Frugal Accomplishments This Week

We have had a really beautiful last week locally, which made me want to do one thing- get outdoors! The kids and I went out a lot because of this, and we made sure to bring along frugal food for ourselves on all our trips so we didn’t need to buy while out. And while out, we did a lot of frugal fun things that ended up saving us money.
To be honest, I didn’t as many frugal things in the kitchen as I usually do- didn’t make so much from scratch and barely made any legumes… but even so, I kept down costs in the kitchen by using only sale or reduced rack items.
For better or for worse, Ike decided he doesn’t like cereal and milk anymore- he says milk “tastes like pineapple” and that if he has milk more, he won’t like chicken anymore… Go figure. I have no idea what that means… but either way, he’s not eating cereal and milk for breakfast, which means my lazy breakfast option isn’t really doable anymore, which is pushing me to actually make healthier, cheaper breakfasts for everyone if I have to be cooking for Ike anyhow.

So, here’s what we did to save money this past week:

Frugal in the Kitchen

Made homemade smoothie for breakfast with nettles one time, with wood sorrel another time, and the rest being reduced rack fruit.

Made (foraged) nettle and mushroom saute for supper.

Made honey mustard salmon heads for supper.

Made a dish with ground chicken (bought on sale) with foraged wild greens (mallow, umbillicus, wild fennel, and 2 types of wild sage).

Made a dish with frozen broccoli and mushrooms (weeping boletes) I picked myself.

Made homemade mustardy vinaigrette.

Made homemade rice pudding for breakfast instead of cereal and milk.

Made homemade gluten free, egg free waffles for breakfast (don’t ask me for the recipe yet since it needs tweaking).

Butchered a whole chicken.

Made chicken soup from chicken frames left from the whole chicken I butchered.

Made lentil soup for supper.

Frugal Shopping

Bought warm wintry pajamas and leggings from a local clothing store having a great sale (buy any item in the store, get the second for $2).

A nearby grocery store chain is making all their gluten free staple items on sale, so I stocked up on a lot of rolls, pitas, sliced breads, and gluten free pasta which are possibly cheaper than making them from scratch now; even if they’re less healthy, they’re good to have as a backup.

Stocked up on a bunch of sale treats for the kids.

Picked up some weights I bought second hand from someone selling them.

I’d ordered sneakers for myself (as well as xylitol sweetened, garbage free gum) from the US for much cheaper than I could buy locally, and a friend who was visiting brought them here for me, so I didn’t need to pay for shipping from the US. Even with paying for rush shipping (since I only knew about his trip a couple of days in advance- over Thanksgiving!) I ended up paying much less for my shoes (via 6pm.com) than I’d pay for sale running shoes here.

Bought some sale coconut sugar from a local health food store (cheaper than Iherb.com, especially now that Iherb changed their overseas shipping rates).

Frugal Foraging
Went hiking, foraging, and mushroom hunting (for weeping boletes) with kids in a nearby wooded area- free fun trip with the added bonus of free food.

Foraged olive leaves and used them for tea making.

Frugal DIY

Mike replaced the pipe on our broken kitchen sink

Mike opened a clogged drain in our bathroom.

I figured out how to make my own plaster candle holders without a candle holder mold- for a craft I wanted to do with my kids.

What did you do to save money this week? Would you say this was one of your more frugal weeks, less frugal weeks, or about average?

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