27 and Frugal

With the price of fabric, it’s not always cheaper to make your own items but if you can find good fabric on sale, this is a cheap and relatively quick project. Oh and it’s easy! As you can see by my crooked stitches, I’m far from a talented sew-er.

1. Lay out your fabric

2. Figure out what size you want each placemat. Mine are 18×12 which conveniently is the size of this cutting board. You can just cut a rectangle out of newspaper as well.

3. Cut out each rectangle. (Hopefully you’ll have a better sewing space than my make-shift one.) Continue reading »

Don’t ever throw that stale bread out! Making your own breadcrumbs is so easy and I bet you already have the ingredient on hand (bread!).

There’s a variety of ways to make your crumbs:

• Throw a piece of stale/toasted bread or two in a food processor
• Rip a few pieces of stale/toasted bread in half and chop with a manual food chopper
• Put a few pieces of stale/toasted bread in a sandwich bag and roll over it with a rolling pin

You can also make breadcrumbs out of crackers, nuts, or cornflakes.

Just store your breadcrumbs in a container in the cupboard … Continue reading »

This recipe is so ridiculously easy, you’ll never buy canned soup again!

Cook 1/2C chopped onion and 1C chopped celery in a pot with 1T melted butter for 5 minutes until veggies are tender.

Stir in 60oz of chicken broth (4 cans), 14.5oz of vegetable broth, 1/2lb uncooked bite-sized chicken pieces, 1C chopped carrots, 1/4t basil, 1/4t oregano, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil then simmer 10 mins.

While all that is simmering cook the egg noodles in a separate pot then add to soup and simmer another 10 mins.

Eat and enjoy! … Continue reading »

This is a fabulous cheesecake that is much easier to make than it appears. This recipe is very flexible, even for a cheesecake, and the end result is definitely worth it (and boyfriend approved!).

Crust: Press 2C cinnamon graham cracker crumbs, 1/8C sugar & 1/3C softened butter into a spring-form pan and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Strawberry Sauce: Blend 20oz. strawberries with 1T cornstarch until smooth then boil in a pot for 2 minutes and refrigerate to cool.

Cake: Beat 2pkgs cream cheese until fluffy then beat in 1C sweetened condensed milk, 1/8C lemon juice and 3 eggs. Continue reading »

I was tired of dishing out $3 for sugary syrup at the store, so I decided to just make my own. Don’t worry! This isn’t a huge project at all; In fact, it’s easier than making a pot of rice.

Mix 2/3C cocoa powder with 1C sugar in a pot on the stove.

Stir in 1C of water and boil everything for 2 minutes.

Remove from heat and let cool. Stir in 1t of vanilla then pour the syrup into a glass jar and store in the fridge.

Easy easy easy!

The syrup will thicken upon cooling and the … Continue reading »

This is as easy as you can get and you should already have all the ingredients in your pantry.

Mix 1/3C of dijon mustard, 1/3C honey, 2T mayo, and 1t steak/worcestershire sauce.

That’s it! Mix it all up and it’s good to use right away or refrigerate it for later.

Some meal suggestions: dip for spicy chicken/wings, dip for french fries, dressing in a chicken wrap, mix with tunafish, mix with mashed potatoes or just as a chicken marinade.

This mustard is extremely flexible and you can adjust the ratio of ingredients to fit your taste-buds.

Home-made

• There are plenty of in-a-jar gifts that you can find online. For this type of thing, I’ve done something different. Last year, I made my own hot cocoa mix based off of an Alton Brown recipe. However, instead of layering it in a jar, I made individual servings. I made the mix in bulk, then spooned out 1 serving size onto some saran wrap, wrapped up the mix and tied a ribbon around it. I then gave several of these little cocoa bags to my friends. This makes it easy for someone to bring the mix to work and to easily prepare without worrying about measuring. It worked out great and the entire process took me under a week to do. Also, not having to buy jars or other packaging really kept the costs down.
• Similar to the jar gifts, you can prepare your own spice mixes and put them into a shaker container to give as gifts. This way you can even personalize the mix to the person. If you know someone prefers spicy and someone doesn’t, you can just adjust the recipe or add a little more spice to one. This is also a pretty unique gift that the person will use over time. Although, I don’t recommend it to someone who doesn’t like to cook.
• Bath salts are very easy to make just by mixing epsom salt, an essential oil and some food coloring. Simply fill a jar or small bag with the salts and you have an instant gift.

Continue reading »

There are three spice mixes that I like to always have on hand. I make all these ahead of time and store them in old spice containers (with the built-in shaker top). That way it is really convenient to use them when I want to make a good dinner but am crunched for time. Continue reading »