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

​​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

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

​Even though I spent WAY more than our allotted $30.00 per week, our total for the month is only at $80.51, or 62% of the March grocery budget. I've been trying to clean out the freezer, so I'm doing less bulk buying and more no-spend weeks. The weeks in between no-spend are a little higher than usual. I might switch to an every-other-week shopping trip for a while because that seems to be what's happening anyway.

2. Cooking: I made brownies for a potluck this week (from two of my $0.25 brownie mixes... YAY). I also made boiled eggs, quiche, french toast, egg salad sandwiches, and fried eggs. We, uh, have lots of eggs to work with. The french toast was great because it helped me use up stale bread from last week. I also tried out several recipes I want to put in my book on frugal fruits and vegetables; a cabbage/beef stir-fry, and gnocchi, a potato-based pasta.

3. Clothing: I finished patching the pants I started last week; FIVE more pairs of jeans, back into commission! I'm just wondering though, at what point do you stop patching and just buy a new (used) pair of pants. Some of these jeans were on their second patch already, and I'm wondering how many times I can run them through the washer before they start to develop holes in other areas. I decided to do the second patches because it costs almost nothing for the patch and just about 15-20 minutes to sew around the piece, depending on its size. So I figured that was worth it if I could get a few more weeks or months out of the jeans.

Another frugal thing I did was make Baby Girl a cute little tutu for her 6-month pictures. I'd initially thought about buying a special outfit for the pictures, then buying supplies to make the tutu (all I had for the outfit was a certain hair bow that I wanted her to wear). We had scheduled pictures for the next day, so I knew that the more time I spent shopping, the less time I would have to alter/fix/sew an outfit from scratch if the thrift stores or Walmart didn't have exactly what I wanted. So instead of spending precious time shopping, I dug through my sewing supplies. I had some white tulle!! And I had plenty to make a tutu for Baby, plus some blue bias tape for a waistband to match her hair bow. I'm delighted with the way her whole outfit turned out. Hopefully, I'll have some pictures to share with you all soon.

What I liked best about the tutu was 1) it was free, but 2) it also used up some of those dumb sewing supplies that I've been hoarding since I was 15. Instead of sitting in the sewing room gathering dust, the tulle is now a pretty, usable item for our baby that saved us money.

4. Cloth diapers: I picked up some more aluminum cans to recycle and also sold some bits and pieces of my cloth diaper stash on eBay. I had some prefolds, diaper fasteners, vinyl pants and other items sitting in storage. Now that I've found a diaper system that works for us, I know I'll never, ever use the prefolds or other items again. So instead of them using up all of my storage space, gathering dust, I hope to sell them and use the money to buy more of what I do want; trimmer hemp inserts for our pocket diapers.

Again, what I love about spending limits is that they force you to be creative. Items that are just taking up space can be used, enjoyed and not wasted. 

5. Books: Got more books from the library!! These are the two I brought home:

I'm excited about trying the Montessori approach to (home) preschool for Baby. It seems to align with our goals as a family and as parents. There is a lot of emphasis on self-sufficiency and learning practical skills. Reading through the book, I was blown away by some of the incredibly simple tricks and tips; for example, how little kids can put on a coat all by themselves, how to explain addition or introduce letters. One fascinating idea was the "Montessori birthday party," "birthday walk" or "celebration of life ceremony" (the last one sounds like a funeral... just saying!). It involves your child holding a globe while walking around a candle (the sun). Each walk around the "sun" represents a year of life. This is the Montessori approach to showing kids how time and age works. I've never given a thought to most of these things. The DK book has so many ideas, which I'm afraid I will forget most of them by the time Baby is preschool age. I may just have to buy the book. :)

I also borrowed Ross Poldark from the library's Libby app. I have a terrible habit of looking at my phone before falling asleep, which makes it very hard to fall asleep. I'm attempting to break my phone habit by leaving the phone in the kitchen at night and only reading on my Kindle before bed. I tried reading non-fiction before bed, but that gets my brain pumping with new ideas and makes it even harder to fall asleep. Fiction is more passive and helps me separate work (daytime activities) from rest (sleeping!). What I LOVE about Libby is that you can borrow the book for two weeks, renew the book for another two weeks, and THEN keep the book open on your Kindle to read it indefinitely (even if it's technically been "returned"). If the book DOES get returned, you can just check it out again! I have been working on this Ross Poldark book off and on since January. Maybe someday I'll finish it.

6. Email giveaway: SO, I got a ton of feedback on the giveaway survey that I posted last week. The most popular prize option was my books (I'm flattered, you guys!), followed by kitchen items. And an overwhelming majority of you wanted "practical things that will save money." That's right up my alley! I've had so much fun putting together April's prize package. I still need to work out some things, but for the most part, I know what it will be.  

I believe that's about all for this week! Looking forward to another frugal week,
-Bethany

1. Groceries: We had a no-spend week. Still working on cleaning out the freezer. I want to have most of the current contents gone by August when we'll have more garden produce to freeze. 

2. Cooking: I made boiled eggs in the Instant Pot and bread in the bread machine this week. I need to start changing my menu a little bit to absorb all of the eggs we've been getting. I think I'll do egg salad for our "sandwich Thursday" and then a quiche meal, along with my regular eggs for breakfast. I also switched from pancakes on Saturday to French toast, which is another excellent way to use up eggs.

3. Gardening: I continue to watch the little tomato seedlings that I planted last week. Some of the seedlings suffered from damping off. This happened last year, and the year before as well, but NOT the first year I started seeds. I figured out last week that it might be because I'm "frugally" reusing the potting soil. Oops. I guess I'm not saving money if all of the seedlings die. Next year I'm going to use all pellets, which are much easier to store and use than regular seed starter.

4. Clothing: Ironed patches on several pairs of jeans. I still have to sew around the edges in order for the pants to be back in commission. I also picked up more cans to recycle for diaper money. :)

5. Taxes*: we got our taxes back from the accountant this week. Most people don't bother trying to save on taxes, but if you have income besides a paycheck (rent income, small business income, "other" income, etc.), it's worth getting an accountant to help out. We itemize our deductions instead of taking the standard deductions, so there are plenty of ways for us to save on taxes. This includes putting money into tax-sheltered retirement accounts (something anyone can do), writing off all business expenses and even keeping track of Goodwill donations. I made over $600.00 on book royalties, which was super! But even BETTER, we were able to find enough write-offs to eliminate taxes on that income, which would have been at least $120.00. I'm keeping much better track of my writing expenses this year, as the income will probably be quite a bit higher.

6. Books: I ordered another book from our library's interloan system. I also borrowed an audiobook from the library's Libby app. 

That's about it for this week. I've been spending some of my afternoons finishing up the first draft of The Housewife's Guide to Frugal Produce (or, Frugal Fruits and Vegetables- I haven't decided.). I'm not finished quite yet, but... soon.

Til next time,
-Bethany

*Just so you all know, I'm not a tax professional by a long shot! But taxes are fascinating to me, and I'm proud to say that I found two legit tax-saving strategies this year, all by myself.