Frugal Freaks (May 13-19)

[mommyddeville]

What have you done that's freakishly frugal this week? What do you plan to do?

[mommyddeville]

For Mother's Day, we stayed home. My husband and son actually went to the grocery store and my son decided that I wanted donuts for mother's day. So we spent $3 on that, and it was a really sweet day because my son said "Yuf you, Mama" (Love you, mama)

I also passed my boy clothes on to a friend who has a newborn boy, and my girl clothes are going to a different friend who is due in July. That's not really a frugal move for me, but it's nice to know that I'll be helping two friends.

[Amys1st]

Got a vent for our new stove in our new house on Craigs list. Its a 3K vent that was in a hooty tooty area. The kitchen was just remodeled two years ago. Then the house was sold and knocked down. So we bought the hood vent from the co that took all the appliances etc to sell for the owner. So my 3K hood was $800 cash. I love that we were able to just hand it over. So yes its some money, but its recycling a perfect vent hood and the 3K would have been a stretch.

[Stone Fence]

Subbing. I moved wheelbarrows of compost from my compost pile (we have a horse) to the garden. Saved a gym membership and I'm growing lots of cheap veggies. Of course the horse isn't very frugal:

[CeciMami]

I bought a shelving unit (for DS small toy baskets) at a garage sale for $1. It was in pieces but a little wood glue, nails, and recycled paint later...ta da! A very sturdy piece that's painted to match the hall and kitchen on either side of the family room...tying it all together! frugal and fashion...perfect together!

[velcromom]

Ok I don't know if this counts, but Dh discovered a bill against us on our credit report and instead of just arranging payments he investigated further... and got it figured out that it was a mistake in recording a SS# that caused the bill to be mistakenly applied to us... saved us $4K.

Still not turning on the AC. Also leaving the heat off at night. I love spring and fall when we can do that.

Trying to bake a couple of loaves of bread each week... still working on getting it all right.

Restocked the freezer with bone broth and cooked black beans.

[Metta&Karuna]

On Saturday I bought some old flannel sheets at a yardsale and yesterday I cut them into squares for family cloth. I set them up in the bathroom and I LOVE them already. I realize they will save me money, but they don't feel frugal, they feel decadent. TP seems so crude now by comparison!


(I love MDC for introducing me to fabulous ideas like that. Thanks MDC and MDC mamas!)

[umbrella]

Both of my kids have their birthdays in the same month, and so I've been looking in catalogs for ideas. The American Girl catalog has the Bitty Baby starter set for $90. It has a small trunk, and various baby blankie and clothing items. I thought that was a cute idea for my youngest, but totally not worth the money. But now I have a idea that can be easily replicated, with better quality items, at a fraction of the cost, if I search them all out piecemeal.

[meandk0610]

i picked up an old but working sewing machine from freecycle and found a flannel sheet in a size i no longer have a bed for. i'm torn between trying to make family cloth and mama cloth. given that as of right now i can basically sew a crooked line (and haven't even tried that on the new machine), i'm thinking probably family cloth.

sarah

[Matt's Mom in MT]

We found a Razor scooter for Matt. It was by the trash, but not in it, so I don't feel so yicky about it.

[kijip]

Well, I tried to talk my husband in to buying a washer only for our new house and skipping the dryer. We can afford the dryer, but I wanted to see how we would do if we had to line dry everything. No tamale, the man wants a dryer. And the matching dryer for the HE, front loading, washer we want is insanely expensive. And we have to get a stackable set up in order to fit a full size washer and dryer on the third floor of the townhouse where the washer and dryer is- no room for side by side. So no mismatched set that I know of will work. So we will be spending like a zillion dollars on the washer and dryer. Going to wait for memorial day to buy in the hopes of a big sale.

We did score rugs for the hardwood floors for cheap used and we are scouring the ads for a used armchair for the living room.

I am taking the red dining room hutch from IKEA we have had in my mother's basement for a couple of years and refinishing it to be a darker wood color rather than buying a different piece of furniture.

Also looking for a used wagon to fix up for our son's 4th birthday next month, rather than buying a new one. He has his heart set on a wagon now that we will have a park across the street to pull it over to!

[amyamanda]

Sarah, we started family cloth last week. The girls and I use it; not sure if DH and the boys are on board but I'm okay with that. It's going very well. I guess that is my freakishly frugal thing for the week.

[velcromom]

I realized I needed more cloth napkins so instead of buying, I used some fabric I had lying around. I can't sew worth beans but I just did the best I could and they are fine.

Also for outdoor frugality, I have taken about 25 starts off my sedum plants which will provide me with enough plants to populate the new flower bed in the front of the house (still in planning stages, so enough time to get these baby starts going). I love sedum for their easy propogation... the plants I took from today are 4th generation from the 2 or 3 plants I bought about five years ago!

[SusannahM]

I finally ordered some more cloth diapers, and am going to be doing it full-time! DS is four months now, I guess it's about time. DD is potty training, so hopefully we don't have to do diapers for her much longer, either.

DH is working out a route today so that he can ride to work on his bicycle. He's having to do backroads and trails since the busy road you have to take by car (there are no backroads by car, the building is on a road that only connects to one other road!) has had MANY bicyclists killed on it.

We've only started the car the kids ride in once this week when we went to the library. We went to the park by bus on Tues and walked to Target yesterday. We plan on walking to Academy tonight to get a chimney starter for our charcoal, which should last a lifetime instead of having to buy lighter fluid (which I don't want to fume off into my food anyway!).

We haven't turned on our air conditioner yet (except when we've had guests), I think the hottest it's gotten in here is 82, but it's been in the lower 90s somedays outside. I think 85 degrees will be our breaking point.

[witch's mom]

Frugal things this week:

I haven't run my dryer for the last three loads of laundry I've done. Dragged out my drying rack, hung stuff in an empty closet, etc.

Only driving to necessary places, like work. Considering driving anywhere just like spending money. Walking or biking whenever possible.

Getting downstairs bedroom/guest room/laundry pile area ready for DDs to sleep down there during hot weather. This reduces our need for A/C and can keep us off it until the temps hit 100 or more.

"Making do" with what groceries we've got.

Using up two rotting bananas by making banana bread.

[ColoradoMama]

Bought dh a pair of like new Levi's at a garage sale, so we don't need to buy them new! (he really needs jeans!) Also, I'm cutting up a torn sheet to make cloth napkins for us today.

[SusannahM]

Originally Posted by witch's mom

Using up two rotting bananas by making banana bread.

We had to use up some really brown bananas in smoothies, along with some 1/2 bananas my daughter refused to eat the rest of. Oh well, at least discarded fruit is easy to use up!

Anyone got any ideas for what to do with leftover scrambled eggs my daughter leaves on her plate in the morning?

[velcromom]

I found a five pound bag of bananas on sale for 99 cents because the skins were brown. On the inside they were perfect, not overripe at all, and some of them were even organic! We ate some and I froze some in chunks - made "fudgesicles" out of banana, coconut milk and homemade chocolate syrup (another frugal moment, so easy!)

Anyone got any ideas for what to do with leftover scrambled eggs my daughter leaves on her plate in the morning?

I'd save them and at lunchtime, throw them into a stir-fry. I often scramble eggs to add to a noodle or grain stir-fry, they soak up some soy sauce and taste great.

[Crunchy*VT*Mom]

Wanted brownies for dinner.

Didn't go to the store to buy brownie mix, looked up how to make brownies in an old James Beard Cookbook we already had at home.

Didn't have any chocolate for the brownies.

Hmmmm....

Made chocolate from Hershey's powder and veggie oil (it works...) from recipe on the back of the cocoa box.

[meandk0610]

Originally Posted by SusannahM

Anyone got any ideas for what to do with leftover scrambled eggs my daughter leaves on her plate in the morning?

i save them for the next day's eggs and add them in at the end. we don't eat many grains so it's usually some variety of egg for breakfast.

sarah