Month: July 2019

I missed my Frugal Friday list last week.  I had a good excuse, I spent the day with my sister in law and her kids at Cave of the Mounds in southwestern Wisconsin.  If you live in the area and have never been, put it on your bucket list, it’s an amazing place.  We had a really nice day and it was a welcome break from the overwhelming heat wave we were experiencing.  The caves are 50 degrees, it felt like heaven.  Afterwards, we stopped for lunch at a local brewpub (I bought my husband a growler, which I always do when I go brewpubs) and had a nice conversation and time with her kids.  It felt like a perfect summer day.

The garden is finally showing signs of life.  I think the combination of late spring, torrential rains and then a weird heatwave has those little plants confused.  But, I recently spotted a flower on one of my eggplant and the squash seem like they are ready to do what they do best,  provide more fruit than any family could possibly eat.  It might be a late harvest, but I do believe that we will have a respectable amount of veggies to get us by for several weeks.

We lost a hive due to whatever is getting the world’s poor little honeybees.  Eric harvested that honey and wax.  The honey will not be suitable for sale or for toast or tea.  But, it will do well in baking, beer or mead.  However, the wax is gorgeous.  I am going to be able to make at least 2 candles from it.

Now time for the Frugal Friday list.  I will roll together 2 weeks rather than one this week.

1. My daughter is able to bring home leftover pastries from her job that have not been purchased.  We have a freezer full of breakfast foods that we have been enjoying a couple days a week.  I am so happy her employer allows them to do this rather than it going straight to a landfill.
2. My parents gave us a gift card to a local restaurant as a thank you for watching their dog.  We used it last weekend and had a fabulous meal.
3. My husband and daughter went to another super hero movie, paying for it with a gift card.  I think he has officially used up his movie cards with Avengers now being in the theatre.
4. I signed up to receive dog food from chewy.com.  They mailed me an offer I couldn’t refuse.  Dog food is so expensive.
5. We did a little bit of Christmas shopping on Prime Day.  We usually buy holiday gifts from local merchants.  But, there were a couple of electronics that we wanted to purchase.

What did you do this week to save some cash?

I can’t believe it’s another Friday and time to go through a list of things we did to save some pennies this week.  Let me start by saying we had an unexpected expense last Friday.  I took my car in for maintenance only to find out that a pothole cracked an axel on my car.  Ouch.  It was not as expensive as I would have thought, so that was a win, I guess.  I like to think it was avoidable, but with the winter we had, I am betting we are far from the only family to be dealing with car issues caused by potholes.

1.  My son and I went to see Toy Story 4.  He is 21, but we needed to finish that series.  I spent the better part of 3 years listening to Toy Story play in our VCR on a daily basis.  To say that Buzz Lightyear was his hero would be an understatement.  Anyway, we went before 12:00 pm on a Saturday, so tickets were $5.00.
2. I scored 2 loaves of bread at a bakery for $2.00 per loaf.  They are normally $8.00 per loaf.
3. My daughter’s birthday was on Tuesday.  The store gave me $20 off for her gift because it was for her birthday.  That was totally unexpected.
4. A friend gave me 3 absolutely gorgeous houseplants from her mother’s house, free of charge.  She just wanted them to go to a home where they would be taken care of.
5. I used up the last of my shampoo in a plastic bottle and started using a shampoo bar.  Preliminary results are good.  So far, I like it.

What did you do this week to save some money?  Remember, being frugal doesn’t mean doing without.  It means saving so that you can enjoy the things that really matter without worrying about money.

Our newest plant