$16 grocery budget

$16 Dollar Grocery Budget

Sometimes crap just happens in life, and recently it hit the fan at my house. We had an investment go sour, and we were out of money. Our pantry shelves were already quite meager but I rounded up as much money as I could. to get groceries for a family of 6 for 7 days. The amount I came up with was $16.00! 

I went straight to work....

1. I made and inventory of food I already had that I could make a meal out of

2. I made a menu

3. Made a shopping list

There were somethings I need to remember...

1. My kids lunches to take to school

2. Snack times

3. Still nutritious

Off I went to the grocery store. Here is what I bought and why?

• Yeast, provided bread for my kids lunches, rolls for dinner, pizza dough for Friday dinner.
• Flour, to make all our bread
• Garbanzo beans, I had a stir fry veggie mix but no meat (meat was not in the budget) so I made Garbanzo bean meatless stir fry
• Gallon of milk, we used up the gallon of milk half way through the week so we used non fat dry milk through the rest of the week
• Cheese, for pizza
• Onion, for soups, and chili
• Bell peppers, for chili and omelets
• Bag of potatoes, let's face it potatoes are frugal

Things I learned...

• That being creative with food is not a bad things
• My kids started watching what we were eating and tried not to waste food
• Scheduled snack times made it so we didn't snack on food all day and not waste food
• We learned to always have a food supply for bad times
• My oldest daughter learned the value of food and money
• Left overs have value
• Cooking from scratch doesn't really take more time, it's just a habit

Tips (in case you have a week like mine)

1. Don't buy cereal sure it's cheap but it is not filling. Buy oat's because you can make oatmeal, granola, and granola bars from it. Cream of Wheat is amazing, fill up our empty stomach and a little goes a long way.
2. Use you frozen fruit to make smoothies, muffins, or parfaits (if you have yogurt)
3. Non fat dry milk is a life saver and add nutrition to your bake goods that require milk but you don't have milk
4. Bread machines are time savers, every night we added ingredients into the machine and in the morning we had fresh bread
5. Always have a bunch of eggs in your fridge because they are cheap and can be used in so many ways

You can be having bad luck with money but until you get back on your feet live Fabulously Frugal by showing gratitude for all that you have. Get up every day and shine! 

Please leave us some of your Fabulously Frugal Tips in the comment section...

Menstrual cup

I’ve been using menstrual cups for a few years now. There are some major pluses and minuses to them. For me the pluses outweigh the minuses. I switched because I got sick of buying disposable products every single month on top of the fact that they are now linking a lot cancers to the chemicals used on cotton crops that they use to make pads and tampons. Making these products highly toxic.

Minus: if your going to be some where public make sure you have something to wipe your hands and menstrual cup off with so your not leaving a bathroom stall with blood on your hands. For me this was the only down part about having a menstrual cup. It’s an easy fix, so it’s not much of a minus.

Plus: 1- you don’t have to waist money on disposable products.
2- it hasn’t been linked to cancer
3- it’s comfortable and easy to use

This is the one that I use and bought from amazon. I like this kit because it comes with a collapsible sterilizer cup.
Click here to purchase

Frugal check list

Here’s the link to where we found this check list that we loved so much /click here

Cleaning an oven with baking soda

I am literally wonder woman! 

I'll bet your all wondering how I did this 🤔

Well.... First off... Try not to judge my totally nasty oven😬😬😬 

1- take all your racks and anything else in your oven out.

2- in a bowl make a past with baking soda then add tablespoons of water until you get a paste. 

3- spread the paste all over the walls and door of your oven and let it sit for about and hour.

4- while you wait soak your racks in hot water in the tub and scrub with a toothbrush. 

5- wipe off with a damp cloth. ---side note everywhere I read.... Made it sound super easy. But to be honest... I don't think their ovens were as nasty as mine.... I had to add a little more elbow grease 

6- after you have most of the big stuff gone (you may need to scrape a little if you have burnt who knows what on the bottom like me) make a second batch of baking soda paste and simply dip the tooth brush in and scrub the rest of the smaller spots off.

7- your FINAL step! You made it! Spray the oven with some vinegar and while out with a paper towel to get any remaining baking soda or spots off. 

Mexican soup

Mexican soup
Heat sauce pan on medium heat add… add garlic after onion is soft
1TBSP olive oil
1 medium onion
2 garlic cloves
½ tsp cumin
½ tsp chili powder
Add
1 can black beans
2 cans of tomatoes
1 can of corn
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper
3 cups of water
½ cup of rice
Bring to a boil then lower it to medium high heat.

Energy bites

If you anything like me you're always searching for something to make you and your family a little bit healthier. I'm constantly on pinterest searching for healthy recipes and good at home work outs. With four young kids, I barely have time to breath, there/s no way I'm going to fit a gym in there. So when I cam across this recipe for Oatmeal Energy Bites I was excited because they are NO BAKE & super quick and easy to make.

I started by mixing the dry ingredients. rolled oats, Flaxseed, and chocolate chips. The recipe I read said to just mix all of the ingredients. But as peanut butter and honey are sticky..... well.... I didn't want a ball of flax seed.

Since I use Nestle;s dark chocolate morsels, I like to chop them up.

Then Mix in the wet ingredients. honey and peanut butter. (I like to use crunchy)

Mix until all wet and sticky!

Form into balls, place in a greased baking dish, and freeze for an hour.

After you remove them from the freezer, you can either eat them or put them in a freezer bag and store them in the freezer or refrigerator.
I love this recipe because it's a great sugar free alternative to cookies! In fact.... My kids think they are cookies, My husband said "are you sure these are healthy? They taste too good to be healthy"

So if you are striving to go sugar free (minus the chocolate) these bad boys are for you. I've even put dried cranberries and other add ins in place of the chocolate! Have fun, mess around with it and enjoy!







Ingredients
3 cups rolled oats
1 1/2 cup almond butter (or peanut butter)
1 1/2 cup chocolate chips
1 cup honey
3/4 cup flaxseed

Directions

In a large bowl, mix all ingredients together, roll Into balls and place on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper. Freeze until set,  about one hour, Enjoy and keep leftovers in a ziploc bag in fridge or freezer.