Frugal Friday's With Marsha 7/8/11

This has been a strange week. I don't know if strange is really the word I want, but we allowed my daughter, her 5 children, and her boyfriend to move in with us. Other than the fact that they needed a place to stay, we needed their help with food. We've not had enough to do any real grocery shopping for weeks now.
We've been making it fine on what we had in the freezer and did buy a few pounds of meat over the weeks. They brought with them enough food for at least a week, and my daughter got her food stamps yesterday.

To say the house is going to be crazy, and noisy now, is quite the under statement. It's going to take some getting used to. As much as I love them all, I do hope they get the job situation taken care of and don't have to stay longer than a few months.

I can't really think of too many things that I did that were frugal over this past week, other than the usual hanging clothes on the line. We are also making my daughter hang their laundry out as well. I am linking up my Mailbox Monday post in the linky.

I bought a book that came in this past week. It's called 99 cent Solutions. Each week I am going to share some of the book. I've skimmed the book and it's 1,377 smart uses for every day stuff....this is going to be fun to share some each week!

Applesauce:
Replace the oil in baking--Fat makes baked goods moist and tender. It's also incredibly calorie dense, and if you are cutting calories, it's an easy place to start. Don't like your muffins and cakes dry and tough? Replace up to 2/3 of the oil called for in the recipe with applesauce and you will add moisture and flavor while ditching the fat. (my grandma actually taught me this when I was young and my mom does this most all the time with cake. You can't even tell the difference and it's much healthier!)

Make Holiday Ornaments--mix equal amounts of cinnamon and applesauce to make fragrant ornaments. Start with 1 cup of each and mix, adding more cinnamon if needed to make a stiff dough. Roll dough to half inch thick and use cookie cutters to make shapes, or mold it into hearts or wreaths. Don't forget to use a pencil or something to make a hole for hanging. Let dry for several days on a baking sheet or wire rack. (We've made these and love them. Cinnamon is one of our favorite scents in the house and these are long lasting. It's also a great family time together to make them. You can buy cinnamon at the dollar store fairly cheap.)

Add sweetness and fiber to your oatmeal--You've gone to all the trouble to make a healthy breakfast of oatmeal so don't ruin it by slathering on butter, sugar and cream. Instead, stir in a few tablespoons of applesauce and a sprinkle of cinnamon. You will add sweetness and flavor and even more fiber making it both healthy and delicious. (I actually look forward to trying this since I do put a lot of butter and sugar in my oatmeal.)


That's it for this week. I look forward to reading what others have done this past week in being frugal, living a simple life, saving money etc etc!