January 2015 frugals

New month, new year, new thread! And a Happy frugal New Year to all! :) Not that I have anything to report yet - December was a pretty frugal month -our major holiday expense is our tree, but we bought it in October. Which makes December look better, lol. I think we need to replace our furnace; we're having someone in on Monday to give us estimates on various models. DH is keeping ours limping along so we can actually CHOOSE what we need, instead of having to have whatever can be quickly obtained and installed because it's 20 below and the plumbing is at risk. Which is what happened at our last house. Wish us luck... today I'm off work and plan to do some mending and over-dye some vintage linens for sale. I am hoping it will be a quiet, drive only to DD's pet sitting gig day.

Good morning and Happy frugal New Year! Not much to report today; on the other hand, that can be a good thing. I did some shopping on Friday morning, so I am pretty well set for now. The rest of my family went to DSIL's brother's house for New Year's Eve, so I have had quite a quiet time. Would like to go to Michael's in the next few days for some yarn for a craft project, and that's about it. Got some Amazon gift cards for Christmas, so I can have some fun without spending anything new.
Early morning, I hope you get your furnace fixed/replaced soon. Ours went out on us one Christmas Eve. The repairman had to order a part (this was a 50 year old boiler), but he did keep it running so we didn't freeze until the part came. Bless his heart, then he was right back to make the repair as soon as it came in. Last month was a "spendy" one for a variety of reasons, so I'm looking forward to a more frugal one this month.

We were busy physically indoors today, so kept the furnace down to 61°F. Even though is still only in the low 20's, the furnace didn't kick on much at all because the solar heat was working. Enjoyed a lunch of leftovers from eating out on a gift certificate we got for Christmas. Nothing better than a free meal than two people splitting a single meal to begin with, that feeds them twice! Found a few things that needed mending, so I got that done. The old "stitch in time saves nine", or in my case, sew on the button before I lose track of it is true. I darned one of my favorite wool socks and hemmed a pair of jeans I purchased at the thrift store in November, but didn't get around to the task until today when I had all the sewing stuff out.

Herb roasted whole chicken for dinner tonight (herbs growing in the sunny south window), with roasted vegetables. I can usually get 6-meals, a couple lunches, and stir-fry or chicken salad out of a whole chicken, PLUS stock by cooking the carcass.

Wow, lessisbest, you sure can get some mileage out of one chicken! There are 5 of us, plus one toddler, so we usually get one dinner and sandwiches for lunch out of a chicken, and the stock.

Jan 01,2015
--partially rack dried 2 loads of wash before putting in drier.
--have balanced bank accounts and updated spread sheets on excel...will teak this years later but, was really close with most of my figueres
in 2014. Keeping track has let me continue to see were I can cut back.....Big one last year was gift giving. One family has already agreed to stop
for next Christmas
--Chicken with lots of veggies in a creamy sauce on pasta for supper...lots of leftovers for tomorrow night.
--The next 3 months are quiet in this cold country so a good time to declutter, and organize so doing the 100 items a month.

Happy to be back . . . Bouldercreeker returning as Seedycharacter (cuz I love eating & planting seeds and I don't live in Boulder Creek anymore) . . . I don't track precisely these days but I always look over all receipts a couple of times before I toss them. So today I reviewed a month's worth of receipts and felt pretty good about my purchases. Groceries, gas for my hybrid, gas & electricity, $350 total for holiday gifts for 8 people. My challenge for January is to be more frugal at the grocery store. I shop at Trader Joes, some at Costco, and some at a local store where I buy various organic/local items. Nearly all of my splurges are food splurges, e.g raspberries, blueberries, walnuts. Yummy healthy pricey stuff! I justify these items because I don't buy any meats, but they add up and cause me to feel too pinched by the end of the month. I have plenty of food in my pantry and fridge/freezer so I am going to focus on using up what I have on hand . . . thanks to all for great ideas and inspiration!

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Originally Posted by domestic goddess

Wow, lessisbest, you sure can get some mileage out of one chicken! There are 5 of us, plus one toddler, so we usually get one dinner and sandwiches for lunch out of a chicken, and the stock.

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I'm a stickler for food portions (especially meat since it's so expensive) and a meat portion will be 2-3-oz. depending on other protein providers in the meal. I mix meat with a low-costing meat alternative (beans, cheese, etc.) so we can use less meat. I have a $10 meat limit each week, so I've gotten pretty creative. One good size chicken will use up nearly half of my meat budget, so it really needs to stretch.

The roast chicken meals (for two adults) looks something like this:

-Whole Roast Chicken (we split the first half of the breast and will use the remaining half-breast meat sliced for sandwiches).

-Individual Chicken Pot Pies (meat from one thigh - enough for lunch the next day)

-Chicken Tetrazinni (bits and pieces and one leg)

-Chicken Quesadillas or Tacos (back meat)

-Stir-Fry (bits and pieces and meat from one leg)

-Tuscan Chicken (using one thigh and adding cannellini beans for a portion of the protein)

-Chicken salad (possibly)

-Chicken soup (rice or homemade gluten-free noodles, and could also include vegetables for something a little heartier...)

I'll also save the chicken fat.

Wow-I'm impressed with that chicken usage. We roasted a very small chicken yesterday with vegetables but ate half the chicken. Other half tonight with rice and mushrooms. Maybe I should see if I can get one more meal out of it? DH likes his meat though. Also, I don't have a separate freezer so can't store a lot of frozen broth everytime I roast or boil a chicken. As far as frugal moves, I tallied the majority of expenses by category from this past year and was blown away by how much spent on certain ones. I am embarrassed to say but now know which ones to be more careful about...so that we can retire sooner rather than later.

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Originally Posted by lessisbest

I'll also save the chicken fat.

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What use do you have for this? hmmmm

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Originally Posted by frugal-one

What use do you have for this? hmmmm

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I grew up in the country where we raised chickens and hogs and used chicken fat and lard on a regular basis. We made a big deal when mom brought home shortening and cooking oil for the first time....

Chicken (and goose) fat is also called schmaltz (when it's rendered). We used chicken fat for frying (potatoes are especially good fried in chicken fat). You can add a dab to cooked vegetables for a little chicken flavoring much like adding cooked bacon with a little bacon fat. It works well as a fat when making a pan sauce (a quick replacement for gravy). When making a chicken-flavored casserole or pot pie you can grease the dish with chicken fat for some added flavor.

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Originally Posted by pinkytoe

Wow-I'm impressed with that chicken usage. We roasted a very small chicken yesterday with vegetables but ate half the chicken. Other half tonight with rice and mushrooms. Maybe I should see if I can get one more meal out of it? DH likes his meat though. Also, I don't have a separate freezer so can't store a lot of frozen broth everytime I roast or boil a chicken. As far as frugal moves, I tallied the majority of expenses by category from this past year and was blown away by how much spent on certain ones. I am embarrassed to say but now know which ones to be more careful about...so that we can retire sooner rather than later.

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We ate more roasted vegetables and only a small portion of meat - we tend to fill up on the high-fiber foods - and I also served a small portion of cornbread (also high-fiber). We split one large baked apple for dessert (the apple was free). Over-eating anything is wasting food - loving it doesn't make it any less so. Most people don't have any idea how many servings they need or how many they consume. I only have my refrigerator freezer (no stand-alone freezer), so I have it down to a science when it comes to storing food in there, and my FoodSaver is also a huge help.

Happy New Year everyone! And great start on those January frugals!!!

Our big claim to frugal fame over here is technically from December, but I'll share here, nonetheless. Our local grocery store was running a promotion through December 31st that if you bought $500 in gift cards you got a $50 gift card free. Well, that's a very nice 10% return on one's investment, so we each went in and bought $500 in gift cards and got our free $50 gift card. Nice easy way to "make" $100 for about 90 seconds worth of work. Usually we buy groceries out of the joint bank account, but this time around we each just bought the $500 in gift cards from our personal accounts so that we could each use rewards credit cards. This purchase helped push me over the spending limit required to get 50,000 bonus Delta airline miles from my credit card. Woo-hoo! Those 50,000 miles should net me two free airline tickets this summer to travel to my various races, which is equal to about $900 in airfare. Boo-yah!!!

The other frugals are just the usual stuff. Brought my lunch and tea to work today. We're eating leftovers for dinner. And combining our trip to the gym tonight with a necessary errand.

Wow, cdttmm! That is awesome!

This doesn't sound frugal but I went to my local grassfed beef provider and bought $46 worth of soup bones--about 10 lbs worth. I'm hoping I can get maybe 4 gallons of broth from them.

I'm simmering a soup made with bok choy stalks; I used the leaves in a meal back on the 23rd and the stalks have been sitting in the fridge unused. I added every leftover potato in the house, some carrots, onion and garlic, and some Better than Bullion that we've had since I made a soup at Thanksgiving. It's not something I normally buy so I need to think to use it. (Edited to add that it was a wonderful soup and well-received by the entire family.)

I've decided to track my groceries differently than last year; I'm going to use a notebook to record what I bought and what I paid rather than only keeping track via YNAB. I don't use a price book as we shop mostly for produce and eat local and seasonal foods, but this will still help me, I think. I'm going to broaden my categories in order to simplify things; I'm not going to break down the purchases specifically for smoothies or cycling. I'll have bulk items (grains, etc.), produce, general groceries, and unnecessary groceries. That one is important because it helps me see how the foods we buy but don't really need (canned olives, etc.) affect the overall food budget. Another thing I intend to do this year is track food waste.

Happy New Year all! Frugals so far - no post Christmas sales; went to lunch with former co-workers yesterday and ate at home ahead of time with the plan to get a cup of tea while visiting but ended up just chatting; walked to library, post office and to the lunch so no use of the car yesterday; have eaten all meals at home but for one trip out with family over the holiday; had a discussion with DH about buying nothing new this year and he seems to be on board; planned to go to Michael's for some yarn and remembered DD's stash stored in my basement and was able to find what I needed there.

We did cut our food budget by $100 per month - I was using excess grocery money as kind of a "slush fund" as in "well, there is still some money in the grocery budget - sure let's grab a meal out" - I think this will help us find those extra $$ for savings or at least more purposeful spending.

Making chick peas in the crock pot today. Got two free tea bags as samples yesterday when I stopped at the grocery store. Keeping the heat at 57 degrees in the house, down from 58 degrees. :D Doing a little meal planning, grocery list making, coupon organizing. Going to bake some English Muffin toasting bread later today or tomorrow. Need to get moving and make a giant pot of cabbage soup today, too.

Jan 02..03, 2015
My big frugal back in the fall, not sure if I mentioned it then but, it has worked out really well so far this winter. I have never really liked home frozen veggies I get the texture just okay not great. So when carrots, celery root, onions, beets, red & green cabbage and zucchini were cheap in the fall….I grated or very thinly sliced in the processor and froze in snack size baggies …no blanching and easy to squeeze the air out.
Also, froze puree cauliflower, pumpkin, squash in these small bags,…..
I have been using these in soups, stews, spaghetti sauce, in ground beef , beans & rice dishes etc. this not replace the veggies served with a meal but, it sure has upped my veggie intake at a great price, taste and convenience.

1.--yesterday I made a pot of soup using some chicken broth that was in the freezer and lots of these veggies and had it with leftover rice today I had it with some pasta that had been served in a cream sauce.
Great Lunchs.....and supper tonight was Black Beans (from freezer and rice on nachcos with cheese and guacamole and enough for tomorrow.
2.--in the last two days I have done a total inventory of all food stuffs in the cupboards, 2 freezers, and fridge and now know what I have too much of (that is several things) and what items I need to fill out meals,

3. --made a weekly plan for meals, Dd and I usually eat together but, have decided that the
----two days a week that I go out in the afternoons we will just do our own thing (we are finding that we are missing some of the foods that one of us likes and the other doesn’t for me that would be more seafood).
--Two nights we will cook a larger from scratch meal and then the
--other two nights we will have meals from leftovers or something vegetarian
--one night a Breakfast for Dinner night.

4. Made Christmas gift tags from my Christmas cards I do have a lot but, now get a lot less cards so the stockpile will dwindle………I have not bought a gift tag in twenty years.

5. No Spend today and yesterday was only about $5.00 worth of food.

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Originally Posted by cdttmm

Making chick peas in the crock pot today. Got two free tea bags as samples yesterday when I stopped at the grocery store. Keeping the heat at 57 degrees in the house, down from 58 degrees. :D Doing a little meal planning, grocery list making, coupon organizing. Going to bake some English Muffin toasting bread later today or tomorrow. Need to get moving and make a giant pot of cabbage soup today, too.

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Well, you ARE inspiring CD. I've been a bit of a weeny this last two weeks when the temps took a dip. But I've been telling myself to toughen up. I already wear 3 layers: two shirts and a sweater and long john bottoms and a pair of pants and heavy duty socks. But I still am tempted to heat the house more. The last two days I've been making myself wrap in a blanket and while it isn't as cozy as my footsy heater, it's cheaper!

May I ask: Are you making the englishmuffin toasting bread from scratch? Does that require yeast rising? And if so, how is it warm enough to rise?

I had a no spend day today. I was supposed to go to the credit union to deposit my check but the roads were pretty nasty this morning. So I had a no drive day too. Of course, that was cancelled out by the driving of my youngest later in the day. :)

I finally got around to signing up for direct deposit for my paycheck. Since I had not worked in about 20 years I wanted to actually see a real paycheck lol But I guess the thrill is gone. Direct deposit will save some running aroundj.

Spent some time figuring out meals for the next week. Using ingredients already on hand it looks like I will only have to buy a few things this week.

One son is back at school now. The other goes back tomorrow. I am going to miss them like crazy, of course, but the water, food & electric bills should be dropping lol

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Originally Posted by Tiam

May I ask: Are you making the englishmuffin toasting bread from scratch? Does that require yeast rising? And if so, how is it warm enough to rise?

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Tiam, I use this recipe from King Arthur Flour: http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recip...g-bread-recipe and it does require rising. So to combat the cold kitchen factor, I warm up my microwave/convection oven to about 100 degrees, turn it off, then pop the dough in there to rise for about 45 minutes or so. It works pretty well and I'm only paying to heat a small space instead of the entire kitchen.

I got the chickpeas made yesterday, although I initially overloaded the crock pot so it was a good thing I was around and checking on them and not just doing a set-it-and-forget-it approach. And I got the giant pot of cabbage soup made -- enough for 25 servings. Good thing I like cabbage soup! Also, experimented with making roasted chickpeas as a snack. That was kind of a flop, but they were edible and I'll simply have to try again. I need to bake the bread today because I didn't get that far yesterday.

This morning I'm experimenting with making chai tea. I'm usually a strict green tea drinker, but after realizing what my tea habit costs in a year (sorry, green tea snob in the making over here!), I'm trying to use up any random tea that I simply have on hand. And I acquired two free tea bags yesterday so that just adds to the stash.

Got a coupon online for $3 off eye care items at CVS. Since I was planning to top there today to get more contact lens solution, this will save me a few bucks.

And, yesterday was a no-drive day. Unusual in this house. We were planning to go to the gym, but then it started to snow and we decided against it. Saved a little on gas as a result.

No spending today either. Made french bread dough and used that as sandwich rolls for crab salad sandwiches for dinner. Made a very small shopping list for the rest of this weeks meals. I will stop on the way home from work and pick up these items so there won't be any extra driving to get them.

Jan 04,2015
--no spend, no drive, mostly because the weather and roads were not great
--temperature is dropping so trying not to keep the heat up
--ate leftovers for supper
and that is about it for today.

I only heat rooms. So the rest of the house is COLD!! But the kitchen is cold too. So rising bread in the deep of winter is iffy for me, even in the heated rooms.

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Originally Posted by Tiam

I only heat rooms. So the rest of the house is COLD!! But the kitchen is cold too. So rising bread in the deep of winter is iffy for me, even in the heated rooms.

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Tiam-

There is nothing wrong with a cold rise for bread dough, it just takes longer.;) When we refrigerate bread dough (aka retarding the dough) it's generally 40°F or colder in a refrigerator (or for food safety it should be) and the dough will continue rise for a period of time until the yeast gets too cold and goes dormant, so if the temperature is still in the high 50's and low 60's, you'll just have to wait a little longer. Doug rises according to the strength of the yeast and the ambient temperature and humidity - NOT a clock. You actually develop more flavor and it opens the texture of the crumb slightly using a cold rise.

If you want to speed things up a bit in a cold kitchen, turn the light on in your oven when you start to make the dough. This will gently warm the entire oven chamber and it will hold a more constant temperature. When it's ready for the first rise the oven should be warmer than room temperature and great for rising dough (you may want to check the temperature in different parts of the oven to make sure the temperature isn't too hot - 75°-85°F is about optimal). I generally placed my dough at the opposite side of the oven from the light. Just make sure you keep the bowl/dough rising bucket/etc. away from the light itself, where it can be too warm.

You can also preheat the oven for a few minutes, but I don't suggest using that method because the shot of heat can actually be too hot for dough because people rarely take the actual temperature of the oven before placing the dough in. The whole oven chamber generally hasn't been heated long enough to hold the temperature. A shot of hot followed by a quick cooling isn't good for the rise. Another good method is to place a 9x13" cake pan in the bottom of the stove and add boiling water TO the pan (do not fill a cake pan and then try to move it to the oven - you may accidently spill that hot water while moving it). The added moisture from the hot water is also an asset and will aid the rise.

There is another method where you heat a small amount of water in the microwave to warm the chamber, but once again, people rarely take the actual ambient temperature and it can be too hot. There are any number of ways to make a proofing box so you can control the proofing temperature. I like the oven light method because it's already there.

lessisbest, that is some really great info and suggestions -- thanks for sharing!

I've also let dough raise overnight in the garage where the temp is in the low 50s. Works just as good.

Keeping the frugals the same - bake bread, try to procrastinate as much as possible between shopping trips. It feels like I am not making much progress, but the actual numbers tell a different story :D

When my kitchen is too cold I use an Excalibur dehydrator as a proof box; I figure that it uses a lot less energy than running my furnace.

No drive days yesterday and today, too darn cold.

On New Years Day, put bubblewrap on most of the windows in the house. The timing was fortuitous, as now it is very cold here.

On Sunday, put together a grocery price book like the one I had when following Amy D--now you can look online for grocery prices, when there was no on-line in those days. Already figured out some interesting things vis a vis pricing and quantities in our local stores. Am using a 5 x 8 plastic looseleaf binder and sorting items by grocery type. This led me to starting my pantry list, so hopefully, we can do a much better job this year in planning our eating--am striving to cut grocery spending radically, which is going to require planning and tracking.

Starting to try to figure out a way to get phone costs under control this year, so lots of surfing of different plans and phones.

I need to start figuring out phone costs. My phone is out of contract now. And I'm guessing my DH's is as well. I'll have to check. The boys both have newer phones so they are still under contract. I'm just not sure what I want to do and there are so many options it just confuses me.

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Originally Posted by kimberlyf0

When my kitchen is too cold I use an Excalibur dehydrator as a proof box; I figure that it uses a lot less energy than running my furnace.

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That's a really good idea, kimberly! Thanks for sharing!

Packed a lunch and green tea for work today. Lunch was a random collection of odds and ends: a handful of dried apricots, a granola bar, and the last of the failed batch of roasted chick peas. My colleagues ordered take out from the local Chinese restaurant and I got gifted with a vegetable spring roll. Since we made all these yummy meals and froze them over the past few weeks, I'm trying to stay the course and continue eating up the random stuff that has been in our refrigerator/pantry while my dearly beloved is in NYC for work. Of course, I broke down and dinner was a lovely bowl of cabbage soup! Oh well, tomorrow's lunch will likely be another random collection of food items, so it's all good!

Jan 05

1.…lunch was from a large pot of soup made this morning using broth,v-8 juice, corn broth (made and froze in the fall) and several pkg. of grated veggies very good and tasty and lots for tomorrows lunch.
2. …a few days ago I bought about 10 lbs of sweet potatoes on the mark down for $2.00 baked a whole tray of them rubbed with oil and sprinkled with sea salt and pepper. Very good had a large one for supper and froze the rest. Still about 5 lbs to deal with tomorrow.
3. Also, a bag of 10 bunches of green onions for $1.00 still in good condition, cleaned and cut up the white part and a bit of green for the freezer and left the ends whole to add to the soup pot.
4...Dd had to take car for an appt. but, stopped on the way home to pick up Kraft peanut butter on sale for $1.97 a large jar. The limit was 4 so I will get more when I am out tomorrow. This is the best price in years.

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Originally Posted by danna

Jan 05

1.…lunch was from a large pot of soup made this morning using broth,v-8 juice, corn broth (made and froze in the fall) and several pkg. of grated veggies very good and tasty and lots for tomorrows lunch.
2. …a few days ago I bought about 10 lbs of sweet potatoes on the mark down for $2.00 baked a whole tray of them rubbed with oil and sprinkled with sea salt and pepper. Very good had a large one for supper and froze the rest. Still about 5 lbs to deal with tomorrow.
3. Also, a bag of 10 bunches of green onions for $1.00 still in good condition, cleaned and cut up the white part and a bit of green for the freezer and left the ends whole to add to the soup pot.
4...Dd had to take car for an appt. but, stopped on the way home to pick up Kraft peanut butter on sale for $1.97 a large jar. The limit was 4 so I will get more when I am out tomorrow. This is the best price in years.

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I've never heard of Kraft Peanut Butter - that's not a brand sold around here - but our Kroger brand purchased at Dillons had PB 2/$3 recently - even their Natural variety which only contains roasted peanuts and salt (although the jar is 1-oz. smaller than the regular). As a frugal PB aside, if you use crunchy PB, you will use a lot more than if you use creamy, no matter how carefully you spread it due to the chunks of peanuts.

Azure: There's a lot of info on the Mr Money Mustache Forum on the subject of phone service options:
http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/sha...sion-thread-1/
There are also some threads on this forum if you do a search.

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Originally Posted by rodeosweetheart

No drive days yesterday and today, too darn cold.

On New Years Day, put bubblewrap on most of the windows in the house. The timing was fortuitous, as now it is very cold here.

On Sunday, put together a grocery price book like the one I had when following Amy D--now you can look online for grocery prices, when there was no on-line in those days. Already figured out some interesting things vis a vis pricing and quantities in our local stores. Am using a 5 x 8 plastic looseleaf binder and sorting items by grocery type. This led me to starting my pantry list, so hopefully, we can do a much better job this year in planning our eating--am striving to cut grocery spending radically, which is going to require planning and tracking.

Starting to try to figure out a way to get phone costs under control this year, so lots of surfing of different plans and phones.

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You won't believe the difference bubble wrap makes on your windows. We've been adding it in the winter for 8-years now. http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects...bubblewrap.htm

I've been keeping a Price Book since 1993 when The Tightwad Gazette came out and am now into the 3 book (a Day Runner I found at Goodwill for $1.99). My only hint would be to use one sheet to track prices on an item, then on the next sheet track the inventory of the same item. When I add an item I'll place a slash ( / ), and when I move it from storage to the kitchen or use the item, I'll finish the slash forming an ( X ). If I need to track the use-by date (especially important with peanut butter for me) I'll add the use-by month/year (8/15), and when I use it I'll cross the whole date out.

The inventory sheet helps keep purchases in check and I'm not tempted to purchase something just because it's a good price if I already have "enough", but didn't remember exactly how many I DID have. After all, just how many bottles of mustard can we realistically use.....even at a great price. You will also see trends in shopping - when you'll find those stock-up prices (condiments, canned pork n' beans, etc., are stock-up prices during the big summer (bbq) holidays (Memorial Day, Independence Day, and Labor Day). I save a portion of grocery money after Christmas when I can find peanuts, nuts, and fresh cranberries drastically reduced and may use 1/2 of my food dollars for that week for stocking up on those items if I find a great buy. I was able to find large bags of in-shell peanuts at really low prices and bought all they had. I'll be making fresh peanut butter for awhile.

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Originally Posted by Azure

I need to start figuring out phone costs.

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Having been through that exercise a couple of times over the past few years, I'm happy to help, Azure. PM me if you want.

ObFrugals: 20 cents a cucumber in the "disco" rack at the local supermarket this morning. We like our cukes, so this is a score ... And our latest power bill (our electricity and natural gas come from the same company) shows that our monthly energy costs are half of what our neighbors are paying in smaller homes (we also pay a bit of a surcharge for windpower). I guess that insulation and non-incandescent bulbs and room heaters are paying off...

Just a few little frugals over the past few days. I've been using up free samples of shampoo that I had in my stash. Saving money and decluttering! Lunch was provided at work today so no need to eat the lunch I had packed. Went to the post office on my way home from work and mailed off 9 books that I had posted on paperbackswap.com. This will earn me 9 book credits for future free books and it freed up some space on my bookshelves. School is cancelled tomorrow due to the cold weather so I'll save money on gas since our make-up class day will be on a day that I would have had to go to campus anyway. Since I'll be home tomorrow, I'll pack up the two returns I have to mail off and will take them to the post office on my way home from work on Friday. Frugal entertainment provided by Netflix, books, internet surfing, dog petting, and cat cuddling.

How's everyone else doing?

I always have the same-o same-o's to report on the frugality front. And they always focus on not spending, rather than saving.....but anyways.....

No after-Christmas sales were harmed by me this season. Just couldn't come up with anything we needed enough to get out and about to procure them. It's been too cold this week to leave the house voluntarily, so cooking out of the pantry. Chicken-and-pork fried rice yesterday (1/2 of a leftover grilled pork steak and 2 quick-store-bought leftover chicken tenders I'd thrown in the freezer), and cheddar chowder tomorrow. All made with what's in the house. Not wanting to leave the house to go to the grocery really does stimulate my menu imagining. Every day this week have been no-drive days, natch. I did do an online Penzey's order, but waited till I had enough on my list to get free shipping.

I'm with you, danna. I love using Christmas cards for tags. Pretty two.

Linda

I baked four loaves of bread today to have some to put in the freezer. It's crazy cold here right now, so baking seemed like a good way to spend an evening anyway. Normally Wednesday night's are Zach's dad-and-kid time and I go out and have an evening to myself, but I just really didn't want to go anywhere tonight. I made the TWG hot chocolate recipe and we all had a cup of cocoa together.

This is a really expensive month for us. My tuition, Cheyenne's guitar tuition, Bella's fencing tuition and the kids homeschool co-op fees are all due. That's an extra $700. We are trying to keep spending to a minimum.