Welcome to Frugal Photo Friday! This month, I am partnering with Rebekah from SimplyRebekah.com. Each Friday we are sharing pictures of simple ways that we save money. This week’s themes are food and fun.
It’s no secret that I love Aldi. Their produce prices are often the best around. And buying staple ingredients there on weeks when I don’t want to mess with coupons helps to keep my grocery budget low.
You know what I like best about Aldi? The store is so small and straight-forward. There aren’t two dozen choices of Italian salad dressing to choose from. There’s just one.
It simplifies shopping and saves me time and brain power. Plus, I love that I can run in and run out with my groceries — well, unless there’s a long line. But the checkers are typically very, very fast so a long line usually moves quickly.
Psst! They also have fantastic prices on floral bouquets.
Now is the time to buy pumpkins to cook and puree for winter baking. It’s usually much cheaper than buying pumpkin in a can. Plus, it’s a lot fresher — especially since pumpkins are on sale right now.
If baking a pumpkin seems like a lot of work, you might try the method I discovered last year to bake pumpkins whole in the oven. It was so simple and didn’t require a lot of elbow grease to cut the thing open before cooking, unlike every other method I’ve tried.
Or, if baking pumpkins whole scares you, here’s how to bake pumpkins in the crockpot.
Looking for some delicious pumpkin ideas? Check out all the pumpkin recipes I’ve posted recently. Or, check out this extensive list of over 30 pumpkin ideas on Keeper of the Home.
We don’t spend a lot of money on fun at our house. We make up our own fun.
Sure, it might be a little messy… like when Silas had a blast painting my nails this week. 🙂
I try to remind myself that messiness is the result of lots of creativity. And creativity is a good thing to encourage in kids, right? Therefore messes are good. Or at least that’s what I try to remind myself when I see things strewn around the house in the name of the latest idea the kids have come up with. 🙂
{Photos are of are experiment making Homemade Flubber.}
Head over to SimplyRebekah to see the savings that Rebekah is sharing today.
Now it is your turn to share the simple ways that you save. Share your link below or on Twitter and Instagram using the hashtag #FrugalPhotoFriday. All of the link-up details and themes for each week can be found here.
Beth says
This is a great post. Your family is adorable 🙂
Thanks for posting the pumpkin recipes, yummy. I love Fall!
I just LOVE Aldi – they have THE BEST customer service! They engage & enjoy the presence of my 4 boys (!), they return/exchage/refund without question, and they make shopping affordable, hassle free, and simple.
Laura says
I must have good luck with pumpkins because I bought a case of 15 oz pumpkin puree for 25 cents a can. I quickly decided to stock up because I don’t have time and or freezer room to make my own. So not worth it to me.
Glad to hear that the sugar pie pumpkins and the big honkers (that I get at Fred Meyer this week for 18 cents per pound!) taste the same in muffins (my preferred use of puree). Will file that one away for this year and may try making my own if we don’t end up carving them. We ran out of time last year and never got around to it so ended up tossing the moldy pumpkins around Thanksgiving. Won’t do that again now that I know they bake up nicely! Thanks for the tip :).
Jessica says
I have tried making my own pumpkin puree with little success in the past. Pumpkins here are around $5 each. However, Meijer has canned pumpkin in 15 oz size on sale for $1, buy 10 and get the 11th free. So you can get 165 oz of pumpkin puree for $10. Sale ends Saturday.
Stephanie @ Keeper of the Home says
Love the pic of Kathrynne with the flubber. She looks both intrigued and disgusted at the same time. 🙂
Thanks for sharing our pumpkin post!
Kate R. says
Just wanted to say, you letting your son paint your nails has been an encouragement to me. I have an almost 4 yo son and he would love to paint my nails and other messy things like that. I have such a knee-jerk reflex to say “no” or “stop it” etc. I mean, in the big picture, what is the big deal if I let him paint mommy’s nails and have to clean off my finger tips w/ nail polish remover? It’s about the mentality. Thanks : )
amy wilson says
How much did you pay per pumpkin? I paid $.77/lb for pie pumpkins a few days ago (Brookshire Bros.), baked and froze them in 1 cup bags. It was not worth it. The break even point was $.53/lb. I can get a can of pumpkin for $.99 at HEB (regular price). Have you ever used the regular large pumpkins? I tried researching the best sales price for pie pumpkins for 2011 but was unsuccessful finding a target purchase price. Nor do I have a target price for canned pumpkin.
Jessica Claire says
Last year I was able to purchase them for 99 cents per pumpkin! I found them at that price at Meijer but also at a mom and pop grocery store. Keep checking around. Maybe you’ll find them some place unexpected! 🙂
Crystal says
My friend, Angie, did an experiment between the pie pumpkins and the large pumpkins last year and neither of us could tell a difference when they were baked into muffins.
Amy says
I’ve found pie pumpkins for .29/lb but I live in New England where I think they tend to grow them by the billions. Yet cans of pumpkin cost $1.50 and that’s not the organic ones!
Emily says
I aim for $0.99 per can of pumpkin (14 oz.). Aldi sells it for $0.99 every fall!
amy wilson says
thanks everyone!
Ana says
I went to Smart and final, which is a smaller warehouse store and found 128 oz cans of pumpkin puree for under $5. If you want to make a lot of pumpkin themed foods, that’s perfect.
Shelly says
I love to make homemade cooked pumpkin for recipes. Most of our family loves pumpkin in recipes but my husband is not too fond of it. He will eat the pumpkin chocolate chip muffins though. My son asked the other day when are we getting a pumpkin. He likes to help roast the seeds and eat them.
A few weeks ago for fun the kids made their own flip flops out of foam sheets and cardboard. It took a few days and we had supplies all over the hearth but it was so worth it to let them create their own items.
Rebekah from Simply Rebekah says
Crystal, I love how we keep talking about the same things each week with out us even trying! Great minds think alike, huh? 🙂