Frugal Accomplishments This Week

You have no idea how frustrated I am! All week long I was tracking my frugal accomplishments this week, and I was in the middle of editing my post when the whole thing got deleted, and no amount of CTRL Zing would get it back... So now I have to rewrite the post, filling it in from memory... So it won't be as good/complete as it would have been. And now it can't be divided by day of the week....

Oh well...

I was a little less frugal this week than last, simply because I was feeling nauseous so much this week and simply didn't have much energy to do too many extras....

The whole week I kept on working on potty training Anneliese. She even took naps wearing underwear some of the time. We went to the park and brought the potty along, and she was in underwear there as well! She still insists on wearing a diaper to poo, and wears a diaper at night, but I'd say we're 85% of the way there in terms of potty training. (She had one accident all week.) She only wore disposable diapers when we left the house for long periods of time- the rest of the time, either underwear or cloth diapers, but mostly underwear.

I dumpster dove (from a bag near the dumpster, not in the dumpster itself) two puzzles and a bag of marbles for the kids.

The kids wanted to see a cheap performance for kids at the local community center, but even though it was cheap, I was a drop short on cash. Lee really wanted to go, so he chipped in and paid the last 50 cents of the entrance fee with his own money.

I ground 10 pounds of flour (millet, buckwheat, and red lentil) to sell to some gluten free friends.

I planted some lettuce seeds in a window box, and have been watering it with random cups I find sitting around with water in it, instead of pouring it down the sink.

I made gravlax (a cured salmon dish) to sell to a friend.

Kids had a bit of a cold, and wanted to treat it naturally, so I made them sage tea, olive leaf tea, and rosemary tea, with foraged ingredients. Also made chicken feet soup (and saved the feet to use for a later date) with some carrots I found cut up and partially dried out in a bag that I'd sent with a kid to school for lunch one day, as well as some random other odd veggies I had in my fridge that needed to be used up. Also juiced some soft and sorry looking cantaloupes together with grape fruits and oranges for a high vitamin C drink.

When I met up with my friend, she wanted to go get some coffee. I was tempted to buy a drink or something while sitting there with her drinking her coffee, but decided to be frugal and not buy anything.

I bought raw honey and red raspberry leaf tea (which is supposed to be helpful for women in their third trimester, to make birth be easier) for the cheapest prices I've seen anywhere.

Foraged a whole shopping bag full of stinging nettles on the way home.

Served sprouted lentil chili made with reduced rack veggies, homemade polenta, and reduced rack avocados- a dirt cheap supper that was an amazing hit with the family, including all the kids. (Ike asked me for the recipe- he said it tasted "as good as chocolate".)

Made some liquid soap for soaking my nettles with scraps of my homemade soap and boiling water. (Whisked them together until they dissolved, and then added cold water to dilute.)

Made homemade Burmese chickpea tofu. (Recipe coming soon.)

Made homemade coconut milk.

Made homemade garam masala spice mix.

Made nettle saag paneer with the chickpea tofu, coconut milk, and garam masala, for a super frugal and healthy dish. (Recipe coming soon.)

Saved the water from blanching the nettles to use as nettle tea, which is very healthy, and good for seasonal allergies which are just starting up for my husband.

Had a guest for supper, and made a "fancy" dinner cheaply. I took some funky looking/shaped eggplants, hollowed them out, mixed them with ground chicken, sprouted lentils, tomato paste, and leftover brown rice, as well as sauted eggplants and bulk bought dehydrated onions, and restuffed the eggplant. Served this for supper, together with stove top "roasted" cauliflower (made in the cast iron dutch oven, so felt and tasted like it was roasted, but was cheaper because gas is cheaper to run than my electric oven.)

Before cooking. Because it was more photogenic then. And because of the funny
shapes of the eggplant, I was able to make it look like a butterfly!

Made a black bean salsa with home cooked black beans that I made in the crock pot and frozen last week, to be able to make quick meals with it. Thankfully was a hit, despite being very cheap!

Went to the farmer's market and bought 53 pounds of reduced rack produce, on average for 23 cents a pound.

Went back to the salvage store and stocked up on some more cheapo relatively healthy cereal, grape juice, wipes, and a few treats for the kids.

Made an iherb order and ordered vitamins and other things that are much more expensive locally than at iherb, even including international shipping.

Bought chicken hearts at a great price, and made my own Middle Eastern spice mix to season them.

Made a soup, using the same chicken feet I used earlier in the week, plus some leftover chicken bones, to make the base for the very rich broth. Made meatballs out of on sale ground chicken and mixed it with rice to stretch it further.

Gave the boys a haircut with our hair trimmer instead of paying to take them to the barber.

Made some soup from drippings from chicken wings I served earlier, plus the bones and wing tips, and other veggies I had in the vegetable bin. Seasoned it with foraged rosemary.

Went out to a community get together, which involved a gift swap- everyone was supposed to bring a cheap item to the swap. I gave a belt that I bought, never used, was still in its packaging, and was just sitting there taking up space. I came home with a cute hair accessory!


I think this was a pretty good and frugal week, especially in light of the fact that I felt so icky for most of it!


What were your frugal accomplishments this week?