Frugal In Florida

Hey hey, it's time to share the Frugal Activities post and I know a lot of you liked them because of my full disclosure too! So, what the heck, since I seem to have fallen off the Menu Plan Post, let's revive the Frugal Activities shall we? I generally try to start my week on Monday with it ending on Sunday Here are some of our Frugal Activities that we did this past week! 1.  Stayed OUT of the stores this week up until Thursday. Trying very hard to stick with a one day a week shopping plan and this week it worked. However, I sort of blew the budget, see #1 in the Not So Frugal Activities below. 2.  Did my own manicure. Like I've said before, it's not spa quality, but plenty sufficient for me and work. Saved $20, well worth it to do it yourself! I even used that same color! 3.  Made an extra $200 debt paydown payment ... I think I have $200 left on this particular credit card and that will pay off the new computer. This money came from Digit savings

Some nights, I just want to chill out and not fuss over dinner. Those are usually the nights I make nachos, or occasionally, microwave popcorn.  Just being honest folks! I'm well aware that those are NOT healthy choices and sort of undermines what I do all week long food wise, so when Sunday night was turning into one of those evenings, Hubby suggested just ordering a pizza. I was like, nooooo .... we really need to be saving money and well, ordering pizza was just NOT what I wanted to spend my last $20 on! So I got off the couch and grabbed a loaf of french bread from the freezer, a jar of pizza sauce from the pantry, and a package of pepperoni and a bag of shredded cheese from the fridge. Tada! Pizza Bread! Frugal Tip: Buy the marked down bread, place in a plastic shopping bag and toss in the freezer! Perfect for last minute bruschetta, garlic bread, or, in this case, PIZZA BREAD! This is also a great thing to teach college kids to make ... it's one of the thin

Hey hey, it's been awhile since I've done the Frugal Activities post and I know a lot of you liked them because of my full disclosure too! So, what the heck, since I seem to have fallen off the Menu Plan Post, let's revive the Frugal Activities shall we? I generally try to start my week on Monday with it ending on Sunday Here are some of our Frugal Activities that we did this past week! 1.  Said no thank you to Hubby to go for Pollo Tropical for lunch on Monday (I was home as I had a procedure done that morning) ... we ended up eating leftovers. Probably saved $20 as I know Hubby would have made me order a large whatever ;-) 2.  Did my own manicure. Like I've said before, it's not spa quality, but plenty sufficient for me and work. Saved $20, well worth it to do it yourself! 3.  Utilized my insurance and had a co-pay of $60 for my procedure. I'm glad I got a second opinion as the first doctor wanted to try something more dramatic and the i

I had shared this recipe a while ago and that recipe called for a full pound of shrimp. Being that I used half a bag last week to make my Shrimp Avocado Salad , I opted to cut this in half and use up the rest of the bag I opened (and don't worry, I have shrimp on my list as it's B1G1 and it will be a nice filler to get to $40.00 to use my $5 off $40 coupon ;-) 1/2 pound of cooked shrimp, peeled and those pesky tails removed! I prefer to cut in half or 1/3 to make smaller bite size (Aldi) 1/2 cup of cucumbers, seeds scraped out if really watery and chopped (Aldi) 1/2 mango, chopped (Aldi) 1/4 cup of canned pineapple, drained, and chopped (Aldi) 1/4 of a red pepper, diced (Walmart) 1/4 of a small rd onion, diced (Aldi) 1/2 smallish jalapeno, seeds and membranes removed, diced (Whole Foods) 1/4 cup of parsley leaves, chopped (I used the little containers of the dried stuff) (Publix) 3 tbs olive oil (Trader Joes) juice from 1 limes (Trader Joes) 1 tsp dijon mustard

It's summertime here and MAN IS IT HOT OUTSIDE! Like, sweltering hot! So, rather than turn on the oven and make the kitchen hotter than it already was, I opted to make the baked potatoes in the crockpot. Uhm, yeah, it works like a charm! Easy peasy, lemon squeasy ... Scrub your taters.  I use a scrubby sponge. Let them dry. Give them a little love and massage some olive oil over them. Season them with some coarse salt. Toss them in the crockpot and turn it on to low for 8 hours OR high for 4 hours.  I did mine on high and started then at 4pm ... we ate about 8:30 and they were done! They were NOT Costco size taters, just for the record, but ordinary, run of the mill potatoes :-) Go about your daily stuff. Need some ideas? For 8 hours, maybe go make some money for the bosses. Or for 4 hours, go float in the pool. Or, clean house. Read a book. Pinterest! Whatever you do, remember, you got some taters cookin' at home! *Note - don'

*This is another repost BUT I made it at 8am on Tuesday for lunch at the office ... I was so excited about lunch that I tapped into the bowl by 10:30am! I really love it when I come across a recipe that I have ALL the ingredients on hand to make, except one!  I mean, it's like mandatory that you make it! This original recipe comes from  Skinny Taste  (which, by the way, I got her  cookbook  for Christmas and I'm sad to say I've not cooked ONE recipe from it yet!) and of course, I made a 'few' modifications but the whole idea comes from there! And yes, it's  Whole30  compliant (of course, I made this at the start of Week 2 and was still in the excitable mode!)  It will stay around for a repeat, trust me! Here's how I did it: 1 lime, juiced (Costco) 1/4 red onion, finely choppped (Aldis) 1/2 tsp avocado oil (or olive oil) (Costco) dash of salt (Costco) dash black pepper to taste (Costco) 1/2 pound of cooked, peeled shrimp, cut in bite size pi

*This post has been sitting idle in my draft box for oh, almost 2 years (October, 2014 to be exact) ... what the heck? I'm sharing it NOW and then going to make sure I re-share again when the season hits!  I am not a huge fan of veggies, I'm sure you already know that, but I have been working on it! And of course, butternut squash is running rampant at the grocery stores lately, with Whole Foods having the organic stuff at 89 cents a pound! Really? Nothing is ever 89 cents a pound at Whole Foods, you know, so yes, I grabbed a small squash.  Mind you, every 2 weeks, I get the bug, and pick up a butternut squash, a spaghetti squash, an acorn squash AND some zucchini. Generally it's the pretty display and the less than $1 per pound sign that lures me in ... after all, it's Frugal and it's supposed to be good for you ... so hook me up and reel me in, every time. Then, 10 days later, I see the variety of squash STILL sitting in the guest kitchen refrigerator and

Uhm, HI! I've got a confession to make ... I've only been to Starbucks 2 times in my whole life. TWICE! Which kind of makes me a not so very good copycat recipe kind of girl with this here recipe ... BUT  I did test it out on some folks who have had it and they say it's spot on! Funny, first time at Starbucks was in downtown Chicago on a freakin, blustery, late November day ... Hubby wanted to duck in to this little place and I didn't know WHAT to order, it is a little overwhelming, that menu board! So I just ordered a mocha whatever, which come to find out, was a glorified hot chocolate. Perfect for that day! The next time was with my boss one morning, who happens to know about my anti Starbuck visits ... and I got a Vanilla Frappuccino. I had no idea it was basically a frozen desert type thing and was instantly sorry I ordered it as I knew that sugar crash was going to be ugly in the office ... live and learn! Yes, I took a picture and posted

*It's summertime and well, Hubby's shoes are starting to smell a tad funky so it's time to repost this and redo ... it really does work! This is another repost that is worth sharing again! Honestly, we have real good hygiene habits in my house, I can assure you of that! But, lets face it, living in paradise with 125% humidity can be a little trying sometimes ... my running shoes (which have NOT seen much running action for quite a while) get a little ripe smelling ... and oh man, you should smell the shoes that Hubby wears outside in the yard, patio, garage and boat that constantly get wet ... enough to suck the oxygen right out of your body ... whew! Then you have the Boy ... who works out pretty darn hard and doesn't always wear socks, nor does the Princess ... I mean, seriously, I've had to throw shoes away because you could smell them just sitting there. No one wants to be the person that people are wrinkling their nose at when they are walking by you!

I love corn ... and when Florida Sweet Corn is in season, I'm all over it! Only problem is that me and Hubby disagree on how to cook it. He prefers to boil the crap out of it. I prefer to gently steam it. And yes, we've done it on the grill, husk intact a few times. I'm not allowed to do that anymore since it makes such a huge mess of the grill and surrounding areas (you do know that Hubby is a super neat freak, right??). This latest way though is BY FAR the best way to make your corn. And easy! So very easy! As in, peel corn, place in middle of large tinfoil, melt butter, pour over top, close up foil tightly, place on indirect heat of grill and ignore for about 20 minutes or so. Tada! You got perfectly cooked, sweet corn! I'm not even going to give a "recipe" on this ... it's just too simple.   I will tell you to melt a stick of butter and season it up (I used salt, pepper, red pepper flakes and some parsley) .... A

The original recipe comes from Shutterbean ... and she puts it down as a low-carb option ... since I'm not so much of an anti-carb girl as I am an anti-GRAIN girl ... I've opted to go with Grain Free ... which, sadly, it's NOT because of the sausage I'm using. I really need to venture in to making MY own, don't you think? So ... you know, if  you are buying pre-shredded cheese, it may NOT be grain/gluten free ... make sure to check your labels ... if you see anything like food starch, wheat, etc., then you know to put it back, grab the block stuff and take that home and shred it up yourself. Honestly, not a big deal. If you have a food processor, just use the grate blade and take the super easy way out ;-) *Shredded cheese usually has a coating to keep it from clumping up which is when the grain/gluten factor is introduced* Not to mention .... it's usually cheaper to grate your own cheese! And ...  as a small, side note, you should also take a peek