Frugal Friday Week #34
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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 #34
So I’ve started a 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!
Side Note: If you missed the last weeks, I reshared that we are currently in the process of selling the homestead to move into a tiny home (camper) to travel and do ministry work in rural places.
Meal Highlights
I won’t lie; this week was a mixture of all kinds of things, as we are almost done eating up the random stuff from the pantry.
We had pizza, I made a rice and chicken dish with canned tomatoes and green chilis (served on tortillas), and then we also had several “pick your own” dinners that I mentioned before. Basically, I’ve been letting the kids pick out things they want for supper and we eat a bunch of random things. It makes for some interesting meals but it’s a GREAT way to eat up those random jars of this and that you might have around.
We also had a big family dinner/get-together this week and did burgers with lots of sides.
Shopping We Did
I just went to the store once this week and that was to pick up some new pillows for the kids and some storage containers I needed. I had 10% off my purchase at Target so I used that.
I almost forget…I also got in an Azure order this week and an order from Thrive Market. The Thrive order was free with credits and a discount code they emailed me and I paid about $80 for my Azure after credit. I stocked up on some things that will go right into the camper. Here’s more details on Azure and more on Thrive Market.
How We Lived Frugal This Week
My final Subscribe and Save order arrived today. If you haven’t heard of Subscribe and Save, it’s a program from Amazon where you can put items on a monthly order list (or every other month or whatever schedule you need) and you save up to 15%. I’ve gotten most of our vitamins and supplements this way plus some specialty food items (like our Sunbutter) this way for years.
The rest of our solar also arrived this week which my husband had ordered. He will be installing it on the camper in the coming week. When we decided to travel again, we knew that: A. We didn’t want to be a burden on anyone or any place we were staying and helping at. And B. We couldn’t afford to do campgrounds all the time (have you seen the nightly prices lately?!).
Our RV is already partially set up for solar, but we are adding 2 more panels and lithium batteries. I can do a post on our setup sometime if you are interested.
I printed our “Every Kid Outdoors” Pass so that we can get into all the National Parks this year for free (since we have a 4th grader). I’m sure the pass will come in handy!
We went to the library for one last time to get a few more books (mostly because I had one that the library ordered for me, and I really wanted to read it!). I wish libraries had some kind of temporary card so we would be able to check out paper books when we travel, but we will have to just be okay with spending a day at local libraries when we are near one and reading what we can. Digital books are fine when necessary, but nothing replaces a paper book!
Blog Posts I Wrote This Week
I didn’t have much time this week to do my writing but here’s what I did get done!
- Orange Julius Recipe – This is a crazy easy recipe to make a healthier (less expensive) version of an Orange Julius drink. Remember those?
- How Long Does Homemade Banana Bread Last? – This is a new blog post with tips and tricks on how to store your homemade quick breads and make them last as long as possible.
- Homemade Egg Rolls – This is a yummy recipe! You can freeze these too and make freezer meals for later.
Looking Ahead to Next Week
It’s all about the packing this coming week! We have a lot to finish up. I think we will also have one more “garage sale” if the weather holds out and try and get rid of a few more odds and ends that we don’t need to keep.
I also need to make some travel food and have the ingredients for granola, trail mix, and that kind of thing. I might make a couple of freezer meals as well to save myself some headaches. If you have suggestions for healthy travel day food, please let me know in the comments! I’ve been compiling a list.
Favor to ask….As I posted on Facebook and Instagram, I’m looking for article submissions for the coming weeks when we get even busier for a bit. You can learn more here.
Merissa Alink
Merissa has been blogging about and living the simple and frugal life on Little House Living since 2009 and has internationally published 2 books on the topic. You can read about Merissa’s journey from penniless to freedom on the About Page. You can send her a message any time from the Contact Page.
Merissa, I am sure you don’t want to eat out, but I have heard that Cracker Barrel has a program where you can either rent or check out(I forget which one) music to listen to and then return it at another location. You might be interested in that. There might be a similar program somewhere for books.
I’ll look into it!
Thanks for the information. I’m a new reader who looks forward to getting your email letters. I’m 70 and had to move to a small apartment recently. I’m on a fixed income so your ideas are a treasure. I have both of your books and find them very helpful. God looks out for me and with your help I am navigating the changes in my life. I feel like you are a new friend.
Welcome Brenda! This is a great place to be!
Hi! I really enjoy your frugal Friday posts! Could you share the black bean dip recipe? Always looking for another good dip recipe!
Yes I can! I’ll work on getting it up on the blog next week when I make it again.
Good Morning Merissa,
I am loving your weekly Frugal Friday updates. It is the first thing I read on Friday mornings as I enjoy my 1st cup of coffee for the day. I would love to have your recipe for the black bean dip that you mentioned in today’s post. I LOVE black beans. I’m excited to follow along on your new adventures.
Greetings! This post really got me yearning for smoothies again! I will definitely put them back on the menu for breakfast.
I would love the black bean dip recipe and it gave me an idea that would maybe help you out in these busy times. Why don’t you do it as a mini-post: a greeting, the recipe, “a new-post-coming-soon”, and you’re done and you’re readers have a new recipe and a feeling of connection! Also, I will send a submission and ideas for submissions this week. No hard feelings if rejected. It’s time we give you some support!
Hello – It sounds like you have been busy getting ready for your travels. How exciting!
Would you post your black bean recipe when you have time? Thank you.
Also – what is the image of the cake at the bottom of this post? Recipe?
I have been stocking up at our local dent/scratch store. They had a 40% off sale for the entire month of October. My husband thought I was crazy, but a can of soup, beans, chili and more cost us less than .40 each. Great savings and the best buy date on most was out to 2026.
Also found a 12 pack of vegetables (beans, corn, diced tomatoes) on sale at our local grocery store, so stocked up some more.
I haven’t canned before so I stock up on canned goods, hoping to learn next year.
Wishing you a wonderful day and weekend. Blessings.
Yes, I’ll work on getting up the bean dip recipe next week. 🙂 The yummy thing at the bottom of the post is actually my Creamy Banana Bread recipe 🙂
I don’t know if it’s the same in the USA but when I worked in a library in the UK (years ago), people were able to use their library card temporarily in a different county, if for example you were on holiday. It did have to be returned to the issuing library though. Hope they still do that, it would be great for you if they do that where you are.
We have FREE little libraries in our area of Minnesota. Take a book or leave a book. That might be a good option for you!
Hi Merissa:
I’ve never heard of having solar panels with a camper. That is a really cool idea so that you can have essentially free power while you travel. I don’t know if the United States has this but many communities in Canada have “little libraries” where people have little book shelters built on their property and you can take books, leave books in either the same or a different location. It’s all free. I have 3 in my neighbourhood and raid them first for books that I may want to read for travelling. I get kid books this way too.
Made a list so I would remember what our family did this week. But first, quilting friend made pumpkin cookies with cream cheese frosting and a candy corn on top.
A. Neighbors gave us more bushels of a variety of apples for eating, apple crisp, applesauce, and juice. Made apple crisp and applesauce so far. Son takes 2 apples in work lunch.
B. Cooked last of spinach and cauliflower, dehydrated dill, made beef barley soup, and baked 2 pans of 59 cents per lb chicken.
C. Cut up rags from holey t-shirts and too long quilt tops/bottoms.
D. Son replaced kitchen faucet by watching YouTube and dad’s help. We have hard water.
E. First snow on Halloween.
F. Read The Measure and The Maid. Prefer cozy mysteries or Christian fiction, but these were for book clubs.
H. Tied quilts and attended book to art club. Nice to see quilting and club friends.
I. Husband does bargain grocery shopping.
Looking forward to hearing about your ministry travels and projects.
I would love to see the solar setup!
Merissa,
You have been busy!
Well, my week has been crafting and making stuff to sell at a local Christmas Craft Show. As far as handy frugal helpers I was going to post this off-grid genius last week, but forgot. Friends of ours got us a Sasquatch (alive in the PNW?) Stove Tec last year and we love it. It is very handy all year long, but especially in the darker winter days when the solar power isn’t as beefy as in the summer. You can cook soups, stews, etc. in the main container or anything in a cast iron skillet/Dutch oven over the bottom of it. You build a fire in the bottom with thin, short pieces of wood and feed it throughout your cooking time. We have all the fire wood in the world here, so it’s no expense to operate, doesn’t drain our batteries, and is just plain old fashion fun.
Healthy travel foods. Yogurt with ice pack and spoons. Frozen juice in water bottles. Go to and look for discount food stores and look for inexpensive snack bars and fruit. Make some oatmeal bites, before leaving, if you can. Camp food ideas work too.
hello, ive been a watcher of your emails for quite a while, im very frugal, but you always seem to write about ideas ive never thought of, this week was very tight with budget, our electric bill was overdue and that balance needed to be paid before shut off. to help cut costs this week, I made meals for the hubby instead of him buying at his work (convieance store ), also breaking down trips to just when im already out and about, using gas rewards when i needed a fuel up,
I always enjoy hearing about your week’s activities!
I know you will be trying to keep possessions to a minimum when you travel, but when you visit libraries (and cannot check out books, boo!) be sure to check out the book sales most of them have. Some will be large, some small but all are very inexpensive ($.10 for children’s books in some places) and are a great way to grab some nice paper books without a library card. Then when you finish reading them, you can donate them to the library closest to where you are at the time and get some more. Depending on the library, some may even agree to a swap where you exchange your books for ones they have already instead of purchasing. It never hurts to ask!
Little Free Libraries are a great idea. They ARE in the U.S. Here’s their website – https://littlefreelibrary.org/
They have a searchable map to find ones near you. You can take books and put books in.
I’ve been reading off and on, really liking what your saying. Good luck on your travels. God bless 🙏
Hi! My husband is an evangelist and we travel full time so we do not have access to libraries to check out books. We do have kindle unlimited but also I go to thrift stores and check out the books there. You can buy them very reasonable. Read them then pass them on or find somewhere you can trade them in.
When I took my two kids to Washington, D.C. some years ago, knowing we would have to stand in line for awhile, I planned a healthy breakfast that we could mostly put into pockets.
There was a box of frozen croissants which thawed in the hot sun very quickly, yogurt Yoplait cups, small OJ bottles, & various fruits. While some items healthier than others, this gave the kids something to do to occupy themselves, so the wait in line seemed shorter. BTW, one of the lines was to get tickets for I think the White House, so we could get to pick the time we wanted (get there very early!)! Note: much of Smithsonian’s buildings are free. We loved the museum with the huge mastadon at the entrance! DC is a very “mostly free” city! At that time, free buses started at the Pentagon & went all over the town. Wish I’d thought to bring hard boiled eggs!