Vegetable Broth, oh how I adore thee

I have always read that homemade veggie stock/broth is better and easy to make, but with the box so easy I have never made it. Until (cue music) the cheap experiment...

So this past week, I made it because I wasn't spending $3 on a quart. It was easy and I just happened to have been saving my vegetable scraps for such an occasion. I was happy about being so savings and healthy, but to be honest I was a bit bitter about having to do it.

Actually, really bitter.

I realize this week, that with all my extra energy and need to chill - I bake and freeze. Jim and I have had wonderful lunches thanks to the freezer filled with baked goods that are things that resemble snacky stuff that I put in his lunch. I have found some real winners - applesauce oatmeal bread instead of baked oatmeal squares, grapenut bars instead of granola. This has been the saving grace of this.

Oh, and the thrift stores....

So shopping means spending money, but last week I went to thrift stores to kill time between appointments - each time I spent between $2-3 dollars - a cheap way to kill time. It is so interesting....I got brand new hose for 60 cents several pairs...a cool poster, etc. This is better than going get an extra meal.

Oh, the gym....

So, really if we were that hard up we would kill the gym membership and maybe that is down the road - but it really is cheap entertainment and a way to not spend more money for me. Yoga is soothing, pool is good exercise, and a good option to get away from it all for a bit without having any expense at that time.

Oh, the bike...

This summer we loaned our bike pump to a neighbor and it came back broken, I did finally break down and get another one so I could at least ride my bike once this summer! I rode it 6 miles to Uptown and my students. Wow...cheap transportation and cheap exercise.

Oh, the weight loss...

I would be remiss to say that as of last Monday I lost 3.3 lbs during the week of $36 groceries. Who says that one can't bake and lose weight or can't eat cheap and lose weight - I did both. Let's see what Monday's weigh in is like.

All in all, last week wasn't as painful...we did spend more money overall last week and I didn't feel as restricted. We will see what happens this week - we are hosting a guest which often means more money spent.