Frugal 5: #20

 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 live a frugal life.    

1- Meal Planning  

I have a teenage boy who eats an excessive amount of food and has dietary restrictions, so meal planning is a MUST.  With a super busy schedule this summer, it is important that our meals are easy to prepare or can be prepared ahead of time.    In order to keep our budget as low as possible, we cook from scratch and eat at home as much as possible.   This week has been extremely busy and jammed-packed with activities and with little time to prepare dinner, I set aside a few hours on Sunday for meal prep.   This made all the difference in the world and kept us from eating out this week.  

2- Homemade Croutons

I made homemade bread last week and had some leftovers at the end of the week.   So, I cut it up and made croutons out of it.    This is a trick I learned from working at high-end restaurants over the years.    The restaurants would put all of the leftover bread in a bin and then make croutons with it.     It was easy, cost-effective, and delicious.   This prevented the bread from molding and I had a delicious treat on top of my salads.       

3- Cut My Husband’s Hair  

Haircuts are getting very expensive, around $25.00 + Tip.   Our solution is that we picked up a new razor guard and I am learning to cut his hair in the garage.    Each week it gets easier.  Although the rest of the family goes to a hairdresser, we do save about $60.00 a month. 

     

4- Walgreen’s paper deal   

Two weeks ago, I picked up free toothpaste at Walgreens and earned a $4.00 Register Reward.   Unfortunately, it was about to expire and with the new rules, I hadn’t used it for my other deals.    Therefore, this week they continue to have Scott Toilet Paper and Paper Towels for $5.00 a pack and a store coupon for $1.25 off each.   In addition, I found a digital $1.00 coupon for the toilet paper.   Therefore, I picked up a pack of each and used all of the discounts.   The final price was just $2.50 for both.  

5- Meat Markdowns

While at the grocery store this week, I needed to pick up some ground beef for dinner, so I place a pound in my cart.   I was shocked that a pound of ground beef cost $7.00.  Unfortunately, it was the lowest price and when I check, they didn’t have any ground beef marked down.     However, as I was leaving the meat department, a meat cutter brought out several pounds of ground beef marked down to $2.00 a pound.    I quickly followed him and selected 4 pounds of meat to add to my cart.   As I picked up the discounted meat, I put the $7.00/lb beef back in the case.     It increased my bill by $1.00 but I had 3 additional pounds of ground beef to use in the future.   As soon as I got home, 3 pounds went into the freezer and I used the final pound for dinner.    

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