I did better this week…but also still have lots to work on, so we’re going to mix it up this week. Starting today, Tuesdays will be four frugal things and one frugal fail. That feels more real. If there’s ever a week when I cannot come up with a frugal fail…that’s when I have really figured this out.

Successes first:

1. Turkey. A week ago, you could do the pre-thanksgiving sale thing where you could buy a turkey for $0.99 a pound. This is perfect for me right about now. I need to make turkey stock as part of the pre-Thanskgiving prep around here. (I take Thanksgiving very very seriously.) Rather than just roasting it and subjecting my family to a whole roast turkey feast less than a month before Thanksgiving, I did something most people would consider crazy – I deboned the whole thing, ground the turkey and put it in the freezer in one pound increments, then put all the bones in my crockpot and made stock overnight. I figure I saved about $15 as follows:

What I got from a 14 lb turkey	How much it would have cost me if I purchased separately
5 lbs ground turkey	$25
10 cups turkey stock	$6 (for the cheap stuff) but could have been as much as $14 (for bone broth)
Cost of turkey $14	Cost (cheap stuff) $31

So I got ground turkey and I know what went into it (nothing questionable), I got stock and you literally cannot buy turkey stock at my grocery store, I would have had to settle for chicken. And it’s closer in quality to the stuff that would have cost $8 more. So, I really (in my brain) saved closer to $25.

Yes, it took some of my time, but not a lot. It’s hard to judge since I was also making dinner at the same time as I was breaking down and grinding the turkey, an hour at most. And mind you, I think this sorta stuff is fun, so I did not mind it at all. It’s not something I would do at regular turkey prices. But I can see myself jumping on another $0.99 per pound turkey at a later holiday sale.

2. The other thing I did I mentioned on Friday. I planned meals that made a really low grocery budget this week. I actually did pretty well, considering there were still a few impulse purchases in there (I cannot pass up a bogo sale, so I may have bought several pounds of pasta.) But the whole grocery run was only $106 to feed all three of us for a week of meals, plus extra food. I’m pleased about that. (I also discovered Sunday that the pulled pork chili made 8 servings, and there are only 3 of us, so the rest went right into the freezer for the future).

3. I saved on gas. I use grocery store points to get gas cheaper, but the way to make that really pay off is to always be as low on gas as I’m comfortable with, and use the points to get as much gas at a time as possible. Which, I did this weekend.

4. I ‘bought’ a free Amazon kindle book instead of deciding I needed it paperback. I kinda don’t love reading on my kindle, I’d rather have a real paper book in my hands any day. But this time I decided that I would just do it, because the kindle version was $0.00.

5. I just realized (I know, I said 4, but 5 is better…) I also bothered to take the grocery store survey this week. Which gets me 50 fuel points for later. It’s not much, but if I start doing it every 7 days, I can save even more on gas.

Frugal fail: I have to stop impulse buying ‘car treats’. Whenever I have a lot of driving to do, I am guilty of drive through stops for drinks or snacks on the way. This weekend I had several half hour drives (which is more than anything I usually do) and got a beverage here and a snack there…which add up. I have to start telling myself that I don’t get a treat just because I hate driving.

But I do, I hate driving.

This is much better than last week. I’m proud of me. Even with the fail.