Frugal Friends’ Friday!

“Use it up, wear it out, make do or do without!”

Happy Friday and Happy Weekend! Here’s to each weekend getting warmer and warmer

“Don’t waste money buying the foaming hand cleaner refills, which are mostly water.  Once you have the dispenser, make you own refill buy squirting some liquid hand soap in the bottom, and add water (only to fill line on back of dispenser).  Shake. Let foam settle and you’re ready to go.  I haven’t measured amounts–I just put in enough liquid hand soap to cover the bottom of the dispenser.”   Patti, Wakeman OH

-Great idea! You can also find these foam soap dispensers sold separately- So keep your eyes open this spring at the garage sales! If you coupon, you might be able to score a foaming soap dispenser (full of soap for FREE.

“Ditch paid TV = more family time and less $. Get movies and books at the library instead or try www.hulu.com. There are tons of free tv shows there – new and old! We don’t even miss the cable!!” – Amanda, Kipton OH

- Oh my goodness why have I not done a post on this yet? We don’t have cable either! We watch shows a day after they air on Hulu.com…though we have to watch them on the computer. We also belong to Netflix (the 2nd most basic suscription) and get free instant movies from them that we stream through our game system onto the TV. We basically pay $11 a month for TV entertainment! There are even ways to stream Hulu.com onto your TV. Just google it and see if your computer and TV are compatible. (Honey, is there anything you’d like to add?).

Thats it for this week- And if you do anything that saves money for your family this week, be sure to let me know. Your tip could be featured in next week’s Frugal Friends’ Friday, but more importantly, you’ll be helping all of us save a few more pennys. That is awesome! Just email me at frugalmegan@gmail.com. We’d love to hear from you!

Here’s to living- happier, healthier, more FRUGAL lives!

~~FrugalMegan~~

DIY: “Making Do”

I have been looking and looking at wooden music toys for my Dear Son (DS). I have scoured reviews, checked prices and peeled my eyes for good deals. Well, you can imagine my excitement when  I found a grocery bag full of wooden musical instruments for $6 at a consignment sale yesterday! But you can probably also imagine my disappointment when I got home that several of the items were broken. “You know better, Megan!” was the feeling I had. But I’m a garage sale gal-what you see is what you get. Going to consignment I must have expected…well…more! I thought they had pretty strict guidlines at most of them…but I digress.

So I cleaned the instruments this morning and had a good stare. Luckily for me…most all were easily fixed. Here was my first “project”:

The tambourine was missing two little disks on each side. Bummer right? But there was also a little straight tambourine that was missing parts as well- It had 4 discs I could use. So I went into the garage and low and behold my hubby had Maze Nails, just the perfect length and diameter to secure the new discs. Voila! One complete tambourine!

Project number 2: The set had two Melissa and Doug castanets. One had fallen apart with no elastic, and one was way too loose with too much elastic. So I cut the elastic in half and could tie them both back up. Good as new! (Though this pic doesn’t show it tied tightly).

All in all, DS came out with 10 instruments or instrument sets for $6. And my “projects” took me less than 10 minutes. We’re both happy Now all we need is something to use with the triangle…

~~FrugalMegan~~

Monday Meal Planning

What is you family going to eat this week? You’ll notice that there are fresh veggies in every meal I make. This produce is purchased through yourneighborhoodproduce.com, a local co-op in the Charlotte area. A large basket of produce is $17.50, and it easily lasts me 2 weeks!

Monday: Pasta Primavera

Why: We have some pork sausage to use up, and some zucchini and other fresh vegetables. Not to mention ALLLL the pasta in the pantry!

Cost: $1.12, or $.56 per person.

I believe I was able to get the sausage free from couponing, and the whole wheat pasta as well. The veggies and oil are the only cost, so I’d say right around $1.00 for the main dish. I will also serve bread along side, about a $.12 value for the amount.

Tuesday: Tacos

Why: We still have lots of taco shells

Cost: $4.60, or $2.30 per person. The leftover taco meat will be used for Thursday’s dinner.

Shells: $.25

Beef: $3.75

Refried beans: Free from couponing

lettuce/tomato: $.10

hot sauce: Free from couponing

Side salad: $.50

Wednesday: Pad Thai

Why: We LOVE Pad Thai! As an added bonus, a few months ago I found $1/1 Thai Kitchen coupons on their packages during a Super Doubles event- So I bought Pad Thai sauce for $2.29 and noodles for $.50. Also, we still have a quite a few eggs from The Incredible Egg on Facebook- They offered a BOGO coupon for eggs last month.

Cost: $2.07, or $1.04 per person

Noodles: $.50 for the box, but will only use 1/3 of the box, so $.17.

Sauce: Paid about $2.29 for the sauce, will use 1/4 of the container: $.57

Egg: Paid $.94 for the dozen, will use one: $.08

Veggies: From the co-op, about $.50

Serve with a Salad: Lettuce, yellow bell peppers and tomato from the co-op $.75

Thursday: Leftovers

Why: The same reason we always have leftovers…to make my life easier! Will probably make Taco Salad. We have free tortillas from couponing, and I have taco salad shell forms, so I can serve in a tortilla bowl!

Cost: If we make the salad, the only new cost is the salad. $.50, or $.25 per person.

Friday: Pizza Night!

Saturday: Pot Roast

Why: We just bought 1/8th of a grass fed cow, and I still have a roast left from the last order. So time to cook it up! We also received celery and sweet potatoes in the produce basket this week, and I have onion left over from the last one. This will be a great way to use some of it up…and have leftovers for lunch on Sunday (So I don’t have to cook!)

Cost: $13.35. But we’ll be eating this for probably 4 meals (Saturday dinner, Sunday lunch and then freeze the rest) so it will break down to about $1.69 per person per meal.

Roast: I paid roughly $3.75 per pound for that beef, and this roast is probably 3 pounds. Look at me making an “expensive” meal! $11.25

Veggies: $2.00, from the co-op. Also, I acquired free peas couponing, so I’ll toss some of those in.

Crusty homemade bread: $.10. I get all of my ingredients either from couponing or food co-ops, so it’s pretty dirt cheap. Plus the Artisan bread recipe I use doesn’t call for anything other than flour, water, salt and yeast. So no eggs or oil making it more expensive. I have  been getting yeast and salt free from couponing.

Sunday: Small Group

We have small group with the peeps from church. We’ll probably bring dessert, a side or bread, which will range in cost from $.10 (artisan bread) to $1.50 (cheesecake). Who knows!

Well that’s all!

Here’s to living- Happier, healthier more FRUGAL lives!

~~FrugalMegan~~