Thrifty Thursday: All Mixed Up

Friday:  Briefly for this day: Baked bread, made bagels, Cranberry White Chocolate Oatmeal cookies and then salvaged some shredded seasoned chicken and made it into Mississippi Chicken Sliders for supper.  Remembered as I lay awake pondering what tonight's supper might be that what I appreciate most on a Friday evening is EASY and little clearing up.  

John told me after supper he wasn't so sure about those sandwiches, to which I replied, "Oh great!  We have six more left..."  Sigh.  It was a bit sharp tasting, I will confess, but it wasn't horrible.  Fortunately, I think Katie will enjoy them and they can be split up for her to carry to lunch or have as a supper on a night when we're not home. 

We ate the last of the watermelon with our supper.

For today's lunch we polished off the Spanish Chicken and Rice Dish.

I used the internet today to find out: how to take cuttings from citronella, research a product Juls recommended for cleaning porches which looks viable.  

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I also looked up whether or not the seed pod I found on the Asiatic lilies was worth gathering.  I still don't know if I can propagate citronella from a cutting, but I did discover it is part of the Geranium family.  I can plant the seeds from the Asiatic Lily, but it will be about seven years before they flower.  Still, what have I got to lose? In seven years, I could have a whole lot of flowers...Patience will be the virtue.

Saturday:  Not usually a big savings day in our week but it was this week.  I had the three children this afternoon from lunch onward and made homemade pizza for them.  They ate like they were starved, which I shall not mention to their dad because one of them confessed they'd refused to eat breakfast and I know good and well that Sam cooks a big weekend breakfast for them.  They also polished off what was left of the cookies I made yesterday.  I sent home a container with Sam when he dropped the kids off, told Katie to take some to her boyfriend's house.  I had a jarful and now there are two.

For tonight's supper, John wanted a sandwich.  I wanted Potstickers.  I used a broccoli stem, a carrot, some onion and celery to make stir-fry to go with them.  

The air outdoors was so cool and lovely.  There was a breeze that blew nearly all day long and every now and then that breeze was laced with chilly air.  It made sitting in the sun watching the kids especially nice.  And the AC ran less today than it's run in months.  

I looked up how to un-shrink a crinkled gauze blouse that John dried in the dryer by accident.   Why, I have to ask, do my tops shrink up from the bottom but never in from the sides?  I hate having my lower belly exposed and I've plenty of room to come in from the sides...

Sunday:  How to save money: Use the rewards bucks from a previous order to get a $10 discount on a necessary item.  Then pay $9 in shipping because getting FREE shipping meant spending another $15 and that just seemed silly to spend more money in order to save that $9.  I'd have been down another $6 and that's no savings!  So essentially, my rewards bucks saved me about $1.  That's $1 in my pocket though, so there we are.

John and I up to get ready for our usual early service at church.  We did have the heater on briefly prior to leaving, only because what was bearable 27 years ago is NOT bearable now.  Age does matter.  

I used leftovers in the fridge to make breakfast: au gratin potatoes from our pork chop dinner the other night and leftover Ham that I'd cooked/sliced earlier in the week for sandwiches that we didn't eat.  That and toast made a warm and hearty breakfast to take us out in the cold this morning.

We got haircuts.  Never can call that a savings but it's a necessary thing.  I decided to go a wee bit shorter and if you saw me, you'd wonder how I could have, but I did and I like it rather well.  The older I get the thinner my hair and that means my cowlicks are worse and worse.  If it must stick out then I'd rather make it look purposeful and not the nature of my hair.

We drove to Cracker Barrel for our date meal out.  John proclaimed it necessary to have pancakes.  We totally forgot the fair was in town so that exit and nearby roadways are main entrances to the fairgrounds.  Traffic abounded.  Cracker Barrel's customer line stretched out of the doorway and around the building.  John said "Uh, NO!" and drove away.  I reminded him there was a small IHOP on the other side of town, so we headed there.  It was full enough, and the waitresses were certainly busy girls.  Breakfast was reasonable.  John got his pancakes that he wanted.  I ordered an omelet trying to bridge that gap between brunch/lunch.  We paid out of pocket today, using our allowance to cover our meal.  No leftovers to bring home but that's okay.

Caleb's Kindle is not charging properly and hasn't been.  We've been limping along with it but when it's been charging for 48 hours and there's only 2% charge on the battery...Well Grampa was all for getting him a brand new one.  I pointed out that I'd just bought him a winter coat and that Kindles were not on sale at present.  He didn't care.  See how much they are, he said.  "They run anywhere from $80 to $129 at the moment, " I told him after checking.  He was flabbergasted.  Now mind you both of us have a Kindle and they are old.  I had mine way back in 2014.  His is even older.  They were about $45 then on a special sale.  He's always convinced time stands as still for the prices as it does for him...

I reminded Katie that my Kindle was wiped clean and could be configured for Caleb if we had a new case.  Automatic savings right there.  She found a new case to fit my old Kindle for $8.  When I went to check out online, I had accumulated points from some purchase or other and it automatically took off $7.96, leaving me a balance of taxes only at $2.11.  I won't count the savings of the Kindle, though I could, I suppose, but I'm counting that unexpected savings of $7.96.  That's $8.96 saved today.

Supper for company tonight, but nothing fancy.  Fed them like family...I was glad I'd taken two packages of hot dogs from the freezer yesterday.

Monday:  Made a big slow cooker of soup this morning, I had thawed stew beef yesterday when I realized how low my ground beef supplies were.  I cut the beef chunks into smaller dices and browned them.  Then I added in a variety of canned and fresh items, including peeled and diced broccoli stems, potatoes, carrots, onions, celery, pizza sauce, pumpkin puree, corn, and a can each of tomatoes, green beans and half a can of kidney beans saved from the salad I made for my lunch.

I used up an ear of corn that I found in the fridge and cut it off the cob for my salad.  I also found a 1 cup container of green beans from supper last week and put that in my soup as well.   

I served the last of the pizza slices for lunch for Caleb and John and put salad on their plates as well.  I gave John to bottle of French dressing and he emptied it out, but I took it back to the kitchen and rinsed it out with a little bit of water.  I added the rinsing liquid to the bottle of rogue Barbecue sauce where I've been dumping all the odds and ends of bottles lately, shook it well to distribute it.  

I noted this morning as I cleared up the kitchen that over the weekend, John had eaten 5 bagels, leaving just 3 for the coming weekend.  I guess I'll be making more of those.  He used them as sandwich bread as well as snacks and breakfast.

After my chiropractor appointment I went over to Wendy's to get a coffee.  I ordered a larger coffee today rather than the smallest and it still cost less than a small Venti at Starbucks.  I really enjoyed that coffee.  That's my treat for getting time alone to go to the appointment.  I'll be moving to once a month visits here next month so those treats will be fewer and further away. 

My biggest savings today?  I decided to skip the little run into the local grocery to pick up lettuce and onions and whatever meat was marked down and just go home...It's not that I don't need the lettuce and onions, but I can manage a few days more without them.  Might as well delay that trip.  I thought to myself, "I'd heaps rather write a big fat "0" on the calendar today for what I didn't spend than to write in another total."

Tuesday:  Another forgotten promotional credit last night, that I'd totally forgotten.  I had a $3 credit for Amazon Prime media, and I remembered that I had it only after it was credited.  Honestly, I thought it had expired and I wasn't a bit bothered by it because I so seldom use these things.  Never mind.  I ordered a video last night as it was John's men's meeting and Katie and Caleb went off to their room quite early.  I decided to make good on my promise to myself and rented "Sense and Sensibility".  I was perfectly fine paying a fee to see it.  It was $3.99.  Only the $3 credit made it only 99c.  I've added that $3 to my new savings account along with all else I've saved this week, for a total addition of $11.96.

One of the least expensive 'renovations' you can do: clear off cluttered surfaces.  Seriously the bathroom counter was a mass of pill bottles, facial care items, etc.  I cleaned it off before I came out of the room this morning and while there's still a lot of stuff there, it is at least corralled by a tray and a basket. Then I cleared off the clutter pill bottles Katie had accumulated in the kitchen over the past few weeks.  I sorted out the clutter of books and 'nowear' on the bookcases in the living room.  Now every area looks nice and neat and different, but it took me only moments of time to get it all done.

Not enough Parmesan cheese to make Chicken Parmigiana.  I'm in no mood to go to the store today, so I'll just push that meal off to another day and we'll have another of our planned meals for the week.

Wednesday:  Got up this morning and tackled the checkbook right away, wrote out bills, determined my true current balance and the balance of some of our budgeted areas.   

I looked long and hard at the house insurance bill this morning and realized that the 'savings' for paying in full in November, vs. paying quarterly is nominal at best.  Looking at the bottom line, I'd rather have the rest of that bill total in my account where it might be used in a deep emergency than paid out all at once.  Unlike the car insurance the savings is just not substantial enough to make it worthwhile.

I'd forgotten just that quick, that the pest control man was coming today.  I thought of it as I was writing out bills, so I went ahead and wrote out a check for that company while I was at it and let the pest control guy save me the cost of a stamp.  63c is a small amount to save admittedly, but it's a savings.  I'll also carry our tithe check in to church with us and save that 63c as well.  Notice that is now a savings of $1.26 which is beginning to look like savings isn't it?  I love how those small amounts can add up.

While waiting on pest control to arrive and service the house and shed, I took a bag of frozen garlic bulbs from the freezer.  I'd forgotten I had those and remembered them yesterday afternoon.  I've honestly found the cost increase rather ridiculous on the pre-minced bottles of garlic.  Anyone else noticed?  Several months ago, while at the discount grocery, I picked up a plastic wrapped package of loose bulbs for something like 50c.  I reckon there was an easy 15 bulbs in the package.  I thought of them yesterday when I'd noted the garlic bulbs I'd recently bought were nearly gone.  

I took the bulbs from the freezer, separated them into cloves and peeled and minced them all.  Then I followed a TikTok suggestion to put the garlic in a zippered plastic bag pressing them flat, and partially freeze, then using the back of a knife form the garlic into squares of about what a couple of cloves might be.  

I removed all the bread end pieces and partial loaves from the freeze then diced all the end pieces into rough squares.  They are currently drying on the counter.  I plan to use those loaves to grate on the box grater and make up a bunch of breadcrumbs.  I keep croutons, bread cubes and breadcrumbs in glass jars.  Instead of using a jar lid, I put a sheet of paper towel over the opening and screw on the jar ring.  This allows air to get into the jar and continue drying out the bread rather than moisture building up and making it moldy.  These sit in the cabinet for months at a time and I use them all along as needed.

Went into town with John.  We ran errands which included bank and dropping off mail.  I asked to stop by the local everything store on the corner and bought Caleb's Christmas gift from us.  Then we headed over to the local grocer.  

I went in for four specific items but also was prepared to buy any good sale item I found.  Lately there's always baking chocolate squares on the clearance rack for $2.  These are Baker's Bars, so I always pick up some of that and pop in the freezer.  I got pasta for 97c pound, Kool-Aid for 29c packet, $1 packets of cook and eat vanilla pudding (I have a pie recipe this goes into and it's so good!), another bag of shredded coconut for $2.   I also bought produce and then hit the clearance priced section of the meat counter. I found ground beef on sale for $3.  I bought all the packages totaling about 7 pounds.  Then I also picked up the Boston Butt marked down to 99c a pound.  Haven't seen that price on Boston Butt in about 5 years...John had urged me to buy something to snack on, fearing that my cereal and yogurt breakfast had worn off.  I looked at sodas because I was thirsty.  A 20-ounce drink cost $2.19.   The half liter bottles were $1.79 and will give me two drinks for the price.

I'd picked up a package of romaine hearts, the only one in the store.  I noted a leaf had gone bad when I turned the package over, so I asked for and received a discount on the package, knocking it down to less than 1/2 price.  As soon as I got home, I opened the packaged, washed and trimmed the lettuce and now have it wrapped in cotton and packed in a plastic bag.  This will keep quite well for at least a week and possibly two.

When we came home, I made us a hamburger each with the freshly bought ground beef.  Our lunch cost us under $1 each.  That's a $5 savings over a burger anywhere in our county restaurants.  Double it up for our lunch and the savings is quite good.

Thursday:  Yesterday when we went to the bank, I realized that I still had $13 of my past month's allowance in pocket.  I've set that aside and will save eventually put it in my savings account.

For the past several months, I've only taken out half my allowance.  I have made clothing purchases on the credit card and so I've left half the allowance in the account to cover those charges.  It's not been an issue...and I'm thinking that perhaps I should be just slipping that money off into my savings account each month, instead of having it in my pocket now that I'm all paid up for the clothing purchases.  I know I don't need anything more for the coming months and it would be nice to have cash on hand when spring comes around and I'm ready to determine what I might need for those months ahead.

I received an overdue package from Amazon today.  The UPS carrier pointed out that the box was leaking.  We opened it together and one of the bottles of coconut oil I'd ordered had a broken seal and had leaked.  I'll be returning that for a credit.  I don't plan to replace it at this time.  

My bread end pieces netted me quite a bit.  I have a pint of fresh crumbs which I stored in the freezer, a quart of dried crumbs.  I cut up half a loaf of Italian bread to use Garlic toast to go with tonight's dinner.  I also got a quart and a pint of croutons/dry bread cubes.  

I'm letting the rainwater the porch plants.  They prefer it, anyway.

We went off to get tires this morning.  We hadn't planned to buy tires right away, but we discovered we'd not had any in nearly four years which shocked us.  John decided that we had the day free today so we might as well go get them.  I have about 1/3 of their cost in my car maintenance sinking fund.  The rest will come from savings.  We don't try to pay savings back for purchases such as this.  That is what the savings are there for according to John, and I tend to agree.  

We ate lunch here at home and I've got our supper started.  

And that has been our week.  Some savings, some spending, some making things stretch and doing it ourselves.  That's the way this frugal life goes.