Second Frugal Friday of July 2025

Welcome to Frugal Friday on Saturday night. 
Sorry this is later than usual, but I had a high fever on Thursday that warranted another trip to the emergency room. 
Turns out I had another infection from the kidney stone, so they gave me more IV fluids, antibiotics and cancelled my stent removal surgery scheduled for Friday. 
They also wouldn’t let me leave the hospital until I was fever free for twenty four hours. That turned out to be on Saturday around four p.m. and let me tell you I was ready and had one foot out the door. 
Anyway, the rest of this blog post is what I had ready to post up to the point I went to the hospital. 
I hope you enjoy it. 
My Frugal Week
Last week at the church yard sale, Bailey and I both had our Hulken bags with us shopping the sale. We received multiple comments on how nice the bags were. Bailey told one lady that I got mine at a yard sale the week before and she was so surprised. 
We would not dream of spending over our means. This only brings debt, trouble, and unhappiness.  There are so many choices we can make in our lives, in the homes we choose to buy, the food we choose to buy, and the presents we give, that we can choose a simple standard of living that brings us contentment. 
On Wednesday I had to go to the post office to mail some packages. I was right by the middle school where I used to sub, so I checked in their little free pantry and found it empty. So, since I hadn’t brought all my groceries up from the car yet, I went through them and placed a few items in there. 
Students are out of school for the summer and sometimes school is one of the few places they get to eat, and they miss out during the summer. So, hopefully this will bless someone. Afterwards I filled up my car with gas ($2.64/gallon) as it needed filling. 
I did not buying anything from Amazon Prime this week. 

On Wednesday I cut up a cantaloupe and a golden honeydew melon to have fresh fruit on hand. We also have peaches from the local peach orchard. 

I have a raccoon getting into the garbage this week, so I went ahead and drove the garbage and peelings to the garbage dumpster, so he wouldn’t get into it again. He even knocked down both of my hummingbird feeders and destroyed them getting the nectar out. 😢 

Freebies
A free cookbook from the Food bank of Iowa 
Free PDF of the Make Do and Mend booklet put out by the British government during World War II. 
We cannot believe the freebie we got this week! I just happened to check Facebook for some reason and came across a post from a lady who said the Walmart truck wasn’t coming and she had to get rid of some cottage cheese. 
It was the full fat version that Bailey uses, so I texted her and she messaged the lady and was out the door in about five minutes. 
She came home with 24 containers of cottage cheese! The lady even had more, but Bailey was thrilled with what she got and other people were coming for some too. How cool was that? She figured it was over $70 worth of cottage cheese, all for free. I’m so glad that I just happened to check Facebook. 
Health News
On Tuesday I went to my rheumatologist and got a good report from her. The nurse was so excited about my weight loss and walking that she hugged me!
I also went to the retina specialist for injections in both eyes. My eyesight is much better today as a result. 
Saving Money YouTube Videos

How to Live on $3 per Day One Dollar Meals ~ A Video Series by Life by Mike including six videos for 21 meals for seven days. 
Here is what he has to say about the first video:

In this episode we are exploring how to really survive, in a big way, on $1 a meal, that's $3 a day, and $21 for an entire week. I set out to figure out how it would be possible for someone to really eat, not only cheap, but still make amazing food and feel satisfied. 

Saving Money on Entertainment

There is an app I just started using called Merlin Bird ID by Cornell Lab, which I love! 
If you hear a bird song that you want to identify, this is the app. Just press the record button and it will tell you. 
The other morning I could hear this bird singing away, so I recorded the bird and this is what the app stated:
Carolina Wren
Medium-sized wren, familiar and fairly common in eastern North America. Fairly bright rufous above and unmarked buffy below with a bold white eyebrow. Tail is often cocked up. Disjunct population on the Yucatán peninsula is duller brown. Superficially similar to Bewick’s Wren but much brighter and slightly shorter-tailed. Usually hides in dense thickets and hedgerows, often close to human habitation. Occasionally visits feeders, especially for suet or mealworms. Listen for loud, ringing song and variety of harsh scolding calls.
It is just the neatest app. If you try it let me know what you think.

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.

Belinda 🫶 💕 Homemaker at Heart 💕 ~ Living within our Means ~My Linktree
~ She looketh well to the ways of her household ~Proverbs 31:27