My Frugal Accomplishments

One of my favorite blogs is entitled "The Prudent Homemaker".  You can find them here:  http://theprudenthomemakerblog.blogspot.com/

Brandi, who writes the blog is a constant source of inspiration.  Her family lost their income source for almost a year.  She writes about the struggles of maintaining a home, family, and home schooling on a very limited budget.  She does on a daily basis what I wish I could do over the course of a month.

One of my favorite features of her Blog is entitled "My Frugal Accomplishments".  In it, she lists the things she does to keep her family running, and having fun on a budget.

So, I am stealing her idea.  While I am not nearly in her class, I do need a way to hold myself accountable for our family expenses.  With two children now in college, and food and energy costs going through the roof, I am looking for ways to cut back on our expenses.

It does help that our oldest child is on a full scholarship to college.  We "only" pay for books.  I say "only" because have you seen the cost of college textbooks lately?  Last semester, we paid $600 for his textbooks. 

The middle child has a partial scholarship.  It's not as nice as a full scholarship, but it will relieve some of our financial burden.  However, we still need to find a way to cover his tuition.  He's paying a portion this fall.  (10%) and we're paying the rest.  I really don't want to put this on credit card, so anything I can do to find money will help.

So, here is what I managed to do this week to cut back on our expenses:

1) I made two loaves of bread from scratch.  (I sent one to with our oldest child, who is living off and working off campus this summer.)

2) I line dried two loads of laundry this week.  The clothes dry in a jiffy, and I love the smell of sun baked clothes! 

3) I made 4 pints of strawberry jelly with strawberries we grow in our yard.

4) We checked out the second season of Dr. Who from the library.

5) I made 6 quarts of turkey broth, and 24 turkey bullion muffins and froze them all.

It's a start.  I'm going to have to try a little harder next week. 

I guess we can say you guys are holding me accountable for what I do!