The Sweet Life On A Budget

  We have a Meal planning is essential to eating healthy, keeping the grocery bill down, and maintaining your sanity throughout a workweek.   In addition to meal planning, I try to prepare meals as much as possible over the weekend.   This helps to lower my stress during the week.    However, if we have a busy weekend, I try to plan simple or crockpot meals.         Meal Preparation Plan 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.      Breakfast Options:  Eggs Yogurt Granola Bar Monday Kielbasa Buttered Noodles Salad  Tuesday Sandwiches Vegetables w/ Dip Wednesday Pasta Homemade Gravy Meatballs Bread Thursday Pizza Friday Steak French Fries Saturday Stir-Fried Rice Sunday Cowboy Soup Garl...

  The Frugal Five: #22 With inflation on the rise and our salaries not being able to keep up, it seems like we have taken a pay cut and must be more careful with our money.   The Frugal Five is a series where we celebrate our daily or weekly activities that help us live a frugal life.     1- Drying Mint for Winter Tea   We enjoy tea all winter long.  So during the summer and fall, I harvest various herbs, dry them and mix them into tea.    This week I cut back my mint and started drying it.     In addition, I have dried chamomile, basil, rosemary, ginger, hibiscus, and sage.    2- Weekly Free-Bees  This week our free-bees were incredible!   Kroger is having a buy 3 or more and get $2.00 off Each.  I was able to pick up 12 Spimpe Truth Mushrooms stems and pieces, 2 Schick razors, Fruit-tella candy, Pepsi Nitro, and a Perfect bar.  This week Pinch Me samples came in from last month- Stress ...

  We have a Meal planning is essential to eating healthy, keeping the grocery bill down, and maintaining your sanity throughout a workweek.   In addition to meal planning, I try to prepare meals as much as possible over the weekend.   This helps to lower my stress during the week.    However, if we have a busy weekend, I try to plan simple or crockpot meals.         Meal Preparation Plan 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.      Breakfast Options:  Waffles Yogurt Granola Bar Monday Taco Mundo’s  Tuesday Mac and Cheese Wednesday Chick Fil a Thursday Cheesesteaks Salad Chips Friday Pizza Salad Saturday Burgers French Fries Grilled Vegetables Sunday Grilled Chicken Blackbean and Corn ...

The Frugal Five: #21 With inflation on the rise and our salaries not being able to keep up, it seems like we have taken a pay cut and must be more careful with our money.   The Frugal Five is a series where we celebrate our daily or weekly activities that help us live a frugal life.     1- Returned Curtains   We have a large sliding door which lets a lot of light in, but it also makes the living room extremely hot.    Therefore, I am in the market for off-white curtains.    I have attempted to buy curtains online, but have been very disappointed with each curtain selection.  I have returned each set of curtains which didn’t work out, so I haven’t lost any money.   I am going to change my approach and start looking in the stores.    2- Weekly Free-Bees  We ended the month with a few more free bees.   I picked up several Covergirl makeups that I need for the new school year.   Free face powder and hi...

  So far this year we were able to pick up 110 free items.   With inflation rising, the deals are minimal and hard to come.   We are grateful for everything we are able to pick up, mainly because we are only going to the store when we need a list of items.       As always, I am able to secure these items through Kroger incentives, Drug Store (Walgreens/CVS)  Rewards programs, sales, Pinch Me, Smart Source, Meijer’s Buy 10 get the 11th free sale, and Rebates Programs (IBOTTA/SavingStar).    January (13 items)  February (5 items)  March (5 items) April (29 items)  May (11 Items)  June (13 Items)  Here is my July  2022 list of Free-Bees!   July (34 Items)  July 2022 Oikos Single Yogurt- Kroger Coupon 2 Crest Pro-Health Advanced Toothpaste (3.5 oz)- Walgreens Sale, Register Rewards CVS Health- Melatonin 5 mg Gummies (60 ct)- CVS Coupon CVS Health- Alcohol (16 fl oz)- CVS Coupon Bea...

  We have a Meal planning is essential to eating healthy, keeping the grocery bill down, and maintaining your sanity throughout a workweek.   In addition to meal planning, I try to prepare meals as much as possible over the weekend.   This helps to lower my stress during the week.    However, if we have a busy weekend, I try to plan simple or crockpot meals.         Meal Preparation Plan 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.      Breakfast Options:  Bagels Cereal Monday Shrimp Tacos Tuesday Cuban Style Pork Chop* French Fries Salad Wednesday Pasta Salad Thursday Leftovers Friday Takeout Saturday Takeout Sunday Takeout M- Takeout T- Takeout W- Kielbasa Th-  Shrimp Kabobs  Fri- P...