Monday, November 27, 2017

Frugal Accompilshments

This past week went pretty well, frugally speaking.  There were a few surprises that really helped us to stretch the grocery budget until the end of the month, which is always nice.  We did travel to see family, which costs more (about $40 in gas plus road trip snacks).  But we tried to compensate for this in other ways, like staying with family.

So, without further ado, here's how we saved this past week:


  • All meals were cooked at home.  This included leftover salad, Asian chicken, and we did easy pasta and sauce one night.  I was also blessed with some leftover portions from dinner with Mom and from our parenting class.  Breakfasts were smoothies, cereal trail mix, banana bars, and oatmeal.
  • Enjoyed shared meals with friends and family three times, including parenting class and Thanksgiving.  
  • We continued to use what we have to make snacks for our trip including banana bars, popcorn, and nuts.
  • Continued to compost and use cloth diapers to save resources.
  • We graciously accepted some things from the food pantry:  fresh fruit, green beans, asparagus, mushrooms, yogurt, milk, ricotta cheese, bread, and (huge surprise!) a whole turkey that was smoked at a local BBQ restaurant.  The pantry ended up with extra turkeys, so the restaurant generously said they'd smoke them to ease the burden on pantry volunteers.  We love smoked turkey, so immediately said yes when Mom said one was available for us.
  • Saved smoked turkey carcass for making stock.  It makes a great chili or wild rice soup.  We will use the meat for enchiladas, quesadillas, sandwiches, and to top salads.  
  • Went to Costco with family and stocked up on produce, yogurt, frozen broccoli, frozen salmon, frozen blueberries, honey, and other staples.  (Even though I'm not doing sugars, the rest of my family still enjoys honey in tea or on a slice of bread.) I also found some low sugar, grain free granola that I'm super excited about.  It tastes great by itself or with plain yogurt and berries.  We also found fire extinguishers that we'd been looking for for only $15 each.
  • Continued to plan to purchase land, looked for house plans online.  We will try to broker the deal for the land ourselves to save on the realtor cost.  We will use a realtor to sell our current home, when we get to that point.
  • Accepted some hand-me-downs from my cousin for the boys, mostly baby.  
  • Put together at least two bags of stuff for Goodwill.  Will continue to try to put together at least 2-3 bags each week for Goodwill, Craigslist, or eBay sales to try to clean out.  
  • Pulled out an old wool coat to use this winter.  My black leather one is very shabby and got paint on it from a kid project, so the wool one will work and is still warm and in relatively good condition.
  • My grandmother fixed my open-fingered gloves that were coming unraveled on one thumb.  It took her no time with the right tools, which I didn't have.  I now have a repaired glove, and I know how to fix it the next time, should it happen again.
  • My mom had some homemade lemon nut cookie dough (a slice and bake recipe) in the freezer.  We thawed that and the boys decorated those for Thanksgiving dinner for them, in addition to the traditional pies.  It was fun for the boys, and helped clean out her freezer a bit.
  • Were thankful for an early Christmas gift from Mom.  She paid to have our windows washed, which is something we don't do since we've essentially got a three story home on the side of a mountain.  The windows look wonderful, and it's so nice to have clean screens too!
  • Began decorating for Christmas using existing supplies.  We use an artificial tree,wreath, and garland.  We save ornaments from year to year, and this really helps cut down on the cost.  We have window candles, but won't use those until our toddler is done with pulling things out of windows!  My mom bought a live wreath, which we'll use existing decorations, for us to decorate and hang on our porch railing.
How did you live and save green this week, especially amidst the holiday consumerism push?  I'd love to hear from you!

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