I've been thinking for a few weeks now that I'd like to separate the frugal week from the diary week. I'd much rather chatter on about life, nature, reflections, etc. in that weekly post and then dump all the frugal things I've done in a stand-alone post. I think just now, when my writing time is at a premium, I can find better balance by doing it this way.
Those of you who've been with me for years will recall that I often did either a Frugal Friday or a Thrifty Thursday post in the past for long periods of time. Since the diary goes out on a Friday, I thought I'd go back to the Thrifty Thursday posts for the money saving ones. And if I get any more chance at writing, I'll happily cram it in somewhere in the week!
For ease of memory, I'm going to do this in diary form, so each day will have it's list of things I did that day that helped me save money or was in some way a thrifty/frugal thing to do.
Saturday: John and I made a trip over to pick up Gramma's Fried Chicken. Yes, I had a list. Yes, I could have gone in and spent extra money, but I didn't. At John's request, I ordered the chicken over the phone, it was waiting at the customer service counter, and I never set foot in the store at all. Instead, John went in to pay for and pick up the chicken and that was all the money we spent at the store this weekend.
At least the chicken was on sale this week. I'll tell you though, inflation. I used to buy this on sale for $7.49. These days a sale is $8.99.
When we got home, I read through blogs for the week. Either Hip2Save or MoneySavingMom reported a deal on Amazon for six 12-ounce jars of Smucker's Strawberry Preserves for $11.62. You had to do a subscribe and save to get that and there was supposed to be a 30% coupon available on Amazon, but it had expired by the time I saw the deal. Fortunately, my credit card shopping app kicked up a $3 off coupon that was applied so I got 6 jars of preserves for just at $9 (Amazon included tax on the total). I'm not upset about that at all. John loves Strawberry preserves and we go through a jar about every four to six weeks. (Aside: I've only just learned recently about food sales on Amazon and this weekend I discovered the coupons section. There are still a few tricks to learn in this frugal living game!)
I ordered the Strawberry jam, looked over the other flavors and found Peach Preserves and Orange Marmalade for a good price, $14.62 for six of each. I put all of those into my subscribe and save cart for this month. That will keep us in jelly for the rest of the year easily, and a few to spare for next year.
We've talked it over and will start going to the grocery on a routine basis during the week. I just need to choose my day, I almost feel I should do this weekly, due to the way sales occur. I think I can best manage my budget if I simply take a set cash amount each week and spend that and stop when it's done. It would push me to pick up what I HAVE to have at that time and then plan the sales items I'd also be purchasing. It would also be a way to get off this set point total amount we've been purchasing each time we walk into the store and onto a setpoint that is better suited to the budget I have.
Meals: Bagels and Croissants
Birthday party cookout
Gramma's Fried Chicken, Beans with Potatoes, box Mac n Cheese, tiny little Grape Tomatoes about the size of a large cranberry.
Sunday: When I got home with the chicken yesterday Big Sister asked if we could have chicken for supper. I said sure and simply made my planned menu yesterday evening. I'd already started pizza dough for that night's dinner. I just took it right from the bowl where I'd been kneading it, and I put it in a zippered bag I'd sprayed with non-stick spray. Then I tucked it in the fridge overnight.
Today at lunch time we made pizza. I didn't have time to let the dough come fully to room temperature, but I have to say that it cooked up super light and tender, more like the pizzeria dough I'd been admiring a month ago. I think the secret is that slow cool rising. I'll keep experimenting with this and see if I get the same results.
No spending for us today either. John filled up with gasoline this morning on our way back home from church, but he skipped his usual coffee and treats for all purchase that he likes to make. I'd asked him to slow down on those purchases after we spent a rather hefty sum over a weekend out with two stops at the gas station on two successive days. I reminded him we live on a budget and while it's fun to splurge now and then, we need to remember the 'now and then' part is not as often as we'd been indulging.
Meals: Cheese toast for us. I think the rest of the family had cereal and fruit bars. I wasn't home when they ate, but noted cereal bowls in the sink when I returned. Lest any of you want to complain over the fact that the bowls weren't washed or put in the dishwasher, this is something my kids have done for year, young and grown alike. It's their way of letting me know what foods were eaten. They rinse and stack the dishes right in the sink where I can clearly see them but it does indeed give me a clue to what they might have eaten as you'll see again in a moment.
Pizza and Salads
John and I ate out at Oasis Senior Supper. When we came in I noted that there was a bowl and a pan in the sink which means that Mama of Little One made Ramen (the aroma alone would have told me that, but the dishes were 'evidence'). Not sure what the Little One ate but I'll wager on PBJ. Sunday suppers are very casual things around here.
Monday: I've been thinking off and on since Saturday about what I can do to make breakfast a much easier, less labor-intensive meal. As you know, Little One likes hobbit breakfasts. He has a first meal when he rises. John usually sets out something simple like cereal and toast, or a fruit bar or sliced fruit. Then when I have had coffee, I make another meal for us and of course, hobbits must share in second breakfasts.
I'm finding that Little One can be very impatient and distracting when I am in the kitchen trying to cook. He was this morning for sure. I was making two different items, both of which had eggs in them and then I found I'd grated nutmeg into what was meant to be our omelet eggs. Sigh. Luckily, I hadn't beaten the eggs and they have such body to them that I could scoop the nutmeg off the top with a measuring spoon. Rescue missions became the order of the day after that...
I mixed up a crustless quiche, tossed in some cooked onion and chopped ham that I'd frozen a week or two ago and put it in the oven while we ate breakfast. I went off to our room and started cleaning...I forgot all about that quiche! I caught a quick whiff of overcooked egg and came running into the kitchen. The whole thing was crispy golden brown on the outside. Sigh.
I kept looking at that quiche as I worked all morning trying to determine if I could salvage it or if I simply needed to call it a loss and throw it away. I finally decided I'd try to trim off the crusty outside and keep the softer, far more edible interior bits. I cut that section with a drinking glass into rounds and stuffed English Muffins with it. Little One ate the remaining nice pieces as part of his lunch, at his own request today. That was a good save! I was pretty happy that I only lost about a third of the Quiche overall.
I pulled the bread bits and pieces from the freezer and will make up two French Toast Casseroles. This is just an easy strata recipe with the usual eggs and milk and the addition of some cinnamon sugar sprinkled over the top. It's really lightly sweetened and nice with a light topping of maple syrup when serving. By the way. I do NOT use a dozen eggs as some of these breakfast casseroles ask for. I'll likely use two or three per pan with 1 cup of milk or so. Then these will get baked and popped into the freezer to reheat after being thawed. I can reheat while I have my first cup of coffee one morning.
For my third make ahead breakfast idea, I've pulled some frozen bananas from the freezer. These are the browner of the bananas I've stored. I'll make up a dozen banana nut muffins using my favorite banana bread recipe and simply baking a shorter time in the muffin tin. The house across the field loves when I make these with chocolate chips and share them. The nicer whiter bananas will be used in smoothies one morning.
I did my pantry inventory today and straightened the foodstuffs in the kitchen cabinets. I now have a clear idea of what I need and what I don't (canned tomatoes and bulk dried beans I have in gracious plenty).
I have two cartons of shelf stable milk that expire this month, one lactose free and one whole milk. Since I'm nearly out of both lactose and whole milk these will be welcome to help me get through the week until I can go grocery shopping this week. I've noted that the price of these has gone up by about $1 a carton. I really should go see if Dollar Tree in another town has these in stock. The one nearest me does not.
I was going to do the freezer inventory as well but only got as far as the fridge freezer which looks woefully empty just now.
Tonight's supper will be a pot of soup. I've emptied the contents of the fridge and dumped in a few stray cans of stuff, a bit of leftover roast and some pan drippings that I'd saved. It is a super thrifty meal but always welcome. It's likely we'll be serving a good deal less soup in the near future. We've got mid-80s temperatures later this week. Salad season will be just around the corner!
Meals: Toast and Fruit for Little One's first meal. Toast and Omelet for second meal for all of us.
Little One wanted the rest of the quiche pieces at 11:30 so I went ahead and fed him an early lunch. I found peaches in the fridge and cut those up for him. Along with milk, he got quite full.
John and I ate leftovers. I had a small piece of chicken, pickled beets and leftover salad all tossed into one bowl. John ate the last of the baked beans and two hot dogs.
Kitchen Sink Soup, Bread.
Tuesday: Made Banana Nut Muffins this morning from brown bananas I'd frozen some time ago. I measured the liquid in the packages of bananas and just topped up with milk to give as much liquid as the recipe required. They turned out great. I've frozen 8 of the dozen for future mornings. I plan to try every day this week to make enough to freeze ahead so I gradually build up a breakfast supply of foods in the freezer.
We grocery shopped today. I knew about what I hoped to spend ($135) and I came in a smidge over that. I've gone over the receipt and can see where I might have saved. I have to start with my floral purchase...But I don't consider that a splurge. For me, it's a necessity while I can afford to buy them and generally speaking, they will last about two weeks. As we go into warmer weather, I won't be able to keep flowers half so long and at that point, I generally will purchase a houseplant which lasts longer.
What I bought today were food items only. Some of the substitutions I had to make were more than sales priced items might have been but I went with the most economical. Instead of one three-pound chuck roast I bought 5 pounds each of chicken legs and thighs which were just at $1.10 a pound. Some of the fruit I'd planned to purchase was nowhere to be found. I substituted with other fruit items but they were higher priced than those on sale. All in all, this was all good solid plain old food, no snacks or drinks.
I did find it a challenge to shop today, as so many items were either nowhere to be seen and I had to do what we all do these days, think on my feet. I know I likely could have done better had I not had the added distraction of John and Little One with me and I'd really been able to reason things out in a less scatterbrained way. And I do have to take into account that Little One's dairy allergy means buying plant based or lactose free items which do cost more.
I earned 40c on Ibotta rewards today and extra points on the Fetch app. I need to make time before each shopping trip to look over both apps and see if I can't make a bit more of them. I refuse to buy products I don't typically buy unless they are free and they might be something we would eat but just don't purchase as a rule. Every now and then I can combine a clearance item with an Ibotta or Fetch reward and do quite well but this is something I could definitely work at a bit harder in order to make them more profitable.
Tonight's supper was a rotisserie chicken ($7) which we will get two meals from. I plan to make a casserole with tonight's leftovers later this week.
Meals: Banana Nut Muffins, Fried Spam slice
Burger King meal deals. I'll also do the survey on back of the receipt so we can earn a free Whopper or Chicken Sandwich. I usually pass those off to my daughter for her lunch break.
Rotisserie Chicken, Steamed Broccoli, Roasted Potatoes, and Whole Grain Bake Your Own Loaf from bakery clearance rack.
Wednesday: I took time last night before final closing of the kitchen to make up the two breakfast casseroles. I discovered that though I'd made a smaller portion, each pan will serve five easily. We have leftovers.
It occurred to me yesterday to look at the pricing of another item I've been getting from Amazon and determine if that's the best price or not. When I could no longer buy paper plates at Aldi, I started ordering from Amazon. I love the convenience of buying a case of three packs at a time, but I really need to check out that price and compare to other sites and even within the Amazon site to be sure I'm getting the best buy.
I went through last year's inspiration pages I'd kept and found several recipes I had already tried and which I definitely want to keep. Those were moved to my Recipe binder, so I'll be able to find them in the future. How is this a savings? It's a TIME saver...I don't have to hunt online for it and try to remember which site it came from, etc.
I realized this morning when I said last year, I wasn't going to waste anything that I needed to do more than use up all the foodstuffs coming into the house. I need to look for those things that waste TIME and SPACE in my home as well. This was brought home this afternoon as I looked through the freezer and realized that sometimes my so-called frugal nature works against me when I choose to save items I don't have an active plan to use. Like leftover cornbread. Great to have on hand if I'm planning to make dressing but aside from that I have no idea what to do with it. So, it stays in the freezer eating up space I could use for other things that would better serve us.
I'll be ending this post right here this week. Next week you'll have a full week of days on it.
Meals: French Toast Casserole, Link Sausage
Leftover Pizza for all of us. Little One also had a salad and fruit on the side but he skipped it all but the pepperoni on the pizza. He had a PBJ later after his quiet time.
Beef Smoke Sausage, Pierogi, Baby Lima Beans, Coleslaw with Apple and Cranberries. Not on my menu at all this week but I simply wanted an easier meal. Or so I told myself before I started in chopping onions for the Sausage and Pierogi and hand chopping apples and cabbage for the slaw.
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6 comments:
I love posts like these! I always get great ideas.
We like to eat leftover cornbread at breakfast with jam and butter. You could probably also use it in a chil or tamale pie recipe.
Some years ago you mentioned splitting and buttering and toasting leftover cornbread. I started doing that after your posting. If you have other things in the oven you can wrap it is n foil and reheat it. It is crumbly but still good. We sometimes wrap it on n a wet paper towel and microwave it.
I have given up on finding a price I will pay for paper plates. This is an item that I can see no reason for the high price. I took them all out of the kitchen and put them on the shelves in the garage so we won't be tempted to use them except when we have a lot of family home. My late MIL gave everyone at the table a paper towel if they were just having a sandwich or bagel, etc. I need to remember that although they are a stupid price now as well.
Our ten year grandson always said he was hungry as he was coming in the door when he was a toddler. He even said it with baby sign language long before he was talking. He had second breakfast here every time he came to visit. It is a fond memory now.
Planning for and thinking up meal ideas is the most pressing daily concern for us Moms, I do believe. One thing I do to help is load my crock-pot with 10 pounds of chicken quarters (50 cents/lb at last purchase) and let in cook on low all night (in the garage or porch so it doesn't smell up the house). After it cools, I sort out the bones and portion the meat into old sour cream containers and store in freezer. I also cook 5 lb chubs of ground beef and portion into containers for the freezer. Then when meals need to be made, the hamburger or shredded chicken is already cooked and all ready to be used in a recipe. On a different topic, I buy Great Value strawberry preserves from Walmart for $3.88 for 32 oz. I've been really happy with it.
I just fixed hamburgers for supper, made patties with the rest of the package and froze them on a cookie sheet to "flash" freeze. Vacuum bagged them in meals for later. I do the same with roasted chicken and beef roasts.
This post inspired me to stop in the middle of reading and do my grocer pick-up order for tomorrow morning. Between stretching out the pantry challenge and trying to empty the frig before our trip, it's been slim pickings the past couple of days.
There was a container of leftover beef stew in the freezer which I popped into the Instant Pot last night, and served with biscuits. It was the perfect meal for such a cold day, and the stew meat was particularly tender after a second time pressure cooking.
Cindi, I haven't even thought of anything to use cornbread for but dressing. I think I could cube it and dry it in the oven the way I do bread to use for homemade stuffing mix...That was one thought. Or setting aside a portion of batter and using it to make pancakes which is something we do like as a change. I've been seeing a tamale pie recipe where teh cornbread base is cooked first and then topped with the meat filling and cheese rather than it being the other way round...Thank you for the idea!
Lana, we did on occasion and then for some reason we didn't. The paper plates I buy run about 10c per plate. I don't really buy them for me. I buy them at John's request because he is convinced it saves work on me and admittedly there are times it does indeed. Had I the extra storage room just now I'd much rather buy another set of my dishes and have double the number of plates but no room at this time, so paper plates it is.
Lisa from IN, I have read the tip many times to cook ground beef ahead and package in meal sized portions but never have done it consistently. That and the chicken are both good ideas.
Juls, I have made the hamburger patties ahead but haven't lately. Also a good idea. And meatballs are too...Loads of good ideas from you all this week, thank you so much!
Tammy, Inspiration could be used by us all, I think. Lisa is right planning and thinking of meal ideas is one of my main occupations.
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