Frugal Things I Did Last Week

Remember the best things in the world are the things which can't be bought.  

I picked up a soil probe from our county extension office to take soil samples from our garden.  I will drop off the soil and it will be sent (FREE) to a lab to be tested for various nutrients.  Last year I learned that my main garden plot was very deficient in various nutrients.

I made bread in the crockpot.  Neat huh?

My sweet mom gave us a cooler full of beef.  We have been enjoying lots of roast, steak, and hamburgers.  Yum!  What a treat.

We attended a retirement party for a friend.  My mom picked up a nice mug for me that said Happy Retirement.  I placed that in a fancy cellophane bag I had on hand from my Stampin' Up days.  Then I added two bags worth of gourmet chocolates and truffles.  I tied it with red ribbon that had been used on a a Christmas gift we received.  I wrapped it with a gift bag and tissue paper we had on hand.

I continued using free samples of eye liner, eye shadow, and lipstick.  It is amazing how long this stuff lasts!

I made another batch of homemade laundry tabs.

We love babywearing.

The weather has been beautiful so we went on two walks as a family.  I carried Eva in our Moby Wrap which I had purchased when Eli was a baby.  You could make one but knit fabric is very expensive and a stretchy wrap takes a lot of fabric so I chose to buy mine.  It is a wrap that you tie but youtube has some great instructional videos.

I sewed a simple curtain valence for Evangeline's room.

We breastfed and cloth diapered all week.  (We even cloth diaper when we go out of the house.)  After four months of cloth diapering we finally ran out of bumGenius Cloth Diaper Detergent so I purchased more cloth diaper detergent from amazon.  The bumGenius detergent works well but I decided to try another one.  This time we are trying Nellie's All Natural Laundry Soda .  Has anyone used this?

I attended a workshop on Market Gardening at a local extension office.  I did have to pay 5.00 for lunch but it was well worth it.  All of the food was local or had been preserved the previous season.  It was delicious!  I also took home a large manila envelope full of seeds for free.  All of the seeds are from 2013 so their germination rates will not be quite as good as 2014 seeds.  Still they are free seeds so I do not mind double planting.  I am thinking about setting up a roadside stand to sell produce from our garden and possibly some baked goods.

What do you think?  Do you have any experience with a roadside stand?