Frugal month kick-off (crazy long post)

Hello everyone,  In my mind, I intended to start  frugal posts on July 1st.  But I've been busy doing things around home and just didn't find the time.  So......here is my first  frugal July post and it will probably ramble on and on

Our ultra-frugal mode actually started about June 25th or so.
My husband had been out of town and was coming home.  I did not prepare regular meals while he was gone but I was more than ready to have real, regular food by then.
Our fridge was kind of empty as far as fresh things go but I found a head of iceberg lettuce,  some tomatoes and onions in the pantry.
With that, I made a taco toppings plate,  a tossed salad and a sandwich topping plate.
We like to add cheddar cheese as a garnish to lots of food.  I used to hand grate cheddar or buy it already grated.   Now,  our favorite cheese is Tillamook extra sharp cheddar in sandwich slices.  I use that cheese now instead of grated cheese.  It chops up nicely and has so much flavor.  For us,  this is thrifty as the Tillamook cheese is a good price at the military commissary.

From the freezer,  I got out a package of Smokies hot dogs and sliced ham and refilled our 3 tier Tupperware deli keeper.  

once the ham thawed,  it shut all the way.  Sandwiches are easy to make when the meat and cheese are stored together and there is box of prepared sandwich toppings.  

We were low of fresh fruit that day too.  There were 4 jumbo oranges so I peeled them and put them in a bowl for meals or snacking.  They were delicious! 

Sometimes the fridge is really empty but sometimes there are enough ingredients to still make a number of good meals even though it looks empty.  

Now on to some frugal decorating...

I wanted to spruce up our garage door.  So I looked on Pinterest for wreath ideas.  

I used just supplies on hand for this tied wreath.  

The fabric strips are cut to 14.5 inches by 2 inches and just tied on the Styrofoam wreath form.  

And this is the garage door- all clean and decorated.  No one really will see this unless they enter our home through the garage but my husband and I like it.  It is sort of a Welcome home to us when we come home.  

no idea why the next several lines appear to be links and are underlined.  

The home sweet home sticker is from Dollar Tree.  It was so easy to put on and looks good. 

My husband thought I had hand painted it.  

The front door needed a paint touch up.  I found the can of paint the builders used 17 years ago when they first painted this door.  After a good shake,  that paint was truly as good as new.  So it was easy to give the door a fresh coat of burgundy paint.  

I tried a Dollar Tree sticker here too but can you see the problem?  They apparently look best on a light covered surface.  

It did peel right off without tearing or removing any paint.  

I then put it on the inside of that door.  It sticks and looks fine but I'm not sure I'll leave it there.
it seems a little odd to say "welcome"  as people would be exiting.

I don't plant to buy many groceries as our freezer and pantry are both pretty stocked.
But we really enjoy salads and summer fruit so I will buy those.
This is what we bought at Sprouts middle of last week- all of that fruit has been so sweet and delicious.
The meats were on sale.  I think the bacon was $1.99 and the baby back ribs were $2.49 a pound or about $6-7 a side.  My husband has smoked 2 of them and they fed us 3 meals and we shared several helpings with my parents.

Today,  I cooked up a big batch of pasta sauce.  We like homemade sauce better than storebought because mine is not as sweet as most jarred sauces.

I don't have a specific  recipe to share but here's how I do it.

In the bottom of each crock pot,  I put diced onion in about 2 teaspoons of oil and let them cook on high about an hour. 

Then I carefully added the tomato sauce in increments as I didn't want to shock the hot crockpots with room temperature ingredients.  Once the tomato sauce was in,  I added garlic salt, black pepper, oregano, basil, Italian seasoning herbs and a little sugar- all to taste.  Maybe a tablespoon of all the herbs in the small crockpot,  double that in the big pot.  I also divided 24 ounces of tomato paste between the 2 pots.  Let it all simmer for a few hours.  

I pack it in meal size containers and freeze.  

I'm not sure homemade sauce is cheaper than jarred sauce.  It might be but it is frugal to have easy meals on hand that can be cooked quickly when meal time sneaks up on you.  

I've made this sauce, taco meat and chili in big batches for years and it has been so handy so many times for quick meals.  

Now on to doing fun things......
all towns are different but most of them have at least a few free or low cost fun things to do.  My town has a great library,  2 free splash pads  and 2 huge Transformer statues.

This is Bumblebee,  made from all kinds of vehicle parts.  He doesn't really do anything except look awesome.  Its really fun to pose for pictures under his legs.  

His buddy Optimus Prime lives on the other side of town and we will visit him this summer too.  

How to make a little money.....
I've dabbled in a several online rewards programs over the years.
The 2 I've done the longest are MyPoints.com and Swagbucks.com   I looked over my accounts and saw I had quite a few points and cashed them both in,  I had enough to get 3 $25 gift certificates to CVS.
I also do Walmart Savings catcher when I think about it.  I had enough there to cash in $12.

I also like Ibotta
You don't have to do anything for Ibotta except shop.  They have rewards for some "any" purchases like bananas or bread.
The bigger payouts are for name brand items- everything from foods and beverages, to health and beauty things and even some restaurants and online stores.

If you have a smart phone or tablet that has a camera,  Ibotta is easy.  Just scan through the list of refunds and check what you bought.  Then take a photo of your receipt and sometimes of the items UPC.  When you've earned $20,  you can cash out for Paypal or Walmart or Amazon, etc.
I had enough to cash out last week for $26.25 Paypal.
If you haven't joined Ibotta,  I'd love for you to use my referral code if you do sign up.
HVSUFA
I think you get $10 just for being a new sign up.

You wont get rich doing online reward programs but it is nice to earn a bit every now and then

and if you're still reading this far along,  thank you
I plan on doing more frugal posts as July goes on.