For this edition of Finding Freedom Friday, I would like to put forth a Week Long Frugal Challenge. With Summer in full swing, we are running to and fro and spending lots of time in the outdoors. While I do love every minute of it, sometimes it is incredibly tempting to look toward the not so frugal side of things. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to fall into that mess!
While I would love to do a Month Long Challenge, I think it would be best to start out small and see if we can conquer this first. And I know we can! 
Here’s the Challenge:
- When traveling away from home, pack your own snacks, meals and drinks. Be sure to check out this post for lots of different ideas.
- Try not to eat out at all this week. From Saturday to next Friday.
- Plan outings that are no cost adventures, such as parks and museums. Check out the Frugal Family Fun post for some ideas.
- Make extra meals for your freezer for days when you have no gusto to cook dinner. This post has some pointers and OAMC/Freezer Recipes.
- Make something from scratch that you normally wouldn’t, such as bread, household cleaners, snacks, etc. The Finding Freedom Friday: Making Your Own vs. Store Bought post has a lot of different ideas to try out. You can also browse through my recipe section for numerous “from scratch” recipes.
- If you haven’t made a budget (or goals for 2009) yet..DO IT! If you are all sqaured away here, check and see if there is something in your budget that you can lower, or cut out completely.
- Try out a new-to-you frugal idea such as washing/re-using ziploc bags, using less laundry/dishwashing detergent, re-use juice from canned fruits and vegetables, save butter tubs, amongst many others. Be creative!
That’s it! Easy peasy, right? The Challenge will start Saturday (gives you a day to get all the non-frugal things out of your system. 
and end next Friday with a Finding Freedom Friday: Challenge Recap.
I will be running around, back to the hometown again this weekend, so I’m hoping to be able to stick to the “no eating out” part. This may prove to be a toughie!
So, are you up to it?!
**I’ve just realized that Mr. Linky has disappeared from all of my old posts, and on my end it only stores the latest 5! AGH! So, if you linked to the Finding Freedom Friday posts mentioned in this post, and you want your link included–please email them to me and I can manually add them all in. Sorry!**
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
I think this is a fantastic idea! We're leaving on vacation and I am packing our lunch for the trip down. The kids don't like eating fast food and riding in the car because it makes them car-sick.
We're renting a beach house with other family and we're "cooking". Actually, my mom has already done all kinds of prep and frozen foods on dry ice for the trip down. Cooking will just be "assembly only" at the beach. You can read about how we did that last year too on my blog under "vacation food".
Love the challenge! I'm in!
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what fun! I'm in.
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Fun, I love a challenge so I'm in! I put myself on a challenge this month too! I am emailing you my FF post!
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I'm in
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I'm going to try to not eat out this week. Like really, really, really try. I know that I can do it, I just have to get my hubby on board
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I have already been using about 1/2 of the laundry detergent that the bottle calls for and it works just as good. We are also trying to reduce our use of paper towels (they are so expensive). I love this idea of take along food. We are definitely going to try that.
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What a great idea! I love the challenge!
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