Hi Everyone!
How has your week been??? I hope well! I am trying to get back into the habit of writing down the frugal things that I do, and at the start of the week I was feeling like I wasn't doing ANYTHING to save money! I wasn't purchasing clothing on sale prices, or any of the same types of things that I did last week. But then as I really spent a bit of time thinking about things, truly you are saving MORE when you are NOT spending, if you know what I mean! Anyway, then ideas started coming to me and I realized that I was doing more to save than I was giving myself credit for! Yes, some of it ended up being purchases that I made, but more times there were simply things that I did at home. Here are a few of the things from this week:
*I made home made soy milk from soy beans. I have been making my own soy milk for years, and have gone through different methods to do so. At one point I even had a soy milk maker--an appliance that heated the soy beans up, ground them, and strained the pulp for me and all I had to do was wait for it to be finished! I used that for a long time, but it didn't make a whole lot at one time and I finally started following a recipe I found in a cookbook where you just cooked your beans on the stove top and then blended them and strained them through a thin cloth. So I did that for a long time--that recipe had you add in a bit of salt, some vanilla, and a little honey. It tasted good, but I still hated throwing out the pulp from the soy beans. I know some people would cook and make something with the soy bean pulp, but I never knew how to use it up. FINALLY, I am now on the "lazy way" method! ;) And I LOVE making my soy milk this way!!! Now, I have a Vita Mix blender which is pretty high powered. I didn't have a blender this good previously when I was blending and then straining the pulp out. But I have one now, so one day I wondered if I didn't strain the milk, but it was blended up really good, would I be able to tell the difference? Nope! So now, I cook my soy beans in my Instant Pot for 45 minutes, then blend them with water in my Vita Mix. That's it! I do not add in anything, and I do not take out anything either. Now--I WILL say that I am only using my soy milk on my breakfast cereal. I do not drink it as a glass of "milk," nor does anything in my family do this. If that is what you are doing with your soy milk, I would advise that you stay with the more commercially made soy milks, because they have the sugar and such added to it to really make it taste good as a beverage. But for us, this method works just fine. I purchase my soy beans in a large package at an Indian grocery store. The above package in the picture cost me around $4.00 I believe, and it lasts me quite a while. I only use approximately 1/3rd cup of dry beans to make milk that fills the pitcher you can see next to the beans.
*I zested the orange peels of oranges we were eating. This zest I left on the counter to dry for a day or two, and will save it to use in our home made soaps along with some orange essential oil. I just love citrus scents, so this soap is one of my favorite scents that I have made. I can also use some of the dried orange zest in my baking, as I love to put some in my home made sweet rolls along with walnuts!
*I picked up two bags of 50 pound oats that I ordered through a local co-op last week. I LOVE these thick rolled oats! They give an extra chewy texture to my home made granola, and are slightly less processed than smaller oats. The less processed the oats (or any other foods) are, the better they are for good blood sugar control, so I try and use as large of an oat flake that I can for whatever I am making with it. Ordering these through the co-op, I can actually get it cheaper per pound of oats than I can at Aldi's. And since I have a basement, I do have the storage space to store oats purchased in bulk. I also ordered a 25 pound bag of steel cut oats, which is what my daughter and I eat most breakfasts.
*I ordered three pairs of wool socks using coupons. At full price, these were $10 each pair. But by the time the coupons were all applied, I paid around $4.00 for $30.00 worth of socks!
Well, that is what I wrote down this past week. :) What did YOU do to save money and bless your family? Please share, as I love to learn new ideas!
~Susan
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