Here's how we saved this week:
- Did our usual thing with hanging laundry and washing in cold water.
- Baby is doing awesome with potty training, so we're having to wash fewer loads of training pants.
- Meals were made at home including: double batch of quiche (made at Mom's for Sunday dinner), salads, snack plates with fresh fruits and veggies, oatmeal, smoothies, roasted veggies, and Asian slaw.
- Community meals included our Children's Council meals, which I brought home a serving of leftovers, Bible school cook out, a meal at a workshop I had one day, and Benny had lunch provided at work one day.
- We are grateful for our CSA share this week with loads of spring/summer veggies and greens, as well as eggs. (We pay for this with our eBay sales each year.)
- Picked currants for free at my mom's place. These, plus oranges from the food pantry, have been our fruit for the week, primarily. One kiddo added them to his oatmeal, which was a great thought!
- Made a batch of spiced nuts as a snack, as well as some guacamole using salsa, avocados salvages from the food pantry, and spring onions. I also made a batch of energy bites using things we had on hand.
- I made a batch of veggie and chicken stock. I've been trying to have some daily, about two cups. It does seem to be helping my gut, and it's tasty, as well as fulfilling some of my liquids for the day.
- Helped out with the food pantry pick up and salvaged a few cartons of organic blackberries, avocados, rutabagas, turnips, and some broccoli and onions. We also got some mini pitas, which I used to make breakfast pocket sandwiches for those who can do gluten.
- Signed up to help with pick up again this Saturday. We enjoy helping, and it's nice to come home with things we can salvage.
- I cashed in baby bucks for a Walmart card, and earned one for my service as a parent leader with the group. We will use that $20 to pay for toiletries and supplements that we don't account for in our grocery budget. I also got free diapers/overnight pull ups for the boys.
- Gathered items for a group yard sale next week. We will price those this weekend.
- Continued to take pictures of items to post on eBay or Craigslist.
- The boys wanted to earn some money for the mission project that VBS is supporting, so they helped me clean the bathroom and kitchen floor. It was a great help to me, and taught them the importance of hard work. They were really pleased to put their money in the basket today.
- The boys were at VBS this week, which was free and great programming for them. It's a daytime model, so it meant that I could get some work done on National Boards renewal while they were there.
- I attended a workshop one day that has a stipend, which will be paid in my check later this month.
- We got the new house estimate from the builder. It's still a bit more than we'd like to pay, but we think that we can change a few things and get the numbers down. We're also exploring more side hustles to build up our funds again after medical expenses.
- Little man and I had dentist appointments this week. We opted to wait to pay the bill until our HSA card is reloaded so that we can use those pretax funds.
- I'm finishing up some insurance claims forms, which should put a little bit of cash back into savings for us.
- Our accountant got our taxes to us, after filing an extension. We'll use that refund to pay medical expenses. If there's anything left, it will go to savings.
Overall, I think we have made some good headway this week. I really look forward to selling some things at the yard sale and decluttering our house a bit, while putting some money into savings. I'm also planning some free play dates with friends for next week with the boys.
What did you do to live and save green this past week? I'd love to hear from you!
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