Frugal End of the Month Wrap Up 10/31/22

   It is currently raining outside, but yes, we did get some snow as you can see by the picture above and we are expecting more later in this week.  The temperatures continue to drop and the days are getting shorter.  Jeff and I got the rug we bought out for the living room and put that down.  It adds some much needed "warmth" to the living room and just makes it feel all that cozier.  I've been having more cups of hot tea during the day and at night while snuggled up under a soft fleece blanket.  I've been making sure that our pantry has everything we need to make delicious and nourishing meals that "stick to your ribs" as my grandfather used to say. 😉 

   Our excitement is also building as we anxiously await the birth of our darling granddaughter Peyton.  She could be making her grand entrance into the world at any time now!  It still does not seem real that we are finally going to have a baby girl join our family after all these years.  My mother and I are both so very glad she is though. 💓 While we wait, here are some of the things we have been up to...

~I harvested and dehydrated more basil and sage before the frost got it.

~I picked the last of the blackberries and made some very thick syrup with them.

~Fresh tomato sauce was made with the larger ripe tomatoes, and I froze a bunch of the cherry tomatoes. 

~I cut up a pineapple....so good!

~Scrapple was made with some breakfast sausage meat that Jeff's boss blessed us with.  They also gave us a large package of ham steaks, bacon, and pork chops.  They bought 2 pigs from the fair and had them butchered. They decided to bless all the employees with some of the meat.  That was so very sweet of them and much appreciated.  The scrapple gave us two meals.

~Jeff got the outside hoses all drained, the hot tub winterized (we were not able to fix the problem after all so we had to drain it again), and the rain barrel put away.

~Jeff sealed all the wood on the new door he put on my greenhouse.

~We have been eating the pears from our trees and I have been having blackberries in my cereal.

~Rachel's mom came for a visit and we celebrated her birthday.  We gave her some of the Tuscan Herb salt that I make, along with a nice candle as a gift.  She blessed us with some Fall decor pieces and gave us a pair of leather baby moccasins that she made (she is part Lakota Sioux) for baby Peyton.  That just blew me away!

~We stopped at the Dollar Tree and picked up some Liquid Skin, pineapple, and treats for goodie birthday bags for Jaysn and Heather.

~I overdid it last Sunday and then could not sleep that night.  I finally drifted off to sleep around 4 a.m. and slept until 11 a.m.  That left me very out of it on Monday.  I was so glad that I had made the homemade tomato sauce the day before so that we could have it for dinner with pasta.

~My cousin Jeremy called and told me he had closed on a house he is buying.  I am so happy for him!  We chatted for over an hour.  I miss having him up here near us, but it is sure nice to know that we will remain close at heart and over the phone and Facebook.

~I'm seriously thinking of renaming my cats Patchy and Midgy to Thelma and Louis.  I woke up to them ripping into a bag of cat food that I had bought for Ginny (the outside cat that seems to have adopted us).  This is the second time I have caught them.  Ugh!  Not to be outsmarted by the feline dynamic duo, I repurposed an old coffee can to put the rest of the cat food in.  I give them a few days to figure that one out. 😉

~That tomato sauce that I made was used as a sauce for tortellini for dinner on Monday.  Jeff took some of the leftovers for work one day and I had some for lunch another day.

~I mended a ripped pocket on a pair of Jeff's jeans.  I also put a new button on another pair of jeans for him.

~Tis the time of year to switch out the warm weather clothing for the colder weather clothes.  I did set aside some capris and short sleeved shirts for our trip to Las Vegas in November though just in case it is warmer.  The kids told me it is in the 60's at that time of year and they also keep their home really warm because of the kids.  Oh, I also realized that I need one more pair of comfy jeans, so I will be on the lookout for those at Walmart and the thrift stores.

~We "visited" with Josh, Lauren and Tate via Facebook chat with the camera and Tate is making progress with saying Grammie.  I am no longer Dammie.  Yay!  😉  He gets really excited to see G-pa and keeps saying his name over and over again.  G-pa is a big goof and Tate just loves him. LOL!  Lauren's bump has definitely dropped and our precious little Peyton is getting closer and closer to making her grand entrance into the world.  Tate already loves his little sister and kisses his mommy's tummy and talks to his baby sister.  It is absolutely adorable!

~I downloaded digital coupons to my Safeway card.  One of the coupons was for frozen pizzas.  Jeff picked up 4 pizzas for $10 and baked up 2 of them on Wednesday for dinner and we froze the other ones.  Yes, there were leftovers for other meals from the ones I baked up.

~Jeff and I cut my hair and I feel so much better!

~Remember those jeans I mentioned needing to find earlier?  Well Thursday I took a trip into town and stopped on my way at the thrift store in the next town over.  I found a pain of J Jill jeans there for $1!  I also found some brand new pillows there that someone had just donated for $1 each.  I got 4 of them.  They are down filled and have a tapestry print on one side and leather on the other side.  Apparently, the lady had ordered them and did not like them when they came in, so she donated them.  The woman running the store was telling me about them while she was putting them out.  I also bought 2 books there.

~I went to Goodwill and found some pajamas, a brand new bra with tags on it which was the exact bra that I had been wanting to get and it was my size.  Thank you God!  I found some brand new in package Addidas hairbands and some cozy and soft Lucky Brand socks. Oh, I almost forgot, I found a Frozen 2 Monopoly game.  I needed some new games here to play with the older grandboys and this looked like fun!

~I made a huge crockpot full of homemade macaroni and cheese for our Sept/Oct birthday party for Jaysn and Heather.  I had extra sauce left over, so I made some broccoli cheese soup with it.  That made for several meals.

~I did some grocery shopping on Thursday and on Saturday night (after the family party).  I found jewel yams on sale for .99 a pound.  We really like these as a substitute for the more expensive sweet potatoes at this time of year.  They had fully cooked sausage patties for .99 too, so I got 2 packages of those. I picked up some instant potato packages with butter that you just add water to.  They were one sale and with the price of milk and butter going up, I thought this would be good to have on hand and save us some money in that department.  We did find that some things that we wanted were missing at Winco.  I asked our checker about it and he told me they had no idea what would be sent to them when anymore.  Oh, he also accidently rang one of our bulk bin purchases up wrong and luckily, I caught it.  That would have been a $30 mistake had I not.  I really can't blame the checker...the tags they have you write the information on are tiny and my hubby does not have the best handwriting.

~I had a Telemed appointment with my doctor to go over some test results and about where we stand on the echocardiogram (insurance company is being awful about approving it so my doctor sent in some additional information on why it was needed).  Having a Telemed appointment saved me from having to travel to the office.

~We've been watching more movies and series on our free to us streaming services and on YouTube.

~Our hanai sister/neighbor Shannon is in Ireland right now and has been sending us pictures of their adventures!  It is so much fun to see all the sights through her eyes.

~I had a long conversation with my parents over the phone one day.  It was so nice to be able to get caught up with one another.

~I gave Chris and Heather the Christmas gifts for my parents and brother Fritz.  They are taking them over to Montana for us since they will be heading over this week.  My mother is sending the whole gang here Christmas presents back with Chris and Heather.  Mom and Dad decided that they would pick something off of the lists they had us make of things that we each wanted once they passed away and would give those to us now to enjoy.  I thought that was a wonderful idea!

   So there you have it.  As we close out this month, I look forward to the next few where we will be spending more time with family and celebrating together.  I have Steven coming to stay with me several times when his school is not is session am so happy to be able to having my Bubby with me again.  I have missed having him here with me.  I am also hoping to have a sleepover with the older 2 grandboys seperately, so they each get their special one on one time.  Our Isaiah was asking me if we could do this soon.  You know Grammie here said yes we could!  You all be blessed, stay warm, healthy (my doctor told me covid is really rampant here once more), and safe.