1. I made overnight French Toast.
I was cleaning out my freezer and found a bag of slightly dry honey-glazed pan rolls.
So, I used them to make a pan of the Pioneer Woman’s overnight French toast for a slightly special Valentine’s Day breakfast.
No one complained. 😉 And I saved some bread that would not otherwise have been eaten.
I used Bees Wrap (which I got in my Mighty Fix one month) to cover the pan as it sat in the fridge overnight. I can never get that stuff to cling to my pans very well, especially in the winter, so I just used a rubber band to secure it over the pan.
2. I made a Valentine card for Mr. FG.
The cards I make are never anything very fancy, but they get the job done. And I always think what you write in the card is more important than the card itself.
We wrote notes to our kids too, to tuck into their Valentine candy. We just type those up in Microsoft Word, pick a font that matches each kid’s personality, and print them out.
(Our kids would much rather have us spend money on more chocolate than on a fancy card. 😉 )
3. I spray painted my menu board.
I hadn’t properly seasoned it when I first made it, so we were having shadowing issues.
Luckily, we got a warm day, so I took the glass out of the frame and gave it a couple of fresh coats of chalkboard paint.
I seasoned it this time, so hopefully we won’t run into problems in the future.
Time will tell!
By the way, here’s how I made my chalkboards out of ugly Goodwill paintings.
4. I decided to compost some bananas.
I know that sounds not frugal…but as I was cleaning out my freezer, I found 4-5 bananas of dubious age. Since I didn’t know how long they’d been in the freezer, I thought they would taste freezer burnt (they were in my fridge freezer, which self-defrosts).
So, instead of making banana muffins and taking the risk of wasting other perfectly good ingredients, I decided to compost them.
And I vowed to do a better job of keeping track of my bananas.
5. I….
made chicken broth, made rice pudding with cooked rice from the freezer, froze some slightly squishy grapes and berries for use in smoothies, and revived wilty lettuce by soaking it in cold water.
How about you? Share your own Five Frugal Things in the comments.
Stephanie L
Thursday 16th of February 2017
Since I'm largely dependent on rideshare services I compare lyft and Uber prices when I need to get somewhere. Yesterday morning the combination of waiting until after rush hour and comparing prices saved me $19.
We were worried my illness was progressing unusually quickly – turns out I was simply not eating or drinking enough! That's very easy and frugal to fix – more so than testing and medication.
I have a girls weekend with my sister, and her military discount saves us a ton of cash.
Despite being insanely busy my husband has been cooking more. God bless.
Kristen
Thursday 16th of February 2017
I am so glad that you were able to feel better by fixing eating and drinking. Yay!!
Jenelle
Thursday 16th of February 2017
These past two weeks have been an up and down roller coaster for us financially, so I feel like one week I may have splurged and now this week I'm pinching every penny I can. It is very odd to know that my frugal mindset keeps me thinking about "every thing I do" and asking myself if it is frugal or not. At some times I feel as though I over think it and drive myself crazy, but I know, in the end, that I'm saving us money. So here are my frugal wins and fails of the past week or so.
I'll start with my frugal fails first: 1. Spent about $16 for myself and two kids to go to the local museum on Saturday. Our 2 year old is free, so I only had to pay for myself and the 4 year old. Yes, I did spend the money but the kids had a blast and we really needed something different to do on a Saturday morning. It was nice to get out on a cold winter day. Here is the frugal part of it: I learned that our local library has museum passes that you can check out for the week, so if we decide to go again, we will check out the passes from the library. I just love our little library!
2. That same day I decided that we would go to a restaurant that we never go to because I had a BOGO coupon. Though I did pay a bit more than what I had expected to pay for fast food, I came home with another meal for myself.
3. Still on that same day (oh boy, that wasn't the best day) I went into an outlet store (now, this is a true outlet...not a brand name retail store) and got my son a John Deere shirt (which he wears almost every day) as well as two shirts on clearance for my daughter. I needed warmer socks (because we are keeping the heater lower in our house) so I found some on clearance as well. I spent 19.99 for all. Again, not great.
Ok, onto what went GREAT this week.
1. Valentine's Day was celebrated by the kids and I dipping Oreo's in white chocolate and covering them in sprinkles (all ingredients we already had) for daddy as well as using cards that I had in my stash. The kids had a valentine's day party at daycare and again, we used cards that I already had. Last year I purchased some kids cards when they were super cheap after the holiday. And I made the decision NOT to send a treat (lollipop, etc.) with the cards. I donated juice boxes to their class party and decided that was enough. The majority of those treats that came home with my kids, were stuff that I'm not interested in them eating.
2. My mother sent the kids cards in the mail and sent along with their cards some leftover valentine's that she had laying around her house. So my stash is stocked!
3. The BEST BEST BEST frugal thing to talk about is the fact that my raise (2 years waiting for it to happen) will finally take effect in our pay tomorrow! It's not much, but it is a bit more each month.
4. I submitted paperwork to my student loan holder to be considered for their Public Servant Loan Forgiveness program. I work for a state university and if I am accepted, I will have all of my loans forgiven (and my monthly payment cut by 60%) in 10 years. Pray for me!
Julia
Thursday 16th of February 2017
Museums rock! We finally got a yearly membership to save money. We get into the museum for free AND the planetarium! I wish our library had admissions to check out. What a neat concept!! I think you did well at the outlet, 3 new shirts and warm socks for $20!!!
Stephanie L
Thursday 16th of February 2017
It's all in the eye of the beholder,but I would not categorize the museum fee as a frugal fail. Quality, educational entertainment and time together is a worthy investment in my book.
Kristen
Thursday 16th of February 2017
A raise is a super duper wonderful thing! Yay!
Julia
Thursday 16th of February 2017
1. Valentine's dinner was inexpensive Italian take out fromlocal mom and pop restaurant rather than going out for an expensive meal. 2. Excepted the gift of my parents 2003 Toyota with very low mileage rather than replacing one of our two higher mileage cars with a new car with monthly payments!!!! 3. Made meal plan, shopped grocery sales, cooked meals 4. Packed lunches. 5 bought cheap belt at thrift store for the leather. Son needs leather "strop" to sharpen whittling knife. Belt was 1/2 off, $2!!!!
Kristen
Thursday 16th of February 2017
Yay for a free car!!
Suzan
Thursday 16th of February 2017
Because my dietitian has me on the FODMAP diet I am having to cook every meal. My food expense has increased while my dining out costs have dropped. The weather has cooled so the air conditioners are having a little break. We have been running the main system at 28 centigrade as well. That feels significantly cooler than the outdoors temp. I am planning a trip to Costco and will be taking a list in hand. My haircut will happen at the same time. We have run out of bottled water. Every guest who visits is offered water and I know there are cheaper ways of doing this but this is my choice for now. The family have been drinking from reusable containers.
Good luck everyone.
Kristen
Thursday 16th of February 2017
I can imagine how hard the FODMAP is!
HeatherLiz
Wednesday 15th of February 2017
I love reading these lists! Here are my 5 things:
1) Did NOT celebrate Valentine's Day with my husband this year. Neither of us are very fond of the holiday and we try to express love to each other throughout the year. However, we had a nice dinner at home with our son and my mother, and shared some chocolate cake.
2) My mother brought over the cake. ;)
3) Continued eating cooked oatmeal with cinnamon frozen blueberries from the freezer each morning. It's healthy and very frugal. I picked the berries last summer.
4) I've been taking lentils and rice for lunch--very healthy and frugal! However, there have been so many snacks around work that one lunch lasted me for three days.
5) I'm trying to remember to turn off my battery operated wireless mouse when not in use! This will save battery life. A small thing, but the small things are important.