Frugal Friday Wrap Up 8/7/2020 and Starting to Freak Out a Bit

   Yes, I realize the picture above is from July 27, but I forgot to share it then and we had leftovers during this past frugal week so there ya go. 😉  The above meal is Char Siu chicken thighs, cilantro lime rice and coleslaw with craisins.  I call it my Multicultural Plate. 😋  It was really good and it definitely is comfort food, which Jeff and I both needed.

   So here is why I am freaking out a bit.  Jeff and I had planned on putting my expensive health insurance premium payment on the credit card since we have to pay the whole amount out of pocket for the month of August.  Jeff cannot go back to work until after he is cleared by the surgeon at the end of the third week in August at the earliest.  So that makes 1 possible week of work in August IF everything goes well.  That check will have the first half of my insurance for September taken out of it so it will be a very small check that will have to stretch big time.  Well, we found out that his employer was not able to do it that way so we had to pull the cash out of savings to pay it and that leaves us with very little left to pay the middle of the month bills that are coming due.  UGH!  We had been hoping that the government would be sending out more of the pandemic stimulus checks but it is looking like that is not going to be happening now.  Things are going to be scary financially until Jeff is able to get back to work now and we do not want to have to resort to using the credit card again if possible.

   Anyway, now that I have had my freak out moment, here is what we have been doing to save money this past week in no particular order.

~Jeff and I took a drive down to the river and took Caesar with us.  Jeff packed us a wonderful lunch.  Caesar and I went swimming and then we let him dry off for a bit.  While we were doing that, a little girl got into trouble in the water and luckily I saw her and started running down the beach to help her...she was starting to drown.  A teenager on the beach saw what I was doing and asked if the girl was really in trouble...when I said yes, she jumped up also and ran much faster than I can and got out there and hauled her in.  That teenager is a hero in my book!  Parents really need to keep an eye on their kids at all times and have them stay in the actual swimming area and not where the current can take them out.
~We got another movie from the library.
~Lots of raspberries were picked and frozen.
~Jeff and I did one more stock up trip for nneded things since the Covid -19 virus has taken off and we are now in the red zone.  Things will be shutting down even more now.  Hopefully we will not have to go into town for a least another 3 weeks.
~While at the Dollar Tree picking up big bottles of conditioner and a few other items, we noticed a sign that said all the hand sanitizer stuff we had bought there was recalled.  I spoke to the manager about it and they said to bring it all back in and they would refund my money.  That money will be used (once we bring it back) to buy milk and fresh produce later in the month.
~I found some marked down meats at Walmart along with marked down bread.  I used one package of marked down Italian sausage to make pizzas with a huge loaf of marked down Italian bread.  I took the leftover homemade pizza sauce and added half of the cooked Italian sausage (that was not used on the pizza) and mixed it together.  I will be making a casserole with this in the next day or so and will serve it with the other marked down French bread loaf that will be made into garlic bread.
~Another meal we enjoyed this week was marinated venison steaks that I cooked up and served with green beans from the garden, squash and some wild rice mix.
~More make over meals were roasted potatoes and meatloaf served with a big green salad.   The next round, for another two meals, was the leftover meatloaf that was then broken up into smaller pieces and some brown gravy, corn and beans were added to it. This was served over mashed potatoes.  Another big hit with Jeff.
~Jeff built slide out drawers on our bottom shelves under the cooktop.  Our cabinets are really deep and things get lost back there.  I was able to organize things better and I purged a bunch of stuff too.  Jeff had everything he needed on hand.
~We have watched more movies online.
~Jeff cleaned out the back guest bedroom and I got it ready for the grandkids to be able to come and stay with us.  I want to do this soon before things get too bad with this virus again.

   Again, I know there is much more but I was not good about keeping track and I have been dealing with a pretty bad Fibro flare again.  At least the weather has cooled down though, so that is a wonderful thing to be thankful for.  Be blessed!