Finances on Friday!

It's time for Finances on Friday!

I think most of my frugal efforts this week fall under the "use it up" challenge. So.....I'll list that first.

• First of all, I really need to start using up the elk we have in our freezer. I took an "elk break" when I got pregnant, because if I eat something when I'm pregnant and it doesn't sit well, I don't ever want to eat it again. Ever. Since we have a freezer of elk from a friend, I didn't want to take that chance. It seems like when I mix it with a little ground beef, we can barely taste the difference. But I think overall, we have decided we just aren't big "game" fans.
• I took dinner to a friend using chicken I had in the freezer and a big plastic platter and lid I had set aside for just such a purpose. Although, I did by a box cake mix so I could whip up some dessert since I'm out of flour and sugar.
• Which leads me to the next point......I've been out of flour and sugar for over a week. But, I'm going to stock up on staples (well, and pretty much everything) tomorrow since we have literally almost used everything up. 
• Brooke made some cookies last night using a half bag of leftover mini chocolate chips, only brown sugar, some coconut flour I had left over and some margarine we had left from when her dairy-free friend spent the night. She followed the recipe, but with those adjustments and they actually turned out really yummy.
• I have a really tasty sloppy joe recipe that I like to make. It calls for a big can of crushed tomatoes, but all I had was a small can of tomato sauce. It also calls for, I think, 3/4 cup ketchup but I only had about two tablespoons. So, I used the one can of sauce and added a little water to the ketchup. The sandwiches turned out just fine. Not perfect, but good.
• Tonight's dinner will be the last beef roast I have in the freezer and the last of a bag of potatoes I'll make mashed potatoes with.

And, as far as other frugal efforts go..............

• I always like to go out to the city wide yard sale that happens to fall on the same day as the youth yard sale for our church. (Well, really I would like to go out every weekend, but that wouldn't be budget friendly, even if I did find lots of great stuff. And, since we want to move at some point in the near future I don't want to bring too much stuff back into the house at this point. ) It seemed like this year there were quite a few sales, but a lot of junk. I know many people think that every yard sale is junk, but this really was. I didn't find much, but then again, I really didn't have a big list of stuff I was specifically looking for. I did however find some melamine character plates, bowls and cups for the younger kids. My thought was they could leave them on the counter to reuse all day and then we wouldn't be washing sixty loads of dishes a day. And, they were a quarter a piece.

          I also found a water/sand table for $5. I still have that one we got from you, Marsha, :) before we

          moved, so between the both of those I think the little kids can stay busy this summer.

  

          I found just a few more things, but I'm saving them for another post.

• I used a Walgreen's coupon code for a free photo enlargement. I got the one of David and me from Easter.
• I used a coupon for a free order of chips and queso from the mexican place right down the street. This time I didn't bring a soda home to spill all over the floor.

Don't forget to link up over at Renaissance for Finances on Friday!