Frugal Five- #15

-

 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- Meal Planning 

We have been a little relaxed on the meal planning and as a result, our eating out habit has returned.     This week I am determined to eat at home all week.    I inventoried what we had left over from last week, and built a meal plan around that.   This week's game plan- easy and simple meals.      


2- Strategizing Meals for the Weekend

We had another swim meet this weekend and it was over meal times, so we packed drinks, breakfast, and lunch again.     Since we need to get up so early and swim meets can be exhausting, we do not feel like cooking dinner when we get home.    This weekend, I planned ahead and gave my crock pot a workout.    I prepared the ingredients on Friday night for both Saturday and Sunday, then all I needed to do in the morning was dump & go.    Given how expensive eating out is, we saved quite a bit of money by doing this.     


3- Coffee at Home


Given out swim practice is at 6:30 AM, it is vital that I have my coffee.    However, Starbucks is still over $3.00 per Vente.   My solution is to bring my Yeti mug filled with hot coffee.   This mug will keep my coffee hot for over an hour in the cool morning air and I don’t have the expense of a Starbucks run.         


4- Unpacking more Boxes 

Instead of running out and buying more things, I just keep unpacking our moving boxes.    Although some days I don’t go through any boxes, most days I get through 1-3 boxes.   For example, my son is going on his annual camping trip and the movers didn’t label his camping gear.   He started to panic and wanted to buy more gear, but we continued to go through boxes until we found his backpack, sleeping bag, hammock, mess kit, flashlight, first aid kit, and more.  He is ready for his camping trip and we didn’t buy anything new.         


5- Use of a Drying Rack 

We had a drying rack from our previous home, but because of the HOA, we weren’t allowed to use it.    Well, NOT anymore.   We currently do not have an HOA and the drying rack is in full use this summer.  Swim towels get used more than once which reduces their wear and tear, laundry loads, and the expense of drying them in the dryer.    


Please leave a comment below with your ways of saving money this week.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Keeping Cool Without an AC- Part 5

-
Image
  The news is full of headlines indicating that energy shortages are on the horizon for most of the world. Over the decades, we have become reliant on the coolness of our air conditioners and have forgotten how we survived without them. It is now time to rediscover how to stay cool without our AC. Our 5 part series provides ideas on how to beat the heat this summer without the AC.     House Adjustments- Part 2 By placing house plants, such as English ivy, ficus, and spider plants, throughout your home, you can drop the overall temperature of your house by 10 degrees. In addition, house plants are air purifiers and add oxygen to your home.     For quick relief, create a personal mister to help drop the temperature of your skin: thus making you feel colder. Some people combine a spray bottle and a fan to create a cooling effect. However, I use just the spray bottle with cold water throughout the day and it keeps me cool. In addition, we use coo...
Read more

Frugal 5: #26

-
Image
  The Frugal Five: #26 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 live a frugal life.     ** Sorry for the lack of pictures. My week has been really busy and I just didn't get around to it. 1- Fall Garden Harvest    With the weather turning cold, we harvested the tomatoes that were left and made dice tomatoes out of them.   This will come in handy for making our taco soup and chili in the upcoming weeks.   In addition, we are able to add a few jalapeno peppers to the dishes.  Our dried mint was placed in containers for making tea this winter and fresh clippings were added to the drying rack.     Finally, our seeds are dried and ready for storage for next season.      It was a lot of work but worth it....
Read more

The Frugal Five: #88

-
Image
  The Frugal Five: #88 With inflation on the rise and salaries not increasing, our ability to make ends meet keeps going down.    Therefore, we must be more careful with our money.   The Frugal Five is a series where we celebrate the daily or weekly activities that help us live a frugal life.     This week I am exploring how to keep costs down during busy weeks.    Keeping dinner on the table instead of eating out is one of my strategies to get the job done.    Here are some of my tips and trips.    1- Free-Bee Pick Up  Over the last month, we have been blessed with several Free-Bees.  First, a friend gave us a dozen eggs from his chickens.  In addition, we picked up several photos with discount codes from Walgreens and CVS.   Next, we used our local grocery store coupons for several free food items such as seltzer water, ice cream, etc.   Then, we picked up toothpaste and eyeliners from ...
Read more