Frugal Friday

It’s Frugal Friday!  Time for my weekly round-up of frugal wins and frugal fails. How did you do this week?

Frugal Wins

• I brought my lunch and breakfast to work every day this week (and ate it!) Staying out of the very easy cafeteria at work helps keep our food spend low.
• I bought a box of tea that I really like and took it to work.  This has been keeping me out of Starbucks, which is definitely a win.  I first got introduced to this tea when I lived in Minnesota (thank you, Granny) and I was thrilled when I found it on Amazon! It seriously tastes like Christmas in a cup. Sweet, spicy, so good.

The best tea ever.  Photo credit: Good Earth

I think that might be it for the week. Ugh. Not a very inspiring week of wins! But hey, they can’t all be winners, right? This one definitely isn’t because up next- Frugal Fails!

Frugal Fails

• The biggest fail this week was definitely locking my keys in the car on Monday.  I had to pay $53 bucks to get my keys back out.  This is a fail particularly because I’ve been procrastinating getting spare keys made for the car. If I’d done that, I’d have had a spare key in my desk and $53 bucks still in my pocket.
• Thursday night = McDonalds drive-thru. I got off work super late and it was well after dinner time by the time we got home. McDonalds was totally worth NOT having a melting down toddler.
• Oh yeah- giant vet bill. Not frugal.  I am a terrible pet owner because apparently brushing teeth is something dogs need on a regular basis or their teeth become really gross and then have to be cleaned professionally.  I did not know this. I don’t ever remember brushing teeth for our dogs growing up, but I really don’t remember well. I know now.  Brush your dog’s teeth. Seriously.  A toothbrush costs $4. Teeth cleaning cost well over $400.

Ugh. Not a great week.  I’m happy because the vet bill ended up being less than I had budgeted, but still a LOT of money. Anyway. Onward.  Next week is a new week. Clearly I need to be a little more intentional in making frugal decisions.

 

Frugal Friday

It’s frugal Friday!! Time for my weekly (sort of) catalog of frugal wins and fails for the week. Here we go!

Frugal Wins

1. I made a potato sausage soup for lunch this week that used up both Italian sausage in my freezer as well as some potatoes that were about to go bad.  This is doubly frugal, because not only did I use up food that needed to be eaten, but I also took my lunch every day this week to work (except today, as some friends and I had a lunch date!)
2. Aside from a planned-for apple orchard trip, F. and I didn’t do anything that cost money last weekend.  I’m trying to remember exactly what we did.  On Sunday, I think we walked to the park in the morning and then walked up to play at the mall in the afternoon.  Oh! I remember- we went to the library on Saturday afternoon to exchange our library books.  All free and all fun.  We also made these awesome bird feeders from pine cones we found at the park and peanut butter and bird seed we already had.  Unfortunately, they attracted more bees than birds, but F had a blast making them.
3. I borrowed my dad’s apple peeler and dehydrator and dehydrated some apples that were about to go bad.  I think we’re going to have do another batch this weekend. My dad and I often share kitchen gadgets back on forth, which cuts down on both of us needing to own them. For example, right now I have his dehydrator and he has my pressure canner.  Sharing is a frugal win-win for everyone.
4. I think we actually ate at home every night this week as well! I can’t remember exactly what we had every night, but I’m 99% sure we didn’t go out.
5. I planned a dish for a girls night I attended that mostly used ingredients I already had- I only had to buy two cans of black beans and a bag of tortilla chips, which cost approximately $3.50.  I also used up a surplus of vegetables.

Frugal Fails

1. I chose to sleep in this morning (after girls night, imagine that…) so didn’t have time to pack anything for breakfast.  So I ended up grabbing breakfast at work.  Eating at work is cheaper than a lot of other breakfast options (and healthier) but still more expensive than bringing food from home.
2. Starbucks- ad infinitum (I ordered some really really good tea that I love in hopes of replacing my desire for afternoon coffee with afternoon tea.)  Luckily, I guess, it’s been raining all week, so neither my co-worker or I have been very interested in walking over to Starbucks.

Well, I think that’s a pretty good week! 🙂 How did your week go?

 

Frugal Friday

It’s Frugal Friday! Time to catalog my frugal wins and fails this week.

Frugal Wins

1.  I made dinner every night this week– Go me! This is harder than it seems, since we get home at 5:00 and F. is a hot mess if dinner isn’t ready by 5:30. So I’m happy that I managed to make dinner every night this week.

2. I used up meat in my freezer– I have this bad habit of buying pork when it’s on sale and then afterwards remembering that I don’t actually have very many recipes for pork. So then it sits in my freezer for a LONG time. But this week, I made some very yummy pork kebabs so some of it is no longer in my freezer.

3. I bought clearance exercise gear- Now that I’ve started going to the gym every day, I don’t actually have enough sports bras and exercise shirts for a whole week. I’ve been trying to get by with doing laundry halfway through the week, but it’s been a challenge to remember. So I bought a new sports bra and new shirt, both of which were on clearance for $3 each. They are not the nicest gear ever, but they are definitely good enough to get covered in sweat!

Frugal Fails

1. Food waste– I have had so much wasted food this week. The produce from Walmart that I mentioned earlier in the week all went bad, a loaf of bread that I was planning on for dinner tonight molded, my grill caught on fire earlier in the week and took half of my grilled chicken with it and then I packed up dinner leftovers last night before taking F. to gymnastics and they were still sitting out on the counter, spoiling, once I got home.  Not a good week, my friends.  Not a good week.

I’m sure there are more things, but I’m tired and I think that’s going to do it for me. How’d you all do this week?

Frugal Friday!

It’s frugal Friday here on the blog!  I’m going to reflect on my week of spending- what were some frugal successes? What were some fails? You get to hear about it all!

Frugal Wins

• I used up ALL of the leftovers in my fridge this week.  Throwing out food costs money so using up leftovers is a frugal win in my book!
• I tried to make black bean burgers for lunch this week, but added WAY too many bread crumbs, resulting in black bean um…crumbles. BUT. I mixed them up with a bunch of sweet chili sauce and ate them anyway. Yum yum yum. Just kidding. It wasn’t but I’ll be damned if I’m going to throw out perfectly good food.
• I made coffee at home every week and took it to work, despite the very lovely temptation of Starbucks AT work.
• One of F’s beloved tutus got a big hole in it. I am the absolute worst seamstress (B. fixes almost everything that needs sewing around our house. He possesses so many more domestic talents than I do!) I pulled out my needle and thread and managed to do a passable job sewing it up. It doesn’t look pretty, but it also doesn’t have a big hole in it anymore!
• I’ve been in need of new shorts, as none of the ones I had fit after giving birth (I know, I am super on the ball about this…) but I just. hate. shopping.  So I bought some new to me shorts of ThredUp instead (which you should totally check out if you haven’t tried it).  I can try them on in my own home and hopefully they fit.  I consider this a frugal win because buying consignment is far cheaper than buying new.

Frugal Fails

• I was feeling totally lazy on Tuesday and forgot to defrost the meat needed for dinner so Fiona and I went to a very popular red and yellow fast food restaurant for some not-that-tasty chicken nuggets.
• I forgot about an early doctor’s appointment Fiona had on Wednesday morning until…um…Wednesday morning. I forgot to eat breakfast or pack breakfast before we left, so I ended up grabbing something at work.
• I gave in and splurged on coffee Thursday afternoon.  Ever since the free coffee went away at work, this has become much harder to avoid.  It’s not that I need coffee. I just….need coffee. Or a better solution to the afternoon sleepies.

So that’s my week! How did you guys do?