Monday

Frugal this week?

I bought a extra ham butt from my store, they were marked down to $6.  I will be cutting it into slices today for my lunches at work this week, the rest will be chunked and put in the deep freezers for ham and bean soups.  Today I am making blackberry preserves and jelly from frozen berries I bought from work.  Blackberries fresh here are crazy high on sale $1 for a 6 oz. container so it is more frugal to buy them in bulk frozen from my store more so with my employee discount.  We gave these away as Christmas gifts to our friends and family and it was a huge hit.  I found a recipe on Facebook yesterday for dog biscuits that are made without wheat or corn meal, my rottweiler is allergic to corn so will be looking at the ingredients needed to start making these myself.  I know it uses pumpkin which I don't have on hand.  Long run cheaper, safer for my dogs than buying commercial products especially with the recent scare over dog treats made in China.  I use to make them before my rotty that had corn meal.  Just make up the dough, took a pizza cutter and criss crossed.. the dogs don't mind that they aren't shaped like dog bones LOL!  One thing I had a problem with before was them going bad quickly so lesson learned.. keep the majority in the deep freezer, pull out small batches or use the oxygen absorber packets.  Frugal was going to Odd Lots and finding Christmas stuff reduced 75% on Saturday.  I bought a lifetime supply of gift tags, while I could make my own the question becomes will I really do it or bend and buy at full price because I didn't have them.  I also found beautiful Christmas cards for $1.25.  And square cookie tins marked down to 87 cents.  I use these alot for food storage.  I use some to store sleeves of snack crackers and saltines, boxes of gelatin mix, hot cocoa packets.. anything that I feel a bug or mouse might get into.  Cereal I put in glass containers, same with oatmeal.  The mouse we had in our basement a cpl. years ago.. only thing he could find to eat in the basement was candle sticks, straw from a broom I kept down there and a slab of soap I had made and let air dry down there and forgot about.  Other frugals all meals made at home and lunches taken to work for both myself and dh.  I stocked up this week on a pkg. of ramen noodles, gotta repackage those this week into safer containers.  I also bought for emergency stock up some cans of Campbells soup that were a little out of the ordinary.. Cream of Shrimp, Cream of Onion, Black bean with cumin and cilantro.  These can be used to make a creative and different meal especially if we lose power.  I found a recipe yesterday in one of my cookbooks for Mock Cabbage Rolls.  You use shredded cabbage and onion soup mix along with a lb. of burger.  In the summer months I can plant cabbage, use canned meat instead of fresh and cook in  a iron skillet over my butane burner if we lost power or even just for a economical meal, again variety keeps us from getting bored with the same meals and the temptation to buy fast food or if one of us were to lose our jobs.  After 911 I never take for granted that we will have our jobs.  My husband and I both worked for the same company, while my hours weren't cut my husbands were and some people were laid off there.  Scary times and something I keep in mind always now.  Stay warm and safe my friends.. we are having ice storms here today in central Ohio.