1. Groceries: spent $35.70 this week on groceries. Cheese was on sale for $2.66/lb. at Kroger, so I stocked up (I like to wait till it's around $2.50/lb). I also found bacon reduced for $2.79/lb. and a bag of three avocados for $1.00. I also got some free Carbmaster cottage cheese (which was awful, but at least it was free), two free bags of English muffins and two free bags of bagels. You can watch my haul on Facebook (internet issues so I couldn't upload to Youtube) to hear about the particulars.
We also spent $4.99 on a vegetable tray for the church potluck that always sneaks up on me. I will do a lot better with this when we have baby's schedule more figured out. For now I consider it a success that we got out the door on time, fully dressed and with a packed diaper bag.
$35.70 + $4.99 + $14.00 (last week's spending) = $54.69 spent so far in October. My budget for this month is $120.00 ($30.00/wk.), so with half the month left, we're right on track. I would love to do a no-spend November but... holiday sales. So that will probably not happen, although I won't buy as much "normal eating" food for the pantry.
2. Garden: harvested and froze some more peppers.
3. Printed some baby pictures at Walmart. This was a lot cheaper than having them printed by the photographer.
4. Downloaded the Libby app to my phone. Libby allows you to borrow audio books for free with your library card. One more reason not to subscribe to Audible. Audio books are great for people who "don't like reading" or "don't have time to read".
5. Activated my new-to-me phone. For the past several years I've not had a phone that makes calls (I use Hubs' old phone for apps and Facebook calling). Since we have a baby now, I thought it would be a good idea to have a working cell phone if I leave the house alone. Hubs dug his old Trac phone out of storage and reactivated it.
Because I rarely make cell phone calls (thanks to Facebook calling and our land line), we decided to go with the cheapest plan possible: buying a $30.00 prepaid phone card with 120 minutes and using an old phone we already had. The minutes last for three months before you have to buy a new card. I doubt I'll use up all of the minutes, but at $10.00 per month it was the cheapest phone plan we could think of.
6. Frugal fun: so last but not least, I got to have some frugal fun on Saturday. I didn't know it until last week, but down the road from us there is a REALLY old house buried in the middle of the woods. You literally can't see it from the road. The real estate agent offered to let me ride along and see the outside (she knows I love local history!).
Local history is an awesome free form of entertainment. While many of us will pay money to get into bigger history museums or see more famed attractions, many towns or cities have small history museums that are free or only a couple of dollars to get into. The internet is full of old public domain books and other information that can be helpful to the local historian. Right now I'm digging into minutes of our local "Pioneer Society"- made up of literal Michigan pioneers in the 1880s (our area was settled in the 1830's). At one time I would've had to go the library (or other public place) and look at the actual papers in person, but now most of that stuff is on the internet for free.
When I got home I looked up some history on the house, and as it turned out the house belonged to the very first doctor in our area. It was occupied by the same family for four generations, which is probably why not many improvements/updates were made (there was still an outhouse in the back yard). It might not be around for much longer (and it's only visible if you're canoeing on the river!) so I'm glad I got to see it. I enjoy pegging historical figures or events to different places in the neighborhood. It's kind of like a treasure hunt to see who lived in this house or that house, when it was built, what the occupants did for a living, etc. Then to top it all off, you can go find their headstone at the cemetery! LOL. (One lady was particularly hard to find... I had to wait until Memorial Day when they opened the mausoleum to find her final resting place.)
So yay for free educational entertainment!
Til next time,
-Bethany