Skip to main content

The Frugal Five: #77

 The Frugal Five: #77


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- Reduced Prices are Good, but FREE is best! 


Walgreens has been on fire this month for picking up free items.    I have been able to get laundry rinse and refresh, oral care (toothpaste, mouthwash, floss, and toothbrush), makeup, crafting beads, charm, hand lotion, chapstick, photos, pepper, and beef broth.    Although Walgreens has been wonderful, other stores have also contributed to my stockpile.   I received store reward coupons from Bed and Body Works, Michaels, CVS, and Meijers.     For reduced prices, I use coupons, shop the reduced-priced items, and look at the sales each week.     The key is to only buy what you need or can use in the next year.   For example, the items I picked up from Bed and Body Works, and Michaels are next Christmas presents for my friends.       


2- Using Dried Beans


We have been using up the proteins from our freezer because the deal cycle hasn’t matched our being able to take advantage of the deals.     To keep our grocery budget down, we are stretching our protein of the week → ground beef, with beans and lentils.    The beans and lentils were already in our pantry, so we could do this at no additional cost.     We added both lentils and beans to our chili and enchiladas.    Since we used them in several dishes, we cooked our dried beans and used the entire pot.    


3- Reduced Price Pots  



My husband loves live plants and I enjoy a beautiful home.     Therefore, we invest in nice pots for our plants.     For example, we brought back a plant to remember our Hawaii vacation and replanted it in a wonderful black pot.    This week we found 2 pots that were significantly reduced at Krogers this week.   We currently do not have plants for them, but considering similar pots would cost a minimum of $25.00 at Lowes and got them for less than $5.00, we got a great bargain. 

     

4- Waste Not Want Not 


Each week Americans throw away a lot of food that they have already purchased.      I find this very wasteful, so I look at what is hanging out in my pantry, freezer, or refrigerator and on my counter to see what needs to be used up.   This week I found 4 very ripe bananas which my son will not eat as is, so I made banana chip muffins.  In addition, I found a variety of different raw vegetables that were not being eaten because they were not cut up, so I took a few minutes to cut them up.    The family ate them for snacks and took them with their lunches.   In addition, I added them to my dinners.        


5- Protein of the Week

Since we have not had great deals on the proteins we typically use, we have been hitting our freezer hard.   No worries, that is what it is for, but this week the sales are not exactly what we want, so we picked one protein that was on sale→ 80% ground beef, and used it as the centerpiece of our meals this week.   We made cowboy soup, chili, and beef enchiladas.   


What Free-bees have you been able to pick up this year?    My entire year is attached below.    


Here is my list: 

Do you want to see what we did last week?   

Just click on the picture for the link. 



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


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Menu Planning #132

Our meals need to be nutritious, clean, flexible, quick and cost effective. Between our work schedules and after school activities, we need to carefully plan our meals so that we do not end up ordering out.   The news is very scary at this time because of all the news of meat plants shutting down, grocery stories limiting the amount of meat a family can purchase and all of the talk about a depression on the horizon.    We have decided to keep our grocery budget the same, but to economize any way we can.     This week we tried to pick up some shrimp that was on sale, but the store was out of shrimp and not expecting to get any more in.    We were grateful to find wild caught salmon for the same price, so we picked that up instead for our Mother’s Day Dinner.    What did we spend?  Week 1: $96.44 Kroger: $96.44 Rebates: $3.55 IBOTTA: $1.35 Kroger Cash: $0.45 Checkout 51: $1.75 ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Menu Plan #322

  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 these dishes may be higher due to inflation and/or location.      Published September 2025:  USDA Thrifty Food Plan According to this plan, our family has a weekly budget of $190.50. Since  October has 5 weeks, our monthly budget is $952.50.   We elevate our dining experiences by including fresh fruits, vegetables, and higher-quality meats.  Since our family has specific dietary needs, we limit our consumption of highly processed food.   Grocery Shopping Tip:     Rethink lunchmeat.     The deli will provide you with thin-sliced meat or presliced deli meat, but you will pay a premium per pound.     ($6.49 to $15.00 per pound) However, if you buy a ½ boneless ham (unsliced or presliced), the price point will drop to between ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Fruit by the serving: Pineapple ($.06-$.19)

Fruit by the serving: Pineapple ($.06-$.19) Fruit by the serving is a concept that I first read about on Pennies & Pancakes several years ago. The concept is basically how much does each serving of fruit cost you. Apples or bananas may be ch eaper that a larger fruit such as cantaloupe or pineapples, but if you pick one up when it is on sale and cut it yourself, it may actually be cheaper per serving that the apple or banana.   In addition, it will give you a wider variety of food. Furthermore, if you have children who would not eat an entire banana or apple, it may be beneficial to purchase the smaller sized fruit. Pineapple Selection: A lot of pineapples we see in the states are mainly green.  When you find a pineapple with a golden color to the majority of it, there is a good sign that the pineapple will be sweet and delicious.  As with all fruit, check for busing. If a piece of fruit is bruised in the transportation process then ...
Post a Comment
Read more