Fifth & Final Frugal Friday of May 2025

Welcome to Frugal Friday! 
Quote of the Week

“Learn skills that will bless your family. […] Once you learn something then don't stop there, learn more”. ~ Becky @ Frugal Measures

My Frugal Week

Last Friday was my last day of physical therapy. I went to yard sales before and after PT and also went by the library. At the library they were selling DVDs priced at five for $1.00, so 20 cents each. I bought all ten of the exercise DVDs they had, so now that PT is over, I can use them on my $10 yard sale TV/DVD player. 
At yard sales I picked up a measuring glass pitcher, a sink strainer/drainer, one shirt, one shelf with hooks, new Instant Pot silicone lid, mirror on a stand for my desk, one canister, and two Aladdin hot food thermoses. 

            

Isn't this a beautiful pitcher? I saw it and liked it instantly and only paid $1.00 for it. I'm going to use it for when I make gelatin cups to pour from to avoid any drips. I did a little research and turns out it is a vintage Evenflo formula measuring pitcher from the 1950s. I love that it is vintage. 
I almost bought a hot food thermos last week to make lunches for my Florida family that came in, but decided against that. I’m so glad I did because I only paid $2 each for these from a yard sale and they were much higher than that in the store. 

Yard Sale Saturday
Bailey eats breakfast on the go on yard sale days, so I fixed her some turkey sausages and put them in one of thermoses I bought and she ate them in the car while I drove. 
It rained during the night and threatened to rain during the day and was overcast, so again yard sales were hit or miss. We started out the day in the historical St. Elmo neighborhood of Chattanooga at the St. Elmo Presbyterian Church where the Boy Scouts were having a yard sale. 
What they did have had been rained on, but we dove in anyway into boxes and bags of unsorted, unorganized stuff. Nothing was priced individually and we didn’t notice the price signs on the tables until they asked us where each item came from. 😬 Oops. 
We ended up making a deal and we agreed upon $15 for my bag of items. When I got home I counted how many items I had and it came to 18, so each piece was 83 cents. 

In the photo above you can see I got an Instant Pot stainless steel liner (wow!), three spoons, three canning jars, two of which were vintage and one was wide mouth (my favorite), a beautiful Lands End towel, homemade dish cloth, soap, three baby blankets, another jar, three books, a new magnetic notepad (goes into the gift closet), a set of stainless steel measuring cups, and some brand new magnets still in the box. It was so much fun and cheap entertainment. LOL
I also picked up a new wind chime for the back porch, priced at only $2.00. 
Sunday turned out to be a pretty day even though it was overcast. The temperature was 66 degrees, so I turned the a/c off and opened up the windows to air out the house. I also worked on my blog and did laundry in between. On Monday I stripped my bed and washed my sheets and blankets. 
I received a $50 gift card to Walmart from my insurance company for having a test done recently. One of the things I bought with it was a new windshield wiper as mine needed replacement. I watched a couple of YouTube videos to see if I could change it myself, but had no luck, so I asked a gentleman from church and he did it for me. Thanking the Lord for this blessing. 💕 
Freebies
On Tuesday I had errands to run and one of those included stopping in at the Chattanooga Free Store. I picked up a hoodie with kangaroo pocket for myself, three magazines, what I thought was a mason jar carrier, and a couple of lip balms. I had never been in there before, but had wanted to go for a long time now. I’ll definitely go back again someday. For those local folks, they let you shop once a week. 

While I was at the library this week, I decided to check out their free seed catalog, which they store in an old card catalog index file. I also checked out their toiletries closet. They offer sanitary products, makeup, nail polish, hair nets, and such. I picked up a trial size bottle of lotion and some press on nails for Bailey. 
Circle K gave me a free 28 ounce bottled drink as a reward, so I went in the store when I was out this week to pick it up. They are priced at $3.28, so a nice freebie and I stored it in the fridge. 

On Thursday I returned my car to the collision center shop for a new drivers side door handle, which was broken while they had my car. The owner says those things just wear out, but I think one of them was just too rough with it. 
I stopped in at the Samaritan Center too. Jackie over at In The Land of the Living Skies makes tinkle wipes to save money on toilet paper. While I was looking I noticed they had baby wash clothes, which would be perfect for this purpose. They were five for $1.00, so twenty cents each. I bought twenty of them, washed them, and put them in a basket in the bathroom. 
Saving Money on Entertainment
Is there anything better to a cat than an empty box? It sure does make for some inexpensive entertainment. 😂 
What I've been Reading This Week
My Money Saving Tips ~ Ilona, aka Mean Queen, over at Love my Life/Life After Money has this list on her blog on ways she saves money. She has always reminded me of someone who is hard core frugal like Amy Dacyczyn was. It’s a terrific list of ways she saves money and many of them are just good common sense and definitely worth the read. 
How was your week? Any frugal wins to share with us? 

Thank you for dropping by my frugal blog, you are always welcome here. 
We would love to hear all about your week in the comment section.

Belinda 🫶 💕 Homemaker at Heart 💕 ~ Living within our Means ~My Linktree
~ She looketh well to the ways of her household ~Proverbs 31:27

Saving Money on Washing Laundry

Saving Money on Washing Laundry

There are ways that we can save money when it comes to doing our laundry. One way is by always washing full loads of laundry. Use less detergent than the bottle says to use, and cut that amount in half or even less. Use as little as possible to clean your clothes. Also, you can use vinegar as a fabric softener. 

Use cold water to wash laundry to save money on electricity for your water heater and your well pump, if you have a well pump.

Before you wash your clothes inspect them to see if they really need washing. Sniff them, do they smell, are they wrinkled or stained? If you answer no to these questions, you don't need to wash them as it is a waste of money to wash clothes that are not dirty.

Wearing clothes more than once saves you money because you will do less laundry. When I go out of the house to run errands I’ll dress better than I do if I'm just staying home for the day.  

Then, once I get home from running errands, I’ll take my clothes off immediately and hang them up to wear another day and switch back into my every day clothes. This helps to make my good clothes last longer with less laundering and saves money in the process. 

Also considering wearing an apron that will save your shirt from spills and stains. You can hang it in the kitchen, and use it daily.

Also consider having outside clothes for dirty jobs like gardening, which can stay by the door and gets washed minimally. 

My Dad had his workshop downstairs for many years and it is completely separate from the house upstairs. There is also a bathroom, and washer and dryer, so he could shower downstairs and wash his clothes and not have to bring the dirt from his machinery upstairs with him. 

Stretching your laundry means stretching the life of your clothes. Stretching your clothes means stretching your dollar and we could all use some of that in our finances these days.

Saving Money on Drying

The cheapest way to dry your laundry is to hang it to dry, but if you do use a clothes dryer, be sure to clean the link trap after every load to make sure it is drying and heating sufficiently. Also, use a dryer lint brush to get all the dryer link out, or if you have a vacuum cleaner attachment use that to get rid of even more dryer lint. 

What are some ways you save money on laundry?

Belinda 🫶 💕 Homemaker at Heart 💕 ~ Living within our Means ~My Linktree

~ She looketh well to the ways of her household ~Proverbs 31:27

Menu Plan Monday ~ Saving Money in my Frugal Kitchen ~ Week #4 May 2025

 

Quote of the Week

"The cost of food is significant. When we eat out and pay someone else to cook our food for us, the bill can easily double or triple in cost. Therefore, cooking our own food at home saves us money".

Dining out multiple times per week at a cost of $15 to $50 per meal adds up and can easily become a habit, is often unhealthy, unplanned, and eats away our savings accounts.  Cook at home, invest the difference and buy your freedom. 

My Frugal Week

On Monday after letting the chicken broth from the rotisserie chickens cool, I packaged it up and ended up with ten pint sized containers of deep colored broth. 

Afterwards I sorted thru the bones and picked out the remaining meat, and ended up with about one third full of a gallon size Ziplock bag. Then I decided to use it with a package of Pepperidge Farms dressing and the chicken broth to make chicken and dressing for dinner on Tuesday evening. 

On Thursday we were out of gelatin cups again. So, I made six cups with strawberry/banana gelatin and canned pears and peaches, and I made six cups using orange gelatin and fresh clementines. These make the perfect evening snack with a spoonful of cottage cheese on top. 

On Friday after yard sales, I stopped at Aldi and picked up two pounds of red grapes, grape tomatoes, one English cucumber, and one package of strawberries, which came to $9.90. 

On Saturday I washed the new mason jars I picked up this week and reorganized a shelf in my kitchen. I washed a board we found last week at a yard sale to make a shelf liner. Then I lined up all my jars on the shelf, which should make it easier to find them and put them away after using. 

Have you ever known ketchup to go bad? I had a bottle in my fridge that was fine when we bought it but tasted off to me recently even though it was not out of date. I didn’t want to use it in my beefy baked beans recipe this week, so instead I turned to some Heinz ketchup packs, given to me by a friend, and measured out the half cup I needed and used that in my recipe instead. 

Look around at what you have and ask yourself,  “how can I use this”, even if it’s in a different way. Look outside the box. Some of these frugal tasks may seem like a lot of work, but hard work is something we can do. 

Recipe of the Week

This recipe reminds me of my homemade chicken nuggets recipe, but this one has the addition of chopped broccoli, which will boost the nutrient content. 

Cheesy Chicken and Broccoli Patties  

Ingredients:

1 pound ground chicken

1 egg

2 cups chopped broccoli 

1 cup of sharp cheddar cheese

Directions:

Season with pepper, salt, onion powder, and paprika to taste.   

Mix everything together and make into patties.

Place on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. 

Bake at 425° and for about 25 minutes.

 

What’s for Dinner

Monday ~ BBQ Chicken, Steamed Broccoli, Cucumber & Tomato Salad. 

Tuesday ~ Chicken & Dressing, Green Beans with Onions. 

Wednesday ~ We had Florida family come in for just a few hours on a layover in Chattanooga after their Tennessee river cruise. It wasn’t long enough to bring them back home for lunch because of the distance, so we went to Wendy’s and they bought my lunch, which was a small chili and water. 

They are both very frugal and wanted to stop at Burger King to get the $3.99 Whopper Wednesday deal to take with them for dinner later. They needed two Whoppers and you can only get one on the app, so Linda bought one on her app and I bought one on my app. I teased them and told them that since they bought my lunch, I would buy dinner. 😂 

Linda saw me take the receipt from Wendy's and add it to my Fetch app, so she asked me about it. I went ahead and installed it on her phone for her and she ended up with 2,700 points before she left the Chattanooga airport. 

And I got 3,000 points for the referral.  If you're interested in joining Fetch and scanning your receipts for gift cards to places like Amazon, Walmart, Kroger, etc., my referral link can be found in the right hand column at the bottom of this page. 

Once I got home I made dinner for Bailey and myself, which was Chicken and Dressing from Tuesday, and Cucumber Tomato Salad.

Thursday ~ Beefy Baked Beans, Steamed Carrots & Cabbage, Sliced Zucchini, and the last of the Cucumber Tomato Salad. The zucchini, free from a friend, was sliced into coins like cucumbers and served raw. Bailey doesn’t care for cooked zucchini, but she really enjoyed it raw, so I’ll be serving it this way again. 

Friday ~ Bailey had her book club to attend, so I was on my own for dinner. I made both of us a Caesar Grilled Chicken salad for dinner, but we didn’t eat together like we usually do. 

Saturday ~ Lemon Pepper Chicken with Peppers & Onions, Carrots, Cabbage, and Corn on the Cob. 

Sunday ~ Cheesy Chicken and Broccoli Patties (recipe above), Corn on the Cob, along with a garden salad.

What’s been on the menu in your home this past week?

Belinda

Homemaker at Heart

Mortgage & Debt Free~ Living within our Means ~My Linktree
~ She looketh well to the ways of her household ~Proverbs 31:27

Fourth Frugal Friday of May 2025

Welcome to Frugal Friday! 
Quote of the Week

"Don't count us out, we're [...] old school where hard work and sacrifice are the name of the game".  ~ Mrs. Patsi from A Working Pantry

My Frugal Week
This week I've been reading more reporting about the tariffs and how the cost of goods are going to rise. 
Another item I read this week is that a growing number of Americans are financing groceries with buy now, pay later loans. And more and more people are paying those bills late. This tells me that some consumers are struggling to afford essential expenses like groceries and the reasons are varied, but include inflation, high interest rates, and economic uncertainty. 
There are always going to be hard times, so it's important for us to use our best frugal skills to weather this latest storm as well as other storms in good or hard financial times. 
In previous generations, it was very common to live a life of careful thrift, which included wise spending, careful use of resources, and a consistent habit of saving.  Those things need to be front and center in our lives today to see us through these latest hard economic times as uncertainty is here for everyone. 
We need to be looking for ways we can manage with what we have. One way that we can combat rising prices is to shop the second hand market for things we need. There are no tariffs on thrift store or yard sale clothes. And shopping the second hand market not only reduces our carbon footprint, but it keeps those items out of the landfills, and funnels money into our local economies. 
So, use some of your time this summer to go to yard sales and thrift stores. Trade and barter things you need with friends and family. Amy Dacyczyn used to yard sale during the summer months for things she needed all year long including school clothes and Christmas gifts. 
Good financial management means a cautious and orderly outlook when it comes to our finances. Waiting, careful thought and planning are essential when it comes to getting the most out of our money. Having a budget with plans for our income are very important considerations in planning for both spending and saving.   

"Say no to [...] things that you know are going to decimate your budget. Saying no is free and sometimes saves you a fortune".  ~ Annabel from The Bluebirds are Nesting on the Farm

Look around your home at the things you have and ask yourself how you can use those items, maybe even in a different way. Look outside the box. Working hard is something we can all do in order to survive these current hard times. 
Maintaining Our Driveway
Over the years we have put a lot of money and time into maintaining our driveway, which is 1/8 of a mile long and requires routine maintenance.  
My Dad was especially the one who maintained it while he was alive, and since his passing, it has become even more challenging. 
My neighbor came last weekend and worked on it after he cleared his land last summer, which caused it to wash out both of our driveways. 
He is ordering a culvert for both his driveway and ours and I'll pay him for ours, but he is doing the work for free. (A definite blessing)
There are some also some potholes that have developed that need work. The local rock quarry will let you come and get a five gallon bucket of rocks for free. There is no way I could carry a five gallon bucket of them, but I did go and get a small bag and put them in one of the bigger pot holes and will continue to do this until the issue is resolved. 
I'm so grateful for our neighbor who is willing to do the work for free and for the rock quarry willing to let us have some free rocks. 
Speaking of the driveway, we had bad storms here on Tuesday night and when I went out Wednesday morning for physical therapy I found a tree had fallen across the driveway. 
Part of the tree was rotten, so lucky for me, it broke into several pieces. I was able to get out of my car and move enough of the pieces to get my car out of the driveway, which is something I wouldn't have been able to do before my knee replacements. I would have had to call my BIL Jody to help me, so another blessing in disguise for sure. 
Savings of the Week

On Thursday I went to Circle K to save 40 cents per gallon on gas, which was a loyalty discount for being part of their rewards program. I paid $2.39 per gallon and it only cost me $24.26 to fill up my car with gasoline. Now I have a full tank in preparation for Yard Sale Saturday. 
Freebies

Freebies this week included a Southern Living magazine, lemonade Capri Sun, two applesauce, two bars of soap, and a roll of toilet paper, which came from the free box at the thrift store. 
Package From Sluggy 

A package from Sluggy after her recent giveaway arrived on Wednesday. 
I saved it for after dinner so Bailey and I could enjoy opening it together. It was a great selection of items, and we both picked out different things we wanted. 
There was a pair of headphones in the package and I've been wanting a pair to carry in my purse when I go places, so I won't disturb others. 
And right now the linen scented Febreze plug in is sending a beautiful scent throughout my bedroom. 
I was really tickled to win Sluggy's giveaway. Thank you again Sluggy!
Bailey
If you're interested in reading about Bailey's first craft fair, she has started writing on Substack and you can read about it here. She is an excellent writer and you’ll find her posts to be engaging and fun to read. You may even learn more about our life here as she tries to do things frugally just like her Mom. I’m very proud of her. 
Joy of the Week
My goodness this was such a great week. I got to see family on Sunday that I had not seen since Christmas and saw additional family on Wednesday that I had not seen since Thanksgiving 2023. 
They were all very happy to see me up and walking around with no assistance along with my weight loss, and gave me lots of hugs. This was the joy of my week for them to see me walking around unassisted after all the hard work I put in towards that goal.  
What I've been Listening & Reading This Week
Home Depot Pledges to Keep Lid on Prices
Lisa Romano  ~ An excellent resource for those who are working on healing. 
In Closing
There can be a satisfying type of joy found in the rhythm and puttering around in our homes. The smell of good food cooking, coffee brewing, the glimpse of the morning light, or seeing the sun's rays behind a cloud.  
This week I hope you will take some time to pause and reflect on the ordinary things in your life and find simplicity and grace in your every day tasks as you go about your days. 

Thank you for dropping by my frugal blog, you are always welcome here. 
We would love to hear all about your week in the comment section.

Belinda 🫶 💕 Homemaker at Heart 💕 ~ Living within our Means ~My Linktree
~ She looketh well to the ways of her household ~Proverbs 31:27

Menu Plan Monday ~ Saving Money in my Frugal Kitchen ~ Week #3 May 2025

My Frugal Week

This was a week of planning meals from what we have on hand and was more of a cook once, eat twice kind of week. 

Chicken Broth in the making

On Saturday we stopped in at Walmart for cottage cheese. They had their rotisserie chickens marked down to $2.02, so we bought five of them. I came home, deboned them, put the bones in the crockpot and all that good chicken meat in the freezer for future meals. I was able to get two gallon size bags of meat from the chickens and six pints of chicken broth for the freezer. 

Photo of the Week

Our first cantaloupe of the season, which was delicious and cost $4 from a roadside stand. He had watermelon for $12, but that was out of my price range.

 

What’s for Dinner

Monday & Tuesday ~ Chicken Soft Tacos, Corn or Flour Tortillas, Extra Sharp Cheddar Cheese, Red Onions, Tomatoes, Black Olives, Chipotle Sauce. 

Wednesday & Thursday ~ Smoked Sausage, Potatoes, Green Beans & Onion Baked Casserole. 

Friday & Saturday ~ Chicken, Cucumber Salad, Stir Fry Vegetables. I added onions and peppers to the chicken along with Asian seasonings to go with the stir fry theme. 

I thought about going to the store for tomatoes, lettuce, and cheese and making our favorite tacos, but rather than do that I made dinner out of what we had here. It was a big hit and I saved money by not going to the store. Use what you have at home and save yourself some money. 

Sunday ~ Bailey was out of the house with her book club friends and I had a family event to attend. They made taco meat on the Blackstone and homemade queso with all the fixings. It was delicious. 

What’s been on the menu in your home this past week?

Belinda

Homemaker at Heart

Mortgage & Debt Free~ Living within our Means ~My Linktree
~ She looketh well to the ways of her household ~Proverbs 31:27