Frugal Friday Wrap Up 9/30-10/6 2017

 


   What a week.  It seemed that it just stretched on and on.  When I am having trouble with my CFS and Fibromyalgia, they tend to do that.  I made one trip to do the grocery shopping and run some other errands on Monday, but stayed home for most of the week.  I think my body is telling me that it needs to rest and that I have been trying to do way too much and take care of everyone else.  I need to take care of me for awhile now.  Onto the savings...

~Saturday we went to the wedding of one of our hanai sons and had a wonderful time!  We had dinner there and the wedding cake, which was delicious, was made by a friend that we had not seen in years.  It was so nice to get caught up with her too. 😊
~Sunday Jeff got our home and yard ready for the cold weather.  He shut down and drained the swamp cooler, got all the garden hoses drained and put away, drained and took down the rain barrel (which we did not use due to the drought here this Summer) and hauled off a bunch of the yard waste.
~I found some more interesting shows to watch on Netflix by searching "Cook".
~I took it easy on Sunday.  I was having a Fibro Flare and having said goodbye to my twins that morning as they flew to Washington DC, I was just a bit emotional too.  I spent most of the day puttering around the house in my jammies and fixed a easy dinner using a precooked chicken from the deli.
~Jeff and I planned out a menu for the week based on what we had on hand and around the weather forecast.  A whole chicken was used to eat as is the first meal, 2 different kinds of soup, chicken/baked potato and squash chowder and the classic chicken noodle soup.  I froze 3 containers of the chicken noodle soup for future meals.

~We got a refund check in the mail and are using that to cover most of the cost of a ton of wood pellets to heat our home.  Jeff gets the pellets through his work.
~Jeff and I headed up to the orchard right up over the hill from us and picked 20 pounds of apples at .50 a pound.  We got Yellow Delicious, Mcintosh and Honeycrisp.  We also ran into friends and our lawyer up there who gave us some good legal advice for free.
~I baked extra potatoes on Sunday while I was making dinner to go into some soup later in the week.
~Since we were expecting a freeze Sunday night, I picked the rest of the cherry tomatoes that were even close to being ripe.
~I purchased some Fall themed hot pads for the kitchen at the Dollar Tree.

~Monday Jeff and I headed into town to go help Rachel get a materials list together to fix their back porch and I got to play with baby Steven.  He is growing so quickly and it seems every time I see him, even if it just days apart, he is doing something new. 😊 Nothing like free cuddles, giggles and smiles to make my day!
~I found lots of marked down items plus special sale priced items at Safeway.  I saved us $29.76 today and came home with lots of cheese, bananas, pastrami from the deli, 3 packages of surumi, 3 large cans of coffee, a 12 pack of seltzer water, sour cream, and 4 packages of mushrooms.  I spent $32.99 on everything.  I'm pretty darned proud of myself!

~We bought some cat food at the pet store and they told us about a sale they will be having on the cat food we use near the end of the month.  I am setting aside some money towards that since we will be needing more anyway.  We go through about 2 large bags a month at $23.99 each.
~Tuesday I made 2 loaves of bread for sandwiches for the week for Jeff.
~Jeff picked up 4 packages of sourdough english muffins for .99 each on his way home from work.  I kept one package out and froze the other 3.

~I dehydrated 3 trays of mushrooms and a tray of Roma tomatoes.
~For brunch on Tuesday I had a small bowl of homemade chicken noodle soup (I froze the rest) along with a sourdough english muffin topped with smoked salmon cream cheese.  I had been busy doing all kinds of other things, my back was killing me and I needed something quick and easy.
~I had planned to fix a pork chop and rice casserole for dinner on Tuesday night but found that the pork chops smelled "off" after they thawed.  I simply substituted 1 large boneless skinless chicken breast cut up into bite sized pieces for the pork.
~My points programs were worked as time allowed.
~Wednesday baby Steven was here with me for the day.  We bundled up and took a walk (him in the stroller) down town to the library and stopped at our little store to pick up something that we needed.  We both enjoyed getting out and Grammie here got a lot of exercise pushing that stroller back up the steep hill. Man am I out of shape!

~I borrowed a book and a movie from the library.
~Jeff and I sent home a package of diapers and some apples that we picked at the orchard with Jaysn when he came to pick up Steven.
~Since I knew Wednesday would be a long day for me (I got up at 5:30 a.m and Steven got dropped off at 6:45 a.m.), I cooked a elk roast (free from Chris) in some beer (stuff Josh left here), along with some onion soup mix (bought in bulk so way cheaper than in packages), and threw in some baby carrots and potatoes (free) along with 3 stocks of celery that needed to be used up.  I cut up the elk roast into bite sized pieces and put it back in the broth for about 20 minutes before serving.  YUM!
~Jeff and I found a new youtube channel that we are enjoying watching.

~Thursday I had a bad "Fibro Fog" day but Shopko had a great sale on toilet paper and down alternative comforters.  I had Jeff pick up 4  12 pack double rolls of Charmin at $4.88 each and a king sized comforter for $18.88 (regular price was $99.99) on his way to bowling league since it is literally right down the street from the bowling alley.  We needed both the toilet paper and the comforter.  We have a queen sized bed but Jeff tends to roll over and take the comforter with him so with a king sized one hopefully I will still have some of it on the 3 nights of the week that we actually have to share the bed. 😜  Jeff was happy that he got to pick out the comforter that he wanted and was very good about NOT getting anything plaid. 😁
~Friday the "Fibro Fog" started to clear but then came the "I'm sore all over my body and can't life my arms up past my shoulders" pain.  Thank goodness for leftovers and for all the free magazines that came in the mail this week to keep me both fed and amused for most of the day.

~Jeff drained our hot tub and put flex seal on some of the areas that had cracks in it.  He started this on Friday afternoon and will finish it up on Saturday morning.  Hopefully we can get the hot tub back up and running that evening.
~We had high winds coming in so I took down all my windchimes so they would not get blown off the hooks.  Unfortunately, I had a beautiful windchime made with copper on my front porch that someone must have stole while we were gone on vacation. This made me both angry and sad since it was a gift from my parents and had a gorgeous hummingbird painted on it that reminded my mother and I of my grandmother.
~I posted a listing for Jeff's old car that was broken down on a few sales sites and listed it as a parts car...free you haul.  Within minutes of listing it I had 3 people who wanted it.  The first person who contacted me got it and ironically, she is the mother of the bride of the wedding we went to on Saturday.   Small world. 😀

   That's about it for this week.  We are planning on helping Jaysn and Rachel with a big project this Sunday and then I think we have no other outside commitments (other than Jeff's bowling and his work) for this coming week.  That makes me very happy because I sure have a lot to catch up on around here.  Be blessed!