Second Frugal Week November 2017

There was a Veteran's Day program at the school where I worked on Monday. After the program was over, teachers were able to go in and have any lunch items that were left. 
I had some delicious chicken noodle soup, scalloped potatoes, green beans, half of a pimento cheese sandwich, sausage balls, and a brownie. It was so good too. It is always nice to eat someone else's cooking for a change. 
I brought my lunch back home and will eat it tomorrow. After school I came home and made spaghetti with garlic bread and steamed broccoli for dinner. 

Kroger is having their Buy 10 Save $5.00 sale, so on Tuesday I went to Kroger and bought the following sale items. 

Betty Crocker Cake Mix 49¢ (I bought two)

Ronzoni Pasta 49¢ (I bought 40 boxes)

Del Monte tomatoes 49¢ (I bought 50 cans)

Milk 99¢ (I bought 4 - 2 skim & 2 chocolate)

Kroger Cheese 3.79 (16 ounces)

Bob’s Red Mill Sale 20% off 

One thing I bought at Kroger was a bag of Bob's Red Mill brown rice flour. Kroger had Bob Mill on sale for 20% off and I had a coupon for $1.00 off from a free magazine, so I paid $1.22 for the bag. 

We also went thrift store shopping on Tuesday before we bought groceries. I found two ink-jet cartridges for our printer, they were marked at $1.99, but the cashier only charged us 10¢ for them. These normally cost $18.99, so a great savings there. I also found a new book of scrapbook papers for 25¢. A brand new deck of playing cards for 49¢ and a flower pot for 49¢.

On Tuesday I needed to have a new battery installed in my car, which cost $110. My brother in law installed it for me, so no cost there.  

I received a $50 Walmart card from my insurance company for having a mammogram in October. I will either use this for gas in the car or Christmas presents. 

I worked four days this week and have all of next week off for Thanksgiving. Today we are going thrift store shopping again. What are your plans for the weekend?

Belinda ~ Living within our Means ~

Lunches

Sorry I've been absent from my blog for a couple of weeks. I've been working almost every day and also have some other things going on, but wanted to check in this week with a blog post. 

I hope all of you are doing well and had a wonderful Thanksgiving. 🎩

We spent the day with my brother-in-law and his family and friends and had a very good time.  🎃🦃

I made up several things for lunches for the coming week. First off was Tuna Pate, which I placed into small containers for my daughter to take for her lunches. She gets tired of sandwiches, but she can take some crackers with her and spread the tuna on those for her lunches. 

I also boiled two dozen eggs for lunches. She was getting tired of egg salad, so this is a better solution and still affordable for lunches. 

I've also been making a large stockpot full of soup on the weekend and dividing it up into these 2 cup containers that I purchased at Sam's Club. I've been doing this for the last month and it has been terrific to grab and go for lunches during the week. 

This is some vegetable chili I made this weekend. We ate on it for Sunday Dinner and then I was able to make 8 containers up for lunches this week. 

A great deal I found this week was one pound bags of garbanzo beans at Publix. I bought five bags. These will be great for hummus and mock tuna salad. 

That's what's been going on here at the Frugal Workshop. 
How are things in your neck of the woods? Belinda ~ Living within our Means ~

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

Saturday ~ Leftover Wizardry

Image Credit

On Friday I went grocery shopping for a few things and then came home and cleaned the kitchen. This morning I woke up and gathered up the garbage and took it the the dumpsters. Guess who I saw when I was there? The principal at the high school. I've seen him all over town this week, while subbing at the high school, while subbing at the middle school, and then today. LOL..such is life in a small town.  :)

Dinner tonight will be leftover wizardry. I'm going to take some of the Taco Style Lentils & Rice that I made last Saturday (I froze the leftovers) and add some pinto beans and sour cream to that. I will then take some corn tortillas and roll them up with a small amount of the mixture in each one. Then add enchilada sauce to the top and top with shredded cheddar cheese bake until done. I will serve this with sliced tomatoes and corn. 

Update ~ The Nutty Applesauce Bread recipe that I shared with you last weekend is really good! I even left the nuts out of it because I did not have any. I liked the bread even better than the muffins, although my daughter liked the muffins better. 

Groceries - I got a few good deals yesterday. I bought a 20 pound bag of potatoes at Cooke's for $3.99. The same bag sells for $4.99 plus 10% at Fresh & Low, so I knew this was a good deal. Bi-Lo has been sold and will be switching to Food City during the next month. They have greetings cards marked at 90% off now. I went ahead and bought a few graduation cards for May since my daughter and her friends will be graduating then.  

Cooke's

20 pound bag of potatoes - $3.99
Cheddar Cheese - 2 pounds - $5.99
Saltine Crackers  - $1.00

Bi-Lo
Tortillas - $1.29
Graduation Cards - 90% off

Great Clips - I went ahead and got my haircut on Friday with coupon for $7.99, which is a savings of $5.01 off the $13.00 price. 

Crash & Burn - 

I found two bags of corn meal at Cooke's. This is the kind I like, straight cornmeal with no flour like corn meal mix has. These were marked down to $1.82 each, which is a good price for five pound bags. 

Subbing

I subbed four days this week. Some photos from the week...

One of the teachers ordered a salad for lunch and then someone brought her a lunch, so she asked me if I wanted her salad, which was so sweet of her. So here is my lunch one day this week...

A couple of lunches I brought this week...

Our waters one day this week, which were free from CVS for refilling our prescriptions...

My daughter's school lunch one day this week.. 

I saw this on the board at Walmart by the cash registers... 

It is titled, "Daily Front End Objectives". 

It states, "If you don't ask they won't apply, so ask. Our credit card goal for today is 10. We can succeed". 

Ugh, dislike. 

Lastly, I've been working on my sewing machine today. YouTube is like the layman's terms for non professionals. There are so many videos on there on how to fix your sewing machine. Mine doesn't want to take up the bobbin thread, so I am trying to fix it rather than pay $120 to $160 at the repair shop just to have them look at it. I know they have to make money too, but I could buy a new machine at Walmart for $79.  

How was your week?

Belinda
Live simply by not spending money you don't have.
© Belinda & Frugal Workshop, 2011 - 2015.

Simple Lunches from my Childhood

I grew up in a small town about 30 miles south of Chicago. The grade school I attended was small as well with only two hallways and the gym which was also served as the auditorium and the cafeteria as well as the gym. I have fond memories of the time I spent there and sometimes I feel nostalgic as I think about those days. My sister attended a reunion not too long ago and visited with several of my teachers from back then. Of course they have fond memories of those times too. :)

I can remember the Melamine lunch trays we used to eat from with their many different colors. Do you remember these?

Image: http://www.etsy.com/listing/73254582/yellow-school-lunch-trays-from-the-70s

I still remember some of those lunches they served in that school cafeteria. They were simple lunches back at a time when life was simpler too. Even to this day I still make peanut butter and butter sandwiches just like they made in that little school. My sister also eats them from time to time. Others in our family think we are weird for eating something like that, but we enjoyed them as children and we enjoy them as adults today.

Peanut Butter & Butter Sandwiches

Sloppy Joes

Hamburger Bun Pizzas

What are some of the simple lunches you remember from childhood?

Belinda

© Belinda Richardson and Frugal Workshop, 2012.

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