Friday’s Frugal Five

Gosh, it’s really been a minute since I’ve done a Friday Frugal Five post.

And again, I am not ashamed to admit that I completely stole the Frugal Five from Katy Wolk-Stanley of the amazing website The Non-Consumer Advocate. If you haven’t stopped by her website or facebook group, you really should. Very inspiring, and a group of great people there.

Ok, here it is.

We (for the most part) stuck to our meal plan this week and stayed out of the grocery store, restaurants and drive thru. As a matter of fact I made a return netting me $7 and change. The change went into my change jug.
I increased my 401 contributions and my contingency fund deposits to absorb the raise I got 😉
My bank has a change counter machine that is free to their customers so I cashed out my change jug and deposited that money into the freedom account category that is closest due (taxes!)
I set up my freedom account categories for 2017 and adjusted those deposits accordingly.
I bought nothing this week. I put gas in the car and paid my insurance deductible for my physical therapy appointment, that’s it. (Yes, I’m still in PT for cutting my finger – NOT frugal at all!)

Contingency Fund: A contingency fund is a fund for emergencies or unexpected outflows, mainly economic crises such as a loss of a job or long-term illness or disability. A three to six month fund to cover the cost of living expenses.

Freedom Account: Think of the Freedom Account as a sort of holding bin. You deposit small sums into it each month because you are thinking ahead: You’re anticipating bigger, specific expenses down the road like annual insurance premiums, home repairs, personal property taxes…
(for example if you want to save $1,000 for personal property tax due on January 1st of next year and you get paid twice a month you would make 24 deposits of $41.67 into the contingency fund account to accrue the $1,000 you will need by then)

If you are familiar with Mary Hunt and Debt Proof Living, then you are more than likely familiar with the contingency fund and freedom account terms.

What frugal fun did you have this week?

Till next time,

Lori

What Was Cooking This Week

Breakfasts were…

Smoothies for breakfast, well smoothies for my breakfast, I haven’t been able to convince the Z Man into it yet.

Right now I’m also enjoying a mushroom scramble and a apple on the side for breakfast too. This isn’t a great picture, but it was yummy. This particular one I added homemade salsa on top.

This is what the Z Man likes to call “Somma” which means some of this and some of that. I took this picture before adding the bow tie pasta and fresh grated parmesan cheese. I served it along side grilled venison tenderloin. Very healthy and one of our favorite meals. It’s also very good with homemade pesto mixed in.

Another one of our favorite meals is enchilada night.

This particular week was venison and black bean enchilada with homemade guacamole, homemade salsa and homemade yogurt. We always use yogurt in place of sour cream. I love that most all of this meal is grown and / or harvested by our own hands. But then again most of our meals are.

And I roasted some veggies this week too. Carrots, turnips, butternut squash, potatoes and onions. I love roasting veggies, it’s such and easy side dish for any meal.

And there is a chicken in that pot 🙂

So that’s pretty much what we ate this week.

Lunches were leftovers of these meals.

I did not buy any groceries this week, so that keeps my total at $89.84 for the month.

We eat pretty darn good around the Z Homestead 😉

What did y’all eat this week?

Till next time,

Lori

Smoother Times Ahead

In a continued effort to heal my digestive system and my leaky gut from years of taking proton pump inhibitors (prilosec), I’ve decided to add smoothies into my diet.

This is the thing, I’ve tried smoothies in the past and did not like them. It was a texture issue for me. My blender was not strong enough to blend the smoothie well and drinking a drink that has small chunks of kale and spinach is not pleasing at all.

So, I bit the bullet and bought myself this…. I bought it at Walmart for $89.00

I am so pleased with this blender. In a matter of seconds it completely blends all the ingredients perfectly. Now I can actually enjoy smoothies instead of trying to choke them down because they are good for me.

I went ahead and did some smoothie prep for the week… right now I’m putting a baby kale and spinach mix, a frozen mix of cherries, strawberries, blueberries and grapes, banana, ground flax seed, turmeric, L Glutamine, protein bone broth and I’m using raw milk for my liquid. The banana adds a nice sweetness to the smoothie, but a squeeze of honey helps too.

I did cook some pumpkin from the garden in the pressure cooker that I will freeze in ice cube trays so I can add those to my smoothies too. I’m thinking something like a pumpkin pie flavor using pumpkin, pumpkin pie spice, my homemade yogurt and some honey or pure maple syrup, and of course the greens, ground flax, ground turmeric and L Glutamine.

I had some coupons that were set to expire this week so off to the grocery store I went. I kept my side blinders on and stuck to my list. I spent $33.43 and here is what I bought.

I also stopped to pick up some avocados that are on sale right now and some cucumber and tomatoes for my jar salads. I spent $19.91

I’ve got to accept the fact that my digestive system requires somewhat of a special diet of fresh and organic as much as possible, good fats, very limited amounts of wheat and smaller meal portions with 5 – 6 small meals a day instead of 3 larger meals. Because of this it’s very important for me to plan and prep healthy meals and snacks.

It’s also important for me to track my spending to keep it in check. My total for this week is $53.34 and I’m well stocked up so I’m not planning any additional spending this week.

And by the way, have you notice the cost of nuts, especially almonds. Crazy expensive! Which is why you don’t see any in my grocery pictures. 😉

Do you have any smoothie suggestions, I’d love to hear them.

Till next time,

Lori

March Madness Grocery Challenge – The Score

This is it, the last day of the month. The last day of the March Madness Grocery Challenge.

As of last Friday I had a balance of $5.50 remaining in the MMGC fund, and guess what… Go ahead, guess. I’ll wait… Did I make it? What do you think?

Yes, I made it! As of right now I still have $5.50

You know what the crazy thing is? The crazy thing is that I didn’t think about it all week. I wasn’t stressed about it. I didn’t worry about it. I just didn’t go to the grocery store. That’s it, I just didn’t go. No big deal.

At the beginning of this challenge I allowed myself $20 a week for groceries. I also thought it probably would not be horribly difficult because the pantry and freezers were full. Actually, had it not been for the gallon of maple syrup and the dinner items purchased when we were returning from our out of town trip, both of which I am completely ok with, I would’ve done even better. The Z Man would interject here that (ahem) “we also haven’t had a loaf of bread in the house the entire month” That probably has more to do with me wanting to make real bread instead of buying highly processed junk from the store.

What I take away from this challenge is that, if I’m being honest, I have a grocery store habit. It probably stems from too much Food Network, but I truly enjoy cooking. I enjoy the entire process of planning, shopping and cooking a nice meal. There is something about chopping vegetables and putting them into a pot to cook, having the lovely smell of it cooking wafting through the house and then sitting down to enjoy that meal. Well, for me, it’s more than just getting dinner on the table. It’s nice. It gives me joy.

On the other side of the coin, I hate the grocery store. Even more so now that I’m researching better ways of eating because more often than not what you think you are buying isn’t at all what it really is. Bread is not bread, cheese is not cheese. It’s mostly highly processed ingredients that are unpronounceable and indigestible.

As for the MMGC, yes I stayed in budget, and we ate from the freezers and pantry. That’s great. But, that too all comes with a price of hard work. It’s taken us several years to see our homestead flow in full cycle like it is now. It’s also taken me a long time to learn the cycle and use it as it’s meant to be used, the benefit of the price we pay. That is to say, it is time to start the process of breaking my habit with the grocery store. Or have I already started it unknowingly with this challenge?

Putting in perspective this challenge and that what I’ve learned isn’t so much about the money but more importantly about why we do the things we do, and to understand that perhaps it’s more about the habit that can be changed, and recognizing the pleasure of doing it differently.

She Goes Up… She Shoots… And… She… Scores!!!

Till Next Time,

Lori