This post was written over the last week, and as you can see, towards the end of the week, I had less and less to write about as I was just involved in getting the baby to come already, and then dealing with a newborn, so… I’m not elaborating on the notes I jotted down as the week went on, as I usually do. This’ll have to suffice. Not sure if I’ll be keeping track of frugal accomplishments for this current week, because I’m taking it easy after birth, using disposables, and getting meals from community members, so not doing cooking or meal prep… and if I am, its super easy stuff that aren’t necessarily so cheap. Being the recipient of communal help doesn’t cost me money, but I don’t think I can honestly call that a “frugal accomplishment”. It just means that what goes around comes around, and we take turns helping each other out after we have babies, etc… and now it’s my turn to be on the receiving end. But we’ll see. Maybe I will keep track of this current week’s frugal accomplishments, if there are any.
Anyhow, here it is.
Sunday–
Mike finished making a box used to store shoes, out of scrap wooden beams, we had lying around, dumpster dived cabinet drawers, and a thick tarp type material my husband rescued from the trash that had a sign from construction they were doing near his work….
Foraged a bouquet of olive leaves, rosemary, mustard flowers, and redbud to give to a relative as a gift.
Monday–
Went on a long walk for exercise, and on the walk, foraged a bunch of organic lemons.
Picked up 2 hats from near the trash for my kids to use.
Took a few bottles and cans that someone littered… which I can use at a grocery store and redeem them for cash.
Mike fixed a chair with a plasticky cover that had its seat ripped… by covering it with contact paper we had lying around the house.
Tuesday–
Redeemed bottles and cans at the grocery store for cash.
Stocked up on groceries, and EVERYTHING purchased was either with a great sale, or cheap to begin with, or both. Including already cheap legumes on sale even further, gluten free pasta at 3/4 of its usual price, toilet paper (for guests… we use family cloth) on sale, gizzards and turkey wings- the cheapest meat available, reduced rack apples and oranges and tomatoes, etc….
Foraged wild arugula/wall rocket.
Got 20+ pounds of free almonds that someone was giving away.
Chopped up and froze a bunch of sale eggplants to use at a later date.
Bought ~15 lbs of strawberries for the cheapest price they’ve been this season, and probably the lowest they’ll get. Cleaned, chopped, froze them to use throughout the year, and saving the mushy parts but not yet spoiled parts to use to make jam, etc…
Made a tea from the strawberry leaves/tops.
Bought eggs from a special sale so they’re cheaper.
Bought dirt cheap oranges and grapefruits and artichoke and bananas and butternut squash. Oranges and grapefruit were only 13 cents a pound!
Made a red lentil and ground turkey bolognese to stretch my ground turkey that i bought cheaply…
Mike fixed his broken cell phone charger.
Wednesday–
Ground a bunch of flours, both for myself, and to sell.
Experimented to try to figure out a recipe for gluten free, xanthan gum free buckwheat and sticky rice flour bread.
Kids dumpster dove a scarf and a cute hair clip.
Served leftovers for lunch.
Thursday–
Wanted to get labor started, so instead of paying for herbs, etc… to induce labor, went on a very long up and down steep hills walk and did accupressure on myself with certain pressure points to get labor started. It worked.
Made 2 simple 1 pot meals, stretching 1 package of ground beef into both pots. Made meatballs with some of the meat, together with leftover experimental bread from the day before.
Friday–
Labor started then stopped, etc. Baby born, and I used the cheapest experienced midwife I could find, who costs less than half the price of other homebirth midwives in my area. Used only hand me down clothes, blankets, etc… for baby, bought nothing new.
Used cloth diapers for new baby.
Used only cloth, homemade postpartum pads.
Exclusively nursing baby, no money on formula needed.
Saturday–
Spend nothing day.
What did you do to save money this past week?
