Wow--I can't believe so much time has passed since my last "Frugal Friday!" It has been two months, to be exact, as the last post was the beginning of November. The holidays are always busy though, and a good time to focus on the most important things in life, such as our loved ones and let's not forget all the blessings God has given to us and the greatest blessing of all in Jesus coming here to earth to save us--even though December 25th would not have been the date of His birthday.
So--a quick recap of the past two months! I didn't keep a written list of frugal savings, but I do remember some things. . .
* I paid cash for Christmas gifts. To me, this is huge. I always think it is so sad when people charge and charge and charge for holiday things, and then January comes along and they are all strapped and feel depressed because of their finances. This is NOT a good way to start out the New Year!
* I accepted a free sewing machine. :)
My friend was passing on a 1914 Singer 66 Treadle sewing machine, that used to belong to her great grandmother. She knew that once upon a time, I had mentioned that I would love to have a treadle sewing machine. This was several years back, but when she decided that she needed to pass on hers (several reasons why, main one is she lives in a very small house and they needed to make some space for some other things) she remembered my saying that and offered her treadle to me first. She has never used it as an actual sewing machine, so had no idea if it was operational or not. She has only used it as an end table in her living room. Well, I was thrilled--after I confirmed several times that she really did intend to give it away--and gladly accepted. It was quite dusty and spider-web-y. This picture is when it first came home to my house. I am learning how to do a minor restoration on it. I have already oiled the outside of the machine, cleaned out the inside, and polished up the chrome parts. It is looking much prettier already! My husband agreed to help me with gluing down some of the loose veneer on the cabinet itself, and once that project is finished I will be working on restoring the cabinet. It has been a fun little project to work on, and I look forward to having this lady sewing again!
* I got to fill two bags for free at our local thrift store! My daughter also got to fill two bags for free. This is because we are both volunteers there, and once a year they clear the entire store out with a special bag sale, clean, organize, repaint, etc. the store itself, and then restock with new-to-the-store donations. Well, before the bag sale is open to the public, they let the volunteers come in and have a free bag sale, one bag for each side of the store. We had a very limited time to do our shopping--it is a two hour event, and my daughter and I did not get there right when they opened, so we had even less time. It was our first time attending a volunteer bag sale, and it was a lot of fun! There was not a whole lot that my daughter and I wanted for ourselves, but then we thought about a family at our church who have recently adopted a baby girl. So we decided to put our "purchases" combined in two of our bags, and use the second two bags for baby clothes for our church family. It was a lot of fun to be able to gift this family with some pretty clothes for their new little one to grow into! And in the bags of things for ourselves, my daughter was able to get a black sweater that she can wear both to church as well as to her music performances, and I found two gray skirts that fit me perfectly and I have already been wearing them to church. We also chose some books, scarves, and other various things. It was a very nice Christmas gift from the thrift shop to their volunteers!
* I found a lot of Christian books by my favorite author at a local used book store.
O.K., so this one was where I actually did spend quite a bit of money, but the price was still MUCH better than if I had purchased these all new! I frequently find one or two books by this author at the used book store (not the same thrift store where we volunteer), but usually just a few books and quite often they are ones that I already own. Well, my hubby and I were out on a date, and stopped in just to browse. We were both shocked when we found all of these books there! There were actually even more than these, but around six or so books were fairly heavily underlined, and since I really like to do my own underlining in these books as I read through I only wanted to get books that were completely clean inside of markings. SO--these were all $5.00 each, and I purchased 14 books, so it did cost me $70. I was so thankful that I actually HAD this much money! It certainly beats the brand new price, which is $15.00 each, for a total of $210 if purchased new! About half of the 14 books are for me--two of them are for my son's birthday present as they were the exact titles he had asked me to keep an eye out for him, and three or four of them will be for my daughter when her birthday rolls around.
Specifically in the past week, I have saved money by working on eating up things I have squirreled away in our freezer! I tend to accumulate little things in the freezer, but do not often think about using up the things I save in there--so that is one of my recent goals!
*I used five pita breads from the freezer and turned them into baked pita chips. This I topped with a salad made of chopped tomatoes, cucumbers, and garbanzos with some lemon juice sprinkled in. Then chopped olives on top, and some spoonfuls of hummus. Yummy yummy!
* I used a cup full of forgotten frozen green beans, and roasted them with two diced potatoes in the oven one day for lunch when it was just my daughter and myself. We stuffed the roasted veggies inside home made sweet potato tortillas.
* I found some oat patties in the freezer, and made little "hamburger" sandwiches along with baked French fries for another day's meal.
* For breakfast one morning I put all the little bits of frozen berries that were in the freezer--a handful of frozen blueberries, some raspberries, and a couple of strawberries--into the Instant Pot along with steel cut oats to cook for our breakfast. The steel cut oats came out quite pink looking, but were delicious and it was healthy on top so win-win!
So that was my freezer accomplishment for this week--yea me!
What did you do to save money and bless your family this week? I would love to hear about it!
~Susan
4 comments:
So excited to find another treadle machine owner. I have posted about our treadle machine too if you would like to come for a visit. I think yours is in much better looking shape. I can't believe she wanted to give it away but I'm glad you got it! Here is my link so you can see mine: https://www.vickieskitchenandgarden.com/2019/01/my-frugal-ways-this-past-week-11319.html.
You saved really well this week!
What a great frugal week! I love your sewing machine. I don’t own one yet, but I keep looking. I remember my grandmama using hers a lot.
Great find on your books! I love being able to find used books because the savings is always so great.
Vickie—Just peaked at your blog, and your treadle is LOVELY! Actually, I think yours appears to be in MUCH better shape than mine, at least the cabinet sure is! Mine has a lot of water damage on it, probably from plants being placed on top of it. Watering plants and a wooden cabinet do not make for a happy couple! But my hubby has been gluing down raised veneer, at least every place where he can squeeze some wood glue in. The other spots that are just bubbles up will just have to be left that way. I am going to try a wood finish next, which is supposed to kinda hide/repair water stains. We will see how it works! I think it is funny that you found a nut in your machine!
Shara—How fortunate you are, to have those memories of your grandmother sewing with her treadle!!! Too bad her treadle wasn’t still in the family and available to you, since you have an interest!
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