The Sweet Life On A Budget

  The Frugal Five: #67 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.     1- Garden Harvest Our garden is producing a lot of food at this point in time.   We needed to pick, preserve, and clean up our garden area every week.   This week we picked copious amounts of tomatoes for gravy and salsa.     My plan is to have enough tomatoes for the year.    I am counting the amount I put up this year and how much I use in order to plan for next year's garden.   In addition, I will be researching and planning out next year’s garden this winter.   I want to fix some of my errors and re-arrange my beds to maximize my harvest while keeping it looking neat and easy to pick.      2- Canning Gravy and Salsa   My husband and I were able to put up cans of gravy (XX) and salsa (X

  This year we were able to pick up 213 free items.  High inflation and the economy is making finding freebies more challenging.   However, I have set a goal to beat last year’s number (247). My goal for 2023 is to find 252 FREE Items, which works out to 21 freebies per month.    As always, I can secure these items through Kroger incentives, Drug Store (Walgreens/CVS)  Rewards programs, sales, Pinch Me, Smart Source, Meijer’s sales/store coupons, sample requests, and Rebates Programs (IBOTTA/SavingStar).    January (33 items)  February (43 items) March (22 items)  April 2023 (15 Items) May 2023 (24 Items) June 2023 (3 Items)  July 2023 ( 27 Items)  August 2023 (11 Items) Here is my September 2023 list of Free-Bees!   September (35 Items) 2 Crest Pro-Health Toothpaste (4.3 oz)- Walgreens Sale, Coupon,  Booster, ECB Crest Pro-Health Advance Toothpaste (3.5oz)- Walgreens Sale, Coupon, Booster, ECB 3 Old Spice Antiperspirant/Deodorant ( 2.6 oz)- Walgreens Sale,  Coupon, Booster, ECB, IBOT

  NOTE-  1- Click on the picture and get a link to a post sharing the recipe.  2- Although all prices were correct at the time of the blog postings, the current cost of preparation of these dishes may be higher due to inflation and/or location.         June USDA Low Food Plan According to this plan, our family would have a budget of $194.10 per week.  Given our health concerns, we struggle to maintain this budget, but I will try to make this happen.    Cost-Saving Tip of the Week:   Here is what we did this week to make our week easier:   Harvest Garden Vegetables  Canning Tomatoes (gravy and salsa) Menu Planning Pack lunches for the week Pre-cut vegetables Organize Crock Pot Meals Breakfast Options:  Granola Bars/Bites Yogurt Bagels Monday Hamburgers Fries Salad Tuesday Sandwich Night Salad Wednesday Shrimp Stir Fry Rice Thursday Chicken Wings Salad Friday Leftovers Saturday Pizza Salad Sunday Pasta Primavera Sausage Salad Bread M- Breakfast for Dinner T- Sandwich Night W- Pasta Th- M

The Frugal Five: #66 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.     1- Discount on Hair Care My salon is running a special on the purchase of gift cards.    For every $100 you spend, they add $20.    Since I get my hair colored on a regular basis and the price is going up on October 1st, it is important to take advantage of all the discounts.     In addition, I cut my husband’s hair which saves us about $35.00 twice a month.    It normally takes about 15 minutes and is well worth my time.        2- Discounts on Gas   With traveling to work, school, tutoring, and swimming, I need to fill up my tank with gas at least once a week.  I always check the gas prices along my natural route and use Gas Buddy to check prices.   Then I utilize the lowest price coupled with

  NOTE-  1- Click on the picture and get a link to a post sharing the recipe.  2- Although all prices were correct at the time of the blog postings, the current cost of preparation of these dishes may be higher due to inflation and/or location.         July USDA Thrifty Food Plan According to this plan, our family would have a budget of $184.90 per week.  Given our health concerns, we struggle to maintain this budget, but I will try to make this happen.    Cost-Saving Tip of the Week: There isn’t a lot of savings to be had at our local grocery store this week, so we are shopping our pantry, freezer, and refrigerator for the bulk of our groceries.   Then we will pick up only what we need this week with a few exceptions.   Here is what we did this week to make our week easier:   Canning Tomatoes (gravy and salsa) Hard-boiled eggs Pre-pack lunches Pre-cut Vegetables  Pre-cook Rice and Freeze Organize and layout weekly outfits Coordinate Schedule (swim practices, workload, family load, et