Sunday, March 1, 2015

Frugal Accomplishments This Week and Accountability For My Struggles

I had a long exhausting week, and I suspect this next week will be even longer. Fortunately, filled with good things, but that doesn't make it any less exhausting. Because of that, I feel my list of frugal accomplishments is shorter than usual...


And, because of that, I got super backed up on laundry. I used my dryer a few times, and had to rewash laundry that was left in the machine... I think once or twice.
And I think I used a grand total of 6 cloth diapers. But that's 6 more than none, so especially in light of the fact that I was sooo behind in laundry and swamped, I'd say that's something to be proud of.
Now as for food waste... Well, as much as I tried to revamp leftovers as much as possible to ensure no food waste... Because of being busy, I ended up missing some stuff in the back of my fridge, so some produce spoiled, including some oranges, a tomato, and a few beets...

So, here's what I did to save money this week:



Frugal Shopping
Bought clothes from the thrift store.
Got my nextdirect packages and iherb orders.
Bought some clothes for me from the thrift store.
Bought some cheap party goods from the scratch and dent store for a party I'm making.
Bought chocolate cheaply in bulk, as well as bulk coffee and bulk tea.
Bought buckwheat in bulk, cheaply, after hunting around for a decent price.
Stocked up on large amounts of chickpeas on sale.
Bought fennel, potatoes, carrots, apples, bananas from the reduced rack.
Stocked up on cheap flax seeds to use as a cheap egg replacer.
Bought a bunch of turkey bones cheaply.

Free Things
Got a bunch of hand me down girl clothes for Rose, from two different people.

Foraging
Foraged plantain.
Foraged mullein.

Frugal Bath and Body
Made a callendula, plantain, and baking soda bath for an eczema like allergic reaction one kid had. It seemed to help.
Gave the boys haircuts with my haircutting machine.

Frugal in the Kitchen
From Scratch Cooking
Made homemade pizza.
Made homemade vegan cheese sauce.
Ground my own flours.
Made homemade cookies.
Made rendered chicken fat and cracklings.
Made homemade apple butter.
Made homemade chocolate cake.
Frugal Recipes
Made shakes for breakfast.
Made koshari- an Egyptian lentil and rice based dish.
Made polenta porridge for breakfast.
Made turkey bone broth, and then deboned it to use the meat in other recipes.
Used deboned turkey to make fried rice and a shepherd's pie type dish.
Revamped Leftovers
Made rice and quinoa porridge for breakfast one day, then the next day revamped it, adding green buckwheat, and making it into porridge.
Turned leftover koshari sauce into shakshouka.
Turned leftover shakshouka sauce into tomato sauce for pizza.
Turned leftover rice pilaf into fried rice.
Revamped leftover rice into rice pudding.

What did you do to save money this past week?

5 comments:

  1. I was away from home all last week for work-related training at the Training Academy, located 6hrs away from my house. So, hubby was left to fend for our son and himself all week..I left my house early Sunday morning because I had to work an 8 hr shift prior to driving 6 hours to the Academy. Didn't return home till 5pm Friday afternoon...it's Sunday here and I am now working 3rd shift for the next 7 days..it's been over 5 months since I worked 3rd shift (not since Orientation) :/ I did get all my laundry done from my trip using the homemade laundry detergent that I'd made a new batch of a few weeks ago.

    Got several magazines free in the mail via subscriptions provided by Recyclebank. :)

    Ate most meals, breakfast & lunch at the training Academy..lodging there was free as well. My travel partner/co-worker went with me as well, to break up the monotony, we would go out to a local pub each night for a drink & appetizers during Happy Hour when appetizers were half-off. Also got to drive a State vehicle down and back and gas was also provided (filled up at the Training Academy fuel pump).

    So...that's about it...Have a great week Penny!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I was gonna say about forgetting laundry in the machine, maybe you can set your alarm ( I use my pelephone alarm) and set it for when the laundry should be finished. you'll hear the alarm and you can even have your kids help take out the laundry, and hang it up. really amazing though on your other works at home and savings!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. my husband uses the delay timer on the washing machine to time the load to end right before he gets home, so he walks right into the house and switches the load immediately.

      Delete
  3. How long do you have to leave your laundry before it needs to be rewashed? I ask because in my washing machine, laundry would used to go "off" pretty fast--but when I had to sanitize it (don't ask!), that stopped happening so fast. Most machines have a reservoir of water in them, and my theory is that that water gets contaminated over time. We sanitized ours by running an empty 95 degree load, and using a product we can get here to sanintize the wash. (It goes in the rinse cycle like fabric softener would). I may have even had to use a cup of bleach. Also, it rains here pretty much constantly, so I tend to hang things indoors, especially in winter. But limited space means I do laundry nearly daily, and I often run it on half a cycle in the dryer to speed the drying and cut down on humidity in the house. But I tend to remember the laundry is there because I am in the habit of constantly doing it a little at a time.

    ReplyDelete
  4. When I leave my laundry for too long, sometimes I can just rinse it and not rewash the whole load if the smell isn't too strong. Thanks penny for your blog, I read it every day and have implemented many of your frugal ideas!

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for leaving a comment on your blog. Comments are moderated- please be patient to allow time for them to go through. Opposing opinions are permitted, discussion and disagreements are encouraged, but nasty comments for the sole purpose of being nasty without constructive criticisms will be deleted.
Just a note- I take my privacy seriously, and comments giving away my location or religion are automatically deleted too.