Skip to main content

The Frugal Five: #23

 The Frugal Five: #23

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- Birthday Free-Bees   

Each year during my birthday month, several apps provide me with Free-Bees to celebrate my birthday.       Starbuck’s provided me with a drink of my choice and size for free.  In addition, when I purchase coffee at Starbuck, I earn stars which can be redeemed for free beverages.    In addition, Krispy Kreme gave me a dozen of free donuts for my birthday.    It was great to celebrate my birthday with two of my favorite stores.    


2- Packed Lunches Daily  


Last week started school for both my son and me, so I needed to carefully plan our weeks.    I selected easy meals for dinner and prepacked everyones’ lunches the night before, so there were no excuses for eating out.    Two weeks down and a lot more to go…. 


3- Shopped the Refrigerator/Panty


Two weeks ago we picked up a lot of fruits and vegetables that we didn’t finish eating.  So, for the past two weeks, we shopped the refrigerator first and then made more careful selections of perishable foods.    In addition, we attempted to center the vegetable portion of our dinners around what needed to be used up.   Finally, if we didn’t have a solid plan for these items, we used our freezer to prevent waste.    Unfortunately, we did have some waste.      


4- Kicked the Vending Machine to the Curb


My husband was hitting the vending machines at work for about $10 a week, so we decided to pick up a few items that were on sale to eliminate that expense.    Bottles of Diet Coke were on sale 4 (6 packs) for $12.00.  Considering that he was paying about $2.00 per soda, we picked up 2 cases and he took a case to work.   In addition, he took a bag of almonds and a box of crackers to snack on.    Since he doesn’t drink a soda every day and the other snacks are fairly cheap, this investment will last at least until November.   That expense is gone.    


5-Homemade Snacks

I have a teenager that eats a lot on a regular basis.    He loves sweets and requests typically a large number of sweet snacks.     For the last two weeks, I made jello and cupcakes and picked up a few on-sale snacks to have on hand.   In addition, I portioned out these items so it would be easier to eat a few.   By portioning them out and placing the extra sale items downstairs, we stretched how long the purchased snacks would last.   


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


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Black Bean and Corn Salad--> $0.44 per Serving

  Black Bean and Corn Salad This recipe comes from Pennies & Pancakes.   Unfortunately, this blog is no longer active, so I am not sure how much longer we will have access to her recipes.    Here is the link:   Black Bean and Corn Salad.   Therefore, I am repeating her recipe below, because it is just that good.  Makes 7 Cups  Ingredients:  2 15 oz. cans low-sodium black beans (drained and rinsed) 1 15 oz. can sweet whole kernel corn (drained and rinsed) 1 red bell pepper (diced) 1/3 cup red onion (finely diced) 2 scallions (finely diced) 2 cloves garlic (minced) 1/3 cup diced cilantro 2 Tbsp. lime juice (Or the juice of 2 limes) 1 tsp salt *opt. 1 small jalepeno (minced) Directions:  Open and rinse both the black beans and the whole-kernel corn.   Then place them into a bowl.  Next, cut up the pepper and onion.   Add it to the bowl.  Finely chop the cilantro and scallions,  and mince the garlic to add t...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Frugal Five: #49

  The Frugal Five: #49 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 the daily or weekly activities that help us live a frugal life.     .          1- Haircut Savings Since haircuts are $30 per cut plus tip, each time my husband asks me to cut his hair, I am happy to.    This is a huge saving!   He gets his hair cut every other week, so on average, we save $60 per month on just his haircuts.    2- Beverages from Home  Each day I make coffee and take a travel mug with me to work.   In addition, I make homemade tea to pack for my lunch.    Since Starbucks’ coffee prices have gone up, my daily savings for my daily coffee has increased to about $5.75 per day.    In addition, sodas at work run about $2.00 per...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Frugal Five: #46

  The Frugal Five: #46 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 the daily or weekly activities that help us live a frugal life.     This week I focused on garden frugal ideas and savings.  Gardens take a lot of work and can take a chunk of cash.   Let's see how we can keep the price down and get the same results.          1- Free Seeds  How can we get free seeds and when do we start planting for the spring?   Previously, I was able to pick up seeds from my local library through a seed-sharing program.   However, since we moved, my local library doesn’t participate in this type of program.     Therefore, I looked for other opportunities to secure free seeds.   I found the Free Seed Project.  Through this ...
Post a Comment
Read more