Five Frugal Things
This is one of those Thursdays where I feel like I might not be able to come up with five things! But since it does usually work out fine, let's see what I think of.
1. I made dinner when I really didn't feel like it.
Yesterday at 5:30, I was super tired (it hasn't been a great week for sleep!), I hadn't corrected any school yet, I'd just gotten home, and I did NOT feel like making dinner.
But I'd thawed a package of chicken thighs, which made me feel like there was no good way to go back on my plan. So, I made curried chicken with couscous, with stir-fried cauliflower on the side.
2. I bought white ballet tights at Target.
The ballet school does offer white ballet tights as a special order, but they're kind of crazy expensive. Target has them for $5, though, and they're the ballet-friendly type, without the differently-knit band around the upper thigh.
(You know what I'm talking about, right? Regular tights do not work for ballet!)
3. I did not buy ballet pictures.
I always bring my girls in on picture day because they want everyone there for the group picture. But since I know how to take pretty decent pictures, I don't buy any photos there and I just take some shots myself (not there at picture day! That would be rude. 😉 )
I can't DIY everything in my life, but pictures are fun for me, and that makes this an easy choice.
4. I wrote a paid article.
Saving money is good and all, but frugality works best when it's paired with some earning.
Less money going out, more coming in.
It's a sweet combo.
5. I packed a lunch for Mr. FG, using nothing disposable.
Very occasionally, I need to use a plastic baggie in his lunch, but 97.842% of the time, his lunch contains reusable containers.
And always, always real silverware.
Plastic silverware is so annoying to use because it's wobbly. Especially the forks. Down with plastic forks!
Even if I wasn't concerned about the cost/trash production, I'd still send real silverware just because it's so much more pleasant to use.
(By the way, don't forget that you can get a set of two stainless steel containers, perfect for lunch-packing, for only $5 when you sign up for The Mighty Fix.)
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I'm helping a friend with a wedding this weekend so let's see if I can come up with five frugal things from the festivities.
1. I helped decorate for the luau themed shower at church. We used last year's vbs decorations including paper lanterns and dollar tree relish trays as centerpieces. I used the relish trays to make huge flowers for vbs last year.
2. I didn't have time to pick up a gift so I grabbed a large basket and filled it with cleaning supplies from my stockpile. I don't have a huge stockpile but often buy two items with a coupon when they're on sale. The bride was thrilled.
3. Today I'm decorating for the rehearsal dinner. My friend bought a 9.99 container of chicks and hens and my husband and I harvested sedums from around his garden railroad. Using some small clear glass bowls we've used tons for showers, etc. and don't plan on using again, we made 24 succulent pots for the 8 tables. They'll surround one of my husband's collected hymnals sitting up with pictures of the bride and groom on the front and back of the hymnal.
4. I'm doing a huge relish tray for munchies at the beginning of the reception. I've shopped carefully with Aldis and the double ad at Fresh Thyme yesterday. I'll have a very short time to assemble so instead of trays, I'm using a large basket I have tipped on its side with the cut up vegetables spilling out onto kale leaves. I hope it looks as good on the table as it does in my head!
5. My friend and her daughter-in-law to be took the shower gifts to the apartment to put away. The bride is tall but this apartment has some upper kitchen cabinets that she'll need a step stool to access regularly. It was mentioned to me so I picked her up a 9.99 folding step stool at Marshalls. I'm not wrapping it, just putting a bow and tag on it because it may be needed for her to reach the 10" cake on top of the cupcake tree. It will make a cute picture with her extremely tall husband if they decide to use it.
Whew! I came up with five! Weddings are expensive but with a little resourcefulness and smart shopping, there are ways to trim corners. And I don't have to cook for two days.......
1-make yogurt
2-try to save a mature Holly tree before tearing it out
3-plant raspberries to curb buying enormous quantities!
4-weed the strawberry patch to re-enjoy everbearers from last year
5-Call the Flex Spend people to correct an error and get reimbursed.
PS Thank you beacause I was reminded to buy inexpensive flatware as our plastic runs out. Plates too. We host many parties that are at least 20 up to 70 people. Disposables are getting to be a big expense.
1. My warm weather clothes fit from previous years (I do work to maintain my weight). I don't have to spend time or money shopping. The past three days I have worn blouses gleaned from a teenagers give-away pile.
2. I washed all the shower liners in the house. Cloth liners are better for the environment and cheaper in the long run.
3. I was able to get rid of several items using Freecycle. I love finding new homes for no-longer-needed items.
4. I was asked to sub one day next week. Income in is good.
5. All meals have been at home in the past week, and some have involved homemade bread (inspired by Kristen).
I second that, disposable cutlery and plates are so expensive, then it goes in the trash! Something really wrong there.
Ok let's see what I can come up with.
1. Shopped at Aldi. This will always, always be #1 on my frugal list.
2. Used four chicken tenders and a half breast out of the freezer, instead of buying chicken for Caesar wraps. This was a leap of faith, because I found myself at Aldi without having looked in the freezer for chicken before I left.
3. Realize I have no plans for tonight's dinner, so I'll make tomato soup with pantry items on hand, and serve with leftover corn muffins from Tuesday night.
4. I'm re-doing two large windows with new curtains. Instead of buying ready-made, I bought fabric at Hobby Lobby which was pricey, but used a 40% off coupon, which made it very manageable. Made me happy. We are also painting the downstairs and buying two new rugs. I feel these cosmetic spruce-ups are frugal, as opposed to a major overhaul which would include new furniture ( which is what I REALLY want to do!)
5. As a family ( I'm including extended family here) we have decided, no more birthday celebrations at restaurants. We have gotten to be a large group, and not only is it crazy expensive with the number of birthdays we now have, it's no fun when you're seated at a looonnggg table and can't even see the people at the other end. Or worse, have to sit at two separate tables. Too, we have family members with different income levels, and I feel that alternatives are fairer. So mine was celebrated in the park a week ago Sunday, and we all brought a picnic food to share. It was a BLAST. then the next one will be a cake and homemade ice cream party in the evening at my house. For my daughter's (gulp!) 34th birthday.
Can you write a blog post about #4? I have been blogging for 13 years and have had varying levels of success during that time - from making a full-time living several years ago, to chump change and everything in between. Some paid gigs would help round things out. Pretty please!
This one is a one-off project for a magazine, but I've had some regular freelance writing gigs over the years too. The vast majority of my income comes from writing for my actual blog, though...I haven't explored the wide world of freelancing all that much because my own blog requires a lot of time!
I don't know where to even start to look for opportunities.
What does "a one-off" mean?
That just means it's not an on-going job.
1. I bought a pork tenderloin at Aldi a couple weeks ago because it was marked down $2 off. I pulled it out of the freezer yesterday for my husband to cook. He raved about how easy it was to just throw in the oven and how much he enjoyed eating it. Not bad for $2. (Even at the full $4 it would have been a deal.)
2. This week I made salads in a jar for the first time. I was very impressed. It didn't take much more time than one would have, everything that went in was pretty cheap, and it was extreme luxury to just grab a pre-made, delicious salad whenever we wanted.
3. My husband is killing it lately in his business. He did a little SEO a year ago and now seems to get daily new leads. I am just basking in the glory. He also just won a law suit against a client who evidently contracted with two firms and only planned on paying one for the work they did. Thank goodness for the justice system. And for a husband who did his homework to protect our cash.
4. I booked our tickets to Iceland this summer, and got them even cheaper than I expected.
5. I breastfeed and cloth diapered the baby. We have started on homemade solid food for her. I mashed up sweet potatoes with a little breast milk. She seems to like it.
Breastfeeding is one of the best bargains around, isn't it?? I must have saved thousands of dollars over the course of nursing four babies.
1. We had a stomach bug for a day this week so no one ate anything. Ugh. Frugal, but unpleasant.
2. No grocery shop this week and used up a lot of leftovers in our refrigerator.
3. Took items to come no consignment shop and just found a box of summer clothes I put away for my girls and forgot about. Score!
4. We have an Amazon points card and now that Aldis takes credit I can get points on my largest expenditures of the month.
5. Used your link to get free handsoap from Grove. Thanks!
1- Set a Google Calendar reminder to remind myself to make my hubbys lunch on Wed night since he leaves at the crack of dawn for men's group on Thursday morning
2- a local golf course had a free day before they opened, unadvertised, but we called and they said we could come out and play for free, with our kids, and a free cart! Such a fun free activity! We live in the mountains so they are just gearing up for golf season around here
3 - used our Ooma line (thanks Kristen!) for a few long conference calls
4 - used up freezer meat to avoid going back to the store
5 - picked up some great kids books at a thriftstore for 10 cents each
6 - picking up bountiful basket and a 40 lb addon Fuji Apples tonight! For $25 I couldn't resist...
Oh! I've been waiting all week for this!!
1. I went thru a HUGE bin of clothes that a family member no longer wore and was going to take to Goodwill. She offered me a chance to take whatever I wanted first, since we wear similar sizes. I got a bunch of new to me clothes and now I don't have to buy anything new for summer!!!
2. I am doing my own freezer challenge this week, so I did not buy any meat at the store this week.
3. I took advantage of your free hand soap offer on my Grover collaborative order shipping tomorrow.
4. I made yogurt and bread yesterday.
5. I am taking time this afternoon to do some repairs/alterations to some of my summer clothes from last year to make them wearable this year instead of replacing them!
* Your ballet story makes me think of my daughter's gymnastic ones. I bought their gym suits used and skipped the "official pictures".
* Using PC Points to reduce grocery bills
* Hubby making a repair on the house that would otherwise cost 150$+
* Hubby fixing is bike for 100$ instead of 450$ at the shop
* Hubby changing car tires, saving us 40$
I love my hubby, hihi!
Well, here goes...
I'm trying to lower my cholesterol, so I am enjoying a cheapo bowl of oatmeal every other morning - whole oats,some pecans I found in the freezer, a T or so of coconut, also in freezer. Tasty and I have everything on hand to spruce it up! So much cheaper and better than instant.
No eating lunch out this week. I will rustle up leftovers. Tonight's dinner is grilled cheese sammies with odds and ends of leftover sandwich meat and sliced cheese. Smorgasbord of half eaten bags of chips, too.
I combined all of my errands to day with taking my youngest to school. It's raining, so I am not even tempted to get out again.
I sewed my daughter some cute coasters for her apartment using different fabric scraps from my stash. She requested navy and cream color scheme and I found what I needed, including scraps of fusible interfacing. She loved her new Boho chic coasters!
Lastly, I cleaned out my jewelry box and found some old stuff to sell for scrap - broken bits, missing bits, etc. Might get myself a new charm for my charm bracelet with the proceeds. But that's not crucial - I could just as well apply the extra cash to a bill.
I saw on instagram your picture of Zoe's beautiful ballet bun. I too have very thick hair, and I recommend the goody spin pins (or knockoffs). They really do hold a LOT of hair.
I am not wanting to cook a lot lately. Not sure what is up with that.
1. Eating oatmeal every morning which is not only cheap but healthy.
2. I brought home my youngest daughter's sleeping bag with attached pillow from daycare. The pillow was quite flat so I stuffed it with materials from an old pillow I had that no one was using.
3. We ate out last like because I really did not want to cook. I should have done like Kristen but alas I didn't and my thighs are bigger for it. I did use a coupon so it wasn't a complete fail.
4.I found some green bell peppers, apples, and oranges in the reduced bin at Kroger so these will be worked into tonight's meal.
5.Waiting for my daughter who is in cosmetology school to come give me a free haircut. I may have to wait awhile, because she is busy, but that's okay because it's free.
1 - sorted out some clothes I no long wear and took them to Vinnie's (the local thrift shop for our St. Vincent de Paul Society)
2 - while there I picked up some glass pie plates for making bee and butterfly wateres ($2 - no sales tax and all money goes to a good cause!)
3 - bought some pollinator flower seeds on sale at TSC and used seeds I saved and had left from last year to for indoor starts
4 - replaced my tires on a 20% off and 30x the usual reward bucks at Canadian Tire; while the wheels were off, got the front brakes replaced at the same time before they started scoring the rotors (a $200 plus saving over past brake jobs)
5- used the Canadian Tire money for 100 garbage bags at half-price plus regular priced Fiskar by-pass loppers with extendable handles (great since I am short and shrubs are tall!)
Woohoo! Good job making dinner when you didn't feel like it! This is one of the hardest ones for me. Also, for not feeling like it, you came up with a pretty stellar, well-rounded meal.
My husband and I both come from large families, so over the years I've added to my stock of plates/glasses/flatware so I can host family gatherings and not use disposables. (I grew up with mis-matched flatware and dishes, so it's important to me that my dishes and flatware match. Funny those little things we do.) I have Corelle plates and get my glasses from IKEA, so it isn't fancy, but it's reasonable. (And I bought my flatware bit by bit off eBay.)
To keep my matching flatware from disappearing, I bought a couple of handfuls of mismatched pieces at a thrift store, and have trained my family to take THOSE pieces in their lunches or any time they need to take something out of the house. Because we all know how often things don't come home again. 🙂
1. Currently having geothermal heating/cooling installed in our home to take advantage of government rebate of 30% and to be a "lessor"energy user. Cannot wait to see the LOWER energy bills for a large house!
2. Ordered my stainless bowls via MightyNest and also ordered a couple of more products for long term use that will save money.
3. Baking cookies for 50 people this weekend for a church function so no one will have to eat the YUCKY store bought ones.....
4. Packing my container lunch each day at school. In 7 years, I have never out right purchased a school lunchroom meal. Yes, I have my stainless flatwear with me! Looking forward to the bowls!
5. Making copies for my students with 3 assignments on 1/2 sheets of paper and recycling what is not used!
#4 -- made me laugh in agreement -- am always trying to use up scrap and not waste all the paper that makes it to the classroom -- memos, calendars, extra notices to go home. Man, there's a lot of it! The workroom has a construction paper closet arranged by color and we always try to use up pieces from the scrap pile first. Also trying not to stockpile in my room since that stuff just gets stored and eventually deteriorates to be thrown out. We used to recycle at our site and need to do so again. . . thanks for reminding me!
Dear Kristen,
Could you share the brand of the tights you got at Target? Thank you!
I'll have to look up the brand, but they're stocked right by all the ballet stuff (leotards, shoes, etc.). They're not the ones with all the rest of the hosiery.
We have a frozen yogurt place in town that has really nice, sturdy plastic spoons. We've saved a bunch of them from when we've gotten yogurt there and I use them for my son's lunches. I'm afraid the silverware would end up in the garbage, considering a couple reusable sandwich bags have met that fate.
1. I'm eating lunch using the truly nice silverplate I keep at work for my work lunches. It was in an antique shop, thrown in a basket for just a couple of dollars for all four pieces, because it was engraved and no one wanted it. The initial isn't mine, either, but I'm not fussy.
2. Lunch is, of course, leftovers, that I saved in serving size containers in the freezer. This was saved in a jelly jar.
3. I called to check on our insurance rate -- since we'd sold our old car, our insurance should have dropped a little, but I'd gotten no notices of any changes. It's a good thing I called -- they had some information wrong. I got it corrected, so savings, here we come!
4. My husband sold some more transplants today -- he raises veggies from seed, so he has very little money in them, mainly for dirt and soil improvements (he raises them organically). He can sell them for $2 and still turn a profit.
5. My daughter wanted a certain book on gardening that she could keep as reference material. I went online and found her a used version of the latest edition she wanted, at less than half the price of new. I'll give it to her as a "just because" gift.
1. My three year old has "run through" yet another pair of shoes, so I removed the shoe laces (which were in amazing shape) to use in another pair.
2. Found another pair of shoes for my three year old at the goodwill. I am amazed that I found an almost new pair of Captain America sneakers from StrideRight at the exact right time! Awesome, Right?
3. We are attempting to eat all the food we have in our house before we move, so we've been eating odd meals lately. I guess it's OK to eat cheese stakes and corn?
4. I've been making my own iced coffee to take to work daily.
5. I'm really struggling with five things. UMMM
1) I hung our season's first load of air-dry laundry on the line last weekend.
2) Hubs grilled out on Tuesday evening, and from the one fire we cooked more food than just for that evening.
3) We went through all the pantry spices in a fit of spring cleaning, and one of the things we grilled used a spice mix that would otherwise have gone to waste (BBQ 3000 from Penzey's, by way of my mother).
4) I am in the process of getting my 10-year-old bike ready for office commuting season, which I like to do from around spring to end of autumn. It's a bit delayed due to a foot injury and crazy weather. Once I get the back brake checked and build up the mental stamina (my morning commute starts with a half-mile hill!), I'll be ready to go.
5) Our therapist is out of network, but we just found out that we get a 20% discount per visit on top of the out-of-pocket going toward our deductible. (I hope we don't need that many sessions, but... first year of marriage, who knows.) A blessing that we can afford it, and double blessing that we get this discount. This week's visit was free to apply the discount retroactively!
Check out my post about it here: http://krismares.com/2016/04/21/5-frugal-things
My 5 frugal things on a Friday are
1. Had as many no spend days as I could
2. Pickled some marked down chilies and saved the seeds to plant out when the time is right
3. Hung all the washing in the sun to dry
4. Saved the skin from a bought Pineapple and froze it to make Pineapple cordial at a later date
5. Rode to work every day
Have a great weekend
1. Knew we'd want a hearty breakfast before we headed out to our activities today. Used to be we'd drive by a fast food place. This time I set up sourdough pancake starter at bedtime last night and we had a cheap sourdough pancake breakfast this morning with fruit.
2. Started a container of microgreens about 10 days ago and we are going to have our first harvest tonight for salad. They actually grow on my windowsill this time of year, so while I was starting other seeds for the garden and greenhouse I decided to do a faster producing crop at the same time to save money on salads.
3. Thinned our scallion seedlings and didn't throw them away. Washed and will use them in the salad tonight. They are still small so won't overwhelm the other salad ingredients.
4. Found a sale for eggs for 99 cents a dozen. I went back and got the max every day for the week of the sale, so ended up with 14 dozen. They last a long time and I plan on a lot more egg-centered meals. Usually they are over $3.00 a dozen, so I could not resist such a bargain. Meanwhile the chicken and burger in the freezer can wait until we work our way through some of the eggs.
5. Baked four loaves of bread, to make maximum use of a warm oven and also because when I am in the mood to bake bread I do it---there are a lot of times I am not in the mood and it becomes easy to go to the store for inferior expensive bread. This way I will have three loaves in the freezer for future use.
6. Inadvertent frugality: I have really large feet and also must wear an ugly brace on one leg/ankle all the time. I needed new sneakers, which are the most comfortable footwear in my situation. My husband was on the internet and ran across a sale on men's sneakers, covered with red flowers. They were marked down to $35!!! I went to the store and tried on men's shoes to figure out the right size for me and ordered them. By then the sale was down to $15. (Guess not many men are brave enough to wear red flowered sneakers!) They arrived and fit perfectly. The next day antoher box arrived with the same sneakers. I called the company and they said it was their error, so to just keep them for free! so, brand new name brand sneakers for $7.50 each or two pair for $15.
I also bought 10 dozen eggs for 79 cents . My kids are loving the french toast casserole and I am looking up breakfast casseroles too. Quiche and scrambled eggs. My son can eat almost a dozen scrambled at one time. This is the lowest price in a long time. I love cheap meals.
All of these lovely posts keep me inspired and no one laughs at me.
1. ( right hand raised ) I am a magazine addict . I love my kindle etc, but I want the old fashioned paper versions. I responded to three free offers for three of my favorites and ordered 6 more titles for $2.00 a year a piece. Several of these are over 20.00 a year so I am happy. ( I will watch carefully for the automatic renewal forms that hit you up for full price. They usually come much sooner than later .) I will wait and catch a deal at Groupons.com etc .... to get a magazine deal to get my favorite Cooks Illustrated. 9 yearly subscriptions for 10.00 is a deal.
2 . sold all of my school books back to Amazon.com for a credit . Credit will be used on special deals to put away Xmas gifts . ( learned to rent my books last semester.)
3 . Checked my Groupon account for unused deals. Found several. ( shame on me.) Placed them in my car to be used at face value.
4 . We have four salvage stores in the immediate area. Two of these stores are 1.00 a piece. I purchased many needed items. I spent 30.00 and I have several hundred dollars worth of goods. I love finding high dollar products for little to nothing. Nexus, Fish oil, Caltrate and many others, welcome home.
5. I am actually staying on budget. Menu planning is working. I spend 200.00 a month and shop the perimeter of the store. I am cooking from scratch and love it. I am googling new recipes each week. I can't believe how little I spend and how often we have left overs. I bought bad kitty 10 bags of kitty food for 75% off. Kitty is happy and kitty's allotment can be used for other deals. Learning to stay on tract is harder than it sounds.
Hate when I do that with groupon! ugh. Feel your pain lol.
Cooked every meal at home. Packed everyone's lunch. Always use reusable lunch boxes, Tupperware and utensils. Group trips to town. Line dry clothes. All borrowed movies and books. Thrift store clothes. Hair cuts at home. Every. Single. Day.
Could we read sone of your magazine articles? I love your style!
I think this magazine will be online. When it publishes, I'll let you know!
What Jenny said! 🙂
1. Made bread rolls.
2. Soaked beans and then cooked them. I made red beans and rice, it’s one of our favourite cold weather meals. It’s getting chilly here in Australia. Then we had chickpeas (garbanzo beans) one night. I reserved the aquafaba from cooking the chickpeas for an experiment with making vegan marshmallows this weekend. I made them last weekend and they turned out spot on like regular marshmallows.
3. We used up the rest of the brown rice even though we didn’t exactly enjoy it.
4. Instead of buying a book I wanted to read I found it at the library and reserved it. Even though it’ll be a few weeks yet until I get it, it’s better than paying 16.00 for it.
5. I ate leftovers this week for lunch. We tend to have the bottom quarter of a half of a butternut squash that goes to waste because I get annoyed with the seeds inside of it, but I managed to use it! This week for the first time in ages we had no food waste.
This weekend we're going to an Indian grocer to stock up on a few things, for some reason they seem to have the best prices on beans.
Here's to frugality and my 5 do-yourself-some-good choices:
1) Today was Customer Appreciation Day at Jimmy John's. DH & I got subs for $1 each. Savings: $10
2) Two of our window screens were torn up by hail. Instead of bringing them to a store to have them replaced, I bought a DIY kit for $20 to replace 2 screens.
Savings: $60
3) Sometimes I run out of medical supplies before I can get another refill at the pharmacy. As a back-up, I went to ebay to see if I could buy my items cheaper. I found out that there's a generic form of what i need! How happy is that? I buy a year's supply at a time since I know I'll need them.
Yearly Savings: $900 !!
4) DH smoked a turkey on Tuesday. So, I'm thinking of all kinds of ways to use it. Today was pot pies.
5) My favorite snack flavor was discontinued! I hate when that happens. So i went online and found a place that had a lot in stock! I got free shipping and an additional 15% off!
Savings: $18
Linsey- Two pairs of sneakers for $15! that's a fab deal!
Brook- The egg price sounds great! When eggs are that cheap, i usually "test" them before eating them to make sure they are good. I place an egg in cold water in a tall bowl so the water covers the egg a few inches. If the egg stays on the bottom, it's good. If it floats to the top, throw it out! I was given eggs once and tested them and i was so glad i did......... We would've gotten very sick from those....
1. Planted squash, beans, tomatoes and peas in the garden with the kids.
2. Picked flowers from our yard for the house and to share with relatives.
3. Spent an hour going through our insurance policy and doing calculations to discover it will be cheaper (due to a high deductible) to not seek a referral and insurance coverage for our son's OT since there is a bulk rate on prepaying out of pocket.
4. Made meals at home and actually remembered to freeze the excess food purchased at Costco.
5. Repaired older brother's scoot bike seat with duct tape - now little brother's new bike.
1. Your veggies in cold water trick saved my limp celery.
2. I stuck it out in a ridiculously slow customer service line to return an item.
3. Very few food/grocery expenses this week. Our friends are all feeding us as I had surgery last week. And good heavens are they all wonderful cooks!
4. Uber coupon! Hubs was at work, I was dying to bust out of the house, and of course I couldn't drive on pain meds.
5. Money I don't mind spending - my Spring garden needs to go in and I can't do it post-op. My teenage niece is saving to go on a mission trip w/youth group. Yay for win-win situations.
How are you feeling?
Much better, thanks for asking!
1) I met up with a best friend for Happy Hour.
2) There was a mix up with our flat bread order, so we ended up getting our order corrected and keeping the error at no cost to us.
3) One of our friends showed up to do business with the restaurant and to bring them some smoked cheese that he made. 2 weeks ago, he gave me some salmon he had smoked.
4) The friend let us sample the smoked cheese. 🙂
5) The friend, having a business relationship with this restaurant for years, opened up his wallet and pulled out a gift card to give to us. There was enough to pay for our drinks and appetizer and another Happy Hour down the road.
Passover, which started last night, can be extremely expensive. Here are five ways I was frugal in planning for the eight day holiday:
1. I was very careful about menu planning for the Seder; although pricey brisket is super traditional, it has no religious significance so I made a fancy (and more healthy) chicken dish. I also made chicken soup out of rotisserie chicken carcasses that I had frozen weeks before; it was great! No need to use fresh chicken.
2. I bought any fancy ingredients I needed, such as dried fruit, capers, a special prepared fish, etc. from either bulk bins or a discount regional grocer.
3. I did not have enough plates for our guests, so I bought good quality plastic "disposable" dishes from Sam's. I washed them and will reuse them for Passover next year.
4. I don't buy fancy processed products for Passover; they are unhealthy and very expensive.
5. My kids love pricey Passover candy. When a relative who can't cook offered to bring something, I suggested that candy
1. Cooked a big batch of ground turkey and onions, used it for three easy meals this week. (chili, quesadillas, and a fun cheesy dip for chips).
2. Springtime means local produce stands are open here, I know the cheapest one, so getting all my produce there and freezing some.
3. Found some seasonal gifts still in original boxes at the local goodwill, saving them for Christmas.
4. Turning off the TV and reading a professional book for my job. Hoping that will lead to a promotion, if not, then the knowledge is good anyway.
5. Not sure if this is frugal, but paying more attention to packaging. Began refusing to buy anything in styrofoam (ie eggs) because its not recyclable here.
Along those lines, thinking about options for dining out, because I like to eat 1/2 and take home 1/2 when I do, and often the take home things are styrofoam. Would it be weird to bring my own container?
1. Rescued the saddest flat broom in the world out of a free pile at a yardsale. It is pretty gross, but is only going to be used for my teeny barely 1 car garage so totally cool with me. I swear when you think about things enough and wait a bit they magically appear!
2. Boyfriend brought home a whole pizza from work Saturday night. They ordered too many for the employees and since he had to stay until 4AM they gave him one :).
3. Got a discount gas card at HT (40 for 50). Love these!
4. Purchased a bottle of 7th generation dish soap at whole foods yesterday. After coupon and rebate it was only 50 cents woooo!
5. Boyfriend and I made popcorn last night as a snack for the Game of thrones season premiere, got a bag of kernels (GMO FREE MIGHT I ADD!) at the dollar tree! I don't see them all the time but when I do I grab some. Used a little bit of peanut oil in a pan, melted some butter and used on hand popcorn salt. So much better than the bagged crap which is terrible for you. Super frugal snack!
This is actually one of my favourite regular topics to read. Thanks Kristen!