Frugal Friday

We made it to Friday!
I was able to work all five days of school this week for which I'm grateful. 

Before we headed home from school for the weekend, we stopped at IGA to run in and get one of their sale items. They had eggs on sale for 99¢. There was a limit of four, so I bought four cartons. What a great price.  :)
I also stopped and filled up my car with gas and paid $1.53 a gallon. I am enjoying the lower gas prices, but have to wonder what is going to happen down the line due to the lower price. 
I read the other day that many of the oil companies in the US are filing bankruptcy because they cannot make a profit if oil falls below $60 a barrel and it is at $28 right now. 
We came home and I scrounged around in the kitchen and pantry to come up with something for dinner. 

We had some Old ElPaso kits with tortilla boats that we bought some time ago very inexpensively using a sale and a coupon.  

So, I made some Mexican rice in the rice cooker and then heated up some chili beans. I then cut up and put out some taco toppings I had such as tomatoes, black olives, sour cream, cheese, and avocado. 
I layered the bowls with rice, cheese, beans, and then whatever toppings that person wanted and served these with a side of corn. They were a big hit with my family.

I just improvised and made these with items we had on hand. The kit still has hard shell tacos, sauce, and taco seasoning in there that I will need to use up at a later time. 

After dinner I washed up the dinner dishes and also washed out my lunch bowls and baggies that we used today. They are drying on some chop sticks right now. 
I buy the freezer bags when I buy storage bags as they are heavy duty compared to regular sandwich bags or even regular quart size. 
I did some calculating the other day and these bags cost me 6¢ each, so by washing them out I am saving almost 25¢ a day (2 in each lunch box). At the end of the month that is almost $5.00 I've saved, which adds up to a savings of $50 at the end of the school year.  

I've also been wanting to mention these peanut butter jars I've been saving. I bought all of these on a very good sale using coupons. They are the 15 ounce size, but the jars are so great that I've been using them in my lunch box. I packed cucumbers and my homemade ranch dressing in one the other day for lunch. They are the perfect size for a lunch box and also very sturdy. 
How was your week?
Belinda ~ Living within my means in Southern Tennessee ~

Earn with Swagbucks

Early in the Week

I can't remember if I mentioned the fact that we have Monday & Tuesday off this week. My daughter and I have been doing laundry and cleaning all weekend, so we could enjoy our two days off this week. We finally got all the chairs and brooms from the drying racks put back where they go, which made the house look better almost instantly. And we are finally caught up on the laundry. Yay! :)

I've been working in the kitchen, cleaning and putting things away. I boiled two dozen eggs today for egg salad and lunches for this week. I am so tired of sandwiches in my lunch, so boiled eggs will be better. I'll add some cheese too. 

Dinner today is Pedernales Potatoes, Carrots, Green Beans with Onions, and Sweet Iced Tea. 

On Tuesday we ran some errands. One place we stopped was Bi-Lo because I had some coupons I wanted to use with their three day sale. 

My favorite coupon site nowadays is Couponaholic. 

Couponaholic

I don't even use the Sunday coupons anymore. I let my daughter deal with them because she enjoys it so much. I look at Couponaholic every now and then to see if there are any good deals. The 55¢ off coupon for Skippy peanut butter was a good deal.  I printed two coupons off my computer and my daughter printed four coupons and she also had an additional six $1.00 off coupons from the Sunday paper for one jar of Skippy. 

The peanut butter was on "sale" at Bi-Lo for $3.12, but it was buy one get one free, which made each jar $1.56. The 55¢ coupons doubled and so our total coupons took off $12.60, which made each jar only 51¢.   This was a really good deal. 

The also had Pillsbury cake mixes on sale for buy one get one free. We had 35¢ off coupons that doubled, so each box end up costing 44¢ each, which was another good deal. 

We did buy a few other things like margarine, crackers, preserves, and olives. 

We also got hair cuts today. I saved a receipt from Walmart for $9.99 haircuts and used them at Great Clips today. Haircuts for both of us came to $19.98 plus tip, which saved us $6.00 off the Great Clips price. 

I also filled up the car today using my Bi-Lo bonuscard fuel perks and paid $2.44 per gallon. It only cost me $21 to fill up today. I should be dancing in the street at the savings. LOL :)

Back to work and school tomorrow. I hope you all have a great week!

Belinda
CFO ~ Chief Frugal Officer
Professor Penny Pincher 
© Belinda & Frugal Workshop, 2011 and beyond.
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do, do without”
"Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle ~ It will help you save money"

Reusing Peanut Butter Jars

 

We enjoy peanut butter in our house, and as a result, we end up with a lot of empty peanut butter jars. There was a time when I would have thrown an empty peanut butter jar in the garbage, but now rather than throw them away and have them end up in a landfill, I save them and reuse them whenever I can. Since todays peanut butter jars are made of plastic they are lightweight and easy to use. Make sure that you wash them thoroughly and then you can use them for many things not only in your kitchen, but in other areas of the house as well.

Here are some ideas:

Popcorn Storage

Popcorn bought in a plastic bottle at the grocery store is generally more expensive than popcorn bought in a plastic bag like the one you see here. Instead of paying for the convenience of the plastic bottle you can store your popcorn in a recycled peanut butter jar. I keep my popcorn kernels in the freezer because they stay fresher longer that way and I don’t know about you, but I’ve had more than one bag of popcorn develop a hole in it somewhere and spill out wherever it was stored. The recycled peanut butter jar solves that problem!  They also fit much better on the freezer door than the bags do too.  

Leftover Storage

Peanut butter jars are great for leftover storage not only because they are clear, so you can see what's inside the jar, but also because you are using something that you basically obtained for free making them economical as well.  

Food Storage

My friend Barbara, over at Fun and Frugal living, uses recycled peanut butter jars to store cooked bacon in her freezer.

I love, love, love this idea from Nike at Choose to Thrive: Fill an empty jar with an inch or two of peanut butter and then fill with celery sticks. What a great idea for a summer road trip.

 Image: http://choosetothrive.blogspot.com/2011/07/summer-road-trip-1-car-snacks.html

Gift Giving

I always thought homemade granola would make a nice gift for someone. Anna over at Cookie Madness has the same idea here. A peanut butter jar would be the perfect container to use in this case. This is her granola in the photo, by the way. 

 Image: http://www.cookiemadness.net/2012/05/tropical-granola-for-gift-giving/

Grease Disposal

No one should pour grease from draining meat down the sink drain because it will solidify and could end up as a costly repair job. One way I get rid of cooking grease is to put it in a jar for disposal in the garbage can. When I make tacos, I put the meat in my strainer, which has been set over my large glass handled measuring cup. I let the grease cool a little bit first, and then it pours very easily into one of these jars, which I can then dispose of easily.

In Conclusion

These are some basic ideas for what you can do in the kitchen with peanut butter jars. There are many more ways to reuse these jars. You can Google "reuse peanut butter jars" and get some good ideas. I saw a really cute idea where someone drilled holes in the lid and put string through it to make it look like a button and then stored buttons in the jar. Whatever you decide to do with your jars, remember to "use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without". 

From the Frugal Workshop, I hope you have a great day! :)

Belinda

© Belinda Richardson and Frugal Workshop, 2012.

“Use it up, wear it out, make it do, do without”