lets get some more action here, what did you do this weekend to save money?

I started a similar thread two weekends ago, and started some discussion.  Since the concensus is that is a slow forum, everybody share what they actually did this week/weekend.  May not be a big thing to you, but it may inspire someone else.

I'll start:  we are going to the literacy festival in Kansas City tomorrow ( a free activity, but will take a tank of gas) and I packed a lunch and lots of home made ice tea.  We probably eat at a resturant for one meal, but atleast not all of our meals.  DD and I will probably also share an entree, as they often are so big.

Please keep this bumped while I'm away.  Happy weekend everyone.

Still in the process of moving closer to work but am now able to spend the 5 nights a week I work at the new house located 2 miles from where I work.That's a savings of 46 miles a day.

When I did my shopping I only purchased what was on sale. I saved $36.00 by doing so.

Last night the kids made their own pizza and ordering pizza from pizza hut is usually $25 (with tip).

DH is out grocery shopping I gave him coupons for FREE flinstone vitamins, country crock side dish, Free hostess product and Wonder bread. And a bunch of cents off coupons, most of them for a dollar off.

DH got back from grocery shopping and saved $30+ dollars in just coupons.l

arizonacook:

DH got back from grocery shopping and saved $30+ dollars in just coupons.l

He's a good shopper!!!

We spent the morning planting veggies and moving some small trees.  Hopefully we will have a good crop of vegetables this year.  The potatoes are already thru and the strawberries have flowers!!

Hubby is now repairing the lawnmower rather than taking it to the small engine guy. 

That lot should save us some money. 

If anyone gets teh Kraft  Food & Family free cookbooklet there is a page in there with a coupon for a FREE Bottle of Kraft dressing (between page 28/29) ---- there are also other cents off coupons in there.

tastycook1:

arizonacook:

DH got back from grocery shopping and saved $30+ dollars in just coupons.l

 

 

He's a good shopper!!!

 

We spent the morning planting veggies and moving some small trees.  Hopefully we will have a good crop of vegetables this year.  The potatoes are already thru and the strawberries have flowers!!

 

Hubby is now repairing the lawnmower rather than taking it to the small engine guy. 

 

That lot should save us some money. 

Thanks for the compliment, I do a lot of coupon organizing and ad looking, I would do the grocery shopping too if I drove. But he does a good job, I reminded him that I've been giving him coupons for 10 years, I asked him why is he just now starting to use them?? he said that now its more necessary than ever.

Hey everyone, I'm a newbie and I made my own potting mix for my potted annuals/vegetables. Was going to buy some commercially made mix but I nearly fainted when I saw the prices!

 I bought the large bags of Hyponex potting soil at Wal-Mart ($2.00 a bag) then I bought a bag of perlite (under $3.00 at Wal-Mart) and I added my finished compost. I used 5 parts Hyponex soil, 1part perlite, and 3 parts compost. I also had some leftover seed starting mix (basically it's just ground up peat) that I threw in to lighten up the mix a little. Hyponex potting soil isn't very good stuff compared to the other name brand potting mixes. It has sand and some clay in it, but hey, if you add your own organic stuff to it, it works out as good as the Miracle Gro stuff that's $4.50 to $7.00 a bag!

 We have been starting to see a few warmer days here in central Arkansas, but we have resisted turning on our a/c, we've been getting a lot of use out of our whole house attic fan to save money.

 I went to my local Lowes yesterday to look at some shade trees. I found one that was in good condition, but leaning out almost touching the ground  because the stake that was holding it upright had come out of the soil. I took it to a manager and told him I would buy it if the price was right. He knocked off 50%! I brought it home and fixed the stake for it till I get a chance to plant it and it's doing fine. KC in AR.

I make my own potting mix.  I use the Cornell University recipe which is equal parts vermiculite or perlite and peat moss.  Add 1 tsp of limestone per gallon of mix.  This is for starting seeds.  If you are using it to transplant seedlings into you need to add some fertilizer.

Thanks for the tips on making your own potting mix!  I might just have to try that! I'm starting to carpool to work, coming Monday.  It should save us about $10 each week & more as we add people to the carpool.  Plus I feel really good about reducing the impact on the environment.  I know it's a common sense thing, but I only worked part time until recently.  It turned out all I had to do was ask these few co-workers & they jumped all over the idea!  So I am proud of that.  We also just planted a bunch of veggies outside.  Now I need to locate one of tose hanging strawberry plants & we'll have some eats we don't have to buy!  I love this thread!  :)

I don't add any fertilizer to my homemade potting mix because I use my own compost in it, plus after I plant my seedlings in it I fertilize with Miracle Gro.

 Remember when the commercially made potting mixes started adding their own fertilizer? They claimed that it fed your plants up to 9 months. I bought some once, but I sure couldn't tell it had any in it and I ended up using my Miracle Gro stufff on the plants anyway. I figured why spend the extra money on the mix with the added fertilizer if I'm going to have to fertilize it myself? The last time I shopped at Wal-Mart and Lowes for potting mix, I couldn't find any (except for the cheapo Hyponex stuff) companies that weren't putting the fertilizer into their potting mixes. Adding the fertilizer drives up the price and I guess they think that the consumer will be willing to pay more for it because of the added fertilizer.

 The new thing they are doing now is adding something to the mix that is supposed to make the mix retain moisture so your pots don't dry out as fast. The price is high on that stuff too. I just put some leaf mulch on top of the soil around my plants and that works great, plus it's FREE since I always have a bunch of leaves in my compost pile all the time.

My SIL had a couple unused diapers left over when my niece changed sizes. Instead of her throwing them away, I opened them up, mixed with some potting soil, moistened it and it helped the soil stay moist longer.

First, I want to say, I LOVE this thread! It inspires me to be more creative, and find new ways to be thrifty. I also enjoy reading what others are doing to save, and gleaning ideas from them.

Let's see, what did I do this week to save? We went to town on Thursday, as usual. Found tomato plants at Bi-Mart for 99¢ a piece. The fellow was unloading the truck with fresh plants as we arrived. We scooped up 9 plants, including 2 cherry tomato plants. We figure those plants will yield at least triple the savings later on.

Since it was such a hot day on Thursday, and Bi-Mart was our first shopping stop, we decided to put off our grocery shopping for a day, so the plants wouldn't suffer in the heat. Next day was so hot that we just couldn't motivate ourselves to head into town. By Saturday we'd decided to skip grocery shopping, and make do with what we have on hand at the house until next Thursday. We're about out of bread, so I'm going to try making bisquits in a skillet. It'll be a cheap alternative to store bought loaves, and it'll be a fun novelty for the kids sandwiches ;-) This morning I'm making cornmeal mush for the kids late breakfast. I'll make extra for chilling and frying up for another meal (or 2).

This weekend we're working in the garden again. Got the rest of my peas and spinach planted last week. Completed another raised bed in the other garden and planted my peppers, and most of my tomatoes, and surrounded them with green onion, carrot, and lettuce seeds. I'm watering the gardens by hand, so I'm able to direct all the water to the planted areas, rather than wasting it by watering the whole areas, thereby saving multiple gallons of water. I figure it's also good  exersize, which translates to improved health and maybe health care savings! ;-)

Today, we're planting the last 3 tomato plants in homemade "grow bags". Decided it seemed rather silly to go out and purchase grow bags when we had perfectly good plastic grocery bags just waiting to be recycled. We'll fill them with extra soil from the garden, which we've amended ourselves by composting year round. What once was horrid soil, which really wasn't good for growing much of anything is now wonderful, rich soil, and the happy home to oodles of worms, and we've kept the food scraps out of the landfill to boot! 

Hope you're all having a fun frugal weekend! 

I also enjoy this thread, this weekend I didn't save as much as usual because my daughters were involved.  My youngest graduated from the police academy this Friday and her older sister flew in for the ceremony.  I was very proud and it was an emotional ceremony.  We then went out to dinner at Boca De Beppa and I had my $10 off coupon (anything over $30 - which I knew we would do). and my meal was delicious.  One of the best meals I have had in a long long time.  The waiter recommended it and I thanked him profusely.  Had linguini with mussels, calimari, shrimp and a marinara sauce that had enough body to stand alone.  It was a delicious meal.  I actually had two $10 off coupons and we could have used them if we sat at different tables, but that wasn't an option.  I very enjoyed my daughters company and we saluted their achievements.

Today my savings was that Giant Eagle had BOGOF with their sirloin tip roasts.  I bought two (saved $10) and brought them home -cut them in half (made four roasts) froze the three and put one on the stovetop.  I put a little bit of olive oil in my dutch oven - brown the roast on all sides, then add lots and I mean lots of sliced onions.  Cover with one can of beef broth and let it simmer very slow all afternoon long.  Put it in the fridge for a meal some night this week.  For $2.50 each roast you can't beat that.

Janet

Since I don't shop usually on the weekend, my savings was through the week.  Monday at work they had a limited amount of fresh cut pork chops for .25 a pound.  I got a 32 lb box of them.  Gave some to Mom, some to a good friend of Mom's, 6 to my baby sitter and took the rest home for me.  Wednesday they had baby back ribs for 1.34 lb.  I got 10 lbs of them and gave 2 racks to Mom, and cooked 2 racks for our supper.  Froze the rest.  Guess that is all I bought this week.  My freezer is so full.