The Sweet Life On A Budget

  With inflation on the rise and salaries not increasing, our ability to make ends meet is decreasing. 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.     I am exploring ways to reduce costs during busy weeks. One strategy is to watch the pennies because they add up. Here are some of my tips and tricks.    1- Garden Harvest Preservation  July - August has been busy with harvesting and preserving our garden. I preserved salsa, canned tomatoes, pickled banana peppers, froze green beans, dried tomato skins, and dried many herbs.        2- Our Rich Backyard - Free Tickets to a Red’s Game My husband’s work provides a set of 4 tickets to the Reds’ game to key employees.   We were gifted a set of tickets and attended the game against the Braves.  I was able to share two tickets with a colleague....

  With inflation on the rise and salaries not increasing, our ability to make ends meet is decreasing. 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.     I am exploring ways to reduce costs during busy weeks. One strategy is to watch the pennies because they add up. Here are some of my tips and tricks.    1- Garden Update  The tomatoes are starting to produce a large number of green tomatoes, and the jalapeno plants have a bunch of small peppers.    The kale, basil, herbs, and yellow squash are still producing strongly.      The cucumbers are coming to an end, but I am pleased with the number of cucumbers I was able to get from 1 plant in my backyard.   I will most likely be growing one in that bed next year. It is time to succession sow my green beans.    2- Our Rich Backyard  I hav...

  With inflation on the rise and salaries not increasing, our ability to make ends meet is decreasing. 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.     I am exploring ways to reduce costs during busy weeks. One strategy is to watch the pennies because they add up. Here are some of my tips and tricks.    1- Garden Update  The harvest is starting to come in.   I have picked 3 large heads of cabbage, 3 pounds of carrots, kale, jalapeno peppers, chili peppers, banana peppers, and herbs (sage, chives, and oregano).   The kale was cleaned with stems removed.   Then we used it in salad and made kale chips.   We devoured one cabbage and wrapped the other 2 in plastic bags to keep in the refrigerator.    The rainbow carrots were trimmed, cleaned, wrapped in plastic bags, and kept in the crisper drawer.   ...

  With inflation on the rise and salaries not increasing, our ability to make ends meet is decreasing. 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.     I am exploring ways to reduce costs during busy weeks. One strategy is to watch the pennies because they add up. Here are some of my tips and tricks.    1- Garden Update  The garden is growing and looks great!   The final picking of the peas has arrived.   The plants have been pulled out, and dried peas have been harvested to finish drying for next year's planting.  Some onions were flowering, so they needed to be pulled and processed for immediate use.     Kale plants have been trimmed and made into kale chips.  Several carrots are ready for harvesting, cleaning, and wrapping for preservation.   Finally, I picked basil, parsley, sage, and oregano...

  With inflation on the rise and salaries not increasing, our ability to make ends meet is decreasing. 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.     I am exploring ways to reduce costs during busy weeks. One strategy is to watch the pennies because they add up. Here are some of my tips and tricks.    1- Garden Update  The garden is growing and looks great!   The tomatoes, peppers, cabbage, and squash are developing.  The peas, kale, basil, banana peppers, and parsley have been picked and preserved.    In addition, I have cleaned up my preserves from last year and am eating through the last of them.     Furthermore, the canning supplies have been organized and are ready to use.    2- Backyard update We needed to replace our deck, and the removal of the old deck area provided us w...

  With inflation on the rise and salaries not increasing, our ability to make ends meet is decreasing. 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.     I am exploring ways to reduce costs during busy weeks. One strategy is to watch the pennies because they add up. Here are some of my tips and tricks.    1- Garden Update  To make tomato harvesting easier and improve their production, we purchased good tomato cages.      These cages are strong, portable, and easy to assemble.   Installing them in the garden was easy and fast.     This week we planted: 2 Heirloom Tomatoes Pole Beans Parsley   This week we harvested:    Strawberries Kale Radishes 2- Personal Development Summers are a time for teachers to reset their mindset and participate in personal development to improve ...

  With inflation on the rise and salaries not increasing, our ability to make ends meet is decreasing. Therefore, we must be more careful with our money. The Frugal Five is a series in which we celebrate the daily or weekly activities that help us live a frugal life.     I am exploring ways to reduce costs during busy weeks. One strategy is to watch the pennies because they add up. Here are some of my tips and tricks.    1- Garden Update  I have been enjoying harvesting a few items from the garden.     Strawberries are ready for picking, and our family has eaten them as fast as they ripen.     In addition, the kale has been growing very well.   I have several 2-cup packages in the freezer waiting for winter soups.    Another way I use kale is to mix it with cabbage and lettuce to bulk up our salads.       Unfortunately,  the peas have not grown this year, so I have substitu...