Frugal Living

Since the Homeschool Encouragement Day sponsored by our church, I have been wanting to write about the many inspiring things I heard and how they have affected our home.

One of the speakers, Caroline H., shared many tips regarding frugal living. You have got to read this article by Caroline about contentment with what the Lord has provided. You will be blessed.


FOOD MANAGEMENT

The area of food management has not always been my strong suit. It's the area that I hope no one sees~ ditching rotten broccoli just to replace it with new broccoli. Throwing out mashed potatoes... just to make more. Yuck. What waste!

In fact, Tom actually calls the vegetable drawer of our refrigerator the "rotter" drawer. Hey, that's not... well...

I'd like to defend myself, but I can't. In fact, I have really felt guilty about it. But what is the alternative? We just don't get through all of the leftovers before they go bad.

Well Caroline's solution is to freeze everything so that nothing goes to waste. * Ding! * That is the sound of the light bulb turning on above my head. I know I knew this once, but I lost it along the way. Maybe it was the 18 months of living in a camper while we built our home.

Freeze it! Even if it's just one little serving. It makes perfect sense. One little serving of lasagna left? Freeze it. In a week or two, pull it out and you have lunch to send with your hubby to work or lunch for yourself.


THE LOGISTICS

I've been doing it and it is fun! Costco bulk rolls- I probably shouldn't even buy them- but they are only 5 dollars and you get alot. : ) They are in the freezer- 5 rolls per bag. Left over mashed potatoes, extra breakfast burritos (pictured above), cookie dough all rolled into balls, three small meatloafs, extra pre-cooked ground beef- it all went into the freezer this past week.

Some left over brown rice that would have gone bad was frozen, then later pulled out and added to burritos.

I actually overcooked on purpose because I had a new plan. Not only is it being prevented from going bad in the refrigerator, it's frozen and just waiting for me to come and claim it on a day when I am tired or haven't made it to the grocery store.

To save freezer space, Caroline suggests freezing leftovers flat in zip lock bags. This can work for a lot of items~ it worked for my mashed potatoes and my cooked ground beef. The cookie dough balls I froze on a cookie sheet and when they were frozen they too went into a ziplock bag. The meatloafs I froze pre-cooked as well, now I can wrap them individually (first in Plastic wrap, then in Aluminum Foil) and reclaim my pan. When I am ready to thaw them I can unwrap them, place them in a baking pan, thaw and cook.


This is so fun! Not only do we have the pleasure of added variety by postponing the eating of our leftovers, we are saving money too!

Thanks Caroline! : )


~Rebecca


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P.S. The plate is from IKEA. Talk about another frugal find. $1.99 for 6. Thanks Lizzie. : )