Meal Plan Monday ~ Saving Money in my Frugal Kitchen ~ Third Week April 2026

 

Welcome to Frugal Workshop where every Monday I share the simple strategies used to save money in my kitchen 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

One way we save money here is by building meals around the cheapest proteins such as eggs, beans, canned tuna, cottage cheese, ground turkey, chicken, or pork. These proteins are often half the price of beef. Right now I am working through the ground turkey I have in my freezer and using up what we have on hand. 

Freebies

My friend had some extra eggs that she wanted to share with me this week and we ended up with 84 eggs! We had extra bread, rice, and oats that I shared with her. 

Recipe of the Week

Protein Pasta Cheese Bake

Ingredients:

1 pound Italian turkey sausage

2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

1 beef bouillon cube

1/2 cup minced onions

2 teaspoons granulated garlic

2 teaspoons oregano or Italian seasoning

1 pound protein pasta, cooked

1 - 28 ounce can crushed tomatoes

1 - 14 ounce can diced tomatoes, drained

2 - 14 ounce cans spaghetti sauce

2 cups cottage cheese

2 eggs, beaten

2 cups mozzarella cheese

Directions: 

Brown Italian sausage, add Worcestershire sauce and bouillon cube.

Add onions, garlic, and oregano.

Add crushed tomatoes, drained tomatoes, and spaghetti sauce.

Mix cottage cheese and beaten eggs together.

Add cottage cheese to meat sauce.

Add pasta to meat sauce.

Fill two 9x13 inch pans with pasta meat sauce.

Top with mozzarella cheese.

Bake in a 350 degree oven for 20 minutes.

 

What’s for Dinner

Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday ~ Protein Pasta Cheese Bake, and Steamed Broccoli. 

Wanting to use up some of the Italian turkey sausage we have in the freezer and use a box of protein pasta we had on hand, I decided to make a protein pasta cheese bake for dinner. 

From my pantry I used up one can of crushed tomatoes, the box of pasta, two cans of spaghetti sauce, and one can of tomatoes. 

This made two 9x13 casserole pans, which was more than enough for dinner, so I was able to put part of this into the freezer for future meals. 

Thursday ~ Grilled Chicken Salads

Friday ~ Chicken Tenders, Baked Beans. 

I used up one lurking can of store brand baked beans for this dinner. I’m glad to have used it up and now it’s out of the pantry. 

Saturday ~ Beefy Baked Beans, Golden Hominy, Sliced Oranges. 

For this recipe I used a package of ground turkey instead of beef, but by adding one beef bouillon cube and some Worcestershire sauce to the turkey, a tip I learned from Cheryl, the recipe closely resembles real beef. I used up several containers from my pantry in this recipe including the last of the ketchup bottle, jar of seasoned pepper, and two cans of pork and beans. I also used up the lurking can of golden hominy. 

Sunday ~ Cajun Style Turkey Breast, Baked Sweet Potatoes, and Deviled Eggs. 

This was a Kentucky Legend turkey breast we had in the freezer and I love their hams and now know Bailey enjoys their turkey breast too. Being Cajun, it was too hot and spicy for me to enjoy. 

What’s been on the menu in your home this past week? Did you build up or organize your pantry this week?  Have you been decluttering? How are you managing food prices? We would love to hear all about it 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

Image Credit

Third Frugal Friday of April 2026 on Saturday

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 had my annual physical with my primary care doctor and received all clear from her. Dexascan and mammogram were scheduled for later. Yesterday I saw my surgeon who released me with no restrictions. 
It's been ten weeks since my surgery so, I came home and rode my bicycle pedals for thirty minutes and it felt so good! 
Last Saturday & Sunday I stayed home and busy by cleaning and decluttering and moving items we don't use regularly to the downstairs. 
I remember a widowed friend, years ago, that said one of the ways to keep busy was to clean out a drawer or closet to help take your mind off of being lonely. I've remembered that down through the years and can always find something like that to keep me busy. 
On Tuesday Bailey drove me to my retina specialist for eye injections. 
I had seven no spend days over the past week! Rare, but it does happen from time to time. 
Gas & Financial News
According to Heather Cox Richardson, statistics released by the Labor Department on Friday showed that Trump’s war with Iran has pushed inflation to 3.3%, which has now increased to 4% That’s the fastest rate of growth in almost two years, tripling the 0.3% rate in February, when inflation was 2.4%. Gasoline prices rose 21.2%, a record.
This week's blog post is not only late, but short and simple. I'll be sure to make up for it next week with a longer post. How was your week? I would love to hear all about it. 

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

Meal Plan Monday ~ Saving Money in my Frugal Kitchen ~ Second Week April 2026

Welcome to Frugal Workshop where every Monday I share the simple strategies used to save money in my kitchen 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 need to continue as we can to be working on our pantry storage, and keep on working on building up our skills like baking bread or making yogurt. With the increase in fuel prices, we are living in uncertain times. 

Inspiring Reads

Sibylle, who posts her German blog, With My Own Hands, has a very inspiring post about food prices in March and how she used and preserved that food. 

Here is a link if you're interested in reading, as she is very inspiring.

Savings of the Week

Kroger had the Knorr chicken bouillon cubes on markdown, some for 90 cents and some for 96 cents, which is a savings compared to the $1.47 price at Walmart. My figures indicate I saved over $4.50 with this purchase. 

 

What’s for Dinner

Monday ~ Chicken Sausages on Keto Buns, Cole Slaw, and Carrots. 

Tuesday ~ Enchiladas, Corn

Wednesday ~ Grilled Chicken Salads

Thursday ~ Chicken Sausages on Buns, Butternut Squash, and Brussel Sprouts.

Friday ~ Grilled Chicken, Brussel Sprouts, and Butter Beans. 

Saturday ~ Fluffy Baked Omelet and Baked Sweet Potato Cubes. 

Sunday ~ Pork Tenderloin, Mixed Vegetables, and Sweet Potatoes. 

This meal helped me use up some bone broth and golden mushroom soup out of the pantry. 

What’s been on the menu in your home this past week? Did you build up or organize your pantry this week?  Have you been decluttering? How are you managing food prices? We would love to hear all about it 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

Image Credit

Second Frugal Friday of April 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 Bailey and I went to the People Helping People bag sale. For $20 you can fill a large kitchen garbage bag with anything in the store. 
Afterwards I dropped Bailey off at home and ran a few errands to Home Depot, Target, Harbor Freight Tools, The Dollar Tree, and filled up my car with gas before heading home. 
I went to the Dollar Tree to stock up on vinegar, Spic & Span, and get more black poster board. With the cost of gas right now I'm stocking up more than usual just in case and filling my car up before coming home to avoid any further increases in gas prices. 
Look at this magazine I saw in the Target magazine rack, which is a sign of the times to me. 

The installation crew came on Monday and installed our new air conditioner. They did a great job even installing additional brackets to the outside of the house. 
On Tuesday I had an appointment for a dental cleaning and then Bailey and I went to Kroger in Georgia to do our monthly grocery stock up. 
On Wednesday the washer repair man came to check out the washer. The part cost $30 with labor running $140, so $179 total, paid in full with no stress and no debt. He had to order the part and will be back on Friday to install it. 
On Thursday I went downstairs and used Dad’s shop vac and vacuumed part of the shop. I wasn’t sure the shop vac would work as I didn’t know when the last time it was used, but it worked.  Afterwards I went outside to weed eat and do a little bit of raking. We have 15 acres here and the best way for me to maintain it is a little bit at a time. 
Other Frugal Things This Week...
- Entered all my receipts into Fetch & NCP- Earned multiple points for Microsoft Rewards (I have 42,898 points and am working on getting a $100 Kroger gift card)- Received a 5% discount on garbage service for next month's bill by writing a review for their FB page.
- Received a 10% discount for my birthday month for sharing my birthday with the same garbage service. 
Weekly Gasoline News
$3.79 per gallon SE Tennessee
$3.29 per gallon in NW Georgia 
Last Friday I filled up my gas tank and spent $49.25, which is unbelievable to me. We did not go to yard sales this week for that reason. My budget isn't going to allow me to buy that amount of gas every week to yard sale, so like last week we are staying home. 
When we went to Kroger on Tuesday, and I filled up my tank using Kroger rewards before leaving even though I had 3/4 tank full. With my discount and the halt on state gas tax in Georgia I paid $3.29 per gallon. 
If you're interested in an app on your phone to save on gas, “The Gas Index” promises real-time fuel savings. This is an AI app that has called over 19,000 gas stations to ask their current price per gallon and tells you whether the savings outweigh the extra fuel used getting there. There are all sorts of interesting statistics on their site to read as well. 
 The Cash Only Living blog is reporting gas at $4.95 a gallon with diesel costing $6.25 a gallon in Las Vegas this week. 
The Great Cleanup Continues...

The reason I went into Harbor Freight this week was to buy a magnetic sweeper, which I've been wanting to do for a while now. As I've mentioned before there are all sorts of areas in the pole barn and downstairs that have multiple nails, screws, staples, bits of wire, metal objects, etc. You can see one of those areas in this photo:

   

Here is a photo of some of what I picked up after just a few minutes:

This is a powerful magnetic tool for this purpose and definitely worth the $9.99 price tag. Now I won't have to worry about getting a nail in one of our tires. 
I am very happy to report that the last boxes of mail from the 70s & 80s have been gone through and disposed of now. When I started there were over thirty boxes to go through, so now I can concentrate on other areas that need cleaning up and continue the great cleanup. 
Freebies

In the Little Free Library at People Helping People, I picked up three books. Bernardin Home Canning Guide from 1975, Sorghum Treasures cookbook dedicated to the extension office of the University of Tennessee, and a book about Coker Creek, which is an historical community in the Cherokee National Forest located in the southern Appalachian mountains in southeast Tennessee.

:

Freebies from the dentist office this week included toothpaste, toothbrush, and dental floss picks. 

Savings of the Week
Our big savings of the week was on Zero Water Filters, which costs $17.44 each at Walmart and we buy regularly. Bailey found a post on Facebook Marketplace selling nine of the Amazon dupes priced at $30 from an Amazon pallet seller. That makes them $3.33 each, which is a great deal. The seller told Bailey he had a lot of people wanting to buy them.
Saving Money on Entertainment
Currently we are watching Paradise, which is a Hulu post-apocalyptic political thriller series starring Sterling K. Brown, who we loved watching in This is Us.  The show centers on a secret service agent investigating the President's murder within a secluded, high-stakes, underground bunker.
My Reading Nook ~ What I've been Reading This Week
From Consumer Affairs, Grocery shoppers need a strategy if they hope to stay within their food budget.
How was your week? Have you been decluttering? How are you managing fuel prices? We would love to hear all about it in the comment section. 

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

Side Hustles

 

Side Hustles

Bailey has a monstera plant here and she trimmed it this winter because it had gotten so big. She took the cuttings and propagated them over the winter. She ended up with nine plants and listed them on Facebook Marketplace for $5 each. All nine of them sold within the hour. I thought that was a great idea and wanted to share it with you.
This is what Bailey wrote on her Substack about this:
There's Always Money Lying Around
I grew up in a frugal household. There was nothing we couldn’t make from scratch, use every part of, or save money on. This made me scrappy in a way that drives me to find opportunity in the ordinary. The first piece of advice often offered to new resellers is to start with things around your house. It’s a great way to declutter and kickstart a reselling hustle, but it doesn’t need to stop there. If your eyes are open to it, there’s always money lying around.
Last fall, my beloved monstera deliciosa had outgrown its trellis, so I trimmed it back and propagated the cuttings in large mason jars over the winter. Unfortunately, monstera deliciosa is toxic to cats, so I couldn’t repot the cuttings for myself because all the cat-free plant real estate in the house is occupied.
As a buyer, I’ve seen how quickly plants are gone on Facebook Marketplace, so I decided to list them there and see what would happen. I had nine cuttings listed at $5 a piece. I received tons of messages, and someone paid me for all of them that same day. $45 for something that might have otherwise gone to waste!
None of this required a big investment. It’s simply the habit of asking, “Is there value here?”

Belinda

Homemaker at Heart

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

Image Credit