Frugal Friday - The Beginning of September 2020


Whew!  We're all back in school now and things are starting to fall into a routine.  The first week or two of school is always chaotic and this year is particularly chaotic with all of the additional things needed for (hopefully) preventing the spread of Covid-19.   I think we are back into a routine for the time being!  We started on our big remodeling project - I am SO excited about this!  The rain has slowed things down a bit but we should be back on track soon.

Here are some things we have done since the beginning of September that we consider frugal:

* We have made all but one meal at home, including two types of soup, pizza, overnight oatmeal, fried eggs and toast, bagels with cream cheese, egg bake with spinach and sweet potatoes, BLT's, fried fish, roasted veggie couscous, chicken lasagna, pasta with meatballs and marinara sauce, hamburger gravy over rice with a tossed green salad, chicken with potatoes and carrots, and for Labor Day we grilled with wieners and bratwurst, corn on the cob, and peaches.

* We trimmed the lilacs and dug several "volunteer" trees out from the fence line.

* John brought home a jug of real maple syrup (a gift from a parishioner), and two packages of quinoa that two patrons of the food shelf refused.  It was close to the expiration date, so he brought it home rather than putting it in the garbage.  We will eat it this week.

* I found some really good mark-downs on meat at the grocery store, purchasing packages of pork chops for $0.80/lb each and beef roast for $1.50/lb. Both prices are unheard of around here!  The packages were very close to their "freeze by" date, which is fine. I just froze them when I came home.  We did not have much room in our freezer, so I did not buy as much as I would have liked.  Every little bit helps!

* This was not very frugal, but we decided it was time to purchase phones for our teenage children. With Covid-19, we are not allowed in the school building on in-class school days and felt it would be best of the children had phones for easy contact.  We purchased two older model phones, one for each child, and purchased an in-expensive pay-as-you-use plan for them to share.  I am grateful for that much more frugal option!

* I mended the neckline on a t-shirt and a pulled out seam on a sweater.  

* Our daughter made a necklace for a friend using items we already owned. She used a padded envelope we already owned to mail it to our friend.  The only cost was postage.

* I picked flowers from the garden for our kitchen table three times.

* We harvested tomatoes, peppers, zucchini (courgette) and eggplant (aubergine) from the garden.

* We made and canned 6 half-pint jars of salsa using the tomatoes in from our garden and onions from a friend's garden.

* As a family, we played several board games and watched a movie we already owned for entertainment.  Individually, we read, painted, drew or sewed.  

 What did you do that was frugal?

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