Friday, January 10, 2020

Frugal Friday

After a year of being on a Medicare Advantage plan, I've jumped back into my retiree plan. I'll talk more about it later but my retiree plan means no out of pocket costs with Medicare, medicare off set fees of $800 and an extremely low cost brand name prescription plan. Unfortunately I lose two current bennies. The first is the ability to order 70 dollars of over the counter items for free very quarter (a minor inconvenience) and the second is a loss of silver sneakers. This probably counts as non frugal on Frugal Friday, but I have at least 25 workouts on U-tube to use. and $3.50 a visit to my rec center three times a week is a small price to pay for my health.

Fortunately this has been pretty low spend weekend around here, and here are a few of the frugal/non spend things happening this week:

1.  I did a two weeks worth (mainly) grocery order and had it delivered. On the surface this may not seem frugal because I need to pay a tip, but I only got things on my list this way, and the guy brought it all the way into the house. Unfortunately this particular order was from Walmart who uses plastic bags and so I ruined my sustainability goal of the week. I will return them for recycling.

2.  I've been really conservative on the entertainment front this week. On Tuesday I met friends for craft and chat at Whole Foods and had nothing but tea, I bought a single hot chocolate for knitting on Wednesday and last night at happy hour (which we do from three to five these days because of the darkness) I had a drink but no food or bar snacks since I knew I was having shepherd's pie for dinner at home. Good for my budget and my health I suppose. Tonight I have a once a month happy hour where I will spend ten dollars to get lobster stuff deviled eggs. Because lobster. And deviled eggs. Next week I have a lunch which will up the entertainment quotient a bit in terms of the budget, along with a possible $5 Tuesday movie date to see 1915.

3. I did not hit a single thrift shop, either on the weekly fifty percent off day or the weekly senior fifty percent off day. I wanted to but I held firm, firm I say

4.  I made a master list of both yarn and fabric and supplies I want to use up, as well as those to buy on sale. This is prime sitting in front of the TV or in the chair and crafting weather, and although I need supplies to do that I want  to limit what I buy and keep and eye on the cost of said items.

5.  We've eaten frugally at home this week: Oven baked ranch chicken pork chops, an oven casserole version of chicken Caccciatori with tomatoes/mushrooms/olives/peppers, homemade minestrone with small meatballs and the afore mentioned shepherd's pie. All mainly from stuff I purchased on sale or clearance at the grocer's (the pork chops were marked down to a dollar for four each).

This is the pork chop recipe I use. It's actually a slow cooker recipe but I used it to cover the chops in the oven and used two cans of soup and two packets of ranch. Not to be a judgemental type, but yes, it needs to be the Progresso soup,  so you don't have to add liqued and the Progresso soup has seasonings added.

Happy Friday!

18 comments:

  1. Can you give me the recipe for the pork chop? I have pork chops to cook tonight and have again tomorrow. Mine were free!

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    1. Linda I apologize for being so late!! I did link to the recipe above, I should do that more often. Hopefully you will still have chops to cook at some point.

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  2. We went to see the movie last night. WW1 must have been insanely brutal. Of course all war is. It did prompt major discussions on the ride home though.
    Good for you to get your thoughts, wants and needs organized.

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    1. I'm looking forward to the movie...hopefully I am a little organized.

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  3. My Rare One likes thrift stores, but makes a point to only go when she's looking for a specific item. Otherwise, you get lured into buying all sorts of unnecessary crap because "it's such a bargain."

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    1. Yep I am one of those people and right now I need nothing...

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  4. I try to stay out of the stores because idle time shopping makes too many things jump into my cart. It's like those carps you see jumping in the rivers into canoes. Just the natural 0ccurance no one can explain.

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    1. Yes..of course there is still online shopping...

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  5. We've been eating at home ... saves a lot of money.

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  6. Some great frugal happenings there Barb.

    God bless.

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  7. I think it sounds like you've had a very successful week! Good for you.
    We've been trying to cook more and eat at home. What surprises me is how hubby and I gain weight when we eat out (even smaller meals), but we gradually lose weight when eating in. I think there are hidden calories that make the food extra good...and I'm sure nothing will ever keep me from going out, once in a while!

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  8. I truly live eating out and I also despise cooking. It's a curse. But I am trying to cut down and do it more at lunch..

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  9. We are eating at home more this month. Costco roasted chicken is the key! Made lettuce wraps with some, used last week's carcass for bone broth then made a do it yourself soup line ... cooked carrots, corn, tiny bites of chicken, two kinds of noodles. Boys loved "making their own". The broth was amazing. We had Chinese chicken salad the next night with warm garlic bread (no carbs for me). I think we have enough chicken to make a pot pie tonight!

    Frugal can be fun ... thinking ahead and a bit more prep but very satisfying. THANK YOU for your blog!

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    1. No because that's a premade thing we buy. I have some recipes I should probably try it.

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  11. We have saved money by eating at home. When I worked outside the home we ate out a LOT. Now that I stay home, we eat at home. The take away is that I forgot how much time it takes to shop for food bargins, prepare the food and since we don't use paper plates anymore clean up the kitchen.

    All of that has kept me busy and with little time to blog lol.

    Much like you, I find it hard to resist the "deals" at the thrift stores.

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    1. You know, I have stopeed with the bargain thing to some degree. I do try and buy some of the loss leaders and put the in the freeezer but other than that I'm going with the theory but eating at home itself saves me money. I also am big on cooking and having meals for more than one day.......if it cant be cooked in the slow cooker or thrown into a single csserole im done with it, lol. the thrift stores are a true danger to me.

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