Provident Living in April

So far I am really excited about sort of keeping tabs on the things I do to save money, perhaps because it makes the whole saving money thing a little more tangible.  Here is what I did in April that helped keep our budget in check and what helped make the whole month a celebration of “Earth Day”.

We began “eating out” again!  In other words it is picnic season and we spent a fabulous day hiking and picnic-ing at a really great State Park during spring break.  We also celebrated opening day with a cookout in the backyard.  Homemade pasta, beans, cookies and more combined with fresh fruits and vegies made these picnics so enjoyable while nourishing and going easy on the pocketbook.
I used some frozen zucchini from last years garden to make bread.
I used dry milk to make rolls and cream based soups.
We attended the first Friday Night Red’s game of the season.  Rick wrote the arrangement of The Star Spangled Banner that the musical group sang at the beginning of the game.  Someone had access through work to free tickets for our whole family to attend the game and so Rick was able to hear his arrangement performed.  The tickets would have cost us $133 which means we would not have gone.  It happened to be Friday Night Fireworks after the game as well and so we got a fireworks show to rival any 4th of July display too.
We found a “Free” parking spot on the street when we attended the ball game.  Rick knows all the hidden free parking spots downtown and we got some nice exercise walking to the stadium.  Certainly the walk was worth what we would have spent on a parking garage.
Instead of buying food at the ball game we had an early pizza night before leaving home.  We brought bottled water from our food storage which meets post 9-11 safety regulations.  Plus this helps us rotate through our bottled water storage.
I started three lilacs from roots to give as an end of the year gift next month to a teacher who loves lilacs and to another who is retiring.  I will think of some cute/clever presentation for giving this as a gift.  Too often people just throw money into a group gift.  I don't have money for that like other parents do and I want it to be personal and thoughtful anyway.  Hopefully I can make this fit the bill.
I made almost 12 pints of strawberry lemon jam from strawberries we picked at the farm last year.  I still had 3 quarts of strawberries for smoothies but hadn’t yet used them and our jam supply was dwindling.  I used jar lids that I bought on clearance at the end of last years harvest season.

One of the kids pointed out to me that their friends were amazed that they had spoons in their lunches that resembled those of a local ice cream parlor.  How cool!!!  Well, that is where they ARE from and we re-use them in lunches a million times before they break.
Haley borrowed a prom dress from an older girl who is out serving a mission for the church right now.  It fit her nicely and I made a few minor repairs adding a few stitches to fix some snaps as well as re-stitching some of the sequins and folds on and in the dress.
I made Haley a wrist corsage since she was attending without a date.  I used an old but unspoiled doily that I had saved and folded it in quarters.  Then I clipped some white and purple flowers along with some greens from out in the yard.  Using a small piece of packaging tape, a scrap of sheer white ribbon I had in my ribbon box and a scrap of elastic from my pajama making Christmas project I assembled it and it looked beautiful.  It stayed fresh in the refrigerator while I styled and curled Haley’s hair.  It was a little limp by the end of her evening.  Maybe next time a boy will buy her one but for  now she is much too intimidating for these boys.

I started seeds for my garden using plastic planting containers from former years of plants.  They are beginning to sprout and will be ready for transplanting in May.
I began using vinegar in the dishwasher as a rinse agent.  Works beautifully and is something like over a 6,000% savings over purchasing Jet Dry.
Stocked up on toothpaste and deoderant at $1 each.  Toothbrushes too!
Soaked dry beans and used homemade taco seasoning in Taco Soup.
Made ice cream with cream that was expiring.
Made dishwasher detergent for the second time.  I like how it cleans and the cost is SO much less than purchasing brand name detergent.
Made and used more citrus cleaner from orange/lemon peels.
Kaitlyn and her Dad attended a 1950’s style Father-daughter dance.  I dug out a pair of saddle shoes someone had given to me 10 or 11 years ago when my oldest daughter was that age.  I did purchase a poodle patch; my only expense for the outfit, which I attached to a cute little 1950’s style skirt given to us by a cousin.
Our biggest, greenest switch this month was the addition of a clothesline to our backyard.  Long ago we had some very awful clotheslines that we used when we found their holes mostly buried in the backyard and the posts hidden in the garage but eventually they rendered useless so we had to toss them.  Our family has grown a lot since then as well and something like what we had before would not effectively or efficiently dry our clothes.  We also have an aging dryer and we would like to prolong its life.  So clotheslines and harnessing the sun and wind energy seemed to be our best answer.  We did have to purchase materials for this as we had nothing suitable just “lying around” but then that is the end of the expense!  Rick did some research, bought his supplies and over spring-break built a wonderful, strong clothesline from lumber with good supports.  Now, clotheslines aren’t commercialized because they are simply too inexpensive for anyone to bother advertising and frankly I don’t see too many clotheslines around these days but Rick did manage to find a local supplier where he bought line tighteners, five inch reels and cotton rope for three lines between the posts set 20 feet apart.  In the end we did end up with a “leaner” that will have to be re-set in the ground.  I’ve also discovered that I really need more line to fit my extra large capacity loads so we will set the post slightly over 20 feet from the first when we get back to it.  In the meantime, we have had fantastic weather for line drying clothes in no time at all and I’ve had no trouble drying the required one to two loads a day (except for Sunday).  They smell great coming off the line too.  Line drying does take a little bit of extra time but my kids are thrilled that I’m outside with them.  And who wouldn’t prefer the company of birds and butterflies over a stuffy windowless workplace laboring overtime to pay for a dryer and the utility bill to go with it.  And hopefully the life of the dryer will be prolonged so that we still have the option of drying laundry during stretches of inclement weather.

What other money saving/green strategies can I successfully come up with next?

Easter

Easter came on the last day of March this year and lined up with Spring Break for a change.
 
Kaitlyn came home from school all ready for the occasion with bunny ears she’d made in class.

The younger three children dyed eggs for our hunt this year… our day got busy and Lindsay and Haley went to the YW Broadcast with me that evening.  I think it was the first time the girls missed coloring eggs.

Rick took plenty of pictures for us.

Oooops!

Oscar was interested… it was his first Easter with us even though he is now 6 years old.

Ta-Da!  And after Tristan woke people up EXTREMELY early the Easter Bunny got scared away from our house so made an appearance once things had quieted down and we were all at church.  Good thing it wasn’t Santa… Tristan was still left a basket of goodies.

Haley and Lindsay’s baskets,    Tristan and Kaitlyn’s baskets,   And Nathan’s basket.

I don’t know which view I like better…  either way they are both very pretty pictures.

Mmmm!  Jelly beans and chocolates… even for me!
And it had snowed earlier in the week so we didn’t get to an Easter Egg tree in the front yard this year.  Then on Easter morning it was rainy so I did manage to just pull the kids together for a quick picture in the living room.

Kaitlyn,                                         Haley,                                                           Nathan,

Tristan                                                               Kaitlyn

Boys didn’t hesitate to dig in.                      Then I got the table ready for the missionaries to come to dinner.

The kids loved everyone’ place settings  AND there were no flowers growing in the yard this year yet so some pretty candles went on the table for a centerpiece.

Chocolate bunnies… Mmmm!          Meanwhile we found Scruffles and Spooky in the chilly upstairs afternoon napping in the boys room.

Spooky gave that up at the end of the day so he could go and snuggle with his favorite person… a happy end of Easter.

March Around the House

It’s hard to say which end of March was Lion-ish or Lamb-like.  But our only two snow days of the year were this month.  The weather seemed to swing dramatically back and forth all month long.

The kids were set loose with the camera out in the yard.  It was very pretty… not very well treated for getting places however.  There was one morning where I woke up at 5 a.m. and checked out the window; nothing.   At 5:30 I opened the front door and was greeted with a winter blast the likes of which belonged in the stories of Owl at Home.  Winter blasted in the door!  We were pelted and blown.  Snowing so hard our tracks were immediately covered and it looked as if Haley and I were the only two in the world up and trying to get about.  By the time we got 1/4 of a mile from our home I had to pull over.  I couldn’t see anything including the tree and fire hydrant right next to the car.  It was more than a little scary.  Then we started to move once I could see again and decided to pursue our journey to the church building.  We got out onto the busy road at a crawl and turned the next corner.  We started slipping and sliding and I was really having a hard time controlling the vehicle as the snow continued to come down fiercely.  Just as I was wondering if we would be able to make it home in time after the class IF we indeed made it there alive we were faced with a steep-ish downgrade looking way more threatening in the snow, of course.  At the same moment we both decided to turn around… it cost us 20 minutes and a big scratch on the car to get home from the next neighborhood over.  We found out later that the snow had been coming down at an inch per half hour and a ton of accidents happened out on the roads with the unexpecting travelers.  I have experienced many times snow like that but not in this region.  Snow like that around here is nearly unheard of, though it was short lived and the roads were fine by the time the kids were ready to go to school. 

Our only two snow days all winter happened in March, as I stated before.  The kids got outside and really had a lot of fun.

Here’s a little snowman they made.  Yeah, it’s little… yeah we close down schools for this! 

Kaitlyn dressed appropriately for wacky tacky Wednesday (turned Thursday because of the snow day). 

Then she changed into something more suitable for her VERY FIRST violin recital where she played Twinkle variations with the other beginning violinists.  We won’t talk about the grief we caught for missing the violin recital at the other school that was moved to the same time due to the snow day. 

Then Tristan played his cello with the orchestra for the latter half of the recital.  It was nice to hear the progress they’ve made in their performance and Rick was able to attend a performance of theirs for the first time this school year.  His own work schedule keeps him THAT busy.

Nathan and I went to the Museum Center on the same day as Kaitlyn’s class field trip.  We ate lunch there and Nathan was very happy to see Kaitlyn in the Woods where they could play together briefly.  He misses her a whole lot during the day.

But we had fun together too and moved at our own pace; construction, water play and

Caving!  Afterward we stopped at the flagpoles outside.

Puzzles!  Some were even fun interaction for the kitties.

Then there was Fasching… the annual school carnival with food, fun, games and silly prizes for an afternoon of fun and memories.  Sauerkraut, potato pancakes, German chocolate, huge salty pretzels, sodas…

Does Kaitlyn recognize her teacher, the pickpocket lady with green hair???  The kids, armed with change from their piggy banks, used some of their spending money for extra treats they wanted to buy, if they wanted any.  Nathan played a whole bunch of games and displayed some of his prizes for me.

A few more games before heading home.  I went looking for Tristan and found him with a friend in the Root Beer Garden.

Cute brothers had a fun time, as we all did.

Many signs of spring emerged finally and feeding the birds (and squirrels) dwindled.

Kitties spent more time outdoors, mostly in the backyard enjoying the spring breezes.

Winter tried one last time to grab hold of us at the end of March which made warm cozy nights with good feet warmers still desirable.

Spooky worked on learning his Alphabet… Nathan played along!

Chess club ended for the year with an award for Tristan.  Haley was tapped and inducted in the National Honor Society.  Both in the same day!

Nathan worked on coloring skills… he can now color mostly in the lines and he draws freely shapes and lines that resemble what he’s trying to make.

This is a bunny he made for his cousin.  The bunny form was made from Nathan’s wrist.  He drew in the tail and all the colored eggs on the page… it was so cute!  Nathan is much more interested in drawing if it is for someone else.  It’s wonderful to see his creativity emerging like when he comes to me with his “Macaroni-a-saurus” drawings.  A sense of humor, too!

Tristan was awarded his Webelos patch at Cub Scouts… sort of.  They forgot to purchase it so it was more of an announcement this month.  This was followed by an evening of healthy living family fun… an opener to the “healthy living challenge” that all the kids (and adults) took on led by the 8-11 year old boys and girls. 

Tug of War was blast for the kids.  (Nathan is in the middle “helping” there).

There were obstacle courses with bouncy balls to bounce with, tents to crawl through and barrels to roll in with lots of running and jumping in between.

We ended the month preparing for Easter and Spring Break.  We volunteered as a vacation destination for Brownie (Kindergarten pet turtle) but ended up with Roxi the bird.  The bird was beautiful and would have been fairly trouble free if it weren’t for my cats!  Admittedly the combination was more responsibility than I care to take on again.

Oscar was the second cat at the table to observe (with intensity, I might add) the bird.  Spooky had been there first in a matter of minutes of the bird’s entrance.  After that we put Roxi upstairs behind two closed doors on a hook on the ceiling.  This was the safest place I had but it still kept Spring Break interesting.  For one thing it’s hard to get five kids to remember to always keep the door shut.  The second thing was that two cats were found in the bedroom with Roxi and when I reminded children to keep the door shut the kids told me the cats had opened the door.  I didn’t believe them until one day I was in the bedroom with the door shut changing someone’s sheets when the cats opened the door!!!  Meanwhile, Lindsay had entered the room on the first said occasion to find one cat perched on her bed while she slowly spun the bird cage hanging on the hook from the ceiling with her paw which birdcage had the second cat clinging to the top of it as the cage turned.  The hook was nearly out of the ceiling and the bird was saved from certain disaster just in the knick of time!!!  After I experienced the cats opening the door to the room themselves pet sitting became a two door buffer deal and the bird was beyond ready to go back to school as soon as spring break was over.  Alive and well with me thanking my lucky stars this bird can only chirp back to the teacher!