Practicing What I Preach

Each week I tell you how to save money and be frugal.  Here's my way of showing you that I'm doing it too!  These are a few of the ways I've been frugal this past week.

• I turned some mushy bananas into Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins.

We love bananas around here.  It's one of the few things I can get my hubby to eat in the mornings.  Since I don't get to the grocery store but once a week I tend to get too many so that we'll have enough.  And I won't let fresh produce go to waste so I use the mushy bananas up by making mini chocolate chip muffins or banana bread.  My kids prefer the muffins so I make them most often.

• I froze some of the more firm bananas for future smoothies.

Sometimes bananas are a little too mushy to eat and not mushy enough for great banana muffins.  So I freeze them.  All you have to do is slice them and flash freeze them by placing them in a single layer on wax paper.  Once they're good and frozen place them in a freezer bag or container.  Easy peasy.  Frozen bananas work great in smoothies.  Smoothies are a wonderful way to use up produce and they are super simple to make.

• I used some wrinkly apples to make sauteed cinnamon apples.

My daughter usually eats several apples a day.  I always make sure we have plenty for her, but this past week she wasn't feeling so much like apples.  So I had a few that turned a little brown in spots.  They're still good so I used them to make some sauteed cinnamon apples.  

• I made a tomato sandwich with a tomato that needed to be used up.

Until recently I had no idea that a tomato sandwich was a "southern thing."  I thought everyone ate them.  They're simple to make. Just slice a tomato and place it on bread slathered with mayo.  Season with plenty of salt and pepper.  DON'T forget the salt and pepper. If you don't like tomatoes then you obviously won't like tomato sandwiches, but if you do like them I urge you to give this a try.  It's really good.

• I cut my son's hair myself. Thank you Youtube. 

Back in December we were all sick right before Christmas and my son's hair was getting a little shaggy.  I wasn't feeling well and he wasn't either so we didn't want to go out and spread our cooties.  But I also didn't want him to have jacked up hair in our Christmas pictures either.  So, I looked it up on Youtube and realized that cutting a little boy's hair is really simple.  My first try was a success so now I cut his hair myself.  It saves me the $16 I was paying to get it cut.

• I used a Groupon to pay for lunch with my hubby.

Around Christmas time Groupon and LivingSocial were throwing out all kinds of great deals on restaurants.  This past week we used a $20 voucher to Season's of Japan.  I paid $10 for it, but got reimbursed because three of my friends also bought it through my link.  So, it was free! Yay!

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