My Frugal List: Week of May 21, 2018

Thanks to Deadpool 2 and Solo I worked 6 days straight. I usually work 2-3 days a week so this was a lot for me. I will be very happy when my check comes. I planned ahead for the week and had some quick dinners planned to make my life easier and to avoid takeout. There is no point in working all of these extra hours to then go blow my paycheck on eating out. The crock pot is one of my favorite tools so I used it. I also pulled out cooked items from the freezer. We had BBQ pulled pork sandwiches, pasta with meatballs, quesadillas, omelets, grilled chicken, and Hubby smoked chicken and ribs on Saturday. We ate very well.


I brought lunch, snacks and reusable water cup with me everyday. I had PB&J, hard boiled eggs, fruit, veggies, nuts and cheese. I need items that I could pick on though out the day. 


Breakfasts were bagels, souffles, pancakes, eggs and steal cut oats.

My main goal this week other then working lots was to get the big garden in. Thanks to help from my Hubby and the kids I did it. I finished planting my tomatoes. I have a 100 plants of 3 kinds. My pepper seedlings never grew, twice, so I bought some plants. Hubby was with me so we are trying some different kinds. We got red, yellow and purple bell(never did purple before). We got tabasco, those are new for us. We got jalapeno and hot house. I looked for cells that had extra plants so I did get a few extra without having to buy extra. I planted 18 pepper plants total. Cucumbers, and bush beans were also planted in the big garden. 


I also got most of my herbs planted. I cleaned out the ones that regrow every year(thyme and sage) and added some compost. I have a few more that need to get done so I will work on that this week. 


I did pick up strawberry plants. I have never done them before and my son wanted to try them. I put them in pots. If they grow I will have to find a permanent location for them. 

The little garden got tilled and compost, manure and lime were added and it was retilled. It is now ready to be planted. Hubby trimmed a tree of our neighbors that hangs over it too.  I will be planting zucchini, yellow squash, pole beans and more lettuce. I have some tomato plants leftover so I will be giving them to my church's outreach. They have a small garden that helps provide fresh veggies to people in need. They are always looking for free plants. I have given to them in the past. 


My son is keeping us well supplied with bread and baked goods. Now that he is done with school for the semester he is working more. He is always willing to cover needed shifts. They give you a free meal if you come in on short notice or stay late. He has gotten 3 free meals this week. He usually brings food with him so he just brings it home for the next day. 

I had took out some turkey bones that I had put in the freezer. I made dog food with the broth with zucchini, carrot and potato peelings. I made 3 containers which will get Oreo through the week.

I hung laundry outside 3 days and 1 inside. 

It rained 3 times this week so I didn't have to water the gardens those days.

YD had to give a science presentation at school. She received an award for her work. They had cookies and drinks so we snacked on those. She had to stay the whole time to see all of the presentations. Her dad and I left after she was done. He came straight from work and hadn't eaten yet. A friend of her's that is a year older offered to drive her home.  


I love this time of year because all of the birds and bunnies are out. We have a little bunny that has been hanging out in our front yard. The bunnies learn fast not to go in the back yard because of Oreo and Lip. 

I got some good sales this week. Several that I wanted were out so I made sure to get rain checks. I downloaded digital coupons and then made sure to add it to Ibotta. All of this helps me to keep our grocery budget down and keep a well stocked pantry. Here are 2 of the freebies I got last week. I never so no to free chocolate. I took it to work and shared it with my coworkers. We all needed a chocolate boost after a school of 150 kids left. My son drank the drink while he was mowing my neighbors lawn. It was hot out. 


We were able to bank over $900 to the college fund this week. Hubby gets paid every other week and that is when we put money in. 

The weather has been very nice, We haven't needed the heat or AC. The one day it was 85 we put on the fans and we were comfortable. 

We received several items from our neighbors that are moving to Florida. They are downsizing and don't want to bother doing a garage sale. They keep giving us stuff. We are only taking items that we can use or know of someone else that can use. After everyone else goes through the stuff, they said we can have what is left if we want to try and sell it. 



We did our usual stuff: paid bills on line, washed baggies, avoided food waste, ran only full loads of laundry and did it on the short cold cycle. 

What did you do to save money this week?





Comments

  1. I've bought pepper plants for the last several years as well. Also, I'm not sure where you're at, but here in MI strawberries are soooo easy to grow. The second year is when ours produce the best.

    Frugal things: I gave my husband a haircut. I also found his favorite brand of barbecue sauce on sale. With a coupon, each bottle was only $0.75! Also worked more on my garden this week.

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  2. We live in NY on Long Island. Have you grown them in pots? Should I find a spot to plant them in the ground?
    Our favorite sauce (Sweet Baby Rays) was on sale for 99¢ each but they only had one left. I got a rain check. I have a coupon $1 of 4. I'm hoping to get them while the coupon is still good.

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  3. Hi Mcoia and you did tremendously well banking $900 into the college fund that is a huge effort, we know ! from saving for our home. Good you had time to plant all of your garden out as well it saves so much money growing some food for ourselves.

    This week was mainly internet grocery shopping using discount e-vouchers and other vouchers we got in the mail and a little gardening.

    Financial and free eBay listings -
    - Saved a little more money into our house deposit account but we are still at the same percentage saved. This should increase this week though with our pays.
    - Listed 10 items on eBay using a free listing promotion saving $16.50 on usual listing fees.

    Purchases -
    - Purchased 2 x $350 E-Vouchers for $600 for groceries and used both saving $100 in grocery costs.
    - One we used for our 2 monthly grocery shop and turned that into an additional $24 savings by buying a 10kg bag of rice on 50% off special, 2 body washes on special and 8 tins of long life vegetables and meat.
    - The other E-Voucher I used on staples that never come on special to stock up our food storage on cocoa, white sugar, powdered milk, scouring sponges, metal scouring pads, tinned baked baked beans and tinned corn to a 12 month level. We also stocked up on tinned two fruits and tinned mangoes to bring us up to a 7 month level and butter up to a 4 month level. Still more to go but we are happy with our progress so far.
    - We also took advantage of another $15 off $100 purchase grocery voucher and I turned this into savings of $34.14 by buying 2 x probiotic tablets for DH on 50% off special.
    - Thursday is going to be a huge day of putting away $700 worth of groceries when the delivery driver arrives as we got free delivery included with the vouchers. This will be a test to see what and where we can store and stack things on our food storage shelves in our second small pantry room.

    In the gardens -
    - Harvested 25kg of sweet potatoes organically grown in the gardens saving $300 over purchasing organic varieties in the supermarkets.

    Other frugal things -
    - Saved shower warm up and dish rinsing water to water the newly planted seeds in the gardens, used saved grey water from our showers and washing machine to water the lawns all week, heated our home and boiled our kettle for cuppas on the slow combustion stove with free to us firewood sourced, cut and split by us from a friends property nearby, only turned on the electric hot water system when water needed heating, cleaned with saved flannel rags rather than using paper towels and homemade cleaning products.

    Lots more sweet potatoes to harvest today when we finish pulling up the rest of the plants and we will put them up on the veranda behind shade cloth to cure for a while.

    Sewingcreations15.

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    Replies
    1. That is wonderful that you were able to purchase the vouchers and get you pantry so well stocked. A years worth of stuff is so good to have on hand. You are ready for anything. I am trying to get are supplies to a six month supply. It takes a lot of patients to do it without blowing the grocery budget. Good luck on Thursday. I have never done $700 of groceries in one day. I hope you find places to put it all.

      It is great that you are still getting food from your gardens. My family loves sweet potatoes. Another item added to your pantry. Have a wonderful week.

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  4. You had a great week! I love it that you made so much good food to eat all week and didn't have to buy lunches or dinners out. I agree that it's not worth it to work extra just so you can pay for eating out!

    I'm going to be looking for pictures of your garden as it grows. I love to see how gardens grow in other parts of the country. It sounds like you have a really good start. At my old house, I used to have to grow 75-100 tomatoes plants to get enough to can, make sauce, etc. I like to do crushed tomatoes, whole tomatoes, tomato sauce, salsa, green tomato salsa verde, and tomato juice. Our soil was poor there, and the elevation was higher, so I needed lots of plants. Here, there is not room for that many, even if I wanted to have them, but they thankfully grow better at this lower elevation. I am trying an experiment with red plastic mulch to try to increase the yield. Last year, I wished I had more tomatoes, and got some from my sister's garden. So, I will see how it goes this year. I hope you get the amount you need, and more:)

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    Replies
    1. I will be posting lots of pictures of the garden as it grows. I have 6 jars of homemade sauce left. I hope that gets us to July when the tomatoes are ready. No matter how many I grow, it never seems enough. All these kids do is eat and eat. You know what I'm talking about. I hope we both have bumper crops this year and have to give away lots of excess.

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