Frugal Friday: How I Saved Money this Week

It's been a full week of many extra duties that have squeezed out the attempt to try new frugal ideas. One of those extra duties is a sewing job. I'm hoping that some day I can work exclusively from home again like I have for most of my years as a homemaker.

So, my Frugal Friday list is less full this week. I'm still doing the 'main things' that help me save money:

• Hanging my clothes on the line to dry.
• Only washing clothes when I have a full load.
• Keeping the lights off as much as possible during the day.
• Washing and drying dishes by hand. 
• Using up left overs to stretch my food budget. 
• Saving as much water in the house as possible to throw on the plants in the yard.
• Composting any leftovers.  

These are a few new things I did to save money this week:

1. I have a 'mending' drawer which was very full so I spent an afternoon mending pants and shirts that otherwise would have been given to Salvation Army. This will also save money in the future by extending my wardrobe. I also have some socks with holes that I plan on mending soon.
2.  I wrote in previous posts how I would save the water that runs from the faucet in the mornings while I'm waiting for the hot water. I would throw the cold water (that normally went down the drain) on plants outside. This week I heated a cup of water in the microwave and used the warm water to clean my face instead of letting the water run. I normally run a 1/2 bucket of cold water before the hot comes so I saved quite a bit of water doing this.  I'm still saving the 'extra' water in the kitchen though when waiting for hot water to wash my dishes. 
3. I kept my grocery receipts from this past month so that I could keep track of what I was/had spent. 
4. I started a Price Book. It's not finished but it's started. :-)
5. I made up a monthly menu and a grocery list from that menu. I was just making 2 week menus but seem to run short on vegetables by the end of the month. I'm hoping that better planning will eliminate that problem. 
6. I made a new stain remover which I will share on a later post if it works. The last two I made are working but I need something a little stronger for those determined stains. 

So.. that's it for this week. What did you do to save money this week?