How was your week? I hope good! I am trying to get back into the habit of keeping a list of my frugal accomplishments. This works best when I just keep a small notepad sitting on my desk. Of course, I am too busy actually LIVING life to be spending time writing down everything that I do, but at least it helps me to jot down some of the things. And if for no other reason, it is an encouragement to me when I see this reminder of what I am doing to bless my family. Even small actions can really add up over time!
So—without further delay, here is what I wrote down for this past week:
*I used a free $5.00 off of a $5.00 purchase at JoAnn’s Fabric store. I was kinda wanting to use it towards a set of pillow cases to be embroidered. Well, the pre-stamped pillow cases were all $15, and this did not include the thread, just the set of pillow cases with a design stamped onto them. Also, because I would be using the $5.00 off coupon, I wasn’t able to use a second coupon with them. My daughter was with me, and she noticed that there was a package of a set of pillow cases I stamped for $8.00. I decided to purchase that package instead of the prestamped ones, and I can easily draw a design onto them to embroider myself. I have plenty of patterns, and a light box, so this is really no problem. Bonus: if I never get around to doing this project, I can still just use the pillow cases as—get this—pillow cases! :) Using the coupon, my final cost was $3.00 plus tax.
*I made my own granola. This is something that I do all the time, so I don’t think about it as something “special” that I did to save money. But if you ever look at prices of granola being sold in the stores, you quickly realize that it is MUCH less expensive to make it yourself! And even if you add in expensive ingredients such as dried fruit and nuts, you can at least make it according to your own dietary needs and desires. My granola is pretty basic, but it is a bit more expensive because I sweeten it with dates. Using brown sugar would be much cheaper, but my blood sugar likes the dates better, because they come along with fiber and the fiber helps keep blood sugar from spiking like it will from more refined sugar. Anyway, so I am happy to make my own granola, and can make it with the foods that I want to eat or that I want my family to eat. I have made many different recipes throughout the years, but the one that I am making in this season of life also has no added oil, as I have stopped using oils as well. So it is simply oats, almonds, bananas, dates, salt, and almond flavoring. That’s it. Again, I could make it less expensive with brown sugar instead of sweetening with bananas and dates, but I like the nutritional value from the fruit.
* I made my own curry powder. I was making a recipe this week, and discovered that I did not have enough curry powder to complete the recipe. Instead of running to the store, I looked up online and found a home made recipe for curry powder. It worked just fine, and now I have a stash of curry powder made up.
*My freezer challenge to continue using up stray foods hiding in my freezer resulted in this meal—a chickpea curry, served over brown rice. This is the recipe the above curry powder went into, along with two freezer bags of chopped tomatoes from our garden last summer. The recipe also called for coconut milk, and I did not have any but I used my home made soy milk and added in a teaspoon of coconut flavoring. It still had a very nice flavor, and a bonus for me was it was lower fat than coconut milk would have been.
*Also in my use up the freezer endeavors, I used up three cups of frozen black beans in what resulted in the above stir fry. The black beans are hiding in there, along with a yellow onion, garlic, yellow squash, and some colored bell peppers and kale that were hanging out in my fridge but had already been used in other previous recipes so these were in high danger of going to waste if not used soon. The stir fry was VERY yummy, if I do say so myself! I decided I need to do “use it up” stir fry more often! I filled most of my plate with the veggie mixture, and then added a bit of brown rice on the side.
*I took advantage of a benefit of my husband’s health insurance, and had a free to me phone consultation with a Ph.D. Nutritionist. I have talked with the same Nutritionist previously, but had not talked with her since May so it was very good to be able to report as to how things had gone since I talked with her last, as well as ask her my list of new questions. I really appreciate our health insurance doing some things like this, helping us to STAY healthy, and not just treating a person after they are sick. One of the pieces of advice the Nutritionist talked with me about was doubling my vegetable consumption. I am really good about eating fruit, and pretty good about whole grains as well, but while I LIKE vegetables, well, I just don’t eat so many of them. But now I am newly inspired, so am making a conscious effort in this direction.
*I found spices on clearance at our Aldi’s store for just .41 cents each. I guess these are ones that were just in for the Christmas holidays. Well, since my family likes to eat year round, not just during the Christmas season, I do end up cooking and using spices year round. I will store these in a large freezer zip bag in the freezer, so they will still be plenty fresh when I pull them out to use them.
*I found several Bibles in the “free bin” at a used book store. Two of the Bible’s were in poor condition, with some pages falling out of the cover lose, but three of the Bible’s were in really good shape and they were all a more modern translation—two of them were ESV, and one was NIV. I brought them home and we passed them on to a man at our church who collects Bibles and gives them to the homeless and other low income people who would like one but do not have a lot of resources to purchase one for themselves. We have already heard that one of the Bible’s was given out, to a person who was very happy to receive it. I am happy to be able to help in something like this!
*I bought a sweater for my daughter at a thrift store using part of our free Christmas gift certificate. The sweater was just $3.25, and lovely with a gold thread running through it. My daughter was not with me, and I did check the sweater to see if it was scratchy inside from the gold thread, as my daughter has very sensitive skin. I didn’t THINK it was scratchy, but sadly to her skin, it seemed to be. I was willing to donate the sweater back to the thrift store, but my daughter really loved it and wanted to wear it. Then I had the idea to have her layer a long john top underneath the sweater, and that did the trick! The long john top is soft, and covers almost everywhere that the sweater touches her skin, and she said that with most of the scratch taken away she could handle the small amount that was left of the sweater touching her skin. I was very happy that we found a way that she could wear it, and she really did need another sweater and she looks lovely in it.
*I saved my favorite for last—I was able to complete a set of Bible story books I have been collecting when I found the last two volumes (of the ten volume set) at our local thrift store for just .20 cents each! The picture above is from inside the front cover of one of the books—I just love this picture! and indeed, all of the pictures in this old set of Bible story books are lovely. I had previously found volumes 1-8 at this same thrift store—ALMOST the entire set, but not quite. I debated at that time whether I should buy it or not, if I would every be able to find the last two volumes to match it. I finally decided to go for it, and I am so glad now that I did! The first eight volumes I purchased probably a month ago, and somehow these two last books did not get put out at the same time as the rest of the set. I am just so happy that I found them, so now have a complete set of the books. And I truly appreciate whoever donated them to the thrift store in the first place.
So that was my week—throw in some homeschooling and house cleaning, and I was pretty busy! What was your week like? What ways did you find to save money and bless your family? I would love to hear about it!
~Susan
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