When you all responded to my survey, lots of you said you enjoy Five Frugal Things posts. So, I just wanted to give a hat tip to my friend Katy at The Non-Consumer Advocate, since her blog is where I got the idea in the first place. Katy posts almost nothing other than Five Frugal Things, so you’d probably enjoy her blog if you are not already a reader.
1. I mashed and froze my cooked sweet potatoes
I’d baked them all in the crock pot (perfect for summer!) and since there were more than I wanted to eat as-is, I mashed them, dumped them in 1-cup clumps on a baking sheet, and frozen them.
Once they were frozen, I removed them to a re-used ziploc freezer bag for storage.
Now they’ll be easy to access for baking recipes.
(Why yes, this method IS quite similar to the way I individually freeze peaches!)
2. I made muffins with some of my sweet potatoes
I haven’t done much baking with sweet potatoes, aside from subbing them for pumpkin in this chocolate chip muffin recipe.
So I did some googling and I kept coming across nothing but healthy sweet potato muffin recipes.
And I was not in the mood for that.
I did not want:
- flax seeds
- sorghum molasses
- vegan
- gluten-free
I just wanted a regular, run-of-the-mill coffee-shop style muffin! With sugar! And white flour!
If I want to be healthy, I will just eat a sweet potato topped with a fried egg; I won’t be eating a muffin. 😉
Anyway. I found this recipe from SugarDishMe and it is really, really good.
And I realized after finding the recipe that it’s by Heather Tullos, who works at Mediavine, and who I met at Fincon last year. Even better. 🙂
10/10, would recommend this recipe. I plan on using every single one of my frozen sweet potato chunks to make more of these muffins.
3. I froze a pan of bread cubes
That sounds a little weird, I know.
I had a bunch of bread odds and ends in my kitchen, though, and I didn’t really want to make French toast or French toast casserole that day.
So I cut the bread up into cubes, dumped them into a greased Pyrex dish, and froze them.
That way when I do want to make French toast casserole, I’ll just grab the pan of cubes from the freezer and proceed with the recipe.
(I use Pioneer Woman’s overnight French toast casserole recipe.)
4. I ordered an old (vintage?) waffle maker
My girls have been asking if we could make waffles like my mom does, with the small holes (as opposed to Belgian waffles).
These waffles are too Belgian, apparently. 😉
A waffle maker that makes thin waffles is surprisingly hard to find! I did locate a new Black and Decker model like my mom’s, but it was $55 and reviews were poor.
As with many household items, the newer versions seem to be made more cheaply.
So I hopped on over to eBay and found an actual old waffle maker that is identical to my mom’s for $39. Even with shipping, the price came in under the $55 price for the new one.
Thin waffles, here we come!
5. I….
- shipped two more books that sold on eBay
- redeemed some points I found in my Sixth Continent account*
- bought clearanced organic body wash
- scanned my grocery receipts with Fetch
*This is the most up to date post I have on Sixth Continent. They’ve been kinda inconsistent on delivering gift cards, but I figure there’s no harm in redeeming points I already have. That’s no-risk!
Your turn! Share your five frugal things in the comments.
And it’s just fine if you don’t have five. Share however many you want.
Alison
Saturday 8th of August 2020
1. Currently spending the weekend at my parents’ cottage as a little staycation with our kiddos. We bought a few little treats at the grocery store (why does cottage time always make us want junk food?!) but kept it reasonable. :) Before we left, I made 2 loaves of homemade bread, a batch of pizza dough for homemade calzones, and a batch of loaded oatmeal cookies to bring. The rest of the food is from our regular groceries. 2. I sold a set of metal wall art that doesn’t suit our new house, and was just sitting in the basement after our move. When the buyer arrived, she asked if I would sell a pair of large plant pots that we sitting outside (unused). I had already realized I was unlikely to use them, so I sold those too! 3. I had planned to have a new portrait of my children professionally framed, and then realized I had a lovely frame that would suit perfectly. Using what I already have, and saving a ton of money! 4. My dad planted a garden at the cottage, and has been welcoming us to help ourselves. Last week we picked lots of beets and green bell peppers, and today I’ll pick tons of zucchini and more peppers! :) 5. I’ve been scouring sales and shopping around for unadvertised markdowns at the grocery stores, in order to stock our freezer and pantry. It helps me so much to avoid takeout when we have plenty of staple foods (and a few healthy/inexpensive convenience foods) on hand for when we’re tired/hot/busy. (Recently stocked up on things like salt-free canned beans, frozen salmon burgers, and packages of ground chicken.) 6. We’ve been using our library as much as possible. My kids have been listening to lots of audiobooks through a streaming service our library offers, signing out lots of books, and we borrowed Mary Poppins on DVD for last night’s movie/pizza night.
AW
Friday 7th of August 2020
This week is kind of the anti frugal week, youngest needs 3 pairs of new dance shoes (different types of dance classes) and I just got a rolling cart for all the school stuff this year since at best half the year will be home (A/B hybrid schedules) and in all likelihood we'll have chunks of time fully remote learning. But we still had some frugal moments... 1. Just got notification that two more library books are ready for pickup 2. Got the mailing label to send off my middle kiddo's Nintendo remotes to be fixed for free 3. Emailed a company because sunscreen damaged my youngest's sunglasses and they replaced the lenses for free 4. Made blueberry bread out of some blueberries that were past their prime 5. Went camping for several days which is a great option for frugal family time.
Alicia
Wednesday 5th of August 2020
1) I was laid off in March due to Covid. I recently started a temp to perm job and a temp job. Doing both to help make up for lost wages while unemployed. 2) Bought 3 pounds of onions for $1.00. 3) Bringing my lunch to work. 4) Ordered a pressure canner with free shipping and no tax. 5) Brought goodies to work that I already had ready in my pantry.
Corrine Wilson
Tuesday 4th of August 2020
1. I picked up 2 bags of rice and frozen veggie burgers from Buy Nothing 2. Made blueberry muffins using mushy blueberries, found chicken thighs for 1/2 off at Aldi's, and made sun-dried tomatoes using a bunch of cherry tomatoes from our garden 3. Switched internet to my husband's name, which gave him a new customer rate. This saved us $30 per month and the promotional deal gives us faster internet! 4. While trying to be frugal, we went to a used uniform sale at our son's new school. Uniforms shirts are $5 at the same compared to $18 online. Unfortunately they did not have any in his size. But, the website that sells the embroidered uniform shirts is having a sale right now, so at least there's that. Uniforms are not cheap! 5. We went camping this weekend, which is such cheap and fun entertainment!
lisa
Tuesday 4th of August 2020
It's been an interesting week for frugality. I'm not sure if some of the below things that happened were good or disappointing, but it just happened that way. Here we go:
1) We had booked a family vacation back in January and had it scheduled for August. With Covid happening, the airline cancelled our tickets and we cancelled the lodging and car. Got refunds. 2) Due to the above, DH wanted a local trip for a couple days. I inquired about lodging and asked questions to those that would accommodate us. I got a reply that the lodging isn't available anymore. Couldn't spend anything if we wanted...... 3)DH went to the rental shop to get equipment to fix the yard for a few hours. He ended up not renting anything due to price, so no money went out for that either. 4)The youngest has classes that will be online this coming semester and all he asked for was some notebooks and pens. I spent a total of $2 for 4 notebooks and 12 pens. 5) I had earned gift cards thru swagbucks and then got one as a gift. I spent them all on a video game for youngest son's birthday and some money was left over..