1. Shopping: I spent $10.01 on groceries for us this week. We bought 4 lbs. carrots, 10 lbs. flour, one cabbage, and 5 lbs. brown rice. I also spent $10.00 on a "new baby" meal for some of our friends. I would consider new baby meals, large party meals, and other highly irregular spending as part of a "hospitality" budget though, not a regular grocery budget. 

2. Gardening: I harvested beets, peppers, Chinese long beans, tomatoes and basil this week. I tried some different varieties this year. I bought the long bean seeds thinking I would save a ton of time on snapping and picking. I did!! The purple long beans were definitely a winner that I'll plant next year. Not only are they 3-4 times the length of regular green beans, but they are a climbing bean, so the fruits are a lot easier to find and pick (if they're climbing a trellis, which mine are).  

3. Cooking: I figured out this week just how awesome beets are. Not only are the roots edible, but the leaves and even the stems are edible as well! We ate the stems in a hash-style meal, and I dried the leaves to use in greens powder.

​I also experimented with baby food pouches. Now that Baby is old enough to be eating a lot more "real" foods, I find myself scrambling to find snacks and mini-meals to take with us when we leave the house. Normally I feed her what Hubs and I are eating, but when we're out and about I don't take snacks for the adults, and if we do have food it's often junk food or dessert. We keep a bag of freeze-dried baby bites in the car for "emergencies," but those that bag was crazy expensive! My sister-in-law uses baby food pouches, which are very convenient for on-the-go meals because you don't need a spoon. They're also not messy like crackers. Unfortunately, they cost over $1.00 per pouch, which is a bit expensive for how often I need them.

I found some reusable pouches on Amazon for $1.00 per pouch. These seem to work quite well. You can put regular (homemade or store bought) baby food in the pouches, or you can make a kind of smoothie with yogurt and other ingredients. That's what I did for our first pouch. Baby seemed to like it, so I will fill up the rest of the pouches and freeze them. Hopefully these will make for a quick, easy, cheap last-minute snack.

4. Replaced missing buttons on a pair of shorts and a skirt.

5. Tricked out my bike! I added a mirror to one side so I can see cars coming from behind. I also figured out how to fasten a plastic bag on the back of the baby seat, so I can still collect cans. In fact, we found over $0.50 worth last week!

​6. Garage sales: I packed up Baby and we went to a nearby town for their annual garage sale event. I put Baby on my back in a carrier, and we walked to the different sales. This is nowhere near as efficient as carpooling and driving to each garage sale, but it's the best way I know of when it's just her and I. I definitely got in my workout for the day, plus we came home with a few bargains. You can see what I bought below:

Picnic basket ($5.00). This was on my list of things to buy. It came packed full of new plastic cutlery, which wasn't on my list but it was a nice bonus. 🙂

Wooden tray ($0.50) to store Baby's cleaning supplies. 

Bag of streamers ($0.25). I hope to use these for some birthdays coming up! 😉 

Ornamental pebbles ($0.25). The bag came with large and small pebbles. I used the large ones for Baby's water table (see the next frugal accomplishment!) and the small ones I might use for some of my houseplants.

Wooden bead toy ($0.50). Baby Girl loves new toys. It's so hard not to buy #allthetoys. But this was cheap enough, small enough and wooden/non-plastic enough to justify buying.

Star-shaped pie mold ($0.50). I bought this to add to my William Sonoma kitchen item collection. I'm not much of a pie baker, but I want to try this for savory meat pies, or perhaps puff pastries. William Sonoma things make me feel like I'm a rich person and a fancy, uppity cook (note that I said "feel" like... whether I am or not is questionable).  The pie mold increased my WS collection from two items (a spatula and a soup recipe book) to three. So I guess I'm well on my way to having my fantasy kitchen. One garage sale item at a time.

7. Toys: Hubs helped me make a water table for Baby with some scrap lumber and a plastic bin that I was going to donate. Entirely free! I also made her some hand kites. 

​To make the kites, I used wooden rings that I bought cheap from China ($0.39 each) and ribbons that I already had. I made the ribbons shorter than usual, so Baby wouldn't trip on them or get tangled up in them. Later on, I can replace the short ribbons with long ones, or change the colors if need be.

8. Diapers: Some of Baby's cloth diapers were starting to stink, so I "stripped" them (this is a special wash with laundry boosters and bleach). It worked like a charm! No more stinky diapers!! Now I'm trying to figure out how I can prevent ammonia buildup in the first place, and what is the cheapest way to do so.

So, that is all for the week, I believe. I wish every week were this productive!

Til next time,
-Bethany

​Hello everyone! We took a family camping trip with Hubs' side over the weekend, which was a lot of fun. I spent a good amount of time preparing for the trip; cleaning out our little RV, making lists of needed items, doing extra RV laundry and packing. Also: congratulations to Becky S., who won the July giveaway package! If you'd like to try your hand at winning a prize, be sure to sign up for my email newsletter.

 1. Groceries: We bought a lotttt of food, most of which was for the camping trip. Hubs decided to use credit card rewards to pay for it, so I don't know what the total was. Earlier in the week, I found a marked-down bag of avocados for $1.00, and some vanilla beans ($4.49 each!) and stevia extract in the bargain bin. Also... blueberries were on sale! We ended up buying a $5.00 2 lb. clamshell, then another $5.00 2 lb. clamshell, and then an $11.00 5 lb. box for the camping trip. So I guess you could say we spent most of our regular weekly grocery money on blueberries. Which was, again, totally worth it! I didn't freeze any because the price of already-frozen berries was the same as the on-sale fresh ones. But at $2.50 per pound or less, I couldn't resist binge-eating the fresh ones. I had wanted to go to a U-pick this year, but buying the berries from Kroger just as cheap (by the time you pay for gas to a U-pick) and just as tasty, with far less work involved. 

2. Cooking: I made yogurt with almost-expired milk and shredded some gifted zucchini for the freezer. I also saved some celery ends to dry and use in soup.

3. Garden: I harvested cucumbers from the garden. My mother-in-law gifted us the zucchini mentioned above and some sweet corn, which was super delicious!

4. Cans: I collected some recyclable cans while on bike rides with Baby Girl.

5. Personal care items: I found some of our favorite brands and needed items in the clearance bin at Kroger. They weren't the best-ever deal, but I did save about $10.00, compared to regular Walmart or Amazon prices.

6. Entertainment: We went to our local county fair to see all of the 4-H projects. Our fair is pretty toned down with just still exhibits and animals; there is no carnival or vendors. It is a lovely, family-friendly fair, and free to attend.

That is going to be all for this week. Thankfully our summer is beginning to wind down. I was tempted to write down some new frugal accomplishments from yesterday (Monday), but I am going to save them for next week. 

Happy saving!
-Bethany

​Hi everybody! Again, not too many frugal accomplishments this week (or, at least not many that I remembered to write down!) but still some worth mentioning. 

1. Groceries: I went to Kroger this week and scored some deals. See below:

2. ​Garden: I harvested raspberries, string beans and snap peas from the garden. 

3. Garage sales: I went to some city-wide garage sales and picked up a few bargains. I spent just $9.05, plus a few dollars for gas to get there (it was less than seven miles away). Based on retail and/or thrift store value of the items I found, I saved over $50.00. In fact, we had just ordered a new $25.00 bike seat on Amazon, and I found one at a garage sale for $2.00! The garage sale seat is not as nice looking, but it will do the job. I plan on returning the new seat.

2. Cooking: I made ice cream this week with some Aldi heavy cream. Usually, I make custard-style ice cream with egg yolks and milk, but the cream was expiring soon and I wanted to use it up. I used the whole pint container of heavy cream, 1 cup milk, 1 TB vanilla extract, 3/4 cup sugar, and a pinch of salt. Total cost was $2.16, and the recipe made five cups, so the price per 1/2 cup serving was just under $0.22. That's more expensive than Great Value brand ice cream ($0.17 per serving), and only slightly cheaper than Breyer's ($0.25 per serving). So, it wasn't frugal. But it used up the heavy cream, plus it was some of the best homemade ice cream I've ever had!!

3. Garden: I've been harvesting red and black raspberries for the past week or so. I also collected mullein flowers and comfrey leaves to use in herbal remedies. My husband fixed a raccoon trap, so we can try and eliminate the predators that have been eating eggs and possibly chickens during the past week or so.

4. Cans: we picked up cans to recycle during several family walks. 

5. Reorganizing: Baby was starting to get into the books on my bookshelf, so I decided to move the contents of the two bottom shelves into our storage area and use them as storage for some of her toys. Since she was born, finding space for everything (extra furniture, outgrown toys or clothes, etc.) has been a bit of a struggle. I've already sold, donated or tossed a lot of our stuff, but I will probably do the same thing again in a few weeks.

Til next time,
-Bethany

1. ​Groceries: We spent $2.46 on groceries this week; a bag of freeze-dried baby food snacks at Walmart. I know, totes not frugal. But now that Baby is eating more solid foods, I thought it would be wise to keep some non-perishable food (that's not cereal or junk) in the car. I've been working on keeping our vehicle organized, which is easy NOT to do when you're going a lot of places and bringing lots of stuff to those places.

2. Cooking: I did better making actual meals this week instead of just eating cereal and junk food. Some of the meals we had were: lamb rice curry, chicken salad, hash, bagel sandwiches, turkey sandwiches, baked potatoes, ham soup and grilled chicken thighs. I also made a batch of kombucha (yay!!). I tried making pineapple juice in the Instant Pot, but it tasted too "cooked" to drink like juice.

3. Garden: I weeded a lot this week. Baby and I picked strawberries, mulberries and black raspberries for the freezer. I also cut some lettuce for salad and harvested some mullein for herbal remedies.

4. Thrifting: We went to the 50% off sale at Volunteers of America this week. I bought a baby monitor that didn't work ($1.50), a pair of jeans for myself ($1.60), and a swing-top bottle to use for kombucha ($0.75). I also bought some things for a Montessori weaning set that I'm working on (pictured above): two shot glasses ($0.50 each), two tray baskets ($1.50 and $1.25) and a small glass pitcher ($1.00).

5. Baby items: I sewed two bibs and two placemats for Baby Girl. I'm not quite finished with the placemats. I made each set of items with scrap fabric and bias tape that I already had. I used an old dishtowel on the back of the bibs to catch water spills. These will go with the weaning set. I hope to do a post about it when I'm finished with the placemats.

6. Computer desk setup: Last fall I threw out our old, broken hand-me-down computer desk to make room for a treadmill desk, which I thought would magically melt away all of the baby weight I had gained while pregnant. It didn't quite work like I thought it would. It was easy enough to walk while watching Youtube, but I couldn't multi-task well enough to write anything while walking. I ended up doing all of my writing on the kitchen table, while the poor treadmill sat unused. So, that was a waste of $80.00. This spring, I found myself more and more using my laptop on the kitchen table or couch, which is awful for posture, not to mention it clutters everything up.

We got rid of the treadmill, which turned my treadmill desk into a standing desk. I bought an external USB keyboard and mouse for $13.00, and Hubs built a second shelf out of free scrap lumber so that my hands can be at the proper 90-degree angle. Not only that, but I was able to point a set of external speakers into the kitchen/living room, so I can work and listen to audio without dragging the laptop over to the kitchen table. I love, love, love this setup. It makes writing so easy, especially with the external keyboard and mouse. I wish I would have gotten those two items years ago.

That's all, folks! I look forward to sharing more next week.
-Bethany

Hi everyone! I hope all of my U.S. readers had a fantastic Memorial Day weekend. Many thanks to my dad and all others who have served or are serving in our military- especially to those who have given all.

We skipped the typical barbeque this year and instead shared pizza with friends. If you want ten pizzas made in record time, order them when everyone else is having brats and burgers. As I type this I can still see a few pieces of styrofoam dinnerware strewn across our lawn. Signs of a good time had by all.

1. Groceries: I spent a lot of money on groceries this week. First we went to Walmart and spent $33.18 (see haul below). 

The next day I forgot about a potluck dish and just grabbed something at Kroger for $3.00. If eating out is a problem for most people, buying potluck dishes is mine. The season is upon us. "Did you know that we go to at least one potluck every week?" I asked Hubs. He didn't believe me at first. Until I started naming off all of the potlucks. I've been experimenting with which crowd-pleasing dishes are fastest, easiest, and cheapest to take. This week I tried deviled eggs, coleslaw and potato salad. Each of them is basically eggs or some vegetable mixed with mayonnaise and spices, so they're equally affordable. The problem? Dishes!! By the time you chop everything for coleslaw, plus mix it together in a bowl, then use another serving dish, you've left a trail of dishes in your wake. Same story with deviled eggs. I think the potato salad used the least amount of dishes and was the fastest to put together. If you have any potluck winners, leave them in the comments below. I would love to hear what your favorites are.

Later in the week we stopped at the 'village' grocery store, because it was summer in Michigan (as opposed to last month, which was winter) and we "needed" watermelon. And ice cream. And brats. And overpriced hot dog buns. We snagged all of that for a mere $13.00. 

Then I let it slip that Kroger was having a sale on ice cream sandwiches: $0.99 per box. Hubs said, of course, that we must go to Kroger to get the sandwiches. When we got to Kroger, they were all out of ice cream sandwiches. So I got a rain check. But that isn't all we got. While walking through the store, we decided that we also needed more brats, buns (at least they were cheap) and Klondike bars (not the off-brand, but real, genuine Klondikes). I also got Hubs' favorite brand of barbecue sauce on sale, with a coupon: four bottles for $0.75 each. We escaped Kroger just $17.74 poorer.

Total spent on groceries this week was $63.92.

2. Cooking: I made 1/2 lb. of butter with some raw milk that a friend gave us. Also made cheese with the leftover milk. 

3. ​Garden: I spent almost $10.00 at the nursery this week on 19 pepper plants and four watermelon plants. Hubs tilled up the remaining garden for me, and I planted sweet corn, beans, pumpkin, acorn squash, the nursery plants and some other plants I started indoors. I still have a few plants to find a home for, but most of my garden is complete.

4. Personal care: I bought some shampoo and conditioner for $0.53 per bottle with a coupon. Instead of buying Scott toilet paper with a coupon, I discovered Walmart's off-brand "1000 Sheets" toilet paper (which was cheaper) and bought that instead. I also gave my husband a haircut.

5. Laundry: during the summer we generate a lot more laundry. Between regular laundry and cloth diapers, it's about one load every day. So I have been air-drying a lot of laundry.

That's about all, folks!

Til next time,
​Bethany

​1. Groceries: I spent $20.87 on groceries this week. Instead of shopping at Walmart, Kroger or Aldi, I hit up a local health food festival near us. I came home with two pounds of beef, two pounds of pork, a (free) cheese stick and a (free) tiny carton of milk.

Like many people, I have a hard time reconciling my healthy, sustainable self with my cheap self. I realize that there are some serious issues with our modern farming systems. In my writing, though, I tell people not to buy locally produced, grass-fed or organic products because they are way too expensive on a tiny budget. If finances are your first priority, you can't afford to buy health food. You just can't. There are ways to HAVE health food, but you can't afford to buy it. As I mentioned in my last spending report, however, we have not been using up all of our grocery money. It's been too easy to buy junk food and still be under budget. I'm ready for a new challenge besides just spending not-a-lot of money on food.

While I don't plan on buying everything organic, I would love to gradually transition to mostly grass-fed meats because I feel like they have real health benefits. Of course there are some health benefits to certified organic products as well, but I feel like the difference is greater between grass-fed and grain-fed than between organic and non-organic.  Over the past few weeks, I've been pricing out grass-fed meats to see what a good ballpark price is. I looked at buying meat by the piece and also by the whole animal. It's actually slightly cheaper ($1.00 per pound or so) to purchase grass-fed meat by the piece, if you stick to buying ground meat or the very cheapest cuts.

My festival-purchased meats were $6.00/lb. (beef) and $4.50/lb. (sausage). Average price per pound was $5.21. While this is 2-3 times more expensive than what I normally buy, it's the going rate for what I was looking for. 

Aside: I also got two Free Friday items at Kroger! You can see these in my haul picture later.

2. Cooking: I made two potluck items this week out of things we had on hand. I also made yogurt, Greek yogurt, and "healthy" sugar-free brownies. Meals: baked potatoes, leftovers, tacos, "southwest" potatoes, hash, mac 'n' cheese, hotdogs, pizza, ham and potato soup, and more leftovers.

3. Gardening: It was a bit cooler this week, so I didn't do as much gardening. I did weed the strawberries and some of the raised beds.

4. Free stuff: A nearby town had their annual "junk days" where people set out their junk by the curb. For date night, we went "junking". A lot of it is just trash, but I did find a nice belt, some Nike flip flops, flower pots and a Thermos that I'll either sell on Ebay or use (if it doesn't sell).

​A friend also gave me a very nice cast iron pan. It's deep, kind of like a dutch oven, and has a lid. I look forward to using it soon!

5. Personal Care: I restocked my stash of baby wipes at Kroger for $0.66 per package. I waited until I had coupons and they went on sale. Huggies and Pampers are so much better than Parent's Choice. I buy the individual smaller packages to keep in our diaper bag. At home we use cloth wipes, so these disposable ones will last a long time!

In the pic below you can also see the Free Friday deals I picked up:

That is about it for the week. I feel like my choice to buy $5.00/lb. meat needs more explanation; perhaps a whole different post. In fact, I think I will prepare a post for later in the week. 

Til then,
Bethany

Hi everyone! I had a fun week. The weather has been absolutely gorgeous. I haven't been doing a whole lot indoors besides general maintenence- dishes, laundry, and meals. I feel like a little mouse who is finally seeing the light of day after months of darkness and cold. I'm so excited to be outside that I find myself scurrying around here and there, not getting much done but enjoying being outside.

Groceries: We spent $25.50 at Aldi and $9.90 at Kroger. I shopped at Kroger because tortillas were $0.49 per package!!! I bought the limit of five, and I also stocked up on  sour cream and bought cottage cheese for my Hubs and picked up a Free Friday item. I also got a bottle of on-sale kombucha to make a SCOBY with. Because it's almost kombucha season!!!

You can watch my Aldi haul below:

​Total spent this week on groceries was $35.40. After four months straight of having extra room in our grocery budget, I think I'm going to cut it from $130.00 per month to $100.00. Our average spending for the last four months was $90.59. Setting the budget at $100.00 will still leave a bit of room. You can see my Kroger haul below: 

2. Cooking: I made turkey broth and cooked up the two-pound bag of beans we bought at Aldi. I used some of the beans, put some in the fridge for this week and froze the rest. We had a lot of "Cinco de Mayo" type meals last week and a fair amount of eating out.

3. Gardening: We tilled up some areas for row garden items. I planted beets, onions, borage and chervil. I also cleaned up some of my raised beds. We spent a few hours weeding strawberries as well. It is exciting to see all of the perennials come up; tulips, daffodils, hyacinths, lilies, blazing star... that's just the flowers! Then of course my mints, rhubarb, the asparagus and strawberry plants, some volunteer plants and the herbs I added last year: anise hyssop, horehound and several lavender plants.

3.Garage sales: I went to a local church's "sharing corner"- basically a giant garage sale where everything is free. Several weeks before the event, they put a trailer in the church parking lot for donations. Last week I decluttered some things and put them in the trailer so others could benefit. At the event found a bunch of vintage patterns (which I LOVE), four onesies and a pair of sandals for Baby, a book, some heavy interfacing for sewing, and a Scrabble game. Years ago I found a "deluxe" edition of Scrabble in somebody's junk pile in town. I sold the red tiles on Ebay, but kept the board because it wasn't worth anything. I had never seen such a nice board, with a spinning base and outlines for the tiles so your words don't get messed up if someone accidentally hits the board.

I used the tiles from my "new" free Scrabble to go with my deluxe board. I'm still missing a few letters, but that doesn't affect the game too much. Scrabble is one of my all-time favorite games (but I'm a stickler for correct spelling... if misspellings are allowed, the game is no fun at all). I forced Hubs to play with me once already, and then forced us to keep playing until I won. LOL! He is such a good sport.

4. Free Scribd membership: several weeks ago I bought an ebook bundle called, "The Ultimate Homemaking Bundle". It came with some bonus coupons; most of which I decided not to use because I'd have to pay shipping for the "free" stuff. One of the bonuses, however, was a free three-month trial to a subscription reading service called Scribd. It's like a combination of Audible and Kindle Unlimited. Except it's 1000% better!!!

Unlike Audible, Scribd allows you to listen to unlimited audio books, and it's half the price. Unlike Kindle Unlimited, Scribd has a wide variety of ebooks, including from niche authors who aren't traditionally published. I was able to find almost my entire reading list on the site. I hope to get everything finished before my free subscription runs out. At $9.00 per month, though, I think the membership is probably worth paying for. You can find all sorts of books in both audio and ebook format, plus sheet music and articles. If you're a reader, I'd definitely consider signing up. You guys know I love the library, but this is so much faster and easier. No need to make special (or weekly) trips to the library to pick things up.

5. Envelope system: I've decided to try using the envelope system for my "big four" spending categories: groceries, household, personal care and clothing. We are going to a Financial Peace class again just for fun, and I got to wondering if I unintentionally spend more money by using a mishmash of cash, cards, Paypal websites that already have our debit card number instead of just using cash. I'm not going to stop buying things online, but before I click "pay now", I'll pull the appropriate amount out of my envelopes.

Instead of making or buying an envelope system, I found a nice leather one in our old Dave Ramsey class kit. 

6. Ebay: Cleaned out some of my old sewing patterns and sold them for $20.00 on Ebay.

I think that's all for this week. How are you all doing?

-Bethany

Oh boy, I'm FINALLY getting this post out. It would have been out on Monday, but I was waiting for the garage sale video to upload to my Google account (phone was having internet problems) and then I had to edit the video and upload it to Youtube before I posted this. So.... it's finally done.

I'll be honest; I haven't been keeping track of accomplishments as well as I'd like to. I've been looking into trying a bullet journal for random record keeping (daily egg count, frugal accomplishments, garden records, etc.). If any of you have experience with a bullet journal, I'd love to hear your opinion on how it works or any tips you may have.

1. Groceries: I didn't do any regular grocery shopping. We did buy some ice cream and ice cream comes for $6.00 at a local grocery store, and my husband bought some cookout supplies for a backyard barbecue. Total spent on groceries was $16.00.

2. Cooking: l made cheese this week with close-to-expiring milk. I also cooked a frozen turkey (bought on sale after Easter!) and froze the meat. The carcass is still sitting in the fridge, waiting to be made into broth. I made meals throughout the week (sorry, I didn't keep track of what they were). Lastly, I made a cosmetically challenged but very delicious fruit crisp from frozen fruit! 

The recipe I used is the same one in my book, The Housewife's Guide to Menu Planning. Tips: Don't overfill the dish like I did (fill halfway with filling and crisp, then put the extras in a separate container to bake). Also don't over bake, and lastly, the crisp is best on the second day! I think that's because the fruit filling has time to seep into the "crisp" part on top. My recipe was originally a rhubarb crisp recipe that I got from my mom. What I love about this recipe is that it doesn't use canned pie filling. Of course you CAN use pie filling, but I don't have a lot of that lying around. It's almost rhubarb season here, so I'm looking forward to using the recipe as it was originally intended. 🙂

3. Gardening: I planted peas, lettuce and radishes in my raised beds this week. I also weeded a tiny part of the strawberry patch. Baby Girl and I put rotted chicken manure on the other beds, raked it out and covered them with landscape fabric. Usually I use newspaper or grass clippings for mulch, and I will do that for the peas. Now that we have a baby though, I have less time to collect grass clippings. So this year I decided to try the landscape fabric on some of our squares. Hopefully the fabric will save time (like my Jiffy "professional" greenhouse garden did) and allow me to still produce the same amount of vegetables as usual, while taking care of Baby and the big strawberry patch.

I also planted an onion and some garlic bulbs that sprouted in the fridge. I made a video that will hopefully be on Youtube at some point. And last of all.... the moment I have been waiting for, for YEARS....

ONE OF MY ORCHIDS FINALLY BLOOMED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I started my orchid collection in 2015, when Hubs bought me an orchid for Valentine's Day. Since then I have added  six more orchids; four full size and two miniature ones. Multiple times over the orchids have grown new flower spikes, but ALL of them have succumbed to bud blast (the buds shrivel up and drop before opening). It was one of the mini ones that finally bloomed. I am such a proud orchid mama.

You may notice that the poor thing only has three blooms. Two of the blossoms did fall off due to bud blast. But at least one of them has made it to maturity, which makes me so, so happy.

4. Clothing: Back before Baby was born, I made several nursing tank tops like this. I ended up not using them because when paired with a button-down shirt, the neckline hung too low for my liking. This week I discovered that I can wear them under normal T-shirts and use the combination like a nursing top. The T-shirt gets bunched up depending on what side Baby is on, but if you use a similar-colored tank underneath, it doesn't look too weird. No buttons to mess around with, and no cover needed, really. In early pregnancy the tanks can act as belly bands. I wish I knew about this trick months ago! The only downside is that the two layers get warm on a hot day. But I was happy to find a use for my tanks AND find a way to wear my regular T-shirts. I had planned on purchasing another nursing shirt ($20.00) but now I won't. I like the nursing shirts, but they sag, stretch and hang funny after being used for so long.

5. Garage sales: I got to go to some garage sales this week!! I bought some personal care items and clothing. You can see my haul below:

In total, I spent $12.00 on clothes for Baby. That seems a bit much for a partial wardrobe in one size. I had planned on spending $75.00 per person this year for clothes, and Baby has less than $25.00 left for the whole year. 😞 Between Hubs and I we've spent less than $25.00 though, so there is plenty of wiggle room left overall. Really, adults don't need that much new clothing every year. 

6. Beeswax: I took a big chunk of beeswax that I bought at Hobby Lobby years ago, and melted it down into pellets for easier use. Previously I used a designated beeswax knife to make shavings every time I needed some. That took a TON of time!! The new pellets will be so much easier to use and less messier. In case you're wondering, I used the same silicone potholder to make the pellets as I did to make sugar-free chocolate chips. In addition, I found several chunks of burr (unnecessary) comb in my hive that had to be removed. I'm going to save the chunks until there is enough to melt down for some more pellets.

I believe that is all for this week! How did you all do? 

​-Bethany

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