Sunday, April 20, 2014

Frugal Accomplishments This Week



This past week's frugal accomplishments, in many ways, are more in that I specifically did NOT do things, less that I did things. Meaning, I had many opportunities to spend money, lots of temptations... but I was very good and specifically did not spend money. Mike and the kids were all on spring break, everyone home... we did NOT go on expensive outings with the family, but instead chose to stay home, and entertain our relatives at our house, going to the park together, etc...
I'm still trying to take it relatively easy...

Here's what I did this week:

Got 5 aloe plants from a neighbor who was working on their garden. Transplanted a few, made some into gel which we used to deal with diaper rashes and other skin issues, and froze some.

Got attacked by mosquitoes so made a concentrated foraged rosemary tea which we rubbed on our skin to keep them away.

I had a lot of some stuff in the house, but didn't have many other things I really wanted to use. For example, we had a bunch of oranges, but no other fruit in the house. I went to the local store to buy fruit and some other stuff, but the prices were super expensive, so I bought just a few fruit, instead of a lot, and went home. I was planning on going to the farmer's market another day in the week, hoping I'd be able to find what I was looking for cheaper than it was in the local store, but instead I stayed home, and we simply made do with what we had in the house, adjusted recipes as needed, and dealt with it.

I made almond milk, and then took the pulp, blended it with water, and made more watery almond milk out of that... and blended that pulp with even more water, making more almond milk, so in the end, I ended up reusing the pulp 3 times and getting as much almond milk out of my almonds as possible.

I took the almond pulp left from my almond milk, and experimented with making an almond pulp carrot cake. It didn't come out so great- the texture was a bit off- but we ate it anyhow.

I made homemade quinoa flour, something I'd never done before, because it involved washing and dehydrating the quinoa before grinding it.

I needed to figure out how to make grain free cookies, and made them with coconut instead of the other alternatives available, since coconut is the cheapest grain free cookie base I have.

I made a pot roast using the cheapest meat I can get, and it came out terrific.

Foraged rosemary for a stew.

I reused leftovers- took roasted eggplant that wasn't such a hit, and added it to my stew, where it was eaten up.

Made homemade strawberry jam (non refined sugar only) with strawberries I bought dirt cheap a few weeks ago and froze.

Made homemade pizza for the family, gluten free and xanthan gum free, using homemade tomato sauce and homemade vegan cheese sauce.

I served leftovers again and again until they got eaten up- this has been a zero waste food week.

What did you do to save money this week?

2 comments:

  1. We ate at home as much as possible.
    Got my oil changed in my car free as it came with the purchase of the extended warranty-necessary as I drive many miles to work one way 4 days a week. Have one more Free oil change left on the plan.
    Cancelled HuluPlus as I can watch my shows FREE with OnDemand (Didn't know why I didn't figure this out sooner)
    Got my hair cut for free by my Mom who also cut my sons
    Bought 10 dozen eggs which were on sale for 0.99 at Target--gave 5 dozen to my Mom
    Downloaded a free eBook for my Kindle
    Watched my TV shows free online--Glee, Chasing Maria Menounos
    Received a free magazine in the mail--Ladies Home Journal, which was free using Recyclebank points
    Earned points at Recyclebank.com for free magazine subscriptions(InStyle and Allure)
    Read my favorite frugal blog (besides this one of course ;) )The Prudent Homemaker for inspiration
    Prepared our garden area for planting in the near future
    Accepted free pasta from my Mom, who got it from her friend who volunteers at a local pantry where the workers get to keep the extras after the food is all passed out (they don't store anything)

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  2. I've been holding off on buying the kidlet a push-cart (to help him walk) because this coming Saturday there will be a giant flea market in the park, so I'm hoping to find him something there, but also because I discovered that if I lower the back of his umbrella stroller all the way, he can hold onto that. (Plus, a stroller is infinitely handier than a little push-cart.)

    We are back to cloth diapering again; we went with disposables for a long (4 day) trip because there was no way to do laundry there. Let's just say that, after being socked with having to buy diapers again, even my husband is on board with cloth!

    Rather than buy kidlet a toy kitchen set, I went to the thrift store and bought him some real pots and pans (very small) and wooden kitchen utensils. Total cost was 3 euros. I also managed to find an almost-new coffee machine to replace our broken one--2.50 euros.

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