Are your dollars not stretching as far as they used to? Everyone has different reasons for wanting or needing to cut back. I thought I’d start sharing some frugal things that we do, in a monthly series, as a way to not only encourage myself to stay on tract, but maybe give someone with similar goals some ideas.
Aaack! I almost forgot to do a HSFH post this month! I’ve been so busy making some changes in my flower beds and vegetable garden so that they will be ready to plant in a few weeks. As you can see by the tree below that’s leafing out – no time to waste! 
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-I’ve been able to get a good amount of salad greens this month, plus kale and collards from my garden. Some of the collards are already starting to bolt!
-did the usual – cut my husbands hair, made bread, used my crock-pot a lot because I knew I wouldn’t feel like cooking dinner since I’ve had quite a few busy days, used our homemade liquid hand soap (almost out and need to make another batch), hung kitchen towels to dry in the garage – soon we’ll be back to line drying outside.
-used our American Express card rewards points (see this post for explanation) to cash out for quite a few $25 Home Depot cards which we will use for some upcoming home and garden projects.
-cashed out my Swagbucks & Bing points for Amazon Gift Cards and purchased a few books for my Kindle
– I bought my ham for Easter on mark down after Christmas. Actually I bought a couple (we have a chest freezer) and I’ll buy a few more after they reduce them after Easter. So the main expense for Easter Brunch is already taken care of.
-I went to the Dollar Tree and got a bunch of flower seed packets at 25 cents each because I want to enlarge a few beds specifically my mailbox garden and I don’t want to buy a whole lot of plants. So I’m starting some flowers from seed (I’ll also be dividing and moving plants I already have).
-I ran out of pots and made some newspaper pots instead of going out and buying peat pots. So far they’ve held up well. I’ve tried pots made from toilet paper rolls and those always fall apart on me. Here is the tutorial I used for making newspaper seed pots.
-We got some bags of coffee grounds from Starbucks (they’re free) and spread those at the base of our blueberry bushes. Yes, my blueberries are so delicious they need to have their own little house to keep the birds and critters away from them! My blueberries grow really well and I do this a few times a year. Blueberries like acid soil and coffee grounds are acidic (although some people say the acid is washed out during the brewing process and some people say it isn’t). Either way, my blueberries seem to appreciate an application or two of coffee grounds.
-I’ve been enjoying some concerts (Jack White) and shows on YouTube. Particularly Carol Klein’s Life In A Cottage Garden. You will LOVE this if you like English Cottage Gardens. Plus it’s always fun to see how experienced gardeners do things. Here’s episode 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNktDeNLPWU&list=PLfRuoYh0MxB3Pbn0j6TTvrwsiCzGMoY1i&index=1
Those are my frugal highlights! What have you been doing to save money this month? Chime in!
I really like the idea of the newspaper seed pots and starting seedlings rather than always buying plants. We do not do a huge garden, but ours has been started (about a week ago) and all is looking good!
Those are some great tips! I love how Starbucks keeps their coffee grounds to give away for free. So neat!
I use a cash rewards credit card to buy everything (and always pay it off in full at the end of the month) so I usually end up getting $25 or so back each month in cash just for using the card. I love it!
Rewards CC are good if you use them properly cause then it’s like getting free money!!
Love this series Manuela!
Not sure if this is noteworthy, but I’ve been adding free books to my Kindle Fire. I do a search under the bookstore for “free kindle books”. Amongst the romance novels (there are TONS of romance novels!) I’ve found free Paleo cookbooks, knitting how-to, online business books, smoothie recipe books, gardening books, organization books, leadership books and a variety of other subjects. Not all the books turn out to be great. But, for free it’s worth the risk!
I’ve also been using my crockpot a lot more this month with all the busyness around our house lately. It’s wonderful to come home and smell dinner already cooking!
Happy Easter!
Mary Ellen
The Working Home Keeper
I love the free kindle books too! You can get a free trial on most magazine subscriptions too.
I didn’t know that about the magazine subscriptions! Thanks!
Everything is noteworthy! You never know who you’ll help by mentioning what you’ve done. Aren’t crockpots just the greatest helper! I don’t know what I would do without mine. Although, I notice that most of my recipes are more suited to cold weather. I need to find some that I can make in the summer – although we eat more salads in the summer.
On the subject of frugal entertainment: I go to Barnes and Noble (used to go to Borders until they closed, sigh) once every week or two, and for the price of a cup of tea I pull gardening, home decor, cooking, and craft books and magazines, and while away the evening. It’s actually kind of scary how I can look at the same magazine weeks in a row and not realize I’ve already read it until I reach a certain article or get towards the end! In any case, I know whether to make a purchase (if I’m inclined to do so) if I’ve enjoyed looking at it week after week after week.
I also joined an Altered Book Club about 2 years ago, which meets monthly, charges no dues,includes a potluck, and uses old discarded books as the bases for learning and applying different art and mixed media techniques. Everyone shares supplies at the meetings, so you don’t have to buy things you don’t have and I get to try things out before deciding whether I want to buy certain supplies for my own use.
As to the garden, all my collards and pak choy that I grew throughout the winter is now bolting. March has been so cold and damp (20 degrees colder than last year on average!), that I haven’t been able to do much in the garden yet.
Me too! My husband and I go every other week, have a coffee and share a dessert (I’m a cheap date). I know, I can’t believe how many times I’ve looked through a magazine thinking it was new only to finally realize I’d already read it. It’s worse now that they have all these compilation magazines. You flip through them and they’re all things you’ve seen else where.
The altered book club sounds fun! We’re still working with only having 1 car so I don’t get to participate in as many things as I would like.
Diana, it’s so hot today I was uncomfortable! It’s like a hot summer day with people running around in shorts! Of course, we’re going to pay for this nice weather by having storms over the weekend!
We have mostly been organizing the house and trying to find new uses for things we already have. I used the tutorial you had for painting jar lids and then using the jars for storage.
Instead of getting carry out pizza we have been making our own. It saves about $10 each time we do this. When we do go out to eat, we go for lunch on Saturday. It’s less crowded and our two favorite places both offer an $8 lunch including dessert and a beverage.
I cut up some of my husbands discarded dress shirts so I can use the fabric from the back of them for sewing projects.
It’s too early to get our garden started here. We had snow last weekend. I can’t wait though!
So glad you used that tutorial! I hope you show them on your blog as I’d love to see what you did. It is so hot today! People are wearing shorts and flip flops but we had few snow flurries last week. Crazy Atlanta weather!
You always have some great ideas for us. This year, I am definitely planting some veggies – and tomatoes.
Yay! I’m so glad you’ll be planting some veggies this year! Once you taste homegrown you’ll want to grow more and more each year!
Your garden plans sound wonderful. It is warm here today but will have a freeze starting Monday. So not much gardening going on here. March was not frugal here- new tires and battery for 1 vehicle and property taxes and surgery trip expenses. We are planning on a very little spending. April.
You have been busy – lots of great ideas.
I had hoped to have at least a few post of annuals planted in the courtyard for Easter, but did not happen, as night time temps will be back down in 30’s some next week. I was not interested in hauling plants in and out like I have done in many past years.
Have a wonderful weekend and Happy Easter !
I always get great ideas from you:) THANKS for the idea on the seed pots! Have a blessed Easter Weekend dear friend, HUGS!
Your garden must be fantastic! Good for you.
The only way I saved money this month was because I was in bed sick for two weeks. Sorry!
Judy
Love that you are getting so many greens already. I have morning glories soaking overnight. Gonna try to have more flowers for less this year. The only thing I’ve done is try to eat up the leftovers.
I have some nasturtiums soaking. Eating leftovers is good!
Hi Manuela!
Love these posts and wanted to chime in! This has not been a frugal month for us, sadly, as our refrigerator/freezer finally gave up the ghost. We thought we had fixed it a few months back but it was only a temporary respite. It was a scramble to find a used freezer to hold the beef and other goodies from a recent shopping trip! Luckily our friend had a 17 year old chest freezer he wasn’t using and very kindly came to the rescue! We put that in the garage and did some online research and found the newer version of our refrigerator/freezer on sale for 20% off! We needed to act quickly as the sale was ending soon but we made it and they even threw in free delivery. However, even with that the expense wasn’t a small one. Luckily we had our emergency fund in place, which now needs to be replenished so next months achievements should be quite numerous. Moving out the old pieces and cleaning has inspired me to finally get moving on repainting the kitchen…much to Rosie’s joy! I’ve had the paint for about a year so I spent the morning gathering all my paint supplies together so I ‘ll be ready to start next week! I plan to implement your strategy of one wall at a time so it doesn’t seem so overwhelming. I will also be repainting the cabinets on each wall to freshen them up as well!
I’m off now but wanted to say hello and wish you a happy Easter!
Love,
Tracey
XoX
Some months are just like that! When our fridge died we had to get another one quickly too and I hate the one we got! It’s already been repaired 3 times!
I hope you and your family have a wonderful Easter!
This is such a helpful post, Manuela. I love using things I already have around home. The newspaper and toilet paper rolls is clever and less than pennies.
Thanks so much for sharing another bright idea, my friend.
Happy Easter!
Carolynn