Frugal Accomplishments

This past week was a pretty normal week for us.  We continue to save where we can and try to find new ways to save each week.  Here are last week's highlights:

• Cooked all meals from scratch at home including chili and corn bread, red lentil curry, winter squash casserole, and winter squash muffins.    
• Took advantage of a few shared meals with family and friends.
• Prepared meals to share with families in need two times last week using ingredients we had on hand.  These meals included breakfast casserole, fresh fruit, and bagels and a family size portion of lentil sloppy joes with bread and muffins for dessert/breakfast.
• Composted all appropriate kitchen scraps, including paper towels, brown paper, and coffee filters/tea bags.
• Accepted a flat of tomatoes, two watermelons, overripe bananas, yogurt, and asparagus from the food pantry (things that would have otherwise gone to the dumpster).  Roasted the asparagus last night and hope to process the tomatoes for sauce in the crock pot later this week.  The watermelon will be our fruit of choice this week.  The 
• Washed all laundry on cold, except sheets and towels.  Hung everything to dry inside or on the clothesline (except with it was too smoky from forest fires), except sheets/towels.
• Used cloth diapers and washed them at home.
• Little man said he's ready for undies at night time!  So, we're trying it out, and it's going pretty well.  Only a few accidents, which the extra towels have caught, so minimal extra laundry and fewer dollars spent on night time diapers.
• Said "yes" to some hand-me-downs for the boys and one for me.  Some were not my style, so they went to Goodwill, but most were welcomed additions.
• Found a pair of fun slippers for little man at the local consignment sale that should last him two seasons.
• Had fun entertainment at home with existing toys, colored on paper bags, and read books at home on the holiday to save on extra expenses of being out and about.
• Renewed library books online to save a trip.
• Worked to prepare the garden beds for winter.  I still need to plant the garlic, but compost and straw are spread in most beds.  
• Added raked leaves to the compost to try to balance all the green kitchen scraps.  
• Accepted donated straw for my garden, which saves significantly on winter mulching.  Will use mulched leaves for additional mulch in other beds.
• Began to update the Christmas gifting list.  We are trying to make almost every gift we give this year, or use gift cards, so that we're not spending out of pocket.  My lack of canning this summer will make this a little more difficult, but I hope to be able to make a batch or two of citrus marmalade to give at the holidays.  Maybe I can do a batch over Thanksgiving.

What did you do to live and save green this week?  I'd love to hear from you!