Hi everyone! I hope you all had a great week! I'm really enjoying this colder weather, as it allows me to get some inside things done.

1. Groceries: we spent WAYYYY more than the regular $20.00-$30.00 this week. I'm going to start doing my once-a-month Walmart pickup again, and set aside what money is left over for things like fresh produce, coupon items and bargain bin items. After I made such a big Walmart order, I panicked a little bit because it wouldn't leave me much leftover for upcoming Thanksgiving sales. Then I remembered... it's still technically October. Whew! 

That being said, our total spending this week was $104.06. We spent $74.64 at Walmart on boring items like chicken thighs, ground beef, cabbage and rice (among other things). We also went to a bent 'n' dent store on Saturday (I LOVE those places!) and picked up some fun baking items, spices, meat and snacks for $29.42. You can see my haul picture above.

The bent 'n' dent deals were honestly not that great; most were not much better than Walmart's regular prices. Not only that, but almost 100% of what I bought was already expired. Given that, I think I probably overpaid for most of what I bought. I'm going to cross this store off of my list of places to go. Even so, it was still a fun destination. 

Fun purchases: We also stopped at an Amish "general store". I bought two little bread pans for Baby, plus a cheap pair of baby mittens (something I haven't been able to find yet, for some reason). Lastly, I got a Pennsylvania Dutch dictionary for $10.00. I was THRILLED to bring that home! (For those who don't know, my in-laws used to be Amish.) We've been married for almost five years and I still don't know more than ten words. I'm super excited to start learning some new words.

2. Refund from Walmart: When I picked up our groceries from Walmart, they had made three substitutions, including organic carrots in place of regular carrots. An upgrade—hooray! I thought to myself. When I got home, I realized that they had replaced my 5 lb. bag of conventional carrots ($2.92) with a 2 lb. bag of organic carrots ($1.66). I didn't think that was a fair trade, so I called up Walmart and they gave me a refund. 

3. Cooking: I had to make yellow rice mix for one of our meals. Instead of making just what I needed (one recipe's worth), I quadrupled the recipe. If you already have the spices out, why not? It will save me a few minutes of time for each meal. Slowly, I am learning how to batch-cook almost everything. Throwing together a meal is a lot easier when half of the work is already done.

4. Sewing: I made a cleaning mitt for Baby, as well as some small washcloths. I put bias tape around the edges of both washcloths and mitt, and put little loops on each of the washcloths for easy hanging. I wish I would have put a loop on the mitt, but I didn't think about it.

5. Picked up cans recycle. It wasn't exactly warm last week, but we bundled up and went for a few walks anyway. They yielded a couple dollars' worth of cans, plus some free exercise. :)

I think that's all I've got to share! What were some ways that you saved money?

-Bethany

1. ​Groceries: we spent $18.64 on groceries this week. You can see the haul below:

2. Cooking: I made yogurt and bone broth in the Instant Pot. I also froze the chicken thighs that we got at Walmart.

3. Gardening: I dug some young potatoes, as we had our first hard frost last week.  These were potatoes that I planted in late August because they sprouted in our pantry. I also brought in some green tomatoes to finish ripening indoors. I put the little tomatoes in egg cartons for storage.

4. ​Organized sewing room: I organized our storage/sewing/craft room. Every couple of months, that room fills up with junk that doesn't have a place. Just when I think there is absolutely no more room for anything in our house, I still find ways to make it work. I was able to make a little gift wrap station, plus find a new place for the sewing machine and overflowing basket of unfinished projects/mending.

​5. Toddler sink: My husband made a wooden toddler sink for Baby. It's basically a little table with a hole cut in the middle, where you can set a bowl inside. Then you pour water into the bowl set a little dish of soap on the side so she can wash her hands. 

6. Sewing: I got a ton of mending done last week! I mended two cloth diapers, patched three pairs of pants, hemmed two pairs of pants, made mittens for Baby and a zippered pencil case to hold all of my bullet journaling supplies. 

I think having the sewing room area organized helped me get a lot more done this week!

7. Train station: We didn't have much to do on Saturday, so we decided to go to a local train museum. When we got there, we realized that the "museum" was more of a working train station than a museum. It was filled with excursionists waiting to reboard the Pere Marquette, a historical working steam engine (famous for its portrayal in "The Polar Express"). So much steam! 

I think that's about it for the week.
What were some of your frugal accomplishments?

-Bethany

Hi there! I have some frugal accomplishments for you all.

1. Groceries: I spent $21.49 on groceries this week at our local Spartan-Nash store. We were very busy over the weekend and I knew I wouldn't have a lot of time to cook. My sister came over to babysit all day Saturday, so I bought some snack foods for her, plus convenience food for that day as well. It turned out that we didn't need the bagged and boxed meals, so I put those in the pantry for another busy day.

2. Garden: I brought in all of my sweet potatoes this week. I harvested tomatoes, beets and basil cuttings. I also weeded the giant strawberry patch. I started radish, lettuce, kale and beet seeds indoors. The kale seeds have already sprouted!

3. Recycling: Picked up cans on a walk.

4. Writing: Last Friday I sent out the final sections of my book to beta readers. Many thanks to those of you who gave and are giving feedback!! Now there are just a few small changes to make and it will be ready for a final edit. YAY! 

5. Christmas preparations: I've been trying to get a head start on Christmas preparations this year; choosing recipes, writing down gift ideas, DIYing some gifts and decorations. This week we had a family photo taken, which will be used on our Christmas card. Instead of doing ALL of the Christmas things after Thanksgiving, my goal is to do a little bit each week so there's not as much chaos during the season. Things like Christmas cards can be done far, far in advance. If I know what recipes I'll be making and what gifts I want to buy, I can watch for those things to go on sale, instead of buying them at full price last minute.

Well, I think that's about it for this week. 

Til next time,
-Bethany

Hello everyone! I've been slacking off on blogging lately. There are so many things that I want to share. We have several projects going on around here that are demanding my time and attention right now, so I've skipped a few Frugal Accomplishments posts. 

But, here are some frugal accomplishments for the last two weeks!

​1. Grocery shopping: we spent $11.03 at Aldi, and $27.55 at Kroger. Some of the things I bought at Aldi weren't cheaper than Walmart, so that was a little disappointing. But other things were cheaper, so I suppose it was a wash in the end. At Kroger I bought some fun items at regular price (the canned cinnamon rolls and Reeses), as well as boring items at regular price: the sausage was $2.00 for a pound, and the raisins were also $2.00. 

Everything else we got at Kroger was a Manager's special!! Our store is renovating, and they have carts and carts full of bargain bin items right now. The brownie mix was $0.49, the sprinkles and tea  were both $0.99, the honey was $4.99 per jar. The crushed tomatoes were $0.79 and the evaporated milk was $0.89. I think one of my goals for next year will be to buy more organics and/or avoid buying the most heavily sprayed/GMO-ed items. Ever since getting my bees, I've realized how important it is that we stop spraying so many pesticides and move toward more sustainable conventional farming systems. I'm not saying everybody should quit chemicals cold-turkey, but I'm feeling the pull as a consumer to start "voting with my dollars", even if it's just a few dollars a week. 

2.Thrift store: VOA had their 50% off sale. After going to William Sonoma on my birthday, I made a list of all the things I wanted for my "dream kitchen". Even though I love the idea of buying my entire dream kitchen at WS, I can save several hundred dollars by finding those same common kitchen items at thrift stores and garage sales. I already have everything I need in my current kitchen, but I'd like to make upgrades like replacing my plastic serving spoons with wood or stainless steel ones. At VOA I found several of the things on my list: a cookie jar, a tall glass pasta jar, and a lazy susan. All of the items were good quality.

3. ​Free GARAGE SALE! The church around the corner had their semi-annual free garage sale. A couple days before the event, I dropped off a load of things to donate. After the sale, I came home with.... well, probably a few more things than I donated. LOL! Below are some pictures of what I got:

There were so many baby clothes. When the sale first started, people were swarming everywhere and I didn't have the space to methodically go through all of the toddler clothes. After the crowd had died down, I went back to the kids' clothes, and there were still a ton of nice things left! I found 28 shirts/onesies, 14 pairs of pants, 5 pairs of shoes, four pairs of socks and one hat for Baby Girl. This was enough for a whole wardrobe of 2T clothes and all of the shirts she will need in 3T. Because her cloth diapers are so big, I have her wearing 2T-3T leggings already, even though she's only wearing 18 month onesies. If I get her out of diapers by the time she's wearing the 3T shirts, she'll still be able to wear all of the same leggings she is wearing now.

There were also a ton of little kid shoes. I found a pair of shoes/moccasins that she can wear right now, plus pairs in a few sizes up. On a very good day, I can find a pair of leggings for $2.00 ($1.00 at the half price sale) at a thrift store; same deal for shoes and other clothing. $1.00 per piece on a very, very good day. I'm guessing I saved over $50.00 by finding so many baby clothes at the free garage sale.

In addition to the baby clothes, I also got three packs of stationery, a flag-shaped cookie cutter, highlighter, board with hooks for clothing, five cookbooks, seven other books, candles, and two beautiful glass candlesticks.

4. Gardening: I harvested basil, mint, beets, peppers, tomatoes, and sweet potatoes from the garden. The tomatoes are REALLY dying down, and my pepper plants were a sorry disappointment this year. So far I've harvested about four peppers, total. As part of my "stretch the gardening season" experiment (and secretly as a last-ditch effort to grow a few more peppers) we made cold frames for the garden. The polycarbonate sheet was $40.00; we cut it in half to use for two frames. The additional lumber used for the sides was all scrap, so the total cost for each frame was $20.00. This is going to be part of my "stretch the gardening season" experiment. I don't think I'll be able to save $40.00 worth of grocery money this year, but hopefully by the end of next year I'll have grown enough lettuce, spinach, radishes and other crops to have recouped the money.