Five Frugal Things

Every other week, I share five frugal things I’ve done recently.   Before we get to that, I wanted to tell you that the winner of the Amani Ya Juu giveaway is Stacy.   Stacy, Amani will be emailing you!

For the rest of you: the Christmas shipping deadline for Amani is December 18th, so you’ve still got a few days to get a holiday order in!

On to the frugal schtuff:

1. I mended towels.

I don’t own a lot of Christmas-specific stuff other than decorations (I haven’t got space for it!), but I do own two Christmas hand towels.

Unfortunately, one of them was coming apart at the sides, and two of my regular towels were having the same issue.

So, I fixed ’em up, using my sewing machine, and they’re good to go now.

I already owned thread that matched all three towels, so this project cost me nothing out of pocket. And it didn’t take that long either (yay for straight seams!)

2. I glued our catch game back together.

We’ve been having unseasonably warm weather here, so the other day, Zoe and I got out our velcro catch set only to discover that several of the catchers (they’re not mitts, exactly…) had cracked.

I’m not sure if someone stepped on them or what.

I got out the glue, though, and did my best to put them back together.   They’ve finished their drying time, so now Zoe and I just have to give them a try to make sure they’re good to go.

(clothespins as clamps = Very Professionalâ„¢.)

The cracks on these were fairly small, so I’m pretty optimistic about them staying together during use.

3. I planted vole-resistant bulbs.

I’ve mentioned before that my neighborhood is plagued with voles, which, unlike moles, actually eat the whole root or bulb of a plant.

 

I love the idea of bulbs because you buy them once and then theoretically, you have flowers forever.

(So frugal!)

If you have voles, though, that’s not the case.   In fact, buying tulip and hyacinth bulbs is sort of like burning money.

I decided I was very over buying tulips only to have them eaten before they even bloomed once, so I googled to find vole-resistant bulbs and discovered that daffodils and blue muscari are both good bets.

(I wasn’t surprised to read that about daffodils, because the voles have never bothered the ones I’ve got planted.)

Neither is as beautiful as hyacinths or tulips, but you gotta do what you gotta do.

So, I ordered multi-packs of both and planted them in my borders.   Hopefully in the spring, I’ll have some lovely flowers, with no worry that they’ll be eaten.

(Here’s the blue muscari I ordered. And I ordered this daffodil mix, which is supposed to provide blooms between February and April due to the variety of types.)

4. I mended a tote bag.

This is one of those gauze-y sort of reusable bags (you know, the kind they give as freebies everywhere).

They’re not my favorite thing ever because the “fabric” they’re made of just doesn’t hold up over time.   It wears thin and gets holes and then the bag eventually becomes useless.

Anyhow, this bag was coming apart at a corner, so I sewed it back together.

The bag isn’t going to last nearly as long as my cotton tote bags do, but I figure it’s smart to extend its life as long as possible.

5. And lastly…

…some miscellaneous frugality:

• I cut Joshua’s hair, using my $20 shears.

• I made yogurt using a $2.50 gallon of Costco milk (which means each quart of yogurt costs less than $0.70.   Yes, please.),
• Joshua and I cleaned up leaves in our yard (I do pay him for that.)
• I cooked meals at home.
• I bought some clothes for Joshua and Lisey online (American Eagle is pretty awesome for tall, slender teens!) and used TopCashBack and a coupon code to save extra on my purchase.

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How about you?   Join me by sharing Five Frugal Things in the comments.

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