Frugal Friday Wrap Up 8/6-8/12 2016

      It has been another interesting week here.  After much trial and error, my hubby finally got all the right parts shipped to fix my car.  Yay hubby!  I am continuing to recover from that awful upper respiratory virus that turned out to be more than just a cold.  It has knocked the wind right out of my sails.  Due to not having much energy, I did not get to all I wanted to this week.  Onto the savings that did happen though...




~We had a flea beetle infestation that was devouring our side garden.  My hubby used the sprayer that Jaysn and Rachel gave us after the yard sale last week to hopefully kill those little produce thieves!
~I picked more apples on Saturday and made a crockpot full of applesauce.
~Jeff and I had leftovers for lunch on Saturday.
~My amazing cousin Jeremy picked up some of my favorite goat cheese from Trader Joe's for me since he was going up to Spokane.  He also surprised us with huge chocolate candy bars...yum!
~I sent Jeremy home with some "Boozy Berries" and apples from our tree.  He was thrilled!
~Jeremy's dog Mya sadly passed away last  Monday.  She was the sweetest dog and we will all miss her.  Jeremy brought over all of Mya's treats and food for Caesar.  Poor Caesar was so confused and kept looking for his girlfriend Mya. :(
~Sunday Heather and the grandboys came over and picked apples from our tree.  She also brought over the 2 huge bags of tortilla chips from Costco for us along with a box of nectarines that she picked up for me from a produce stand.  The whole box was $14...so cheap!

~Jeff and I watched several movies on dvd that we own during the weekend.  I had very little energy and watching movies was about all I could handle by Sunday.
~Sunday's dinner was baked potatoes (got a great sale on a 10 pound bag of potatoes) and fried Rockfish that Chris and Heather had caught on the coast and given to us previously.
~Since I was still sick over the weekend, we did not hit the town wide yard sales in the town near us.
~Jeff surprised me with a nice doughnut for breakfast one morning.  He is so sweet!
~Monday Jeff was able to borrow the big trailer from Uncle Bob to haul off the huge branch that came crashing down in the early hours of the morning out of our neighbor's tree and into our yard.
~I went online to our library's website and put in a request for several new movies to watch.
~Caesar and I took advantage of the cooler weather to take a walk down to the library and to the post office.  He loved being able to go out on a walk again and I came home completely worn out due to my cold/virus thingy, but I sure needed the exercise too.
~More TV shows were watched online throughout the week.
~The flea beetles had apparently spread to the front gardens so Jeff sprayed all the plants there too on Monday morning.
~I found a baby geranium plant growing in my large pot of basil.  I had reused some of the soil from the pot I had previously grown geraniums in so I am guessing it reseeded itself. :)  Cool!
~I pulled the last few pieces of plain cheesecake out of the freezer for a treat.  Jeff topped his with chocolate syrup and I topped mine with huckleberries that our kids had given us.  So good!
~Monday's garden harvest consisted of green beans and some tiny little sweet peppers along with more apples.
~I have been trying to be more diligent at working on my points programs.
~Jeff and I were in need of some deep pocketed queen sized fitted sheets.  I found a great deal on ebay (with a top rated seller) for entire sets of sheets for $24.95 with free shipping.  I ordered us a set.

~It rained late Monday night and into Tuesday so the rain barrel was refilled and the gardens got a heavy dose of moisture...much needed right now.  The farmers are not so thrilled though since they are right in the middle of harvest.
~I am trying to keep our menu this week limited to what we have in the freezer, refrigerator, garden and pantry for the most part.  All those parts for my car after hitting the deer and having to pay for new front brakes also (those have been needing to be done for awhile now) are taking a large chunk out of our budget.
~Monday I made 2 loaves of Cuban Bread.  I have not made it in years but it makes really good sandwich bread when done in a loaf pan.  It is also one of the most economical breads to make.  Given that I am really low on energy right now, I am baking double.  My breadmaker has been acting up so I am doing this the old fashioned way.  I do have another new breadmaker that I bought as a back up, so I will have to get that out and going here soon.
~The sesame seeds that I tried to sprinkle on top of my bread dough did not stick to the loaves after they were baked.  I kept the toasted seeds though to add to salads and oriental dishes.
~Tuesday night I lined a baking sheet with foil and then piled on some Sweet Italian Sausage links, a sliced up yellow pepper that needed to be used up ASAP, half an onion and drizzled that with some olive oil and the seasoned it with salt and pepper.  It baked at 400 F for 30 minutes.  While that was in the oven, I got some green beans from our garden snapped and then did a quick stir fry on them with some olive oil, salt and minced garlic.

~On Wednesday, when the new grocery ads came out, I looked at them online and made my list accordingly.  There were a few stock up items at rock bottom prices that I needed to pick up and add to our pantry.
~Since it rained on Tuesday night, I did not need to water the gardens on Wednesday.  We are heading back into some higher temperatures within the next few days so I am so glad the gardens are getting a really good soaking.
~Being home due to still being ill does have it's advantages.  I have not been out shopping or running around as much as I normally do  and it had given me more time to work on my points programs since I can do that with very little physical exertion.
~Having said that, Jeff and I did make a run into town on Wednesday afternoon to pick up a few stock up items at rock bottom prices at Safeway.  They had Rice a Roni for .69 a box (great for those nights when I am low on energy), I got 6 of those,  6 cans of tuna for .59 a can, some marked down shrimp for half price,  2 boxes of  Ziplock brand bags for .99 each. I also took advantage of my raincheck to get huge boxes of Arm and Hammer unscented kitty litter for $4.99 a box (I got 4 of them).   We would have bought more of the stock up items, but there were limits on how many you could buy.
~Since our squash plants are struggling, I was out there hand pollinating them on Wednesday evening.
~Wednesday's garden harvest included a few beans, our first ripe blackberry, and 4 tiny blueberries.
~Thursday Jeff stopped by another grocery store on his way home to pick up some Biotin that was half price and a few candy bars that were on sale.  They were all out of the English Muffins that were .99 a package so he will try to stop and get them another day.
~I put the leftover morning hot coffee into a thermal carafe to keep it hot and ready for my hubby when he gets up later in the afternoon. 

~I cashed in at Swagbucks for a $25 Walmart gift card and got it for 2,300 points instead of 2,500 points. :)
~The nectarines that Heather brought me needed to be taken care of.  I pitted, peeled and sliced about 1/2 of them and ended up with 20 cups worth that are now frozen and will be made into jam later.
~As a reward for all my hard work on those nectarines, I treated myself to a nice Asian shrimp salad, made here at home of course. ;)
~We watched more episodes of "How I Met Your Mother".  Jeff and I have all but season 5 in the series...still looking for that season at a yard sale or thrift store.
~I continue to watch more YouTube videos to learn new skills.
~Watched more TV shows online.
~My talented and handy hubby was able to replace the broken front grill on my car, along with the broken headlight on one side with parts that he had ordered.  Our deductible for our car insurance is $500.  To get the work done on our car, by a body shop, would have cost around $1000.  My hubby did it all himself for about $360.  Yay hubby!!!!
~After all the work my hubby did on my car I wanted to make him a treat.  I pulled some chocolate chip cookie dough (bought on clearance) out of the freezer and baked some cookies up for him.

~I used a paper bag to cool the cookies on.
~One of my favorite former students came up to get the wood from the tree branch that had fallen into our yard earlier this week.  She brought her little dog up with her and he and our dog Caesar became quick buddies.  We moved our visit into the back fenced in yard so that Caesar and Ringo could play.  It was so fun to watch her little chihuahua play with my humongous dog!  While they ran around the back yard, Becca showed me pictures of her wedding dress and boots for her upcoming wedding to another one of my favorite former students. :)  I am really looking forward to attending their wedding next month!
~I borrowed a book from the library that looked really interesting. The title of the book is "Once Upon a Time in Russia:  the Rise of the Oligarchs". I have not done much reading lately, so I am looking forward to reading this one.
~While watering the gardens early Friday morning, I strategically placed buckets in areas where there were no plants but the water from the sprinklers was also hitting.  I used that water for the fruit trees and for the potted plants.

~I repurposed a large clear tote that used to store VHS tapes in it to use as a large bug proof container for larger gift items that I have purchased that will not fit in my gift closet.
~More laundry was hung out on the line to dry at the end of the week when the weather was warmer and we did not have rain.
~My husband and I love a black bean warm spread that one of the local Mexican food restaurants serves.  I have been trying to find a recipe to replicate it here at home.  Today I hit upon one that is similar just by playing around with a few things here at home.  I found that feta cheese is a good substitute for the salty Mexican cheese they top it with.  I had this with tortilla chips for dinner Friday night. :) I also had a Mike's Hard Mango Punch o drink with it.  Perfect Friday night dinner.
~I have been looking for recipes for fruit infused alcohol and found some great ones online.  I'm thinking these would be great Christmas gift items for some of our friends and family. 
~Friday night I harvested cherry tomatoes, beans and squash from our garden.  We also discovered that Caesar has been doing some harvesting of his own.  He apparently loves pears and has been ripping them off our pear trees and eating them, breaking branches in the process.  We may have to erect a fence around the bigger tree that still has some pears on it.
~I foraged some plums off of some abandoned trees on my walk this evening.


   So there it is.  I am really hoping that my energy levels will come back up to my "normal" here soon so that I can get more canning and processing done.  I feel like I am so behind on all of this and it is driving me batty!  Be blessed all and have a great weekend!