Frugal Friday: Freezing In the Heat

Saturday:  Nearly 100f today.  We pulled curtains closed on the sunny side of the house, ran fans to help circulate the air.

John washed a full load of clothes. He hung the bulk to dry.  I washed a full load of dishes.  This is not usual for us but it was necessary.

Samuel replaced the ceiling fan in John's music room.  That's a nice bit of home improvement done over these two weekends that should help keep the house a little cooler.

I cooked dinner entrée in the crock pot.  I made mashed potatoes from scratch but I think in future if it's this hot I'll use the instant potatoes.  I can boil water in the microwave and keep that heat down.  I decided to make cornbread, which used up the yolks from yesterday's birthday cake recipe.  I put a coffee cake in the oven to bake alongside.  I won't be using the oven again when it's this hot though.  It's just too hot and makes the AC work that much harder.

I mixed up frosting for Josh's birthday cupcakes.  Bess wanted blue and green.  I made a half batch, divided it in half and colored each to suit.

Bess and I went out to pick up supper as the guys vetoed any idea of baking anything in the oven this evening.  John paid from his allowance for take out for us all.  Bess and I carried off trash on our way into town.

Sunday:  Coffee cake for breakfast this morning with eggs and sausage. I used the last of the turkey sausages we like so well.  I will wait to purchase more.  This hot weather doesn't really have a thing to do with it but I feel things have gotten a bit out of hand and a spending freeze is in order.  I do still have some grocery cash left but if I can hang on to it I can use it to restock pantry/freezer in a few weeks.

I cooked two boneless turkey breasts in the crock pot last night.  These are for Josh's birthday party today.  John wants to go to church and so we'll need to eat a little later than usual.  Bess and I decided to just serve sandwiches today, along with cupcakes and cheese curls.  Simple and easy on every one. 

I delegated a few chores to the kids.  Nothing odious but I was pleased when we arrived back to find the house looking pretty ship shape and turkey roast sliced and all in readiness for guests.  Sigh.  It is NICE having extra folks at home who know what is wanted and do it.

Josh looked so dapper and sweet when we arrived.  He had a new set of clothes that his Mama saved for his birthday today.  Oh my gracious, how handsome he looked!

We all opted to have a very light supper tonight.  Each of us chose a snack.

I ended up closing all of the curtains today, on sunny and shady sides of the house as it got quite warm and indoors was 81f.  We'd been closing off our bedrooms which were quite cool but the open living area of the house was stuffy.  We opened bedroom doors and directed fans to blow that cool air out into the main living spaces.  We were rewarded with a cooler home.  The AC ran, but it worked less hard to keep the house cool.

Bess and I talked over meal planning and decided we'd just make do with foods on hand this week.  A few produce items are all that is really needed this week to see us through the week.  The guys will be gone three days on their jobs and Bess and I will be gone one day ourselves.  We'll make do with making meals and reheating leftovers.  I've decided to instill a temporary spending freeze on my side.  I'm counting yesterday as day one and today is day two for me.

Monday:  I did two loads of clothes this morning, both full loads.  I hung the bulk of things to dry.  I didn't have enough line for the mattress pad I'd washed, so I hung over the back porch railing.  It was hot and dry outdoors this morning and things got dry very quickly.

I spent the morning organizing the kitchen cupboard where I'm storing the main food supplies.  It desperately needed the work as it was very much a tumble.  Now I can easily find things.  This should save a load of aggravation.

This afternoon, I cleaned out the linen chest and organized it.  It will be much easier to find needed items now.

At Bess's suggestion I made turkey salad from half the leftover turkey.  It was delicious and a lovely cool dish for lunch on a day when temps are going to be 105f.

Bess filled the pool and invited over my great nieces who are about Josh's age to paddle about.  They were only outdoors for perhaps a half hour and it was 102f at the time.  Indoors the kids had an ice pop and played with the toys for the next hour or so.  It was a fun way to pass a very hot summer afternoon.

We heated leftovers from last week for our supper tonight.

Day three and nothing spent.

Tuesday:  Made John a welcome home breakfast but given the heat I decided cooking grits in the microwave and making toast in the toaster was the way to go.

He washed and hung to dry two loads of clothes.

Josh and I went outdoors early in the morning and I watered plants heavily.  I heard a tree frog calling up rain but went right ahead and watered anyway.  One advantage to the moisture control potting soil is that it will not allow plants to become over watered either and it will retain some of the excess moisture in water pellets to help water the plant as the soil dries out.  Of course we had a nice rain shower this noon...

Josh decided to go swimming again...Not planned but it was cool enough to tolerate being outdoors and aside from the wet shoes, every thing else he had on was fine to get wet.

Put the pets food bowls away.  They didn't eat heavily this morning.

Bess purchased some deli chicken slices yesterday and we made up a red cabbage oriental type slaw to make up sandwiches at lunchtime today.

Bess wanted to make a dish for supper tonight so we started that early in the crock pot.  I have rice to reheat in the microwave and will steam broccoli.

I washed a full load of dishes and did a sink full by hand besides.

Josh occupied himself playing with PowerAde bottle caps as I loaded up the maximum coke points to MyCokeRewards.  We're not buying as many Coke products of late.  Katie blessed me with a number of caps and box codes.  I purchased a $10 e-gift card with a portion of my points today.

Purchased a $25 Paypal card with my Swagbucks.  It's been a long time since I've earned enough anywhere to purchase any gift cards, etc. but that makes a total of $50 in the past four weeks.  I don't expect I'll be able to do that again in the coming month but it's most welcome this month.

My only spending today was MyCokeRewards points and Swagbucks.  Both netted me real spending power but cost me no money to purchase.  Spending for Day 4 is $0.

John is working a half day tomorrow.  I made mac and cheese for his lunch, will pack the non-perishable parts in a few minutes and gather the other items in the fridge.  He doesn't need but just lunch and a snack today, so no big pack-up.

Wednesday:  Packed John's lunch and made him breakfast.  John is working a half shift today as extra time.

Earned the first goal on Swagbucks this morning.

It was not necessary to water plants due to the rain we had yesterday.  Happily we had more today as well.

Ordered a birthday gift.  This will come from the gift fund, so not really 'spending'.

I made dinner for us today.   I didn't feel up to cooking and so I pulled a family entrée from freezer to bake. 

I scrubbed the bottoms of my pots as I'd planned.  I did four of them and Bess did the 5th.  That one looks brand new.  I worked hard at scrubbing and my four looked better but not nearly so good as hers.  I tried Comet, then baking soda with dishwashing liquid and then baking soda with dishwasher detergent.  The last combination with a green scrubbie and a steel wool scrubber worked best of all three methods, along with plenty of hot water.

I feel just enough under the weather that I thought we'd get takeout for supper.  Yep, right in the middle of a spending freeze.  I used allowance to pay for the meal, however. 

Spent the afternoon reorganizing my old recipe blog and now have it up and running as a companion to this blog.  I'll post a link to it when it's up and running.

I started a list today of problem areas I've found over the past month, things that aren't working well for me, like where I work with my computer and how the guest room is set up.

Received a birthday item I'd ordered.  The invoice was correct, but the item inside was not correct at all.  I'm going to be in the town where a branch of the store is located so will return it rather than send money on postage.

Made a list of other errands to be run while we are out tomorrow.

Shopped at home and pulled ketchup from the pantry.   Later in day, Samuel pulled a bag of coffee from the pantry.

Thursday:  John came in from work last night and had a later snack.  I decided to make a simple breakfast this morning.

We went out this morning to tend to hair appointment, errands.  Took off trash (oh so much trash!) on our way out of house, and picked up mail.

We exchanged the wrong movie order at Best Buy.  I received money back on that as the movie was on sell in the store and they refunded my shipping costs.

Stopped at Publix to pick up prescriptions.  We also bought produce and a 6 pack of bottled sodas for John's work lunch, which is more convenient than a canned drink, as he can reseal it and leave it if they must go out on a call.  I spent about $50.  Not happy over that but it was necessary stuff for the most part.

Bought two taco dinner kits.  Normally I'd have purchased tortillas or shells and made my own seasoning but the kits were a bogo and cost about $1.25 each which was far cheaper than tortillas.  We had tacos for dinner last night as we had a full house for supper.

John took me out to lunch.  He paid for that from his pocket monies, no expense to the household budget.

John washed a medium load of laundry.  He didn't hang much of it to dry but used the dryer instead.

I made John's work lunch for tomorrow.

Friday:  Packed John's lunch and made him breakfast.

We went down to the kids new home today.  I took along snacks and water for Josh and I.  No stops needed for those.  I enjoyed the long ride down and the long ride back which went along a different route.  It's a lovely home.