As I have been doing, and you may note this is actually on Monday, I am posting what frugal happenings are going on at my corner of the world. This last week has actually been pretty good for not spending money. I am on a total and complete spending fast. My only expenses to this date have been taking Lily to the vet ($106) for a double ear infection, gas, and money spent at the older girls’ volleyball games.

I am working on a doable budget right now without much luck. Hence the spending fast. By cutting our expenses to the bare bones, we can figure out what money needs to go where. Also, we can get caught up on the multitude of unexpected expenses and some major increases on bills from September that I was absolutely not anticipating.

For this week’s frugal update:

1. FREE TOMATOES!!! Tuesday night I canned 11 pints of pasta sauce.

2. I made 1 pint and 1 half-pint of chocolate sauce. This is actually a necessity at my household. Brown cows are made often!

3. I made another batch of taco seasoning. Now that we are used to this blend, we prefer it to the store-bought packets.

4. I made a loaf of bread in the bread maker. I find that making my own bread is much cheaper and better tasting than store bought bread!

5. Jordan’s birthday was Tuesday night! I have a sweet 16 girl again! I was actually very happy with how I controlled the expenses for her birthday. I found the last two Hunger Games books for only 20 cents at the thrift shop. I already had the necklace from before Christmas. The ring costs $13.00, but she loved it! I also bought her a big carton of goldfish crackers that her favorite on sale for $7.00. She had an extremely sore throat so we skipped the cake and had birthday cake flavored ice cream instead!

6. I made more sweet tea!

7. We began using a spoonful of honey to help soothe sore throats. This has been working wonderfully! I am impressed!

8. I made my own devil’s food cake mix for a recipe since I did not have the box mix. Worked great!

9. I hung laundry on the drying rack most of the week.

10. I made rhubarb crisp and chocolate pumpkin muffins with ingredients I had on hand for the bake sale Friday night.

11. I canned six pints of salsa, four quarts of crushed tomatoes, and 3.5 quarts of chili.

12. I downloaded several free Kindle books.

13. I signed up for several freebies and coupons. I got a free sample of cat food in the mail Friday!

We made progress this week on saving money. I am still trying to stick to the “use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without!” This week might be tough with a return visit to the vet for Lily and Paige breaking her arm on Saturday with a trip to the orthopedic surgeon on Friday.

Thanks for reading! Have a great day!

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