Sunday, June 4, 2017

Two Week Edition of the Frugal Friday Wrap Up 5/20-6/2 2017




     Due to all the craziness starting out on Tuesday May 22, I decided to make this a 2 week edition. ;)  I am happy to be spending more time at home now after days and nights on end at the hospital.  I'm not complaining though, there is nowhere else I would have been than with my Rachel, Jaysn and baby Steven. :)




~Potted up some mint from our garden to give to my cousin Jeremy.
~Reused hanging plant baskets and pots to fill with sale priced Petunia plants.
~Line dried lots of laundry.
~Put fencing up around the  trees to hopefully keep the dog from eating both the trees and the fruit.
~Got some free hamburger buns from Safeway.
~Called Josh using Jeff's cell phone since it has lots of rollover minutes on it right now.
~Spent most of Saturday afternoon with Jaysn, Rachel and baby Steven at the hospital.
~Took some homemade banana bread to Jaysn and Rachel.
~Entered 4 Disney Movie Reward Codes.  Each were worth 100 points.


~I hit the jackpot at Goodwill on Monday.  I found 3 Little Tykes and Fisher Price toys for baby Steven, a huge bottle of bubbles to take comping to help occupy the 2 year old grandson of our friends, the dvds "Dumbo" and the original "Pete's Dragon" (new in wrapper) and a shirt.  We also got 20% off our purchase with Jeff's Senior Citizen discount so we paid $10.11 for everything!
~I cooked up 1 1/2 pound of elk burger into taco seasoned meat so we could use it for taco salads and soft tacos this week since the weather decided to get really hot all of a sudden.
~Four loaves of bread were made.
~The plants I thought were volunteer cucumbers in the garden turned out to be sunflower plants so I divided and replanted them yet again.  I did find a volunteer cucumber plant though too.
~We borrowed a cookbook and the  movie "Rogue One" from the library.  The movie was good!
~Worked a bit on my points programs.



Intermission due to family health crisis


~I watered the gardens in the early evening hours so the water would not evaporate off.
~I cooked up a bunch of homemade mac and cheese and some creamy broccoli and cauliflower soup and took it to Jaysn and Rachel on Sunday so that they would not have to cook for a few days.  Jeff and I also took them out to lunch that day and used a B1G1Free reward that we had at our favorite Chinese buffet place that is sadly closing.
~I had doubled to mac and cheese recipe and had some steaks marinating so we invited Chris, Heather and the little boys over for dinner on Sunday.  It was nice to have a family meal with them too.


~Jeff and I found some things at the Goodwill including new in package toilet repair kit, heavy duty hinges. some clothing for him and I including brand new swim shorts and a swim top for me, and some bubble bath (half price color tag).
~The little boys enjoyed using our hot tub (unheated) to cool off in Sunday.
~We finally got the tomatoes, cucumber and squash plants in the garden.
~I saved some of the coffee from the morning pot and put it in the refrigerator to make a cold coffee drink in the afternoon.
~Multiple loads of laundry have been hung out to dry on the laundry line.
~Jeff and I were finally able to get caught up on our TV shows that we watch online.
~More free magazines arrived in the mail.
~I used some credit I had at Amazon.com to stock up on more of the supplements that have been really helping me and without which I never would have been able to help Rachel and Jaysn as much as I did.
~We are watering the garden in the evenings so that the water does not all evaporate away.  Our area has gotten some freakish 90+ F temperatures which unfortunately made my kale go to seed and fried my fuschia plant.  I am praying the fuschia recovers.
~Used coffee grounds have been paced around the blueberry and hydrangeas to give them a much needed acidic boost.
~I have been having great luck lately finding cases of new canning jars at the thrift store for about 1/4th of the regular store price.  I pick these up every time I see them.


~I dried and crushed eggshells to spread around in the strawberry patch to help with slug control.
~I had downloaded two $1 off coupons onto my Safeway card for Tidycat's cat litter and it also happened to be on sale.  I was able to get a large container of it for $4.24 after tax!
~We got a lot of free groceries while doing our volunteer work.
~The Dollar Tree had beautiful cards at 2/$1 so I bought my graduation and a thank you card for the staff at the hospital there.
~My friend Shannon treated me to lunch on Wednesday.
~Put more banana peels around the base of the roses.
~I made 2 loaves of sandwich bread.
~Over-ripe bananas were used to make 3 loaves of banana bread.
~Went through my gift closet stash and found gifts for the 4 high school graduates that we are giving gifts to.
~I found a lightweight pajama gown on clearance at Walmart for $3.  I have some older ones that need to be retired and turned into rags so the timing was perfect.
~I found more marked down items at the grocery store that make for quick meals on hot and busy days.


~We went to a graduation party early Friday evening and had dinner there while getting caught up with good friends.
~Late Friday night my friend Shannon called and asked if I wanted to go and see the late showing of the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie "Dead Men Tell No Tales", her treat.  We saw it in 3D and it was so good!
~Jeff and I stopped at the Breakfast and Cereal sale at one of the local stores and got 5 boxes of cereal ($1.79 a box), bananas and 2 gallons of milk ($1.79 each). We did this in 2 trips since he forgot the milk the first time and we were going through that town so we picked it up then along with the 2 extra boxes of cereal.

   I know I am late posting this, being that it is now Sunday 6/4, but life got busy over the weekend with graduations and parties and seeing our hanai son Lee while he is in town to celebrate his sister Tulip's graduation from high school.  We also have been busy trying to work on the yard and got the tomato and squash plants in and also planted the beans.  Apparently the ants really liked my tender squash plants and I am praying that they will come back after some of them have had their leaves totally eaten.  While I am typing this out, we have a nice cool rain and I am loving it.  I just wish we had gotten the rain barrel set up to catch some of this liquid gold too.

 








10 comments:

  1. So nice to see your post. I hope life continues to get back to normal for you.
    Great finds on all your sale shopping. I've had to skip the senior's day at the thrift for a few weeks but might get there this week.
    Funny, ants have been a horrible problem for me this year as well. My community garden has been mostly ant free up to this year. I finally put down a combination of cornmeal and dried used coffee grinds. Didn't see any today so I'm hoping that was the final treatment. My poor plants - some aren't doing very well. However, I picked my first strawberry yesterday and those plants are thriving. So it goes in the garden.
    Loved reading your post, as always. Take care, SJ

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    1. Hi SJ! I skipped going to the thrift store today when I made a run into town to get some plants to replace the ant eaten ones. I figured I would save the money because we know how many treasure I can find in t thrift store. ;) I put down some grits for the ants but then it rained like mad so I don't know if it did any good but I am hoping. I'll bet that strawberry tasted so good! I have lots of small green ones and am anxiously awaiting them getting ripe so I can eat them.

      Be blessed my friend!

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  2. You've had a busy couple of weeks! Ha, ha, baby Steven has just arrived and Grandma already has toys for him! I love it! I know who's a doting Grandma! :D

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    Replies
    1. LOL BLess, yes I am a very doting Grammie indeed. The little boys have a rather large toy box in our living room and it is overflowing. I really need to weed some things out that they are not playing with.

      Praying all is well with you today!

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  3. It sounds like you've had a busy couple of weeks, Debbie! I too like to shop thrift store and clearance sales. I just used my over ripe bananas and made six loaves of banana bread and froze them. I've tried growing a garden over the years, but unfortunately where we live in the Panhandle of Texas it just isn't conducive in this area. It's just too dry here. I'm glad you were able to go see a movie with your friend, and spend time with your family. Our children came to visit us this week. All four of them! We hadn't seen our grandson in several months. They change so quickly! It was a very special time. Hope you have a wonderful week. :)

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    1. Anna, that is wonderful that your children were able to come visit! How fun. Isn't it amazing how fast the grandkids grown? We had Steven here yesterday and he has grown 2 inches since I saw him about a week and a half ago. He is also able to see us all better now and boy was he checking us out. :)

      Be blessed!

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  4. I've just spent a little time catching up with your blog. We've been busy camping, then going through a week of dance recital rehearsals and a recital. Then, a busy fundraiser for the youth group at church.

    So, today, I read about all your recent busy-ness and family sickness/trouble. I'm glad you have been able to make it through and that everyone is going to be ok. Hang in there!

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    Replies
    1. HI Becky, how wonderful that you were able to get away and go camping. I'll bet it was just what you needed before the dance recital and the fundraiser at church. :)

      Everyone is doing so much better thank you. Rachel looked really good and healthy yesterday when they brought Steven out to us so they could go to a movie and then came back and had dinner with us. Our Chris is healing too after that awful gash in his wrist and then taking off part of his toe. I call him my "Bubble Wrap" or "Fragile" kid. He is always getting injured. Our Josh is doing a bit better too with his back injury. I tell you, when it rains it pours with my crew.

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  5. I'm glad things are going so well. Nothing is more important than a healthy happy family. And some great bargains too! Take care.

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