Frugal Friday Wrap Up 12/3-12/9 2016

 

   What a week!  My hubby was sick, I had a 3 day Fibro flare followed by catching a virus and losing my voice.  I'm still speaking in whispers as of today.  I think the cat is enjoying the fact that I cannot yell at him to get down off things.  I will say having both my hubby and I having been ill, we have saved by staying home and not going out to dinner, the movies, etc. ;)  Onto the rest of the savings...


~We have been stream YouTube videos of Kitty TV to keep Doofy amused and out of trouble.  He loves watching the bird and squirrel ones.

~Saturday my hubby was really ill so we skipped going to the Victorian Christmas program and stayed home instead.

~Sunday we stayed home again and watched movies on Netflix
~Monday my hubby took his car in to get the brakes worked on.  He has them do all that he cannot do but will do the parts that he can and that will save us $200 after having had to already lay our $340.  OUCH!
~I was on day 3 of  Fibromyalgia and CFS flare so hubby stopped at the local Chinese deli and got lunch for us both on Monday.  They give you so much food that he and I are able to split a meal for $6.37.
~I checked the library website and renewed some things I had on Monday so I would not have to leave the house.
~Jeff and I talked over our finances and talked about our health and decided to cancel out on our trip to see my sister in Tahiti.  Both of us would be miserable after having to take the long flights there with our back issues and with my other issues as well.  She will be coming here to see us instead and will get to meet the rest of our family and we will make the trip over to the Seattle area with her so she can see our baby brother and meet our sister in law and our nephews.
~We will used the money we have raised so far by selling things to buy another ton of pellets instead of using that money towards passports now. We are expecting lots of snow and ice in January-March and I want to have the pellets here before that so that we don't have to worry about borrowing my son's truck to transport them on icy roads.
~I continued to work my points programs to the best of my ability.  Swagbucks is having a third party server issue with their videos making it really difficult to meet my daily goals. 😝
~I'm trying to use up the tomatoes from my garden that I picked when they were green and they are all now ripe.  I made a pasta side dish to go with some breaded veal patties that had some whole grain pasta, some chopped up tomatoes, fresh minced parsley, garlic, butter, salt, freshly ground pepper and some parmesan/asiago cheese blend.
~Catalogues have been my "go to" source this year for food gift ideas.  I'm not going to buy what the catalogues are selling at outrageous prices, but I will try to recreate some of them.  😉
~Since it has been colder, I keep a sweater handy to throw on during the day in case I get chilled around the house.
~Tuesday I worked in the morning and then did the shopping after that.  I found a gift for a friend's baby shower at Ross along with a really pretty and soft bathrobe for $14.99.

~I also stopped at Goodwill, after going to Ross, and found another brand new bathrobe there for $3.99.  I debated about taking the bathrobe that I bought at Ross back but my hubby told me to keep them both since I live in them during the colder months.  I also found 2 new bras for $2.99 each in the style that I love wearing when I am home all day because they have no underwire and are so comfy.  While there they announced that all purses and luggage was on sale for half price for the next 15 minutes.  I happened to be ready to check out and thee basket full of wallets were right by the checkout area.  I spotted a beautiful leather Fossil brand wristlet wallet and asked if the wallets were also on sale.  They were so I picked it up for $3.99.  Score all the way around!
~The Dollar Tree still had some of the bottles of the Apple Cider that I am loving.  I picked up 5 of them.  I calculated that I get 10 or more mugs out of each bottle.  That is .10 or less per mug of hot cider.  If I went out to a fancy coffee shop, I would be paying at least $4.00 for a mug of apple cider.  I am set on cider that I can enjoy here at home, in my jammies, for at least a couple of months now.

~Our wonderful Shannon from next door brought over a kids Christmas movie for the little boys to watch.  Her face just lit up when the boys said "Thank you Aunt Shannon".  She is after all part of our hanai family so it seemed fitting to have the boys call her Aunt Shannon. 😘
~Chris, Heather and the little boys hot tubbed when Chris and Heather came to pick them up from our house.  They all had a great time!  I am so glad we have that here for them to use.  Jeff and I used it after they went home since it was already heated up to a good hot temperature.  We usually keep it on the economy setting at 85 degrees and then heat it up to where we want it when needed.  This saves us quite a bit of money as opposed to keeping it at 99 or 100 all the time.
~Wednesday found me ill at home with no voice.  I spent the day curled up watching a "It's a Different World" marathon on Netflix and also listening to music that I streamed from KLOVE Christian radio.
~I was able to get some points at Swagbucks responding to one of their offers and got a free magazine subscription too!
~Leftovers were what we grabbed for dinner on Wednesday night.  Neither one of us wanted to cook anything since we were both not feeling that great.
~Thursday I mended a leather tote bag.
~I deposited $20 into our saving account here in our little town.  I'm going to try and put my smaller earnings checks into there whenever I can and kind of use it as an emergency fund until we can pay off our house and then put more money into our other savings account.

~Dinner Thursday night was halibut (given to us by our Heather's parents), brown rice, a nice romaine lettuce salad and sauteed broccoli stems and sweet orange peppers.
~Jeff moved more bags of pellets up to the back porch so he would not have to go back and forth along the breezeway with the snow making it slick with those heavy bags.  This is a potentially huge money saver because if he slipped and fell, it could be disasterous!
~I sent Jeff with a list of needed items from the Dollar Tree, Walmart and Safeway to pick up before he went to his bowling league.  I had him take my car since we are expecting snow and it has 4 wheel drive.  He'll fill it up with gas for me too at the cheaper priced gas station.
~Friday night I live streamed the Jazz Christmas concert from University of Idaho.  😊
~Jeff had  a mandatory meeting at work Friday night and they provided pizza for dinner for the entire crew.  He really does work for a great small family owned company.
~Since Jeff was gone at dinner time on Friday, I just made myself a roast beef and cheese sandwich.  It was easy, tasted good and left me with very little clean up to do.



  At this rate I think we will be home for most of this weekend unless we need to go and pick up the grandboys and keep them with us for awhile.  I need to get the back guest bedroom ready for them just in case we do.  Other than that Jeff and I will be wrapping gifts and getting things ready to mail out.  I'll have to wait on the baking and candy making until I feel better.