Saturday, July 26, 2014

Last Weeks Frugal Accomplishments: The Deliberate Spending Plan in Action Volume 3

*52 Week Savings Plan:  Still no progress.

*Christmas Jar of Change:  $5.47 will be added to the previous balance of $94.34 for a total of $99.81.  (Yay - I am so close to triple digits!).

*Favorite Frugal Accomplishments:

-The bad news is my dryer broke, the good news is that it forced me to follow through with my plan to line dry my clothing.  Overall, it is not too bad.  I am beginning to figure out ways to make it work for me and my family which means that even when the dryer is replaced I might still do some line drying.

-More bad news, I totally blew it where impulsive spending on dining out is concerned.  Good news, the meals that I did make utilized items from my freezer, my fridge and my pantry.  I made a quiche using pie crust and bacon from the freezer.  I have a pot of beans cooking right now using more of the bacon.  Using a new recipe, I made a citrusy pork roast that was really quite yummy over rice and I used more pork to make egg rolls; this used a pork roast and egg roll wrappers from the freezer.  And I made a truly fantastic spaghetti sauce using ground beef, veggies, and herbs found in that deep abyss known as my freezer.  

-My favorite frugal measure taken during the week was to make my own detergent for the dishwasher.  One of my goals was not to buy things during the month of July that I could make my own version of.  I ran out of dishwasher detergent and was soooo tempted to make a run to the store but instead opted to try my hand at making some.  I found this recipe, had every ingredient except for the citric acid on hand and whipped up my own version.  When running the dishwasher I used 1 Tablespoon of the detergent and added a bit of lemon juice.  I was very pleased with the results.  It cleaned better then the detergent that I had been purchasing.

-I did such a lousy job tracking my spending this week that I am hesitant to even try to list them.  I may try posting it tomorrow, we'll see...

*Some goals for the week:

-Cut and dry herbs.

-I have a lot of citrus that needs to be used up soon.  If we don't get it eaten I need to juice them and then I hope to dehydrate the peels, grind them up and use them either as Vitamin C powder or try it in the dishwasher detergent.

-Make some laundry detergent.

-Make a concerted effort to use up some of the fruit that is sitting in the freezer.  I see smoothies and strawberry ice cream in our future.  I also want to try making marscapone and serving it with the fruit in crepes.

-I have lost my mental map regarding my Christmas gift giving.  I want to do an assessment this week in order to get myself back on track.  (Christmas is only 5 months away!)

-Cash my ebates checks and apply it toward Christmas gifts.

-Cancel the car insurance on the vehicle we just sold.

I really hope that I am not boring you all to tears but logging my accomplishments and goals is really beneficial to me.  It helps me feel accountable and, thus, stay (or get) focused (again).

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