Thrifty Thursday: Bits and Pieces

 

Thursday:  Last night's supper was really good but John and I ended up being the only ones to eat it.  I put enough into the freezer to have another night.  

I used the steak from last week, a can of Nacho Blanco cheese (won't be buying this canned item again, it doesn't get enough use in our pantry), and caramelized onions.  I rolled into burritos and baked them lightly in the oven, just enough to warm them nicely.  They were really good.  I love when a meal I've thought about all week long prior to making ends up being so very good.

I'd not planned a meal for tonight, planning on leftovers, but I realized that Katie and Caleb who hadn't eaten last night likely wouldn't eat the same meal again tonight.  So I pulled a casserole of Ravioli Lasagna from the freezer to serve for tonight's main dish.  I'll make a salad and garlic toast to go along side.  We'll probably have half of that leftover as well, even though it's just a 9-inch square pan.

I bought a lipstick on Amazon that I absolutely love.  It was one of Brandy's Amazon picks on one of her blog posts and I clicked to see the color.  It's a lovely deep brick red, the only red I've found in ages upon that I actually feel comfortable wearing.    I'll link it below this post section so that you can also see it.  I typically like to go into a store and choose a lipstick but lately the color selection has been so poor that I simply come away without anything.  I noted that a great number of colors were available via Amazon, unlike in the store.

Meals:  Grits, Spam, Toast

Corn Dogs, Chips, Berries, Chocolate Milk (Caleb), We had a Banana Milkshake instead of Chocolate milk and berries.

Ravioli Lasagna, Green Salad, Garlic Bread

Amazon Associate Affiliate Link:  

Friday:  Our day to do the laundry from the beds and baths.  I stripped the bed prior to leaving the room.  I made eggs for breakfast.  My rule is one each for Caleb and I and two for John but Caleb surprised me today and asked for a second egg.  I made it and he ate it every bit.

I made bread this morning, and pizza dough.  I also put together a chocolate snack cake. No frosting on this one, but I did dump the last of a bag of chocolate chips, flaked coconut and sliced almonds on top before baking.  Caleb called it a "Happy Day to me" cake. I thought it would be a nice cake to carry along for the Coffee House tonight, as it's not too sweet but it's a little sweet.

The house is clean.  Food is prepped, more or less, for the weekend.  No clue what will be for supper tonight as it's unlikely we'll have time to eat a corned beef dinner and I'm not in the mood to waste it.  I've got the corned beef on cooking, but it will keep in the fridge and I can cook cabbage and potatoes and soda bread on Monday.

later:  Caleb solved tonight's supper dilemma.  It started to rain hard this afternoon and he looked out the window at it then turned to me and said "Soup. It's raining.  I want soup."  I happened to be standing staring at the contents of the freezer at the moment and soup was right in front of me.  Easy enough and I appreciated the prompt.  

Sunday:  I'll pop Saturday in with today.  I just stayed too busy yesterday to manage a post and wasn't sure I was going to get into it today but here I am.

Yesterday, we took off about 11am with no clue really where we were headed.  I'd suggested something I wanted to do but I wasn't hard sold on it Friday when I mentioned it and said so.  In the end, John suggested he might go look for shoes at two different locations.  Since he's really needed shoes for quite a while now, I was pleased to hear him suggest he was finally ready to look again.  

We went to a Western Supply store and had a wonderful experience there.  The proprietor took one look at John's feet and said, "Oh your size 'x' and likely an EE width."   He was spot on.   He took John right to the rack with his size, and they looked over boots.  They found a pair that was supposed to be a half size larger than John wears, but when he was removing his old boots, he said "Wait a minute.  These are that size too!"  "Then try these on," the man said.  They looked really nice, John liked them once on and were a good price, 50% off the regular price since they were the last pair, they had in stock of that.  particular boot.  

To the grocery to pick up fried chicken.  It wasn't on sale, but it's something that Taylor enjoys, and it's become a tradition of sorts for us to have chicken on her weekend here.     I picked up some fresh flowers.  Totally a splurge item but I need flowers in my life.  I grabbed a bag of non-chocolate Easter candies for the church egg hunt candy donations bin.  And a bag of my favorite chocolate chip cookies which are only rarely available and were on sale and in stock (Pepperidge Farm Maui Chocolate Chunk).  

Then we left to go to a BBQ place for lunch.  John commented again that it was a pricey proposition to eat out once a week as we were doing and I said "Yes, it can be.  We can balance it with less expensive meals out, too but I hope you can just let me juggle our finances and provide the funds out of what we normally would spend elsewhere."  He looked at me for a few moments and then nodded, and added, "Well, I have to say you certainly do relax a lot when we come out on our own and I enjoy it.  I think you're right.  We need this."

Home to relax with the kids and Katie.  I think everyone got a momentary nap.  Then I made pizza from the dough I'd prepared on Friday afternoon.  

Last night I received notice that I'd gotten an Amazon gift card.  It was only $10 and I was going to tuck it into a separate file to insure I didn't accidentally delete it.  I was so pleased to realize that I had several Amazon gift cards in that file and all but one were good to use.  It came up to quite a tidy sum.  I know one came from Fetch reward points, and I opted to get an Amazon card last time I cashed out Ibotta rewards.  I earned a $10 card from Affiliate links in January that I'd put aside and the one just received was my second earning this year.  It was just over $11.  I so appreciate those of you who take the time to go through any link on my pages to order from Amazon.  It's not a lot of money but when it's tucked aside as I did this time, it adds up.

I went through Hip2Save's site and came across several deals from Amazon that were oft used items in our pantry and lower priced than any of the grocery store sales I've seen lately.  I ordered several items for the pantry and used those gift cards to pay for those items.  I thought it rather cool that Fetch and Ibotta rewards which largely come from points earned from groceries turned into more groceries for our home.   Yes, in order to get some of these deals at the lowest possible price, I had to do a subscribe and save.  I can easily watch those prices in the future and if they are higher skip or cancel entirely when they are ready to ship again.

Today we were up super early to head to church.  We stopped on our way home at Tractor Supply to get a different type of cat food for Misu who has fussed mightily over the last selection John brought home a week or so ago.  I mean that cat was MAD at us about that food!  She hollered at us every single chance she got...So we chose a Pate type canned food and not a peep have we heard from her this evening.  John said we'd give the other food to Bess, which we could do but with her many cats it wouldn't last two days.  However, as I reminded him, we have Bean on the back porch now and he'd happily eat a can of food of any sort as long as he gets fed.  He's not fussy.

I found a little hot wheel sized school bus and another little animal for Caleb.  The plan is to add to his little collection of animals.  He's got a burro. I bought him a Sheep this time.  We contemplated all the plastic critters carefully before we chose the Sheep.  We both said at the same time, "He was just mimicking sheep last night..." and that was the end of the decision.

I did not pick up any herbs or plants, but I was so tempted.   Tractor supply had all sorts of herbs, peppers, tomatoes, etc.  I knew that I hadn't cleaned or prepared a single pot.  Until I do there is no point in my buying any plant or seed or anything else at this time.  Ferns I can tend to in the house, but I cannot accommodate a wealth of plants that need to be planted out.

Home to make a simple dinner for us all.   Friday night Roxanne gave me a dish filled with her lovely strawberry shortcake torte.  Caleb and I ate that.  Katie and John opted for some of the leftover Chocolate snack Cake.  Taylor asked for a lollipop.   

We left for senior night at church about half an hour after they left to take Taylor back to her dad.   No need to prepare supper tonight.  Katie took care of her and Caleb.  John and I ate at church.

Meals from Saturday and Sunday:  Bagels and Croissants for us

lunch out for us.  We have leftovers for Monday's lunch.  Katie takes kids to a playground and has a fast food day with them.

Pizza, Salad

Cheese Toasts

Gramma's Fried Chicken, English Peas, Mac n Cheese (from a box)

everyone out for the afternoon/ supper meal.

Monday:  This morning was chilly cold indoors.  The heat barely turned off all night long.  I decided we needed a hot cereal breakfast.  Caleb kept saying yummy about it but I discovered that had more to do with the fruit I'd put in the bottom of his bowl.  Note to self: next time just skip adding chopped walnuts to his bowl.  He does not like them.

After housework this morning, I took time to tot up the checkbook.  We are done until we have a deposit to add to our account.  I have gas money set aside but that's it.   The portion of my allowance I'd had in my purse got paid out slowly yesterday until I was left with none.  I have a portion set aside that I'm saving to help pay for my next Stitch Fix.  No spendy spendy for us!

When the house was in order once again, I went into the kitchen and started pulling things from the fridge, sorting through what we have and what I knew I wanted to use for a specific purpose.  Here is what I did this morning in about 2 hours of time:

I found some cooked broccoli, so went over to the freezer and sorted through the frozen vegetables.  I had tossed in some diced broccoli stem and a whole stem some time ago.  I steamed the stem in the microwave and then peeled off the tough outer skin.  I took the chopped stem pieces and added the recently steamed chopped stem to those and steamed then all until just tender.    I chopped the cooked broccoli pieces, added in the freshly cooked stem pieces, put them all in a container (now I have about 1.5 cups) and put that in the freezer for use in a casserole in the near future.

I found a big bag of apple peels, half apples and cores and then I found several bags with just a handful of cores in them.  All came out and went right into a pot to cook into juice for jelly.  I realized too late this afternoon that I could have cooked those few apple halves alone and made a small batch of applesauce.  I'll keep that in mind next time.  Today, I salvaged what I could of the mushed up apple halves and managed to get a tiny amount of applesauce.  I think Caleb will happily eat that with his supper tonight.  

From the fridge stuff I made:  Pineapple salsa to go with our chicken tacos later this week.  I don't have cilantro, lime, or jalapeno in the freezer as I thought I did.    So my 'salsa' is basically pineapple chunks and red onion chopped fine at present.  

Noticed the red onion was looking worse for wear.  I had noted a pickled red onion atop Budget Bytes Chicken Tacos earlier this weekend.  Looked up that recipe and chopped the rest of the red onion to make Pickled Red Onions.

Mash leftover cooked sweet potato from last week's Alpine Chicken Dinner then made a batch of Sweet Potato Biscuits.  I baked those after we'd eaten lunch.

Chopped cabbage to make for supper tonight.  I saved the lovely green outer leaves and will try to get them stuffed and cooked later this week.  It makes a nice freezer entree or can be a meal over the weekend.   I realized I had more cabbage than I really needed so I took some to chop finely and will make coleslaw with it for a side dish to one meal or another this week.   Chopped potatoes.  Added the corned beef broth I'd saved to the pan and that will cook to go with tonight's supper later today.

Took the apple juice I'd made last week and made 2 1-pint jars of apple jelly.  I used an expired packet of low sugar pectin.  I noted that I didn't have but about half the juice required so I measured the packet out and then used just half the pectin and sugar the recipe required which worked out beautifully.  When I do the next lot of jelly, I'll just use the rest of the pectin.  Since Apples are naturally high in pectin, I should be able to manage the fresh batch, even if it's a full recipe, just fine with the amount of pectin I had leftover.  It just may need to cook a bit longer to thicken properly.

Meals:  Oatmeal with blueberries and walnuts, Toast.

Leftovers:  Caleb wanted 'roni and cheese, John and I had leftovers from our lunch out on Saturday.

Caleb asked for broccoli to go with his lunch, so some of the freshly steamed vegetable went on his plate and then he brought me the bag of Pepperoni and asked if he could have 'Puproni' to go with his lunch.  I gave him several slices of that.  He finished his meal off with some Strawberry shortcake the sweet lady had given me at church on Friday night.

John ate his lunch pretty much as it was.  I had only meat left on my plate but I emptied out a jar of leftover 3 bean Salad and some leftover salad and added to my plate.  We topped that off with the last of the special Chocolate Chunk cookies, which John again proclaimed as 'Super good.'   Apparently, it's the sandy texture and chunks of chocolate does it for him.  I admit it's the sandy texture for me, which I really prefer over a thin crispy or soft chocolate chip cookie.

Corned Beef, Cabbage and Potatoes, Sweet Potato Biscuits.

Tuesday:  I put together tonight's supper this morning and it is now simmering on the stove.  I had to brown meat for that dish and another I am making this week.  I had cooked sausage meat for breakfast and just browned my meat for both dishes in that frying pan in the drippings.  Why lose that flavor that was already in the pan?  I divided the meat in half and poured the drippings into the pot for supper along with the meat going into that dish.

I've kept trying to get back to the kitchen to finish that second supper dish off without any luck.  One thing I can say for sure, sometimes prep work can be done in little bites, too.   Every little bit helps!

Received my first lot of pantry supplies this morning.  I had a damaged item in one box.  It was a simple matter to talk with customer service at Amazon and get a refund for that item.  I don't know if you've ever used the process or not, but it begins with a standard auto response program.  Then it moves you on to a live chat process and that's how I got my refund.  It took a matter of just minutes.  

I added Apricot and Strawberry jams, boxed mac n cheese, mushroom and cream of tomato soups, fruit snacks for the children and a box of a protein type bar for the adults.  

I looked over the sales sheet for the only grocery in our county.  Prices are looking a little better in many ways, far more comparable with prices we'd see in other areas.  

I have a growing grocery list.   My funds may be gone but a certain boy must have milk, I am completely out of flour and don't even have a box of pancake mix (which I thought I did have). We have a ton of apples, but other fresh fruits are not on hand. Aluminum foil is gone.  I obviously will need to get flour and milk, but I can wait on the foil.  

Meals:  Sweet Potato Biscuits and Venison Sausage

A variety for each of us.  Caleb asked for hot dogs but darned if I could find the last corn dog I had nor hot dogs in my freezer.   He opted for the leftover pizza.  John ate the last of the chicken salad.  I made a plate of nachos...I didn't know how low that bag of chips had gotten.  Crumbs made nachos to be eaten with a fork.

Chili, Rice, Cornbread, Pineapple Salad.  I added rice to the menu after tasting the chili this evening and realizing it might be a bit spicy for Caleb. This was really good.  We'll be in the 80F range for temp before the weekend, so I figured tonight was our best time to have this dish.

Took a pumpkin pie I'd bought for a very low clearance price out of the freezer to thaw.  Hopefully that will satisfy John's sweet tooth.

Wednesday:  Well, the budget is shot and that's a fact.  It doesn't negate the necessity of buying flour and milk and bananas, Strawberries and grapes (the last three were all requests Caleb made).   John still stubbornly refuses to slice homemade bread although he did so for years, so I bought sliced bread, too.  Eggs were needed which happily were less than the last time I shopped.

I was at Kroger today and the whole wall where sliced deli meats and hotdogs and such typically are located was wiped out.  I don't know if it's a massive clearing out and restock, or what.  I never saw a salesperson to ask about that.  

My failures today were forgetting I had a gift card for Burger King which could have been used for our lunch out.  I missed a FREE item I might have picked up if I'd taken time to grab my list.  Oh well.  I had enough frugal saves to balance that out.   I took time to scan the weekly ad before walking into the store and loaded my digital coupons for best sales.  And yesterday evening I played with the new Kroger Fresh app and discovered I had 400 points to use which netted me $4 off my purchases today.  I got a few dollars back with Ibotta because I checked the app last night and loaded those coupons.  And there were a few extra points from Fetch...I think those things made up amply for my two failures.

I had thought I'd make another thing for tonight's supper but realized when I got home that I had plenty of time to let a chicken roast slow in the oven.   I planned a menu that is different than the one I'd originally planned but it uses the produce I have on hand.

Meals:  Scrambled Eggs, Muffins

John out with his former partner/buddy.   Caleb and I went to BK.

Roast Chicken, Lemon Butter Red Potatoes, Roasted Asparagus