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What a weekend! Hubs and I spent a good deal of our time working on our projects again (freelancing and studying). I promise y’all we’ll be more entertaining once I’m self-employed and once hubs has taken his test. But for now we’re just scraping by with our frugal to-dos!

See how we saved money this weekend on our journey to financial independence.

Meal prep

I’m trying to eat a few dinner salads for my DIY dinners this week. But you know what? Making salad is hard. Especially when you compare it to the ease of microwaving a corn dog.

A salad sadly takes time and effort to prepare. I figured I stood a much better chance of eating and enjoying a dinner salad if I prepped a few components ahead of time. I’m making this tasty winter spa salad, which calls for pomegranates and blood oranges. I’m SO glad I prepped them this weekend because they would have been a huge pain on a weeknight. Every little bit of prepping helps for those crazy weekdays!

Peach wine

I’ve been slacking a bit on my fermentation projects. I’m down to my last bottle of delicious blueberry wine! It’s an emergency, y’all!

Thankfully I realized I had four pounds of frozen peaches in the freezer to use. I bought these when they were 68 cents per pound at the grocery store, giving me an incredibly low cost for this homemade wine.

This is the recipe I use to make wine. 

I’ll let this wine ferment for two weeks and mash it every few days. After that, I’ll store it in our fermentation fridge for a month before bottling.

We also need to taste and bottle the mango wine I made a while ago, but I’m not optimistic about it. The homemade white wines have been a little lacking in flavor. I’ll let you know how it goes, though!

Laundry soap

We ran out of homemade laundry soap earlier in the week, so it was time to make some more. I’m fortunate to have a super crafty sister who makes her own soap. Once a year she sends me a gigantic bag of her homemade Castile soap, which I grate and use for laundry. Here’s the recipe; it’s also from my sis!

Once the soap is grated, I add washing soda and Borax in our food processor. This time I also scented the soap with a little grapefruit essential oil, which I bought on sale at HEB a few months ago.

Flower drying

With all of the rain we got in September, the yard is growing green and lush. Which is SO WEIRD for south Texas, but whatever. I saw our rose bush was blooming, as well as a few gorgeous purple flowers growing on the fence. I collected the petals and added them to my flower drying bag. Once I fill the paper bag with petals, I’m going to use them to dye the muslin cloth I use to cover our kombucha crock. I love how it’s Mother Nature’s tie-dye!

DIY nail job

I put in notice at my job last Monday, guys! I’m thrilled to be starting my last week of working for someone else! As a little treat to myself, I updated my nails. I just use storebought acrylic nails and it looks like I went to the salon. … If I don’t mess up the job, that is.

Anyway, as of October 15 I’ll be in business for myself. Ahh, I can’t wait.

Adjustments to Picky Pinchers

Have you noticed a few changes around here? I tried to make the site more user-friendly and updated some of the fonts. I know many people were saying there was an issue with comments being smushed or not posted at all. Sorry about that! I’ve been working on the issue for some time. I tried a few things this weekend that hopefully fixed it. Please let me know if you’re having those issues and I’ll look into it!

This week’s food

Lemon ricotta ravioli

Poor Mr. Picky Pincher had to work super long hours this week. That meant I was generally on my own for dinner. I decided to make a vegetarian dish using some delicious Lemon Ricotta Ravioli from the frozen section of the store. I boiled the ravioli and topped it with steamed asparagus, chopped walnuts, and green onions from the garden.

Oh, and I also made an herbed butter sauce to top it all. You just melt butter in a pan and add a touch of basil, thyme, and red pepper flakes. Let cook until fragrant and butter is slightly browned.

So tasty and quite Instagrammable, no?

Cowboy casserole

Okay, okay. I know what you’re thinking. It looks like a bowl full of tater tots. This is a Tex Mex dish with what’s essentially taco meat on the bottom with a little cheese, corn, and tomatoes. The tater tots go on top for a crunchy finish.

I know it’s not fancy and maybe a little ugly, but this humble casserole was a hit. Mr. Picky Pincher slathered his in habanero salsa and said it was dynamite. It might not be healthy, but it’s fast, easy, and low fuss. I highly recommend if you’re trying to put together dump meals for your freezer.

Here’s the recipe. 

Bean and cheese tacos

More tacos! Tacos for days in the Picky Palace. I’ve been on a corn tortilla kick lately for my tacos. They’re cheaper than flour, and some people say they’re healthier. I’d love to learn how to make my own corn tortillas one day!

Southwest chicken sandwich

This was a fast ‘n’ simple DIY meal for me this week. I normally make this sandwich with sliced turkey from the deli. However, I realized sliced chicken was half the price! I went with chicken since I can hardly tell them apart when they’re in deli meat form anyway.

I toasted/burnt a bagel and added a smearing of chipotle mayo, bacon, and avocado. Again, I’m not going to win a gourmet prize for this one, but it was easy and kept me fed.

Zap’s Adventures

Little Zaparito was cuddling with my during our Friday night scary movie. So sweet.

Ugh! I love my little Zap, but he is such an attention hog. I had to do a lot of freelancing this weekend to stay afloat. But all little Zap wanted was to meow, play, or sit on my laptop. Here’s a shot of him sitting on my laptop so I couldn’t get any work done. Oh, cats.

He finally wore me down so much by Sunday that I gave him a paper sack to play in. It bought me an hour.

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