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Shared Sep 28, 2012 comment

Frugal Photo Friday: Making Starbucks at Home

Published: by Crystal Paine on September 28, 2012 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

As you well know, I tend to be just a little bit frugal. Er, well, maybe more like a lot frugal. My husband says that if I were left on my own, I’d never spend any money on myself. I love to spend money on others, but when it comes to me, I’ll just keep using and re-using whatever I already have.

That’s not always a bad thing… especially considering all of the money it has saved us over the years. Sometimes we lose sight of just how much these simple things we do really benefit our lives. And it’s time that we celebrated the simple savings!

Welcome to Frugal Photo Friday! For the next month I am partnering with Rebekah from SimplyRebekah to bring you a fun series dedicated to inspiring others and celebrating our simple savings. We’ll be sharing photos each Friday of simple ways that we save money. And we’d love for you to join us!

How it will work:

Each Friday in October Rebekah and I will share pictures on our blogs that demonstrate ways that we save money. At the end of our posts we’ll have a link-up where you can share a link to your own blog post. Your Frugal Photo Friday post should include at least one photograph along with a brief caption or story that explains how you saved money.

We will have themes for each Friday. Feel free to share photos that fit either of the themes for that week.

October 5 – Kids, Bath & Beauty
October 12 – Food & Fun
October 19 – Home & Decor
October 26 – Anything Goes!

The Details:

No blog? You can also share your pictures on Twitter or Instagram using the hashtag #FrugalPhotoFriday.

Frugal Photo Friday posts will go live on Friday mornings and the link-up will stay open until Sunday night at 11:59 PM.

You will only need to share your link on one of our blogs and it will automatically be displayed on both blogs.

Please link directly to your Frugal Photo Friday post and not to your homepage.

Feel free to grab the Frugal Photo Friday button to use in your post.

Please include a link back to Money Saving Mom or Simply Rebekah in your post so others can be encouraged by all the savings.

There is no time limit on your savings. We want to see things that saved you money this week, last month, last year, or beyond!

To kick things off, Rebekah and I are each sharing a photo of a simple way we save. Here’s mine:

Making Starbucks at Home

Wait, you don’t think Starbucks coffee is frugal? Well, let me tell you, it’s a whole lot cheaper to make your own Starbucks at home then to buy it at the coffee shop.

Sure, I’d save even more money if I gave up coffee altogether. But brewing my morning cup puts a smile on my face. I sit and savor it — and it just starts my day off on the right foot.

After lots of practice, I’ve learned how to make coffee at home just exactly how Jesse and I love it. In fact, we both agree that I can brew a better cup of coffee than any coffee shop we’ve visited.

So not only have we saved a lot of money by making coffee at home, we just plain think the coffee we make at home is better. Win-win!

Head over to SimplyRebekah for her photo and tip on how she saves money on gift wrap.

Shared Sep 28, 2012 comment

Turkey and Cheese Pinwheels

Published: by Crystal Paine on September 28, 2012 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

These roll-ups are something fun and a little different to include in those school lunches. They also are an attractive, can’t-go-wrong addition to any table of finger foods.

Guest post from Brigette Shevy

You will love these easy Turkey and Cheese Rollups!

This “recipe” is so simple that I don’t think it can even be called a recipe.

This is a great basic idea to be creative with. Sometimes I add chopped olives or flat leaf spinach for more variety and color (just make sure you don’t add anything wet or bulky). You can also make these up several hours (up to a day) in advance and keep them covered in the refrigerator until you are ready to serve them (although I can’t vouch for the make-ahead factor if you’ve added in extra ingredients).

I make these look a little more like “pinwheels” (or flowers, or windmills, or whatever you think they resemble!) for my children’s lunches at home by arranging them with apple/orange slices and a carrot stick (see photo below). They love it! So much so, that I gave up on trying to get a photo I was happy with – it was just too traumatizing for my 19-month old to see “his” lunch and not be allowed to touch it. 🙂

Ingredients for Turkey and Cheese Pinwheels

Cream cheese at room temperature (so you can spread it easily)
10-inch flour tortillas
Very thinly sliced cheese at room temperature
Very thinly sliced turkey deli meat

How to Make Turkey and Cheese Pinwheels

Spread tortilla(s) with a thin layer of cream cheese, going all the way to the edges.
Place a single layer of thin cheese on top, stopping about ½”-1” before you get to the edges.
Place a single layer of meat on top of the cheese, stopping about ½”-1” before you get to the edges.
Starting with the side closest to you, roll the tortilla up tightly. Trim off the ends.
Cut each tortilla into 8 slices (or whatever size you want them).
Serve immediately, or cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to serve.

They should stay secure without a toothpick.

Recipe

Turkey and Cheese Pinwheels

Author Brigette

Course Main Course, Snack

Cuisine American

Prep Time 5

Ingredients

Cream cheese at room temperature so you can spread it easily
10-inch flour tortillas
Very thinly sliced cheese at room temperature
Very thinly sliced turkey deli meat

Instructions

Spread tortilla(s) with a thin layer of cream cheese, going all the way to the edges.
Place a single layer of thin cheese on top, stopping about ½”-1” before you get to the edges.
Place a single layer of meat on top of the cheese, stopping about ½”-1” before you get to the edges.
Starting with the side closest to you, roll the tortilla up tightly. Trim off the ends.
Cut each tortilla into 8 slices (or whatever size you want them).
Serve immediately, or cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Love this recipe?

Make sure to share and save it on your favorite platform below!

Pin Recipe

Brigette is a full-time wife and mother who is blessed with three amazing bundles of energy (ages 5, 3 and 1). She enjoys music, experimenting in the kitchen, homeschooling her children, finding great deals, long-distance running, and anything chocolate.

Shared Sep 27, 2012 comment

Pinterest Experiment: Homemade Scrubbing Bubbles

Published: by Crystal Paine on September 27, 2012 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

I find a lot of great ideas on Pinterest… but pinning something doesn’t do anything unless I actually, you know, try the idea. So I thought it’d be fun to challenge myself to do at least one Pinterest experiment every week — and blog my results. You can follow my personal Pinterest account here, if you’re interested.

Update: So it looks like this isn’t really that effective of a cleaning agent after all, according to this post. You’d probably just be better off sticking with vinegar or baking soda.

I saw this recipe for Homemade Toilet Bomb on Pinterest and knew I had to try it. It just looked plain fun — plus, it looked so simple.

Well, apparently I forgot what I had learned back in grade school about the reaction you’ll get when you mix baking soda and vinegar. Um, yup, I ended up getting my toilet and my kitchen table cleaned out of the deal. 😉

Truthfully, the recipe worked great, but I think it would work just as well to scrub the toilet with baking soda and/or spray it with vinegar. But if it makes you feel better to clean with something that looks kind of like Scrubbing Bubbles (versus straight vinegar or baking soda), then this is your recipe.

But learn a lesson from me: either mix it up in a big container, directly in the toilet, or cut the recipe in half. 😉

Homemade Scrubbing Bubbles

1/4 cup baking soda
1/4 cup white vinegar
5 drops essential oil

Mix together in a large container, dump into the toilet, and scrub away. 🙂

Original recipe from How Does She

Have you tried any ideas or recipes you’ve found on Pinterest recently? If so, I’d love to hear how they worked out for you. Feel free to leave your blog link in the comments if you blogged about your experiment!

Shared Sep 27, 2012 comment

Corn Dog Muffins

Published: by Crystal Paine on September 27, 2012 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

Looking for a fantastically frugal and delicious lunch or after-school snack for your kids? Try these quick and easy corn dog muffins!

There’s a big debate over whether or not corn bread should be sweet or not… if you’re in the camp that says it should not be sweet, then this recipe probably isn’t for you. 🤣

But if you love a good piece of sweet, moist cornbread, you have got to try my World’s Best Honey Cornbread recipe. Because you know I don’t dub something “world’s best” unless I believe in all sincerity it is.

We Love Corn Dog Muffins!

I took that cornbread recipe and used it to make these easy and delicious “Corn Dog Muffins”, which are basically just a much easier way to make homemade corn dogs.

You don’t get to eat these on a stick like a typical corn dog, but the taste is exactly the same.

Last time I made Corn Dog Muffins, I put in a big chunk of beef hotdogs in the center of each muffin.

I decided I wasn’t completely sure that I loved that idea, so this time, I cut the beef hotdogs into chunks and then put a spoonful of batter on the bottom of the muffin tin, some chunks of beef dog, and topped it with another spoonful of corn bread batter.

The results were delicious and kid-approved!

Ingredients for Corn Dog Muffins

1/3 cup sugar
2 Tbsp. butter, softened
2 eggs
1/4 cup honey
3/4 cup milk
1 1/4 cup flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup corn meal
1/2 tsp salt
all-beef hotdogs, cut into bite-size chunks

How to Make Corn Dog Muffins

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease a 12-cup muffin pan and set aside.

2. In a large bowl, cream sugar and butter.

3. Add in eggs, honey, and milk and mix well.

4. In a smaller bowl, mix flour, baking powder, corn meal and salt.

5. Carefully stir dry ingredients into wet ingredients (Do not overmix — the batter will be lumpy.)

6. Put a large spoonful of batter at the bottom of each muffin cup..

7. Spoon several chunks of hotdogs over the batter.

8. Cover hotdogs with another spoonful (or two) of batter.

9. Bake in preheated oven for 10-12 minutes, or until cooked through.

Recipe

Author Crystal Paine

Course Appetizer, Main Course, Snack

Cuisine American

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 10