Psst, I make money on some of the links in this post at no cost to you. It keeps the lights on around here. Amazon links are affiliate. 

What. A. Weekend.

We spent a lot, had a car repair, but managed to make the most of our two days of freedom. How did you try to keep the weekend frugal? Let me know in the comments!

Onion time

One of the onions in our pantry sprouted like crazy! I looked it up, and apparently you can plant these onions. It had gone rotten, so I figured, “Eh, what do I have to lose here?”

I peeled away the layers of onion until I was left with the roots and green center. I dug a hole in our raised beds next to the Green Onions and plopped the onion in it.

Time will tell if this works or not. Fingers crossed!

Chivin’ around

After weeks of our famous torrential Texas rain, the garden was overflowing. Particularly with chives and green onions. I hate to let them go to waste, so I trim the chives and green onions from time to time.

I know chives and green onions aren’t the same, but I can’t tell a difference when I cook with them. For that reason, I tossed them all in the same basket, rinsed them, gave them a thin chop, and dried them in our dehydrator (Amazon link here) all morning. The result was dried chives/green onions that we can use when they’re out of season.

Waste not.

DIY air freshener

I forgot to make a new air freshener for our car last weekend. Oops! Earlier this week I put one together quickly using this recipe.

The only appropriate essential oil I had on hand was orange, so I made an orange-scented air freshener. Incidentally, our car smells like Florida. I love putting these together because they’re cheaper than storebought gel air fresheners and I can choose the scent.

Turkey stock

Mr. Picky Pincher roasted a turkey last Sunday. Instead of ditching the carcass, he used it to make tasty turkey stock. He whipped it up super fast in his beloved Instant Pot (Amazon link here) in just a few hours. I admit I hate the smell of boiling bones, but I love the flavor!

We froze this turkey stock and will use it as needed for cooking. I can’t remember the last time we had to buy stock!

Free books

I’ve been trying to read more lately instead of mindlessly watching TV. Don’t get me wrong – I love mindlessly binging on American Idol, but it gets old after a while.

This week I finished reading Better Than Before, which my boss gave me for free. I also finished reading The Five Love Languages, which I rented for free from the library. I LOVED this book and found it really enlightening; it was also a quick read.

Next on my list is Meet the Frugalwoods and The Automatic Millionaire.

Wine about it!

My strawberry wine has been fermenting for the last two weeks. Today was the big day! Mr. Picky Pincher strained the mashed fruit from the liquid and bottled it in a one gallon carboy.

I’ll keep this wine in a closet for one month, at which point it will be ready for bottling and drinking.

I used cheap Costco frozen strawberries to make this wine. I’m shocked at how aromatic and strawberry-rific it already smells! It’s a perfect wine for summertime.

As far as the next batch of wine, I plan on making a mixed berry wine next. Yum!

DIY pomade

Mr. Picky Pincher was lamenting about his sticky storebought hair pomade. He needed something to tame his trusses, but hated the gooey texture of his pomade. I poked around online and realized we could make our own for super cheap.

I combined four tablespoons of grated beeswax (I bought a huge block on Amazon to get it cheaper) and four tablespoons of coconut oil. I melted the two together in a makeshift double boiler until they were liquid.

After I let it cool for a bit, I stirred in Mr. Picky Pincher’s favorite scent, patchouli.

I was nervous about the texture and the smell. Beeswax is great, but it does smell like crayons if you don’t mask it enough.

To my shock, hubs LOVES this pomade. He says it’s better than his current one, and reminds him of a high-end Italian pomade he used to buy.

Only it doesn’t cost $20 a bottle.

Yogurt

I made some more yogurt this weekend. I use this simple stovetop recipe and it comes together really quickly. We go through a batch of yogurt every two weeks or so.

I wasn’t straining my yogurt for a few weeks, mostly to save time. But I’ve realized I prefer thicker yogurts, so I strained half of this batch for myself.

Matcha balls

It’s matcha time, y’all!

I ate through all of my matcha balls (recipe here) last week. I love having a filling, caffeinated, healthy snack on hand, so I made a new batch this weekend. This time I added shredded coconut for extra texture and flavor. I did have to add extra coconut milk to account for the extra dryness, but it was still tasty!

Sunday shenanigans

As I write this on Sunday evening, I’m exhausted.

First we planned to stop by a farmer’s market downtown. They were hosting a neat pottery exhibition that we wanted to check out. I don’t care much for pottery, but hubs loves it! We didn’t find anything that struck our fancy, but it was fun checking out local artistry.

From the farmer’s market we snagged whey caramel, specialty caramel candies, and kimchi. We sipped on beer and listened to live music in the sunshine. It was heavenly.

That is, until we tried to start our car. As it turns out, our car has a battery problem (busted battery + corroded/rusted terminal + other problems I don’t understand). Mr. Picky Pincher was able to get it started again and we got home, albeit slowly.

We traded vehicles once we got home because I had an appointment at 1:30 to get headshots. I’ve been getting by without professional photos, but I knew it was time to get some done now that my thyroid lump was gone.

I met up with the photographer at a neat arts complex. Mr. Picky Pincher tagged along and sipped on some beer while I did the shoot.

What is it about smiling and posing that wears you out so much? I had a great time, but I was exhausted at the end of the shoot. I’m happy to report that the photos look amazing and will def be a beautiful addition to my freelance site. The best part? The shoot plus retouching only set me back $80, paid for in freelance earnings, of course.

After the photo shoot, we still had to deal with the car battery problem. We caravaned to our go-to auto shop and dropped off the car. Hopefully this repair won’t set us back too much. :/

Zap’s adventures

I finally snapped a pic of Zappo climbing his favorite tree. Can you find him? He blends in!

Zap curled up for a nap on my foot. He was snoring and slobbering all over my arches. I had to try SO HARD not to laugh.

On Sunday we were about to leave the house, which meant we brought Zap inside. He was absolutely miffed. He took refuge behind the blinds and only peeped out to give a Judgmental Stare.

We want to know: How did you save or spend money this weekend? 

The post What A Frugal Weekend! April 22 appeared first on Picky Pinchers.