Frugal Friday Wrap Up 10/6/23

    

   In the spirit of full transparency, this post is a conglomeration of what I can remember for the past 2 weeks.  As per usual for me lately, I have not been good about noting things down each day, so this is what my spotty memory is "downloading" to this post currently.  Off we go!!!

~Jeff and I went up to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho just to get away and to see the beautiful Fall foliage.  Well, the trees just starting to turn colors, and were not very exciting (should have waited another week).  We still made the best of it and hit some thrift stores.  We found a golf club bag for Jeff for $15.  His old one is ripping out. At that same store I found a beautiful Fall themed picture for $15, some fall plates for $2 each (spendy but I loved them).  At the next store, I found a Fall ceramic pie dish for $2 also.  At the Goodwill, I found a very nice pair of Lane Bryant jeans that looked like they had been worn only a couple of times, if even that.  Jeff also found a pair of jeans.

~The Dollar Tree in CDA had bagels, rolls and English muffins.  We bought some.  Apparently, they buy them from the Franz Bakery Outlet up there.

~I have continued to harvest beans, blackberries, squash and tomatoes from the garden.  I froze more of the tomatoes.

~Jeff and I headed up to the apple orchard right over the hill from our house here in town.  We picked 22 pounds of apple and only paid $11 for all of them.  We got a mix of sweet apples and some with a little tartness to them too.  We are sending some over with Chris and Heather to give to my parents when they go to visit them this weekend.  My mom loves fresh apples from that orchard, so this will be a nice surprise for her.  We also gave a bag to Chris and Heather, and to Jaysn and Rachel.

~I made some Udon soup and added half of a small bag of frozen chopped blanched spinach from our garden to it.  This made 2 meals for me.  I took the other half of the bag of spinach and added it to a frozen chicken and onion pizza from Safeway.  I also added some halved yellow tomatoes from our garden to it also.  Yum!

~One night I was in a hurry to make dinner, so we had hamburger gravy over mashed potatoes.  We had leftovers of the hamburger gravy, so I turned it into a noodle and Stroganov casserole that fed us for another 2 meals.  The last meal was also served with green and yellow beans from our garden.

~Jeff found a pair of jeans on clearance at Walmart.  He rarely finds jeans that will fit him on clearance.  We also got a doormat for the front door that really goes well with the color of our home.

~I have been carefully shopping the grocery sales.  This week I only see one item that I will be picking up.  Since I will be in town this Thursday to meet Rachel so she can take Steven to his dentist appointment, I will pick the item up at that point.  Steven is off this Thursday and Friday, so he will be spending Thursday with me.  I love spending time with him.

~Our sweet Heather is generously donating a dozen of her homemade cinnamon rolls in the flavor of the winner's choice to the Ruck for the Fallen silent auction and sale that I am a part of this next weekend.  She did not even hesitate when I asked her.  I told her I would pay for any of the needed ingredients. This is an organization that is close to all of our hearts in our family.

~I found some new watercolor pens at the Goodwill in the town where I do a lot of my shopping.  I am going to try and learn to use them with some tutorials I hope to find on YouTube.  I think it will be a wonderful hobby this Winter for me.  I also found some wonderful slipper socks and a 5 pack of really cozy and pretty socks.  

~Jeff and I both switched out our warmer weather clothing for our cooler weather clothing.  Thank goodness we did so that I did not overbuy things that I already had.

~I donated a bunch of clothing that I had not been using and really was not very fond of to begin with.

~My sunflowers are being raided by the squirrels!  Isaiah almost tripped over one as it was running away with one of the seed heads.  It's okay, I really enjoy watching the squirrels and don't mind providing some food for them.

~We got a huge surprise in the mail this Thursday.  Our health insurance overbilled us and sent us a refund check.  I took $120 of it and bought a new food processor (mine is limping along), some Christmas gifts, crafting items, clothing and a few other items.  I also took our grandson Steven to McDonald's for lunch since he was spending the day with me and had been so well behaved as we ran errands.  The rest of the money from the refund is being saved.  Oh, Steven also got a rocket ship toy at the thrift store that he was totally into.

~Speaking of thrift stores, yes, I went again to 3 of them this time.  I was looking for another black multi-photo picture frame.  I found one for $2.99 (as opposed to the $20 price tag at Walmart). Yay!  I also bought some books, magazines, mugs, cute little dishes, a brand new boxed set of Kilner canning items, more canning lids, some inserts for the canning lids to turn them into cute country vases where the flowers are each supported, a brand new in box cherry pitter, and some more new warm fuzzy slipper socks with the grippy bottoms.

~Since I was on my own for dinner Thursday and had a long day of running errands, shopping and spending the day with my Steven, I stopped by Winco to pick up a quick dinner.  I found some of their chilled chili lime shrimp and clearance for half the normal price.  For $3 I had that, some homemade sourdough bread, and cherry tomatoes from my garden.  Yummy!

~My tomato plants all got a good pruning and "haircut".  I took off most of the branched that did not have tomatoes already on them.  This opened the plants way up and will help force the tomatoes to ripen quicker.  It is supposed to be hot this weekend, but then get cold and wet next week.

   As I end this post, I ask for prayers for the people of Israel, the hostages that have been taken, and for the innocent Palestinian people who are being used as human shields in this horrible war that is unfolding right before our eyes.  The images are absolutely horrific.  I am watching live webcams right now as I type this and seeing the retaliatory response from Israel on Gaza City with the heavy bombing in the night and the replays of what had gone on during the day.  War is an ugly thing and my fear is that we will be drawn into it also.  For those of us with loves ones in the military, especially if those loved ones are in the Middle East, along with those in the European theater (with all that is going on with the Russian/Ukranian War), we are on edge and in prayer.  Please keep our own military in your prayers also.  I am asking this as the mother of one of these military members.  Thank you so very much and so much love coming to you all.