Frugal Accomplishments for 2nd Week of March

This past week was definitely up and down.  We did a great job with our usual frugal things, but kinda got blind sided with a few things, like a medical bill way higher than we anticipated.

• Cooked all meals at home including chicken tacos (using the crock pot for chicken filling), beef stew (using leftover steak and baked potato from a birthday meal we were invited to), roasted veggies and flounder, homemade pizza, chicken sausages, oatmeal, banana bars, and smoothies.  Tried very hard to limit food waste by saving some for compost, chickens, and the freezer veggie stock bag.
• Enjoyed a shared meal with my mom once and an impromptu invitation to a birthday dinner at a fancy steak house.  This was a lot of fun for us, even though it was a stretch for the boys.  They both behaved really well overall, though, which made for a nice dinner.
• Saved three cartons of milk from the school cafeteria, which was nice.
• Continued with regular recycling and composting efforts to save on trash going to the landfill.
• Worked really hard with all the things from my grandmother's estate to make sure we got the things we wanted.  We were also able to give several things to our current upstairs tenant, who will be moving out in a few weeks.  This is a big help to her, and makes us feel better that Grandma's things are going to a good home.
• Cleaned out several more things, including three large paper bags of maternity clothes.  We posted these on Craigslist, and have had an offer on them.  It's nice to have this cleaned out, and be making our way toward a tidier house for putting on the market.
• Continued with regular laundry activities, washing mostly in cold water and hanging things to dry.
• Worked out at home most nights.  I tried a new routine on YouTube with hand weights, which I like, and hope to continue with.  
• Took advantage of the free yoga class at the Children's Council, which included dinner for me and little man.  This was nice and the instructor was great.
• Enjoyed birthday celebration at home for baby who's now two!  He did a super great job blowing out his candles, and enjoyed his few presents from family immensely.
  
• Going back to review our parenting class materials because little man is giving us a run for our money lately at 5 years old.  We're re-instituting the sticker chart with fidelity, and really trying to be intentional about giving him the attention he needs so that we diffuse situations before they're meltdowns and blow ups.
• On the down side, we received a bill for the chest x-ray we had back in February for baby.  The bill was almost $1,200, which was way beyond what we had expected.  Apparently we didn't understand a change in our insurance from last year to this year, and while this would have been a few hundred dollars before, it now goes toward the deductible (which seems high to me).  We're grateful that the test came back negative, and that little man is better, but struggling with the size of this bill and the timing (since we're trying to prep the house for sale and both of our rental spaces are empty).
• To make up for the medical bill and lower emergency fund, we've come up with a plan:
• sell what we can on Craigslist and eBay (which will also help us clean out the house for sale too), including baby things we don't want to keep, clothing, electronics that Benny has, and other home items that we no longer want or need
• increase my Mary Kay sales through parties and selling to existing customers (so if you're local and would like to do a party, let me know!)
• continue eating from our pantry and freezer as much as possible
• I'll pick up little man one more day a week, saving Benny a trip to school and back.
• Take advantage of as many free meals as possible, so continuing with yoga class and Benny and baby will go to the food pantry soup kitchen on Thursdays for lunch.
• Monetize this blog
• Apply for a teaching award that has a cash award too (we'll see if I get it)
• Save any unexpected windfalls including tax refund, travel reimbursement for work, and a mentoring check I expect at the end of the year
• Continue to take advantage of gleaning from the food pantry for produce and milk especially
• Do what we can of the work to prep the house for sale ourselves (painting, caulking, cleaning, staging)
• Keep travel to a minimum
• Have Benny pick up as many extra hours at work as possible
• Keep superfluous spending to nil.  We will find creative ways to do special things for the boys (like spring break outings) that are free.  This might include a picnic on the parkway, trip to the park, or outing to Grandfather Mountain for dollar days (if Mom can go along with us).
• Since we had several snow days recently, I stayed home with the boys and Benny went to work.  This allowed him to pick up about 12 extra hours of work, which will help to pay for some of the carpentry work that needs to be done to the house before we sell it.
• We saved gas by staying home on snow days.  The boys played in the snow some, watched The Sound of Music, and we played with play dough and made some crafts with existing things around the house.
• We signed up baby for preschool.  He's on the waiting list, so we're hopeful that he will get a slot.  It would really help us out for Benny to be able to pick up some extra hours at work while he is in school, and we think it would be good for his speech too.
• The gas logs needed repair, so we called, and the repair was done free of charge (hurray!).
• The workers who came to help get the house prepped for sale came one day this week and got a lot more done than we anticipated.  This was encouraging, but they won't be able to come back for another week or so, so that sets us back a little in terms of timeline.  
• I carpooled one day to work because of the snow.  We weren't able to get one car out, so a colleague brought me to town after work to meet Mom.  This meant that it wasn't out of his way, and saved a little on gas.

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