Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Frugal Five

Five frugal activities from the past week:
  1. Went to the library. Would you believe I hadn't been in over a year? Hoping to make it a more regular occurrence this year. The littles are enjoying the new books we checked out. 
  2. Harvested broccoli from our broccoli plants. We've harvested all the heads of broccoli from our plants but now little broccoli shoots have been growing.  They've been around floret size--so yummy and tasty. Plan to cut some of the leaves and eat them like greens; have read that the leaves are very nutritious.
  3. Rock hurt his leg last weekend and after watching him for about a day, determined that he was getting worse instead of better. And he wasn't acting at all like himself. So we took him to the vet to see what was wrong. Turns out he had pulled a muscle which they gave him pain meds for. Going to the vet isn't exactly a frugal experience (although not astronomically expensive for this visit)  but we remembered to take our electric co-op's membership card which gave us 10 % off of his visit cost. Every little bit helps! They entered the info into their system so now we will automatically get the discount for each visit without having to show the card. 
  4. Stayed in budget with grocery spending for the 2nd half of the month. This is taking some extra planning and getting better about knowing my prices but so far, so good! We had been overspending in the grocery category the past few months due to poor planning and the holidays so we're buckling down and committing to sticking to our monthly budget!
  5. Worked on some sewing projects from my stash of scrap fabrics--more on that later! 
What frugal fun have you been up to? 

3 comments:

Monica Wilkinson said...

Hi Mary Ann! When we grew broccoli a few years ago, I did cook the leaves as greens for David :) Also, am right with you on the grocery budget thing - we've been struggling to stay on, but I've been much more diligent at watching this month and so far so good! Great job on your frugal things for the past week.

Now, for frugality here - let's see:
1. The toilet in our bathroom has been slowly leaking around the base. David found a wax seal in our hardware cabinet and replaced it yesterday - yay, fixed! {and free!}
2. Needing a gift for a baby shower over the weekend, I found a new bottle of pink baby lotion in my gift stash and was able to buy a pkg of diapers for four cents with a gift card that has been sitting in my wallet.
3. Watched a movie from the library!
4. Made valentines for my homeschool CC class with things I had on hand plus a package of heart doilies from the Dollar Tree 30/$1!
5. Used a credit/bonus I had on Amazon to order some books - two for gifts and one for myself.

Have a great day :)

Wendi said...

I plan to try growing broccoli again this year. The little guys I watch love it! I will have to remember about the leaves and try that for my dad.

This week...

*signed up for the mperks program at Meijer and got $2.00 off my purchase and a free gallon of milk (did this twice once under my cell # & then Chuck's).

*Used $5 gift checks we received for buying gift cards from Steak & Shake for Christmas gifts to enjoy a frugal lunch out after church Sunday.

*Instead of throwing away the leg I cut off of a pair of ripped pants I saved it and used it for a craft project.

*When my sister asked me to run some errands and have lunch I said no because I knew I would spend money I shouldn't.

*While helping Megan make v-day cards to send out next month I made a card with a nice note for Chuck instead of buying him a card.

I enjoy hearing about your frugal adventures. It inspires me to be better!

Manuela@A Cultivated Nest said...

Yep, I did the same with my grocery budget the last few months but I'm being more diligent about it so we're back on track (so far).

That's great to be able to get a discount at the vet!

I also read that the broccoli leaves were good to eat so plan on doing that too. Mine are getting little baby heads since I harvested the larger ones a few weeks ago.