Frugal Friday Wrap Up 6/16-6/22 2018

Caspian, my neighbor's cat and my gardening buddy.

   This week has been an emotional rollercoaster for me with my CFS and Fibromyalgia pain and exhaustion.  It has kept me at home for the majority of the week with the recliner and my bed being the places that I have spent the most time.  You would think that I would be sleeping a lot, but it has made it worse for me to try to get good sleep.  Anyway, I did what I could this week to try and save us money.  So here we go...

Rhubarb harvested from our garden.

~Saturday and Sunday found me in one of the worst and most painful Fibro flares I have had in ages.  That kept us home and we did not make the wedding that we had been so looking forward to.
~Leftovers were for dinner on Saturday night.
~Bradley spent the night with us Sunday since Isaiah was having surgery Monday morning.  I pulled some homemade BBQed pulled pork out of the freezer that I had on hand and served that with buns and fruit after Bradley and Jeff finished hot tubbing.
~I fave Isaiah a new stuffed monkey to cuddle with when he had his surgery and sent home the movie "Dumbo" to watch with him.
~We watched the movie "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" after dinner.  Bradley had been wanting to see that movie and picked it from our movie shelf.
~Monday I renewed a movie online that was due at the library that day.
~I read some books from the library.

Baby kale that I harvested from the garden.

~Jeff brought home Chinese food from the deli because he knew that I was still struggling pain and energy wise. I ate half of mine for lunch and the other half for dinner later.
~I kept the plastic lined large dog food bag once it was empty to use for yard trash.
~A free Country Living magazine came in the mail.
~Tuesday I called the Walmart pharmacy to straighten out a billing and refill error on their part.
~One of the cats decided it would be a great idea to pee on one of the bathroom throw rugs.  I got that one and another one washed and hug out on the line to dry.  I also cleaned the bathroom floor while I was cleaning up the one spot where thee pee was.
~I worked on my points programs as much as time and energy would allow.
~I placed an order at Vitacost going through the swagbucks link, got free shipping, 15% off, some buy 1 get one 50% off on items I needed and got a free product also.
~My tomato plants were not doing that well so I mixed up about 2 tablespoons of epsom salts in a big watering can and used that to water around the bases of my tomato plants.
~I planted another tomato plant and 4 more zucchini plants.
~I harvested rhubarb and baby kale from the garden.  My next door neighbor's cat Caspian came over to help me.  He is such a sweetie but was driving Doofy nuts as Doofy watched me petting Caspian through the window.

Some delicious chickpea curry that Rachel brought up for me to try for dinner one night.

~Rachel was a sweetheart and brought me up some chickpea curry that she made.  I have been wanting to try it for ages and she made some today.  It was delicious!  I need to get the recipe from her.
~Jeff built a attachment thingy for his bicycle so he can haul yard waste out in our garden cart.
~Jeff and I got the blueberry bushes and the strawberry bed covered with some netting hoping to keep the neighborhood cats and birds out.
~Wednesday I got up, did 2 loads of laundry and got the gardens watered before the hottest part of the day came on.  The promised rain may come tonight or tomorrow, but for now it is just muggy and zapping my energy.
~We had plans to go up to the lake this weekend and I was looking online for deals on hotel rooms so I could surprise Jeff.  Everywhere that still had rooms open jacked their prices way up.  I discovered that there was the Ironman half marathon going on there this weekend.  UGH!  I think I will come up with a different plan and place to go because it is going to be a mess traffic wise with way too many people up there.  I don't do traffic and I don't do crowds.
~Thursday I stayed home to get some more rest.  Jeff did make it over for Bradley's T-ball game though.
~I made a huge pot of Zuppa Toscana and added the baby kale that I harvested from the garden.  It made dinner of Jeff and I for 2 nights, 4 more containers that I froze that will make a meal each for Jeff and I and I sent a large container down for Jaysn and Rachel.  It gave them dinner plus leftovers.
~I could not get to sleep on Thursday night so I did more research on Fibromyalgia, Frugal Living, and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.  The birds started chirping and I realized it was 4 a.m. on Friday and I finally was tired enough to go to bed at 4:30 a.m..

Homemade Zuppa Toscana with kale from our garden.

~Friday I got up around 10 a.m. when the phone rang.  Rachel came up to do some weeding.  Steven flashed the little toothy smile at me and that was it, Grammie melted.  I had coffee while he played and then he had some toddler snacks and string cheese while cuddling with me. It was a wonderful way to start my day. 💕
~Jeff and I headed into town later in the day to pick up a 3 month prescription for one of my meds at Walmart.  We found sugar snap peas and peanut butter for good prices and got some while we were there,
~We also went to Safeway and cherry picked the deals there.  We got free peanuts and a sparkling water via their digital coupons.  We also got .99 for a gallon of milk (1), Gatorade for .59 each (8), .49 for bread (2), .79 for a dozen eggs (2), sliced Havarti and Swiss cheese for .99 each, and my flavored seltzers for 5 for $10 (the large packs of cans which hopefully will get me through the Summer (unless the family all comes over...they love them too).  The seltzer waters seem to help with my Fibromyalgia to perk me back up.

The 4 containers in the front row of Zuppa Toscana were all frozen for future meals.  The ones in the back were for us and for Jaysn and Rachel.

~We skipped going to Winco because it was in another town and I was running out of steam.  Jeff and I did not want to push it.
~Jeff barbecued burgers when we got home for dinner and I made some sweet potato rounds with smoked chipotle salt.
~I got a 2 pack of pork roasts out of the freezer to thaw and will be cooking them up Saturday morning.  One will be Kalua Pig and the other will be made into pulled barbecue pork.  I'll use two of my smaller crockpots to do this and then freeze some of it for future meals.
~I picked some cherries and strawberries from the garden.
~I watched some videos on YouTube about doing a no spend month and about eating from your pantry and freezer.  Jeff and I are planning on doing that for the most part for this next month so that we can use the money saved to pay off the last half of our property taxes and still be able to get money put away in our savings account.

Free peanuts and sparkling water via Safeway digital coupons.

   I do hope that everyone has a great weekend.  I'm not sure what Jeff and I are going to do but we have carved this weekend out for time to ourselves.  We had originally planned on going up to the lake but they are having a Ironman half marathon there so we are avoiding all that commotion and the crowds.  We may go see a movie but we shall see.   Be blessed!