Saving Money in My Frugal Kitchen ~ Week #2 October 2025

My Frugal Week

Since I didn’t go last Saturday, at the usual time, I stopped in at PHP last Monday to pick up some free vegetables for the week. They were loaded down with peppers, so I brought red and yellow home with me along with green beans, eggplant, and cucumbers. 

On Tuesday I was given a whole flat of strawberries, so I brought them home, washed and cut them up putting some of them into the freezer. I also snapped the green beans. 

On Friday evening I made a double batch of the brownies with bananas to have something sweet to eat without added sugar. 

On Saturday evening I went back to PHP as they get a fresh delivery on Saturday evenings. One of the ladies there was talking about turmeric last week, so when I went to Chattanooga this week I stopped in at Whole Foods and picked some up for her. She was happy with the surprise. 

Here is a photo of the vegetables I picked up:

I came home with beautiful Swiss chard, carrots, regular and rainbow colored, green and red peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, and green onions.

What’s Been for Dinner

Monday ~ Beefy Baked Beans, Corn on the Cob, Red & Yellow Peppers, Sliced Cucumbers. 

It’s rare for us to have ground beef on hand due to the price these days, so this was a very welcome meal and so much heartier than ground turkey or chicken. It leaned heavy on the vegetables, which is healthy for us, and all free thanks to the Mennonites and People Helping People in our community. 

Tuesday ~ Lasagna or Manicotti, and Cucumber Salad. 

Bailey had Manicotti for dinner while I had lasagna, both which had previously been frozen. 

Wednesday & Thursday ~ Lasagna or Beefy Baked Beans, Green Beans & Onions, Corn on the Cob, Sliced Cucumbers & Bell Peppers.

There were multiple leftovers in the fridge, so I decided to use those up rather than make anything new for dinner. 

Friday & Saturday ~ Baked Chicken Breast, Yellow Squash & Onions, Green Beans & Onions. 

My grandmother used to make her yellow squash in a skillet with onions, a small amount of water, and one packet of sweetener and it was good. Then I read last week a lady sautéed hers with garlic and butter and she said it was delicious. I did a combination of both techniques and we both enjoyed it. There was enough left from this dinner to repeat it on Saturday. 

Sunday ~ Hamburgers, Rainbow Carrots, Sliced Tomatoes, Red Onions, and Lettuce.

I had a package of already cooked hamburgers in the freezer, so I decided to use them up for Sunday dinner. I also wanted to steam the rainbow carrots from the Mennonites and PHP. I served them with our favorite hamburger toppings. 

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

Belinda

Homemaker at Heart

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

Image Credit

Second Frugal Friday of October 2025

Frugal Friday

 Welcome to Frugal Friday

My Frugal Week

We went to the People Helping People bag sale on Friday. You can fill a bag of clothing and hard goods for $15, so Bailey and I both filled a bag. We also picked up our free bread products. We picked thin keto bagels as Bailey uses them for her breakfast. I put several math workbooks in my bag for the students I’m tutoring. 
Great Clips had a haircut sale for $7.99 last week, so I got my hair trimmed. 
The other day I went into the Dollar General to look at their window cleaner. It’s been a few years since I’ve been in a DG and so I was pleasantly surprised to see their $1.00 aisle. Several items we buy at the Dollar Tree were located here and cheaper. I love finding cheaper sources of the items we normally buy. 
Speaking of window cleaner, I didn’t buy any as it was $3.00 and up in price. There is a tree where I park my car in our driveway that gives off a sticky sap at this time of year and it has made a mess of my car windows. So, I came home and got a bucket of hot soapy water and a scrub brush and cleaned the windows, which ended up not costing me anything. 
Since I was trying not to spend any unnecessary money in September, I was reusing my garbage bags all over the house. I would get the kitchen garbage bag out and simply empty the other garbage cans into this big garbage bag and save the bags already in those other garbage cans. So, I was only using one bag per week. I liked this money saving tip so much that I am continuing it for October too. 
On Wednesday I woke up early and started processing for Bailey, which entails weighing, measuring, and packing each piece of her inventory individually. She recently created over 150 tie-dye pieces and she just finished steaming and photographing them. So, I spent a little over five hours processing over 100 items for her. 
Amazon Account Issues
I’ve been locked out of my Amazon account for over three weeks now. I’ve made multiple phones calls and they say they’ll check into this and get back to me. But, when they do that, their instructions haven’t worked to resolve my account. They sent a mail over the weekend that they’re closing my Amazon Prime account. Ugh. 
I think I could resolve the issue with another phone call, but I find them discouraging and unfruitful. I’ve only ordered two items from Amazon all year and don’t think I’ll miss it. Bailey uses it to watch shows and says she’ll miss it. I told her she can get her own subscription and I would pay for it. I’m tired of dealing with them and getting the same canned responses with nothing ever resolved.
Saving Money with Coupons
Last Friday I took my car for an oil change and saved $20 using a coupon from their website, which lowered the price from $67 to $47. Afterwards I used my $10 off $20 coupon from CVS, which they gave me after my flu shot. I also scanned my CVS card into their kiosk and received a $6 coupon that I also used. 
Making Money with Side Hustles 
I listed an item for sale on eBay and it sold the next day. I love it when that happens. 
The $15 gift card I earned from a survey came this week, so I picked a Walmart card. I used it to buy a present for Bailey who has a birthday later this month. 
Yard Sale Saturday 
There were so many yard sales with the cooler weather on Saturday that we started the day with thirty-one sales on our Google maps list. I lost count of how many we actually went to and sometimes we go rogue from the GPS, but at 3:30 they started closing down and we were getting tired, so we called it a day. 
When I got home that day I had walked over 7,000 steps just from yard sales. 
Both of us were able to pick up some fantastic bargains and even found clothes as low as fifty cents each. I found several items such as books, pencils, dry erase markers, and treasure box items for the students I’m tutoring. 
Here is a partial list of the items I found: 
- disposable aluminum pans for 25 cents, perfect for the upcoming holidays - 2 new rolls of Christmas wrapping paper for 50 cents - floor lamp for $1.00- several containers with lids for free, perfect for the two open buckets of liquid I need to dispose of downstairs - a free Gamewright story cubes game like this one - several adorable reusable grocery bags for free- a bathrobe for $1.00- container to corral new tooth brushes for 50 cents- new bottle of rubbing alcohol for 25 cents - new 50 ounce bottle of hand soap refill for 50 cents- several books with one sale selling them at four books for 25 cents (wow!)- several brand new boxes of disposable gloves for $1- new to me clothes in my size for 50 cents each (including some warm long sleeve shirts for winter) - two movies on DVD for 25 cents each 
My Healthy Lifestyle 
On Sunday I walked 11,234 steps, which is in keeping with my goal of getting in 10,000 steps each day. What helped was going to the walking track at our local school and walking in the cool of the morning. 
The Great Clean Out Continues 
On Sunday I went downstairs and using some of those free yard sale containers, poured from an open bucket of some kind of liquid and filled up five of those free containers and disposed of them and the dirty bucket. 
I used Google to figure out how to open the light fixture above the shower down there and changed out the bulb. Now I can see in there and need to give that shower a good scrubbing! I even used the washer down there and did a load of laundry. 
I asked on the local Facebook group in my community about ways of getting rid of tires here.  I had several suggestions and learned the convenience center allows residents to bring five tires a month to drop off for free. 
Even better though, I had a gentleman come over who is working out a barter with me. He is going to take all the tires (12, I think) for me in exchange for a small refrigerator Dad has downstairs, which is a win-win situation in my book. 
He also came on Monday to haul off a lot of the old scrap metal here. He hauled off the back of a trailer and the back of his pickup truck both full of metal trash. He took it to the recycling place and I told him he could keep whatever money they gave him for it. The place already looks so much better with that much stuff gone. 
*Update: The gentleman received $84 from the recycling center, which means there was 1,400 pounds of scrap metal removed. Isn’t that wonderful? I’m doing the happy dance over here. 
While he was here I used the opportunity to clean in the shed next to the pole barn. One of the things my Dad saved was plastic Walmart bags. Bags and bags of them are stuffed into this shed. And the bad part is they disintegrate, so each bag crumbles into thousands of pieces of micro plastics when I pick them up to dispose. Ugh. 
Please don’t save these bags for someone to deal with after you’ve gone. I don’t even want any more plastic bags here. I already use reusable grocery bags, but this has sealed the deal for me. No more plastic bags will come into our home. That is my public service announcement for this week. 
I filled the trunk of my car with more unusable items, so I took my car to the convenience center and dropped them in the dumpster. You can back right up to it and unload and drop items into the dumpster. It’s so much easier than trying to lift a bag into a tall dumpster. 
On Thursday I was back outside and back at it again with this shed. I took my clippers, weed eater plus extra battery and trimmed the weeds around the building. Then I worked inside and hauled off five more contractor bags full of garbage, a second box of hats, and an old seat from his old Chevy truck. The other seat is still in there, but has to be unburied first. That’ll have to wait for another day as I was worn out. 
To save money, I emptied the contents of the contractor bags right into the dumpster and brought the bags back home and put them in the shed to be reused in the same manner. At a cost of fifty cents here, this will save money.
Would You Do This?
I overheard a conversation between a mother and her grown daughter this week. The daughter was talking about donating blood in order to get some money to go out to eat at McDonald’s. I’ve not thought about doing that, but if I did my frugality would win out and I’d buy groceries with the money because it would stretch farther. 
How was your week? I hope it’s been filled with good things and you’ve made hay while the sun shines. 

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

Saving Money in My Frugal Kitchen ~ Week #1 October 2025

Preparing Yellow Squash For Freezer

This is a video from The Living Farm YouTube channel on how to prepare yellow squash for your freezer to enjoy in the winter. 

If you follow the links, you can watch free videos where Lynn Gillespie demonstrates how she consistently creates  in one  season over $2500 worth of organic food in only 128 sq ft, that is about the size of 3 king size beds, with only a 15 minute a day commitment.

 

What’s for Dinner

Monday ~ Grilled Chicken, Green Beans with Onions, Corn on the Cob, and Cucumber Salad. 

Tuesday ~ Polish Turkey Sausage, Cucumber Salad. 

Wednesday & Thursday ~ Chicken Tacos, Corn, Green Beans & Onions. 

Friday & Saturday ~ Grilled Chicken Salads

Sunday ~ Turkey Meatballs in Brown Gravy, Mixed Vegetables, and Baked Sweet Potatoes. 

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

Belinda

Homemaker at Heart

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

Image Credit

First Frugal Friday of October 2025

 

Welcome to Frugal Friday!
My Frugal Week

Chris delivered the garden bench that Bailey and I had made in memory of my Dad, her Papaw. Chris cut down and milled the lumber from red cedar trees he cut down on our property. Dad lived here for almost forty years and loved this place. I couldn’t think of a better way to honor him. 
Extra Income from Side Hustles & Others
I sold one item on Facebook Marketplace for $30, which was a Coca Cola bottle made in Cleveland, TN. I bought it for 50 cents this summer at a yard sale, so this was a great flip. 
I received a check from Amazon Associates for $10.83. 
I received a settlement from the Walmart class action lawsuit for $25.97. 
Friday Freebies, Free Bread & Tutoring 
On Friday I had a tutoring session with two students. 
Our local charity shop was also giving away free bread on Friday, so I went and got two Keto loaves, which is the limit. I also picked up three math books for the students I am tutoring. 
Yard Sale Saturday & More Freebies
We had a good day of yard sales, and the best part was the very end when we stumbled across a free church yard sale. They were packing everything up when we got there, but we both still managed to get a bag full of free clothes. 
One of the items I found at an estate sale is a narrow leaf rake for $3.00, which will be perfect to rake all the narrow spaces by the foot of the stairs and in the pole barn. I also picked up two free bags of stuff at two other sales, one included a plug in pumpkin for Halloween. 
After we came home and I made dinner, I went to People Helping People and was able to help them unload vegetables from the Mennonites. I also dropped off some clothes for them and noticed they had Dayquil Severe Cold in the free box, so I was able to get three boxes of those.
Spare Keys
I checked the price to have a key made at one of the kiosks in Walmart and they wanted $7.99 to make a key. There is no way I would pay that much for that convenience, and it occurred to me that I didn’t NEED to have one made. 
We keep the keys to Dad’s office downstairs on a couple of lanyards by the back door upstairs and one of those sets of keys was my Dad’s personal keychain complete with his grocery store cards. So, I took his office key from his set and moved it to my key ring. 
Now when I need to get into the office I won’t need to get the key upstairs but will have it with me on my own set of keys. I find myself going down there much more often these days, thanks to my new knees, so this will be much more convenient. 
Trading Books
I went to McKay Used Books last week and traded books. I got over $50 in trade credit and only spent around $20, so I have plenty to spend on another day. I also picked up a couple of math workbooks for the students I am tutoring. 
Savings of the Week
Publix has continued their sale on the almond milk I bought last week, so I was able to get eight more cartons of shelf stable almond milk for $2 each, saving me $6 in the process. 
Money Saving Videos
Beyond Food Market was created by Jose in Chicago. His goal has been to bring gluten free vegan food to underserved food desserts. He has a Facebook page where he posts reels that I've been watching. 
In this one he makes potato tacos and has $2 to spend to feed himself. He buys tortillas, two potatoes, one tomato, one pepper and one lime for $1.87. He boiled the potatoes, put them in the tortillas and air fried them. He made a salsa with the tomato and pepper. He ended up with six tacos and four taquitos for $1.87. 
He has multiple reels just like this one on how he creates low cost meals to feed himself. It is very interesting to me to watch how he buys the smallest amount of ingredients, spends so little, and makes a big plate of food. I thought some of you might be interested in his content too. 
Saving Money on Entertainment

This week I watched the film, No Down Payment, which is a 1957 film about four couples in California who have bought houses near one another and face problems such as alcoholism, racism, promiscuity, and discrimination against lack of education, until a tragic event forces them to reassess their lives.

I was surprised at how the film addressed some of the issues of that time in the film such as the discrimination of Japanese Americans, but I do understand that is an ugly part of American history. 

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

September 2025 Review & October 2025 Goals

I had a large auto repair bill at the first of September, so I really pinched my pennies in September, so I wouldn't have to dip into any of my savings accounts.  So, I’m glad to see the end of the month get here and say we made it through without having to pull money from savings. Yay! 

We ended up spending $198.07 on groceries, even with being careful, but we do have a good stockpile going into October. I spent $122.20 on gas, which I know is a lot, but we have to travel long distances to get anywhere, so it is no surprise. 

Some other things I did to save money in September include:

I had a basket of miscellaneous sanitary pads, but each month I buy my preferred style and bypass the basket. So, instead of buying new sanitary pads this month, I used up those from the basket. 

In the kitchen I kept an inventory of the food we had, so I wouldn’t rebuy items I already had on hand. And I used what we had on hand to make meals, although I did stock up on some sale items in September. 

Goals for October include continuing to clean out the downstairs and outbuildings, which is a work in progress. I went down there on Tuesday and filled up one contractor bag with trash of some of the old mail I found recently. 

I will continue my healthy, low carb, very low sugar, eating plan and riding my bicycle pedals for one hour each day and continue my physical therapy exercises. I’m at my lowest weight right now, but still have more weight I want to lose. 

I want to get busier with Christmas gifts. I have two that I know I will gift, but I’d like to work on this in October more. 

I’m going to keep track of my no spend days. 

How about you? Any goals for October?

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