Frugal Friday Week #28
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I always feel like I post many how-to’s and not many “real lifes”. Although I do try and incorporate that into my newer posts, I’ve often thought that it might be even more helpful for my readership to get a better glimpse inside of what our simple/homestead/from scratch/frugal life really looks like.
Frugal Friday Week #28
So I’ve started a new series called Frugal Friday and need your help. My idea for this series is to share some of the projects/recipes/things we worked on this week and, in general, just what life looks like.
I need your help because I’ve tried something similar before, and I gave up after a while. I got bored, felt like no one was reading it or cared, and I moved on to other projects. So what I need you to do each week is to share what your week looked like in the comments section. I think it could keep us ALL accountable and may serve as an encouragement to others!
So let’s dive right into this week!
Meal Highlights
It was another bad week of me not keeping track of meals! We were gone part of the week for a short trip, so we ate mostly packed sandwiches and snacks that I already had in the pantry and only ate out one meal.
For this weekend I’ll be putting in a big roast in the crockpot and making it so that we have plenty of leftovers (this is our heavy work week with our business). I’ve got some tips on How To Stretch a Roast here.
At home, we are still mostly eating heavily from the pantry and the freezer to continue to eat things down.
Shopping We Did
I got a small Azure order last week (wild rice, pumpkin seeds, dried cranberries, and a few other things) to be able to make some meals with things I already have.
I also had the chance to stop at Trader Joe’s while we were gone this week. I love that store but didn’t want to buy too much since we are trying to eat things down! I got a few additions for our meals, like hashbrowns, gluten-free English muffins, and some canned beans.
We had a big spend this week and that was because we had to order a new stove and sink for our camper that we are remodeling. I believe it’s supposed to arrive tomorrow…now we need a place to put them!
How We Lived Frugal This Week
A big part of our week was dedicated to having a yard sale. While we still have quite a bit left (mostly clothes and blankets) that I plan on donating, we ended up selling a good amount and *I think* made enough for the entire camper renovation. That was my goal so I was pretty excited it went so well!
Other frugal things we did this week was to pack food for our mini trip so we didn’t spend much while away. Stayed out of any expensive stores or places that would tempt us to spend unnecessarily, and we’ve also been good lately about making our own fun. (Such as taking the kids to play near a spring and small pond and observe wildlife for the afternoon.)
Blog Posts I Wrote
- Easy Pumpkin Cake Recipe – This is a really simple recipe I posted this week on how to make a pumpkin cake without expensive ingredients like milk, eggs, or butter!
- My Granny’s Peach Kuchen Recipe – I used this post in case you still have some peaches to use up. SO good!
Looking Ahead to Next Week
Next week we have more traveling we have to do (Children’s Hospital for our son) so that will take up part of the week. Otherwise, we will be staying here and working on the camper remodel….I might even be able to convince my hubby to take us all out tenting if the nights don’t get too cold!
So tell me….what did life look like for you this week? What did you do, make, or plan to do?
Merissa has been blogging about and living the simple life since 2009 and has internationally published 2 books on the topic. You can read about Merissa’s journey from penniless to now on the About Page. You can send her a message any time from the Contact Page.
Keep up the posts! They inspire me 😃
About 5 years ago I ordered a baby cherry tree from a nursery and planted it in the yard. Two years, just growing. Two years, pink flowers. This year, a big crop of…peaches?! I contacted the nursery and they apparently sent me the wrong tree all that time ago. Oh well, I still got tasty fruit. I may have to use that peach recipie… 🙂
I cleaned out my garden to get ready for fall planting. I am still not great at gardening but I get a little better every year. Haven’t been able to do much else this week with the busyness of the 9-5 but I am always looking for ideas to be more frugal. Thanks for all you do! I’ve been following you for years!
Hi, I enjoy your platform and also look forward to your Frugal Friday post. About the only time I have to really check my emails and enjoy them is Saturday mornings, mostly.
My husband and I are both 69. We moved into a home that needed quite a bit of updating and repair, 6 years ago.
This is the first year I get to actually go through my packed and stored precious keedpsakes. Each and every week, this house has been ‘our job’ or ‘mostly mine’. The weather has been kind to everyone here this week, so I feel like we have accomplished soooo much more. It’s such a drag dealing with the heat. But we still do things. Think small steps are better than standing still.
My Friday/Saturday emails from you, are looked forward to. I have my excuse to take that nice break from my to-do days, to just think on you and your adventures.
Thank you, and Good Luck With Your New Adventure.
p.s. I admire your family
Hi there always happy to see an email from you! I have started writing down what we have had for meals each day. Reverse meal planning, I guess. My adult kids have been here helping us get our house ready for the next step. Originally, they came to help us move to another state. We backed out of that move and lost our earnest money in the process. We have rethought our plan in doing this, but it was the best choice for us at that time. Still is. We have much to do here to get this house ready for the idea of moving or even the idea of us staying here indefinitely.
The outside yard has been our focus and a lot of work by the adult kids has made a big difference. There is still a lot to do before we turn our focus to the inside. Amazing how much stuff accumulated in the course of 30+ years of living on a property! This week’s meals were pretty simple, Chicken pot pie, loaded baked potato soup, chicken stir fry, spaghetti and meatballs, homemade pizza and chicken and dumplings so far. We are still trying to use up stuff from the pantry and the freezer. I found wheat berries online and they arrived this week, so exciting for me. We had two big eating out spend days when help arrived to work on the yard and when my sister and nephew came through town on their way home to Michigan.
Things I bought were some needed tools for the work in the yard, extra work gloves for the helpers, wire cutters, box knives, extra reach tools for picking up stuff off of the ground. All in all, it was not a “frugal” week. However, these are all things that will help us get ready for the next step in our journey.
I canned pasta sauce, glazed carrots, dehydrated potato cubes, and stayed out of stores.
Besides taking care of my grandgirls, ages almost-two and almost-four, I have been working at reducing the ‘stuff’ in our cellar! Things go there with the intention of being used again, and many things are! But often, years later, some things are still sitting there! For example, I found over 80 coffee mugs in various boxes! Do I, or did I at one point, really like them? Yes! Do I need 80 more mugs than what I already have in my cupboard? NO! So, I’ve washed them and they will be rehomed to places that can use them. I’ve been starting to sew little gifts for the family in preparation for the holidays. Mostly just simple items like dishtowel toppers, bowl cozies, and pillow cases. But right now I’m on my way to the kitchen to try your recipe for pumpkin zucchini bread! Can’t wait!
Your family had a busy week, and you still got so much accomplished. Yeah!!! This week I harvested peppers and herbs. Some of the peppers were pickled, but most of them were prepped for freezing. I did a little baking (maple oat scones), some mending (rip in my PJs), learned how to make my very own Boursin cheese ( it is considerably cheaper to make your own), made a lot of sun dried tomatoes (in the oven), and hit the farm stand for some fresh local corn before the season ends. This weekend is football, of course, and I will be making Autumnal scented candles for myself and a few others. It’s gonna smell good around here!
Inspired by you this week I was determined to use food only from our small garden and pantry. The only thing I allowed myself to buy was milk and eggs. We ate things like lentil soup, pumpkin waffles, chickpea salad, even salsa thanks to the garden. Thanks for inspiring me! We definitely needed this break from spending.
Life wasn’t as frugal as we’d hoped this week, as we had a problem with our fish tank and had to immediately prep the larger 30 gal tank and move the occupants in about two months ahead of schedule. Luckily we have emergency funds handy so the expense was covered, now we just have to put the savings back once we have work income again.
I spent around $20 buying some used winter clothes for the kids (leggings, sweat pants, hoodies), but I also sold a vintage doll the same day (I resell on eBay and similar platforms) so I immediately made $16 of it back. God is good!
I’ll spend the weekend meal planning for the upcoming week, harvesting some of our garden produce for winter, and watching plenty of football. We also visited our library’s annual booksale last weekend so I’ve a nice hearty stack of books set aside for the winter months ahead.
Our cats are curious too. Glad your yard sale was a success. My son was a size 4T for almost 2 years. Yard sale finds were good then, but there were many boys that age in our area at that time. Now he is an adult. Basil is well loved here so I dried 5 glass jars of it so far. I made a round steak. It was divided among rice, spices, and round steak for my son and vegetable barley soup with meat for my husband and me. Going to a cross stitch class at library tomorrow.
My friend Diane and I went to a monthly Day for Girls making feminine hygiene bags for Africa. The stuff was gorgeous…..material, ribbons, supplies. We were tying the ribbons on the drawstring bags for 3 hours.
Quilting for world relief starts Tuesday. We tie quilts. Diane is a new member while I have done this for years. Been listening to cozy mysteries on Libby app. I love both Kindle and Libby app. Bookbub, Fussylibrarian and Bookdoggy……are sites where I find free books. If book is 99 cents or more, I look to Libby first. I rarely buy a book. Back to laundry…..
I trimmed my scrubs. Pulled up squash in garden since they were about gone. The most fun thing I dug my sweet potatoes. I love growing potatoes they are hiding under the dirt I never know what I will find!! I saved a sweet potato from last year, made my own plants so my cost was zero for 30 pounds grown in a 4×8 raised bed
I’ve been making small batches of soup and then freeze in single and larger containers.
I discovered cottage cheese ice cream that is very good. 2 cups of cottage cheese is the right size for 1 or 2. I’ve made many batches of several flavors. 10 brat patties for $10 I purchased. That makes many meals, soup, sandwiches, breakfast
Living on social security only has you doing what you can to stretch those dollars.
I work full time so I started cooking my meals on Saturday with foods to last me through the week. It’s just me at home. This week I made sloppy Joe, homemade bread, steak w/ Skillet fried potatoes.Green beans and carrots from my garden too. I just planted more green beans and carrots for my fall garden. They’re great for soups in the winter. I try to do 15 minutes a day in my garden whether it’s picking weeds, mulching and harvesting. This weekend I plan on going through my pantry and freezers. I need to update my list that I keep on my freezers to know what’s in there, So I can meal plan accordingly. I’m very glad I found you, I love your ideas and recipes. Thank you so much for sharing. I’ve been working on this for the last couple of years. Really enjoy learning new skills. Love making homemade breads, sourdough breads, preserving from my garden, learning new recipes. Next week I’m going to make stuffed green peppers. I’m in the city and haven’t been able to find a place in the country yet. I decided not to wait. I bought four chickens this summer and I’m waiting for them to have eggs. Super exciting. It’s the little things… Have a beautiful and blessed weekend.
Cleaning the barn, cutting and hauling wood for the woodshed, pickled beets, made apple cider vinegar, freezer apple slices and freezer pesto.
Sold 3 pairs of shoes off ebay. Sold unused fishing equipment at farmer’s market booth and will sell my parent’s bicycles next.
Playing with my new to me Instant Pot…loving it! My cousin bought one the same week, so we made a list of recipes to try and check back with each other to share.
Here in Australia the weather is starting to warm up, trees are leafing up ,flowers are in bloom🥰 I live on a 600 acre farm. Anyone who farms knows that it’s a mugs game. Very hard to make a living on a small block so hubby and I both have in town jobs as well.
We try to live fairly frugally. I bake slices,cakes and muffins for work and school smoko. I cook all our meals at home, only occasionally having takeaway.
My two daughters are in high school and take a packed lunch each day. I try to make them some thing other than sandwiches every day. Usually involving leftovers or putting leftovers in puff pastry and baking them. Same same but different 🙃.
Love your site, keep up the great job you are doing here🤗
Hi Megan!
I loved your post and I am always delighted how phrases differ from place to place. I looked up “slices”, I think those are what we call “bars”, as in “lemon bars” or “granola bars”. “Mugs game” was a new phrase to me and I totally agree that farming/growing food can be a mugs game! What does “school smoko” mean?
Thanks for a great post!
Used veggies from frig to make stir fry to freeze, put left over coffee in frig for ice coffee for next day, used can of apple pie filling about to expire to make apple Betty,tuna casserole for dinner, peppers on sale so stuffed peppers and rice, pork on sale b1g2 so pork roast and sweet potatoes for supper enough left for sandwiches
Hi Merissa,
I really enjoyed reading your blog post. It’s interesting reading about how and what other families do to be frugal. The cost of living here in Australia has risen dramatically in the last year. For instance, the cost of power had increased by 30 – 50% depending on where you live. All our food including pet food has gone up noticeably. We’re having simpler meals, hanging the washing out, not going to the movies nor are we eating out. Once a week we buy a MacDonald’s meal deal and have a picnic up at our local show grounds or we visit the cafe at our local zoo for coffee. The cafe is outside the zoo entry so there is no entry fee. My daughter has just had a baby and she has been scouring the local buy and sell pages to get cheap baby supplies. Looking forward to reading more blog posts. Cheers, Sarah
You were the first place that I found online that inspired me to with less stuff. We had just moved into our new 700 sq ft house, and I had internet access for the first time in my life. I googled living in a little house, and your website came up first. I think you were redoing the trailer house kitchen at the time. I’m looking forward to seeing your moving process again!
I wish your post came through for me on Fridays, I get it Saturday mornings. Oh well, another day won’t hurt.
Frugal things this last week—
1. Spent $100 at Meijer & $159 at Sam’s club stocking up on sale items & items needed. With prices higher & lack of availability here, I usually only buy sale items & what need now. Luckily got Tyson chicken strips on sale (Members Mark changed to different producer & not same quality), oil for my truck, kleenex (that time of year), muffins & more (I can’t remember right now).
2. My neighbor husband funeral was this week & I took food/muffins to them. So grateful for yummy food that they enjoyed. Also took other neighbors watermelon I had picked on Labor day (sale) but teen did not eat.
3. Stopped at few yard sales & found Ax ($5) with predrilled hole in handle to hang up (yeah!) that was not super heavy, antique restaurant shaker (& have sugar one coming soon) that have been looking for!!, tall plastic green flower urn for display, small heavy glass jars. Still have list of few items looking for, but almost end of season & not even on clearance at stores.
4. Ordered Legos on Target.com @ 20% off that had looked at last week (in store but did not get because not sale) & got free shipping plus earned credit for my free $15 gift card. Now need to figure out how to transfer Target Lego purchase to Lego.com for my reward points. Lego succulents will be built & put in one of gallon size heavy glass containers with handle to display.
5. Still not feeling good this week & went to Apple valley to pick up Oil of Oregano & clerk was lind enough to give me $5 off $40 purchase coupon they had in local paper (I used to get but had not in last year but went & picked up paper as was told now only certain week of month coupon available). Coupon good through end of month so will see if need anything else or give coupon to another person.
6. My 31 has some of the most popular bags & related items that some become sold out quickly. I have been watching for iconic camper coin zipper pouch & was finally able to purchase NWT for $15 (original price when was sold) instead of $40+. I had purchased used one (for now Ex husband) few years ago (actually part of last (Easter) gift he got from me) $10 so thrilled to get this one. I had been patiently persistent in asking & watching for months now. Glad to finally get one.
I love this so much. Your frugal living tips help and encourage me so much. I grew up this way thinking we were poor but turns out my mom was just being very frugal so keep up the posts.
Love your blog. Have been learning so much. Thank you. My main plan is to eat out of my freezer and pantry, the things that need to go first.
Frugal Franny.
I love the idea of frugal fridays!! This week I cleaned out the freezer and used up some stuff in there that I had forgotten about.
April
I went to a cross stitch class at library. I plan to stitch a design on waste canvas so I can put designs on some shirts. I told my friends at the class. This has been a dream of mine for a while. I cross stitched elaborate pictures for gifts 30 years ago. They recommended a YouTube site floss tubes, but I prefer quick directions. But I may use both videos and YouTube.
Finding your website is the best and most frugal thing I’ve done today/this week. I just put a hold on your book at the library and I cannot wait to dive in! I look forward to reading more of your frugal Friday posts!
Trust me, people are reading your posts! I always enjoy reading your emails and I use a lot of your recipes.
This week, I had to get creative with the extra zucchini that I had. I grated a bunch and froze some in ice cube trays to be used in soups or zucchini recipes in the future. I had some ginger that I used to make homemade ginger ale and separated the solid ginger from the liquid and made a ginger/zucchini bread with lots of cinnamon, allspice and cloves too. The rest of the processed ginger is in small batches to be frozen for later use. I also made a zucchini lasagne, alternating lasagne noodles with sliced zucchini and homemade pasta sauce from our abundance of tomatoes. I made zucchini relish and shared it with my workmates. Busy, frugal week, as you have taught us!
Sounds like your plans areoving along. I’m praying on moving back near family, soon, and whatever belongings the Lord allows. I’m not minimalist like you, but you are inspiring me to be much more practical in what I bring into my home.
Hi, new here but finding it interesting.
I live on a small mountain in NH with 12 acres and a year round stream of water filtered through the granite our state is known for. I’ve been here a few years, there was a lot of land work that had to be done, now we’re focusing on the 1790 house. Yes, 1790!
I grow most of my herbs, food and medicinal, and do some wild crafting, got a bonanza in turkey tail mushrooms this year. Looking at possibly adding chickens (which I’ve had before) given the dismal-ish future (is that a real word?).
My approach the last couple of years is centered around the concepts of Simplicity and Minimalism. Despite my own time in the back to the land trenches, I know there’s always something that can be learned so I’m looking forward to roaming around here.
Now I’m going to ask a favor! At the top of this post is a picture (cute cat!) showing some open shelving that I JUST LOVE!. It’s exactly what I think I want for my pending panty reno. Any chance there are more pictures of that room showing the shelving set up?
Keeping my fingers crossed!