Second Frugal Week of October 2017

Sunday

Shrimp Dish

My friend Patti (Hi Patti!) sent me three meals from the Hello Fresh Company and we made the first one of them for dinner on Monday.

This week is Fall Break for the school system here, so I won’t be working at school, but am working at home. I spent the morning sewing and created a new pad pattern in the hopes of selling them, and I also made a new doll quilt in the hopes of selling them for Christmas.

Two trees fell across our driveway in the rain that came our way from the latest Hurricane. These were too big for us to handle by ourselves and needed a chainsaw, so my BIL Jody came over and removed them.

Monday

Since I had the week off I made several routine doctor appointments this week and Monday was the first one of those. Since I was in town anyway, I needed to run to the grocery store for onions.

One of the trips I made was to Walmart and found chicken breast on yellow clearance stickers. They were marked down to $1.35 a pound, so I picked up three packages. 

I came home and put one package in the crockpot for a few hours and then added some BBQ sauce and made BBQ chicken sandwiches for dinner. I put the other two packages in the freezer to use later.

I also found bananas on yellow clearance stickers for 25¢ a pound and bought two bags of those.

Tuesday

Bean & Cheese Enchiladas

I stayed home on Tuesday and spent no money. I made another doll quilt to sell. I also made Bean & Cheese Enchiladas for dinner.

Wednesday

We had a Pizza mystery shop to do for today, so that turned into dinner for the family.  

I received a free package of cat food from the Purina Rewards cat food program. 

I had an appointment for a mammogram this morning. I also went by Food City to pick up a prescription.

Friday

I stayed home again on Friday and spent no money. I took some of the leftovers in the refrigerator and put them into individual servings, labeled them, and put them in the freezer. We have plans this weekend to go out and do things and I don't want to lose any of the food I've prepared this week. 

How was your week?

Belinda ~ Living within our Means ~

The Week In Review

 

This past week I've been mulling over what food I've had in my pantry and what meals I could make out of that food. Today I've been working on using up these items. For instance, three cans of fruit that no one has been eating and several boxes of jello. I decided to make Jell-O cups with these items. 

In all I made sixteen Jell-O cups with fruit (six lime with pear, six orange with mandarin oranges, and three lemon with fruit cocktail, and one orange/lemon with fruit cocktail). These will make snacks throughout the week and go into several lunch boxes this week as well. 

I also made a pot of hot green tea to sip on since the weather was a chilly 43 degrees this morning. 

Last Sunday I took the beans that were left from the day and made soup out of them. I cooked a box of elbow macaroni, then sauteed onions, two pounds of carrots, and half a head of celery in vegetable broth. I also added canned tomatoes. This made dinner for Sunday night and lunches for several days during this past week. I had two bowls left at the end of the week, so these went into the freezer to make lunches for two more days, which will save me money and time in the long run. 

This soup is an example of the plant based eating style I have adopted this year. This was made with no meat and no oil and is considered to be high-nutrient. 

I also put a two pound bag of 15 bean Cajun soup beans in a bowl to soak overnight and cook in the morning for Monday night dinner. 

I had a box of Penna Rigatoni in the pantry that needed to be used up as well as several tomatoes on the kitchen counter, so I decided to make a pasta salad. I also had some broccoli and cauliflower that I had cut up for family members to snack on through the week, which no one was eating, so into the pasta salad they went as well. I used up a small amount that was left in a  bottle of Ken's olive oil and vinegar dressing and added the last of a bottle of ranch dressing as well. 

Here are the results: 

As far as fruit, jello and pasta goes, this leaves me with three large cans of peaches, three and a half boxes of spaghetti, and two boxes of orange jello. Of course, I will be thinking up ways to use up these items as well. 

Today I recycled two-one gallon containers and filled them with water. These will be placed by our chicken feed for times when it doesn't rain and our rain watering system does not provide them with fresh water. Eggs are made up of 75% water, so providing them with fresh water is essential if we want them to provide us with eggs. 

In my spare time today I've been working on earning Swagbucks. I've met my goal for today and will use these Swagbucks to earn $25 to be deposited into my Paypal account, which I will then transfer to my checking account. If you are new to Swagbucks or just want to learn more about the program, you can read my page on it here. 

Another thing I've done this week is to join a Yard Sale group on Facebook that is close to the area where I live. I usually donate all of our items to charity since we live in a rural area where a yard sale would not work, but lately I've been rethinking that. Last week we took some of our items and set up at a local Flea Market, but the weather was just too cold and we did not have any customers. I thought about listing the items on Ebay, but the cost associated with that and PayPal can be more than I want to pay. So I've already joined a local group on Facebook and I will let you know how that goes in the next few weeks. 

All the laundry from this past week has been washed, folded, and put away. Outfits for this week have been picked out and are ready for both me and my daughter for everyday this week. Shoes are lined up, book bags are ready by the door and as you can tell I am working on food for the week. 

Pictured above are two pieces of flannel material that I picked up at a yard sale for 25¢ last week. I washed them this week and will add them to my stash. I have a project that I want to work on this month, probably during Thanksgiving week as we have the whole week off from school that week. I'll write more about that when I am closer to getting the project done. 

Pictured above is a bag that my daughter received for free from Cleveland State for a Service Project field trip she went to last week. She has a service learning class this semester at school, which not only teaches them about volunteering and service learning, but also gives them opportunities to volunteer at school although those hours do not count towards those needed to graduate with honors. 

Back when I went to high school we did not need volunteer hours to graduate with honors, but these days students do need them. They need twenty hours to graduate as a local honor student and they need eighty hours to graduate as a Tennessee scholar. So far my daughter has put in over thirty hours. 

Here is my current tube of toothpaste. I was cleaning the sink this morning thinking that I should just open a new tube, but I decided to use the handle of my toothbrush and push as much of the toothpaste up towards the tube as possible. There is enough here to last me not only this week, but possibly the week after that as well. Stay tuned for updates. 

Still in Use It Up mode, I had a large can of refried beans in the pantry along with my last can of enchilada sauce and a small amount of sour cream leftover. Perfect to make Bean & Cheese Enchiladas. I'll make that for dinner tonight and if there are any leftovers we can have that for lunches this week as well. I made these two weeks ago and there were no leftovers then. 

So, I have Bean & Cheese Enchiladas, Pasta Salad, Jell-O Cups, and two bowls of soup ready to go in the freezer. I'll put the beans in the crock pot in the morning and we will have that for dinner Monday night. This gives me a good head start on the work week and will help me to save both money and time by being prepared. We won't want to go out to eat after a long day at work if we already have food prepared at home. 

How are things shaping up in your home today?

Belinda
CFO ~ Chief Frugal Officer
© Belinda & Frugal Workshop, 2011-2013.
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do, do without”

WFD: Bean & Cheese Enchiladas

This is a tried and true family favorite. This is a meatless dish, so it is also very economical to make. 

As you can see there is a can of black olives in the picture, which is not in the ingredient list. I added them to the bean mixture and a couple for the top of the dish just to give it some more bulk. 

At other times, I have added Mexican rice to the bean mixture and at other times I have also added ground beef, which had been browned. This is a very forgiving dish that you can play around with. 

I used up the two cans of refried beans I found last month for 35 cents at Bi-Lo's crash and burn section. 

The cheese is from the 5 pound package I bought last month at Sam's Club. I broke it down into smaller, easier to use packages. I did not use the Monterrey jack cheese called for in the recipe. I used what I had on hand, which was cheddar cheese. 

This dish cost around $5.00 to make and served both of us for dinner and I have enough left over for two or three more dinners, so as you can see this is a very economical dish. 

I served this with Mexican rice, a salad and fruit cup as you can see from the picture below. I'm going to post the recipe for the Mexican rice in a separate post. 

Bean & Cheese Enchiladas

Ingredients:

12 flour or corn tortillas

16 ounce can refried beans

1 cup cheddar cheese, shredded

1 cup Monterrey jack cheese, shredded

1/2 cup sour cream

1/2 teaspoon cumin

1 & 1/4 cups enchilada sauce

Directions:

 

Mix the beans, 1/2 of the cheeses, the sour cream and the cumin together in a bowl.

Warm tortillas in the microwave to soften them.

Place a portion of the filling in the center of a tortilla.

Roll up tucking under the ends.

In a 13 x 9 dish place half the enchilada sauce.

Place enchiladas on top of the sauce.

Repeat with the remaining tortillas.

Pour remaining sauce over the top of the enchiladas.

Sprinkle the remaining cheddar and Monterrey jack cheese on top of the enchiladas.

Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

Serve with additional sour cream, guacamole, or salsa if desired. 

Crash & Burn Items 4-26-11

Pictured above are the Crash & Burn (dented can sale) items I found and bought from Bi-Lo grocery store today. Two cans of re-fried beans, which are perfect for making Bean and Cheese Enchiladas, one of my family's favorite budget friendly meatless meals, and priced at only 35 cents each. Also, one can of Campbell's cream of celery soup, which I will use to make Tuna Casserole, and priced at 80 cents. And finally a can of low sodium LeSueur Peas for 60 cents. These four extra cans will be added to my pantry, which helps me keep the cost of feeding my family down.