Frugal Friday Wrap Up 7/1-7/7 2017

   

   Let's just call this the week when things decided to break..one after another...car (yes again), tree branches (yes plural), the pump to our swamp cooler and yes, my patience with all of it! A frugal week this was not!  I was not always in the best of moods either, especially when I was hot and tired and had to be out in the scorching sun.  I really overdid it this week so many times and as I type this, I know after spending several hours in the yard and garden today, I will be paying for it for the rest of tonight and tomorrow.  That was unavoidable though...just call it life.  There were some wonderful moments in between though with lots of time spent with my family...they always make me smile. 😁 Praying that this coming week is a much calmer and more frugal one.

~Saturday I found a marked down cheesecake and huge boxes and bags of cereal clearanced for $2 each at Walmart.  Cheesecake is a special treat for us and I could not make it for the cost of a premade one.
~Jeff took me out for an early birthday dinner and I brought home half my entree and had it for lunch on Sunday.
~Josh and his friend Kate helped me find a great fitbit to track my heart rate, activity level and the quality and amount of sleep I am actually getting.  It has many other features too but those were the main ones I was looking for to help me learn more about how to manage my Fibromyalgia and CFS flares and crashes.  Josh even gifted me with $50 for my birthday to help pay for it.  What a sweet son!

~One of our big cherry tree branches came down so Jeff and I stripped the good cherries off it and gave most of them to our hanai son #5 Ben who surprised us with a visit.  He was over here from Seattle doing some special music for his father's church. I love surprises like that!

~Monday Jeff and I headed into one of the towns where we do our shopping.  We hit the thrift store and found some little kid t-ball bats for the little boys, a really nice pack and play (in like new condition) that even had wheels on it (birthday gift for Rachel since she wanted and needed one for Steven), a shirt and lightweight jacket (shirt was .99 since it was the color of the day), a power strip with surge protector, a new package of heavy duty plastic forks, spoon and knives, some large styrofoam divide plates (used these for the 4th of July BBQ and Potluck here), a huge Rubbermaid container, a nice leather Fossil wallet (.79), some brand new  cute Superman baby shoes for Steven (Christmas gift), and a book on how to make Origami sea creatures.  I also had a customer loyalty card filled up so I got $20 off my purchase!
~I used the 2 coupons for free cat treats to get Doofy his treats.
~I found another large marked down cheesecake.

~I made Jeff and I a nice breakfast on Sunday
~Jeff and I were in town during lunch and both of us needed something to eat so I went to the deli area in Walmart and found a nice foot long Hew York style deli sandwich marked down to $2.98.  We split that and also got sodas from the machine outside for .50 each.  $3.89 to fee both of us is a deal!
~I harvested lettuce, strawberries, cherries, raspberries and tomatoes from the garden this week.

~I made a large fruit salad with some blueberries I had frozen along with strawberries and raspberries from our garden.  I used the leftovers to make mixed berry muffins.
~Lots and lots of cherries were picked from our big cherry tree this week.

~We borrowed 2 movies from the library.
~I made Shoyu Chicken with some sale priced chicken thighs that I bought on sale (.88 a pound) several months ago and had frozen.  I served it with rice (free) and the fruit salad mentioned above.  The rest of the family brought bread and a delicious garlic and herb butter, the best baked beans I have ever had and a absolutely sinfully rice chocolate cheesecake for our 4th of July.July Birthday bash.
~We had lots of leftover rice so I froze 2 quart zied ziplock bags full to use as part of future meals.
~I set up a make you own Italian soda bar for our 4th of July party.  I had bought 4 different kinds of syrups previously on sale and had several bottles of Seltzer water on hand.  I also had whipped cream.  Everyone enjoyed making their own unique sodas and thought it was such a fun idea!  I will have to do it again!

~I wanted something "fancy" for lunch on Wednesday since it was the day that I was trying to pamper myself a bit so I made a shrimp and asparagus dish to serve over rice.  I had everything I needed either precooked on in the freezer.  It was so good!
~I've been working on my points programs so that I can get another Walmart gift card.

~My husband's car broke down again (it seems to be a theme with that car) so my son Chris picked him up in town (they were both on their way to bowling league) and my other son Jaysn let Jeff borrow one of their cars for the night so he can get to work and then home again.  Chris also borrowed a car towing dolly to bring Jeff's car home for us.  I am getting to the point where I am fearful that we are going to have to buy another car just when we are getting so close to paying mine off.  If that happens, there goes the money that I would have been putting away towards getting a small cabover motorhome for us for next year.  I am so thankful though for our kids who are helping us out with all of this.
~We needed more supplements again so I went through a link on Swagbucks to Vitacost so I will get some swagbucks for my purchase.  I also used a code to get 12% off.  They were having a sale on some of their supplements for a B1G1 half off.  I noticed that they had some of the probiotics on sale that have really good reviews.  I was almost out of mine here and they were much cheaper at Vitacost and with the half off deal for the second bottle, I ordered some of them too.  Oh I got free shipping also.

~Jeff and I watched several TV shows online.
~Bradley and Isaiah spent Thursday afternoon with me.  I made popcorn and we watched a movie since it was over 100F outside.  Our swamp cooler water pump had burnt out earlier in the day so I had the fans going in the house to keep us cool.
~Jeff ordered another water pump for our swamp cooler and is having it sent down with the freight company her works for so the shipping is free to us.
~I vented to gool night air into our house overnight and then closed it up early in the morning to keep us cool.  We reached 105F here Friday which is way too hot for me and makes me physically ill.  I am so thankful that it stayed cool in the house during the day and that the fans really helped out too.  Jeff was able to get some good sleep since I put a fan in our room.  Normally I would be running the swamp cooler but since the water pump went out, I could not.

~Jeff came home from work Friday morning and woke me to tell me that yet another branch came out of our heavily loaded cherry tree.  He and I were both out there by 6:30 this morning picking cherries.  We gave some to one of our elderly neighbors that lives up here part of the year with her son and his family.  Then I put the word out that we would love to have someone else come and pick what they wanted.  Some friends let us know that they would really enjoy coming so they headed over and stipped the rest of the huge branch.  We were talking about the wood from the branch and I said it would be good for using to smoke meat since it is cherry.  One of our friends who was picking cherries said he would love to have it for doing the smoking of his homemade sausages.  He had a heart attack about 6 months back and is temporarily off work.  His wife is unable to work outside of their home due to health issues.  I did not realize that the job he recently got did not work out due to his health restrictions.  I just feel like this was a total God thing that something so good came out of something that started out looking so bad when my hubby first woke me this morning.
~I harvested more lettuce from the garden on Friday night.  With the daytime temperatures soaring, my lettuce is looking like it is starting to bolt.  I got 2 gallon sized ziplock bags worth of lettuce.

~I continue to water the gardens at night or in the early morning hours.
~I cashed in for a $15 Texas Roadhouse gift card via Swagbucks.  We are meeting my brother and his beautiful family for lunch next Saturday while they are on their way home from my parents place in Montana.  I already have a $10 gift card for there so I am praying this will come in before we meet them.  It is a place that I think everyone, including my nephews who are 13 and 7 will enjoy.
~Jeff took 1 gallon sized bag of cherries to work for his co-workers to share Friday night as they loaded their trucks and 2 quart sized bags for 2 of his friends to have their own bags also.
~I had Jeff grab coffee and some grape jelly on the way home from work one day so that I did not have to make a run into town to get them.  The store was on his way home anyway. :)
~Rachel's birthday is coming up and so is mine so we all celebrated together a bit early.  I gave Rachel some beautiful bath salts that I added some extra epsom salts to.  I packed it up in a frosted glass canister with a wood lid and also gave her a small wooden spoon to scoop the salts out with.  She loved it!
~My cousin Jeremy gave me a beautiful bottle of wine and Chris, Heather and the little boys gave me some adorable resin turtles to go in my garden.  Rachel made me a really sweet card that I will treasure since it was from baby Steven. ;)
~I've been enjoying fresh fruit on my cereal in the mornings.

   I'm going to head to the shower and then to bed now.  It's been a very long and hot day.  Praying that I can get a good night's sleep tonight.