Soup

We have a lot of soup in the colder months. It helps warm us up, is filling, cheap to make and feeds us many meals. Oh soups also help use up those little food bits that no one is probably gonna eat. So that saves us money also. 

This week we had stuffed green pepper soup, recipe found here   So far we have gotten 1 family dinner and 1 family lunch out of the pot. There is enough left to give my hubby 3 lunches for work. Not to bad for 1 pot of soup.

5 Things I Did That Were Frugal This Week

1. Made a big pot of soup using leftover rice that I had stuck in the freezer so it would not go bad

2. Stayed out of the stores. No shopping of any kind for me this week

3. Kept the heat off! So far so good but it is suppose to get colder over the weekend so we will see.

4. I used my ads to ad match at Walmart. Kroger had a good price for Maxwell House coffee but I didn't need to go to Kroger so I used my ad at Walmart. Easy peasy :)

5. I discovered a cheaper alternative for an organizing project I am working on just by shopping around.

TGIF

I really get the whole TGIF saying now that I work outside my house 5 days a week. I am such a homebody that even working only 15 hours a week makes me miss having days where I can just stay home. So I really look forward to the weekends for this now, being able to stay home. Although this weekend will be busy, so I don't know how much I will actually be here lol :)

What are your plans for the weekend?

Food

I seem to spend a lot of time thinking about, planning and writing about our food. I believe this is one of the easiest ways to save money out of the budget. 

When I know what we have in our cabinets, refrigerator, and freezers, it makes it easier to create a plan. When I have plan it makes it easier to know what I need to be shopping for.

I do actually hate grocery shopping.That is one of the best things about having a plan that makes my life easier. If I know what I have and what I need to buy, I can spend less time in the act of buying :) 

Just some thought I had today. 

Rain Rain Go Away

I am not doing well with keeping up with my posting :( Hopefully I can remedy that in the next day or two! 

Woohoo it is Thursday! I am looking forward to the weekend.  I want to go through Kid #5's toys and see if there is anything I can get rid of and sell.  The Christmas shopping season I a almost upon us and I think I can sell a few things.

We have physical therapy today so that means an afternoon of driving and sitting. I need to make myself a iPad sleeve so that I feel more comfortable taking it places with me. Then I can get alittle work done while I am sitting and waiting.  Maybe I can get to that this weekend also :)

Well I am off to get ready for work. Hope you all have a great day!

To Do List

I am behind in getting things done and in my posting. I hope to get both caught up today.

On my to-do list today is

1. Make my hubby some lunches for the week

2. Make meat loaf for dinner.

3. Make stuffed green pepper soup to eat as a meal later this week

4. Laundry

5. If it is warm enough today work on staining a couple of Christmas presents I need to get finished.

6. Make some sort of snacks for us to eat this week

 

7. Get a package ready for mail

This is probably a good enough list for today. I'll be back later to post about my progress and a few other things :)

Present For My Nephew

My nephew turned 6 this week. Tomorrow is his birthday party. I wanted to make him something special. I also wanted it to be a frugal project and use up somethings I already had.  I decided to make him a felt car mat. I scoured Pinterest looking at all the different ideas there are to make them. I ended up using fabric glue and making the layout up as I went along.

Here is what I spent a few hours everyday this week working on and all day today finishing it up. I love how it turned out :)

5 Things I Did That Were Frugal This Week

1. I bought some materials for a present for my nephew and an order. Used coupons and only spent around $11 for both.

2. I sold a couple of items and made $8 for my Christmas fund

3. Ate our leftovers and repurposed a few into different meals.

4. Combined my driving so I didn't waste gas

5. Did a few organizing projects but used baskets, hooks etc that I already had

I Am Behind!

I am behind in my posts :( 

I am working on a time consuming project for my nephews birthday present, which I hope to have complete today . 

It is a frugal project costing me less the $10 to make so that is a plus :)

I'll be back later to catch up on my posting. 

Ugh!

I just realized I missed posting last night :( 

Yesterday was a pretty uneventful day.

I was suppose to sell something but that fell threw :(

I did make a stop at Kroger. I bought toilet paper, 3lbs of hamburger which was on sale and sour cream.  I spent $14.78 which brings my total for the month to $211.42. Not quite as good as last months budget but still under my $250 goal.

Good Day

I had a pretty good day today. 

We had 2 extra people for dinner tonight and I still managed to stick to the menu plan.

I sold a couple small items and made $8.

I worked on my nephews birthday present.

  

I did a little bit of cleaning.

Pretty good day :)

Manic Monday

Everyone is in an uproar at work over visits from the Heath inspectors. I guess we have a new inspector and some of the schools have been sited for things they have never even heard of. My specific school has yet to be inspected but I wish he would come soon just so we could move on and I would not have to hear about it. It is not making my work all that enjoyable.

I made a run to JoAnn Fabrics tonight to get some felt for a project I am making my nephew for his birthday. I also needed some material for a scarf order I have. I had a 50 % off one regular priced item coupon and a 20% entire order one also. Total spent was $11.33. I'll post pictures of both when I am done.

Nothing to exciting happening at home. We had chili and corn bread for dinner. I had a small amount of  taco soup left so I added it to the chili, it seemed like a good way to use it up.

Not to bad for a Monday I guess...

Slow Sunday

Today we just hung around the house. I did some laundry. I hung some of it on our drying racks but I also used the dryer. I did wash it all in cold water and used my homemade laundry soap. 

My hubby made some from scratch breakfast pockets to eat on his drive to work this week.

He also made some pumpkin ice cream and coffee ice cream in our ice cream maker.

I ran the dishwasher and have continued to use my homemade dishwasher soap. I have about used it all up though, which is good because I don't really like it :(

I also have worked today on cleaning up our downstairs spaces, family room, storage room and my mom cave. I hope to have a couple boxes to take to Goodwill by Wednesday. 

We had BBQ spare ribs, baked potatoes and spinach salad for dinner. I made the BBQ sauce.

All in all it was a nice slow day, but we got a lot accomplished. I love Sundays like that!

October Menu Plan

The one major thing that helped me cut my grocery budget in September was having a meal plan in place. When I first started meal planning I did it for just a week or two at a time and worked my way up. Now I find it easier to just plan the whole month at a time and do most of the shopping at the beginning of the month. As long as I have all the ingredients for my meals it doesn't always matter what day we have them on. My meal planning is flexible, which is nice if something comes up.

Here are our dinners for October:

1. BLT's, ( using free Tomatoes from my Mom, cut up fresh veggies ( brought home from work) and ranch dressing ( I make homemade)

2. Chicken Cacciatore( crock pot freezer meal), spaghetti noodles

3. Chicken patties, buns ( had in freezer), cut up veggies ( leftover from work)

4. Snack night

5. Dinner Out ( going to see Kid #5 for Homecoming)

6. Spare ribs (freezer), baked potatoes, green beans ( pantry)

7. Chili ( hamburger from freezer, home canned tomato juice from my sister, onion from pantry), corn bread ( eggs free from my sisters chickens, everything else from my pantry)

8. Chili dogs ( everything for this is leftover or from freezer), oven fries

9. Pork tacos ( pork roast from freezer ) tortillas - this is a new recipe from Pinterest

10. Breakfast Casserole ( eggs from sister, everything else from freezer and pantry)

11. Snack night

12. Leftovers

13. Meatloaf ( hamburger from freezer, everything else pantry), mashed potatoes, corn

14.  Stuffed Green Pepper Soup ( hamburger from freezer, everything else from pantry except green pepper, bought those)

15. Quasidillias ( cheese from freezer), refried beans ( pantry), salsa, sour cream 

16. Fiesta Lime Chicken, ( crockpot freezer meal) rice, broccoli and cheese ( pantry and freezer)

17. French Toast ( bread freezer, eggs free) sausage links ( freezer), syrup ( homemade)

18. Snack night

19. Leftovers

20. Whole roasted chicken ( freezer), roasted potatoes, green beans ( pantry)

21. Pizza soup ( all items are pantry and freezer items)

22. Skillet meal ( haven't decided which one)

23. Brown Sugar Honey Chicken ( crockpot freezer meal ) rice and broccoli ( pantry, freezer)

24. Tacos ( hamburger freezer)

25. Snack night

26. Leftovers

27. Chicken n Noodles ( leftover chicken, noodles homemade by my husband)

28. Leftover pizza soup, busciuts

29. Undecided skillet meal

30. Eggs ( free from sister) bacon, toast ( bread in freezer)

31. Spaghetti n meatballs ( pantry and freezer except noodles)

I tried to give everyone and idea on if I already had something on hand or not. I try to make meals using up thing I already have. Tomorrow I will tally the numbers and let you know how much I spent :)

Today I also sold a small item out of my garage earning $5. In my world every little bit counts!

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Homecoming Flowers

Today is Kid # 4's homecoming dance. I started making Kid #3's flowers for her several years ago. She always wanted something different, not your usual corsage. So it seems I am carrying on this tradition with Kid #4, even though he is a boy. Luckily his girlfriend liked the idea too :)

I posted a couple of times that I only spent $3.92 on a few supplies to make the flowers. I bought one roll of tulle and then the white rose for the boutineer. I used a 40% off mobile coupon at Hobby Lobby for the roll of tulle and then the rose was on sale 50% off.

Anyway, here they are. I love how the turned out :)

5 Things I Did That Were Frugal This Week

1. Made Kid # 4's homecoming flowers, spent $3.92 on supplies.

2. Ate our leftovers

3. Bought 2 Christmas presents. Had a great coupon and spent less then $5 on both.

4. Sold some items and made $20

5. Found a unopened gift we never used to repurpose to someone else who will love it!

I sold a few things and other random stuff....

The hardest part about writing everyday is coming up with good titles lol :)

I sold a small grocery bag of Kid # 5's outgrown clothes today, making $15. That brings my total for the week to $20 so far. I have a meeting set up tomorrow to sell two more items. Hopefully that works out.

I am setting aside this cash I am making selling items to add to our Christmas fund. Once we have finished paying for our gifts, I will then start adding it to the school tuition fund. If that should already be funded then ( I am setting aside my pay to do this with) I will have to reevaluate what is next on our list.

We did not end up following the menu plan this evening. We had a lot of leftovers in the frig so I declared it a leftover night. We emptied two containers and so far have not wasted any food.

I had some leftover garbanzo bean salad that we had at work last week and no one ate. I ran it through the food processor tonight with some sun dried tomatoes I picked up at Costco and turned it into Hummus. I love Hummus! We will have some of this tomorrow night for snack night.

The picture above is my new bag drying rack I picked up at a yard sale for a $1. Yes I know it is a baby bottle drying rack but I have no babies and I needed something to dry zip locks on. Works like a charm and folds up to store when not in use.

Well time to get back to homecoming flower making. Hope everyone had a good day :)

A Little of This, A Little of That

Today I listed a few more things on my local Facebook sites to sell. I have two items pending. Hopefully they both will sell by Friday.

We had Chicken Cacciatore for dinner. It was a crock pot freezer meal I had made up before school started. I really love having these crock pot meals made ahead of time. When I use up the last of them I plan to make some more.

Tonight I am working on Homecoming flowers for Saturday. I always made Kid # 3's. This time I am working on Kid #4's. The supplies cost me $3.92. I used a 40% mobile coupon at Hobby Lobby. I'll post some pictures when I get them finished.

I also cut a couple scarves. I am way behind in my orders and need to get these done ASAP.

Today I brought home some leftover sliced bananas from work. I plan to put these in the freezer ( need to get that done before bed) and use them in smoothies and banana bread. Yeah for free/cheap food!

Yesterday I got a fabulous deal on a by one get one deal at Target. This is the deal here. Yeah for cheap Christmas presents :)

I had to run to Kohl's this afternoon to pay my bill ( which I almost forgot about, bad me!). I had a 30% off coupon so while I was there I decided to check out the flip flops. I had heard that they were marked down to about $4 a pair and mine were all falling apart. I usually wear them for a few years at a time. Anyway, I got 3 pairs for a little over $9. I used my coupon and Kohl's charge and the paid the charge bill before I left the store. 

My day was good. How about yours?