Four Frugal Things (and one Frugal Fail)
1. I made chicken broth.
My bag of chicken bones from the freezer was very full, and since I finally had a quiet day at home (following oodles of out and about days!), I made a batch of Actually Tasty Chicken Broth.
So cheap. So healthy. So delicious.
(The green lid there is from a Parmesan cheese container. Those lids work pretty well on narrow-mouth Ball jars.)
2. I fixed Zoe's shirt with Fray Check.
I bought Zoe a crewcuts shirt from ThredUp, and it is super cute.
(I love navy stripes!)
The only problem with the shirt is that the ribbon ends fray in the wash.
So, I trimmed the raw edges, covered them in Fray Check, and she's good to go now.
I've only ever bought one bottle of Fray Check and since it's still fairly full even after many repairs, I feel like the $2.99 price point is totally worth it.
3. I modified my plans based on my produce box.
I'd planned to thaw some applesauce to go with our dinner last night, but instead I cooked some up the fresh corn and made a spinach salad to use the spinach and corn that were in my produce box.
The applesauce can wait until a day where my fridge is low on fresh produce. Frozen applesauce keeps; fresh produce doesn't!
4. I cleaned out my fridge and made some saves.
I cut up three bruised apples. One was too soft to eat, so I froze it for smoothies. The other two were fine, so I cut out the bad spots, sliced them up and set them out for snacking.
(Can you tell it was a dark and stormy day??)
I froze some extra greens for smoothie use.
And I made two loaves of banana bread to use up a bunch of brown bananas.
5. (the fail) I let some food go bad.
When I cleaned out my fridge, I had to compost two potato slices, some pineapple, one zucchini, and a few pieces of cauliflower.
Luckily, I didn't waste any meat or dairy. Phew.
It's never great to waste even produce, but at least produce is compostable, and it also costs less than meat and dairy (both monetarily and environmentally).
And my fridge is in pretty good order at the moment, which means I can easily see everything I've got.
Seeing usually = using, so the food waste forecast is lookin' good at my house right now.
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Want to join in the fun? Share 4 frugal things and 1 frugal fail in the comments!
(or if you had an awesomely frugal week without any fails, then hey, go ahead and share five frugal things.)
I have managed to buy some great vegetables on reduction, I have worked meals around what I have and reduced some waste, chores and essential trips have been combined and I can't think of anymore. There have been fails. The best was mum over heating some custard and making into the most incredible bubbly solid lump. Perhpas using the microwave at full power was not the best idea.
Enjoyed learning advice from 4 frugal and 1 less frugal items. I could freeze some veges before they become inedible and also make smoothies. My apples are in better shape than the ones in photo. One frugal item from this reader: Over the recent Easter Long Weekend here in Vancouver BC, I was treated for Low Blood Sugar & sepsis (blood infection) very intensely at St. Paul's Hospital over five days'. Treatment was excellent and staff were top notch competent and caring. My faith helped as I kept listening to Oratorios' on my smart phone and/or mentally singing lines of hymns'. Anyhow, I seem to have developed an intolerance to yeast oozing from bread/bakery products on supermarket shelf.
One quick bread (no yeast) i baked and try ed successfully this week is from the website:...with a fair degree of initial success. Will use less H20 next time.
Happiness from Vancouver BC
Friday, May 13, 2016
1. I bought some chairs for my balcony and a new pair of shoes using an Amazon gift card (I needed both and would otherwise have had to use real money)
2. I negotiated a discount on my latest batch of bras - I've changed size and had to buy a complete set all at once (which is expensive!) but pointed out that I've bought all my stuff from that shop for years and referred a bunch of people and they gave me 20% off.
3. I've avoided takeout all week although it's been crazy at work, because I knew it would be so I swapped my usual grocery shop for fast and healthy options. Yay me!
4. I took my new chairs home on public transport instead of getting a cab, even though I looked silly.
Fail: I bought a couple of new tops and a new dress when I was out shopping for underwear at the weekend. While my wardrobe is definitely happy to have some new pieces, clothes AND underwear weren't supposed to be in my budget this month.
I really enjoy FFT!
What do you do with the chicken broth? I have a bunch in my freezer but don't know what to use it for as we don't eat a lot of soup.
My list:
1. We haven't eaten out in three weeks. This is a record!
2. I haven't bought nonessentials for the same time.
3. Our heater is turned off more than not this week.
4. We cut our trips "to town" down. My husband has been great about stopping if needed on his way home from the same town.
5. I hated Aldi. I was so disappointed when ours came and it wasn't anything like I had imagined from the rave reviews here.
BUT!!! I was on an extremely tight grocery budget, so I tried it again. I went with my list, no children, and made sure I had time to thoroughly check the prices closely. I got almost everything on my list within my budget!
The produce was almost non existent that day, so I went somewhere else.
But now I LOVE it!
Boil potatoes in a pot of broth and water for savory mashed pototos.
Make your rice or risotto with broth- flavor and nutrients
boil noodles in broth for flavor
make homemade chicken tenders and gravy using your yummy broth
Lisa;
OK, no soups. Here are some other things you can do with the stock:
- Sauces. If a sauce calls for water, and the dish is compatible with a chicken flavor, try using stock instead.
- Stir fries. A lot of Asian dishes call for a small amount of liquid for the sauce. Chicken stock will work with just about all of them.
- Cooking grains. Many rice mixes (such as Rice-a-Roni or Mahatama) use chicken flavor as part of their flavor profile. You can also use the stock as the liquid for pilafs, risottos, barley, quinoa, couscous, etc. If you want a strong, easily discernible flavor, use concentrated stock rather than fully diluted.
- Cooking beans or pasta in stock, with some salt added (1 T per quart used), makes for tasty beans. Any leftover liquid can be saved and used again.
- For deglazing a pan, instead of wine or water. It'll have a different flavor profile, of course, you get to decide which liquid suits your dish best.
- As a braising liquid for meats or veggies.
Also, do you concentrate your stock when you make it? It will take up a lot less space in the freezer if you do, with the side benefit of needing to spend less time concentrating the final result in - say - a sauce.
As you may be able to tell, I do love me some stock. I'm notorious for keeping all kinds of meat scraps to make stocks with. Not just chicken or pork bones, but scraps from roasts, the frame (skeleton) from smoked chickens or pork, drippings, leftovers from Chinese roast meats; you name it, I'll make stock from it.
I use chicken broth in a lot of recipes that call for it. I think soups and sauces are probably the two most common uses, but you can also use it as the cooking liquid for things like rice.
Cook's Illustrated/ATK recipes call for chicken broth pretty frequently, so I like to keep some in my freezer.
I'm so glad that Aldi worked out better for you the second time! And I hope there's more produce next time. I love the produce at my Aldi.
Chicken Broth that is left over? I suggest freezing the broth and use it for your next chicken! Works for me as taught by a late mentor back around 1985. Ron passed in early 2000 (If memory serves).
Best, from Vancouver BC.
I use most of my broth for soup, but I freeze some in muffin pans and throw those in a ziploc. They are the perfect size for deglazing the pan, adding to some couscous, etc.
Last week we ate out of the freezer a LOT. So the grocery bill was verrry low - this week, not so much. We were out of everything. But I feel like it was a win since we ate what we had last week instead of buying more and letting the old stuff go bad. I found 8 raw shrimp, the last 1/2 c of some homemade pico de gallo, a baggie of frozen black beans, and the last 1/2 c of quinoa and made an amazingly good skillet meal. Another win. I have managed to slow the on-line shopping drastically, but I do have to find my youngest a pair of dress shoes today so I will visit Kohl's.
Oh yeah! I forgot - I had about three jars of homemade stock from the holidays and managed to use a couple of them up. It was great in the skillet meal I mentioned, plus seasons a pot of rice just right and is a good way to season up whatever supper you cook that calls for water.
4 Frugal Things:
1.) We planted our vegetable garden this week! A little bit of investment to begin with, but it will pay off when we have fresh produce around all Summer.
2.) I used up some zucchini before it went bad by roasting it in the oven with some asparagus, a little EVOO and garlic salt...so yummy!
3.) I sold $500 worth of items on eBay and Craigslist!!
4.) Used up some bananas and chocolate chips to make 2 loaves of bread. Mine didn't rise nearly as much as yours did...I'll have to search your blog to see if you have a recipe up!
FAIL:
1.) We have been so busy with nice weather activities, that I haven't been preparing lunches. We've ate lunch out twice this week at work 🙁
1. I shopped around on getting our new, badly-needed front doors installed. There was a $200 variance!
2. The hubs did some maintenance on his car himself, saving around $75.
3. I've been really good about bringing my lunch and snacks to work.
4. Business dinners tomorrow and most of next week; business breakfast and lunch Saturday. Helps with the grocery budget!
5. I looked in my dresser and closet and realized I don't need a single thing. #blessed
Yay for a $200 savings!
How are you feeling this week? Hopefully a bit better...
You're so sweet to remember!! I'm about the same, but making myself adapt.
Frugal things -
1. I cut my daughters hair myself. She has thick curly long hair. It only needs to be trimmed. ( I can manage that).
2. Me and my girls ate all fresh homemade meals at home while my husband is out of country for 3 weeks.
3. Did not step into costco (big bill store) for more than a month.Now I only shop there for paper products and things needed in bulk for our family of 4.
4. No food waste for past 3 weeks. I used up what all I bought. This is a biggie for me.
Not so frugal -
I ended up losing my daughter's swim suit (expensive LL bean one). I purchased this one thinking my little one can use it at some point later. Realized that it is possible only if we dnt lose it.
Went ahead and purchased basic one so I dont have to worry if I lose this again 🙁
In some ways, wavy/curly hair is easier to cut because it doesn't show mistakes! I take my two girls with straight hair to get their haircuts somewhere else because it's too hard to make theirs look good. But my two wavy-haired kids, I can handle myself.
Four frugal things:
1. Mr. Picky Pincher made a batch of chicken stock himself. He does this every two weeks and we use the stocks for just about everything. Yum!
2. I ate my healthy homemade lunch when I really wanted to go buy a hamburger. Go me!
3. I read my frugal library books. One in particular was fascinating; it gave a lot of recipes for organic household cleaners. Definitely going to try those out next week. 🙂
4. We started saving uneaten/stale homemade bread and vegetable scraps in our freezer. Once the bags are full, we can make bread crumbs and a veggie stock or soup. Yummo!
My frugal fail:
I also let food go to waste! What a pity! Our goal next week is to not buy any meat and just live off the food that we do have.
1) We made hot dog and hamburger buns for brother-in-law's graduation/mother's day picnic, instead of buying them. We made way too much (better too much than too little) and froze the leftovers.
2) We are cooking from the freezer and pantry, mostly in preparation for the new fruit season. I'm enjoying smoothies if I add oatmeal to them - otherwise I have a big sugar crash.
3) On our weekend of adventures, we unexpectedly received a handmade bookcase (sentimental and practical value!), a dog's swimming pool, and four mystery plant starters - possibly watermelon, possibly squash.
4) We used the loyalty punch card to get one free night boarding our dogs at the kennel.
FAIL: I bought a set of day-old baguettes from the grocery store, and the very next day they were already moldy! It was only a dollar.
I'm not convinced that that counts as ~your~ fail. Just sayin'.
I mended some hand-me-down pajama pants for my 2 1/2 year old (does that count as two things? ; ), mended some shorts for my husband, reserved books to read and a parenting DVD for my husband and I to watch from the library, and chose my menu for the week to use up the things we already had on hand in the pantry/fridge/freezer so we won't have to go grocery shopping this week (and am using up things that were on their last leg for said menu). You are totally inspiring me!
This has not been a frugal month so far - too much mindless spending going on, while also getting hit with Mother's day expenses (one mom wanted to go on a day trip somewhere, and we have a 'standard' gift that my Mother in Law receives every year)...
Frugal Wins
1) Went to Kohl's with my sister because she had some Kohl's cash to use; I managed to escape without buying anything!
2) Figured out how to renew Library books online, so avoided late fews after forgetting to drop them off after work.
3) Discovered it was cheaper to mail something through the post office than through my company's Fedex acct.
4) Skipped buying a fancy coffee before church, and drank free regular coffee at church instead.
5) Started an excel spreadsheet to track all spending, instead of relying on bank statements/memory
Oh, and I cut husband's hair instead of sending him to the barber. This is the fourth or fifth time I think I have done it, and it gets better/easier each time.
1. Called DirecTV to deactivate one of our receiver boxes because the HDMI ports are no longer working. This will save us the $7/month they charge for EACH TV. BOO!
2. Didn't run out and buy a new TV - we are making due with an antenna and Netflix, since it is the TV in our bedroom.
3. Made lots of banana bread with some overripe bananas and shared with my mom and sister.
4. Used the library prodigiously, as usual.
BIG FRUGAL FAIL:
Tried to make macarons for my book group. Big mistake. Not only are they difficult to make, the ingredients are expensive. My first batch of meringue never set up, so there goes a bunch of eggs down the drain, literally. Almond flour is $8/lb., and I think I paid $8 for the Dutch process cocoa. I could have bought them at Trader Joe's for $5/dozen. Still, they were delicious, even though they didn't come out nice and puffy like they are supposed to, and I am proud of having tried to do something difficult.
Macarons have always seemed intimidating to me! Macaroons, on the other hand, are super easy to make.
Prodigious library user here too. 🙂
Ha! Ha!I made macarons once! Yeah for trying, but it was a huge sticky mess and made way more than we needed. My son likes them, so now once in a while I will gladly buy him one or two. Yes, they are expensive, but the ingredients are expensive and it is not worth the work for me to make them. A once or twice a year treat is ok to indulge in. 🙂
The very first time I made macarons, I nailed it. Since then, I cannot do it. Go figure.
1. I bought way too much food for our Mother's Day celebration, but all of the food was able to be eaten up as leftovers (or frozen), and the drinks will keep for another party over the summer.
2. Tried a new route to work this morning to avoid construction and also spent less time sitting in traffic.
3. I hosted a friend last week for dinner and accidentally made too much pasta for the two of us. I tried freezing the leftovers, and it worked really well! I've been enjoying them for lunches and dinner this week.
4. Took my car in to have my brakes looked at, expecting an extremely expensive repair. Turns out they just needed to be cleaned up, so the charge was only $60, plus I had a $20 gift card from a previous visit. I can put off the major repair for another 10,000 miles.
Frugal fail:
A friend of mine had an extra concert ticket for tonight when her partner bailed on her last minute. She invited me to go with and wants to go out to eat beforehand. Normally I don't go out to eat (or go to expensive concerts!), but since it's a special occasion and she wouldn't let me pay her for the ticket, I offered to treat her for dinner. It's a little out of my budget this month, so it will cut into my savings slightly, but considering the situation, I decided to spend the little bit of extra money.
When I find a bruised apple that needs to be used I dice it up on top of homemade oatmeal. Put a dash of cinnamon on top and it tastes great! Much better than the freeze dried bits of Apple that comes in the oatmeal packets.
1. Speaking of oats, that's what the kids and I have been eating for breakfast lately with a drizzle of the maple syrup I got in the reduced section at Kroger for $2.50. I paid $2.50 for a large amount of 100% maple syrup so you betcha I got 4 containers of it. I top the oatmeal with whatever fruit is about to go bad. This week it was bananas, yum!
2. I have stayed out of the stores this week in an attempt to eat what we already have which is always frugal.
3. My and kids and I planted some tomato and zucchini seeds for a fun project a week ago and they are already coming up nicely. Very rewarding and fun learning experience that will hopefully be free food. I got the seeds for free in the mail.
4. I'm drinking only water everyday. Doesn't seem like a big deal for most people but I used to drinks tons of soft drinks so this is an important step for me. Frugal, healthy, and not so bad after all.
5. Frugal fail- I have completely stopped packing my daughter's lunches for school. I'm just sick of doing it and school is almost out. She loves to eat in the lunchroom, I have packed lunches for most of the year, and I'm just burnt out. I will start back fresh when school starts back.
- The Big One: for reasons, I haven't gone through health insurance EOBs for too long. I have been tackling this elephant one bite at a time. There's a non-trivial amount of money in those EOBs!
- Got the last repayment back from my bank. Last fall, my bank mis-deposited a check, causing my check for city payment to bounce. By being polite but firm, and keeping close track of what the bank had (and not yet) repaid, I got the bank to pay *all* the associated costs: bounced check fee from bank, bounced check fee from city, late fees and interest on the payment, and so on. I will say this: although it took 6 months and several calls, PNC Bank agreed immediately that they should pay all these associated costs and were pleasant and polite (if a bit dilatory) throughout.
- I successfully argued that that city miscalculated the late fees and interest. I guess, in the long run, I was saving the bank's money rather than my own, but any win over my city's incompetent book-keeping is a win for me.
- Finally inventoried my freezer, after putting off that disliked chore for weeks. Temptation to eat out is now lessened as I know what I can make on short notice. I may yet see the bottom of the freezer. Some day.
- Went to work despite laryngitis. Save that sick day for a more serious illness!
- Mended everything in my mending pile. Some, like the tube socks, save a trivial amount of money but keeps things out of the landfill. Others, like fixing ripped pants hems, save me $5-10 per fix.
- When my laptop started making funny noises, I made it to the store while the computer was still under warranty.
No big fails this week. Good thing - I had several in the past week, including spendy things like eat out several times and stupid things like wasting meat.
Frugal Things:
1. Am drinking free coffee/water at work and am bringing my lunch every day this week.
2. Have been walking during my lunch break each day.
3. Didn't have any cohesive lunch items to bring to work today (see number 1), so I grabbed some random things from my fridge and stopped at Great Harvest Bread Co. on my way to work to buy a loaf of honey whole wheat bread (which contains clean, simple ingredients, and will last me a very long time as I freeze it at work and eat it slice by slice as I need to).
4. Purchased a car this week-not frugal on the surface, but it is a reliable car in very nice condition, with one previous owner who kept up on the service history in a ridiculously over-zealous manner. It should last us for 10 years at least, and the price was cut by 1,000 at the last minute!
Fails:
1. Ate out Monday night when purchasing our car.
2. Also bought a cinnamon roll at Great Harvest Bread Co. today. I tried a sample and couldn't resist...it sucked me in!
Just because something costs a lot of dollars, doesn't mean it is unfrugal. Frugal is about value and need (frex, not being penny wise and pound foolish) rather than about small dollar amounts.
I posted five frugal things on Katy's blog so will compile part of those here.
1. Had a garage sale with my sister's family and made over $300. The best part was being able to spend time with the great-nephews!
2. Nephew #2 loves horses and I found him a large bag of Hunchback of Notre Dame figures at Goodwill for .99. It had four horses that I pulled out for him then marked the bag 2.00. It sold!
3. Our credit card bill came in the mail yesterday. We put our gasoline on the credit card. This month it was around 100.00 which is low for us. Our gas and electric bills were extremely low this month also.
4. Had a dental appointment yesterday so ran errands while out including thrift shopping. I found some amazing bargains including a Pendleton wool suit coat for .99. If it doesn't fit my husband, I'll keep it for the fabric. I'm planning on making wool owls for fall.
Frugal fail-I had more than one this week but the biggest was forgetting my activation code for the Costco Living Social deal I bought. I'll have to make another trip. On the other hand, I was planning on splurging on their hot dog/soda deal for lunch and since I couldn't purchase anything, I didn't eat lunch out. Thankfully, Fresh Thyme market had a few generous sized samples out so I survived until I got home around 2:00.
I love Five Frugal Things, Kristen! Thank you for doing it!
I've been using our Fred Meyer (local Kroger affiliate)'s online grocery shopping. The first 3 times are free, after that it will be $5. I've been amazed to see how much money it's actually saving me! I guess it's because I'm not seeing all the things I forgot to put on my list. 🙂 I'm not a big grocery spender in the first place, and my "impulse buys" are usually things like a bag of sugar because it was on sale, or extra bananas. So I had $50 left over in my grocery budget at the end of our 2-week pay cycle!
I get free audio book downloads from our local library. I do a lot of mindless assembly stuff at work, and my boss lets me listen, so I "read" a book or two/week. If I had to pay for those...yikes!
I bought 2 pair of jeans at Goodwill. Goodwill in Portland isn't uber-cheap (they were about $10 each), but it's still cheaper than brand new.
1. Sold 3 pairs of used cleats to a "Play it Again" sports store. I love the ease of just walking in and getting a price quote with no advertising, shipping, yard sale, etc. I knew they still had value, but I didn't have time for other options.
2. I used random things in the fridge for a lunch for the kids.
3. Found a huge bag of sweet potato "seconds" at the farmer's market for a good deal.
4. Used a $10 off $10 at JCPenney just before it expired.
5. Non-frugal - Broke my griddle by laying it to dry in a weird position on the counter. It slid onto the kitchen floor. Boo...
You mentioned that it was only produce that had to be thrown out, not meat, but Safeway had chicken for 89 cents a pound this week ((they had chicken legs for 69cents a pound last week!) I challenge you to find ANY fruit or veg for that price! Most fruits and veg are 2 to 10 times as much! What is happening to prices? I used to eat as much veg as possible with just a small piece of meat but now it is getting that meat is cheaper!
There are some, typically the basic produce. Generally bananas, carrots, celery, onions, potatoes, watermelon, and maybe cauliflower under $.89/lb; sometimes also apples, cucumbers, oranges, and other citrus. Some of these tend to be priced per item rather than per pound, making it less clear your per pound price.
4 frugals:
1. Found a cheapo campground in a mountain town we like to visit.Saving the cost of a hotel rental or a bed and breakfast.We're re-trying camping! We did some last year, just 2 nights, and it was fun.
2. Ate ALL the leftovers from a birthday party I hosted which produced too many leftovers.VERY tired of beans and saurkraut, but the fresh fruit tray was yummy!
3. In the mood for a "fancy" supper and no prep, so I pulled a frozen lasagna from Trader Joe out of the freezer..just for nights like this one.Will add a green salad and eat on patio:Voila, a date night! And a break from cooking.
4. Made a promise to myself to observe NO SHOPPING FOR CLOTHES all summer (at least!) I really cleaned out my closet, gave away work clothes and heels, donated a ton of stuff and organized all my summer "outfits".. casual clothes I like, that fit my newly retired lifestyle, and fit my body! and are easy to care for.. all lined up nice and neat and easy to wear! Need NOTHING for a loong time!
FRUGAL FAIL: I made two containers of sangria punch for that party and not very much got drunk (drank??) Had to toss it out, had fresh fruit cut up in it, going rotten. I don't really like sangria and my husband does not drink alcohol, so I only had 1 serving of it before tossing.Lesson learned. People ate and drank very lightly at this party-- times have changed..Cook less,better yet, do POTLUCKS from now on!!
This is a radical frugal idea we are trying: We like to do an apple fast (Edgar Cayce) a couple of times per year.I am gong to try a one DAY A WEEK Apple Fast and see how it goes.. need to lose some weight, and it can be very healing. Eating the Apples mean I don't go "hungry" and my blood sugar stays even by eating 4-5 apples throughout the day. I also take about a cup of unsweetened applesauce somewhere during the fast day. Will save on groceries too.. but health is main motivation..
1. Not much, but I finally found a penny on the ground. It's been a long dry spell of no found change, but maybe it's over.
2. We replaced the flapper on our toilet ourselves rather than call a plumber. It's quite easy.
3. I've hung out laundry before going to work most days this week. It's dry when I get home, saving me the cost of running the dryer.
4. I reserved a place to stay so we can go to my husband's reunion. I booked a state lodge, which offers a veteran's discount, as he's a veteran. It saves us $20-30 a night off their regular price and we get a private cabin for less than the price of the rooms in hotels I'd looked at. Always look for deals for veterans and/or government employees, and always check state park accommodations.
Where I failed -- I had some food waste, which drives me nuts. I'm re-doubling my efforts.
Quick question-- I bought a little girl's dress from Schoola and the hem turns up in one place and won't stay down. It is about a 1 inch hem, cotton fabric ( Hannah Andersson brand) Any idea what causes this and how it can be fixed? I have liked everything I have ordered from Schoola in the past, it is just this one dress that has the issue. Thank you!
Was it ripped and then fixed? If a different thread is used in one spot - say cotton vs cotton-poly - it can dry and pucker differently.
No, it looks like the same thread. I just looked at Schoola again and saw a skirt and dress in the photos with the hem turned up just in one place. Wonder if it's how they clean them that makes it happen somehow.
Hmm. And it stays turned up weird even when you iron it?
I wonder if you use could some iron-on interfacing to hold it flat.
Is your Parmesan lid from Aldi? I had no idea that those fit in the narrow mouth jars!
They sure do, I save all of mine. You can also buy plastic screw-on kids for the regular and wide-mouth mason jars. They're quite inexpensive at Walmart, and I like them mainly for salad dressings because I hate that yucky, rusty residue the metal lids and rings can get.
Yep! Just the grated parmesan that they sell by the pasta and tomato sauce.
I'm surviving here.
1.) Had a low grocery bill at Aldi.
2.) Making my own baby food. Paying 90 cents/lb for oatmeal at Aldi and putting it in a blender is much better than paying $3.88/lb for Gerber's "special" baby cereal. Ditto carrots and bananas (and soon sweet potatoes.) My MIL insists on buying baby food for my daughter but I find it to be a waste of money.
3.) Repaired my lawn mower. Okay, so I replaced a cotter pin.
4.) Resisted the urge to go out to eat and had a very late dinner when my wife accidentally forgot to the plug in the slow cooker and we didn't discover it for two hours.
5.) Watching free streams of America's Test Kitchen via my Raspberry Pi. Since I'm not a subscriber I only get the current season that's up on the website but it's nice to be able to watch them on a TV.
1. Made crockpot meals all week when I knew I'd be tired to make dinner at dinner time so no take out 🙂
2. Bought steaks on massive mark down ($15 for 6 great size steaks) last month then Hubs grilled them Sunday for Mother's Day. I got a steak dinner for Mother's Day for $3.00!!!!! (Had rice and steamed broccoli to go with it)
3. I made homemade bathroom cleaner from vinegar and water.
4. I returned library books ON TIME.
5. My fail - I wasted so much leftover food. I really need to get that under control this week.
1. Ate at home and brought lunches to work every day this week. Drink water from water cooler
2. Dried laundry outside as weather so nice instead of putting of putting it in the dryer
3. Shopped at Aldi and stuck to list.
4. Read book from library, havnt bought any unnecessary items, cancelled gym membership as wouldn't be using it. Pregnant with twins..
5. Frugal fail: Reversed my car into a traffic cone in a multi-storey car park, denting the back of it slighted! Husband fixed it but will have to get paint work done which is costly:-(
Not really sure if I can up w/ 5 things but one of the things I did was baked apples that had been in fridge for awhile. Last fall we got a couple bushel apples really cheap & we ate on them all winter( I'm about to faint w/ the prices now I'm buying again in the store) but these few was beyond eating fresh so chopped up sprinkled cinnamon & sugar over & baked just until tender so yummy.
1. My usual, shopped at Aldi.
2. Dug through the freezer and found a piece of sirloin. Browned it, put it in the crock pot with beef broth, pepperoncini peppers, onions, and a sprinkle of Italian dressing mix. Italian beef sandwiches for dinner tonight, on hoagie rolls from Aldi.
3. Ate leftovers for lunch instead of hitting the drive-thru. Saved calories, as well as money.
4. I am a dog groomer, and wear crinkle nylon scrub tops to work in. The other day I tore the pocket clean off one of my expensive tops, and thought it was ruined. Upon closer inspection, I realized I could sew it back on with no problems, and while I was at it, replaced the separating zipper that goes down the front. Easier than I thought it would be.
5. Gathering up a ton of toys to sell back to Once Upon a Child. My grandkids are tired of them by now, so we can just do a swap out!
Non frugal: food waste, a whole unopened bag of cauliflower florets that were a splurge to begin with as I usually just cut up a whole cauliflower. They got dark pretty quickly and don't smell so good. Also, spent too much on Mother's Day and birthday celebrations, but I deem these worth it.
Hi Kristen,
This weeks 5 Frugal things are
1. Cut back, repotted and moved a long suffering a Wisteria, to give it another chance at life
2. Line dried all the washing
3. Used a voucher for our Thursday night pizza night
4. Cleaned the house and did the laundry using home made cleaners and laundry liquid
5. Ride to work everyday. Yesterday was the first cooler day and I am hoping to ride all through Autumn and winter, rugged up against the cold
Have a great weekend
Fiona from stayhomeinstead.blogspot.com.au
1. Batched several errands together for the last few days, saving gas and time.
2. Used a coupon for a free pizza from Costco (leftover from the Living Social deal a few months ago) for dinner when I knew I'd be too busy to cook. It has lasted us 2 meals!
3. Sent a handmade birthday card to a friend from a stockpile I had made some time ago.
4. Line dried our laundry outside.
5. Used up some overripe bananas and depleted the freezer stash to make smoothies.
Fail: Had to throw out some old tortillas that went moldy. 🙁
1. Bought $30 in panera gift cards using Amazon.com rewards from doing surveys=FREE
2. Planted succulents from clippings. Had potting soil and only bought one container
3. Cancelled weight watchers subscription as I will be attending diabetes management class offered by health plan for FREE
4. Found 4 pairs of jeans to give to my sister, niece, son and son's girlfriend in bags leftover from church garage sale. Spent $$ to mail them.
5. Not so frugal I bought more hair styling products..spent just under $5 using coupons
My son is out of school for the summer in two short weeks. He can stay home by himself but that is a problem in itself. We live in a rural area so there is no where or much to do.
1) I have been making extra servings at dinner to freeze and put aside for his lunches.
2) I signed up for a 20.00 streaming plan from my internet company. It includes HBO and 20 channels. He asked for the HBO for the summer to watch some very specific programs. The 60.00 I spend for the summer will entertain him and it comes with a free Roku. We have an older one that is a lil wacky that I wanted to replace anyway. This is a win win for my budget. I also have found trial offers for Spotify, gamefly and Showtime. He is an honor roll student so downtime in the summer is fine. I also signed up for various app's that provide free food, drinks and slushies for when we are out and about.
3) I cashed in swagbucks for ten ten dollar giftcards so he can order fast food once a week. ( I am at work or school everyday)
4) I redeemed various UPC codes from food products to get him 6 free movie tickets. I did deals from pizza rolls, pizza's and candy. His friends mom will take the 2 and bring them back home.
5) almost got burned by Sling for 85.00 on my credit card two weeks after I canceled a trial offer. My bank said any charge over 49 dollars had to be deal with Visa directly. ( Guess who closed out all her accounts at that bank after 28 years) I spoke to a second rep at Sling who immediately canceled the service and refunded the money, The first Sling rep was a jerk. I guess it depends who you speak with on the phone.
I do massive amounts of business online. I rarely have had problems. I always keep all deals at one email. Take screen shots of any cancellation and keep careful records.
I have provided baby boy with some extra's and am little out of pocket.
We are currently traveling, so these are skewed accordingly:
1) Have been buying beer and wine at local grocers vs paying 'dine out' prices, enjoying them in our room before heading to dinner.
2) We split lunch each day as the servings are always larger than we would eat for lunch in our non traveling lives. Or, we've been eating street food, which is generally cheap but tasty
3) Tap water! We never order/pay for liquids when we travel, and always carry water with us.
4) Free sites! I researched lots, focusing on highly rated sites that are free. We'll definitely slip in worthy activities that are not free, but they tend to be the exception not the rule.
Frugal fail: Bought a delicate necklace yesterday, then tore it as I removed it from its cloth bag. Grr! I'm hoping I can repair it once we return home. Luckily, it wasn't very expensive.
1. Eating out of the freezer, low grocery bill this week.
2. Found 15 cents in a vending machine change slot.
3. Bought some Christmas presents at a local flea market, nice things too.
4. Drinking coffee from home, making smoothies for breakfast
5. Trimmed the front of my hair.
Fail: Had a really hard day at work yesterday, so when I heard they were ordering take out from a favorite restaurant, I caved. I did share 1/2 of the big sandwich with a coworker who was having a similar day though.
This is a fun game! First timer here!
1. My mother in law watched the kids while I worked and husband was out of town. She brought dinner. I was able to eat several meals from the leftovers, and some stock from the roast chicken.
2. Any food "waste" from the kids plates goes to the chickens.
3. Dug through the saved bins of big brothers clothes, to update little brothers clothes.
4. I made a chicken bug be gone mix with crushed garlic, oregano, acv, and water. The spray helps keeps the bugs off the girls, and any strained our herbs go into thei food. Vampire deterrent from the inside out!
5. The kids wanted hair cuts. So I did it. Hopefully semi well for a few weeks.
FAIL. Hubs was gone this week. After the big kid got done with his after school sport, I took them to McDonald.
1. I earned enough swag bucks to get $10 in Walmart cards (which I haven't used yet) and $25 off an Amazon order.
2. Bought 2 gallons of milk, 1 loaf of bread, and 2 sodas at CVS, used my rewards ($9) and paid $3.51.
3. Went to Kmart to buy a gift for a baby shower (our first great granddaughter), picked up some moisturizer, a new toothbrush for a granddaughter, and some shirts for her. Had a coupon for $5 off and used $10.36 in rewards to come off of my total. I also earned a coupon for $.20 per gallon of gas at Speedway with my next fill up.
4. I added some clothes to my spring wardrobe by using store coupons during a sale at Peebles. I bought 2 pairs of pants, 3 top, and a couple of necklaces for $80.00.
5. Frugal fail: I picked up supper last night from Long John Silvers. It was the first time we had eaten out for 2 weeks.
Eek! I have a new frugal fail for this week! I tried to cut my hair at home and it was a disaster! I ended up going to Great Clips to get the situation fixed. Luckily I had a coupon for an $8 coupon, so it wasn't too bad. 🙂
Oh dear.
I feel like the Great Clips expenditure was totally worth it!
Is it frugal or cheap, that I salvaged the lettuce from a fruit plate, to use as salad?
Why is it that the lettuce the store used in a fruit plate, was better quality than the lettuce they put into premade salads??? The fruit plate lettuce was dark and unblemished, while the salad lettuce tends to be pale, from the ribs or not-as-nutritious insides, and often looks bruised near the cuts.
Totally frugal. 😉
Nice tips with the apples. I need to start being more innovative with my leftover things like you! Going to remember some of these tips you shared 🙂 I don't cook much meat at home, but I can definitely make a leftover stock with my veggies that have been in my fridge for too long 😀