Do you ever feel discouraged or bored on your frugal journey? I do sometimes.
For this reason, I love reading roundups of frugal activities. They inspire me with new ideas to save money and keep me on the path. Sharing them with you also keeps me accountable, so thanks for reading! This post contains affiliate links.
Why are so many of my Five Frugal Things posts focused on food?
For most families, our biggest expenses are a) housing, b) transportation and c) food. I encourage any frugalista to do what she can to reduce her housing and transportation costs. I have a paid-for vehicle and my mortgage is offset by rental income courtesy of house hacking. (I’ll be writing a post on this soon!)
But making changes in housing and transportation can be difficult or require a long-term plan. By contrast, most of us can lower our food costs immediately, often with little sacrifice or inconvenience.
I bought loss leaders at ALDI
ALDI is my favorite grocery store. So much so, I wrote an ebook about it!
(Note: If you sign up for my newsletter (sign up box to the right on desktop, at the bottom on mobile), you get a free 30 day meal plan, and all the recipes use ingredients from ALDI.)
Every week, I get an email from ALDI with their specials. I make my menu based on their loss leaders.
I’m fortunate to live only a mile from ALDI. If there were only sidewalks, I would walk there sometimes! *shakes fist at American car culture*
I made a salad with wilted lettuce and homemade croutons made from the heels of loaves of bread.
This wilty lettuce was saved from last night’s black bean chalupas. It looked pretty pathetic in the fridge.
But by the time I put dressing and croutons on it, I didn’t care that it was wilted. Taking one for the team once again.
I baked bread again.
It’s oh-so-good, and costs less than the bread I was buying at a local bakery.
I’m baking a loaf this size almost daily these days. Several kiddos look forward to cutting a slice and slathering it with butter.
Going forward, I’ll bake two loaves at a time. This will also save on gas (I have a gas oven). Speaking of (tee-hee) gas…
I ate beans every day as my main protein source.
Recently I decided to eat beans every day for 30 days.
A piece of homemade bread, beans and a little chopped tomato, drizzled with olive oil. So simple and so good. Thankfully, my kids love beans too. Last night for dinner, we had corn muffins and pinto beans.
I created a free printable “30 Days of Beans” meal plan.
Want it? Just enter your name and email address below.
I used up the last bit of pumpkin purée in my oatmeal
I topped it with pepitos from Aldi, which gave it a flavor reminiscent of a Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffin from Starbucks.
Speaking of Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins from Starbucks, I love them! But they’re ridiculously expensive.
So I found a copycat recipe and baked some at home. And of course, I forgot to snap a picture. They were delicious, and so lovely with a cup of hot tea.
I bought the 20 lb bag of Basmati rice
It costs half as much per pound as the smaller bags. White rice is a bit cheaper but we love Basmati when we eat Indian food, which is often around here.
I vacuumed my refrigerator condenser coils
My fridge started making a weird noise. It’s working just fine. I’m not keen on calling a service person unless that changes.
My son pulled it away from the wall and I removed the cover that protects the condenser. Then I vacuumed it using the fuzzy horsehair attachment tool on my vacuum.
It stopped making noise. Bless it. Hopefully I’ll save a bit on my utility bill, since a cooling appliance has to work harder when it’s covered with dust.
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