Frugal Friday- October 26. 2018

Frugal Friday is back! I hear a lot about doing a no spend week--- month---year. Oh my. That seems really difficult to do. So instead, I am trying to make small changes that will make a large difference in our lives.

Let's get cracking with some new tips and tricks to living frugally and saving some money.

  1. Brew your own coffee. I know it is the elixir of life and I would never dream of going without, but at the price of $2.10 per grande at Starbucks, I think there is a better way.

I have been fortunate enough to catch a sale on my favorite brew at $5.99 for 12 ounces at my local grocery store. Since it takes 1/2 ounce of coffee to make an entire pot of coffee, the price comes to $.25 per pot. I can get 4 large cups of coffee from each pot of coffee. Wow even with a bit of milk, the price per cup of coffee doesn't reach $.30 per cup. This gives you a saving of $1.80 per cup of coffee each morning or $657.00 per year.

Brew Station

2. Menu Plan It is said that, "if you fail to plan, you plan to fail." Nothing can be more true than with your dinner planning. Just imagine: It's late. Your tired. You are not sure what to cook. So what do you do? That's right- You order take out. Oh my...

The cost of take out can be $20.00 - $40.00. However, if you have planned for the tough week nights, you have it covered. Whether it be a crock pot meal, frozen pizza or freezer meal. There will be no ordering out tonight with a savings of $20-$40.00. If you order out 1 time per week, this will save you a conservative $1,040.00 per year.

Halloween Spending:

Halloween is coming up and this small holiday can pack a punch to the wallet if your not careful. Halloween candy can run from $4.00- $15.00 per bag regular price. Wow! I know we go through a lot of candy each year. That doesn't even include the costumes, decorations, etc. So what can we do?


First of all, determine how much you can spend on Halloween? Our budget is $20.00 this year. Now if you don't have $20.00 then adjust down and cut out some things.

3. Candy
Now handing out candy is not required to participate in Halloween, but we enjoy it. So if your handing out candy, determine the amount of candy you will give out.

Halloween candy can be very expensive, but if you are patient and watchful, it can be affordable. I collect all of the coupons that are printable or in the paper for the Halloween season and then I wait for a good sale(s). CVS and Kroger had the best sales this year. I was able to get 10 bags (11 oz size) of candy for under $1.00 each. With these sales, coupons and money back on your next purchase, I was able to stay in my $10.00 candy budget.

4. Decorating: Having a nice home and enjoying being within your space is important for peace and happiness. I have a bin of decorations that we have collected over the years from garage sales, after holiday sales, and thrift stores, so I get them out and we have a great time putting on music and decorating the house. I also hit the dollar store to see if there is anything that I can pick up to add to my collection, but I limit it to 5 things.

New Dollar Tree Addition

3 Pumpkins from Dollar Tree last year and Bowl from Collection

5. Movies: One of our family's traditions is to watch Halloween movies for the entire month of October. We have collected a variety of different movies over the years at a discount. Since our son is a pre-teen, the really scary movies are still put away, but age appropriate Halloween movies (Hotel Transylvania series is his favorite), old scary movies and Svengoolie picks on Me TV are great and affordable. In addition to our movie collection and free TV, we go to the library to supplement our selections during the season. This makes for fun evenings with pop corn, blankets and lots of jumps and laughter.

Bonus Tip: My child doesn't like to go trick or treating any more, so the costume purchase doesn't need to happen this year. However, we have a bin of Halloween costumes from years past that we can select from and just purchase a few accessories to add a new twist to a classic look. If we really want a new look, we go to Pintrest and create a new costume. Our budget is $5.00, but this year, we didn't use it. If your child is into trick or treating and you're on a very tight budget, the whole family can walk around the neighborhood trick or treating and visiting with neighbors.