Monday, August 11, 2014

Frugal Accomplishments This Week


I have to say I'm proud of myself this week. This summer heat and lack of sleep (for various reasons) is getting to me, and its hard for me to be inspired to be frugal instead of super lazy, but even so, I pushed myself and all in all, we had a great week that barely cost us a cent. So that was pretty terrific.
Another perk is my husband figured out a way to change the settings on our washing machine so it uses less electricity, and consequently, our last electric bill was lower, just because of the times he did the wash. So now that he taught me the trick, hopefully our next month's electric bill will be even lower.
And despite the heat, we've barely used the AC, and even don't even use the fan most of the time, so that was certainly frugal.

Here's what we did to save money this past week.


Sunday-
Cooked up some unripe cantaloupe.
Made homemade curry powder.

Monday-
Made some homemade sports drink.
Made a lentil risotto for lunch with an onion that needed to be used up ASAP.
Broke/ground up himalayan pink salt block (will be posting about this in the future).
Made homemade gluten free vegan flat bread.
Made lentils for supper.

Tuesday-
Made veggie scrap soup.
Used leftover lentils, cauliflower leaves, soft tomatoes, scrap soup, and water from steaming veggies to make a lentil veggie soup.
Made homemade gluten free vegan rolls (recipe to be posted shortly).
Knew I'd have to give a bottle to the baby that day, so I prepared by pumping in advance so I wouldn't have to give formula.

Wednesday-
Made homemade gluten free vegan rolls.
Went on a trip with the kids, and made sandwiches with the rolls, and leftover homemade hummus, plus carrot sticks to bring along with us so we wouldn't have to pay for food while out.
Used free bus transfers and walking to keep transportation cost down.
I ran out of the house without bringing water bottles accidentally... and wanted to buy, so stopped in a drug store, and they were selling packs of 6 for 10 cents more than 2 bottles would cost if bought individually, so bought a 6 pack.
Took the kids to four different fun activities (which were also educational), and they were all free. And the kids had such a good time, saying it was the best trip ever, despite the fact that there was no outlay other than a few dollars bus fare for transportation. Some of the places were historic places in the city, so I prepared in advance by researching on the internet the history of those places, so I can be my kids' tour guide.
We did run out of food while out, and I didn't want to have to spend a lot on unhealthy junk, so we used our bus transfer to stop quickly at the farmer's market and picked up some cheap fruit from the reduced rack stand to eat on the way home. And the owner threw in some veggies as well. Total outlay on 3 bags of produce- $3.

Thursday-
Took another trip with the kids today to the city, and also brought along food- homemade popcorn and leftover flat breads, so no need to buy things while out.
Made leftover supreme for supper- started off with a frozen soup base made from tomato and jerky broth, threw in some frozen cooked kidney beans, some cheaply bought frozen green beans, some corn which I'd bought at the past prime stall at the farmer's market and froze because I couldn't use it immediately, and a handful of noodles, making a super easy, frugal minestrone type meal.
Made homemade jaggery syrup.
Mended a sock with a hole in it.

Friday-
Made homemade all purpose gluten free flour mix.
Made homemade gluten free vegan pancakes for breakfast, sweetened with cheap homemade jaggery syrup instead of expensive maple syrup.
Boiled up some goulash meat (cheap) and sliced it up to use in a stir fry instead of more expensive, quicker cooking meats.
Made stir fry with the goulash meat, reduced rack zucchinis, reduced rack carrots, foraged lambsquarters, and homemade terriyaki sauce.
Made a seaweed soup made with the beef broth from boiling the goulash meat, and a whole bunch of random seaweed that a neighbor gave me.
Made gluten free vegan biscotti, refined sugar free, with the homemade jaggery syrup.
Made homemade ground vanilla.
The kids foraged some rosemary and some olive leaves for tea, as well as passion fruit.

Saturday-
Served leftover rice with what was left of an open can of tomato paste, and eggs for supper.
Got a free beautiful headband for Anneliese that would otherwise have been thrown out.

What did you do to save money this week?


3 comments:

  1. Really impressive! I'm going to try the ground vanilla as soon as I have some vanilla beans to grind; it sounds so good. I was on my own for most of the week, so just ate the odds and ends in the fridge. This made for a bizarre, yet cheap, diet.

    Otherwise, didn't go shopping. Hooray for me.

    Any frugal/healthy tips for insomnia?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Looks good. Can you post the vegan gf biscotti recipe please? And if you can include alternative for jaggery.
    Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Your frugal posts are always so inspiring! It is wonderful to read of truly frugal living. Any advice you can pass along for the setting change on a washing machine? I am in the U.S.

    ReplyDelete

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