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.

My Frugal Week ~ January 11, 2020

It was back to the grindstone this week and I ended up working three days bringing lunch and drinks with me all three days. 

This week I cashed in points from Checkpoints for $3 in Amazon credit. I'm going to save my credit and buy some Wonder Clips for sewing as I am running out of straight pins as they bend when I make cloth pads with them.  

On Saturday I worked on making a casserole hot pad big enough for a 9 x 13 casserole dish. Looking back now I don't know why I didn't think of making these sooner. We've always doubled up on hot pads to fit a casserole dish, but no longer. 

I made another one of Friday, so now I have a matching set. These would make great gifts for friends and family too. If your interested in making these, here is a tutorial on how to do that. 
This week I listed more items on eBay and sold three items. One of the items was a tripod and I packaged it to mail, but when my daughter went to ship it she realized I didn't charge enough shipping. So, she repackaged it for me making it as small as could be and saved me $11 in shipping charges. 

My daughter gave me a Pampered Chef Mix & Chop for Christmas. I've already made tacos with it once and today I made egg salad. I was surprised at how heavy duty it was. It's a handy little tool for the kitchen, which makes fast work of some jobs. 
On Thursday I wrote a letter and filled out another application for free prescription medicine. 
These items were printed out using the printer we bought at a yard sale this summer for $3.00. Afterwards it was unplugged as there is no sense in having it plugged in, using electricity, when we only use it sparingly. 
My doctor will have to fill out a portion of it, but is the person who let me know about the free program, so I know she will be happy to do this for me. 
My Dad has fixed our driveway using his tractor and it is so much better than it was before. It has no potholes or ditches running through it. We do have heavy rain in the forecast for the weekend, but I'm hoping it will spare our driveway. 
Bailey's no spend January and our no eating out is going well. We have not eaten out any this month and have no plans to in order to save our money. 
We've not spent any money at the grocery store this month either, but have been using the food in our pantry. I've been cooking all meals from home and we've been eating up the leftovers, so no food waste either. 
We had ordered three books from a seller on Amazon for my Mom. They only sent two of the books and I asked the seller who said to give it more time. In the end the book didn't show and the seller gave me a refund this week. 
All of our Christmas decorations have been taken now and placed back into storage. The house seems bare to me now, but we did move some things back into their regular place, which did help some. 
On Friday we went to McKay's Used Books. Mom has been enjoying reading John Grisham books lately, so I looked for her and found several of his books for 5¢ each, which is such a bargain. She was tickled to get them too. 
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.

Second Frugal Week September 2017

Monday was a full day of work after which I came home and made a batch of Sticky Sesame Cauliflower for dinner. It was easy with the prep work I'd already done over the weekend. 
I filled up my gas tank on Monday using both my Plenti card and EZPay card. I saved 10¢ per gallon using the EZPay card and earned points towards my next purchase of gas with the Plenti card. 
Tuesday the school system was concerned over Hurricane Irma, so we had a two hour delay, which worked for me as I still get paid for the whole day even on a two hour delay. 
I worked all five days this past week. Four of those days was for special education, which meant I traveled from classroom to classroom helping students with special ed needs. I was bone weary tired at the end of those days, but it was especially an satisfying experience. 
On Friday I was able to stay in one classroom. And if you are a regular reader you know  that I finally have a smart phone, which means I am able to use the Wi-Fi at school.
That's great, because now I can use it to earn points playing videos on Swagbucks. (Playing the videos is often a inattentive activity) So, not only was I earning money for subbing, but I was also earning money from Swagbucks, a win-win situation. 
Today I cashed in some of my Swagbucks and earned a $25 Walmart gift card, which I will combine with the $10 one I redeemed a couple of weeks ago. Walmart.com offers free shipping on any orders over $35, so I'm going to use the gift cards to order things we need around here including dry beans, so this will help me save money on groceries too. Another win-win situation. 
Yard Sale Saturday

On Saturday we went to multiple yard sales. I found a real metal gumball machine for $3.00. I've been wanting one ever since I saw this in one of the classrooms I subbed in last year.

  The teacher has erasers inside this one, so students can buy one for 25¢. Isn't that a cute idea? I thought so and knowing me I would keep a stash of quarters just in case they needed one.  :)
Switching Gears
By now you've probably heard about the Equifax data security breach, but if not you can read about it at the FTC website here. Turns out 143 million American consumers personal information was exposed to hackers in a data breach. 
Equifax has set up a website where you can go and input your last name and last six digits of your social security number to see if your information was impacted. 
You can go to the website here: Equifax 
Click on the Potential Impact button. 
Trouble is the information given may or may not be accurate. I keyed in my information two different times and the first time the website stated my information was impacted and the second time it told me it wasn't impacted. 
I've read information about putting a freeze on your credit and how to do that, so it will be a good idea to keep an eye on your credit report for a long time. Some sources are saying this could have an impact on your credit for years to come. 
Beverly Harzog weighs in on the debacle here if you'd like to read up further on this issue. 
That's all the news I have to report from here. I hope you had a great frugal week and that this next week is even better for you. 
Belinda ~ Living within our Means ~

Second Frugal Week of June 2017

It's been a busy week at the Frugal Workshop this week. 
On Monday I received two checks in the mail thanks to the reward programs I spend a few minutes using each day. 

The first check was from Inbox Dollars for $33.88. 
The second check was from SendEarnings for $28.82. 

I also earned $5.00 in Amazon gift cards from Microsoft Rewards. I now have $47.42 in gift cards from Amazon for this year. I'm saving them for something special like Christmas. 
Other things that happened this week include...

I earned $112.50  before fees on Ebay this week after selling three of the items I listed for sale last week. I paid $13.26 in Ebay fees on this amount and $4.75 in PayPal fees, so I paid a total of $15.16 in fees and brought home $97.34 on the $112.50 I made. 
I couldn't have made as much as I did on Ebay at the flea market or a yard sale, so I'm glad this option to sell online is available. I think all the tightwads shop at the flea market because they want to haggle with me on the price, which is what I do at yard sales. LOL
I also listed five other items up for sale on Ebay this week. I did a tiny bit of decluttering and decided to go ahead and see if I could sell them on Ebay. I'll only list them one time and if they don't sell, I will donate them to our local charity thrift store. I'm not willing to hold onto them any longer than that. 

I made five more cloth pads for my daughter this week. I asked her how many she wanted to have on hand and together we settled on thirty-five. That way she could go a whole week without doing a load of laundry if necessary. The chevron pattern above was one of my favorites. 

I made a new page for the Frugal Workshop on cloth pads. You can see it at the toolbar on the top of the page and here is a link to it if you're interested. Mostly stuff you've already read if you are a regular reader here, but for newbies they can find all the information in one place. 
While folding the laundry this week I found a pair of pants that needed a small section of the inseam restitched, so I picked up my thread and needle and stitched it together right then. No sense in putting little tasks like that off since I am off from school for the summer. 
On Thursday I made a large stockpot full of Taco Soup based on this recipe from the Prudent Homemaker. I like that it calls for ingredients I already had in my pantry. I did use fresh onions though since I had them on hand. 
My daughter did a CVS haul this week where she bought two tubes of Colgate toothpaste and a bottle of Dawn dishwashing liquid for 21¢. 
Here is a short video of her deal:

On Friday we went to several yard sales. 
Items we picked up included:
- 3 new glass bowls $2.00 (I broke one last week & needed replacement) - Microwave cover - 10¢ - 3 music CDs - $3.00 (one was brand new/just released) - 12 flannel blankets - $2.00, which was 17¢ each - Fabric to make more cloth pads - $2.00 - Multiple textbooks to resell (some were free) - 2 scrub shirts to make pads - 50¢ - Bag of 107 adorable quilt squares - $2.00 - Storage container on wheels for cat food - $3.00 (been looking for one of these for years - didn't want to pay retail) - Battle of the Sexes board game - 50¢ - Lamp - $3.00 (to lighten up my sewing area) - 2 brand new swimsuits - $3.00 (needed to replace dd's swimsuit top as chlorine stretched hers out)  - French fry cutter - $1.00 (still in the box)
We had a great yard sale day.  :) All in all we had a good week here at the Frugal Workshop. We hope you had a good week as well and have a wonderful weekend ahead.  :)
Belinda ~ Living within our Means ~