Frugal Friday #2

By on

Frugal Friday

Last week’s frugal friday was so much fun!  At first I thought no one would play along and then the comments rolled in.  That made me REALLY happy.  You inspired me to look for new ways to exercise my frugal muscles this week.

If you’re new here:  On Fridays I share a few frugal things I did during the week.  Then in the comments you to share a frugal thing or two you did during the week.  If you are a blogger feel free to link to your Frugal Friday post in the comments and we’ll come check it out.

I’ve been suffering with all over body hives for more than 2 weeks now.  My preliminary blood work shows “numerous active allergies” with more details to come.  In the past I’ve had an allergy to cats so they tested for that agin.  When the test came back negative my first thought was, “I need a cat.” My friend was giving away kittens on facebook—it would just take a second to send her a message….Then I saw this video on facebook.

  1. We didn’t get a cat.  Does that count as frugal?  Pet food, litter costs, extra cleaning, vet bills…..I’m saving big on those.  I really do love cats though.  We’ve been enjoying the friendly farm cats up at my in-law’s place.  There always seems to be a couple of kittens around there.  I’m reserving the right to splurge and get a kitten at some point…but for now, we are being frugal.  We also open our doors to family and friends for pet sitting.  Pet sitting is the joy of a pet for about as long as my kids have an attention span for them.

kitten

They are soooo cute though.

2.  Homemade hamburger buns.  I plopped a rump roast (bought over the weekend on a sale for $2.99 a lb) in the crock pot with a pinch of cloves, tons of garlic salt and a splash of red wine vinegar, for shredded beef sandwiches.  The original recipe is here at Taste of Home.  I was planning my day and how I would get to the day old store to buy buns and I thought—why not just bake my own.  It only takes a couple of minutes of hands on time.  Here’s my favorite recipe.  I saved around $5 and a whole lot of driving time.

homemade hamburger buns

3.  When I didn’t feel well, Instead of eating out we used some frugal convenience foods (Deli roast beef $5 lb, 3 cans crescent rolls $.99 each, and sliced provolone $2.50 for 12 oz) plus garden bell peppers to make Philly Pepper Steak Bundles.  I served it up with finger fruits and veggies on costco paper plates (bought on a coupon sale.)  I keep the plates on hand for the days I can’t cope with one more thing–on the wanna be takeout nights. The best part is the kids saw me making them and it looked so fun that they came over to help.

Philly Pepper Steak Bundles

4.  I used the library.  A blogger I really respect recommended a couple of books.  I was not sure if these books were ones I’d want to read once, or refer back to over and over again.  I requested copies from my library.  Once I read them I can decide if they are ones to buy for our forever library. Money saved $25

5. I used a discount prescription card.  With my Melaleuca membership, I could get a prescription drug discount card.  Our health insurance dropped prescription drug coverage last January to try to reduce costs and keep up with the new government mandates.  The discount card costs $5 a month ($60 a year) and covers all 8 of us.  I needed 2 prescriptions to fight my allergies.  Normally one was $40 and the other was $30.  With the discount card the new prices were $10 & $9. $50 saved and we’ve only had the cards 2 months so far :).

It’s your turn!  Inspire us with one of your frugal activities this week.

 

Frugal Friday #1

By on

I’m going to try something new on the blog.  On Fridays I’m going to share a frugal thing or two I did during the week.  Then in the comments I want you to share a frugal thing or two you did during the week.  If you are a blogger feel free to link to your frugal thing post in the comments and we’ll come check it out.

  1.  $5 iphone app instead of a $50 macbook app.  If you are meal plan subscriber, you already know I lost my hard drive last week.  When we were reloading all my programs, I discovered that Windows purposefully uses disappearing ink on their activation codes.  They ask you to stick the activation sticker to the back of your lap top where the heat from the machine fades the code over time.  If you have a problem and need to restore the program, you have to pay $150 for a new code.   If you wrote it down in another spot, no problem, but if you trusted them….you are up a creek.  We trusted them.  They are not my friend right now.

I decided to rid my life of the Windows operating system.  The only trouble is I use Microsoft Publisher to stay organized with my meal plans and my blog.   I can find a new program going forward, but for now my entire brain is in .pub files that won’t open.  I searched the app store (surely other people have this problem) and found an app for $50 that will open the files.  It got TERRIBLE reviews.  Sigh.

So I tried searching the app store on my phone.  There was a $5 app for iphone that did the same thing.  I bought the app, emailed the files to my phone, converted the files to pdf and emailed them back to my laptop.  $45 saved.   I printed everything and will be using the old fashioned paper method for awhile.  Life is good.

IMG_2035

I already had the binder and dividers in my school supplies box.  They are plain, but the price is right and they work :).

2.  I went to Price Chopper and took advantage of their sale.  Life is so busy for us that I had settled into just shopping at Aldi with a Costco run once a month. The ad this week was so good that I couldn’t resist adding one more store. My goal at a conventional store is for the amount saved to be bigger than the amount spent.  I used no coupons, just advertised sale prices:

DSC_0040

I don’t normally buy instant oatmeal because it has sugar, but the kids can fix it themselves.  At $.79 a box it’s only $.08 a serving.  #raretreat

Eggs have been super high lately–at $3 a dozen or higher.  These were on sale for $1.50 a dozen, limit 2.

Frozen veggies were on sale for $.79 a lb.  I bought 9 in our favorites for winter soups.

Shredded Cheese was $1 for 8 oz.  Limit 4. This price was less than Costco.

Cuties were 3 lb for $3.  The kids like to pack them in lunches.  The roasts were $3.99 a lb (cheap for beef in our area.)

If I hadn’t waited until the last day of the sale I would have gone back a few times to get more of the limit stuff.  It’s just as well.

Proof that I saved more than I spent:

Price Chopper Receipt

3.  I made Greek Yogurt in my slow cooker.  I’ve been running out of grocery money earlier each month, so decided to try a few more make at home things that I used to do before I worked so many jobs.  Here are the instructions, and here’s my periscope on how I finish it to make it super smooth and creamy just like store bought.

Homemade Greek Yogurt

Here you can see the yellowish whey separated on the top.  I strain it off to get 1/2 gallon of whey (which I use like buttermilk in recipes) and 1/2 a gallon of Greek yogurt.  It cost $2.35 for 8 cups of yogurt or $.29 a cup (plus free “buttermilk”).  Fage plain Greek yogurt from Costco is $6 for 6 cups or $1 a cup. This is a 71% savings.  Who doesn’t like a sale?

4.  Tuesday our piano teacher asked if Heidi would babysit his kids for the evening.  He brought over a big pot of chili and I made veggies and garlic bread.  I bought an extra loaf of bread thinking we would eat more than we did.  So Thursday I made it into French bread pizza with leftover spaghetti sauce, some of that cheap cheese (#2) and Aldi pepperoni.

French Bread Pizza

This cost roughly $3 for 8 servings or $.37 a serving.

It’s your turn!  Inspire us with one of your frugal activities this week.