Frugal Friday Wrap Up 12/7-12/13 2019

 

    Well...our budget is about to take another nasty hit.  This past weekend, Jeff twisted wrong and searing pain shot through his knee.  Yes, the same knee that had been giving him trouble before.  At that time, he had a small tear in his meniscus.  Apparently there was more damage to it even then than we knew about.  He had orthoscopic surgery on it about 38 years ago for some damage at that time and it looks like there may be more surgery in the near future.  Jeff and I headed to the doctor on Monday to get the knee checked out and the x-rays showed a mess in there between things fraying, bad arthritis with bone growth and something else going on behind his kneecap.  Now we wait for his appointment for an MRI and then a trip to the orthopedic doctor.  This is going to be expensive and we need to start preparing for it now.



Saturday:
~I did not get to sleep until around 6 a.m., so I then slept until almost 1 p.m..  We stayed home and watched movies completely missing our town's Christmas celebrations (Round 1).
~We hot tubbed that night also.
~I cut Jeff's hair.

Sunday:
~We took a trip down to the valley at the last minute to go to Harbor Freight to pick up a tool kit thingy that was on sale and used a coupon on top of the sale price for 20% off.  We ran into one of my old students, who was working there, and had a really nice visit.
~We stopped at St. Vincent De Paul and Goodwill and found some things there too.  I'm always amazed at how many brand new items are donated.  We were able to get 2 gifts for Christmas, some books, a cute mug, a brand new Eddie Bauer jacket, some leggings, candles and a new cd.
~The next stop was Grocery Outlet where we found amazing deals on acorn squash, red potatoes, sweet potatoes, won ton wrappers, pastrami, spices, pizzas, salad stuff and I found my pear cider that I love so much.  This was also where Jeff's knee decided it hated him and was going to cause him so much pain.
~We filled up on gas before heading back up the hill since with was .35 cheaper per gallon down there than up near us.
~The last stop was the Dollar Tree back up in Pullman, where I picked up a few things that I needed to make candy with and some cute holiday paper plates for our family party.
~Our internet was down, so my friend Shannon let me log on through hers to check a few things.
~Shannon came over for a visit and we had brownies....yum!
~Jeff and I watched a Christmas movie we borrowed from the library.

Jeff enjoying licking to bowl after making brownies.

Monday:
~Jeff and I went to his doctor's appointment and I "interviewed" the doctor to see if he would be a good fit to be my new primary care doctor and how much he knew about Fibromyalgia also.
~Internet still down...2 phone calls to technical support later and I finally got an appointment to get it fixed on Wednesday.
~Again, I was able to borrow internet from my friend so I could check on a few things online.
~We returned some movies we borrowed from the library.
~I took a 2 hour nap.  I had been falling asleep at the doctor's office so I knew that there was now way I was going to make it through the rest of the day without one.
~Two more loaves of bread were made.
~We had one of the salad kits and I added some Cajon turkey diced up to it.  I also threw in the remainder of the bag of spinach that we had been working on before it went bad.  I mixed up some cheddar biscuits and put those in the oven to bake after the bread came out.  We had the biscuits as part of our dinner too.
~Jeff brought in one of the clock radios that has a cd player in it for me so that I could listen to Christmas music.  He had to unplug our large CD player in the living room so that he could plug in the Christmas tree. I can now happily listen to some of my favorite Christmas CDs once more.

Tuesday:
~I started off my morning with a nice cup of coffee and listened to Celtic Christmas music.  I had bought a Celtic Christmas  3 CD set last year at a thrift store and this is the first time I am listening to it.  I absolutely love it.
~I borrowed some books from the library and am currently reading them.  There is such a great range to choose from and I so enjoy having this wonderful resource at my fingertips and right here in town.
~It was another nap day for me.  Apparently my body has decided that it wants to head back into another flare...yuck!
~Dinner was eggrolls from the freezer for me and sandwiches for Jeff.
~We watched the movie "Sweet Home Alabama".  It's one of our favorites.
~Going through my cookbook collection, I ran across the book "Grandmother's Country Cookbook".  It was first published in 1966 and has some great recipes in it.  I am enjoying reading it and getting some good ideas.
~We have lots of sample sized soups and shampoos that I have accumulated over the years and are trying to use some of them up.
~With our upcoming expenses due to Jeff's need for an MRI and possible surgery, we are rethinking our gifting for this Christmas.  I'll be doing more homemade candies, breads and cookies and less store bought things.  Jeff and I also agreed that we would not exchange gifts between ourselves this year and instead, we would save that money to go towards the upcoming medical bills and take some financial pressure off of each other.  I was the one to approach him with this idea because seeing him stressed about finances stresses me out also.
~I placed some new materials requests with our library in hopes that they can locate certain books for me to read or even purchase them for the library system.

Dinner salad and cheddar biscuits.

Wednesday:
~Frontier replaced our modem for free since it was their issue and not ours that caused our computer service to go down.
~Dinner was venison steaks and pesto/red pepper pasta.  Venison was free from Chris and the pasta and pesto were from the Dollar Tree.  Peppers were from a sale earlier in the year, diced up and frozen until needed.
~With our internet back up, we were able to watch more episodes of "Hot in Cleveland".
~About 2 hours before Jeff was due to leave for work, his knee went out on him again and he was in severe pain.  Luckily my cane is adjustable to he was able to use that to get around home but he had to call into work and let them know that he was not going to be able to do his job.  He did offer to still drive the truck, but he would not be able to get in and out to make the deliveries needed.  He felt awful about not being able to do his job on such short notice.  They had him stay home.

Thursday:
~Jeff was stressing about having let people down at work due to his knee.  When he or I am stressed, I make comfort food so I had him choose anything he wanted.  He chose salmon loaf so that is what we had along with rice, spinach salad and carrot sticks for dinner.
~I watched some TV shows online.
~Jeff and I had a long talk about things we can do looking towards the future to make our home more productive garden wise and also about some ways we can make money from home.  I finally got Jeff to agree to put in a compost bin made out of old pallets again so we can make our own compost.
~Jeff and I also watched a disaster movie on YouTube.  I know, it's strange but I just love those kind of movies.

Salmon loaf and pesto and red pepper pasta.

Friday:
~I'm loving listening to Christmas music via YouTube.  They have the music that I grew up listening to like Nat King Cole, Bing Crosby and Johnny Mathis.  These were some of my mother's favorites so we had them playing every year.  She even recorded them for me when I was in college so I could have them playing in my home, scratchy old record sounds and all.
~We received a wonderful gift of Esther Price candies in the mail from my Uncle Gary and Aunt April.  He spoils me! It could not have come at a better time since I woke up very upset after a night of horrible nightmares.
~Going through my bookshelves, I found a old paperback cookbook called "Grandmother's Country Cookbook" that was first published in 1966.  It has so many great recipes and anecdotes in it.

   
   As the week went on, things got pretty stressful and that sent me into another flare.  I tried to remain calm on the outside and strong for my hubby, but on the inside, I was a mess.  Our oldest grandson Bradley also got his third concussion after roughhousing with his brother.  He seems to be doing okay, but I tell you, it really worried this Grammie.  As my son Chris, who is also an EMT said "It looks like there is no football playing in the future for him."  I stayed home for the rest of the week after Jeff's doctor's appointment on Monday and that really was for the best.  There is a bad flu going around that is laying people out for a week or more, and I am desperately trying to avoid it.  Be blessed all!