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. 

Happy Monday-eve, Picky fam!

Wow, what a week it’s been. I’m grateful I was able to use my PTO for this entire week. I still have one precious day off work left this Monday, then it’s back to the grind. Well, not really, since I’m putting in notice at my full-time job this week.

I’ve tried to do a mixture of work and play over this week. I’ve learned a lot and had a ton of fun in the process. I did a lot of freelancing work, so this list isn’t as full as it could have been. However, I’m glad I spent the time building up my business. Ahhh.

Here are just a few things we did to live frugally this week. Add yours in the comments!

No locksmith fees!

Poor hubs had a rough start last Monday. He took the truck to work and locked the keys inside. I was conveniently off work all week, so I drove the spare key to him. It’s great that we didn’t have to pay for a locksmith!

Costco

I did our trip to Costco a little late in the month. I made the dangerous mistake of going to Costco while hungry. I did get a bulk pack of Jimmy Dean Breakfast sandwiches on sale that weren’t on my list. Oops.

This Costco trip was a little pricey because I stocked up on a lot of items we buy about once a year, like goat cheese, cucumbers, walnuts, and pesto. I also got chicken, stamps, butter, and bulk eggs for baking projects.

I did freeze the pesto in large blocks for storing. It’s much easier to defrost than an entire jar of pesto!

Content conference

An important part of being a writer is keeping on top of trends. Since I write about marketing, I’m making it a priority to attend marketing conferences for professional development. I signed up for a marketing conference that was happening in Austin. At just $30 for tickets, it was right in my price range.

On Saturday morning I left at 6 am to be there in time for the conference. I could have gotten a hotel in Austin, but that wasn’t in the budget. I munched on a Jimmy Dean breakfast sandwich from home to avoid eating out. Once I got to the conference, I (maybe greedily) helped myself to the refreshments, snacks, and lunch.

The downside is that I did use half a tank of gas and had to pay for infamous downtown Austin parking ($20). The upside is that the trip was for business purposes, so I’ve logged the costs as business expenses in Quickbooks. Hopefully they can count towards a tax cut!

I got a few good nuggets out of the conference, although I did think 90% of the content was not very useful. The networking was pretty good, though. I’m hoping to be connected with a mentor soon.

P.S. I know some of you readers are bloggers yourselves. My favorite presentation was from a videographer named Amanda Horvath. She recently started a great YouTube channel on DIYing video and other video strategies.

Zoo trip!

I treated myself to a trip to the zoo this week. It’s much more fun on weekdays when it’s less crowded, too. I think the animals enjoy more peace and quiet as well. I bought a membership for $30, which pays for itself after two visits. (P.S. The memberships are usually $40 but I got mine during a promotion). Since I’ll soon be on a self-employed schedule soon, that means I’ll be able to go on walks around the zoo to get out of the house. And for just $30/year? Yes, please.

I took my DSLR with me to snap pics around the zoo. I’ve started taking my own stock photos to use here on the blog. … But let’s be real, that’s an excuse to take dozens of photos of the elephants.

Student loan steakhouse lunch

As you guys have probably heard, we paid off the last of our $65,000 student loans last week! Woohoo!

This definitely called for a proper celebration. Around here, that means getting a nice meal.

On Thursday we got lunch at a Brazilian steakhouse as our official student loan payoff celebration. We went during lunchtime because everything is half price–but with the same portions and quality. Hell yeah! We joke that the Brazilian steakhouse trip was #Meatpocalypse2018.

Afterwards we definitely needed a good walk. We drove to a nearby park that Mr. Picky Pincher actually helped design several years ago. We got to walk off our meal, admire nature, and check out the fruits of his labor.

Face masks

This is just a quick aside, but it’s a good one! If you like storebought Face Masks, I found a quick money-saving hack. (You can also make masks at home to save money, but this is for when you want to treat yourself)

Stores sell the single-use face masks for $2 – $5. You can actually buy a tube of mud or peel face masks for $3 – $8. These tubes give you multiple uses, saving money in the long term. The masks in tubes are usually hidden on the bottom shelf because the stores don’t make as much money on them.

Yoga at the botanical gardens

Since hubs and I both had Friday off, I wanted to go on a proper adventure. I checked out events at the botanical gardens and saw they were having a yoga-slash-cooking class. Those are two yuppy things that we love, so I signed us up.

We did one hour of yoga outside in the garden. It would have been heavenly if it weren’t for the mosquitoes, but that’s Texas for you. We borrowed a second yoga mat from Picky Nikki to avoid buying a second one ourselves. Borrowing is always frugal, y’all!

After yoga we had an awesome cooking demonstration. A chef cooked a meal using ingredients in the botanical garden. They advertised it as a tasting, but it was a proper meal that was filling enough for us.

Spanische windtorte

I mean, I’m not going to take a week off of work and not bake something weird. I’m all about the weird. This week was the perfect time to try some new baking experiments. And, since I bought bulk eggs from Costco on the cheap, it just made sense.

I decided to make a spanische Windtorte. I believe it’s a recipe that originated in Austria, even though “Spanish” is in its name. This is essentially a gigantic meringue that’s designed to look like a cake. I’ve had hit or miss experience with meringues in the past, so I figured I could dedicate more time and focus to doing them right.

I used this recipe.

This recipe called for a whopping dozen eggs. Thankfully I had, like, 32 eggs from Costco, so that wasn’t a problem. I did make sure to save the egg shells to throw into our compost bins.

I was able to whip up a beautifully shiny meringue, which was a first.

Baking a windtorte is sort of like building a house. You have to create structure for it to stay up. First I started by piping the top, bottom, and middle parts to bake them.

Once those baked and cooled, I used more meringue to build the “walls” of the windtorte. Weird, huh?

I had to make a second kind of boiled meringue for the decoration. You have to whip it while it cooks in a double boiler. That was a HUGE pain in the ass since I don’t have a hand mixer. Oof. My piping skills also leave a lot to be desired, but I did it! I made a windtorte!

The windtorte is hollow and fillable at this point. You’re supposed to make this fancy fruit filling, but I didn’t have the ingredients to make that happen. After rummaging through the fridge, I decided to use up the egg yolks to make a simple creme patisserie (a very fancy way to say ‘vanilla pudding’). Once it was filled, I gingerly put the top back on.

Boy, this windtorte is decadent. It’s basically just eggs and a LOT of sugar. Seriously, if you so much as touch this torte, your fingers are sticky. It was delicious but it was way too much for us to eat on our own. I’m still glad I gave it a go.

Korean beef bowls

This was the only notable meal of the week, to be honest. It’s a horribly Americanized version of a tasty dish I remember eating in Korea. Here’s the recipe. It’s basically beef cooked with oyster sauce served over rice and veggies.

I did a quick pickle on some cucumbers for a perfect, vinegary bite. If you do make this dish, you gotta do the cucumbers! Just slice them as thin as you can and top them with red wine and a hit of salt. Let sit for 10 minutes before serving.

Beans

Mr. Picky Pincher made more beans on Sunday afternoon. He uses his Instant Pot (Amazon link here) to cook them in about half the time!

Zap’s Adventures

Oh, poor Zap. He was having stomach troubles that were only getting worse. On Friday we took him to the vet. As it turns out, he has giardia. He was such a trooper at the vet, where he got fluids and an injection for nausea/tummy pain. He’s been on meds for just a few days and he’s almost back to 100%! It’s such a relief to see him eating and playing again. He’s still pretty mad at us giving him the nasty bubblegum-flavored medicine, but he’ll get over it.

I got this classic pic of Mr. Picky Pincher trying to take a photo of Zap. It’s just not happening, honey.

Zap LOVES when we go to Costco because it means he gets the boxes.

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

The post What A Frugal Week! September 30 appeared first on Picky Pinchers.