the Renaissance Housewife
  • Home
  • Topics
    • Saving >
      • Kitchen >
        • Food >
          • Recipes
      • Bath & Laundry
      • Medicine Cabinet
      • Office
      • Electricity
      • Gardening
      • Foraging
      • Animals
      • Weekly F. A.'s
      • Printables & Downloads
    • Earning
    • Investing
  • Books
  • About
    • RH Recommends
    • Newsletter & Updates
    • Travel
    • Beta Readers
    • Legal Stuff

Frugal Accomplishments This Week

4/10/2017

6 Comments

 
Picture
1. Shopping: I spent $22.44 this week on groceries. This was a little over budget for us (we do $10/person/week) but HAM was on sale! You can watch my Kroger haul below, and my Walmart haul here. ​
This week I spent almost as much money at Walmart, even though I got fewer items. That's because I shopped at Walmart for items that I "needed". Conventional wisdom is to always shop with a list. I don't make my list based around a meal plan or what we are going to use in the next week, like most people do. Instead, I make a list of what will be the best value at the store each week for my $20.00. I always spend more money on items that I urgently need, because I don't have time to wait for sales and coupons with those. 

I have been working a little harder at Kroger eCouponing (is that a thing?) but it's difficult because I have to "clip" the coupons on my phone, then write all of those coupons down, and then match my coupon list (with expiration dates) to sales. This week I saved $0.70 with eCoupons, and got two free items with additional eCoupons. These coupons were for vegetables, cream cheese, salsa, and a sugar-free/grain-free snack bar. Coupons are not just for junk food!

Note: I uploaded my videos without music this week. Sorry about the furnace going in the background! 

2. Sold two bars of soap and seven dozen eggs. My husband actually sold most of this to HIS customers! I think he is a better salesman than I am. :) It is so nice to have some hobby farm income again.

3. Made yogurt. I also used my discount ham to make ham broth for future meals. It was really easy to do- I just put the ham bone, some chicken feet, water and apple cider vinegar in the Instant Pot and let it do its thing.

4. FREE LIMES! My mom brought over three bags of limes to share with me. Over the weekend we had two potlucks, so I used some of the limes to make key lime pie. I am looking forward to finding uses for other two+ bags. What is your favorite way to use limes?

5. Scavenged a graham cracker crust. I was going to buy graham crackers, or a pre-made graham cracker crust for my key lime pie, but instead I used the crust from a boxed cheesecake mix that I had.

6. Collected cans. I have been trying to walk at least a mile every day for health reasons. This has been pretty profitable in terms of cans. If I vary my route, I can get at least two or three cans (worth $0.10 each). One day I walked two miles and came home with at least $1.00 worth! It doesn't sound like a lot, but 3 cans x 5 days = $1.50 per week. I think most weeks I can get more than that, especially if mix things up with a 3-4 mile bike ride here and there. 

7. Modified a piece of clothing to make it last longer.

8. Watched a show on Netflix. For the past few weeks we have been watching "The Great British Bake Show". The first season was excellent! The show is very clean, educational, but still fun to watch because of the competitive nature. The second season has been less interesting (I feel like they were not as picky about their contestants), but still fun to watch.

I think that is about it for the week! What were some of your frugal accomplishments?
6 Comments
Esther
4/10/2017 12:24:00 pm

Or not frugal? My goal was to only spend $4 last week and use it on milk. The problem was we were down to our last stick of butter at the beginning of the week, we were hosting 7 dinner guests Wednesday, we normally provide a snack for guests Thursday evening, and had a boy spend the weekend with us. In order to host effectively and not be stingy, I ended up spending around $12, because I also bought 2 doz. eggs, 1 lb. butter, and a bag of popcorn seeds.

Reply
Bethany
4/10/2017 03:37:06 pm

Oh, Esther. $8 over with dinner guests. Tsk tsk. ;) That's still frugal!! Were the popcorn seeds for eating or growing?! Popcorn is on my someday garden list. But probably not this year.

Reply
Esther
4/19/2017 04:32:32 pm

They were for eating. It makes for a fun, cheap snack. I'm not quite ready to grow my own at this point, but I'm sure we'll do it one day!

Juls Owings link
4/10/2017 03:47:03 pm

Lime juice in black beans or salsa is how I use most of mine but I have in the past made lime curd (like Lemon curd) .I zest my limes before juicing and then freeze the juice in ice cube trays. On my phone my clipped coupons at Krogers goes to a list that I click on,it's in the menu. click coupons and then click on My coupons tab.

Reply
Bethany Bontrager link
4/11/2017 01:21:19 pm

Thanks for the suggestions, Juls! Today for lunch we tried some fresh-squeezed lime juice over tacos and it was AMAZING! I was surprised at how much flavor the lime added.

Reply
K. McGarrett link
4/11/2017 01:15:31 pm

$10 per person per week is about as extreme budgeting as you can get. Must be hard to eat nutritiously but easier in the U.S. than Canada. I linked to lots of beans and rice recipes in my recent post which would help with that budget.

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    Bethany

    Housewife, happy wife, and mama to one. :)

    Picture

    Picture
    The Housewife's Guide to Frugal Food
    How to Eat for $10.00
    ​per Week

    Picture
    The Housewife's Guide to Menu Planning
    A Weekly Menu to Save
    Time & Money
    Picture
    The Housewife's Guide to
    Frugal Fruits and Vegetables

    No Garden? No Problem!

    Watch Meals From the Bunker:

    Picture

    Check out my Youtube Channel!

    RSS Feed


    Picture
    Baby Girl's Birth Story
    Picture
    8 Cheap Ways to Eat Healthy
    Picture

    Categories

    All
    Animals
    Book Reviews
    Books
    Christmas
    Cleaning
    Clothing
    Cooking
    Couponing
    Education
    Ego
    Electricity
    Farmers Market
    Finance
    Foraging
    Frugal
    Frugal Accomplishments
    Frugality
    Garage Sales
    Gardening
    Gifts
    Grocery Budget
    Grocery Shopping
    Herbs
    History
    Hobby Farm
    Home Based Business
    Home-based Business
    Home Decorating
    Housekeeping
    Industry
    Languages
    Laundry
    Marriage
    Meal Planning
    Medicine
    Minimalist
    Network Marketing
    Organization
    Plants
    Product Reviews
    Quotes
    Recipes
    ROI
    Rv
    Sewing
    Simplicity
    Spanish
    Spending Report
    Travel

    Archives

    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    August 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014

    Full Disclosure & Disclaimer

    Picture
    Picture
    I get cash back for many online purchases including wedding gifts and Ebay stuff!

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
Photos used under Creative Commons from dasWebweib, amanessinger, thewritingreader, diakosmein