frugal friday 10.25.24

A few days late….

1. Grow cuttings from the garden for next year – I’ve been having some success starting cuttings from my garden for next year. Generally, I dip the cutting in rooting hormone and pop it into the soil. I saved the containers from plants I purchased this year to use for this purpose. So far, I have the following growing inside: mums, boxwood, roses, gray bush, back bush, rosemary, elderberry, and blackberry vines. I will grow these in my basement greenhouse to plant next spring.
2. Fresh greens from our vegetable garden – My fall vegetable garden is doing well! In particular, the kale I purchased or transplanted and arugula are providing us with about 4 cups of greens every few days. I use the greens in our morning smoothies.
3. Homemade compost for the flower beds – I dumped about 6 wheelbarrow loads of homemade compost on the bed by the driveway. The lack of rain has hampered my compost-making efforts. I would prefer not to hand water the piles, but I may have no choice.
4. Reuse lighting in updated bathroom – We’ve been redoing our first-floor bathroom, going from hideous wallpaper to raised panels painted purple and a much nicer wallpaper. We’re just about finished. After finishing with the raised panels this week, I decided to paint the baseboard and the molding around the door purple, too. Anyway, one of our choices for the renovation was reusing the lighting and mirror that were in the bathroom. While they are not exactly my style, they fit with the update. I’ll be posting pictures soon.
5. Clearance meats and fish – As I mentioned in my grocery budget post, I try to buy clearance meats whenever I can. Myself, my husband, and my son all are eating as much protein as we can for our strength training. Generally, we aim for 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight. My target is 130 grams daily. My husband has the additional complication of alpha-gal, a tick-borne disease that makes people sick when they eat meat and other items from animals with cloven hooves. Yes, he eats a lot of chicken.