Confession time? Since the birth of baby #5 in early March, we’ve sort of fallen off the frugal bandwagon. Not to say that we’ve been living a lavish lifestyle. I’ve continued to do frugal things, but there have also been a lot more convenience purchases since I’ve been out of sorts while healing from the unexpected c-section. I’m not going to beat myself up about it. I recognize that it was something that I needed for a short season so that I could focus on my family, new baby, and my health. I’m just thankful that we were in a financial situation to afford it at the time. But now it’s time to get back on track.
Successes:
- I purchased 4 tubes of toothpaste, 4 bottles of Dawn dishsoap, 2 bottles of multivitamins, and 2 bottles of ginger ale at CVS and only paid $10 out of pocket using ECBs and a 25% off coupon that CVS sent me in the mail. The original total was $35 before coupons. I’m sure I could have gotten it lower if I’d used manufacturer’s coupons. I’m happy with my purchase, though.
- I finally (!) pulled out the small sized cloth diapers to use on the baby. He’s 8 weeks old at this point and nearly grown out of the smalls, but better late than never, right? 😉
- I finally (!) planted my carrots, onion sets, and transplanted some beet and snap pea sets this weekend. I still need to transplant the rest of the peas, kale, and shallot plants. I picked up some brussel sprout seedlings from the garden center at my husband’s request.
- Son #2’s birthday is coming up and he has outgrown his bicycle, so we went out to pick one up for him. We were surprised to find a fantastic sale on bikes that day, which meant we had some extra money in his birthday budget to buy him a few other small gifts.
- My husband and I had a date night. We went to a new local restaurant that we surprisingly awesome, and then stopped at the grocery store for some ice cream to eat at home instead of eating dessert out. Our date night came in at well under $30. Not too bad for dinner and dessert!
- After we had dinner, I wandered over to the used bookstore next door. They had a great selection of books, as usual. I found 10 new books for $4.32. Three of those books had been on my list of wanted books for a couple of years now, including a Child’s Garden of Verses, Wind in the Willows, and Mrs. Piggle Wiggle so I was happy!
- I printed some games to play with my daughter (age 4) and son (age 2). I looked up printable busy bags on Pinterest and found some great matching type games and Lego pattern cards. I laminated them so that we can use them again. These “busy bags” are to be used while I’m doing school lessons with the older kids, so that the littles have something to do as well. I often find myself turning on the TV to hold their attention while we do math lessons in the other room, and that’s really not something I wanted to continue doing. Hopefully these little activities continue to work well.
- Yesterday our public library had Minecraft Night where the kids could use their servers to play. I don’t really understand much about Minecraft, but my uncle encouraged us to let the boys play after telling me all of the things that his son (a few years older than my boys) has learned from the game. I was happy to have some older teen boys at the library explain the game to my sons. The younger kids and I played in the children’s section and wandered the rows of books while the big boys played. It was a nice afternoon that didn’t cost a penny.
Goals:
- Avoid Starbuck’s happy hour (half off frappes). Coffee shops are my weak spot. We have some really fantastic locally brewed coffee here at home. I can make all the fancy coffee drinks I want right here. Stay. Away. from Starbucks.
- Live off the pantry and freezers for a couple more weeks before doing another large grocery run. I’ll probably just stop in for some produce items. The public market will have the best prices if I can make it out there.
How did you save money this week?
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Good job. It’s also frugal to stay home with your children.
Julie, that’s true! Sometimes I forget the things that we do on a daily basis. I don’t want to imagine how much childcare would cost for all of my kiddos. I’m so thankful that we’re able to have one parent at home.
Hard to stay on the frugal bandwagon when things are crazy! Looks like you did great this week. I know that I am currently not on the frugal bandwagon with construction on the new house going strong and the old house on the market so we are having to leave anytime anyone wants to see the house. We are often out at dinnertime or lunchtime with no where to eat. Life gets in the way but at least you were able to pay for that period and get back into the game. I hope that you are healing well and doing better after the c-section!!
Alison, yes the crazy times are hardest to stay frugal. That’s definitely true! And these last 2 months have been a whirlwind of crazy, that’s for sure. I hope your home sells quickly and that your new build goes down without a hitch. We’ve never been through that … selling one home while trying to buy another since this is the only home we’ve ever owned (all other homes were rented prior to this one). If/when we ever buy another home, I pray that I don’t completely lose my sanity!
I am healing surprisingly well after my c-section. It definitely took longer than my 4 natural deliveries, but I seem to have bounced back fairly quickly. Thank you for asking.
Glad to hear you are recovering after baby and nice to see you at our link up too! What a great deal you got on your CVS items! Also, don’t beat yourself up is right! There is a season for everything… When I was pregnant it was paper plates and I had zero guilt
(Especially since we had no dishwasher). May your garden provide a bounty harvest this year and thank you for sharing on the Art of Home-Making Mondays!