Frugal Activities #38

Oh my ... it's been a LONG time since I've done one of these posts ... definitely need to get back on schedule and be more accountable, don't you think?? ;-)

I'm hoping everyone had a Merry Christmas ... and to be quite honest, I'm glad it's over ... I've had such a busy schedule since before the week of Thanksgiving ... but all in all, it's been fun, if a little budget busting ...

Has it been a Frugal week or two, you ask?

In some ways, yes, in others, not so much!

Here are some of the Frugal Activities we've done ...

1.  Ate all my breakfast at home, 90% of my lunches were made at home and about 80% of our dinners were eaten at home. Not bad at all.

2.  Menu Planned for the whole month ... didn't necessarily follow the plan but I can be rest assured that we have plenty of food on hand to feed any lost souls that wander through the house...

3.  Used my Winn Dixie Fuel Rewards to get 60 cents off per gallon. This gave me a gallon of gas at $2.49 for premium. The Hemi will not take anything less than that ... is it pathetic that I did a happy dance while pumping $40 worth of gas??

4.  Re-purposed the leftover beef for sandwiches the day after Christmas. Sure, we could have just heated it up and ate it the same way yet again, but I had mini hot dog buns that were getting older and I really wanted to try something new ... glad I did and will be sharing THAT recipe coming soon ...

5.  Said NO to a girls night out for prickly pear margaritas. Yes, it pained me to do so BUT I did not have the free time and really did not want to spend the precious cash in my wallet for same.

6.  Did my own nails quite a few times this past month. I'm very thankful that Hubby got me a gift card to my favorite salon so I can get my hair color done (going a solid color this time in hopes that Hubby and I can color it from here on out to save a few hundred bucks every couple months), get a professional (read: GOOD) manicure and pedicure with hopes that I can maintain for a good 6 months AND a good eyebrow/lip wax.

7.  Been using the booze we have on hand (with the exception of #2 below) for adult beverages during our Boat Parade Party, weekend adventures and Christmas ... sure would be nice if I could continue to do that for New Years Eve too but I think we might be just about out of beer ... I've got so much tequila that I'm going to have to go back to making margaritas from scratch or just drink that stuff on the rocks ::shudder:: No joke ... I received 8 bottles of tequila from business associates and friends ... I've added that to the 10 plus bottles I already had ... hmmm...strawberry margaritas using the frozen strawberries???


And of course, full disclosure of our NOT so Frugal Activities:

1.  Ummm ... I shopped online A LOT for Christmas ... which meant using credit cards ... I need to go online and pull up each and every account, see what the real balances are and make a repayment plan this weekend.

2.  Bought 5 bottles of champagne. 4 for home (2 for Christmas, 2 for New Years and 1 for the office Christmas Eve mimosa tradition). Granted, they were on sale but still, $39.99 a bottle ... oops. Sucks to be a champagne snob ;-(

3.  Depleted my one savings account. Granted $3000 was part of the property taxes, but the rest was used to front some of the vacation expenditures (I opted to go cash only on my side while we were gone) and some was used to front the cash Christmas gifts (cleaning girls, kids).

Honestly, there were so many NOT so Frugal Activities that it's a blur. I'm not quite sure WHY I fell in to that hole this year? Partly due to lack of planning but then the rest of it? I don't know.

On a side note, I really need to do a pantry/freezer challenge as I can't find ANYTHING because everything is just so crammed into every opening available. Hubby was making double baked taters on Christmas and I could not find the 1 lb bag of bacon bits that I'm sure I have in the pantry ... guess what? I don't have any but the fact is that if the pantry was organized the way it SHOULD be (used to be) then I wouldn't have been so insistent that we stop everything and pull out all the stuff from 2 shelves. Uggg. Same with the freezers, bacon ... I have so much bacon yet I couldn't find the ordinary stuff for the bacon wrapped water chestnuts ... ended up using the cherry wood smoked stuff (which was delicious) ... just would have preferred to save THAT for something else (like a wedge salad!) ... but at least we used what we had on hand!

How about you ... sticking with your Frugal Activities or have the holidays thrown you for a loop??

Looking forward to sharing at the Money Propeller and the Prudent Homemaker ... here's aiming to get back on track and sharing this weekly!

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