My Uber Thrifty Month In Review - April

We have some pretty lofty expenses coming up this summer so in an effort to plan ahead I have seriously felt the need to stock our pantry and freezer with plenty of good food this last month.  Fortunately there were a lot of great sales on the things I wanted to help alleviate those expenses.  I was over budget by about $50 and it was money well spent.  Overtime earnings more than covered the overage, however.

I paid all of our monthly expenses on time or early.  I also made my financial and savings goals this month and another payment on my PayPal account.

I bought a tank of gas and used my rewards points to save 10¢ a gallon.  I was careful in our fuel usage too by grouping errands and picking up groceries on the way home from work and school events limiting unnecessary trips.  I even put off my banking an extra week so I could pair it with a trip to the dentist.  I finished the month with over a quarter tank of gas left in the truck.

The biggest area of spending this month was on our yard and garden.  I needed to buy insecticide for our fruit trees and a sprayer that attaches to our hose.  I found strawberry starts online and paid $10.99 for ten of them.  They actually sent twelve and the shipping was free.

After checking online and in several ads in the Sunday paper I bought two blueberry bushes and a potted raspberry plant with four canes in it at Fred Meyer.  They were $7.99 each.  Between Fred Meyer and Home Depot I bought several packs of flowers to plant in the our pots and flowerbeds.

To save money we gave all of our flower pots a facelift by purchasing a couple of cans of spray paint, laying out a dollar store shower curtain I had purchased a long time ago to use as a drop cloth and giving them several good coats.  They look brand new.  Actually better than when they were new.  We also took all of the soil that was in them and added compost and ash to it, mixed it all in really well and refilled the pots.  No additional money was spent on potting soil.

I bought two four packs of pepper plants at the feed store for $2.50 each.  I tried twice to start some from seed but they never germinated.  As expensive as peppers are in the store right now I felt his expense was worth it to grow our own.  I also bought the chickens a 50# bag of scratch grains for $14.99 while I was there.

I used items around the house to fix and repair some things around the house and yard.  My can of miscellaneous fasteners really came in handy for a lot of projects.  I even used some limbs pruned from our apple tree to make grips for the ramp to our chicken coop.  It really worked out great.  It's amazing how creative one can get when trying to save money.