My Frugal List Week of January 7, 2109

It is a new year so I want to try to get everything organized. I have been going through everything in the kitchen. It will take time to get through the whole house, so I started where I spend a lot of time. Do you have a junk drawer? We do. It is where everything seems to get tossed. I cleaned that sucker out. It looks amazing. I don't know how 6 pairs of scissors ended up there but it explains why I can never find a pair.  I know it won't last long but I am so happy with it right now.


Then I cleaned out the cabinet underneath it. It holds my oils, vinegars and such. This one was pretty easy. I did several other cabinets throughout the week. It is easy to just do one cabinet at a time. I am very happy with my progress. Lots of stuff was donated. 


My ice machine stopped working. It is no longer under warranty. It had been replaced while it still was covered and it has always had problems. The one time the workman came, he made a mess, made me empty my fridge and the problem was back a few months later. Hubby has fixed it several times. He showed me how to do it so I do it now. This is the before picture.


We can leave it off and the ice just won't melt. I use the blow dryer on low with 2 rags stuffed inside. I let it melt that way. I don't let it get to hot because I don't want to melt the plastic. It will be good for a few months now. It is working great again. I have refilled my ice bags back up for the next time it happens. 


I made YD another loaf of GF bread. It is so easy to make in the bread machine and she loves it. 


I made a batch of pinto beans in the crock pot. I am trying to be more proactive and make the beans from dry beans. I have canned beans but I will save them for emergencies.


I used the pinto beans for tacos one night and chili another. I froze the rest into 2 cup portions. I also froze 3 meals worth of chili. I have to hide it from Hubby because he loves it. He had it for 2 lunches and 2 dinners in a row and then had chili dogs. I stretch the recipe out with double the beans. It makes it much cheaper per meal that way and no one notices the extra beans. 


I made a chick pea salad this week. YD loves to have it for lunch. It is so fast and easy to make.


While I was folding laundry I noticed a few old wash rags. I cut them up and made them into rags. The design went into the garbage. 


I received a gift card for Christmas to Shop Rite. I used some of it this week. I only bought what we needed or sale items. I used coupons and Ibotta too. There is still money left for this week.


I made more juice this week. The pulp turned into apple cakes that Hubby took to work. 


The cores became apple cinnamon syrup. Hubby had told his boss about it so he brought him the larger bottle for him to try. 


I went out with 2 of my old co-workers. We went to Cheesecake Factory. I had several gift cards for there so it worked out great. I used one of my gift cards. I only had to leave a tip. I brought home all of the leftovers including the bread from the bread bowl. They throw it out otherwise. My son and I had the leftovers for lunch the next day. 

I have been trying to do Swagbucks everyday. The points are really adding up fast. I should be able to cash out a $25 GC by the end of the month. 

I met a group of friends at Panera for breakfast. We have been doing this for about 10 years now. Not everyone makes it every month which is fine. It is a nice low cost way to get together without someone having to host everyone. I got my free bagel and drink as my breakfast. I had $1 off a souffle on my card so I let my friend that was getting one use it since I don't buy them. I also had a free coffee on my card so I gave that to another friend. 

Hubby went for his physical and blood work. Everything came back good. 

Library registration opened this week. You sign up online. I got a few classes and I am wait listed for a few. A few friends signed up with me so they should be fun. 


What did you do this week that was frugal?





Comments

  1. You're doing a great job cleaning out drawers and cabinets! I've been on a tear doing that this week as well, and it's such a relief to have everything in order and know exactly what I have and where it's located. I don't have a junk drawer, but I do have a small three-drawer set of Sterilite drawers that I bought when I worked at JoAnn's years ago. The corner was cracked, and I had an employee discount, so I got it for less than $2, but it's where we keep all our pens and pencils and other various office supplies. I cleaned that thing out this summer and discovered we'll never need to buy pens and pencils ever again!

    I used my crockpot to cook beans for years, and then I'd freeze them in freezer bags and take the bags out to thaw in the morning when I'd want to cook them for dinner. I cook them in my Instant Pot these days, which cuts down on a step or two, but I'm like you, I almost never have to resort to canned beans these days. Saves money and less waste. :)

    How cool that you're able to use your bread machine to make gluten free bread for your daughter! I bet it tastes a lot better than the store-bought kind as well. :)

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    Replies
    1. I think it is that time of year where we all want to clean the house out. YD is loving the homemade bread. She said it is better then the few store bought ones she has tried.

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  2. Hi Mcoia and glad you were able to spend some time with friends for a low cost get together. The organising the house must be in the air as DH and I did a stocktake of the food storage room and pantries and I restocked the kitchen pantry from the storage room. We just dumped everything in there when we moved in and I didn't stock it the way I usually do through being tired.

    Our Vicky challenge added up to $1275.69 in savings last week :).

    Blessings -
    - Our neighbour who was overrun with cherry tomatoes, cucumbers and Chinese egg plant and beans gave us around 5 kg of tomatoes, around a kilo of cucumbers, 500 g of string beans and about 500 g of Chinese
    eggplant. We blanched and froze most of it in meal sized portions and washed the tomatoes and froze them whole. She also had some whiting fillets and cod as her family and boyfriend like fishing but she doesn't eat a lot of fish so she kindly gave us about .5kg of each and said she will bring us more from her family when she visits them. What a lovely neighbour she is too :).

    Finances & Purchases -
    - DH earned $20 from a mowing job he did which we will save to buy some more whipper snipper cord with.
    - I paid all of our home loan fees and charges and extra part payments too paying off 1.66% off the capital of the home loan.
    - We purchased 8 pairs of jeans for $9 per pair delivered, 12 pr of underwear on special for 0.75c ea including delivery from Kmart along with a 70 cm fan saving $181.89 over buying them locally in the shops. Jeans are getting horrendously high in prices here ranging for $19 - $40 per pair :o and we only want to use some for gardening and work clothing and some for good wear.

    Repurposing, making things, house repairs and maintenance -
    - I saved a glove from a worn out pair then promptly lost one in the yard while working. The saved one made a pair. Later DH found it on the ride on lawn mower :) .
    - DH made a coat and hat rack out of a 1.39mt piece of Merbau decking and varnish we had and coat hooks we purchased for a good price saving $40.42 over buying an equivalent sized one in the hardware store.
    - DH fixed 2 leaks in outdoor pipes and taps by buying $40 worth of fittings and using electrical tape and screwing a tap fitting tighter saving us $160 + parts over calling a plumber to do it for us.
    - We fixed one of the shed doors that wasn't shutting due to ground swelling from the previous owners running the grey water into the sullage pit. We took the door off, cut it down shorter, cut a nitch in it so it closed around the pipe coming out the door and painted the hinge area that had no paint and the bottom of the door (with paint we had) and rehung it with new screws we had as the others were falling out. This saved us $135 over hiring a handyman to do this for us.
    - We purchased sullage hose, connectors and a sprinkler to link the grey water to a sprinkler to water the lawns and fruit and berry trees with it. This saved us $80 over getting a plumber in to do it for us.
    - We filled in huge dog dig holes from the previous tenants in the shed by chipping the dirt with hoes, picks and shovels and levelling it with our levelling tool saving us another $360 over hiring a handyman to do it for us. Still a little more to do this week.

    In the kitchen -
    - Made a double batch of white sauce mix we also use for making homemade chocolate pudding from food storage saving $93.02 over purchasing the premade powder in the shops.
    - Cooked a double batch of chocolate brownies from premade brownie mix saving $66.18 over purchasing them by the slice in local cafe's.

    Hoping everyone had an equally good week :).


    Sewingcreations15 (Lorna).

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    Replies
    1. You had a very busy and frugal week. I can't wait to watch your house being paid off the way I watched you save for the deposit. You are amazing.

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