What Fun & Frugal Thing Did You Do Today?

[mom-from-missouri]

Everything we ate today came from food we have grown. Breakfast was veggie omelets and grape juice(eggs were from my hens, grape juice from our orchard, and the veggies in them we grew), chili (we grew the beans and the beef in it was from the last cow we butchered), baked potato broccoli and catfish. (Again, from the garden and from one of our ponds). Our beef are grass fed (no expense to us) and the chickens eat maybe a $12 bag of feed a month during the winter--but on nice days they free range at no expense to us. A zero money spent day.

[disneysteve]

With my wife's recent medical issues, we haven't been doing as much cooking as usual. Now that she's recovering, we're working on getting back to it. Today, she made a pot of "eggroll in a bowl" which is ground chicken, shredded veggies, and seasoning. We had that for lunch and there are leftovers for another meal or two. This afternoon, we tried making soup in the Ninja Foodi for the first time - chicken noodle. That came out great (it's hard to screw up soup). We like how convenient it was. Just as much prep time as making it in a stock pot but then you just put everything in the pot, close the lid, and cook it. No stirring. No adjusting temperature. No cleanup of the stove top when it's done. So more convenient overall. Definitely something we'll do again.

[mom-from-missouri]

Did some stock up shopping at Dollar General this morning. Total was a little over $150 BEFORE the sale prices and coupons, which brought it down to $97. Everything I bought was on sale and/or I had a coupon. My haul includes 6 jars of preggo sauce, 6 bottles of Sweet Baby Rays BBQ sauce, TP, 6 tubes of toothpaste, 6 bottles of Dawn, 3 boxes trash bags, 4 shampoos and 4 conditioners, 18 cans of cat food, 2 packages of coat hangers, 2 canisters of Tide Pods, 2 canisters of Gain pods, 4 Clorox wipes and 2 off brand ones, LED light bulbs, and an extension cord. For this haul I used the Dollar General app, online coupons and had coupons in my hand that I had printed off. I try to keep at least 1 year of items in our large basement pantry/storage area. This really paid off when covid hit, as we didn't have to run to the stores and risk exposure or worry about items that other people couldn't find, such as TP, bleach and such.

Later today I am going to make up a triple batch off egg noodles then dehydrate them for storage. The eggs are from our farm, and our neighbor farms wheat and we trade out some of our eggs with them in exchange for flour that they mill--so basically free noodles. And, lastly, I cleaned out the master closet the last couple of days and donated several trash bags full of shoes, clothes, winter coats and boots to donate. I also took in several electronics that we just don't use. Donating them will give me a receipt for taxes.

[mom-from-missouri]

Went to the city today to pick up my daughter from the airport and take her home (100 miles away). Since we have now had 2 family members get a car stolen while parked in long term parking at the airport, we no longer park there. Anyway, we went into a Walmart store since there is not one where I live. I picked up some new canning flats for this coming years garden and canning season and a few other things that I cannot buy locally that Walmart has for cheaper than Amazon. I bought 14 items total. I watched very closely as they were rung up and found they were ringing up at the wrong price as opposed to what was on the shelf sticker. I spoke up and the clerk called a manager over to help. She said I was wrong, I told her I was right, and all these items were on endcaps. She had me go and show her where I got them from and turns out I was right. These items were located in 2 different locations in the store, and each location had a different price. The manager apologized and said I was correct after I took her to each location. She had the clerk void out the sale and ring it up again as she did overrides. It amounted to a difference of $19.97. It pays to watch them ring items up. I had the same issue in Dollar General yesterday. I think next time I go shopping I am going to take a picture of the shelf stickers for items I purchase--it may save time at the register. It pays to watch.

[Fishindude77]

Got two free whole hogs from a neighbor this morning. Couple buddies and I skinned, dressed and quartered them, then hung in walk in cooler for processing later this week.
Will make a bunch of good sausage along with some other cuts.

[james.hendrickson]

Got two free whole hogs from a neighbor this morning. Couple buddies and I skinned, dressed and quartered them, then hung in walk in cooler for processing later this week.
Will make a bunch of good sausage along with some other cuts.

Thats fantastic Fishindude. I bet if you were to buy the equivalent in pork at the supermarket it would cost you hundreds of dollars.

[scfr]

I've done lots of special New Year's cooking (and eating) the past 3+ days. It's a major holiday in our household. It hasn't been the most frugal activity, but is less expensive than going to restaurants or buying prepared food. Healthier too. And quite a bit of fun even though it was work. I'll take some leftovers to work tomorrow and that will be the end of it. We enjoyed it so much this year that we'll do even more next year.