How We Frugal-ed this Week: 10/12/18

so that we have more money to put towards our financial goals.

Our mission: Live WELL On LESS Money.

What We Ate this Week:

I make an effort each week to serve my family delicious food but still stick to the budget. Every Sunday afternoon, I plan the meals and do my grocery shopping for the week. I find the routine keeps me in check.

This month at Family Budgeters Unite!, my private Facebook group, we are challenging ourselves to plan our meals around what we already have in the pantry and/or freezer. I still shopped this week, but I did use up some things that have been in the freezer for some time.

Sunday: burgers, tater tots, fresh fruit, garden salad

Monday: Shephard’s Pie with leftover mashed potatoes from last week. Recipe is on my Dinner This Week Pinterest Board

Tuesday: Sausage, Broccoli, and Rice Skillet Dinner, using sausage from the freezer. The recipe is also on my Dinner This Week Pinterest board.

Wednesday: Spaghetti Night! – A weekly staple at my house.

Thursday:

• Chicken & Black Bean Tacos – This is a great freezer recipe and I had it on hand in the freezer.
• Mexican rice – Recipe is on my Dinner This Week Pinterest Board
• homemade refried beans. Recipe is on my Dinner This Week Pinterest Board It’s a freezer recipe that I like to have on hand for a quick side dish that my family loves.

Ham & Bean Soup, served with Broccoli Cornbread Muffins

Friday:

• Ham & Bean Soup – Used ham hocks that have been in the freezer for several months.
• Broccoli Corn Muffins – Had all of the ingredients on hand.
• homemade sugar-free applesauce – It’s that time of year and I made a huge batch about 3 weeks ago.
• garden salad
• Surprised my family with Apple Crumb Pots for dessert.

Saturday: We were invited to friends house for dinner.

My Favorite Recent Grocery Deals:

17 cents each!!

I am a big fan of grocery apps and Ibotta is my favorite. Lately the deals have been really good and I just cashed out $21 two weeks ago at Ibotta.

My most recent favorite deal was when I bought 5 sour cream containers for 17 cents each by stacking an Ibotta cash back rebate with a store sale. That’s a lot of sour cream, but I’ve been adding it to a lot of recipes, such as mashed potatoes and the Broccoli Corn Muffins above.

Read: Earn Cash Back with these 4 Simple Grocery Apps

Found Money:

What is found money? It’s any money that comes into your hands that you weren’t expecting. Sometimes you have to work for it, but sometimes it suddenly and gratefully appears. It could be gift money, rebate money, or money you found while walking your dog.

I’m keeping track of any found money and my tally for the month is $78.59. This money went into our regular checking account, but I’d like to start directing it towards our debt. Here’s what I’ve found recently:

• $17.60 from Ebates. Read my review and how it works here.
• $20.99 from Ibotta rebate. I’ve been scoring a lot of rebates through the Ibotta app lately. Read my review HERE.
• $40.00 Aflac reimbursement

Frugal Miscellany:

We’ve had a lot of very warm and humid days in September and October. I actually turned the AC on for a few days this week. That wasn’t very frugal of me, but our house was really hot and we all wanted to sleep well.

However, this weekend the cool crisp weather that makes me love fall will hit us and I’m hoping for several days or even weeks before we must turn on the heater. I LOVE the reprieve from high gas/electric bills.

To prepare for the cooler weather, I’m spending some time this weekend pulling out and washing our extra bedding and our fall clothing that’s been in storage. It was all clean when I put it in the closets last year, but I’m sure it will all have the stale closet smell. It’s also a good time to assess our clothing and make a list of what we need, especially for my kids who will NOT stop growing up!

How did you frugal this week? Share in the comments!