Frugal Accomplishments 4th Week of February

This was a pretty average week for us, aside from some maintenance work that needed to be done to my car.  Thankfully, we've shopped around a bit and have found a few mechanics in town who will do the work at a reasonable price.  The mechanic we chose guarantees the work and parts for a year, which is a nice bonus.  Aside from that, life was about keeping costs low and being creative with what we have.

• All meals were prepped at home including:  double batch mushroom, onion, and sundried tomato quiche with roasted veggies, cooked collard greens and eggs for breakfast, smoothies, oatmeal with raisins, banana bars (really flexible recipe to add in seeds, nuts, etc.), energy bites, leftover turkey from Sunday dinner, and salads.
• Grocery spending was kept to a minimum and we worked really hard to use our frozen and dried fruit toward the end of the week when we ran low on fresh fruit.  We also used shelf stable veggies (potatoes, onions, homemade sauerkraut) later in the week when we were low on salad greens.
• I continued to try to get in my 9 cups of fruits/veggies daily, sometimes subbing dried or frozen items for fresh (I keep kale powder for smoothies when I run out of fresh greens, especially for smoothies.  I'd like to get some red raspberry powder and maybe beet powder for smoothies too.).  This, plus daily homemade bone broth really seems to be helping my health.
• Exercised at home with YouTube videos.  The boys exercised at karate 3 times this week.  I did yoga, cardio, and hand weights at home.  I also made an effort to walk more during the day by parking further from entrances, taking advantage of 10-15 minutes here and there to walk the dog, walk around the school track, etc.  I also used the small trampoline at the Playhouse to exercise while little man played independently one day.
• We took a new approach to a snow day and structured the day much like a home school might operate, at the request of little man.  He was disappointed about missing art at school that day and requested time for an art center at home.  We ran with his idea and he developed a whole list of centers to do that day, including math, reading, free choice (building with Legos), PE (yoga on YouTube for kids), snack, coloring (both coloring pages and cut up brown paper bags), puzzles, and cooking (the energy bites mentioned above).  It was a great day with very little sibling arguing, so we'll definitely continue this strategy when we have snow days or long afternoons.
• Cut up brown paper bags for use as wrapping paper, which the boys colored.  I saved the thicker bottoms for draining the grease from bacon, etc. instead of paper towels.  You could also use the brown packing paper for this.
• Enjoyed my regular yoga class at the Children's Council and earned my monthly parent reward for helping with setup.  This month was a $10 Walmart card.  We plan to use this to purchase baby's birthday present.
• Little man and I had a date one afternoon.  I took him to Starbucks (I had a gift card) and we went to Michael's to buy a gift for a birthday party.  I used a coupon and my educator discount to get the lowest price, and he was very excited about the gift he chose.
• Made goodies for a bake sale at school using ingredients we had on hand.  I chose a no bake for ease of time, and to save on the energy of running the stove.
• Made coffee for the week at home.  If I make 10-12 cups on Sunday, that will get us through most of the week.  We refrigerate the leftovers and reheat as needed in the microwave.
• We washed and hung all laundry to dry at home.
• We've had two pretty successful days with baby on the potty training front. He's stayed in training pants most of the day, and while he's had a few accidents, he knows to go straight to the potty.  Hopefully by next month we'll be out of diapers during the day completely!
• Read a few frugal living blogs and tried to implement some of their ideas.  I would love to go into the new house completely debt free, aside from the mortgage there.  Our plan is to pay down the mortgage quickly there, hoping to clear it in 10-15 years.  By integrating some rental properties there, we should be able to do it.
• I explored another option for a side hustle, which would be teaching online through a private company.  It's something I think I would enjoy, but I really just need to figure out if it would fit our schedule.
• Added a few more items to the eBay bag for listing there.  We hope to have our CSA totally paid for through our eBay sales.
• I sent in more items to ThreadUp using their shipping label and a box we had on hand.  It's nice to have credit there because it allows me to replace items in my wardrobe without shelling out money from savings.  (If you use the link, it's my referral link, so I do get some credit if you make a purchase through that link.)
• We used a baby buck from our Children's Council groups to "purchase" a pack of wipes.  We use cloth wipes at home, but the disposable ones are great when we're out. (We'll probably continue to use them after the kids are out of diapers because they're great for car messes, messy hands when a sink isn't nearby, etc.)
• I took two chicken carcasses from our yoga meal.  The chickens were rotisserie ones, so I combined them with some scrap veggies from the bag I keep in the freezer and made some stock in the crock pot.  These would have been otherwise thrown away, so it was essentially free food.

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