First Frugal Friday of February 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
It snowed here on Friday evening and a lot of the day on Saturday and it was very cold and twelve degrees on Sunday morning. We stayed home and off the roads as the back roads can be hazardous as they are not treated. 
On Tuesday Bailey and I went to Kroger to do our money grocery shopping. We stocked up on essentials we needed and are stocked up for the month. 
I earned $50 on PayPal this week from scanning products I purchase into NCP. 
Saving Money on Entertainment

On Saturday Bailey and I played board games. One of the games we played was Harry Potter’s Hogwarts Battle game. We played it in December and made some changes to make it better to play. 
Bailey took a photo of the game slip, had two of them printed and laminated at Staples, and now we can use dry erase markers on them every time we play the game. It's bigger than the game slip that came with the game, so easier to read and keep track. 

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 One February 2026

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 used many things from the freezer this week with a very noticeable change in freezer space, which will give us plenty of room for this month’s groceries. We plan on getting groceries on Tuesday as long as the roads are clear from all the snow and ice this weekend. 

What’s for Dinner

Monday ~ Grilled Chicken Breasts, Baked Sweet Potatoes, and Mixed Vegetables. 

I took two individually wrapped chicken breasts out of the freezer to thaw Monday morning. I had one orange sweet potato left from Sunday dinner and part of my purple sweet potato left from Saturday dinner, so I used up both of those and served green peas on the side. 

Tuesday ~ Grilled Chicken Breast, Sweet Potato, and Mixed Vegetables.

This was simply leftovers from Monday’s dinner. Waste not, want not. #useitup

Wednesday ~ Turkey Smoked Sausage, Cauliflower Cheese Rice, and Beans.

The sausage was bought at UGO FOR $1.99 and was really delicious. Plus, I still have more in the freezer. I served this with baked sweet potatoes and green peas. 

Thursday ~ Pork BBQ Tenderloin, Cabbage Stir Fry, and Bean Salad. 

This was a tenderloin from the freezer. I normally cook these in the slow cooker, but made this one in the oven instead. It was good, but not tender like it would have been in the slow cooker all day. I’ll remember that for when I have another one.  We had the last of the bean salad tonight along with a cabbage stir fry I threw together.

Friday ~ Fajita Chicken Skillet, Baked Potatoes, and Green Peas. 

This fajita chicken skillet was a markdown from Kroger when we bought groceries at the beginning of the month. 

Saturday ~ BBQ Pork Chops, Green Peas, and Baked Apples. 

I had two small packages of pork chops in the freezer, so I combined both of them with some BBQ sauce and let them cook all day in the slow cooker. Sides were the last of the green peas and baked apples. 

Sunday ~ BBQ Chicken, and Mixed Vegetables. 

This was another batch of the chicken I bought from Gordon’s last month.  I already had my slow cooker down for Saturday nights dinner, so I used it for this too. Last week I made the big batch of chicken into fajitas, but today I made the chicken BBQ style.  

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

Fifth and 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 Friday I went to my retina specialist for my eye injections. As I suspected, eight weeks is too long between appointments, so I’ll be going back in six weeks the next time. As usual I came home and took a nap and felt wiped out for the rest of the day.
Winter storm preparations took place Friday afternoon by filling every vessel we could with water, salting the steps, and filling both cars with gasoline. I went ahead and did what laundry needed doing just in case we did lose power. Thankfully we were spared from the worst of the storm. The draft dodger we have at the bottom of the back door actually froze to the door though. 
My neighbor came over on Sunday afternoon to use our electricity to charge up the battery in the back of her truck. They live off grid up beside us and we help each other out whenever we can. I gave her some new socks I wasn’t using and a couple of days later she told me how grateful she was to have clean socks. 
I mostly stayed home this week staying indoors due to the cold weather. There is more cold weather and snow on the way.  However , I’ll be staying home until at least Tuesday when we’re going to get groceries, which will end my ten day no spend streak. 
Freebies & What I've been Reading This Week
When I stopped in to drop off some donations this week I looked in the little free library and picked up this free book. 

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 Four January 2026

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

On Sunday I made some deviled eggs to go with dinner. I also made some tuna salad for lunches this weekend. 

Use It Up Items Of The Week

I took a bowl of green enchilada sauce from the freezer and made enchiladas using the fajita chicken I made on Sunday. Also, I forgot to mention that I used up that last bar of cream cheese from Christmas in the fajita chicken. 

 

What’s for Dinner

Monday ~ Chicken Fajitas, Corn or Flour Tortillas, Red Peppers, Tomatoes, Onions, Cheddar Cheese, Jalapeños, Homemade Chipotle Ranch., Queso & Tortilla Chips. 

This was a repeat of Sunday dinner using the fajita chicken I made in the crockpot. Sides were corn and bean salad for anyone who wanted those. 

Tuesday ~ Chicken Enchiladas, and Bean Salad. 

Wednesday ~ Beefy Baked Beans, Steamed Broccoli, Pickled Beets. 

Thursday ~ Cheesy Potatoes, Steamed Broccoli with Parmesan.  

Friday ~ Leftovers of Beefy Baked Beans or Cheesy Potatoes, Steamed Carrots, and Baked Apples. 

The baked apples were seasoned with a little pat of butter and cinnamon and really hit the spot. 

Saturday ~ Chicken Breast Filets, Purple Sweet potatoes, and steamed Carrots.

Sunday ~ Leftovers 

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 January 2026

 

Welcome to Frugal Friday
Each Friday here at Frugal Workshop, I share 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
On Saturday I did some deep cleaning in the house. I pulled out all the refrigerator drawers and gave them a good scrubbing inside and out with hot soapy water. I took multiple things from my bedroom closet and put them downstairs to free up space in my closet. 
I also moved all of the houseplants, trimmed the dead ends, and cleaned the dresser they sit on with orange oil furniture polish. The dresser looks so good cleaned up like that. I also did four loads of laundry and was able to get in over 10,000 steps this day. 
On Sunday we found a steel shelf on Facebook Marketplace, brand new in the box, for $20, so I went and picked it up and put it together on Monday. It costs $85 on Amazon, so this was a very good deal. 

I went ahead and put the shelf in my bedroom closet by taking some more items from there and moving them downstairs. The shelf is great for shoes, my fire escape ladder in the blue bin, and other various items. 
Story of Cleaning Out
Bailey was looking for inventory online the other day and happened across an ad from an older lady giving away free clothes on Facebook Marketplace. She told Bailey that her grown children had been telling her she needed to start getting rid of stuff as her home was full. Sound familiar?
The first batch was pretty good, so Bailey went back and picked up another batch. This batch came from the lady's carport, where she had put bags of clothes she wanted to donate, but they didn't get donated and just sat there. The majority of the second batch had to be trashed since they had been stored outside. 
To me it was another reminder to declutter regularly and not leave unnecessary items for someone else to clean. I went through my clothes this week and gave some to Bailey to resell and donated others for someone else to use. Purging our homes of items we no longer need is a good thing. 
Blogger
Are any of you having issues with Blogger on commenting or seeing other blogs in your side bar? I count on my sidebar to keep me up to date on your blogs, but this tablet I’m using doesn’t want to display them. If you’ve noticed I’ve not been commenting as much, this is the reason. I’m going to work on this and do better this week. 
Rewards Programs
I entered my receipts from the week into the Fetch app, scanned my purchases into NCP, and worked Microsoft Rewards each day. On Tuesday I submitted points for a $50 PayPal card from NCP. If you're interested in joining NCP, I hope you'll use my referral code of 3953F7F. 
Saving on Electric
Our electric bill went up last month by a few dollars and I suspect it was the extra lights for Christmas. We’ve had to turn on the heat this week as it’s been cold here, so the bill will probably stay a little higher until the weather gets warmer. 
Speaking of electricity, we are bracing for a winter ice storm this weekend. Many are predicting that we will lose power, but we hope not. We have alternate heat if necessary. Our cars are filled up, plenty of non-perishable food on hand, plenty of warm clothes and blankets too. 
I’d rather be prepared and not need these things than not be prepared for the loss of electricity and freezing temperatures. I hope everyone in the path of this storm stays safe and warm, 
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