Frugal Friday Wrap Up 5/27/22

Weekend:

   We had Bradley and Isaiah spend the night with us on Saturday and they spent a good part of Sunday with also.  They had made dinner for us (Sloppy Joes with homemade rolls and cheese), yes THEY made it.  They are really good cooks, having learned from their mother Heather.  They watch Pirates of the Caribbean with Jeff and got to bed late Saturday night.  Sunday we had an easy breakfast of cereal and juice.  Bradley and Isaiah happily played with the big Tonka trucks outside and told me about some edible wild plants.  They have an amazing breadth of knowledge when it comes to outdoor life. 😊 Later the helped me trim the blackberry bushes after I got the laundry washed and hung out to dry.  Jeff surprised us all by taking us out to lunch (oh my goodness, was that ever expensive) and then we went to Winco and got some fresh produce, cheese and bagels.  I was very careful to just get produce that was on sale, other than bananas of course. 😉 After coming home, we got out the cornhole game that Jeff built for me and played that in the front yard, waving at the neighbors as they drove by.  Isaiah and I picked some spinach from the garden for him to take home also.  Later that evening, after the boys had gone home, we had leftovers for dinner and relaxed for a bit.

Monday:

~I got some delicates all washed and hung out to dry in the guest bathroom.

~I took 2 suckers off my  big tomato plants (not sure which variety I got them off of) and put them in water to see if they would root.

~I had leftovers for lunch and Jeff took a sandwich.

~Plant something every day has been my motto lately.  I seeded in another variety of kale.

~My mature tomato plants that are starting to put on blooms were put outside of the greenhouse to allow the bees to find them. I did return them to the greenhouse overnight.

~More spinach was harvested and made into a salad and also cut up and put into our dinner casserole.

~I made a chicken, broccoli and rice casserole for dinner using some already cooked chicken.  It was really good!

Tuesday:

~I had some of the leftover casserole for breakfast.

~The tomato plants were put outside again.

~Jeff took a sandwich for lunch.

~Finally I have found a great use for all those empty prescription pills bottles that tend to accumulate in my home.  They are great for plant propagation.  I know there are also places that I can donate them to, but during the pandemic, they were not accepting them, so they piled up since I am on 4 meds monthly.

~More of my potato plants are coming up and I am thrilled!

~I had a full on panic attack feeling like I needed to go and stock up on things that we buy on a regular basis that have wheat or corn in them.  This is understandable when you see how bad the shortages are, especially with wheat.  Sources from around the world are reporting that we are now down to a 70 day supply worldwide and the projected Spring wheat crops are not looking good for most of the world either due to weather and fertilizer shortages.  I did head into town and stuck within my $100 budget to stock up on things that we use on a regular basis, including a case of cream of mushroom soup.  Yes, that has flour in it too!

~I ran into Rachel and Steven when I stopped to see Jeff at work. What a wonderful surprise!😀  I asked Steven if he wanted to come to the Dollar Tree with me to pick out some water toys for us to play with at Grammie's house.  We got 3 water shooting things (not guns but these long tubes that we can fill up with water from a bucket and they shoot pretty far).  It is supposed to be a long hot Summer, so I wanted some toys like that here for him and I to play with and also enough for when his big cousins come over to play too.  While there I also found my favorite canned tamales and got some of those too to add to my pantry.

~Jeff made himself nachos for dinner and I had a glass of wine with some cheese, crackers and sausage.  I cut up the leftover cheese and sausage (it was one of those Hickory Farms snack sets that was a gift from Rachel's sister Michelle.  We call her our bonus daughter and love her dearly!) and put it in a small snack pack bag for Jeff to take with him to snack on at work.  Yes, the one glass of wine helped to dull some of the horrible hip and back pain that I have been having.  Shopping just does me in these days, but it is something that I really do enjoy doing.  It's the thrill of the hunt for me trying to find the best bargains to keep us well stocked, fed and clean.  Haha!

Wednesday:

~It was lightly raining when I woke up and had rained a bit overnight, so I did not need to put "water the gardens" on my list for the day.  Thank you God for your provision!

~My medications that I keep for my morning doses in the kitchen (up high next to the coffee maker of course) were all restocked since I was running out of low on some of them. I keep the rest in a cabinet elsewhere in the house and always make sure that little hands do not get into them. 😉

~Jeff and I had leftover casserole for dinner along with some garlic bread and sugar snap peas.

~I froze a bunch of cooked chicken for meals later.

Thursday:

~I made 2 more loaves of bread.

~While the oven was still hot, I cooked up a package of turkey bacon.  We will use some of it in bacon, tomato and lettuce (from the garden) sandwiches for dinner.

~The laundry was hung out on the line to dry.

~Steven happily played in the back yard with the toy trucks and excavator for awhile.

~He also helped me get all the plants in the greenhouse watered.  

~He and I discovered that we have cucumber plants coming up.  We planted those last week together so it was exciting to see them coming up.

~We planted some beans seeds in one of the raised beds.

~Smoothies were made as a reward for all the hard work in the garden.

~We enjoyed watching a robin feeding her babies.  The robin had made a nest in our breezeway and is not at all bothered by our comings and goings.

Friday:

~Steven was here for the day.  It was not the best weather, so we spent time watching movies and doing little projects around the house.

~Jeff brought home dinner from Panda Express and we both could not finish our meals, so we put the leftovers away for another meal.

Frugal Friday Wrap Up 5/20/22

 

   This has been a busy week for us with baseball games, and most importantly, Steven turning 5 years old on Thursday!  How can that be?  I remember the first time I held him in the hospital and our first sleepover together when he was just days old as his beautiful momma battled for her life in the hospital.  I am so thankful for answered prayers and the wonderful staff there that finally figured out what was going on and saved her life, while at the same time allowing Steven to bunk in with her for most of it.  Yes, I overdid it once again, especially while still battling the remnants of this virus.  It usually takes me a good three weeks to clear these things from my body, so about 2 more weeks to go.  Now onto the frugal doings!

Weekend:

~Jeff worked on the greenhouse and finally got it done!  Yay!

~I was sick so meals were simple and easy.  One of the meals I made was teriyaki meatballs over rice, a salad made from lettuce, spinach, Swiss chard and kale.  I also had radishes and green onions from the garden.

~Sadly we had to miss Steven's birthday party.  I hated to have to do it, but did not want to get everyone else sick.  Due to having autoimmune issues, I get hit really hard and it takes me a long time to recover from any illnesses.

~I moved all the plants and seedlings into the greenhouse.

~The weather was so nice for most of Sunday, so I could open up the sliding glass doors to the screened in porch and let the house air out.  The cats loved being able to come in and out.

~Jeff got the lawn mowed for the second time in a week.  It is growing so fast due to all the rain.

Monday:

~Two loaves of fresh bread were made, much to Jeff's delight.

~Leftovers were for dinner.

~I harvested more radishes.

~Jeff and I headed into Pullman to pick up a prescription a and to pick up some groceries and needed items.  We were very careful in what we bought since prices are going up and we also saw many empty shelves.  I did find a great deal on 5 pound bags of Manderin oranges, so I picked up one of those since we will have Bradley and Isaiah spending the night on Saturday night and they love them and go through lots of them at a time. We also picked up a thermometer for inside the greenhouse so that I can monitor the temperature as to not fry the poor plants.

~Jeff bought 2 5 gallon gas cans at Walmart for the same price that he would have paid for one elsewhere.

~I cleaned out the refrigerator and took inventory of what we have in there.

Tuesday:

~Jeff was off so he got the raspberry patch all pruned, cleaned up and tied back again.

~He also filled up the gas cans.  It cost him $50 to fill both up!  That is $50 for 10 gallons of gas!

~I harvested more radishes from the garden.  I added the small tender "seedling" leaves to our salad.  I love to snack on radishes at this time of year when they are crunchy and not so hot.

~Craving something "summer like", I made a large tuna pasta salad using up some celery that needed used ASAP, some green onion, and some dried dill from last year's garden in it.  I save the root ends of the green onions and have them growing in water right now.  I will transplant them out into the garden in a few days for more fresh green onions.

~Laundry was hung out on the line to dry.

~I picked more tulips from the garden to put in a vase inside the house.  I am really enjoying being able to change out the colors since my tulips come in at different times.

~We picked up Isaiah and Bradley from their Grandma Tammy's dance studio and took them down to Bradley's baseball game.  He did so well!  Meanwhile, Isaiah and his cousin Joby wiped out several times on the skateboard and came to me for wipes to get their scrapes cleaned off.  They went through most of the wipes that I had.  Luckily those wipes were free from Safeway earlier in the year and did not sting, so that made it easier for the boys.

Wednesday:

~I was completely wiped out from all the frugal doings and going to the game, along with dealing with the stress of an extended scary family medical issue.  I slept in until 10:50 a.m..  YIKES!  Yes, I am also still dealing with the summer cold too, which I am sure also played a part in it.  I decided to just be kind to myself and have a slower day since I will have Steven for the next 2 days and then have Bradley and Isaiah overnight on Saturday.

~I put some beautiful music on YouTube and got the digital coupons loaded up on my Safeway card.  I also checked out the other grocery store ads online.

~I had pulled some cooked squash and onions out of the freezer the previous day and used it today to make a squash casserole.

~Dinner was a sheet pan dinner of Italian sausage and sweet potatoes.  We had the sausage on buns and Jeff had a green salad while I had squash casserole as a side dish.

Thursday:

~It was our Steven's birthday!  He turned 5 years old.  Jeff and I got him an emergency vehicle garage with an ambulance, police car and fire truck complete with keys to lock the garage up.  We also got him a towel for the pool this summer.  I had found the toy at Goodwill and the towel was on clearance at the end of last summer.  I had put them back for his birthday and am so glad I did since the cost of everything is going up so high right now.

~Steven and I spent the day together and watched "The Land Before Time".  He is really into dinosaurs right now.

~He and I picked some radishes and spinach from the garden and watered the plants in the greenhouse.

~We made cookies for us and for him to take home.

~Rainwater was used to water the plants in the greenhouse.

~Dinner was cheesy shredded potatoes, the leftover Italian sausages and a spinach salad.  Cheesecake for dessert.

~Steven and I worked on his numbers using dominos to match and count numbers and also worked on writing the letters A and B and also learning their sounds.  We read stories and did an I Spy book.

~Steven had hot dogs for lunch and I had some of my squash casserole.

~Jeff stopped by the grocery store and got potatoes, onions and milk on his way home from work.

Friday:

~Steven and I got squash (3 kinds), flowers, cucumbers and more basil all seeded into pots, watered and into the greenhouse.  He loved the new watering wand Jeff bought for me and tried out all the different settings.

~Steven cleaned off the top of the hot tub cover with , you guessed it, the new watering wand. 😉

~Jeff and I had leftovers and sandwiches for dinner since I was so wiped out.

~During the day, Auntie Shannon (my hanai sister and next door neighbor), invited us over to play with her dogs, cats and to see the frog eggs and tadpoles in her pond.  She left a container out for us to use whenever we came over, even if she was not home 😊 , to scoop up some water and see how the tadpoles are growing into frogs.  I think this is going to be wonderful for Steven to see their growth cycle and will be amazed at the little frog legs as they form on the tadpoles.

   I hope that everyone is doing well and continuing to stock up on things and putting in a garden or even things growing in pots.  With the way grocery prices are going up, we are all going to need to be doing all we can to try and cut corners somewhere.  I figured that Jeff and I have already saved about $20 on salad fixings and radishes from those being grown in our garden.  I have lots more coming on too, so we will be eating well! I'm sure you have seen the news about some of our gas stations running out of gas over here in Eastern Washington State and I can confirm that is true.  One of our neighbors works at a Mobil gas station in Pullman and they have run out multiple times.  They are not getting the deliveries that they usually get of gas and it is really hurting their business.  I pray that he is not laid off because of the lack of customers due to the lack of gas.  Get some gas can my friends and fill them up!  You never know when the gas pumps may run dry and you need that fuel for you vehicle.

Feeling like Doogy Doo Doo and a Flood Watch

 

   Yesterday we missed Steven's birthday party because I was sick and napped throughout the day.  I woke up feeling better this morning, but then the tiredness and sinus pressure took me down again.  It does not help that we are under a flood watch for later today and the barometer is jumping around either.  I am so sensitive to any changes in air pressure even without being sick with a cold, so this just makes it worse.

   Jeff is outside trying to get my greenhouse finished up today.  I sure hope he is able to complete the job before the bad weather comes in around 4 p.m..  He had most of it done already so there are just a few things left to do on the outside and then he can work on the inside floor and the shelving.  I really need it to get done so I can start more plants in there from seed and my tomato plants can also move in there to give them a HUGE head start before I risk putting them directly out in the garden.

   The flood watch is in effect for 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. this afternoon.  There are some burn scar areas in Idaho that they are worried will slip down into the rivers clogging them up and causing widespread flooding.  One of those rivers runs through our area.  I am worried about a friend who lives down by the river and could be cut off by the flood.  She lives alone now since her husband passed away and she is not in the best of health.  Hopefully one of her kids can convince her to come stay with them for a few days.

   Well it's time for me to switch out some laundry that I am doing and then go and lay down for a bit.  I'm dizzy, my ear hurts, and I got nothing energy wise.  Be blessed all and please try to not get this cold like I have...it's not fun!

Trying to Prepare for what is to Come

I think by now we all realize, wherever we live, that things are getting rough financially for so many of us. Rising costs on just about everything and shortages on things like baby formula and now disel, should scare you. The problems that led to the baby formula shortages we known about months ago, and yet the FDA has not allowed to manufacturing plant to reopen, even though the problems have been fixed. Meanwhile, there are pallets and pallets full of formula in warehouses down at our southern border for people who are crossing into our country illegally. I realize that the babies being brought in also may need formula, but what about the babies who are legal citizens of our country? Why are they deemed "not importantant enough" to warrent the same abount of concern? I just don't get it and quite frankly, it makes me angry! Jeff and I are very concerned about what is to come with the rising costs. I am a planner and want to have all my ducks in a row so to speak in order to feel safe. Jeff on the other hand will get overwhelmed with all that there is to do and is not fond of my list making and discussions about what all we need to do. He is more than willing to work on the projects that I have lined up for us, but with his new work schedule, there is less time in the day to do them and that is stressing him out. I am trying to get more things done to take some pressure off of him, and our Steven has been a wonderful helper to me. I think Jeff is now feeling what I have for most of my life, being totally overwhelmed by too much to do. It is like we are swithching roles in a sense and I don't think either of us are really thrilled about it. In trying to save money to put elsewhere where it is needed, we are doing some familiar things and others, that are not something that we have normally done. I did buy the capri leggings pictures above for $3.33 each, and they were brand new, at a yard sale a few weeks back. I needed a few extra pairs since that is what I live in during the hotter months of the year. I also found some plain colored shirts for $1 each at Dollar Tree, before the prices went up. I'm glad I got them then. Speaking of rising prices, I realized that the 50 pound bags of flour that I got for $12.00 a year ago where now $29.00 at Winco the last time I checked! They are only going to get higher too. I am so glad I bought an extra 50 pounds awhile back when the prices were at $19.00 a bag. The college students are leaving and at one of the colleges, WSU, many of the students just throw out their things. We were able to get a nice chair, which we will sell, some clothing, a door mat, and a metal headboard, which I will use as a cucumber trellis in the garden. I am hoping to go back and find more things. I know in the past we have found furniture and sold it, but it seems more people are now strapped for cash and are doing the same thing we do. With the pressing issue of the diesel shortages, I asked Jeff to please buy 2 more gas cans and fill them up today before he comes home. Diesel is needed to power the trucks that deliver the gas and we are already seeing some gas shortages in our area. I want to have at least 10 gallons of gas set aside just for filling up Jeff's little comuter car. I also want him to top off one of the ones that we have here already and have been using for the lawn mower. I do have a 4th can and that is just for the generator if needed. My big fear is that gas prices will either go sky high here soon, or we will not be able to find gas and that Jeff would not be able to make it to work. He commutes about 34 miles each way 5 days a week. Luckily his paycheck is a bit higher this time due to some overtime pay, so we can comfortably do this at the moment without it taking away from something else. Jeff is hoping to finish the greenhouse for me this weekend and I, if I am able since I am sick right now with a horrible cold that I think I caught from our Steven, want to get more seeds going in the greenhouse. I also need to do more direct sowing of some of the cooler weather plants. I have already started harvesting spinach and radishes from my first planting and the second planting is coming along nicely for the most part. Sadly, the pok choi did not come up and I have no idea why. I will try a second planting and see what happens. I've made a detailed list of things that we will need and are low on or that I just feel need to be added to what we already have. Yes, I started to read the list to Jeff and he kind of shut down a bit. That is when he told me about how he was feeling. I had totally forgotten that he had told me this before and I appologized to him. I will keep the list in my notebook and pick up what we need without telling him everything. My goal honestly is to have at least a year's worth of stuff that we use on a regular basis on hand. Jeff has his own list of things that he wants to have here and bills that he wants to get paid off. It is stressing him out to not be able to put bigger chunks of money on paying off some of the bills, and I understand that. Luckily for us, Summer is a time of being able to eat more out of the garden, so we will spend much less on fresh produce. Jeff has gotten really good about trying new things in his salads, so that is really helpful when it comes to nutrition also. I'm super proud of him for that. The laundry line, rain barrels, free buckets, and other things will all be used extensively to help save us money. Steven and I will be working the gardens like crazy and will be doing more succession planting. I'll be sending home fresh produce with him and also giving some to Chris and Heather, while still trying to preserve a bunch of it for us. Heather has said she will continue to provide us with eggs free of cost, so that is a huge help right there also. Be blessed all and try to stay positive in these unsettling times. By the way, this is not supposed to be all one big run on paragraph, but blogger is being strange and this is how it all came out!

Some of our Meals Lately

Fish, cilantro lime rice and apple slices.


Here is just a sample of some of our meals lately.  Yes, we do eat a lot of canned green beans and rice.  They are favorites.  I do try to mix things up a bit and remake leftovers into other meals like a few slices of steak that went into making the soup you will see later down the list of pictures.  The small amount of dry fettuccini noodles that we not used in the fettuccini side dish (where I used the last of the bagged spinach before it went bad) were broken up and used in the homemade chicken noodle soup.  I am doing my best not to waste things as everything is going way up in price.  By the way, has anyone else noticed how bad the produce is?  I mean I bring tomatoes home and they start shriveling up in about 2 days! That is just ridicules.  Now before you ask how we can afford steak, know that it is venison or elk steaks that were given to us by Chris and Heather.  There is no way we could afford them otherwise!

Cheese and spinach pizza.

Steak slices, green beans and rice pilaf.

Rotini bake.

Teriyaki meatloaf, green beans, rice and homemade applesauce.

Tortellini and steak soup.

Homemade chicken noodle soup.

Herbed pork loin and a side of creamy herb and spinach fettuccini.

Sweet Italian sausage and potato bake.

Elk steak, green beans and baked potato salad.

Baked pork chops with an herb and butter sauce, chicken rice pilaf, baked asparagus and a side salad.

 

Tate Has Some Big News to Share

 

     

Yes, our Tate is going to be a big brother!  November of this year we will be adding grandbaby number 5 to our family!  Josh and Lauren are thrilled and so are we. 😊