Frugal Finds and Fixes, Featuring Dollygirl

I think Dollygirl gets this week's Treehouse prize for frugal creativity and, well, a bit of luck here and there too.  Over the past while she has won several doll-related blog giveaways, which makes watching for the mail truck much more exciting.  She's received a free (girl-sized) t-shirt, buttons, and craft materials.

(Photo by Dollygirl)

 She found an awesome clearance-aisle deal (a dollar a pack) on several sets of small doll clothes that fit Only Hearts Club girls and others of about the 9-inch size.  (Official Only Hearts Club clothes run about $20 an outfit, which is why Dollygirl's 9-inchers have so few clothes.  I don't like sewing for small dolls much either.).

She also searched online for the doll hairstyling kit that we couldn't locate for her at Christmas, found it on a Canadian website for a very reasonable price, and ordered it; she's still waiting for that one (there are supply issues, which is why the store here didn't get them in either).  She has been working really hard earning extra money this week, shoveling a vacationing neighbour's snow...I mean, really, REALLY hard.  .

(CTV News photo)

Also, in the past week or so, she has built a doll sewing machine from Lego, a fabric-draped stage and other necessities for a doll awards show (an idea she had for a blog story), made a pair of bead earrings (for herself, not the dolls), and used a gift of fabric to make a very cute mini bed.

As for the rest of us...well, sometimes frugal is just deciding not to replace what's no longer needed: in this case, an answering machine that suddenly started misbehaving.  It used to be a necessity; now, not so much. We could have gotten message service added to our phone line, but again, it's not worth it for the few callers who can't email us or don't have Mr. Fixit's cell phone number.  The last message we got on the machine was a very confused telemarketer (which is what alerted us to the fact that it wasn't delivering our we'll-call-you-back properly).

We've done some of the usual baking--muffins, oatmeal raisin cookies--and made some fairly frugal meals like turkey-pasta casserole, Polish wieners with sauerkraut, and bean soup.  We've used the dryer a lot less this week. I've re-read Liss Burnell's 2012 grocery guide (free book still on my e-reader).

And Mr Fixit and Ponytails each got a needed pair of running shoes at a buy-one-get-one event, plus Ponytails has a student price card that gives her an extra discount at that shoe store.

How was your week?