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:
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