Frugal Friday Wrap Up 1/6-1/12 2018

 

This is how I have spent most of the week.  Jammies, robe, recliner and Doofy and Patches who are finally able to share my lap without a fight.

   Thank you so much for your support and making me laugh after my last "jammie gate" post. 😘  I told Jeff about your responses and he gave me a funny look and said "that is what I have been telling you".  Sometimes a gal just has to check in with her friends though to know that she is not totally losing it.  I mean, seriously, this man has spent the majority of his life with me and sometimes I think he really believes that my quirks are completely normal.  LOL!  Anyway, I thank you, Jeff thanks you and the kitties, who have been enjoying these jammie days with me, would thank you if they could talk.  Now onto the frugal doings for this week.

Taco Salad for dinner.

~Saturday I cooked up a bunch of ground elk and made it into Taco meat.  We used some of it for Taco Salad for dinner that night.
~Jeff and I watched the movie "The Italian Job" on Netflix.
~We enjoyed snacking on some of the goodies that my baby brother and his family sent us for Christmas.
~Sunday Jeff got me out of the house for a bit.  He took me to the bowling alley restaurant where he used some of the credit on his loyalty card to buy us both lunch.

All the produce I got on the Fill a Bag for $20 special.

~We stopped at the grocery store that was having a fill your bag for $20 produce sale.  We got sweet potatoes, grape tomatoes, red delicious apples, a pineapple, radishes, peppers and  pears.  I added up the normal retail cost of buying these items separately and it came to around $32.
~We also stopped at the thrift store and picked up a learn to draw Star Wars characters book (for the little boys), a Anne of Green Gables book in the series that I did not have, 2 baby food freeze and store containers (for Rachel since she makes Steven's baby food), a beautiful nude colored small leather purse and a Lilly Pulitzer eyeglass case.

Baby food freeze and store containers for homemade baby food.

~Jeff and I enjoyed watching the movie "Boss Baby" on Netflix.
~Monday I had lunch at Heather's mother's home after her grandmother's funeral.
~I got online at the library website and put in requests for more books to read.
~Exhausted and hungry for dinner around 10:00 pm. I was tempted to just call the Tavern and order a chicken strip dinner but decided to open a can of clam chowder and had that instead.

Homemade Lo Mein

~Tuesday I was totally out of it so I stayed home.  I wanted something simple for dinner so I rummaged around in the refrigerator and came up with a slice of pork roast, some broccoli slaw, Yoshida Gourmet Sauce, some fresh mushrooms and then added some whole wheat noodles and onion to make some Lo Mein.
~While making the Lo Mein, I accidently dumped too much sauce in so I got out the turkey baster and sucked as much as I could back out.  I will use this sauce later in the week for another dish I have planned.  I could not see wasting all of it.
~Jeff and I hot tubbed to ease our aching muscles.
~Wednesday I took the leftover taco meat, added sour cream, green enchilada sauce, some water and torn up into bite sized pieces of large flour tortillas and baked that off covered with foil in the oven at 400F for 30 minutes and then took the foil off and baked for an additional 10 minutes.  I let it sit for a few minutes to cool down and stop bubbling while I added some mild mexican cheese to the top.  Yum!

Deconstructed Enchilada Casserole

~In the early morning hours Wednesday, as I was getting ready to go to bed, I realized that Jeff had forgotten to take the video and a book back to the library.  I got dressed, drove down and put the things in the library drop box.  I also stopped at the post office and found lots of coupon inserts in the recycling bin.  I'm sure glad that nobody else was out at 1:00 in the morning and saw me.  I'm sure they would think that I was crazy.
~Thursday I stayed home again while it snowed/slushed outside.  I had no desire to go anywhere!
~Josh, Jeff and I used SKYPE to have a nice visit.
~Leftovers were for dinner since Jeff had to head in early to do some shopping and bowling later.

More of my thrift store finds earlier in the week.

~The roads are a mess, so I had him take my car since it has all wheel drive and I know the roads will be sheer ice by the time he heads to work from his bowling league and most likely in the morning when he heads home from work also.
~Jeff picked up  two 2 pound blocks of cheese at Safeway for $3.98 each.  There is a limit of 2 or he would have gotten more.
~I purged some more things that I no longer wear and have a bag ready to donate to a thrift store.
~Friday found me still rocking my jammies...it was another gray and gloomy day.  I'm going to try and find the sliver lining here and say I was just saving on laundry costs by not changing into other clothes for the day.  That's a good thing right? 😉
~The gray and gloom were really starting to get to me so I took a "virtual vacation" to warm and tropical places and even flew first class via Youtube videos.   Just the sound of the airplane's engines revving up for take off calm me.  Traveling by air has always been one of my favorite things to do and it is something I did a lot as a child.  I will always associate it with fun vacations for the most part.

My bargain blocks of cheese.

~I pulled some bread, bagels and some ground elk meat out of the freezer since I did not feel like making bread today and was afraid that the sound of the Kitchenaid would wake Jeff who came home exhausted again.  I also only got 4 hours of sleep and none of that deep sleep so I was not very motivated to begin with.
~In need of comfort food, I cooked up a frozen pot pie for lunch and had some homemade applesauce with it.  I am so thankful that I made so much applesauce this past Summer and froze it.
~Dinner tonight was leftovers for Jeff and a salad for me.

Listening to my friend Gary Haleamau's music on YouTube.

~Jeff was not doing so well after he got up in the afternoon and he is not sure if that cold is coming back or if he might be getting the flu now.  He is picking up 3 boxes of tissues on his way to work tonight so that if he or I get the flu, we are restocked again.  I did check our flu meds and we are good with them.  We had planned on doing a restock this next Tuesday but with him feeling a bit more congested, we did not want to take chances.  A school district up north of us closed down this week and will reopen on Monday IF they have enough teachers to staff it and it there are enough students to make it feasible. They wanted to give the staff and students time to rest and heal since so many are sick.  They are also disinfecting the entire school.
~Sometimes I get really homesick for Hawaii and tonight was one of those nights.  I pulled up some of my friend Gary Haleamau music and played it on YouTube.  He has the most beautiful falsetto voice and wrote many of the Hawaiian songs that he sings on his albums along with Hawaiian classics.  I am really looking forward to seeing him and hearing him, his wife and son perform when we go down to Las Vegas to see Josh. 
~The pictures of my oldest grandson and my youngest grandson and their milestone moments just made me smile this week.  They are each entering into a new chapter of their lives and I am so blessed as their Grammie to get to see it all. :)

Picture of our oldest grandson Bradley who called us this week to tell us he lost another tooth.  He was very proud to show me his new "grown up" tooth that was coming in.

Meanwhile, teething baby Steven is getting his first baby tooth!

   Plans have changed for this weekend.  Jeff was supposed to go and get the back stairs built and replace the rickety ones and Jaysn and Rachel's on Saturday but now it is calling for rain.  Jeff called Jaysn and found out that Sunday is out for doing them because Rachel's mom and sister are coming down that day.  We were going to have to play it by ear anyway since Jeff is not feeling so great.  I am going to miss seeing my little Steven (along with his parents of course) but we don't want to risk getting him or his parents sick either.  I do hope Jeff is not getting sick again so that we can have a quiet weekend and can finally get my hair cut.  It's getting to the point where I am tempted to call one of my former students and make an appointment with her to get my hair done.  She is now a hair stylist and a very good one at that.  We will see how it goes.