A few frugal things for the week

Happy Saturday, friends! I've been doing many kids things this weekend - volunteering at the boys school yesterday afternoon, carpooling to double soccer practices, a sleepover, and making breakfast for the hungry crew this morning. Homemade waffles & fruit. ;-)

I love recapping the frugal decisions I've made over the past week, because it reminds me that lots of small steps add up, and keeps me focused on continuing the good decisions. Even when I'm sometimes off track. Not that it ever happens, of course! :-)

Here are a few of the frugal wins I've had this week:

• Posted three sets of hoodies on a local FB swap. Have people coming by for all three. If that comes through, I will make $30. And why do I have so many hoodies, you may ask? We went through a phase where Sam was losing a hoodie a week. In frustration, I stocked up. Shortly after, his responsibility increased. Several of the hoodies still have tags, but the rest are in excellent condition. 
• Traded childcare & didn't need the nanny on Friday, saving me ~$60
• Prepped for a late dinner vs buying pizza after practice yesterday, saving $30
• I will pack lunches today, vs buying out, as we will be traveling between soccer games & won't have time for a lunch at home. 
• Used a bunch of quickly turning fridge items to make the boys smoothies for an after school snack. 
• Made myself lunch yesterday with random scraps from the fridge
• Will clean the house this weekend, on my continued effort to reduce our cleaning lady spend
• Purged the boys room yesterday (not frugal on its own, but found the hoodies) & our hall closet. I found a few items that M bought at Joann's to repair Nick's favorite animal. We ended up going with another solution, so I returned the items to Joann's yesterday. I didn't have a receipt, so turned my store credit into a set of 50 colorful card stock & envelopes. We don't buy regular cards, so make our own for every occasion. This got unnecessary stuff at of our house, and in return, we have something we will definitely use. 
• I rode my bike to & from work 2 days, and one way another day, saving gas & burning calories!
• Made homemade popcorn & chocolate chip muffins for snacks for the small people, rather than buying premade snacks. 

And, in frugal fails:

• Went out to dinner with everyone on Thursday, after our late goalie practice
• Bought an expensive yogurt no one liked. I had a coupon, it was a brand people had eaten in the past, but I got a different flavor. Had to turn it into smoothies, but wouldn't have spent the $2 I'd known they'd turn up their noses at the strawberry rhubarb. ;-) 

I'm off to go pack lunches, clean the house & get the laundry done. And to water my strawberry plants - I've been picking a handful a day & they are amazing! What frugal wins do you have for the week?