Hi there! I hope you all had a terrifically frugal week this past week. I had some things happen that limited my ability to be frugal in certain ways, but even so, I don't think you can tell, because I was frugal in other ways and "made up for it".
One thing I have to say we did especially (though its not on the day by day list) is that even though it was very hot, and even though we have an air conditioning unit, we used only fans this week, and even them, not all the time. We were a little hot sometimes, but we managed just fine. By not getting used to using the AC, we were able to tolerate the heat more.We're still cloth diapering and exclusively nursing our now 4 month old baby, Rose... and Anneliese is taking her time in getting potty trained- she's potty trained during the day, for the most part. She's completely accident free, without my even needing to remind her she goes to the bathroom on her own- she only wears a diaper overnight and when she has to make a BM, since she refuses to do that on the toilet. So we're barely using any disposable diapers. And, fortunately, its a given now that we aren't using our dryer- it's sunny enough that all the laundry that we're doing is line dried in the sun.
Sunday-
Dumpster dove some kids clothes for my girls- a few shirts and a pair of shorts.
Made meatballs from ground beef I got cheaply on sale, stretched and seasoned with leftover peas risotto, vegetable salad, and leftover salad dressing.
Foraged capers, figs, and passion fruit.
Stocked up on chocolate and rice, both of which were on sale for a terrific price. (Because if I'm going to be eating chocolate, might as well pay less money for it. And I've been judicious with my eating it- we haven't gone through it quicker, even though we have a lot at home.)
Monday-
We went on a trip with my family, and got half price admission to the attractions by buying discount tickets in advance. We also chose lower priced attractions to begin with.
Brought along food with us, which saved money because it meant not needing to buy overpriced food on the trip.
Inherited some "over the door" hangers.
Tuesday-
Served leftover rice with a sauce made with a little cheaply bought ground beef, stretched with home made chickpeas, and leftover carrots and kohlrabi that I'd chopped up and brought on our trip.
Cheaply bought a replacement wheel for my kids' riding toy, for 15% of the cost of buying a new riding toy, and then replaced the wheel.
Made sauteed grated watermelon rind with parsley and foraged capers for supper.
Wednesday-
Served leftover sauted watermelon rind and lentils with rice for lunch.
Foraged capers, started pickling them.
Went to a local sale to go grocery shopping, since I can't make it to the farmer's market like I usually do, so I made sure to stick to the cheaper produce, stocked up mainly on the cheapest stuff, and second most the second cheapest... and didn't even buy any of the produce that wasn't very cheap- we'll make do without.
Made homemade ketchup.
Made homemade french fries.
Mike finished building our bench/couch/shoe box.
Thursday-
Served lentils as the protein for lunch.
Made veggie scrap and chicken carcass soup.
Deboned chicken carcasses to use the meat for another dish
Cut up a whole chicken into food for 3-4 different meals.
Rendered chicken fat.
Used chicken drippings to make broth.
Made chicken lo mein out of deboned chicken carcass meat.
Friday-
A neighbor gave us some leftovers and produce they didn't want. Served the leftovers for lunch.
Made homemade gluten free cinnamon rolls.
Made homemade popcorn.
Saturday-
Made a homemade salad dressing with mustard and home picked/pickled capers.
Made soup with chicken/veggie scrap broth, leftover cabbage salad, and foraged lambsquarters.
What did you do to save money this week?
Tags
cloth diapering
DIY
don't throw that out
don't throw that out yet
extreme frugality
family
foraging
frugal recipes
frugal strategies
housekeeping
made from scratch
personal
potty training
proteins
recipes
revamped leftovers
Just thought I'd share: we don't have AC, either--where we live, there's maybe a week or two of truly hot weather at most, so it's not worth getting. But what I do when it gets too hot for my husband (which is "oh, maybe I'll wear a skirt today" weather for me) is the following:
ReplyDelete1) Close all of the curtains. I made them myself, so they are two layers--one is a sheer white layer on the outside, and the other is a color that matches our interior. The white layer reflects the heat, the dark side keeps the apartment shady. The windows of our apartment are permanently open in the summer, so the heat can escape.
2) Close the kitchen door (glass door, leading to the balcony). It gets indirect sunlight most of the day, but if I open it, then it lets in all of the heat reflected off the building.
3) Hang laundry inside. Besides avoiding sun damage, it takes advantage of evaporative cooling and can bring the temperature down a little,
I'd love to be able to dry laundry inside to cool off, only floor space is super limited here, so outside it is. Thanks for sharing how you keep cool without AC!
DeleteJules' suggestion for hanging laundry indoors for the cooling effect is a great idea; I'll have to try it.
ReplyDeleteWe continued to eat food storage. (dried broccoli, dried broccoli, dried broccoli) . Made milk for my tea out of homemade soymilk, tried using a homemade nut bag to filter and decided I really liked the unfiltered milk better. Did all my cooking in the early morning before a trip to the grocery store an hour away, so we could eat homemade food and didn't have to go out.
Read up on fixing damaged plaster walls so I can fix them myself
Good for you! Where do you get so much dried broccoli from? Do you grow it?
Deletegrated watermelon rind, i have a question; is the watermelon rind canned or pickled, or is it just plan watermelon rind, because i have never thought to eat it raw or use the rind as a food source.
ReplyDeleteRegular watermelon rinds. You gotta cut off the dark green part, but the rest is edible.
Deleteyou go girl!
ReplyDelete