Fifth & Final Frugal Friday of December 2023

Welcome to Frugal Friday! 
My Frugal Week
Thank you for all the thoughts, prayers, and concern for my Dad. He is still in the hospital and has been for the last twelve days. He was completely independent and now cannot even feed himself, it is so sad. We are trying to get him transferred to a physical rehabilitation hospital at this time. 
The weather here has been warm and rainy this week. Bailey actually turned on the a/c on Christmas Eve and Day. Even I threw the blankets off in the middle of the night, which was so different from the cold Christmas of 2022. 

This is the gift I received at our family Christmas party. A set of Pioneer Women kitchen towels, potholders, and spatulas. I love how beautiful they are. 
Bailey gifted with me several embroidered items this year. 
Here are some photos:

Winnie the Pooh Dish Towels

Winnie the Pooh Dish Towels

Winnie the Pooh Tote Bag

(I say this regularly, so it was perfect!)

Winnie the Pooh Tote Bag

She also gifted me with a PhoneSoap, Lymphatic Brush & Gua Sha tool, a shirt she tie-died, and flannel sheets. It was a lovely Christmas. 

Now that Christmas 2023 is officially in the books, my thoughts have already turned to Christmas for 2024. What things can I do better, what didn't work? What do I want to include next year?
My niece told me that she loves the large casserole hot pads I made and gave to her last Christmas and uses them regularly. So, I definitely want to make more of those this year. I would also love to learn how to crochet edges on wash clothes as I think they are beautiful. I'm also looking into making desk calendars and some food gifts from my kitchen. 
Thrift Store Shopping
We went to the thrift store on Wednesday to take our minds off things. 
Here is what I was able to pick up:

Cute Christmas print curtains that I'm going to make gift bags out of for Christmas 2024. She only charged me 50 cents for the set. I also picked up one cloth diaper and six flannel baby blankets for 25 cents each. 

Blanket from MexicanBlankets.com, which sell on their website for $13.99 and up, but we got it for only $1.00. These are some of my favorite blankets as they are very warm. 

Three hand/dish towels, the two gray ones have hang tags, which I love. These were only $1.00 each. 

Books! You know I love books and paperbacks are only 50 cents while hardbacks are $1.00. One of them is for gifts from your kitchen, which I plan to use for Christmas 2024. 

And my kitchen stash, fresh from handwashing, included two bowls (35 cents each), two mugs (35 cents each) and a Santa plate for Christmas 2024 (55 cents), one large water bottle ($1.00), Kitchenaid measuring spoons and measuring cups (35 cents each), tomato slicer guide (25 cents), two pairs of tongs (35 cents each) with hands for taco night, and one mason jar (60 cents). 
Found Money
I found twelve cents when I pumped gas this week. Someone must have dropped this out of their pocket while they were pumping gas. 

Recycling

I saved this brown paper bag and cut it into squares to neatly store in the kitchen drawer for future use. When I fry sausage, bacon, or anything like that, I pull one of the drawer to place on the plate to soak up any oil. 

Freebies

Bailey won the Christmas Word Scramble game at the family get together and won this Penguin tin with with cookies as a reward. 
Photo of the Week
I saw this on Facebook and thought it was neat and would definitely work if you run out of Christmas wrapping paper.  

Avoiding Spending
We've did not avoid spending money this week as I've had to buy gas to get back and forth to the hospital and we did go to the thrift store. But I only spent $15 at the thrift store, which was inexpensive self-care therapy. 
Saving Money on Entertainment
This week we watched The Santa Clause movie over the course of a few days. Normally, we watch a few movies over the holidays, but that didn't happen this year.
We hope you have had a wonderful holiday season spent with those you love. We thank each and every one of you for your continued support this year. 

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.

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

Saving Money in my Frugal Kitchen ~ Week 4 ~ December 2023 ~ Menu Plan Monday

 

What’s Been for Dinner This Past Week

Monday ~ On Sunday I took a package of chicken thighs out of the freezer to thaw for a crockpot dinner on Monday. I placed them into the crockpot early Monday morning with some chicken broth and taco seasoning mix. 

Tuesday ~ Chicken BBQ Pizza for movie night. 

Wednesday ~ Chicken Enchiladas, Mexican Rice, Corn.

Thursday ~ Smoked Sausage, Green Beans with Onions & Potatoes, Corn, and Baked Apples. 

Friday ~ We had dinner later than usual as I was at the hospital with Dad. I ended up making some sausage patties and serving it with the green beans and and corn from Thursday evening. 

Saturday ~ We had our family get together for the holiday and we always do finger foods at this event. I brought pigs in a blanket and peanut butter chocolate chip cookies. We had a choice of several different lunch meats and cheeses, fresh fruit, and chips. 

Sunday ~ Christmas Eve ~ Garlic & Herb Pork Tenderloin, Scalloped Potatoes, Green Beans with Onions.

What’s been on the menu in your home this past week?

Belinda

Homemaker at Heart

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

Fourth Frugal Friday of December 2023

 

Welcome to Frugal Friday! 
My Frugal Week
Opinion Price sent me an email last week to do a short survey and in return they sent me a $15 Walmart gift card. I used it to buy a 22 pound bag of cat for for $18.68 and only had to pay $5.50 for it after the gift card.  
I received a check for $9.00 over the weekend for a class action lawsuit on fruit. For some reason, the mail was caught in the rain and soaking wet, so I had to let it dry out before I did a mobile deposit on it. Gone are the days when you have to go to the bank to deposit a check and I love that as it saves us gas money. 
Freebies
Lucky me, I happened to be this week's winner of the Alive 96.9 Lunch Bunch Contest.  I won lunch boxes for up to six people at Firehouse Subs including chips and  cookie. They already mailed my certificate, which came in the mail on Wednesday. 
Thred Up ~ Free Clothes
In Bailey's line of work she often has clothes that she won't resell and every now and then, when she gets a boxful, she will send them to a company called Thred Up. She gets these clothes from various sources and sometimes even for free. For example, we always check out the free boxes at yard sales for clothes. 
She lets her balance on Thred Up grow until she has a substantial amount and rather than have them cut her a check, she cashes in her credits for gift cards because you can get more money getting a gift card verses a check. 
Last week she cashed in her credits and received $200 in Torrid gift cards. 
Torrid has been having a 40% off sale lately, so Bailey was able to get around $500 worth of new clothes using her gift cards. All this from sourcing free clothes and sending them to Thred Up who does all the work for you. 
If you're interested in joining Thred Up and use Bailey's referral link here, you can save 45% off your first order and get free shipping. 

I'm very modest when it comes to dress and prefer a higher neckline on my shirts. One of my new to me shirts had buttons near the neck, but the top three weren't opened. So, I took my seam ripper this week and opened those button holes and now all the buttons are buttoned. It was a small task, but made me more comfortable in my free shirt. 
Saving Money YouTube Videos
Feed Your Family for £20 a Week
This will be a shorter version of my Frugal Friday post than you are used to reading. My Dad called me on Monday and asked me to take him to the emergency room. He has been in the NSICU since then, but is being transferred to the regular floor today. He has had a brain bleed/stroke and I'm not sure what the future holds for him. I’ve been quiet on your blogs this week and this is the reason why. 

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.

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

Saving Money in my Frugal Kitchen ~ Week 3 ~ December 2023 ~ Menu Plan Monday

 

My Frugal Week

On Friday I had to run to town and decided to go to the UGO located in Cleveland. They don't have a meat market in this store, but they do have some meat items. They had Jimmy Dean sausage in the one pound packages for $1.99, so I bought five of those. 

They also had Green Giant green beans on sale for 33 cents per can, so I bought twenty-four more cans to add to the twelve we bought last week. 

On Sunday I was perusing the UGO Facebook ad from the Chatsworth, GA store and they had Silk Almond milk for 50 cents each and butter for $1.29 for two sticks. I could have used the butter, but didn't want to make the twenty-five mile trip since I had no other errands to run, so I'll wait for now in order to save on gas.

I've already done a blog post on the deal I got on Swaggerty's sausage here. On Saturday I had another errand in town, so I stopped in at Food City to get six more of the sausages to use up the last of my coupons. So, we are really stocked up on sausage for a long time now. 

Recipe of the Week

An oldie, but a goodie this week. My Dad really likes these. 

Pecan Pie Mini Muffins

Ingredients:

1 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup chopped pecans

2/3 cup butter, melted

2 eggs, lightly beaten

Directions:

In a large bowl, combine the brown sugar, flour and pecans. 

Combine butter and eggs. 

Stir into brown sugar mixture.

Fill greased and floured miniature muffin cups two-thirds full. 

Bake at 350° for 22-25 minutes.

Immediately remove from pans to wire racks to cool.

What’s for Breakfast

Overnight Oats, Peanut Butter on Toast, Pizza Eggs, Leftovers.

 

What’s for Dinner

Monday ~  Beefy Baked Beans except instead of using ground beef, I had a package of Boar's Head beef hotdogs that I bought on markdown at Kroger and used those instead. I served this with roasted potatoes and carrots. We had enough left for several lunches this week. 

Tuesday ~ It was movie night here, so BBQ Chicken pizzas for dinner this night.

Wednesday ~ We had several leftovers, so there was just no need to make another dinner this night, leftovers for dinner and no food waste.

Thursday ~ I made a stockpot of my sister Tina's Potato Soup. Planning on  one night a week as meatless and one night as homemade soup helps me save money on my grocery budget. Soup is inexpensive to make and provides good leftovers for the next day.

Friday ~ I found a package of ground chuck on markdown at Food City, so I brought it home and made tacos for dinner. Please ignore the smashed package as it was under all the sausage I bought. LOL

Saturday ~ We had plenty of Potato Soup and Taco fixings on hand, so it was a choice between those two items. 

Sunday ~ We finished up the last of the potato soup. No food waste here this week. 

What’s been on the menu in your home?

Belinda

Homemaker at Heart

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

GDA ~ Good Deal Alert on Swaggerty's Sausage

Food City has Swaggerty's sausage, (mild, hot, or sage) in the one pound package on sale Friday and Saturday ONLY priced at 2 for $5.00. And, if you go to the Swaggerty's website, you can print coupons for them. 

I was able to print $2.00 off two packages, $1.00 off one package, and buy two get one free coupons. 

Food City let me use two of each coupon, so I was able to buy twelve rolls of sausage and with the sale and coupon it worked out to $1.58 per roll! 

If you have a Food City near you and you like Swaggerty's sausage this is a fantastic sale. 

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

Third Frugal Friday of December 2023

 

Welcome to Frugal Friday! 
Quote of the Week

Life is short,
And we do not have much time
to gladden the hearts of those who
make the journey with us.
So… be swift to love,
and make haste to be kind.

~  Henri Frederic Amiel (1821-1881)

My Frugal Week
I want to send a shout out to Bobi E, who sweetly sent me a Christmas card this week with a gift tucked inside. Thank you so much, Bobi. I'm so glad you are part of my blog. :)
Last Friday we put our Christmas Tree up and decorated the house for the holidays. 
On Saturday I woke up bright and early and started a deep clean on the house and before the day was over we had the whole house vacuumed and mopped, just in time for the holidays. 
Working as a team, we finally got through all the laundry that came to us as a huge lot of inventory for Bailey's shops. It was time consuming, but I'm thrilled it is all done now. And I was able to glean multiple “new” clothes for myself out of the lot, which made me happy. 
All the Christmas presents have been paid for in cash and are wrapped and under the Christmas tree, ready for the big day. No charging any Christmas presents here this year. 
I had a Shop credit for $5.oo on my Shop account, so I looked around and found an eyeglass necklace for $1.00 with $3.95 shipping, which was perfect! So, I ordered that and didn't have to pay anything. 

I had to sew another button on this week. This time it was for a pair of pants Bailey had tie dyed and was missing the inner button on the waistband. My home economics teacher, Mrs. Cimo, taught me how to sew on a button properly back in 1981. I took three years of sewing in high school and made many clothes during that time. 
The Prudent Homemaker said, "My largest money-saving in the last two weeks was buying as little as possible and using what I already have" in her blog this week and I agree with her. That's what we've been doing here as well. 
Freebies
Someone gifted me some Estee Lauder time zone lotion this week, which is a line and wrinkle reducing creme with a SPF of 15. Very fancy and not something I would buy for myself. I looked it up online and that stuff costs a pretty penny. 
Photo of the Week
Here is a fun "math" puzzle to figure out for you or for the children in your life. This came to me from our friend Linda, who is a math professor and went back to school in her 80s to earn her Masters Degree because retirement was boring for her. 

Savings of the Week
Food City has Swaggerty's sausage on sale Friday and Saturday only, and priced at 2 for $5.00. Swaggerty's is my favorite sausage, so I will be picking up some and storing it in our freezer. 
What I've been Reading This Week
Ditch financial practices that no longer serve you
20 Inexpensive Activities to Make Christmas Feel Magical

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.

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