Fourth Frugal Friday of August 2025

Welcome to Frugal Friday! 
Quote of the Week

The beauty of a menu plan is that it gives you ideas when you just cannot think straight at the end of a long and perhaps busy day.  It doesn't have to be written in stone and rigidly adhered to, and sometimes it can simply be beans on toast again. ~  Sue, from Eating Well on a Small Budget

My Frugal Week
As other bloggers have written about, our garden did not produce this year. I'm not sure if it was due to the lack of bees that experts have been writing about or the cool then hot, dry weather.  My pepper plant has buds on, but hasn't produced anything beyond that and my tomato plants never even had flowers. Maybe next year we will try again. 
I hung laundry up to dry this week to save money on electricity. 
I combined all my errands into the two days I had to go out this week to save money on gas. I filled up my car with gas on Saturday paying $2.50 per gallon at Circle K. 
I've been working extra hard this month to keep expenses under control, using what we have here rather than buying more. 
Health News
On Monday I had an appointment with my diabetes doctor. She didn’t like the low blood sugars she saw and had a Dexcom G7 installed in my arm, which is a continuous glucose monitor. It alerted me twice on Monday evening that my blood sugar was too low. 
She had me see the dietician on Wednesday who went over ways to combat the low blood sugars. The monitor went off multiple times during the night on Tuesday. 
This will be a learning curve as I can see how certain foods change my blood sugar. 
Even after just one day I could tell a huge difference. I cut out any snacks after dinner including my favorite jello with fruit. The dietitian thinks that may have been the issue, so I cut it out and my monitor didn’t go off once that night. She wants me to have jello with no fruit and combined with a protein like a scoop of cottage cheese if I feel like I need a snack. 
 I go back to the diabetes doctor in two weeks to discuss all of this. 
Yard Sales & Savings of the Week
We skipped yard sales last week, but didn’t want to miss out on a church yard sale this past Saturday. Turns out it was mostly a crafts sale, but we did make it to several other sales before it got too hot. 

My best deal was a box  of four bottles (16 ounce) of Hibicleans Antiseptic Skin Cleanser for $1.00 (25 cents each).  These came with two foaming pumps and sell for $19.95 on Amazon. I use this regularly, and was definitely tickled to get such a great deal on it. This was an estate sale and the sellers had so much medical equipment and supplies, they were practically giving it away. 
I also picked up two LulaRoe shirts and one pair of pants for myself as well as a double insulated reusable McAlister's cup and famous red straw. I still had yard sale cash from two weeks ago, only spent $6.00 today and still have a few dollars left for next week. 
Yard Sales can also be inexpensive entertainment. I saw a beautiful gray cat who allowed me to pet her at one of the estate sales. She was lounging on their couch when I spotted her. 
Saving Money on Entertainment
I played Wordle every day this week. Colorado Girl mentioned in a blog post recently that Connections and the Mini are also part of The NY Times you can play for free once a day also. Both are fun to play also and also quick. 
What I've been Reading This Week
Definitely reading your blogs listed in the sidebar here. 
From The English Kitchen, Excellent Ways to Save Money on your Grocery Bill. 
How was your 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.

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