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Friday, April 26, 2019

Frugal Friday ~ April 26, 2019

This week I was able to work four days and got to stay home on Wednesday, so I decided to make our Easter dinner then. 

One thing that the water problem did was soak through some of my Dad's clothes that he left here when he moved five years ago. 

There is normally red clay mud at the bottom of our water tank/heater, so if it leaks red clay comes with it and his clothes soaked up a bunch of the water and mud and I didn't think the red clay would come out. 

I asked him if he wanted me to wash them or get rid of them and he told me to trash them. So there is a section of the downstairs that has been cleaned out as a result. It looks so much better than it did before.  

Some of the items we dried outside in the sunshine. I kept all of the towels and will use those for the cat beds. I'm not going to wash them in my washer with the red clay. 

Some things I did to save money this week include...

- Cut my own hair. My bangs were getting too long and annoying me, so I decided to trim them and decided to cut my hair in the process.

- Earned another $5 from Microsoft Rewards


- Perused the grocery store sale ads online. Here are some good deals I plan on picking up:


Kroger

Peanut Butter 99¢
Cheddar Cheese 99¢

Both of these involve digital coupons and you can purchase up to five, so we both picked these up on Thursday. 

I just opened the  last jar of peanut butter from Kroger's last sale, so the timing worked out well. 


We now have ten jars of peanut butter in our pantry and ten blocks of cheddar cheese (blocks as I prefer to shred my own cheese) in our refrigerator. 


Food City

Food Club Tomatoes 50¢ Friday Only
Luck's Beans 50¢ Friday Only
Smuckers Grape Jam 99¢ Friday Only

Kroger regularly sells canned tomatoes for 50¢ per can, so we picked up two cases (24 cans/$12.00) on Thursday. I was down to one can, so we definitely needed them. 


In my Frugal Kitchen this week I made another batch of granola bars. My daughter bought some Hershey chocolate chips last week when Kroger had them for $1.00 a bag, so I put 1/2 bag in this batch along with some coconut we had in the pantry. 


My recipe calls for 1 & 1/2 cups of peanut butter, but since I was on my last jar when I made them, I only used 1 cup and then used 1/2 cup of peanut butter powder, which helped me stretch my peanut butter and helped me use up the pb powder at least until I bought more on Thursday. 


I've been saving my peanut butter jars to reuse for other things. 

Hershey's Chocolate Chips 
$1.00 @ Kroger

The ham bone from our Easter dinner was put into the crockpot to make ham stock. I used some of the ham stock to moisten the cornbread dressing I made to go with the ham and it really added good flavor to the dressing. 

Beans I had in the fridge were put into individual containers and placed in the freezer as we were not eating them this week because I made a big ham in the middle of the week. 

One thing that I made this week and no one like was a package of cheese sauce. which I doctored with taco sauce. No one liked it though, so I need to decide what to do with it. 


Stir fry has been served in our home more often since I bought the Breville wok a few weeks ago. It's a good and healthy dinner, which is filled with vegetables and one that we all enjoy. 

This was a cabbage stir fry I made:


Rice in my Rice Cooker to go with the Stir Fry.


One day for lunch we had a marked down pizza we picked up at Kroger for $2.99. We also picked up some marked down chicken and ground beef. 





On Tuesday evening I made cornbread in order to make cornbread dressing on Wednesday for our Easter dinner. 

Here it is broken up as I was trying to get it cooled off before I crumbled it. 


Freebies this week included multiple free magazines such as Newsweek, Southern Living, Better Homes & Gardens, etc. A free Nibbler (chicken sandwich) postcard from Zaxby's for my birthday next month. 


Yesterday I felt like Sluggy when I found a quarter in the girl's bathroom at school. :)


Another free juice from one of the students at school. I'm so glad they've started asking me rather than throwing these away. This one was a combination of citrus juices and not just orange juice. 

That's all the news from here this week. How was your week? I'd love to hear about it in the comment section. 

Stay frugal my friends. :)

Belinda
~ Living within our Means ~

20 comments:

  1. The bone from a ham has to be the best frugal food item ever. Besides the soup broth and chunks of meat, I love suing bits and pieces with potato's and make a delicious hammy potatoes side dish. I have a big ham in the freezer, and will use this summer for cheap big meals ant the lake as a break from burgers, brats, and chicken.

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    1. I agree with you on the ham bone, Sam. It made our potato soup taste great. That ham side dish of yours sounds good too. My daughter asked me to make scalloped or au gratin potatoes this week, so I need to do that. Ham this summer will be a nice change of pace from the regular fair. You could even save some to put in a pasta salad. :)

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  2. I wasn't home much, so nothing really exciting happened. But, I was able to buy a Home Depot gift card for a small discount. We have a big project planned, so that will help reduce the cost a bit. Likewise for a work Uber expense, which I'll get reimbursed for. My most consistent frugal win is that I track any unexpected money (anything outside of salary, stock, bonus) & use that to pay down our mortgage & save for the kids colleges. It adds up to be quite a bit, and if I wasn't tracking it, I think it would just fritter away.

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    1. Good deal on the Home Depot gift card discount. I make better use of my money when I track it too. That's great that you are using your unexpected money and paying down your mortgage. I don't know if you watch Dining on a Dime on their Youtube channel, but they just announced that they have paid off their mortgage and are 100% debt free now. I was excited for them.

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  3. Pops out of lurkdom to say how much I enjoy your posts :)

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    1. Thank you so much, Effieq. That means a lot to me. :)

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  4. Look at you....being me....and a quarter richer!!lolz
    Thanks for the reminder that I have to do something with my ham bone that Hubs saved for me when he cut all the meat off it. ;-)

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    1. LOL, Sluggy. You were the first one I thought of when I found it. :)

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  5. Oh Belinda I am so happy you have joined our coin club, but remember we will all die being hit by a car bending over to get a coin in the parking lot. I love that you cook and think like me.

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    1. LOL, Kim. That is so sweet of you to say, thank you. I hope you have a great weekend.

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  6. My dd gave me the ham bone, as well. I put it in the freezer and will probably not use it until the fall and make pea soup. Dd and I are the only ones that like pea soup, but that's fine more for us.

    You got some great buys this week. Good shopping and I'm glad you finally got to have your Easter Dinner.

    Have a good weekend!

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    1. Thank you so much, Mary Lou. Pea soup sounds delicious and very frugal. I know you'll enjoy it when the time comes. I hope you have a great weekend too.

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  7. I have ham broth in my fridge ready for some more ham and split pea soup. We had it for two meals this week and it was good.

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    1. THat sounds very good, Gill. I hope you have a great weekend.

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  8. Belinda,
    Does the Kroger peanut butter taste like Jiff? Its a great deal, but we really prefer Jiff and I don't want to get stuck with something the masses around here won't eat. LOL

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    1. I used to feel the same way about peanut butter, Barbara. I loved the name brand and wouldn't buy the generic version. But then I bought one and tried it and realized I liked it. Make sure it's fresh and not out of date and buy just one jar and give it a try. Let everyone taste it and see what they think. Even if they don't like it you'll only be out $1.00. If you like it and decide to buy it you will save money. I wouldn't say it tastes like Jif, but I do like itnad we save money buyng it.

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  9. I just read the above peanut butter comment. Do you have Always Save in your area? That peanut butter is the best peanut butter in the world. It makes Jif taste generic.

    Normal frugal week in our home. We got the flu bringing home our new truck. DH had to get a ride to bring the truck and our car home. The person we got a ride from works in medical and passed along his petri dish, lol. DH & I both agreed he should have took a cab, lol. It would have been cheaper and we wouldn't been sick. The flu cost us money with a missed work day. That kind of sucked. I can't drive due to a medical condition. DH & I had to skip the flu shot this year because we are still allergic. Next year looks hopeful for flu shots so crossing fingers we can have one.

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  10. We do have Always Save, Safyne. I like it as well and will buy it when it is on sale too. Oh no, I'm so sorry you both ended up with the flu. Being sick just stinks. I hope you are both feeling better now as I know how the flu can take it out of you and leave you so tired.

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  11. You found some really good bargains this week! We go through peanut butter very quickly. But I haven't seen any deals like that here in Alabama!

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    1. Thank you Lou Lou. Kroger has this sale about every 4 months or so. We have to drive aways to get there, but it's wroth it to me.

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