Frugal Friday Wrap Up 9/23/22

   This is going to be in list form since I was horrible about trying to keep track of what I was doing each day.  Major Fibro Fog due to high stress levels just took me down yet again and I am slowly rebuilding my stamina.  This is something I have learned that I cannot rush or it is a "one step forward two steps back" kind of thing.  I'm trying to keep my sleep schedule semi normal, but there are still nights that despite taking medication to help calm me, I still have a multilane freeway going on in my mind.  Such is life and I cannot stress about the fact that it just happens, or it makes it worse.  This is NOT a "feel sorry for me" post, just the opposite.  It is an acceptance of what my life is and it feels good to finally be able to not put more pressure upon myself.  😊 It has taken me a long time to finally get to this point (many, many years) and I am proud of myself for finally getting here.  Yes, I still get frustrated at what I cannot do, but I no longer beat myself up about it.  There is always going to be stresses in life, but I no longer add to it by feeling guilty about that stress affecting me...does that make sense?

   Anyway, that is not what this post is really about is it?  😉 It's about how we have been trying to save money and live a frugal life.  Is it just me or has anyone else noticed how much grocery prices are jumping up more and more quickly?  Oh my goodness, I was shocked at my bill at Winco the other day.  I paid at least twice what I did for the same items just a few months ago!  Not only that, but my coffee, the Winco house brand, not only went up in price by $2 a can, but they also shrank the can.  Seriously, I kid you not!  I am trying to get ahead of the holidays and stock up on things that we need for those celebrations, along with getting all the gifts for the grandkids.  Anyone else doing this?  Anyway, onto the frugal doings...

~I found some Sesame Street board books for our little grandson Tate.  He loves Sesame Street!  I found the books at the Dollar Tree.

~I stocked up on 40 pounds of flour.  It was cheaper to get it in the 10 pound bags than any other way.  I got them all emptied into washed out food grade buckets with tight fitting lids that I had previously gotten free from Safeway.

~Jeff and I picked all the pears off the trees.  We got a bucket full this year, which is more than we have gotten in previous years.

~I went to Jeff's work for a free BBQ lunch and also got some beautiful robin egg blue paint for half price to paint our front door with.

~I sent some tomatoes to work with Jeff for our friend Dee.  I have an abundance of tomatoes and I wanted to bless her.

~The green larger tomatoes were all picked since the bugs were starting to really get to them with the weather getting colder at night.  They will slowly ripen here in the house.

~Blackberries, blackberries, blackberries!  Oh we have so many!  Jeff and I have both been picking them like crazy.  Most of them are being frozen for me to make jams/jellies, pies and syrups.  I have also been gorging myself on them fresh!

~We finally used up the last of our Montana Huckleberry potatoes.  They were delicious!  We did find that they are not good "keepers" for storage, so we know that we will need to grow some additional good "keeper" type next years also.

~We skipped the county fair this year, even if it was free to get into.  One of the customers that came into the store Jeff works at said that he spent $400 😬at the fair for food and rides.  He also said it was so crowded and they waited for an hour per ride.  Now Jeff and I do not do the rides, but I also do not do huge crowds!  It will send me into a panic attack, and nobody needs that.

~I froze some over-ripe bananas to use later for bread.

~More loaves of my homemade bread were made and quickly consumed.

~I have been planning meals around what we have and needs used up in the fridge and freezer.  Some of the meals we have had were a Sloppy Joe noodle casserole, Little Smokies sausages in the BBQ sauce, grilled cheese and tomato sandwiches, broccoli cheese soup and pulled pork sandwiches.  I served these with side dishes of carrot sticks, sauteed squash from our garden, sliced crisp apples, green beans, and coleslaw.

~Kitty TV once again entertained my indoor cats.  I love YouTube and apparently, they do too. 😉

~My dear friend/sistah Roni (also known as my boys "other mother" and I am know as the same for her girls) came over for a girls' night.  We had soup and she brought carrot cake and macaroons for dessert.  Delicious and so good to have some time to just sit. relax and catch up on each other's lives.

~We have been waiting for the new "Rise of Gru" Minion movie to come out on one of our streaming services and it finally did!  Jeff and I thoroughly enjoyed it!

~Jeff fashioned a blackberry picking container out of an old coffee can and a bracket.  He hangs it on the fence as he picks.  Genius I tell ya!

~They had lots of leftover frozen burgers and chips at Jeff's work so they have been BBQing burgers for lunch for the employees and having them bring home some of the chips.

~I thought the microphone on my computer had pooped out on me and tried for hours to figure it how to fix it.  I talked to Josh about it and he offered me his old Macbook to use so we could still do facetimes with Tate.  I did finally figure it out and restored my computer's microphone, but Josh still wants me to bring home the Macbook just in case.

      So that is what we have been up to.  The garden is still producing more cherry tomatoes, squash and blackberries.  The acorn squash continues to grown and I am still praying we get some before the frost hits here.  Jeff has been working on winterizing our house, hot tub and buying more wood pellets to heat with. I've been puttering around and slowly changing out the pictures and flowers over to Fall themed ones.  Soon the new rug will go down in the living room after this (hopefully) last heat wave we are due to be getting starting today.  I am happy for the slower pace of Fall and the shorter days and longer nights.  It just makes me feel more comfy cozy. 😊Be blessedf my sweet friends!