Five Frugal Things | I’m almost out of time!

Happy Birthday! Those are great birthday finds!

My Fugal 5 - Borrowed the 'Sound of Music,' my mother-in-law's favorite movie to watch with her and the girls & borrowed a few games from the library I knew she's like to host game night as part of her birthday week celebration . - Hosted my mother-in-law's 80th birthday at my home; Brought decorations, balloons, party favors and cards from the Dollar Tree; Cooked spaghetti, garlic bread, and made prepared Cesar salad at home; My brother and sister in law drop by as a surprise and brought along a chocolate cake; Spent time together at the museum, one of her favorite places in the world, which is free; Put together a dedication wall for her on Facebook and showed her birthday wishes and pictures of her through our projector; Took my own pictures of the event through my phone. - Took my girl to a Lego Build event at the library and batch run errands at the same time by picking up crib bedding offered through our BuyNothing group, getting my glasses refitted for free at the eye glass place, and depositing a couple checks into my checking account. - For garbage pickup week, we cleaned out our garage and house so that saved us a trip to the garbage dump but I also found a few things I picked up for free like a board for puzzling, a big container to put our excess things in instead of cardboard boxes, a few lifejacket for kids, and a bike seat to replace the broken one on a bike my kids have. - My husband build me wooden spacers with wood her already had to put behind my garbage cans so it doesn't hit and scrap the kitchen cabinets when in use.

1) We've been working through a whole house clean out and reorganization for the last month or so. It is so much work. Ugh. But the payoff has been a much more comfortable living and working space. We have also worked hard to keep our organizing supplies expenses down. Last week I did buy a couple of under bed storage bags to replace one bin that was broken and to upgrade our Lego storage situation (the Lego now live in a large hard plastic storage container that was holding clothing). I have so far resisted purchasing any other new organization supplies. I am instead making do with what we have.

2) I did a big Goodwill drop off yesterday of things resulting from our clean out. While I was there I peaked in just to see what they have. I bought a paperback book, a shelf for our daughter's room (I was hoping to find a cheap but cute shelf we could hang in her now organized room!), and my favorite purchase of all . . . a hand upholstery steamer. I have wanted one of these hand steamers for a while to clean our car's upholstery and our daughter's bedroom rug. (Both the car and rug have some age on them, so being able to keep them clean will keep any of us from imaging that we need a new rug or car--a long term frugal play.) The $75-$100 price tag was enough to make me put off this purchase for a year waiting for a cheaper alternative. Lo and behold! There was one for $35 in Goodwill that looks new.

3) During the same errand when I dropped off the Goodwill I also dropped expired medicines in the bin at CVS on the way and stopped at Kid to Kid. At Kid to Kid I dropped off items for credit, which I exchanged for clothes for our daughter: a pair of shorts, a dress, and a pair of river shoes. I need to try the shoes on her again today to make sure they fit. I will carry anything back that we don't keep. If these items work out then we are all set on summer clothes.

4) My lunch included produce we needed to eat up and pantry items that came from my mother in law's free food stash. I also made another batch of protein powder pudding. I also am not a protein powder person, but it was free from my mother in law, and I could stand to eat more protein. After a lot of experimentation, I am finally starting to put a dent in the stash.

5) Instead of meeting a colleague over lunch or even over coffee, I suggested we just meet in his office. We had a lovely conversation catching up and comparing notes, and I didn't even have to spend $3 on an overpriced cup of tea. I even parked in the stupid $2/parking that is one million miles away from my office.

Have you tried the protein powder in a smoothie ? We made our smoothies with plain Greek yogurt and protein powder mixed in with the fruit and almond milk. It is very yummy.

There are some fabulous eyelet dresses on the Walmart website that I think you can get in white. I especially live eyelet fabric!

1. Compared prices on coffee and bought a large can at about 37c an ounce, compared to more than a dollar on most major brands (I bought store brand). 2. Hung out laundry, drank coffee at home, leftovers for lunch, etc. --the usual. 3. Picked up several sale/markdown items at Safeway. The 4/$20 deal is pretty good; $5 per package of meat, and I buy the heaviest ones I can find. $137 in groceries for the week. 4. Sent out two thrifted birthday cards today. 5. Continuing to file, sort, shred my office files. I have enough file folders and labels to refile everything. The shreddies go in the compost or green bin. Waste paper gets recycled. So many envelopes! I wish they would stop sending them. Even when I am on the paperless plan, I still get a ton of window envelopes.

Happy birthday, Kristen!