Friday, March 24, 2023

Fourth Frugal Friday of March 2023



Welcome to Frugal Friday! 

Quote of the Week
“Get busy living, or get busy dying.” ~ Stephen King
Price of Gas

$3.15 per gallon

My Frugal Week

On Saturday we went and bought chickens. We bought four of them and by the time we got them home they had laid four eggs, but one broke while we were transferring the chickens into the chicken coop.  They’ve been laying three to four eggs per day, so we have eggs right now. We found someone who sells chickens that are laying eggs right now for $5 each rather than baby chicks, which wouldn't be laying eggs right now.   


We already have a chicken coop here from when we raised chickens in the past. And we did find a smaller coop at a yard sale last summer. We already bought food for them as we have been anticipating their arrival for a while now. 

If you recall I mentioned that we were not going to shop the Sweet Weepeets consignment sale this time around. However, Bailey is very low on inventory and needs inventory for her shops, so she went on dollar day and restocked her inventory. 

Freebies

One of the pharmaceutical companies I use sent me a free travel pack cooler for my medicine. 


Joy of the Week

It would definitely have to be coming home with the chickens and having four eggs when we got home. 

Photo of the Week


Savings of the Week

The day Bailey went to the consignment sale was the same day I was looking at filters at Amazon, which were priced at $19.95.  I put off buying them for the time being, but when Bailey came home she showed me where she bought a box of twelve of the exact ones I was looking at for only $1.00. Woo Hoo! 

Question of the Week

Have you ever used YNAB to keep track of your budget?

YNAB is an online budget tracker that helps change your money mindset with four simple rules.

1. Give every dollar a job. 
2. Embrace your true expenses. 
3. Roll with the punches. 
4. Age your money. 

Bailey and I have recently started using YNAB and have so far been impressed with how it help us to manage our budgets. If you're interested, you can try YNAB for free for 34 days with no commitment or credit card required. 

Earning Money

The gentleman cutting down our trees has been working hard again this week to clear those trees in danger of falling on our driveway. We do not want to be trapped in here in case of an emergency, and that has happened multiple times lately, so this is a great solution to that problem. 

Avoiding Spending

I've definitely avoided spending this week. The YNAB app helps me to keep very good track of where my money is and what I have to spend in each category of my budget. In fact the last thing I bought was gas and that was last week. There has been no spending this week. 

Saving Money In My Frugal Kitchen

We’ve been doing the usual things, eating our leftovers and keeping the kitchen clean and well stocked to make meals. 

We tried the Zatarains Andouille sausage this week. I found that it was very flavorful but also had a hint of hot spices, which I try to avoid. Bailey said she didn’t care for it and prefers the Polish sausage over this sausage. 

We need to make a grocery order soon as we are out of onions, cheese, bread, buns. You get the idea, so I was trying to figure out what to make for dinner on Wednesday. I knew I had some frozen hamburgers in the freezer and plenty of beans, tomatoes, and macaroni. So, I decided to make a chili mac type of dinner with what I had on hand. It turned out spicy, but good and Bailey gave it a thumbs up. 👍 

On Thursday, we had a friend gift us with several food items including a ham, chicken, potatoes, squash, cucumbers, tomatoes, strawberries, and oranges. 

Walmart sells these bright yellow golden canary melons, but every time I’ve tried to order one in a pickup, they tell me they are out of stock. However, I was inside the store last week and found several of them, so I made sure to get one. 


It sat on the counter to ripen this week and I cut it up for dinner on Thursday night. It has a similar flavor to a honeydew melon, but ripened so much easier than any honeydew melon ever has for me. This was the best melon and so sweet it tasted like candy. I’ll definitely be buying more whenever I see them again. 

Meals This Week

All meals are served with either salad or vegetables and may not always be listed here. 

* If you see a dinner in bold print that means we had it more than once this week.

- Meatballs in Brown Gravy, Mashed Potatoes, Cole Slaw.
- Dirty Rice with Andouille Sausage, Green Beans, Potato Salad.
- Loaded Baked Potatoes with choice of toppings including broccoli, cauliflower,     dill, chives, onions, sour cream, and cheese if desired. 
- Movie Night Pizza
- Chili Mac
- Roasted Potatoes & Cabbage, Green and Yellow Squash, Cucumber Salad, Strawberries and Golden Canary Melon

Recipe of the Week

This recipe takes me back to the early 1990’s, which was over thirty years ago. It’s a very simple meatless recipe, so it’s economical and quite tasty. At the time I used regular lasagne noodles, but today you can swap those for no cook lasagne noodles and lower the oven time to 30 to 40 minutes. 

Low Fat Cheese Lasagne

Ingredients:

1 - 15 ounce can tomato sauce
1 - 14 ounce jar spaghetti sauce
16 ounces low-fat cottage cheese 
1/2 cup grated fat free Parmesan cheese
9 lasagna noodles
8 ounces low fat mozzarella cheese

Directions:

Combine tomato and spaghetti sauce in bowl and set aside.
Combine cottage and Parmesan cheese and set aside. 
Line non stick pan with 3 lasagne noodles, 1/3 of the sauce, 1/3 of the cottage cheese mixture, and then 1/3 of the mozzarella cheese. 
Repeat two times.
Cover with foil. 
Bake for one hour at 350 degrees. 
Makes 9 servings at 281 calories. 

Saving on Entertainment

We've recently watched the film The Whale, which is the story of a reclusive English teacher who tries to reconnect with his daughter for a chance to redeem himself. 

We’ve also watched A Man Called Otto, which is the story of a grumpy widower who forms an unlikely friendship with his new neighbors, which ends up turning his world around. 

I would recommend both films and only watched The Whale  because I saw Brendan Fraser's Academy Awards speech on TikTok and was very moved by it. 

What I've been Reading This Week

The Bluebirds are Nesting ~ Annabelle has been posting her “Bluebirds on the Ground” series recently. She is working her way around the globe with reports on the cost of living and how life has changed and how people are adapting to get ahead if possible.

The latest one was written by Cath who runs the popular The Cheapskates Club from Australia. Cath believes that a barter/trade system will become more popular as things disappear from our lives or become too expensive. I’ve read similar writings from Frugal Queen of France and Carol from the Living Simply Facebook groups. 


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
Mortgage & Debt Free
~ Living within our Means ~
My Linktree

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



21 comments:

  1. I especially love your joy of the week. I just rented your movie. I sometimes remind myself to sit and enjoy a movie. We did go see a movie with the grandchildren Tom and Jerry last week. They play a little older movies sometimes for the kids at our local theater for $2.00. It was fun.

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    1. Thank you, Vickie. Please let me know what you think of the movie. We used to have a dollar theater like yours here, but it closed down a few years ago. It was fun to take the kids. 😊

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  2. I have never been a fan of the Andouille sausage either - just not my things. It sounds like you have had quite a good week. How neat on the chickens and eggs already!!!! NICE
    Have a wonderful weekend

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    1. Thank you, Cheryl. I thought it was neat about the chickens laying eggs too. 😊 I’m with you on the sausage too. I hope you have a great weekend with good weather ahead.

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  3. Hello Belinda, I am reading your posts every week for a couple of years but never had the courage to comment. I have found Annabel and her wonderful community through your blog, as well as other remarcable ladies that write here. Congratulations for your chickens! I am sort of a *new* chicken mum and my life became much better and funny since my 4 golden ladies have arrived. The eggs are delicious!
    Thank you for all the idea you post here on saving and well living, even not many can be aplied to my country, like buying products at your kind of shops or prices, but I learn and adapt to what works for me. And so far it has worked.
    Have a wonderful weekend! Laura_s_world from Romania

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    1. Hi Laura, how neat that you are from Romania. I’m so glad you decided to post on my blog. Annabel is a treasure and I’ve learned so much from her. I’m glad you found her too. How neat that you have four chickens too, and yes the eggs are delicious and the yolks have that deep yellow color. It’s so great to hear from you and I look forward to hearing from you again. 💕

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    2. Hi Laura, I've enjoyed your posts on Annabel's blog.
      Just wanted to say that I admire you and all that you do. I'm sorry about hardships and war on your doorstep, and I pray for peace.

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    3. Aww, thank you, Kathy. You know I admire you. too!

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  4. Oh I love your chickens, and how exciting to be getting eggs already. Looks like they are very happy in their new coop.
    Thanks for the movie reviews; I'll check out the Whale, and I'm glad that Brendan Frasier won an Oscar. I liked him in the Mummy movies and George of the Jungle years ago. The Otto movie sounds good too.
    I think Zatarains products are really spicy, so I think I will pass on the andouille too. I'll see if I can find those canary melons too, and thanks for the lasagna recipe.
    Hope you have a great weekend.

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    1. Thank you, Kathy. We were so excited about getting eggs already. When Bailey raised chicks for 4H it was about 8 months before we saw eggs, so this is exciting. I need to watch the Mummy movies as I’ve been reading about them since I googled Brenden Fraser after seeing him on TikTok.

      I agree with you on the Zatarains products, I think they are all spicy too, so I don’t care for most of them either.

      I hope you can find the melons as they are delicious. I also hope you have a great weekend.

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  5. I have 3 remaining chickens, and I love them dearly. I get about an egg/day. I am hoping to get chicks when the fall chicks arrive. That said, the coop which you picture above is the one I had to put our new chicks in spring, two years ago. We eventually moved them to the bigger coop, and not a moment too soon, because in the very next wind storm, we woke up to find that coop had blown right over! So, make sure you anchor that coop!

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    1. Thank you for the good advice, Meg. Bailey initially said she was going to anchor it down, but she changed her mind. I’ll have to tell her your experience with that coop.

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    2. Yes, ANCHOR IT. It wasn't even that bad of a windstorm. I left that coop with the old house for the new owners. They have had it blow over twice, but they only have metal chickens inside!

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    3. Thank you, Meg. We will definitely have to anchor it down.

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  6. How exciting for you to get eggs right away ! Thanks for the review on the canary melon.I rarely buy melons here in Canada because they are usually between $5-$7.00 each.Fruit & veg. are terrible prices right now,apples are $2.99-$3.49 a lb.a head of celery is $3.99,we used to buy celery for $1.49 a head 2 yrs. ago.Most of the fruit and veg. we eat is home grown and frozen or canned.I love reading all the blogs you mentioned especially Annabelle,she is such a font of wisdom !Another interesting blog is The Prudent Homemaker/Making Life Beautiful For Less,I always read all the comments on all the blogs because all the ladies contribute so much useful and interesting info.also !

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    1. Thank you, we were so excited to get the eggs. Wow, fruit and vegetables are expensive there in Canada. You are so smart to grow what you are able to grow. I do read over at the Prudent Homemaker from time to time. The comment section of her blog almost always has good frugal tips. I love reading all these blogs too. 💕

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  7. Envious of your chickens! I've always wanted them.

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    1. Thank you. We had so much fun with our chickens in the past, I hope these will also bring a lot of joy.

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  8. So lucky that you get to raise chickens... and extra lucky to find those eggs when you brought them home. Enjoy.

    God bless.

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    1. Thank you, Jackie. We love having them here.

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  9. I wish I were getting chickens again. And four eggs by the time you got home? Crazy. That was a very good deal on the filters.

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