Practicing What I Preach

Each week I tell you how to save money and live frugally.  Here's my way of showing you that I'm doing it too!  These are a few of the ways I've been frugal this past week.

meet Chuck

• I gave some wrinkled pecans to Chuck.

The only time we eat pecans around here is around Thanksgiving.  I use them to make Pecan Pies.  As I was cleaning out the pantry I found an opened bag of pecans that had become wrinkled and dry.  I usually keep nuts in the freezer, but somehow these got missed.  So I gave them to Chuck.  Chuck is my little squirrel friend that comes to my window and watches me everyday.  We usually give him corn, but he loves pecans too. :-)

• I made some more banana muffins.

I used up some mushy bananas and made some chocolate chip banana muffins.  They were gone within minutes.

• I got some great deals on homeschooling supplies at the Dollar Tree.

I've gotten some school supplies from the Dollar Tree before, but never really appreciated their "Teacher" section until now.  I got a good bit of supplies that I'll need when we start this home school gig.

• I put some egg shells and coffee grounds in the compost.

Egg shells and coffee grounds are great for your garden,  Throw them in with your vegetable and fruit scraps.  Your garden will love you for it.

• I made a couple of meals from our stockpile.

Our stockpile is busting at the seams.  We really are at full capacity in both of our freezers and our butler pantry.  When my pantry gets so stocked I tend to miss things and they go bad before we use them.  So, for the next couple of weeks I'll be working to use some of it up.  A clean and organized pantry makes me happy.

• I sold some stuff on Ebay

Near the beginning of the year I cleaned out my closet and computer room.  I like to sell stuff on Ebay and I stay away from Craigslist.  I sold some ink cartridges and random things from around the house.  I have a few other things on there and what doesn't sell will be donated to Goodwill.

• I started limiting internet usage.

We've been using Comcast internet for years because they have the fastest internet in our area.  As much as we use and need the internet in our household having the fastest and most reliable is important to us.  Well, apparently Comcast has started limiting our data usage to 300 GB a month.  If we go over we get charged extra.   With my blogging along with three cell phones and two Ipads in this house we use the internet and Wifi a LOT so this change does NOT make me happy, but such is life.  We went over our limit last week and are incurring more charges.  In order to avoid even more fees I have limited my kids internet usage as well as my own.  If you could only see my pouty face...