Frugal Friday Wrap Up 10/15-10/21 2016

   Busy, Busy, Busy...that has been the story of our lives this week.  My parents came for a visit on Friday for a long weekend and we have been having fun!  Onto the savings!

~Saturday my husband and I went to see a car he was interested in buying.  It is the son or one of his longtime friend's car.  Well he liked it and bought it on the spot for $500.  It is a 2002 Chevy Cavalier and he can take parts off his old car to put on this newer car.  So he now has a little commuter car again.   Funny thing is that the newer car is the same color as my car.  We seem to have a habit of buying matching cars.
~Sunday we helped my cousin Jeremy move into his new home.  He gave me a really nice bottle of gin and he fixed all of us dinner that night.  His new place has an apple tree with the sweetest apples on it.  Yum!
~Jeff installed a new deadbolt lock on one of the exterior doors at Jeremy's place.
~Jeff and I were really sore after helping Jeremy move so we hot tubbed when we got home, crawled into bed and watched a movie.
~Monday we had to go and get the new car licensed and get some oil and a new filter for it.  We picked up a few more items at Walmart while picking up the oil and used one of my gift cards to help pay for it.
~Over the weekend, we stopped at one of the thrift stores that I love and found a nice warm winter coat that fits m well.  It was the color tag that was on special for 25% off.  Jeff also found 2 more seasons of "How I Met Your Mother". Another great find was a pair of leather boots for $3.98 for me.  I had been looking for 2 years for another pair to replace some that are wearing out.  I looked them up and they retail for over $100. I rubbed some leather conditioner and cleaner on them and they look really good!  We found a few other things there also.
~Jeff and I recently started watching the first season of "Columbo" and love it.  I was pretty young when it first aired on TV but I remember watching it with my parents. :)  Those are good memories for me.
~Jeff went through all the sheets that we have here and now we know that we do not need any more full sized sheets.  Oh my goodness...I had no idea how many we had.
~We rearranged some furniture and now have a bedside table in the back guest bedroom with a lamp on it so that my father can read in bed if he wants to when he visits us.
~Wednesday morning I went over to Chris and Heather's to wrap up Elk burger.  It took 1 1/2 hours to package and wrap up all the burger with 3 adults and 2 little helpers.  Chris sent me home with lots of burger, a few roasts and some steaks.  He also told me that if he gets a deer, the whole thing is our's. They still have lots of deer burger from last year. We are very blessed with all the meat they give us, we usually help butcher and also split the cost of the grinding of the burger at the butchers.
~ I harvested some sunchokes from the garden.
~The tomato cages were all put away while I worked on phase 1 of cleaning out the garden.  Jeff and I also got the hoses unhooked and drained and then drained the rain barrel and got everything put away.
~I dug a trench and put one of the longer blackberry branches in it and then covered it back up.  This should give us more blackberry plants next year that I can give to Heather's mom for her garden.
~The library had 3 movies and a book in for me.
~Jeff realized that the snow tires from his old car will fit his new car.  No need to buy more tires for awhile for his newer commuter car. :)
~Thursday morning found me in the kitchen making a double batch of mixed raspberry and blackberry muffins.  My brother loves these and since he is coming for a visit, I wanted to spoil him a bit. :)  The blackberries and raspberries are from our garden.  I had harvested and froze them just for this delicious treat!
~After filling the muffin tins with the mixed berry muffin batter, I had some leftover.  I pulled out a mini loaf pan and filled it with the batter.  It took about 5 more minutes to bake than the muffins did.  It looked so pretty and gave me the idea to make some mini loaves of this as Christmas gifts this year. :)  I think I will sprinkle the tops with some sugar before baking them though to give it just a little more sparkle and shine.
~I used baking soda and my homemade citrus vinegar to clean my oven.  I did this while it was still warm from baking to give it just a little more "oomph".
~The mail brought a free magazine and a free gratitude journal along with my Victorio machine from my cousin Marisa.
~I got in on a free magazine subscription to Family Fun.  This will go to my DIL Heather.
~The local bowling alley sent me a coupon for a free appetizer.  I printed it off and Jeff will use it while he is there at his bowling league.
~My parents brought us over wine, jams and jellies.
~I wrapped the Christmas gifts for my parents and my brother Fritz and will be sending them home with them.

   I'm looking forward to a calmer week ahead and am hoping to be able to finish things up in the garden.  I did decide to let some of the thing just go to seeds so it should be interesting to see what comes up in the Spring.  Be blessed!