Random Thriftiness & Frugality! The Bee's Knees!

This post contains some random tips for thriftiness, remember the laundry soap I've begun using that MaryJane taught us to make ourselves? The pride I feel when I know how much we'll save on laundry soap over the years now is immense. We are all becoming more frugal these days and for good reason. We all want to save money; and what was once considered silly or old-fashioned by some, is now being embraced by more and more of us, out of necessity or out of fear of the unknown.

#1--Did you know that "hardening off" (or unwrapping) your bar soap will make it last longer in the shower or bathtub? It won't get as soft and squishy (making it so much easier to hold onto) and won't dissolve as quickly. We're all trying to save pennies and this is so simple, but the side benefit of doing this is that the closet or cupboard where you leave your unwrapped bars of soap will smell great! Try it and see what you think. I've noticed I'm not going to the cupboard as often as I once did to retrieve a new bar of soap.

(Remember, we all need to be more frugal so that our all-knowing and extremely efficient government can keep more of what we make to fund more "snowboard research" , or perhaps another study of "pig manure". I know you'll be thrilled to help out and do your part.)


(Saying "the bee's knees" was a something my mom said alot. Her mother was English and that saying is slang that comes from the British combination of the words "be all and end all" meaning there could be no more improvement; something excellent and outstanding.)

#2--Here's another way to be frugal: when you have leftovers, especially meats, make them into something else altogether. I'm sure you all do this. I do this on the weekend day that I clean out the fridge and I figure as long as the whole kitchen will be torn up and I'll have a boatload of dishes to do, I might as well make a couple extra meals while I'm working. Saturday, I had leftover pork, chicken and corned beef (from St. Patty's day) so I made corned beef hash with the potatoes and the corned beef, pork bbq with the pork; just cut it and shredded it and added a great bottle of bbq sauce; and I also cut and chopped and shredded and seasoned the leftover chicken breasts to use for chicken quesadillas...all within about twenty to thirty minutes time!

Chicken ready for tacos or quesadillas

corned beef hash


Bbq'd pork ready for an all day simmer in the crock pot.

#3--While we're on the subject of meats, have I ever told you that one of the best shortcuts ever that I learned that gets used so often is this: hamburger that has been browned, drained, and put into quart-sized ziploc bags for the freezer?


This way, you can take advantage of ground beef on sale (or like us, we buy a half an organic angus beef so I mix it with equal amounts of ground turkey {and ground venison, if you have it} to stretch it even further).

This makes for super fast meals on the nights you want to put together tacos, spaghetti, lasagna, etc. This saves at least twenty minutes time in the preparation of those meals. I cook up big batches of this every couple of months and date them before freezing them. They usually never have a chance to age....they're used within a couple of months!

Brown the burger/turkey mixture in large quantities, drain in a colander so the fat will drain into a bowl underneath, crumble finely, and cool it down somewhat, then bag it up in quart size freezer bags with 2-4 cups each depending upon the size of your family. Remove the air and flatten the ziploc bags and lay them down in the freezer to take up less space.

If your family likes onion and/or green pepper in their ground beef, go ahead and throw that in when you're browning it.

WHAT YOU CAN MAKE WITH YOUR GROUND BEEF PACKETS FROM THE FREEZER:

spaghetti or delicious spaghetti pie
lasagna
stuffed shells
goulash
tacos/nachos supreme
hamburger quiche
impossible hamburger pie
sloppy joes
hamburger soup
stuffed pepper soup
taco soup
spanish rice
chili
hamburger casserole


Remember that by doing this, you have ELIMINATED A STEP, a very time-consuming step from the recipes making your prep time much less!! A timesaver on those busy nights when you need something fast, warm and healthy for your family.

LEAVE A COMMENT TO SHARE HOW YOU'RE BEING FRUGAL!