Frugal Fridays: Making Changes

One of the pair of tables Mama gifted me this week.  They were purchased from one of her new neighbors whose wife wanted to replace them with square tables.  I am pleased as punch with this gift ad thrilled at the quality of the tables.  Mama got them at a bargain price.


Saturday:  Not the sorts of changes we've been making in our home but switching up some of our financial things.  I'll post about it early this week.

My first task today was fighting a pile of ants that came in from an unknown spot and got into the two biscuits I meant to put in the freezer to save for stuffing.  No savings there!  I had to throw them outdoors and spent the first 30 minutes of morning spraying, wiping and sweeping up dead ants.  Yuck.

Made roast beef hash for dinner.  I cut up extra potatoes so we'd have some for potato soup after church tomorrow.

Chopped extra onions to go into sloppy joes and potato soup.

Stacked dishes.  I never meant to be cooking today but we went out yesterday afternoon and that threw me off my work plans.

Made chicken salad and egg salad for sandwich fillings this week.

Bess's mom, Jenny, sent me two big pill cases, the sort that hold a week's worth of pills.  I have one for morning meds and one for evening.  I used a chalk pen to write "a" for am on the one box and "p" for the evening ones so I'd not mix them up.  I don't trust myself to remember which color is meant for which part of the day!  I am very grateful  for  this kind and thoughtful gift.  It bothered Bess that I set up dosages in two paper cups each day.  I explained that I hadn't found a pill box big enough to hold all of my pills.  Jenny is a nurse and knew just where to source what was needed.  Wasn't that thoughtful?



Sunday:  Made a substantial breakfast for us this morning.  We went to church and I wanted us to not feel snacky when we came out.

John went into grocery store to purchase a Sunday paper.  Yay for coupons!

John stopped to get himself a cup of coffee and brought me a banana. I set aside to put in his work lunch tomorrow.

Came home and made sloppy joes.  I extended a half pound of ground beef with mushrooms, carrots, onions and bell peppers.  There are leftovers of the meat mixture.

Made potato soup in the crockpot.  I have nearly 1 quart of that leftover as well.

Made John's work lunch for tomorrow.

John rehung cabinet doors so that they are straight.  He then touched up the edge of the counters which is peeling here and there for unknown reasons.

I loaded dishwasher.  I will have a full load this evening for sure.  I will wash then on a short cycle and let air dry. Did it!

We had leftover hash for supper tonight.  It was just right for a light meal after a late lunch.

Monday:  Packed John's work lunch and made him breakfast.

Cleaned our bathroom deeply this morning and the shower, too. 

Washed and hung to dry sheets and towels.

Carried off trash when I left the house this morning. 

Mama sent me a picture of  two tables she'd bought from her neighbor.  I was surprised since Mama does NOT buy used anything no matter how nice they are.  I told her they looked really nice.  Well today when I arrived she told me they were for me!  They truly were a bargain and are good solid pieces.  New tables for the living room, the map table moved to the kitchen sitting area (now needing rug and 2 chairs) and the badly abused table I'd thought to revamp with paint is history.

Mama's turn to buy dinner today and mine to buy ice cream.  We always choose to go to a quiet spot to have our ice cream.  Today we drove out to the fair grounds and a parked under a big old oak tree. Lovely to be in the shade because it was hot out there!

We took a long ride back to Mama's apartment (I don't know what else to call her place.) and found a store that had moved that we used to shop regularly for home goods.  It's a heavy discount place called The Warehouse now and had moved out of town into cheaper quarters.  We'll likely go back to that next time we go out as we are both looking for some furnishings and they have nice things at good prices (all new).

Stopped by a thrift store on my way home.  It is a group of buildings, sheds, tractor trailers of stuff jumbled up together and it's dirty and gritty but it's organized mayhem, truly organized.  If you know what you're looking for you'll know just where to go to find it if you're at all familiar with the place, that's how organized it is.  I went in hoping to find two chairs.  I saw two that I briefly considered but it was truly settling for just anything to have chosen them and I decided to wait.  I poked around a bit looking for a few other items like those white plates I wanted for my Thanksgiving for Two table setting (only full sets of china with white so no purchase there).  It's a bit dangerous to go in that place because frankly, I could buy up a whole lot of things rather quickly especially the sorts of old books I like to read.  Well I restrained myself though I did look.  I reminded me that I'd just packed up 8 boxes of books or so to give away.  I did find one book and a pretty vintage pillow case and spent a grand $0.54 for my shopping today. 

I love vintage pillow cases (and sheet sets) and purchase them to use as covers for sewing machine or mixer (cut in half they one will cover both items) or to use as accent fabric for aprons and quilting.

Home once more, I filled the bird bath, refilled Maddie's water bowl around back.  I took laundry off line and folded.  Stood on the porch and appreciated the brief breeze.  Talked to John, Bess and  Katie via texts or on phone...Admired the new tables in the living room and thanked Mama for them one more time. 

Tuesday:  I foolishly forgot to take out meat to thaw for today's meal.  I made a homemade  pizza.  I used the recipe on the back of the yeast packet and Sam's method of heating the baking pan.  My gracious!  That was some of the best pizza crust I've ever made.

John washed a full load of clothes and hung them to dry on the line.

I did a bit of paper work this morning and clipped coupons.

Planned out menus for a second unexpected bit of company coming in mid-week this week.  I didn't have to add too much but I did have to insure there was enough for five instead of two.

Watered plants with dishwater and water used to rinse out the compost can.

Put fresh water in the bird bath.  It's taken a few months for the birds to catch on to that bit of water but they're usually there twice a day now. 

A bit of lovely autumn color: blue jays in the deep golden leaved pecan tree.  It's a color scheme worth repeating on the autumn table or in fall clothing choices.

Wednesday:  An easy morning at our house as I rested up preparing for incoming guests.

John and I had leftover pizza for lunch since I planned to cook a meal later in the day for supper for our guests.  Those plans changed...and so we had more leftovers (potato soup and sloppy joes).

Enjoyed playing with Josh this evening.  He came in wearing a Burger King crown and told me he was King Joshie Josh.  Love their imaginations.  He even answered the phone with 'King Joshie Josh' when he was playing with the old telephone.

I'd meant to get children's pain reliever on hand for ailing grandchildren.  I had to run into town this evening and get some when Josh's fever went up higher. I also needed a syringe to measure the dosage.  I found one packaged with a nasal syringe.

I picked up mail and took a check into town to mail off. 

I had just purchased two cans of pineapple juice.  Glad I had it on hand.  We encouraged Josh to drink a bit to break up his congestion.

Bess had a Scentsy party earlier this week.  I couldn't get it live on my computer as planned.  I handed her the money for my order (from my allowance) and asked her to order what I'd wanted. 

Thursday:  Up early and saw the family off after a breakfast of oatmel and doughnuts(from the freezer).  Josh sounded croupy and was very feverish.  His parents took him to urgent care on their way to do another errand.  Poor little guy had an ear infection starting up.

John and I did housework.  We stripped guest bed and cleaned house in readiness for the next round of guests.  John did laundry and hung things to dry on the line.

We went to the county seat and paid our property taxes.  I personally would have held onto that money a little while longer but John is thinking ahead to holidays already and wanted to pay the taxes now so that he could clear the decks so to speak and then think of Christmas.  We discussed on our way back what we'll do for families this year.

While we were out John asked if there were other errands.  We'd already taken off the trash on our way over to the county seat.  I said I'd planned to get a few groceries tomorrow so we'd have plenty of fruit, milk and bread on hand.  He didn't turn for home but headed on to the grocery.

I stuck to my list.  I did purchase ahead sale priced beef sausage for the freezer. 

Made John's work lunch for tomorrow.

Put dinner in the crock pot this morning to cook while we were out today.  We came home to eat our dinner.

Normally I'd end this on Friday but this week I'm ending early.  With guests coming in, I don't expect to get time to do much writing over the weekend.  I'll spend tomorrow working ahead so I'll have less to do over the weekend.

Have a great weekend and please take time to share what you did this week to save in your home.