Five Frugal Things~ August 11 Edition

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ladybug~one of the wonderful gifts of the garden!

I hope you all had a wonderful week! We enjoyed more rain again this week so that translated into more savings on our water bill! Whoohoo!

In this past week's pursuit of savings I:

•  froze all of my leftover coffee and used the cubes to make refreshing iced coffee!  The frozen coffee cubes don't dilute the drink as they melt. In this heat, being able to enjoy a refreshing iced coffee without paying the high prices for one in a coffee shop is enough to make me do a happy jig! Now, I would love to find an exquisite frappuccino type recipe so if anyone knows of one, please share your recipe!

•  In my desire to pretty up our shady front garden beds while keeping the expense low, I spent some time brainstorming ways to accomplish that. It occurred to me that I could use potted plants that were getting too big for their present homes. I transplanted some snake plants (also known as mother in law tongue or, more precisely, sansevieria trifasciata), coleus plants and some peace lily. All for a grand total of $0! There is plenty more room in those beds, so I need to do even more thinking on how I might be able to utilize plants I already have on hand, rather than running right out to the garden center to buy plants. (Although I do have plans to check out the half price fruit trees...😈😇) Bonus:  I got a good workout!
Along with this, I pulled out my little seed starting trays and began planting seeds for a variety of veggies and flowers such as: red currant and roma tomatoes, zinnias, marigolds, snapdragons, cleome and larkspur. In the in-ground beds, I sowed a few carrot, Patty pan, parsley, Swiss chard and chamomile seeds. In my strawberry pot, I planted a few tarragon and oregano seeds to keep the thyme and lone green onion (one of several grown from a store bought green onion) company. I reseeded some brussels sprouts seeds in the spots where the last ones didn't come up (half of them did though!) And last but not least, some cilantro seeds off in a pot of their very own.

•  made a concerted effort to turn off lights, televisions and other electronics when leaving a room or not in use. Also, since we have an electric plan that gives us free electricity from midnight on Fridays to midnight on Saturdays, I have saved all our laundry and baking to be done during that time period.

•  made a fresh batch of our favorite laundry detergent. It leaves our clothes clean and smelling fresh.

•  cooked all of our meals, no eating out! This is another area I want to sit down and make a plan for cutting costs~food! As things are right now with our food n̶o̶n̶ budget, there is plenty of room for improvement. And seeing as we have several household repairs looming, it is imperative to shift the flow of money from going out, to staying put while it accumulates, to be spent towards those repairs.

roast chicken (that's one of the two I mentioned in last Friday's Frugal Five)

These are just a few things that stand out in my mind for this week, although the pursuit of frugality has been lifelong during my adult years.

I'd love to hear what you've been up to in your frugal world this week!

Thanks for stopping by! ~TJ