10 Frugal Things To Do When You’re Snowed In
We're iced in this morning, a not uncommon problem this year. As I survey our dwindling freezer meats, I wonder how many frugalistas wished they had saved that pantry challenge for the real thing! Still, those stuck-at-home times can be great opportunities to save money.
Here are 10 frugal ideas for making the most of your snow day:
- Organize clothing closets. Sketch out spring wardrobes so you'll be less tempted in stores.
- Plan for a yard sale. Fill a box and tag items now.
- Bake while you have time for dough to rise. Freeze for busier days.
- Sort and edit your digital photos. You'll be ready for the next Snapfish or Shutterfly deal.
- Balance your checkbook or reconcile online accounts.
- Grab the sewing basket. Mend tears and missing buttons.
- Brush the dust off a cookbook. Plan some interesting new meals based on the grocery sales flyer.
- Turn your mattresses to even the wear. When else would I remember?
- Create a spa in your bathroom: pluck eyebrows, DIY manicure and pedicure.
- Flip all the chair and sofa cushions. Vacuum underneath and let the kids keep the change!
Do you have any frugal ideas for surviving a snow day?
related posts:
- The “Snowed In For 3 Days” Edition Snow hit my city with several inches of unpreparedness. Parents,...
- Baskets Keep My Clutter Sane Hi again! I'm Jaimie, aka paidtwice, and I like stuff. ...
- Choosing a Hobby Wisely Even though I am not as good at crafts as...
- Frugal Hacks for Winter Clothes These are basically hillbilly ways to stay dry, but like...
- Buttons, Buttons, Who Has the Buttons Button solutions: Whenever we get rid of any clothing that...
9 Responses to “10 Frugal Things To Do When You’re Snowed In”
February 15th, 2010 at 3:11 pm
Meredith,
I admire the simplicity of your closet. Please share how you stay so disciplined to keep such a minimal closet. I love great second hand finds and tend to fluctuate sizes and find it easy to hold on to many more clothes than I should. You have impressed me with your organization. Maybe another snow day in Virginia will get me going on a closet makeover of my own. Again, I love your discipline.
Rhonda
February 15th, 2010 at 8:03 pm
I reorganized all our books! Doesn’t even fill like work and I found so many books I had forgotten all about – so now I’m having my own little pantry challenge for the bookshelf:)
February 16th, 2010 at 2:21 am
I am working on the garage sale thing right now, too! Illinois has had a lot of very cold/above average snowfall weather this year. While I listen to my “snowbird” parents rhapsodize about how warm it is where they are and how they are getting “almost too much sun” (Something I can only DREAM about right now in my neck of the woods!) I decided that I just simply was not going to complain about the weather anymore and, instead, see it as the resource it is and put it to good use. So….we have been starting seeds indoors under a grow light, looking at paint samples and choosing paint palettes for some springtime painting, hauling things out of the closets of our tiny house so that we have more room for the seven people who actually live here, getting stuff ready for a garage sale….the list goes on and on. In fact, I looked at my calendar the other day and realized that March 20th, the first official day of spring, is only about a month away! And that’s not much time to get the indoor stuff done! Who wants to be cleaning closets and getting garage sale stuff ready when the beautiful warm days finally do arrive?! I am learning, slowly, that everything God gives us, even loooong, cold, snowy winters, have gifts tied up in them that are there for us to unwrap and use if we just look at it differently and do a little bit of an attitude adjustment. Your post spoke to my heart, Meredith, and is a good reminder to be diligent about taking care of these homes and families that we love so much!
February 16th, 2010 at 8:48 am
During our colder than usual weather this winter we have 1. gone through the closets and emptied them of clothing that won’t fit this summer 2. baked & cooked from scratch…alot. 3.Read many, many books including gardening and how to books – we live in Miss. the heat will return and gardening time will be here soon (I hope) 4.Focused on homeschool lessons so we can take off 2 months this summer 5.Made gallons of hot chocolate and spiced hot tea 6. thoroughly enjoyed our snowfalls cause it may not happen again for years. 7.planned our square foot garden boxes and started buying vegetable and herb seeds. 8.played games, watched movies, popped popcorn & enjoyed being together!
February 16th, 2010 at 9:50 am
really neat ideas. I will be making cookies for our Bible study. I for some reason don’t feel like I have the time to do that every week.
February 16th, 2010 at 9:57 am
we don’t get snowed in but we get alot (and i mean a lot of rain) and this rainy season has been about quilting…i’ve managed three quilts in the last six weeks while listening to the rain hit the tin roof.
February 16th, 2010 at 12:22 pm
I was just thinking that I was so happy I didn’t do the pantry challenge — I live just outside of DC and when we could get to the store there wasn’t a whole lot to buy. We ate through a ton of food since after shoveling 3 feet of snow we were hungry.
We made big breakfasts that we never would have made normally. I also went through all of our linens — we have so much that I had forgotten about. Mostly I did laundry and dishes and shoveled snow though.
I’m happy to be almost back to normal today!
February 17th, 2010 at 4:06 am
What about catching up on blogging. You could write 5 or 6 posts in a snow day and free up time in the following few weeks.
Thanks,
Forest.
http://frugalzeitgeist.com
February 22nd, 2010 at 12:05 pm
[...] you’re looking for something useful to do, the Frugal Hacks blog has 10 frugal things to do when you’re snowed in. I also wrote a snow day list two weeks ago if you want to refer back to [...]
Leave a Comment