Frugal Friday: Live Simply

 

One of the things I had leftover from the shop was this picture.  I had already decided that if it didn't sell, I was keeping it because it reflects the way Dan and I have always tried to live. 

We don't have to have the latest gadgets.  We don't need the top of the line.  We try to live within our means.  We use it up, wear it out, make do, or do without.  In many ways it's a less stressful way to live because we are not running around trying to pay for things we don't have the money to have. 

It's been a couple of weeks since I've done a Frugal Friday post and I thought it was about time for another one.  I'm going to have to pull out all my creativity in the coming weeks because this year is going to be one of the most financially tight Christmas's we've had in a long time.  I mean I'm generally always on a shoestring budget but this year it's more like a thread!  My husband tutors for the school system to supplement his income but finished up with a student about 6 weeks ago and they don't have anyone else for him at the moment.  It's tight because we have a son in college which is costing us any bit of extra money we have.  So we are tightening our belts.

However, I tend to rise to a challenge so it's kind of (in a teeny-tiny, warped way) fun to see what I can do on financial fumes.  I already have a couple of ideas kicking around in my brain, though I need to get moving quickly since Christmas in bearing down on us.

Here are ways I've saved the past couple weeks...

$ I made 2 pumpkin pies for Thanksgiving and ended up with about 1 1/2 cups of filling left. I also had saved a bit of egg and milk mixture from French toast a couple of days before.  Rather than toss these things, I turned them into pumpkin-chocolate chip pancakes which we had for breakfast.  They were definitely very rich because the pie filling had heavy cream in it, but oh, so tasty!



$ Our turkey stretched for a week, as did the leftovers.  We had a second complete Thanksgiving meal, turkey casserole, turkey sandwiches and then turkey soup.  The soup consisted of turkey, leftover veggies plus some fresh, as well as the leftover gravy.  I'm happy to say we used it all though I'm truly sick of turkey! :-)

$ I cut Dan, Nathan & Stephen's hair myself.

$ I made these cute coffee cup sleeves out of fabric scraps.

$ I tear my dryer sheets in half to make them stretch.

$ Made my own salve with ingredients on hand.  It is doing a tremendous job of keeping my hands from drying out in the cold.

$ Had a couple of Etsy orders, as well as an online order.

$ I made Christmas cards which didn't sell at a craft fair I was at so used them myself.

On a side note, I'm very thankful that as my children are maturing and growing up that they are developing a head for saving money.  Sometimes as a parent you wonder if your children will every "get it" so it's nice to see that some of our teaching is beginning to sink in. 

We have a monstrosity of a television.  It's heavy, ugly and huge.  It's  also starting to go.  If you watch a movie, there is a red outline to everything on the screen.  Nathan works at Walmart and gets an employee discount.  He also received a special discount which had to be used yesterday.  So on his own, he decided to buy the family a flat-screen television for Christmas.  That's his gift to all of us.  But rather than just purchase one, he waited to use his discount and ended up saving about $75. 

So there you have it!  My frugal offerings for the week.