Second Frugal Friday of April 2023

Welcome to Friday! 
Quote of the Week

In order to gain mastery over things, we need to engage with it daily over a long amount of time. 

My Frugal Week
The weekend started off with a quiet Easter weekend spent at home. Then off to the retina specialist on Monday. The swelling in my eyes has gotten worse since my last visit, so he did give me an injection in one eye, and it was over quickly and wasn’t painful. 
While I was there I met a man and his wife from Illinois from the same area where I grew up. It was so great to make small talk with someone from back home. When I left he said, “bye, Lockport Girl.” I thought that was a neat nickname. 
On Tuesday we ran errands including a stop at the Verizon store to purchase new phones. We bought our older phones in May of 2018,  so they are five years old, and have started to show their age this week as both phones turned off due to being “overheated” which we both thought was not a coincidence. 
Normally we have Verizon switch our photos to the new phones, but they wanted $30 to do that this time, so I said no. I can email them to myself rather than pay that fee. 
Turns out when we did the authorize the phones the pictures moved over to the new phone automatically. I would find it hard to believe if the Verizon employee didn’t know the phones did that. There are so many fees out there these days, it’s good to stay aware.
Wednesday turned out to be a laundry day, and I ended up having one load of lights and one load of darks. Everything was folded and put away the same day. 
One way we save on laundry detergent is to use the smallest amount of detergent even less than the first mark on the laundry cup provided. And we keep a tablespoon measure in our OxiClean container and even then only use it on the light clothes. No more than that is needed as It gets our clothes just as clean. 
We also use the wool dryer balls to soften our clothes rather buying fabric softener sheets. Hanging clothes out to dry would save even more money, but we have allergies and cannot do that. 
The website Move.org has conducted research that ranks each state on average from having the least expensive to the most expensive utility bills including electricity, natural gas, water, sewer, trash, internet, phone, and streaming services. 
Tennessee ranks sixteen on the list as one of the most expensive with monthly utility costs of about $406.52, according to the report. If you’re interested they have a map of average monthly utility costs by state.
Freebies
My Insurance company is sending me two weeks of free meals from Mom’s Meals in the next few days. They will come via either UPD or FedEx and will be frozen. It works out to two meals per day for two weeks. 
Saving Money In My Frugal Kitchen

Our chickens have laid over sixty eggs since we’ve gotten them. I washed and cleaned three dozen on Wednesday and filled up three egg containers in our refrigerator. And at this point I am comfortable sharing our bounty with friends and family. 
Meals This Week
All meals are served with either salad or vegetables and may not always be listed here. 
* If you see a dinner in bold print that means we had it more than once this week.
Cream of Tomato SoupChicken TacosGrilled Chicken, Vegetable Stir FryChoice of Movie Night Pizza or Cream of Tomato SoupChicken Thighs, Cucumber Salad, Stir Fry Vegetables.

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.

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