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Five Frugal Things | books, paint, flowers, eyedrops, and chicken!

Happy Monday, readers! How about we start off the week with five frugal things?

1. I sold three books on half.com

All of them were schoolbooks we’re done using…so clutter out, and money in!

I packaged them up using padded envelopes I saved from online purchases, so my only packing expense was the packing tape.

And I dropped them by the post office when I already happened to be driving by, so, no extra gas expense.

2. I got paint samples before choosing a bathroom paint color.

I’m in the midst of tackling that project, and I got a sample I thought would be right, but it turned out to be a baby blue.

Yuck.

So then I got another sample and yes! This one is right.

I hate “wasting” money on bad samples. But it is so much better to pay $5-$7 for a sample jar than to waste $30-$50 on a gallon of paint that ends up being ugly.

(related: remember the time it took 8 samples for Sonia and Zoe to pick a color?? At least this is way easier.)

3. I re-homed some purple hyacinth plants.

You maybe remember that I blogged about these beautiful vines before.

This year, I had trouble with my saved seeds not sprouting super well. I think I didn’t let them dry well enough, so they got kind of moldy.   Duly noted for next year!

Anyway, I noticed that several had sprouted up in the middle of my lawn recently, obviously from pods that got moved around last fall.

So, I dug them up and planted them around the mailbox, where hopefully they’ll still have time to turn into something like the first photo above.

Grow, baby plants, grow!

(If you’re not lucky enough to have a friend who can give you some seeds, you can easily buy them on Amazon, and your first set of seeds will produce enough for you to plant year after year.)

4. I cooked some chicken from the freezer.

I had a pack of boneless split breasts that had been living in my freezer for a little on the long side of things.

I thawed and salted them, and then roasted them so I could make a curried chicken salad for dinner yesterday.

Which will make handy leftovers for Joshua and Lisey’s work lunches. Schweet.

5. I researched eyedrop prices.

Two people in my family need allergy eye drops, and they are definitely on the expensive side of things.

I poked around online to see where I could find the best deal, and it turned out that Walgreens had a buy one, get one 50% off sale on their brand, which is cheaper than the name brand to begin with.

This beat even Amazon’s price, so I dropped into Walgreens on my way to buy paint. Yay for batching errands! Saves time and gas.

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Your turn! Join me with your own Five Frugal Things in the comments.

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Jenelle

Monday 31st of July 2017

I know I am a week behind on this, but I was on vacation last week. I would still like to give it a try. Here goes:

1. I had paid for two campsites for our vacation (one for us and one for my in-laws). They never paid me back for them, so on the actual vacation, they paid me. I had completely forgotten about not being paid! Money in my pocket!

2. One of the days it rained on vacation and we ended up taking the kids bowling. I searched for free summer bowling for kids on my phone and was able to print off vouchers for the kids to bowl for free on that rainy day.

3. On that same rainy day we stopped at Burger King for lunch and used a coupon to eat. Saved a few dollars.

4. Not very frugal of me to spend money, but I did buy our souvenirs (a sweatshirt for me and a shirt for each kid) on the clearance rack at the gift shop. The kids' birthday is in two weeks, so I plan to give the shirts to them as a birthday gift.

5. We have two "parties" for the kids' birthday each year. One when we are camping and one that we host at our home. During the one we had while camping, we ended up making cupcakes in our camper instead of buying a store bought cake! Money saved.

Not a great week, but we didn't go overboard on any aspect of vacation.

Aaron

Friday 28th of July 2017

1. Husband taking kids to free movie in the park tonight. 2. Bought a spelling kit (for homeschooling) from a yard sale for only $3!! 3. Rode bike to and checked out a stack of movies and books from bookmobile. Dog got walked at the same time with a doggie attachment on my bike. The librarian even let him inside the bookmobile! 4. Made gluten-free sugar cookies instead of buying them, they were delicious by the way;). 5. Canned Chokecherry Syrup for pancakes, harvested by wild foraging.

Rachel R.

Wednesday 26th of July 2017

1. We did the summer reading program at our library, which scored us library funds for movie rentals (and free baseball tickets!).

2. I matched up online coupons, printed coupons & sale items (including clearance organic produce) for a smaller grocery budget this week.

3. I wrapped a gift in fabric we already owned.

4. I bought store brand vinegar & baking soda for cleaning supplies.

5. We've been working on our summer bucket list & having fun with our kids with little spending. Yay contentment!

AN

Wednesday 26th of July 2017

1. Spent a long weekend with my grandparents for a vacation. Only expense was the gas to get there and treating them to lunch out as a thank-you for the relaxing time away. 2. Ate down all the food in my fridge due to the vacation. Managed to delay grocery shopping for a few days upon my return by getting creative with my meals. 3. Waited a day to place an online order so I could use as many rewards points as possible. Ordered two birthday gifts for family members and a book I wanted to read for only $9 total. 4. Found two online coupons to use for the routine car maintenance I have scheduled tomorrow. This will bring the cost down significantly, plus will enjoy the free coffee while I wait for the work to be done! 5. Made homemade sugar cookies for a work event. I had leftovers, so put the extras in a gift bag that matched the cookie icing to drop off for a friend as a congratulatory gift for achieving a career goal. She lives close enough to bike to her house, so even no cost for gas to drive.

Michele

Tuesday 25th of July 2017

1. Made sure to go to Aldi's when I brought my son to his orthodontist appt. 2. Checked out Ollie's while in the far away orthodontist town and resisted all sorts of stuff I don't need- left with scalloped potatoes, ice pops, and protein bars. 3. Signed up for a free week at a gym, then looked at monthly rates and decided against it. 4. Worked from home today. 5. Let my son use my (gifted) Dunkin gift card this am to get himself a donut.

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