What You Can Cook For the Price of 2 Domino's Pizzas?

Right now Domino's Pizza has a special mix and match deal where you can buy two topping medium pizzas for $5.99 each. The deal is that you have to buy at least two pizzas. 
So let's do the math on two pizzas here in Tennessee. 
2 x $5.99 = $11.98 Garlic Sauce 50¢ each = $3.00 (My dd likes this & gets extras) Tax = $1.50 Total $16.48
And that price is for when you pick it up yourself not for any delivery charges. I usually add extra cheese to mine for which they add $1.00, so we could easily pay $17.48 for the two pizzas. 
What could we buy at the grocery store and make at home for $17.48? When you're trying to save money by cooking at home you can either keep it simple or you can go gourmet or even try to recreate some of your favorite restaurant meals at home. The choice is entirely up to you. 
When you cook your own food at home you get to control the ingredients and can make dishes healthier if you choose to do so. I know that I lose a little bit of weight when I am cooking the majority of my meals at home. 
Back when I was growing up it was a real treat to get to eat at a restaurant, but that isn't always the case today. Today eating out is done on such a regular basis that it is not always a treat like it was back then. 
Let's say you wanted Italian food for dinner, so we will look at spaghetti for example. 
Last week Kroger had Prego sauce on sale for 99¢ and we have a stockpile of pasta from Kroger we bought for 50¢. 
Now I save more money because I utilize the Pantry Principle. I purchase food at the lowest possible price and then stockpile. 
But, to be more reasonable, I'm going to use Walmart's website to look up prices that anyone can purchase today. 
Large jar of Prego spaghetti sauce - $3.30 Box of spaghetti - $1.00 Can of tomatoes - 74¢ Onion - 54¢ Garlic - 15¢ (1/4 of a head for 60¢) Italian Bread - $1.00 Broccoli - 87¢ Margarine - 40¢
In order to make a batch of spaghetti at home you'll spend approximately $8.00 for the entire recipe. Depending on the number of people in your family this will make multiple servings and maybe even enough for two meals, which it does in our home. 
Spaghetti I make at home gets doctored up with onions, tomatoes, and garlic, so I added the cost of those items into the mix as well. I like the Prego sauce with the mini meatballs, so there is no need to add meat to this unless you just want more meat. 
Forbes magazine published an article titled, "Here's How Much Money You Save By Cooking At Home". According to the article, it is five times more expensive to order from a restaurant than to cook at home. And they found that the cook at home meal kits are three times more expensive. 
But getting back to the Domino's Pizza, you could make enough spaghetti for four meals and possibly extra over the cost of one meal of Dominos Pizza. Cooking at home definitely stretches your budget. 
The point to all of this is that you'll definitely save the most money by cooking the majority of your meals at home. 
And if you wanted to make pizza at home you will definitely save over pizza bought at the pizza place.
Belinda ~ Living within our Means ~

Yard Sale Saturday & My Frugal Week

School is over for the summer, so I was able to turn off my alarms this week. Of course, my body knows what time it is and I've been waking up right around 5 a.m. each morning. LOL

First thing we did on Friday was go to several yard sales. We also went to multiple sales on Saturday and had the best time. 

Of course, I brought sandwiches, granola bars, and drinks with us, so we didn't spend any money for food out of the house either day.  
Here are some photos and descriptions of the goods I found this week. 
Acer Laptop $30, which will be perfect to carry as it's a smaller one. We haggled with the seller to see if he would take $25 or throw in this bread machine and he did. 
Rival Bread Machine 

Tupperware canisters and cups. There are two canisters, one is nestled in the bigger one. Both of these items were  $1.00 each. 

Brand New Kenneth Cole Leather Laptop Bag $1.00. 

These sell for over $100 online, so this was a surprising find. I'm going to list this on eBay for some added income this summer. 

What was funny was that I found eleven brand new pencils in the bag. I've added these to my sub bag for next school year.

This brand new 8 Quart Stockpot, Steamer, Pasta Insert was only $2.00 and sells for over $50 online. This will also be listed on eBay for added income this summer. 

Popcorn Machine $5.00

Other items I found, but did not picture include: 
Multiple CDs 10¢ each Movies $1.00 each Cookbook $1.00 Tennessee Vols Sweatshirt $1.00 Thirty One Bag 50¢ Bathroom Rug 50¢
Like I said it was a great yard sale weekend. 
On the frugal front this week we went to Kroger on Tuesday afternoon and found several items in the marked down bread section. 
One of the items was a bag of cinnamon raisin English muffins marked down to 59¢. There was a 25¢ Ibotta rebate on those making them 29¢ or 5¢ each. 

We also picked up the Kroger Friday freebie, which was a bottle of Core water. 

Kroger

Kroger also had Hillshire Farms smoked sausage on sale for $1.99 when you buy five, so I bought those as well. 

That's all the news I can think of for now. I have several projects I will be working on this week and updating my blog more often is on that list. 

I'd love to hear how your week went. 

Belinda ~ Living within our Means ~

Frugal Friday May 17, 2019

Good morning to all my readers. I hope you are doing well. I'm fine just tired from being busy this week. 
I've worked every day this week and we were pet sitting over the weekend through Tuesday, so my commute to work Monday and Friday was longer than usual.
On Wednesday we went to Red Lobster with family to celebrate my nephew's birthday. My niece treated us to dinner that night. 
My dinner choice was Fish & Chips, which was delicious. I also had the strawberry lemonade, which was also very good. We didn't get home until 10:30 that night, so I was tired the next day at work. 
Now my Dad is in town from Illinois and we've been visiting with him also, so you can see why the week was so busy. (And tiring, I'm hoping to get an extra hour of sleep tomorrow. LOL) 
Today is the last Friday I'll be subbing this year as next week is the last week of school this year. I'm subbing four days as of right now, but that could change. After that I'll be busy pursuing some of my side hustles and helping my daughter with her business. 
Since we last spoke I've turned another year older, so we celebrated my birthday over the weekend as well. I didn't tell the 6th grade class I was subbing for that it was my birthday, but one of the students asked me yesterday when it was, so I told them. They were so sweet and sang the Happy Birthday song to me. 
Birthday freebies included a free milkshake from Steak & Shake, a free sub from Firehouse Subs, $5.00 from Mcalister's Deli, $5.00 from Jason's Deli, a free buffet from Golden Corral, a free pastry from Panera Bread, a free doughnut from Krispy Kreme, and a free drink from Dunkin Doughnuts. I have a couple of other freebies, but haven't found the time to use those yet. 
We did get two more of our cats spayed for free last week. The local animal clinic was doing these for free again, so we took two of our female cats and had them fixed. They also gave them free rabies vaccinations. 
I hope you all have been doing well and living the frugal life as best you can. Now that summer break is almost here, I'm hoping to spend more time on the blog. 
I hope you have a great weekend. 
Belinda ~ Living within our Means ~

Frugal Friday on Saturday

Good morning to you this beautiful Saturday. I'm doing well today, but my daughter has come down with strep throat, unfortunately. 
She was asleep when I came home from work on Thursday, which should have been my first clue that she was sick. 
She is still sleeping this morning, so we're not going to any yard sales today. 
This was a busy week work wise and I ended up working everyday, so I didn't get my Frugal Friday post up yesterday. 
This week I'm scheduled for four days, but we will see what happens there. I could end up working all week again. 
Frugal things that went on here this week include:
Made a $10 sale on eBay this week. 
Found this reusable bag in the clean garbage can in one of the classrooms I subbed in this week, so I rescued it.

I made ham broth in my crockpot with the hambone from Easter dinner. I have five of these in my freezer. I will be using some of this to make potato soup, which will give the soup  a lot of flavor.   

We picked up these two egg containers for 50¢ each at a yard sale on Friday. These sell for $9.99 on Amazon. (Affiliate Link)

They are a nice hard plastic that washes easily. They stack on top of each other and have lids as well, so I can set things on top of them in my fridge if needed. 
I love refrigerator containers and look at them whenever I go into Lowe's. 
This one will be short and sweet this week. I hope you all have a terrific weekend!
Belinda ~ Living within our Means ~

April 2019 End of the Month Wrap Up

My goals for April included at least fifteen no spend days, a new source of income, and no new debt. I ended up with twenty-two no spend days and no new debt! I have several ideas in the works for the new source of income, but I am still working on those. 
Some bloggers say no spend days don't work because they will simply spend the next day. In my case I like to string as many no spend days together as I can and hopefully have more no spend days than spend days. 
I think having twenty-two no spend days out of thirty is pretty good. Having no spend days helps me to save money by not spending it in the first place. 
My goals for May include no eating out, no new debt, and as many no spend days as I can get, which will hopefully be over twenty. 
Some of my spending in April included..
Gas $94.01 Groceries $132.69  Insurance $255.67 Yard Sales $5.00
Insurance is normally our biggest spending category. It's a necessity in my book as I would not want to be without it. 
I already have my budget written out for May and plan to continue as many no spend days as possible. 
In May and June we will have income from pet sitting again. I am still working on other sources of income for the summer as well. 
Have you made any goals for May yet? Belinda ~ Living within our Means ~