Challenge notes

For January 1st-

We're willing to: work harder and longer to earn extra money

We're not willing to: compromise mental or physical health chasing a dollar. If we need to cut back our hours, we will.

Today's frugality included two trips to pick up items I got for free on Freecycle - the first was for some soft lunchbags for Nate and Stewart, and the second was for some compost for the garden. It wasn't quite compost, but it was well on it's way; I'll do some more work on it and by this spring it should be ready to help enhance my container garden.

One of my frugal plans is to expand the garden this year to provide early and late season veggies, and my goal is to do it by having to purchase as little as possible. I'll try to grow my own seedling this year instead of buying them, and condition the soil I've already purchased with free compost. I'm also hoping to use Freecyle and yard sales to find a bunch of plastic window boxes; I have a scheme in mind for expanding the footprint of the garden this year! More to come on that.

Today I also took a trip to Harris Teeter to take advantage of Day 1 of their Triple Coupon days, and to pick up gallons of organic milk for Jack. I used to spend $4.39 for a half gallon of organic milk at Giant; I finally found Harris Teeters gallons for $5.60! That's a savings of $3.18 a gallon. I buy 6 at a time, take them home, pour a few cups out of each gallon (so they don't expand and crack), and throw them in our basement freezer. They defrost perfectly and save us a fortune.

So that's my frugal work for today: Freecycle and Harris Teeter gallons of organic milk. How was your day?