Spinach cubes, Turbo Tax, yogurt, bread, and more (Five Frugal Things)
Let's get right to it, shall we?
1. I made green ice cubes.
I had more spinach and kale than we could turn into smoothies, at least in a timely manner.
Since I had several big heads of romaine lettuce for salads, I definitely didn't need to save the kale and spinach for salads.
So, I put the greens into my Vitamix, blended them up with a little bit of water, and froze them in ice cube trays.
That way when I make my morning smoothie, it's super duper simple to just grab several cubes and throw them into the blender.
I hear that cheaper blenders sometimes have trouble handling greens, but my Vitamix liquefies them with no problem. So worth the money, that blender is.
(At least for me. If you're not a diehard smoothie-maker, that may not be true for you!)
2. I made yogurt.
I've mentioned before that I thought yogurt-making was an enormous pain in the rear the first time I tried it, but now it seems totally easy.
It doesn't require much hands-on time at all, so if I make it on a day when I'm home for a while, it's super easy.
And I can never really get over how incredibly cheap homemade yogurt is. A $2.50 gallon of milk yields quarts of yogurt that cost less than $0.70.
And the homemade stuff, for whatever reason, is much milder than the store bought variety.
(a thing I never understand, given that the cultures in my yogurt initially came from a store-bought starter. Very odd.)
Here's how to make homemade yogurt.
3. I made whole wheat bread.
This and yogurt are probably my two most consistent DIY food staples. I've made them eleventy billion times, give or take, so they require almost no mental energy, and they both require very little hands-on time.
4. I bought Turbo Tax at Costco.
I've bought TurboTax online the last few years, directly from TurboTax. But when I got a sale ad from Costco, I noticed that their price is way, way lower.
I love TurboTax...I've used it almost every year since I started earning money, and it has always helped me through my slightly tricky self-employment income.
(Mr. FG's income is SO easy. Enter the W-2 info, and boom, you're done!)
So, I'm tickled to have found a cheaper place to buy it. Yay, Costco.
5. Miscellany
I packed a lunch for Mr. FG, ate leftovers for my own lunch, organized my fridge so as not to lose any items, unbuttoned shirt collars in the wash (here's why I do that!), wore a mixture of clearanced and Goodwill clothes, and didn't spend money.
Oh, never mind. I spent $10 on ice cream out with friends last night, which I totally do not mind because I am all about spending money to build relationships.
(Mr. FG would tell you so! My purse strings open for that. 😉 )
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How about you? List your own five frugal things in the comments!
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P.S. Don't forget to sign up for the Mighty Fix before Monday! $5 gets you your first fix, a Life Factory glass water bottle. All the details are right here. Or you can go here to sign up and enter the code FG2016.
I made a bunch of 'mixes' that would allow me to make meals in a snap and we have not ordered in or stopped for fast food even once since! That is a small miracle.
That is AWESOME, Yvonne! Eating at home is such a hugely effective way to save money.
Would you mind sharing a mix recipe or two? I'm in my busy professional season and time available for cooking diminishes every day.
Another aspect of your small miracle, Yvonne, is taxes and tips; in my state at least, food from the store is not taxed, whereas restaurants add taxes and tips to your already expensive plate!
I signed up for Ting! That's my big one. I also have scrapped together lunches from odds and ends in my fridge. And resisted the urge to buy a Powerball ticket.
Yay! I hope you love Ting.
What is Ting?
It's my smartphone provider of choice. I wrote all about it here: https://www.thefrugalgirl.com/2014/02/lower-smartphone-bill-21month/
1. The hubs had a big professional accomplishment this week. Rather than go out to celebrate I'm going to make his favorite dinner this weekend. Neither of us have been home all week so it's kind of a treat.
2. It turns out we have a frugal puppy! We keep a basket of old towels by the front door, for wiping muddy paws. This morning I discovered puppy in the basket with the "extra" towels pulled out to give him room. If he's happy with his "dog bed" he may have it!
3. I have a new office and needed a large piece of art. I bought a gorgeous sheet of wrapping paper and thrifted a frame.
Congrats to your husband!
Here are my 5 frugal things for the week:
1. I won a $20 gift card for Starbucks through my library, yay! I think I might give it to our mailman!
2. We have not eaten out in 2 weeks (besides one family dinner that has been planned for a while), which is a huge accomplishment for us and one of our goals coming into the new year.
3. Purchases some rock bottom priced pantry staples on Amazon with gift cards we received for Christmas.
4. Continued to de-clutter and sold some things on eBay and Facebook to bring in $115.
5. Convinced my husband to forego cable (but what about football season?!?!) for a few months to see how it goes. We have Netflix and Hulu and are throwing around an Amazin Firestick or Roku in efforts to really knock out our debt. We'll see how it goes 🙂
**Brought my lunch (all year) from home to work
**I've used old spiral notebooks I've found laying around for my new prayer journal and bible studies
**I'm on a new healthier eating plan and instead of cooking a 'separate' healthy meal for me, everyone else is having it! lol I'm cooking things they'll like to and just making sure I'm portioning it smaller for me. Saving on that grocery bill!
**As I lose weight, I've got clothes that I've saved from when I was smaller, so I won't need anything new until Summer at the earliest
**I HAVE GIVEN UP SODA!! This is my favorite, lol. All I'm drinking is Water. It's been 11 days so I think I have it beat. Better health and more $$ in my pocket - Win, Win!
Wow, you are doing great with some big changes. Go you!
Thank you for posting about your kale cubes! While making a smoothie this morning I noticed that our kale is a little bit past its prime. Way too much kale to eat in a few days. I'll freeze it all tonight for smothies. Yay!
SO worth it to keep friendships going! And love the Kale pops -- ingenious!
Well, making up for the epic frugal fail of the last several weeks:
1. Brought lunch every day; made breakfasts at home.
2. Cooked dinner every night this week excerpt for making cheese pie to take to Book Club. Lots of yummy food there. EPIC FAIL: Pulled a bottle of wine of the shelf to bring with the pie thinking it was 6 dollars -- clocked in at 12.00. Didn't realize until I was home. Check your your receipts before you leave the store! Chalking it up to Maintaining Friendships 🙂
3. DID catch the $4.71 pineapple she rang up. Uh, no thanks -- don't need a 5 dollar pineapple!
4. Eating up so much stuff from before Christmas. Raced home from work to make cheese pie and while that cooked, cut up last of December vintage winter squash and roasted it to put into the less than stellar lentil soup I made -- Cut squash kept very well in crisper.
5. Made the darn lentil soup when husband was working and I could gone out for dinner -- it was late, I was tired and cold from aquafit. May explain why I added 2 tsp. of garam masala instead of cumin. Very strong soup, husband said. But we are eating it tonight 🙂
Thanks for this great feature -- helping me so much!
$12 is totally worth the friendship. 😉
Maybe you could stir in some Greek yogurt or sour cream to tone down the spices a little.
Good idea! I have some sour cream to use up -- thanks for that suggestion!
Blurgh, tax season!! I will have to try out your bread recipe, I have been looking for a good whole wheat loaf and haven't found the perfect one yet 🙂
Yeah. I really do not like doing taxes, but Turbo Tax does make it way easier for me.
Just a note about the homemade yogurt. If you like something a bit tarter, try kefir. It easier to make than yogurt, and you can reuse the homemade kefir for starter many times. I purchased a dry starter at my local natural foods store. It made 6 batches, and I am able to keep one going for many months. The kefir is easier to make because it doesn't require a certain temperature to maintain. You just leave it at room temperature for 12-18 hours.
My frugal things:
Packed lunches and ate at home all week.
Needed a bike with training wheels, and found one at Goodwill for $3.00 Score!
Used homemade sanitizing wipes for cleaning
Talked my hubby into dropping satellite for Netflix and hulu. Finally! And he really likes it 🙂
1. I made croutons from the heels and various pieces of stale bread I've been stashing in the freezer.
2. I made a Mexican casserole with our taco leftovers. Cooked some rice and mixed the leftover taco meat, salsa, and corn, then topped with cheese. Bake for 25 minutes and, viola!, a new meal.
3. I hemmed my husband's new suit pants myself. (I was nervous, but it looks ok.)
4. I found books I needed for homeschooling at the local library. I was surprised about the number of Christian biographies they had for kids.
5. I found a few quality shirts at a thrift store that pleased my older son.
I love these posts!
1. Having a friend over for dinner on Monday and redesigned the menu based on ingredients I had at home rather than buying several expensive items at the store.
2. Scored several lamps at Goodwill for my new house (this house has way more space; therefore, I need a few more lamps than I used to have).
3. Bought new towels for the additional bathroom I now have using a gift card received for Christmas.
4. Bought a thank-you gift card to a family member's favorite restaurant and they were able to mail it to me rather than me using the gas to drive several miles out of my way to go pick it up.
5. Finished writing and mailing thank-you notes to the people who helped me move. They saved me several hundred dollars in moving costs, so the money spent on stamps and thank-you cards was definitely the frugal option.
1. Bought shell-on shrimp at the store last night and decided to make shrimp stock with the shells, which I've always previously thrown away, and some veggie scraps I'd been hoarding in my freezer. This morning, I had beautiful, golden brown shrimp stock in my crockpot. For free. From scraps I would have normally thrown away.
2. I'm planning on using the above shrimp stock in jambalaya and shrimp fried rice to increase the shrimp flavor in each dish. We'll see how it goes 🙂
3. After church last night, my husband and I went home and ate leftovers instead of swinging through McDonalds. Less food wasting away in our fridge, healthier food in our bellies, and more money in our bank account.
4. I'm drinking free work coffee and water today, and I packed my lunch.
5. I made my oatmeal this morning in an almost-empty jar of peanut butter to clean out every last drop of peanut butter.
Just curious: Kristen (or anyone), do you ever use your Vitamix to make nut butters? My food processor broke, probably from the amount of nut butter I made with it, and my blender is pretty cheapy, so it doesn't liquefy my smoothies very well. I make smoothies and nut butters regularly, so I'm thinking that one really good appliance might replace both of these items in my kitchen...
I have not made my own nut butter, but I know that's as common vitamix use.
Great idea with the peanut butter jar!
Great minds think alike I actually just used the same technique to finish off a jar of peanut butter. The only difference is I used chocolate pudding.
Oatmeal is a healthier choice but my Peanut butter/chocolate pudding eaten right from the jar was SO delicious
I don't usually make peanut butter in my vitamix but I know you can. I haven't found a good peanut source that makes it financially beneficial to make it over buying it. We go through a lot of peanut butter. Currently using Costco Kirkland Natural PB.
Kristin, your yogurt is not as tart as store bought because it hasn't cultured as long. If you want tarter yogurt, it needs to stay at the proper temperature for a longer period. You will probably need an actual yogurt maker for this (I use my Excalibur dehydrator). The yogurt culture consumes the sugars in the milk during the fermentation process - a longer process means a less sweet result. You can culture yogurt up to 24 hours (it will be super tart at that point, as the cultures will have consumed virtually all the lactose, which is the sugar in milk).
I actually LOVE that it's not as tart. I'm not a big tart/sour kind of person, so mild yogurt is perfect for me!
Here's what I have this week:
1. Went thrift shopping and bought Hubby a new shirt and two silk ties for $10
2. Used a half can of pumpkin (so as not to have to toss it) and 2 c. worth of homemade turkey broth to shore up a couple cans of bean and bacon soup - it was DELISH.
3. cut my oldest son's hair, saving him $15
4. packed my lunches for my workweek saving me big money in the hospital cafeteria.
That's all I can think of for now. I'm sure I could do a better job of "homemaking" stuff if I didn't work so many hours!
I'm so glad you posted about spending money to maintain friendships! We rarely eat out as a family, but I do have occasional lunches or coffee out with friends/family--it's a quick and easy way to connect and I can get away with spending less than $10 most of the time (on Tuesdays, I have a local place where I can get a large latte for $1--syrup is extra but is still less than $2) and I feel like that is money well-spent. I have read about people saving money by avoiding social activities that cost money--I understand it if you are on a bare-bones budget, but if you can sneak a little money in your budget for socializing, I feel you are investing in something bigger than food.
You are right...if you can do lunch, or dessert, or go out in a smaller group than the whole family, it's way more affordable.
Do you ever go out for lunch or dinner alone? I do mystery shopping for the company that has the give guys contract. Its so easy, pays 6.00, reimburses the cost of the meal and a shake. I'll go with my spouse and she'll eat the burger ( I don't eat beef) and we'll share the fries. The write up portion takes 20 min at max.
Kristen,
I am not exactly a frugal person but love reading your blog to hear about ways to eat/cook/bake better food for my family.
1. I made my own yogurt this week (as I have almost every week for the last two years.) It is so easy. I do cheat & buy an individual organic yogurt cup as a starter. I'm so happy with my yogurt. I like it so much better than store bought.
2. I've planted my own strawberry patch in two large flower boxes (to keep the plants safe from gophers) & use the fruit during the summer with my daily yogurt. I live in LA so I do get fruit year round but I only get 1-2 berries a day during the winter.
3. I bring my lunch to work every day to save money.
4. I clean my own house instead of hiring a cleaning woman.
5. Not exactly frugal, but I deleted 15,000 old emails off my work and home accounts. I also unsubscribed to around 200 stores sending me email ads everyday.
Oh, that would be so cool to grow strawberries year round. I'm a little jealous!
1. I'm eating soup I froze after a recipe made way, way too much for the two of us to finish. Several weeks later, and I'm ready to have some again.
2. I just made kefir and put it in the refrigerator. I haven't made yogurt in a while, but I think I'll get back on that again.
3. My lacto-fermented sauerkraut is so good, it convinced my sister to start making her own. We're growing cabbages right now, so hopefully I'll have plenty more to make.
4. My old padded leather shoes that are super comfortable finally are wearing out. I just glued the sole back on at the toe, where it came loose, though, and hope they'll last a bit longer. I wear these to clean house and work in the yard all through the cool weather.
5. I'm trimming my own bangs this weekend, since they are too long, so I can go longer between haircuts. Since I wear a longer blunt cut, it isn't obvious that I need a haircut from the back, but the bangs show it when they get in my eyes.
Five Frugal:
1. Made lunches for myself, husband & son #2 every day so far this week.
2. Free/office coffee most days.
3. Treated myself to Starbucks coffee on 2 days using a gift card received from a vendor at work.
4. Son #1 going on a college trip to the Denver Stock Show today - all paid by him clipping bulls (for a local breeder for his catalog photos.) Bonus: he won the clippers he used in a drawing a few years ago.
5. Booked Banff campsites, along with 2 brothers and their families, for a cheap family vacation/get-together on May long weekend. (A long way off, but booking just opened today and they go fast.) About $90 for a campsite for 3 nights vs. $600 for a hotel or rented condo. We already have camping equipment.
I went to Banff with my family when I was 17! It's a long, long drive from the east coast. You must be closer than we were. 😉
Kirsten love this post, thank you for posting 🙂
1. Ate at home all week and brought lunch to work.
2. Drank water out of new stainless steel water bottle that I refill daily in work
3. Did a food stocktake on all the items in my storecubord, counted how much I have of each item and will keep the list on standby for when I am doing up my shopping list.
4. Got books out of library to read.
5. Used an old spiral notebook for my gratitude journal that I update every night instead of buying a new one.
Love this!
1.cooked all three meals at home (and mostly from scratch)
2.made yogurt and got fancy, half batch plain for cooking/meals and half batch sweetened vanilla for treats
3. Met friends for dates at parks and/or houses. Essentially free coffee and exercise for friends
4. Signed up for the water bottle you offered!
5. Use my library 1-2x a week for enrichment for myself and children
Hi Kristen,
About the yogurt: I grew up eating plain yogurt, we even make a drink of it! (Just mix it with water and add some salt - You can replace water with mineral water, it's delicious!) We call it ayran, and it's VERY popular in my home country, but none of my American-born-and-raised friends are sold on the idea so far. We have a delicious cold soup made with yogurt too, but again, my taste buds are so much different from my friends here. So if it doesn't sound tasty to you, it may not be, when you try it:)
Anyway, I make yogurt at home and it was as you said, milder than store bought ones (by milder, I mean creamy), until my mom reminded me about the process. When I heat the milk on the stove, I didn't usually wait it to boil. So I let the milk mildly boil a little, and now my yogurts have the texture that I like and want. Not creamy, but like a dense mousse. If this is what you are after, try it. My mom explained it to me as the milk is both aerated and reduced during the boil, which makes the yogurt denser.
Hmmm. Curious to see if I can come up with five. Had to purchase a new computer this week, so I'm not feeling very frugal!
1. Ate in all week. (Okay, I took the kids for pizza last night as a reward for good behavior under difficult circumstances, but all the other meals were homemade from scratch, so I'm counting that as a win.)
2. Ate mostly meatless meals. Because meat costs way more than beans and quinoa.
3. Mended throw pillows that had been torn.
4. Planned ahead to order some supplies for a kids project online at a good price rather than waiting and paying retail.
5. Had my boots re-heeled. I love those boots, but the soft rubber treads on the heels had written through on the backs. I did my research and found a shoe-repair shop. The work cost about $30, but these boots should give me at least a few more years of service.
There! Now I feel at least a little less guilty about having to get that laptop. Thanks!
1. I have made your Whole Wheat bread several times since I started making it in November. It's delicious. This week I made French bread instead, for a change.
2. A friend on a fixed income wanted to buy me lunch. I order a bowl of chili. It was a lot of of food for $3.50, definitely a bargain. I do meet a friend for lunch about once a week and i try to keep it under $10, when possible.
3. I met a friend for a 5 mile walk. It was cold so we bundled up and moved. We were so busy talking the time flew by.
4. I am knitting a hat with yarn a friend gave me. Because of arthritis she is no longer able to craft. I want to make hats to donate to chemo units/patients.
5. My husband does not like the chocolate almond milk I bought. It mix it with regular milk and heat it, for a delicious hot chocolate drink.
This is slightly off topic. Few days ago we had a whole bunch of young cousins over for lunch. I made lunch with stuff I already had in the fridge/freezer. And baked your fluffy hamburger buns for the pulled pork sandwiches. The buns were a HUGE hit with everyone. Just wanted to let you know 🙂
Yay! So glad everyone liked them.
1. I'm making hats from Freecycled polar fleece scraps. Using my time and talent as a donation to local homeless shelter.
2. Bought the majority of my shopping list from the BINS department at the grocery store. Saved a lot of money especially on herbs.
3. Made homemade bread using up the last of my pound of yeast.
4. When my sister phoned asking if I had any TSP, I told her I'd trade yeast (she also buys it in bulk) for TSP.
5. Didn't spend any money on Powerball tickets.
1. Used the buy/sell/trade page on facebook in my area to sell some of my daughter's toys and made $11.
2. Posted some protein powder my husband bought but didn't like on the freecycle page so it didn't get wasted.
3. Halfway through a "financial fast" - not a super strict one, but after Christmas spending, it helps me get my head back on straight again. I look for ways to make due instead of spending.
4. Had "people's choice" for dinner tonight so food at home got eaten for dinner.
5. Cleared out my dresser drawers of things I don't wear and donated to the thrift store.
1. Super score at Kohls. A lacy bra and a cream colored Camilla for$2.55 out the door! They had such extreme clearance I couldn't believe the prices. I could have used a couple more bras but my size was not available.
2. A co-worker called in sick a couple of days and had left a half of a package of salad mix in the fridge. She let us girls eat it since it would have gone bad before she returned. Put it on a couple of wraps using some smashed avocado and cilantro. Yummy!
3. Have been treating our dogs hot spot with at home treatments. He has had roughly 2 a year for the past 7 years so as long as they don't get too bad, we ha e it down pat to get him better in no time. Huge savings to avoid the vet bill.
4. Skipped a trip to the local thrift store on my lunch break. I don't really need anything just enjoy browsing some days. Even thrift stores can be unthrifty if you are buying things you do not need.
5. Not super frugal but had to replace my windshield. After learning my glass deductible was $500!!! Yikes, I called the salesman we purchased the vehicle from. Haven't lived here long enough to know a good auto glass company. The company he suggested did it for $200 and came to my work to replace it.
* Went to a 50% off sale at Value Village and got stuff I really needed for a pretty good price, using gift cards.
* Exchanged PC Points today for 30$ worth of free groceries
* While grocery shopping, stuck as much as possible to sales, cheapest veggies/fruits per pound and reduced rack.
* Filled my car with gas at 73 cents/liter. Last year it was up to 1.40$/liter, so this price is amazing!!
* Daughter wanted a candy-filled piñata for her birthday with friends. Instead of buying one we used ballons+newpapers+glue made of water and flour+paint to make piñatas and I found candies on super sale. Total cost for 4 piñatas : about 3$. The rest of the birthday will be : bringing the 4 kids to an indoor amusement park (70$), then coming back home to serve supper (frozen pizza 4$) and cake (2$, boxcake+icing).
My 5 frugal things:
1) Spent time on Sunday in the kitchen making enough pizza dough for each Pizza Friday this month. Now I just need to thaw the dough today which saves so much time and makes take out less tempting
2) Consolidated my errands so I was not driving all over the place and got everything done in one place
3) Got gas at Costco
4) Re-purposed an old rug for a new purpose in our home rather than buying something new
5) When my son's flag football was cancelled this winter I found him a new activity that actually costs less and is less of a time commitment. We also brainstormed other things we can do this winter that are low/no cost (YMCA visits, sledding, snowshoeing, etc)
My college daughter and her room mate have flown to California for an interview. To save money I volunteered to puppy sit their Great Dane and Cocker Spaniel. This is my vacation. I am camped out in their very nice apartment enjoying the amenities. I am in the city and have plenty of luxury choices. I have several gift cards and a free movie ticket. I have several free meal vouchers from restaurant clubs for my upcoming birthday. I plan on cooking the items in their refrigerator that need to be used. My staycation will cost me all of ten dollars in gasoline. The peace and quiet and unlimited hot water is priceless. I purchased some treats with some drugstore rewards that were money makers, all marked down from Christmas. I happily purchased 5 dozen eggs from Aldi's for 1.19 a dozen. They are up to 2.99 here. Breakfast casserole and quiche planned for next week.
I serged around the frayed ends of a ratty tea towel and made two very soft rags. Normally I throw towels away but this time I decided to extend its use.
I needed a small bookshelf for my daughter's craft supplies, and it would have cost $30 + new. I waited and looked (a lot) for a used one. I found one (finally!) for $10 and bought baskets at the dollar store for organizing purposes. I spent $16 out of pocket for this project. This was a very long-overdue organizing project, so it feels good to have it done.
My husband works a few evenings each week and I am sorely tempted to not fix dinner but grab fast food on those nights. Last night was one of those nights but I resisted and fixed dinner.
My daughter has gymnastics once a week and I like to drop her off and go somewhere else instead of being subjected to an hour of idle talk with the others waiting for their kids. I didn't have any errands, so I resisted the idea of going to a coffee shop and instead took some knitting along so I could be friendly but then zone out of the conversation.
Woohoo about the rag making. Such a me thing to do. Ha.
Love the idea of freezing spinach for smoothies. I typically just use a handful of fresh spinach--how many cubes would you suggest?
I use 2-3 cubes, but you might want to start on the low side and then experiment up?
5 frugal things
1. Used and ate all leftovers from my High School class reunion I hosted...no grocier shopping until gone 😉
2. Recycled cans bottles and plastic that family gives me. $20.00 put away for drinks for summer party. Summer envelop about 100. Dollars
3. Collected all family Christmas cards for Christmas postcards next year.
4. All scraps go to my new chicken...nothing gets wasted around here.
5. Made laundry soap....maple syrup....mayo...bread...pancakes...bisscottis... All homemade...