What Did You Do Frugal Today??

[Nchilada5]

Originally posted by Candy
I have froze spaghetti. As a cassarole. Added a little extra sauce and covered with chedder cheese. baked it ,came out good. It did not work if it was anything that you needed to stir ...it got tooo mushy.

Thanks Candy and Breezy - I'll have to give that a try. Did you freeze it in a container or in bags??

Julie

[Candy]

I froze in whatever I was going to reheat in. The less moving it around(stirring,chopping,transfering from pan to pan) the better results you'll get.

[Nchilada5]

Ok - Thanks again Candy

Julie

[jb829]

Haven't posted here in a long time, but I've been reading on and off. One reason for not being here was computer problems about two months ago, and when I got the 'puter back, I couldn't post on familycorner.com, had to go in and change my cookies. So it's nice to be back.

Congratulations to Joe'sBaby! Hope you have many, many more long and happy years together, and also that you have many more posts here, lol.

I don't even look at coupons anymore. The only two stores that they'd be worth my time are Kroger and Publix, and I will not shop at either one unless I need a *specialty* item, usually one of the soy products I use. We do our grocery shopping at either Aldi's or Food Depot, and don't really need coupons at either place. Both of them use the store or *off* brands, at much cheaper prices than I could get national brands, even with coupons. I have learned thru trial and error that the majority of store/off brands are as good as, if not better than, the national brands. Food Depot will take coupons on the national brands, but they won't double them, and I don't know if Aldi's will take coupons at all. Most of our paper and cleaning supplies come from either the Dollar Tree or Fred's...again, no coupons. Considering the fact that we usually eat for less than $150 a month, I'm satisfied. And, I agree with y'all: the buy three get 50¢...or whatever...off just isn't worth clipping most of the time. Neither are the so-called store sales that require you to buy another $10 of goods to take advantage of the sale...unless I was going to buy the product anyway, at that particular store.

Last week I was decidedly unfrugal at the grocery store...and it just happened to be Kroger, lol...I went in for my soy-based ice cream, and spent almost $40. Yikes! That same $40 at Food Depot or Aldi's would've fed us for over two weeks! Anyway, I splurged and bought two lamb chops for $9.01!!!!! BUT! I have turned two chops into three meals, and there's still enough leftovers to have a fourth one, ta-da. So I feel I got my money's worth, and enjoyed tasting lamb again after not having any for over at least five years. The first meal was, of course, just the chops and 'taters and a vegetable. The next meal, and the leftovers, I turned into a lentil/lamb stew...excellent, absolutely excellent!!! Once we eat the stew...for the third time, lol...again, it will turn the $9 chops into a $2.25 meal for the two of us...I can live with that!!

And I did something quite frugal today...very proud of myself for thinking about it, too, btw. A LONG time ago, we had a discussion here about homemade laundry soap, and I bought the Borax and the Arm and Hammer washing soda to make it...turned out it gave Dearly Beloved a rash, so went back to buying soap. Anyway, I still have the borax and the washing soda. I ran out of dishwasher detergent this week, and needed to run a load of dishes today, so I mixed a cup of the borax and a cup of the washing soda in an old coffee jar, stirred them well, and then used three tablespoonsful in the dishwasher. The dishes look great, the silverware looks great, and even the bowls on the top rack look cleaner than usual. So I see no reason to buy dishwasher detergent for a lonnnnng time, as I still have a LOT of the other two powders left, several months' supply, I have no doubt. The two powders together ran a tad over $5, if I remember right, so this works out pretty darned cheap, I think.

One more thing, and I promise to stop babbling, lol. I don't know if any of y'all would've noticed, but my number of posts says 151...I have wayyyyy more than that. It also says I am a *new neighbor,* and I am NOT a new neighbor, I am a member of the family. Several of us on the GA forum had this happen to us...our numbers were taken away from us, and we are now called new neighbors, when we're not new. Don't know the reason behind it, but we don't like it. Ah, well, life does go on, doesn't it? God bless.

[jb829]

Well, duh...I've been changed back to a member of the family, lol. Guess it takes 150 posts to get that????

[OSI]

jb829-

So glad you are back.

What happens on Posts:

Each time you posts, your number goes up. When a old thread is deleted because of inactivitiy such as our previous threads of "What did you do frugal today", you loose posts. I'm not sure how many posts it takes to get your status changed but don't worry... us oldies know who you are

Anna

[OSI]

Happy 4th of July everybody-

Hope all of America has a beautiful day celebrating our freedom to be who and what we want to be, the freedom to choose the God we worship. God Bless America and Keep Us All Safe from evil.

Anna & David

[barbszy]

I just put the cooked pasta into freezer bags. When I want to use it I take it, frozen, and drop the pasta into boiling water. It has worked for me. Try it with one bag, and see how you like it....

Another thing I do with cooked SPAGHETTI which doesn't involve freezing is to make lo mein. There's a good recipe in Joy of Cooking for lo mein.

Good luck!

Welcome back, jb829

[leasmom]

We must've went to 12 places yesterday and about 8 today and we're still not through! Yesterday was clothes shopping, shoe and bookbag shopping for the kids. Today was toy shopping and grocery shopping.

I forgot to post that I found a (rented) house yesterday that we will be moving into in about a week. It already has a swingset, it only needs to have the outside painted and a gate put in. I'm looking for nice but inexpensive gate ideals because almost directly behind the house is the neighbor's house, so I want to separate us and to have a little privacy. But, the house looks really small from the outside and big inside. It'll be nice to be back into a house...my nieces and dd are TOO LOUD to be in an apartment, plus trying to bring playtoys etc. up and down the two flights of stairs isn't fun for either of us.

But, frugal today was stopping at 2 garage sales. The first one barely had anything and the one thing I wanted, a wicker couch, was already sold, but she did have some big shirts for free which the kids can sleep in as sleep shirts. The second one we fared better. I got 4 stackable clothes containers for $3, a basketball for $1, a big tub of crayons for $1.50, the kids got a few extra toys and books, and I also got one of those heavy duty kids wagons for $10.

We went back up to Walmart to get some extra things and went to the grocery store to refill the kitchen...these kids can eat! We still didn't get to go to the Dollar Store but we are going to the movies tonight and tomorrow there going swimming. I got myself a coffee maker, since I've been living without one for over a month and using a kettle-(and I really need it cause I've been going on just 4 hrs or less sleep a day), and I got a toaster today very cheaply and brand-new...now I just need furniture for the house because all of the furniture in this campus apartment belongs to the school except for a futon frame and a blow-up bed that my nieces have been sleeping on.

Well, off to sit still for a minute so my legs will stop aching and throbbing, and try to remember that tomorrow I can rest...I hope...of course I still have a book and paper to read/write.

Oh yeah...had to buy a book for class, a book I completely dislike but I had no choice. I did get away with not having to buy books this semester because the library had nearly all of them except this one and I wanted to buy it, read it for the 3 days we're assigned it and then return it but the only bookstore that had it was on campus and they are no longer accepting returns because they only do that at the beginning of each semester. So, I have a $14 book I hate for 3 days reading- Oh well...

[justEricka]

thanks for all the good wishes everyone. we didnt get to do do anything fun or special today. what we did do was go 2 towns over and get an emg done on joes leg. i was ok watching the little shocks. that was cool then they brought out the needle. i almost passed out. it hurt him some, they did it into his back too.and after he got all that done, he didgtn feel well enough to go do anything. but thats ok. i made him a crab boil dinner, ( crayfish, potatos,and corn) yumm..and we stayed home and watched wizard of oz. i am such a party animal right..lol
but it was a nice day anyway. and we are planning to go out and eat soon for it. the 4th is supposed to be our anniversary, but no one would marry us then. so we got married on the nearest day.

the only frugal things we did today was not go out to eat, and my sil, the one with the cancer, gave me her old play pen for sweetcheeks gretchen the anniversary pig. ;-) i am absoultly soooo inlove with this little piggy. shes sooo sweet. when joe got up today she was awake so he brought her in and she laid in the bed with me sleeping untill i got up. it was so sweet.

well looks like a storm is coming..hopefully just rain..i dont mind rain, but wind totally scares me. talk at you all tommrow. have a great weekend everyone....

happy 4th of july
ericka