Frugal Friday File 2017, week 49...

Successes:
1.  I'm attending a free hands-on class at the library this afternoon on making painted-gourd birdhouses...all materials supplied free too.  Love our library!

2.  I seem to have been doing a lot of shopping online.  Not great for the wallet, but I only have two more gifts and I'm done.  I guess I can say the frugal part of this is that I didn't use any gasoline, and they all had free shipping.

3.  We decided to have Chicken 'n Dumplings for Christmas Dinner for the ten of us.  I bought three whole chickens on Tuesday.  Rather than have to cook them and bone them all at once, I have cooked one every day, boned them, then packaged the meat and broth for the freezer.  I will just move them from the freezer to the fridge a couple of days before Christmas to thaw.  On Christmas I will just need to heat up the meat and broth and make the dumplings.  Simple.  

Chicken and dumplings is a favorite with my whole family, which is why we are having it, but it doesn't hurt that it is much more frugal than other traditional Christmas fare.  And doing the majority of the work well ahead of time makes for a relaxing family holiday.

4.  As usual we are making single-serving meals from each night's leftovers to store in the freezer for Carey to take to work.  Since we have started doing this, we have almost no food waste anymore.  And Carey rarely (as in I don't remember the last time) eats out while at work (not that that is much of an option where his job is located).  I try to keep the freezer full with a variety so that he doesn't have to eat the same thing more than once in a week.

This is something that I used to do for my mother when she was alive as well.  She hated cooking for one.  She would lament that, "You can't make gravy from one pork chop."  If she cooked larger amounts, she would end up eating the same thing over and over.  We lived three hours away.  After wishing I could cook for her more often, I decided I could.  She had been buying lots of frozen meals from the grocery store, and washed and stored all the containers they came in.  On one visit, I absconded with a huge stack of the plates/covers that were sitting on her pantry shelves.  Then at home after supper each night, I would make a plate (or two or three) for her and put them in the freezer labeled.  Then the next time I went to visit, usually once a month or so, I would pack a big cooler with all the frozen meals and deliver them to her freezer...and take more empty containers home with me for next time.  It was perhaps the most appreciated gift I ever gave her.  Most nights we would speak on the phone, and she would always tell me what she had for supper that I had cooked.  :)  And I felt better knowing that she was getting lots of variety in her diet.

But I digress...

5.  I have really pared back on my hobby purchases.  I think my craft room has achieved critical mess.


Frugal From the Kitchen This Week:
Saturday:  friend treated me to a late lunch, skipped supper
Sunday:  Sunday supper at Kasey's
Monday:  Vegetable Quiche with Bacon
Tuesday:  Old Fashioned Goulash
Wednesday:  No Peek Chicken, green beans
Thursday:  Meatloaf, Hot Potato Salad, corn
Friday:  leftovers

(*not-frugal takeout or dinner out)