by Texas Homesteader ~
Since RancherMan & I are not corporately employed we keep a close eye on our finances. Every now & then it’s fun to share 5 simple frugal things we did this week to save money. Oftentimes it’s so simple, we just have to keep an eye open for the ample opportunities. And I love that it often packs a nice little eco-friendly punch too!
Come see the 5 easy yet frugal things we did this week to save both money as well as the environment.
5 Frugal Things This Week
1.Solve A Condiment Shortage. One night I was planning supper & I discovered we were out of steak sauce. Not to be deterred, I researched & whipped up a batch from scratch. It was easy, I just mixed Ketchup, ACV, Worcestershire sauce, etc. to make my own steak sauce. It was all poured into a repurposed canning jar. I was hoping it would at least satisfy RancherMan’s palate and hopefully even give me another product I’d never have to buy. And he raved. SCORE! So be watching, I’ll share my recipe soon.
2. Homemade Meals Fast. As a matter of fact, I’ve been pulling lots of our meals from the freezer lately. I pulled a large container of Homemade Chili from the freezer & let it thaw in the fridge. When we got home from an errand, cold and wet from the weather, that hot homemade chili sure hit the spot!
3. Low-Cost Beverage. After several days of clouds and cold rain, the sun FINALLY decided to shine for us! So even though the temps were only in the mix 40’s I decided to make sun tea. I loaded up an hourglass jar with water and a tea bag and let the sun brew a delicious, low-cost beverage for us for FREE!
4. Replacing Our Percolator. We love our percolator but it just wasn’t big enough for us. RancherMan searched for the highest-rated percolator to replace it with. When he was just about ready to buy, he searched on ebay and found a very clean one for about half the price of new. Score for both our wallets and the environment!
5. Research Purchases. Our new percolator was shipped quickly but when it arrived we found the cord wouldn’t work. We contacted the seller who agreed to refund $5. RancherMan of course tried to fix the plug first so he went searching for a part. He wasn’t able to find the part but he found a whole new cord for around $3.99 at Ace Hardware. Yea!
Other Frugality Throughout The Week
There are of course other things we typically do over the course of a standard week. Our meals are almost all cooked form scratch for instance. And we always keep our thermostat set low & dress for the appropriate season. Our lights are typically turned off when not in use (especially since they’re not needed most of the time due to our home’s open floorplan.) And I made Homemade Sandwich Bread and Homemade Yogurt too. But this list is just to help get your creative juices going.
Now it’s YOUR turn to share! What’s your Frugal 5 this week?
~TxH~
I make yogurt weekly, Water kefir 2-3 times a week, we carry our lunches to work and our coffee in Rtic cups as well as water from the tap in Rtic bottles. I make a weeks worth of breakfast biscuits every Sunday and I cook 6 nights of the week.
OMGoodness Judith, you’re organized. Great list, thanks for sharing! ~TxH~
Here in Oregon we are always careful of our finances and of the state of the earth. The bird man who lives with me likes raisin bran cereal and we both like tortilla chips both of which come in non recyclable bags. I save them along with bread sacks to use for garbage that can’t go into the compost. So I never buy garbage bags. Once or twice a year we have enough “garbage” to make a dump run. The bird man’s peanut butter still comes in glass jars with metal lids, many of which are in the cupboards filled with things from the bulk food section of our grocery store. I have finally stopped saving them because I’m loaded up with them but they are recyclable. I have asked some of the neighbors but so far have not found anyone who wants them around here. We do, fortunately, live in an area where there are many like minded folks but I guess they all have their own systems.
I have a hard time passing on useful items in our community as well. Like you said, I guess they all have their own systems, but it seems so wasteful for me to just recycle some of these things! ~TxH~
This isn’t necessarily stuff I’ve done this week but here are my top 5 ways I try to be frugal.
1. I try to cook from scratch every day. This is a hard one for my husband as he likes to eat out but I’ve refused to go out as much so I’m slowly “training” him lol!
2. I like to reuse glass jars for storage etc.
3. I garden in the summer (we’re in Michigan) and preserve as much as I can. I’m not the best gardener but I keep trying!
4. I’ve learned to darn my socks instead of just throwing them away. Socks can be expensive! I also patch up our jeans, etc.
5. A lot of stuff in our home has been bought second hand or found on the side of the road. I love to repurpose stuff’