Hello everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I did a few new things this year that I'm excited to share with you.

1. Food: I brought croissants and mixed vegetables to my family's Thanksgiving celebration. I made the croissants from scratch for a cost of $2.25. The recipe is very similar to puff pastry, but far easier to make. I got it from this book.

​For Hubs' side of the family, I made the turkey and put together a cheese tray. His parents were out of the country, so it was just the adult kids and grandchildren. I used my regular recipe for turkey (add 2 c. liquid to turkey, cook 13 minutes for every pound of bird at 350F, baste every 45 min.), but this time I tried adding some kale and fruit to the turkey for garnish. It turned out wonderfully! The best part is, this week I have a bunch of kale left for soup! I also made stock with the carcass. We have some goat cheese left from the cheese tray, and cranberry sauce that I'll make into a dessert later this week. For me, the week after Thanksgiving is almost as fun, because I have so many novel ingredients to cook with.

​At Kroger I bought 6 lbs. of butter for $2.00 per pound, plus ground beef for $2.00 per pound. I normally buy 27% fat beef at Walmart for the same price, but Kroger had 20% fat available for $2.00 per pound, which was an even better deal.

2. Clothing: I put together Baby's Thanksgiving outfit for free—the socks were from a garage sale free box, and the shirt and pants I got from the "sharing corner" hosted by a local church (where you can donate a bunch of stuff, and then look through everyone else's donated stuff to take home). I thought this was a real accomplishment, because I am not an "outfit" person at all. 

My sister-in-law gave us six garbage bags full of toddler clothing to look though. And that was just the stuff she didn't keep! I had so much fun going through the clothes. There were sizes 18 mos., 2T, 3T, and 4T, plus accessories like tights, shoes and hair bows. I already had some clothes for Baby in 2T and 3T, but now I can keep the best of what we have and get rid of the styles I really don't like, or that aren't practical. Over the weekend I listened to the audiobook, Lessons from Madam Chic by Jennifer Scott. The author promotes the idea of a "10 item wardrobe". When sorting through the baby clothes, I tried to keep pieces that would all match with each other, and that would look good with Baby's skin tone and eyes. I'd love to do a 10 item wardrobe for myself, too, at some point.

3. Decluttering: I threw away or donated a bunch of items. During bath time I've been reading Zero Waste Home by Bea Johnson. Inspired, I sorted through my kitchen gadgets and tossed broken items and put unneeded, gently used items in a box for Goodwill. I also put seasonal items in storage. We have a relatively small kitchen, but I think having fewer items just makes it easier and faster to get things done. It also helps me actually use the things I have.

In the bathroom, I also tossed old lotions, cosmetics, and put unneeded items in the Goodwill box. Several years ago I bought a hair straightener. I used to use it quite a bit when I had bangs, but that was four years ago, and I haven't used it since. I also moved medical items into the medicine cabinet in another room, to free up storage space in the bathroom. Getting rid of unneeded or unused items always makes me feel better about our home. I think it's important to re-evaluate possessions every so often as our lives or lifestyles gradually change.

4. Black Friday: For the last few months, I've been making a "Black Friday" list of things to buy, either for Christmas or just everyday use. On Thanksgiving I also looked through all of the store ads to see if there was anything we "needed". I only found two things, and one was a Christmas present. The other was a 20-piece Pyrex set with four different sizes of round containers. I spent $20.00 on the set, which normally retails for $40.00. I've been wanting to replace my plastic storage containers with glass for a while now, and this was the perfect chance to do so!

When I got home, I threw away all of my old (free) freezer boxes. I moved the plastic Rubbermaid storage boxes from their prominent place in our kitchen to our pantry, where I'm using them as mouse-proof storage for dry beans, pasta, etc. The round Pyrex containers are SO, so nice. I can bake or cook the food in it (in the Instant Pot, no less!), serve food in it, and when we're done eating, and store the food in it! The smallest containers are the perfect size for Baby. Today she was napping during lunch, so I set aside a little container of lunch for her. When she woke up, I pulled the lid off and set the whole thing in front of her. She happily ate most of the food, and even used her fork, which is unusual! To say I'm excited about the Pyrex is probably an understatement. I would still like to get one of those casserole/carrying case combinations in the future.

In addition to the Walmart purchases, I also got one other Christmas present and some cloth diapering stuff. I was hoping to get a new car seat for Baby on sale, but the one I was waiting for never went on sale. So I ended up buying that, and some books, and some home items, at full price. Well, at least I tried!​

I believe that's all I have for you this week!

Until next time,
-Bethany

Hello everyone! I know I've been sporadic in posting for the last month or two. I'm still working on two writing projects; I had to switch publishers for my print books, so formatting The Housewife's Guide to Frugal Fruits and Vegetables has been a bit of a hassle. I've had to reformat several times and resubmit, only to do it all over again. But hopefully the next proof (arriving today!) will turn out perfect and I'll be able to move on from that project.

Second, I've been preparing for the holidays and a two-week trip we have coming up. Some of the "accomplishments" below weren't necessarily frugal (as in, they cost money), but I thought I'd share anyway. So, here goes!

1. Groceries: November and December and FANTASTIC months for grocery shopping. I've tried to stay under budget, but I don't mind spending a bit more this time of year because of all the wonderful sales. Since last month I made two stops at Kroger; I spent $33.94 the first time, and $9.97 the second time (total: $43.91). Since our monthly budget is $130.00, and we're almost halfway through the month, I think we're doing pretty good.

Between shopping sales and using coupons, I was able to get the following prices: herbal tea for $1.29 per box (bought 2), pasta for $0.42 per box (14) , cereal for $0.99 per box (5) and canned goods (corn, tomatoes and cream of mushroom soup) for $0.49 per can (22). On the second trip (see photo above) I was able to get "cream of" soup for $0.39 per can, cheese for $2.00 per pound, pasta for $0.33 per box, Chex cereal for $1.50 per box, free M&Ms, free sausage, a tube of toothpaste for $0.04 (not uncommon for Kroger, if you use coupons), and a packet of cocoa for $0.15. Unfortunately the cashier double-swiped the cocoa and I didn't notice, so my $0.15 cocoa ended up being $0.90. I guess that's what I get for not checking the receipt before leaving the store.

The Chex cereal wasn't a smashing good deal, but I needed two more participating items to make the other deals work, plus it was on my list of things to get for Christmas baking. I can also sell the Box Tops for Education on Ebay. 

2. Other shopping: I was able to get 3- and 5-packs of Handifoil pans for $1.00 per package at Kroger. I use these for meals for new moms, people who are sick, etc., so that was a great find. Normally they can be quite expensive. I also found plant food, deet-free mosquito spray and citronella candles at an extreme markdown at Walmart. I got orchid and African violet food, rose and flower food, and two different bags of all-purpose plant food; all were $1.00 per bag/bottle, except one larger bag was $2.00 and the citronella candles were about $0.63 each. I also saved $1.25 on batteries by using a coupon.

3. Ebay: I sold two items on Ebay for a profit of about $20.00 after fees and shipping.

4. Cooking and baking: I've designated Friday as baking day at our house. I don't get around to doing a new project every week, but most of the time I can. Since the last post, I made two different batches of puff pastry; one with butter and the other with animal fat. The animal fat batch turned out like pie crust, which wasn't a total waste. I froze the puff pastry dough and half of the pie crust dough to use later. I also experimented with two new cookie recipes; gingerbread cookies and "Holland Almond Wafers". Both were recipes from an old cookie cookbook that I trash-picked by the side of the road several weeks ago. The gingerbread cookies were okay. They rolled nice and were good for decorating, though the taste and texture weren't my favorite. I ended up freezing half the dough to make a gingerbread house in December. 🙂 

The almond wafers were "refrigerator cookies", which I've never had the patience to try before (you have to refrigerate the dough before baking). They reminded me of the refrigerated cookie dough that you can buy at the store, but the flavor was FAR superior and the cost lower. The almond wafers in particular were very good. They tasted a lot like windmill cookies, which are one of my favorite types of cookie. I've included some pictures below.

I've been trying to find an efficient way to cook and prep chicken thighs. You can buy them at Walmart for just $0.68/lb, all year round. With the last 10 lb. bag, I tried baking them on a cookie sheet with some spices rubbed on top. It worked great! We used two or three of the thighs for one meal right away. Then I drained the fat off into a jar to save for later. When the thighs had cooled a bit, I picked the skins off and baked them (bake insides up at 350 F until they look crispy) for a very tasty snack. I picked the meat off of the bones and filled about three quart-sized freezer bags. I used the bones to make two quarts of broth, so there was absolutely no waste! I melted the fat together with beef fat (from my cheap 10lb. roll of beef) to use like lard. From a $6.00 bag of thighs, I got about seven meals' worth of meat, two quarts of broth, cooking fat and some tasty "fried" chicken skins. I had been cooking the thighs in the Instant Pot, but it's easier to bake them and part them out all at once, only have one pan to wash, etc.

Lastly, I began a sourdough starter. I tried making sourdough bread many years ago, but it didn't work out. Recently a friend recommend the book Artisan Sourdough Made Simple by Emilie Raffa. I ordered it from the library interloan system and have been reading it. Already I can see some of the mistakes I made years ago, and perhaps why things didn't work out. I hope the new starter will work better. Sourdough bread can be cheaper to make than regular yeast bread, because you don't have to use yeast or oil.

5. Christmas and Thanksgiving prep: As mentioned before, I froze some puff pastry, pie and cookie dough. I made a lined pencil case and toiletry bag for our Operation Christmas Child shoe box, with supplies that I already had. I'll admit, the second bag looked a lot prettier than the first. I learned that it's a lot easier to make bags with slightly rounded corners so the zipper doesn't bulge at the corners.

OCC now has a "Follow Your Box" feature, where you can see where your shoe box ends up. While we were printing out the label, Hubs also read that they have a virtual "build a box" option for $25.00, where you can pick out different items, upload a photo of yourself and greeting (if you want to), and send the box from the comfort of your own home; no shopping required. Personally, I like the idea of sending a real box better, but I realized that we spent a lot more than $25.00 on our box. Next year I'm going to see if we can put together two boxes for the amount that we spent on one this year. If you set your budget at $25.00 for a box, minus the $9.00 shipping fee, that leaves $16.00 to spend on toys, personal hygiene, and school supplies. This year I adapted a list from the Prudent Homemaker website** to chose what would go in our box. Brandy is a lot more frugal than I am; she split a lot of the items (for example, bought one package of pencils and divided it between two boxes), made more of her gifts from scratch and bought things from the dollar store. We just went to Walmart and bought most of the things at full price. 

Giving, like eating out, is one area we choose not to economize on. Of course I'm always up for a deal when it comes to gifts, or getting more value for the money, but if an expensive item has more value, we don't mind spending extra money on it. For example, we bought Crayola colored pencils instead of Rose Art colored pencils for the shoe box. I feel like that is worth the money, since it is a gift and we can afford the upgrade. That being said, I could have bought the same colored pencils back in August for half the price, so... with a little planning, I think the shoe box money could go twice as far. 

I also made and ordered Christmas cards for us. Instead of printing regular Christmas cards, I just put our family photo, with a Christmas greeting, on a Vistaprint "business" postcard. These are quite a bit cheaper than regular photo cards, plus they are less expensive to mail ($0.35 for a postcard stamp, as opposed to $0.50 for a letter stamp). 

6. Cleaning and organizing: Finally, I spent some time decluttering and rearranging our home to increase efficiency. Cleaning out my spice collection, for example, allowed me to move the baking ingredients in a cabinet beneath the Kitchen Aid mixer, instead of having them on the other side of the room. I also cleaned and decluttered the sewing area, and organized half-finished projects in plastic baggies, where I could see them. I hope the time spent making these changes will help me get more done in the coming months. 

I think that's about all for today! 

Til next time,
-Bethany 

**Be sure to check the Operation Christmas Child guidelines before packing your box. Since Brandy wrote her post, the ministry has chosen not to allow things like candy or toothpaste to be sent in the boxes.

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

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

​Hi everyone! We just finished up "Birthday Week" here, starting with Baby's birthday last weekend and mine this weekend. Have I mentioned how much I LOVE this time of year? Hubs took me shopping to my favorite store and out to eat at my favorite restaurant. On the way, we stopped at a cemetery and found my great-great grandparents' (our daughter's great-great-GREAT grandparents!) headstone, which I'd never seen before. Cemeteries are often so quiet; it's like touring a museum of stone artwork. The occasional stroll through a graveyard is a good reminder of how short life is and how long eternity is. Plus... they're free! And it's even more fun when you can find your relatives!

Anyhow... onto frugal accomplishments.

1. Writing: I've been spending a lot of time editing and coming up with marketing materials for my next book. 🙂 🙂 I took a rather long break from writing after Baby was born, and it feels good to have another project nearing the finish line. I'm hoping it will be published by the end of this year.  

2. Cooking: I made a pumpkin roll, cookies and chili for Baby's little birthday party. We had some other things as well that were not homemade, and I made her a tiny birthday cake. I used half a 10 lb. roll of ground beef for the chili, so I used the other 5 lbs. to make a double batch of meatloaf and freeze several pounds of cooked burger. I figure if you have to repackage and freeze the meat anyway, you might as well cook it or mix it in with other things and make it a "freezer meal".

3. FREE BOOKS! While we were on a bike ride, I stopped by the side of the road to dig through a trailer pile of free stuff. Most of the time we just come home with empty beer/soda cans, but this time I brought home nine books!!! Some of the books were in fair or poor condition, but to me a free book is a free book. "The Prize Winner's Handbook", "The Art of Italian Cooking" "The Bicentennial Cookbook" and "Everything You Want to Know About Feet" were some of my finds. I also got a little book about how to save money on groceries (which included no less than 18 hot dog recipes) and three homemaking humor books. 

My favorite finds were two vintage magazine-style books. One was a McCall's Cookie Collection book from 1965. The second was a "Learn How Book" with instructions for knitting, embroidery, crochet, and tatting from 1941. I wanted to learn crochet on my birthday, and the book provided some good tips. I have another book with crochet instructions, and I've watched various Youtube videos, but have only slightly got the hang of it. The hook and yarn are still clumsy in my hands, and my work doesn't look consistent. I think I'd benefit from having an in-person lesson.

4. Birthday: I picked up a free personal-sized pizza for my birthday. I also received some mums and an orchid as birthday gifts. Two gifts that keep on giving! My grandparents also got me a cinnamon broom—something I'd never seen before. It makes our house smell wonderful! 

5. Cloth diapers: As I mentioned a few weeks ago, we've been battling smelly diapers and diaper rash for awhile now. Rash is not uncommon when cloth diapered babies transition from exclusive breast milk to solids, but it's certainly not pleasant. I invested in some buffalo/Native American polar fleece to make larger fleece liners to use with her diapers. The other roll of fleece in the clearance bin was printed with the presidential seal... I had to chuckle to myself at the thought of using it for diaper liners. Out of respect for the current President and all that came before him, I left that roll for someone else.

In addition to adding fleece liners to the diapers, I increased the temperature of our wash water and started changing Baby more frequently; every two hours or so. While the additional changes are annoying, they do cut down on diaper rash. Unfortunately it meant I had to buy some more diapers to stretch the stash.

Since I needed some extra inserts anyway, bought a pack of flour sack towels from Walmart to try as boosters for our Alva pocket diapers. I really like them. The cotton doesn't hold stink like microfiber does, and the flats are so, so fast and easy to dry. If nothing else, the flour sack towels will give me an extra day to dry the other inserts. When we first started cloth diapering, I purchased what I thought were "bamboo" inserts at $2.00 a piece. Last week I cut one of the inserts open and discovered that they're actually three layers of microfiber sandwiched between two layers of bamboo. No wonder ALL of the inserts stank! I'm going to stop using those for a while and instead use the flour sack towels as boosters. If I can do without the "bamboo" inserts, I'll try selling them. There's no reason to keep around a bunch of additional, stink-holding microfiber inserts if I have perfectly good hemp and cotton inserts to use.

I think that's about it for the week's accomplishments! I hope you are all having a lovely September.

-Bethany

1. Groceries: we bought a block of cheese for $12.00, and a half-bushel of peaches for $18.00.

2. Cooking: I froze most of the peaches, froze some Chinese long beans, made one batch of wine from our own green grapes, plus made three pints of tomato sauce.

Hubs and I had a great conversation last week about canning. I expressed frustration at spending my two free hours every day canning tomatoes, only to save $5.00 or less. Not only that, but my tomato sauce never tastes as good as the store sauce, or even sauce I can make from tomato paste that costs $0.40 per can. I asked Hubs if he had any ideas about how I could make the sauce better without spending even more time cutting and canning tomatoes. I wondered if we should buy a Kitchen Aid Victoria strainer attachment.

“You know, I don’t really like canned food,” he said. At first, I was shocked. There was no amount of work I could do to make my canned tomato sauce perfect. I would never win the battle for a perfect sauce! “What I like about having a garden is how fresh the fruits and vegetables are, and how good they taste,” he continued.

Suddenly, I had an epiphany.

“So you don’t like canned food. Come to think of it, I actually don’t love canning," I said. "What I like is the gardening! Why don’t I work on extending the garden season instead of planting so much to freeze and can?”

A weight lifted off of my shoulders. I’m not going to throw away my canner, but for this season of life it doesn’t make sense for me to do a lot of canning, especially for low-value products like tomato sauce. Why not spend time doing something I enjoy—gardening—and create food that my husband also enjoys? Nowadays there are all sorts of ways to grow things early in the spring, late into fall and even through the winter if you are willing to invest in a hydroponics or aquaponics system. I am so excited to be shifting my focus with the garden.

3. Thrift store: I bought some things at the Volunteers of America 50% off sale. I got a wicker tray for $1.50, a water container for $0.75, a book for $0.30, baby shoes for $1.00, a bowl for $0.50, brand new muffin cup liners for $0.30, and a belt for $0.50. The water dispenser and basket tray work great for a kitchen station that I’m working on for Baby (who is quickly becoming more of a toddler and less of a baby… sniffle!).

4. Collected cans to recycle on several bike rides.

5. Rearranged my recipe cards into days of the week and months of the year, rather than in categories of “Drinks,” “Soups,” “Desserts,” etc. I hope this will help me to have a more seasonal menu plan, while not changing the basic plan much. This system is a lot like the Sidetracked Home Executives plan for cleaning, except I’ve used it for cooking instead. My goal is to find specific recipes for each month that will utilize fresh, in-season and on sale ingredients as much as possible. The rotating menu plan is something I’ve wanted to implement for a long time, but wasn’t sure how to organize it. If the note cards work as planned, I’ll refill the “weekly” tabs once a month with new recipes. Then when I go to cook each day, all of the recipes will be in one place. I’ll also be able to peek at the next day’s note cards to see if I need to thaw out any meat or start cooking anything the day before.

6. Cloth diapers: I tested our water for hardness, and it came out at an average hardness of 250. I’ve been trying to resolve ammonia stink issues that developed over the last eight months. I stripped the diapers, which seemed to help a lot but didn’t entirely take away the stink. Supposedly your wash routine is not optimal if the diapers ever have stink issues, so I want to fix the problem and not have to strip again. Stripping isn’t particularly expensive or complicated, but it’s a hassle. It cost $5.00 for the bottle of Calgon, plus at least $1.00 for disposables that I had to use while stripping.

I also spent $29.00 on five new diapers from the Alva factory in China. We had some diapers poop out (haha) due to delamination, so I wanted to buy some more. I looked into some other different diaper options, but none were as cheap as the Alvas. Plus, I like the prints and how they fit.

As I continue to do cloth diapers, I hesitate to recommend it as a frugal activity for anyone besides first-time moms. At this point, I’ve spent at least $300.00 on cloth diaper related supplies—some of which worked, some of which didn’t. Diapers, inserts, pail liners, a sprayer, gloves and a spatula, more diapers and inserts, store-bought laundry soap, stripping supplies, special cloth-friendly clothing and clothing patterns. I’ve spent hours and hours crunching numbers, checking for deals, trying to fix issues like the ammonia stink one. I save less than $30.00 per month. Every time I buy new stuff for the stash, it cuts into savings. For example, I spent all of August’s savings on new diapers. Not only that, but I’m not saving 100% of the time because I still keep a small number of disposables on hand for road trips, stripping, severe rash, etc. Now I'm looking at adding water softener to the list, which would cost about $2.00 per week. I’m not saving as near much money as I originally thought I would. 

I’m convinced that the big savings from cloth diapers come mostly from use on the second child, and subsequent children; after you’ve worked out a lot of the kinks in your system, and when you’re not burning through diapers from misuse or buying accessories willy-nilly to find what works best. That means that the key to saving money with cloth diapers is to make your diapers last as long as humanly possible, while carefully limiting the ongoing costs of laundry detergent, disposable liners, etc.

So yeah, I’m feeling a little burnt out on canning and ambivalent about our cloth diapers. But excited about other things, like fall and new gardening projects and my birthday coming up. It’s important to re-evaluate what you’re doing at regular intervals to see if it’s still a good fit. Why settle for good when there is a “best” still out there?

Til next time,
Bethany

Hi everyone! I had a great week. 

1. Groceries: I spent $38.26 this week on groceries. I spent $35.76 at Walmart for staple items. We also stopped at a mom-and-pop grocery store, where I found some brown bananas. I bought 19 bananas for $2.40. 
   
2. Cooking: I canned a lot of tomatoes this week; some from my garden, and some that were gifted from my mother-in-law. I canned salsa, tomato sauce, and diced tomatoes. Most of my free time this week was spent canning tomatoes. I didn't mind since this was the main garden "project" I had planned for the year. I also froze more Chinese long beans and some sweet corn that we were gifted. My sweet corn failed this year, unfortunately.
   
3. Gardening: Apart from canning tomatoes, I spent the rest of my free time weeding strawberries. Little by little I have been chipping away at that enormous patch. Thanks to some help from my husband, I think I can finish the rest in decent time. Just when you have one end of the patch weeded, the other starts to need it. Gahhhh.
   
4. Personal care: I used coupons to get shampoo and conditioner for $0.53 per bottle. I used another coupon to get Hubs' favorite (only acceptable) brand of deodorant for $1.48 per stick. Lastly, I got some free toothpaste at Kroger with a store coupon, or "Best Customer Bonus." But you know what was truly a bonus? I found a manufacturer coupon in my purse for the same brand. I used both coupons then, and earned $2.00 by getting the free toothpaste.

5. Storage: Hubs made me several new wooden crates. Then he screwed them together to create a storage shelf. For the past year, as Baby gets bigger and leaves more stuff in her wake, I've been struggling to find storage space for everything. The crates are perfect because they are sturdy and you can arrange them however you want to make a piece of furniture. We tipped the boxes on their sides and screwed them together to form a tall shelf. I put Baby's eating and cleaning toys on it. The best part is this: When I don't want her (or any other kids) getting into the toys, I just turn the whole shelf around so it's facing the wall! Then you can set things on top of it like books, baskets, etc. When we move out of our current home, we can unscrew the crates from each other and use them like... well, crates. Hubs makes all of our boxes out of scrap lumber, so they're practically free. Plus they're sturdy and will last for years, unlike some of the pressboard furniture we have.

That's all for this week folks! 
Til next time,
​-Bethany

1. ​Groceries: I spent about $12.00 on groceries last week. I bought two mangoes in the marked down bin ($1.00), a free protein bar, and 2.5 lbs. of shredded cheese. The half-pound bags of cheese were supposed to be $1.00 each, but I apparently didn't download the coupon and ended up paying $2.00 per bag, for a final price of $4.00 per pound... which is FAR more than I usually spend. We were in a hurry, so I didn't bother to return the bags. I feel like this story repeats itself every time I walk into the grocery store unprepared and in a hurry.

2. Garden: I harvested Chinese long beans, Borlotto beans, tomatoes, peppers, watermelon, cucumbers and basil from the garden. We also ate some grapes from the orchard. The Borlotto beans don't taste as good as regular green beans, but the actual bean seeds are lovely.

I've also been attacking the weeds in my strawberry garden. It's hard, thankless work. By the time you finish weeding one end of the patch, the other end is in desperate need of it. Next year I think we will till the walkways and mulch the beds.  

3. Clothing: Our wardrobes have been slowly failing. A lot of our "good" clothes were becoming tattered and worn, so I separated the nice clothes from the work clothes, for both Hubs and I (we both work at home, so "work" clothes are second-quality). The good clothes pile was disturbingly small. For date night, we went to the mall to look for some new clothes. We bought two shirts for Hubs. I didn't like any of the womens' styles that we saw. Actually, there was one store that I liked- Christopher & Banks-, but the prices were shockingly high. I wasn't surprised to find that the target market was 40- to 60-year-old ladies. I guess I must be a middle-aged lady at heart.

I did find some quality swimwear that was 50% off, so I bought two pieces. Swimwear, like underwear, is something I prefer to buy new. 

4. Garage Sale: A church down the road had a free garage sale. I found five shirts and one pair of pants for myself, which was great since I didn't find anything at the mall. I also found two toys for Baby, several books, beautiful old handkerchiefs, a travel bingo game and missing Scrabble tiles for our board. Now all I need is a Q!

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