DIY Archives - Frugal Fritzie

11 Healthy Ways to Jazz Up Your Coffee

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June 1, 2019 by Fritzie

If you are looking for a few healthy ways to jazz up your coffee, then I have a list of several ideas. I love drinking coffee, but I admit I get a bit bored with just plain black coffee every single day, day in, day out. There are so many wonderful spices and natural sweeteners out there, so I thought why not use them to add some excitement to coffee, right?! It is an easy way get a fix for a “fancy coffee” without having to fork over big bucks at one of those fancy coffee places all the time. It just goes against every frugal fiber of my being to pay 5 bucks for a cup of coffee. This way, I can satisfy my urge for something different without having to spend much doing so. Anyway, for those days that a plain jane cup of joe just won’t do, here are several healthy (and frugal) ways to flavor your coffee.

1. Cocoa. Add 1 teaspoon of all natural unsweetened baking cocoa and 1 packet of powdered stevia, any brand. I like Pure Via Stevia. An alternative to stevia is monk fruit. I sometimes buy my baking cocoa at Aldi, which is very reasonably priced there. If you want to take it a step further, check out this Viva Naturals Certified Organic Cacao Powder, which gets great reviews and reasonably priced, especially for the amount you get.

2. Cinnamon. Add a cinnamon stick or a touch of ground cinnamon (about 1/2 teaspoon). I have found great deals on cinnamon sticks at a nearby natural foods store, it’s surprisingly quite a bit cheaper than at the grocery store. Or, if you go through a lot of ground cinnamon like I do, I find it cheaper to buy in bulk online. Starwest Organic Ground Cinnamon has been my favorite I have tried so far.

3. Stevia. Add a few drops of liquid flavored stevia like SweetLeaf Vanilla Creme like or Sweetleaf English Toffee. What I like about liquid stevia is that a little bit goes a really long way. So it may seem pricey for a small bottle, but it is very concentrated and lasts a super long time in my experience.

4. Peppermint. Add Peppermint Extract. NOTE: A tiny little bit goes a really long way, trust me on this, I have learned the hard way. LOL

5. AlmondMilk. Don’t like it sweet? Add Almond or Coconut Milk instead. You can typically find half gallons for around $3.00 at various stores and they stay fresh a long time in the refrigerator, quite a bit long than regular milk. My favorite is Silk Unsweetened Almond Milk.

6. Pumpkin Spice (which is generally a combination of nutmeg,cloves & other spices) Add Pumpkin Spice, Vanilla Extract and stevia for a robust, fall flavor.

7. Homemade Whipped Cream. It’s easier than you think! A super quick sugar-free whipped cream recipe: 1 cup of heavy whipping cream, 1 Tbs stevia, 1 tsp vanilla. Beat whipping cream with hand mixer until stiff, then add sweetener & vanilla. (Note: you can make it without any sweetener as well).

8. Cardamom. Add one cardamom pod or a pinch of ground cardamom. Cardamom is typically used in Turkish coffee and adds a nice, rich flavor.

9. Lemon or Orange. Add a slice of fresh lemon or orange for an energizing boost.

10. Coconut Oil. Add a teaspoon of coconut oil for a rich, sweet flavor. Stir it again once you’re about halfway through drinking it so it doesn’t settle at the top (ewww).

11. Ginger Root. Add a bit of ginger and a teaspoon of honey for a nice uplift.

Fun and Creative Easy To Make DIY Kids Halloween Costumes

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September 16, 2018 by Fritzie

Here is a fun list of easy to make diy kids Halloween costumes. This is a roundup of homemade Halloween costumes for kids of various ages and there are all sorts of cool ideas. All of the costumes are relatively easy to make and to put together, so this list will come in especially handy if you find yourself short on time and you would just rather make your own Halloween costume. I know I never seem to have enough time and am usually rushing about at the last minute on just about every holiday. Personally, I think it is super fun to see what kind of costume a person can come up with with whatever items they have around the house. I just love all of the fantastic ideas people have come up with for all sorts of creative kids costumes. It is simply amazing how far imagination can go, isn’t it?! 🙂

List of Easy To Make DIY Kids Halloween Costumes

Felt Monarch Butterfly Wings Tutorial from Buggy and Buddy.

Make a Paper Doll Costume from Instructables.

DIY Toy Army Soldier Costume from Wild Ink Press.

Easy to Make Homemade Lego Costume from Wine and Glue.

DIY Candy Box Halloween Costumes from MayDae.

Homemade Mermaid Costume from Mama.Papa.Bubba.

DIY Cookie Monster Costume from The Chirping Moms.

DIY Disney Frozen Elsa Costume from a Pumpkin and a Princess.

DIY Disney Frozen Olaf Costume with free templates from East Coast Mommy.

Last Minute Kids Owl Costume from Alpha Mom.

No Sew DIY Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Costume from Crafts by Courtney.

Lil’ Painter Costume from Delightful Order.

Last Minute Despicable Me Minion Costume from Make and Takes.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid DIY Halloween Costumes from Living Locurto.

Fun and Easy DIY Christmas Craft: Toblerone Penguins

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December 24, 2017 by Fritzie

Christmas Penguin Craft

Toblerone Penguins

Here is a cute Christmas craft that doesn’t involve a lot of work and that is fun to make as well. This is an easy craft that kids would enjoy putting together as well. I picked up several Toblerone bars at Walgreens while they were on sale. If you’ve never tried a Toblerone bar, you have been missing out. These scrumptious chocolate bars are one of my favorites and I always enjoy giving them out as stocking stuffers during the holiday season. Anyway, to add an extra special touch, I thought it would be fun to decorate them as a cute Christmas craft. That way they could be used to decorate for the holidays and then later opened and thoroughly enjoyed. YUM! 🙂 At first, I thought it would be cute to decorate them as a reindeer, but I couldn’t quite wrap my brain around how to do it with the material I had on hand, so I came up with the idea of these penguins instead . They turned out to be easy to decorate as well once I got started on them.

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Top 10 Cool Kitchen Gadgets You Never Knew You Couldn’t Live Without

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March 1, 2015 by Fritzie

Let me first start out by saying that I adore cool kitchen gadgets. I have wandered the kitchen gadget aisle at many a store and browsed online countless hours. Part of the criteria of being a cool kitchen gadget though means it absolutely MUST be useful and serve a purpose. A gadget is most definitely NOT cool no matter how snazzy it looks if it just hangs out in a junk drawer collecting dust and adding to unnecessary clutter. So, with that in mind, I set out to find the coolest (and useful) kitchen gadgets. You may or may not agree with everything on my list, so please feel free to share your favorite kitchen gadgets.

Top 10 Cool Kitchen Gadgets List

1. Zoodle Slicer – $12.99 Shipped. Ahh, the amazing Zoodle slicer, I have been seeing this gadget pop up everywhere lately. It is a simpler, more compact version of the more traditional Spiralizer. It Spirals all kinds of vegetables into long thin strands to use in vegetable pastas and various other dishes. I love the idea that it is just one smaller piece that can fit in your kitchen drawer rather than a big piece of equipment that takes up quite a bit of room. We don’t have a lot a space, so I found this Zoodle Slicer very appealing. Keep in mind you can also pick up very similar Vegetable Spiral Slicers starting at around $4 shipped from various others. I can’t say how well these cheaper versions work, but I think they would be worth a shot anyway.

2. Essential Home Baggy Rack – $5.99 + Free Store Pickup from Kmart. Need an extra hand when you’re breaking down your food into bags? This Baggy Rack from Jokari secures your baggy under the clips and pour leftovers and sauces right in. The slip-resistant rubber base keeps messes to a minimum so you can kick back and relax a little sooner.

3. Ball Herb Scissors – $9.99 from Kmart + Free Store Pickup. Cut your herbs, green onions and other items more quickly with these 5-blade stainless steel herb scissors. Includes a cleaning comb.

4. 5-Piece Good Cook Bamboo Tool Set – $9.79 from Target. Free Shipping on orders $25 or more. Or Free Shipping on any size orders + an extra 5% off using your Target RedCard. Bamboo is one of the strongest and renewable materials in the world. Bamboo won’t swell, split or absorb moisture. You will get years of use out of these fashionable kitchen tools. This set includes a Slotted Spoon, Slotted Spatula, Spoon, Spatula and a Slotted Turner.

5. Splash Cutting Board – $19.95 from Buy. I love that this practical cutting board has a tongue-in-cheek, abstract design. Dishwasher safe.

6. Underground Toys Doctor Who TARDIS Talking Cookie Jar – $29.99 from Kmart + Free store pickup. Ok, ok, this talking Tardis cookie jar may not be the most practical item, but it sure the heck is cool and I just couldn’t resist including it here. Open and close the lid to hear the TARDIS materialization sound and see the lamp light pulse on and off.

7. Farberware Tuna Squeeze – $8.90 Shipped. Drain tuna with this unique gadget. Simply place the open can in the receptacle and press down on the lid. Perfectly drained tuna in seconds without water or oils over your hands! Easy to pour container allows you to easily discard the liquid. I love this idea, I feel like a spend a whole lot of time slowly draining the water from many a can of tuna.

8. Natural Peanut Butter Mixer – $13.75 from Abe’s Market. If you buy a lot of natural butter products, then this gadget looks like a lifesaver. Made in the USA, Easy to Use, No Splashing of oil, Easy to Clean. Just screw Grandpa Witmer’s Natural Peanut Butter Mixer onto any standard 16 oz. peanut butter jar and crank its chrome-plated mixing rod. Oil is smoothly and effortlessly stirred back into your peanut butter. There’s even a gasket that wipes the rod as you remove it and a removable lid liner that make clean-up a snap.

9. Evriholder Avocado Saver – $6.09 from Casa. Save money, time and aggravation with this truly innovative gadget. The Avo Saver is easy to use and will reduce a cut avocado’s exposure to air, greatly slowing the destructive oxidization process.

10. CTA Tablet or iPad Paper Towel Holder – $28.27 from Walmart with Free store pickup. A handy gadget for viewing those delish blogger recipes online. Cleverly integrate your iPad or tablet into the kitchen and adjust it to any viewing angle, orientation or position you may need with CTA Digital’s Paper Towel Holder with Gooseneck Stand. This universal holder that securely fits the iPad Air, iPad 2, iPad (3rd-4th generation), iPad mini and most other 7-inch to 10-inch tablets. The gooseneck stand is also removable and can be replaced with a simple cap to use the paper towel holder by itself.

Finding Fritzie | 10 Ways to Get in a Better Mood…fast

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October 3, 2013 by Fritzie

get in a better mood

Get in a Better Mood

So, the last few days I have been feeling grouchy. And I mean really, really grouchy. Seriously, like someone needed to lock me up in a room and not let me be around people for a few days, it was that bad, yikes! It finally got to a point that I decided to find some quick ways to get in a better mood and start feeling human again. 😉 In the spirit Finding Fritzie, I wanted to share my feel-good tips with all of you. Here are 10 ways to turn that frown upside down in no time!

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Finding Fritzie | My Journey of Positive Change

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September 24, 2013 by Fritzie

finding fritzie

Hi everyone! I want to introduce you to my new “Finding Fritzie” series of posts. I have been on a journey of positive change this year and I thought it would be fun to share what I have learned so far. This will run the gamut, everything from my weight loss journey (I’ve lost over 50 pounds so far, yay!), getting rid of clutter (yes, I have a LOT), how to shop for healthy foods on a budget (and I have a VERY limited budget) and about learning new things in general. This new “Finding Fritzie” series will be about anything that falls in the category of learning new things, anything that helps me learn and grow along the way, which covers a whole heck of a lot. I feel like any new knowledge I gain will only help me discover myself, my “whole” self and I thought it would be fun to share the tips I learn with all of you along the way!

A Little Bit about My Journey So Far…

I have a confession to make. I’ve been pretty lousy when it comes to dealing with my feelings, in fact, I would say I pretty much sucked at it for a really long time. I have always been a “Stuffer”. When problems and issues popped up in my life, I just neatly stuffed them all away in my “mental closet” to deal with later. The thing about that closet though, is that much like my weight and the clutter in my life, it just kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger until it was just bursting to capacity. As I struggled over the last few years with various issues (including losing loved ones, dealing with the Joplin Tornado and it’s aftermath, financial struggles, etc), I continued to stuff all those emotions away in that closet. My health spiraled downward, my weight ballooned to an all-time high and so did the stress in my life. I just kept getting more & more depressed, but something inside of me finally said “Enough”. I came to a realization that I was worth more and that I was fully capable of making positive changes in my life. And I was long overdue to do so. It was time. It was time to stop selling myself short, it was time to find myself, it was time to start allowing good things to come into my life, it was time to give myself more time. Time to heal, time to grow, time to be a better person, time to get more out of life. It was just TIME!

Since I set about making positive changes in my life earlier this year, it’s been so very empowering as I make strides in my life. It’s amazing, even after a few short months, I am so much happier than when I first started this journey. I’ve always been a bit on the shy side, I’ve never really shared a whole heck of a lot and I thought this would be a great way to open up the conversation a little bit. There’s lots of different things I’d like to tackle, but have been afraid too, but now I’m open to them. It may be something as simple as how to pick out an eggplant at the grocery store or it may be tackling much bigger issues. That’s the great thing about this journey that I am on, there is no particular destination. The focus is on the journey itself. So, please, come join me. And if there’s something you like to share or something new you’d like to learn, feel free to leave a comment, I’m happy to tackle just about any topic. And by the way, I just want to take a moment to thank my readers. Some days can just flat out be a struggle and inevitably on one of those really tough days, I will get an email or a message from a reader letting me know how much they appreciate my site. I can’t tell you how much that means to me except simply, that it means that world to me. I love you all and it is my hope that my new “Finding Fritzie” posts will be helpful to some of you as well.

Anyway, stay tuned for my Finding Fritzie posts, where I detail my successes and my mishaps along my journey to become a more complete person and to live a better, happier life!

Kitchen Sink Fix: He actually thought this was a good idea…

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October 25, 2012 by Fritzie

(Before)

(After)

So, I have this totally disgusting old kitchen sink, that no matter what I clean it with it still look nasty. I’ve tried an endless number of things and scrubbed until my fingers were raw. On different occasions I’ve tried vinegar, bleach, Greased Lightning, Ajax, Magic Eraser, various other household cleaners, baking powder and toothpaste. It did eventually look a little better after I experimented with all of these different methods, but it’s still just not good enough. The molding behind the faucet is especially stubborn. If anybody has any ideas, I would LOVE to hear them, because I am fresh out. LOL

Anyway, to the funny part. So, my dh John is always getting these ideas on how to “improve” things around the house. As long as I have known him, he has always had this urge to modify everything he gets his hands on and “make it better”. Now, I have to say that some of his ideas are really awesome and it’s one of the many things I love about him. But, on occasion, a few of his ideas are, well, just plain wacky. And this one REALLY takes the cake! I guess John got tired of listening to me grumbling about the sink, because I walked in and was greeted with this sight:

Yes, that is a paper towel with a hair band wrapped around it. So, my first thought was Whhhhaaaaaat on earth?!?! And then I just started uncontrollably giggling and it was a reallllly long time before I stopped. 😆 Oh, and by the way, John is still convinced this is a marvelous invention, he has explained it to me at least a half a dozen times and to him it makes perfect sense. One of his explanations went something like thus: “It is perfect, you don’t have to worry about getting the knob dirty, like say you’re cooking something greasy in the kitchen, you don’t have to worry about getting everything dirty and then you can just replace the paper towel when you’re done!” My response was basically “There is NO way that thing is staying on!” *Snort*

It was at this point that I kinda felt like we were on 2 different planets, because he thought I was crazy for not liking it and I thought he was nuts for coming up with the idea in the first place. In the end, we just agreed to disagree on this “invention” of his and needless to say, it is history. 😉 Do you have a fixer upper in your household are do you like to make improvements yourself? If so, I’d love to hear about it.