First Frugal Friday of October 2022

Welcome to Friday! 
My Frugal Week
Thank you for all the get well messages sent to me last week. They meant a lot to me and yes, I am feeling much better this week. 
I perused the grocery store sale ads online making note of any sales, which seem far and few between these days. Publix has their buy one get one free sales, but sometimes the price ends up being the same as the regular price of one item in a competing store, so I don’t see the point. 
Using up what we have here and cooking from  scratch are two of the ways we are saving money in these especially hard times. 
Savings of the Week
Piggly Wiggly has Wamplers sausage on sale this week for $2.99. Walmart sells the same brand and size for $3.94, so a savings of 95 cents each. Sausage comes in handy for several dishes such as Egg Roll in a Bowl and Sausage Quiche. 
Earning Money
I earned a small commission ($11.79) from Amazon this week for items that people have ordered from one of my links posted here.
Saving Money In My Frugal Kitchen
Another week has gone by where we did not eat any food outside our home, no restaurants, no fast food, no carry out, nothing. We ate all of our meals at home by being creative in the kitchen. We had several meatless meals this week too, which also saves money. 
We had two purple cabbages, which we managed to use up along with a batch of peppers that a friend gave to us from her garden. 
Meals This Week
Friday: Had a leftovers night using various leftovers from the week. I did make a batch of fresh steamed carrots, which we finished on Saturday night. 
Saturday: Chicken, Roasted Potatoes, Steamed Carrots. 
Sunday: Dirty Rice, Roasted Potatoes. 
Monday: Polish Sausage, Potatoes & Roasted Green Beans. 
Tuesday: Pizza for movie night. I also made a pasta salad and some homemade granola bars. 
Wednesday: Soup Beans, Roasted Purple Cabbage, and Pickled Beets. 
Thursday: Soup Beans, Purple Cabbage Stir Fry, Homemade Tortillas. 
Saving on Entertainment
Acre Homestead
What I've been Reading This Week
North Dakota State University Pinching Pennies in the Kitchen series. 

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.

BelindaDebt Free & ~ Living within our Means ~My Linktree

Fourth Frugal Friday September 2022

Welcome to Friday! 
Quote of the Week

“Meat costs about three times more than vegetables yet yields sixteen times less nutrition…vegetables net you forty-eight times more nutrition per dollar than meat.” 

~ from How Not to Die by Michael Greger, M.D., FACLM

Price of Gas this Week
$3.06
My Frugal Week
We went to several yard sales on Saturday. We brought sandwiches from home with us and did not eat out. 
That was the day to find jars for my kitchen. I found six glass canister type jars, three large plastic canisters, one Tupperware bowl, and two egg containers. I love getting new to me stuff for my kitchen at a fraction of the cost. 
This weeks post is going to be short. I started feeling sick on Sunday and ended up in the ER on Tuesday evening. They ended up giving me an antibiotic via IV and sent me home with a prescription.
I feel better than I did, but am not back to 100% yet, so please forgive my short post this week. I’ll make up for it next week. 
Some Meals This Week
Friday: Tuna Salad, Potato Salad, and Celery Sticks with Ranch for dipping. 
Saturday: BBQ Sandwiches, Potato Salad, Baked Beans, and Corn.
Sunday: Taco Style Lentils & Rice, Corn Tortillas, Tomatoes, Cheese. 
Thursday: Dirty Rice, Tik Tok Potatoes 
Recipe of the Week
This was a recipe from my sweet sister-in-law, Joan. She made it for us when we were both teenagers in 1982. It’s delicious. 
Joan’s Shrimp Pilaf
Ingredients:
1 stick butter1/2 cup water1 onion1/2 teaspoon salt1/2 quart tomatoes1 cup rice3 cups waterShrimp 
Directions:
Boil first three ingredients until water is gone. Add tomatoes, water, rice, and shrimp.Cook until done. 
Saving on Entertainment
This week we watched…
Scattered Dreams ~ for free on YouTube. In 1951 a poor illiterate migrant farm worker is wrongly imprisoned for not being able to pay a grocery bill. Upon her release from prison, she sets out to reclaim her children. This film shows that you can be rich in ways that money can’t buy. An excellent film with an outstanding cast. 

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.
BelindaDebt Free & ~ Living within our Means ~My Linktree

Third Frugal Friday of September 2022

Welcome to Friday! 
Quote of the Week

Slow and steady wins the race!

My Frugal Week
What started last Thursday was a whirlwind of activity that didn’t end until late Friday evening. The driveway crew came around 8 o’clock on Thursday morning and began excavating the driveway. 
They put two tiles under the driveway to keep rainwater from running down the hill and washing the driveway out. They sloped the rest of the driveway so rainwater would fall off to the side rather than down the middle of the driveway. Total cost of the driveway turned out to be $3,000. 
The driveway could still use a couple of more loads of gravel at $750 each and $300 to spread it, but we will save that money up for another day. 
On Monday the mailman came to our back porch and picked up packages! We were thrilled since they have refused to come up here due to the state of the driveway. This will save us both gas money and time. 
We hired movers to move two pieces of furniture we bought at the consignment sale. 
The first piece is this beautifully painted bookshelf. 

The second piece is this new to us desk at only $40.

While the men were here working on the driveway, I cleaned off the back porch from the cats. I threw away several of their blankets because raccoons like to come up there and mess with their stuff. The garbage man came on Saturday and hauled multiple bags off for this reason. 

September always brings the spiders out here and spider webs too. So, while I was cleaning the back porch I used my broom and knocked so many of them down including two spiders that were in a couple of them.
On Tuesday we had errands to run, so we decided to stop in the last day of the consignment sale. This was after the sellers who wanted to pick up their stuff on Monday did that. Everything left Tuesday was $1.00, cash only. 
We didn’t think there would be much left, but we were pleasantly surprised. This is a photo of our shopping cart while we were waiting to check out on dollar dash day. 
Bailey added multiple items to her inventory that now need to be steamed, processed, and listed for sale online. 
Who knew there would be so much stuff left? 

One of the things I bought was a comforter set, which included curtains and a cedar chest cover. Here is a picture of the tag from the sale:

She had $100 originally on the set, which was 50% and then 75% off on certain days of the sale, but we went on dollar dash day, so I got all of this for $1.00. Comforter, pillow shams, curtains for two windows, and a cedar chest cover. This was one of my sweetest deals this summer.
Here is a photo of what the comforter set looks like:

Another item we picked up was a brand new Pur water filter for the kitchen faucet. We buy these regularly and they easily cost $20. The seller had $16 on this one, but we only paid $1.00
We also stopped in the bread outlet where they had a fantastic deal on Dave’s Killer bread for $1.50 per loaf, so we got two of those along with hamburger buns and Hawaiian bread. 

And we stopped in at Walmart to replenish our mayonnaise, tea bags, sugar, onions, and cheese. While we were there I found a quarter in the parking lot. 😊 
Bailey went to Starbucks to get her a drink and I wanted an ice water. They will put strawberries in it for you for around 70 cents. It made for a nice little treat. 
The weather was so beautiful and we walked outside to a temperature of 53 degrees, which felt wonderful.
Savings of the Week
Hallelujah! I am thrilled that our electric bill is $125.62 lower this month over last month’s bill in our all electric house. The lower temperatures have certainly helped in this area of our finances. 
Joy of the Week
My Christmas cactus is confused for some reason and has multiple buds on it, which makes it the photo of the week. 
Photo of the Week

Question of the Week
What I do not understand is someone who prices an item for a consignment sale and states no discount on it and then when it doesn’t sell, they leave it to be donated rather than pick it up.
To me it would be better to offer a discount and sell it for half price than nothing at all. Of course, we benefited greatly from people who did this. They would mark an item for $40 no discount and it would not sell at that price, so we got it for $1.00 on dollar dash day.
It just seems to me that selling it for $20 (half price) would be better than not getting anything for it. 
What do you think?
Earning Money
There was a nice surprise deposit into my account of $50 this week. I love it when that happens. 
Helping Others
We gave away a small desk to a gentlemen from Facebook Marketplace as a porch pick up this week. He was happy to get it. 
Saving Money In My Frugal Kitchen
I bought enough groceries last week to make do for this week when normally I buy for the whole month. So many of the items we normally buy have increased in price, unfortunately. One of the things I’ve done to combat this is getting creative in the kitchen and leaning even more towards cooking from scratch. 

Successful Leftover Wizardry Performed Here 

One of the things we’ve always done is to use what we have on hand to make meals. We have a lot of beans and rice on hand to incorporate into meals, which has helped us save money on groceries.
I’ve been using up my herbal teas and using those in place of regular tea for mealtimes. I’ve been enjoying hibiscus tea, which is a healthy tea, several days this week. 
Meals This Week
Friday: Burritos, Baked Beans, Mexican Rice. 
Saturday: Ham, Rice Pilaf, Green Beans with Onions. 
Sunday: Homemade version of Mexican style burritos/enchiladas dinner. I used sour cream, tomatoes, taco seasoning mix, rice, and beans. I scooped some onto tortillas, rolled them up and put them in a baking dish. Then I made a sauce out of sour cream and taco sauce to cover it. 
Monday: Tuna Salad, Green Beans with Potatoes & Onions, Rice & Vegetables.
 Tuesday: Repeat of Monday night or Pizza for movie night. 
Wednesday: Salmon Patties, Green Beans with Onions, Potato Salad. 
Thursday: Chicken with Rice & Broccoli, Potato Salad, October Beans. I used rice from two separate dinners and no one was the wiser. 😉 
Saving on Entertainment
We are still watching and enjoying Veronica Mars for the time being. 
What I've been Reading This Week
This week I’ve been reading a love story titled, God Shaped Hole by Tiffanie DeBartolo. It’s the kind of love story that is supposed to change you, breaks and remakes you.
Here is a stack of books from the consignment sale that I’ll be reading soon…

Taste of Home magazine, Treasures of the Pharos, Get Together with Gooseberry Patch,  The Wellness Mama cookbook, and finally, Eat More of What You Love. I love getting stacks of new books to read. 
Freebies
We were given multiple food freebies this week including salmon, chicken, and green beans. 

That is our week in a nutshell. Thank you for dropping by my blog, you are always welcome here. 
We would love to hear all about your week in the comment section.
BelindaDebt Free & ~ Living within our Means ~My Linktree

Second Frugal Friday September 2022

Welcome to Friday! 
Quote of the Week

You must do the things you think you cannot do.

~ Eleanor Roosevelt

I like this quote because it is so true. I can remember when I first started back to school in 1999 and thinking about how much math I needed to graduate, which was five math classes. For a person who didn’t excel at math, that seemed to be an insurmountable task.

But you know what? I took those classes, one class, one semester at a time, and I completed all those math classes. When all was said and done it felt good to be on the other side of it and have all of that behind me. 

If there is something in your life that you want to accomplish, take it one step at a time and you can get there. 

My Frugal Week
Payday landed this week, so I paid all the monthly bills for another month. I’m always grateful and thankful to have these funds and count my blessings. 
We went to the consignment sale on Friday for the first time. We took sandwiches and water to drink with us as we were out of the house for more than six hours and I knew we would get hungry. 
The sale was a lot of fun and Bailey picked up a lot of inventory for her shops.
Here are some pictures I took from the kitchen section…

This is my favorite section to browse through because I never know what useful thing I will find. 

Like this beautiful Pioneer Women salad bowl set…

I’ve had file folders on my to buy list for a few months now and found two of these at the sale. They are so pretty too. 

I also found these alphabet dividers. I thought I needed some new hanging file folders and they had some at the sale for $7.00, which I thought was high. I left them and will check on the 50% off day to see if they are still there. But then I realized I don’t need them at all as the alphabet dividers did the job perfectly. 

I’ve already put the alphabet dividers and some of the file folders to good use. I filed what paperwork I had on my desk into my file box. It’s so nice to have all my paperwork organized and easy to find when I need it. 
A Pampered Chef cookie scoop…

Two new beach bath towels…

Debbie Meyer green bags…

Several new cooking utensils, which included two Williams Sonoma utensils. 

A very sturdy Rubbermaid measuring cup with a gripper lined bottom. This will make a great scoop for cat food. 

And a few other items such as another long spoon, a pineapple cat house, silver polish, pizza cutter, and Rubbermaid pitcher. 

This is the string that the seller used to tie the bath towels together. I carefully untied it to save for future projects as it is very nice string. 

We bought gas this week and paid $3.23 per gallon.
I fixed the hanger on a picture that had broken off. I had taken it down to clean it and then one of the nails, which was bent, fell out, so I fixed it with another nail from the toolbox. 
I returned an article of clothing to get a refund rather than hanging onto it “just in case.”
I had an appointment on Tuesday, so decided to run my errands as well to save money on gas. 
The people worked on our driveway on Thursday and are coming back on Friday to finished the job, so I will report on that next week. 
Saving Money In My Frugal Kitchen
On Sunday I went to Fresh and Low for a grocery pick up order. Items included one of the specials of five for $12.50 and included broccoli, tomatoes, and stir fry. Enough meat to last the week along with butter and cheese. 
We had a few items given to us including a can of salmon, can of spam, jar of dried beef, 
We used up all the leftovers this week often turning them into breakfast for the next day. I’m glad they get used up and it doesn’t matter to me which meal they get used. 
Meals This Week
Friday:  Tacos with lettuce, tomatoes, red onions, and sharp cheddar cheese. 
Saturday: Repeat of Tacos to use up leftovers and avoid food waste. 
Sunday: Chicken Tenders, Potato Salad, Broccoli with Ranch for dipping. 
Monday: Hamburgers with cheese, onion, pickles, tomatoes, green beans with onions. 
Tuesday: Pizza for Movie Night.
Wednesday: Dirty Rice, Green Beans with Onions. 
Thursday: Hamburgers with Cheese, Baked Beans, Corn on the Cob. 
Recipe of the Week

No Bake Blueberry Cheesecake

Ingredients:

9 graham cracker sheets (one sleeve)

1⁄2 cup melted butter

1 tablespoon sugar

16 ounces cream cheese, softened

8-ounce container of Cool Whip

1 cup powdered sugar

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1 can (21 ounces) blueberry pie filling

Directions:

 

Place graham crackers in the food processor and pulse into fine crumbs.

Combine the graham cracker crumbs, melted butter, and sugar.

Line an 8×8 pan with parchment paper. 

Press the graham cracker mixture evenly into the bottom of the pan. 

Chill in the refrigerator.

In a large bowl, mix cream cheese, Cool Whip, powdered sugar, and lemon juice until smooth. 

Spread into an even layer over the graham cracker crust.

Spoon blueberry pie filling over the cream cheese layer. 

Gently spread out the blueberries to cover the entire pan.

Chill for at least 4 hours.

Saving on Entertainment
We watched the film, Labor Day, on Amazon Prime this 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.
BelindaDebt Free & ~ Living within our Means ~My Linktree