Frugal Fridays #20

Spring is slowly gracing us with its presence, although we’re still getting the occasional snow flurry. I’m getting the gardening itch, although I’m not sure I have the energy yet to accomplish half of what I’d like to…or what I’m pinning on Pinterest.

We’re still receiving meals from our homeschool group three days a week, which I am eternally grateful for. I feel like I could probably manage getting back to cooking dinners at this point, but not having to do it every night is helping me recover from the cesarean a lot faster. I am so thankful for a community that is so eager to help. I know many mamas are on their own after having a baby. If you know a mom who is very pregnant, just had a baby, dealing with sickness, or just generally stressed out…offer to bring her a meal. Dinnertime can be the hardest part of the day for a busy mom, and something as simple as not having to do the cooking for a night can make a world of difference.

Successes/Blessings:

I mentioned last week that we were hunting down deals for my husband who was in desperate need of clothes. His wardrobe consisted of exactly 1 pair of jeans, 2 polo shirts (1 of which had a stain), and various t-shirts (most of which had a stain). He has a couple of pairs of shorts, too. We typically shop at thrift stores for our clothes, but since he is tall and lean, he struggles to find his size. We were able to hunt down some great deals and got him a pair of jeans, a nice polo, 2 button down shirts, a casual t-shirt, and a pair of khakis. All of them were at least 50% off.
We switched electricity and natural gas providers. This saved us 5% and allows us to earn miles toward airfare. We’re trying to save up for a family vacation in the next 2 years or so. Airfare for a family of 7 would typically be cost prohibitive, but we’re trying to learn some tricks of the travel-trade to get serious discounts.
I used a 25% off coupon at CVS to purchase some vitamins and diapers.
We attended a flower and garden show that was free on Sunday. It was lovely to be in the greenhouses. Granted it’s too early for them to have had much besides violas and primroses, but still….Spring is near! We saw some awesome local vendors that I was unaware of, including a local source of worms (for a worm bin, perhaps) and also mushroom growing kits (because shipping them is so expensive). While we were there, I took advantage of some sales and purchased seed potatoes, onion starts, and some packets of seeds for things I didn’t already have.

Goals:

I haven’t gone grocery shopping in almost 4 weeks. I stocked up really well before baby was born, so we haven’t had a need. I’ll need to go shopping within the next few weeks, though. I should start making my meal plan and list soon.
Continue working on baby’s Baptismal outfit. He’s being christened on Divine Mercy Sunday (the Sunday after Easter)…what a beautiful day to be baptized, no?!
It should be warm enough within the next week or two to plant my onion starts and a few other things.

How did you save money this week?

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