Saturday ~ Leftover Wizardry

Image Credit

On Friday I went grocery shopping for a few things and then came home and cleaned the kitchen. This morning I woke up and gathered up the garbage and took it the the dumpsters. Guess who I saw when I was there? The principal at the high school. I've seen him all over town this week, while subbing at the high school, while subbing at the middle school, and then today. LOL..such is life in a small town.  :)

Dinner tonight will be leftover wizardry. I'm going to take some of the Taco Style Lentils & Rice that I made last Saturday (I froze the leftovers) and add some pinto beans and sour cream to that. I will then take some corn tortillas and roll them up with a small amount of the mixture in each one. Then add enchilada sauce to the top and top with shredded cheddar cheese bake until done. I will serve this with sliced tomatoes and corn. 

Update ~ The Nutty Applesauce Bread recipe that I shared with you last weekend is really good! I even left the nuts out of it because I did not have any. I liked the bread even better than the muffins, although my daughter liked the muffins better. 

Groceries - I got a few good deals yesterday. I bought a 20 pound bag of potatoes at Cooke's for $3.99. The same bag sells for $4.99 plus 10% at Fresh & Low, so I knew this was a good deal. Bi-Lo has been sold and will be switching to Food City during the next month. They have greetings cards marked at 90% off now. I went ahead and bought a few graduation cards for May since my daughter and her friends will be graduating then.  

Cooke's

20 pound bag of potatoes - $3.99
Cheddar Cheese - 2 pounds - $5.99
Saltine Crackers  - $1.00

Bi-Lo
Tortillas - $1.29
Graduation Cards - 90% off

Great Clips - I went ahead and got my haircut on Friday with coupon for $7.99, which is a savings of $5.01 off the $13.00 price. 

Crash & Burn - 

I found two bags of corn meal at Cooke's. This is the kind I like, straight cornmeal with no flour like corn meal mix has. These were marked down to $1.82 each, which is a good price for five pound bags. 

Subbing

I subbed four days this week. Some photos from the week...

One of the teachers ordered a salad for lunch and then someone brought her a lunch, so she asked me if I wanted her salad, which was so sweet of her. So here is my lunch one day this week...

A couple of lunches I brought this week...

Our waters one day this week, which were free from CVS for refilling our prescriptions...

My daughter's school lunch one day this week.. 

I saw this on the board at Walmart by the cash registers... 

It is titled, "Daily Front End Objectives". 

It states, "If you don't ask they won't apply, so ask. Our credit card goal for today is 10. We can succeed". 

Ugh, dislike. 

Lastly, I've been working on my sewing machine today. YouTube is like the layman's terms for non professionals. There are so many videos on there on how to fix your sewing machine. Mine doesn't want to take up the bobbin thread, so I am trying to fix it rather than pay $120 to $160 at the repair shop just to have them look at it. I know they have to make money too, but I could buy a new machine at Walmart for $79.  

How was your week?

Belinda
Live simply by not spending money you don't have.
© Belinda & Frugal Workshop, 2011 - 2015.

Sunday

Welcome to Sunday 

My Frugal Kitchen

Beans

I don't think I mentioned it yesterday, but I put pinto beans on to soak yesterday morning for today's dinner. This morning I woke up and washed the few dishes in the sink and then put the pinto beans on to cook in my pressure cooker. I'm not sure what I am going to make for dinner yet. There is still some Taco Style Lentils and Rice from yesterday and we could just eat that. Either way the beans will get eaten soon.  :)

Bread & Muffin Mix

Last week I was looking up recipes for applesauce since I had one can that I wanted to use up, and came across the Homemade Crisco Quick Bread Mix. I chose this mix because I had all the ingredients on hand, so I made a batch this morning and then made the Nutty Applesauce Bread and Cinnamon Sugar Muffins out of the mix. 

The mix makes twelve cups and I used five today, so I still have seven cups to use. I labeled it and put in the freezer for another day. There are several recipes listed to use with the mix. The muffins will be for breakfast this morning either with butter or jelly, and for drinks there is a variety of juices, tea, and milk or water. 

Homemade Soft Scrub

Another thing I did in the kitchen today was mix up some more homemade soft scrub. I used up the container of Comet I had in the bathroom last week, so I wanted to make some more. I have a large bottle of Ajax stored in a glass jar under my kitchen sink, and I mixed some of it with a small bottle of Dr. Bronner's Peppermint soap.  I stored it in a repurposed lunch meat container. The shampoo and soap residue builds up fast in our shower, so I use this in there everyday to clean the shower floor as I have a fear of falling in there.

Haircut

One of the errands we did yesterday was to get my daughter a haircut since she has senior pictures on Monday. I used a coupon from Great Clips, which we received through the mail. Total cost was $6.99, which is a $6.01 savings over the regular $13 price.  

The Week Ahead

I will be working four days again this week. All the laundry is caught up and I have my clothes laid out for the week. My sub bag is already in the car ready to go first thing in the morning. Pre-planning helps my work week to run smoother.

Belinda
Live simply by not spending money you don't have.
© Belinda & Frugal Workshop, 2011 - 2015.

Saturday

Saturday Errands

We went to town today for my daughter's volunteer duty. We left early so we could stop in at several places. First stop was Kmart for Ziploc lunch bags for 19¢ and while we were there also found a bottle of cranberry-grape juice for $1.60. 

Next stop was Target for Cottonelle wipes for 52¢ and Bounty paper towels for 37¢. I saw one of the members of the school board while we were shopping there and I said hi to him. I should have told him about lunch yesterday.   lol :)


We had a deal to do at Dollar General today, and went, but it did not work out like it was supposed to, so we left empty-handed. 

More freebies from my friend...

Twelve bottles of Dawn and six bags of Dove chocolates. 

Library

I went inside the library to wait on my daughter and browsed the movie section. I picked up The Heartland Series 20th Anniversary Special to watch this weekend.

The Heartland Series was created in 1984 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and was a series of stories aired on WBIR-TV in Knoxville between 1984 and 2009.  The series celebrated the people and land of the Southern Appalachian Mountains. Actor Bill Landry, a former teacher, narrated the series. 

The library has several of the series volumes in their collection, so I will be borrowing more of them in the future. 

  
Dinner tonight will be Taco Style Lentils & Rice from the old Hillbilly Housewife website. I put this in the crock pot before we left home this morning, so all I have to do when I get back is to make a salad to go with this.

Taco Style Lentils & Rice

3/4 cup dry lentils
3/4 cup brown rice
4 cups tap water
4 beef bouillon cubes
2 teaspoons chili powder
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

In a 2-quart saucepan bring the water to a boil. As the water is heating, add the lentils, rice, bouillon, chili powder, cumin, onion powder, and garlic powder. Bring the whole thing to a nice fat boil. Reduce the heat to low. Place a lid on the lentils and allow the mixture to simmer for about 45 to 50 minutes. The water should be mostly absorbed. You may serve this as it, topped with a little cheddar cheese if desired. Or you can use it to fill burritos or tacos instead. 

How was your Saturday?

Belinda
Live simply by not spending money you don't have.
© Belinda & Frugal Workshop, 2011 - 2015.

Friday

 We made it to Friday! I worked four days this past week and had today off. Good thing too since the air conditioner went out on my car again on Thursday evening. I took it to the dealership this morning. Turns out the blower resistor and connector were melted! Since it was still under warranty they replaced it at no charge to me. Let's hope that will be the end of this particular problem. 

I made granola bars on either Sunday or Monday in order for my daughter to take to school as a snack. 

And of course I keep the lids to all my peanut butter jars since they fit a mason jar perfectly. 

Publix Cranberry Deal

One of my good deals this week came from Publix where I used a raincheck from last week. They had Ocean Spray Craisins on sale for buy one get one free. I had 50¢ coupons that doubled, so I paid 37¢ each for eight bags. 

Publix French Fry Deal

Publix has Ore Ida french fries on sale this week and we had coupons that doubled. We paid 75¢ each for four bags. Not sure if you can see them or not, but there are four bag in there and a HUGE bag of chocolate chips on top. 

Free Food

We were lucky enough this week to get a little bit of free food too from a friend. We received five bottles of juice, two bags of Brookside Clusters, five packages of breakfast cookies, one can of honey roasted mixed nuts, one package of cheese snacks, the package of chocolate chips, and two quarts of milk all for free. 

The second carton of milk is in the back behind the juice. 

School Lunch Woes

Something happened at school today that has me angry. My daughter has enough credits that she does not have to attend the full day of school. They are on a four block schedule, and she has a class first and second block, and is a teacher's aide for her third block and can then go home. She does not have to stay for fourth block. 

The first week she was able to leave after her teacher's aide class and not have to stay for lunch. This week they want the seniors to stay through lunch. She does not want to do this and really would rather come home, but she follows their rules. 

I know I've told you in the past that she has low blood sugar and she really needs to eat something by this time of day. When she got there today she was at the end of the line and the cafeteria ran out of food. There were sixteen students including her that still needed to eat, so they cooked more food, but ran out again before she was able to get any food (she was the last one in line). 

She was the only one who did not get any food. So, they went to cook more for her, but by this time she had given up on them, she was shaking and needed food. She left and went and sat down.Thankfully she had one of the granola bars I made for her and she ate that.  At 1:20 as the bell is ringing signaling the end of lunch, they come to get her to tell her they have more food. She was embarrassed that they came into the cafeteria and approached her about this in front of her friends. She told them no thanks, she was leaving, and then left. 

Whenever she has had third lunch, they have run out of food on a regular basis. It has been an ongoing problem and saying anything about it has done no good in the past. She does not want me to say anything about this incident today.  If they are going to force the seniors to stay through lunch then they need to have food for them to eat. If not, let them go home and eat. 

Next week I will be sending food for her to eat.

How has your week been?

Belinda
Live simply by not spending money you don't have.
© Belinda & Frugal Workshop, 2011 - 2015.

Sunday

The air conditioner in my car is working again. I checked it before I went down there yesterday morning and it was still not working, but when they pulled it into the garage it was working. (???) The mechanic put it on the diagnostic machine and could not find anything wrong with it. It worked fine when I got it back, and it's a mystery to me. He did ask me if I knew it was in the off position and I simply said yes to him. I've been operating it since March and know how it works. :)

Dinner tonight is Mexican Rice and Bean & Cheese Enchiladas. I wanted to use up some of the fresh salsa we had in the refrigerator and the Mexican Rice fit the bill for that and I was able to use up the can of refried beans I found in the pantry last weekend. 

So far I am scheduled to work four days this week, so I may or may not post very much, but I will be back asap.  Hope you all have a great week.  :)

Belinda
Live simply by not spending money you don't have.
© Belinda & Frugal Workshop, 2011 - 2015.

Friday

Yay, we made it to Friday. I left for work this morning and tried to turn the air conditioner on in my car and nothing. Tried all of the controls, and I have no air, vent, heat, or defroster. I'm not sure what happened because it was working fine yesterday. The drive into work was OK since it was only around 73°, and it wasn't too bad this afternoon on the drive home since it was about 83°, and I had the windows open, so it was breezy. Fortunately we only have about 13 miles to drive home. 

I just bought the car in March, so I called and made an appointment for tomorrow morning. This should be covered under the warranty. I will keep you updated on what happens at the dealership tomorrow. 

My daughter wants to know what we have done to make any air conditioning not want to work for us lately. lol  I will say though that the air conditioner in the house was working just fine when I turned it back on this morning. 

I brought bologna and cheese sandwiches for lunch today along with some pasta salad and water to drink. 

For tonight's dinner, I had several tomatoes that I needed to use up before they spoiled, so I diced them for dinner tonight. I boiled some spaghetti noodles and added the tomatoes along with some olive oil and basil.  It was good and refreshing. I served it with the rolls I bought at Walmart this week also some brussel sprouts from the freezer, which I heated up as well. 

No money spent today. How was your day?

Belinda
Live simply by not spending money you don't have.
© Belinda & Frugal Workshop, 2011 - 2015.

Thursday

My daughter was still in a great deal of pain yesterday, so I dropped by the pharmacy and picked up some Azo that the pharmacist recommended and that did seem to help some. I am hoping the antibiotic will kick in soon. 

After dropping her off at school today, I came home and went to work in the kitchen. Using pantry supplies I have on hand, I first made two pineapple upside down cakes.  I did not have maraschino cherries, so I just left them out, which was no big deal. Cost was under $2.00 to make these. 

This is what one of them looked like after came out of the oven.

We ate all the jello I had made the other day, so I went ahead and made more using up two cans of mixed fruit and two boxes of jello from the pantry. This only cost me 50¢ as the fruit was given to me. 

This is before it set up. It will look better after it gels.

I then cooked off the chickpeas I had soaking and made Mock Tuna Salad. I just cook the beans, mash them and add sweet pickle relish, celery seed, and mayonnaise. We really like it as it tastes just as good as tuna salad without the worries about contaminated tuna. My daughter really likes this, which just tickles me because she wasn't crazy about tuna salad like she is this dish. 

This is what it looks like afterwards, just like tuna. 

I did not work today, but am scheduled for a full day tomorrow. I already have plenty of food prepared to take for lunches and I'll be bringing ice water to drink in my thermos. 

Our air conditioner has frozen up this afternoon because of being used so much due to the heat wave. Dinner will be something cold like pasta salad, jello salad, or a sandwich as it is 81° in the house and really too hot to cook or even want to eat for that matter. I'm concerned that the a/c may be on its way out as it did this about a month ago. I turned it off for the rest of that evening and night and it worked fine the next day.  

Belinda
Live simply by not spending money you don't have.
© Belinda & Frugal Workshop, 2011 - 2015.

Wednesday

After dropping my daughter off at school I went to IGA to buy an onion since I am out and needed one for dinner. The two pound bags were over $3.00, so I passed on those and bought one onion, which cost 76¢. Ugh. I cannot wait until another sale on onions happens. I cut this one in half and will use the second half for another meal to save money. 

Dinner tonight was Green Beans with Onions, Potatoes, and Ham. Green Beans were 39¢ x 2, Potatoes were 40¢ x 2 and the Ham Steak was $1.84. Total cost for dinner was $3.80. There was enough for three servings and one extra for lunch. I took a picture on my cell phone, but my phone takes terrible photos, so I will refrain from posting it. :)

Our deal of the day was a sale on Scott tissues at Publix. They were buy one get one free and we had coupons that doubled. We were able to pick up 24 boxes for 12¢ each. 

How was your day?

Belinda
Live simply by not spending money you don't have.
© Belinda & Frugal Workshop, 2011 - 2015.

Tuesday

By 4 o'clock this morning, I was wide awake, so I went ahead and cooked the beans I had soaked in the pressure cooker and then placed them in the crockpot with hot dogs and barbeque sauce. I cooked the beans first because I wanted to ensure that they were cooked. I know sometimes when I've mixed a tomato based sauce in the crockpot with beans they don't always cook properly.  The beans cost me $1.09, hot dogs 99¢, and the bbq sauce was free after coupons, so this dish cost just over $2.00 to make. I'll serve it with mashed potatoes and corn.

I did not get called to sub today, so I made a grocery store run after dropping dd off at school. I didn't buy everything on my list, but just the bare essentials to make it through until I get paid. Even though I am working again I will not receive my first paycheck until September 20^th, which is still about 40 days away. So, even though the grocery list is longer than usual I will still need to be careful between now and then and hold off buying everything on the list as some things will have to wait.

Our local Fresh and Low has store brand peanut butter on sale for 99¢, which is such a great price for PB. Now I am not fond of store brand PB as PB is one of those items I prefer to buy name brand. But I've not seen many good sales on PB lately. I'm hesitant to buy much of this, especially since school is just starting back, which is normally a time when PB goes on sale. It is possible that a good sale on name brand peanut butter could still happen. I’m going to pick up a few jars of this store brand just to tide us over for now as we are completely out of peanut butter and I want to make some granola bars with it. 

First stop was Walmart where I bought eggs ($2.53), cheddar cheese ($3.96/1 lb.), hot dog buns (60¢), sandwich rolls (56¢ each), potatoes, salt, relish, yogurt, sour cream, and deodorant. The buns and sandwich rolls were a bakery markdown and the deodorant had coupons on them for 40¢ off. Total spent: $23.96

Second stop was Fresh and Low where I bought six jars of peanut butter, one ham steak, a package of peanuts because my breakfast didn't tide me over (42¢), lettuce, strawberries, and butter. Total spent: $16.45

A couple of coupon deals I went for today did not work out as it was the last day of the sale and they were out of stock, but I did manage to get two rain checks. I also filled up my gas tank at $2.05 per gallon and paid $29.49. 

Wednesday dinner is going to be green beans cooked with onions and potatoes in EVOO along with a Ham steak I picked up today for $1.83. It's going to be a one pot dinner, so all the items can season one another. 

Belinda
Live simply by not spending money you don't have.
© Belinda & Frugal Workshop, 2011 - 2015.

Monday ~ First Day Back to School

I woke up bright and early today thinking that I would NOT be working today, but then I received a call to sub around 6:30 this morning. I have never worked the first day back to school, but one of the teachers woke up sick this morning and needed a sub, so she called me. Last year I worked on the second day of school, but never on the first day until today. 

I am so, so glad that I made lunches yesterday and went ahead yesterday and made today's dinner, which was Chili Mac. Turns out my daughter was sick at school today and I ended up making her a doctor's appointment after school. She is now on antibiotics. We didn't get home until after 5 o'clock and it was so nice that all I had to do when I came home was to heat up dinner and serve it along with a salad, which was also already made. Planning ahead made my day run a whole lot smoother. 

Today was a good day for me sub-wise as my phone stayed busy with requests. I even had to turn down a couple of days as I was already booked. I am very grateful for each and every request. 

Image Credit

In years past I always bought a calendar/planner to write down the days I am subbing, but I haven't done that for this school year and my calendar from last school year ran out in July. There are some beautiful planners out there that I would love to have, but they also cost money. I paid $7.00 for one I used last year and it was a plain, no frills one, but I've seen them cost a lot more than that! The Erin Condren planners are beautiful, and I would love to have one, but I cannot pay over $50 for a planner. One of our local banks gives really nice calendars to all the teachers, but unfortunately that does not trickle down to the substitutes. 

My daughter made me a calendar for August, but I already need at least the rest of 2015, so this year I am just going to print them off the Internet for free instead of paying $7 or more for a planner.  I actually found one that was advertised as a printable ink saver calendar.  The school where I subbed today gave me a folder of important papers and I can keep my new calendar in the inside pocket. 

I've just reached the point in my life where I am tired of some things costing so much money. I said at the beginning of the year that one of my goals in 2015 was to avoid consumerism, and this is one of those times. I think times are tough right now, and I have read and seen things financially that concern me greatly. For now, I am going into gazelle mode when it comes to spending any money.  So, for right now I am counting my blessings and grateful that I was able to work today.  :)

Belinda
Live simply by not spending money you don't have.
© Belinda & Frugal Workshop, 2011 - 2015.

Sunday

Sunday Dinner will be a Vegetable Stir Fry. I started out by cutting up half of a cabbage from the crisper, and added broccoli, yellow peppers, and a teriyaki stir fry sauce (3 for $1.00 at UGO) from the freezer, and a wild rice pilaf mix, soy sauce, water chestnuts, and pineapple from the pantry. The rice was free after a coupon deal. The peppers were free, and the pineapple was 20¢ after coupon. So, this dinner cost under $4.00 to feed my family of three. 

I also made another pasta salad while I was in the kitchen. I used my last two packages of on sale pasta (rotini) to make enough pasta salad, hopefully, to last for several lunches the next few days. I added tomatoes, cucumbers, red peppers, and radishes from the crisper. Black olives, the last of a bottle of Suddenly Salad topping, and some Ranch and Italian dressing from the pantry, and also added some peas & broccoli from the freezer. Again, It gave me a good feeling to use up some more items from the pantry. 

Breakfast and lunch are free to all students again this year, so that will be very helpful, although my daughter prefers breakfast at home. I do have some breakfast burritos for her in the freezer ready to go. All she or I have to do is heat them in the morning. 

I took an inventory of my freezers and pantry yesterday and did find a couple of things I had forgotten that I had, so I am incorporating them into my meal plans for the week. This is the reason it is important to stay on top of your freezer and pantry inventory, so items don't get lost in the shuffle and expire before you are able to use them and get your money's worth out of them. 

I've got some beans on soaking for another meal one day this week. I will be making baked beans with these and adding hot dogs as well. 

Other items on the dinner menu, not in any particular order, this week will include...

- Bean & Cheese Enchiladas
- Chili Mac (using my last box of Elbow Mac & last package of Beef)
- Smoked Sausage, Potatoes & Green Beans
- Baked Potatoes with Sour Cream, Broccoli 
- Hot Dogs & Baked Beans, Mashed Potatoes, Corn

For now I have all the laundry cleaned, folded, and put away, for at least five minutes. lol 

I've got our alarms turned back on for our first day back to school in the morning. I have my clothes laid out already. My daughter has been getting her school supplies in order along with getting her outfits picked out and her water bottle and snack. She gets low blood sugar at school and needs to have a snack with her. I am not subbing so far this week, but already have the first three days of next week booked. 

How was your weekend?

Belinda
Live simply by not spending money you don't have.
© Belinda & Frugal Workshop, 2011 - 2015.