Atlanta's Frugal Mom

It’s been a rough week in our frugal household.  Most notably, my daughter -who turned 4 last Friday- came down with a nasty tummy bug, and has been OUT all week.  She started feeling off on Sunday, but woke up Monday morning feeling well enough to go to school and ballet, but didn’t touch her lunch.  She came home, took off her ballet clothes and put on her jammies and plopped herself down for a three hour nap.  (An unnatural act for a child who’d not taken a nap for over two weeks prior to this!)  Even after she woke up, she was rather puny and lacked an appetite for the remainder of the day…. Tuesday, same thing: she woke up feeling fine, went to her 4-year check-up and got her shots.  By the time we came home, she was starting to feel a little off, wouldn’t eat, and took a two hour nap.  That evening I knew we were dealing with a stomach virus.  And I’ll just leave it at that. She stayed home, sleeping it off most of the day on Wednesday.  (Skipping her...

My first born turned FOUR on Friday, which was followed by her check-up. She not only did fine, but worked her usual charm on the nurses and doctors. Throughout the appointment, I kept hearing Doc McStuffins sing “time for your check-up.” 🙂 Happy (not so) Wordless Wednesday, y’all!

We’ve all been to restaurants that offer those delicious looking molten lava chocolate cakes on the dessert menu. They look amazing, but frankly I am a little too cheap to order dessert out after having dinner. When I saw this mix on clearance at Aldi, I immediately grabbed it because I knew my family would really enjoy it. I expected to find some sort of chocolate truffle balls in the mix that go in the middle of the cakes, so I was surprised when we open it up and found nothing but a bag of cake mix. At that point, I was a little skeptical of how exactly they were going to turn out. But we all love chocolate, so we dug right in anyway, lol! (By the way, I’m not listing ingredients and measurements because this is a box mix, and each one is different.  I don’t want to give you directions that are different from the ones on the box you may purchase.) This was one of the simplest mixes I have ever seen.  It only required eggs and butter, and of course the bag mix.  Inst...

  Take a load off your laundry?  I’ll be the first to say it:  I loath laundry!  Perhaps because it’s one of those household tasks that literally never ends, or because stubborn stains just seem to laugh at you time after time, or perhaps it’s the snarky sock monster — for whatever reason, I know I’m not alone in my feelings about this.  Am I right? In any case, I’ve developed a few strategies to help ease the pain of this never-ending saga known as laundry.  Take a look, and see which ones work for you, or what more you would add to this. * Schedule it : I do one load of laundry every weekday.  (An awesome tip I picked up from The Stressed Mom !)  I’ve found that by sticking to a schedule, and doing just one load a day, it’s MUCH more manageable for me.  I bring that load down either first thing in the morning or after I put the kids to bed the night before; throw the clothes in the dryer in the morning; then fold while the kids n...

Macaroni and cheese is one of my favorite dishes.  Not the fake version that comes in the blue box, but the real deal.  My mother made it from scratch when I was a child, and now I do the same for my family.  Often times I’ll just make it with American cheese and a little bit of butter and milk, but lately I’ve been playing around with richer, creamier versions.  Multiple cheeses, heavy cream, and even a pinch of cayenne can take this simple comfort food to an entirely new level.  My newest recipe (which I’m sharing today) has quickly become a favorite in our home.  A layer of seasoned breadcrumbs and a few minutes in the broiler gives it a lightly crispy topping that is a perfect compliment to the delicious, creamy sauce.  The result is a delicious dish that is similar to one you would get at a restaurant!  (For more make-at-home restaurant style dishes, check out this post with 10 of my favorite copycat recipes !)   Restaurant Style Macaroni and Cheese Ingredien...

One of my favorite dishes to make is chili.  It’s effortless, great for any season, and it freezes perfectly!  It’s also a great source of protein, and can be very good for you when it’s not coming from a can!  I’ve been making lots of chili over the last month because the hubs won’t stop eating all the frozen stock I put away.  He eats it on everything.  Fries, hot dogs, rice, nachos, potatoes….you name it, he’ll cover it with chili.  Luckily it’s made with ingredients that are simple to find at any grocery store, and I spend about 10 minutes physically preparing it, so it’s not too bad.  Don’t let the longer list of spice ingredients scare you off either.  I promise this spice mix is 1000x times better than what you get in the pack at the store, and it’s wheat and preservative free! My favorite two ingredients in this chili are the sausage and the smoked paprika.  Something about chili with sausage is just SO much bette...

So I kinda threw my food budget out the window over the holidays, and now we’re playing catch up.  I actually find it rather entertaining, because being short on funds means I have to get really creative with healthy meals that don’t break the bank.  Earlier this week, Lori over at Vann Clan 5 shared a simple no peek beef tips recipe that got me thinking. I headed out to Aldi to do my shopping and was stoked to find THREE marked down packs of eye of round steak for right at $3.00 each.  I LOVE picking up discounted packs of tough-as-leather-nobody-wants-to-buy-it meat at Walmart and Aldi, because once you slow cook it, it’s tender as can be!  I grabbed some carrots and onions and a few more ingredients and headed home to make some magic.  This is *such* an easy recipe for anyone to make, check out my $5.00 No Peek Pot Roast below! $5.oo No Peek Pot Roast Ingredients: 1 pound of cheap beef (cut into 1/2-1″ cubes) – $3.25 2 cups of chopped carrots (I used 5 ...