Frugality embraces the topic of food, because I feel like it’s something we have the most control over. We can go out to eat, we cannot go out to eat, we can bargain shop, follow the ads or shop freely to our craving’s content. We can cook from dry beans, canned beans or pre-packaged pre-seasoned beans.

Food is definitely a topic where I can be really intentional with spending my money. And I love food, especially when veggies and/or wholesome food is involved.

Back in the day, the term used to be, “where whole foods are involved”, but people starting confusing it with the grocery store, Whole Foods. I love me some Whole Foods shopping, but whole foods as a type of food used to be thing. Now it’s “wholesome foods”. 😂

1. Lazy Dinner

Continuing on this low-spend, no spend journey. We love a good sheet pan meal in this family because it embraces #lazycooking at its core. And if you subscribe to the Frugal to FI Twice a Month Newsletter, you will receive some tasty, simple and healthy lazy cooking recipes. So you to, can embrace lazy cooking.

Because if you are like me, no one has time to be Julia Child during the weekday.

And the fancy comes in the sauce…an aioli. So fancy. Just mix a dollop of mayo with your favorite flavor like garlic, lemon, pesto, olive tapenade, etc… Viola!

2. Inspired to Make with Leftovers

I’ve been trying really hard to not cave into eating out on this low-spend, no-spend challenge. The fridge was showing limited selections in convenience foods. I had some shredded chicken and black beans leftovers to use up, but I was drawing a blank craving in how I wanted to prepare it for eating. When I opened my Instagram feed, someone made taquitos using leftovers.

Granted their plate of taquitos was beautiful as it was topped with lettuce, tomatoes, crema, etc… But I did have oil and corn tortillas in my fridge. So I whipped up some sad but delicious taquitos for lunch using my leftovers.

3. Breakfast among artists

Living in the city, I am fortunate to be invited to some cool events. This studio below, is home to a friend of a friend of a friend. I am in love with their space! It’s a large space full of crafts and tools allowing the owner to just spend hours creating.

We had a group breakfast at the owner’s house. They spend some time telling me how purchased the house back in the 80s on regular salaries while raising two kids. One, I can’t even imagine purchasing any house these days. Two, especially a home in San Francisco!

4. Halloween Decorations

We love our SpOokY in this house. So it’s no surprise that we took out the holiday storage bin to start decorating. Now that we live in a cool Victorian flat, and the house’s lighting already dims on its own, it makes Halloween in my house even more spectacular.

Edit update: I was viewing my previous Amazon purchase and forgot I also bought this boo campfire ghost light back in August. I have it plugged into my kitchen and it’s really cute. The shipping didn’t take as long as it said either.

5. Red Curry with Baked Tofu

I finally bought some Mae Ploy red curry paste to try. I was curious about the different from my usual green curry paste (also in the Mae Ploy brand). I cubed the tofu, seasoned and baked it. Then I took a bunch of veggies from the freezer (frugal and time-saving hack). Tossed everything in with half the amount of curry paste the directions called for. Added 0.5:1.5 ratio of coconut milk to broth. And dinner was ready and served with some white rice I had steamed up.

I was smart to not add the amount of curry paste the directions called for. Last time I did that with the green curry paste and had to eat it with a quite a bit of yogurt to temper the spice. Half the amount called for was a good amount. And I like spicy!

What frugal things have you been up to this week?