Frugal Accomplishments

Spring has officially arrived!  We've had beautiful weather, mixed with showers.  It's been really nice for outside play, yard and garden work, and hanging clothes outside.  We've had cool enough evenings to enjoy the windows being open.

• Cooked all meals at home including egg and cheese sandwiches, homemade granola (added pumpkin seeds and dried coconut), lentil sloppy joes, egg salad sandwiches, homemade pizza, and crock pot lasagna soup with salad.
• Enjoyed a date night, thanks to Mom for keeping little man, with baby.  We used a gift card for a local restaurant, and then did dessert at home of brownies and ice cream.  
• Salvaged several containers of berries, pears, apples, lemons, mushrooms, several loaves of bread, bagels, yogurt, and half and half from the food pantry.
• Gleaned several snacks, milk cartons, and cheese sticks from the school cafeteria.
• Kept up with all regular cold water laundry activities and hanging clothes to dry.
• Kept up with composting activities, adding more hay to the compost.  This seems to be helping the fruit fly situation we had.
• Planted free basil plants in the garden.  The parsley we planted has been eaten by rabbits (anyone know an easy way to keep them away?).
• Spent a little time weeding the garden.  Need to split irises and hostas, so will relocate these to another garden area where they can multiply.  Might also split hellebores, as they're doing really well in the back garden.
• Purchased new sandals for 50% off.  They are really good quality, so should last several years.
• Carpooled to work two days.  Should be able to carpool most of next week, and the following weeks.
• Enjoyed some time outside with little man on walks and playing "egg hunt" in the yard/garden.  He also helped some with weeding.
• Enjoyed the cool air and having the windows open.  Will substantially save on the electric bill this month too.
• Stayed away from the local kids consignment sale this time.  The boys can make do with what we already have for summer, so we didn't need anything.  
• Met with our financial adviser to set up automatic savings for the boys, contribute more to retirement funds, and a little more to mortgage.
• Accepted a curriculum writer position with DPI for the summer.  It will be a substantial amount of work, but the stipend will be worth it.

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