Whenever possible, we prepare some of our meals in a way that allows us to use them for more than one day. For example, when we bake potatoes, we often bake extra potatoes to be used the next day. They can be reused in a variety of different ways. We might use those potatoes as part of a breakfast skillet the next day. Or, we might use them in a soup or a casserole dish. We might just chop them up and toss them with scrambled eggs or use them in a taco or burrito filling. Baked potatoes are really versatile that way. Oftentimes when making side dishes we'll consider how we can reuse the item later. It's easy enough to cook a little extra now to have on hand when we want to use the item later in the week. Both grilled chicken and rice are good examples. The other day I made grilled chicken fajitas for dinner, I served it with buttered rice on the side. The next day I was able to take both the leftover chicken, rice, and onions from the meal the night before and turn it all into fried rice. All I had to do was add some seasoning, broccoli, a couple of eggs, and some soy sauce. It was an easy way to use up the leftovers, everyone enjoyed the meal and we avoided food waste, which saves us money. How have you been saving money in your kitchen lately?
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Today marks the beginning of a new month, June 2020. A fresh start to have another chance to get it right.
Today I've been doing laundry and working and cleaning in my kitchen. I took my Mother's vintage Tupperware lid holder and moved it to the cabinet under the stove top. It works better to use it for the lids for our pots and pans.
Rather than use paper towels in our kitchen, we use dishtowels, dishcloths, and cloth napkins. In fact, I've not bought any paper towels since April of 2018.
These are the workhorses of my frugal kitchen and save me a lot of money. I figure I save right at $200 a year by not buying paper towels or tissues.
My dish clothes were bought at Amazon where I was able to get 24 of them for $12.95. They will last much longer than a roll of paper towels. I keep them close by the sink, so they are always ready to use.
The majority of my dish towels are Christmas ones, but I still use them for everyday use. These are the dish towels that people get rid of at yard sales, and I come in and buy them. That is why we have so many Christmas ones. Buying them at yard sales saves me money.
Sadly, I don't think we will be participating in yard sale season this year because of corona virus.
Here is another money saving tool in my frugal kitchen:
Potatoes
We regularly make a meal out of baked potatoes. We buy the eight pound bag of baking potatoes at Walmart for $5.92 right now and we normally get two bags per month. Even at that price each potato costs around 50¢ each, which makes for a frugal meal.
I normally serve steamed broccoli with them and have toppings such as sour cream, shredded cheese, butter, bacon bits, chives, dill, and salt and pepper. To me all a potato needs to be good is salt and pepper, but the other items are good as well when we have them on hand.
Another regular item we use here are onions. I start most of our meals by sauteing an onion. They always make the house smell good and add flavor and goodness to any meal for pennies.
Since I was puttering around in the kitchen I looked through my pantry and decided on what to make for dinner.
Cocktail sausages with barbecue sauce from my freezer, copycat Red Lobster biscuits, rice and cheese, and mixed vegetables from the freezer.
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Welcome to Friday and what, hopefully, is the beginning of a great weekend for everyone.
How are you doing during the pandemic? Many are predicting that the world we once knew is no longer and there will be a new normal when all the dust settles.
As for me and my house, we are continuing to stay home. Thankfully my daughter had the wherewithal to start her own business at home while she was still in college and that has helped to keep our household afloat during these trying times.
Last weekend we did a Walmart grocery pickup and had it delivered to our home via one of the locally owned dinner delivery services. This was the first time we had done that and tipped very well as we were so grateful for this service.
Checking our records, the last time we did a Walmart grocery pickup was April 27th, which was approximately one month ago. So, this latest order should last another month as well.
In our kitchen this week we've been cooking and baking. My daughter has been baking cookies this week and has made both peanut butter cookies and a pumpkin cookie recipe she got from Ryland Adams.
The pumpkin cookies are so good and we will definitely want to make them again.
She has also been watching TikTok cooking videos and had me make her this egg and cheese sandwich.
She really liked it and wouldn't mind me making her another one anytime soon.
This week I decided to use up some melting chocolate I had and made some chocolate covered pretzels with pecans. It was a nice treat for this time of year.
Also this week I sold a bicycle rack on Facebook Marketplace. We practiced social distancing when the buyer came to pick it up as well.
We bought me a new Signature Sleep mattress this week from Amazon. It came via an Amazon Prime delivery truck and we had no problem bringing it into the house and setting it up.
The air conditioner we bought was finally installed last week after Lowe's contracted installer cancelled our appointment. In the end Lowe's had to refund our money as we went with another company, who charged less, to install it.
That's all the news from here this week. I hope you are staying healthy during this uncertain time.
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.
Hello to all my readers! Friday used to be my favorite day of the week, but nowadays it seems like every other day.
We did not shop for or have a pick up order for groceries this week. We have food here, which we've been cooking for meals, so no need to shop.
I've been getting creative with meals and yesterday made a Mexican inspired dish using chicken, Mexican Rice, cream cheese, cheddar cheese, chili beans, and corn. I lined my casserole pan with tortillas and then served this with mixed vegetables on the side. Everyone enjoyed it, which made me happy.
We did pick up a prescription at Publix this week, but we paid for the order online and used the drive thru, so minimal contact there and the cashier did not have to touch my debit card.
My daughter bought dinner for us on my birthday last Saturday. We chose a locally owned Italian restaurant. We had it delivered via a delivery service, so no contact there either.
The local community college is offering several online courses for free. I've decided to take one of the classes to teach myself about WordPress.
I made my first sale in my Etsy shop this week. I was very excited and wanted to say thank you to Jill, who is a blog reader. :)
We watched The Green Book for family movie night this week. Set in 1962, the film is inspired by the true story of a tour of the Deep South by African American classical and jazz pianist Don Shirley and Italian American bouncer Frank "Tony Lip" Vallelonga who served as Shirley's driver and bodyguard.
Gas prices remain at $1.29 per gallon here, although I've not bought any gas since last month since we are not going very many places.
Not shopping for supplies or going anywhere certainly saves us money. How have you been doing in the saving money department?
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.
Hello to all my readers, I hope you are doing well. Certain events in our lives combined with isolating ourselves at home has me feeling downhearted.
To combat some of our sadness, Bailey and I have went walking each afternoon during the last two weeks to get both some exercise and vitamin D from the sunshine.
Some of the frugal things we've done recently include earning $13 in Amazon credit rewards from Microsoft Rewards and the Checkpoints App.
I used some of the credit to order some new wash cloths for the kitchen. For some reason I was down to two of them, but will add 24 more to my collection as soon as they arrive.
My daughter and I both cut our hair at home this week.
For a donation of $1.10 we were able to order eight packages of seeds from FreeHeirloomSeeds.org.
This week I went through my clothes and took out several of them that are too big for me now. My daughter will be listing them in her reselling sites. This helps her out since she is unable to source new inventory with coronavirus right now.
In the home maintenance category, we decided to purchase a new air conditioner for the main part of the house two months ago.
With coronavirus the process proved to be more challenging than normal. Keeping my fingers crossed, hopefully it will be installed tomorrow.
This week I received several birthday freebies such as $10 to spend at Torrid, a free milkshake from Steak & Shake, and a free blueberry biscuit from Bojangles.
Normally we go out to eat for each other's birthdays, but that won't be happening this year. Instead we are going to have food delivered to our home using a delivery service, which we haven't done before.
Mother's Day is Sunday and I asked my Mom what she would like and she said I didn't have to buy her anything. Don't all Moms say that?
She does love my beans and cornbread, so I will make her a special dinner for the day, which I know she will enjoy. I tease her regularly and tell her she would go over to the enemy if they offered her cornbread.
I hope all of you are doing well and are enjoying these beautiful spring days. :)
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.
