Quote of the Week

            When a person doesn't have gratitude, something is missing in his or her humanity.
                                                                                     -Elie Wiesel

Last Week’s Frugality

   Last week was a very good frugal week!  I was able to stay under my grocery budget of $50 by $8 and we ate a lot from the freezer and the pantry last week. 

  I packed my lunch 4 days!

  We were given fresh tomatoes, zuchinni and squash by my best friend Sandie!  Thanks so much!

  I stayed under budget ($3 max) at the Goodwill last week.  Found The Cupcake Bible and a beautiful shade of (new) fingernail polish; both for $1.42!  The cupcake bible had a price tag of $12.99 on it and the polish had a price tag of $3.99 on it so I saved $15.56 on these two items alone!

 I saved marigold seeds for next year.  I have had some

gorgeous tall orange marigolds this year and hope to have more next year for free!

 I should be able to save the smaller dwarf seeds next week. I love saving seeds!

  I am propagating violets and herbs to give in baskets for Christmas presents! I love having a grow station!!

  Harvested basil to dry this week.  My basil is going crazy in the raised bed. Hope to harvest enough to do me all winter!  I want to chop it up and freeze in olive oil cubes for pesto!

  I bought apples and potatoes from the reduced bin at the grocery.  Got 4 lb. of apples for $1.50 and 10 lb. of potatoes for $1.50.  My stock up price for potatoes is $.20 per lb., so that was a great deal on the taters! 

  I found a bottle of Trop 50 (reduced sugar OJ) for just a dollar!  OJ is not a usual grocery item, but for this price I splurged!  I am diabetic so this is a real treat for me!

  I picked up several cups of yoghurt reduced to $.25 a cup to use in smoothies for my DH and I! A cheap, healthy alternative to milk shakes!

  We did eat out one night, but it was pizza from Little Caesars for $5.99.  We both enjoy this type of pizza and it is so cheap!

  I used my Kroger points to get gas.  Saved $.40 per gallon, so almost a $4 savings on the tank!

  I signed up for several free samples this week.

  We have been turning the AC units off at night in the Living room and dining room. That just leaves our bedroom unit on—hoping to reduce our electric bill next month. 

  We had egg omlettes for supper one night.  Super cheap, filling meal.  I had some onions and peppers in the fridge that I sauted for them.  Yummy with toast and homemade peach jam.

    I combined trips to save on gas. Said no to a shopping trip with my daughters to save on gas and to keep from spending!  Lol!

  All in all it was a good frugal week for us.  I am hoping this coming week will be even better!

What have you saved money on this week?

Frugal Blessings,

Lisa

Quote of the Week

    Be happy with what you have and are, be generous with both, and you won't have to hunt for happiness.
                                                                               -William E. Gladstone

Peaches, Peaches, and More Peaches!

 

 While I was taking my Mother to the grocery, I saw our local County Market had peaches on sale!  Boy were they on sale.....25lb. for $5.00!!!  That is amazing so I bought a box. we took them home and tasted them.  They were not juicy but had a good flavor. So what to do with them???  Jam and butter!  I ended up with 16 pints of jam and 7 pints of peach butter.  I was so happy, I went back and bought another case!  That produced 5 quarts of sliced peaches in light syrup, and 7 more pints of peach butter!    It is all yummy!  Who says you have to grow all of your food for canning? Not me!!


Peachy blessings to you all!
Lisa

Last Week's Frugality

   

Enough!

 I know it has been a while since my last post, but life happens and so does depression!  I have been trying to pick myself up by my bootstraps and try and get my life in order.  It's been an uphill battle but I see progress.  The last few weeks have been very rough financially.  Our car broke down and we received a whopper of a water bill!  We had a leaky toilet. It is fixed now but our bill was over $300 for a 3 month period.  So we have been strapped and will continue to be but we are working through it together!  It is so nice to have my DH help brainstorm our budget and how to increase our income.

So here's what we have been up to!

  I reused my water cup 3 days at work.  Saved 32 cents!!!!!

Made cupcakes with what I had in pantry instead of buying them for work food day. Saved 4.00!

Ate supper at home  each night.  Used pantry stores for most meals ( Rice, beans, jam, etc)

Set up a new budget for the coming months.

DH also saved 2 liter bottles to store water in. Big step for him.  I asked  him to be in charge of emergency water storage and he ran with it!  Go Tom!!

We were  given tomatoes, zucchini, peppers, and cukes—ate for supper and lunch.  Thanks Charles and Sandie!

Turned off a/c in living room and dining room at night. We have 3 window units and have been trying to save on the electric bill.  It has been miserably hot but we are trying!

Had leftovers for supper one night.

My cousin Brian towed our car and fixed it for us. That saved us over $100 I'm sure. We gave him and his wife a GC for a dinner out to thank him. Thanks so much Brian and Christina!!

Used Kroger points to save $.50 cents per gallon on gas.

Used $5 Meijer rewards to buy chicken and fruit for the week.

Found 2 quarts of milk for $.35 per quart at Meijer.

Only spent $.27 at the goodwill for a small lace doily.

Returned an item to Wal-Mart that we were not able to use—was able to buy my cake boxes with it!

Got an order for 36 cupcakes!!  Thank you Amanda!!!

   Seems like when we think we don’t have enough to make it to next payday, the lord blesses us with enough!  Thank you God for working through others to provide the car repairs, the produce, and the cake order. They helped get us through!!  Life is good!!  I wish each of you Enough!

Feeling Blessed in Alexandria,

Lisa

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last Week's Frugality

     Last week the grocery stores had some great prices on fruit and veggies.  You better believe I took advantage of the sales!

 

      I bought 6 pkgs. of red raspberries($1 each) and made raspberry jam. I canned 9  1/2 pints!  It tastes amazing and I was able to use some as cake filling in my granddaughter's birthday cake.  Mmm, mmm, good!

   

   I found a bag of broccoli and carrots on sale for $.50.  I served them with ranch dressing and  these were devoured at the birthday party.  Can you say cheap appetizer?

  Purchased a Caeser Salad kit for $.50 also.  Used some lettuce for the burgers at the Birthday party, and packed the rest of the salad kit for lunch. Great savings!


  I had left over cake batter when I baked my grand daughter's birthday cake so instead of wasting it, I bakes the rest in small 6 inch pans, frosted them and them froze for a quick dessert.

  There were lots of left overs from the birthday party so I intend to use them for meals this week. Waste not want not, right?

  I added a large can of condensed chicken noodle soup to my emergency stash.  This will be easy to heat in a power outage and can be used if we get sick this fall and winter.  I am trying to add at least one easy to heat and serve canned good to my emergency stash per week.  This is in addition to my normal shopping and stocking up.   Little by little my emergency stash is building up. Need to start increasing my water supplies next week though!

   Low and behold, my DH is finally saving cans.  He insists on drinking soda as does my Mother so I told him to start saving cans or I wouldn't be buying any more soft drinks.  My ultimatum worked and he has been saving all of the aluminum cans so we can sell them. Not much to be earned but it will help cover some of the soft drink cost.

  We had to go ahead and start using the air conditions. I hated to do it but my Momma has COPD and the heat is bothersome. We are able to turn it off at night so that is some savings!
 

  I signed up for several freebies last week- Lotion and shampoo! I just love getting them in the mail!

Well, I guess that about covers it at my house!  How did you save money last week?

Frugal Blessings,

Lisa

 

 
 


 
 
 

Quote of the Week

    Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.
                                                                                              -Albert Schweitzer

Kentucky Transparent Pie Recipe

  

     Have you ever heard of Transparent Pie?  If you are from Kentucky you may have heard of it!  It is a yummy concoction of cream, sugar, butter and eggs in a pie crust! 
George Clooney is a fan of this special pie.  After wrapping up one of his movies, he had Transparent Pies shipped from Magee's Bakery in Maysville Ky to his crew!  Can you believe the Hollywood hoity toities ate good old Ky Transparent Pie?  They sure did! 
  Several years ago my husband and I found that little, out of the way bakery famous for it's Transparent Pie and stopped to buy one!  Well we bought a whole pie and then several mini pies to take home to our family.  Can you say yummy?  Well it was wonderful, and rich, and wonderful, and rich.........well, you get it!  So here is a recipe for Transparent Pie.  I only hope you enjoy it as much as my DH and I do!


Kentucky Transparent Pie

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 cup cream
• 4 eggs, beaten
• 2 tbs. flour
• 1 1/2  tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 unbaked (9-inch) pie crust

Preheat oven to 375°. Line a 9-inch pie plate or tart pan with unbaked pie shell (homemade or store bought)and place in the freezer while you prepare filling. This keeps the shell from shrinking when in the oven.
In bowl beat together butter and sugar until fluffy.
Add cream, and mix until smooth. Beat in eggs until combined, then stir in flour and vanilla. Pour into pie crust.
Bake at 375°. for 40-45 minutes  until golden brown and slightly set.  


The pie will puff up while baking and then fall. This is completely normal so don't worry!  Enjoy your Kentucky Transparent Pie!  Coffee and /or milk will be needed!


Sweet Blessings,
Lisa

Quote of the Week

                                                                   








Success is nothing more than a few simple disciplines, practiced every day.            
                                                   -Jim Rohn








Blessings,
Lisa
 

Last Week's Frugality

Last week wasn't a great week for frugality at my house but I did manage to save quite a bit and add to my pantry in the process!

  We went to Aldi and purchased the loss leaders that were advertised. Saved quite a bit there! I bought 8 lbs. of carrots to can. I love cooked carrots but they take so stinking long to cook.  My home canned ones are cooked during processing and are a snap to prepare for supper!

     Then we went to Fresh Thyme.  Now this was the first time I have ever been there and I was quite surprised!  I got my favorite fruit--cherries for $2.77 per lb.  I picked up Braeburn apples for $ .99 per lb.. They also had corn on the cob 4/$1. Blueberries were $1 per container.  My mother loves blueberries so I bought 6 containers.  While she is eating on 2, I used the rest to make blueberry pancake syrup. I made 4 pints for the cost of $4 for the berries and the cost of 4 cups of sugar! If you haven't priced blueberry syrup lately, this is a huge savings! And let me tell you the syrup is flippin' amazing! I know cause I tried it on my waffles this morning! Yummy!

 
  I only packed my lunch 3 days last week.  I know, I know I have to improve on this.  Such an easy way to save money! 


  Well, that's about it for me !  How did you save money last week?


Frugal Blessings to you all,
Lisa