Frugal Friday Wrap Up 7/29/16

   I'm sorry I am so late getting this up.  We had a yard sale we were getting ready for, had said yard sale and then went camping for 3 days.  Lots of fun but I kind of unplugged and I have to say, it was much needed and wonderful!  Onto the savings from last week!:


~My hubby and I were in need of comfort food so I raided the freezer and found some elk burger in there along with some assorted chopped up peppers.  I got the burger browning, added some onions, the peppers and some seasonings to it.  I then added a can of stewed tomatoes, a can of spaghetti sauce and 2 cans of water to it.  Next went in half a package of noodles.  I simmered this cover for half an hour and them added a carton of low fat cottage cheese (I had some in the freezer and had thawed it a few days ago) to it and turned off the heat.  The cheese still melted in and oh my goodness was it good!
~I served the comfort food stove top casserole above with homemade biscuits.
~More shows were watched online.
~I harvested my first cucumber this year from our garden...it was so crisp and clean tasting. :)

~I made use of some of the free newspapers that I have here.  They make lovely cleaning rags for doing your windows. :)
~The ribbon for one of my dress blouses came out in the wash so I used a paperclip to help thread it back through the casing.
~My MIL treated my husband and I to lunch on Saturday.
~I found more Aloe Vera gel and more of the TheraFlu at the Dollar Tree.  I stocked up on both.  The TheraFlu retails for $6.99 at Walmart.  I want to be stocked up for the flu and cold season.
~My hubby and I settled in Saturday night, made some popcorn and watched the movie "Safe House"...one of my many great DVD thrift or library sale buys recently.
~Laundry was hung on the line to dry.

~Jeff dug up a raspberry plant that was out of the raspberry bed.  We are giving it to Jaysn and Rachel for the start of their raspberry patch at their home.
~My dear hubby worked on fixing a few more things for his parents.
~I reused a gift bag and tissue paper to wrap up a birthday gift for the youngest grandson.  He is getting his favorite fruit roll ups, a huge lollipop and a Penguins of Madagascar Antarctica Adventure DVD that I found awhile back at the Dollar store. :)

~Still getting things ready for our yard sale here.  I went through more of my dresser drawers and found even more things that I do not wear anymore.  I'll have Rachel go through and see if she wants any of it since they are coming over on Friday to bring some of their stuff to sell also.
~I was craving a salad for dinner on Sunday night but found that all the lettuce from our garden had gone bitter (time to tear it out and reseed in new lettuce).  I quickly took inventory of my refrigerator and found that I had some lovely broccoli so I made a quick broccoli salad just tossing things in that sounded like they would go together well. :)
~Monday Jeff and I went through all our CDs and DVDs.  We weeded out ones that we no longer enjoyed, watched or listened to.  These will be put in our yard sale on Saturday.
~The brakes on my car need to be replaced.  My hubby called around to get some estimates and one of the places that we trust was a full $250 cheaper than the other.  We are going to go with them.
~Our neighbors were in need of some of those electrical screw top things since they were installing a new dishwasher.  We live half an hour away from any hardware store.  Luckily my handy hubby had some here that we were able to give them. :)
~Tuesday I threw some venison steaks in the crockpot with some red wine and seasonings and let that cook all day.  Circumstances led to us eating in town later that evening, but we had the steaks on Wednesday night instead. :)

~Jeff had a doctor's appointment and we had to drive to another small town that is about 40 minutes away to go to it since that is where our doctor was that day.  While we were there, he asked if there was anything else he could do for either of us.  I asked about if I needed more blood work before I could get another refill on my thyroid meds.  Upon checking, he saw that I did so they did the blood draw right there and then.  Saved me another long drive and more gas used if I had to make a separate appointment just to get that done.
~The nurse at our doctor's office and I found out we had so much in common.  It was really funny and I felt like I made a new friend.  She blessed me by sharing how easy it was to pressure can meat and told me her trick to making it taste really good.
~Got some free chips with a coupon we had.
~We bought more medicated powder (same exact formulation as Gold Bond) at the Dollar Tree.  Our doctor recommended this for my hubby in addition to the other medication he prescribed.

~I watered in the early evening since out temperatures during the day at topping out around 100 F.  I don't want the plants stressed and getting burnt.
~I've been trying to work my points programs a lot more this week.  I have some of the auto run encraves (from Swagbucks) running in the background when I am writing or reading blogs.
~While shopping for some new dri fit shorts for my hubby (which we found for $6.89 each), we also ran across some sleeveless Summer shirts that were on clearance for $2 each.  We bought 2 of them to replace some that have seen better days here at home. ;)
~Wednesday we did out volunteer work and got lots of free groceries from that. :)  Some of the items were fresh blueberries, a cooked chicken from the deli department, dried cherries and cranberries, canned fruits and veggies, a huge bag of ciabatta rolls, fresh peaches, juice, peanut butter, coffee and many other wonderful blessings.

~I used one of the Tupperware containers that I bought recently as a change drawer for our upcoming yard sale.  It was the perfect size and the lid locks down tight on it.
~Someone donated more books to the library's book sale.  I was able to pick up the Anne of Avonlea and the Emily series (both by the same author) for .75 for each set.
~I borrowed more movies.  Our library will be closed all of next week so that will give us time to actually watch them before they are due back.  Some of the DVDs I borrowed were ones that I had borrowed before but never got around to watching.
~Bath and Body Works sent me some really wonderful coupons including one for a totally free (no purchase needed) product.  I love adding these to my gift closet and using them to make gift bags and baskets throughout the year.
~I had a bunch of bread that was turned into homemade croutons.  My hubby loves taking them to snack on like chips when he works at night.  We also use them on salads and as seasoned breadcrumbs.  They frequently find their way into homemade meatloaf too.

~While the oven was still hot from the crouton making session, I baked 2 packages of turkey bacon.  We will be taking these camping with us as part of breakfast one morning.
~We watched some TV shows online and also some YouTube videos.  I'm trying to learn some new skills and Youtube is a great place to find just about anything you may need a tutorial on.
~Thursday I made 3 regular sized loaves and 1 mini loaf of banana bread with some over-ripe bananas.  I sliced up the 3 loaves and put it aside to take camping this weekend.  The mini loaf was sliced up and eaten warm by my hubby and I. ;)
~We called our kids who are trying to start a family to see if they wanted some of the baby stuff that we still have in the garage.  Some they wanted and others.not so much. ;)  What they don't want is being sold at our yard sale.
~I used the stale water from the dog and cat's water dish to water some potted plants on the deck.  I then gave the dog and cat fresh water.

~Friday I was craving something decadent for breakfast.  I made myself a huckleberry pancake and ate it without syrup because those huckleberries were just packed with goodness!
~I made a pasta salad with things that I already hand on hand here at home.  I loaded it up with lots of fresh veggies and feta cheese.
~While I was cutting up the veggies for the pasta salad, I also cut up a bunch of carrot sticks.

     So there you have it.  The good, the bad and the ugly. ;)  We have several unexpected expenses coming up for this next week so I will have to be extra frugal!

Be blessed!