Thrifty Thursday: Oops! I'm Late!

Thursday:  What a busy day today turned out to be and a day of spending.  All but one item bought today was covered by our budget.  

So today we ordered glasses.  John told me this morning that glasses shouldn't come from our main account; we'd take that cost from the savings.  I agree.  New glasses are a necessity but it's a cost that is hard to plan for.  We don't buy new glasses once a year nor do they cost the same thing each time.  

We picked up my prescriptions.  I do not have health insurance that covers prescription medications, but I do set aside a portion of my monthly budget to cover those costs. 

We got haircuts.  That is planned into each month.

We shopped for groceries.  We also bought lunch while at the grocery store (cheaper than takeout).  My final total this month was spot on where I hoped I'd be.  I am on budget despite two birthday parties provided for family this month. 

At the grocery today I bought boneless skinless chicken breast, for $1.50 a pound.  I was planning to buy bone-in breasts, but they cost more per pound!   Our 'splurge' purchases this week were a variety of deli meats.  I divided that up and froze it in portions big enough to make four sandwiches.

meals:  We ate breakfast separately this morning.  I heated up a frozen biscuit and John ate toast.

From the deli, we purchased a sandwich for John, and I chose a salad from the deli counter. 

Chicken and Noodles.

Friday:  This morning, I made bread.   John did laundry and hung part of it outdoors.  We transferred money from savings to cover eye exams and glasses.  John opened the windows and aired the house today.  

I made Rueben sandwiches for lunch today, which included homemade Russian dressing, an expired can of sauerkraut, and Fontina cheese since I didn't have Swiss on hand.  It was super good, and we agreed that the Fontina is a nice melty sort of cheese.  

This evening, we had a small group meeting.  I didn't know until early this week that I was on the program to share a reading.  I printed out a copy of one of my nursing home stories and shared that.  We ate snacks at the program but didn't have supper before we left home.  

Saturday:  We were up early this morning.  Though John typically doesn't eat before playing and singing, we were up so early that I offered him a breakfast sandwich.  Glad I had these prepared on hand.  

On the way home, we ordered pizza.  This is probably the most expensive meal out we have all month, but John really enjoys it.  Could I make one cheaper?  I could.  Mine are pretty darn good, but it's not a pizzeria pizza.  There's just something different about one ordered from a pizzeria.  Usually, we eat the leftovers for supper but tonight we had a BLT.

One saving over the past two days was unintentional.  I mentioned to John that it was awfully chilly in the house...He went to check the thermostat and said "Oh!  I forgot I turned it off yesterday when I opened the windows!"  Well...we survived but it's nice to know I was genuinely cold and not just getting sick as I'd supposed.

Sunday:  Today turned out to be a pricier day.  We were having Fried Chicken Sunday at Katie's today.  The store we visited almost always has a problem providing fried chicken and today we ended up with only wings since there were five adults and 1 child eating this, John grabbed two boxes of them.  Wings cost a lot more than chicken.  

All we bought was wings, tenders for the little kids (the wings were spicy which was fine for Taylor and the adults), rolls, and Macaroni salad.  It came up to $52!  Y'all!  This was a doggone expensive meal.  Way more than I'd realized.  And no, I didn't pick up the wings, John did.  I was busy grabbing the other stuff. So, I didn't pay attention...That's biting me in the bottom more and more.  I'm going to take this meal from our entertainment fund, and we'll just eat at some of the less expensive places in the weeks ahead.  But seriously, had I paid attention, there would have been huge savings by driving to another store to get chicken!

The day wasn't over though.  Came home to a notice from the optical place that our glasses were being manufactured.  Then I saw the prescription on John's was all wrong...Holy cow!  Too late to stop the process.  I know Katie corrected that order more than once, yet somehow it still transposed my prescription over his.  I couldn't log in the other night after we placed the order, and I hadn't thought again to check the prescription until today.  Well darn!   I reordered his glasses with the CORRECT prescription.  Thankfully these glasses are not pricey, but it is still an added expense in a month when we really don't have any room at all for added anything.  

It feels like we've made two costly mistakes today.  March is going to be a slender-looking month I'm afraid, as we try to recoup February losses and mistakes.

John decided he didn't want to go back to church tonight for Senior Supper.  We've spent so much time in Warner Robins these past two weeks that I was rather glad not to turn around and go back. Our gas budget will thank us, too.   I made supper here at home using what we had on hand.  

meals at home:  Cereal, fruit, toast

Chef's Salad, homemade dressings

Monday:  Up this morning and happy we had nowhere to go during the day today.  

I made breakfast using eggs I boiled yesterday while making the Chef's Salad for our supper.  I always boil extra eggs whenever I am boiling a few for one meal because it costs the same to cook seven as it does to cook one or two.

Although I've just bought a new mascara, I am having dickens of a time with eczema/psoriasis (not sure which one) on my eyelid.  It's dry and itchy and the lid keeps splitting.  It's a lot like having a paper cut in the crease of the eye.  I've been using filtered coconut oil on it to keep it from getting dry and flaky with some decent results. 

In the past, this patch on my eye has been a sign of irritation from a makeup product.  I've been using the same brand/type of mascara for over 20 years, but elimination has gotten me to the point of being pretty sure it's the mascara that is causing the irritation. I saw a special online for a different mascara brand at a price point I can stand (under $4) so I decided to order it and give it a try.  It should arrive on Wednesday and yes, shipping was free.

I had been holding some things in my Amazon cart for over two weeks and would periodically go in and look for better pricing on similar products.  Today I felt satisfied that I did not need one item at all, and found a good substitute for a second product that lowered the price by two-thirds.  Once I'd found the mascara deal, I went ahead and ordered the items.  I lowered the original sum in my cart by more than half.

I also found good deals on t-shirts and bras today at Target.  I had gift cards and a discount code from a prior purchase, ordered enough to get free shipping.  These items will be paid for with my personal spending money, not from the household accounts.  I have been setting money aside for just this purpose.  And I was more than happy to save nearly $20 with gift cards and discounts to pick up items that were on sale and needed.

One item I'd been planning to order was a big desk calendar that was reduced to $3.  I know it's only $3 but I recalled I had blank calendar pages that I'd been using last year in my Home Notebook and in looking I still had a blank.  I made several copies on our printer here at home and now I can put up a calendar for my desk as well as keep one in my notebook.  I can use that $3 to pay for the mascara I ordered.

I thought John was going to be out this evening.  He wasn't.  There I was at 5pm with no supper plans...Thankfully I'd set meats out to thaw for the week ahead and was able to prepare a meal!  I used up some apples that were getting a bit old to make a side dish to go with our supper.

Meals:  Boiled Eggs, Toast

Leftover Reuben, Chips

Pork Chops with Apples and Onions, Green Beans and Potatoes, Rye bread.   The pork chops were seasoned with that simple recipe I found: yellow mustard, whole grain mustard, salt and pepper.  I added a wee bit of water to the pan and as it cooked the excess mustard sort of thickened.  This was so so so good!  John raved, especially with the mustard getting mixed in with the sweet-tart apples and the onions.  Yum!

I was reading a Willow and Thatch newsletter and discovered some PBS Masterpiece classics are currently free on Amazon Prime.  I was pretty happy and added those items to my watchlist.

John did not have to go out this evening...So a savings in gasoline where I was expecting him to have to go.

Tuesday:  I got busy this morning in the kitchen.  I made up a double batch of vegetable-only spaghetti sauce (usually I add meat) and enough meatballs to do the two of us for three meals.  I made bagels (1 dozen) and enough chicken to make enchiladas.  I should be able to make enough to put an enchilada meal into the freezer.  

As I chopped vegetables for the spaghetti sauce, I added the onion tops and tails and tough outer skins, and the leafy portions of the celery to the pot of chicken.  I also added in a portion of the carrot I was grating.  This made a very flavorful broth and netted me a full pint of broth to use.

I had a butternut squash that I'd not used as planned so I chopped it up and divided it into two meals.  Since I want to roast this eventually, I wanted to freeze it without cooking.  I looked it up and found that for butternut squash you may just put it right into the freezer without blanching.  So that's what I did.  I knew I'd seen packages of butternut squash cubes in the frozen foods section and that's what I wanted to accomplish.

I also diced and then froze an orange bell pepper that I hadn't used and didn't want it to go to waste.

Meals:  Pancakes and Bacon, I added strawberries to my plate.

Pizza and Salad, all leftover items from the weekend

Spaghetti and Meatballs, Toast.  Nope, I didn't serve any salad or other veg.  Remember that tomato sauce was loaded with lots of good vegetables and I felt it was sufficient for our needs for today.

Wednesday:  I was busy all day today.  I don't mind being busy.  I felt comfortable since I had a general idea of what we'd have for lunch and supper. John solved breakfast by saying he wanted a bowl of cereal.  Done.

I have added to my donation pile today and to the trash.  I thought I was all done decluttering my home.  Surprise!  I guess once you take off the obvious things you can see the things that you initially thought were things you wanted.  Most of what I let go of today were items that I've been looking at for months and wondering, 'Where can I put this?'  

While I was resting after lunch, I used an Amazon gift card to purchase a pair of lamps with shades to replace the broken ones in our room.  We've already painted and rewired them twice.  I'll pass them on and let someone else have that fun.  After taxes, my total was $1.03 for the two lamps.  

Then I pulled the gift card I've had from Cato for months now from a return made in the fall (Sparkly black jeans...ugh) and ordered a pair of white jeans and a coral-colored top that I really liked.  I saved 2/3 of the price using the gift card and will pay the remaining balance from my personal allowance or from the money John recently gave me to 'buy something for YOU for a change'.

I worked in the guest room this afternoon and gathered a bag of fabric to donate.  I also found a bag of Katie's things that are now set aside for her.  

Meals:  Yogurt with Maple Syrup, Strawberries, and Flax Meal for me, Cereal for John, and toast for us both.

We finished off the deli meat I hadn't frozen, so we each had a sandwich and chips.

Chicken Divan, Wild Rice.  Two things.  (1) Chicken divan was NOT on the menu this week.  Broccoli and Chicken were planned to be used in meals this week as was cheese.  My menus are guides I use to make meals.  Sometimes I stick to the menu hard and at other times, I change it up.  Tonight, time prohibited my making enchiladas as planned.   In checking the broccoli, I found I had more broccoli stems than I did florets, and I knew that cooking the stems would make them more tender and edible. I already had cooked chicken. I recalled that John had really liked this easy Divan recipe when I'd first made it, so it seemed a good change up to make.  

The wild rice was almost gone and in giving it a smell test, I felt sure that it was a 'use it now or lose it when you next think of it,' situation.  

This led me to think of an item I'd picked up yesterday and opened that had already expired.  It was a powdered drink mix and obviously was just fine to use but I realized that buying things in bulk is not really an option for us any longer.  It's better to buy smaller portions and not big canisters of things like wild rice or orange drink mix.  Something I need to keep in mind when I again find those items on sale.

There is enough Chicken Divan left to serve us another meal. 

Thursday:  John and I went our separate ways this morning, but not until we'd figured out that his phone was affected by the attack on AT&T...while mine was not.  Go figure.  

John was on his way to visit with his friend and former partner.  I was off to visit Mama.  I thought about taking donations with me (I think I have another trunk full now), but truthfully, once I'm done with a visit with Mama, I am most assuredly fully done.  I've given up the pretense that I might do anything extra.  There were many things it would have been nice to do.  Like going by Walmart and restocking on flour, dropping off donations, or even running by the local flea market just fun.  But I had no energy left for such things.

I stopped on my way home at the dollar store.  My purpose was threefold: pick up 3D contact hooks, a white-out pen, and a Sprite.  I wanted to look for shallow baskets to corral those K-cups that keep floating all over the drawer and new throw rugs to go at the door in both front and back entry.  No luck.  I did get a Sprite.  Savings was obviously substantial in light of my failures, elsewhere.

Came home to find the new lamps had arrived.  I am stunned.  I just ordered them yesterday!  I was a bit disappointed in looking at the box.  I'd thought the lamps came with shades but there was no way that there were shades in the shipping box.  Well, I was all wrong.  I should have taken a photo of how darned clever the packing was.  The lampshades and the lampshade frames were packaged separately.  the shades themselves were rolled into a tub.  Clever folks had thought to make lampshades with Velcro edges and the tiniest little metal clips at the top and bottom of the shade that you could slip the frame into and then tighten the shade and Velcro it closed!  I think this is genius and yes, the shades look absolutely normal in every way once they are all together.  

Also in today's deliveries, I received my order of t-shirts and bras.  I am pleased that all the T-shirts fit.  In fact, I might have probably gotten a size smaller.  It's always iffy with Target t-shirts as to whether their current brands fit.  I'm sure they will shrink a bit with the first washing, so I'm not too fussed about the sizing at present.

Meals:  John chose to fast, I had toast.

Out with others.

John had a chicken sandwich, and I made a Buffalo Chicken Salad

This week's Amazon link will lead to the lamps I ordered.  They are really quite nice.

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