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How We Stay Frugal

I had to go to the lab yesterday. On the way home since I was all garbed in my mask, gloves and goggles, I stopped and picked up a rotisserie chicken that was on a coupon sale at Top’s for $4.99. along with 5 lbs. of strawberries and couple of other things. They had Hot Italian sausage as a coupon item but there was none to be had. A lot of their meat was gone. So with the exception of the chicken, I got no meat.

At this price, I rarely buy one and cook it at home. If I did, between purchasing it and using my gas oven to cook it, it would cost me a lot more than $ 4.99. Top’s is also using the “no touch” method to do them. All of their employee’s were in masks and gloves so I felt comfortable getting one.

We cut a little meat off for brunch yesterday as you can see in the picture. The rest I cut off today.

Then I made chicken salad for dinner tonight. Hubby will have his with Ritz and I will have mine on a bed of lettuce. I like mine with just celery and Hubby likes his with celery and craisins. So just before we eat, he will add them to his bowl. We definitely have enough for two meals so we will have it again tomorrow night.

The legs and wings were saved for brunch tomorrow. We will have some cut up tomatoes and cucumbers to go with those. So we are getting 4 meals out of this rotisserie chicken. 


Since the stores are being stripped of meat pretty rapidly here in NY, the stores have decided to ration any meat from now on. So I have decided to ration the meat in our freezer. That way we can make it last a lot longer. We already eat normal portions 3- 4 ounces for most meals. But we can make it last longer by eating meatless meals 2-3 times a week. We love salads so this will not be hard for us while we still have produce. We also love eggs so breakfast for dinner comes to mind. We can make soup and for those of you who make casseroles, a little bit of meat goes a long way with pasta, potatoes or rice.

I had a little bit of a scare today. I went down to the basement to do the treadmill. When I was done I decided to bring up some plastic bags that I had saved, my camera, and a bottle of Keto Skinny syrup. When I got to the top of the stairs, I dropped the camera which bounced down the carpeted stairs. Luckily it stopped after 4 steps and is working perfectly. If I had to replace, it would not have been very frugal. 

Since NY put a ban on plastic bags in grocery stores on March 1st, I saved tons of bags to reuse for my little waste baskets. NY has suspended the ban during this coronavirus because they do not want people using reuseable bags. But I know when the coronavirus goes away or we get a vaccine that they will put the ban back on. So I really stuff those bags because all of our garbage has to be bagged per our town. I put them in empty Kleenex boxes and into two cardboard boxes in the basement. I am not saving any that come from the grocery store now for fear they are contaminated. 

These are just a  couple of things we do to stay frugal. How about your tips?

10 replies on “How We Stay Frugal”

One idea you could consider for the grocery store bags. You could store them in your garage for a few weeks & then save them. Current data shows the virus can't live even close to that long on a surface.

we've been walking our neighbor's dog for her, as she can't get out much right now. I've been finding very creative doggie bags. Waffle bags, cracker bags, veggie bags etc. Basically anything will work!

I've been slowly making progress on big yard projects. We may eventually hire a monthly service, but want to get some of these big projects out of the way first.

Hi H.P.,

Thanks for that tip. I may do that. I love your freative doggie bags!

Enjoy working outside. It is good for the soul.

Tonight, we are having baked chicken, steamed zucchini, and sliced tomatoes, halo and apple later. None of it was frugal!

I to am a bag hoarder. My kitchen does not have room for a larger can. I didn't realize they had lifted the ban. I know a couple stores who never stopped using them. Told my son when he rubs out I want some of his from PA.

Hi AD, this is Chris. Thanks for talking about how you use the rotisserie chickens, I always forget about them, and we were just at Costco yesterday. LOL! We hadn't been for awhile so the bill was high, but we should be ok to not go for awhile now. I save the bags in exactly the same way you do, in the old tissue boxes. We use them for scooping the kitty litter.

Hi Chris,

I am glad you were able to stock up for a while. Yeah on having the bags for kitty's stuff. We used to use them for Precious's litter. I miss her.

Love the plastic bags as well for litter. When I get over run though I just take a bag full to the stores recycling bin. Thankfully the heat has been off for a few weeks now so that will help. groceries are going nuts!

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