Frugal Friday

 

“The smell of good bread baking, like the sound of lightly flowing water, is indescribable in its evocation of innocence and delight.” 

~M.F.K. Fisher

I've had a busy week and have spent most of my time getting ready for an upcoming event. However, I did manage to squeeze in time for some preserving of food to try and stretch our food dollars.

The price of eggs is skyrocketing and I try to purchase them when I see them at a good price. However, I don't have much room in my refrigerator. So I researched on how to preserve them and settled on freezing them.

One thing to keep in mind when freezing is to add either 1/8 tsp. of salt or sugar to the lightly scrambled egg to keep the yolk from turning gelatinous. I'll see how that works. From what I read, these should work great in baked goods.

I popped an egg in each cup of a silicone muffin pan.

I lightly scrambled each egg and added 1/8 tsp. salt. Then I popped it in the freezer for about 4 hours.

I removed the eggs from the silicone cups and put them in a freezer bag. When I'm ready to use them I just need to take out the amount of eggs I need and thaw. It's a great way to preserve the eggs and stock up when the price is good. 

I love fresh fruit in the summer but berries never lasts long in the refrigerator.  I've been storing them in glass jars and I find that it works wonders to keep them fresh longer. 

On a different note, deer have destroyed my plants. It drives me crazy because we live in the city where I didn't think it would be an issue. However, I came across this spray which stinks, but does the trick. It's not toxic and is a mix of egg, garlic oil and cloves as well as other natural ingredients. So far, the deer have stayed off my plants and my flowers are growing back! 

I'm thankful because it does no good to spend money on plants just to have them destroyed by critters! This was a bit pricy and I probably could have made it myself which I'll try to do next time. The nice thing about it is that it lasts a few days without reapplying. 

On Monday I went cherry picking with friend. I love fresh cherries, but they are expensive in the story. I ended up with 9.5 lbs. and they were $3 per lb. 

I ended up with 1/2 sour cherries and 1/2 sweet which was just enough to make two pies and two batches of cherry jam. I knew I wasn't going to have time this week to process all of them so I made a pie and then froze the rest to deal with at a later date. 

One way we save money is to eat at home. This is one of our favorite meals and I love the versatility of it. I just take whatever protein I have as well as whatever vegetables are on hand and it takes only about 15-20 minutes to make. 

My son requested sourdough pretzel bites the other day so I made some of those yesterday. These don't look really pretty but they were tasty. I am not afraid to try new things and find that I can make almost anything that I can buy in the store. I know the ingredients going into something and it's often much cheaper.

If you buy iced tea in the store it's expensive. I make my own sun tea which requires water and tea bags and that's it. I just fill up a glass container with cold water, add 3-4 tea bags and set it outside in a sunny spot. The sun does all the rest of the work and it doesn't use up your gas or electric. Just add whatever sweetener or herbs you want. Sometimes I'll add some peppermint leaves while it's steeping which gives it a nice flavor. 

Our anniversary was last Saturday and rather than spend a ton of money on a restaurant, I packed a picnic lunch. We went hiking and then sat at the edge of this reservoir and had a wonderful lunch together. It only cost about $3 to spend our special day enjoying the beauty.

See my muddy sneakers from our hike?

I had closed down my Etsy shop, but I have so much inventory so I decided that I would reopen that to get rid of some of it. I had a sale at church to get rid of some and raise money for an organization that is helping women around the world and was able to raise $300 for that.

However, I'm missing having that bit of extra money coming in for myself for extra things (clothes, haircuts, etc.) without dipping into our personal checking account. So I'm keeping the shop open to whittle down that sizeable inventory. 

I am working on building websites for a few of our district churches and that is also bringing in some extra cash. Every little bit helps. :-)

And I continue to work on staying within our budget and making ends meet. 

What are some ways that you have saved this week?