Frugal Friday

Yeah, I'm jumping on the alliteration wagon that is so common among bloggers. ;)

Frugal Fridays are going to have a post about the frugal things that I have done this week. There are a lot of things that I do that I don't realize are frugal until I mention them to someone else. I am a cheapskate by nature so some things just come to me by instinct. Frugal Fridays will help me to pause and reflect on my habits and maybe they will be able to bless someone else. :)

FRUGAL FOOD
This week we spent $65 on groceries and house stuff. That was mostly dairy and produce. We did buy some ice cream and two bags of chips. The kids love that we have an Aldi so mom can buy the fake doritos or sunchips there without blowing the budget. Our normal budget is $125 per week and includes all of the household stuff and medicine plus diapers and animal food.

I learned how to make a Vanilla Chai Frappe this week, I'll post the recipe next week. It's our new favorite fancy drink.

We made peach tea with the leftover peach syrup from our homecanned peaches. The kids love it. We've been focusing on drinking more water and herbal tea instead of dairy and juice for healthier and cheaper living. ;)

All of our leftovers became lunches for my husband.

I planned to use a venison roast as two meals. We had it for dinner with potatoes and carrots on Sunday night and then for dinner as a venison and barley soup with herbed biscuits on Thursday. I am working on perfecting my herb biscuits. They are almost as good as the cheddar biscuits at Ruby Tuesdays and they have no shortening and are half whole wheat.
 
I made homemade burger buns and french fries to go with our burgers this week instead of purchasing them ready made.

Frugal Cleaning

We use homemade laundry soap on a regular basis and I use bounce dryer sheets unscented cut in half for our anti-static needs. We used to use a bounce bar but I've found that they are not lasting nearly as long as they used to so we switched back to sheets.

I don't use paper towel or paper napkins. I have rags that can be rewashed or thrown out if needed and washable cloth napkins that get tossed in with our towels. We did use my stock of paper plates this week because I have been fighting a cold/sinus issue and standing up hurt.

I am a huge fan of Shaklee Basic H2 for All purpose spray, degreaser, and window wash. It lasts forever. I've had that bottle since NOVEMBER and use it all the time!! This week I ran out of dishsoap and just didn't have the time to get to the store so I did some googling (FROOGLE moment!) and discovered that you can use Basic H2 for dishwashing. I used about a half teaspoon per sinkfull of water and it works at least as well as the cheap dishsoap. I do love the New Dawn Platinum Power Clean soap but it's best saved for the really tough messes. That stuff is not cheap. I went through one bottle in about 6 weeks. Next month, I'm trying out the Shaklee dishwash and I'll let you know what I think.

We use good ol' hydrogen peroxide to clean the toilet and sinks in our bathroom. I sometimes use bleach but I have an allergy so hydrogen peroxide is my chemical of choice.

Frugal Fun

We spent a lot of time this week playing with scrap lumber and cardboard. My kids can be so creative.

Our "tv" time came from Hulu this week. I watched a couple of episodes of Bath Crashers while I was playing with yarn. We don't have the Hulu plus subscription at this time but I am thinking about it.

We were finally able to get out of the house and walk this week. We went to the library for some fun books on our current studies in reptiles and colonial life.

Frugal Hubby
We're also saving quite a bit this week on car repair, thanks to my husband's ability to fix things. Our bearings need to be replaced and doing it himself will save us at least five hundred dollars. :)


Have a blessed weekend!