Frugal Friday Wrap Up 3/10/23

   

   Here it is at the end of another week.  This one seemed to fly by.  It was our 38th wedding anniversary on Thursday so Jeff I reminisced about all the blessings we have had together and about the close knit family that we have created.  Little did we know when we stood up at the alter so many years ago giggling what was in store for us.  😊

   Now onto the not so nice stuff.  Today a second bank failed...Silicon Valley Bank shut down by regulators in collapse (nypost.com)  Wells Fargo also had what they said was a "computer glitch" that had many people waking up to find that all or most the money in their account was gone.  The failure of the SVB means that all funds are frozen for the time being.  There are both FDIC insured funds (up to $250,000) and ones that are not.  Businesses that have their money in this bank have found that their employees that were due to be paid today out of some of those funds now cannot be paid.  People are panicking. If they do not have cash on hand, a well stocked pantry, an emergency fund (that was not in that bank also), etc., then they are in a heap of trouble.  I don't for one minute believe that the funds will be released on Monday.  Bank runs have already started and many people, who were warned ahead of time, pulled money out of this particular bank and out of others.  Luckily Jeff and I have been preparing for this kind of a situation by paying down our debts as fast as we can, stocking our pantries, keeping cash on hand, and getting supplies that we need for the gardening season.  Bank runs, inflation, lay offs and such will just continue.  Then there are all the natural disasters from the huge amounts of snow and communities being cut off, tornados, and flooding all within the past few weeks and into today.  We need to be as prepared as we possibly can be.  Now onto the frugal doings...

Weekend:

~I cut up the roasts that I bought the day before.  Out of the two roasts, I got the following: 3 packages of stir fry meat, 4 packages stew meat, 1 package of 3 small steaks, and 3 packages of 2 each large sirloin tip steaks.

~I took one of the packages of the stew meat and got a nice stew going in the crockpot. for dinner. I served it Hawaiian Sweet rolls and some homemade applesauce that I pulled out of the freezer.  We had the leftover caramel apple pizza for dessert.

~I cooked up the last of the scrapple and 3 eggs (for Jeff) and we had that for lunch.

~I took a nap on Saturday after lunch.

~Jeff and I finally got my haircut.  I feel like a new woman again. 😉

~Jeff took me out on a date Sunday for our anniversary.  We went to the Mad Greek restaurant.  It is one of our favorite places to go.  I brought home some of my meal and had it for dinner later in the evening. Some people might recognize the name of the restaurant from the news as it is the place that 2 of the girls that were University of Idaho students and were murdered worked and where the "alleged" murderer was known to have gone to.  It was eerie to see the candles outside that were burnt at night as a vigil to all the innocent lives that were taken.

~After leaving the Mad Greek, we went to Goodwill and set a limit of $20 to spend there.  Our Goodwill now gets donations from Target.  I was able to find a nice bathmat for our master bathroom (the old one is falling apart) for $5.99, an 11 pack of underwear for $5.97, a bra (which was the color tag of the week, so half price) for $1.99, and some liquid hand soap (also half priced) for .99.  In addition, we were able to use a 20% off coupon on one item.  We spent just over $15 with tax.  Not bad and all the items were brand new.

~We picked up the rest of our grocery needs from Winco.  It was a very small shopping trip because not much was needed.  We should be fine for the next 2 weeks other than having to pick up more milk and some bananas next week.

~Our entertainment for Sunday evening was watching "Wakanda Forever" while munching on some popcorn here at home.

Monday:

~We had leftovers for dinner.  

~I had a long chat with one of Uncle Bob's sons and he showed me around the house and what they had done to it so far.  I helped him come up with a realistic price to sell the house for since the price that they thought they would start at, knowing that they would have to come down from, would make it so people would not look at the house to begin with.  I have been following the housing market in our area for awhile, so I know what is selling and for what price.

~I've been reading some books that I borrowed from the library.

Tuesday:

~Jeff had the day off so he worked on making a screened window for the greenhouse on the opposite side of the other one.  This window will be high up so that the hot air can escape when the temps are really high. It got so hot in there last Summer that it ended up melting some of the plastic trays that I start plants in. YIKES!

~I pulled a nice big boneless skinless chicken breast out of the freezer to thaw for dinner.  I also got some pulled pork out to use for dinner Wednesday.

~A HUGE red bell pepper was cut up and most of it was frozen. 

~I made fettuccini alfredo for dinner and added the thinly sliced chicken breast, along with some of the diced up red pepper to it.  It was amazing!

~Jeff and I watched "The Ark" together.

Wednesday:

~I had the leftover fettuccini alfredo for lunch.

~Uncle Bob's son Alan came over and gave me a birdbath that belonged to his parents.  I had expressed interest in buying it, but he just gave it to me.  He also gave me a bunch of cement pavers that were much appreciated since we were going to have to buy some to finish a project we have here.

~I watched several shows on Youtube and Paramount during the day.

~Jeff and I watched "Survivor".  I am so thankful to our kids for sharing their subscriptions with us so we can watch it.

~Dinner was pulled pork that I had pulled out of the freezer combined with some BBQ sauce served on the last of the hamburger buns, baby carrots and some canned fruit.

~I baked 2 loaves of sandwich bread.

~It was Bradley's 11th birthday!  How can he be this old already?  I started my blog right before he was born.  He is such a special, kindhearted, smart, handsome and yes, sarcastic young man.  I would not want him any other way!

Thursday:

~It was Jeff and my 38th wedding anniversary and he left little love notes for me around the house to find when I woke up.  He has been doing this for a few years now for special occasions and it is something that I look forward to and get such a kick out of!

~I made some krab salad for dinner.  I really enjoy this salad and it is so costly to buy it premade and only takes me about 10 minutes to make it here at home myself.

~Jeff finished off the last of the pork loin roast when he got home from bowling.

Friday:

~Jeff went into work early, is working through lunch and working half an hour later to make up some hours he is missing since he works a shorter shift this Saturday.

~I spent the morning following the news of the banks closing and the effect that is having on the stock market and other banks in general.  Ten more are at risk of closing also.

~After the news of what is going on with the banks, I quickly took inventory of our medicines, personal care products, etc.  I know we are good on food, but those other items are ones that I know could use some topping off.

~Jeff is picking up 2 pizzas from Safeway for $2.99 each for us to have for dinner tonight.  Easy peesy!

   My dear friends, buckle up...we are in for one heck of a bumpy ride.  Since our family is getting together tomorrow to celebrate Bradley's birthday, I am going to talk to the family about what our plans will be to help one another out and who has what resources.  I really do want to make a master list to help us all out so that we can share and no one goes out to buy something that someone else already has equipment wise. I already have raspberry and blackberry starts promised to Heather and to her mom Tammy.  I'm going to see if I can get some strawberry plants from a friend since some of mine need replacing.  I'll work out a trade of some sort with them also.  

Be blessed all!