I am in 'use what is here' mode right now, mainly just to challenge myself. I mean, we are setting back about half of our grocery budget every month, so it's not like I couldn't go out and buy 'whatever', but I like the idea of holding onto the money. Plus, I have a friend whose parents raise cattle, so I'm doing two things - saving for some good beef and trying to make room in the freezer.
Produce and fresh stuff-wise, we have asparagus coming in from our asparagus patch and green onions and chives from the herb garden. From the store there are some apples, watermelon, zucchini, cabbage, leaf lettuce (a little), celery, onion, potatoes, carrots, radishes, cilantro, and an avocado. The pantry and freezer are still full of variety, so I think we will be just fine. I'm not going to bore you with breakfast or lunch plans, which is just another way of saying, 'I don't really have specific breakfast or lunch plans', lol. Lunch is either leftovers or something simple, and I think I'll make some bran muffins or a coffee cake to round out some breakfasts. And actually, I do have plans to make some breakfast sandwiches that Husband can warm up for a quick and easy breakfast - those are English muffins, lean ham, eggs and cheese.
Anyway, here are some things for supper:
grilled chicken, black bean/corn/tomato salad, rice
tacos made with leftovers from grilled chicken night, shredded lettuce, cheese, sour cream, radishes, etc. guacamole with chips
petite sirloins on the grill, baked potatoes w/sour cream and chives, garden salad, grilled asparagus
turkey-vegetable soup, biscuits
spaghetti w/meat sauce, zucchini with onions
grilled teriyaki beef, rice, macaroni salad, kimchee, asparagus
turkey lo mein, bean sprout salad, kimchee
Grocery list: tortilla chips, bean sprouts, leaf lettuce, a tomato
Monday, May 20, 2013
Friday, May 17, 2013
Frugal Accomplishments
Hello, dear friends! I am sharing these 'frugality posts' in the hopes that we can all glean ideas from one another. Here are some things we did this week to save:
I cashed in some free points that Kmart gave me to get a couple of magic eraser type sponges and a Swiffer type duster. Zero out of pocket - I hope they work well! (I've since tried the duster and I like it.) Later in the week, they put another $3 in free points on my card, and since we were in town for Daughter's end of year writing assessment for school, we stopped by. For about 30 cents we got 13 packets of tropical punch Kool Aid mix (I had a buy 10/get 3 free coupon) and a six pack of petunias. I am mostly direct-seeding our flower pots, but if I put a petunia in the center of each big one, it will at least have something going on until the seedlings get going.
We used fresh basil and fresh parsley from Daughter's indoor herb garden. She has done a fantastic job of caring for the plants and they are thriving. Great job, Honey!
After extending much grace and patience to both the retailer and the manufacturer, we ended up returning our new pressure washer. The first one arrived with three separate forms of damage. It was returned, and the second arrived with one very broken part. I have to admire Husband's dedication to follow up with them at each step, despite the lack of responses from them. In the end, the retailer did offer him a $40 gift card as a form of apology for all the hassle and time wasted. I think that, for this year, we are going to rent one and then see if we think it's something to own, or something to just rent from time to time. If you have suggestions, I'd love to hear them - thanks!
I used a JCP code I saw on Money Saving Mom to order a 3-pack of socks for Husband. They are free, with free delivery to the store, which is near an area where we do errands.
I have found some real treasures at the library lately - books that I am really enjoying. I love our library, and it saves me so much money! (heart heart heart!)
We have some bunnies that are about 4 weeks old. They are eating pellets some, but they are wasting a lot of them - little stinkers! I stuck a box under the pellet feeder to catch the waste so I can put it back into the feeder each morning.
Husband made snacks for his lunches from items we had in our pantry. He made a batch of chex mix and some shrimp-flavored chips (they are something we brought home from vacation). Yay, Hubby!
My family took me out for brunch for Mother's Day. We used a Groupon for a local Mom and Pop type restaurant. Good food, good prices, nice people - it was lovely! Afterward we went to Goodwill on the way home and I used my 20% off Mother's Day discount to pick out a few items. More on some of that soon!
I picked asparagus and chives from our garden. Then, I picked more asparagus. We had it Thursday night with supper and it was delicious!
While some of you are already harvesting 'summer' things from the garden, we are just preparing to plant the annual items. We got two or the three beds tilled (the third bed will have to wait until we are able to relocate the ducks) and we fertilized them with homemade compost and rabbit manure. Both of these help to enrich our soil quite well.
This week we were able to plant some lettuces, spinach, kale, collards, carrots, peas and radishes. I also started tomatoes, pumpkins and zucchini indoors. I don't want them in the house too long or the cat will eat them, but I'm hoping to get them a bit of a start. :)
We are also preparing for some summertime projects. We want to put in a proper gravel driveway and also do some dirt work around the house and garage for proper drainage. We will do as much as we can ourselves, but we have also learned that there are times when it saves money to have someone run equipment who knows what he or she is doing.
From there, we will be able to do some actual landscaping. So far we have pulled up some fence posts that were in the way for the driveway, and we also removed the unsightly T-posts and barbed wire that have been across the front of our yard for the entire time we have lived here. Just having that gone makes it look nicer, but eventually, we plan to put up something else. We will research to find what we like and what we can afford. We will do as much of the work ourselves as we can. If you live by me, yes, I think this might actually be the year that we finally cut down that dead elm tree in the front yard. Sorry.
Several freebies came this week - a tote bag, a coupon for a free bag of Doritos Locos Tacos, some waterproof Nexcare bandages with a coupon and a magazine. Another day I got a coupon in the mail for a free 20oz. Coke product. I signed up for a thing or two this week as well. Kohl's sent me another of their $10 promotional cards ($10 off a purchase of $10 or more) and I got two bath towels for the master bath and a hand towel for Daughter's bathroom. (Tip - hand towels in darker colors will look nice longer than light colored ones - especially for kids. She liked the yellow, but agreed that the deep purple one will look nice longer.)
We have stayed home more - fewer appointments and gatherings and meetings and such - and life has felt more calm and sane and nice. It also saves some on fuel, but the biggest benefit I'm seeing at the moment is peace of mind.
I took a couple surveys and made another $6.
I cleaned out the wood stove fairly well, because I think that maybe, just maybe, we are done using it for this year. We have a fair amount of firewood remaining, but we will start collecting more, now that warm weather has arrived. It's nice to open the windows for fresh air again. :)
I submitted $24 in Staples Easy Rebates, making some copy paper and some photo paper free, once those checks arrive.
I refilled the soap dispensers for hand-washing - two are foaming soap now (even more frugal than the standard pump dispensers) so they get a little shampoo, mostly water. The other two get diluted shampoo. The shampoo is all gotten either free or very low price with coupons in the past.
Mid-week, I did some grocery shopping and Husband stopped at the bread outlet, because it's on his way home from work. We used $5.25 in coupons, and price matching saved me a fair amount too, plus I didn't have to spend the time or the fuel driving all over the place. I mostly got sale items, items that were a deal with coupons, and a couple of requests and staple items. I think Wednesday is going to be my main shopping day, and then on Fridays, I can fill in if there is something in 'the city' that we need, since I have an appointment in 'the city' on Fridays.
Friends came over for a visit on Thursday afternoon. They brought us a pound of ground beef to try (we may be ordering a beef quarter through them in the future) and also brought some fruit and baked goods to share for 'tea'. I made some tea and brewed chocolate and we had a lovely afternoon tea and lots of nice visiting. Grapes were left here too - what a treat! I sent them home with some eggs from our little hens.
On Thursday (when we were in town for Daughter's assessment) we went to a Goodwill I don't usually go to, and found some things that made me extremely happy to have stopped in. I had a 20% off coupon too - hooray! I spent some of my allowance money for the items I purchased.
Room for Improvement:
I think I've figured something out. I usually do without some produce items until I can get them growing in my garden. Spinach is a good example. I've never really purchased fresh spinach, until lately. I'm learning that grocery store spinach doesn't last nearly as long as spinach I grow and pick in my back yard. So...the ducks and chickens got some iffy-looking spinach leaves one day this week. See, I used almost all of it making some sesame spinach for supper one night, then I saved some to make a frittata. Some of it was fine, but some of it was getting a little yellowed. Live and learn.
I took a homemade zucchini bread loaf from the freezer, and it was dry from the beginning. I kept thinking I could maybe make some sort of bread pudding out of it, or toast the slices and butter them, but in the end, I decided to just feed it to the chickens and ducks. At least it didn't sit until it was moldy and end up in the compost bin.
I cashed in some free points that Kmart gave me to get a couple of magic eraser type sponges and a Swiffer type duster. Zero out of pocket - I hope they work well! (I've since tried the duster and I like it.) Later in the week, they put another $3 in free points on my card, and since we were in town for Daughter's end of year writing assessment for school, we stopped by. For about 30 cents we got 13 packets of tropical punch Kool Aid mix (I had a buy 10/get 3 free coupon) and a six pack of petunias. I am mostly direct-seeding our flower pots, but if I put a petunia in the center of each big one, it will at least have something going on until the seedlings get going.
We used fresh basil and fresh parsley from Daughter's indoor herb garden. She has done a fantastic job of caring for the plants and they are thriving. Great job, Honey!
After extending much grace and patience to both the retailer and the manufacturer, we ended up returning our new pressure washer. The first one arrived with three separate forms of damage. It was returned, and the second arrived with one very broken part. I have to admire Husband's dedication to follow up with them at each step, despite the lack of responses from them. In the end, the retailer did offer him a $40 gift card as a form of apology for all the hassle and time wasted. I think that, for this year, we are going to rent one and then see if we think it's something to own, or something to just rent from time to time. If you have suggestions, I'd love to hear them - thanks!
I used a JCP code I saw on Money Saving Mom to order a 3-pack of socks for Husband. They are free, with free delivery to the store, which is near an area where we do errands.
I have found some real treasures at the library lately - books that I am really enjoying. I love our library, and it saves me so much money! (heart heart heart!)
We have some bunnies that are about 4 weeks old. They are eating pellets some, but they are wasting a lot of them - little stinkers! I stuck a box under the pellet feeder to catch the waste so I can put it back into the feeder each morning.
Husband made snacks for his lunches from items we had in our pantry. He made a batch of chex mix and some shrimp-flavored chips (they are something we brought home from vacation). Yay, Hubby!
My family took me out for brunch for Mother's Day. We used a Groupon for a local Mom and Pop type restaurant. Good food, good prices, nice people - it was lovely! Afterward we went to Goodwill on the way home and I used my 20% off Mother's Day discount to pick out a few items. More on some of that soon!
I picked asparagus and chives from our garden. Then, I picked more asparagus. We had it Thursday night with supper and it was delicious!
While some of you are already harvesting 'summer' things from the garden, we are just preparing to plant the annual items. We got two or the three beds tilled (the third bed will have to wait until we are able to relocate the ducks) and we fertilized them with homemade compost and rabbit manure. Both of these help to enrich our soil quite well.
This week we were able to plant some lettuces, spinach, kale, collards, carrots, peas and radishes. I also started tomatoes, pumpkins and zucchini indoors. I don't want them in the house too long or the cat will eat them, but I'm hoping to get them a bit of a start. :)
We are also preparing for some summertime projects. We want to put in a proper gravel driveway and also do some dirt work around the house and garage for proper drainage. We will do as much as we can ourselves, but we have also learned that there are times when it saves money to have someone run equipment who knows what he or she is doing.
From there, we will be able to do some actual landscaping. So far we have pulled up some fence posts that were in the way for the driveway, and we also removed the unsightly T-posts and barbed wire that have been across the front of our yard for the entire time we have lived here. Just having that gone makes it look nicer, but eventually, we plan to put up something else. We will research to find what we like and what we can afford. We will do as much of the work ourselves as we can. If you live by me, yes, I think this might actually be the year that we finally cut down that dead elm tree in the front yard. Sorry.
Several freebies came this week - a tote bag, a coupon for a free bag of Doritos Locos Tacos, some waterproof Nexcare bandages with a coupon and a magazine. Another day I got a coupon in the mail for a free 20oz. Coke product. I signed up for a thing or two this week as well. Kohl's sent me another of their $10 promotional cards ($10 off a purchase of $10 or more) and I got two bath towels for the master bath and a hand towel for Daughter's bathroom. (Tip - hand towels in darker colors will look nice longer than light colored ones - especially for kids. She liked the yellow, but agreed that the deep purple one will look nice longer.)
We have stayed home more - fewer appointments and gatherings and meetings and such - and life has felt more calm and sane and nice. It also saves some on fuel, but the biggest benefit I'm seeing at the moment is peace of mind.
I took a couple surveys and made another $6.
I cleaned out the wood stove fairly well, because I think that maybe, just maybe, we are done using it for this year. We have a fair amount of firewood remaining, but we will start collecting more, now that warm weather has arrived. It's nice to open the windows for fresh air again. :)
I submitted $24 in Staples Easy Rebates, making some copy paper and some photo paper free, once those checks arrive.
I refilled the soap dispensers for hand-washing - two are foaming soap now (even more frugal than the standard pump dispensers) so they get a little shampoo, mostly water. The other two get diluted shampoo. The shampoo is all gotten either free or very low price with coupons in the past.
Mid-week, I did some grocery shopping and Husband stopped at the bread outlet, because it's on his way home from work. We used $5.25 in coupons, and price matching saved me a fair amount too, plus I didn't have to spend the time or the fuel driving all over the place. I mostly got sale items, items that were a deal with coupons, and a couple of requests and staple items. I think Wednesday is going to be my main shopping day, and then on Fridays, I can fill in if there is something in 'the city' that we need, since I have an appointment in 'the city' on Fridays.
Friends came over for a visit on Thursday afternoon. They brought us a pound of ground beef to try (we may be ordering a beef quarter through them in the future) and also brought some fruit and baked goods to share for 'tea'. I made some tea and brewed chocolate and we had a lovely afternoon tea and lots of nice visiting. Grapes were left here too - what a treat! I sent them home with some eggs from our little hens.
On Thursday (when we were in town for Daughter's assessment) we went to a Goodwill I don't usually go to, and found some things that made me extremely happy to have stopped in. I had a 20% off coupon too - hooray! I spent some of my allowance money for the items I purchased.
Room for Improvement:
I think I've figured something out. I usually do without some produce items until I can get them growing in my garden. Spinach is a good example. I've never really purchased fresh spinach, until lately. I'm learning that grocery store spinach doesn't last nearly as long as spinach I grow and pick in my back yard. So...the ducks and chickens got some iffy-looking spinach leaves one day this week. See, I used almost all of it making some sesame spinach for supper one night, then I saved some to make a frittata. Some of it was fine, but some of it was getting a little yellowed. Live and learn.
I took a homemade zucchini bread loaf from the freezer, and it was dry from the beginning. I kept thinking I could maybe make some sort of bread pudding out of it, or toast the slices and butter them, but in the end, I decided to just feed it to the chickens and ducks. At least it didn't sit until it was moldy and end up in the compost bin.
Monday, May 13, 2013
Meals for the Week
Until May ends, I think I'm just posting supper, because there is just a lot going on. That said, we were watching some cooking show on PBS the other day, and I think I have to make 'egg in a hole' one day for breakfast, just for fun! Anyway...here are the supper plans, in no particular order:
BLT sandwiches
beans w/bacon soup
fresh fruit
bacon/cream cheese jalapeno poppers
taco salad
fresh fruit
beef stew curry
steamed rice
fresh fruit
roast turkey breast
stuffing
green beans
apple cobbler
stir fry w/mixed vegetables
rice (or maybe noodles, we'll see)
fresh fruit
potato/ham/spring vegetable frittata
toast
fruit salad
grilled bratwurst on buns
fries
pickles
fresh fruit
Yep, that's the plan. We have everything on hand for these meals with the exception of fresh fruit. I mean...we have some, but I'll need to pick up some more. If there are no good fresh fruit sales, we have plenty of home-canned peaches, pears, apples, applesauce and more, so we can make do.
What are you eating this week?
BLT sandwiches
beans w/bacon soup
fresh fruit
bacon/cream cheese jalapeno poppers
taco salad
fresh fruit
beef stew curry
steamed rice
fresh fruit
roast turkey breast
stuffing
green beans
apple cobbler
stir fry w/mixed vegetables
rice (or maybe noodles, we'll see)
fresh fruit
potato/ham/spring vegetable frittata
toast
fruit salad
grilled bratwurst on buns
fries
pickles
fresh fruit
Yep, that's the plan. We have everything on hand for these meals with the exception of fresh fruit. I mean...we have some, but I'll need to pick up some more. If there are no good fresh fruit sales, we have plenty of home-canned peaches, pears, apples, applesauce and more, so we can make do.
What are you eating this week?
Friday, May 10, 2013
Money Saving Methods (This Week in Frugality)
I have a standing appointment on Friday mornings in town, so it has turned into my town errand day. I used my $10 birthday certificate from World Market to get some Lindt chocolate (3 bars!), Chupa lollipops and a jar of capers. It was .46 out of pocket, and the treats will last us quite a while. The Chupas are really good, but they also last us a long, long time, which is nice! I admit, I'm kinda excited about the capers. It's one of those ingredients I can't really justify because I've never used them, but I have wanted to try them in a few recipes I've seen. Now, I can do just that!
I had lunch in town on Friday, at Noodles & Company. An acquaintance who works there had given us some coupons for free meals, so I used one of those. With the drink, it was just under $2 for a really tasty, filling meal. I picked up some apples and spinach that were on sale at Sprouts.
This week I used 8.70 in coupons for groceries. I used the Kmart gift card from a prescription transfer to get some dishwasher gel, and now they've put another $2 in credit on my rewards account.
My sweet family took me out for dinner last Saturday evening. It was really nice, because I had done a duck program that day, and knowing I wasn't going to have to cook made the afternoon relaxing. We went to Culvers, and Husband used a bogo coupon for burgers for Husband and I. I went in a different line and ordered a large fries and turned in a receipt from back in January that got Daughter a free scoop of ice cream. Daughter really doesn't like their burgers, but there is a McDonald's on the way, so we got her a McDouble at the drive-thru. I know that sounds kind of awful, but she is so much happier this way, and it makes the meal more pleasant for everyone. After Hubs and I had eaten, I used my birthday coupon for a free single scoop sundae. For $7.55 total (including tax), we got two double burgers, one McDouble, a large fries that we all shared, water to drink and two ice cream treats that we all shared. Lots of good junky food, lol, for about $2.50 each.
King Sooper sent me some 'valued customer' coupons. One was for a free Tombstone pizza. I also loaded coupons on my and Husband's cards for free Simply Right energy bars (single ones). The other coupons we used are in the total above.
I got some free samples in the mail this week - 3 lipton tea bags and some suave shampoo and conditioner. I also received two books in the mail - one was a birthday gift and I won the other book in a blog giveaway. Nice!
We used a coupon at Staples to get a free ream of copy paper (free after rebate). I will take it to church for church office use.
This week at Goodwill I got two pair of pants for $2 each. They are nice enough to wear to church or for a library program, but they are a twill fabric that I can also use for yard work and such once they are more worn. We also picked up some jigsaw puzzles for my tote for church and one by the bed.
I continue to load the snack basket as needed, and I'm liking it more and more all the time for the convenience and simplicity it brings. I cooked extra of supper each night to use for lunches for us at home and for Husband at work. It saves money and time.
The weather has gotten more spring-like (it hasn't snowed in days!) so we're back to mudding the drywall in the garage. I am horrible at this. It's good to learn this now, because for sure, whenever we get around to finishing the basement, someone else needs to do the drywall. Oddly enough, my inside corners aren't bad. The rest of it is a hot mess, though. There will be much sanding.
Husband did some printer investigation and figured out that our factory refilled/recycled ink cartridges have very, very old dates on them, and he thinks they were never re-set when they were re-filled...and he's pretty sure that is why the printer has been acting up. Even when it was working OK, we were not getting great results with the cheap ink, so we've decided to bite the bullet and get the name brand ink that we're supposed to use in the poor thing. He used Swagbucks to pay for the ink, because he's awesome like that.
One evening after supper I transplanted my overgrown, leggy-looking jade plant to a deeper container, and it looks a lot better. I also potted some cuttings from it, and took a few more cuttings to shape it better. This started out as one jade plant that I got half price at Walgreens (I think it was $2.50) and now I have 5 pots with jade in them, plus some cuttings rooting in water. I also took a couple of cuttings from the Wandering Jew that I got for .75 on clearance. With a little care, it has flourished. I love plants that actually want to grow for me. :)
I took the bottoms from the green onions I've been saving and planted them in the cold frame. I've done this before and they generally root and grow well for me. I have several bunches planted in the yard, but the wild rabbits keep eating them, poor things.
This one doesn't necessarily save us money because we wouldn't buy these at the restaurant, but they are convenient, and inexpensive to make. If you are picking up McBreakfast, this might save you some money. I took some half price English muffins (.75 for six), some turkey cold cuts for some (spam for the others) bought in markdown, eggs from our hens and American cheese and made breakfast sandwiches. I estimate the cost for each one at about 40 cents, since our eggs are free and the other ingredients were all purchased on sale.
This week I made those breakfast sandwiches, hummus, kidney bean salad, marinated 3-bean salad, bean sprout salad, kimchee, sesame spinach, herbed pasta and guacamole. Some of that wasn't on the menu at the beginning of the week, but it all worked out for lunches and snacks. :)
I got my free birthday treat from Sonic. Free.
We read library books, listened to library music and the radio, and watched library movies. However, the weather is warming up, so we are outside more, doing outside things like playing, reading library books in the hammock or at the picnic table, and petting/taming the new baby bunnies.
My sweet Husband got me some brewing chocolate for my birthday. I learned that you can use the already brewed grounds for cooking, baking, eating. I baked some into homemade brownies a while back, and soon I plan to try them in smoothies and energy bites. I like the zero waste part of it all very, very much.
We have a clothing budget, and I used some of it this week. Walmart had a lot of girls clothing on clearance. I was able to get Daughter a jacket and a night gown for $3 each, and four shirts for $1 each. Two of the shirts are identical 'BFF' shirts, so one is for our next-door neighbor - they are BFF's!! The prices for clearance clothes were actually less than the standard prices for children's clothing at Goodwill, so I was glad to find some things that fit her. Some are for now, some for next fall.
Room for Improvement:
I feel live I've lived in the car/truck this week. I had an appointment (and some errands) one day, the next I had a library program, and we went to town as a family to do some things that afternoon. Another day I had to go get a rabbit, I worked at a library for a couple hours another day, we had a parent-to-parent info session yet another day - it was a lot of running around. Every day was legit in the sense that we needed to do those things on those days, but it really made me see how much better I had gotten at staying home more during the week.
Related to the first one, I now know that the more we are at home, the more we accomplish. Your mileage may vary, but I can really see a difference.
The price of bread really seems to be going up in our area - even at the outlet stores. I am going to make an effort to make more of our breadstuffs at home. We really prefer the light/thin slice bread for sandwiches, and I can get a 20oz. loaf of that for .99. I can get hamburger/hot dog buns for about .40 a package, so for now I want to focus my efforts on things like breadsticks/French bread, English muffins or English muffin bread, pre-baked pizza crusts and possibly flat bread or tortillas.
I had lunch in town on Friday, at Noodles & Company. An acquaintance who works there had given us some coupons for free meals, so I used one of those. With the drink, it was just under $2 for a really tasty, filling meal. I picked up some apples and spinach that were on sale at Sprouts.
This week I used 8.70 in coupons for groceries. I used the Kmart gift card from a prescription transfer to get some dishwasher gel, and now they've put another $2 in credit on my rewards account.
My sweet family took me out for dinner last Saturday evening. It was really nice, because I had done a duck program that day, and knowing I wasn't going to have to cook made the afternoon relaxing. We went to Culvers, and Husband used a bogo coupon for burgers for Husband and I. I went in a different line and ordered a large fries and turned in a receipt from back in January that got Daughter a free scoop of ice cream. Daughter really doesn't like their burgers, but there is a McDonald's on the way, so we got her a McDouble at the drive-thru. I know that sounds kind of awful, but she is so much happier this way, and it makes the meal more pleasant for everyone. After Hubs and I had eaten, I used my birthday coupon for a free single scoop sundae. For $7.55 total (including tax), we got two double burgers, one McDouble, a large fries that we all shared, water to drink and two ice cream treats that we all shared. Lots of good junky food, lol, for about $2.50 each.
King Sooper sent me some 'valued customer' coupons. One was for a free Tombstone pizza. I also loaded coupons on my and Husband's cards for free Simply Right energy bars (single ones). The other coupons we used are in the total above.
I got some free samples in the mail this week - 3 lipton tea bags and some suave shampoo and conditioner. I also received two books in the mail - one was a birthday gift and I won the other book in a blog giveaway. Nice!
We used a coupon at Staples to get a free ream of copy paper (free after rebate). I will take it to church for church office use.
This week at Goodwill I got two pair of pants for $2 each. They are nice enough to wear to church or for a library program, but they are a twill fabric that I can also use for yard work and such once they are more worn. We also picked up some jigsaw puzzles for my tote for church and one by the bed.
I continue to load the snack basket as needed, and I'm liking it more and more all the time for the convenience and simplicity it brings. I cooked extra of supper each night to use for lunches for us at home and for Husband at work. It saves money and time.
The weather has gotten more spring-like (it hasn't snowed in days!) so we're back to mudding the drywall in the garage. I am horrible at this. It's good to learn this now, because for sure, whenever we get around to finishing the basement, someone else needs to do the drywall. Oddly enough, my inside corners aren't bad. The rest of it is a hot mess, though. There will be much sanding.
Husband did some printer investigation and figured out that our factory refilled/recycled ink cartridges have very, very old dates on them, and he thinks they were never re-set when they were re-filled...and he's pretty sure that is why the printer has been acting up. Even when it was working OK, we were not getting great results with the cheap ink, so we've decided to bite the bullet and get the name brand ink that we're supposed to use in the poor thing. He used Swagbucks to pay for the ink, because he's awesome like that.
One evening after supper I transplanted my overgrown, leggy-looking jade plant to a deeper container, and it looks a lot better. I also potted some cuttings from it, and took a few more cuttings to shape it better. This started out as one jade plant that I got half price at Walgreens (I think it was $2.50) and now I have 5 pots with jade in them, plus some cuttings rooting in water. I also took a couple of cuttings from the Wandering Jew that I got for .75 on clearance. With a little care, it has flourished. I love plants that actually want to grow for me. :)
I took the bottoms from the green onions I've been saving and planted them in the cold frame. I've done this before and they generally root and grow well for me. I have several bunches planted in the yard, but the wild rabbits keep eating them, poor things.
This one doesn't necessarily save us money because we wouldn't buy these at the restaurant, but they are convenient, and inexpensive to make. If you are picking up McBreakfast, this might save you some money. I took some half price English muffins (.75 for six), some turkey cold cuts for some (spam for the others) bought in markdown, eggs from our hens and American cheese and made breakfast sandwiches. I estimate the cost for each one at about 40 cents, since our eggs are free and the other ingredients were all purchased on sale.
This week I made those breakfast sandwiches, hummus, kidney bean salad, marinated 3-bean salad, bean sprout salad, kimchee, sesame spinach, herbed pasta and guacamole. Some of that wasn't on the menu at the beginning of the week, but it all worked out for lunches and snacks. :)
I got my free birthday treat from Sonic. Free.
We read library books, listened to library music and the radio, and watched library movies. However, the weather is warming up, so we are outside more, doing outside things like playing, reading library books in the hammock or at the picnic table, and petting/taming the new baby bunnies.
My sweet Husband got me some brewing chocolate for my birthday. I learned that you can use the already brewed grounds for cooking, baking, eating. I baked some into homemade brownies a while back, and soon I plan to try them in smoothies and energy bites. I like the zero waste part of it all very, very much.
We have a clothing budget, and I used some of it this week. Walmart had a lot of girls clothing on clearance. I was able to get Daughter a jacket and a night gown for $3 each, and four shirts for $1 each. Two of the shirts are identical 'BFF' shirts, so one is for our next-door neighbor - they are BFF's!! The prices for clearance clothes were actually less than the standard prices for children's clothing at Goodwill, so I was glad to find some things that fit her. Some are for now, some for next fall.
Room for Improvement:
I feel live I've lived in the car/truck this week. I had an appointment (and some errands) one day, the next I had a library program, and we went to town as a family to do some things that afternoon. Another day I had to go get a rabbit, I worked at a library for a couple hours another day, we had a parent-to-parent info session yet another day - it was a lot of running around. Every day was legit in the sense that we needed to do those things on those days, but it really made me see how much better I had gotten at staying home more during the week.
Related to the first one, I now know that the more we are at home, the more we accomplish. Your mileage may vary, but I can really see a difference.
The price of bread really seems to be going up in our area - even at the outlet stores. I am going to make an effort to make more of our breadstuffs at home. We really prefer the light/thin slice bread for sandwiches, and I can get a 20oz. loaf of that for .99. I can get hamburger/hot dog buns for about .40 a package, so for now I want to focus my efforts on things like breadsticks/French bread, English muffins or English muffin bread, pre-baked pizza crusts and possibly flat bread or tortillas.
Monday, May 6, 2013
Supper This Week
Hi, y'all.
I am much overwhelmed right now with library programs, subbing at the library, scoring standardized test essays, and trying to keep us in meals and clean laundry. For all those reasons and more, I'm just going to post our suppers for the week. Our breakfasts are pretty standard, same old same old, and our lunches are usually leftovers from the day before anyway. Heck, I'm probably just saving you from some boring reading! :)
There were some great deals this week on produce - jalapenos for .79 a pound, broccoli for .99 a pound, spinach for .99 for a big bunch, tomatoes for .84 a pound, zucchini for .99 a pound, celery for .88 a bunch, leaf lettuce for .88 a head, avocadoes and mangoes both 3/$1, apples for .99 a pound and bananas for .49 a pound. Milk is 1.99 a gallon, sour cream .99 for a pint and we even got a freebie or two.
This is the plan for suppers for this week, not necessarily in this order:
pan-fried ham slices, macaroni and cheese, steamed broccoli, banana pudding
marinated grilled chicken, rice, sesame spinach, marinated 3-bean salad, mangoes
tuna salad sandwiches, fries, pickles, carrots & celery, apples
grilled petite sirloin, grilled zucchini, garlic butter noodles w/fresh parsley, banana pudding
pizza hut pizza (with free birthday breadsticks), garden salad, apples
'everything' burritos, guacamole and salsa with chips, mangoes
saimin soup with meat and vegetables, fruit salad
What's on the menu at your house this week?
I am much overwhelmed right now with library programs, subbing at the library, scoring standardized test essays, and trying to keep us in meals and clean laundry. For all those reasons and more, I'm just going to post our suppers for the week. Our breakfasts are pretty standard, same old same old, and our lunches are usually leftovers from the day before anyway. Heck, I'm probably just saving you from some boring reading! :)
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| This is just some of the produce we picked up this week. Total for all this was just over $7! |
There were some great deals this week on produce - jalapenos for .79 a pound, broccoli for .99 a pound, spinach for .99 for a big bunch, tomatoes for .84 a pound, zucchini for .99 a pound, celery for .88 a bunch, leaf lettuce for .88 a head, avocadoes and mangoes both 3/$1, apples for .99 a pound and bananas for .49 a pound. Milk is 1.99 a gallon, sour cream .99 for a pint and we even got a freebie or two.
This is the plan for suppers for this week, not necessarily in this order:
pan-fried ham slices, macaroni and cheese, steamed broccoli, banana pudding
marinated grilled chicken, rice, sesame spinach, marinated 3-bean salad, mangoes
tuna salad sandwiches, fries, pickles, carrots & celery, apples
grilled petite sirloin, grilled zucchini, garlic butter noodles w/fresh parsley, banana pudding
pizza hut pizza (with free birthday breadsticks), garden salad, apples
'everything' burritos, guacamole and salsa with chips, mangoes
saimin soup with meat and vegetables, fruit salad
What's on the menu at your house this week?
Friday, May 3, 2013
Last Week in Frugality
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| We had another snowstorm this week. I am ready for flowers! |
Well, fiddlesticks. Earlier in the week, my computer insisted that it had to restart to complete some updates. Ever since, I've been having various issues. The one that most affects this moment in time is that, for whatever reason, when I select recently uploaded photos (which I had to upload with a work-around) to upload to this page, they don't ever upload. I had a few I wanted to share with you, but unless you come by the house and look at them on my laptop, I'm afraid it's just not going to happen. So, so sorry. :(....
Kohls mailed me a card/coupon that was good for $10 off any purchase of $10 or more. Women's socks were on sale, so I managed to get six pair of socks and some Godiva chocolate for 25 cents out of pocket. The socks are for me, when I need some (men's and children's were not on sale - I checked!) and we all shared the chocolate.
I've been wearing scarves more, to 'change up' my outfits. I have 3 different ones. I have had them a long time, but I recently rescued them from Daughter's dress-up bin. I'm enjoying the dressy feeling I get wearing them for church, trips to town, etc. I'm in the process of doing some decluttering, and I think this will help me have more variety without using a lot of space.
I cut Husband's hair - he looks so dapper!
I was able to get some sub hours at the library, and brought food/drinks from home. Then I got some more sub hours at the library - please see 'Room for Improvement'.
I used $12 in coupons (not counting that Kohls thing). Our printer is out of service right now, but I haven't really seen that many coupons I wanted to print anyway.
Husband took our $20 Staples rewards and got some printer paper, photo paper and some loose leaf rings that Daughter and I needed for a school thing and a memory verse thing. Both of the papers will be free after Easy Rebate, so this was a way to turn our rewards back into cash. The rewards were generated by dropping off used printer cartridges for recycling.
I've been reading some to reward myself for good behavior. Score some essays, read a chapter. Clean the bathroom, read a chapter - you get the idea. I get books from the library (free), along with music, DVD movies , Wii games and more.
I splurged at the library's used book sale. For $2 I got a couple of cookbooks. Magic Beans - 150 delicious recipes featuring, well, beans...and Best of the Best from Pennsylvania, which is chock full of Amish/Pennsylvania Dutch recipes. Since I'm reading a lot of Amish Christian Fiction right now, that one seems to be a good fit, plus it has at least 14 zucchini recipes in it, and I can always use more of those! I saw another book I was drawn to, but decided against it because I can just borrow something similar from the library.
Our library has a couple of bins in the entry with magazines and such that can be taken free of charge. I picked up a word-find book that's nearly blank, a couple of magazines, and a picture book that is all in Russian...I think. The illustrations are super cool - I'm going to use them to make greeting cards.
I saved the excess paper from internet coupons for making lists and jotting notes.
I went through my craft stuff and got out a sketch pad, pencils, etc., and have been spending a little time sketching or doodling. It's a good creativity break, and since I had the items on hand, it's no-cost.
I studied the fridge contents before I made the menu for the week, to make sure nothing in the crispers went to waste. I think it's a good practice to be creative with what we've got on hand, plus I hate to waste!
I potted some mint to use as a houseplant/indoor herb. I had the pot and soil and everything on hand.
I received a sample by mail - a Ruffies trash bag. I don't really buy trash bags (we just use the little plastic grocery store bags) so Husband is kind of happy about having this on hand, in case he needs a bigger bag for something. (We do have some other trash bags on hand, it's just that we hardly use them.) I also got a Purina One cat food sample, which came with a coupon for a free can of the wet cat food. Tallulah won't eat the canned stuff, so we will buy it and donate it to the kitty shelter. Later in the week there was a sample of a joint-health supplement in my mailbox, along with a coupon if we decide we're in love with it. :)
I signed Daughter up for the Pizza Hut Book-It program for next school year. It's free, and a fun incentive, even though she's already an avid reader.
Our printer is misbehaving and we are looking into replacing it. One of our main requirements is going to be affordable ink refills. If you have any tips in that regard, please share. Thanks! In the mean time, I can go to the library and print up to ten pages per day for free.
For scratch cooking, I made teriyaki marinade, macaroni salad, fried rice, lemon bars, fajita seasoning, pancakes and potato/vegetable soup this week. I also made baking powder to refill my baking powder tin. With the extra pancake batter, I made mini pancake sandwiches - two mini cakes with a filling between them. This time around I used chocolate chips, which melt when you put them between two warm mini-pancakes. I'll do a post on this frugal snack some time soon.
I also made a double-batch of the gel type laundry soap. I have a 4 gallon 'tidy cats' bucket on the dryer where I store it. Now, that's nice and full! It will last us until about Thanksgiving, and that's with me using the soap mixture for some other things too.
I earned $6 for taking a couple of surveys. Super yay!
When Daughter and I were out running a couple of quick errands, I stopped at the nearby liquor store and picked up some free boxes. I have two rabbits approaching kindle (birth) time, but only one nest box. I made a second nest box from one of the boxes, and used some cardboard from another box to line the original nest box, since we are now supposed to get yet another cold snap.
When I emptied the hole punch, Daughter got all excited. I am saving the 'holes' for some upcoming craft project.
We used our wood stove to heat again this week. We got a couple inches of snow (and cold temperatures) on May 1.
Because my birthday was this week, and because I signed up for a lot of those online birthday clubs, I received a lot of treat offers. A pastry at Panera, $10 to spend at World Market, a birthday cone from Baskin Robbins, a sundae at Culver's, a treat from Sonic, free breadsticks with our next order at Pizza Hut, $5 off a $25 at Amazon, a free entrée (with purchase of another) at Zio's, a coupon for Driscoll's berries...and they are still coming in. Most of them are good for the entire month or longer, so we will stretch them out over the next few trips to town.
Room for Improvement:
I picked up some library subbing on Sunday that was right after church service. Good in the sense that I was already halfway to the library, but rather than bring food from home I picked up lunch on the way. I spent my allowance money to do it, but it was a decision borne of laziness (OK, maybe tiredness) rather than actually wanting to go out. It cost a little over $3, so it wasn't so much the money as the attitude.
We grew some things that we thought were going to work as microgreens. It turns out that little mung bean plants are not nearly as appetizing as mung bean sprouts are. Same goes for alfalfa. Sprouts yes, plantlets no. The animals will receive a little each day as a treat until they are gone (we have chickens, ducks and rabbits). Not exactly wasted, but not exactly salad enhancers.
The sauerkraut I made grew some mold and it was squishy. I'm really sad about it, because it seemed to be doing well. It was a small monetary investment - about $1.25 and some salt - but I was just hopeful, you know? It went to the compost.
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
Cathy, You're a Winner, and a Choffy discount for everyone!
Our first winner never claimed her Choffy prize, so let's try this again! If your name is Cathy and you said:
My favorite chocolate item is any nut or fruit covered in chocolate. It has to be milk chocolate for me.
I would try the Ivory Coast. The think I like most about this is that I could have a chocolate "fix" using my French press and I can control the sugar in it. Being a diabetic, I have to watch the sugar intake.
I was looking for a consultant near me. I can't find one. Does the consultant need to be in my area or could Terra be my consultant?
...then please email me at tenthingsfarm@gmail.com so I can get you connected with Terra to claim your prize!
Secondly, Terra has offered us a Choffy discount! Terra says:
If you order and sign up for auto ship then I will give you a $5 rebate if you email me your customer number, address, and let me know you found out about my page from your TenThingsFarm. My email is choffyforyou@yahoo.com
Deliciousness for one and all! Hope to hear from you soon, Cathy. Say...by May 12? If not, I'll post a new winner on the 13th. Also, to answer Cathy's question above, your consultant does not have to be local to you - we can all order from Terra. :)
Best,
-Laura at TenThingsFarm
I would try the Ivory Coast. The think I like most about this is that I could have a chocolate "fix" using my French press and I can control the sugar in it. Being a diabetic, I have to watch the sugar intake.
I was looking for a consultant near me. I can't find one. Does the consultant need to be in my area or could Terra be my consultant?
...then please email me at tenthingsfarm@gmail.com so I can get you connected with Terra to claim your prize!
Secondly, Terra has offered us a Choffy discount! Terra says:
If you order and sign up for auto ship then I will give you a $5 rebate if you email me your customer number, address, and let me know you found out about my page from your TenThingsFarm. My email is choffyforyou@yahoo.com
Thanks!
-Terra
Best,
-Laura at TenThingsFarm
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