Last Week's Frugal Efforts

My toddler's food scraps that are suitable for the wild birds (muffins, waffles, bread, crackers, etc.) are put outside on the deck railing instead of being thrown away.

I've been entering the Dave Ramsey $100,000 Christmas giveaway daily. It's free to enter, and I signed up for reminder emails. You can enter here.

I've been using Swagbucks, Bing Rewards, and Perk TV as much as possible so I can earn Amazon gift cards for gifts, household needs, and food items.

At work I've been listening to Dave Ramsey's radio stations for free.

Friday night I checked out four ebooks from the library so I'm set on reading material for awhile. I chose The Happiness Project and the first four books of Game of Thrones.

I signed up for Everydollar.com It's a free budgeting software. I still need to finish entering everything, but so far so good. (I feel like a broken record here. haha. It's also from Dave Ramsey. I'm not affiliated with him at all. I'm just a fan!)

I enrolled in online college classes for the Winter quarter. Yay! Officially a college student (again.)

I continue to try to be diligent about recyclables. Both at work and at home. It can be tedious to sort, rinse, and separate things, but it's good for the environment. And recycling is free at the local dump.

I've been taking coffee and food to work and putting in more of an effort to prepare my husband's coffee and food for work on my days off so he doesn't eat out as often.

My husband and I went to a free parenting workshop. We learned a few things, the toddler got some social interaction, and they gave him a book and two toys. I already signed us up for the next free workshop.

Things that have left my possession.

I've been following three places* where people post about items they've gotten rid of, and those random internet people have inspired a new sporadic post series for this blog. I will, from time to time, post a list (and maybe some pictures) of things that have left my possession.

Decluttering for me is a long process because I can't do a full sweep in one go. I have to strategize. I have to muster the energy. I can't let my husband watch me do it because if he sees what are in my boxes he questions things or takes them out. I'm not touching his items; just mine...or maybe a kitchen item from time to time.

What has left my possession recently? (well in all honesty many items are still being possessed, but are humbly waiting in boxes until I can donate officially.)

• At least two boxes of books. 
• Our old collection of kitchen utensils. We were gifted with an all metal set so we took our cheap crap to the breakrooms at work.
• A few coffee mugs.
• More than three pairs of pants.
• A small mountain of socks.
• A pair of slippers.
• A mirror.
• A few brooches.
• A watch with spare bands.
• A few kitchen gadgets.
• Some shirts.
• A jumpy chair.
• A baby activity chair.
• Two canisters of baby food.
• Vanilla beans. I'm not making vanilla extract this year like I wanted to so I brought the beans to work. They were excitedly taken.
• An ice cream scoop.
• A random assortment of office supplies.
• A pair of shoes.
• 2 Nail files.
• Expired medication.
• A scarf.
• Various stacks of paperwork.
• A cardigan.
• A dress.

*Those three places are:

1. Becoming a Minimalist
2. Annual Declutter Challenge Facebook Group
3. Getting rid of stuff / Clearing out the clutter

What has left your possession recently?

3 Small Acts of Giving.

I'm not a high income earner in this season of my life. It makes me feel bad when I can't write checks to local organizations and programs that I know can really use the money to make a difference in the community. There are many families here that need help. I wish I could help them all. So until I get my own financial house in order here are three small acts of giving that I currently do:

1. Donations of used clothing and household items. Decluttering is a continuous process in my house. I have stacks of boxes of things I no longer need that I will be donating to local charities. I've also been able to catch good deals for new clothing and toys for almost free! I'm especially excited about donating the toys when I see local businesses advertising toy drive drop offs.
   
   
2. Amazon Smile. I recently started using this service. Basically for every qualifying purchase I make on Amazon.com, Amazon will donate 0.5% to a charity of my choice. I chose a local community that does so many wonderful things in my area. Read more about this free service here. I just use Amazon like I usually do, but I make sure that the website address says smile.amazon.com first.
   
   
3. Donations of food and toiletries. I've been slowly learning about couponing here and there, which has resulted in some free or low cost items that I can give to food banks in my area. Food banks are always in need of shelf stable food and toiletry items.
   
   

These three things are small acts of giving. I hope in the future that I can afford to give much more. How do you give?

Last Month's Frugal Efforts.

I dried sheets and comforters in the sunlight. I found a way to hang my clothes out to dry too. (toddler logistics) I'm looking forward to a lower power bill.

I used up the last of my free sample of body wash.

I have windows open all night and close them in the morning before it starts getting hot so I can avoid using the AC when possible.

I gave my brother some sweet potato chips nobody liked so they wouldn't go to waste. He also received some random foodstuffs I no longer wanted or needed.

My toddler started eating pizza (he's a very picky eater so this is huge!) so while his consumption of organic snack foods will go down, I'll have to come up with inexpensive ways to serve him healthy pizza.

I used some gift cards earned through Swagbucks to buy the toddler some books that were on sale.

I bought my sister's birthday gift for $10 using a promotional credit from Amazon. I'll pair it with some fresh ground coffee from my coffee stash.

I read some awesome free Kindle books. I used a promotional credit from Amazon to purchase the next book in a series.

I signed up for free 3 months of Audible, which means I get three free audio books.

I signed my toddler and I up for the library's summer reading program. I borrowed some books and movies there for free too.

I finally was able to drop off several boxes of donations! They provided me with a receipt so I can write it off during tax time.

I placed an order with the new website Jet.com. (I scored a free 6 month membership, and they just went Live in Beta.) The savings were pretty good. Very comparable to Amazon and Vitacost so it will be a fun challenge to see where I can get things the cheapest.

I saved a bra by pulling out the pokey under wires.

My mom came over willingly to mow our property. Our lawnmower is broken beyond repair, and the grass was at least 2 feet tall. My husband did a dump run for her (and us) in exchange.

I print coupons via Swagbucks, I download coupons to my Fred Meyer/QFC card, I collect coupons from BzzAgent and what I receive in the mail from QFC, and I look for coupons in the local grocery ads and magazines. I try to pass off the ones I don't end up using, though often my toddler usually winds up with them. I've heard about military families being able to use expired coupons so I really need to look into that.

Life insurance through work is ending. I got the ball rolling on getting some elsewhere. And still nagging my husband to do it too.

I talked myself out of some purchases.

I put out the toddler's crumbs and leftover bits on the railing for the birds, squirrels, and chipmunks.

My husband gave the unused moby wrap to his pregnant coworker.

MIL offered us some silverware that her friend didn't want. Instead of throwing out our still somewhat usable utensils My husband and I are taking them to work and donating them to the break rooms.

I gave two packages of diapers to my sister's friend because my toddler outgrew them.

I gave in to my year + long desire to get a Kindle Paperwhite, however, it was used, and it cost me $21 out of pocket (after an Ebay gift card and PayPal cash). I've been reading the Kindle app on my tablet a lot lately, and my eyes are getting strained.

And the usual...bringing coffee and food to work from home.

What have you done lately to be frugal/save money?

Things I Got for Free. Haul #2

See Haul #1 here.

What's pictured?

• Blue spatula
• Cashew milk
• Candy bar
• Deodorant samples
• Disposable razors
• Shaving gel
• Bath poof 
• Body wash
• Face wash
• Lotion
• Coffee
• Baby rash cream
• Seasoning
• Top 'ems
  

What isn't pictured?

• Chocolate truffle bar
• Sriracha ketchup
• Hot dogs
• Box of fruit bars
• Cheese slices
• Organic tortilla chips
  

Estimated value of above items: ~$38

How did I get them for free? A mixture of choosing from the list of available free samples when I placed orders on Vitacost.com, the weekly free item from Kroger stores, and being a BzzAgent.

What have you received for free lately?

Declutter Challenge Weeks 2-4

(More than) two weeks ago I started the declutter challenge. I went out of order, but each day had a different total item count. Here's what I got rid of before I stopped:

April 8th:  7 items one glove, one receipt, one coupon, one bottle of essential oil, two cans of soda, one postcard.
April 9th: 20 items two boxes of magazines, one shirt, one charm, one key chain, one hair tie, two rubber bands, two pairs of scissors, ten paperclips.
April 10th: 19 items two pins, one pen cap, one pen refill, one rubber band, one razor blade,one pencil, one hook, one card, one broken pen, three tacks, two nails, two tags, one business card, one index card.
April 11th:  17 items 5 cans of soda, four necklaces, one pair of gloves, five packages of candles, one package of knee highs, one pair of unmentionables.

I stopped because I had a health emergency situation, and after that ended I was too far behind to catch up.

Initial Thoughts:

It's almost absurd how when I'm looking through things I haven't seen in years that I feel resistance to get rid of them. Things that have not served me in any way, and I suddenly don't want to part with them!

The amount of crap that I've been holding onto --intentionally and unintentionally-- is crazy!

Total number of items gone: 111!

After Thoughts:

As fun as these number challenges are, since this isn't the first challenge I failed...I've come to the conclusion that these challenges just aren't for me, and that's okay. What's important is the desire to have and want less. At this point in my life I just need to declutter at my own pace.

Overall I have been decluttering for over a year. Sometimes it's slow going, but I always keep going. I can see vast improvements. My living room takes less than 5 minutes to pick up my toddler's toys and books at the end of the day. It takes about 10 minutes to hang/fold my husbands clothes, my clothes, and the towels. (it takes 45 minutes to put my toddler's away because he loves playing with his clean clothes)

I did enjoy keeping track of what items I purged. It's motivating, eye opening, and kind of terrifying. I plan to post occasional updates with my decluttering. I still have several trouble spots (linen closet, pantry, kitchen, laundry room, etc.)


What have you decluttered lately?

Meal Plan for May 31st - June 6th

Sunday

Breakfast: Oatmeal and coffee
Lunch: Chips and salsa, leftover yogurt parfait
Dinner: Scrambled eggs and pressure cooked yellow potatoes

Monday

Breakfast: Oatmeal and coffee
Lunch: Leftover hamburger surprise, mashed potatoes, and corn
Dinner: Salad

Tuesday

Breakfast: Parfait and coffee
Lunch: Sandwich and chips
Dinner: Burgers and salad

Wednesday

Breakfast: Parfait and coffee
Lunch: Leftover burger, chips
Dinner: Salad or ?

Thursday

Breakfast: Oatmeal or muffins and coffee
Lunch: Homemade pizza
Dinner: Roast, potatoes, and carrots

Friday

Breakfast: Oatmeal and coffee
Lunch: Waffles
Dinner: Leftover roast, potatoes, and carrots

Saturday

Breakfast: Parfait and coffee
Lunch: Leftover pizza
Dinner: Leftover waffles

What is your meal plan this week?