Monday, August 13, 2018

Frugal Friday Wrap Up 8/4-8/10 2018

   Sorry that this is not a very good post and is lacking pictures but to be totally honest, the heat, smoky air and changes in air pressure have really been taking a huge toll on me.  I'm having trouble forming complete thoughts, nevermind getting them onto the screen here.  I'm also hypersensitive to everything at the moment and in lots of pain with nausea coming because of that. I'm also having nightmares again.  Until the weather gets better and the skies are cleared out of the smoke, I fear I will continue to be like this. I'm just fatigued, sore, frustrated and am still trying to put a smile on my face and remain as positive as I can be.  I really want to be positive and happy and am trying my best to be that way despite all that is going on with me right now.  Onto the savings...


~The town wide yard sales were not as plentiful this year but I still managed to get some nice things for dirt cheap.  Jeff's best deal of the day was a bicycle for $1 that he is going to fix up for Isaiah (we have everything we need here already to do so) and mine was a pair of sterling silver turquoise and coral Native American made earrings for .10, yes ten cents!  They were mixed in with a bunch of cheap costume jewelry so I am assuming that is why they were still there and no one had found them for hours before I got to the sale.
~The company Jeff works for throws an employee appreciation party each year.  This is the second year in a row that they have held it at a waterpark and told the employees to bring their families.  Also this year they booked it for 4 hours and brought in pizza for everyone.  It was so much fun and our kids and grandkids really enjoyed themselves!
~We stopped at the Grocery Outlet store in Lewiston Idaho before heading home from the water park and found some wonderful deals there.  We got Nutrigrain blueberry granola bars for 2 boxes for .97 (gave one of them to Rachel for Steven who polished off 2 of the bars in the box before they even left our house), chocolate chip cookie dough for $1.47 with a B1G1F deal, and found several other great deals also.
~I was able to get in on some of the higher value encraves at Swagbucks and cashed on on Sunday for another $25 gift card for Walmart.  I took advantage of the discounted price and also got a 100 sbs rebate.
~Three loaves of banana bread were made and then I baked up a pan of sweet potato wedges since the oven was already hot.
~I sent one of the loaves of banana bread home with Jaysn, Rachel and Steven when they came by for a visit.
~We hung the towels and bathing suits out to dry after washing them.
~Jeff built a new shelving unit with some wood he had here on hand and attached it to the side of our entertainment center (which he also built) to house more of our dvds and cds.
~Dinner was clam chowder for me and oatmeal for my hubby.  I had no more energy and neither did he.
~Rachel harvested and enjoyed some tomatoes from our garden. That makes me happy!
~Monday Jeff and I gave each other haircuts.  We were overdue for them and with the heat climbing into the triple digits, it was time to get it done!
~I made some cold tuna pasta salad and the fur babies got some of the tuna water from the cans.
~The Summer apple tree did not do as well this year fruit wise, but I was still able to get some apples off of it to make either fried apples or applesauce with.
~Since I know it will be too hot to cook for the next few upcoming days, I took some frozen turkey lunch meat out of the freezer along with some chicken thighs.  The turkey lunch meat will be used to make sandwiches and the chicken will be dinner Monday night and also again later in the week.  I'll bake some potatoes, sliced up under the chicken too as part of our meal and enough for several other meals also.
~The laundry was hung out on the line to dry.
~Jeff got the plants in the front garden all mulched to help hold in the moisture in the soil since we are going to be in the triple digits temperature wise.  He got the mulch for free.
~I watered all the garden beds, trees and flower beds in the back of the house in the evening.  I forgot to do the front flower beds so I will have to get those tomorrow.  I did remember to water all the potted plants though.
~Tuesday it was hot so I stayed inside the house for the most part and worked on my points programs.  Rachel brought Steven up for awhile.  He got shots yesterday and was a bit fussy.  He likes coming up here to play where it is cooler and he has more room to run around.  We got out a big bowl and filled it with water for him to splash in...he loved it!
~Dinner was turkey sandwiches since it was too hot to cook.
~I found the link for the recipes from the cookbook "Good and Cheap" https://www.leannebrown.com/index/  It has some really good recipes there and you can download the cookbook for free also.
~Before I went to bed, I ran Jeff's work laundry through the washer so it would be ready to hang out in the morning when I got up.
~Our salt container from the store broke so I recycled a baby's puffs treat container to hold the salt.
~Wednesday I needed to head in to Pullman and pick up a prescription at Walmart.  My prescription cost jumped up under the new health insurance which ticked me off a bit.  While I was there I looked in their clearance areas and found a black swim skirt (I needed another one), 2 shirts ($4 and $5 each) and 2 pajamas ($4 and $5 each).  I also picked up some marked down corned beef from the deli along with a marked down chicken bacon ranch sandwich for Jeff, a watermelon and some bananas.
~Safeway had a surprise special of prepackaged salads marked down to .50 a bag.  I bought a bunch of them and gave some to Rachel and Jaysn also.  We will be eating lots of salad over the course of a week and I am good with that.  I love salads when it is hot outside.  Some other great deals that I scored were cooked shrimp and hummus at half price, mayo at half price and a large container of blueberries for $2.99.
~My best scores of the day came from the thrift store.  I stopped in to see if I could find some more shirts for Steven since he is outgrowing everything.  They had a .25 sale on all blue tagged clothing items.  I was able to find 5 shirts for him, 1 for Jeff, a shirt to resell (Nanette Lapore brand) and a pair of denim skinny cut jeans for me...all for .25 each.  I also found a birthday gift for Chris, 2 cookbooks, a Disney drawing book for the little boys and a Chicago Cutlery knife.
 ~Jeff's laundry was hung out on the line to dry.
~I watered the gardens in the evening.
~The mail brought a free Country living magazine, coupons, including one for a free item, from Bath and Body Works, and a box from Pinch Me that had a hair mask and some Starbucks coffee K cups in it.
~I watched a presentation by a doctor who specializes in Fibromyalgia treatment and learned a few new things.
~Thursday was a blazing hot day so I spent most of the day inside.  I had the swamp cooler running overnight to get as much cool air into the house as possible.  Jeff shut it off when he got home at 6 a.m. since it was already starting to get hot outside.  I turned it on again later in the day when it got hot in the house again in the afternoon.
~I used my Instant Pot to cook up 2 artichokes.
~Dinner was leftover oven baked chicken, potatoes and a salad.
~My encraves were finally back at Swagbucks, so I ran them in the background while I got other things done on and off my computer.
~We invited Jaysn, Rachel and Steven to come up this afternoon to cool off in our home and also have some watermelon and cantaloupe. :)  It was nice to visit with them and laugh at Steven's antics.
~After they left, Jeff and I used our hot tub (unheated) to cool off in even more.  I needed to cool my inner core down and that worked well.

  I hope you had a good week. :)












18 comments:

  1. I’m sorry about all the fires and bad air conditions. It’s sounds horrible
    I’ve also been working on Swagbucks. I get most of my points from running their mobile apps on old android phones. If they are all running smooth, I can get at least 60 from the 6 apps and usually more. I don’t like sitting at the desktop to do encraves even though they add up quickly.
    My grands love most any kind of granola bar too
    Your husband’s work party sounds very nice

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Rhonda, I have never downloaded the mobile apps since my phone's battery does not seem to hold a charge for very long. Since I am home for most of the day, the encraves work well for me, especially that autotrun ones since I can just have them going on their own. :) The party was nice. I hope your grandkids are enjoying school and that you are enjoying having some time for yourself again. :)

      Delete
  2. it sounds like you had a great week despite feeling so bad.
    Prayers for healing, strength and vitality my friend.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Cheryl. I so need to come and visit your blog. My brain has been really foggy so it has been hard to concentrate on reading lately. I will read and respond to 1 or 2 blogs a week and then I need to stop. Just wanted you to know why I have not been to your blog for awhile. Hopefully I will be able to do more soon. I miss reading all your wonderful suggestions and advice. :)

      Delete
  3. I am sorry about the hard week you have had.
    Prayers that things return to normal and you get relief soon.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Billie Jo...praying all is well with you!

      Delete
  4. Loved the post -- you managed to get some great deals this week and a lot done in spite of the heat.
    Can you share the link to the Fibro information. I'm always in search of new ideas. Also wrote you an email.
    Send gentle hugs and prayers. The smoke has made it here as well. ick.
    SJ

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi SJ, I gave you some info about in the email YouTuber but will try to find the link for the one I watched that I mentioned here and get that to you too.

      Delete
    2. I found that link for you on the Fibro information. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=et2yca1g0sM

      Delete
  5. I am so happy you are surviving the heat. I wondered how you were doing. My arthritis and sjogrens is all over the place. It is hard to stay up when I (you ) feel lousy all the time. We simply have to get together when it cools down. But look at all the great thing you did.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I am so sorry Kim. I have been worried about you down in the valley there. That fire the other day up at the top of the grade was awful and just added to all the smoke you are having to deal with. I do want to get together with you when things cool down and the smoke clears out. I think that would be so much fun!

      Delete
  6. Sounds like a good week, Debbie, even with the heat and fires and everything. Glad you have the swamp cooler to cool down your house.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. HI BLess, yes the swamp cooler is wonderful but unfortunately cannot be used when there is smoke in the air because it pulls it all right into the house. I had it on earlier and it sucked it all in...oh that was bad. I hope you are doing ok. I saw that there have been fires down south of you.

      Delete
  7. The smoky air has been frustrating where I live too. I feel bad complaining because the fires aren't actually affecting us aside from the smoke, but it's super annoying! I miss seeing the sun.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Diana, I am too and it is just getting worse.

      Delete
  8. I have been super busy this week, so am just getting caught up. We had several very smoky days here, as well. There were days when I just couldn't catch my breath easily. We escaped to the beach Wednesday afternoon with my nephew, Jake, and youngest daughter and escaped the smoke that day as well. Thankfully, it's cleared out the last couple of days. My husband is with a friend in Eastern Oregon, and he says some places are terrible with smoke, and others are just fine.

    I've been canning and preserving like crazy and have more to go. I also spent quite a bit of time with a close family member in the hospital--we all just took turns being there when we didn't have to work, but all is good now, and the patient is back home again, hopefully all fixed up.

    The beach trip was fun--we drove down, parked, carried lawn chairs down some stairs and sat right by a little stream and said "dig." 3-1/2 hours later, Jake shook his sandy hands and said, "I've got to get this stuff off of me." So, then he spent a good 15 minutes squirting everything in sight with the outside shower, supposedly cleaning the sand toys and himself. We just took him to our house for the night, as Rob needed to watch him the next day anyway while I headed back to the hospital. We all had fun.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm sorry you are dealing with all the smoke too but am glad you were able to escaped it at the beach for a bit at least. That Jake cracks me up! I just love him! I'm glad your relative is home again and that you all were able to take turns being with them when they were in the hospital. I know that means the world to me to have someone with me when I have been stuck there.

      Delete
  9. nice article great post comment information thanks for sharing.
    หนังออนไลน์

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for taking time to comment on my blog posts. I really appreciate it and being able to get to know you through your comments. I hope you have a wonderful day!