My Frugal List: Week of April 23, 2018


When you work at a movie theatre your life revolves around the newest blockbuster hit. On Thursday, Avengers Infinity War came out and I have been going ever since. During slow times I work 2-3 days for 4 hour shifts. This week I worked 27 hours and that was because I had already committed to my church for all day Saturday.  I worked a double on Thursday because it was opening day and we were going to be crazy. So I went to work 10 am-2 pm. I came home to say goodbye to YD because she was going to Florida with my sister for a long weekend. I ate a very early dinner of leftovers and then went back to work from 4:30 to 10. I was going from the minute I stepped inside the building. I did bring some fruit with me and a reusable cup for my water. I'm really glad I did. 

Friday morning I had my monthly breakfast with friends at Panera. My son was working so I got to use his discount and paid for the rest with a gift card. I had a very nice time seeing everyone. I haven't seen 2 of the ladies since January since they haven't been able to make breakfast. I then went to work 12-5:30. Hubby had suggested that we use a gift card I had traded for last summer to get dinner. He was nice enough to go pick it up. There is still more on the gift card and there were some leftovers too.

Saturday was my Church's big fundraiser. I had to be there at 2pm to help set up. 2 good friends of mine come too which is great. We had a very successful night and raised a lot of money for the Church as well as we got to spend time with new and old friends. When we were cleaning up, another volunteer brought me a tray of meatballs in red sauce and 6 loaves of bread. I was happy to take it home. I got home around 11pm.

 
Sunday morning we had bagels that my son brought home the night before and I headed off to work as did my son. Hubby did yard work and some work on his truck. I was very grateful for the food I had brought home the night before. I made meatball heroes and had some salad on the side for dinner that night. I was exhausted and sat on the couch for the rest of the night.
 
I did get some stuff done earlier in the week knowing that my week would get crazy when Avengers started.
 
I cooked a bunch this week. I had made a turkey last week so I cooked the bones this week for stock. I froze 4 containers for future use and used 2 containers to make turkey rice soup. We had that for dinner 2 nights and several lunches. I even sent some to a friend. I grilled sausage one night and used half of them for sausage and peppers. There was enough leftovers for the boys to have for lunch. We then had the other half of the sausage on buns the next night for dinner with fries and corn.
 
 
I made steel cut oats and pancakes. We ate also ate soufflés that my son got from work and fried eggs with potatoes.
  
 
Lunches were leftovers, PBJ, tuna or hard boiled eggs. Very easy.
 
I did get some time in the garden earlier in the week. I transplanted/ thinned the kale. A few of the plants are getting huge . We picked it several days to use in smoothies. My seedlings are doing great. Almost all of the lettuce and tomatoes are growing. The peppers aren't doing as well. I may end up buying some plants when it is time to plant. I will see.
 
 
I went to Aldi and Stop & Shop this week. I got marked down shampoo and eggs. Hubby stopped in at BJ"s on Saturday as we were out of milk. He grabbed 2 gallons and a pack of his favorite cookies.
 
 
I washed all of the bed linens and hung them outside to dry. I love when I can do that.
 
I cleaned both bathrooms with old cloth rags. I refilled the soap containers with soap I had gotten on clearance and thinned it with some water. I refilled the lotion container with hotel lotions that my sister gets while she travels.
 
I made dog food for the 2 dogs as we are still watching my sister's dog.
 
My sister can and picked up my YD for a weekend away. She dropped off some goodies for us. She is very generous.
 
 
My son brought home more goodies from work that we shared with friends and coworkers.
 
 
It was a busy week but a good one. We were able to put $1500 into the college fund after we paid all of our bills this month. I definitely call that a win. My check will be larger then normal next week which is always nice, so we should be able to add some more then too. The weather is supposed to be very nice so I plan on spending time in the yard working. I hope everyone found some ways to save money this week. I was so busy the second half of the week that I didn't even have time to think about spending any. Our pantry and freezers are full so even if I am super busy this week, I know we will be fine with food.  I hope you all have a wonderful and frugal week.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 



 
 
 
 
 
 

Comments

  1. Nothing beats having food ready when you know a week is going to get crazy! Have fun with all the Avenger's craze!

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    Replies
    1. It is 7 am and I am currently making steel cut oats and hard boiled eggs. I am getting the crockpot ready to make pork carnitas for dinner. I pulled black beans out of the freezer that I made a huge batch of 2 weeks ago. I love having a well stocked pantry.

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  2. Hello MCOIA & everyone :).

    Glad you were able to get extra work hours this week and all of your planted seeds are doing well.

    Staggering revelation and eye opener for the week is I looked up what the average monthly grocery spending was for a couple with no children at home such as us, and it was $239 per week in Australia. Here I was thinking our grocery bill including gardening was high at $90 per week including our gardening budget that we also count in our grocery budget as it supplies us food. Looks like I am far from needing to panic about our grocery expenditure :).

    Here is what we got up to and how we saved this week -

    Finances, bill & grocery savings & internet listings -
    - Listed 20 handmade and saved seed items on the internet using a free listing promotion saving $33 on usual listing fees.
    - Banked more money into our saving for our home deposit bringing us up to 24.92% of the way there.
    - Made and downloaded $14.29 from seed sales which I put into our pantry stocking budget.
    - DH earned $50 from doing a gardening job which he put into the home cash emergency kitty.
    - Saved $40 in power costs the last 2 quarters by only turning on our electric hot water system when water needed heating twice a week (we had an estimate bill last quarter) so only worked out the savings now.
    - The average monthly grocery spend of a family of 2 in Australia according to ASIC is $956 a month - what we spend including the gardening budget is $360 a month = a saving of $596 for the month of April.

    Gifts and blessings -
    - Received 1 bag of free lemons from a friend saving us $9.18 over purchasing them.

    Purchases -
    - Purchased 6 x new short sleeved white shirts for DH on clearance for $21 total saving $39 on usual prices. He will now be set up for a few years for going out and church shirts.
    - Bought 7 x pairs of new summer shorts and a pair of embroidered 3/4 jeans on 74% off normal prices clearance saving $145 on usual prices. Likewise I will now be set up for summer shorts and jeans for a few years. Had to buy more since I grew out of the others as finally I have put on some much needed weight :).

    Fuel savings -
    - Purchased fuel at a wholesale fuel outlet whilst out of town on a function saving $11.25 on usual price here in our country town. This made our trip free for a nice day out where we packed our own lunches and drinks and stopped at a lovely park on the way back.

    In the kitchen -
    - Cooked all meals and bread from scratch.
    - Juiced and zested previous bag of gifted lemons and saved the zest and juice for future meals etc in the freezer.
    - Made 5 jars of orange and lemon marmalade (1.682kg) from gifted lemons and discounted oranges purchased whilst shopping saving $22.41 over purchasing an equivalent no preservative brand of jam in the shops.

    In the gardens -
    - Harvested 4.5 bunches of silver beet and 6 cobs of corn from the gardens saving $22.95 over purchasing them.
    - Planted a 6mt row of broccoli, 2.4mt row of cauliflower, and a 6mt row of snow peas in the gardens.
    - Separated 26g of dried lavender we picked from the gardens saving $4.42 over purchasing it and picked some more lavender blossoms to dry in the home.
    - Out of saved seeds from our previous crops we planted a 12mt row of broad beans, and a 6mt row of early Massey pea seeds in the gardens saving $10.85 over purchasing them in the garden centre.

    Hoping everyone else has had a wonderfully frugal week last week and the week ahead.

    Sewingcreations15.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Isn't it crazy what the government says we should spend on food. I have looked at it many times and we are always lower then the thrifty plan. My amount includes more then food. It has toiletries, paper products and hygiene.

      It always amazes me how all the little things add up to large amounts. By you and your husband doing some side gigs and saving where you can you have so much more money now. Have a wonderful and frugal week.

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    2. Yes I think it is crazy what the government thinks we should spend that both of us and others don't either. Our grocery expenditure is also including toiletries, paper products and hygiene too.

      Does the USDA have that listed as more expenditure on top of groceries too ? , eek if it does. They must base their estimated grocery expenditure on buying everything at full price which we never do here.

      Having additional income coming in helps a great deal to save faster for our home.

      Sewingcreations15

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    3. I just looked it up based on March 2018 prices. My family on the thrifty plan should cost $728.90 for food only according to the government. I spent just under $400 for everything and still managed to stock up on some items. Maybe they should have housewives that live on a budget run the government for a while. Me might be able to get their budget in order.

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  3. The executive chef here was a genuinely nice person and never made us feel like we were just "business" for him. He was extremely competent and organized. Because of the natural beauty of the San Francisco venues, we were able to get away with very minimal decorations.

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    Replies
    1. Natural beauty is always better. I don't like gaudy.

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  4. You did well and yes you have a wonderful sister! I'll be out in the garden some more this week but you are a little ahead of me.

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    Replies
    1. I always tell her she is a great sister but an amazing Aunt. Have fun out in the garden.

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