Paid down $350 on our mortgage today... a great feeling! I continue to pay as much as I can into our retirement accounts, but whittling away at our mortgage (our only debt) is what really makes me happy!

I so badly wanted to go out to lunch today, but instead we all stopped off and got ice cream after work/school - way cheaper than eating out and very satisfying. This was actually a reward for F for her awesome piano practice.

Tonight's dinner is chicken tacos with homemade guacamole.

And the weekend is all planned out...
- Playdate for F tomorrow
- Sunday to our local living history "museum" - a working village from the 18th/19th centuries - kids are free this weekend
- Two Memorial Day parties to attend on Monday!

This is the last weekend the pool is open so we'll try to fit that in, too.

And my goal is to cross something off my house to-do list (stucco patching?) and make a fish costume out of scrap fabric I already have. This is for F's school's entry in our Fiesta parade - our theme is local fish habitats/river/riverbank.

This week we're having:
- polenta and salad (bready/cheesy)
- crustless quiche (eggy)
- something from the freezer - posole - with salad (freezery)
- pasta with goat cheese/turkey bacon/peas (pasta-ish)
- tacos with guacamole (chickeny)
- cod and leeks with turkey bacon (fishy)

It totally wiped me out just to go to the store today. I am not good at being sick, and I'm not really sick (but shingles can make you feel so tired).

So we haven't done much this weekend. F had a friend over yesterday, then we met another friend to play soccer up at a local high school. They were playing a game, so we watched that for a while, then went over to our school to play (or rather D played and I listened to podcasts and relaxed).

Today F went to a friend's house to play. I'm doing housework. Then later we'll head up to the park to meet some other families for soccer.

I'd really like to cross something off my house to-do list, but with my energy level I think all I can manage is the regular housework (already cleaned the bathrooms, did laundry and vacuumed).

Now, here's the Tale of the Chocolate Bars... I was at the store and they had a big sign under some chocolate bars that said they were discontinued an on sale for 99c. I have a square of chocolate after each meal, so I thought a few of these would be great for the next few weeks. But at the checkout they were $3.79 each! Eeek! Of course I didn't discover this until I got to the car (I always go through my receipt in the car just to make sure). So I had to go back into the store. The checkout woman went back to the chocolate aisle and said the 99c sign was referring to a different chocolate bar (which was nowhere near the sign). I just had her return the chocolate bars. It felt kind of manipulative, even though I'm sure it wasn't. Next time I'll read the fine print more carefully to avoid wasting my time!

I'm sure I wasted some energy on this, but who cares - $3.79 for a chocolate bar!

So I have about 1700 in swagbucks, and I am trying to decide how to spend the $15 gift card...

1. Treat for me - Starbucks gift card - will be able to get about 4 decaf soy lattes - I usually get one a month, and these would now be free for the next four months.

2. Amazon card - Offset other spending, put the offset amount in the IRAs or pay down mortgage - This would be my inclination.

I don't know. How do you use your swagbucks?

Yesterday I spent $25 for a doctor's visit and $10 for a prescription - ok, so $35 is not that bad. The bad part is I have shingles! Grrrr! It's supposed to be super painful, but it's not been very bad for me. The bad part is the light sensitivity. As I type this, I'm wearing sunglasses.

I am trying to take it easy; this started with body aches and no energy, and I had to teach my spinning class yesterday anyway, which made me really exhausted. So today I'm hanging out at home. Work for 1/2 hour, then rest, work, rest, etc.

One of the work things I have to do is send a bill to a client, so that's good.

And I need to conserve my energy because tonight is the Country Fair at F's school. Lots of games and fun for the kids, bouncehouse, sack race, face painting, and a dunk tank (kids dunking teachers!) and free dinner! I love free dinner! I'm going to bring a piece of my own bread as a bun. One of the parents in F's class always does the grilling, so I'm sure he won't mind throwing my "bun" on the grill for a minute.

Ok, time to go rest!

Well, it's the official "Last Day of Summer Vacation." F is thrilled - she can't wait for school to start.

Today she had her yearly checkup (luckily well-checks are covered entirely by our insurance), and then had a very fun playdate with the new girl in class. We were going to go to the pool but it's raining.

I am headed over to the library to pick up a book (this is one of the things I find the most amazing about the library: I ask for a book online, they send me an email saying it's in, and I go right to the front desk and pick it up - concierge service!). I will probably also grab a few magazines to take to the free magazine exchange - hope there will be something I want to take home from the magazines, too.

When we get home, we'll watch the Great British Bakeoff which started today. It's a show we all LOVE!

And dinner is very, very sweet salmon with rice and peas. I already set the timer on the rice cooker and the salmon is defrosted.

So a zero-cost day. And a nice, low-key way to spend the day before school begins.

I painted the hall today (total cost $17 for paint/supplies - I get a professional discount which is nice - I use the zero VOC paint which has very little odor).

Also touched up the bedroom where I'd spackled.

Before painting we all had salted caramel/chocolate tart for breakfast - it's a recipe I wanted to try out because I'm auditioning it for Thanksgiving. Yum! It's my first time making caramel, and I made it with coconut milk instead of cream.

After painting we went downtown (it's Indian Market weekend so it was crazy and not pleasant to drive there) and went to a free kids' flower drawing activity in the Community Gallery. Then we went to the pool (it's mid August - only half a month left of pool time!).

I am a little daunted because I have two more (bigger) rooms to paint, but that's not this weekend, so I just need to forget about them until they come up on my painting schedule. Also, I've made a mental note to prep, tape off, etc. the day before and then paint the morning. It was too much to do all of that in one go. Maybe that's just me; I guess professional painters do it all the time. Anyway, it looks like a new hallway, so I'm happy!

I put a bike travel box that I've had about ten years (back when I was dragging my bike to centuries and other countries). It's huge, and I've wanted to sell it for a while, but it was out of the way in a corner of the garage, and I didn't think about it a lot.

I put it on Craigslist and got $190 for it!

Now I just have to decide if that money goes to pay down mortgage principal or goes into the IRAs.

On to the next thing to sell...

I received $20 (this is a lot less than usual) for teaching spinning. But it's $20 I didn't have before! There were rumors that my gym is going to close; I spoke to the owner, and he said he's closing the gym half, but keeping the classes (weightlifting and spinning) in the other half. So I still have a (once-a-week) job! (The $20 will go either to the IRA or paying down the mortgage).

I was going to have a garage sale this weekend, but due to Indian Market (a yearly event here which pretty much shuts down the city) I'm delaying it. I forgot it was Indian Market! This gives me another week to gather things up to sell.

I started working on the sofa yesterday... I cut a slice off the foam I got at Joann's (50% off) and stuffed it into one of the back cushions. The problem is that the feather inserts are sewn shut so I just put it in the back. Well, that's not going to work unfortunately. I need to open the feather inserts (seam ripper) and carefully put in the foam, surround it with existing feathers and then sew the thing back up. I know how to sew, but the idea of 50 year old feathers is just scary. I can picture my living room full of feathers (very old feathers). I just have to try it and see how it goes.

I am busy crossing things off the house to-do list.

I just spackled in the bedroom. Still have to sand the spackle and touch up paint.

This weekend I'll also patch in the dining room.

I'm going to just leave the ladder out for a while (we have tall ceilings and lots of misc. jobs like this!)

I have found a place that has very reasonable cabinets (for our living room to replace a plywood mess that I made for my first apt. after college over 20 years ago!). I need to call them on Monday to work out the details. They ship unassembled and I'll build them here.

I'm also taking a 40% off coupon to JoAnn's today to get some foam to hopefully make our sofa pillows stand up instead of sag down to like 4" tall! I've been reading up on fixes online. The cushions are filled with down and feathers - they don't really have any structure.

And I'm washing the first dropcloth for the new sofa slipcovers. I bought the dropcloths at Home Depot - way less expensive than buying fabric.

(And tonight we have two parties to go to! Some people dread these things, but we're all super social and looking forward to it! Plus, there will be food, so dinner is taken care of!!)

We finally sold our two carseats on Craigslist. F is in a booster, so no need for them. We got $75 for both (into savings! yay!).

I also got $40 for teaching at the gym. (Savings, also!)

I have more to put on Craigslist before we have our garage sale in two weeks.

Today we went to the pool, which has been a bargain in so many ways. You have to go a lot to justify the membership, and because we go a lot, F has become a great swimmer! I feel so much more confident about her in the pool. And it's starting to feel cooler (maybe it'll warm up again, but right now it's raining at least once a day, and that cools the air temp off a lot), so I'm really appreciating the last few days of summer and the pool (it closes on Labor Day).

Lots of free summer and fall activities coming up, though. I might go by Indian Market this year (we have a downtown office, so we can use our parking space) and there are all of the parades associated with Fiestas (September). Hope you're all enjoying the end of summer, too!

Another trip to Target - I had to get brown sugar and kleenex. It turns out that Target's kleenex is less expensive for us than other brands because a box lasts longer (90 tissues, one or two a day = 1.5 months). And their in-store brand brown sugar is cheaper than Albertson's.

Anyway, it was tax-free day (we have this once a year and it's only on school supplies) so I wandered over to the school supply section. F doesn't need to buy supplies (her school provides them), but there was a big display of lunchboxes and her lunchbox has been in service for two years. So I got a new lunchbox for her.

When I got home, she wailed that she "loves the old lunchbox!" and "why do I need a new lunchbox?" and you know what, she's right! Lesson in frugality from my daughter. Just because it's a deal doesn't mean you need it!

So I returned the lunchbox.

I've managed to get some of the house projects (lingering for anywhere from a few months to a few years) in the past few days.

I spent about $80 at Home Depot (sanding discs, two showerheads, some blank outlet covers, liquid nails, new spackle and lots of other stuff) to complete my projects. Not a huge sum, and it's making a big difference around the house.

And I added a project - a big project - to the list. I'm surprised I left it off the first list; I probably left it off because it's too daunting. So here it is: the sofas. I have two sofas that are about 50 or 60 years old. They were my grandparents' sofas, and they are awesome! Great design, super comfortable. One of the sofas is 6' long - that's the small one! The other is 9' long - wow! They were made to last back then, though, and this, along with sentimental value is why I am going to revive them, not replace them. (And seriously - where would you even find a 9' sofa that was affordable?)

So here are the sofa issues to deal with:
- they are sagging (I have found a product called sofa saver boards - anyone ever used these?)
- the slipcovers are old, ripped, stained, and need to be replaced (I am going to sew new ones out of canvas dropcloth; yes, I can sew and I have a sewing machine. I know I have to wash the fabric first)
- the back pillows sag (they are stuffed with down and feathers - I have been researching how to get them to stand up and not sag so much and I think a piece of foam inside the cover may do the trick - just missed a Jo-Ann's sale - hope there will be another one)

If anyone has advice I would love to hear it! This will make a big difference in our living room and give a new lease of life to our sofas.

Last month I briefly investigated building another house (lot prices are very low right now, and as an architect I can get good pricing on construction and do a lot of the work myself). The investigation was brief because the numbers didn't work out the way I wanted them to (my goal was to wipe out our mortgage - about $86k left - or the project was a no-go).

Also - things would be too iffy (how much could we sell our house for? would it sell quickly) and the whole thing would be a giant pain (moving into a rental for a year, managing construction when I am supposed to be working).

OK, enough of that. The result was a new appreciation for our house. I built it in 1998, 16 years ago. If we sold it, there are a few things we'd need to do - these are mostly minor repairs and updates like painting (I've never repainted most of the rooms!). Since we are not moving, it makes sense to do these things so we can enjoy them!



So I decided to make a list and tackle those things a few at a time. My goal date for completion of most of these is Thanksgiving since the entire family is coming here for the holiday. Some of these are five-minute tasks (sometimes it's inexplicable why I haven't just done them).

In case you ask why my husband is not helping with the list: he is not allowed near my tools! I like him with all of his fingers.

This project starts today with a trip to Home Depot! I will keep you posted on the progress.

General
have a garage sale (find items in hall closet and spare room closet)
crack repair in master bedroom, pantry stain, threshold to bedroom, big chip in F’s room, shower)

Master Bathroom
declog drain
new showerhead

Master Bedroom
put in baseboard (measure, buy wood, cut, paint, install)
reattach trim
fix peeling paint

Living Room
adjust strike at front door
find out about glass in door
sand door and seal
cabinet for tv
paint table white
remove black covers off of track lighting
repaint!
remove nail and spackle
declutter entry table

Dining Room
move play kitchen upstairs
repaint!

Kitchen
adjust strike
trim piece below door (measure, buy at home depot)
appliance garage of some type
shelf for my grandmother’s cups and saucers
repaint!

Fs Bedroom
new rug (measure, get sample of paint color, Home depot)

Hall
paint
cut nail ends at nicho
spackle at nicho

Den
spackle holes
paint wall behind desk
weatherstrip (already bought! remove old strip and reinstall)
picture frame for picture I want to hang
edit the pictures on the picture shelf; frame as needed

Outside
paint unmatched stucco
replace dead aspens with foresteria

Fs Bathroom
redo grout (remove old grout first!)
paint table white

We're back from vacation to Vancouver and Victoria (Canada) - it was GREAT! Not cheap, but we'd set aside the money for the trip.



Favorite part of the trip: cycling around Stanley Park (had the bikes for a half day - $50), picnic lunch (about $10), stopping at the large Second Beach pool ($8 for the three of us).

Least favorite part: food in Canada is so expensive! But we ate some great food. We cooked in a lot of the time, had picnic lunches, and a few meals out. The best meals out were in Victoria - we ate at Red Fish Blue Fish right on the pier and breakfast at a place called Jam. Highly recommend both!

F's favorite part: the hour and a half we spent petting goats at Beacon Hill Park in Victoria. (which followed the hysterically funny goat stampede where they run into the petting enclosure).

Museums are also expensive in Canada. I am really appreciating the free museums in the UK!

We spent $30 on souvenirs: a cuddly toy beluga whale for F (who studied them in 1st grade) and a very sweet tea set from the Empress Hotel in Victoria (also for F). Our other souvenirs were lots and lots of photos!

Our lodging: apartments we got through websites like airbnb and the last night was an airport hotel that my mom paid for with her hotel points (which she never uses and offered to us - that was nice!).

But, as I said, the real key to the trip was to set aside the money before the trip (not try to pay for it with credit!) and have a budget.

We are leaving on vacation on Sunday, so today was the "get everything done at work" day and tomorrow is "get everything done at home."

Both low cost days:

- Today: bought shelf brackets for F's new pig shelf (this is a shelf to display her many pig things - she loves pigs) - I have random wood in the garage, so I cut/sanded/painted and attached brackets, then put it up between camp pickup and the final Circus Camp performance. Camp performance was, of course, free - but I would have paid to see it! The kids were amazing and learned so much in two weeks! (unicycling, trapeze, clowning, stiltwalking, acrobatics, fabric, shadow puppets).

- Tomorrow: F's friend is coming for a playdate. She belongs to the same pool, so we might head over there. Although the weather has been rainy! It rained all afternoon. Not pool weather. Anyway, the playdate means D and I have time to finish up a little work, one last load of laundry (I hate coming home from vacation to laundry I didn't do before I left), pack, print the petsitting instructions for our friends who are popping in on our cat. Also pack lunches to take with us so we don't have to get expensive airport food.

Our vacation will mean it's not exactly a frugal month, but we're doing everything we can to make sure our trip is more about the experiences than about spending money!

The weather has been kind of bleh, but we still went up to Music on the Hill for some free music and hanging out with friends.

Our cobbled-together picnic came out really well, so I need to note what we brought for future reference!
- salad with the end of a cucumber, some turkey, sunflower seeds
- leftover veggies and hummus
- chips and salsa
- homemade chocolate chip cookies Yum!
- brought a plum, too, but we didn't eat it
- bottle with half apple juice/half water which we shared (poured into cups)

Total cost: $0

There are more zero-cost activities coming later in the summer and fall... glad to live somewhere there is so much going on!!

I did spend $8 today at Petco (we got a lot of stuff for the fish tank including a siphon so I could clean the tank out, but we used my Petco coupons). F's fish Fire died this morning, and it turned out it might have been an ammonia problem. So we also got some drops to add to neutralize that.

Well, Folk Art Market is over. Phew! It was great, though. On Saturday alone 7,000 people attended and the artists made $1.37 million. My 26 volunteers were amazing; I'm so proud!

I worked so hard. My legs were sore, and then I had to sub for a friend's exercise class today (even more sore!).

The downside was that the spending was erratic and not what we'd normally do on a weekend. I bought a few things at Folk Art Market (within my budget) on Friday night, but then spent another $20 on these gorgeous crane-shaped scissors from Uzbekistan for my knitting.

We knew we'd have at least some food/dining out expenses because I was at Market most of the day on Saturday and all day Sunday. All in all we spent probably $30 total on lunch, a big juice and a snow-cone.

Our tickets were free, and we took advantage of the free entertainment, taking F to do the kids' passport program (where kids go to the artists to get flag stickers from each country) and listening to the music.

And as a Chair of a volunteer group, I got to attend the big dinner last night (free dinner!) and both D and I got dinner on Friday night at Market.

Our weekend spending was balanced out by an unusually low grocery bill. We leave on vacation on Sunday, so I'm keeping the meals simple and cheap!! Here's the plan:
- socca (chickpea flour pancake with courgettes and basil from the garden)
- Mexican scrambled eggs and salad
- hot dogs at the pool with corn on the cob
- general tso's chicken and chinese cabbage
- homemade pizza (sauce and mozzarella are in the freezer)
- stuff (picnic style! mish-mash! whatever!) to take Music on the Hill

This week was ok in terms of spending/savings. I put $44 into the 52-week challenge.

It was a low-cost weekend...
- went to the pool twice ($0)
- held the training session for my volunteers for the Folk Art Market (bought some pastries and grapes, but they didn't eat much, so that will be breakfast for D and F, and the grocery bill was still in budget)
- went to a book launch for a book that D's photographs were in this evening ($0 and some yummy food)
- got pizza (this is the only time we're eating out until we're on our trip - $26)

I already finished the declutter tasks for the week (removing crumbs from the toaster, cleaning the microwave)

The meal plan this week:
- bready/cheesy: quesaillas, guacamole
- eggy/potatoey: crash potatoes and broccoli
- chickeny: chicken sausage, rice, corn on the cob
- fishy: home-made sushi with cucumber/shrimp/avocado
- pasta-ish: penne with goat cheese/bacon/peas
- something from the freezer with a salad

We are down to $84,179 on the mortgage (our only debt).

I am trying to sell some things on Craigslist. The first time I listed them, I got an error when I tried to reply to the people who were interested (I had people interested in both items). So I put in the ad to leave a phone number when they responded, but this time only one person was interested in one item. And we arranged to meet, but she canceled last minute and said she'd reconnect next Fri if it's still available. Ugh. I guess I'll lower the price on the other item. These items are really too good to sell at the garage sale, but I will if I have to...

Since F is not in any camps this week (I set a camp budget and stuck to it, so she can't go every week) she is helping me out at the office. I told her I'd pay her $3 an hour, and she's worked 3 1/2 hours so far. At the end of the week we'll go to our bank (a great local bank) and open an account for her with this and some of the money she's saved up that is stuffed in a drawer in her dresser.

She's a very hard worker, and I really need the help (ironically, I need the help because she's not in camp, and my work hours are limited).

She works in the morning, and at lunch both days, we've brought a picnic. On Monday we ate on the Plaza and listened to the lunchtime music. Then we went to the pool for a quick afternoon swim. (Cost - $0)

Today we got to work earlier, and our wonderful neighbor came by and took F to the gelato place (this outing was her birthday gift to F). When she came back we worked a little more, brought our picnic to the park next to the Cathedral, then walked down to the Five and Dime and bought candy bars. After lunch we met her second grade teacher (who is now my friend) and her son (who will be in 5th grade next year) for a hike. (Cost: $2 for candy bars)

They've closed the National Forests, so we hiked a trail I haven't done before, and it was amazing. We had a great view of the city and the watershed.

We have to conserve money this month because we're going on vacation later in July, and I know we'll be eating out more and there will be admissions fees to things... I'd rather spend money on experiences like that than on day-to-day stuff.

June was a good month!

Our spending was lower than last year, and our savings were higher.

- earnings - up 16% (because D is now putting in the same amount each month from his business account
- spending - down 10%
- savings - up 188% (yay!)

June is a difficult month for me (mentally) because that is when we pay our $600 annual homeowner's association dues. I set aside $50/month so it's not a financial issue. It's just that I've watched the dues double since I moved her 14 years ago, and it's hard to see what they spend the money on (some snow removal, some landscape trimming, but not much else).

I have stuck to our budget for camp, and our plans for frugal fun (so that we can go on a vacation) and it's been a GREAT summer so far!

Today F went over to a friend's house. D helped her get ready, and for some reason dressed her in new, pristine clothes (rather than dirty playclothes) even though he knows that at that friend's house they always end up playing in the mud.

Of course she came home covered in red mud. I did my best to get the mud out, but it's just ground in. And the shirt is a light-blue (her favorite, sigh).

If she chooses her clothes she has to live with the consequences, but for some reason he chose for her, and admits he just wasn't thinking at all. (He also put her in closed shoes and socks instead of sandals - don't even ask about the socks - totally wrecked and not just stains but shredded from walking wet on concrete and pine needles).

Now I am a firm believer that kids should be able to play in their clothes, but if you KNOW that they are going to play in mud, why not put them in something that is either already stained or has a pattern so you don't see new stains?

Oh well. I got on OldNavy.com and got three on sale $5 shirts (including the light blue one that is ruined and is now a shirt she can wear to play in the mud).

The tooth fairy came last night and F woke me up at 5:50 am to see what she brought! Our tooth fairy always leaves a certificate (that I designed on Pages and print out as needed with the relevant date) and a toy (I keep a stash of little toys because you never know when a tooth is going to fall out).

The plan for today:
- house stuff: vaccuum, clean our bathroom, load of laundry
- take F to her friend's house for a playdate
- while F is at her freind's, go to the fire station I'll be renovating and measure (D said he'd help me)
- pick up F and we'll meet my high school English teacher (who is visiting) at the Teahouse. They have gf pastries, $5 each, and I will ask F share with me; I only want a few small bites (trying to cut down on sugar).

The Teahouse is good in that you order at a counter so you don't have to split the bill. I'm not a fan of splitting the bill. Almost everyone I know is financially better off (this is one of the facts of life when your daughter attends an expensive private school), and we usually just split the bill in half. This almost always means I pay more than if I'd just paid for my portion.

I hate asking if we could separate checks or divide according to what we ordered, but if the disparity is too great, I'll do it. Have you noticed that I'm not very assertive? (I guess I am about some things, but not so much about money; I don't want people to think I'm cheap and I don't like to make a big deal out of things). I think what a lot of people don't realize is that while $20 to them isn't that big of a deal, it is to us and our budget.

Anyway, Teahouse has a counter, so no worries about that today, and F is really looking forward to meeting my 11th grade English teacher!

F used to take swim lessons with a man called Mr. Jim, who was very sweet and a great swim teacher. But he belonged to the swim/athletic club in town, so in order to take lessons with Mr. Jim, you first had to pay a guest fee to get into the club. When you combined this with Mr. Jim's lesson fee, it was about $37.50 for half an hour. Oh- and did I mention that the water was so ice cold that he would spend several minutes of the lesson dunking F into the hot tub to warm her up?

It was so cold in the pool that F begged to stop after only a few lessons, and I said ok because I was going broke.

I was determined that she would swim a ton this summer so that she could become a better, safer swimmer. (She can swim underwater and dog paddle but can't tread water or do the crawl). And we've been at the pool a ton! And she still can't tread water or do the crawl.

So today we had our first lesson with Nancy who rents a lane to teach in at the public pool. This pool is still pretty cold (but F wore a hand-me-down wetsuit from a friend who's on swim team - an advantage of being smaller than the other kids is you get hand-me-down wetsuits!). But it's closer to the house. And the lesson - 45 minutes - was $20 including admission to the pool!

And F LOVED it and LOVED Nancy. She can now tread water after just one lesson and is working on the crawl. Nancy said she's really strong and thinks she'll be a great swimmer. At the end of the lesson, F got a prize from Nancy's bag of prizes - a little cuddly toy whale from the dollar store. And I'm confident I can scare up $20 a week.

The frugality of knitters
- our hobby actually results in something useful (we had a long discussion about this because most of us like nice yarn which isn’t cheap and we knit sweaters which take more yarn than a scarf made out of “eyelash yarn”... still - most hobbies don’t usually culminate in something you’d pay good money for)
- we darn our socks (we actually own darning eggs; some of them are passed down from our grandmothers)
- most of us also know how to sew (at least to mend)
- all of us have gardens with herbs/veggies
- two of us keep bees, one of us makes her own ketchup, we all make our own bread
- two of us make our own lotion bars (and they are much better than the lotion you buy in the store, plus you know what is in them!)
- we share books among ourselves; we mostly all like to read the same things
- when one of us was ill, we all went to her house and cleaned it for her; this is what community is all about!
- we all drive cars that are.. paid for!
- at least two of us get our hair cut at the barber shop ($15)
- we almost never eat out because we “can make it better ourselves!”

Actually the last one is at the heart of the Frugality of Knitters. There is a strong strain of self-sufficiency and being able to make things that most people buy in the store... because “we can make it better ourselves.” (This includes our sweaters and socks of course). The corollary to that sentiment is... “why would I buy that if I can make it myself?” (e.g. pie crust, a simple skirt, salsa, handwarmers, teriyaki sauce, your child’s drawstring snack bag, a pillow cover, bread).

I just found out on this blog that I could be making my own laundry detergent (one of the knitters said she tried it and it didn’t dissolve well in her front loader, but I’m still going to try). What do you make yourself that most people buy in the store?

Our food spending is down this month, which is good, because I'm going to add this month's budget to next month so that we can use it for dining/groceries on our vacation. (Whatever we don't spend on vacation will go into the retirement account).

We always stay in a self-catered apartment because it's easier (and less expensive) to make our own food (especially with my difficult diet!). I usually bring a bag or two of corn pasta in my luggage, and miscellaneous other things so that we can make food at "home." We usually make a nice picnic to take with us when we're out sightseeing. But it's nice to have a little extra money for eating some meals out, and for getting ice cream and other treats.

Tonight we're bringing a blanket and a picnic dinner to Music on the Plaza. The Plaza is downtown (duh), so I can park at my office for free. And the music is free, and the picnic is what we were having for dinner anyway.

The picnic is in lieu of our Monday Knitting Night so we'll be meeting the knitting girls there (and sitting, as one of us suggested, somewhere away from the bandstand so we can hear ourselves talk).

All of us knitters seem to be naturally frugal... I think it's more accurate to say that we are are naturally frugal and therefore we're knitters. We'll probably all be wearing handmade sweaters! (Including F who knits on a loom rather than with sticks... yet).

There is a whole other post just on the extreme frugality of my knitting group. I will discuss this website with them tonight and report back to you!

The meal plan this week:
- chickeny - tacos with guacamole
- bready/cheesy - toasted cheese sandwiches, broccoli
- pasta-ish - sausage pasta with lemon
- potato-y - potato pancakes with applesauce, salad
- fishy - teriyaki salmon over rice, bok choy and yellow pepper
- freezer - no idea what is in that tupperware! we're having it with corn on the cob

We had an amazing (and yet frugal!) weekend:
- Friday we went to the pool, and met friends there which was fun

- Saturday F and I went downtown and had a great time! (we took a photo with the new dragon sculpture that is hanging over an art gallery, then stopped at the cathedral to listen the mariachis that were playing for a wedding, went to our two favorite toy stores, then stopped to get made-from-scratch lemonades). Then we met F's friend in the park and played kids v. adults soccer.

In the other part of the same park, our minor league baseball team were playing so we watched the baseball ($6 each adult, kids free). We brought our picnic dinner from home. It was warm and the moon was huge, and we were so close we could hear the ball hitting the players gloves! I have decided that going all the way into the Big City to pay tons of money to watch a not-even-major league team play where your seats are not that great isn't worth it. If you have a minor league team in your town, you should go!

- Today we cleaned the house (not that fun), went the pool and then went back to the park for a little soccer reunion of F's team from last Fall and Spring.

I was thinking this morning while I was cleaning the bathroom that I spend very little on cleaning supplies; I use a wadded up plastic net produce bag and a microfiber cloth. It made me think about other things I never buy anymore (these are, of course, things I used to buy; wish I'd been more frugal back then - I'd have more money in savings).

Pajama bottoms
I make them out of old sheets or fabric using this "pattern": http://mycottoncreations.blogspot.com/2010/07/christmas-eve-pajama-pants-tutorial.html

CDs
I buy just the individual song I want on itunes. (These are usually for my spin class and I probably spend $12/year at most). Cuts down on cost and clutter.

Books
I only borrow books from the library.

Scrubbers for pots and for bathroom cleaning
I save the plastic bags from lemons, some potatoes, garlic - wad them up and they do a better job than the ones you buy in the store!

Batteries
We only use the rechargeable type and have for several years. We don't have a lot of things with batteries anyway. Our charger lights green when the charge is complete so we can pull it out of the wall right away.

Soda
We drink water or watered down juice.

Packaged cookies
Since I can't eat gluten, and gf cookies are EXPENSIVE, I just started baking my own. I don't often put cookies/dessert in F's lunch, but when I do, it's home-baked.

Cable TV
We use netflix basic ($8.64 per month) and hulu (free). We don't watch much tv anymore.

I am sure there are more that I can't think of. And I'm sure there's more I could do!

Today is the day that I run with a friend of mine. I run one day a week (free! I run right out the office door), teach spin one day a week (free, and I get paid!) and do a weightlifting class one day a week (free because I teach at the gym).

As we were running along (running is a relative term - we sort of flail around and huff and puff) she asked me what made me go out and run each week.

I love running with her, but I run even when she can't make it. It's not the long-term health benefit (that is why I want to run, but not what actually gets me out there). As we clomped along the sidewalk, I realized what it was: I made a commitment to do it, so I do it. It's even on my calendar (to prove I made that commitment).

These never-ending commitments are the reasons I do a lot of things, but I guess that's ok. There are worse things to be addicted to than commitments!

My friend says she only runs when I'm able to run with her, and she was pretty certain that her reason for running was her commitment to ME! I am happy she feels that way because I like running with a friend so much more than running alone.

Another friend just mentioned that one of those color runs is coming to a city near us in the autumn... that might be something fun to commit to!

I teach an exercise class (spinning) every Thursday at lunch time. I get a free gym membership which is great (I go the gym for one other class each week and run on the treadmills there in the winter), and about a year ago the owner of the gym started paying the instructors actual money as well. It's not a lot ($25-45 a month), and it varies based on what he can do, but I really appreciate it. I've been teaching for about ten years, and was never paid anything before.

But here's the thing: the woman at the front desk is super nice, but also a little spacey, and she never remembers to pay me (or the other instructors) regularly. Sometimes I get the envelope at the beginning of the month, and other times she says (spacily) "Ha ha! I've had this sitting in the register all month!" and it's like the 25th or something.

I taught today, and it's mid-month and I haven't seen that envelope yet. Grrr. And I am not grrr-ing at her, I'm grrr-ing at myself for being too shy or awkward to ask!

Anyway, in good news: it just rained, so my veggies/herbs were just watered for free and maybe this will help the firefighters with all the wildfires. And it smells like rain, which, if you live in the southwest, is the best smell in the world. Even my husband, who was imported from a wet climate, agrees.