Frugal Week in Review with Photos

I worked a lot in the garden and yard this week.  My daughter played with chalk in the sun while I worked.

My daughter made this sign for the garden with chalk.

I found all the usable containers in the yard (all found from the side of the road previous years) and filled with dirt and planted seeds.  I made a make-shift potato grower out of a compost cone insert I wasn't using.

Tomatoes, cilantro, raspberries, radishes, and potatoes in my make-shift potato bin.

I brought my lunch to work everyday.

I returned my library books and dvds on time (it's easy to forget when we have long days away from home).

Midweek I was given a large bunch of rhubarb from a coworker. I had never cooked with it before and it was delicious! I made a lower sugar rhubarb sauce for my parents.  I still have some left over that I intend to use.

I made delicious lentil crackers. I was just winging it and have never used lentils in baking before. They turned out awesome (and kid approved)!

My neighbor was headed to the store on Saturday and I gave her $2 and 2 coupons and she picked up 2 bottles of the Santa Cruz organic juice that was on sale at QFC.  I made popsicles with half of one of the jars, and made a spritzer with berries and sparkling water for a lunch with our friends.

I picked up a free quart of paint at True Value and let my daughter choose the color, "Aloe."  We will be using it to paint some accessories in her room.

My mom shared many seeds with me, as well as some of her homemade fertilizer mix containing lime, kelp and alfalfa.

I harvested a ton of kale before I pulled out the plants (except for one I will be using for seed collection) and we have been eating it alongside both breakfast and lunch. I shared extra with neighbors.

There was a lot more than this from the plants I pulled!

Sunday we had a lovely lunch with our dear friends Meg and Celeste. We had a huge salad with various lettuce varieties from the garden, and an onion from my mom's garden.

I added fresh dirt in the lettuce bed.

I also cooked up bits of chicken and carrots and onion.  We ate that, our salad, kale and had our lemonade spritzer with frozen berries. We joked that it was a detox lunch.  It was almost all green things! 

Meg brought raspberries and chocolate to share.  She also brought a beautiful bouquet of flowers.

The beautiful flowers against the mirror I found on the side of the road!

And one last picture for you, because I am really excited about it.  Here is the broccoli growing in one of my raised beds. I have never grown it before and am so excited to eat it fresh from the garden.

What did you do to save money this week?