This rose bloomed on my birthday! I bought it when I was a teenager and it came with me when I married Hubs. It has the most amazing scent.
Lately I feel like I've been a little short on frugal accomplishments. I've been working a lot on my new book, The Housewife's Guide to Frugal Food- How to Eat for $10.00 per Week. Feedback has come in from beta readers, which is exciting. Right now I'm in the final stages of editing and filling in the cracks where readers requested more information or pointed out different flaws. This was really helpful, and I'm so thankful for those who offered to help!
The subtitle of my book, "How to Eat for $10.00 per Week" came last year when Hubs and I were reviewing our 2015 spending. To my surprise, I discovered that we were spending about $80.00 per month, more or less, on groceries. This year has been similar. In fact, our average monthly spending has been about $64.00; that is about $8.00 per person per week. Earlier in the year, I decided to write a little handbook for those of you who are looking for more ways to save money on groceries. After doing additional research for the book, I've learned a lot more myself, which is probably why our grocery bill has become even lower than last year.
For the month of October, I would like to show you what this kind of spending looks like, practically. I'm going to do the best I can to take pictures of different meals and include prices of each, where I got the ingredients, etc. Fall is a good time to do this, because the garden and farm animals are slowing down and I don't get to "cheat" with all of the free milk, eggs and produce. For the next six months, we will be buying milk and eggs too, most likely.
Here is a picture of what we bought for groceries this week:
The subtitle of my book, "How to Eat for $10.00 per Week" came last year when Hubs and I were reviewing our 2015 spending. To my surprise, I discovered that we were spending about $80.00 per month, more or less, on groceries. This year has been similar. In fact, our average monthly spending has been about $64.00; that is about $8.00 per person per week. Earlier in the year, I decided to write a little handbook for those of you who are looking for more ways to save money on groceries. After doing additional research for the book, I've learned a lot more myself, which is probably why our grocery bill has become even lower than last year.
For the month of October, I would like to show you what this kind of spending looks like, practically. I'm going to do the best I can to take pictures of different meals and include prices of each, where I got the ingredients, etc. Fall is a good time to do this, because the garden and farm animals are slowing down and I don't get to "cheat" with all of the free milk, eggs and produce. For the next six months, we will be buying milk and eggs too, most likely.
Here is a picture of what we bought for groceries this week:
Groceries This Week:
1 gallon milk- $1.69
1 head cabbage- $0.98
3 lbs. yellow onions- $1.94
2.6 lbs. bulk carrots- $1.75
1 doz. large eggs- $1.68
2 boxes ice cream- $6.00
You'll notice that the ice cream is not included in my photo. That is because my first thought was, "The ice cream doesn't count because it was for a special occasion." Then I reminded myself that it DID count, because every week there is probably a special occasion that we buy stuff for.
Some other "groceries" I plan on using this week are fresh tomatoes from the garden, a small pumpkin I found in the backyard, a bag of apples my mom gave me, foraged greens, and meat from the freezer. I will probably use a lot of other things in the pantry too, like flour, spices, canned goods, or rice. I will try to keep track of these items as well.
Frugal Accomplishments This Week:
1. Collected grass clippings to use as mulch.
2. Harvested beans, peppers, tomatoes and broccoli from the garden. I froze the broccoli and peppers, we ate the beans for dinner, and I also dried some of the hot peppers to use as spices. I used the tomatoes to make seven pints of salsa. On Friday I harvested tomatoes again, but instead of canning them I sold some at the farmers market and gave the rest away. I am really sick of doing tomatoes.
3. Sold 2 dozen eggs. The chickens are really slowing down at this point, so I've started buying eggs to supplement what we are getting.
4. Earned $22.52 at the farmers market. This was my last week of market. I have a detailed post coming about all of the things I learned this year, improvements made and possible plans for next year.
5. A neighbor let me dig up some of her echinacea and also a baby Catalpa tree. I transplanted the echinacea into my garden right away. I'm still trying to decide where to put the tree. I've noticed that many of the homes in our area built in the 1860's- 1870's have Catalpa trees planted in the front yard somewhere or beside the driveway. So I kind of want to continue the tradition with our house, which was built around the turn of the century.
6. Thursday was my birthday! To celebrate, I got a free birthday pizza from our local pizzeria. Hubs and I shared it for lunch. Later in the day we went to the R. E. Olds Transportation Museum in Lansing, followed by a visit to one of my favorite stores; William Sonoma. I did a lot of drooling over the pretty cookware, and then we left empty-handed. That was the frugal part.
1 gallon milk- $1.69
1 head cabbage- $0.98
3 lbs. yellow onions- $1.94
2.6 lbs. bulk carrots- $1.75
1 doz. large eggs- $1.68
2 boxes ice cream- $6.00
You'll notice that the ice cream is not included in my photo. That is because my first thought was, "The ice cream doesn't count because it was for a special occasion." Then I reminded myself that it DID count, because every week there is probably a special occasion that we buy stuff for.
Some other "groceries" I plan on using this week are fresh tomatoes from the garden, a small pumpkin I found in the backyard, a bag of apples my mom gave me, foraged greens, and meat from the freezer. I will probably use a lot of other things in the pantry too, like flour, spices, canned goods, or rice. I will try to keep track of these items as well.
Frugal Accomplishments This Week:
1. Collected grass clippings to use as mulch.
2. Harvested beans, peppers, tomatoes and broccoli from the garden. I froze the broccoli and peppers, we ate the beans for dinner, and I also dried some of the hot peppers to use as spices. I used the tomatoes to make seven pints of salsa. On Friday I harvested tomatoes again, but instead of canning them I sold some at the farmers market and gave the rest away. I am really sick of doing tomatoes.
3. Sold 2 dozen eggs. The chickens are really slowing down at this point, so I've started buying eggs to supplement what we are getting.
4. Earned $22.52 at the farmers market. This was my last week of market. I have a detailed post coming about all of the things I learned this year, improvements made and possible plans for next year.
5. A neighbor let me dig up some of her echinacea and also a baby Catalpa tree. I transplanted the echinacea into my garden right away. I'm still trying to decide where to put the tree. I've noticed that many of the homes in our area built in the 1860's- 1870's have Catalpa trees planted in the front yard somewhere or beside the driveway. So I kind of want to continue the tradition with our house, which was built around the turn of the century.
6. Thursday was my birthday! To celebrate, I got a free birthday pizza from our local pizzeria. Hubs and I shared it for lunch. Later in the day we went to the R. E. Olds Transportation Museum in Lansing, followed by a visit to one of my favorite stores; William Sonoma. I did a lot of drooling over the pretty cookware, and then we left empty-handed. That was the frugal part.
After that, we went to Goodwill. I found an old thread box to store all of my random garage sale threads for $1.00.
After shopping, we went to a fancy Italian restaurant, which wasn't frugal but it was REALLY good!!!
This week I look forward to finish up some fall harvest tasks, finishing up my book, and doing some fall cleaning/organization projects.
What did you do to be frugal this week? What is your favorite part about autumn?
This week I look forward to finish up some fall harvest tasks, finishing up my book, and doing some fall cleaning/organization projects.
What did you do to be frugal this week? What is your favorite part about autumn?
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