Saving Money in my Frugal Kitchen ~ Week 2 February 2024

 

My Frugal Week

I made a batch of Crock Pot yogurt this week using this recipe from Bless this Mess. It was an utter fail for me, but I think I added the yogurt while the milk was too warm, so I will try again the next time I get some free or reduced milk. 

What’s for Breakfast

Pizza Eggs, Oatmeal, Scrambled Eggs with Gravy, Peanut Butter on Toast.

What’s for Dinner

Mexican Monday ~ Taco Chicken, Tortillas, Lettuce Tomatoes, Onions, Corn & Taco Beans. 

Movie Night Tuesday ~ Chicken BBQ Pizza for Bailey, leftovers for me. 

Wednesday ~ Breakfast for Dinner, Sausage, Sausage Gravy, Biscuits, Scrambled Eggs, and Fruit Salad. 

Thursday & Friday ~ Chicken Dressing Green Beans

Saturday ~ Chinese

Sunday ~ Lasagna, Salad, Garlic Bread. 

What’s on the Menu for This Coming Week

I haven't decided yet, so I'm going to wing it this week. I have several ideas planned, so please come back next week to see what we had on our menu this week. 

What’s been on the menu in your home this past week?

Belinda

Homemaker at Heart

Mortgage & Debt Free~ Living within our Means ~My Linktree
~ She looketh well to the ways of her household ~Proverbs 31:27

Second Frugal Friday February 2024

 

Welcome to Frugal Friday! 
My Frugal Week
This week I spent several minutes each day unsubscribing from emails that want to sell me something. Some of them send multiple emails per day and I don't want to receive that many emails from any company.
We bought two dryer brushes to clean out our lint trap. I already cleaned out the dryer upstairs and used the vacuum to help clean up the lint. We will also have to take it downstairs and clean out the line leading to the outside. 
We cleaned in Dad's office again last Friday and will clean in there again today. We put out another dozen or so bags for the garbage man on Saturday. I'm going to give him a really big bonus for all this extra trash. 
If you're interested, Knife magazine wrote an article abut my Dad's passing and you can read it here. 
We went to the class at the Samaritan Center on Tuesday with the topic being Food Safety. And we both received another $10 voucher to the thrift store. One of the things I picked up were smaller baskets with handles to corral items around the house. They were only 40 cents each and perfect for some things. 
We've not done any grocery shopping this week, so no money spent there. We are simply eating what we have here at home. 

Thank you for dropping by my frugal blog, you are always welcome here. 
We would love to hear all about your week in the comment section.

BelindaHomemaker at HeartMortgage & Debt Free~ Living within our Means ~My Linktree
~ She looketh well to the ways of her household ~Proverbs 31:27

Saving Money in my Scratch Cooking Frugal Kitchen ~ Week 1 February 2024

My Frugal Week

On Monday, while out running errands, we were able to pick up a few groceries like chicken, celery, black pepper, Worcestershire sauce, tartar sauce, sweet potatoes, grapefruit, oranges, and pears. 

What’s for Dinner

Monday ~ Bailey had book club, so I was on my own for dinner.  I had some cheesy bread sticks with broccoli and ranch for dinner. 

Tuesday ~ On Monday a friend gave me three heads of cabbage. Woo Hoo! Stir Fried Cabbage and sausage for dinner again. I just love cabbage stir fried with onions and ginger. 

Wednesday ~ Chicken & Dressing, Green Beans with Onions, Broccoli Salad, Pickled Beets. This was the last of the dressing I made at Thanksgiving and stored in the freezer. 

Thursday ~ Chinese Food - Cajun Chicken. Stir Fried Broccoli & Carrots. 

Friday ~ Publix Boar's Head Italian Sub Sandwiches. Yum! 

Saturday ~ Salmon  Patties, Stir Fried Cabbage, Field Peas & Snaps, Pickled Beets. 

Sunday ~ Hawaiian Chicken, Cole Slaw, Broccoli Salad, Butter Beans. 

What’s on the Menu for This Coming Week

I haven't decided yet, although I have a few ideas in mind, I'm going to wing it this week. Please come back next week to see what we had on our menu this week. 

What’s been on the menu in your home this past week?

Belinda

Homemaker at Heart

Mortgage & Debt Free~ Living within our Means ~My Linktree
~ She looketh well to the ways of her household ~Proverbs 31:27

First Frugal Friday of February 2024

 

Welcome to Frugal Friday! 

My Frugal Week
I perused the grocery store sale ads on Wednesday. There wasn't anything noteworthy that I could not buy for that price at Walmart.
I hung my laundry on the drying rack rather than use the dryer for certain items. 
I received a payout from Amazon this month for $12.96 thanks to those of you who use my link when ordering off Amazon.
Bailey and I decided that Friday would be the day we work downstairs in Dad's office since our garbage man comes on Saturday. That way he can get all the bags we are throwing out and they won't have to be outside for very long. 
On Friday evening I was worn out from cleaning down there. I think I threw away at least one dozen bags of garbage. I threw away the area rugs as well and used the shop vac to vacuum the floors. I barely made a dent in the mess. 
There were around 200 VHS tapes down there in five boxes and I put a free sign on them on our local Facebook group and someone came to get them Saturday afternoon. His son had wanted some for Christmas and he was thrilled to get so many and said he was going to build a shelf for them. I'm glad to have them out of the way, so we can continue cleaning. 
I brought several kitchen items from Dad’s kitchen to use in my own kitchen. One item was an Anchor Hocking glass loaf pan, which I've always wanted, but rarely see them second hand. Also, several Corelle plates. It was funny because we would give each other meals we had cooked, so he had several of our plates down there and we had several of his plates up here. 
Someone also asked for free firewood on the Facebook group and I know Dad has two or more loads of firewood across the road. So, I offered them up on the group and already have someone coming to get them on Saturday too. Another task out of the way. 

Before we started cleaning, we went on a trip in Dad's four wheeler to Fletcher Spout, which is located in the Cherokee National Forest, next to the Conasauga River and is only a few miles from our home. In 1890, William D. Fletcher created this on his property and intended for people to always be able to get fresh, free spring water. His family maintains Fletcher Spout to this day. 

Dad alway saved his Ocean Spray juice bottles with the handle and took about thirty of them every few weeks and filled them up here. Bailey always went with him and helped him fill them up. He told me how much help she was to him. I'd been saving these jugs for him and we took the one we had empty with us and filled it up in memory of Dad. 

It was wonderful to be outside in nature just riding around and enjoying the area where we live. The ride made me think of my Dad so much and how much he loved it here. We even took a ride to the local church cemetery where he wanted to be buried because it overlooks the mountains. Spending the last five months with him at the end of his life made me look at our home in a whole new light. 

On Monday I had a doctors appointment with the orthopedic doctor and received cortisone shots in both knees. I also combined errands to save on gas and filled up my gas tank ($2.69 gallon), picked up some groceries, and went by the Little Free Pantries and dropped off a few things. 
On Tuesday we attended the first class in a six week series on ways to save money when cooking on a budget. It's held at the Samaritan Center and each time we attend we get a $10 voucher to spend in the thrift store, so Bailey and I earned $20 to spend in the thrift store. We also received a free book, "Eat Well on $4/Day Good and Cheap". 

They showed us how to cook a three can vegan chili and there was even leftovers to take home. 
Afterwards we went sh0pping in the thrift store. They sell children's books for 20 cents each and I'm going to collect children's books all year and add them to a Lego bin that belonged to my Dad to give to our friends for Christmas who have four daughters.

I picked up some bigger kitchen spoons as all of mine seem to disappear. (?) I also picked up some fabric things that I'm going to use as cloth napkins and a couple of shirts for me for 75 cents each. 

Speaking of Christmas, another book I picked up was a Victorian Christmas book, which I'm going to cut up and use in various crafts for Christmas this year.
Freebies
Thanks to Bobi, who figured out for me last week that Lord Chesterfield was acquired by McCall Foods (https://www.mccallfarms.com/our-brands/) and are now packaged under the Glory Foods brand (https://gloryfoods.com/).
Here are a few free cookbooks from their website:
Holiday Traditions Book 
Holiday Cookbook
Another Holiday Cookbook

We also picked up a free weatherization kit at Sethra. I wanted one for a window in my bedroom and low and behold there was a kitchen faucet adaptor included in there. We actually needed one as I took off the water filter this weekend and didn't have an adaptor. So neat that one was included, and it's a swiveling one at that.  
With this fix, I'm reassessing my needs. We filter water through our kitchen faucet water filter (since we are on a well) and then use a Zero Water filter. I like to do that as it saves on the Zero Water filters, but I've decided to stop filtering our water twice and won't buy a new kitchen faucet water filter. 
Savings of the Week

Upon checking my account at CVS.com, I realized I had over $20 in cash back rewards to use on there. So, I checked my list of items we need for February and saw toilet paper, so we were able to get two twelve packs of the Scott 1000 toilet paper for free. 
Saving Money on Entertainment
We watched a 1987 Jessica Tandy & Hume Cronyn film, entitled Foxfire, for free on YouTube this week. In the film, Annie Nations and her husband Hector loved their life together in the Blue Ridge Mountains, but when Hector dies, Annie has to decide if she can handle the wilderness on her own.

Thank you for dropping by my frugal blog, you are always welcome here. 
We would love to hear all about your week in the comment section.

BelindaHomemaker at HeartMortgage & Debt Free~ Living within our Means ~My Linktree
~ She looketh well to the ways of her household ~Proverbs 31:27

My Frugal Kitchen ~ Cooking from Scratch ~ What We Ate This Week

 

"In the house of the wise are stores of choice food..."

~ Proverbs 21:20a

My Frugal Week

Bailey and I stopped in at Mckay Used Books the other day while out running errands. My Dad had a love for Native American Indians and he had a huge book collection on the topic. He told us last summer to take his books and trade them at McKays, so we've been doing that slowly. 

On this day we ended up with $44 in trade credit and I used around $17 of the credit to purchase eleven new to me books with nine of them being cookbooks, which I love to read. As you can imagine, my cookbook shelf is really full right now. 

Tip of the Week

From the Little House Living website,

*Note, for a recipe calling for Cream of Chicken soup you can easily substitute 1 cup cream + 1 cup chicken stock + 1 tablespoon cornstarch + 1 teaspoon salt. Simmer that mixture together for a few minutes on the stove until it thickens. 

What’s for Lunch & Dinner

Monday ~ We had a rough day at the attorney's office, so we decided to use our last gift card from Dad and went to Olive Garden for an early dinner. I had the Cheese Ravioli ($6.99) with Italian Sausage while Bailey had the Chicken and Shrimp Carbonara($20.99), and we both had salad and breadsticks. 

I was a little surprised at the menu prices and noticed they have made their menu smaller and the dishes cost more, which seems to be a theme with restaurants in these days of higher cost of goods and wages. It's one of the reasons we do not eat out very often. 

On a side note, they charged us $16.99 for my lunch, so I called them to let them know we were there at lunch time. They happily refunded our card for the difference. 

Tuesday ~ Cheeseburgers & Fries, lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles.

Wednesday ~ Boston Butt Pork Roast, Macaroni and Cheese, Green Beans with Onions. I used one of the cans of Campbell's French Onion soup that we brought over from Dad's pantry. I cooked the roast in that and it was one of the best roasts we have ever had. I will definitely be using this soup in the future.

Thursday ~ I had a bag of Progresso Minestrone soup that was gifted to us from somewhere, so I put that in the crockpot along with some chicken broth early in the day for lunches. For dinner I took a package of Cajun Sausages out of the freezer and served that with mashed potatoes, and green beans with onions from Wednesday. #nofoodwaste #useitup

Friday ~ I was bone tired from cleaning downstairs, so I came in and made some Little Cheese Smokies from the freezer and opened up a can of corn and called it good. 

Saturday ~  Sausage ($1.58), Stir Fried Cabbage with Onions & Ginger, Green Beans with Onions.  We ate every last drop of the cabbage. It was delicious. LOL

Sunday ~ Seasoned Chicken Breast, Carrots, Broccoli, and Cauliflower Vegetables, and Salad. Chicken was bought on markdown at Food City. 

What’s on the Menu for This Coming Week

Ham & Beans

Salmon Patties

Pulled Pork

Chicken Enchiladas

Soup Beans, Greens, Cornbread

These are the items we have on hand that I can use to make meals this week. Be sure to come back next week to see what sides we serve with these main dishes.

We are serving at least one meatless meals this week to save money on meat.

What’s been on the menu in your home this past week?

Belinda

Homemaker at Heart

Mortgage & Debt Free~ Living within our Means ~My Linktree
~ She looketh well to the ways of her household ~Proverbs 31:27