The Sweet Life On A Budget

  The Frugal Five: #84 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- Freezer Meal Preparing Session  This week I had a few days off, so I took some time to organize my freezers and prepare freezer meals for the next month.   Unfortunately, I have small freezers, so I can not prepare more crockpot meals, but you do what you can when you have the resources (time and money).     Hopefully, preparing some freezer meals will help us resist eating out.   Pro-Tip→    Shop your sales and prepare simple meals that your family loves.    One of our favorite crockpot

  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 location.      February USDA Low Food Plan According to this plan, our family would have a budget of $185.50 per week, which increased since December 2023 (184.30).  I know it is not a lot, but this is the thrifty plan, and every penny counts. Given our health concerns, it is a struggle for us to maintain this budget, but I will try to make this happen.      Here is what we did this week to make our week easier:   Breakfast Options:  Yogurt Avocado Toast Cereal Lunch Options: Grilled Chicken Salad Fruit Homemade Lunchables Monday Steak Salad Tuesday Pasta Sausage Salad Wednesday Chicken Parmesan Broccoli Salad Thursday Gyros Salad Friday Coconut Shrimp Roasted Potatoes Salad Saturday Korean Beef Kabobs Macaroni and Cheese Salad Sunday Salmon Spinach Cakes R

  The Frugal Five: #83 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- Treat Yourself for Free or Cheap Keeping to a budget is hard!  This becomes harder when there are children in the house.      I pick up cake, brownie, or muffin mixes when they go on sale.   Then I can use them throughout the month to treat our family.   If you are not finding mixes on sale, no worries→ Google a recipe and make something from scratch.      In addition, I Google free events.   Pro-Tip→    Look for steeply discounted items with holiday packaging.    A few weeks ago, I foun

  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 location.      February USDA Low Food Plan According to this plan, our family would have a budget of $185.50 per week, which increased since December of 2023 (184.30).  I know it is not a lot, but this is the thrifty plan, and every penny counts. Given our health concerns, we struggle to maintain this budget, but I will try to make this happen.      Here is what we did this week to make our week easier:   Breakfast Options:  Yogurt Avocado Toast Cereal Lunch Options: Grilled Chicken Salad Fruit Crackers Monday Tacos Salad Chips w/ Salsa Tuesday Gyros Salad Wednesday Breakfast for Dinner Apple Pancake Eggs Bacon  Thursday Shrimp Pasta Salad Friday Coconut Shrimp Salad Leftover Pasta Saturday Greek Chicken Salad Pita Hummus Sunday Bratwurst Roasted Potatoes S

  The Frugal Five: #82 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 Centered Lunches To lower my stress level, I am starting to pack gourmet lunches.  The other week I got 2 boxes of gourmet mac and cheese for free, so this week I am trying goat cheese mac and cheese for lunch.    Since strawberries are on sale this week, I will part it with strawberries and cut vegetables or a small salad.     2- New Coffee Shop  Getting coffee out is very expensive, a cup of coffee will run you between $3 and $4.00.    However, when we take our son to a travel