Frugal Accomplishments

Hello, all!  I just took a few photos this week - hope you don't mind!  Here are our frugal accomplishments:

I signed up for two free magazine subscriptions - one for my mom and one for my dad.  I used my email, so they get the magazines, and I get the spam.



I like to measure everything into the jar (so I know it will fit in the jar)...

Food prep for the week included tuna croquettes, tartar sauce, carrot-raisin salad, lots and lots of green salad, Italian dressing mix, Italian dressing, roasted potatoes and onions, glazed carrots, chicken stock, trail mix, zucchini bread, apple bread, a breakfast casserole, spaghetti and meat sauce, chili and rice and parmesan-sesame crusted chicken.  We had home-canned green beans and fresh mushrooms that I picked up on markdown.

....then dump it out, mix, and then re-fill the jar.

I belong to a very local 'saving group' on Facebook.  I sold a tub of Duplos and a loaf of zucchini bread this week.  The cottage industry law in my state allows for selling some items - honey, baked goods in small amounts, jams and jellies in small amounts and eggs - without a commercial kitchen.  I've put out feelers and it looks like this could be a way to bring in a little cash now and then.  Because the group is so local, I can bake something, photograph it and name a price.  If it sells, OK.  If not, it will go in my freezer or pantry.

We borrowed books and movies from the library. 

Husband and I dismantled the pizio-electric on the tankless water heater.  It's a little doohickey with a flywheel in it that generates the power to spark the doohickey where the propane comes out, so that it will light and heat our water, and it's been acting a little fussy.  We cleaned all the screens and filters and lubricated the flywheel.  So far, so good.  (Update - nope, still fussy.) A new water heater will run right around $900 (including permit), so we hope we can get this resolved.

I picked up two books at the library friends sale that I know Daughter will love.  They are put away for her birthday or for Christmas.

A friend blessed us with some Christian fiction and two cookbooks, plus some pretty purple pencils!  I will pay her for the postage.  Thank you, Helen!  We love it all!

I found a recipe online for dry Italian dressing mix, so I made a batch, then used some of it to make Italian dressing.

I loaned my friend the food mill attachment for the Kitchenaid mixer.  When she brought it back, she had tucked in some thank-you treats for us.  Thanks, Kelly!  She was also kind enough to take some kale...since I grew it and don't know what to do with it, other than chopping a little into soup.

I used the frame from a rotisserie chicken we'd eaten to make chicken stock, which was the base for a vegetable soup we had this week.  I went through the vegetable drawer for the soup too, and used a celery heart, some chopped onion, etc. that might not have been used otherwise.

I made apple butter and dehydrated some apple slices sprinkled with cinnamon.

We ended up with 12 jars of apple butter - 10 half pints and 2 three quarter pints.

We combined errands and a field trip for Daughter on town day.  While we were out, we used a coupon at Wendy's.  For 1.07 total, Daughter and I each had a substantial snack.  Raisins in bulk went on sale, so I got a little over 5 pounds, and refilled our container.  (We were out.) I was able to get some dish soap for .50 per bottle.  There is another variety free with a coupon and I got three of those as well.  We're stocked for a while.

We visited the Happy Cats Haven, a no-kill shelter where Daughter will be volunteering once a month.  (happy happy!)

We fed apple scraps to the chickens.

We washed full loads of laundry with homemade laundry soap, and dried them on drying racks downstairs. 

We were given a loaf of banana bread.  We cut some to go with our popcorn on movie night.

Room for Improvement:

We got three eggs this week.  When you factor in that our half-size birds lay half-size eggs, this is not going to be enough.  I need to get a light out there on a timer....and I need to figure out how to get the two blue-gray hens to break their broodiness.  They have been broody for a long time, and really, girls, it's time to give it up for a while. :) 

With the water heater acting up, we are running water that is cold when we need hot.  It looks like we are going to have to replace the pizio-electric.  It's an expensive part, so hopefully it really is the problem.  Then again, every part on this thing is pricey, and they're all non-refundable, so we are at least making an informed guess...I hope.  Replacing the part isn't the 'room for improvement', but running excess water is.

OK, there's my list!  How was your week?  What did you do to save money, and how did you have fun?  Leave a comment, pretty please!