Frugal Friday September 10, 2021

Welcome to Friday! 
My Frugal Week
We went to 15 yard sales last Friday and Saturday. There were not as many as usual since it was a holiday weekend. The weather on Saturday was so nice and cool, just beautiful yard sale weather. 
There were protestors at Hamilton Place Mall on Saturday while we were there. They were chanting loudly, which made me nervous. I was glad when we left the area. We were looking for a restroom we could use. COVID has shut down so many indoor fast food lobbies that it was hard to find one that was open. 

We found the cats a new tree house at a yard sale. It has cat nip in it from the previous owner and the cats were lined up  to get inside of it. Of course, Polka Dot was the first one inside. 

I made homemade Oxiclean this week. The recipe calls for 1/2 cup of baking soda, 1/2 cup hydrogen peroxide, and one cup of hot water. You’re supposed to use it up within 24 hours or it will lose its effectiveness. So, you could mix up a smaller batch if necessary. 
Speaking of laundry, I got mine all done on Tuesday this week. It makes me feel good to get it all washed, folded, and put away on the same day. 
Avoiding Spending
I did have one prescription to pick up this week, but that is the only spending I’ve done. 
Saving Money In My Frugal Kitchen
I’ve been making a gallon of iced tea every day for the last month or so. I like to have two to three gallons at a time in the fridge during this hot weather. 
I inventoried my freezer and pantry again over the weekend to come up with meals for this week. I’m happy to report we had no food waste this week as we either used it up or froze it for later use. 

On Labor Day Monday I used up a can of pumpkin that had been lingering in my pantry and made pumpkin waffles for breakfast. 
I took the last of the Beans and Franks and the last of the Chicken Fried Rice, labeled them, and put them in the freezer in individual containers for a quick meal later. I now have six meals like this in my freezer. 
I’m very excited to report that Chattanooga now has a Trader Joe’s. I have wanted to go in this store for a few years now, but none of them were close to us. We are going to wait a month or so until we go as we want the new to wear off while the Delta variant from COVID is so bad right now. 
Meals This Week
Friday: Chicken Fried Rice, Steamed  Broccoli, Chopped Tomatoes
Saturday: Beefy Baked Beans , which I made with hotdogs instead of beef since beef was so expensive the last time we ordered groceries we did not buy any. This is why we've had so much chicken on our menus lately.  
Sunday: Grilled Italian Sausage, Prince Edward Vegetable Medley, Rice Pilaf, Cucumbers and Radishes, Salad

Monday: White Chicken Enchiladas, Prince Edward Medley, Lettuce, Tomatoes, Cucumbers, and Radishes. I placed my enchilada on top of a bed of lettuce and tomato, which really made it taste like a dinner at the Mexican restaurant. 
Tuesday:  Tonight is movie night, which means I will make a pizza for Bailey. We will have a late lunch making a Baked Potato Bar. That way I won’t have to make any dinner for myself as I probably won’t be hungry. 
Wednesday: Salmon Patties, Rice Pilaf, Home Fries, Green Peas. The Rice Pilaf is what was leftover from Sunday’s dinner. I also had one baked potato left from yesterday, so I made home fries out of it. Between the two side dishes there was plenty of starch to go with our meal and we had no food waste.
Having sweets in the house isn’t something we have often. But I did make a batch of brownies this day.
Thursday: Dirty Rice, Steamed Carrots, Sweet Corn, Pickled Beets

Saving on Entertainment
Have you all been watching Frugal Queen in France videos on YouTube? They are really done well and her husband Michael does a good job of editing them. And of course they are free to watch and learn from, so be sure to check out her channel if you haven’t already. 
Another YouTube channel I’ve recently learned about is SeeMindyMom. She has videos where she will take $10 and make three meals with the money. Other topics include grocery hauls, budget cooking, meal prep, clean out the pantry, etc. Her channel goes right along with many of the things we do here. 
What I've been Reading This Week
Lost Pies of the South over at Southern Living
https://www.southernliving.com/desserts/pies/southern-state-pies?did=672523-20210908&utm_campaign=sl-best-of-the-south_newsletter&utm_source=southernliving.com&utm_medium=email&utm_content=090821&cid=672523&mid=66494526424&slide=b2d1410a-5db1-410b-9ffc-70731320dc7c#b2d1410a-5db1-410b-9ffc-70731320dc7c
Freebies
General Mills is offering a rebate for a free box of Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal here. It is not good on the mega box or any individual cereal container, so be sure to shop carefully. Also, Publix has it on sale this week for buy one get one free, so you may be able to get two boxes out of the deal. 
https://freectc.com/
That is all the news to report on our frugal week in Tennessee. Thank you for dropping by, you are always welcome here. We would love to hear about your week in the comment section. 
Belinda~ Living within our Means ~My Linktree

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Throwback Thursday

When it comes to our finances we need to get the most out of our money. We do this when we buy second hand items, go to yard sales, thrift stores, accept hand me downs, Freecycle/Craigslist, barter and swap. We don't go into debt to buy things to keep up with people (and with a teenager in high school, I can attest to the fact that they really feel the pressure to keep up). We simply do without those things that are beyond our financial reach. I would rather do without those things than have the added stress of paying for them later. 

I am fortunate to have learned/taught myself more skills over the last few years, so that we've been able to stretch our resources as far as possible even as we continue to hone our budgeting skills further.   We should never stop learning or trying how to do things better and more inexpensively. 

We make our own fabric softener, make do and mend clothing, grow some of our vegetables, preserve food, cook from scratch to sufficiently meet our needs. Whatever money I can save by making or doing it myself is money I can spend on necessities like food, insurance, car repairs, etc.  

We need to teach others these things as well and make sure no one is left behind. We especially need to teach these things to our children, so they don't make the same mistakes we made. My daughter experiences some of the same sticker shock that Amy D. wrote about her children experiencing. She helps me in so many ways with couponing, looking for bargains at yard sales, and she isn't even afraid to ask if the seller will take less for an item either.  I just love that about her. :)
Belinda ~ Living within our Means ~ My Linktree

Menu Plan Monday

In no particular order, these are the meals I plan on making this week. As usual, we have plenty of salad and vegetables to serve with these meals. 
Baked Potato BarItalian SausageHawaiian ChickenMacaroni & CheeseDirty RiceSalmon PattiesWhite Chicken Enchiladas
Come back on Friday if you're interested in reading which side dishes we chose for each meal. 
Belinda ~ Living within our Means ~ My Linktree

Frugal Friday

Welcome to Friday! 
My Frugal Week
We had rain this week off of Hurricane Ida, which started on Monday night. The electricity flashed off and for about a little bit, but we only lost power for about an hour.  

Mending - I finally got around to mending two pairs of shorts for myself this week. The stitching had come out in the elastic waistband in three different areas. This is the type of waistband where there are three lines of stitching, so it was a bigger job than usual, but I finally got it done on Wednesday. Now I can put these two pairs of shorts back into my rotation. 
This week I experimented with making my own body wash. I prefer body wash over bar soap, but the cost is higher with body wash. Doing some research, I found this video on YouTube on how to make my own body wash using bar soap.

Here are the supplies I needed to make my own body wash from soap.

And here is an old shampoo bottle, which I put the body wash into once it was finished. I have enough body wash left to refill this three or four times.

Earning Money
I earned $13.50 from Amazon Associates for June 2021. 
I earned a $10 Amazon gift card from MobileXpression.
I made a sale of two different Dish Towel Dresses on Etsy. 
Avoiding Spending
I stayed home this week and did not spend any money. 
Saving Money In My Frugal Kitchen
On Sunday when we had baked potatoes for dinner, I baked an extra one so we could have home fries for breakfast Monday morning. I served those with eggs over easy. 
This week I needed to make rice, so it would be cold for the Chicken Fried Rice and I also needed to soak beans overnight for the Bean and Cheese enchiladas. Cooking from scratch does require a certain amount of planning. 
One of my favorite spoons in the kitchen went missing recently. Since then I’ve cleaned out two drawers, pulled out the fridge and swept and mopped behind it and still can’t find my spoon. I hope it shows up before too long. 
I took inventory of exactly what food I have in my pantry and freezer. This helps me in a couple of ways, helps me know what I have on hand and can plan meals off of it, uses up what I have so no food expires, which all saves me money. 
Meals This Week
When I post the things we eat during the week, I usually just hit the highlights. I don’t post everything we eat because that would be boring. We do eat plenty of fruits and vegetables with our meals and maintain a healthy diet. 
Sunday: Baked Potato Bar
Monday: Fajita Baked Chicken, Mexican Rice, Steamed Baby Carrots 
Tuesday: This is Family Movie Night, but I haven’t been participating due to my eyesight. So we had a late lunch of soup with cheese and crackers. That evening I made pizza and salad for Bailey to have with her movie night. 
Wednesday: Chicken Tenders, Rice Pilaf, Steamed Broccoli
Thursday: Sticky Pineapple Chicken, Basmati Rice with butter, Steamed Broccoli

Saving on Entertainment
Someone has posted the TV show, American Dreams, on YouTube. The show only lasted three seasons, but they are there if you would like to watch them for free. 
Freebies
We were able to pick up a free, after Ibotta rebate, bottle of All laundry detergent. And Bailey was able to pick up four free slices of ham from the deli. 

How was your week?
Belinda~ Living within our Means ~My Linktree

If you are encouraged by what you read here, please consider supporting this site. 

 1. As an Amazon affiliate, I earn a small percentage that helps me to earn a living. Any items you place in your cart from one of my links means I will earn a small percentage from that sale. 

 2. My PayPal Tip Jar

Wordless Wednesday

Photo Credit

Belinda ~ Living within our Means ~ My Linktree