Thrift My Sass

Tuna patties on hamburger buns with cheese,  ready  for lunch. These tuna patties are easy to make with ingredients that you likely already have on hand. These are perfect for eating from the pantry. You can enjoy them on a sandwich, with a salad, or with any other sides. You can cook up your tuna patties in a skillet with just a little cooking spray, no need to fire up the grill. Ingredients (makes 2 patties): 1 5oz can of tuna, drained 1 egg, beaten 1/4 cup of breadcrumbs Instructions: Combine all ingredients together and form into two patties of equal size. Heat skillet to medium-high and spray with cooking spray. Cook for about 5 minutes on each side or until well-browned. Serve on a fresh salad, on a bun like a burger, or with any sides that you like! I prefer to eat mine like it is a tuna burger, with ketchup, cheese, and sliced onion. Close up of a tuna patty in the pan. Tips: You have many options for your fish patties! I have used chunk light, solid white albacore, and canned

Sometimes you find yourself with an abundance of stale bread. For me, this happens when I've baked a loaf or two, or after going to the bakery, then life gets in the way and we haven't been able to eat it all. This is also common after setting out a bread basket for a family or holiday dinner. There are some thrifty dishes you can make to use up that stale bread without letting it go to waste. Waste not, want not! Some leftover bread from Christmas Dinner. Panzanella Salad This Italian salad uses chunks of stale bread almost like croutons. The delicious ripe tomatoes and dressing rehydrate the bread. Since it is a style of salad, I would say you likely don't need a set recipe to put it together, but here are some suggested ingredients: Tomatoes (cut cherry or grape tomatoes in half to release juices) Cucumbers Stale bread (recommend French, Italian, or Portuguese bread) Pepperoncini Basil leaves Dressing of your choice (I would use extra-virgin olive

This spinach pie recipe has been passed down through my husband's family. My husband's Greek family is from Ioannina, a city in northwestern Greece. The Jewish community in Ioannina prepared a number of unique dishes, mostly focused on vegetarian foods containing dairy products in keeping with Kosher dietary rules.  Other Jewish families in Ioannina add feta cheese to this recipe, which I think sounds delicious, as well. The original version, which uses plain unseasoned matzo meal, get most of its flavor from the spinach and grated cheese topping. Personally, I use seasoned breadcrumbs and add garlic and onion powder to taste to bump up the flavor. This pie has no crust, which saves you the trouble of buying or rolling out a pie crust! Ingredients: 2 packages (10 oz each) of frozen chopped spinach, drained 2 eggs, beaten 8 oz farmer cheese (or cottage cheese) 4 oz cream cheese 1 tsp salt Handful of matzo meal (I always use Italian seasoned breadcrumbs) Grated cheese

A professional energy audit is a great way to reduce your consumption of heating fuel, water, and electricity. Lowering your usage allows you to save money and lower your  carbon footprint.  Audits are often made available through your local public or private utility company, or potentially through your state or county government. While private companies do offer energy audits, I encourage you to consider publicly funded programs first as they are often subsidized. What is an Energy Audit? An energy audit is an assessment of your home's energy use. This includes your use of heating fuel, electricity (including appliances and lighting), and how well your home is insulated or sealed. Energy audits can be performed on apartments and multi-unit buildings as well as on single-family houses. What Happens During an Energy Audit? The process can vary based on the company administering the audit, but there are some common processes that you can expect.  The audit crew

Re-upholstering chairs be a great way to change the look of your whole dining room just by changing the color or pattern of your seats. Once you are confident in how to re-cover chairs, you can buy a dining room set secondhand or re-vamp an inherited set rather than paying retail for new furniture. While you could certainly take the chairs to an upholsterer, it is much more economical to complete this project on your own. A professional upholsterer will likely charge about $40 to re-cover a dining room chair, which you will see is quite a simple task. Your kitchen set of 4 chairs would cost you $160 in that case, and a dining room set of 6 would cost $240 to re-finish. You will also have to go through the hassle of finding the right professional, and possibly transporting the chairs to and from their establishment. The finished products Re-Upholstering Made Easy You'll need just a few materials to get started: A staple gun (with staples, of course) Several yards of u

The most wonderful time of the year is often the most expensive  time or the year. While shopping for the perfect gifts for your loved ones, you may find yourself picking up more presents for office gift swaps and buying festive foods for your holiday feasts. While some extra spending this time of year is inevitable, you can stay within your means with a few tricks. Set a Budget I set a budget for each of my gift recipients each year, plus a grocery shopping budget. You can set aside money each paycheck or each month all year long to pay for gifts and your holiday food budget alike. You can do this the old fashioned way by saving cash in envelopes, earmarking some savings, or creating a separate bank account. Some banks may still offer Christmas Club accounts, which allow you to create a dedicated fund to save weekly or monthly for the holidays. If you participate in online banking, you can create a separate account yourself and schedule automatic transfers to fund it at whatever

Back in September 2016, my friend Mitch and I went to Norway on a shoestring budget, spending just $1100 each for an eight-day trip (including airfare!). Although several years have passed, I wanted to share how we traveled around one of the most expensive countries in Europe to visit without going broke. Airfare Mitch gets full credit for the fabulous airfare find! He kept an eye on the Norwegian Airlines website and jumped on a $330 round-trip fare from Boston to Oslo, asking me to join. The flight was about a week after the end of the summer season in Norway, so we enjoyed great weather and off-season prices. Norwegian Air has been voted the best budget long-haul airline several times, and we both felt it was a comfortable and convenient way to travel. The airline's low-fare calendar is a great place to find bargains, particularly in the off season, and I recommend you bookmark it. Do be aware that the price to check a bag is steep and varies based on your destination. W

A number of chain businesses in the United States offer discounts or free food and drink for customers in honor of their birthday. In order to redeem an offer for a free meal or beverage, you will need to register for an email list or download an app. This is a minor inconvenience for what is, in some cases, quite a worthwhile treat! Here are some birthday freebies that I have taken advantage of recently: Denny's After registering to receive emails from Denny's, you will receive an offer to a free Grand Slam breakfast. This meal can be customized from a list of breakfast menu items, including pancakes, toast, home fries, sausage, bacon, and eggs. This offer can be redeemed any time during your birthday month - you won't miss out if you have other plans for your special day. Once you are part of the email club, you also receive 20% off all future meals at Denny's, which sounds like a great deal if that is one of your regular haunts. Dunkin If you have the Dunkin

This is part six of my six-part series on how to save money while planning a wedding. Traditional wedding invitations were more elaborate than our modern equivalents and were often sent to a calligrapher for addressing and adding the names of individual guests. Now, invitations can be simpler and may or may not contain all of the components of traditional wedding invitations, as follows: Response cards with meal choices Self-addressed and stamped envelopes for guests to return the response cards Registry information cards ( Emily Post shudders at the idea of including registry details on invitations themselves) Directions to the ceremony and/or reception venues Lodging information for guests The invitations themselves The invitation itself There are many more options nowadays than calling a print shop and paying an arm and a leg per invitation, then forking over more money to the calligrapher on top of paying for postage. Print Them Yourself This is the most f

This post is part five of my six-part series on saving money while planning a wedding. When I was researching bridal hair and makeup looks for my wedding day, I experienced some serious sticker shock. Salons, stylists, and makeup artists generally have special wedding rates that they charge in order to reflect the amount of work that goes into a more elaborate look that must hold all day and look as flawless as possible. At least, in theory. Even the simplest looks will not be discounted, and you may not receive a discount for providing your own makeup as most of the cost is associated with the artist's labor. And these costs can add up, making budgeting challenging for a frugal couple. According to Zola , the average cost of wedding hair and makeup is $300, but you may be expected to foot the bill for your bridal party. While the makeup and hairstyles for your bridesmaids are less elaborate (and therefore less expensive), covering up the cost of multiple makeovers can be a