Thank you all again for your patience with me. Lots and lots still going on dealing with Aunt Helen's death and the aftermath of all the legal stuff that we are still dealing with. Now I know what you may be thinking...what does the picture above have to do with frugal living...well I will tell you. Our son Chris is receiving an award for going above and beyond in helping evacuate people and coordinating saving lives in a recent fast-moving fire. Since he is also a firefighter, he knew exactly what to do and how to coordinate agencies. We are so very proud of him! Now here is where the frugal living comes in. Chris was homeschooled as many of you know. We lived on a small single income for many years to make this possible. It allowed all of our boys to get the best education possible and for them to pursue their individual interests. Chris happened to love firefighting and being an EMT. Fast forward to today, Chris and Heather are living on a single income (his), homeschooling their boys, both are volunteer EMTs for their community and Chris is also a volunteer firefighter. Heather helps to bring in some "fun money" by selling delicious homemade treats. It allows them the freedom to go fishing, hunting, hiking, camping and to travel to see family when time allows. They grew a very productive garden this year and Heather blanched a froze lots and lots of beans. They also had tomatoes, squash, pumpkins, and all kinds of other things. Using well-rotted chicken poop, tilled into their garden, made things grown quickly. The chicken poop was from their chickens. Now that is what I call frugal and I could not be more proud of them. Oh yes, Isaiah (our grandson #2) shot a deer the other night when he and Chris went out hunting. More meat for all of the family!
Now here are some of the things that I have been doing over the past month in no particular order:
~Steven and I went to an estate sale here in town and I found a beautiful brand-new tote bag with a watercolor picture of a hummingbird on it. My mother loves hummingbirds and this will be part of her Christmas gift.
~Other finds from the state sale were two cookbooks, one a local community cookbook from 1983 that has recipes in it from so many of the people that welcomes us with open arms and hearts when we first moved here, and the other a sourdough cookbook. My other fun find was a handmade broach with a beautiful slice of agate.
~I have been going to the thrift stores and finding Christmas and Fall decor for pennies on the dollar. Some of my finds include 2 ceramic partridges, some high-end poinsettia garland, a cute straw deer that Steven absolutely loves, and some crystal vases along with a few Christmas mugs. I also picked up a bag of tennis balls for Maggie since she loves them and destroys them pretty quickly.
~I found a brand new with tags jacket for $5.99 and used a 20% off coupon to bring the price down even further. I found out that it retails for $100. Score!
~Jeff and I love lamb chops, but they are so expensive. I found 3 packages marked at half price at Safeway. I got all they had and repacked them with my Food Saver. These will be delicious that coming holidays! What a treat! I also found ground beef on sale there for $2.97 a pound so I bought 3 pounds of it and repacked it for the freezer.
~The ice built up in our upright freezer and forced the door open. Luckily we caught it and only lost a few things from the shelves on the door. Jeff unpacked the whole freezer and defrosted it, the repacked it all.
~We have been enjoying pears and tomatoes that we grew as they ripen up in the house. I am freezing lots of tomatoes too!
~Jeff and I have slowly been going through Helen's belongings and found lots of unopened health related products like mouthwash, dental flossing picks, toothbrushes, etc., that we are adding to our HBA cabinet. It is hard to be going through her things as we still are mourning her.
~I'm still cherry picking the sales at the stores to stock up our pantry.
~We have been watching lots of movies lately thanks to Paramount, Disney, Peacock and YouTube. Have you seen the prices of movie tickets at the theater lately? Even with our senior discount, we would still be paying a lot. I'd rather be in my recliner at home watching them.
~Jeff and I both did a major purge of our clothing that we no longer use and donated it to Goodwill. We shop there a lot so it is easy to just drop it off there and run into the store. On one of those trips, I found an item that has been on my wish list for over 30 years. I found a Fenton flow blue plate. Luckily, they had just brought out a cart of new items and I snagged that and a tiny Victorian style ring box. Right place at the right time I would say!
~Rachel's mom moved up closer to us all. It was so nice to see her on Friday when I stopped by with Steven. Steven had made her a turkey decoration earlier in the day at our house. I am looking forward to spending more time with her.
~Jeff and I met with a court advocate who helped us fill out forms that we need to be able to access Helen's account so we can use that money towards her cremation. She also called some other advocates to help us figure out if we could get some financial assistance with Helen's cremation costs. Apparently, the county she died in will give you a loan, not a grant as we had been led to believe. Jeff and I now have to foot the bill for the rest of the cost beyond what is in her account. We are talking close to $2000. UGH! We will have to put it on our credit card and then pay that off in 3 payments with Jeff's checks from work. If he was not still working part time, this would sink us financially.
~I trimmed my bangs as they were getting too long.
~Jeff and I have been trying to mostly eat out of our pantry and freezers. There are times however that we still grab something to eat that is ready made from the grocery store. It is still cheaper than going out to eat.
~Maggie has been a nervous wreck since she got home from the kennel. I ordered her some CBD oil to see it that helps calm her down. I feel so bad for her. I think she may have thought that we were abandoning her.
I think I will end this post here. With all the stress of setting Helen's affairs, trying to get ready for the cold weather months, purging the house of so many things and the weather changes, my fibromyalgia and arthritis are acting up big time. My sleep habits have been thrown into a tizzy also. Not a good combination. However, life must be lived to the fullest. I have grandkids to love on, along with our kids, friends and other family members. I'm looking forward to getting back into some kind of routine again and having more sleepovers here with the oldest three grandboys. Steven spent Thursday night with us and it was so much fun! There are also upcoming fishing trips with Chris who is buying a bigger boat from a friend. I love to go fishing, so this will be a lot of fun for all of us!
Be blessed my friends and I pray that there will not be any more unrest or acting out in our country with the upcoming election this Tuesday. We experienced first-hand some shady stuff in our county with the post office in Spokane processing our ballots, and sending them out, yet only a few made it to our town, ours's were not among those few. Our county auditor has launched a full-on investigation with the postal service over this and we were able to get replacement ballots. Much love to you all, be safe!
