Our oldest grandson Bradley, pictured above, is now 12! We are so very proud of our incredibly smart, creative, kind and yes, still sarcastic and quick witted young man. He does not like seeing people left out of things and is our 6 year old grandson Steven's favorite cousin because he always goes out of his way to play with him. Steven absolutely adores him! He is a "country kid" and loves hiking, hunting, exploring, camping and playing baseball. He also is getting really good at driving. Again, country kid and it is very common around here for kids to learn to drive early to help out on farms and such. He was and remains our favorite anniversary gift ever!
Our car remains in the shop waiting to figure out all that is wrong with it and hopefully, it will be cheaper to fix it than have to buy a new (used) vehicle. Good news is that Jeff's Social Security was finally approved and we had 2 checks deposited into our bank account! We have no doubt that most, it not all, of it will be spent on the car repairs or purchase of a new to us vehicle. We can live on just what Jeff makes at his part time job thankfully. Now onto a 2 week Frugal Friday Wrap Up...
Week 1:
~I found some marked down fried chicken at Winco for half the regular price. That made 4 meals for Jeff since he loves fried chicken.
~I had a "feeling" that we needed to stop in at Goodwill because there would be something golf related there for Jeff that day. There was, it was a brand new golf glove in his size. We rarely see those there. I also found a beautiful Fall themed throw blanket with a pumpkin and fox print on it. So very pretty and will become part of my Fall decor since I keep a basket of blankets in the living room for anyone to grab and cuddle up under.
~Jeff and I have been binge watching the various "Traitors" shows from around the world on Peacock. It is interesting to see how people react to each other as they try to figure out who the traitors are.
~Pantry pulled meals are what is on the menu this week. Jeff got a package of ham slices out of the freezer and I used half of it to make Fettuccini Alfredo with some of the dehydrated zucchini from our garden boiled along with the noodles. Very yummy and made for 2 meals!
~Chris borrowed a trailer from another one of his friends to haul our car over to our mechanic. He traded his truck for ours to haul the car and took the truck our home with him since he used our truck to tow the trailer with the car on it. We will trade him back when we go over for Bradley's birthday dinner next week. I gave him $50, which he reluctantly agreed to take. I told him to buy the guy who he borrowed the trailer from some beer and use the rest to help pay for gas for his truck.
~I tried something new with the sourdough discard. I made some everything bagel crackers and did a long ferment on them. So GOOD!!!!
~More homemade washcloths and a scrubby pad were crocheted on Monday while I watched some television.
~Tuesday we had leftovers for dinner. It had been one of those days when I just had to rest both physically and emotionally since my nervous system was overwhelmed.
~I had some leftover coffee at the end of the day so I made an iced coffee as a pick me up as my energy waned.
~Homemade biscuits and sausage gravy with a side of fresh pear slices was dinner on Wednesday. Comfort foods at it's finest.
Week 2:
~Jeff and I celebrated our 39th wedding anniversary over the weekend. We ended up going out for lunch (much cheaper than dinner).
~I found 3 feather pillows for the living room for $1.99 for the smaller one and $2.99 for the two larger ones. I have been trying to change over all of our living room pillows to high quality feather ones. Yes, this was at the thrift store. I also bought 2 shirts for .75 each. Jeff found a pair of work pants for $5.99 also.
~Jeff chose teriyaki meatloaf, rice and corn as our anniversary dinner here at home. I also scrubbed up some potatoes that needed to be used and baked those alongside the meatloaf.
~Six of the baked potatoes were used in a huge pot of veggie chowder. This gave us many meals!
~Our family celebrated Bradley's 12th birthday on Tuesday. Can you believe he is a "tween" now? I started this blog when we found out that we were going to become grandparents for the first time. We all had a wonderful time together! Oh, Chris sent me home with 3 bottles of beer since he was not fond of them.
~While at Chris and Heather's for Bradley's birthday, we filled up a large garbage can with well-rotted chicken poop and bedding. This is going into our garden beds and will be worked in well. Free fertilizer is always welcome!
My best find of the week, hands down, was a Magic Mill food dehydrator. It was $34.98 at Goodwill. It looks brand new and has the silicone drying sheets and screens with it. I price checked on Amazon and they are welling for around $200 there. I had been wanting to replace one of my dehydrators that has seen better days. I was so very happy to find this one!
~Jeff got all the fruit trees and the berry bushes pruned and cleaned out. That man works so hard for us!
~Our dryer decided to make an awful noise! Jeff took things apart and found out the squirrel cage had gone out again. We picked up a replacement part for it and Jeff will be installing it this weekend. Luckily for us, we have our clothesline so we were able to get all the sheets dried out there.
So there you go, another 2 weeks' worth of savings, bargain hunting, trouble shooting, gardening, cooking and 2 very wonderful celebrations of in our family. As always, family is our main focus, for family is the greatest treasure here on earth that God has ever blessed us with. We also continue to try to build up and expand our gardens, our food preservation tools and our skills here at home. Be blessed my dear friends.
