use. Has anyone ever tried that?

  15. I thought of one thing I forgot. I had a 1.00 off coupon for 2 folgers coffee products. I thought could use on flavored coffee mixes like General fooods has but there were none. And I didn’t want jars of instant which were pretty expensive. They had boxes of single serve packets, like the Starbucks Via. Each box was .99 so I get two boxes for free,using the doubled coupon. I will ad them to the box I make up for my mother every year of tea varieties, lemon drops and other hard candies. She gets this either for Christmas or her birthday…I get little hints if she is running out before her birthday. She arranges them all in a beautiful carved wooden bowl that came from Switzerland and sets it out with tea things when she has company over.

  16. I’m glad that I checked back to the comments! I would love to share the recipe but it is not really a recipe, just a method that you can adjust to your family’s likes and dislikes. Here is the basic list of ingredients and measurements and then you just have to adapt it to what you have on hand. If it sticks together you’re golden! This makes a lot of meatballs, be forewarned that you will be freezing some!2lbs of hamburgerIn a blender put:3 eggs1 large onion or add dehydrated onion to the hamburger 2 to 3 cups cooked lentils, any kind (a little cooking liquid is ok too)pepper (1 to 1 1/2 tsp.) salt or seasoning salt, I like a spicy seasoning salt but use whatever you likesoya sauce or Worcestershire sauce (at least 2 T)Beef bouillon (about 2 tsp. or more if you like)Add this mixture to the meat and mix, it will be soupy. At this point you could add more cooked whole lentils if you like or just leave it as is. Add to that:2 to 2 1/2 cups of oats, quick is best but old fashioned will work, you just have to let it sit a little longer to absorb the liquid. You could stop here but I find that it needs bread to stick together.Add as much bread crumbs as you need to make it sticky, I add 2 or 3 cups.Let this sit while you hake a sauce or heat the oven. As it sits it solidifies, if it doesn’t stick together yet add more bread crumbs. At this point you can cover it and refrigerate it to cook it the next day.You can either boil these in a sauce, just role them up and drop them in boiling sauce in batches until done and finish in the oven or a crockpot with the remaining sauce over top. OR You can put them on broiler pans and bake them in the oven and then freeze them. I have done them both ways.I have also added bran it in past, either wheat or oat, but I prefer the oats to the bran. There are a lot of really good things about this recipe. You could leave out the meat and add whole lentils and more beef bouillon. It is EXTREEMLY filling, two or three meatballs and you are done in, it is healthy, NO ONE will know that there is not just meat in there, no one. Or you could make it into hamburger patties that you fried on the stove top. I LOVE this recipe and use it all the time, my 12 year old son cannot stop saying thank you when I make these meatballs. I love lentils!

  17. No, I have not heard that but might as well try. I do not have any non stick pans, all stainless or cast iron. The cast iron are seasoned, but I will try the stainless.

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