Frugal Friday! Week of April 1-7, 2018

Good Morning Everyone!

How can it be Friday again already! Seriously, while I am not complaining about the weekend being here, as fast as the days seem to fly by it just seems to make my head spin!

But I do have another Frugal Friday that I wanted to share with you this week, and that is the idea of taking cuttings from your current garden to produce more FREE plants! And in my case this week, I am talking about FREE roses!

A couple of weeks ago, my husband and I were doing a little yard clean up on a sunny day, and one thing we were sprucing up was my rose trellis. This is a trellis that my husband built for me, and we were going to leave it the natural wood color but sadly after a summer or two we realized the wood bees that we have in our area just loved to drill holes into my trellis and use it as a place to lay their young— not exactly what I had in mind when I asked my husband to build me a garden arbor/trellis! So after some research I learned that the wood bees will usually leave painted wooden things alone, so we knew we were going to have to paint that trellis after all. Well, I had already had a climbing rose growing up one side of the trellis for probably three years, and had always meant to plant a different color of rose to grow up the other side. But you know how things go— I had not yet gotten a rose planted up that other side. At this point, it was probably a good thing, since we were going to have to remove the rose that was already growing on it in order to paint. So with many apologies to my rose bush, we started removing it from its trellis. We tried to cut it as little as possible, but there were many canes weaving in and out, so it was impossible to not cut it at all.

With both of us working together, we finally managed to untangle the rose from the trellis, and my hubby painted the trellis a natural brown color (take THAT you bad wood bees!). As I surveyed the pile of rose canes that we had had to clip off, on a whim I decided to try and start some new roses. I had read previously that cuttings need to be about the diameter of a pencil, so choosing some pencil sized canes I cut two canes into strips, dipped one end of each rose piece into first water, and then a dip into my container of rooting hormone (bought at Walmart) before poking it down into one of two pots I had sitting on my back porch filled with pitting soil. I watered my new “rose sticks,” and left them alone.

Fast forward a couple of weeks, and this week we were once again doing some spring cleaning in our backyard, when I came across the two pots and low and behold there they were! Nine happy little new rose plants, growing beautiful new leaves! Not all of my starts “started,” as I had planted twelve sticks, and only nine grew— but I thought that was pretty fantastic!

Of course, now I had a new problem, as the type of rose I started is a vigorous climber, so I knew they would not be content to live in a pot all summer. But forgoing my original idea of two different roses on my trellis, I decided a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, and I really do love this rose bush as it is very hardy and is almost completely thornless. So two baby rose bushes have gone into the ground on the far side, so maybe by the end of the summer there will be roses growing on both sides instead of just one.

That still leaves me with seven more roses to find a spot for, but my Aunt and Uncle came to stay one night with us as they traveled home from being snowbirds, so I offered one rose to my Aunt, which she gladly took. It will be interesting to see if it grows as well in her state as it does in mine! And I still have a few gardener friends to ask and see if they would like one for their yard.

So there you have it! My Frugal tip for this week is to see if you can create new plants from plants that you already have. Your starts might not “start,” but then again, it doesn’t hurt to try!

~Susan

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Note--Yes, I am aware of plant patents.  From my research, the rose I have is not a patented one so I am not breaking any laws by growing new cuttings.  I am also not selling my extra plants.  In addition, my understanding from my research is that even if a plant IS under a plant patent, the plant owner is still free to create new plants for their own use and to share, as long as they are not selling the plants.

Frugal Friday! Week of March 25-31,2018

Good Morning Everyone!

I thought I would take a quick minute and share a “Frugal Friday” with you this morning! Or perhaps this would more appropriately be called a “Frugal Thursday,” since I made this recipe yesterday, but that just doesn’ sound the same! 😉

Anyway, I thought I would share with you an inexpensive and healthy recipe. It is a recipe for Sweet Potato Flatbread. You can buy Flatbread, but why buy it already made when you can make it so much cheaper at home— and tons healthier without a bunch of preservatives as well!

First, the recipe:

Sweet Potato Flatbread

2 cups mashed sweet potato
2 cups whole wheat flour (I use white whole wheat. You can also use regular white, all purpose)
1/2 tsp. Salt

1) Stir flour and salt together.

2) Bake sweet potatoes using desired method until soft. I prefer microwaving for 10 minutes or so until soft. The length of time will depend on the size of your Potato. Don’t forget to poke some holes in it!

3) Mix cooked, measured sweet potato with the flour mixture, kneading until a nice dough forms. If too dry, add a tablespoon of water. If too wet, add in a little more flour.

4) Once your dough is formed, roll out into a log shape and cut into 10 pieces. Sprinkle flour on your surface, and roll thin. While you are working with one piece, keep the other pieces covered with a towel so they do not dry out.

5) Bake one Flatbread at a time, in a hot, dry skillet over medium heat. I use my cast iron frying pan, which heats beautifully. You will heat for one to two minutes on each side. If they start to get too dark on each side, turn the heat down on your frying pan.

Eat just as yummy bread, or you can roll up beans, rice, or anything that you desire into it. My daughter is not a sweet potato fan, but except for the nice orange color, no one would ever know the sweet potatoes are in there! And this way you are getting a serving of whole grain from the whole wheat flour, AND a serving of veggie all at the same time!

Hope you like them as much as my family does!
What did YOU do to save money this past week? Please share with me—I am always looking for new ideas!

~Susan

Frugal Friday! Week of February 18-24, 2018

Hi Everyone!

I'm back!  At least this week I am back!  Sorry to miss several weeks there.  My daughter had a music festival to attend a few weeks back, so I missed posting a Frugal Friday due to that, and even though I have been back for weeks now life keeps me SO busy!

There is no way I can keep up posting every single week without missing--but I do enjoy posting whenever I do have a chance to and I hope you will also share with me what you are doing to save money in your family budget, because I am always looking for new ideas on how to save!

This week, we have had some GLORIOUS Spring weather!  Only problem is it is not exactly spring yet, so I am quite sure it won't be lasting--but I am sure going to enjoy it while I can before a cold spell comes back! :)  Anyway, with the nice weather my daughter has been trying on her summer clothes to see what still fits her as she is definitely still growing (Size 9 feet! She is taking after me, because I wear shoes size 9 1/2 and 10's!).  So I have been hearing from her about how she has outgrown a lot of her summer bottoms, and that she would REALLY like to have some play skirts--meaning some skirts for every day wear, not a fancy one for church.

Well, we have spent the last two weeks shopping for clothes here, there, and everywhere.  I even got brave and ventured into the mall--I am NOT really a mall shopper, hate the crowds and soon feel overwhelmed with all the STUFF everywhere!  But even in the mall we didn't find anything for her (though I did find a great clearance top for me for $4.39 thanks to Belk!).  So last week I decided to try a local thrift shop.  I knew we wouldn't find anything that would fit her exactly, but I was hoping we might possibly find a large women's Hawaiian muumuu that we could cut smaller.  You know--something large with a lot of fabric in it.  But as frequently happens when thrift shopping, I couldn't find exactly what I wanted--but we DID find a Hawaiian mini skirt that we both liked!  It was just--too short.  We loved what was there--there just wasn't enough of it to love!  I carried it around for awhile as we continued to search, because as they say, a mini in the hand is worth two muumuus in the bush! But it was the only Hawaiian type thing we could come up with.  So while debating if I should just put it back, I had an idea. . .

Maybe, just maybe, we could lengthen it.  I am NOT an experienced seamstress by any means.  I can do a few things here and there, but I know my limitations so I wasn't sure I could do this, especially since there was a pleat in the front of the skirt.  BUT--this thrift shop only charges .75 cents for the clothes it sells, and the money is all used to help people in our community, so the risk was pretty small even if I couldn't get it to work.  I told my daughter my idea, and we started searching for some fabric that would match the colors in the mini skirt.  "Fabric," meaning another garment that we could buy for .75 cents and cut up.  Finally, after much searching, we found a shirt that was just the right shade of green to match!  We could have gone with blue, but couldn't find the right shade of blue in anything so went with picking up the green color instead.

We bought both pieces, brought them home and I washed them.  The next day, I started taking the green shirt apart trying to obtain the largest fabric pieces that I could out of it.

It did have some nice green buttons on the front of it that I didn't want to throw away, so I had my daughter cut them off and add them to my button jar.  One never knows where those little green buttons may appear next!   I cut the largest piece--from the back of the shirt--in half, and then evened it up where the arm holes were.  I ended up being able to get a total of four pieces--two from the back, and then one from each front panels.  The shirt sleeves were just too small to really get a usable chunk from as far as a ruffle went, but I have saved them in my fabric stash just in case. . . I am thinking maybe some type of hair bow flower?  Not sure yet.  Will have to research a bit and see if I can find any idea that I can make with those pieces. . .

Sewing the strips together, we managed to extend the length of the skirt by around 7 inches.  I basted the top of the strips and then pulled on the basting threads to ruffle it.  It didn't come out perfect, but I think it isn't half bad.  And it passed the "teenager test," as my daughter LOVED the end result!

I am VERY happy with the result myself as well!  I had to take in the waist a bit for her as well--I added two additional darts in the back of the skirt (are they called "darts" when they are shaping the garment from the waist down?) as well as take it in a bit at the two sides.  So it is smaller in a total of four places in the waist, and longer all the way around.  I think my daughter looks adorable in it (yes, I AM biased!) and she is thrilled to have a summery, happy looking play skirt!  And I guarantee there is not another one like it back at the mall, especially for $1.50 total cost!

I would love to hear from you--what did you do this past week to save money?  And any ideas for how I can take the green shirt sleeves and make something for my daughter to wear in her hair?

~Susan

Frugal Friday! Week of January 21-27, 2018

Good Morning Everyone!

So are you still in the deep freeze where you are?  Our weather cannot make up its mind! Frigid cold for a few days, then warms up to maybe the 40's or 50's, and then frigid cold again!

One thing our family has really noticed is an increase in bird activity at our little back yard feeding station.  I think with the cold being THIS cold, the birds are having to burn more calories to stay warm. And with burning more calories comes the need for them to replace those calories.

My hubby has taken on the job of keeping our bird feeders filled. On a normal week, he fills them once a week, as we are getting ready for Sabbath. We cook and clean inside the house, preparing our "Sabbath feast," and he makes sure the birds have full bird feeders so they, too, will have a "Sabbath feast!" Sometimes the feeders get a little low a day or so before he refills them, but when Sabbath comes those little birds can always count on having full tummies!

Well--with all the frigid cold weather, instead of the feeders remaining full for most of the week, every time we turned around the feeders were empty!  And my kind hearted husband was giving in and refilling them! Which I love about him--but at the same time I also do not want to run out of bird seed and need to buy more TOO fast! So I decided if you can't beat them--join them!  Those poor birds needed a little more to help them out when it was THAT cold! It was time to make them some home made suet cakes!

Years ago, I used to purchase those little square suet cakes you find in the grocery stores--and the birds loved them! But they always were eaten up real quick, and the price for each little square can really add up! But then I discovered that you can easily make your own suet cakes, and for much less than purchasing them already made for you. And it is an easy little project to do as well!

First, gather the few supplies you will need.  There are only at minimum three things you must use, but can add in others if you wish.  These are:

1) Some type of fat.  I use vegetable shortening, but you can also use lard if that is what you have in your house.

2) Peanut butter.  While I feed my family the natural peanut butter, for our dog or the birds I keep some regular, inexpensive peanut butter from Aldis.

3). Cornmeal.  In addition to the cornmeal, I usually add in some quick oats as well.  Some people also like to add in some bird seed, but since I have seed in nearby feeders I usually keep my home made suet on the plain side.

First step--measure two cups of the shortening plus one cup of the peanut butter into a microwave safe dish.

Second step--microwave, stopping to stir, until the shortening and peanut butter are all melted together.

Third step--stir in one cup of cornmeal and one cup of quick oats.  If you were only using the cornmeal, you would need to stir in two cups of it.

If your mixture is way too soupy, add in a bit more cornmeal or oats until it is like a very soupy cookie dough.  Then I pack it down into a plastic container to keep in my fridge.  In times past, when I had a little square hanging suet basket, I would pack some of the suet mixture into square plastic freezer containers, and freeze them.  Once they are frozen, you can easily pop them out of the container and into your hanging suet basket.

Since at this point I do not have a square hanging suet feeder, I just keep my home made suet in a plastic container in the fridge, and when I want to serve it to the birds I scoop some out onto a little piece of scrap wood.

Then I place the piece of scrap wood on our bird feeding station.  The birds LOVE this mixture, and it gives them higher calories to help them during these cold days and nights when they are spending so many calories to keep warm.

So there you have it--my Frugal Friday tip for this week!  I hope you enjoy mixing up some of your own home made suet to feed the birds!

And please share--what is one frugal thing that you did this past week to bless someone?  I love to get new ideas from you!

Have a beautiful week!  And don't forget to spend a little time watching our bird friends!

~Susan

Frugal Friday! Week of January 14-20, 2018

Good Morning Everyone!

How is everyone doing? I am not sure about where you are living, but where I am the weather has been just bitter cold!  Add to that cold ice, and we had three days this past week when area schools were all cancelled--not so much from snow, as there was only around one inch of the white stuff, but roads were just a sheet of ice for a few days there.  Even the college where my husband closed, and THAT doesn't happen too often, mainly because the majority of their students are living on campus in the dorms!  But professors and staff could not make it in, so closed it was!

So--with all this cold weather, I do realize our poor furnace has been struggling night and day trying to keep it warm in our house. We have been doing what we can, using our wood stove to help heat, but even the wood stove has had trouble keeping up!  So this week had be thinking about hot breakfasts!  None of that cold pour-out-of-the-box stuff when it is THIS cold outside!

I have made a variety of different recipes this week in my "warm breakfast quest," but my favorite is always my "Breakfast Rice Pudding" recipe. When I shared a picture online of my breakfast right before I devoured it, I had many people request the recipe. So I thought it would be a good one to share for this week's Frugal Friday.  Afterall, it is often less expensive to make yourself a special breakfast at home than it would be to go out to eat--and it is usually healthier as well!

So here it is--my "Breakfast Rice Pudding" recipe!  Original recipe posted on the Forks Over Knives site--shared here with a few tweaks by me! ;) 

Ingredients:

3 cups cooked brown rice

2 cups unsweetened plant milk--I use soy milk that I make myself

1/2 tsp. cinnamon 

1/4 tsp. cloves

1 cup dates, pitted and chopped

1 tart apple, such as Granny Smith, chopped--I LOVE the tart apple, but if I don't have one I will use any apple that I have and it is still good

1/4 cup raisins

salt to taste

1/4 cup chopped almonds

1. Combine the rice, milk, cinnamon, cloves, and dates in a medium saucepan and cook, stirring occasionally over medium low heat for 12 minutes or until mixture thickens.

2.  Remove from heat and add apple, raisins, and salt.  Mix well.

3.  Serve garnished with chopped almonds, and additional milk if desired.

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And there you have it!  The most wonderful breakfast on a bitter cold day!  I usually have all of the ingredients already on hand, and you probably will as well!  So that is one way that I saved money this week--instead of going out to eat for a hot breakfast, I made a ever so yummy hot breakfast right here at home!  It tasted wonderful, and my body didn't feel yucky after I ate it like it does if I eat something not healthy.

How did YOU save money this week?  I would love to hear!  Sharing helps all of us get even more great ideas!

~Susan

Frugal Friday! Week of January 7-13, 2018

Good Morning!  And Happy Frugal Friday!

I am curious--did any of you try my Cranberry Salad recipe that I shared last week on Frugal Friday???  If so, how did you like it?  Was it too tart for your taste buds, or did you like the tartness??  I know several of my friends are going to be trying it, so I await hearing if they are still speaking to me after taking a bite. . . ! ;)

I have a new project that I have been up to this week to share with you.  This was not something that I was planning on, nor something that I have done before--but I am enjoying using a little bit of time and some materials that I already had to hopefully bless some women and their daughters.  It all started when I went to church this past weekend and started reading the bulletin.  There was an advertisement in the bulletin asking for help with something called "Headbands for Africa."  I had never heard of this program before, but upon reading further I discovered that the local Christian college in our town is going to be taking a mission trip to Africa.  This part is not surprising--I know that many groups from this college--especially groups like nursing students, etc. will take mission trips over Christmas or Spring Break.  Well, evidently, a group from this college has gone to Africa in the past and are going to be returning again this coming Spring Break.  And they want to take headbands with them as they did last year.  Now, I never heard of them going last year, but the announcement said that they did, and that they took with them headbands--NOT for cold, like we might think of, but instead for HEAT.  The women and girls work out in the fields, and they use the headbands to keep sweat from dripping down into their faces.  There was a poster board advertising this in the foyer of our church, along with pictures of different types of headbands that could all work for this project.  They encouraged people to use up different scraps of yarn that they may have sitting around in their homes, as a headband is a perfect project for just a small amount of yarn.

This was one of the pictures that the lady in charge of this project had included on her advertising poster:

She said that they love bright colors, and that they need headbands in small, medium, and large sizes. And only acrylic yarn, no wool yarn, since of course they are using them for heat--not cold.  I am no expert by any means, but I do have some basic crochet skills. . . and I also have some leftover yarn!

And so--I came home and started searching online for a free headband pattern, and found this video tutorial:
Headband tutorial

And following this easy video, I was able to take some of my leftover yarn from another project years ago, and make these:

I am hoping to add a red flower to the yellow headband still.  The red headband is what I am estimating as the size for an adult, and the yellow one for perhaps an older girl.  I want to bring them to church with me this weekend and ask the lady in charge of this project her thoughts on the sizes, before I make more.  After getting her thoughts on sizing, I am hoping to make a bunch more out of all the colors of yarn you can see in the picture.  This project covers several areas, 1) it is an enjoyable craft project for me--I find crocheting very relaxing; 2) instead of cluttering up my home, this craft project actually declutters it, as I use up supplies that I already had in my home, and 3) it blesses someone else with an item that will help them.

And there you have it!  My Frugal Friday project for this week. :)  What did you do this week to be frugal?  How have you or how can you use your talents and what is in your hand to bless others?  I would love for you to share!

~Susan

Frugal Friday! December 31-January 6, 2018

Happy Friday Everyone!

Here we are in the start of a brand new year!  A fresh start is always a wonderful feeling, and the start of a new year is a great time to evaluate our lives and our habits and ask ourselves if we need to change anything that we are doing perhaps without even thinking about it.  Little tiny things done regularly can add up to great big changes!

For instance--I have been carrying around some not needed extra weight on my body.  Last year I felt like I really needed to place my health as a priority.  There were no huge, drastic changes--but the consistent small changes that I put into practice ended up resulting in a weight loss of 24 pounds over the calendar year.  Only two pounds a month--not exactly anything that gets "noticed" or that you announce to your friends on Facebook!  Yet, over the course of a year, those little two pounds a month added up and I am much healthier at this point--one year later--for having taken those small changes.  And being healthier, I am sure, will result in at least a few less doctor visits, so will be helping out in a frugal way as well! In addition to health care costs, I am making some better purchasing decisions when I am at the grocery store--sure, I am buying LOTS of fresh fruit and veggies and whole grains, but the cost of those things is being offset by the unhealthy foods that I am NOT purchasing.  Anyway, so I just want to encourage you to not be afraid of taking tiny, baby steps towards your goal!

But on to this week!  So what did you do to live in a frugal way and bless your family this week?
With Christmas spending behind us, this is a great time to evaluate budgets and get yourself back on track with where you want to be!  One frugal thing that I did this week did involve spending some money up front--but knowing the regular price on something can help you to know if you are REALLY getting a good deal when you see it on sale.

So, keeping that in mind, one frugal thing that I did this week to bless my family was I purchased this:

Yes, that really IS a case of fresh cranberries!  I don't know about where YOU live, but around here fresh cranberries are usually around $2.00 a bag.  At Thanksgiving time I saw them go on sale for $1.00 a bag, and a lady in the grocery store commented to me about what a good price that was!  So you can imagine how I felt when I went to my local Aldi's store and found them for .49 cents a bag!!!  Be still my beating heart!!!  And cranberries freeze really well, so many of these bags will find themselves in my freezer real soon.  And--I admit--I bought fresh cranberries at this price three different times!  So WHY do I want to eat fresh cranberries, and HOW in the world do I eat them since they are so very sour?  I'm glad you asked that! ;) 

Why:  Because cranberries--fresh cranberries to be specific--are SO very very healthy for us! I am not a medical doctor, so cannot give any medical advice.  But I do read a LOT and research into different areas of health, and here is a short video that IS done by a medical doctor, explaining a bit about the health benefits of eating fresh cranberries:  

Cranberries VS Cancer

In addition to the health benefits, I must include in the "Why" that I LIKE them!  Actually, I LOVE them!  No, really!  When I used to eat junk food, one of my favorite candies was the sour lemon drops!  I also grew up eating yummy grapefruit--that's my parent's fault--so I developed a taste for sour things. . . 

However, even I will admit that straight, fresh cranberries are a bit TOO sour even for me.  Which brings me to the HOW part:

How: I eat them in THIS Cranberry Salad recipe. Most fresh cranberries are eaten with loads of sugar to sweeten them up.  But this recipe uses the sweetness of fruit, which is not robbed of fiber, vitamins, and minerals. 

Place one cup of dried dates, chopped if you are using the whole kind, into a food processor.

Add in the zest from two oranges.  Then peel the oranges, and add in the orange sections as well.

Here are my two oranges after they have been zested.  I use a little orange zester tool that I got somewhere years ago--maybe Pampered Chef?












After you have your dates, zest, and oranges into the food processor, pulse them a couple of times just to mix them all up.  Then it is time to add one package of rinsed, fresh cranberries.

Pulse the mixture after the cranberries are added in, stopping to scrape down the sides if needed.  You will be left with something that looks like this:

Remember, you want to pulse the mixture, not blend it all up.  One of our favorite ways to eat this Cranberry Salad is on top of oatmeal for breakfast.  It adds just enough sweet--and tart--to make plain, boring oatmeal kind of interesting! ;)  And remember, I DID warn you--it IS sour!  But with the dates in it, there are also pockets of sweet, and I love the combination!  In addition to topping oatmeal with it, our family will also simply eat a serving of it as a dessert after a meal.  Yes--even my hubby who is normally a very picky eater now loves it.  In fact, he finished up the last of it this morning at breakfast, which forced me to make up another batch so my daughter and I could also eat some for breakfast. . . .I remember the days when my hubby thought he didn't like grapefruit, so I got to eat ALL of them myself. . . it took several years, but he now eats just as many grapefruit as I do.  Which, I suppose, IS a good thing since I do want him to be healthy as well. . . .

I hope you enjoy this Cranberry Salad as much as we do!  Please share with me one frugal thing that you did this week.  I love to get new ideas!

~Susan

Frugal Friday! Week of December 24-30, 2017

Hi Everyone! 

I know what you are thinking--this "Frugal Friday" post isn't appearing on a Friday!  And you are right!  But that's o.k.--I am, after all, on vacation!  And I just like the sound of "Frugal Friday," so that is what I am going to call these posts, no matter what day of the week I get them up! ;)   I am sure I won't always post them weekly either, but I will post as I can, and I do hope that YOU will share with ME some ways that you are being frugal that week.  

One reader last week shared how they try to not go too far either direction--either TOO frugal, or TOO spendy (I can make "spendy" a word, right?).  I thought they had a very good point.  To me, the word "frugal" is not a negative word but rather a positive one.  But it IS very true that we must guard against extremes at either end.  The way that I think of the word "frugal" is being careful with the resources God has given me to manage.  I also think about how I can best use those resources to bless both my family, as well as others outside of my family either in my local community or even in overseas mission and humanitarian work.  

ANYWAY, so I wanted to bring you a "Frugal Friday" today, sharing one way that I was able to save money in the past week.  This is not EVERY way that I saved money--but rather just one that I really wanted to share especially because of the holiday season.

As you all know, this week was Christmas.  I read something in the December issue of Better Homes and Gardens magazine--I read that the average person in the US spends $927 on holiday presents. In addition to that, it also stated that money is the number one cause of stress this time of year.  Somehow, a holiday that is celebrating our Savior's birth just seems to me like it is wrong if celebrating that holiday ends up being a source of stress on us!

So I thought I would share quickly some tips that have helped our family, and I hope they might also help you for NEXT Christmas time avoid some of that holiday present stress.

Tip #1--Pay cash for presents.  O.K., so I do realize that some things may be ordered online, and you can't exactly pay cash for online purchases.  But my point here is to not purchase it at all if you do not have the money in hand to pay for it.

Tip #2--Think about what presents you might be able to make.  Often times, we can use our skills to create something nice for a loved one that they will value more than something purchased, and it is usually less expensive even if you do need to buy some materials with which to make it.  Our daughter needed a tote bag for carrying her music books in.  In the pictures here, you can see what I came up with out of recycling some old jeans from our son.  I did purchase the music fabric that I lined the bag with as well as purchased the flower buttons--but the end result was a nice present for her that she likes and can really use, and it only cost me a couple of dollars to make.  It was more the thought that counted--not the high cost.

Maybe you don't sew--but can you make some bath salts, or a plate of cookies, or something else that you enjoy?

Tip #3--Purchase or make your presents throughout the year.  My sister is very good at this--keeping her eyes open for something that she knows a loved one will like.  When she sees something on sale, she has this person in mind and is able to get them a nice gift at a good price.

Tip #4--Rethink the whole gift idea.  Maybe your family might rather take a trip together, creating some special family memories together instead of buying gifts for each other.  This way, time is your gift.

Well, those are the four tips that come to my mind.  What tips do YOU have to add?  What have you done in the past, or did this Christmas, to help be frugal on gifts and yet still show your love for that person?  Share in the comments what you would add to my list!

~Susan

Frugal Friday! Week of December 17-23, 2017

Hi Everyone!

I hope you are all enjoying your Christmas holidays!  Since my husband is a teacher, we are smack dab in the middle of vacation time this week--and it's great!  One thing, however, that is not always great is the bills that can so easily accumulate this time of year.  I have been thinking for some time about starting a series on saving money-not a series where I tell you what to do, but simply a series where I share money-saving opportunities that I had that week, and I do hope that you will return the favor and share with me what YOU were able to do to save money the same week.  This way, we can each learn and gain new ideas from each other.  What works for me may not necessarily work for you, but one idea can often start other ideas going! :).

So here goes--these are the money saving opportunities that I found this week!

 This week, my daughter needed to get some yarn from JoAnn's in order for her to finish a Christmas present that she is making.  I brought a 50% off coupon for JoAnn's to the store with us, so was able to help her purchase her large skein of yarn for $5.00 instead of the regular price of $10.00.  This skein will probably be more yarn than her project needs, but she will have some leftover yarn to use for other projects another time.  While in the store, I had two extra coupons that I didn't need to use on anything else, so I used them to pick up two containers of their hand soap.  These are inexpensive to start with, at only $1.00, but since I had extra coupons I used them and was able to purchase these for only .50 cents each.  The scents in the soaps do not last as long as the scents in the Bath and Body Works soaps, but they do get my hands  clean and I enjoy the scent while I am washing my hands.  And you can't beat that price! Savings for the yarn plus the soaps came to $6.00.

On the same shopping trip, I had a $5.00 Kohl's Cash coupon that I wanted to use before it expired.  My goal was to use the entire $5.00 going over as little as possible.  In fact, I wouldn't be allowed to use the coupon if my purchase wasn't at least $5.00.  Of course, the Kohl's company is hoping I will spend over that amount in my shopping, but I was determined to stick to my $5.00 budget!  I have been slowly replacing our worn out towels in the master bathroom (Ha! Master bathroom sounds large and grand, but ours is like a
tiny closet but it does have what you need!).  I started first with a package of six white wash clothes when I had a coupon, a couple months later I was able to purchase two bath towels with a $10 coupon that I had, and later still I added two hand towels with a different coupon.  So this week, with my $5.00 coupon I found these towels were on sale for $3.99.  I decided to pick up just one towel, but I needed to find some inexpensive item to add to my purchase to bring the amount up to $5.00.  I found several candy items up at the register for .99 cents, $1.08, and $1.49.  I bought one candy bar to bring my purchase up to enough to qualify for using the coupon, and left the store only paying .45 cents total with the tax.  I don't normally buy candy, but I can use this as a special treat in a Christmas stocking.  The next time I have another coupon for Kohl's, I will try and get a fourth bath towel. This towel normally sells for $10.00, so the savings for the towel and candy bar was $11.04.

On the same trip, I also had a $10 off of a $10 purchase at JCPenney's.  Again, I wanted to use my coupon before it expired, and I wanted to go over as little as possible.  I also wanted to purchase to be on something that was really needed, and not just something that is going to clutter up my very small closet!  I have been focusing the past year or so on my health, and have managed to lose some much needed excess weight.  In doing so, my exercise pants have been almost literally falling down, and I am afraid that one of these days they WILL fall down as I am walking! So new exercise pants were at the top of my list of "needs."  I had been in JCPenney's a previous week, but had not found exercise pants that I liked.  The style these days seems to be for super tight fitting pants or leggings, that remind me more of wearing long johns!  No problem wearing long johns, but I don't normally wear those outside of the house without other pants on top of them! ;)  Anyway, so this time I wanted to give it one more try, since this was an item I REALLY did need and I had the coupon for this store, not for any other.  After much searching and taking an armload of different exercise pants into the dressing room, I managed to find a pair that will work.  They are still a little more fitted that I would prefer, but they were the closest I could find that would work.  And at least these are not going to be in danger of falling down to my knees!  Original price was $37.  They were on sale for $18.50, and with my $10.00 coupon I was able to purchase them for $8.50, a savings of $28.50.

So that was it for my frugal adventures this week!  Please do share with me--what did you do this week to save money?  It does not need to be saving money on a store purchase--sometimes the best money saving ideas can be staying OUT of stores!  It might be something you made yourself, or a repair you made, or anything!  Please share how you saved money!

Have a wonderful weekend!

~Susan