Saving on Saturday! Happy Fourth of July

We spent around 7 hours enjoying the pool today. For dinner, we participated in a potluck which was awesome! Total spent ZERO!

Saving on Saturday- Garden

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Today’s harvest

Saving this Saturday is hopefully one that continues all summer long. We are starting to get in some items from the garden. This week, I froze my first batch of cucumber relish and we are enjoying cucumbers and squash on a regular if not daily basis. I am hoping by the end of next week to start freezing some squash as I only have one pack of squash lasagna left. Our square foot garden is the larger and prettiest it has ever been. I am hoping to not only freeze tomatoes but also make some salsa as I have ran out of both of these items.

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More Squash growing!

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Regular Tomatoes

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Lots of cherry and grape tomatoes starting to form.

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Tomato and corn plants are the same height in the back. the small corn is what was planted 2 weeks ago.

 

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Cucumbers going down the hill and squash on the side

 

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last bed planted

 

Saving on Saturday-5/30/2015

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This saving on Saturday was one that sort of happened. If you had ask me even on Wednesday about it, I probably would have not had a clue. First the story and then lots and lots of pictures.

One of my co-workers is starting a small nursery. I decided to take all the plastic trays and small pots that I have been collecting for the past several years. to her to see if she could use.  I did not realize how expensive they were but really I  just hated to throw them away. She was very excited to get them, and a couple of weeks later when I mentioned that one of the pepper plants I planted had died, she offered to bring me some.  She ended up bring me 6 “rainbow peppers” this week. Next my friend bought at Costco a vegtable/herb growing kit at Costco with little seed pods that are guaranteed to grow. She ran out of room and brought five to me on Friday. I was sort of at a lost because we are all out of room in the square foot garden, but mentioned to Matt that I might go see if I could find some wood to add another section.

The abandoned wood pile deserves at least a paragraph of it own. We began really digging in the pile to finish the composite bin several weeks ago. This wood is actually from the deck that was on the house when I purchased it 22 years ago. About 13 years ago before meeting Matt, I had a friend to tear down the old deck and replace it with a larger one. Instead of recycling or even burning to old deck, he simply cut it into 6 foot sections and deposited in the woods behind the house. These boards are now what we are digging out and reusing.

I walked down to the edge of the woods and spotted a section of decking, I was even able to pull it out of the weeds all by myself. After bringing the wood to the front of the house, we knew exactly what section we wanted to add.

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This morning after a trip to Lowes, I planted the remaining 5 “rainbow peppers, three of the garden pods that my friend gave me. After counting out the remaining squares I decided to head in the freezer and plant another 45 stalks of corn.  So the only real cost to this project was $40 worth of dirt that we purchased.  I am very very pleased with the way this project turned out and am also very hopefully that we will reclaim that $40 in the month of August with a second harvesting of corn and peppers. Here are the pictures I took after finishing planting and watering today!

Saving on Saturday

sosThis week saving is not exciting but still saving so I am sharing. First up hang clothes on the line instead of the dryer.

IMG_1795Currently on the line we have our sheets and comforter, a load of dark clothes and a load of light clothes. We love the smell of clean sheet that dry outside so I try to do these all year around. The clothes are a different story, I don’t mind hanging out outer clothes it is just a matter of timing. My goal is to get into a routine so that I can save at least 3 hours a week of dryer time during the summer. I refuse to hang out towels and underwear so those will continue to be thrown in the dryer. My only debate is the kids clothes, currently they place their clothes in their own laundry basket and after being washed they are taking out of the dryer and putting all away. It would take a lot more effort for me to hang out their loads in addition to trying to keep things separate  between Kendall and Lily.

Next up is home car repair. Our white van is continuing to give us problems. Today, Matt changed out the fuel filter which cost a total of $11 and his hour of work.

Finally is a fun activity for the kids that saves at least $10 a vehicle, home car washing!  The kids are having a ball and do a fairly good job!

Zach Kindergarten Screening

Today Zach and I went back to school for his Kindergarten screening. This is the first of 3 trip prior to his first day of school. We will have a meet the teacher night in August, he will go for 45 minute the first day of school. Next he spends a full day of school with 5 or less other students before his official first day of school which is actually day 5 of the school year. Anyway, Zach is really excited!!