I had a pretty fun week. I did buy a lot of stuff this week; most of which will hopefully save money in the future.

1. Groceries: We spent $33.44 on groceries this week as part of my monthly Walmart pickup order. I always have fun putting together a pickup order because in order to meet the $35.00 minimum I usually have to pick some "special" items that I wouldn't normally buy. This month I had a $10.00 gift certificate to use as well, thanks to a referral bonus from one of you. Thanks so much!!! In order to get $10.00 off, the minimum order was increased to $50.00. I bought some Sharpie markers and two big containers of laundry soap to meet the minimum. You can see what groceries we got below:

2. Cooking: I made stuffing from homemade bread ends that I've been freezing for the last several weeks. I also used some frozen celery bits (chopped, still frozen, in the Vitamix) in the stuffing. It turned out pretty fabulous. The recipe does use 1/3 cup of butter, so I think I'll only make it once a month; often enough to use up the bread bits, but not enough to increase or grocery bill.

3. Gardening: I started some more onion seeds in pellets. Also replanted some pellets into larger containers.

And guess what? My bathroom orchid is still headed toward blooming! No bud blast yet!!

Lastly... I picked up and installed my bees in their new hive!! The installation didn't go wonderfully, but it was the best I could do. I was scared to begin with (I mean, it's not natural to be surrounded by stinging insects, having them crawl on your hands, etc), but then I got stung and freaked out. I had to repeatedly tell myself- out loud- to calm down and stop swatting at the bees. It was all I could do to finish the job. The book I bought said not to use gloves, but I think should have. Then I wouldn't have freaked out and missed some important steps. I hope the bees will be okay; I'll check them again later this week.

4. Cloth diapers: Some of the diaper retailers had Earth Day sales over the weekend, so I ordered a few hemp inserts for Baby Girl. Hemp makes the diaper thinner, yet more absorbent than the bamboo inserts that I have now. The deals weren't fantastic, so I didn't drain my cloth diaper fund (money I get from recycling cans and selling cloth diapers).

5. Educational stuff: I caved in and bought the "Ultimate Homemaking Bundle" being advertised on some of my favorite blogs for $30.00. I've never bought ebook bundles in the past. My thought was, "those are probably just a bunch of cheap, short ebooks about things I already know." You know, "books" that you can finish in less than an hour that you could've written yourself. That being said, the bundle included 62 ebooks, 24 workbooks, 1 video, 1 audio, 3 subscriptions and 30 courses. I'm taking the chance that I'll be able to dig $30.00 worth of ideas out of the bundle. 

My plan is to work through the bundle material over the next year in place of aimlessly surfing the web or scrolling through Amazon buying ebooks. We'll see if it's worth the money. I might do a bundle review when I've finished all of the materials.

I hope you all had a frugal week! I would love to hear some of your accomplishments in the comments.
Til next time,
-Bethany

​​Baby Girl's six-month pictures are back!! We had a friend do them, and I'm so happy with how they turned out. I had to laugh at some of the pictures though because I'm not sure the tutu and beads were quite flattering for our chubby little girl. When I was making the tutu, I wondered, 20 years down the road, if I would regret putting her in a Pinterest-inspired "costume" instead of just putting her in a regular outfit. I guess time will tell, but even in a tutu, I think she's adorable.

Also, I finished up April's giveaway, and I'll be sending out my newsletter tomorrow. Make sure you're signed up if you want to win the giveaway prize!

1. Groceries: We shopped the pantry again this week. I did spend $3.88 on some stuff at Walmart. I bought a package of cream cheese ($1.62 for a 2-pack) and three packs of Walmart brand Little Debbies ($0.92 each). The nutty bars were good, but the knock-off brownies were not. I also snagged a free single-serving of Greek yogurt with an Ibotta rebate.

2. Cooking: Made garlic salt, cheese, and baked beans. I brought home a whole pile of overripe avocados for free. Over half of them were too ripe to use, but I was able to freeze 8 cups' worth. That's a lot of avocado fruit! I did save all of the pits for making body scrub. Which I've never done before, but there's a first time for everything. Other than that, I just worked on using up the pantry groceries from last week.

You can see what I made from last week's "$0.00 Pantry Haul" below:

3. Gardening: I started some more seeds in a small Jiffy "professional greenhouse." It's just a plastic thing that's made to fit the seed starter pellets I use. So far I'm delighted with the results. I planted onion seeds (saved from last year), some flower seeds, eggplant, and cucumber. The cucumber seeds and onion seeds are growing already!! I'm excited about the onions because for the past two years I've tried direct seeding onions in the garden and they haven't done well. It's too hard to distinguish small onion plants from weeds, I think. This time I'm giving them a head start.

I also repotted some houseplants in dire need of more soil; a peace lily, some African violets, and an orchid plant. We bought potting soil for the houseplants, and I got a special bag of orchid potting medium for my orchids. One of my orchids is budding out! In the past, all of my orchids have lost their buds early due to bud blast. I put this last plant in the bathroom when it started to bud out, and two weeks later the buds are still forming. I'm EXTREMELY excited about the prospect of orchid blooms after four years of owning orchids with no blooming success. Hubs helped me build an "orchid shelf" for the bathroom. I love it. The shelf and plant add a lot of class to our rather humble, small bathroom.

4. Household savings: Made a home recycling system. For a while now, I've felt like we were creating a lot of trash and going through trash bags rather quickly. The last trash bags we bought were direly needed, so I didn't bother looking for a deal; they ended up costing $0.20 each. That's not a lot per bag, but I also use the trash bags for storing aluminum cans, so our $8.00 roll of trash bags is disappearing quickly. As I was researching ways to cut down trash, I stumbled into the rabbit hole of the zero waste movement.

For those who aren't in the know, zero waste is where followers eliminate so much trash that they can fit a year's worth into a quart size mason jar. These people only shop at bulk food stores where they bring their own bags and containers for things like shampoo and beans, so they can avoid creating trash. They buy bamboo toothbrushes and stainless steel straws. A lot of zero waste practices run parallel to frugal practices, but some of the things left me thinking, that's a little weird. Like buying peanut butter based on the fact that it's in a glass container as opposed to a plastic one. As you all know, I shop for savings and not as a way to eliminate trash. 

BUT, as I've learned with cloth diapers, there are real benefits to creating less trash. First off, you're wasting less money. Most of the time more waste = more spending. Second, you're eliminating the work it takes to store and take care of what is mostly junk (free plastic pens, free coffee cups, free frisbees, etc.) and won't survive the test of time. Lastly, you're saving money on trash bags! In the past, I've rushed to keep everything that I could possibly use, especially if it's free. But cutting out plastic junk, like cutting out Facebook, could save time and mental energy. This movement has some good points that I'd love to explore further.

5. Cleared out some clutter. I'm working on cleaning out our storage/miscellaneous room. This room can go from clean and organized to a disaster in a few days. Right now it's a disaster. While our apartment isn't small, it doesn't have a lot of storage space. The storage room is our catch-all for extra clothes, extra books, momentos, CDs (which we never use... not sure why we still have CDs??), farmers market stuff, sewing supplies, soap-making and crafting supplies, baby stuff, seasonal things like Christmas decorations and humidifiers and dehumidifiers. Also in the storage room are unused musical instruments, health-related items like herbal and non-herbal medicines, weight training equipment, baby's nebulizer, etc. Also, if there's a project I'm working on or item that I want to disappear, it goes in the storage room (which is how it can become a disaster in a few days).

Slowly, my hobby items are being tossed, given away or sold to make room for Baby's stuff. This makes me kind of sad, but the reality is that most of my things aren't being used and won't be used for a while. They're just taking up space and creating clutter for me to pick up and organize time after time. I guess that's part of being a parent. Thankfully, most of the stuff can be easily acquired again at garage sales or thrift stores so it's not a big loss.  

​I think that's about it for frugal accomplishments. Don't forget to sign up for my email list if you want to win this month's giveaway!

Til next time,
-Bethany

Hello everyone! This is the part of the blog where you see how much I spent on 2018's "areas that need improvement."

Groceries: ($130.00) $80.51

We did FANTASTIC this month on groceries, mostly due to me "shopping" the pantry. I've made a Youtube video about this since my channel has been sadly lacking in grocery hauls. We only spent 62% of the allotted budget.

I purposely "overbudgeted" this year, not knowing how much food would be sufficient for a tiny person (and nursing mom). For the last three months, we've consistently spent less than 80% of the allotted amount. So far this year I have $118.17 extra dollars; I'm not sure if I should use this for new/upgraded kitchen tools or improved food (I'd like to buy more locally, especially local meats).


Personal Care: ($15.00) $0.00

Drum roll please... this month we spent NOTHING on personal care! Wowza! First off, we got two free tubes of toothpaste at Kroger with coupons. Second, I started using the stash of hotel toiletries that we've accumulated over the past few years. Third, I've been diligent in using the reusable flannel tissues I made for nose-blowing. I didn't realize how much TP we were wasting just to blow noses. We used up the last of the Cottonelle TP (wasteful stuff), and I figured out that a roll of Scott will last a whole week! At $0.50 a roll, I'll only need to earmark $2.50-$3.00 per month for toilet paper. Our $10.00 pack from last month will last through May.


Household: ($25.00) $8.32

This month we bought a bottle of wood glue ($4.54) and $3.78 worth of thrift store kitchen items, including some containers for flour and sugar, plus a new (used) garlic mincer. Total spent was only 33% of the monthly budget, but I know I will use the extra $16.00 later in the year, probably on a large purchase.


Clothing: $0.50

I paid $0.50 for a pair of 2T leggings for Baby Girl. I bought them in hopes that the larger size would fit over her cloth diaper. I do like the way they fit, except the legs are way too long. I might make some alterations to the pants, so the extra length is less visible. I've made her three pairs of Maxaloones (special cloth diaper pants), but by the time you pay for fabric and a pattern, you could buy over 20 pairs of thrift store leggings, and not have to spend hours at the sewing machine.

I've spent a significant portion of our clothing budget on outfit solutions that will work with Baby's cloth diapers. The best solution I've found is to have a thinner diaper (Alva pocket diaper with one microfiber and one hemp insert) or use a onesie extender (made for free with a hand-me-down onesie) with a thicker diaper. Then I can put her either in a jumper or leggings.  We tried baby leg warmers, but her little thighs were too fat, and the warmers slowly slid down her legs during the day.

I've been eyeing some new nursing tops on Amazon but decided to put off the purchase until later. I also patched four or five pairs of jeans for Hubs and I. For Easter I wore my black funeral/wedding dress, dressed up with a pair of black high heels and a black velvet fascinator that I pulled out of storage. Hubs wore some nice jeans and a button-down shirt. Baby Girl wore a spring-like jumper over a pink long-sleeve onesie. No new Easter clothes here, although I considered buying Baby a new dress.

*******

Overall, we had a great month: I spent $81.17 less than was budgeted! I'm amazed at how setting a limit has made me more creative about stretching resources and aware of what I'm buying. The first month I kept track of clothing and personal care, I thought I'd never be able to make it work. I was breaking out in a sweat at how expensive toilet paper was, Baby girl didn't have enough cloth diaper friendly outfits, and I'd already spent 30% of my personal clothing allotment- in one month! But now I think my proposed budget IS reasonable. If I stick with it, we'll have saved over $450.00 on household supplies, personal care, and clothing. As far as food costs go, I MIGHT even be able to beat last year's total, if I follow my own advice from The Housewife's Guide to Frugal Food and The Housewife's Guide to Menu Planning. Lol!

Til next time,
-Bethany

Til next time,
-Bethany

1. Groceries: We had another no-spend week for groceries. Sorry people, this is getting kind of boring!

2. Cooking: I roasted a duck this week. We had roast duck, baked potatoes with duck, duck quiche (with duck meat and duck eggs!) and I made duck broth with the bones. I also ground up some dried chili pepper to make chili powder.

Tuesday was a rainy day, so I decided to make some soft, chewy molasses cookies. They were kind of REALLY delicious. We ate some, and later I took some to a church event. I learned that apparently molasses cookies are old-fashioned. That's more proof that I'm an old soul.

During the course of the week I was thinking about Julia Child's kitchen, which I saw at the Smithsonian when we were in D.C. earlier this year. What surprised me most was how messy it looked. Cluttered. She had put pegboard all over the walls to hold kitchen implements and tools. So not only did it look cluttered, but it looked like the inside of a garage.

The thing is, she actually USED her kitchen tools. How many of us buy fancy kitchen tools, just to use them once and then shove them away in a pantry somewhere? I know I'm guilty. Then you forget that they're even there, which means you use them... never.

So, this week I did a little kitchen rearranging, Julia-style. I didn't cover the kitchen wall in pegboard, but I did put up a bunch of small nails  to hold serving spoons, stirring spoons, cutting boards and even my canning supplies: funnel, lid-lifter and jar lifter. Doing this cleared off some of my scanty counter space (previously a lot of these tools were in a vase on the counter). I put some duplicate tools in a "donate" box, and threw away the garlic mincer that didn't work. I really like the new look and feel of my kitchen space. Seeing all of the tools out makes me want to use them more. 

3. Gardening: Some of my tomato plants aren't looking too hot. So I transplanted some (and hope to transplant them all, sooner or later). I also put together some more frames for my beehive!!

4. Personal Care: We have been slowly using up our stash of hotel shampoo and conditioner. One thing I noticed is how many washings I seem to get out of those little bottles- especially the conditioner. With a regular size bottle I just use a whole glob- the more the better, right? But I'm going to try putting some of our normal shampoo and conditioner in pump bottles, to see if I can get away with using less. I haven't done it yet, but that was my personal care "idea of the week".

5. Sewing: I worked on April's newsletter giveaway. 😃

Big News: I Quit Facebook!

6. I deactivated both my Facebook and Instagram accounts this week. Why? A collection of events and thoughts over the past two weeks compelled me that it just seemed to be the right thing to do. I didn't delete my accounts, just deactivated them for the spring and summer months- April through August. When September comes, I'll reconsider getting back on. During the warmer months there is just so much to do outside that I feel like Facebook and other social media would distract me from those things.

Quitting Facebook has been a lot harder than I thought it would be. You know something is habit-forming when it's hard to leave it be. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't on Facebook all that often; maybe 30-60 minutes per day, mostly at night. But it provided me with a (false) sense of community, a place to share my brilliant thoughts every now and then or get an unofficial public opinion. Plus, I confess, I enjoyed the occasional "stalking" session. What would I do if I met someone at a party and didn't have Facebook to see who else they knew, what their political opinions were or how their summer vacation went? How would I know when someone I last talked to ten years ago was getting married or having a baby? HOW could I live without that?!

I guess we'll see how I live without it.

Til next time,
-Bethany