Costs in Canada, and I believe around the world are rising and many are wondering how they will heat their homes, pay for medications or put food on the table.
I know in Canada many of the food banks can not keep up with the growing requests. Some from what I have read have even shut down.
Yet there are ways to save and even thrive during these hard times. We are lucky in that we, or rather I have always been frugal and over the last 15 years I have finally managed to get Harvey onboard. It took him retiring however to really get him onto the frugal path.
One of the best ways to thrive in this uncertain time is to plan your menus and leftovers are always to be kept and made into another meal or two. I have gotten very good at the planning ahead and using things up. Today with a couple of slices of leftover roast beef I managed to make two containers of Beef Barley soup for us and a smaller container for Kurt (he will probably need more help than Kris right now). I still have 5 slices of roast beef left which will make sandwiches for a number of days. Out of a butternut squash that cost me $1.49, I made two containers of soup for the boys, and a large container for us. That large container will give us two meals stretched with crusty bread (made at home) or a sandwich.
All bones from chickens, turkeys or ham are saved and I make broth from them. Saves not having to purchase broth from the store. One of these days I will try my hand at using peelings and such from veggies to make veggie stock. Just not too sure about doing so yet.
Eggs are still one of the least expensive forms of protein so breakfast for supper is awesome and very filling.
There are lots of recipes out there for cleaning products and now that I have some spray bottles I will start doing that. Right now I have some orange peels in vinegar to make an orange cleaner.
Purchase in bulk when you can. I do this for dish washing soap and save a few dollars. I also buy larger packages of hand soap, shampoo, and toothpaste (the ones that are two, three or four packages). These work out to be much less expensive than individual packages.
I try to never spend full price, but as all of you know, sometimes it is unavoidable but I always make sure to get the best deal that I can.
Old sheets become the backing for my quilts, sometimes even pajamas for either Harvey or I. Old clothing is cut into rags or into useable quilt fabric. I am even contemplating using those usable squares as fabric to sew clothing. I already make totes from some of them.
Whatever jobs around the house we can do on our own we do. As we age however things are getting a bit tougher and so we will be searching for the best people to do the tasks we can't.
As far as entertainment we only go to the live theater here in the summer. No movie theater for us, it is much too expensive. We do have a television package, but really it is the only source of entertainment we have and is well worth what it costs.
Those are just a few of the ways we are saving money during this expensive time. I hope we can save even more as I figure out ways to live a bit more simply, frugally and thrifty.
Everybody have a wonderful evening.
God bless.
