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Simple Savings for February

SchneiderPeeps- Simple Savings February

If you are new to our Simple Savings posts, this is where I share all (or all that I can remember) the things we did to save money the previous month. These are usually very simple things and yet when you add them up, they can make or break your budget.

But here’s the deal, the things I share are things we’ve done, not things I think everyone should do. You’ll also notice that we do some of the same simple things each month to save money, nothing super exciting, just little things that help us out. You’ll also notice that there are some frugal things that we don’t do, or at least don’t do every month. Sometimes there is a time/money trade off and saving time wins out.

I hope you’ll be inspired to look for simple ways to save money in your life and share some of those things with others and in the comments of these posts.

SchneiderPeeps - The February Garden in zone 9 is full of mature cold weather crops and the beginnings of early spring crops. The fruit trees are just beginning to bud and spring is on the horizon.

February is usually a very relaxing month for us, the hustle and bustle of December is a distant memory and the urgency of spring isn’t upon us yet.

Benjamin needed a pair of khaki pants for a play. I thought we had some in a tub in the attic but we didn’t. My boys don’t wear khaki’s often so I really don’t want to pay much for them. I had been looking at thrift stores but hadn’t seen any in his size, then I found a pair on the clearance rack at Walmart for $4. February and September are the best months to go clothes shopping here.

SchneiderPeeps - Simple Savings for Februrary

I took some time to clean out our front flower bed. I really wish I had before pics for you but just know that we had a volunteer watermelon vine take over it last fall – oh, and a volunteer tomato plant. I just let them grow. We’ve had a problem with rabbits that our neighbor let go eating my flowers so I haven’t been motivated to clean up the front until now. I bought 2 plants, a creeping rosemary for $3 and a flowering perennial that was on clearance for $2. Other than that I just weeded and rearranged plants I already had. It looks so much better.

I sowed more lettuce seeds, some pole and bush beans and some sweet peas this month. We’re harvesting broccoli, cauliflower, kale, beets, swiss chard and lettuce.

For Valentine’s Day we went to a family concert at our church. I know Valentines is supposed to be about couples but we’ve always spent it as a family. So having the concert at church on Valentines was great for us. Before the concert we took our family to the Olive Garden for $20! Yep, that’s right 7 of us ate for $20 out of pocket. There really isn’t a secret other than last year we were given Olive Garden gift cards for various things and we saved them until we had enough that our whole family could enjoy the treat. We tend to hang on to gift cards for a while instead of going out and spending them right away and this time it worked out really well.

Our children exchange Valentines at our homeschool co-op. Of course, the teens just want candy, so I bought two bags of candy for them to put in bags. Esther wrote out cards for all 52 students and many adults using cards that were left over from previous years. She also gave some little fun things like bouncy balls that I picked up last year after Valentines day on clearance to the younger students.

We did our taxes and I made notes of what we need to keep better records of this year. One thing was Josiah and Gabriel’s college textbook expenses. Since we rarely buy their books from the college bookstore, they had an overage on their scholarship funds and it is considered income. Fortunately, I was able to go to the various places we ordered books and print receipts to claim some deductions on that income. This is new for us. Since Christian went away and had housing expenses at the college he never had an overage from his scholarships.

Simple Savings for February

We picked a lot of lemons and grapefruit from a friend’s trees. We have enough lemon juice and lemon zest to last the year. We’ve been enjoying grapefruit almost daily. Here’s the secret to getting my family to eat a lot of grapefruit – if I peel and section a bunch and put them in a bowl in the refrigerator, the bowl will be empty by the next day. Here is how I do so many quickly.

I ordered wheat and oats from Honeyville Farms. Since I cannot buy wheat in bulk locally this is my go-to place. Shipping is always $5 no matter how much you buy and several times a year they have 15% 0r 20% off sales – that is when I order. I try really hard to not run out and have to order when there isn’t a sale.

I also ordered herbs from TriLight Herbs, restocking things for the spring that we are low on, like their ALRG formula. Some of us get seasonal allergies and if we are diligent with taking ALRG from the onset we don’t need to take any over the counter allergy medications. They also have 15%-20% off sales several times a year.

I gave 5 haircuts – Carl, Gabriel, Benjamin, Phoebe and Esther. Esther had so much fun getting about a centimeter cut off the length of her hair that she decided to cut herself some bangs. {sigh} at least they’re long bangs, just not long enough to put up in ponytail or bun.

I got an hour long massage. I know that doesn’t sound very frugal but in this case it was. 😉 The attic ladder fell on me and I hurt my upper back. I did all kinds of home remedy stuff but after a few days I was having trouble taking a deep breath because my muscles were so tight. So we decided that I needed help. We decided to start with a therapeutic message. It was $70 well spent. The message therapist gave me some stretches to do to help keep my muscle loose. When I left her office I could easily take a deep breath and within a few days I was feeling almost completely well.

I know there aren’t any earth shattering ideas here, if there’s a theme I see running through this post, it would be planning ahead. It’s usually more expensive to have to go out at the last minute and buy something that you need. It’s better to be thinking out those things you use regularly or know you will need in the future and get them at reduced prices. The caution here is to not become someone who buys all kinds of things just because they are on sale and then never use them.

How did you save (or not spend) money in February? 

Thanks for sharing with your friends!

Becca

Wednesday 4th of March 2015

Wonderful tips! Thanks for sharing them with the rest of us. I'm especially thankful for the ALRG info!

Angi Schneider

Thursday 5th of March 2015

I think you'll really like the ALRG, Becca. We benefit from it so much!

Janette

Wednesday 4th of March 2015

Have you tried Great River Milling? http://www.greatrivermilling.com/organic-whole-grains/ I ordered stone ground, organic, non GMO corn meal and love it! They seem to be quite a bit cheaper than Walton Feed too!

Angi Schneider

Wednesday 4th of March 2015

Thanks for the tip! I'll have to check them out.

Rachel E.

Wednesday 4th of March 2015

Spring is around the corner here...just waiting. :)