I harvested parsley, Swiss chard, and cherry tomatoes from my garden.
My mom gave us the last of a tin of cookies from her orchid club meeting. I saved the tin and used it to store some plastic candy molds that I was wanting to store better.
I needed some wrapping paper for a little boy’s birthday gift. I found I only had Christmas and wedding paper left in my wrapping box (I use resuable boxes for most gifts for my immediate family, so I don’t use much wrapping paper). I asked my mom if she had any, and she had some I could use that was perfect. She also gave me the rest of her curling ribbon, as she prefers stick on bows.
I made a pair of earrings as a birthday gift for a friend using supplies I had on hand that had been purchased years ago on sale.
We saved time and gas by cooking meals with leftovers planned; we had soups and salads, and baked an oven full of potatoes that were used for several meals.
What did you do to save money last week?
Hadn’t considered the idea of baking a whole oven full of potatoes at once! How do you use them then? And I’ve never met an empty cookie tin that I couldn’t find a use for! 🤔😉
This week went in an unexpected direction. I saw my family doctor for the pain and GI distress I had been having over the past 2 weeks that had been intensifying. He immediately sent me to the hospital where after lots of testing found that I have a 3” ulcer right at the juncture where my stomach and intestine meet. So after 2 days in the hospital, I was able to come home with a Rx. The thing that really impacted me was all those things (luxuries to many in the world) that I barely take notice of and how humbled and grateful I am for them! My soft warm bed, my amazing clearanced Target pillow that felt like a could under my head after I came home. A warm sturdy house that I could just quietly recuperate in without interruption. Food and water (in very small amounts as I’m recovering). So this Christmas will be simple and reflective. We are inviting family to drop over on Christmas Day for an open house. But we will mostly stay home and be grateful.
I am trying to do a few things to save money that I thought might be nice on the buffet table for our open house. To that end, I found a copycat recipe for Longhorn Steakhouse Honey Mustard sauce. It made 1/2 pint and is unbelievably good! https://pin.it/7pVna2uVW
I also made a cheese ball to serve with crackers that was over two times the size of the balls you buy in the store. I had all the ingredients and, oh my goodness, it’s so delicious!! https://pin.it/5UMqvq1A9.
I chopped up fresh FF onions and used them in 9 pounds of ground beef I cooked up. I portioned it into 10 ziploc bags and put in the freezer for time-saving meal additions to future meals.
I got 8 pound boneless ham ($4 on FF) out of my freezer to cook and slice up for ham and cheese sliders for our open house. I will make chicken salad using my home canned chicken breast chunks and craisins from my pantry to serve on mini croissants. Still need to finish planning the foods to serve for buffet.
I have some easy candy/cookie recipes I will try making for the first time. I hope I’m not the only one who sees an interesting recipe, saves it on Pinterest, and then (perhaps 🥴) forgets that it is there and never tries it! I am determined to get more organized and use or discard the dozens of “maybe I’ll use or try this someday” things!
Today I found 17 pounds of fresh strawberries on FF for $1/pound, so I sliced them with my egg slicer and have them in my dehydrator! We absolute LOVE dehydrated strawberry slices and they are so easy to just wash and slice and vacuum sealed in mason jars to have ready on the shelf!
Hope you and your readers have a truly blessed and joyful holiday season!
My family will just snack on baked potatoes.
But their favorite way is to dice them and fry them with some onions for breakfast (sometimes alongside eggs and sometimes just potatoes).
That is my favorite breakfast also, fried potatoes and onions with eggs cooked in a cast iron skillet!
GardenPat, I hope you can spend some easy time recuperating and still enjoy the contact with your family. Sending you best wishes for healing rest.
Pat, healing energy and warmest holiday wishes to you.
Gardenpat, I hope you feel better soon. Prayers sent your way.🙏🏻 Try to go easy!
Those tomatoes look yummy. The only tomatoes I have are canned sauce from the garden. I have always loved your flower pictures. We had leftovers for dinner tonight. We went out to dinner and to a local venue to see Christmas lights in caves and a natural bridge with friends. We ate at a food truck and it was delicious and cheap. We are doing extra cleaning before family comes Christmas Eve. I will meal prep and fix desserts tomorrow night. Our ladies Bible study was Sunday night. We all take turns bringing a snacks. Merry Christmas everyone.
Those earrings are pretty!
Most of last week was a blur, as it was the last week before Christmas break at work. So thankful to be off work until January 5th.
Our secret Santa wrapped up. I received some great stuff from mine…candy, drinks, a book, card game, and a gift card to Starbucks. Our principal gave us a gift and a teacher friend surprised me with a sweet gift of fuzzy socks, hot chocolate, a candle, and hand painted book marks. I also received snacks from my boss, and my coworker puts together a delicious snack box.
Received three pomegranate snack cups.
My husband completed a job and was tipped with 2 dozen Christmas cookies 🤤
My deodorant I purchased at Costco earned me 2400 bonus points on Fetch.
My teen volunteered to wrap all the gifts(aside from hers), so that is saving me some time.
This week will not be cheap finishing up for Christmas, but that’s ok. I plan to spend little money outside of that while I’m off the next two weeks, we need to eat from the freezers and all I plan to do is declutter the house and read some books.
I alternate between being busy with Christmas prep, and reading/sewing/watch tv for a rest. I’m appreciating things slowing down already and I have a list of projects I’d like to finish by January-not as a deadline but as a way to be intentional about the time that is less busy between Christmas and New Year.
We also ate baked potatoes and used the leftovers as hash browns for dinner the next night.
I listed a lot of toys on FB marketplace last week and sold some of them. It was a good time to clean out toys.
I finished a Christmas scarf to donate. I packaged it nicely and will leave it tomorrow. I hope someone feels blessed.
Happy Holidays to all!
Your photos are always gorgeous. Those tomatoes look bursting w flavor.
My nephew started mailing back my cookie tins I send for my sister family, which not only saves me money, but is so helpful because they are the right size. I got behind this year, but got the cookies, 5 kinds, all shipped today. I was even mindful to rake the porch and walkway to ensure I wouldn’t slip on leaves carrying the big package. Had a good day. Came home w groceries and realized my chronic pain wasn’t so bad. I found walnuts in shells at the store so went out to feed the squirrels. And that’s when I fell. Tripped off porch.
Currently waiting in er. I possibly broke both ankles. I’m hoping it’s only one, but not looking great. Think good thoughts. 🤞🤞🤞
I hope you heal quickly!
Oh dear! Healing energy to you!
Oh my goodness hope you heal quickly.
Hi Brandy and everyone
The earrings look like a lovely gift.
We are trying to eat up our stored butternut squash so this week I made a pasta sauce and soup with it.
Throughout the year we have been supplying a neighbour with excess produce from our garden and this week he brought round a joint of beef as a thank you. It is in the freezer for a treat next year.
We politely declined an invitation to a social event which would have cost quite a bit of money, saying no is a good saver.
My husband cut lots of greenery from the woods and I made my arrangement for the carol service and Nativity in church with it. Only greenery and berries are allowed in our church during Advent.
We have decided not to marzipan and ice our homemade Christmas cake, this is better for our health and will save money too.
Happy Christmas to all who celebrate.
Eating food I rescued. I finished a handmade gift and will start the next one. We have that pandemic illness in the house. I made bone broth and we’re staying home due to our germs.
Mended a blanket several places with yarn I already had, trying to make a nice visible mending.
Had a friend over for dinner spotaneously, and made lentil bolognese for several days, an easy, healthy and inexpensive meal.
We decorated the Christmas tree with ornaments that we already own – some dating back to my grandparents first Christmas together during the second world war.
Some time ago I bought a second hand jacket that I liked, just not the color. As it was linnen, I tried to dye it in the washing machine, and I was very pleased with the result. I also dyed some fabric at the same time to make a belt for the jacket and my own buttons, embroidered in white on the navy background. I got inspiration from a japanese textile artist I admire.
We borrowed a lot of books at the library. My son is an avid reader and goes through a lot of books in no time – it would be impossible for us to buy and store so many books!
We are going to make a salad for Christmas dinner using apples, garlic and celery from our garden. The cherry sauce for the dessert is made from gleaned cherries. We made it in June and keep it in the freezer for Christmas.
We made a midwinter bonfire in the garden and invited my mother over for dinner and afterwards a song around the fire. We chop up and store all bigger prunings from our trees in the garage, so we can make free bonfires. Birch bark is a perfect way to start the fire, and smaller branches for kindling. My son has learned to make a good bonfire at the scouts, and he taught me how to do it properly. He told me about a competition they did at a camp once – how fast can you make oatmeal over a bonfire from you light the first match until the oatmeal is ready to eat? The winning team did it in 2 minutes!!! His team in 7 minutes! I couldn’t help but laugh, I thought it was such a great story!
Cam, I am so impressed with all the sustainable and frugal things you do. I am also interested in visible mending and really enjoy reading your posts. I belong to a monthly sewing group and often several of us will be mending items, it feels homely and planet friendly.
Penny, thank you for your kind words! It sounds really nice to be part of a sewing group and to share the joys of mending and good company of like-minded people – an inspiring idea!
Cam, I remember my mother dyeing fabric, usually for costumes (an old sheet dark green for a Christmas tree costume for the parade). I think your ideas are brilliant!
I had new sewer lines put in by the city’s independent contractor because the gas company’s excavating caused the connection to collapse at the road. I did not have to pay for this, thank goodness. It would have been $$$$$$! I put flowers from Dollar General on my mom’s grave last week, for her birthday. It is a family joke that my mom always bought flowers for decorating graves at Dollar General and I always decorate hers the same way and laugh at all the funny things she did when alive! She was the best! I bought gas in the college town for $2.21 a gallon, which is much cheaper than the town where I work. It is $2.79 in my work town, and $2.99 in the small town where I live! Gas is so expensive! I baked a huge bag of chicken leg quarters last week that I purchased for 69 cents a lb, and I froze them. I have made chicken and rice casserole from the chicken broth I made (I cooked the rice in the broth), a chicken leg quarter, leftover spinach, leftover Baba Ghanoush, leftover cheese, plain yogurt, and spices. I topped it with stale bread that needed to be used.
Brandy, we are eating soups and salads also. I’m working through food in the back of the pantry and we are eating my canned jars of soup from 2022! They were stuck back specifically for an emergency but, thankfully, they haven’t been needed.
I did not meet any of my money saving goals for this week. It was a time of odd failures. Everything I did had to be undone and done again.
The weatherman wasn’t accurate (not surprising) so instead of great weather, it rained. It was warm enough to raise all of the hoop houses but we discovered the polar vortex has wiped out quite a large amount. The seedlings were just too small. I did harvest lettuce, cabbages, kale, sugar beets, carrots, and onion tops.
There was one unusual success. When doing my “Mama’s Money-Saving Memo” to my sons, I noticed the Kroger in Indiana had a coupon for 5 pineapples for $.99 each but ours (in Tennessee) was $1.49. I loaded my son’s account in Indiana with the $.99 coupon and then the $1.49 on mine. When I opened my account while shopping, the $.99 coupon was on my card too. As I checked out, I presented my phone app to the cashier to see if it would apply. She said she had never see that happen and, bless her heart, she clicked and clicked on her register and worked so long the line behind me backed up. I told her it was not worth all the trouble and to forget it; but, she refused my offer and forced the computer to honor the coupon. I was quite impressed.
The son in Indiana made a special trip to his Kroger store just to get the pineapples. Another son spent $100 and saved $40 in coupons and sales. He happened to need more of the sale items.
There will be no great and lofty money-saving goals this week, instead, my only goal will be to can the pineapples. My time will be spent redoing what I tried to get done this week.
Jeannie@GetMeToTheCountry
Jeannie, pineapple is one of my favorite things to can! So simple and soooo delicious (and no toxins leaching from the cans). We now live in Tennessee, near Johnson City, and I am super happy to finally be near a Kroger! Everytime you and Gardenpat would mention your Kroger finds, I felt the green tint rising🤣🤣🤣 I do miss Meijer though, and Menards. AND SNOW!!!❄️❄️❄️❄️
Laura S, one of my sons has a Meijer close by so I am checking their sales too. I have often been jealous of their deals. I guess the coupons are always greener on the other side of the fence.
I can’t say that I miss the snow.
Jeannie
Hello, frugal friends, from the Appalachian Mountains of Virginia. It has been a windy, cold and now rainy week here. We need the rain. The main way Mr. Fix It and I saved money was to mostly stay home. I did not go to the grocery store as there was nothing we needed and nothing worth buying. The “sale” prices were disappointing. Our freezers and pantry are full of food we need to use. Mr. Fix It did buy and replace a toilet seat. He used his military discount at Home Depot saving us $5. I cooked from scratch and we ate leftovers. I was able to find the disposable condiment cups for the dinner we are serving to the Homeless group our church is hosting for 2 weeks over the holidays. I usually provide dinner on Christmas Eve. I am doing my usual breakfast for dinner meal. As Christmas Eve and day they will be in a hotel I am making individual take out boxes. Each meal will have 4 pancakes, 2 slices of ham, a cup of fruit salad, a container of syrup, a pat of butter and Christmas cookies. This simple meal has been very well received over the years of doing this. It is a small group of about 15 adults. Our church provided the take out boxes and flatware. I already have homemade pancake mix. The rest I have bought on sale with this meal in mind. Everything came to about $15 total…not bad for 15 meals. To stay warm on these cold days we have been wearing layers and using our propane fireplace and extra blankets. We were able to find a better price on our internet through our cell phone provider saving us $50 per month. Garden Pat, I am so glad you are on the mend. I totally understand your feelings about appreciating the small things upon your hospital release. I remember feeling the same way after 10 days in the hospital after my heart attack/quadruple bypass 2 years ago. Even now when I feel bored I am grateful for the ability to feel bored after that experience. I wish you a speedy recovery. I love reading your comments. I just wish we had a Flash Food anywhere near us but we do not. I look forward to reading everyone’s comments. Thank you Brandy for this blog. Merry Christmas and blessings…Marley in the Mountains.
The handmade earrings are beautiful!
On the frugal front:
I assembled a smalls gifts for my neighbors. I knit cotton dish cloths in Christmas colors, and added a cute holiday dish towel purchased last year on clearance for less than $2/towel, and a bottle of Mrs. Meyer’s Iowa Pine scented dish soap purchased for $2/bottle on Amazon. I wrapped them using gift wrap on hand.
I went to Dollar Tree to buy three gift bags to wrap three pairs of jeans for an Adopt-a-family donation. They had holiday gift boxes in sets of two for the same price as one gift bag saving me $1.50 and leaving one extra box for home use.
HH picked up a gift in store on his way home from a business trip saving me the 80 minute round trip and shipping fees.
I did not buy any new holiday outfits or decorations this year.
I look forward to reading everyone’s frugal feats!
I’ve had a lovely week. I picked up my car from the garage and spent my savings on it. After not having my car for 20 days , I was very grateful to have it back. I rescued many food items this week. My favorite was a case of various mushrooms. I left behind the white buttons and focused on the more nutritious ones. I’m currently drying them to store which is a new technique for me. Today , I went out and had a spectacular day. I pulled a new in box never opened Cuisinart convection oven from a chain home store. My elderly neighbor has a non working oven and I’m happy to have found a way to provide her one. A local coat store had several pieces of Nike clothing , 3 sets of Christmas pajamas and multiple pairs of cartoon boxers. I gave these to a neighbor for her kids and they were happy to accept. My greatest find was a case of 10 Raos bolognese and 5 olive oils. 10 Kerry gold made me smile. a case of 24 evaporated milk were a happy addition to my pantry I’m officially broke. Next year will be a tightrope walk trying to fund the HVAC repair. I’m happy to have the car and phone working. My hobby provides so many extras in life. Disability is hard financially. Major emergencies are just out of my league and yet we manage. Sugar cookie is up North having a Hallmark Christmas and all is pitifully warm here in the South. Happy holidays for anyone celebrating.
Lillianna – I just realized that Brandy’s blog is back up. I have to say that I missed your hunting expeditions in the dumpsters. I think it is so interesting to read about your finds. You are helping
yourself and the planet! Just amazing the items that get tossed for the landfills. Also, it is inspiring to read about how you are surviving creatively in a situation that has to be challenging!
Happy holidays! I had started a post and then apparently didn’t save.
I learned Monday that I did not get my dream job and am dealing with the disappointment. It would have been a good challenge and would have financially helped my family so much.
Made bread and desserts to take to dad’s tonight. Collaborating with my sister in what to bring vs buy.
Received a cheese making kit and sourdough tools from friends. This will be nice in the cold winter months
Propogated a plant for my father’s girlfriend. Only cost was a nice pot.
Couldn’t get in to pt before end of year so used that money for a massage to help with muscle pain. Massage therapist gave me some exercises to help me out in the interim.
Got gas for 60c a gallon cheaper on the side of town I was running errands on.
Wishing you all a merry Christmas day, however you might celebrate.
Robbie
I am so sorry you didn’t get the job.
I do not have much to report this week – I am a Director at a large church and December is one of my busiest times of year. (I’m at work right now on Christmas Eve day.) It has been unusually warm here – 15 to 25 degrees above normal – and we have our central air running. I think Christmas Day will be between 80 and 85! I’d much rather have a stereotypical Hallmark Christmas, but it is not to be. We are making the best of it and will still enjoy the holiday.
Merry Christmas to all who celebrate!
I hope everyone had a restful holiday. My friend had a knee replacement just before Xmas so she ordered a fancy takeout dinner from a downtown hotel for Xmas. I looked online and it said prices started at $350. I kid you not. Surely her husband or one of the kids could have prepared dinner. I asked her how it was and she said delicious but too much food. Meantime back at the ranch I spent $25 on a turkey dinner that fed us all week. Clearly we have different spending priorities.
Reading the comments, it struck me that even those of us who are struggling, or making do, are givers. Helping so many others in the ways that we can. Looking at the world right now, it gives me hope. Many times in my life I didn’t know if I would have enough food for the kids, whether we would have a roof over our head in a month, or electricity. And sometimes we didn’t have electricity and I told the kids we were playing pioneer (which they remember fondly and had no idea about the electric). Things are better now and I can pay forward the blessings given me. Those times were what made me look for creative ways to provide for my family. These days, to be honest, I have lost some of it. Brandy, you and this community, really help me to get back to basics, to evaluate where the dollars go, to make do. I am incredibly grateful for this gift you make available to all of us, Brandy. Wishing all of you a very Merry Christmas and many blessings for the New Year.
Thank you to everyone for the inspiring posts. I need to be more intentionally frugal about Christmas next year! We do bring out the same decorations each year, just because they hold so many memories. We had family staying with us and enjoyed free activities with the granddaughter – local garden centre with massive tropical fish tank display, riverside walk, decorating the Christmas cake. My parents had borrowed an IKEA chair to see if it suited their needs before purchasing. I was lucky enough to see an identical one offered on a local group free, which we were able to pick up from the next village. Washed the removable covers and it is as good as new. Continuing to cook from scratch and crafting with supplies I already have.
So, I realized I posted to the blog
in November! I attribute that to no sleep and “sugar” brain during the holidays. Just so excited that this wonderful group is back together again!
Just a few quick comments. I have been raising all our lemons and limes for some time. I also have tangerine and grapefruit which have not matured enough to produce yet. They are in huge pots that I have inside in our Sunroom in the cold months and outside in the warm. I have so loved doing this and the difference in the fruit is amazing! I have also planted apple, pear, plum and peach trees. I fear this crazy weather we are having may damage the buds that have already appeared! 😢
Loved reading about everyone. The thing I love the most is that we are such a varied group, but with common goals. And Brandy, well she’s the best!
Take care. Onward y’all, by all means!