Frugal Five: #127

 

With inflation rising and salaries staying the same, our ability to make ends meet is becoming increasingly difficult. Therefore, we must be more careful with our money. The Frugal Five is a series that celebrates the daily or weekly activities that help us live a frugal life.    

This year, my focus is on Simple Abundance, so finding ways to live well while staying on budget will be challenging.    Come along and enjoy my journey of elevating joy, enjoying what you have, and finding luxury in my local area.   20

1- Menu Planning 

Through strategy and careful planning, you can feed your family well balanced healthy meals on a budget.   Each week, I pick up core ingredients at their lowest prices and save them for future meals.     For example, this week Italian Sausage is on sale for $3.99/lb.  Since its regular price is $5.29, I am saving $1.30 per pound.    I purchased several pounds because our freezer was empty of sausages.    

Each week I post our meal plan utilizing my freezer and pantry foods. Check out this week's menu plan: 

2- Our Rich Backyard - Free Cultural Events 

Our church hosted “Winter Reflections: by DuoMente.   "Winter Reflections" features "The Butterfly Lovers," one of the most beloved violin works in Chinese music. "Listening to Snow at White Deer Plain" by contemporary composer Yang Liu, presented in its U.S. premiere, draws on images of snowfall to evoke a timeless rural landscape. The program concludes with Edvard Grieg’s "Violin Sonata No. 3," a passionate and lyrical masterpiece filled with warmth and dramatic intensity.

This is one example of how you can experience beauty and culture in your life on a budget.   

3-  Lower Your Food Waste

A weekly cleanout of the refrigerator prior to going grocery shopping and incorporating perishable items into the menu plan.    This prevents waste and saves money.   A few types of recipes that help you use up the perishables include: soup, salads, or stir fry.  I try to add one refrigerator clean out/pantry meal to each week's menu plan.       

    

4- Homemade Deli Meat

Around Thanksgiving, I picked up an extra turkey breast for $1.99 a pound.    This week, I cooked it in the crockpot and sliced it into deli meat for sandwiches.      In addition, I can make turkey broth from the carcass and use the additional pulled turkey meat in my chili this week.   

Quality deli meat cost north of $13.00 per pound.     Since I sliced XX pounds of deli meat, I was able to save XX.     

5- Aldi Find

Wow!   What a DEAL!     We found Generic Acetaminophen (100 caplets) for just $1,65 and the expiration date is January of 2027.  Compare that to CVS Extra Strength (100 caplets) cost $10.49 and you can see the savings.     Given our high pressure jobs, we are using a lot of acetaminophen, so we purchased 4 bottles ($6.60 )which should last us all year.    

   

What Free-bees have you been able to pick up this year?   The  2025 Free-Bee Summary has been posted.    If you missed it, then click on the link below.  

Here is my list:

Did you miss the last Frugal Five post?  No worries, click on the picture for the link.

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