Frugal Friday File 2018, week 14...

Successes:

1.  I've been making salads (among other things) to take for my work lunch.  I was trying to figure out what to pack the dressing in that wouldn't leak.  While thinking on it, I got the Dijon mustard out of the fridge to make honey mustard dressing, and there was just enough mustard to make a few days' worth of dressing.  So as not to leave any of the mustard in the bottle, I just added the honey, vinegar, and oil to the bottle and shook it up.  About then it dawned on me that the small mustard squeeze bottle was perfect to pack in my lunch box.

How exactly is this frugal?  Well,  I make homemade salad dressings instead of buying bottled that inevitably gets half used, then stays in the fridge well past its shelf life and gets thrown away with lots of waste.  I used up every last drop of the mustard.  The honey that I used was totally crystallized, so I put it in the microwave for a few seconds at a time until it was liquid enough to use in the dressing.  I saved the energy, soap, and water of washing any other receptacle that I could have carried the dressing in (okay, that may be a real stretch).  And I havn't spent money on eating out (at least for lunch). 

2.  I'm occupied for eleven hours a day (at the job or driving to or from it), and the rest of the time I am too exhausted to do anything that costs money.  I sit at a desk all day, but my poor brain is in an all day boot camp remembering things I've forgotten, learning system updates that have been implemented since I last used it, trying to figure out the needs of an entire branch full of customers whom I know nothing about.  Ever notice how when your brain is tired your whole body is tired?

3.  I'm driving a car that uses much less gasoline than its predecessor, and the branch I'm working at is about a block from a gas station that has the most inexpensive gas I've seen recently.  I also requested another gasoline credit card for myself on our account for this brand; by using that, it discounts each gallon purchased by a few more cents.  And I pay off the purchases each month, so that no interest is charged on the account.

4.  It's that golden (and extremely brief) time of year when we are using no heat and no A/C.  This month's electric bill is the lowest since this time last year.

5.  I'm expecting a pretty decent paycheck.  

Keep Tryings:
I acknowledge that I am working an hour or so a day just to pay for our suppers that haven't been cooked at home.  That really stinks.

Frugal From the Kitchen This Week:
Saturday:  leftovers
Sunday:  Sunday family supper at Kasey's
Monday:  *Tex-Mex
Tuesday:  *Chinese
Wednesday: *Schlotzky  
Thursday:  *dinner out with a friend
Friday:  *dinner out with Chloe

(*not-frugal takeout or dinner out)