My Frugal List: Week of January 28, 2019
The big news of the week is Oldest Daughter paid off her last student loan. We are so proud of her. She is 25 and debt free. She has worked so hard to get here. Full story will hopefully be posted this week.
The laundry area is done except for the bar and curtain. We already bought the bar. We were going to get curtains on Sunday but my sister said she has several sets in her attic that we could have if we wanted. She dropped Lip off and had breakfast with us. She will be picking Lip up on Friday so she will bring the curtains too. I am all for saving money so we will happily look at what she has.
I have been putting everything back onto the shelves. Hubby added a third shelf so I am trying to figure where to put everything. The 3rd shelf helped get some stuff off of the counters. I put similar items into baskets that I already had such as GF items, chips, etc. I am loving how the whole area came out.
When my sister came for breakfast, she brought lots of goodies with her, GF snacks for YD, coupons for me, shoes for the girls, and fruit for breakfast. My son loves blackberries and YD loves cantaloupe. She is an awesome aunt. We made biscuits with sausage gravy (her favorite) with scrambled eggs for breakfast. It was delicious. Hubby subbed the flour for GF flour and no one could tell the difference. We made a batch of GF biscuits for YD and she loved them.
I got lots of freebies this week. I shopped sales, used coupons and the did Ibotta rebates so I even made money on a few items.
Hubby and I closed out our budget for January and made the budget for February. With me not working, it is even more important that we do our budget. I have been doing surveys trying to earn gift cards. Every little bit is a help.
I made another batch of honey butter with butter that I had gotten free that was leftover from a work breakfast. I still have a bunch of these butter packs in the freezer.
I used bread from the freezer and leftover's from my son's job to make breadcrumbs.
I made pizza dough in the bread machine for Hubby and me one night. We cut the dough in half and each made our own pizzas. My son ate the leftovers the next day for lunch. I did try to make a GF pizza dough but it was HORRIBLE! Oreo and Lip have been eating the crust as treats and some went to the birds. YD made her pizza on a GF bagel. If anyone has a good GF pizza dough recipe, can I please have it. We make pizza often. I had bought YD a 4 pack of GF crusts and she liked them but they were $10 and only enough for 1 meal each time. There has to be a good GF pizza recipe out there.
YD loves pigs in a blanket and corn dogs. I made mini hot dogs in a GF batter and she really liked them. Hubby and my son both snuck a few so I know they had to taste OK. They might not look that pretty but YD was happy. They ate them during the Super Bowl.
Only full loads of laundry were run. The kids do their own laundry and if they have room they always ask what needs to be washed to make it a full load. We do our laundry mostly on the cold short cycle (30 minutes compared to 45). Most items were hung up which added some moisture to the house.
I sold 2 items on eBay. Shipped them out in used envelopes. I listed more items on Craigslist and eBay. Hoping that sales pick up in February.
YD watch battery died. When I drove her to work (she was closing and I don't like her walking to her car that late by herself) I went into the mall to get it changed. I went to a booth in the middle and he said it would be $20 plus tax. I went to several jewelry stores too. I used the one that said $15 plus tax. I saved $5 by walking around the mall some. While I waited for them to change the battery, I walked the mall for exercise. It is so cold out that I'm not doing it out there.
I went to another library class. They served snacks and water this time. It was a pillow making class. There was a choice of this white soft material or a blue fleece or plaid. I went with the white because it matched YD bedspread. It is so soft, I knew she would love it.
What did you do this week to be frugal?
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I just saw this GF pizza dough recipe yesterday - supposedly easy and delicious. http://www.pennilessparenting.com/2019/02/easy-terrific-gluten-free-vegan-pizza.html
ReplyDeleteThanks. I will give it a try.
DeleteYour library has so many interesting classes! Ours has some programs, but not a lot. It's sad, because otherwise it's a fantastic library. The library in the next town has craft classes often, and my card works there because they offer reciprocal borrowing privileges, but I'd feel funny about asking to attend a class, since we don't live in the town and thus don't pay taxes to contribute to the class, you know? Our library is supposed to be undergoing a renovation sometime soon, so maybe they'll offer more things then- lack of meeting space right now is one of their problems.
DeleteCongrats to your older daughter on being debt free! Your laundry area looks great. :)
Stephanie, I have attended classes at other libraries. If the classes don't fill up they let others go. Ask and you might be happily surprised. The last few years our library has really gone crazy with classes. Nice to see my tax money at work. Now that I am home I can attend. Most of them are during the day so if you work then there are very few options.
DeleteI don't have a recipe using gluten free flour, but the keto fat head pizza dough https://www.recipe-diaries.com/fat-head-pizza-crust/ contains zero grains and it truly delicious (kinda pricy but worth it for an occasional pizza)
ReplyDeleteThanks. I will check it out.
DeleteHow fun a library that teaches classes.
ReplyDeleteI love the library. So many great things and I have to pay the taxes whether I use them or not.
DeleteI think Annabel at The Bluebirds Are Nesting has a recipe for GF pizza dough. She has a lot of Gf recipes. So does Becky at Home.
ReplyDeleteThanks. I follow both of those blogs so I will look.
DeleteSounds like another great week. Please tell your daughter CONGRATS!!!! That is wonderful, such a hard worker. Huge accomplishment for her. You obviously taught her well.
ReplyDeleteShe really did work hard. She also realized it was more important to pay the loans now before she gets married then in 10 years when she would like to have a house. She was willing to sacrifice now to make sure she gets what she wants later.
DeleteMy son is GF and I would love to get the recipe for the batter that you used for the pigs in the blanket. I don't have a recipe for the pizza dough but we buy him cauliflower pizza crusts and those are normally cheaper.
ReplyDeleteWe used Pamela's pancake mix. We followed the pancake recipe but made it thicker so that it would stick to the hot dogs. I then made pancakes with the extra batter. YD doesn't like cauliflower so that is why we haven't tried them yet. Do they taste like cauliflower?
DeleteEvery time I've tried cauliflower crust (even to make it myself) it tastes like cauliflower. We finally gave up and decided to let cauliflower be cauliflower. We love it. We don't love the crust made from it. But, many people do.
DeleteThanks for your honest opinion. Probably not for YD then.
DeleteHi Mcoia and you have done so well and added so much to your pantry at a low or no cost. The laundry area is looking wonderful :).
ReplyDeleteOur Vicky challenge added up to $267.45 in savings last week :).
It was fortunately a bit cooler here this week which was a relief but we did go swimming in our rain water tank pool often to cool us off none the less.
Finances -
- Paid another extra small payment off our mortgage which will save loan time and interest.
Using up what we have -
- We repaired a rain water tank filter with a piece of aluminium flyscreen off a window that had a large hole in it and there was just enough so we didn't have to buy any.
- Used paint we already had to paint 2 window sills, a beam holding pipework leading to the rain water tanks which had no paint on it, a window surround and window and a step leading to the outhouse toilet which took around 2 hours to put on two coats of paint. This saved us $70 over hiring a painter to do it for us.
- I also collected peeling paint chips from the rain water tank shed to match up the paint to repaint it when we save the funds shortly.
General frugalities -
- DH cut my hair and I cut his saving around $100 over getting our hair cut in a hairdressing salon or barber.
- Saved grey water from our washing machine and hand washing water and shower warm up water and dish rinsing water to water fruit, herb and ornamental pot plants.
In the kitchen -
- Made a quadruple 2.8 kg batch of honey, almond, sultana, honey and oat granola with a splash of vanilla extract to last a few weeks saving $47.45 over buying the equivalent quality in the supermarkets.
Home organisation -
- Moved all fuels, tilling machine, palm frond and branch shredder from the metal 2 door shed into the 3 bay leanto garage as it is more ventilated in there.
- Moved all garden pots, compost bins, garden hand tools and brooms under the tank stand shed. This will give us a dedicated gardening shed to work from.
- DH assembled 2 x 4 shelf metal garage shelving to put into the double bay metal shed to store tool boxes and other items in there on.
In the gardens -
- I trimmed a hedge growing over the side of the garden path.
- DH cleaned out the gutters on the patio and home with the blower vac and a gutter cleaning tool taking around an hour saving us around $50 over hiring a general handyman to do it for us.
Have a fantastic week ahead everyone :).
Sewingcreations15 (Lorna).
I hope it is cooling off for you. I think the extreme heat is worse then the extreme cold.You can only take so much clothes off. You got a lot done even with the heat.
DeleteWe used all paint that we had from other projects to paint the laundry area. So that saved us some money. We also used one of the shelves that was in there since it was in good shape. We had most of the brackets, only had to buy 4. The baskets I had in the basement. All the little things helped keep the cost down.
If you can find gf tortillas they make a quick and easy pizza crust. Also I found a low carb pizza that you can make in a waffle iron and it was delicious! It uses almond flour or you can sub Pamela’s mix (it only calls for 3/4 cup of flour) the bulk of the mix is four eggs (recipe makes 3 personal sized pizzas) but surprisingly you do not taste them. Here is that recipe https://thethriftyeducator.com/2019/02/04/chicken-alfredo-waffle-pizza-low-carb-and-gf/
ReplyDeleteWe do have GF tortillas. She had used GF bagels several times. Pamela's has a pizza crust but very few reviews so I was hesitant to try it. Thanks for the ideas.
DeleteCongratulations to your daughter! That's awesome news:)
DeleteThe laundry area is looking great. I love being able to see my things on my shelves in the garage. I'm sure you will come to love that area. I've been tidying up a bit as I rotate my food items. I found I ran out of more things than I thought last month. So, I've been buying new for those items (mushrooms, black beans, a few refried beans for super busy nights, olives, etc.).
In the meanwhile, I've been cooking up a storm, using more things that need to be used. Today, for instance, I dealt with the rest of the squash from last summer's garden. Some were over the hill, but there were several good ones left. I peeled and cubed the acorn squash and the Butternut and roasted them with olive oil and salt and pepper. I made a soup from the Butternut and quinoa bowls with the squash. Both things came out great and now I know the remaining squash won't go bad.
Thank you. We are very proud of OD. That is great that you are using up your older stuff. I am cooking my last pumpkin right now.
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