Weekend Warriors and Updates

This weekend was filled with lots of frugal projects... and we totally blew the no spend grocery month for February!

We discovered on Friday that our upstairs bath, which we rent out as a part of renting an upstairs bedroom, had some cracked caulk that needed to be replaced.  So, we purchased a new tube of caulk for a few bucks and Benny worked to get the old caulk scraped out on Saturday afternoon.  After we cleaned the tub, we let it dry and had dinner, and went back to caulk later that evening.  Well, the brand new tube of caulk busted and oozed all over the place.  So, we were in a holding pattern until we could return the tube and get a new one, which was Sunday.  Ah well, it was a project checked off the list by 5:00 yesterday, and way cheaper and easier than having someone do the work for us.  (Well, Benny did most of the work, I made sure little man didn't try to tackle him while he worked.)

The weather was unseasonably warm here this weekend, and beautiful, so it turned out to be a great time for Benny to give me my Valentine's present... raking the leaves out of the ditches and culvert at the bottom of the driveway, mulching them with the lawn mower and bag, and adding them to the compost.  This took a few hours yesterday afternoon, but it's so nice to have them all cleaned up and it will really help to balance the compost out (which means it will break down more quickly).  We had enough left over that we could fill out one new bed we started with leaves, which I'll pull back in the spring and add to the compost then.

We ended up blowing the no spend challenge because we found a great sale on bacon and cheese, which allowed us to restock the supply in the freezer.  The cheese ended up being under my target price of $1.80 for 8 oz, and the bacon was rock bottom prices with coupons.  We didn't spend over our normal grocery budget, though, so it's not a total loss.

Our basement apartment is also rented starting in August, and maybe as soon as May!  We worked to get our lease updated and sent to the tenant, so as soon as it's signed, we'll have the security deposit, which will help things out too.  That extra rental income will really help us achieve our goal of getting the home equity line paid off and adding to our emergency fund by the end of the year.

I'd love to hear how you're living and saving green!  Leave a note in the comments!