Fourth Frugal Friday of October 2025

Welcome to Frugal Friday
Quote of the Week

"Be guided by the rule: If you don't need it, don’t buy it” ~ WW2 Ration Book

My Frugal Week
I stayed home Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday this week and didn’t spend any money. I will be going out today, but that is due to a tutoring session I have scheduled. 
After cleaning so much in Dad’s shed recently, I realize even more than before that I don’t want to leave a mess like that for Bailey when my time comes. So, on Tuesday I went through my filing cabinet and desk tossing out anything that I didn’t need and also made a small bag of items to donate. 
On Wednesday I measured and packaged fifty-one items for Bailey’s shops and caught up on towels and kitchen laundry. She already has another seventy items steamed and photographed, so I’ll work on measuring and packing those today. 
Bailey’s Birthday Weekend 
We love to spread birthday celebrations over a couple of days and this birthday was no exception for my Harry Potter loving girl. I’m frugal year round, but Christmas and birthdays are an area where I’ll splurge because they are important to us. 
We started on Friday and picked up her free Starbucks drink and entree from a local restaurant, and then spent the day at home with an afternoon tea, sharing videos with each other, tacos for dinner, and a game night. 

Bailey in the Ruddle’s Courtyard

Saturday we went to Ruddle’s Bread & Book store for their Harry Potter Diagon Alley book reading festival. Bailey is dressed for the occasion in her Harry Potter themed dress and jewelry. She had so much fun here as they had Harry Potter books for people to read and bookmark for the next person. She enjoyed a Butterbeer Latte while I enjoyed the spiced apple cider. 

"We invite all Witches and Wizards to join us for a week long, fully immersive Wizarding World experience inspired by our favorite book series Harry Potter!"

Bailey & Historical Marker 

Afterwards we went to Chattanooga for the Rails, Wizards & Spells Train Ride at the Tennessee Valley Railroad. This was a fun train ride to their “academy”. 

Wizard School Headmaster 

"Step into a world of wizarding fun at the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum. Enter the enchanted forest to Wizards Way to find handcrafted wands, spell-holding charms, seasonal sweets, and hay rides. Then board at Platform 4 ½ for a memorable ride with Professors and later deboard for a live potions demonstration, and to see the engine turned for the return to Grand Junction."

Bailey & Belinda on the Train

On Sunday we went to McKay’s Used Books to spend her birthday credits and I took her out to eat at her favorite Chinese buffet. She told me it was a great birthday, which made me happy to have done all of that with her. 
The Great Cleanup Continues 

Before

 

After

On Monday I worked in the shed and took two carloads full to the convenience center and threw them into the dumpster including the second seat from Dad’s old Chevy truck. 
Dad also had old computer monitors stacked in the corner and I managed to get two of those dinosaurs gone. I know there is at least one more in there, but could be more underneath that pile. I took five contractor bags full of trash/debris and dumped those and saved the bags to reuse. 
I was able to clean the floor enough on one side to walk up to the shelves in there and could place items we are keeping for now on the shelves. 

Before 

 

After

He had a lot of vintage soda pop bottles, so I’m placing those on the shelves. They are worth money to someone and I won’t throw those away. I’m also finding a lot of tools and am placing all of those in one bin. 
I worked until I was worn out and my shoulder started hurting, so I called it a day. I went back out there on Thursday and continued the task. There were two more computer monitors, which I got rid of as well as three more contractor bags full of trash, several boxes, bins, old paint, etc. 

Before

After

For some reason there were a lot of leaves and acorns in there that were turning into compost. I cleaned all of that out of there and can finally say I have all the trash out of there, yay! 
There is still stuff in there, but included are antiques, glass, metal, a huge rock polisher and garden tools. It’s not exactly how I want it, but looks so much better than it did and I’m glad all that trash is gone. 
Saving on Electric

I was able to completely turn off the air conditioner on this week as we woke up to a temperature of 38 degrees outside on Monday morning. I’ve been wearing sweat shirts this week, which feels wonderful to me. 
Saving Money on Entertainment
This week I was happy to see Dateline: Secrets Uncovered on my Facebook feed. I’ve always enjoyed this show, so it’s free entertainment to be catching up on some older episodes. 
What I've been Reading This Week
I found an old 1950 Betty Crocker cookbook in Dad’s shed, so I’ve been reading it this week. Before I lost the weight I used to really love reading cookbooks, but nowadays my love of reading them has waned.  

This week I’m grateful for the good weather and sunshine, the gentle rain, which we needed and the vibrant colors of autumn. In all seasons and through the trials of our lives, we trust in God that He will provide all our needs. Philippians 4:19

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 #3 October 2025

What was for Dinner Last Week…

Monday ~ Pork Roast, Potatoes & Carrots

I put all of this in the crockpot earlier in the day and then worked outside all day, so it was a welcome dinner after a long day of work. 

Tuesday ~ Homemade Pizzas

I made homemade pizzas for dinner using corn tortillas for the base, turkey pepperoni, mozzarella cheese and tomato sauce. Using the corn tortillas makes my pizza only nine grams of carbohydrates, which is gentle on my blood sugar. 

Wednesday ~ Chicken Smoked Sausage, Steamed Broccoli, Potatoes & Carrots. 

Thursday ~ Chicken Breast Filets, Baked Sweet Potatoes, and Corn on the Cob. 

Friday ~ Tacos, Corn or Flour Tortillas, Tomatoes, Red Onions, Green Onions, Lettuce, Homemade Chipotle Ranch, and Jalapeños. 

This is what Bailey wanted for her birthday dinner, homemade tacos. I also made her a half gallon of sweet iced tea to go with dinner. She’s not been drinking sweet tea all year, and considered this a treat. 

Saturday & Sunday ~ Different Versions of Tacos or Nachos to polish off the taco meat from Friday. 

Today’s blog post plan is a shorter version than usual as last week was a busy week for both of us. 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

Third Frugal Friday of October 2025

Frugal Friday 

Welcome to Frugal Friday
Today is Bailey’s birthday! I bought her some of her favorite Built and Barebells protein bars, Bengal Spice tea, $65 in McKay Used Books credit, and flowers. I also bought her a piece of suicide chocolate cake from City Cafe along with her favorite ice cream and her favorite toppings, which include strawberries, peanuts, and caramel. 
My Frugal Week
On Tuesday we stopped in at Aldi and Walmart and picked up some groceries. We bought the ice cream and toppings for Bailey’s birthday on Friday, cheddar cheese, cottage cheese, bbq sauce, pickles, yogurt, strawberries, peanuts, milk, and frozen berries for my yogurt bowls. 
I received my first paycheck for tutoring this week. 
Health Update (Feel Free to Skip)
I had an appointment on Friday and found out I need to have a hernia removed, but I’m thankful it’s not giving me any issues. 
On Tuesday I saw the retina specialist for eye injections. 
I was recently diagnosed with posterior vitreous detachment (PVD) in my left eye. PVD occurs when the gel in the eye separates from the retina, which can be caused by diabetes, cataracts, and eye injury, all of which I’ve had to that eye. There is a black circle right in my line of vision and I wish it would go away. He wants to see me in two weeks to check on it again. 
I’m on a Dexcom G7 continuous glucose monitor full time now, which has really helped me see what certain foods do to cause my blood sugar to crash. It’s definitely been a learning curve. 
The Great Cleanup Continues 
JC, the gentleman who hauled off the metal last week, asked his friend to bush hogg our yard for us! Wasn’t that so nice of both of them? He came over on Sunday afternoon and spent a couple of hours on it and wouldn’t take any money for it. We were really blessed by this today. 💕 

While he was here I took my handheld power saw and cut down some weeds and little trees the weed eater wouldn’t cut last week and drug them off into the woods. 
On Monday I went back outside and worked all day trimming bushes, hauling brush into the woods, picking up sticks from the yard, leaf blowing, weed eating, picking up random stuff from the ground in the pole barn, cleaning in the shed, and hauling off a trunk load of flattened cardboard boxes to the convenience center. 
I also walked around the yard and gathered a five gallon bucket, and three plastic planters. The planters disintegrated when I pulled them up from the ground, but I picked up all the pieces and disposed of them. 
My neighbor, who is helping me with the driveway, and also helped me trim bushes, let me use her Milwaukee leaf blower and that tool has a lot more power behind it than my Ryobi leaf blower. I was able to move huge amounts of leaves out of the pole barn with her Milwaukee. 
On Tuesday our neighbor installed the new culvert we bought in the spring. He used an excavator to dig the trench before he could install the culvert. This will divert the rainwater when it comes off the mountain after it was clear cut last year, which will stop the driveway from washing out in that area. 
Yard Sales

I stopped at one yard sale on my way to an appointment on Friday. I spied a like new pair of Etonic shoes in size 10.5, which was my size before I lost the weight, for $5.00, so I brought them home with me. Bailey fell in love with them and now has a pair of new to her shoes. These retail for $150.00. 
On Saturday we went to Tunnel Hill, Georgia to shop at a church yard sale. I came home with six new to me clothing items for $3.00, so 50 cents each. Two pairs on pants in size ten to try on and three shirts including two of my favorite LuLa Roe ones and a cute vest.
They’ve been washed and are waiting for me to try on and what doesn’t fit or work for me will be donated to People Helping People. A win-win situation for everyone. 
Saving on Electric
Our electric bill was $4.00 less this month, which is a sign of the cooler weather we’ve been having. Hopefully we will see an even bigger reduction next month. 
Saving Money on Entertainment
PBS Stories from the Stage ~  Stories have the power to astonish us, make us laugh and cry, and open our hearts to the world. Storytellers from around the world share extraordinary tales of what it means to be human in this PBS series. I’ve been watching it for free on Facebook reels this week. What I’ve Been Reading This Week
Aldi is Offering a $40 Thanksgiving Meal this Year ~ Bailey and I went into Aldi this week to pick up a few things, and in the past I’ve noticed their prices were just a few cents higher than Walmart on some of our essentials. But, not this week, Aldi was lower on milk, cheese and yogurt. As always, it saves money to know your prices. 
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 #2 October 2025

My Frugal Week

Since I didn’t go last Saturday, at the usual time, I stopped in at PHP last Monday to pick up some free vegetables for the week. They were loaded down with peppers, so I brought red and yellow home with me along with green beans, eggplant, and cucumbers. 

On Tuesday I was given a whole flat of strawberries, so I brought them home, washed and cut them up putting some of them into the freezer. I also snapped the green beans. 

On Friday evening I made a double batch of the brownies with bananas to have something sweet to eat without added sugar. 

On Saturday evening I went back to PHP as they get a fresh delivery on Saturday evenings. One of the ladies there was talking about turmeric last week, so when I went to Chattanooga this week I stopped in at Whole Foods and picked some up for her. She was happy with the surprise. 

Here is a photo of the vegetables I picked up:

I came home with beautiful Swiss chard, carrots, regular and rainbow colored, green and red peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, and green onions.

What’s Been for Dinner

Monday ~ Beefy Baked Beans, Corn on the Cob, Red & Yellow Peppers, Sliced Cucumbers. 

It’s rare for us to have ground beef on hand due to the price these days, so this was a very welcome meal and so much heartier than ground turkey or chicken. It leaned heavy on the vegetables, which is healthy for us, and all free thanks to the Mennonites and People Helping People in our community. 

Tuesday ~ Lasagna or Manicotti, and Cucumber Salad. 

Bailey had Manicotti for dinner while I had lasagna, both which had previously been frozen. 

Wednesday & Thursday ~ Lasagna or Beefy Baked Beans, Green Beans & Onions, Corn on the Cob, Sliced Cucumbers & Bell Peppers.

There were multiple leftovers in the fridge, so I decided to use those up rather than make anything new for dinner. 

Friday & Saturday ~ Baked Chicken Breast, Yellow Squash & Onions, Green Beans & Onions. 

My grandmother used to make her yellow squash in a skillet with onions, a small amount of water, and one packet of sweetener and it was good. Then I read last week a lady sautéed hers with garlic and butter and she said it was delicious. I did a combination of both techniques and we both enjoyed it. There was enough left from this dinner to repeat it on Saturday. 

Sunday ~ Hamburgers, Rainbow Carrots, Sliced Tomatoes, Red Onions, and Lettuce.

I had a package of already cooked hamburgers in the freezer, so I decided to use them up for Sunday dinner. I also wanted to steam the rainbow carrots from the Mennonites and PHP. I served them with our favorite hamburger toppings. 

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

Second Frugal Friday of October 2025

Frugal Friday

 Welcome to Frugal Friday

My Frugal Week

We went to the People Helping People bag sale on Friday. You can fill a bag of clothing and hard goods for $15, so Bailey and I both filled a bag. We also picked up our free bread products. We picked thin keto bagels as Bailey uses them for her breakfast. I put several math workbooks in my bag for the students I’m tutoring. 
Great Clips had a haircut sale for $7.99 last week, so I got my hair trimmed. 
The other day I went into the Dollar General to look at their window cleaner. It’s been a few years since I’ve been in a DG and so I was pleasantly surprised to see their $1.00 aisle. Several items we buy at the Dollar Tree were located here and cheaper. I love finding cheaper sources of the items we normally buy. 
Speaking of window cleaner, I didn’t buy any as it was $3.00 and up in price. There is a tree where I park my car in our driveway that gives off a sticky sap at this time of year and it has made a mess of my car windows. So, I came home and got a bucket of hot soapy water and a scrub brush and cleaned the windows, which ended up not costing me anything. 
Since I was trying not to spend any unnecessary money in September, I was reusing my garbage bags all over the house. I would get the kitchen garbage bag out and simply empty the other garbage cans into this big garbage bag and save the bags already in those other garbage cans. So, I was only using one bag per week. I liked this money saving tip so much that I am continuing it for October too. 
On Wednesday I woke up early and started processing for Bailey, which entails weighing, measuring, and packing each piece of her inventory individually. She recently created over 150 tie-dye pieces and she just finished steaming and photographing them. So, I spent a little over five hours processing over 100 items for her. 
Amazon Account Issues
I’ve been locked out of my Amazon account for over three weeks now. I’ve made multiple phones calls and they say they’ll check into this and get back to me. But, when they do that, their instructions haven’t worked to resolve my account. They sent a mail over the weekend that they’re closing my Amazon Prime account. Ugh. 
I think I could resolve the issue with another phone call, but I find them discouraging and unfruitful. I’ve only ordered two items from Amazon all year and don’t think I’ll miss it. Bailey uses it to watch shows and says she’ll miss it. I told her she can get her own subscription and I would pay for it. I’m tired of dealing with them and getting the same canned responses with nothing ever resolved.
Saving Money with Coupons
Last Friday I took my car for an oil change and saved $20 using a coupon from their website, which lowered the price from $67 to $47. Afterwards I used my $10 off $20 coupon from CVS, which they gave me after my flu shot. I also scanned my CVS card into their kiosk and received a $6 coupon that I also used. 
Making Money with Side Hustles 
I listed an item for sale on eBay and it sold the next day. I love it when that happens. 
The $15 gift card I earned from a survey came this week, so I picked a Walmart card. I used it to buy a present for Bailey who has a birthday later this month. 
Yard Sale Saturday 
There were so many yard sales with the cooler weather on Saturday that we started the day with thirty-one sales on our Google maps list. I lost count of how many we actually went to and sometimes we go rogue from the GPS, but at 3:30 they started closing down and we were getting tired, so we called it a day. 
When I got home that day I had walked over 7,000 steps just from yard sales. 
Both of us were able to pick up some fantastic bargains and even found clothes as low as fifty cents each. I found several items such as books, pencils, dry erase markers, and treasure box items for the students I’m tutoring. 
Here is a partial list of the items I found: 
- disposable aluminum pans for 25 cents, perfect for the upcoming holidays - 2 new rolls of Christmas wrapping paper for 50 cents - floor lamp for $1.00- several containers with lids for free, perfect for the two open buckets of liquid I need to dispose of downstairs - a free Gamewright story cubes game like this one - several adorable reusable grocery bags for free- a bathrobe for $1.00- container to corral new tooth brushes for 50 cents- new bottle of rubbing alcohol for 25 cents - new 50 ounce bottle of hand soap refill for 50 cents- several books with one sale selling them at four books for 25 cents (wow!)- several brand new boxes of disposable gloves for $1- new to me clothes in my size for 50 cents each (including some warm long sleeve shirts for winter) - two movies on DVD for 25 cents each 
My Healthy Lifestyle 
On Sunday I walked 11,234 steps, which is in keeping with my goal of getting in 10,000 steps each day. What helped was going to the walking track at our local school and walking in the cool of the morning. 
The Great Clean Out Continues 
On Sunday I went downstairs and using some of those free yard sale containers, poured from an open bucket of some kind of liquid and filled up five of those free containers and disposed of them and the dirty bucket. 
I used Google to figure out how to open the light fixture above the shower down there and changed out the bulb. Now I can see in there and need to give that shower a good scrubbing! I even used the washer down there and did a load of laundry. 
I asked on the local Facebook group in my community about ways of getting rid of tires here.  I had several suggestions and learned the convenience center allows residents to bring five tires a month to drop off for free. 
Even better though, I had a gentleman come over who is working out a barter with me. He is going to take all the tires (12, I think) for me in exchange for a small refrigerator Dad has downstairs, which is a win-win situation in my book. 
He also came on Monday to haul off a lot of the old scrap metal here. He hauled off the back of a trailer and the back of his pickup truck both full of metal trash. He took it to the recycling place and I told him he could keep whatever money they gave him for it. The place already looks so much better with that much stuff gone. 
*Update: The gentleman received $84 from the recycling center, which means there was 1,400 pounds of scrap metal removed. Isn’t that wonderful? I’m doing the happy dance over here. 
While he was here I used the opportunity to clean in the shed next to the pole barn. One of the things my Dad saved was plastic Walmart bags. Bags and bags of them are stuffed into this shed. And the bad part is they disintegrate, so each bag crumbles into thousands of pieces of micro plastics when I pick them up to dispose. Ugh. 
Please don’t save these bags for someone to deal with after you’ve gone. I don’t even want any more plastic bags here. I already use reusable grocery bags, but this has sealed the deal for me. No more plastic bags will come into our home. That is my public service announcement for this week. 
I filled the trunk of my car with more unusable items, so I took my car to the convenience center and dropped them in the dumpster. You can back right up to it and unload and drop items into the dumpster. It’s so much easier than trying to lift a bag into a tall dumpster. 
On Thursday I was back outside and back at it again with this shed. I took my clippers, weed eater plus extra battery and trimmed the weeds around the building. Then I worked inside and hauled off five more contractor bags full of garbage, a second box of hats, and an old seat from his old Chevy truck. The other seat is still in there, but has to be unburied first. That’ll have to wait for another day as I was worn out. 
To save money, I emptied the contents of the contractor bags right into the dumpster and brought the bags back home and put them in the shed to be reused in the same manner. At a cost of fifty cents here, this will save money.
Would You Do This?
I overheard a conversation between a mother and her grown daughter this week. The daughter was talking about donating blood in order to get some money to go out to eat at McDonald’s. I’ve not thought about doing that, but if I did my frugality would win out and I’d buy groceries with the money because it would stretch farther. 
How was your week? I hope it’s been filled with good things and you’ve made hay while the sun shines. 

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