Monday, February 11, 2019

Frugal Accomplishments 2nd Week of February

We continued to work toward our goal this week of eating out of the pantry and freezer, saving money.  I worked hard this past week to combine errands and trips into town, since we're living further out of town now.  We did have to spend a bit at the dermatologist's office to have an atypical mole removed, but it's worth it for health.  Here's the details of our spending/saving for last week:


  • Meals cooked at home included:  roasted veggies and crock pot chicken, salmon and salad, chili thawed from the freezer, breakfast for dinner (bacon, eggs, collard greens, and fruit), smoothies with greens and frozen fruit, Paleo almond flour pizza crust from Elana's pantry (great first attempt at Paleo pizza crust!) and batch cooked chicken stock for use in soup.
  • Saved chicken bones and veggie scraps in the freezer for another batch of stock.  I am finding that consuming at least a cup or two of bone broth is really helping my gut to heal, so I've just got to get into the habit of making some on a weekly basis.  This may mean purchasing some bones from our CSA in bulk, but it will be worth it.
  • Enjoyed community shared meals at the Children's Council twice and at a baby shower.
  • Used a gift card to purchase a few items at EarthFare, saving on our grocery bill this week.
  • Purchased only necessary salad greens, almond milk, and yogurt.  
  • There was loads of produce at the food pantry on the Sunday pick up that wouldn't make it until Wednesday, so we got fruit, milk, cheese, and a carton of yogurt for this week.  We also stocked up on bananas to freeze for smoothies.
  • Benny and I both won the door prize at our Children's Council support groups, so we have a total of $20 gift card for Applebee's.  We plan to use them later this coming week for a date night.
  • Signed up the boys for a free parent's night out at church.  We made sure there's a gluten free option for the meal for baby.
  • Dropped off two bags of items we weren't using at Goodwill and got a tax receipt.  (I don't know that we'll need the receipt if we don't itemize, but it'll be good to have.)
  • Took a few travel bars of soap from the "free" bin at the Children's Council.  We were running low, and these will get us through until we're gifted more.  (Typically, I receive a few nice bars of soap as teacher gifts throughout the year, so this gets us through.)  We prefer bar soap to body wash because it limits plastic packaging and seems to have fewer chemicals.
  • Used and washed our cloth napkins and handkerchiefs.  We usually wash these with towels when we have a full load, and it keeps us from using (and purchasing) paper replacements.
  • Found printable Valentine's coloring pages I could shrink to Valentine's size.  Little man has enjoyed coloring these for his classmates, and they were free (minus the cost of cardstock, which I already had on hand).
  • Picked up a cilantro plant at the food pantry that I think I can salvage.  This should provide us cilantro for the spring, and I can save the seeds the plant produces in the summer for next spring (or I might try a fall planting).  We also continued planning our garden for the new house, as well as some container options for the rental when the weather warms up.
What did you do to live and save green this week?  I'd love to hear from you!

2 comments:

  1. Sounds like you had a great week. Home made broth is so much better then store bought. Glad it it helping you feel better.

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  2. You had a good week! I miss fresh cilantro in the winter months, dried isn't the same.
    Jeannie@GetMeToTheCountry

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