The Frugal Five #4

 The Frugal Five

With inflation on the rise and our salaries not being able to keep up, it seems like we have taken a pay cut and must be more careful with our money.   The Frugal Five is a series where we celebrate our daily or weekly activities that help us to live a frugal life.    

1- Utilized Gas Apps 

Gas prices have been increasing daily and with the new restriction of purchasing Russian gas, I anticipate that prices will continue to rise to unprecedented levels.  Therefore, what things can we do to limit the impact on our lives?    When purchasing gas, I use various apps and reward programs to lower the ever-increasing gas prices.    GasBuddy tells me the gas prices in the area where I am located.   My experience has been good, but others have gone to specific stations based on the reported prices only to be disappointed.   In order to increase my success, I look at the last reported timestamp and only use prices that are less than 5 hours old.   In addition, I stack with BP’s rebate program to maximize my savings.   As a teacher, I receive an additional $0.15 off per gallon.  If a BP isn’t in the area or the price isn’t the best price after discounts, then I will look for a Kroger station and utilize my fuel points to lower my gas price.   I estimate that I save between $3.00 and $10.00 per week.   

2- Grocery Budget: Fruit by the Serving 

When I am shopping for our weekly fruit choices, I look at all of the fruit sales and usually low price fruits to see which fruit will provide us with the lowest price per serving.  For example, this week I picked up a 3 lb. bag of gala apples, which usually has 10 apples in it.   If the cost of the bag is $4.99, the price per serving is $0.50.  However, my son loves strawberries and they are on sale for $1.57 per lb.    One pound has 4 servings in it, thus the price per serving is $0.39.   Since the sale limit is 5, I picked up 5 lb.   Whatever we will not use this week, I’ll freeze for smoothies.    

3- Hygge: Add soft light to your life

Over the years I have accumulated a variety of candles and try to add them to my decor in order to produce a warm and cozy home environment.   The soft warm light softens any mood and is relaxing.     

4- Baking: Baked Potatoes

In order to have lunches prepared for the week, I took some time on Sunday to bake 5 potatoes for the week.   I then divided them into 5 dishes and added a little butter and cheese.    In a separate container, I added sour cream.    This is a quick, easy, and very economical way to prepare 5 lunches for the week.  Given that a bag of potatoes has a variety of sizes and therefore, I estimate that each 5 lb. of potatoes yields 10 lunches.   This week the 5 lb. bags of potatoes cost $3.99 thus after adding cheese and sour cream, the main part of my lunch comes in under $0.50 per day.    I just round it out with a little fruit of cut vegetables and my meal comes in under $1.00 per day.              

5- Traveling Hack

Our son has earned spots in various swim meets across our state and sometimes it requires that we stay overnight.   In order to keep costs down, we try to limit our eating out.  This time our budget hotel room didn’t come with breakfast but had complimentary coffee in the morning.   We brought our own travel coffee mugs to fill each morning and picked up yogurt, and fruit at the local grocery store for breakfast.  In addition, instead of eating out, we would pick up deli meat, cheese, and rolls for sandwiches or frozen meals for dinner.   This prevented us from a high meal cost.    

Do you have any frugal strategies to share?    

Please leave a comment below.