Frugal Friday Wrap Up 8/26-9/1 2017

   


   

It was a long week with lots going on.  This weekend has also been a very busy one that has kept us on the go, so I am late getting this posted.  Our skies have been filled with smoke off and on and some days have been absolutely horrible...more on that in another post.  So here we go, better late than never.

~Jeff and I took Caesar for a walk and foraged for more plums.
~Bradley and Isaiah ended up staying here for part of the morning on Saturday while Heather ran into town to get a flat tire fixed and they helped me harvest tomatoes, beans and peppers from the garden.  The practiced their pitching by throwing rotten apples at the cherry tree (yes, that was my idea) and we pulled some Dora cereal with marshmallows in it out of the pantry for breakfast. 😊
~I watched the hurricane coverage online.  Friends of mine had homes in some of the areas that were hardest hit and I am so glad they evacuated.
~Jeff made some brownies on Saturday from a mix I had in the pantry.

~I was not sure how many people we were going to have here for dinner on Saturday night so I made a bacon ranch pasta salad and added fresh red pepper and some blanched broccoli to it to stretch it and to give it a nutritional and yummy boost.
~Our grandsons love jello with fruit in it so I mixed up some strawberry jello and added the rest of a package of mixed frozen berries that I had in the freezer.
~Chris' truck developed some problems in his way through our town on his way to work the Sprint Boat races on Saturday.  Heather came to pick him up and take him to it and upon arrival here, we found she had a flat tire.  We sent him on to the races in Jeff's car and kept the little boys while Heather went and got her tire fixed.  Heather came back and picked up the boys.  Jeff decided to go and look at Chris' truck and found that the radiator is leaking...not the hose, but the actual radiator. It looks like Heather can return the thermostat that she bought because that was what Chris initially thought was the problem.

~Sunday morning we headed down to the park with Isaiah to hear our hanai son #5 play music for a special service they were having down there.  Listening to him sing and play beautiful worship music was wonderful!  I was also able to reconnect with another young man who we had watched grow up and that I have remained connected to.  It was so good to visit with him also.
~After coming home from the park, Isaiah and I played in the hot tub, not heating it up of course because it was a HOT day.  It felt so good to be in the cool water and Isaiah had a blast.
~Jaysn called and found that they had a water leak in the valve going to their washing machine.  Jeff and I headed in and while Jaysn and Jeff worked on that issue and getting the valve replaced, Rachel and I visited and played with Steven.  Steven is so close to rolling over and it was fun to watch him work really hard trying to do so.  Jaysn and Rachel fed us dinner since we were there until about 8 p.m..
~Bradley, Isaiah and I enjoyed playing the Memory game I picked up recently at Goodwill for $1.99.

~Multiple loads of laundry were hung out on the line to dry.
~Monday Jeff pulled some bagels and a loaf of sourdough bread out of the freezer so I would not have to do any baking.  I was wiped out from our big weekend and the weather forecast was calling for temperatures in the high 90's.  Not a good combination for me.
~I tried to get as much done as I could in the early morning hours on Monday.  We have smoke filled skies again with an air inversion so it locks in the heat later in the day.  I got the gardens watered, the beans picked and started on the laundry.  Both beds needed to be stripped and changed.
~Our dishwasher got a good deep cleaning which was desperately needed.  It was either that or replace the danged thing, and we can't afford to do that right now.
~We had lots of leftovers from the weekend so I did not have to do any really big cooking at the beginning of the week and planned our meals around what we needed to use up.
~I cashed in for $10 in Walmart gift cards at both Swagbucks and at MyPoints.
~Jeff was digging around under the kitchen counter and found some heavy duty cleaners under there that he is going to use to clean up some of his shop stuff.

~I cut a box of fabric softener sheets in half so that gives me enough for 110 loads.  I had previously bought the box at Dollar Tree for $1.
~The smoke got thick in the air with smoke again (from the wildfires) so we closed up the house and got the fans outs to move the air and not bring any more smoke in.  And yes, all the furbabies were brought inside too.
~We received several free magazines and some address labels in the mail.  We had run out of address labels so this was a very nice and welcomed surprise.
~Tuesday we received a coupon for $10 off $10 in regular priced merchandise at Staples, a box with samples in it from PinchMe, and more magazines.

~I made another crockpot full of applesauce from our apples on Tuesday also. I froze all 3 containers of it.
~Jeff picked up 8 more plastic food safe storage containers for me at the Dollar Tree so I can make and freeze more applesauce later in the week.
~Jeff got the battery and alternator tested on his car and found out the alternator was bad.  Luckily he had another one with him and that tested out fine.  This was free to do at the auto supply place.
~I was exhausted and sore after making all the applesauce so Jeff picked up dinner while he was in town.  He bought a take out Chinese meal at the deli and we split it because there is enough food for 2 people.
~Two loaves of sandwich bread and 3 loaves of banana bread were made despite my having something come up in the morning that put me behind on my "to do" list.
~I've been watering early in the morning or later in the evening, depending on what the overnight low temperature will be.

~I heated up some previously frozen homemade split pea soup for a quick lunch.
~Watched more of my tv shows online this week.
~Thursday I made a huge pasta salad using some of the tomatoes from our garden for a big potluck birthday party for our son Chris (I am really missing my son Josh today since he lives in the Washington DC area and it is his birthday too).  It is one of his favorites and luckily is super easy and frugal to make and feeds a crowd.  I was having a bad day pain and energy wise so that is about all I was able to do.
~Jeff picked up 4 two pound blocks of cheddar cheese @ $3.99 each!  SCORE!
~Jeff and I may be upgrading my car since it is having issues, has high miles and I am going to need a bigger one anyway with more seating to fit all the grandkids in.  I went online to see what is available in my price range.
~Friday I picked beans from our garden.
~I printed off some Walmart Gift cards I had earned.
~I worked on my points programs.

~With prices going up again and with the hurricane damaging so much, which will increase prices even more, I took inventory of what we had on hand and made a shopping list of basics that I want to stock up on like flour, sugar, etc. before prices go higher.
~Jeff and I used the $20 in Walmart gift cards to towards a huge bag of dog food for Caesar and a marked down loaf of French bread.  We ended up paying $3.23 out of pocket after the gift cards were applied.
~At Winco we stocked up on things like a huge commercial sized bag of flour for a little over $14.00, some bagels, grapes, milk, creamer, chips on sale (we each got a bag as a treat), sugar, and a few other things.
~We did not grab dinner in town but came home instead and threw something together.

   We made a big but needed purchase over the weekend, so we are needing to cut back on some things even more.  More on that coming up too!