Friday, February 1, 2013

Frugal Friday: Making money at home

I'm now working 2 days a week for Miss Alice. I'm grateful to have the extra hours at home. I was really getting behind on my work. I'm finally getting some untidy areas organized and it's relieving some stress.

I'll be making less money so I'm thinking of ways to stretch our money farther.

This is how I think about it: If I can do the work instead of paying someone then I'm making money at home.  Does that make sense? It's like paying myself to work instead of paying someone else to do the work for me. For instance, if I wash my own car instead of paying someone then I see it as earning $7.00.


Here are just a few ways I made money at home this week:

1. I spend approx. $10 a month on canned dog food. I made homemade dog food a month ago and it was a big success. My dog really liked it. We mix it in with the dry dog food.  I've been saving scraps of meat and other food scraps to make the next batch which I did this week. Here is the list of items I saved or had on hand:
  • Scraps of meat (grissle, skin, leftovers,etc.)
  • leftover macaroni and cheese (grandkiddos)
  • 2 cups of rice
  • chicken and beef boullion
  • Squash (wilted)
  • Leftover veggies in the fridge
 I chose to freeze the dog food instead of pressure canning so that I could include noodles and rice in the mixture. I saved the meat scraps in recycled plastic bags which I then used for the finished dog food (using them 3 times total). I saved $10 using only ingredients I had on hand.

2.  We've cut back on carbs the past few months but my husband still likes an occasional sandwich.  I had a lot of whole wheat and bread flour on hand so I made 2 loaves of bread. I have 3 bread makers (yes 3) which helps speed up the baking process. I only use the 'dough cycle' and then place the dough in the greased loaf pans, rise again in a warm oven and then bake.  I cut the loaves in half and froze them. I made $6.00 from home.

This is just an example of how I make money from home. How about you? How did you make money from home this week?
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