Thursday, September 27, 2018

Thrifty Thursday (on Frugal Friday)

Mornings have been crazy and I haven't had blogging time much this week. Hence a post I started and didn't finish yesterday for Thrifty Thursday. I love my virtual friend Cheap Chick's tag line for her blog: "On a quest to live a simple cheap life...with occasional sips of champagne." Harnessing my inner Cheap Chick this past week had me looking for ways I was thrifty, but still enjoyed the finer things in life. Finer things in life are subjective, and when your life is more PBS than Bravo channel, it takes less to feel luxurious. Amen to that! I have to share an appreciation of a very simple luxury-clean running and drinkable tap water. One of our lines in town had an e-coli contamination. Our neighborhood, DH's work, and DD2's school was not impacted, but a sizeable area of town was. Many family and friends impacted. including where DD1 will be living. She forwarded the directions for flushing the water systems to the rental company, so she will follow-up to make sure things are right when she moves in. 





  • Even though I had money still on a coffee card, instead of heading to Caribou when I had a decadent hot chocolate craving when taking a break from housework, I used  a cup of my $1.48 a gallon milk and a packet of Swiss Miss to make a cup at home. I got out my Milk frother and gave it a little whip. Milk was under 10 cent, and the packet was from an old stash, so probably about 10 cents as well. $0.20, compared to over $4 at Caribou? Yes please and the money is still on my card. My hot chocolate was still rich and yummy tasting. 
  • Used a $10 off coupon for our dinner out. No water because of the water scare, but were there in time for two for one beers. We love this place to meet friends because they give you a variety of side choices like tot's or French fries, garden salad, or pasta salad without any up charges. The tot's are to die for! 
  • I decorated my mantle using last years pumpkin display. I'll add some candles plus some leaves that have already fallen. I think it's cozy.
  • Panini sounds much more continental than a gilled cheese. I don't have a panini pan but I do have a small little grill pan, and a big spatula for pressing a sandwich down into the grill. Mine was on 12 grain with deli turkey, mozzarella sprinkled with garlic and Italian seasoning, tomato slices from a coworkers garden, sprinkled with more garlic, seasoning, salt and pepper, and a light sprinkle of some more mozzarella. No picture  because I devoured every morsel as soon as it was off the grill.  The seasoning with the juices from the tomato- magnifico. I checked out the price of a similar sandwich when we went out to eat. Mine did not have tot's or a pickle but compared to $11.99, my sandwich was perhaps $1; I can buy a whole lot of tot's and pickles with $10.99. 
  • I had a relaxing Sunday night with wine from our own stash, popcorn that was under $0.25 per bag, and the soft light from my stash of tea lights, bought in a huge pack for very little. I'm getting too into cozy already but it was chilly last weekend and is supposed to be downright cold this weekend. 
  • I made a batch of muffins on Sunday and this morning, fresh baked and wholesome. Not quite bakery quality, but pennies not dollars for the muffin. Even the gas station charges $1.50 for a muffin. 


Cheap Chick has it right. Saving pennies and enjoying a simple frugal life has it's merits in being able to enjoy champagne tastes sometimes. I love when the champagne tastes come at the simple price tag all the more. 


8 comments:

  1. Sounds like a good list of frugal wins! We did our normal stuff (leftovers for dinner, line drying most of our clothes, etc). I did splurge & have a glass of my "nice" wine yesterday. It was lovely & I was celebrating my last day in the office this week. It's been a LONG work week, and I'm working from home today. Woohoo!

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    1. The nice wine! I love it, and with bottle stoppers, you can have the nice wine tonight as well. I hear you on the long work week. I'm on my day off, but have work for the weekend to get caught up on so next week goes smoother.

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  2. We all pick and choose what we will allow ourselves. I like to cook so cooking at home is not a chore to me and I do it most nights, However even those of us who like to cook enjoy a night off kitchen duty sometimes. (Leftovers count as a nice night off too)
    TheHub and I decided to intentionally go out one night during the workweek to do something together. This week we went shopping at Office Depot for paper (Yep, we are exciting like that) then stopped at Starbucks for a coffee. Normally we do not go to a coffee shop but decided the 6 bucks was worth it for a drink, some recorded music (They always have good music playing in the background) and conversation. I know some people would freak out and call it overindulgence and others would laugh at how little we spent to have a little bit of time in a different setting. Different strokes and all that.

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    1. I'm getting better at planning leftover into my weeks-getting better at meal planning in general. I'm with you on the coffee; sometimes being our of your own home is just enough of a change. Sure, $3 for a coffee is more than brewing a pot at home, but I enjoy being part of the outside world. I still do not get though the folks that do the Foodsby meal delivery for lunch, then just end up eating with brown baggers in our makeshift lunch area. Not much of a treat to me for the cost.As you say though, different stokes.

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  3. Spending $4 for a jamocha shake seems terrible but my goodness they're yummy... When I'm feeling flush with cash, I might splurge on one, OR a peach shake from Chickfila. OOHHHH those are delish too... and $4-5! yikes! How did things get so expensive?

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    1. We all need treat in life and if $4.00 fills that need, seems like a gentle way on the wallet to indulge.

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  4. Haha, you made me LOL. I am more PBS than Bravo, too, and I'm still wonderfully blessed and happy.

    Your spatula-panini sandwich sounds delicious!

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    1. I don't know why I didn't think of makung the sandwich like that before. So simple yet decadent.

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