Frugal Friday

Welcome to Friday!
My Frugal Kitchen
We had a grocery store pick up delivered this week, so we are stocked back up on food for the next month or so. 
We bought twenty pounds of ground beef and divided it up into twenty different bags and stored it in the freezer. 
This week I made two dishes that we ate on all week and then today I will be making a Broccoli and Carrot soup for dinner. 
Frugal Entertainment
This week we decided to watch Hocus Pocus for movie night. 
Other Frugal Activities
This was the week for making phone calls. I ended up calling on my auto, homeowners, and life insurance polices to adjust those and was able to get lower rates on all three. The savings on all three policies will amount to $1,077.12 over the course of the next year. I decided this was better for me as I'm not subbing right now and can revisit the issue when I do go back to subbing. 
This week I decided to trim my hair, which looks and feels so much better. 
On Sunday we will have Echo and Rambo here to pet sit for ten days, which will give us some extra income. 
This week I had a Roamans reward certificate for $10 that was about to expire, so I used it to purchase new undergarments, which saved me about half the price on those. 
This week I sold one item on eBay and listed another item for sale, which already has bids on it, so it will sell this weekend. 

Stolen Mail
Since we live in a rural area, our mailbox sits on a country road about 1/4 of a mile from the house. We can't see it from the house and last Saturday, our mail was stolen out of the mailbox along with three packages. Our Saturday mailman has a bad habit of leaving packages hanging out of the mailbox, which is why I think they were stolen. 
One of the packages stolen was for Bailey's allergy prescription medications. We had to make multiple phone calls this week to get those replaced. Since she needed those meds now, we ended up going to town to pick up her new RX. 
Another package that was stolen was from Wazoodle where I had ordered Zorb and PUL to make Bailey some new cloth pads. That was $35 worth of material, so I put in a claim to the post office for that. The other package was a book for Mom from Amazon, which cost $1.29 plus shipping, so Mom went ahead and replaced that herself. 
Planned Obsolescence/New Washer & Dryer
Planned obsolescence is an industry policy of designing a product with an artificially limited useful life, so that it becomes obsolete after a certain period of time. The rationale behind this strategy is to generate long term sales volume by reducing the time between repeat purchases. It is the deliberate shortening of a lifespan of a product to force consumers to purchase replacements.
We bought our Roper dryer in 2014, so six years of service. And our Roper washer we bought in August 2017, so three years of service. We had the dryer worked on this summer when it stopped working, but then three months later, it stopped working again. Rather than spend the money on another dryer repair, we decided to buy a new mid-priced dryer. 
The new dryer came with it's own set of problems. We ordered the wrong plug and they refused to install it with our existing dryer vent since it was not metal. So we have a repairman (the same on who installed our a/c this summer) coming on Monday to install it for us. 
Our Roper washer has had its own set of problems. The transmission went out on it before it was a year old, so the repair on that was covered by the warranty. This past summer it has gotten to where it will not finish a load of laundry without stopping before it's finished. 
We tried to restart loads where they stopped, which didn't work, so we tried starting them over and sometimes it would work, but not always. And the machine was not getting clothes clean like it should. 
So, we decided to buy both appliances new and in the mid-price range, hoping they would last longer than the Roper models. 

We originally order a new LG set, but Lowe's cancelled that set on us as they're having a hard time keeping washers and dryers in stock, which is true across the board for all stores. So, we ended up buying this GE washer and dryer. Let's hope this pair works for a long time. 

Since the washer still works, we've been washing things and hanging them to dry in the house. This will definitely save on the electric bill. Both appliances were bought with cash that was saved up for things like this. 
Whew! That is our week in a nutshell. How was your week?
Belinda ~ Living within our Means ~ My Linktree

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Meals to Make with Dried Beans

Both of my parent's families came from Kentucky and although I grew up in Illinois, my language and cooking definitely has southern roots due to my heritage. Dried beans were always a part of that heritage and continues to be true to this day. 
Dried Beans 

Dried  beans are one of the most economical dishes you can feed to your family and they taste great when prepared properly. A one pound bag of beans generally costs anywhere from $1.00 to $1.50 and sometimes up to $3.00 a pound for some specialty beans. 

You may think there isn't much savings when buying a bag of dried beans verses canned beans, but there are savings to be had not to mention the added flavor of home cooked beans. 

A one pound bag of dried beans will cook up to make the equivalent of around three 15 ounce cans of already cooked beans, so when buying dried beans over canned beans you will be saving money. 

I make all kinds of dried beans in my frugal kitchen. Great northern beans, lovingly referred to as soup beans, pinto beans, cranberry beans, lima beans, yellow and black eyed peas, 15 beans, navy beans, yellow and green split peas, and lentils. 

If you need directions on how to cook beans from dried, you can find that information here. 

We can make a meal out of just beans, although cornbread is good to go with them if you have those ingredients on hand. Other meals you can make with beans include...
Ham & Beans
Chili
Chili Tacos
Bean & Cheese Burritos
Mock Tuna Salad
Bean Tacos
Hurst Pizza Beans
Barbara G's Homemade Beanie Weenies
Bean & Cheese Enchiladas
Vegetarian Red Beans & Rice
Refried Beans

Amy Dacyczyn, writer of The Tightwad Gazette, stated that beans should be considered a staple of the tightwad diet and are nearly always cheaper than meat.
Amy's recipe for Maine Baked Beans was printed in the first TWG book. 
Amy's Maine Baked Beans
Ingredients: 2 pounds dried beans (4 cups)1 teaspoon baking soda1 medium onion1/2 pound bacon or pork salt1/4 cup brown sugar1/2 cup to 2/3 cup molasses2 teaspoons dry mustard1/2 teaspoon salt
Directions:Soak the beans overnight in cold water. In the morning pout off the soaking water and parboil the beans with baking soda in fresh water until the skins crack when blown upon. Cut the onion in quarters ad put in the bottom of a bean pot or large casserole. Add parboiled beans. Put cut up bacon or salt pork on top of the beans. Mix brown sugar, molasses, dry mustard, and salt, with a pint of water. If necessary add more boiling water while baking. Bake at 300 degrees for 6 hours or more. 
Homemade baked beans are less expensive than store bought baked beans. And if you regularly cook from scratch, you'll probably already have these ingredients in your panty, so no need to make a special trip to the store for ingredients. If you don't have molasses on hand you can substitute dark corn syrup. 
Do you cook with dried beans in your home? If so, what kinds of beans do you serve? Do you have any recipes to share with us? We would love to hear all about it in the comment section. 
Belinda ~ Living within our Means ~ My Linktree

Thank you for using my Amazon affiliate link when placing your Amazon orders. I earn a small percentage that doesn't increase what you pay and it helps me to earn a living here at Frugal Workshop.

Frugal Friday

Welcome to another edition of Frugal Friday here at the Frugal Workshop. We stayed home again this week, so no gas money used here. 

In My Frugal Kitchen 

I used up a can of meatloaf starter from my pantry when I made a batch of chili last Friday. I didn't want to add it to any of my meatloaf recipes because I want my meatloaf to taste a specific way and didn't want this to change that. I'm glad it has finally been used up though.

Meals This Week:

Crispy Onion  Chicken, Rice, Brussel Sprouts

Bruschetta Chicken Bake, Broccoli, Dressing

Salmon Patties, Dressing, Green Beans with Onions

Macaroni & Cheese with Ham, Green Peas

Ham, Soup Beans, Carrots

Gather The Fragments

This week I took a small bowl of pumpkin and a small bowl of pizza sauce I had in the freezer and put them both into the chili I made. It was an easy way to disguise these items and use them up with no food waste. It also opened up that space in the freezer. 

Other Frugal Things

As usual, we use our cloth napkins exclusively.  We spend no money on paper towels. 

We also use cloth handkerchiefs. They are both pretty and save money. We have no need to buy tissues anymore, which is also a money saver.

We always save the twist ties on our bread bags. They come in handy for keeping extension cords neatly organized. I also use them to hold my fan cage together after the original clips broke.

We've been able to turn the a/c off at night every day this week, the cooler weather is a welcome relief. 

Homemade Laundry Detergent

I'm not going to debate the issues with homemade laundry detergent today, but wanted to share what we did this week. 

Image Credit @BaileyAlexInc

We haven’t been couponing for a while now and especially since the pandemic started and as I've been telling you lately, we are running out of commercial laundry detergent. ⁣

⁣

Bailey made a batch of homemade laundry detergent years ago and that batch lasted about three years. This week she mixed up a new batch, grated in the bar soap, and added in her favorite scent beads. 

Here is a breakdown of the cost:

Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda - 55 ounces/7 cups - $4.12

Purex Fels-Naptha Laundry Bar -  5.5 ounce - 97¢

20 Mule Team Borax Detergent Booster - 65 ounces or 9 cups - $4.47

Optional:

Arm & Hammer Pure Baking Soda - 5 lbs/10 cups - $3.88

Downy Unstopables Scent Booster -  20.1 oz  - $11.97

OxiClean Stain Remover - 3 lbs/6 cups - $7.73

We spent $35.08 on our batch of laundry detergent and we dated our container to see how long it will last. We used all the optional ingredients, but you don't have to use them if you want to save even more money. 

Arm & Hammer washing soda is an excellent booster and whitener to commercial laundry detergent. I like to add some into my wash even if I'm using commercial laundry detergent because I can tell a big difference in cleanliness and whiteness when I do. 

Image Credit @BaileyAlexInc

The homemade laundry detergent cleans so well and only uses one or two tablespoons per load. We just keep a jar of it in the laundry room and have the tub in storage. ⁣

Image Credit @BaileyAlexInc

This is a good way to save on laundry detergent if you can’t or don’t have time to coupon. ⁣

The path to good money management will be a long road for some,  but people can change if they want to. We’re living in an age where we have plenty of resources at our fingertips that we can use to teach ourselves how to make the best use of our money, resources, and time.

How was your week?

  Belinda ~ Living within our Means ~ My Linktree

Thank you for using my Amazon affiliate link when placing your Amazon orders. I earn a small percentage that doesn't increase what you pay and it helps me to earn a living here at Frugal Workshop.

Frugal Friday

Good Friday to all my readers! 

Blog News

Last week I received an email from someone that couldn't comment on the blog, so I have switched the comments section now to where any email can post a comment. You don't have to have a Gmail account to make a  comment now. All comments will continue to be moderated however. 

Illness

This weekend I was feeling sick with fever, chills, and dizziness, so I went to the doctor's office twice. The first doctor thought it might be something viral and told me to call back in 7 to 10 days if I was not better. 

The second time I went to the doctor's office, the receptionist looked at my symptoms and told me I would have to wait outside, so I went and sat in my car. They took my temperature and blood pressure while I was in my car. The doctor even came out and talked with me in my car. 

They ended up testing me for Covid outside in the parking lot, and I called today and my test was negative. (Woo Hoo!) 

The second doctor's only concern was if I had Covid right now. 

They were suited up like people wearing hazmat suits. It made me feel like I had the plague. If I were in their shoes, I would be dressed out the the same way though. They must be scared just going to work everyday. My heart goes out to them.

I'm not surprised I tested negative, I have not been around another person except the ones I live with and we've been self-quarantined for months. I'm feeling better though in case you were wondering. :)

This week I won another giveaway. This time it was  Facebook giveaway from Om Mushrooms. 

To continue celebrating #MushroomMonth, we are giving away this awesome mushroom kit, which includes Om Mighty Veggie Miso Broth, Om Mushroom Hot Chocolate Blend, Om Immune Defense Capsules, an insulated tumbler cup, milk frother, pair of socks and mushroom beanie.

In My Frugal Kitchen:

Miss Bailey stepped up to the plate and made dinner for us several nights in a row this week. This is not her forte as we consider the kitchen to be my domain, but she did a great job and I am so grateful. 

One evening she made us baked potatoes including sweet potatoes. The next morning I made us some home fries using them. The sweet potato ones were so good and healthy to boot. 

Later in the week I made a potato soup using the last of our two baking potatoes, some leftover cooked carrots, onions, and broccoli. I used my last envelope of Instant potatoes to thicken the soup and added two ounces of cream cheese to make it creamy. It was good to use up some things and it fed us dinner for two nights as well. 

The only grocery item we received this week was a twelve pack of Hormel ham we ordered last week from Amazon. This has been out of stock on a regular basis, so it's nice to be stocked up on this item again. 

Other Frugal Things:

 The weather has been much cooler in the mornings here and is a welcome sign of things to come. Then this morning as I sat outside feeding the cats I enjoyed the cool breeze, which came from Hurricane Sally. We've had cloudy days this week because of her and rain yesterday. 

Other frugal things I've done this week include air drying my hair, using an empty cat food bag for garbage, and wearing the same clothing items, unless dirty, since we've been staying home  helps to save on washing and drying. 

How was your week?

Belinda ~ Living within our Means ~ My Linktree

Thank you for using my Amazon affiliate link when placing your Amazon orders. I earn a small percentage that doesn't increase what you pay and it helps me to earn a living here at Frugal Workshop.

Frugal Friday

Welcome to Friday to all my frugal readers. September is definitely in the air right now as we have woken up to some very cool mornings this week, which feels great. 
In My Frugal Kitchen
Do you remember when I wrote that Bailey didn't like the Cinnamon Toast Crunch creamer? Well...I decided to make French Toast the other day and used that for the milk and guess what? She loved it! So, we will still use it up, avoid food waste, and not waste the money that was spent on it. 
We made more Chick-fil-A chicken sandwiches this week. 
Kroger has peanut butter on sale for 99¢ this week along with eight ounce blocks of cheese for 4/$5.00. 
My Amazon grocery order arrived this week and now we are stocked up on tuna and green beans.
Doing the math this week, I refigured what it cost me to make one gallon of tea these days. Look for an upcoming blog post on that soon. I also figured the cost of eggs right now, which works out to 8¢ each according to current Walmart prices. Eggs are always a good and frugal food to have on hand. 
Other Frugal Things
I made a goal this week to list one item on eBay everyday and I succeeded. 
I've been watching Prepper Princess videos again on YouTube this week. She used to have mostly prepper videos on her channel, but now has multiple videos on saving money, which is right up my alley. 
PP mentioned in one of her videos that she adds 20% of water to all her shampoos and soaps. I use Neutrogena T-gel shampoo, which is expensive at $8.50 a bottle, so I added water to mine this week to make it s-t-r-e-t-c-h farther. I already do this with my Dawn dishwashing detergent to make it stretch as far as possible. 
I earned a $10 gift card to Amazon from Microsoft Rewards this week. I used it to purchase 12 cans of Hormel Ham for our pantry. I have this ham as one of my subscribe and save items on Amazon. The price I've been paying for the ham for the 12 cans is $9.71. 
I don't know about you, but I've been watching the prices on Amazon fluctuate widely lately. This ham is going for $45 right now and the price I paid is nowhere to be found. I've noticed that the prices on some of their items is so high. I can't wait until we can go back to grocery shopping the way we used to do it. 
Miss B and I both cut our hair at home this week using this Wahl hair trimmer. It's cordless and I can take it outside to do my own hair, which makes for easier cleanup. I used the two inch comb on my hair, which is just the way I like it. Last time I cut my hair I used a smaller comb and it was so short I didn't have to trim it again until now. 
This week I rearranged my office space and it is much more functional than it was before, which is a win-win for me. 

Belinda ~ Living within our Means ~ My Linktree

Thank you for using my Amazon affiliate link when placing your Amazon orders. I earn a small percentage that doesn't increase what you pay and it helps me to earn a living here at Frugal Workshop.

Frugal Friday

Word of the Week

Shrinkflation is the process of items shrinking in size or quantity, while their prices remain the same or increase.

Saving Money In My Frugal Kitchen
Last Friday I took some planned over chicken, ramen noodles, steamed broccoli, hoisin sauce, stir fry seasoning, and some sesame oil and made an Asian noodle dish for supper. It was a big hit and gave us leftovers for lunch the next day. 
On Monday I made some homemade meatballs.  The reason I decided on meatballs is because I wanted to use some crackers to s-t-r-e-t-c-h the meat as far as possible. 
Additions like oatmeal, crackers, vegetables, etc. all add bulk to your meat, which makes it go farther and saves money. The meatballs I made with one pound of ground beef made enough for two dinners by doing this. 
I was going to make a meatball stew or spaghetti and meatballs, but then my sink decided to stop draining. So I put those in the fridge and on Tuesday I made a brown gravy and added the meatballs and made mashed potatoes and mixed vegetables to go with it. It was also a big hit. 
We had a problem with the kitchen sink this week. I was washing dishes when the sink stopped draining. I tried using a plunger and Liquid Plumber, but neither one would work. So I tried to DIY and took the pipe off under the sink, but there was no clog that I could see. 
So, I knew it had to be farther down the line. I could rent a snake, but in the end decided to hire someone who used a snake attached to the hose and blast it out of the pipe. It was just a buildup of old junky matter, but it is fixed now and running great. I'm so grateful to have a clear running drain again. 
It's a funny thing that we've had more repairmen in the house since the pandemic struck than we have in the past few years. First the a/c installation, the dryer repair, and now the kitchen sink. Knock on wood that this will be it for a while. :)

Photo Credit: @BaileyAlexInc

Bailey made us a chocolate cake to have for snacks or dessert this week. 

On Wednesday I took a large package of six chicken breasts out of the freezer to thaw. On Thursday and Friday I cut each breast in half and made copycat Chic-fil-A sandwiches at home. 
One CFA sandwich cost $3.79. My six package of breasts cost $9.41, which made 12 filets. My 12 filets cost about 79¢ each, which is a great price for them compared to CFA. 
The secret to making them taste like CFA is to brine them in pickle juice. They end up tasting like the real thing. 
We ordered a few groceries like lemon pepper tuna, peanut butter, V-8 juice, and green beans from Amazon, but they will not be here until next week. 

Oh Monday I needed to run some errands, which included a stop by Lowe's for Liquid Plumber to try and clear the kitchen drain. 
We also went to Publix to pick up an RX, checked the mail, and since I earned a $10 gift card to Papa Johns from Mobile Expression this week, we bought a pizza for dinner.  
I am a rewards member also and earned 31 points for the pizza, which in turn earned us another $10 gift card, so we will use that at a later time. 

eBay sent me an email this week giving me a free $25 gift card for being with them since the beginning in 1999. I was so excited! I decided to buy some more inventory to make items for my Etsy shop. So I'm going to turn this $25 into even more money. 

Last week I entered a contest on Instagram that @Debtfreegonnabe was offering for $50 and a 30 minute consultation. She emailed me on Wednesday to let me know I was one of the winners. Woo Hoo! That sure came in handy this week after a $100 plumbing bill. 
Saving Money with Reward Apps
Microsoft Rewards - Finally MR has went back to giving five points per search (rather than 1 point) on my account. People had been discussing it on the MR Reddit board and I never did figure out exactly what was going on, but it's fixed now and I'm close to another $10 Amazon gift card. 
They've added new rewards, so if you have looked before and not been happy with the rewards, look again, you might be surprised. 

MyPoints

If you're not already a member of MyPoints, September would be a good month to join up. If you use my referral link you can earn up to an additional 500 bonus points this month. You can cash in your points for money such as 1,590 points in exchange for $10 in your PayPal account, which is what I like to do with my points. 
Free Entertainment
For movie night this week we watched a 2017 version of The Secret Garden, which is free to watch on YouTube. This is a Steampunk version of the classic tale by Frances Hodgson Burnett, with orphaned teen Mary Lennox discovering the magic and mystery of the secret garden.

Bailey and I have watched almost every version of The Secret Garden that they have out there and this one is an updated version with Mary and her cousin Colin being teenagers. 
If you read the reviews you'll find that many people found the acting to be cheesy, but I liked it. Mrs. Medlock is much nicer in this version while a new character, Dr. Craven is the evil villain. 

For game night we played There's a Moose in the House, which is a cute, matching card game for both children and adults. 
Other Frugal Activities

We went forging one day this week and picked the black walnuts on our land. 
How was your week? Any frugal activities to share with us?
Belinda ~ Living within our Means ~ My Linktree

Thank you for using my Amazon affiliate link when placing your Amazon orders. I earn a small percentage that doesn't increase what you pay and it helps me to earn a living here at Frugal Workshop.

Frugal Friday

This week I sold one item on eBay and listed several more items for sale. 
We had to go check the mail the other day (we don't pick it up everyday) and decided to take the cash Bailey received and deposit it in the bank. We drove around for a little bit, which was a nice change of pace. 
On Monday I sent some new shirts back because of the quality. The material was very thin and I did not care for the fit. So many times Bailey gets brand new clothes with the tags still attached to sell in her online shops. I'm guilty of waiting to long to return items too, but not this time. 
Saving Money in the Kitchen
One morning I made some chocolate chip waffles using the Krusteaz pancake mix, which we already know is a money saver. 
One day I took out a large packet of chicken breast from the freezer and made those in my Instant Pot. 
That night I made white chicken enchiladas for dinner and had enough to serve the next day. And still had chicken left over for another meal later in the week. 

Saving Money on Entertainment
We didn't have movie night this week, but I have been reading Dr. Michael Greger's book, How Not to Die. I've also been watching Unsolved Mysteries on Peacock TV, which is free to download. 
Saving Money on Laundry
There are enough clothes in my wardrobe that  I only have to do laundry every other week, and this was the week. This system saves me money in electricity and wear and tear on my clothes. 

We used our last bottle of Tide this week. This was a batch that Bailey couponed for back in January of 2017.  Last year I mentioned that we would need to buy laundry detergent this year. 
We still have three bottles of Arm & Hammer left and a small bottle of Gain, so we've not had to buy any yet. It's great though that we haven't had to buy laundry detergent in years because we combined sales and coupons to add to our stockpile back then. 

Another way we save money on laundry is by using wool dryer balls instead of dryer sheets. Wool dryer balls are made from a renewable resource and are a good substitute for disposable dryer sheets. 
Dryer balls decrease drying time by up to 25% by distributing heat more evenly in the dryer, which also helps you save money on utility bills. Dryer balls will last for over 1,000 laundry loads and eliminates dryer sheet waste in landfills.
Of course the least expensive way to dry laundry is to hang it outside on a clothesline to dry. But, my daughter is allergic to so many thing outside, that we don't do that here. Back when I was growing up that is how we and all our neighbors dried our laundry. 
Christmas
Bailey and I have already been discussing Christmas this year. Due to me not working and less money coming in because of the pandemic, we are going to downsize Christmas this year. If you need to do that in your family, now is the time to start talking about this issue, so people can get used to the idea.
Other Frugal Things
This week I used up two bottles of shampoo samples and rinsed them out to get every last drop out of them. Even though they were free samples this helps to extend the shampoo we do have. 
The weather on Thursday morning was very cool outside when I fed the cats. It's been cooler in the evenings, so I've been able to turn off the a/c in the evenings, which will save money on our electric bill. 
This week I called my auto insurance company to see if I could get  a reduction on my auto insurance since I am not driving as much. I've read two different bloggers who have been successful with this. 
The representative told me that I was already at the lowest coverage for mileage and the only way to reduce my premiums would be to switch to liability insurance only. 
My car is a 2014 Chevy Impala, which I paid cash for when I bought it, so while I didn't have to have full coverage I still did.  So, I have to think about this and make a decision by October. 
How was your frugal week?
Belinda ~ Living within our Means ~ My Linktree

Thank you for using my Amazon affiliate link when placing your Amazon orders. I earn a small percentage that doesn't increase what you pay and it helps me to earn a living here at Frugal Workshop.