Frugal Friday! Week of February 10-16, 2019

Hi Frugal Friends!

How was your week? Mine was good! We had a lot of rain, but we also had some days of sunshine which I enjoyed very much! If the weatherman is correct, we are heading into a solid week of more rain this week, so we need to enjoy those sunny days whenever we can!

On to my frugal week:

*We started our week with a trip to Kohl’s, specifically looking for clothes on clearance. With it being February, I knew that this is the time of year that the stores are clearancing out their warm winter clothes, and bringing in bikinis, even though it is still freezing cold outside! So I wanted to go and see if I could find anything either for my daughter—who is growing out of her clothes as she shoots up in height, or myself—who has shrunk out of my clothes as I have lost weight over the past
two years. We were not disappointed! It was a great time to shop, with lots of sweaters and such on the sales racks. I found three nice flannel shirts for my daughter for $7.20 each, normally $38.00, and then was most surprised to find her a pair of jean capris for $4.80, normally $30.00! Not sure why the capris were on the clearance rack, but they might have been left from last summer. Either way, we were sure happy to find them! I also found a pair of lighter color summer jeans for myself for $12.00, normally $30.00, and a short sleeve aqua colored top for me for $14.00, normally $50.00.  My clothes were not as inexpensive as I found for my daughter, but I did need them and both my hubby and my daughter insisted that I needed to get the top, as they both liked the way it looked on me. So it FELT like a splurge, but it is definitely helping to build up my summer clothes once more. I did have a 15% off coupon, which brought the price of the clothes down just a bit more, AND I was able to earn $10 in Kohl’s cash to spend next week, so that felt like an extra discount as well.

*I am continuing to try and use up things from my freezers. I had a large container of brown rice all
cooked up, so decided to attack that package this week. I considered using it in a stir fry, but finally decided I was really feeling more like Breakfast Rice Pudding instead! So that is what I did! 😋 My daughter and I LOVE LOVE LOVE this recipe, which I will link to in just a bit.  First you put the cooked brown rice, chopped dates, and spices in your pan, along with your plant milk.

Then while it is starting to cook, I prepped the ingredients that get added in after the rice cooks. That would be the raisins, the chopped Granny Smith apple, and the chopped almonds for sprinkling on top.

After around 10 minutes or a bit longer, the rice has simmered long enough and has thickened. As you will see from the recipe, you are starting with rice that is already cooked, NOT with dry rice. It will look something like this:

And after you have it all piled in your bowl, with the raisins and chopped apples and almonds added, it looks like a breakfast fit for a King, like this: 

If you are interested in making yourself some Breakfast Rice Pudding, you can find the recipe here:

Brown Rice Breakfast Pudding

One change I make, is since I do not usually have cinnamon sticks in my kitchen, I simply put in 1/2 tsp. of cinnamon instead.

*For Valentine's Day, my sweet hubby gave me an azalea plant. Any plant with roots on it is frugal, because you can plant it outside--or inside, if it is a house plant--and enjoy it for years to come! 

I "had" planned on enjoying my new flower in the house for a bit, and then moving it to the garden.  However, my cat Pumpkin had thoughts of "SALAD!" when he discovered the azalea, so plans to plant it outside needed to happen immediately instead.  I placed cardboard around the base of the plant, which I brought home from the grocery store in the form of a box that I cut up, and then covered the cardboard with mulch. This will both keep the weeds down around the plant, as well as help keep the moisture in the ground so it can bloom and grow.

*Our occasional warm day has spurred me onto thinking about garden. I took some time to sort out all my leftover seed packets from previous years, and collected them all in one basket.  I have quite a few!  But most of them are quite old. . . I decided to test them, and planted some of them under my shop lights in my basement.  Since I expected their germination to be less than if they were fresh, I put quite a big pinch of seeds in each container.  Well, I am having wonderful results!  Now I will need to work on thinning the little seedlings!  I hate to throw them away, so will probably separate many of them and pot them up individually once they are large enough.

*I took my receipt back to Aldi's, when I realized at home that I had been charged for organic raspberries ($3.99!) when I had instead purchased the non-organic raspberries ($1.99).  We had already eaten the raspberries when I looked at my receipt and discovered the error.  I had picked up berries right literally above the signage for the $1.99 price, but I checked the packaging and no where did the package say "Organic" on it.  So I thought it was worth a try!  The clerk who helped me at the store when I took my receipt back was very kind, and immediately said they must have placed the organic raspberries in the wrong place on the shelf, and then the clerk refunded the entire amount of my two raspberry purchases.  I had expected to be charged for the regular raspberries, but instead I ended up being given them for free, so I was so appreciative!

Well, that was my week!  What did YOU do to save money and bless your family?  I would love to hear about it!

~Susan