The Sweet Life On A Budget

  The Frugal Five: #76 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- Crock Pot Cooking   The crock pot is a great solution for getting dinner on the table each night.    In the morning, I spend a few minutes putting all the ingredients into the crock pot, set the cook cycle and dinner is ready when I get home.      2- Sunday Prepping  On Sunday, I prepare as much as I can for the week.    I do this by planning all of our me...

  Updated Breakfast Under $1.00 The USDA Website grocery budgets range from $25.00 to $71.90 per week ($3.57 - $10.17 per day) per person.   The two factors that determine the amount allocated are age and sex.  With such a small amount of money allocated daily for food and my attempt to eat healthily, I need to plan each week carefully.     Breakfast is a great place to add value to your meal planning.    It can be the cheapest or most expensive meal.    The choice is yours.    Let’s look at breakfasts that come in at or under $1.00.     Beagle and Cream Cheese ($0.72 per serving) Kroger Prices Bagels (6ct)- $2.79 or $0.47 each Cream Cheese (8oz)- $1.99 Single Serving (1 oz): $0.25 Daily Cost= $0.72       French Toast ($0.75 per Serving) Kroger Prices  Eggs (12 ct)- $1.79 Single Serving: $0.15 x 2 = $0.30 Toast (20 slices) - $1.99 Single Serving: $0.10...

  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.      December USDA Low Food Plan According to this plan, our family would have a budget of $183.70 per week.  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:   Menu Planning Bake Muffins Packed Soup for Lunches Make Energy Balls Hard-boiled eggs Precut Vegetables Breakfast Options:  Yogurt Cereal Muffins Lunch Options Leftovers  Sandwich Monday Steak Salad Tuesday Pasta Salad Garlic Bread Wednesday Sushi Thursday Left Overs Friday Grilled Chicken Saturday Shrimp Scampi Salad Bread Sunday BBQ Pork Rice Broccoli M- Potato Soup T- Crock Pot Tacos W- Pasta Primavera...

  Slowing down and taking the time to enjoy our surroundings is essential to Living The Sweet Life On A Budget.  Whether it is enjoying nature or the beauty of city architecture, taking time to stop and appreciate beauty wherever you find it is important.   Our Rich Backyard Life looks at the beauty that surrounds us, whether it is animals, flowers, buildings, locations, or anything else that we can appreciate in our daily travels.   It has taken us 4 years to get to Hawaii, but we did it.   What a family experience we had. We spent 4 days/3 nights in Kona and 3 days/2 nights in Hilo.   Hawaii can be very expensive to visit, but we were able to do it on a budget.     Here are a few of our favorite sights.    We started in Kona at a luxury resort which we were able to stay at for $40 a night which was the resort fee only.   We were able to do this because we saved our Hilton points from 2020.    The Grounds T...