Five Frugal Things | ginger sugar oatmeal
1. I used my ginger-infused sugar
I bought a box of dried ginger recently because I find it to be an oddly addictive little treat.
I finished it after a few weeks (all on my own because Zoe does not share my dried ginger appreciation) and I noticed there was some ginger-infused sugar left in the bottom.
I thought this would be a nice little addition to some spiced tea, but I have none at the moment.
So, I made a bowl of oatmeal with cinnamon, raisins, shredded carrots, orange peel, and vanilla, and I used some of the sugar to sweeten it.
There are some tiny bits of ginger left in the sugar too, and they added a nice flavor to my oatmeal.
I fully recognize that this saves me almost no money, but it was a satisfying save, and I knew you guys could appreciate it! 😉
On a related note: if you like raisins in your oatmeal but you hate the way they become puffy while cooking (Meeeeee! That's me!), try stirring them in right before you eat the oatmeal.
So. Much. Better.
(Note: Here is how I make my no-packet one-serving microwave oatmeal.)
2. I deposited a $0.03 check (!!)
In keeping with the tiny frugal things theme: I had a funny experience of getting a check worth three cents.
It came to me because apparently, after I closed my Chase savings account, I got three cents of interest deposited.
It is super silly that they cut me a check for this because I know they spent way more than $0.03 mailing it to me!
But I figured that since it was already here, I might as well deposit it. And it was entertaining to see the "You've successfully submitted a $0.03 deposit!" message. Ha.
I'm rich, you guys!
3. I finished up my soup even though I was tired of it
I had one more serving of chicken noodle soup left, so I ate it for dinner on Saturday night, despite being less than enthused.
4. I put the rest of the spinach in the freezer
My bag of spinach was about to get slimy, so I threw it in the freezer, in its original bag.
It needs absolutely no prep prior to freezing, and once frozen, it's super easy to take out and add to a smoothie.
I suppose you could also add it to soup, or to something like Marry Me Chicken/Chickpeas; for those applications, it doesn't matter if the spinach has been frozen.
5. I made some overnight French toast
We had a little too much random bread here, so I cubed it and made a batch of the Pioneer Woman's overnight French toast.
This has very little in the way of nutritional value, but it is a delicious and easy treat for when you've got bread odds and ends!
The French toast looks delicious. I'll need to try that, even though we rarely have leftover bread. I'll sacrifice a fresh loaf and see how it goes.
Frugality:
*With the blizzard last Monday, I canceled class. Saved gas and did not have to drive in it.
*I had my sons shovel a neighbor's driveway. Exercise for the boys and saves the neighbor money.
*my sister offered her old car to us, as we now have more drivers at home. So husband and sons drove 600 miles to pick it up. And caravaned back the other 600 miles.
* They were going to do it in one day, but sanity prevailed as they started getting sleepy. A cheap hotel room is more frugal than am accident.
* When I went to the DMV to register the car and switch the title, the nice staff member told me that to save money, to have my name on the title. Apparently, giving the car to a blood relative means the taxes would be $15 instead of $100. Done and done!
* Husband went to add car to our already expensive car insurance, and it wasn't good news. It would increase it by about 70% ( the curse of having multiple teens drivers). However, the insurance agent took some time, rewrote the policy under some different manner as we are long time customers who pay in full every time, and instead the cost went down by 40%! We will do a better job of reviewing insurance costs in the future. The agent told us not to touch our house insurance - she looked at that too and it wouldn't get any cheaper.
So we're saving a lot due to great customer service.
We did not buy a lot of food on the long trip home[1]. Instead, we had access to the airline's lounge for the 7 hr layover #2, which worked well.
I pulled out my rusty negotiating skills. I don't mind paying a bit extra in an undeveloped country; neither do I want to be a sucker.
Found vanilla pods for $15 for 6-7 pods!
A friend picked me up from the airport. He brought my dog, too, calling himself the "dog chauffeur".
My niblings each decided they wanted me to knit them something, desires I can satisfy from my existing stash of bits and bobs.
[1] Not a complaint, merely an objective description. Just comes with the territory.