First Frugal Friday of January 2026

Welcome to Frugal Friday
Each Friday here at Frugal Workshop, I love sharing the frugal wins, quiet savings, and simple strategies that helped us stretch our budget over the past seven days. It’s a gentle look back at the small things that make a big difference. 
My Frugal Week
Last week it was so warm here during Christmas that we were sorry we put plastic over the windows already. We would have turned the a/c on if we hadn’t had them covered. We were wearing shorts on Christmas because it was so warm. Pictures I saw of others get togethers showed many others wearing shorts too. We ended up opening the back door and putting a fan in front of it to help circulate air. 
The cold weather returned by the beginning of this week though with temperatures in the lower thirties. 

Last Friday I took down our porch Christmas tree and stored it back downstairs. We initially put it up because we thought about replacing ours inside with it, but we deemed the one inside to still be good enough for another year, so we turned our porch tree into a snack tree for all our delivery and service people. 
We saved the wrapping paper from our Christmas unwrapping to use as packing material for Bailey’s online business. She sells a lot of hard goods and needs all the packing material she can get. 
We played Dirty Santa at the family get together on Sunday. The gifts Bailey and I brought were a huge hit and claimed multiple times, which makes the exchange even more fun to me. 
Health & Exercise
Santa brought me a walking pad for Christmas this year. I was on it first thing last Friday and walked for twenty minutes and ended up with over 10,000 steps by the end of that day, which is one of my goals for 2026 to get in 10K steps or more every day. 
Saving on Electric
Well, we didn’t turn on the air even though we wanted to, so that’s a win for saving on the electric bill this week. 
Saving Money on Entertainment
Bailey and I had the best time after Christmas, which is the time of year where she takes the week off and we do fun things together. 
This year we went through all of our board games, especially the ones we picked up second hand in 2025, played them to determine if they were keepers or not, and placed any unworthy ones in the McKays bag to trade. 
We used to play games every Saturday night, but have let that lapse this past year. But we love it so much that we’ve decided to get back to this in 2026. 
What I've been Reading This Week

Struggling families warned of ‘devastating’ increases in heating costs this winter. ~ Those who use electricity like we do will see an average cost of $1,233, up 12.2% from last year. Yikes! 

In Conclusion …
Prices on several items remained higher than we were willing to pay in 2025. We stopped eating out as the price of restaurant meals, especially when compared to food cooked at home, were too high for our frugal hearts. 
In 2026 our frugal ways will be out in full force. We will strive to do even better this year than last year and I hope you’ll be here with us on the journey. We hope that 2026 is a good year for you with many blessings along the way. 
How was your week?

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 in My Frugal Kitchen ~ Week #5 December 2025

Welcome to Frugal Workshop where every Monday I share the simple strategies used to save money over the past week, along with the meals that made it to our dinner table. You'll find practical tips on how we saved money on food hopefully to inspire your own meal planning using the foods you have in your own pantry.

My Frugal Week

We are still in use it up mode here in our kitchen. I’ve been working on clearing out the freezers to make more room and using those foods I bought for our holiday get togethers really helped with that issue. We will be doing our monthly grocery shopping soon and have freed up a great deal of freezer space for that purpose. 

On Saturday I made Hash Brown Casserole, Broccoli Casserole, and Chocolate Cake to take to our family get together on Sunday. This really helped clear freezer space as I bought the hash browns and broccoli at the beginning of the month and those are gone now. 

I sorted through my bin of winter squashes to make sure none were spoiling and to use those items up as well. 

Use It Up Item Of The Week

This would be the cream cheese we bought on sale at Ingle’s at the first of the month. It was on sale, so I bought ten of them for $1.00 each and centered the dishes I made for the holiday towards using them up, which helped us save money by spending less on our holiday meals. I have two left now and will find a way to use those up as well. 

 

What’s for Dinner

Monday ~ Meat Sauce, Protein Pasta, Spaghetti Squash, Broccoli. 

This was a planned over meal from the Sunday before. Bailey wanted protein pasta, but I wanted spaghetti squash, so I made both and served broccoli on the side. The meat sauce had time for the flavor to get even better. 

Tuesday ~ Family Get Together ~ Finger Foods

Ham and cheese sandwiches, chips, cheese ball, vegetable tray, Mexican pinwheels, Neman Marcus cake, cookies, German chocolate cake, and cupcakes. 

Wednesday ~ Christmas Eve ~ Chili Cheese Dip, Cheese Ball, Mexican Pinwheels.

We decided to keep the finger food theme going, so I made a chili cream cheese dip and had pretzel thins and tortilla chips for dipping, cheese ball with crackers, and Mexican pinwheels. We had Newman Marcus cake, which Bailey made, for dessert. 

Thursday & Friday ~ Christmas ~ Ham & Soup Beans, Cheese Ball, Mexican Pinwheels. 

I used one Honey Baked Ham bone to make ham with soup beans for dinner. I bought them on a buy one, get two free sale about two months ago and stored them in the freezer. There was plenty of ham on the bone to satisfy our appetites. I served this with the appetizers from Christmas Eve, so cooking was very minimal, which made for a very relaxing day. 

Saturday ~ Chicken Sausage, Hash Brown Casserole. 

The chicken sausage was a package we bought on markdown at the beginning of the month. I made the hash brown casserole for Sunday and had extra, so served some with dinner. 

Sunday ~ Family Get Together Dinner - Ham, Oven Roasted Potatoes, Hash Brown Casserole, Broccoli Casserole, Green Beans, Baked Beans, Rolls, Deviled Eggs, Chocolate Peanut Butter Eclair Cake, Chocolate Cake, Chocolate Covered Peanuts. 

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

Belinda

Homemaker at Heart

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

Image Credit

Fourth Frugal Friday of December 2025

 

Welcome to Frugal Friday
Each Friday here at Frugal Workshop, I love sharing the frugal wins, quiet savings, and simple strategies that helped us stretch our budget over the past seven days. It’s a gentle look back at the small things that make a big difference. 
My Frugal Week
The weather was so nice here on Sunday that I was able to walk outside and got in over 12,000 steps. Walking counts as weight bearing exercise and is good for the osteoporosis in my hip. And guess what I found on the edge of the driveway? A crow bar, which probably fell off someone's truck at some point in time. It was buried in the dirt, so it had been there a while. 
Monday was laundry day as usual and all the laundry in the house was washed, dried, folded and put away. We then cleaned up the house for Christmas. 
Tuesday was the first of two family get togethers. We had the best time visiting, playing games, eating together, and exchanging presents. 
I received $118.44 from Adsense this week for the last four months from this blog. 
We spent Christmas Eve at home having finger foods for our dinner. We had a really good day playing board games, watching Christmas movies, and TikTok videos we’ve been saving to show each other. 
Christmas Day was also spent at home. We had a leisurely day taking our time to open presents and telling stories of how some items were procured, which are fun to share and hear. We spent part of the day playing more games. We have a lot of games, which we buy second hand, and went through many of them and put aside the ones we didn’t enjoy to trade at McKays. 
Frugal Laundry 
Do you use those scent boosting laundry adds ins? I was reading the other day about how those are made and the main ingredient in the DIY version is epsom salt. Well I bought a bag of Dr. Teals lavender scented epsom salts a few weeks ago at an estate sale. I tried it in my own laundry this week using about 1/8th of a cup. It really made my laundry smell good too and was very affordable. 
This week’s blog post is shorter than usual due to the busy activities of this week, but I hope you enjoyed reading it. How was your week?

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

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas 

The angel of the Lord came upon them, and said, Fear not, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. Glory to God in the highest, peace on earth, good will toward men.

Merry Christmas to all my friends and followers. We hope you have a wonderful day!

Belinda

Homemaker at Heart

~ Living within our Means ~My Linktree

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

Saving Money in My Frugal Kitchen ~ Week #4 December 2025

Welcome to Frugal Workshop where every Monday I share the simple strategies used to save money over the past week, along with the meals that made it to our dinner table. You'll find practical tips on how we saved money on food hopefully to inspire your own meal planning using the foods you have in your own pantry.

My Frugal Week

I’m bringing ham and cheese pinwheels to the family gathering on Tuesday, so I went to the downstairs freezer and took the ham out in time to thaw. I also pulled out some bagel thins and cashew milk for Bailey. Having the extra freezer, even though it is only a top of the fridge one, does help us save money. 

Use It Up Item Of The Week

I found a bag of frozen peaches I didn’t know I had in the freezer, so I used them up by making a peach cobbler with them on Sunday. 

Recipe of the Week

This recipe has both calcium, which is good for those of us diagnosed with osteoporosis, and protein, which is also good for us. 

Cinnamon Vanilla Latte

Ingredients:

2 cups milk of your choice

2 cinnamon sticks

2 black tea bags (such as Earl Grey, English Breakfast)

1 tablespoon maple syrup or sweetener of your choice

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

Combine milk and cinnamon sticks. 

Heat until bubbles form around the edge and milk is steaming. 

Remove from heat and add tea bags. 

Cover and let steep for 5 minutes.

Remove tea bags and cinnamon sticks, pressing gently on tea bags.

Whisk in maple syrup and vanilla.

Pour into two warmed mugs. 

Add cinnamon sticks, if desired to cups to serve.

What’s for Dinner

Monday ~ Chicken Tacos, Chili Beans and Corn

I thawed some already cooked chicken breast meat from the freezer for this meal. I chopped up the meat, added onions and the last of the red and yellow peppers, along with some taco seasoning and salsa. 

I served this with choice of hard or soft flour or corn tortillas, extra sharp cheddar cheese, tomatoes, red onions, jalapeños, taco sauce, black olives, and my homemade chipotle ranch sauce. Sides were chili beans and corn

Tuesday ~ Chicken Enchiladas, Chili Beans, and Corn

Using up the last of the chicken, I made chicken enchiladas for dinner using a green enchilada sauce, which is my favorite. Bailey prefers the red, but I like the green one. Sides were corn and chili beans. 

Wednesday & Thursday ~ Tina’s Potato Soup

This recipe comes from my sister Tina. It’s another tried and true family favorite. It’s pretty easy to put together once the potatoes are peeled. I doubled the recipe and ended up with 24 cups of soup, so plenty for dinner on both nights and some lunches too. I think I’ll give some to my neighbor too. 

Friday ~ Cottage Cheese Egg Bake, Green Beans with Onions. 

I didn’t have any spinach on hand for the egg dish, but did have a package of frozen kale, so I used that instead. Adding vegetables to eggs helps to increase the fiber in those dishes. 

Saturday ~ Grilled Chicken Sausages, Butternut Squash, Steamed Broccoli. 

The butternut squash was baked in the oven and I added a pat of butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon and there was none left after dinner, which is good. 

Sunday ~ Meat Sauce, Spaghetti Squash, Peach Cobbler. 

I like making spaghetti sauce as I can add ingredients I want to use up and hide them in the sauce such as the last bit of some tomato paste, and the last bit of tomato sauce. I added one pound of Kobe beef, onions and garlic, tomatoes, crushed tomatoes, basil, oregano, marjoram. I served it over spaghetti squash and served broccoli on the side. It was light and refreshing and not a heavy meal at all. 

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

Belinda

Homemaker at Heart

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

Image Credit