Some of the Ways We Have Saved Money Recently

 I enjoy reading on other blogs about what they do to save money so I think it is also fun to share with you every so often some things that we have done to save money around here. Here is some of the things we have been doing.....

• When we were on our trip last month we were staying at a place that had a washer and dryer in the apartment but there wasn't any laundry soap. There was bar soap however and I had taken along baking soda (for washing hair but I had extra) and so I decided to make up my own laundry soap. It was easy and though it was simpler and a bit different than what I normally make it worked fine and we were able to keep up with the laundry while we were there and go home with clean clothes which was nice. Now our vacation was by no means cheap but that is one of the reasons we like to save money - so we can use some of it to do fun things like travel - but even in our traveling it is fun to find simple ways to save some money.
• For our Winter Retreat at church this year we had fun doing some decorating to go along with our theme of revival. We were able to decorate using things that I and others already had on hand. We made things like the fire banners at the front of the building that are shown below. To make those I used some old drapery material and than various scraps of fire colored fabric.

• We have been using our homemade soap to wash dishes quite a bit lately. 
• I have been doubling up on cooking fairly frequently lately so that I can freeze an extra meal. This saves money because I can use less energy for cooking and keep my freezer full (so it works more efficiently) that was already going. It also can save money because I am less tempted to want to go out to eat or something like that when I have some quick and easy meals.

• Our windows had some moisture issues that we needed to get fixed before we listed our house with the Realtor. We didn't think the project sounded like much fun but we did it ourselves rather than hiring it done. We got the job done, it looks much better and we saved a bunch of money in the process.
• I used old crumbly bread and made homemade croutons for our salad.
• I have been making bread and pizza dough with squash in it. I can use a food that we are able to get for free (my parents grow a lot of it) and get more nutrition in our diet at the same time.
• We made homemade gifts to give at a baby shower.
• I was able to use $10 off $10 or more coupon at JC Penny to buy a gift for a birthday.
• We have been spending hours talking with contractors and other professionals concerning the house we are planning on building so that we can figure out the ways that we can save money and still get the look and quality we want.
• We have been feeding our chickens lots of scraps to stretch out the food that we need to buy for them.

What have you been doing to save money lately?

Inspiration from this post comes from the Prudent Homemaker.