Provident Living- September

Since January 1st of this year, my “shaved down” grocery budget has been significantly reduced and the belt tightening has certainly been felt.  Where we used to have a little to buy chips or an extra bag of rice or an extra can of tomatoes is no more.  If I was careful we could go to McDonalds once during the month or buy a $5 pizza on a busy Friday Night.  That has proved impossible since the second cut of the year.  The loss is $100 per month which end result is what I consider to be a challenge to be met and conquered, engaging my mind in creatively searching and thinking in order to feed my family for $2.72 per person per day.  I am understanding the correlation between money, resources, priorities and goals better than ever before.  Unfortunately the cuts are going to continue for the next couple of years before things even out and hopefully finally get better.  It is not that my husband is making less.  We’ve been blessed with a very steady, reliable income for 19 years and he’s actually making more!  It’s just that more and more continues to be pulled from his pay check to cover medical insurance and the suffering State Teacher Retirement System.  The cost of living keeps going up too.  We are now living within $200 per year of some level of poverty that I do not clearly understand but  I know that it is a percentage of income in relation to the poverty level and that would give our kids a reduced lunch price if they bought it at school.  We did not used to be that close… and we did not used to make this much.  Once upon a time I dreamed that if we ever made this much money we would be rich but things change.  The other night as I was setting out dinner on our deck table, the place we choose to eat at whenever weather permits because of the elbow room it allows us, I was thinking about our budget and finances and decided that I should really be more worried and even depressed perhaps.  And yet I felt the exact opposite.  I am learning so much as I rise to the challenges placed before me PLUS I had in my hands a fragrant, savory deep dish brimming with a shepherd’s pie, homemade rolls, a bowl of fresh spinach with the garden promising me some tomatoes soon and some jars of simple salad dressings.  These delectable smelling items would nourish my family as we joined around the Sunday dinner table to share our meal and our days lessons.  The late afternoon sun was shining with pleasant temperatures and gentle breezes.  Birds were chirping, butterflies were fluttering past out in our yard and most importantly I felt that we had once again been blessed with “enough”.  It was a near perfect evening.  No need for depression.  “Enough” was all I needed anyway.  I will never think of budgeting the same way again.  Knowledge is power and that’s the truth.

So here are some ways that I’ve worked to make ends meet, living frugally or as I prefer to state, we live “providently”.  Many of these things are from the kitchen aspect of my job because eating is sort of important but as we we near gift giving season and another round of cuts to our paycheck in January as well as a new contract with new terms to sign I hope to have some more ideas coming soon as well.

Haley got a JOB!  She is now saving for her mission and college at a much more rapid rate than before.  She’s worked several weekends and realized she’s saved over $100 from it already.  As a result of this job she is now released from our family’s “allowance” system.  This is just in time to utilize the money that would have gone to Haley to pay for Kaitlyn’s monthly classroom fee for the year.  There’s always somewhere for the money to go… thankfully we had somewhere other than the grocery budget to pull from.  On a side note I caught one of those rare glimpses you get in parenting a child that I MIGHT just be succeeding.  Haley returned from her first day on the job and actually thanked me for teaching her how to clean and how to work.  She was glad I’d given her chores to do.  Yes, I heard that right.  Woooo!  After all the years of groaning and eye rolling I’LL TAKE IT!!!  Haley seems to be proud of having gotten herself a job… many kids at school have given her a bit of a hard time over her job but she is happy that she’s getting experience, is earning her own money and has something to add to her resume.  She seems to be balancing this job with school, seminary and volunteering at the library quite well, so far.  Busy girl!  And getting a job is an education in and of itself.

I decorated for Autumn around the house using items I already have.  Spooky helped.  I prefer to use fall colors with apples, leaves, pumpkins and pinecones that will make the house festive for September through November rather than skeletons and other creepy things that are really only good for Halloween. 

We signed up for “Free Fridays” at our local grocery store and had “coupons” downloaded onto our shopper’s club card for free merchandise each week.  A free two liter of 7-up, a free bag of cheetos, a free 1 dozen eggs, Hillshire Farm Tuscan herbed chicken, Orville Redenbacher popcorn and free breakfast trail mix was ours to pick up each week as we stopped in to pick up our milk.  We also used a coupon to get a free 20 oz. soda.

Paid just $1.50/lb for Spare Ribs buying it on sale in bulk on the date of expiration.  Bought hamburger at $1.70/lb combining its bulk sale price with a coupon.

Bought shampoo and conditioner for .79 each and butter for $1.99/lb. which is a slightly better price than buying it in bulk at Sam’s Club.

We went to Coney Island with free parking and admission on Labor Day for the annual AFL-CIO picnic.  The picnic, put on by Cincinnati Federation of Teachers was free but we paid a nominal fee for ride bracelets which we had budgeted for.  That is the way to go to an amusement park for us.

We are drinking less milk (but still the recommended amount) and more water.

We bought toothpaste for $1.00 when it went on sale.  We also brought home a bag of free toothpaste samples from the dentist.

I haven’t been able to buy liquid hand soap for most of the year just by virtue of the fact that we still have some form of soap for hand cleaning and although it continues to be on my shopping list it ends up getting crossed off when the budget is out of room.  I did have quite the supply of liquid soap refill in my long term storage; however, it finally dwindled.  Then I remembered that I had a bag full of fancy soaps, the tiny kind with fancy shapes and scents which my MIL had sent over in a box of stuff she didn’t want several years back.  It was still sitting in a box with some other things to be gone through.  Now we have soap that makes our hands smell like roses and English lavender which is even better and most bars last several weeks instead of the pump we used to empty twice a week in the bathroom alone.  We also continued to use soap, shampoo and conditioner from our hotel stay during the summer.  I also got two liquid soap pumps for free which I am using one of in my kitchen since I was missing liquid hand soap in there. 

We got three free movie rental deals from Redbox.  One was a family friendly movie we all watched together.  The other two were fabulous movies that Rick and I watched for some free “at home dates” since our date budget has significantly dwindled this year too.  “Parental Guidance” with Billy Crystal and Bette Midler was fantastic.  “Safe Haven” was the other movie and we loved it.

I got out my sewing machine and mended four sets of cotton sheets we use during the warm months.  They all had very neat right angle rips in their fitted sheets and I was able to use a special darning stitch for a nearly unnoticeable repair.  The sheets varied in age from four to eight years old and I need them to last a bit longer. 

My seedlings from the spring began to give harvest finally with so many green peppers that my plants were nearly falling over and the kids were coming in with 8 at a time to drop into the vegetable drawer.  These peppers were fantastic in vegetable soup and most especially on pizza.  We harvested some tomatoes from our tomato jungle for snacks and salads as well putting many on the window sill to finish ripening in the sun.  The plants, grown from tiny seeds, were taller than Nathan!  And look at our carrots!  Nathan loved going out to check on the carrots.  He loved digging them up and pulling them out even more. 


We ate rice instead of potatoes.


Our family was able to go apple picking, a beloved family tradition, arriving at the farm an hour away went it opened at 8 a.m. so Haley could still participate and get to work on time.  The apples were ripening 3-4 weeks early here with the weather we’ve had and so for the first time I picked apples on the last day of August.  We paid $25 a full bushel and picked four bushels in just 45 minutes.  Now I can see some people thinking that $100 is too much to pay for apples.  But if you think of the fact that we got nearly 200 pounds of apples for .50 per pound (which is the most I’ve ever paid for u-pick) it is still a bargain when you pay anywhere from .99 to 2.99 per pound at the grocery store, depending on the season and variety.  Those same apples would have cost me anywhere from $200 to $600 which makes my farm picked apples, at worst, still quite a savings.  We filled shelves and baskets with the freshest apples that will feed our family fresh apples for any number of snacks and meals for a month.  The rest of the Cortlands,  Jonathans and McIntosh apples were dehydrated into fruit snacks or made into slices, sauces, butters and cooking juices and even my youngest children participated in the production process.  We used the peels and cores to get the most sauce possible and in just 5 days of part time work on the project I filled about 7 cases of jars with food.  The money spent was carefully carved out of a portion of our regular grocery budget and is a significant part of our fruit supply for the coming year.  Not a bad price after all.  And the small amount of waste that we did have from the apples went out to the compost for a future garden.

I made caramel apples at home with fresh picked apples and caramels I’d purchased for just $1 several months ago when they were on sale.  I also drizzle chocolate on each one because it looks fun and fancy and tastes even better!  I purchase chocolate chips in bulk and I don’t use many for this.


I consistently cut my grocery bill at the checkout by 30% to 50% by buying only advertised specials and in some cases combining the special price with another offers. 

Using my meat purchasing “rules” I was able to buy 26 pounds of meat for $27.99… more than enough for my family for a whole month.

I did not purchase breakfast cereal.  We did have oatmeal a few times along with homemade granola, muffins and eggs.

I made yogurt for a whole month saving a plain starter from each batch to make the next bowl of yogurt from scratch again as needed.  I made a simple but very tasty granola to go with the yogurt. 

Saltine crackers from scratch!  I’ll have to perfect them but they weren’t bad for my first try.  I made a cheese spread… 1 lb. of cheese for about $1 spread on homemade crackers and topped with a garden fresh cherry tomato made a delicious snack.


Second try on the crackers was MUCH better.  Necessity being the mother of invention with my milk money gone and my little one sick and in need of very plain crackers to go with his gingerale and broth, I rolled the cracker dough paper thin and sprinkled regular salt from a shaker… they tasted just like the store bought version of Saltines but were much fresher.  Yum!  Ironically these crackers crisp up when you leave them out which makes me wonder what kind of preservatives are in the boxed version on the store shelves.  I did store them in a plastic cereal container once they were crisp because we do tend to have quite a bit of humidity here.  It cost me pennies to make about 200 crackers.
I made my own french fried onions for a Sunday dinner pork chop casserole instead of buying dried french fried onions.  The ingredients cost pennies and the end result tasted terrific.  Outstanding, even.
I made a chicken and rice soup mix that tastes like Mrs. Grass and prepares with the same ease.  It has 4 dry ingredients that are so easy to throw into a Mason jar for a quick and delicious hot lunch to take out the door or for sick little tummies that are in need of gentle nourishment.  For the ease and the cost of this mix I may never buy chicken noodle soup in a can ever again.  I also made tomato basil soup from last year’s home canned tomatoes and tossed some pasta into it.  This is a delicious and easy recipe that efficiently gets my kids to eat tomatoes as a vegetable and doesn’t contain high fructose corn syrup that its canned counterpart does.


Continued to water the garden solely from the back water barrel all month.  It was a dry month and the plants needed some water.  I’m thinking of getting a second water barrel eventually for the other side of the house.

Upon pricing bulk tomatoes I didn’t stumble upon any that made it worth it for me to can any.  I’ll keep hoping that I come upon some in the next month but they were all either too expensive for canning tomatoes or else too far away.  I did decide to purchase a #10 can of diced tomatoes which was under $3.  It was enough to multiply my spaghetti sauce recipe 7 times.  Yes the pot of sauce was HUGE but I have a pot for that!  I spice the sauce for next to nothing and used half the meat that the recipe calls for to give protein and flavor in the sauce.  The extra sauce is portioned into freezer bags and altogether should feed my family about 7-8 meals.

I served my sauce over pasta I bought for .90 per pound (second best price all year).  I purchased 11 more pounds of pasta… it has a shelf life of 10 years if stored properly, which it is.

Clothes drying weather has continued… I’ve been drying clothes on the back yard clothesline my husband made for almost 6 months now and our bill continues to be significantly lower than before.  The building materials and rope purchased have more than paid for themselves and it is refreshing to hang laundry with the squirrels and birds first thing in the morning.  My kitties come and wind themselves around my ankles and take dust baths at my feet as I hang laundry.  My kids come outside and talk to me or swing on the swing.  It is lulling to watch laundry fluttering in the breezes.  My neighbor and I had a good laugh when she stuck her head out the window as I was hanging laundry one Saturday.  She told me she’d just watched a movie from 1999 where one of the characters was hanging her laundry onto a reeled line just like my set-up and it made her think of me.  I jokingly said “it’s SO last century” isn’t it?”

We decided to turn the computer off every evening before bed to save on the electric bill.

All of our bread, hamburger buns and rolls were made in our kitchen.  Side note here; Many people think they “don’t have time” and I’ve been told this time and time again.  The bread costs me about .25 to make and I can tell you that multi-tasking is the name of the game.  You don’t need to watch your bread rising.  It simply takes a few minutes of your time  and attention on three occasions over the period of 2 1/2 to 3 hours… I even rise bread while I’m out of the house picking up kids or bake it while we eat dinner, read, fold laundry, talk on the phone or I take a shower so that it is ready for the next day’s lunches.   I buy 25 pound bags of flour at Sam’s Club for $7 and change.  Yeast is purchased in bulk there as well as salt.  And that’s all bread is made out of other than water.  And bread from scratch tastes (and smells) GREAT!


Poptarts!  It’s been years since we’ve eaten pop tarts and while your waist line might object to eating homemade pop tarts every day, every so often it would be worth it to have a home made pop tart.  They are phenomenal and taste SO much better than the ones pumped with preservatives wrapped in foil and shelved in a cardboard box for your purchase.  They were easy, too!  The filling in my pop tarts was home canned Strawberry Marmalade I made from the berries we picked on the farm 3 1/2 months ago.  The only expensive ingredient was the butter in the warm flakey pastry.  These little goodies were pretty large in size, I thought.  Next time I think I will make the Pop Tarts half the size buy simply folding the pastry in half instead of trying to roll and cut all over again to match the size for the second layer.   We each had one and I froze the rest which are ready in the oven in just 5 minutes… a quick, fun breakfast.

I made “Bean”-burgers out of dried black beans, bread crumbs I saved in the freezer from the “heels” and some onions and spices.  They were phenomenal.  Move over Morningstar Vegi-burgers… these were so good.  I made steak fries to go with it along with homemade hamburger buns.  I made “pink sauce” to go with the fries and slathered my burger with it as well.  These burgers were simple and quick to make.  Beans are a cheap source of protein but canned beans are the most expensive way to purchase them so I always use dry.  Around here I cannot find black beans in bulk but can buy them for about $1.25 per pound.  Earlier this year I was able to purchase the black beans in Columbus in a huge 25 pound bag for about half that price per pound.  Beans are a wonderful food if prepared properly and you can really reduce your food expenses by eating meals featuring this food.  And less fat too!

We were given a large bag of clothes for free from a young mom at church.  She had lots of shirts, sweaters, dresses and jeans, some with the tags still on, that fit my 14 year old daughter.  Lindsay is thrilled.  My neighbor brought over 2 1/2 bags of chips, a bag of hot dog buns and a bottle of pickle relish for us leftover from a cookout she hosted at work.  I readily agreed to water her side yard that she just paid to have fertilized while she’s on vacation in return.

Last month we got a “new” to us car which is great on one hand.  On the other hand, the gas mileage per gallon is nothing less than awful!  It’s city miles per gallon are the same as the van’s city miles and that’s almost all we drive.  Along with a slight increase in auto insurance there just isn’t any extra money for gas too.  So we had to do some thinking.  Trips to the store must be made directly on the way home from somewhere or Rick did ride his bike once.  Haley is paying a small gas fee for a ride to and from work… less than a bus would cost but fair.  We do not collect this from her if we were going out near that direction anyway.  Tristan and Lindsay go to school early one day a week and so Rick drops them both off on the way to work.  That saves a trip.  The older girls and Rick have waited for each other during rehearsals or meetings after school while doing homework or music practice that saves an extra trip.  On the day before pay day last week we had just enough gas to get home but not home plus another trip down town.  Nathan and I planned on spending most of the day at the Museum Center.  We adjusted our schedule just a little so we stayed a little longer than planned and then swung by SCPA to pick up Haley while Rick graded papers, etc. as he waited for Lindsay.  Then I picked up the Fairview kids after that and instead of idling the engine we turned it off and rolled down the windows to wait for them.  Me staying down town and Rick waiting for Lindsay saved two trips down town and I got home with 3 miles to spare as did Rick, until pay day the next morning.  Rick has also left a few minutes early on a few days and picked up the Fairview kids at their dismissal time on his way home which has also saved us gas money.    Some things cannot be pared down however. Once we had a child in high school the combination of seminary and yet another school start time created driving that adds up to nearly 500 additional miles per month.  That is more than double what it had been.  But seminary is important and education goes without saying.  Working together we created a budget and I think praying over it is the only thing making it work.



Finally I made a gift to send with my youngest daughter to a birthday party she was invited to.  I found instructions on line for FREE to make a wallet purse.  I was out of interfacing but found some large patches of coordinating fabrics with interfacing already ironed onto them from a stash my Aunt had given me last year.  I was so happy to find that when I cut off the rounded edges the measurements were exactly what was called for in making the wallet.  I was pretty thrilled because I really had no time to go out to the store and anything I spend on a gift would need to come out of my grocery money which is already thinly stretched.  I used a zipper I already had purchased years ago when they were on clearance at a store closing sale, the end of a red spool of thread, buttons from my button box and an unused red rubber hair band from my daughter’s stash.  I did go out and purchase some coordinating ribbon to make a strap because I couldn’t find anything on hand that went well but used a coupon so I got it for .50 and I have leftover ribbon for a future project.  For the birthday party gift I stuffed the purse with packages of cute sticky notes, travel size Kleenex, a fancy purple pen, a chapstick purchased on sale a few months ago, a mini mad libs left over from a birthday party we’d given and a $1 bill.  Besides the dollar these were all things I had on hand already and so was no cost to me now.  What a fun thing to receive a purse stuffed with cute but useable items.  My daughters all love the wallet purse so much that I may end up making several of those for Christmas.  While at the craft store I also purchased a bulk package of barrettes to make fancy felt barrettes for gifts in the future… they were only $1.50 instead of several dollars more than that for the same package in the grocery store.

I made a gift bag for this purse using a plain brown paper bag, a hole punch and a matching piece of ribbon to the purse.  I used a fancy sticker I had leftover from a Christmas project several years ago that matched the ribbon but didn’t really have anything to do with Christmas and this gave the bag a completed look.  I found this exact product in a catalog a week later; 12 bags for $12… a real bargain, huh? 

Provident Living–August

We began our month on vacation to Washington D.C.  To our surprise this was probably our least expensive vacation ever.  For starters, we priced out different room accommodations and found that a suite that sleeps 8 and had a kitchen along with free breakfast was cheaper than getting two adjoining rooms in another hotel.  The suite we got had two bathrooms and three televisions as well; more than enough to keep us happy.  Because it had a kitchen we ate all our dinners after our daily adventures back in our suite which kept costs way down.  And we made lunches to take with us for the day as well as for roadside picnics.  The only day we ate at McDonalds was at the Smithsonian.  They do not allow food to be brought into museums and they do a bag search at every entrance as well.  So we planned for that expense and found it to be a treat.  Our parking was reserved on-line at a discount which was way cheaper for our numbers than paying for the subway with either a day pass or the individual ride; a savings of about $30 per day.
We used homegrown green peppers in soup, enchiladas and it made the pizza HEAVENLY!  (Even the kids agree with that statement).
We picked raspberries at $20 a flat.  While out in a different area the owners told us about a dairy nearby with great ice cream which we decided we had to check out.  The cows that give the cream are literally right out the back door.  While in line my husband noticed a sign that said you got a discount if you told a joke and so he did!  “How do you get an idiot out of a tree?  You wave.”  They loved it = $ off!!!
We made 4 kinds of jam from our berry picking.  25 pints of golden raspberry, red raspberry, blackberry and triple berry utilizing some of the strawberries in my freezer from June that I hadn’t gotten to yet.  That jam with the raspberries is the best!!!
I bought a $25 gift card for $20 and used it at Old Navy for some back to school shopping where my oldest daughter got some desperately needed new clothes.  I combined that with some coupons I had and paid very little for 2 new pairs of jeans and 3 new shirts for her.
Haley and I paid a visit to Plato’s Closet for the rest of her back to school shopping and got some nice blouses and a sweater with “previous experience”.  They work well for school, church, dances and even a job interview!!!  They are things that she didn’t have anything like before and they make a nice addition to her wardrobe for not a ton of money.
I made homemade laundry detergent, dishwasher detergent and disinfectant.
We bought a “new” (used) laptop computer that is comparable to our desktop with a settlement voucher paying only $15 dollars for it. 
We sold our 18 year old car to a salvage yard for $300.  We purchased a 13 year old car with only 88,000 miles for $50.  We had to get it out of the driveway before we were really ready to take it which meant that we spent extra on insurance and temporary registration and tags but the price of the car and its condition was too good to let pass.  Not the most fuel efficient car on the road is the Camry so our gas costs are up now a bit but it buys us time to save for another second car now.  With our children’s schooling situation and the distance involved we need two cars to function unfortunately.
I’m not sure if this qualifies as frugal but I have a real “thing” for canning jars.  I went to a “junk” antique shop during what just happened to be a 50% off day.  I found a 1976 Liberty Bell pint sized Mason jar and got it at 50% off.  It was the only one there and is now clean and filled with raspberry jam that I will enjoy cracking into sometime this coming year.  I also bought a framed print there of an old picture that I have loved for many years… again at 50% off.
My daughter, Haley, and I went out for our parent child time.  She had come across two coupons for free entrée’s at a restaurant I’d never been to.  So we brought a little spending money to pay for a drink and enjoyed a really inexpensive lunch together.  We shopped at… Walmart (gasp) and she purchased a pair of black dress pants and black nonslip shoes for her new job at McDonalds which she starts this week.  She is excited to be employed and making a little of her own money to save for college and a mission mostly.

Provident Living–July

Several accomplishments this month! 

First we harvested from our dwarf peach trees for the first time and got about 20 pounds of little peaches.  We gave some away as personal housewarming or hostess gifts and have eaten lots of these delightful little goodies putting them in the fridge to prolong their freshness and keep them from ripening too quickly.  They make good peach crisp too.  We were very happy to have these because with two exceptions they have been our only fresh fruit all month. 

Having purchased hot dogs and hamburger on sale I was able to feed my visiting family totaling 19 people for a Sunday grill out on our deck for under $5.  I also provided lemonade, baked beans, pretzel jello and a green salad with homemade dressing while asking other family members to bring chips, buns and a watermelon to share.  This combination kept me within my family’s budget while feeding so many.
Short on time I decided to purchase some bread.  I bought the manager’s special for .49 per loaf.
I accepted a small box of pint jars as well as a bag of yeast.
The weather has been very cooperative for hanging one to two loads of laundry outdoors for drying during the weeks we’ve been home.
As a family member moved we were invited to dismantle some utilitarian shelving which is somewhat of a painstaking task.  We were able to dismantle and rebuild two 8 foot heavy duty shelving units to add to our basement and move some current 4 foot shelving units to other areas of the basement and garage giving us dry vertical storage space and increasing our food storage capacity.  These are very useful in our “dungeon” and help define its open space while lending it more efficient and more organized… just what the Dr. ordered.  Even though the basement is not finished it is living space to us in this small house.  Besides its obvious uses for storage, laundry and work space it serves as a study/office and a place for crafts and sewing.
I canned two baskets of peaches.
I made dishwasher detergent… it’s the only thing that mixes well with our hard water and the dishwasher.
I continued using and making vinegar citrus cleaner.
I used a coupon and bought some flag shirts for me and my daughter as well as several items on clearance.  I came home with a bag full of brand new clothing for just a few dollars.

I used a coupon and went to an Omnimax movie about butterflies on a date with my husband.  FREE!
My husband got rid of his 20 + year old light jacket that he LOVED, purchasing a $90 coat from the GAP Clearance Center for just $10 as its replacement.  He REALLY needed to have something better to wear into work.
I bought my son some new clothes for his birthday on clearance… he’s growing like a WEED at almost 11 years of age.
Love to read… bought a whole pile of books by authors I know and love including books on my wish list for just $1 a piece.  Summer reading here I come!!!  I bought a Wii fit balance board for just $25 at the same place the same day.
I helped my daughter find used copies of her summer reading books that she has to annotate.  My other daughter got her summer reading out of the library.
I canned one bushel of cucumbers making 43 quarts of dill pickles.

We used our dishwasher warranty for needed repairs of resealing it and a new soap dispenser.
I made red beans and rice into a soup version because we were running low on red beans and I couldn’t think of another bean that would add to that recipe well.  Very tasty.
I made a crab pasta casserole that was very tasty with .50 pasta shells and imitation crab I bought for under $2 per pound.
Mmmmm!  Ribs on the grill with homemade marinade and dinosaur sauce… a real treat having bought them several months back when they were under 1.99 per pound.
I’m also proud of the job we did on our bathroom.  After nearly 16 years of service our bathroom has received a much needed overhaul.  We wanted to leave its bones and salvage whatever we could but it really needed some help.  Rick scraped every spec of paint off of the walls and the shower ceiling.  Hot bleach water followed by a bleach pen worked miracles on the tile.  We scraped off the old caulk.  Rick found a video on the internet that taught him how to properly put in new caulking (which is great now, by the way) and CLR cleaned the metal rods and such that needed help.  We did purchase a new shower head ring, a new set of curtain rods (the old ones were rusting 17 years ago when we bought the house so they were really bad now) and a new vent.  We also purchased a replacement glass lamp as one of the two was cracked and broken.  We bought a pale blue kitchen and bathroom paint called “Seaside” and the trim is a leftover kitchen and bathroom white.  And I worked magic making a purchase for a new shower curtain and window curtain.  Of course the cost of everything has sky rocketed in the past 15 years.  The cost of the one bucket of paint needed for my bathroom was over $30.  It’s the good stuff.  It has a warranty against mildew and mold for a long time… very important!  But the last time I did my bathroom my entire budget for paint, curtains, hardware and everything had to be done on $30.  I considered it an accomplishment at the time.  This time I had a little more to work with.  At $150 I could replace the rusted vent and rods and broken glass while getting a fresh coat of paint and new curtains.
I remade the fabric window blind with existing materials and a few snips and scraps.  Free!
Utilizing ideas from a book “The Handmade Home” which I received as a birthday gift, I gave some old nearly useless rags new life by up-cycling them into new and beautiful matching bathmats.

I absolutely could not find a shower curtain I liked.  I am picky!  I know what I like where my home is concerned and I have a certain style of comfort and beauty that I like to maintain.  I had wanted to buy two shower curtains so I could make matching window curtains and not have to do any work for a shower curtain this time.  I guess not too many people have bathroom windows.  I found some on line but they were expensive before I paid shipping even.  So I decided to use my trick from last time 15 years ago when my budget was so tight.  But this time I got better quality because I could.  My trick was to find a beautiful set of full sized sheets.  I LOVE Shabby Chic so that is what I went after!  They contain the color blue in them… important since the tile is blue and white.  This high quality 100% cotton sheet set with a 250 thread count was so different from working with the 50/50 100 thread count that I’d found in my price range the last time.  This sheet was longer so at the top I made a big fold and stitched it together so it formed a pretty valence at the top of the curtain.  I did some decorative stitching in blue over the sheets original thread stitching.  Then I measured out the spacing and made button holes at the top for the shower hooks and I was done with the shower curtain.  Next I ripped open two pillow cases.  I ironed and stitched a hem in each one, made some necessary thread snips on the sides before ironing and stitching the sides.  Then I utilized the pillow cases original stitching at the opening and formed a casing for the rod.  Then I added the same decorative scallop stitch in blue that I’d used on the valence of the shower curtain.  I snipped the long edge of the fitted sheet and cut out fabric for a valence.  I was able to rip the elastic out… usable for another project, and keep the machine stitched hem.  After a few ironed folds and some more stitches I added the same decorative blue scallop stitch to the top by the casing of the valence and there I had the curtains I wanted.  The window shade was left in blue and white.  It is double layered for more privacy and though faded after nearly 16 years of use just has a muted blue and white gingham pattern that was still totally fine.  I didn’t have anything to replace it with that I liked better so I snipped off the old ties and used scraps from the sides of the fitted sheet again to sew and attach a fresh set of matching shade ties.  $40 for a matching shower curtain, window curtains, window shade and bath mats.  It renders perfect!
Now I am dreaming up possibilities for the blank canvas of a wooden table I pulled from a friend’s mother’s basement five years ago when I helped her clean the house out to get ready to sell it.  It is a vintage wooden table painted pink in the 1950’s with one fold down leaf and a missing leaf on the other side.  The table has character and is waiting to be rediscovered.  I pulled it from my garage last week where I’ve been storing it.  I needed it to help serve the party of 17 out on my deck but I covered that chipping peeling piece of furniture with a very long table cloth.  Only its legs were sticking out.  That table doesn’t want to remain hidden however… it’s got personality and is waiting for its next life.

Provident Living - May & June

Used Pectin I bought at 50% off last fall to make more strawberry jam with frozen berries I had left from last year’s visit to the farm.

I cut lilacs from my yard to make a huge bouquet for Kaitlyn to give to her teacher as a surprise on May Day… Lilacs are her teacher’s favorite flower.  Peonies also made a lovely bouquet to give away a few weeks later.

I purchased Lemonade and Kool Aid Canisters when they went on sale for $1.  Usually they are over $3 each.  Besides providing a refreshing beverage they make great homemade popsicles for hot afternoons.

I helped my sister make her strawberry jam with Pectin I had purchased last fall for only .50 instead of the normal $2.50.  Thankfully I bought all of what they had left since my sister had 5 batches of jam which means I'll probably have between 8 and 10 batches of jam.  After picking over 30 pounds of strawberries at Jackson's Farm Market in Xenia I will freeze some of the berries.  My sister did not have that luxury being so far from home.
I gave some strawberry jam to teachers as an end of year gift along with a mini loaf of homemade bread wrapped in rafia.
 
Several teachers also got pots of baby Lilacs to plant in their yard.  They were starters I'd dug from the ground in April and were proving a viable after nearly two months in a pot. 
 
Got our first gas and electric bill which dated almost exactly to when I began using the clothesline my husband built in the back yard.  I did use my dryer on a few occasions but very little and my grand total savings....... Over $40 in one month!!!  Everything else was the same... no heat and no AC plus same number of people in the house that month.  I have not had a week of straight rain yet to contend with but watching the weather patterns has allowed me to keep up with the laundry demand.  Heat and humidity brings rain in the late afternoon and so most days there is no problem with drying the one needed load outdoors.  I have dried up to three loads in one day outdoors and many days I can put two loads outdoors to dry.  I never do laundry on Sunday.  That is my break.  I will say that I rather enjoy hanging laundry outdoors.  I am outdoors watching my children play around me or enjoying a sunrise in the cool peaceful mornings.  I smell the flowers as I watch the butterflies and bees fluttering in my gardens and listen to birds, crickets and cicadas.  My cats come out from their secret hiding places among the lilies to visit and rub around my ankles getting a little one on one time as I pause from my work before they take off after some unsuspecting bird or squirrel and I laugh.  I enjoy sunsets as I collect late loads of sunny summer scented sheets crisp from the breezes as the evening cools and the bats and fireflies come out.  The fireflies make the yard sparkle as if Cinderella's Fairy Godmother might appear at any moment from thin air.  Hanging laundry is not so bad, in case anyone is wondering.  And my dryer's life is extended in the process so I always have "the option".  I like options.
I bought a pork tenderloin for $1.79 per pound.  Actually I bought several because that was a good sale.  I put the pork in my crock pot, marinated and eleven of us ate Sunday dinner from that meat.  Then I made homemade tortillas for pennies instead of dollars and placed the rest of the pork, shredded into the tortillas with rice and cheese.  The seven of us ate half of that a couple days later and the rest of the pork tortillas fed the seven of us for a third time as I made a freezer meal out of the pork tortillas left.
Bought canning lids with a buy 1 get 1 free coupon.
Bought two 25+ pound baskets of peaches for $26; kept some for eating and preserved the rest as slices or spiced peach butter.

And that’s all I’m now remembering for May and June.

Provident Living in April

So far I am really excited about sort of keeping tabs on the things I do to save money, perhaps because it makes the whole saving money thing a little more tangible.  Here is what I did in April that helped keep our budget in check and what helped make the whole month a celebration of “Earth Day”.

We began “eating out” again!  In other words it is picnic season and we spent a fabulous day hiking and picnic-ing at a really great State Park during spring break.  We also celebrated opening day with a cookout in the backyard.  Homemade pasta, beans, cookies and more combined with fresh fruits and vegies made these picnics so enjoyable while nourishing and going easy on the pocketbook.
I used some frozen zucchini from last years garden to make bread.
I used dry milk to make rolls and cream based soups.
We attended the first Friday Night Red’s game of the season.  Rick wrote the arrangement of The Star Spangled Banner that the musical group sang at the beginning of the game.  Someone had access through work to free tickets for our whole family to attend the game and so Rick was able to hear his arrangement performed.  The tickets would have cost us $133 which means we would not have gone.  It happened to be Friday Night Fireworks after the game as well and so we got a fireworks show to rival any 4th of July display too.
We found a “Free” parking spot on the street when we attended the ball game.  Rick knows all the hidden free parking spots downtown and we got some nice exercise walking to the stadium.  Certainly the walk was worth what we would have spent on a parking garage.
Instead of buying food at the ball game we had an early pizza night before leaving home.  We brought bottled water from our food storage which meets post 9-11 safety regulations.  Plus this helps us rotate through our bottled water storage.
I started two lilacs from roots to give as an end of the year gift next month to a teacher who loves lilacs.
I made almost 12 pints of strawberry lemon jam from strawberries we picked at the farm last year.  I still had 3 quarts of strawberries for smoothies but hadn’t yet used them and our jam supply was dwindling.  I used jar lids that I bought on clearance at the end of last years harvest season.

One of the kids pointed out to me that their friends were amazed that they had spoons in their lunches that resembled those of a local ice cream parlor.  How cool!!!  Well, that is where they ARE from and we re-use them in lunches a million times before they break.
Haley borrowed a prom dress from an older girl who is out serving a mission for the church right now.  It fit her nicely and I made a few minor repairs adding a few stitches to fix some snaps as well as re-stitching some of the sequins and folds on and in the dress.
I made Haley a wrist corsage since she was attending without a date.  I used an old but unspoiled doily that I had saved and folded it in quarters.  Then I clipped some white and purple flowers along with some greens from out in the yard.  Using a small piece of packaging tape, a scrap of sheer white ribbon I had in my ribbon box and a scrap of elastic from my pajama making Christmas project I assembled it and it looked beautiful.  It stayed fresh in the refrigerator while I styled and curled Haley’s hair.  It was a little limp by the end of her evening.  Maybe next time a boy will buy her one but for  now she is much too intimidating for these boys.
I started seeds for my garden using plastic planting containers from former years of plants.  They are beginning to sprout and will be ready for transplanting in May.
I began using vinegar in the dishwasher as a rinse agent.  Works beautifully and is something like over a 6,000% savings over purchasing Jet Dry.
Stocked up on toothpaste and deoderant at $1 each.  Toothbrushes too!
Soaked dry beans and used homemade taco seasoning in Taco Soup.
Made ice cream with cream that was expiring.
Made dishwasher detergent for the second time.  I like how it cleans and the cost is SO much less than purchasing brand name detergent.
Made and used more citrus cleaner from orange/lemon peels.
Kaitlyn and her Dad attended a 1950’s style Father-daughter dance.  I dug out a pair of saddle shoes someone had given to me 10 or 11 years ago when my oldest daughter was that age.  I did purchase a poodle patch which I attached to a 50’s style skirt given to us by a cousin.
Our biggest, greenest switch this month was the addition of a clothesline to our backyard.  Long ago we had some very awful clotheslines that we used when we found their holes mostly buried in the backyard and the posts hidden in the garage but eventually they rendered useless so we had to toss them.  Our family has grown a lot since then as well and something like what we had before would not effectively or efficiently dry our clothes.  We also have an aging dryer and we would like to prolong its life.  So clotheslines and harnessing the sun and wind energy seemed to be our best answer.  We did have to purchase materials for this as we had nothing suitable just “lying around” but then that is the end of the expense!  Rick did some research, bought his supplies and over spring-break built a wonderful, strong clothesline from lumber with good supports.  Now, clotheslines aren’t commercialized because they are simply too inexpensive for anyone to bother advertising and frankly I don’t see too many clotheslines around these days but Rick did manage to find a local supplier where he bought line tighteners, five inch reels and cotton rope for three lines between the posts set 20 feet apart.  In the end we did end up with a “leaner” that will have to be re-set in the ground.  I’ve also discovered that I really need more line to fit my extra large capacity loads so we will set the post slightly over 20 feet from the first when we get back to it.  In the meantime, we have had fantastic weather for line drying clothes in no time at all and I’ve had no trouble drying the required one to two loads a day (except for Sunday).  They smell great coming off the line too.  Line drying does take a little bit of extra time but my kids are thrilled that I’m outside with them.  And who wouldn’t prefer the company of birds and butterflies over a stuffy windowless workplace laboring overtime to pay for a dryer and the utility bill to go with it.  And hopefully the life of the dryer will be prolonged so that we still have the option of drying laundry during stretches of inclement weather.

Provident Living - March

As you can tell from the pictures below, no one is suffering terribly from making an effort to live providently.  In fact, we think life is more creative, tastier, smarter, fulfilling and more responsible or practical when we are able to use our resources with care.  The children are thriving on being “energy savers” which is a compliment in our home and getting extra attention from friends with their homemade lunches from bread to applesauce to cookies or brownies.  Or PICKLES!  So here’s how our month measured up…

Our dryer quit working – Rick began taking the dryer apart (dangerous, I know) and found instructions for the repairman embedded that instructed him on how to further take the rest of the dryer apart.  He NEVER would have figured it out without the hidden instructions.  The dryer just needed to have its underside cleaned out, reachable only by the “repairman”.  While Rick has cleaned out the dryer hose annually to biannually we were lucky not to have started a fire because of the lint in the hidden area of the dryer.  When Rick put the cleaned out dryer back together it worked like new!
I used my home made citrus cleaner for the first time after it “aged” in my fridge for the proper amount of time.  To my surprise the cleaner had turned into a syrup like consistency as I strained it and funneled it into my spray bottle.  It had a fresh clean scent and cleaned beautifully.  I used my homemade all purpose citrus cleaner on my floors AND it is completely safe for cleaning my toothbrush holders and pet areas.  Clean and fresh smelling, made from next to nothing this cost me pennies for an entire bottle of disinfecting cleaner.
I read that vinegar has the same effect in the final laundry rinse as expensive chemical filled fabric softeners. I couldn’t believe it so I had to try it.  NO static cling!!!  There is virtually no vinegar scent in the clothing either.  Once again a huge cost cutter next to even the least expensive liquid fabric softeners and none of the chemicals of dryer sheets. Who knew?
I got a dozen eggs for free as well as a free box of wheat thins.
I made homemade graham crackers!  They were delicious, not too hard and a fraction of the cost!  They tasted better after the first day… perfect!

I MADE brown sugar.  While this is not the most cost effective way to obtain brown sugar I only had money left in my grocery budget for milk and when I went to my brown sugar barrel I found it empty.  (Someone forgot to mark that on the list).  I only needed a small amount of sugar Sooooo… I had white sugar and a bit of Molasses.  Mix the combination together and you get brown sugar!
I made my own garlic spice pack for garlic rolls/bread.

Rick tapped our Maple tree.  We collected its sap for 2 weeks and had fun experimenting making what turned out to be maple sugar instead of syrup.  I’ll be more careful next time but we all got a taste and it was sooooo delicious. 

I used powdered milk to make a cream based soup.
I made the switch finally and purchased a 4 1/2 lb. container of Parmesan for just under $19.  The 1 1/2 lb. bottle had been costing me almost $9.  We use it all the time for pasta, pizza and salad dressings and will have no trouble using it by its expiration.
Homemade granola drops were a hit at the “healthy snack table” at an event at school.  They were full of oats, raisins, powdered milk and were the one single thing on the table that didn’t come pre-packaged or at least pre-cut and packaged. 

Peanut Butter Cups… here’s the story;

My son wanted to make “chocolate covered candy” for Family Night treats so I went to a library book I had out to get a recipe for homemade Peanut Butter Cups.  These were SO good at a fraction of the cost of that many store bought ones.  And we got to have fun making them together.

I used mini cupcake wrappers that I got free from a lost and found table on its last day before the items were tossed or donated and they’d been there for weeks.  There were bunches of these wrappers still sealed in their original packaging.  The wrappers made wonderful ridges in the homemade peanut butter cups just like the ridges on Reece’s.

I made “blankets” for our hot dogs instead of purchasing hot dog buns.
FREE MANURE!  I think my garden is happy now.  And I will spare you a picture of that.
Greek Style Chocolate Yogurt… Heavenly!  Made in the crock pot and kept warm on my oven’s “proof” setting.

Plain yogurt was used in the place of sour cream for many dishes making it lower fat for us and giving our budget a break as we utilized the leftover plain yogurt we had.  I made a version of “chocolate underground” greek yogurt.  Mmmmm!

I made raspberry yogurt with a plain starter I’d kept from my last batch of yogurt.  I added chocolate chips for a treat in lunches one day.  The kids loved this unanimously. 
After constantly battling the dishwasher, its detergent and hopelessly hard water I studied up on the chemistry of hard water with natural bio-friendly cleaners and made my own dishwasher detergent.  What do you know?  Cleaner dishes and a happier dishwasher!  We also utilized the extended warranty we’d purchased for the dishwasher (since my dishwasher works many times more often than the average dishwasher we had figured this might be a smart purchase), sent for the repairman who returned to us the following week with a new pump for the dishwasher.  After a good cleanout with CLR it works like new and isn’t getting gunked up with sediment anymore.
I brought my husband dinner when he had to work late on several occasions and I had to pick up my kids from school right there anyway.  We also ate dinner with him in his classroom one night when we had a concert and he had a meeting after work so he had no time to leave and come back before the concert.  We got a family dinner in, the kids got to see their Dad, play games together and watch a movie before the concert began.  We were ON TIME!  It saved gas money too.
I made my own pie crusts, wheat bread, french bread, pizza crusts, pizza sauce and spaghetti sauce.
We checked some information books out of the library.
I re-used a large “bulk” sized cornstarch container to hold my dishwasher detergent.
We got out the “new” toys!  Every month I rotate a themed box of toys out of storage for a box of themed toys, books and puzzles in storage.  We typically have any given box of toys out for about a month and the toys and books are rotated completely about every six months.  It is so exciting around here when we switch the toys around that it is as exciting as if I’d gone to Toys R Us and spent tons of money for tons of brand new toys every single month.  In reality many of these toys are between 10 and 16 years old although the newer ones have made it into the mix as well.  I clean the toys, organize them and find the lost pieces.  They are contained in their labeled (by month and theme) storage box until the next time they are needed.  I also try to do activities centered around the theme for the month whether it’s art work or a trip out somewhere.  Rotating toys in and out of play helps eliminate the “mine” with the toys, books and puzzles as well.  Certainly the kids have ownership over a few special items.  But rotating toys is awesome.
I started a compost for the garden finally.  It’s been on my mind to this for the past several years as a more natural and responsible way to feed my garden, not to mention more healthful.  But life is busy with five kids and I was a little confused on doing it properly.  Several years ago we were “issued” garbage dumpsters by the city.  Our old garbage cans help us out every so often with holding sticks or leaves for garbage day but mostly they sit upside down and empty out next to the garage.  Our very first garbage can is so old now that it has huge gaping holes in the bottom from being dragged back and forth to the curb so many times.  So I took that one and gave it the new job of holding compost.  I spent virtually no money on this and didn’t feel like I was wrecking something new that I paid for by putting holes in the bottom of it.
Paid cash to replace the cracked radiator in the old car.  That felt good.
My husband and I went on a date to one of our favorite “mom & pop” hole-in-the-wall places.  They were getting ready to close for the weekend as we were getting up to leave and they told us we could take as many bags of bagels as we wanted on our way out… they were just going to toss them.  So we thanked them and took three dozen.  Can’t beat wonderful bagels for free!  Some we ate the next morning for breakfast and some we froze.
Juice concentrate went on sale at .90 a can FINALLY!  Hooray!  I bought 33 cans; as much as I had room and money for, and the cashier asked if I left any in the case.  Hee!  Hee!  I told her in all seriousness there was still plenty.  (Really they should just be grateful that they are selling it.  It doesn’t matter to who as long as they get their money and the store put no limit on the sale.  Store limits mean Rick and I go in every couple days for the item as long as the store is nearby and the item is needed… like MILK!)
I made a triple batch of home made laundry detergent.  I’ve been using this recipe for a year now and have just now re-stocked my detergent making supplies.  I now spend in one year what I used to spend on laundry in one month.  I’m really happy with its performance both with cleaning the clothes and working in my he machine. 
Roasted the last of the autumn’s pumpkins from the farm and supplied the Kindergarten snack one week with homemade pumpkin muffins along with dollar bags of pretzels and a sack of goldfish from the bulk package I bought wholesale.
I made homemade salad dressing mixes in pint jars; Ranch, French and Italian.
A parent of one of Rick’s students offered us FREE Reds tickets for Friday evening after opening day in April for our whole family.  We usually earn 4 Reds tickets from Straight A report cards some years or from the kids volunteering at the library.  Once a year we usually end up being able to go to a ball game but we’ve never gotten to go within the first week!
Dyed Easter Eggs using the Paas coloring kit that we purchased for .25 during an after Easter clearance a year or so ago.
I bought no meat for the entire month of March.  There were some really good sales on other things that I put my money toward and meat didn’t seem to be a part of those good deals.  Meat must be $2 per pound or less or I don’t buy it.  I do make an exception for canned tuna because I think we should have a supply of canned protein but even that I only buy on really good sales so it probably comes close to the mark.  Also, I had plenty of meat in my freezer and we also eat a lot of beans as well, so it was fine.  Just something I noticed that I don’t think has happened before.

And that was my contribution to living providently and responsibly for the month of March.

Provident Living-January & February

I decided it might be interesting to try to note some of the money saving measures I have taken each month.  My husband’s paycheck keeps going down (it just did again) despite more experience and years of service, increased extra jobs taken and increased responsibility.  By nature I am a saver.  I still like to have fun and there are certain things or times when I will plan to make splurges but mostly I am simply a saver.  Through experience as well as taking responsibility I have decided that saving money is more than a good thing too.  It’s absolutely necessary.  We’ve got some mouths to feed!  We have some old debt to pay off though we have closed most of those accounts and we have dreams to follow that don’t involve living at a job.  And so I work to save.  Many, many things I do now I do out of habit and they mostly came because of either necessity or out of a personal challenge to myself to learn or try something new and different or may just even be a kinder more responsible choice in the care of our Earth; all of which can make our money stretch farther and enable us to do more with what we have.  It’s been baby steps over years with an occasional leap.  I am always looking for ways to be more self sufficient and ways to be kinder to the Earth.  Hardship?  No!  Challenging?  Yes!  Smart?  Yes!  Responsible?  Yes!    My budget… FIRM!  It’s a choice and I am enjoying the challenge.  It is like a game and the attitude is positive.  My husband is by nature more of a free spirit.  I am slowly winning him over and we are working through life’s challenges together and we are reaping the rewards for changing habits.
It is interesting to note here that we figured out we actually qualify for a free government issued cell phone plan.  We did not go looking for handouts here but we merely received a mailer one day and we happened to actually read it out of curiousity.  No we are not poverty ridden.  The mathematical formula is based on the percentage of income in relation to the poverty line and number of people in household.  Our kids could get a free cell phone too!  Don’t tell ‘em though!!!  The plan has lots of minutes, free texting AND song downloads!  Internet capabilities???  Can’t live without all that!!!  While it never occurred to me that we would qualify for this plan that I have an utter distaste for already I will say that I am seriously amazed that the plan includes so much!  People should be able to call 911.  I would agree to that.  But here I was on a pay-per-minute plan because it was cheaper for us than the plan with the minutes we never used.  Cell phones are for emergencies or a quick relay of tremendously important information ("buy more milk, please, while you’re out" or "I'm in labor and need you to come home NOW").  They are handy when we are out of town too.  But they are NOT necessity.   And we are keeping with our current plan.  One that does not include the kids and one that we pay for.  It is the honorable thing to do (just as paying on a house that has lost value too) and I draw the line.
OK.  So here is my list of frugal accomplishments (do I qualify for a raise???) and it’s way longer than I expected:
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We continued to eat home canned pickles, peaches, pears, applesauce and jam.  And salsa!
I saved peels of citrus fruits and combined them with vinegar in a canning jar to make an all natural disinfectant cleaner that will be good to use in 4 weeks.
I made a triple recipe of home made laundry detergent.  I haven’t done the exact math on this but my detergent expenditure for a whole year now is about what I used to pay for a one month supply of laundry detergent!  It cleans well and smells great too, is hypoallergenic, all natural and safe for high efficiency washers.  It takes me about 10 minutes to make which is a shorter time than it takes me to get to the store and back.
I made my daughter’s birthday cheesecake out of cream cheese purchased earlier when it was on sale for .90 a package.  Yup!  Philly cream cheese!  It keeps well with an expiration months away and so I always buy a lot of it when it goes on sale now.  The caramels for the cake were purchased several months ago when they were on sale for $1.00.
I made homemade ice cream for the birthday girl using items found in my pantry instead of using our “milk” money to buy some.
I used a coupon and got a dozen eggs for free!
I turned the furnace off for a couple of days when it got warm.
We had a meal from dried black beans and homemade tortillas.  It was delicious!
I made my daughter’s requested pasta dinner for her birthday with bow tie pasta that I purchased at .90 a pound.  This is the second best price I come across all year.  A couple of times a year I can buy it for .49 a pound.  I store it in glass jars so the bugs, rodents and moisture don’t get into it.
I used homegrown sundried tomatoes that I dehydrated myself last autumn for the pasta dinner.
I had to purchase some vanilla wafers for the birthday cake.  The store brand was 50% lower in cost than the name brand.
We used leftovers for some lunches.
We used some hamburger buns for dinner that our next door neighbor gave us for free from her office party.  We ate scalloped potatoes she gave us from the office party with a few meals as well.
I purchased chicken patties when they were just $1 per package (or $2 per pound).
I found 3 pieces of baked chicken in my freezer from large packages I had purchased on sale at 1.99 per pound.  I used them to feed my family of seven for two meals + leftovers in a chicken fettuccine dish and a chicken pot pie.
I bought a shirt for my son on clearance at 70% off of its 30% markdown; next to nothing.
I found a clearance sale at The Children’s Place and got my other son a church outfit (currently he only has one in the right size).  The sweater, dress pants and matching socks to the sweater plus another pair of socks for little brother cost me less than the original price of the sweater alone.
My old mixer died.  I use my mixer constantly and need a good quality work horse that can handle the load.  After a couple of days looking around I found an overstock sale of Kitchen Aids on the internet.  I was able to get $100 off the price of my Professional Series Kitchen Aid with 14 cup flour power.  That is the usual price of the Artisan Series mixer.  I got a free splash guard with it ($25 value), free shipping and a rebate for a free ice cream bowl ($90 value).  The mixer arrived on my front porch 2 days later.  The ice cream bowl arrived a week later and I am thrilled with the mixer.  It handles everything I give it with ease.  This was the best deal out there… and the mixer is PINK!
I made homemade salad dressing; French, Ranch AND Blue Cheese.  The blue cheese itself was offered to us for free from a teenager at church after some sort of overstock with a fundraiser a few months ago, a whole BOX of it!  I put it in my freezer and it makes GREAT salad dressing.  All of these flavors of dressings are so much better tasting than what you can buy at the store, they take hardly any time to make and the ingredients are simple things right off the spice shelf.  All spices I buy are purchased in bulk.
Made homemade chocolate syrup.
Nathan and I collected the parts of our old bird feeder that we’ve had for years.  The squirrels hanging from it and generally abusing it finally did it in.  We cleaned up the pieces, collected some nails from Ricks work bench, grabbed a hammer and we had a blast sitting outside one afternoon repairing it and nailing it back together.  Nathan loves tools and any real reason to use them.
We fed the birds putting seed in the feeder that we got for free in a gigantic bucket from a friend.  Several years ago the seed was used for children’s playtime in a sandbox (instead of sand).  The seed had just been sitting there ever since but the birds seem to still love it.
I used some crusty heels of bread and a single leftover roll I had stowed in the freezer for homemade salad croutons.
I made a new dessert to take somewhere with some lemons I still had on hand that desperately needed to be used along with my free eggs and sale cream cheese.
I made all of our bread, rolls and pizzas from scratch.
We borrowed two movies from the library that we wanted to see for movie night.
My husband and I went out for a nice dinner date a little early for Valentine’s Day and used a coupon for $5 off of our dinners keeping us within our small budget for dates. 
I made dinner for two nights for my family of 7 plus two more gallon bags of turkey broth for the freezer using turkey bones.
I learned how to successfully make yogurt and it was good.
I made homemade granola trying a new recipe with very simple ingredients and without expensive add-ins.
I purchased pasta at .49 per pound which only happens once or maybe twice a year here.  Since I can get thin spaghetti pretty inexpensively at Sam’s Club whenever I want or need it I utilized my dollars for that shopping trip on spiral, shells, bow ties, macaroni and penne.  I transferred the pasta out of boxes and put it into Mason jars with cleaned used lids and large plastic pretzel barrels to keep insects and rodents out.  I learned that my .49 pasta wasn’t such a deal one year the hard way when I ended up having to throw a bunch of it out.   If you keep moisture, rodents and insects out of pasta it has a shelf life of 10 years despite what the packaging might tell you.  Unless it’s wheat pasta.
I used coupons to purchase dental floss bringing the cost of each to 7 cents a piece.  With my receipt came a store coupon for a dollar off my next purchase from them courtesy of the company making the dental floss.  Because I buy milk at that store all the time they in essence paid me 86 cents to take the dental floss off the shelf and out of the store. 
I bought two hand towels and two containers of holiday sprinkles at 50% off.
While Rick was in Columbus for a conference that his work paid for completely, including gas, he made an appointment at the Storehouse and was able to purchase 25 lbs. oats, 25 lbs. black beans, 25 lbs. of fruit drink mix and 50 lbs. of powdered milk on his way home without taking the extra time and gas money for a special trip up there.  My best deal on powdered milk in Cincinnati only buys me 12 1/2 pounds of powdered milk for the same price as 25 pounds of milk that I can get at the storehouse.  The beans and oats have a 30 year shelf life if stored properly (which they are) and I have no bulk supplier in this city for those items.  The milk has a 20 year shelf life if stored properly (which it is) so they are long term storage items that I use regularly and will rotate through.  The drink mix has a two year shelf life and is meant for short term storage.  We have been drinking more of that lately at breakfast instead of including it just once in a while since it has been a while since frozen fruit juice concentrate has gone on sale. 
I purchased a 1 lb. bag of frozen vegies and a large bag of M&M’s for FREE with a coupon.
I was given a large bag of spaghetti and sauce already cooked and two bags of bread/rolls from the Blue and Gold banquet to take home at the end of the event.  The spaghetti was enough to fill to overflowing two pie plates.  The food, initially, was pretty bland and so I doctored it up adding a 1 block of cream cheese and a two dollar pound bag of meatballs.  I added an onion and a half cup of frozen red pepper from last years garden plus some garlic and a bit of mozzarella.  The bread was doctored up and toasted with a few shreds of mozzarella, garlic and olive oil and basil.  I added a salad and for just over $3 this meal fed us Sunday dinner with leftovers to take in thermoses for lunch the next day.
I received an Amish Friendship bread starter.  This gave us two loaves of bread, another two starters and two starters to give away to friends.  My friends were thrilled to get this from me.
We attended Maple Sugar Days; a free family activity. 
I checked out several gardening/home/craft information books from the library that I’ve wanted to look at instead of purchasing them.  I may purchase them with a gift card later if I decide they would be helpful enough.  Or I might put them on my birthday wish list and hope they can be found at the local used bookstore.
We tapped our Maple Tree in the front yard.  In the first two days we got a pint of sap from it.  We strained it with cheesecloth and boiled it.  We might have enough to make Maple butter or Maple Dressing with it if the weather continues.
The price of butter has been tremendous.  I’ve nearly run out of butter several times now and so when we are on butter restrictions I find alternatives.  And I’m sure we eat too much butter anyway.  I made our favorite muffins using applesauce in place of the butter.  Whenever we put the breaks on butter we always end up with a little bit left on the plate still by shopping day.
I cleaned out a freezer, an overstuffed drawer FULL of trial sized toiletries given to us and a medicine cabinet; reorganized and labeled.  EMPOWERING!
I made homemade de-tangler for free with a trial size conditioner given as a gift.  A bottle of this is $2.99-$3.99 in the store when I paused to consider buying some. 
We got our home energy report and we were $8 over the typical house this size in this area for the month.  Considering most families are only 4 people in size and most of the people I know in houses this size in this area live alone or have one other person in the house I think we are doing pretty good in the energy saver department.  One thing the report suggested was that we cook our small amounts in the microwave instead of on the stove.  Then I thought about the option between cooking on my stovetop OR one $35 – $40 trip to McDonalds for my family.  Then I felt just fine about spending $8 extra on the gas and electric bill for the month.  Plus we run three de-humidifiers in the house with this type of in between weather.
I took one of my daughters shopping for new pants with a gift card from Christmas.  I encouraged her to look at a pair of jeans on the clearance rack.  She didn’t think she liked the style paying attention only to the name but tried them on because the price was so good and it turns out they were a favorite style of hers on a pair of jeans long outgrown but she didn’t know what kind they were.  Re-united they look super cute on her and the price was fantastic. 
Used frozen pumpkin from last year’s garden to make muffins.
Made sweet potato fries from sweet potatoes I bought at .17 per pound a while ago.  Last weeks circular had them at .79 per pound.
Made steak fries with potatoes bought at .20 per pound.
Made and used homemade taco seasoning mix.
Used beans in place of ground beef in recipes calling for ground beef.  (Can’t remember when we last had ground beef in the house).
Had fun “making” wrapping paper with my three year old by paint-stamping a brown paper bag to cover a gift for his cousin’s birthday.
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Actively searching and open to learning new ways to save money and be more self sufficient, this was what I remembered to write down for the months of January and February.