? Frugal Things
The question mark is because I doubt I'm gonna get to five. One reason: I don't know if I have enough material. I'm gonna be scraping the bottom of the barrel here!
Another reason: I'm typing this up super quick before a work shift, so I might run out of time.
But I at least wanted to get this up so you guys could have a spot to share your wins with each other!
1. I bought a bigger pack of chicken thighs
I got the big pack of thighs at Aldi because that pack was cheaper per pound.
I trimmed and cubed half of the package to use in bourbon chicken, which I made last night after work.
And I trimmed and froze the other four on a baking sheet, then transferred them to a plastic bag once they were frozen. That way I can easily thaw a few for a future meal.
2. I colored over my scrub bleach spots again
I do this every week, honestly! My favorite pair of black scrubs has some small bleach spots on both the pants and the top, and I just scribble over the spots with a Sharpie every time I wear them.
(The Sharpie doesn't stay black enough after a trip through the wash.)
3. I continue to pack my food
Not exactly an innovative item to list, but here we are. 😉
I'm still chugging along with the whole not-buying-food-at-the-hospital thing.
I keep thinking I should figure out the cost of some of the lunches I pack so that I can know if I am actually saving money by doing this!
Probably I am? But I don't know for sure.
Ok, that's all I have time for. I gotta run to work. 😉
Your turn! What frugal things have you been up to lately?
(and clearly, it's ok if it's only three. 🙂 )
-I had a pre-paid car wash cards that gave me 5 washes for the price of 3. Managed to 1) not lose it and 2) used it up before it expired
-had a dental appointment and no issues, I take really good care of my teeth
-made homemade cookies instead of buying. Probably costs more but is healthier
-got a free repair on a pair of glasses
Considering how busy you are, all frugal things are a win! Give yourself credit where it's due. 🙂
FFT, Birthday Month Summary
--I used a $10 birthday credit at Victoria's Secret for new underwear.
--ThredUp offered a $5 credit for my birthday month. I needed a new sweatshirt (thrifting taught me that older Gap sweatshirts are awesome/well-made) and only looked at items under $10; the $5 credit covered shipping.
--My husband made a venison roast (free from my brother, the mighty hunter) as the centerpiece of my birthday dinner. The roast fed us for two days, and there were ample drippings for making rice--two dinners' worth of rice, to be exact! (Egg and sauteed veggie rice bowls, then oven-roasted root vegetables and rice.)
--After dinner, we watched "The Maltese Falcon" from our movie collection. We had hot cocoa (Penzey's mix gifted from a friend) with homemade chocolate whipped cream and kettle corn (free at the post office--someone left a bunch to share, with a sign saying as much).
--Our favorite local coffee shop doesn't do birthday freebies. However, when my husband and I went in for a celebratory coffee date, we discovered that I'd won December's drawing for a free drink. Thus, I still enjoyed free caffeine on my birthday! I have the Starbucks app, but I'm seldom near one on my actual birthday (the closest is 30 minutes away), so I miss out on their free drink offer
--My husband's presents were all deeply thoughtful: hand-carved hair sticks for when I'm working and need it out of my face; the world's biggest roll of Gorilla tape (I'm the handy person in our house, so I was genuinely excited for this); a beautiful luna moth shirt and a dark green flowing skirt; and the short story that "Mothra" was originally based on, which was only translated and published this year!!!
ABSOLUTELY brag on the lunch packing because that is SO EASY to toss to the side when you are tired, when you are uninspired, when you are bored of doing it!
House trapped a lot due to the recent storms and extreme cold temps.. easier to stay in and not face the temps and risk a painful headache..
Since everyone was home and not out gallivanting..
Lots of cooking!
Used the large pack of pork chops I bought on markdown months ago.. smothered porkchops in gravy with veggies and carbs on the side.
Chicken and Chorizo burrito bowl night with beans and rice
Oh another freeze day off work and school? That would be an oven roasted pork shoulder, tossed a box of scalloped potatoes and a homemade corn casserole in along side to continue the oven adding heat to the house.
Non food- I had been needing to buy some new work clothing.. a friend asked if I wanted her Torrid dollars... She transferred them to me. This stuff is spendy but the discount and ship to store helps. Tried it all on when I picked up and returned some for not working, exchanged a few for better size( they rerung at same discount price AND shipped to home for free! ) Then they told me I still had some discount codes and due to weather had extended the dates.. I was able to grab a few items in store with store price, discount codes AND additional 10% off from picking up online orders. Worth waiting to buy things in the end.
--I oversalted the oatmeal I made on Friday to the point that my husband couldn't eat his. Rather than throw away the cup or so that was left, I made a dessert on Sunday to incorporate it. Something like a fruit crisp, except the top wasn't crisp because it had cooked oatmeal in it.
--I found my youngest son's only presentable hoodie. It had been missing for a couple of weeks and I was afraid he had lost it at school or something. But it turned up when I was looking in one of our trucks for something else. He wears it a lot, and I did not want to have to buy him another one.
--I am not driving to my middle son's basketball game today. This will save me over 200 miles of driving. I'm really not going because I have to take my daughter to her First Communion class today, but it will save me the gas, and wear and tear on the car. (I still feel bad I'm not going, though, because he plays JV but will have to wait for all the varsity games to finish before coming home on the team bus, which means he won't get home until probably 11 p.m. Tired boy tomorrow.)
--I cleaned out our smaller chest freezer that had been empty and unplugged for several months so I could transfer all the stuff from the bigger chest freezer in preparation for bringing home the whole cow from the butcher. The smaller chest freezer is one that we found at the abandoned house next door we bought. It's at least forty years old. I was afraid it wouldn't work when I plugged it in. But it did. Whew.
--My husband changed the oil in my Honda. He didn't bother for a long time because it used to be that getting an oil change at a Jiffy Lube or something was just about as cheap as buying all the stuff and doing it ourselves, but not anymore. So he does it for all our vehicles.
--He also built a burner outside to burn all the waste oil we have here. The previous owner of this house left a fifty-gallon barrel of old motor oil on the property, along with a smaller five-gallon one, and we could not figure out how to dispose of it easily. Other than siphoning it off a milk jug at a time and bringing it when we go to town, which is far from convenient. I was very apprehensive about an oil burner, figuring it would release oily black smoke and be generally horrible, but it didn't. He built it initially in our pasture burn pit, but now wants to move the whole thing into our semi-enclosed shop and run the pipe through the roof in there (there's already a hole for one, because the previous owner had an oil burner in there--hence the giant barrel of oil) to heat the shop. It would be nice to get a positive benefit from all that nasty old oil. And get it out of that barrel that's been sitting by the house for, um, seven years.
I had a bit of money left on a Visa gift card I got for Christmas 2024 but was having trouble using it most places. I saw that Aldi makes it very easy to split payments and was able to use it all up.
Cooked up some wrinkly apples my son requested when he was home on break but never actually ate.
Remembered to add coupons on the app before going grocery shopping.
Today I’m picking up a prescription at CVS and will use up the reward money on my account on something else while I’m there.
Lots of hanging clothes to dry inside instead of using the dryer.
Made Rice Krispie treats with Christmas-themed cereal my husband found on the clearance rack.
Frugally snowed in:
1. Found some readers online for about $16 for four, bought them for DH, who was looking at them in the store for a lot more $. We'll see if they last.
2. Made chicken broth with some bones I'd frozen and a bag of kitchen scraps (onion peels, garlic peels, carrot peels), a bag of 2 year old oregano, and some other herbs in my spice cabinet. I haven't made broth in a while because it takes so long, but I had all day to do it.
3. Found some baby clothes of my now adult kids. Washed them, wrapped them each in tissue paper (from my bag of folded tissue paper to reuse) with a note on them. I even found a pic with her parent wearing one of the shirts to include. 🙂 Mailed them (reusing a box) to my granddaughter who has one of those lifelike baby dolls. I think she will enjoy them and the only cost was postage, which I print out at home using my postal scale. Oh and packing tape, which is a staple in my house, since I dabble a little on ebay still.
4. I took down a wooden folding screen used to hold photos, filed the photos in an album, and listed the screen on Buy Nothing. So many replied that I drew a name and the recipient was happy. I'm working on updating my home environment to reflect my life now and stop looking back at old photos and being sad that the raising kid stages are over. I can look in the albums from time to time but not every day.
5. Eating down the freezer. When I run out of sliced bread, I'm using flour tortillas. Made croutons (Kristen, you are my inspiration) with old hamburger buns from last summer. I rarely throw food out, but I need to really use it up and not let it be lost forever in freezerland.
There is no way that buying a similar lunch would cost less than what you pack, unless your caf is heavily subsidized. Maybe you could buy something cheap, fried, starchy, and not very nutritious, but that's not a like-to-like comparison.
Pretty good week for me, and my list is a good working definition of anti-climax.
1. Found and fixed two mistakes on a credit card statement, $270 total (stir and I forgot I'd prepaid an order, interest charged because bank didn't transfer money on time).
2. Found and fixed mistakes from a doc statement (solo practitioner, new system), $675.
3. Fixed $5 drug store glasses.
4. Bought two new books for $1.32 + exchange credit at B&N.
5. Made Joe Yonan's Indian Lentil Stew using what I had on hand: green lentils instead of black, regular chick peas instead of split, mayacoba beans instead of kidney, and heavy cream instead of vegan.
There is no way that buying a similar lunch would cost less than what you pack, unless your caf is heavily subsidized. Maybe you could buy something cheap, fried, starchy, and not very nutritious, but that's not a like-to-like comparison.
Pretty good week for me, and my list is a good working definition of anti-climax.
1. Found and fixed two mistakes on a credit card statement, $270 total (stir and I forgot I'd prepaid an order, interest charged because bank didn't transfer money on time).
2. Found and fixed mistakes from a doc statement (solo practitioner, new system), $675.
3. Fixed $5 drug store glasses.
4. Bought two new books for $1.32 + exchange credit at B&N.
5. Made Joe Yonan's Indian Lentil Stew using what I had on hand: green lentils instead of black, regular chick peas instead of split, mayacoba beans instead of kidney, and heavy cream instead of vegan.
Dunno why the dup post, feel free to delete. Sorry, y'all.
The last place I worked before retiring in 2023 had an employee rate at the cafeteria of $5 for breakfast and $8 for lunch. It was not particularly healthy food. I just kept packing my meals from home.
Also been frozen in, which meant no going any where and no spending, with lots of cooking from home. Made it to the grocery store yesterday and knocked $3.50 off the total with paper and digital coupons. Bought two trays of yellow-sticker fresh meats and broke them down into components for four meals. Put gas in my car -- $10 -- after not needing to do so in January. Found the new e-book for book club through the library.
Even if you are not saving money on the cost of your lunches, your lunches are likely more nutritious than buying them at work!
1. My mom gave us fruits, vegetables, cookies, eggs, cereal, chicken, etc. I used the over-ripe blueberries she gave us to make muffins and pancakes. I used the over-ripe apples and pears to make apple, pear sauce. I used some of the Cheerios and some random dried fruits and nuts from my cupboard, to make Kristen's granola. I used some over-ripe mixed fruit to make smoothies and popsicles.
2. I used Italian sausage I got at Aldi for 50% off, along with homemade vegetable broth, dried beans, and sweet potatoes my mom gave us, to make black bean, sweet potato soup. We ate this for dinner for 3 nights with bread my mom gave us. Total cost was about $5.
3. I listed a standing desk for sale on Marketplace.
4. A friend gave us a bunch of soap they made.
5. We went on a playdate to a museum we have a membership to. The membership gave us free parking and rides on the carousel and train. We brought lunch and water with us.
I am certain you are saving money. Our hospital food was not inexpensive, plus yours is most certainly healthier. On occasion I’d have to buy lunch (overnight, unplanned call) and I also disliked having to wait in line for it. I never had much time to eat