Frugal Friday With Marsha -- Food, Apps, Gifts, and More

I hope you all have had a good week.  It's been pretty good here.

First I want to tell you about the app that I wrote about last week.  It's called Watch4Dollar, and I wanted to wait until I got paid before writing about it.  I cashed in 3000 coins for $3 PayPal.  I was paid 3 days after cashing out.  Unfortunately, PayPal fees were taken out so I actually rec'd $2.87.
I can deal with that.  The app is really easy.  Once you get past the initial percentage, which doesn't take long at all, you can then watch 4 videos every 30 minutes for a total of 40 points.  You can also check in once per day for 20 points. 
It's run on 7 levels of referrals, so if you do get people under you that are using the app, the earnings would really go up.
If you would like to give it a try, please use this LINK, and put in my code W4D4AFC8 it would sure be appreciated!

I got in the kitchen towel set that I ordered through Recyclebank.  It's actually a set of 3 dishcloths, but they are nice and will make a great gift as the set of 3, or to split up as gifts.   I'm still gathering points to order my next item.
Here are some Recyclebank points to check out:

5 Free Recyclebank Points

5 Free Recyclebank Points

5 Free Recyclebank Points


Don't forget today's Friday Freebie!

Free Epic Bar for Kroger & Affiliates




You might remember that I mentioned that my brother gave us 3 lbs of ground venison for Christmas.  I used one pound and made a meatloaf on his suggestion.  I then took 2 slices of the meatloaf and crumbled it. I put it in the freezer and we used it in the sauce on spaghetti night.
I made a nice chili out of one pound, which we ate for 2 nights.  And, last night I made a casserole, that we will also eat tonight.  So, from those 3 lbs, we came up with 6 meals.
I'm not one that really likes wild game as I didn't grow up in a hunting family, but I am getting more used to it.  We were also thankful to have the food as well.

I made a huge crock pot full of ham and beans with the bone and meat left from the big ham this week.  My intention there was 2 nights of ham and beans and then freeze the rest for other nights later.  We are having a carry in dinner at church on Sunday and there is no grocery money this week.  We decided to freeze the rest and take it to heat and serve as our contribution to the dinner on Sunday. 

I'm trying to redeem 40,000 points with the Lucktastic app for $10 Burger King to provide us with another meal this week.   Unfortunately the prize is out of stock, but I will keep checking!

Speaking of Lucktastic......I was looking at the apps to download for points and seen 1800 pts for downloading Wish.  You know, I'd yet to check that app out.  Might have been a mistake as I spent $2.85 of the $2.87 that I got in from Watch4Dollar  LOL.   Not really a mistake as for that $2.85 I am getting a nice make-up bag and a ring, but I will need to watch and not go crazy ordering things.....however, it's yet another option for me to add to my gift stash and spend very little money!!

Oh!  I also did get my points and redeemed for $5 amazon with MyPoints.   My goal is to redeem once a month, but it looks like it can be more frequent than that, so that is great. 

Frugal Chick T-Shirt

by chicktees

Frugal Friday With Marsha -- Cheap Eats

Seems we've been eating pretty well this week, and at a very small cost.  I love it when I plan comes together.  Ok, so there was no real plan, but it all worked out the same.

A couple weeks ago hubby did extremely well when he picked up a pork roast on sale for just $5.75.  I cut 9 chops (3 meals for the 2 of us) as well as left the end for a 4th meal.  The 4th meal ended up being pulled pork sandwiches.  Oh so good!

I had fixed the first 2 sets of 3 pork chops in the crock pot and added half the bag of Uncle Ben's Flavor Infusion Rice towards the end of cooking.  The Uncle Ben's was a Friday Freebie with Dillon's (Kroger).

While on the subject of the Friday Freebie, don't miss out on this week's Free Jell-O Simply Good at Kroger & Affiliates


When I went shopping, I first looked thought the Ibotta app to see if there was anything I could try to get towards suppers that I could add to my rebates there.
I marked several things, but only ended up getting 2 of them.

I bought a box of 6 White Castle Sliders with a 50 cents rebate.  At $4.97 a box (not on sale), that is not the most frugal thing...not even if you subtract the 50 cents I will get from ibotta).
However, hubby and I each ate 2, along with macaroni salad and potato salad that a lady in the quilt guild sent me home with from the Christmas party.
It made a very filling meal and hubby was able to have the other 2 sliders as part of his supper last night while I was out babysitting for grandchildren.

I also chose to get Reames Frozen Noodles with a 70 cent rebate from ibotta.  $2.39 for those, not on sale.  I wondered over to the marked down meat section and found a package of cubed turkey for $1.99.
Hubby fixed up a soup adding a can of carrots and chopped onion.  Voila!  Supper for 2 nights.



We had the last 3 pork chops one night with the rest of the macaroni salad and potato salad.

It's a new month, and time for me to scroll through the Ibotta app and see if there is anything I can put on my list to help with suppers this week.

Recipes for the Frugal Cook Patriotic Binder

by cowboyannie


I would love to read about your "cheap eats" and so would other readers.  I hope you will link up any posts you have on frugal recipes!

Frugal Friday With Marsha -- Food Again

As far as being frugal, this past week has still been about our meals.
I did pull 13 lbs of chicken out of the deep freeze that's been there for a long time.  What I found was that most of it was freezer burnt.

Lesson #1--  Use the food that you have!

I cooked what I could of it in the crockpot, which was still quite a lot.  We had chicken that night then we pulled the rest of the chicken off the bones and it's not in the freezer ready for 2 meals-- a casserole, and chicken fajitas.




I've thought a lot this last week about my mom and how she always has done things at meals.  In my adult life we have ended up living with her for short periods and she is still the same.
She pulls out all leftovers every meal---until they are gone.

Lesson #2-- Use leftovers instead of letting them turn into science experiments in the refrigerator.

Rather than pull out leftovers each meal like my mom, I used to freeze leftovers.  Veggies were put into a larger container in the freezer and used with roast or stew in the crock pot.  Other foods were frozen like they were.    I would then pull them all out twice a month for a banquet meal.   The kids actually loved when I did this and getting to choose what they wanted to eat from many things.

Lesson #3--  No matter what, just try to not let food go to waste, PERIOD!





Whichever way I choose to do it, making sure leftovers get eaten or freezing the leftovers, we must adhere to lesson #3.
Even when (or if) we get our financial life back in order, we still need to not waste anything.


Our local food bank allows people to come for food every 2 months.  It's been quite a bit longer than that since I had went, and I made an appointment.  You would never guess that for meat, we got mostly chicken.   I can be ok with that though because I do love chicken, and there are so many different ways to fix it.

I also got in a bit of money and was able to spend $16 at the grocery store.  I bought tortillas, milk, and cheese along with some non-food items.  I was looking at Sargento cheese slices for a 25 cent rebate on ibotta.  I had a 50 cent coupon, but that only took Sargento down to $3 a package.  I seen that the store brand of the sliced cheese was on sale for $1.88 and had 6 more slices.  I opted to be the wiser shopper and get the store brand.

Well, that's it for this week.  Will next week be more adventures in food, or will I come up with something else to talk about?

Frugal Friday With Marsha -- Meals from the Cupboard

When there is no money for groceries then it's time to start taking a serious look at what is in the cupboards, freezer, and fridge.  That's the week we've had here.
Most of the time we are always thinking, "there is nothing to eat", when in reality, our cupboards and such are pretty packed with food.

My husband had shopped for one meal the Sunday before.  He chose to buy all the fixings for soft tacos/burritos.  I commented to my daughter about how I could have shopped for a few days on what he spend for one meal, but as it turned out, we ate tacos/burrittos for 3 days on what he bought.  In fact, we even threw in a night of chef salad with the taco ingredients and adding hard boiled eggs and some lunch meat cut up. (We did end up on the 3rd time just with refried beans in our tortillas and no meat with the fixings.

Another night my daughter got to looking in the freezer and she found 2 of the thin pork chops from Dollar Tree.   She cooked those up and cubed them.   She then added a packet of onion soup, a can of beef broth, a can of black beans, a can of pinto beans, and a can of kidney beans out of the cupboard.  She also added in what was left of the onion from the taco nights and some cubed boxed commodity cheese.
It was a really good soup and 5 of us ate it for 2 nights.

One night there were 3 tortillas left.  There were also 6 eggs left.  I got out the Eggtastics, and cooked us each 3 eggs, splitting up the little bit of shredded cheese that was left, cutting up a package of Buddig Bull lunch meat that was still left from our camping trip, and cutting some of the onion that was left, I fixed us nice breakfast burritos.  I dig in a drawer and found sauce packets from Taco Bell too.


You Can Get Free Gift Cards For Shopping, Searching and Discovering What's Online at Swagbucks.com

I was paid $25 PayPal by Swagbucks so that gave me a little grocery money.  I used $5 for gas leaving me $20 to spend at the store.  I opened up the ibotta app to see what I could see there.
I spent $19.25 and I bought:
My husband and I each a 2 ltr of Dr Pepper
gallon of milk
package of tortillas
dozen eggs
4 packages of Buddig Bull meats (with $1 ibotta rebate)
Sargento sliced cheese (using 55 cent coupon and 25 cent rebate from ibotta)
Martha White Muffin mix (25 cent rebate from ibotta)
ground turkey (on sale and 50 cent store coupon)
3 bananas
I think I did pretty well with $20 plus I received $1.75 into my ibotta account too.

My daughter made us some good sliders for a meal too!  She used the slider buns that I had brought home left over from the quilt retreat, some of the Buddig Bull meats, and some of the cheese slices.  She topped them with melted butter with garlic salt.  That was an extra yummy treat for a meal!

Last night I had forgotten to take my pound of ground beef out of the freezer, but I got to looking around and I uncovered a package of sausage links from Dollar Tree.  I then seen tater tots that were left over from a time when we had made tater tot casserole.  I used those and made scrambled eggs for a nice breakfast for supper.

All in all we ate really well this week. I wish I had thought to take pictures of our meals throughout the week, but alas, I didn't.   My lesson for this week is to eat out of the cabinets....at least if yours are like ours, and full.  We will be doing this for awhile yet as we get some financial things straightened out.  I know there is still at least 10 lbs of chicken in the deep freeze so it's looking like we will be having chicken several ways this week as well as using up some of the many bags of rice and beans that are stacked in the kitchen too.

No, we didn't have a cat for supper, but I found this picture of Moo in the skillet in my photos and thought I would just share it for fun.


Did you get tired of reading all of that?  LOL  I hope I did give you some "food" for thought today!!
Until next week, have yourself a Frugal week ahead!

Frugal Friday with Marsha --Week in Review

This week has been about as busy as last week!  I need a slow down.

I wrote a couple of bubblews posts pertaining to being frugal:
Cancelled my Club Pogo Subscription  and  Supper 2/19/15

$5.99 a month may sound like frugal computer entertainment, but it's not frugal if you aren't actually spending time playing the games.
$3.60 for our supper foods last night is very frugal.
I hope you will click over to read more.  Both will open in new windows.
Here is a picture of my supper plate though:

Gasoline is holding steady at $2.19 a gallon.   I still wish it was under $2 a gallon like it was for awhile, but still can't complain after prices we have seen in the past. 

I'm still working on crocheting the pink washcloths and working on the pink hexagons.   I bought the yarn at a yard sale and the hexagons fabrics were given to me.   I love that I rarely buy any materials new and that I have about 10 years worth of projects that can be done right now.
The fact is that the only thing I should have to buy in those 10 years is some needles for my sewing machine and blades for my rotary cutter.   I seriously have collected so much fabric and other things either by buying at yard sales and thrift stores, or that has been given to me, that I can work all day every day for many years. (Now if I would just get in to my sewing/craft room and organize it all!)

Still working here and there are eliminating clutter and organizing.  There is a lot to be said about the saying "less is more".  Even going back to the cleaning and organizing of my sewing room, I have lots of things in there also that I will never use.  I wonder if next Friday I can tell you that I've been working in there?

I Love Being Frugal Postcards by giftshirt
Browse I heart frugal Postcards online at Zazzle.com

An InLinkz Link-up

Frugal Friday Link Up 9/9/11

We've had some frugal dinners this week.

I picked up a bag of popcorn chicken on sale for $1. We picked up 2 bowls of chicken chow mein noodles for .99 each. We mixed it all together with some sweet and sour sauce my daughters boyfriend had brought home from work free. $2.98 for that quick meal on the run.

Another night I picked up a package of hot dogs for $1 at the store, along with some cottage cheese on sale for $1.25. We had bought a cantaloupe on sale for $1.99 a couple days before. I also opened up a can of baked beans we had bought for $1.38. This meal cost a total of $4.62 we had a decent meal. It was only the 3 of us eating so we had the same meal for lunch yesterday too. Two meals for $4.62. Pretty good.

Last night I pulled out items that we've had for awhile---and I do mean awhile! I found a package of boneless check breasts in the freezer along with a bag of spinach and a box of mixed veggies. I had cooked the chicken in the crockpot. I cooked up what was left of 2 different kinds of pasta in the cabinet, I add it to the chicken and a jar of Alfredo sauce I found in the back of the cabinet. I opened a can of applesauce that we had gotten with commodity foods. My husband works for Sara Lee so bread is always free. Add in some bread with supper and we had a good meal.

What's for supper tonight? I really have no idea!

Here are this week's tips from the 99 Cent Solutions book. We are still on baking soda!

1. Eat naked fruit. Give your fruits and veggies a baking soda bath. Dampen the produce with water, sprinkle a vegetable brush with baking soda and scrub before you eat them. Rinse well. This will remove the wax and reduces pesticides.

2. Be tender to tummies. A very tiny pinch in tomato soup, coffee or orange juice can prevent an acidic stomach for those with delicate stomachs.

3. Faux age wood. When putting new wood next to older wood you can stir in 1 cup of baking soda into a liter of water. Scrub the mixture into the wood with a stiff brush and splash on cool water to rinse. When it dries, the fresh new look will have faded.

4. Miracle for the microwave. Put one cup of water and a few tablespoons of baking soda into a glass container. Microwave on high for 3 minutes then easily remove all that baked on gunk and grime in a snap with a damp sponge.

5. No stick, no rust, no kidding ! For non-stick pans that food did stick to just scrub the spots with a damp sponge sprinkled with baking soda. Make sure to wet the sponge well to dissolve the baking soda to avoid scratching your non-stick. This also works to get rust off of cast iron.

That's it for me today. I hope to see lots of link ups this week!