Frugal In Florida

Everyone has a few favorite tips for saving a dollar or two ... Today, I'm going to share TEN WAYS to save money ... and I promise, they won't be all that hard for you to incorporate in to your daily routine! 1.  Pack your food and drinks for the day. I don't care if you are a stay at home mom or work full time at an office: don't leave home empty handed! Bring your snacks, drinks, etc. I pack a lunch daily, and always bring a water bottle along. I figure I save a minimum of $8 a day by doing this. That's 40 bucks a WEEK!! Yummy Yummy Chicken BLT Salad 2. Avoid that grocery store. Hold out as LONG as you can ... I am a big fan of counting the number of days til I actually step foot inside a grocery store. Seriously, try it. Shop your pantry and freezers FIRST and make do with what you have. Go ahead, I promise you, your family will not wither away if you don't buy groceries this week. Savings? Probably a minimum of $50 a week. Of course, it doesn't...

*It's summertime and well, shoes are starting to smell a tad funky so it's time to repost this and redo ... it really does work! 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 ... 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! So when I saw the featured post for the Smelly Shoe Solution (and dang, I'm still ...

Sooo.... The year to date, 5 1/2 months so far (!!??) has really flown by ... I've married my daughter (with the wonderful abilities of a notary public), hosted her wedding reception in our backyard (thanks to a beautiful home that still  has not sold), hosted my niece on her very first trip away from home, showed the house what seems to be a million times, ate well, entertained tons of friends and well ... drained the bank accounts. Ok. Not really drained, as in EMPTY ... but certainly spent more than I normally would.  I'm not sure when I just said f*ck it and stopped keeping track. Seriously. And you know me ... I can justify spending that $1.99 for that larger avocado at Trader Joe's 😏 because, you know, those 69 cent avocados from Aldi are like half the size. Never mind that the larger the avocado, the bigger the seed. Whatever. I guess I just had a moment this evening that made me realize I was "justifying" a tad too much .... hmmm ... buying s...

Happy First Day of Spring! Back in 2012 after my mom had passed and  I was clearing out the trailer for my dad, I came across so many gadgets. Ninja Blender. Magic Bullet. Some funky steamer thing. Hand mixers. Just a bunch of different things. I gave them ALL to Goodwill. No, I didn't want them ... they had not been taken care of and I do not think I would have wanted to spend the money to ship them to me back home. A VitaMix, well, maybe I would have splurged to ship THAT but alas, didn't find one of those. I did however, nab the Food Saver. I've been wanting one for a LONG time but just could NOT justify the cost of buying one. I cleaned it up and THEN found 3 food saver containers. But no hose. So I kept cleaning ... came across 3 boxes of the bags, one was a food saver brand the other 2 are different brands. AND finally, I found the directions ... and the hose! Sweet! Awhile ago, I saw this on  Pinterest  one day, how to  store salads  in your c...

I love peppers ... red peppers especially ... what I hate though is the seeds and membranes and cleaning them up to eat :-) I wish you could just bite into them like an apple or something! So, when I came across this tip on Instagram a while ago, I was amazed at how much easier it is to do it this way and have been doing it like this every since! Let's Deconstruct a Pepper! 1. Wash pepper 2. Push in stem 3.  Pull stem out 4.  Tear pepper in half 5.  Trim side membrane off with a knife 6.  Trim off top and bottom 7.  Slice away Go ahead and give it a try! Looking forward to sharing with some of these   GREAT Parties   ... go check them out! *This post may contain affiliate links ...   click here to read my disclosure   :-)

*With Cinco De Mayo coming up (and my birthday!), avocados will be in abundance in the stores ... so this little tip will come in handy if your household is anything like mine! Besides, I need to do a re-post of something since I'm still down with bronchitis ... * I wasn't a fan of avocados until, oh, a year or so ago ... I mean, like really a fan ... as in, every time I go to the store, I check out the avocado selection and price to see if it's worthy! By far, Aldis has been the BEST place and price to pick them up ... and they were 59 cents each a few weeks ago , so I picked up 4 ... not knowing that I still had FIVE at home in the fridge!! YIKES! THIS is how food waste happens in real life. See, we have upwards of 6 adults eating in this house, and friends ... so sometimes, usually most times, if I don't eat the avocado within a day or so, one of the other mini-adults will eat it and then I have none when I go back to eat it ... boo.. Cell phone picture ...

You do know that I buy my ground beef from The Fresh Market on Tuesdays because it's $2.99 per pound for 85/15, right? I mean, heck, that's a STEAL now days! Beef is EXPENSIVE anymore! So, when I go every few weeks, I buy about 8 to 10 pounds of the stuff. Which, now that I'm on a stricter food budget of $125.00 a week, I've really got to watch what I'm buying! AND THEN ... I found Aldis ground beef: That's pretty good pricing for 90/10 and 93/7 ground beef, don't you think? The 73/27 is WAY better than the $3.59 I saw it for at Publix recently! Just for the record, Hubby prefers to mix one pound of the 73/27 with the 90/10 or even the 85/15 as it makes for a juicier burger. So ... yes, I stocked up on some of this too the last time I was at Aldis ... and NOW, what to do with 8 to 10 pounds of beef?  I am not a proponent of cooking it all up at once like some do ... I mean, heck, some days we want burgers, other days, tacos, and then of ...

When times are good and your wallet is fat, it's easy to forget about the frugal things you do on a day to day basis that made that wallet fatter and the times better. I've decided to remind myself of things that I do, or need to re-focus on doing since I seem to have been on a wave lately with extreme frugalness one month and extreme spending the next. Yes. It's true.  I figure that if I try to practice these tips consistently and then a few things I need to get back on track, the wallet will certainly get fatter again, right? Half the battle is recognizing a weak spot! So here you go,  Frugal Tip #4: Shop your kitchen pantry, fridge and freezers BEFORE you menu plan and BEFORE you shop. What, you don't menu plan?? Are you kidding me? Ok. I know. It's not for everyone ... but I can tell you from experience, having some kind of plan does help aleviate the "whats for dinner" or "I'm tired and hungry and do not know what t...

When times are good and your wallet is fat, it's easy to forget about the frugal things you do on a day to day basis that made that wallet fatter and the times better. I've decided to remind myself of things that I do, or need to re-focus on doing since I seem to have been on a wave lately with extreme frugalness one month and extreme spending the next. Yes. It's true.  I figure that if I try to practice these tips consistently and then a few things I need to get back on track, the wallet will certainly get fatter again, right? Half the battle is recognizing a weak spot! So here you go,  Frugal Tip #3 Do you own Manicure and Pedicure. Ok, maybe you don't pay for these services, but IF you do, you know how much it costs ... I pay anywhere from $40 to $60 plus tip. Yikes.  A little extravagant, wouldn't you say? I'll admit, I don't have the pedicure thing down pat yet but just continue to use my PedEgg and a little foot razor on the...