Frugal Friday

“There is no dignity
quite so impressive,
and no independence
quite so important,
as living within your means." 

~ Calvin Coolidge

I haven't done a Frugal Friday post in quite a while so thought that it was a good choice on this last day in November.

We've had a very tight few months and it's hard not to feel anxious about finances. I don't have much control over things like cars breaking down. With cars that have over 200,000 miles on them has been happening more and more. I can't control the cost of medical expenses or other fixed bills. One of the few areas of our finances I have control over is our grocery budget.

I went grocery shopping the week before Thanksgiving so my refrigerator is really pretty bare. However, I've been able to be creative, plus use my pantry items and the bit of meat that's left in the freezer to come up with some good dishes. I'm going grocery shopping tomorrow so there will be rejoicing among the snackers in my house. lol

Here are some ways I've saved this week:

$ It's that time of the year when I have to either stick with the health plan we have or choose a new plan. We are on the New York State health plan and basically have to use all of our tax credit in order for the church to afford the monthly premium. This year I noticed that on the same plan the monthly fee almost doubled!  So I chose a plan with a higher out of pocket deductible, but a less expensive monthly fee then we are currently paying. We will just pray for a healthy year!

$ I use up my fabric scraps in many ways and these coffee cup sleeves are one of the ways. These were waiting for the buttons to be sewn on. They slide on the cup and protect your hands from take-out cups of hot coffee.



$ I have to laugh when I go shopping for anything because I start out putting things in my cart and then my frugality kicks in and I start second guessing whether I really need something or not and end up putting 95% back. That happened the other day when I thought maybe I should buy some garland for our tree. I put it in the cart, along with a few other decorations and then decided I'd stick with what we have. After all, I don't want to waste money on the commercial trappings of Christmas! I think our tree looks beautiful just the way it is.

$ I made Italian bread back on the weekend and it's getting stale. But I'm going to take it, slice it in half, add pizza sauce and mozzarella cheese and turn it into pizza for lunch. At other times, I've toasted it and then used the food processor to turn it into bread crumbs and keep them in the freezer for when I need them.

$ Every year for Christmas eve service I give out a gift to every family in our church. One year it was homemade mini-loaves of sweet bread, another year it was cookies, last year I think I did caramel corn. My brain has already formulated an idea and it will be homemade, but delicious!

$ Most of my week has been spent in a sewing frenzy, but other than one night when we went to visit a friend in the hospital, I make myself stop and formulate a dinner plan so we don't fall into the take-out food trap.

$ Every now and then I think I should purge most of my craft items that I've had for years. But I do use it for my children's programs at church on a regular basis. I also use them when I need a creative item for a woman's event or just in my own crafting use. There is nothing worse than throwing something out to discover you need it at some point and then have to repurchase it.

$ I brought the gifts we were giving to Christmas to the extended family we saw at Thanksgiving. Every year, the shipping costs me almost more than the gifts did! So this year since we were seeing them in person, I took them with me. I'll be mailing gifts to the family we didn't see.

$ Trying to come up with gift ideas for adult children, especially men, is difficult. Some of the things I know they would like, I can't afford. However, this week a few ideas popped into my head that won't break the bank. Obviously, I'm not going to post them yet as I wouldn't want to ruin the surprise! lol

So that's pretty much it for this week. We are hosting an open house next Saturday and I'm looking forward to making some delicious items without breaking the bank. I've done it many times before so I know it's doable!