Just Another Day (Weekend) in the Frugal Life

I watched a rerun of a 1970s TV show for free on Daily Motion on my laptop instead of a paid streaming service. And we watched a dvd from our local library on family night, again for free (while munching on homemade pepperoni pizza).

As we no longer have an endless supply of plastic grocery bags (bag ban Oct 2021), I lined the household trash bins with plastic and paper mailers this week. The large ones are great for the kitchen and the smaller ones work in bathrooms, bedrooms, the office and the car.

I repaired the mesh sieve. The screen material had come away from the frame. I tucked the mesh back into the frame with the pocket knife and clamped it down with pliers. I hope it holds. But I can always repair it again.

I used what we had on hand to make Valentine's Dinner. I actually tried to buy fresh strawberries to go with dinner, but our local stores were sold out of fresh strawberries by Sunday afternoon. So, for dinner I made egg and vegetable fried rice, pot stickers, steamed broccoli, and tofu-chocolate whip for dessert. The dessert has only 3 ingredients -- chocolate chips, tofu, and vanilla extract, which I already had.

My daughter gave me these great little snack containers so I can my own little snack packs. I'm a big fan of dividing snacks and treats into single portions so I can control how much I eat at one time. These snack containers will let me put together protein and veggie or dried fruit snacks for myself. The grocery store sells tiny protein snack packs for about $1.39 each. I think I can do my own for less with these containers. Sometimes, special money-saving gadgets are a waste of money. But sometimes they really do save. I think these containers will fall under the heading of those that do save.

I froze 2 very dark bananas to make banana bread when we are all out of treats.

I split open the toothpaste tube to get every last bit out.

I used half a box of hair coloring to touch up my roots and temples, saving the other half to use next month. I had saved the applicator bottle from the previous month (washed out) for mixing half of each of the components. Afterward, I washed out the bottle and the plastic gloves for reuse next month with the other half of the box. I've been doing this for several months and haven't needed to do a full head coloring since sometime in fall.

So tell me, what were the highlights of your day (or weekend) in the frugal life?