I harvested roselle hibiscus from the garden and dried it to make herbal tea.
I harvested zucchini and basil from the garden. The zucchini is an open-pollinated type (Black Beauty), so I saved the seeds to plant next year.
I sowed seeds for lettuce, Swiss chard, and green onions in the garden. The lettuce seeds were ones I gathered from my own garden in the spring.
My mother was at a store where I needed something. She picked up what I needed as well, saving me the cost of gas (as she lives next door, she just walked the bag to my house). I paid her back using Zelle, which costs nothing to use and sends the money directly from my bank account to hers.
The temperatures cooled this past week, so we were able to turn off the air conditioning for the year. I opened the windows in the mornings to let fresh air in the house and to cool the house each day.
I read three e-books from the library: Her Last Betrayal; Nine Women, One Dress; and The Thief of Lanwyn Manor.
My husband cut my hair for me.
What did you do to save money last week?
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A slow week this week. We have decided to go back to shopping in person so I have ordered the shopping I can only get at Asda this week and next week we will visit Aldi. Hopefully it will be cheaper.
We went out to lunch with friends we hadn’t seen for 3 years. It was lovely to see them again. Other than that I have cooked all meals at home from scratch. We also saw our daughter and the grand kids as it was half term.
I put out my washing on the line but it rained so I christened my new airer and dried it indoors, this was the first time I have done this since May. We have no tumble drier.
I cut my hubby’s hair and beard just finished as it spitted with rain, so its not the best hair cut I have ever done but we did not get wet.
I have been looking at making a wonder bag again I have finished the base and am looking for polystyrene to make the cover. I hope it will save some money. I found the pattern here https://www.allselfsustained.com/how-to-make-and-use-a-wonderbag/. I am using my material from my stash.
I am knitting thicker socks than usual for hubby as his feet are always cold. I am hopeful that when the weather gets colder I can keep the heating down. It has been warmer than usual , the weather is lovely. I have been pottering in the garden. I have harvested carrots and raspberries this week and made another batch of raspberry jam.
I have been around the house finding all battery operated torches and appliances, I have recharged all the batteries and making sure I have enough non rechargeable batteries . I have found all the candle holders cleaned them and found the candles and lighters. I have also found the gas lighter for the hob. I have cleaned all the oil lamps. This is insurance I hope I don’t need. I have a rechargeable Radio which I keep charged. I have been looking for solar lights. I have plenty of led light bulbs.
Have a good week everybody
Chris
The link has very nice directions and explanation of the wonder bag. Thank you
Thank you for the tip and link for making a Wonder Bag. This looks like a great idea. I think it’s wonderful that you have the knitting skills to knit socks. That’s amazing! Perhaps your husband already has warm slippers, but I thought I would mention some shearling lamb’s fleece lined slippers that were gifted to the men in my family. I see Amazon no longer has them in stock (Tamarac brand) but they are common enough. We always take off shoes when coming in the house to save cleaning so much, so we wear slippers in the winter. Last winter my son was living in an older house with very cold floors, evidently uninsulated. He said he could sit and study for hours while wearing those slippers without his feet being cold. I would like to get myself a pair. I have found that if I wear long underwear on my legs under my trousers in the winter, my feet stay warmer, but I still tend to have cold feet. Are you preparing for rolling blackouts? I enjoy reading your comments from week to week; it’s so interesting to learn how you are managing in the UK. Wishing you the best.
I had seen this wonder bag oh so many years ago. I’m so glad you mentioned it again as I had forgotten all about it. Have you used one before and If so, did it work out well for you?
Harvested our fourth cutting of parsley from our garden this season! It was loaded on dehydrator trays and when it came out, we now have enough dried parsley flakes to last a year (or more!)! https://pin.it/4FTM7Sr. No need to plant any next Spring, so I can use that space for something else to grow! Not bad for part of a Dollar Tree – 4/$1 packet of parsley seeds! 👍 And here it is dehydrated and chopped! I put it into a large Parmesan cheese bottle that I had! https://pin.it/XP6F9dy.
I took advantage of the Meijers sale on apples! So the photo is my 17 bags (51 pounds, roughly 1 bushel) of apples that cost me a walloping $16.83! But, wait! I had a $4 rewards credit from previous purchases, so my total was $12.83 or just over 25 cents per pound!! https://pin.it/4FDAOcm. Drive by our house this week and you will smell apple pie filling being canned, applesauce being canned, and apple slices in the dehydrator! Might even see us crunching down some fresh apples since Galas are Dave’s favorite!
Many of my green tomatoes have ripened and there were enough to can another 5 pints of tomato sauce. The reason I am canning sauce instead of whole or diced tomatoes is because I already have 100+ quarts of tomatoes that I canned last season so I want to use those up. This harvest has yielded 18 pints of tomato sauce canned so far in addition to all we have eaten and used to make salsa (81 pints!) And this week I will have enough ripened in the house again to make another 6 pints! They were definitely worth my $4 investment for the 16 tomato plant starts I bought this past Spring!
We are driving the 5 hours up to Michigan again today and will stay until lunchtime on Tuesday to see my brother. His health is declining rapid since he fell and had surgery on his broken hip. We will take my SIL out to dinner tonight and spend time visiting with her and then go to the care facility on Tuesday to visit my brother. Got our same hotel booked for tonight. We have snacks and bottled water from home in the car to save money, but are grateful that our budget has a nice cushion that makes it possible to afford these trips every 2 weeks. Grateful also that our 2002 van that we bought last year is well maintained and reliable to make the trip! Grateful that we can support my SIL a bit by coming. She was not always a fan of mine but this past 2 years, as she’s dealt with my brother’s dementia, she and I have become incredibly close. (My mom lived with us for 3 years with dementia before she passed away.) So while it isn’t the most frugal thing, we will continue our trips to “The Mitten” as often as we feel we can. We were able to find gas for $3.39/gallon going up! Thank you Gas Buddy app (free) on my phone!! In Michigan, gas tends to be 70 cents/gallon more. We’ll see if that holds true this trip.
In the meantime, I had 2 brand new clients this past week- I kept the job for the first and then had my daughter quilt the second one. The first one that I did consisted of a queen size quilt, and fronts and backs quilted for her to make 2 pillow shams and 2 throw pillows. Here are the photos of the pillows with fronts and backs together for each one: https://pin.it/14UhFOI, https://pin.it/16tqffM, https://pin.it/1WkLuG4 and https://pin.it/7L3f9j0. I will finish quilting the quilt when I get home on Tuesday. So those are Lenni’s #279, 280, 281 and #282!
Hubs found a nursery that was going out of business and advertising on FB Marketplace so he went over to buy some 1 gallon growing pots for my berry and fig cuttings I’ll be starting later this week. They told him they didn’t have any for sale but he saw some towards the back of the nursery on the ground near their dumpster. He picked them up and asked about their price. He was told that he could just have them for free! There were 24!! So thanks to everyone for all the ideas of sources for growing pots because I’m sure we will probably need more and your suggestions have given us ideas of places to check in the future.
On Saturday, we “retired” two metal cabinets that we bought at an estate auction over 20 years ago for $3 total after using them in our basement for food storage. After so long, they were rusting and bending and so we bought a heavy duty metal shelving unit with 6 shelves at Lowes to replace them! I just started refilling it and am thrilled because it holds more than the 2 cabinets combined! https://pin.it/61DK6TD.
The curtains and rods that we ordered for our new windows came and so we got those put up! Also, Hubs added new weatherstripping and caulking around our doors to button things up even more for the coming cold winter! . We are hoping that these improvements will help keep the house warm while keeping our heating bill low! Every week we are trying to find at least one more way we can take some kind of action that will reduce our energy use/cost.
Sometimes it seems overwhelming, but I figure that if I even do a few small things, that it will help!
Gardenpat in Ohio
HandmadeinOldeTowne.com
Gardenpat, I followed your good example this week, and when I saw an excellent unadvertised special on butter locally, I called a friend to let her know. Her workplace is right across the street from the store that had the special, so she was heading over there to stock up.
Also, several people at medical appointments and retail lineups thanked me this week for being patient about waiting a minute or two. Each of them said that people are getting really mad and telling them off! Time for all of us to take a deep breath, I think. It is tough when even people who provide great service are getting scolded when things don’t go as quickly as we would like.
My best public service of the week was to notice when I went into a hospital for an appointment that there was only one more mask in the box at the front door. My late mother was quite firm with us as children, that we should not take the last of anything with telling someone who could buy more! I told more than one member of staff in the nicest tone possible that more masks were needed at the front door, and only stopped telling people when I saw another box had been put out.
It all made me think of you encouraging us to help each other out and stay positive.
Elizabeth M.- The neat thing I’ve found is that as I’ve shared about good sales to let others know and benefit from them, that often they will let me know about some great sale that I may not have heard about! Forms a two- way network that increases opportunities to find/take advantage of great sales!!
Thank you! I’m sure your friend appreciated the heads up and your generosity in taking time to let her know about it as well!!
My parsley both curly and Italian always regrow if you don’t pull the plant. I am in north west Ohio
Juls Owings- I was actually hoping that I could use that garden space where the parsley currently is growing to plant something else come Spring. But I can’t, in good conscience, pull out productive plants that could overwinter! 🤔😱 Maybe I can transplant them into a pot this week as a Win-Win- keeping a productive plant (actually 4 plants) and also gaining that garden space they were in!
I appreciate your sharing your knowledge and experience with me so I can expand/improve my garden!!
Gardenpat in Ohio
HandmadeinOldeTowne.com
I just have to tell you, GardenPat, that I love your posts. Everyone’s are great but there is something about yours that really hit home with me.
I’ve so missed Marivene’s posts and yours have taken the place of hers for me now. Thank you for always sharing!
Megan- Wow! That is humbling praise! Every time I weed in the garden, I always think of Marivene’s method of filling 1 bucket each time! My garden definitely looks less weedy because of her simple but wise method!! I miss her comments too! She always had such good ideas!
Gardenpat in Ohio
HandmadeinOldeTowne.com
Oh, I agree! GardenPat, you’re just a wealth of information.
I miss Marivene, also. I think of her every time I see a box of Jello, as she had said that their family always had goblets of Jello on the holidays, from the earliest days when they couldn’t afford much. I hope her family is doing well since her passing.
Krissy in Sacramento, CA- I remember her talking about the jello in goblets but even now, I can’t make jello successfully if my life depended on it!! But so many of her other ideas, I’ve incorporated into our lives here! She was a great mentor to so many of us who never met her in person!
Gardenpat in Ohio
HandmadeinOldeTowne.com
I remember Marivene but I don’t remember the Jello in goblets! What a fun idea and one I think I’ll implement. We have 2 church services on Sundays that make meals difficult. We usually end up having one meal in late afternoon and a snack when we get home at 8:30 or 9:00 pm. Jello is one of the things we rotate through for that snack and I have some dollar tree goblets I could use to make it special.
Krissy, thank you for bringing up Marivene’s jello. I had forgotten about that anecdote until you mentioned it. I always think of her whenever I see weeds and try to duplicate her efforts to fill a bucket, like others have mentioned. I too hope her family is doing well and know that there are those of us who still think of her, miss her and remember her fondly despite the years of her absence. I remember my sadness at the news of her passing, for someone I never met.
What a nice compliment for GardenPat, comparing her posts to Marivene’s. I too miss Marivene and her wisdom. GardenPat is equally generous with her knowledge and amazes me with what all she accomplishes!
Ditto to everything Megan said regarding GardenPat! Love those posts! I also miss Marivene and always smile when I am reading old posts and hers pop up!
Your kindness to your sister-in-law and betting bygones be bygones is inspirational.
I feel the same way about Gardenpat’s post. Yes, I miss Marvienne’s posts too and sometimes hear her encouraging me in the back of my mind to pick a bucketful of weeds every day (or to work toward some task each day). Gardenpat’s post remind me to put food away, use what you have, search for a bargain, and share with others.
Love your quilts!
Just a heads up.. I was in my Aldis today (Mon 31 st) and the cashier told the man behind us in line that he may want to wait until Wednesday to buy his turkeys (he had 4) because they were going to go down to ,99 lb on this weeks ad but there is a limit of 2. I do not know if all Aldis run the same add schedule but I thought I would mention it in case
I just picked up my mail and the flyer says 1,07 lb.
Mine says $1.07/lb too, but it’s for the Butterball brand turkey.
I went to Walmart yesterday and their turkeys are 99 cents a lb.I live in NC.I got 2.I am hoping to find more cheaper 😊.
No turkeys in our Aldis ad for this week.
the flyer in the central valley of california (savemart) has turkeys at $0.55/lb with a $50 purchase. Limit 1 turkey. But they also have 5# bags of either Yukon or red potatoes for $2.50/bag with no limits on the potatoe purchase.Also pork butt roast at $0.99/# with no limit.
Gas was $3.10 gallon in University town at the cheapest station I saw, and $3.49 a couple of hours further south. I went to Aldi and bought 99 cent bread, bagels for $1.79 for six, grape tomatoes for 3.48 carton, bags of small carrots for 99 cents, I cannot remember the cheese price but it was cheaper than other places, I did not get eggs at Aldi because they were 3.99 for a dozen! I went to Walmart and eggs were $3.52 for a dozen large. I also got a Turkey for 99 cents a lb!!!! I will just use the previously bought turkey breasts for later,
probably Christmas. I went to Target and bought an eggplant for $1.49. I made my son bison burgers from what I had bought on sale a long time ago. I also made him tomato soup and grilled cheese. I took the little bit of leftover bison, and cooked an onion with it, along with chopped carrots, I added all of that to a can of either turnip greens or mustard greens, I didn’t have my glasses on….. lol, a can of rotel tomatoes, garlic, a little bit of leftover butternut squash, and added water and bullion and made a soups I ate it with a splash of apple cider vinegar and hot sauce. That soup, since it consisted mostly leftovers with a can of rotel tomatoes and a can of greens, was cheap and will be eaten all week. I wil take sandwiches to work all week, as usual, for lunch. As Brandy says, soup is inexpensive. Last week I made lima bean soup from dried lima beans so soup is on the menu for this winter.
I told my husband we’ll be having soup once a week from now on. I also mentioned that we may have to give up eating as it was getting so expensive! 🤪
I love soup! Could eat it for every meal! I make a chicken tortilla soup, chicken noodle, chili, veggie, Olive Garden chicken gnocchi soup etc in my Ninja Foodi using the pressure cooker mode. Also made potato soup. Always take leftovers to work for my lunch.
I always make soup one of my low meat meals once the heat of summer is past. I love it but my husband doesn’t care for it when it’s really hot. I have a few different ‘recipes’ I make which are all loosely based on experience and no real written recipe. And then there’s always plenty of leftovers to freeze or can as well.
😄! My husband had had his fill of chicken at one point in the recent past and apparently mustered up the courage 😉to tell me so (in the nicest way possible-smart man, he wanted me to continue cooking for him, haha). Once prices began rising and I started stocking up on chicken with every sale I could find, I told him soon he was going to be ecstatic to have chicken. He silently nodded in agreement. The threat of possibly “no eating” had not crossed my mind😂.
I hope there was nothing in my reply to momsav that offended you Brandy, as I don’t see it here. That is never my intention. Peace✌
I never saw a reply. You can write it again. Every once in a while it seems that replies don’t come through to me for approval.
Thanks for your response! There must be a glitch on my end. I always *try* to come back and be sure there is nothing I should acknowledge from others.
Hi Brandy and everyone
Your rose photos are gorgeous. Glad it’s getting cooler for you.
Last Christmas we were gifted two jars of cherries in Kirsch. We don’t like fruit in alcohol but didn’t want to waste them so I drained the cherries and rinsed them thoroughly in water and used them in a cherry sponge pudding. The jars are a lovely shape so I will use them for gifting.
I gave a jar of home made runner bean chutney as a hostess gift.
We received a jar of courgette and apple chutney which we are not keen on so I’m using it up in cheese toasties.
We picked our crop of medlars and they are left now to blet ( rot slightly) before I make them into jelly. We also picked cabbage, tomatoes and dahlia.
We have cleared some of the veg beds and planted sweet peas in a greenhouse for next spring.
Our wholesale bulb order has arrived, the hippeastrum bulbs are £5 each which is half the price in garden centres etc.
I have cut the bottom off handcream and moisturiser tubes to get out the last of the cream.
We had family to stay and they took us out for a nice meal. Another night I cooked sausage and bean casserole using several small portions of cooked beans I had frozen, I just mixed the different types of beans in together and they all liked it. We had leftovers for another day.
My old car is becoming unreliable so we have bought a newer car ( not new!) and traded the old one in. We paid for it from savings so need to build them back up again. I’m grateful we had the money and didn’t need to use a finance deal.
For those of you who like British TV a new series of Escape to the Chateau has started and also The Larkins, based on The Darling Buds of May.
Stay safe everyone.
Thank you for the info on Escape to The Chateau. I had just been thinking and wondering if they would have another season.
I visited all of my friends who save chicken carcasses for me and brought 6 home for my freezer. I will use them to make bone broth for pressure canning and freezing.
I determined that holiday baking is not in the cards this year due to rising costs of butter and eggs (eggs are almost $4 per dozen here).
I will use the inside of Halloween pumpkins for future pumpkin custard.
I made bread pudding with leftover bits I had on hand.
I picked up some things at the Dollar Store to use in Christmas baskets for my two closest neighbors.
I combined errands to save on gas and parked centrally to take advantage of this beautiful weather and do some walking between businesses.
I look forward to reading all the frugal accomplishments.
Have you considered making bread instead? I use my rosemary bread recipe and divide it into smaller loaves for gift-giving. The recipe makes 4 large loaves. You can easily make 8 or even 12 from it.
Brandy I have used your Rosemary Bread recipe many times through the years and get rave reviews! I am actually making a loaf for a friend’s bday since I have heard her talk about it since I baked her a loaf last Christmas.
People love it and hint they hope we make more for them 😊
Brandy, I now have to try making your bread!
JLynne: Terrific that you let people know that you are open to accepting what they can’t use and that you value being thrifty. I have been the same and I was just given a new pair of felt pack winter boots that a friend couldn’t use. 6 chicken carcasses will make a lot of good broth. I know that canola oil is up in price but I would recommend using it in place of butter for many recipes. just add a bit of salt. It is the salt that we taste in butter which is why unsalted butter is so yuck. Parking centrally and walking is very good advice.
Good tip about the canola oil instead of butter. I’ll give that a try. Thank you
Aw, I love unsalted butter – it is all we buy!
You can make cupcakes using the WWII Wacky cake recipe that doesn’t use butter or eggs as an ingredient.
Brandy I am glad you are getting some zucchini, I know that is a hard one to grow for you and here in the middle of the country we grow so much it is hard to even give away.
-I made pheasant wild rice soup. Yummy! I wanted to share how I cook my wild rice. It is perfect every time! Combine in a covered casserole 3 c water, 1 c wild rice and 2 t butter. Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Put wild rice in the oven with the cover on. Cook 10 minutes and shut the oven off. Leave the wild rice in the oven covered for 12 hours. I do this in the evening and let it sit overnight. No more cooking it on the stove. We ate this soup twice plus I froze 2 meals.
-I got 4 pumpkin pie pumpkins at a trail run 5K event I participated in this last weekend. I will cook them and freeze the pulp.
-I spent 5 days at a scrapbooking retreat. I do this every fall with friends. We bring all our own food and cook our own meals. I only spent $20 at the attached store for supplies. I was able to finish albums for 2 grandchildren. I do 2 year albums for all 5 grandchildren. 3 of them one year and 2 of them the rotating year. They get them on their birthdays. These albums were due in September but with the garden and settling my dads’ estate I was unable to have them done on time. Glad to have them done! Now to start on the one due in February.
-When I returned Sunday from my retreat, I pulled cooked frozen meatballs from the freezer and made meatball stroganoff and served it over rice. Quick and easy meal instead of eating out.
-No grocery shopping this week. I will do my big stock up this coming week, as I usually do at the beginning of the month. However I will be spending a set amount, so that means I will have to look for deals and the best prices I can find or do without.
-I have set a goal to use 30 jars of home canned food in the month of November. Basically one a day. When I set goals for myself I am better at using my jars of food.
Have a great week!
Julie do you use water right from the tap or heat it first?
Right from the tap, the oven heats it and it comes out perfect every time! Plus I don’t get the woodsy musty smell you get when cooking it in a kettle on the stove or the instant pot once you take the lid off. Not my favorite smell although I love wild rice. We have a lot of it here as it is harvested off of many lakes, the true wild rice. But this recipe works for the true wild rice or the cultivated bought in stores.
Happy Halloween, All! Hope everyone is doing well. *A friend’s husband was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer last week. They were blindsided by this and really struggling. I was able to bring a simple but yummy dinner with things I had in my pantry. I was able to use plastic containers I’d collected (think empty cottage cheese containers) so they didn’t have to return any dishes. Doing this reminds me why I’m thrifty and stock up when I can. It also reminds me to express my love to those in my life and make the most of each day. We just never know when things will change on a dime.* I used an empty medicine bottle to store some yarn needles. *I’ve been trying to eat down the freezer. We had a few meals of leftovers I had immediately frozen after the original meal. I love this because it saves me so much time in the kitchen, too. *My hubby needed a get away…it’s been a rough autumn, especially with losing his mom last month. He found a small Airbnb about hour from home that was on a lake but a good price. We ate most of our meals there. When we did go out, it was for lunch at a small town cafe. He spent time walking around the lake and we played games, read and slept in. It seems to have been very restorative for him. A little money, but worth it. *My daughter has started a design business and has her designs on Spoonflower.com. I wanted to support her business so ordered a table runner in her design. I was grateful for 20% off for first order coupon. *Same daughter has covid so her kids can’t go trick or treating tonight. I put together little candy bags with some Halloween pencils, erasers, etc., from a few years ago that I had kept (and miraculously found!) and hubby and I are headed over there to reverse trick or treat tonight. Glad I kept those little trinkets. Nothing fancy, but the little girls will enjoy the surprise. We are just dropping at the door and backing away! Making Mummy Dogs for dinner for those of us here (pigs in a blanket). We are all grown ups, but it’s fun to do something a little special anyway, especially when it’s cheap and easy! *Finished two hats and two dishcloths for donations using donated/stash yarn. *Finished The Irishman’s Daughter, which had been recommended on here. Enjoyed it. I am finishing the last Darling Dahlia’s book, a series I have GREATLY enjoyed, again, recommended on here. Both are library books. Thanks so much for sharing your good reads! *Hope everyone has a great week. Can’t believe it’s November already!
My husband cleaned out refrigerator(like everything out and scrubbed it all) and I saved some jars from various condiments. There wasn’t a whole lot thrown away.
I stayed out of store, hubby even went without his creamer most of the week.
Read Pioneer Woman, Southern Living, and People magazines for free with Kindle Unlimited.
Brought home some extra snacks from book club. I only took my .25 packs of Halloween napkins.
Used a 20 percent off at McDonald’s
Was able to open up the house several times.
Insurance covered my tetanus booster I needed, so no out of pocket on it.
Used $2 reward at Walgreens to get a couple 2 liters the teen needed for a dinner for drama club.
Sent some canned goods we won’t eat to school with the teen for a can food drive
Went to a local theme park with the teen for a fall festival (well, 45 minutes away). We have season passes. I buy a refillable cup at the beginning of the year, so we didn’t have to pay for any drinks(I take an empty water bottle so we can have our own), we split a lunch, then she wanted cotton candy and I got a bag of kettle corn to bring home. It started raining so we left sooner than I had planned, but it was still a fun day.
I do not have much to comment on frugally due to be down with the flu (I’m in quarantine through Friday.) but I did want to mention that when I was at my local Kroger last week (before I fell sick.) I noticed they did not seem to have many items using their name nor generics. For example, I was in the cereal aisle and realized there was only one cereal with the Kroger name. All the others were name brand only. I rarely buy cereal but this has me concerned. I need dog food. They have reduced the amount of options by at least 60% and appear to no longer carry a Kroger brand dog food. They have also redone the layout of the store. Now about a fourth of the storeis beer and wine. The produce section has been reduced. The aisles appear to have been reduced in length and made a little wider. Not by much, mind you, but enough to reduce the amount of product available. I think the rules of saving at the grocery store may be changing if we only have name brands to choose from. And at Walmart they are not honoring the price on the shelf labels. I am not shopping there except if what I need is only available there (My nasal spray, for example). Kroger is no longer allowing patrons to stack a coupon with a sale or reduced item. When I do find a marked down item like bread, the marked down price is more than the bread would have cost 2 months ago. I think it is time to figure out a new way of shopping. I buy very little at the store as it is but I am looking at alternative sources for several things like flour, spices, and milk. I am very glad I have a garden even if it did not produce much. At least I was able to put up quite a few things for the winter. I live in a small college town with few shopping options. I will be getting my flour at the Amish store in the next county over. I will be checking out the Asian and Hispanic shops. I ordered some shelf stable vegetables, rice, and potato flakes from Augusson Farms and the LDS store. I am also investigating the possibility of getting our milk from a new small dairy farm. I also was told of a source of fresh eggs at a better price than the store. Plus these eggs are a small cottage business by 2 little girls (ages 8 and 10). A month ago I thought their $3/dozen price was high. Now it’s a bargain!
I think we might all need to make some major changes to our shopping.
Kroger is looking to buy Albertsons, and both of them operate several other store names. Repackaging store brands and other new configurations might be part of that deal. Certainly it will be an opportunity for them to make some changes to suit current selling practices.
So sorry you are sick. Do hope you feel better soon.
I think we may be “neighbors” since I live in C-burg. 🙂 I didn’t know there was an Amish store close to us? I like Oasis, but it seems a bit high.
It looks like Kroger may have eggs for $1.99 if the weekly deal is right so I will stock up. I have mostly been cherry picking deals, and I think Food City may have a few good deals this week.
Kathy, We are neighbors! I’m near PFES. I did not see a deal on eggs on the website/digital coupons. I will check again and stock up if possible. The Amish store is in Bland County off 42. It’s called Walker Valley Market, near White Gate if you know where that is. Also, on Rt. 8 is the Bread Basket owned by a Mennonite family. I can’t say their prices save me much money, but I know it’s fresh. There’s also the Mexican store by Walmart. I get my beans there. Nice to know Brandy has a contingent of fans in the New River Valley!
I want to add that I do not make frequent trips to Bland or Floyd. Usually I go to Bland once or twice a year and stock up and we go to The Bread Basket whenever we go on the Parkway for a date, to Wades Orchards for peaches or tomatoes or to pick up our beef at the processors in Floyd. so maybe two or three times a year.
What a small world! Nice to “meet” you!
My son was in cub scouts at the Grange for years until he went to boy scouts. My brother lives in Bland co, so I’ll ask him about Walker Valley market. and Thompson’s processes our 1/4 beef for the past few years. My son loves the tacos and tortas at the Mexican store. 🙂
Hi Marley. I have always enjoyed your posts and have wondered where in the mountains you are. We go to Wade’s every October for apples and various other goodies. It’s a tradition for our granddaughter to get her pumpkin there. So good to recognize your area of the mountains.
Hi, Mary Anne, You have to love Wades Produce stand! I love driving out there (except for the winding road coming down the mountain on RT8). It’s such a beautiful drive. It is tradition for my granddaughter and I to get peaches there. It’s good to know I now have two new friends in the area who share my frugal ways.
Marley, I actually live in Texas but usually spend September and October in NC. My Mom’s family is from the Stuart area so the Parkway and Wade’s are “musts” when we’re there. It is so very special to find someone who treasures some of the same things I do. And isn’t Brandy wonderful to create a community where we can share. The autumn colors were exceptional this year.
Our Kroger in the Atlanta area is supposed to have 18 count egg packages for $1.99 with a limit of 5. The sale starts tomorrow.
I received store coupons in the mail for Meijer. One was for their brand cereal. They had TWO to choose from. So, it appears to not to only be Kroger. One of my sons works for Kroger. When i question him, he doesn’t know anything. I need a better source. 🤪
If anyone lives near a Trader Joe’s eggs are still $2 a dozen.
I made a trip to our Amish store about month ago. Their prices are so much cheaper on other things besides flour. Their spice prices are the cheapest I have ever seen. We also stocked on good bacon from an Amish farm in PA at a fantastic price. Their produce is reasonable and is fresh and not rotten like in our supermarkets.
I hadn’t noticed this at my most often used Kroger stores, YET but I’ll keep my eyes open. What I have noticed is that the price per pound for meat is higher than the high-end store (Publix) in my area. I mean like significantly higher by dollars per pound. So, there’s that. Where I might have shopped only at one store after years of chasing sales, I’m back to chasing sales. I look EVERYWHERE for savings these days and I’m determined to stick to my budget. I’m just working harder at sticking to it. So far, so good. But I am prepared to change up how I shop all over again if that is what it takes.
I have always “envied” everyone here who has a Kroger or one of its affiliates…we don’t. We have Jewel, Hy-vee, Mijer and Aldi. There is a Schnucks that is 25 minutes away; they hardly have anything reasonable and if they do, I buy at a closer store that price matches. I once had a cashier ask me if I want that price, why don’t I go to the other store! I replied sweetly, “because I would rather give you my business.” She wasn’t happy. Oh well, and my son is a manager there. Oddly enough, I have found loads of great meat sales around me the past couple of weeks. This week’s flyers show BLSL breasts for $.99/lb with a digital coupon (both my husband and I will go and buy separately, and we still have our rain checks for the same thing from two weeks ago!). They also have bone-in pork shoulder for $.99/lb. Turkeys at Aldi are $1.07/lb. for Butterball, limit two. I am going to check Walmart’s price based on another commenter’s price. My shopping has definitely changed as it’s sales, sales, sales and very little else.
Where is everybody? I love the pictures of the flowers I’ve been studying more on the uses of flowers this year sadly none of my Chamomile came up one plant looks like its still trying but doubt we’ll see flowers this late in Ohio. My Thousand Head Kale is doing great, I harvested 1 pea off my Sugar Snap peas that I planted for fall though they are still growing and have some flowers but the bees are gone.
Same thing this week borrowing movies and books from the library. Nothing to exciting.
My chamomile bloomed early Oct. On the other hand our Amish neighbor had tons in blooms all summer in his pasture… I got a frown from him as he knew I was the only one to plant it. His mom made a lot of medical supplies for the community with it LOL. My Nelson carrots did well this year for once. North west Ohio.
I froze two bags of fresh tomatoes to use during the winter. I also tidied up our freezer. It is full and it was good to see what was stored inside and needs using.
Ate many leftovers to keep from grocery shopping or putting food in the trash.
Read “Lessons in Chemistry” from the library.
Attended two water aerobics classes for free.
Attended a potluck party and brought apple cake to contribute, made from ingredients I had on hand.
My husband has a torn rotator cuff in his shoulder. We went to a sports medicine physician who reviewed the MRI of my husband’s shoulder and recommended that he didn’t need surgery. This has been an ongoing issue for years. We were grateful for the expert opinion and happy to spend the $35 co-pay to receive the advice. It will save a year of recovery and the expense of surgery.
I have a friend who works in our county’s fitness facility. My husband goes three times a week to skate. My friend took my husband’s Medicare information and put it into the system, saving him $6-$8 per visit for him to skate. He’s only been on Medicare a few months, but this saves a lot of money over the year!
Hi Kandace
I have had problems with my rotator cuff muscle and know how painful it can be. I’m sure you’ve had great advice but you and other readers might like to know about an NHS website which has good videos demonstrating exercises. It’s put together by physios. The site is http://www.mskdorset.nhs.uk. msk stands for Musculoskeletal matters. Click on the menu then select the part of the body troubling you and view the exercises. My NHS physio advised me to use it, sometimes it takes away the need to see a physio at all. Hope this might help someone.
The NHS website is wonderful! I used one of their exercises to treat sciatica and have not had it since! I live in the US but was desperate for help during a trip to Costa Rica.
Thanks PennyP! I think it’s helpful to find additional exercises as the body adapts to doing the same thing all the time.
Glad to be of help Kandace and glad you’ve already found the site Maxine, the internet can be a dark place but also a great source of useful knowledge.
I love reading how you saved money. Those flowers are beautiful! Good idea saving money on gas, that adds up quick. Over here, saving money by selling items in the house we no longer use, and old curriculum. A neighbor also kindly gave us a big bag of plums and peaches.
I went to the mini department store in town on Monday to buy underwear and comfortable socks. On Mondays seniors get 10% off.
I had several medical appointments or drop-ins this week. I took the seniors’ bus over to the next town over for one of them. There was another passenger on the bus. My appointment finished earlier than expected and hers took longer, so I asked the driver if I could stop in at a grocery store there that I knew had a very good special on butter. He left me there while he went up to the hospital to pick up the other passenger. As long as your stops from drop off to final pick up take no more than one and a half an hours, there is no additional charge. When there are others on the bus, it is better to not keep others waiting, but this time it worked out. A premium brand of butter was on sale for $4.45 a lb. Regular butter costs $6.00 a lb, and we haven’t had an sales all year, so I stocked up for Christmas baking and cooking. I also bought a couple of packs of frozen haddock, which I can’t buy locally. Frozen sole and haddock and salmon that are plain, with no breading, haven’t gone up since the beginning of the pandemic. It is still expensive per serving, but seems much more reasonable, especially since a serving of fish is much lighter weight than a serving of meat.
Later in the week, I bought groceries locally at a different chain, and all the brands of butter were on at $4.45 a lb. The manager must have been reading flyers. We are seeing a lot of manager mark-downs locally lately to compete with competition within driving distance. I bought boneless skinless chicken breast this week that had been marked down to a lower price than the other grocery store in town.
My furnace stopped working. It was close to freezing at night, but not quite there. I waited a day or so because I wasn’t going to be available to wait for a repair person, but he came Friday morning and had it working in a few minutes. A part was stuck rather than broken, though he is going to get me a quote on replacing the part, since a furnace that isn’t working will be much more of a problem as it gets much colder through the winter here in northern Alberta. The bill will include travel from the next town over, but this part of the work won’t be too expensive, anyway. I stayed very warm wearing a jacket and running a space heater when I was in the living room, under a pile of blankets when I was sleeping, and from the heat of the stove or the dishwashing water when I was working in the kitchen. The cat couldn’t be bothered with the space heater. She slept on the pile of blankets in the bedroom or settled on my lap in the living room.
The cat needs to go to the vet. I’ve made arrangements for a first appointment at the next town over about 70 m to the east of us, and for the local taxi driver to take us over later this week. From the nature of the problem, I suspect that she needs a specialist in the city, and I think the travel and vet fees will be unaffordable for me. I have a call in to a major rescue agency to see if they can find someone who would drive the cat to the city at a more reasonable rate than the taxi can do it, but we shall see. She is not in any pain at the moment, but I think I will have to make a decision quickly. I had spent about $2100 a year ago on different surgery, which gave her another good year, but even then knew that it would be very difficult to do that again for this older cat. She is 13. We’ll see how it goes.
I’m sorry to hear your cat is ill. A vet told me years ago that most cats don’t drink enough water which exacerbates their illnesses. The recommendation was to add lukewarm water to the cat’s tinned food, to make a “soup” or “stew”. (Barely warm water. If too warm, it upsets the cat’s stomach). This helped a lot. Plus I knew rather than hoped, that the cat was getting water into her. Hugs to you.
Thanks, Elle W. I needed that.
Sending prayers for your cat and for you as you navigate any challenging decisions.
Thank you so much.
Hi Brandy,
Isn’t the cooler weather lovely? I am in Phoenix and we also turned off our AC, hopefully for a long time! Glad Las Vegas has the same wonderful temps. I finally did a really thorough pantry and freezer inventory and calculated how long it would last. A few weeks ago, based on the old inventory, I estimated three months but this time, actually counting more items and being realistic, six months. Six months is a good number and made me happy since at last I can really wait when I buy items for the best sales price possible. As I mentioned a few times, anyone with US military experience, please check if you can get anything from the VA…my husband, after nine years in the army, had a severe allergy to all things government but finally got convinced to go (after maybe ten years of various friends pushing him) and with his service history and Purple Heart, got service related disability, free drugs and hearing aids! For example, he had a heart attack in the 1990s, based on his service in Vietnam, heart issues are assumed related to agent orange, so he gets a monthly payment for that, etc, etc….we had no idea! So it is worth trying to get the veterans to go there to check it out. This has changed our life, literally. Wishing everyone a happy start to November.
My son is a new veteran and like your husband was feeling allergic to all things government, but he told us he submitted his disability paperwork. We are very thankful.
A few years ago, prostate cancer was added to the list of disabilities that could be caused by Agent Orange that was used in Viet Nam. My husband then qualified for medical disability. But be aware this is the government, and it takes some time to get it started.
Hilogene bless your husband for his service and thank him from a fellow Australian army service family :). I am glad your husband is getting the payments he needs for the injuries and health issues from his service. We too have accessed help for DH’s injuries and health issues from his service too and it is a blessing on the family finances to access these free services that we can get.
Yes a lot of nasty side effects from the gases that our soldiers were gassed with and they are now getting documented. DH is from a family of military serving members with lots of the men serving in WW1. Interesting to note that now they are saying it damaged the DNA chains in those who were gassed mustard gas and made them more susceptible to PTSD, heart complaints and respiratory problems. Interesting also to note is that this damaged DNA was passed on to the next generations too according to some of the latest articles I have read too. Three different types of gases were used in those wars being mustard, bromine and chlorine gas and in some countries phosgene.
Checking the family line on your husbands side and if they were gassed in war service will give you and indication of probable health problems as a result.
Hope this helps you and am hoping your husband is improving with treatment and incidentally DH also suffers heart problems as well as PTSD.
Lorna, this is so interesting about DNA changes from mustard gas. My grandfather was gassed in WWI and my father had bad PTSD and had heart problems. I’ve assumed that his heart problems resulted from the extreme stress he suffered in WW II. Many of his fellow WWII soldiers died in their 60s. It should be noted that unfortunately use of Agent Orange was/is not limited to military combat operations in Viet Nam but some civilian areas in Canada were exposed to it too.
My son is HR for military. Said he battle soldiers all the time to go file papers to get checked out. He starts the conversation of *you earned this benefit*.
He retires from Army Dec 30th with 21 years. Works civilian for Air Force and said they are the same about not using their benefits.
I’ll have to check the books you shared. Right now, I’m reading The Hired Girl, which I think was mentioned by someone here. Last week, I received a payment from sold books, for $24.75. I shelled what I thought was the remainder of the butter beans, but continue to find more of them, now that the leaves have died. I went to Big Lots to use a 25% off coupon, but found very little on my list, besides Christmas cards. I was happy to hear that my SIL made her first pot of veggie broth, after seeing mine on the woodstove while here, and was pleased in how much richer her soup tasted. Winter greens were harvested for a salad, Burden soup was made with tromboncino, and pears were made into a pie. Another three bags of veggie scraps were pulled from the freezer, and placed on the woodstove for broth. That makes 10 gallon bags of scraps so far, with several more to go. A small amount of kale was harvested, for juicing, and more that was frozen in pucks. A tray of sweet peppers was frozen. An update on our solar system is the company is sending us a new board. I’m sure we’ll be on grid power a while longer, but am thankful they honored their warranty. A batch of alfalfa sprouts were started. Laundry was dried on the line. I never think to mention it, but we always use cloth napkins for our meals. A gift was purchased with part of a Swagbucks gift card, so nothing OOP. On Sunday, I processed another canner full of veggie broth, to add to the pantry shelf.
Happy Halloween and All Saints Day if you participate.
The radio said that the average family spends $100 on Halloween. I did not this year. I continued my food plan. It is requires avoiding all “bliss point” food industry creations. (There is a wonderful book on the subject :Salt Sugar Fat- How the Food Giants Hooked Us.) Oreos, for instance, have been engineered to hit the same area in your brain as cocaine. Crazy. Having once been obese, I am especially susceptible to these foods and have in the passed spent a lot of money buying more than I should and then throwing them away because of my out of control eating. By homecooking as many of my own meals and treats, I not only eat less, weigh less, but I spend less. Also, I have very low blood pressure and low cholesterol and I would like to keep it that way. A win all the way around.
Speaking of health: I start tomorrow with Move: a 30 day yoga journey. https://youtu.be/tLcHTdzykgk. It is free and fabulous. No need to spend money on classes.
As a teacher I have always viewed what I spend for my students as “charity.” I am fine with that. I did however choose to NOT buy post its, index cards and whiteboard markers at Staples. The prices were outrageous. I went through the proper channels for the school to buy them. It took more time but I did save $50. Along the same lines, I took advantage of a free Disney Plus week to show my students African Cats. We are studying Africa and the trial ends tomorrow. I always cancel these free trials immediately so I don’t forget later.
Watched youtube tutorials on how to make professional looking bows and stampin up gift tags for my Goodwill upscale baskets.
Safeway sales-butter $1.87/pound, free toaster waffles, cheese $5.99/2 pounds, fresh bakery cookies 18 for 99 cents. I gave 18 cookies to the neighbor boy for his birthday. He turned 10 and was thrilled with 18 fresh cookies all to himself. I was thrilled at the 99 cent price tag!
I keep selling at least an item a week on FB marketplace, and pick up at least one item per week from a free pile. None of these are valuable items, but $5 here and $20 there adds up!
We drove to see our kids and grandson, taking with us zucchini, cucumbers and tomatoes from the garden, and homemade meyer lemon marmalade and grape jelly. They all appreciate the produce and jams. We also took a solid wood bed frame for our grandson, found on the curb for free. It’s a queen or full size, but my son will cut it down to twin size in no time at all. Plus he will enjoy the project.
I have 2 full time weeks of work scheduled this week and next, so that’s always great for the budget. I keep getting emails from school districts about how much they will pay for a sub. The highest I’ve seen is $235 a day, and a $1200 bonus when you’ve worked 30 days. I’m in CA. I can’t work full time all the time because of health problems, but I take the 2 weeks here and there because I get a rest in between.
Beautiful pictures Brandy!
It’s such a pleasure to have a place like this where other people will chat about the price of butter and eggs. We eat, when we can, quite a lot of eggs, so we’ve noticed the price increase a lot. In Boston, it’s actually Target that has the best price per dozen, 3.19. Sams and Walmart are both higher than the chain grocery store down the street, Shaws, which has eggs at 3.33/dozen.
It was a fairly frugal week. We ate from home, even when we had visiting company. I baked bread. I made soup with soaked beans from bags rather than canned, much cheaper at least here. I happily noticed that our pantry was well stocked with most essentials ahead of winter weather. We used halloween costumes we already had. My husband made us a needed bookshelf from lumber he already had. We pulled out winter clothing and found good things for all the children from our own stash. My cedar chips and lavender seem to have kept the moths away. I also made my own vacuum bags, sort of, for the wool things. I took heavy duty contractor bags, sucked the air out of them with my vacuum, and tied them firmly shut. They were still sealed when I opened them this fall, and they certainly took up less space. I also put them into plastic tubs, just in case.
I’m tiptoeing into quilting, always loving Gardenpat’s comments. I’ve got the fabric, thanks to a lovely senior center barn sale. Irish Chain, here I come. I’ll also be making plenty of kids’ flannel pjs for cold evenings. Flannel doesn’t wear out nearly as fast as knit.
Talking with neighbors at a childrens’ party this evening, I felt so grateful for this community. Many of our neighbors are feeling the pinch of high prices but are not used to the delights of being frugal. I really enjoy all of the wonderful comments and all the beauty of Brandy’s photos and posts. A friend in Germany was quite concerned, understandably, about the horrible inflation and cost of living, not quite knowing what to do. My family reminisces about our West Virginia roots “where the Great Depression never ended” and where our folks still can and plant and quilt and bake. How blessed we are to know how! And how wonderful you all are, to share what you know! Many thanks.
Please tell your friend in Germany to join in the conversation here!
Sarah B.
I, too, would love to see your friend in Germany sharing their thoughts, news, and savings efforts. I lived there several times as a child, nine years all told.
Your roses are so gorgeous, Brandy! I’m glad you’re getting to enjoy so much beauty from your hard work.
My frugal week:
– I made pork fried rice using pork purchased half price from the flashfood app, cabbage purchased super cheap weeks ago, the very last of my homegrown green beans, some carrots purchased on sale, lots of green onions from my balcony garden, and leftover rice. I used Butler soy curls (a gift from my parents previously) instead of meat for myself. An inexpensive and yummy dish!
– I made smoothies from frozen avocados and cauliflower, both purchased super cheap previously due to price matching and loyalty offers, plus frozen strawberries given to me by my sister who no longer liked the brand.
– I made Brandy’s chicken a la crescent, but modified to to use what I had at home: turkey and homemade breadcrumbs, leaving out the water chestnuts and pecans. Still a hit with the DH!
– I made tacquitos, using homemade taco spice and frozen leftover Thanksgiving turkey for the DH, and taco spice and lentils for myself and my kids. I served it with guacamole made from frozen avocados, and yoghurt instead of sour cream. Super easy to throw together, and quite inexpensive.
– I made a batch of laundry detergent using Brandy’s recipe and some hotel soaps my husband brought back from a work trip.
– I made a batch of banana mini muffins using chia seeds as an egg replacement
– I redeemed $20 worth of loyalty points for groceries
– I shopped combining sales, cashback, price matching and coupons. My best deals included 10lbs of potatoes for $1.99, a bag of breakfast potatoes for a dollar, a package of crackers free after coupon and cashback, and two packs of Laughing Cow cheese for 50 cents after price matching and cashback.
– I made Reina Pepiada arepas (Venezuelan cornmeal patties stuffed with chicken and avocado) but swapped out the chicken for leftover frozen Thanksgiving turkey and avocados from my freezer. DH loved it!
– my kiddoes went trick or treating and brought home more candy than they could eat, so I set some aside for baking with.
Looking forward to learning from everyone else as usual!
Last week I started my job working at my dad’s office. Just working a few days a week until it gets busy. I made sure to spend extra time getting the house organized and stocked up beforehand.
*used the crockpot on work days so no temptation to pick up dinner
*drank coffee provided at work and packed my lunch (resisted the temptation to buy a new lunch bag and used one I had in our basement storage)
*redeemed a reward for free macaroni and cheese at Panera
*downloaded the smoothie king app with my daughter a few weeks ago: redeemed the free 20 Oz immune builder smoothie (I had gone to Urgent Care for infection so was super excited to get the free healthy smoothie.)
*was treated to dinner by my sister and she sent me home with her leftovers too
*found some fabulous clearance at Marshall’s before Halloween (high quality Halloween canvas bags for $3, towel sets for $2) and some great Halloween clearance at Aldi (candle $3, little marker/notepad sets for niece and nephews for $.49) 🎃
📍Grocery Store: sliced and shredded cheese for $2, ground beef packages (5lbs for $10), plus a few treats: clearance vitamin waters (89 cents) and marked down gallon of chocolate milk ($2.44- good for another week)
📍Buy Nothing Group: cute star black out curtains and dinosaur curtains for daughter who loves them; unopened unexpired Vitamin C tablets and St John’s Wort
📍Facebook Marketplace: free hairdresser Barbie head for my niece
Take Care All ❤️
Clearance chocolate milk (or I suppose regular price!) makes nice and easy hot chocolate in the microwave (or I suppose a kettle on the stove).
What a great idea! Thank you 😊
On Saturday, I was grocery shopping and found that 73% ground beef was marked down by 50% even though it still had a few days before the sell by date – they were 5.5 lb packages and at $1.49 lb, I decided to go ahead and buy 22 lbs to freeze. Some of it I pre-cooked as well for quick meals. Then, when I got home my neighbor knocked on our door and said he was getting ready to go on vacation and had some tomatoes that he needed to give away because they would go bad before he returned. I thought he meant just a plastic grocery bag, but it turned out to be almost 40 lbs of tomatoes! I processed some and then froze the rest for future use.
Another fun thing that happened was that we were debating on whether or not to get a sectional for our living room, but they are so expensive and the quality/comfort can’t always be guaranteed. Another option that came to mind was a pair of blue upholstered chairs to go with our existing sofa, ideally swiveling to make watching tv easier. So I prayed about it not really thinking anything would happen – isn’t there enough else going on in the world that we would need to ask for something like chairs? I forgot about it, and then one day was going by the thrift store, and on our way out, I noticed a pair of blue upholstered swivel chairs in the most perfect shade of warm Mediterranean blue. They aren’t in immaculate condition – there was a little wear and tear on them, but they were extremely comfortable and only $20 each. And with 4 kids in the house, I will worry a lot less if something happens to them than I would with a brand new sectional.
I’ve been trying to be more intentional with our grocery shopping – keeping a basic list of things that we need and filling the holes as things run out, but aiming to not use the weekly budgeted amount if we don’t need to so that I can save it to find deals when they appear. Last month we stayed within budget this way and have continued to do so. I’m grateful – we have 35 lbs of meat in the freezer, 12 lbs of butter, flour, and lots of beans (and tomatoes!) I’m not much of a canner but it’s nice to feel like we have some things on hand should prices continue to go up.
I love that not only did God give you the chairs, but they were also the color you wanted! God is so good!
Yes, He is!
Your Monday blog is a highlight of my week,thank you so much for sharing. My family has had some rough health issues related to covid long haul in a family member, since April of 2021, and my days are harder to manage than they used to be.
Savings: I had a bad annual physical!! My BP is up! Yikes! We immediately reviewed how we’re eating..and while we used to be vegan, we ate whatever we wanted during Covid lockdown and it shows up in my health,now! SOO—this last two weeks: BACK TO BASICS! Low fat, beans, soups,salads,lentils grains, potatoes, veggies and fruits! Your recipes are a nice resource! Plus this saves $$ too, of course.I actually love to eat that way but we went back to old “comfort foods” during Covid,NO MORE!! My goal is to avoid meds.I am taking one month to see if I can reduce BP with diet..it usually works.
Savings: “FUN” can be free or cheap. I play Hand and Foot with 3 friends on my block,every other week.What a blessing to have friendship,conversation, pot luck and fun all in one day for free!! No gas either, we all live on the same block!! I also attend a local art studio meetup group 1 mile from my home.8 or 9 women gather for fun, convo, and to make art.. of all kinds. I bring my paper crafts and have a great day out.
Savings: I have been too exhausted to think about handing out halloween candy so tonight I closed the blinds and am staying in.Saved a ton of money..candy was outrageously expensive this year and not good for anyone anyway.
Savings: I always exercise. And I never spend money on it.I ride an old Schwinn I bought used in 1988, with no bells or whistles ..hand brakes. I LOVE my quiet time alone out in my neighborhood on my bike, looking at neighbors yards,decor, the plants and trees,getting sun on my face (Vitamin D for free) and loving life. My husband and I hike in local parks every week..we have one just 1/2 mile from our house, and another one about 3 miles away.We also drive a bit further to hike the San Tan Mts. 10 miles away, now and then.Exercise is frugal cause it keeps us healthy! And that saves money!
Savings: I did NOT go to my favorite resale store.I wanted to but I did not cause I do not NEED anything,Thrift store/consignment shopping is not frugal if you still shop as a “hobby.:” I am trying to break my clothes habit!
Thank you again for your blog.Times are tough in one way or another for many and having ways to share makes it a bit easier!
I
Happy November! 🍁
This week we traveled. I booked and prepaid a rental car through the least expensive channel. The sales agent was slick and I didn’t really understand the way she phrased things was sly. She tried to upsell rental car insurance and prepaid gas at a higher rate. I caught the extra charges and had her remove them before signing.
When we arrived home, we stopped at Costco to buy a rotisserie chicken and bagged salad. It was too late to cook and it was cheaper and healthier than take out.
I hadn’t been able to complete sewing a custom window seat cover after all my health issues over the summer. My knees no longer appreciate crawling around on the floor to cut things out anymore. I cleared off my dining room table to do this work. I’ve cut the rest of the panels and covered the cording today. I plan to finally finish this project this week.
We don’t have trick or treaters in our neighborhood. We spent $0 on Halloween this year. I renewed my library card and checked out several books.
Have a wonderful week! 🎃
Lovely pictures, as always, Brandy. I have a few David Austin “Strawberry Hill” pink roses blooming and last week I picked a bouquet of “Iceberg” roses that stayed beautiful for most of a week. Everyone around us has had frost, but not us. This will the latest frost date for us in the 25 years we’ve lived in this area.
Idaho adopted a flat income tax and is refunding $300 per taxpayer from excess tax receipts. We received a $600 check today. (A week before the election, LOL).
This weekend I emptied my planters and put them and the garden decor in the shed. I moved all of the outdoor furniture onto the covered part of the patio. I took a geranium inside to try to winter over.
This was a good grocery stock-up week. I bought 80/20 ground beef for $1.99 lb. (limit 3 lbs. with digital coupon), top sirloin steak for $3.99 lb., and 6 cans of evaporated milk for .67 each. All of the meat has been frozen. I’m hoping another store will have cheap canned milk since I drink it in tea and use about 2 cases a year.
I made a $19 Amazon return at Kohl’s and received $5 in Kohl’s Cash…which I had no intention of using. But on the way out the door I fell in love with a $64 Vera Wang sweater. Well, of course, there was no way I was going to pay $64 for a sweater–I didn’t love it THAT much. But two days later it went on sale for $54.99 and I bought it for $31.99. I had received a coupon for 20% off and $10 on any purchase over $50 and I was able to use them both with the Kohl’s cash.
Didn’t go anywhere or buy anything last week except for groceries and the sweater. I sewed a button on one of my husband’s shirts.
I use those Amazon return $5 Kohl’s Cash for Godiva chocolate bars you can get by the check out counter. No money out of pocket for me and a special treat that I never would buy.
Karen, I do as well! Because you mentioned it previously!
Wow, great idea. Sometimes I just throw away those $5 coupons, but free chocolate? What could be better?
*Because DH was replacing our hot water tank, he did a major check on our furnace before it gets turned on for the heating season. (Both appliances are over 20 years old.) He discovered it was still working but it was struggling and the motor wasn’t working as it should. He is replacing just the motor for $400CAD rather than a whole new furnace. Which may have happened had the furnace stopped working in winter. We have to wait for the part, and in the meantime we just use the gas fireplace to heat the kitchen and sitting area, leaving the other rooms cool.
*I mended some torn clothing and I altered a blouse to fit me better. I’m no seamstress (always in awe of Winter’s skill with a needle!), but I took my time and am happy with the results. I am also taking my husband’s flannel shirts and preemptively sewing down the buttons, hoping to prevent lost buttons over the winter.
*I bought 30 lbs of tired apples for 50 cents/lb (~35 cents US) at the back of the grocery store. These will become applesauce and apple pie filling. This should be my last major canning for the season. Unless I find more bruised apples at a cheap price!
*A little thing, but; I used some leftover dill pickle juice with a tiny dollop of mayonnaise for coleslaw dressing. Delicious! I don’t know why I’ve not thought to do that before! (Usually I save pickle juice for pulled pork.)
* The world situation looks like extra pressure will be put on world prices for wheat and cooking oil yet again. I’m grateful for the encouragement here to be prepared.
Oh, and Brandy, I know you take a professional interest in what’s happening in different real estate markets. I had posted earlier this year about two relatives here in BC trying to sell their homes in different areas of our province. Both finally sold last month (4 and 4.5 months on market) at 25% and 30% less than asking prices, which had been reasonable asking prices at the time.
Elle W,
I liked your idea to use pickle juice for Cole slaw!
The printer of our book has a new machine they wish to try out so they’ve offered to print some of my wildlife photos in a calendar at no charge. I’ll have a few copies that I can give as Christmas gifts. For the other Christmas gifts, I’ve chosen some books on sale from Munro’s Books inVictoria, B.C. They will deliver it locally and mail the others. I should be able to buy 8 gifts for $50.
A friend picked up the Christmas cards I had printed and a set of blank cards. My SIL really likes the blank cards as a gift. It costs about $1 each so I give her about 8 cards and split up the rest of the package of 25 cards for two other people.
Safeway had frozen skinless boneless chicken breasts on sale for $30 for a 4 kg box, so about $3.49 per pound. This is the least expensive I’ve seen in a long time. I also bought lean ground beef at No Frills for $8 for 2 kg. I stocked up on little cans of ham, turkey and chicken, usually $3 per can but reduced to $1 each. This is for my emergency pantry. I also bought more cans of lentils and I bought chickpeas for 99 cents each, a good sale price, ($1.79 usually) — I’m going to make my own hummus and have it for lunches.
I bought Hallowe’en candies on sale and put them out on the chair on the driveway as I didn’t feel well to answer the door. I treated myself to some mini chocolates that were peanut free. I have been watching Call the Midwife, and other free streamed shows.
I am running the silent auction for three of the paintings I was given. Proceeds will go to our scholarship fund.
That is great news about the calendar Ann – you are really organized for Christmas!
I meant to get some of those cans of the ham for $1 as it was on offer at No Frills here two weeks ago but I didn’t get out there fast enough and they were all gone by the time I remembered. I have a few in the pantry but I refuse to pay $3!!!
I hope things go well with the auction.
Margie,
Just keep watching and the Maple Leaf cans will come on sale again. Also if you’re near Superstore, sometimes Superstore puts the same thing on sale a week before or after No Frills. I am trying to save it for my pantry for emergencies. Also watch at Safeway’s or Sibey’s because sometimes it has Compliments can on sale for 99 cents. It is rather high in sodium for me but I need something for emergencies. One of the few things I’m getting this week is sweet potatoes which Superstore has on sale for $4.99 for a 5 pound bag which is $2 per bag less than usual. I’m also replenishing my supply of no name pasta and also flour. The Russian latest in the war will force an increase in wheat prices.
I was in a Loblaw today and those cans of ham spread were 2 for $7.00!!!! Not a chance! No Superstore near me – they tend to be out in the suburbs and I’m more in the city. My No Frills has those sweet potatoes on this week too but they aren’t the ones I usually buy – they tend to be rather pale inside and I haven’t had good luck with them. I had met a couple of friends for coffee and they had already done their shopping so one of them pointed me towards some steaks that were on sale – ended up getting two and they will be 4 servings for me so I’m happy.
Brandy sounds like you have been very busy in the gardens planting, harvesting and making the most of all the lovely things your garden produces 🙂 .
It has been rain, rain and more rain here so we have been weeding everything on our property and planting in the gardens between times when we haven’t been busy. The grass had grown so much on two neighbours properties that their ride on mowers could not get through it as they had one where they cannot adjust the cutting deck up and down. We offered to help them get it under control as we have a commercial ride on mower for our property and DH and I spent 9 hours on Saturday mowing with me on a self propelled push mower mowing the edges and around trees on an acre property and DH on his ride on doing the rest of the lawns as well as their Mum’s half paddock too that DH slashed with the ride on for the cost of the fuel we used and a little wear and tear on our mower blades as a favour. We also helped to cut down some trees that they wanted removing as their chainsaw was too small for the job. Just as well as the rain just came in and we had 32mm over a 24 hour period and everything is puddles outside but they now have a lawn they can manage to mow lower with their ride on. In between times we have also done a lot of paid mowing jobs to mow other clients lawns that needed mowing.
In the kitchen we –
– Made 4 loaves of wholemeal white bread in the bread making machines saving us $16.94 over buying them locally including the ingredients we used.
– Cooked all meals and bread from scratch.
Finances –
– We reviewed our grocery expenditure and budget in relation to the high inflation we are experiencing here in Australia and upped our grocery budget by $100 a month to $400 for the two of us and the some wet food for the cat so we can buy what we need for the household.
– We continue to pay double payments on our variable rate mortgage and have been many times renegotiating our interest rate lower when we see better deals elsewhere after 7 interest rates rises since May.
– We earned $320 with paid mowing jobs and from previous mowing jobs used the money to replace the tyres on the ride on mower with better heavy duty tyres to deal with the wet ground we are mowing on. The tyres were 8 years old but still in good condition to we plan to sell them at the local men’s shed to recoup some of the money we spent. We also purchased some vegetable and herv seedlings and a mandarin tree to plant in the gardens.
Purchases –
– We saved $90.12 buying 12 50+ UV cotton work shirts (6 each) on sale from an online store as ours are years old and wearing out.
– Bought 3 x Brut deodorants on half price sales at Coles saving $11.25 on usual prices.
– Purchased a 7.12 kg rump for $13.99 kg and 2 x pork boneless leg roasts for $7.95 kg on sale saving $35.67 on usual prices.
– Bought 5 x linen and or cotton long and short sleeved broderie anglaise blouses on sale for $45 and I managed to get one for half the sale price as it had a button missing but it came with spares to I will sew the button on and it will be as good as new.
– Got our medical needs from our pharmacy where we get a 15% off members discount saving $10.61 on usual prices.
– I bought the vitamins and minerals DH needs on half price sale saving another $30.64 on usual prices.
Exciting things –
– We did a lesson on provident living in a combined RS and priesthood meeting at church concentrating on the cost saving measures we implement in our home with the current high inflation we are experiencing. The leaders have asked us to pilot a program that hopefully will be implemented across Australia in combination with the imput other church members.
Hope everyone has a wonderfully frugal week ahead 🙂 .
Hi Lorna. That IS an exciting development and opportunity. For the program to spread across Australia would be wonderful to reach many participants, especially during these challenging times. Your extensive knowledge would be like a ripple spreading across a wide lake! You and your husband would be great mentors for any and all on provident and frugal living. I hope it comes to fruition.
That was kind of you to assist your neighbors with getting their property under control.
It’s great to hear from you. Some of us had been a bit worried about your absence here. It sounds like you were very busy. Lynn
Lorna we had been missing you here but I noticed on Annabelle’s blog that people there had also been asking about you and someone mentioned that you were having pc/commenting issues – glad to see that things are sorted. You and your husband are always so busy – and that was very kind of you to help your neighbour.
A lady from church was offering to take my family’s photos for next to nothing to build up her portfolio. We typically take our own photos with a tripod but decided to give her a try. Wow! I am so glad we took her up on her deal. Her photos were amazing and we got so many compliments from everyone we know. The best part was we could relax during the photo session and we didn’t have to spend a ton of time editing and selecting photographs of our large-ish family.
We had a good week for food as well.. I am vegetarian but my husband and children are not. As my husband does most of the cooking of dinners and enjoys running errands (but not meal planning) he tends to pop in and out of the grocery store all week (sigh). I managed to do a large Aldi run and stock up on enough acceptable items for him (lol) that he stayed out of the stores for two weeks and avoided all his typical impulse buys.
Our neighbor works for a local food delivery company and frequently gets food that is near the expiration or just slightly past. They blessed our family with three boxes of tea bags and five gallon ziplock bags of frozen fruit from ripped boxes that the company couldn’t sell.
My brother-in-law works for a large grocery chain. I mentioned a couple of months ago that my usual source for Ghirardelli dark chocolate baking chips (my indulgence) stopped carrying them a while back ago and I was having a hard time finding decent prices on them. He told me he’d look out for them to go on clearance and scoop up a bunch for me. I got a text this week saying he got two whole cases for me! I asked him what I owed and he said nothing! Apparently they were nearing their expiration and were told they would not sell them.
Our friend hosted a birthday party for her son and made too much food and sent us home with enough leftovers for two meals to feed our family. My in-laws invited us over to dinner another day. We made all of our other meals at home.
We continue to use the library for books and DVDs and do not purchase cable, satellite, Netflix/Hulu/Disney/Amazon etc. We hotspot our cell phones on occasion for internet and do not pay for home internet.
Lisa,
Great job on food ! So nice you have such incredible support.
Lisa,
I have chocolate chip envy! What a great gift!
Lisa, your “sigh” over your hubby popping into the store throughout the week sounds familiar to me but in a different way, and made me smile and nod in agreement. My hubby is NOT frugal minded for the most part and I can easily get discouraged at times about it and wonder why I bother. But, it all adds up and makes a difference (I shudder to think what would become of us if I wasn’t constantly pulling in the reigns on my spending). I try not to let the differences create conflict though since he is disabled and in constant pain. Pinching pennies is not at the top of his things to worry over, nor do I want it to be. “Balance” is key for all us “unequally yolked” (moneywise) couples I suppose.😉
We had a neighborhood potluck dinner Halloween night in the cul-de-sac by our house. It was great! SO many neighbors brought soups, rolls, and desserts. I made a chocolate chip cookie recipe baked as bars. I already had all the ingredients so I didn’t need to pick up anything extra.
My youngest child came home from school with a scratchy throat and cough. I took him to a new urgent care just 2 minutes from our home. We were able to get in right away and all tests came back negative so just a few days at home recovering should do the trick. Because they are a new establishment, if you wrote a review on Google you could get a free drink from the soda shop next door. He picked out a Powerade which felt good on his scratchy throat. He also got a toy from the clinic and a balloon. He said it was the best place ever and his brothers were going to be jealous they weren’t sick! Haha (he is 5!)
My rule for Halloween with my kids is they plan or make their own costumes. They use the dress-up box (with hand me down and thrifted costumes), cardboard, and props around the house. I’m always impressed at their creativity!
Our basil and chard are growing like crazy. I need to preserve them or give them away before the frost comes in the next couple weeks. I will dry the basil and add it to my spices bottles but I’m not sure what to do with the chard. We tried freezing it to add to smoothies (like we do with kale or spinach) and nobody was a fan. Anyone have any ideas?
You can chop it up and freeze it.
If you cut it back and cover it with glass or a plastic jug, it will stay through the winter in zone 6 and come back in the spring.
I dehydrate chard in small pieces and put it in soups and sauces. Hubby is not a fan but can handle eating it this way
I’ve had some success with using frozen chard in stir fry. I just drop it in with other frozen veggies and cook them all together with teriyaki or “soy” coconut aminos and serve over rice. It ends up with a texture similar to if I had put in packaged frozen spinach. Hope that helps!
I redeemed swagbucks for a $25 walmart giftcard. I planned to use it on a butterball turkey for $1.18lb but havent made it that way yet. I redeemed 10 used ink cartridges at office depot and will get $20 in rewards. I used rewards that I already had to purchase a birthday gift for my mom. I needed stamps so I used existing rewards and got them at office depot. Would you believe the last book of stamps I had lasted almost 2 years!!!! I pay all my bills online. I bought milk and cereal at the store, using coupons and paypal from my account. $3 was returned to my paypal account. I took up an offer for an aarp card, to get a $200 bonus when you spend $500 in 90 days…..paid 2 bills ahead of time and earned my $200. I received some birthday cash and it went into the drawer….will be putting it towards the mortgage principal when I get to the bank. We didnt celebrate my birthday, I just cant see spending money going out to eat when the food or service isnt all that good. What I spend it a week is less than what that one meal costs. My winn dixie and Harveys have this kiosk where you put in your phone number and out prints store coupons. Its usually coupons for nothing that makes sense for me to buy. A coupon for $1 off 2 cans of rotel popped out. Well, publix had them bogo for $1.46, so I took my coupons to publix and got 2 cans for $.46. I did that several times. CVS sent me a coupon for $4 off anything. There wasnt anything that I could make into a profit, so I wound up getting 2 bottles of soda. It was buy one get one 50% off, so I wound up getting 2 for $.52. Has anyone seen the price of 12 packs of soda lately? The cheap stuff in publix is $7.99. I cant think of anything else out of the ordinary that I did.
Kim in Florida,
My husband loves Coke and resists drinking Pepsi even though we have two 12 packs in the basement. (Bought months ago on sale.) He asked about the price of Coke recently. When i told him it was 7.99 for a 12 pack he put a Pepsi in the fridge to drink to drink later.😁
Hello everyone!
The conversation last week about being prepared for a drop in income really resonated with my, and made me think a lot!
My husband is self-employed, and even though he has a high hourly wage, his income is not stable and sometimes he goes through long periods with little work – thankfully he has never been completely without a job. In a way I think we have lived in a permanent state of preparing for a drop in income the last 10-11 years. Sometimes he has a lot to do and earns well, and these periods we save as much as we can and maybe get some expensive but needed things done – like fixing the heating unit or similar repairs on the house. But other than that, we don´t spend money much differently, as we know how glad we will be later for the money we have saved. Sometimes he earns very little, and we use our savings and frugal habits to get by. Mostly, we don´t get a warning about the change in income it just graduately or suddenly dries out, so being prepared is important. We are by no means poor, but we live very differently from most people in our neighbourhood.
It has been a long process getting where we are, as we don´t know many people who do the same. It is very unusual that only one person in the household has a job, and being self-imployed is also very rare (non-existing) in both of our families, which means we don´t have many role-models. Some people outside the family even get angry or offended by the way we live. That makes places like this blog an important place for me to meet other frugal people and get valuable tips and encouragement!
The first time we had a hard time was when our son was little, and my husbands company was facing some serious problems. I remember how I couldn´t help crying when one of my friends asked about our economy. I didn´t know what to do, and everything we did was so different from what I had been raised to do. But – like you mentioned Brandy – the internet can also do good things. I started searching for ways to save money, but unexpectedly I also found other things – like why I feels right for us to do things the way we do, and the reassurance that there are other people out there doing the same.
After the first time, I felt more prepared for what was coming, and we slowly changed our habits more and more. There were a few times after that, where my husband wasn´t earning much, but it didn´t last more than a few months untill the pandemic. Then everything just stopped, and no new orders were coming in for almost 2 years. For about a year he only had a little more than 2 days work a week. The strange thing is, that even though our circumstances were worse than the first time, it didn´t feel that way! Our habits and the feeling that we could do something ourselves made it a lot easier. Also the fact that we had done it before and knew what to do – and that we knew we lived in a way that felt right for us.
Many of the practical things we have done is what is being discussed on this blog, the most important being:
– The first thing we did all those years ago was to reduce our grocery shopping to once a week. In order to do this, we had to buy a cargo-bike (we don´t have a car). It was expensive, but it has been the best investment, as it reduced our grocery budget instantly by 50% just by shopping once a week instead of maybe every other day! So after a few months, the bike had payed for itself just by our new grocery shopping habits.
– We were even more diligent about making meals at home from scratch. The last time we had economical difficulties we bought a load of the cheapest frozen meat we could find and stuck it in the freezer: herring (very nice with breading!) and old laying hens, which we use for nice traditional soup with meat from the hen and vegetables. Other than that lots of vegetarian meals and occational minced meat when at the lowest price. When in an economically good period we sometimes buy grassfed beef in bulk and freeze it.
– We buy second hand clothes almost exclusively. I always plan ahead for my son and buy 2-3 sizes up whenever I see a good price. Sometimes I even find free clothes at clothes swapping events in the local community. It is harder to find mens clothes, but my husband rarely buys anything and wears his clothes to pieces!
– We buy most things secondhand or get them free by keeping an eye out – from free outdoor tiles from our neighbours driveway to a second-hand bed for my son.
– Repairing what we have. I have often been about to throw something out but then ended up giving it a chance. It never ceases to amaze me HOW long things can last after I have deemed them worthy of the bin! Our drying rack is still keeping up after more than 10 years with glue, tape and plastic strips!
-We are blessed to have a garden and grow most of our own vegetables in summer.
– Instead of paying for things like babysitter, entertainment, travels etc. we are so fortunate to have family and friends who can help us, and we also enjoy trying to find free ways to entertain ourselves, which we often find very meaningful as well.
– Brandy´s series of eating for 40 cents a day has really helped us in lowering our food budget futher and beeing more prepared – buying at the lowest prices, stocking up, making soup etc. Gleaning and that my son has started fishing with his grandfather also helps.
– A big focus on foodwaste has also helped, starting to use things we used to throw away – like carrot tops, beet greens, lemon peels and carcasses from chicken to mention a few.
– Doing most things ourselves, not paying for someone else to do it, is also a big thing, especially as we own a house.
-Sharing with neighbours, friends and family – things come circulating back at no cost!
The most important thing has been emotional though, as I mentioned earlier – being prepared mentally and having practice. I don´t say I will never get upset again, because things can get harder, and unexpected things can happen, but we hope the best and try to do the best we can.
Thank you everybody, and Brandy, for all your good advice!
Thank you for sharing your experiences. Your food expensive reducing ideas are especially helpful and something I need to pay more attention to. It’s true that being frugal ends up being so habitual you don’t think about it. I feel for you that you have encountered people who are angry about how you live; I don’t know why they care. At least it is people outside your family. Best wishes.
What a great example of how being prepared is so important, not only for your physical needs but for your mental peace of mind.
I know you aren’t in the US Cam but I can’t remember where it is you live…
Hi Margie – I live in Denmark
I made two minor plumbing repairs myself. It’s a big deal for me because I’m not very handy that way, lol.
I harvested the rest of my carrots and froze the green tops in small batches to flavor soups and use in breakfast scrambles. The carrots were the last thing growing in the garden.
I planted garlic. I’m not a fan of garlic but members of my family enjoy it so I hope to be able to bless them with it next year.
The herbs I picked earlier had finished drying so I packaged the leaves into jars. I can see what I need to grow more of next year!
I used a “20% off your entire purchase” coupon to buy pantry items at Big Lots. Each time they send me a coupon like that I used it to buy food but only items that are already a good price (and of course only things we eat). It’s one of the ways I’ve been able to keep my pantry stocked as prices go up.
…one more thing: we don´t have to worry about health insurance, which I know can be a big concern for people in the States, and of course this makes things a lot easier for us. I feel for those who don´t know how to pay their medical bills, and I know that we are lucky not to have this to worry about!
Cam are you in Canada or the U.K. or…? I enjoyed your post. I grew up in a family where for some time there was one self-employed parent. It was either feast or famine and we learned to live prudently even when funds were ample. It was very stressful but I grew up learning that a new car every year was not necessary or desirable, that one made one’s clothes or bought them on sale in classic styles that did not go out of fashion. It was very different from the conspicuous consumption of our neighbours who often just spent to keep up with their other neighbours. times were often tough for my family but prudent ways and an optimistic attitude and faith saw us through hard times.
She’s in Denmark.
And then it was November! I always feel like October goes by 2-3 days at a time. Don’t forget the time change over the weekend if you’re in one of the annoying states that is stubbornly hanging on to it! I’m not a fan, can you tell?!
Busy few days so I’m happy to be done and have some normalcy in my schedule. On Sunday, we had church, then donated blood, then went to a charity breakfast, and finally to the market. The breakfast was organized by a friend and we got there near the end. That leads me to one of my good things this week!
* Friend gave us 5 dozen home style biscuits that were left over. Husband loves these!
* We got good rain so we didn’t have to water. That saves us about $20 nowadays cuz we have a big yard.
* Still ño ÀC or heat being used.
* Only used the oven once.
* Got a flu shot.
* Tasted my first spaghetti squash! It taught me that our knives are dull!! That rind was like a rock.
* Only shopped for super sale items.
In adding to the cost of things discussion, eggs have been $2.19 per dozen at Trader Joe’s. Butter was on sale for $3.49 lb. at Dillons (Kroger family). Gas was $3.05 gal. at Sam’s club. The news announced this morning that home heating prices will be up 33% for gas and 8% for electric. That’s for a normal winter. For a cold winter, which I think we’re expecting, they could be higher.
We are watching Season 8 of Father Brown from the library.
Reading:
On my nightstand – The Two Minute Rule by Robert Crais.
In my craft room CD player – The 6th Man by David Baldacci. (King & Maxwell)
With my Bible study – For the Love of Christian Homemaking by Mrs Sharon White.
By my reading chair – Whirlwind by Rick Mofina.
So many beautiful flowers, Brandy! Will they flower all winter?
Alrighty, everyone stay safe and well!
Not all winter, no.
-We have continued to enjoy the unseasonably warm weather. Still enjoying fresh herbs from the garden and the last few winter squash. Using the slow cooker a lot more on busy days. Meal prepped hard boiled eggs, muffins and bread. Got a rotisserie chicken and sushi from the grocery store after a long day of travel. Not cheap but way better than eating out. Made a big batch of applesauce with free apples. Saving the crust from kids sandwiches to make breadcrumbs. Shredded and froze the last of the zucchini.
-Went away for a long weekend with family. We stayed at a hotel with free breakfast and pool, taking food for lunch and dinner. We enjoyed a meal out and some snacks and coffee. Otherwise no souvenirs or junk.
-The cheaper grocery store in town doesn’t have online grocery orders so I’ve been ordering from the more expensive store. Trying to plan a bigger trip to the cheaper place this week.
-Got some free food storage buckets and curtains. Also got some leggings from a friend. Sold an old Halloween costume on eBay.
-Made do with Halloween costumes and decor we already had.
Brandy, will you be able to keep your a/c off until late winter/spring? Here in Florida people tend to turn them back on when we get stretches of warm, humid weather in the winter, or there are a lot of people gathered and cooking going on, such as during the holidays. A friend of mine runs her a/c for a couple of days so she can get her Christmas divinity to set up, as it won’t set up in the humid weather.
We had a very misty, humid weekend, so I hung up most of my laundry indoors under the ceiling fans.
Our gas tax holiday was for the month of October only, so I made sure to fill up yesterday.
I batch cooked again this weekend. It’s so much easier than cooking every night, especially since I have a long commute.
I offered the use of my toaster oven to a family member who is about to get a kitchen remodel. Their current kitchen is, except for appliances, unchanged from when it was built in 1952, so I can’t fault them for spending the money to update it. It still has the “boomerang” patterned Formica countertops. They don’t have a toaster oven, and it seems silly for them to buy one when I have a good one they can borrow.
I made another five-gallon bucket of homemade laundry detergent.
I’m trying to watch my spending, but wow is it hard these days. Good luck to everyone here, and thanks for the ideas.
It’s very dry here (10% humidity), and temperatures are less than 78°F, so I can keep it off.
I did have a couple of years where we needed it for a week or two in February but most years I can go until April.
We rarely need the heat in the winter except sometimes at night. Layers help in that regard as well. Plus, I am often working in the garden in the winter, so I want to be dressed warm enough to go in and out of the house.
We did not have any Trick-or-Treaters last night. Over the 22 years we’ve lived here I bet we’ve had less than a dozen.
I was away for most of the week on my annual girl’s trip. We wandered and shopped (and ate) and had a wonderful time.
When I returned, I scoured the fridge, freezer, and pantry and set up 3 meals for us this week. Went to Aldi’s and stocked up on cheeses, crackers and some lovely dips and snacks we will use throughout the holiday season.
Husband cleaned out the fridge and started on some of his clothes and boxes. He expressed interest in putting in a spring garden and getting chickens again.
The heat pump (both the AC and heat here) went out, but a quick visit from the HVAC people and $120 made it live again. It is 23 years old so this may be the last time we can limp it along, but longer is better.
We mostly cooked at home except for 1 takeout and 1 dinner out last week. We were extremely disappointed in the quality of food during our dinner out; it further emphasizes why we need to cook at home more. Lesson learned.
This week, Fetch had 75% cash back on Klondike cones and our grocery store had $2 every $8 spent on Klondike. I ended up getting 4 boxes completely free that we can tuck in the freezer for future treats. These will come in handy around the holidays.
I also maximized savings when I found an online coupon to save 15% on a set of new glass drinking tumblers for the holidays. I combined that with 5% cash back for using Discover through Apple Pay. Our current glasses have some cracks around the rim that I’d prefer to get rid of for safety reasons.
I’m still harvesting zucchini, cucumbers, jalapenos and green beans in the second garden. The tomatoes are green, I hope they ripen soon. If not, I’ll bring them indoors to ripen.
Last week the grocery store had the clam shells with their “living” lettuce on 50% off. I bought a head for dinner and then planted the little root ball with a few leaves out into the garden. In years past, I have had really good luck getting a second cutting off the purchase.
In the main garden I had planted a warm season soil builder cover crop and it was time to terminate it. I found some volunteer tomatillo plants had sprouted in there so I was able to pick enough tomatillos to make salsa verde, then transplanted a few of those plants into the second garden. That was a fun surprise to find!
I hope you all have a fantastic week! Thank you Brandy for bringing together this wonderful community!
I froze 1 dozen of eggs and boiled one dozen as Amish neighbor sent over 4 dozen. I dehydrate beet greens and carrot tops when I pulled the last of the beets and carrots. I pulled butter from the freezer. I crated the potatoes that are cured and moved them to the pump house. I canned more applesauce.
and I frozen 7 meals of carrots. I sorted through my harvest onions, brought in the ones that need used first.
We are eating from the pantry.
I mended 3 pairs of Hubby’s work pants and one of my sweaters.
A friend who is closer to Hubby than his own brothers lost his mother in law (late 90s) asked instead of traveling 3 states away, friend asked if we could make a donation to the local food pantry. His in laws were self employed but at this time of year they always donated to the local food pantry. They are looking at a very small funeral due to costs.
Hubby and I were talking of 2023 budget. I asked for the priorities… he rattled off about a half of dozen. I reworded it and asked what was essential… that changed how he was thinking completely. We are retired, on SS and IRA’s . His business is losing money for the 3rd year so unless it turns around quickly he will be closing it.
Blessed Be
Prayers for peace.
https://chefowings.blogspot.com/2022/11/financial-steps-books-i-am-reading.html
Thanks for the instructions for watching your instagram videos. I have really enjoyed them. I wonder if it is possible for you to post one showing how you separate the roselle hibiscus to use part for tea and also where the seed is to save to plant next year. Thanks.
That’s a great idea! I can do that!
Kids made costumes from things they found around the house.
Went to the Friends of the Library book sale and spent $10 for Christmas presents.
My son wants a telescope for Christmas, which is likely out of the budget. But instead I’ve discovered the local university does stargazing once a month at their observatory! We’ll go next week.
I turned the heater off during the day when it’s only me at home and just bundle up (or move around) if I’m chilly. I’ve been extra careful to turn off every light except the one I need.
I’ve switched to navy showers, showering right after one of my kids so the water (and the bathroom!) is already warm. I get wet, turn the water off, soap up, turn the water off and rinse.
And lots of creative repurposing of leftovers at this house to make new meals that no one suspects are really just fancy leftovers!
I would think that telescopes would be something that people would lose interest in. Why not post on local community or Mom Facebook groups that you are in market for one? Someone may have one they no longer use and would sell for great price. Just an idea.
This week I took to more work around the kitchen and pantry chopping and freezing some onions, cooking a large batch of rice in the instant pot to portion through meals, and using up various bits and pieces in the fridge and freezer. I’m happy to say our food waste has been noticeably going down. My mom gave us a couple small pie pumpkins the last time she visited that I roasted up and made a large batch of muffins with. We have a tiny little thrift store in our community set up in two rooms in the back of our medical clinic. The money buys needed items for the hospital and nursing home there. It’s only open for a few hours a week and I found several things on my list there this week including a practically new Columbia fleece jacket for myself and dress pants for one of my younger boys, a couple dress shirts for my teen boy and a pair of winter gloves for my daughter. The prices are extremely low and it is a huge blessing to us to both shop from and donate to! We had several church events this week that included free food. My teens had a free pizza dinner after participating in the Youth Canned Food Drive. They collected a wonderfully large amount of food for our local food bank. One son was confirmed and there was a provided luncheon after. There was a local pastor and friend of ours taking professional photos for the event and we ordered some photos to send to family for a nominal fee. My littler boys each got a special bag at church filled with some treats, crayons and some cute little coloring books. I found a better price on a couple homeschool materials I needed to order and ordered a dress shirt for Christmas for one son with a coupon for less than 5.00 shipped. I found a couple good markdown deals at the grocery store, and overall stuck to avoiding purchasing unneeded grocery items. As our dryer part still hasn’t arrived, we hung all the laundry for the week and this made me think more carefully about reusing clothing where we could and being more thoughtful with the laundry overall. I spent several hours preparing Halloween costumes and ended up spending less than $20.00 to dress all 6 kids and my husband and myself. This cost included a winter hat and zip up hooded sweatshirt for one son that will be used many times again as everyday clothing. It was a very lovely week and we now look forward to entering into our Winter season as the temperatures will drop to the teens next week! We have had an unseasonably warm Autumn here, so Winter waiting until November is quite a treat. I hope everyone has a blessed week ahead!!
This past week I was able to finish canning the grape juice from grapes a friend gave us before they froze on the vines. I also finished up the apples. Got apple juice and sauce canned. I too am thankful for this community to help remind me of the frugal things we can do. I asked my husband to stop to at the store to grab eggs and milk and the eggs were 7.00/ a dozen. Needless to say we are rethinking purchasing eggs and I am thankful I followed the prompting in the spring to get chickens. We are now all waiting with great anticipation for them to start laying regularly. We are staying home as much as possible. And eating meals at home. We have all ended up with head colds that are going around so we trying to get over that. Thank you again to everyone you all are wonderful to hear from each week!
I really appreciate all the comments, tips and encouragement found here and thought am a regular reader of all comments, though do not often have the time to comment myself. Time to comment presented itself as my child and I sit awaiting the doctor. Due to severe allergies called OAS we have done more canning than ever before. Store bought canned fruit products give an allergic reaction as does all raw fruit and some veggies. Thus we canned 2 bushels of pears, 3 of peaches, tomato sauce base, fruit sauce (like a chutney), pear sauce, apple pie filling and pear pie filling, relish, cowboy candy, red pepper jelly, so much jam we now have a shelf full. Apple sauce is waiting until our local farm has seconds.
Our 12 hens are still giving us 6-8 eggs a day. However, last night a drying wooden cutting board fell onto the egg tower and sent them flying. We lost 33 precious eggs and managed to save 4. Sadness.
The dehydrator is chugging along with calendula and red clover for tea, tomato skins for powder. The Swiss chard is still producing after two weeks of hard frosts, and the Brussel sprouts are still put in the garden making the most of any sunshine we can get. We have more leaves then we can even deal with so plan to try to make leaf mold compost with it.
I keep meaning to check our winter gear, as we need it imminently. However medical appointments have taken up any time over the past two weeks. We found 2 pairs of Columbia brand boots at a thrift store for $15 cad, so grabbed those as there are four of us in the house that would fit them. I’m a bit concerned about finding good gloves and mittens second hand so may attempt a pair of will knit ones.
We had the roof insulation upgraded using a grant to R60 and already can feel the benefit to the warmth in the home.
Does anyone know if you can put flax chicken bedding on veggie beds over the winter? We cannot use state because of allergies so use flax. We are hoping to get new ground tilled for garlic planting in the next week and the barn cleaned out for winter but we shall see.
Food prices have risen astronomically in our area of Canada, so we are relying on freezer and pantry eating. Sadly veggie and fruit, even canned or frozen, is about 4-5 times the price it was precovid. Dairy is due to increase again in the new year as well. I was joking we should got milk goats but now I’m considering the logistics of it!
Do you have a Value Village close? Or can combine with a trip? I buy snow pants, jackets, gloves and hats there for children. Even if down they wash beautifully but do need dryer with tennis balls to fluff. Seniors r 30% off Tuesdays and if u donate u r given a 20% off coupon. Canada goose is the only brand you cannot wash. Just a suggestion to Canadian readers.
Hmm, I see my comment appeared, but my actual post did not. (Originally posted at about 10:15 pm last night.) I’ll try again, with apologies if it duplicates.
*While DH was installing the hot water tank, he decided to check out the noisy furnace and discovered the motor was under strain, working harder than it should. He is replacing the motor for $400. This is cheaper than getting a new furnace which would likely have been the outcome if the furnace stopped working mid-winter.
*I mended clothing and altered a blouse to fit me better. I also preemptively sewed down all the buttons on my husband’s winter shirts to prevent lost buttons later. I’m no seamstress, but took my time and worked carefully. I’m pleased with the end results and all those clothes will last longer.
*A grocery store had bruised and tired apples for sale at 50 cents/lb (about 35 cents US). I bought 30 lbs to make into applesauce and apple pie filling. That should be the last of my major canning. Unless I find more cheap apples!
*A small thing, but: I used some dill pickle juice with a dollop of mayonnaise for coleslaw dressing and it was delicious. This was new to me as usually I save pickle juice for pulled pork sauce.
*Brandy, I know you follow real estate trends. I had posted about two relatives having trouble selling their homes in different markets here in BC earlier this year. After months for sale, both have now sold at 25% and 30% below their May listing prices. That’s a huge drop.
So glad to hear that your weather is finally cooling down a bit Brandy and that you can turn off the A/C! We are quite cool overnight – just above freezing but we are back up to about 18C by the afternoon – so it’s coat on – coat off all week long! I’m going back to a sweater for the next few days as the sun is very hot during the afternoon and I just end up carrying my jacket. I can stand the bit of chill for the two minutes it takes me to cross to the subway in the morning!
As I mentioned last week, I worked our municipal election so that will be an extra $265 for Christmas – good thing as everything else just keeps going up in price! My one real bargain was getting my favourite, thick cut, President’s Choice bacon for $10/kilo (it’s regular price is now $17/kilo) but there was a special offer on for Loyalty Card users – I bought two kilo’s, divided it up and got it into the freezer. While I check all the flyers carefully I actually found a lot of in-store deals at my local “No Frills” – again, they were for Loyalty card holders and many items were $1, $2 and even $3 off the regular price so I was able to pick up a few extras. The one thing that I did not buy was butter! While my favourite PC butter has been up and down in price over the past year, about 10 days ago I picked up two pounds as it had gone back down to $5.59/# – so how is it that it was back to $7.79/# last week!!! I’ve got about 5 # in the freezer so I’ll wait!
In case any Canadians are interested – the Competition Bureau is looking into grocery prices and the companies who set those costs – Loblaw/Sobeys/Metro are the biggies – here is the website: https://www.competitionbureau.gc.ca/eic/site/cb-bc.nsf/frm-eng/MBED-CKEMP2 I logged in and mentioned the butter situation and also – how is it that a can of No Name peas can be $1.29 at No Frills – $1.59 at the Shoppers down the street and $1.79 at Loblaw – this is ridiculous – especially since they came out with their big announcement about freezing the price of their NN products (this is their basics house brand for US readers). And why, when my “No Frills” store is supposed to be the home of NN products can I not find a good variety of items and, what is there is in limited supply – but once again, the Shoppers and the Loblaw stores have both the variety and the quantity but at the much higher prices!!!! If you have a similar story to tell please visit the website and report it to them – you have until December 16th.
I ate at home all week except for a breakfast sandwich and a coffee out with a friend on Sunday morning – we like to support a little independent cafe down by the Music Garden on the lake so we often meet there – they have excellent coffee!
After a very busy week I stayed home on Saturday to cook, clean, take care of 6 loads of laundry and just get caught up with my life. I made a big pot of Bolognese sauce and froze it in portions for later, cooked bacon and hard boiled eggs and then took some ham and cooked chicken out of the freezer to make a sort of “shepherd’s pie” – I mix chopped up chicken and ham with some frozen mixed veg in a cheese sauce and top it with mashed potato. I ate a portion for Sunday and Monday’s suppers and froze 3 portions for later. I took some rhubarb out of the freezer intending to make a crumble but settled for the rhubarb over rice pudding instead.
Sunday after breakfast out, my friend and I walked over to the Exhibition grounds and went to the Zoomer show (for over 45’s) – I had wanted to renew a membership anyway and doing that gave us two free entries to the show – which we enjoyed. We walked back to her place down at the lake where I could catch the streetcar and that way we enjoyed the fresh air and the Fall colours – which are still incredible! I have read the latest Donna Leon book and the latest “Darling Dahlias” this week – both from the library and both thoroughly enjoyed! I have at least 5 more library books to get through at the moment so I have that to look forward to this week.
Had my hair cut on Friday so I am good to just before Christmas and also got my flu shot – free – so that is done and off the list! I will book my next Covid booster for the end of the month and also get that done before the holidays. There are a lot of people coughing and sneezing on the subway these days (and of course they are the ones not wearing masks) so I will do what it takes to try and stay well this Winter. Have a good week everyone – stay frugal!
Hi Margie,
My experience is that Shopper’s is almost always more expensive than its sister stores. I suggest you ask if Loblaw’s or the others or vice versa will price match . We don’t have Loblaws here but its subsidiary real Canadian Superstore.
I noticed that hospitalizations for covid are really going up in Ontario. Be careful!
Your walk among the fall scenery sounds wonderful and reminds me of a sailing trip along the bay of Quinte years ago — the maple trees on shore were red and lovely.
Onw of my sisters and all her family live down by the Bay of Quinte (Picton) and yes, it is a lovely part of the province and very popular for summer cottage people.
I love that you are getting zucchini, Brandy. It’s been a struggle for you for years, so I’m glad it’s your turn!
Most of our garden is finished and we got it tilled under before the rains started. The small amount that is left will need to wait until spring. It’s been raining non-stop here now, so I put my attention to deep cleaning the house, specifically one room. A daughter moved out and left a LOT of stuff, along with a second daughter’s 6-10 U-Haul boxes of junk she had piled in there. It took every spare moment for the last 2 weeks. Now it is all sorted, dealt with, the room is cleaned and it’s painted blue. Because our house is very small, I’m super excited to have the extra space. Pictures are on my blog: http://beckyathome.com
We took the 2 grandsons to the church’s harvest party last night. Their auntie got their costumes at thrift stores, plus a few inexpensive accessories. They were basketball players, or coaches, or personal trainers, or exercisers, depending on the moment, but you get the idea. They can wear the track suits as clothing now, and she said the outfits were about $6.
I’m basing my meals on the sales and on my stored food, same as the rest of you. Food keeps “wandering” into my house from various sources and I’m trying my best to use it all up or preserve it. I’m amazed at how the Lord has provided for us, though, even though I shouldn’t be surprised after seeing Him do that so many times before. I am feeling very blessed right now–our freezers are stuffed, our canning shelves are groaning and excess has been put in boxes, and the pantry shelves are loaded. My husband “stumbled” onto chicken legs for 60c/lb this past week and grabbed several packs. He also found his preferred kind of coffee K-cups for $1/box. He was so surprised they rang up that way, he re-rang them to make sure, and it was correct. Once he recovered from his surprise, he went back to the store and bought more, so now he has a grocery bag full for about $10. My sister’s apple tree has been loaded. She’s given me quite a few and asked if I wanted a few more. I asked for 2 small boxes. She brought what amounts to 2 bushels! I’ve already made applesauce earlier in the year, but canned some of these, made a apple/raisin/cranberry mixture, and have been making apple crisps. What refrigerator space I had is full of them to eat fresh. There are lots left and I need to keep using them so they don’t go bad.
I made gluten-free flat bread from scratch and used it for pizza crust to use up the extra toppings my daughter bought for her pizza party she had for her friends. It was delicious and so much more inexpensive than buying gluten-free pizza, especially since she provided all the toppings! Since she is vegetarian, she told her dad to “get busy on that leftover meat.” He was happy to oblige:). These girls are in their mid-twenties and are wonderful friends to each other. It has been a very long time since we went to bed with the sound of giggling in the front room as they watched some movie and munched snacks, but we both enjoyed hearing such happy sounds.
No such thing as too much applesauce, Becky! As cooking oils and butter get more expensive, applesauce is a cheaper substitute in baked goods. Lower fat too!
Becky, we had some of the kids home last weekend and I felt the same way about hearing them talk and laugh as we went to bed. Such a wonderful sound and sorely missed.
The DH and I spent 3 days in Okanogan, finishing going through my mom’s house in preparation for sale. My sisters have all taken what they wanted. The rest – I put out some furniture, 4 chairs, a chest of drawers, a wood file cabinet and a wood TV stand with free labels. They were all taken by the next morning. We donated lots of stuff to the senior center for their rummage room and made two trips to the dump. I brought some things home, more pint canning jars and rings as well as a few of the tools from the sheds. I made pizza and lasagna to take with us for meals. We ate one meal out our last night there, to celebrate the end of the clean-up. My DH then vacuumed all the carpets, while I cleaned in the kitchen and packed our ice chest and remaining belongings. I got a few deals – Ribs for $1.99 a pound – 2 racks, sour cream $1.29 each – got 3 and 80% lean hamburger for 1.99 a pound – limit 1.
I made 7 pints of apple sauce with apples purchased in Okanogan. 10 pounds of fresh Jonagolds for $8.00. Used the pint jars and rings I brought home from my Mom’s house.
I made a batch of almond joy cookies since my DH asked me to buy him some almond joy candy. Wanted to wait till after Halloween for the sale.
One thing we are pleased with – we didn’t have to turn our heat on all of October. It will go on this week though, as we are expecting snow.
Hope everyone has a good week.
Hi Nancy! Okanagon is gorgeous! My daughter lives there and I can’t wait to visit again!
It’s been a great frugal week in Heavenly Houston!
This week:
I took the kids to two church events, both free. One was a fall festival that served free hot dogs and hamburgers, plus had lots of games and activities. The kids got to climb a rock wall, ride the train around the parking lot, eat cotton candy, etc. It was lots of fun, and we left with full bellies and lots of candy.
The other event had food trucks with food for purchase in the parking lot, so we just ate before we went. Both were a lot of fun for all of us!
We took some of our (free) pumpkins to my aunt and uncle’s to feed to their chickens, along with the egg cartons I’d saved. They occasionally give us free eggs, which have gotten pricey here lately.
I bought a few of the Boo Book coupons from Wendy’s. It’s $1 for 5 free junior frosty coupons, which we used right then. It was a fun treat!
I bought gas at Sam’s, which is usually a little cheaper.
I made a huge pot of chicken noodle soup, which seemed to last a long time.
I made homemade hot dog and hamburger buns.
I found 10# boxes of 40 count frozen hamburger patties marked down to $10.99, expiring that day. I bought 3 boxes for the freezer. I rarely find ground beef at $1/#(or so) anymore.
My dad took us to Whataburger. I had a coupon for a frito pie burger that had two meat patties. I asked for the fritos and chili on the side, and ordered an extra bun. I put the second meat patty on the extra bun to feed to the middle son, and the oldest son got the little mini frito pie with his burger.
I passed a shirt to a friend for a college her husband went to, that I got in a big group of clothes at a garage sale. I probably could have sold it, as it’s a popular university, but it was his size and she said he would like to have it.
I returned some things to Goodwill that didn’t fit the children I bought them for. It’s tough to remember to do within the 7 day window if I’m not organized.
I haven’t made it to many garage sales to get a good start on Christmas shopping this year, so I’m a little behind in that area. I’ll probably look for online sales and hit a few more thrift stores in the coming weeks.
I’ve been saving for my kids with December (2) and January (1) birthdays. I need to plan their celebrations, but at least the money is set aside to pay for it. I usually do a party at a park with homemade cake and Costco pizzas, but since I invite all classmates of the same gender with siblings, the head count adds up quickly. I’m usually able to keep it around $100, at least. Pizza is easy, and I’m not sure I could serve a meal away from home for much cheaper. These pizzas are big, $10/each, and feed a lot of people when I have them cut into smaller slices. People seem to like them.
I’m considering cooking chickens instead of turkey for Thanksgiving this year, but haven’t decided for sure. There may be a forgotten turkey hiding deep in the depths of my chest freezer, so I need to see about that.
Hope everyone has a nice, frugal week!
I love the rose photos! Such a delicate shade of pink.
*We cleaned the gutters and blew the leaves from the home and yard of family members who pay us for such jobs. We enjoy helping them and the extra funds are always helpful to us.
*The sole of one of my shoes had cracked so I fixed it with some epoxy. They are very well-made, expensive-when-new shoes that I got at Goodwill for $4 a year or so ago and now they can keep going a while longer.
*Our local branch library is located inside our senior center and is very small. Thus, the 2 librarians know us by name and are so kind to all of us, especially my children. When we picked up some books and audio CDs last week, they gave my sons coupons from free Wendy’s Frostys and free cookies at a local bakery. That will be a fun treat in the months to come.
*Gratefully accepted canned food and dry goods from a neighbor. He works at our local trash transfer station and rescues this food from another local resident who regularly brings it to throw away. He says he can’t bear to do that and shares it with us and another neighbor. This week’s box contained Spam which reminded me of a story from my husband’s family and one which I will share with you all. We all love a good story, right? 🙂 My dear FIL is a former Marine who served in Vietnam as a radio operator and load master on a C-130. One day, he was asked to go to the mess hall and pick up lunch for the rest of the crew on his plane. He hopped on a bike and rode it the 10 minutes or so to the mess hall to pick up Spam sandwiches and Kool Aid (the day’s offering for lunch.) As he was riding the bike back to the air field, he saw his plane taking off… without him. He asked someone nearby what happened and was told they got an urgent call to drop something somewhere and they needed to go right then so another radio operator took his place. He sat down and decided to eat lunch anyway and wait for his crew to finish their job and return. They never did. Later that day, my FIL was told that his plane was shot down while on that mission and there were no survivors. My FIL was a very young man and not yet married so our family wouldn’t exist if he had been on that plane. So, the family story is that Spam saved his life. And I am so grateful for that! 🙂
*Like many others mentioned, I am shopping only to fill holes in my pantry as absolutely needed and we are otherwise living off of our freezer, pantry and preserved foods from the garden and the few things still growing as well as the eggs our girls so willingly give. I am also reconsidering my normal holiday baking tradition. I know I will need to bake things as that is a big part of the holiday for me but I am selecting things that use less costly ingredients and paring down the amount I plan to make.
*A family member is completing a building project at their home and invited us to pick up all the lumber cut-offs to use for kindling. We brought it home and split it and were pleased to see how much we got. Our house is very well-insulated so we typically use more kindling than larger logs as we can start a fire in the morning and, unless it is just really, really cold outside, let it go out in the afternoon. So, we start a lot of fires whereas some people have to keep a fire going all the time and use more large logs.
*My boys enjoyed our annual hunt for candy in the woods on Sunday as we weren’t sure we would be joining our friends who live in town for a trunk or treat. I hide a few bags of candy in the woods and they go out with flashlights looking for it and having a great time trying to scare each other. I bought just a small amount and it was on sale so worthwhile for a fun family tradition. I had no idea when we did go trick or treating last night that we would come home with enough candy to last till next year (we will be putting a lot of it aside for the future.) People were VERY generous. We enjoyed seeing some very clever costumes (my favorite part) including a woman dressed as a fairy and handing out toothbrushes (the tooth fairy) and a woman dressed as a monkey with an assortment of children in tow dressed as bananas. 🙂
*On the library book front, I finished “Year of Wonders” and, yes, I had read it before as I had thought but it is so good and worth a second read. I will be starting a “books I’ve read” journal as some of you suggested. I have been skimming “Essentialism” by Greg McKeowen. He makes a lot of good points and I find myself nodding in agreement when he talks about people making tiny amounts of progress or making significant progress when efforts are channeled to a few essential projects. Many of my fellow homemakers can attest to the need to multi-task at times and know well the reality of having many figurative pots on the stove at once. But, I made a point to limit my multi-tasking many years ago and find that being more focused on one thing at a time helps me feel much more successful and calm at the same time. An interesting read. I am now reading “Carl and Karin Larsson: Creators of the Swedish Style.” Larsson has long been one of my favorite artists and I enjoy reading more about him and his equally creative and talented wife. I am especially grateful when I read art books from the library as these kinds of books can often cost a lot of money.
*When I feel like I don’t have much of interest to mention here, I remind myself that it is the small, simple things that make the difference. Small acts like air-drying clothes, mending things to give them longer life, DIYing everything you can, bartering/trading, not wasting anything and practicing contentment may not sound exciting but they yield good things. Give yourself a pat on the back, everyone, and accept my thanks for your regular contributions. I am encouraged and inspired by you all. Have a lovely week!
I love your FIL’s story!
I liked your FIL’s story as well.
Long live Spam! Great story, thanks for sharing!
Oh I too love your FIL saved by Spam story. I love Spam but because of its sodium content, I almost never buy it. I read my niece’s twitter and laughed as she was describing her father’s love for fried Spam on white bread with miracle whip. Yup, we had that growing up.
Mountain Mama Dawn-
Thank you for sharing your Spam story.
That story should be shared with Hormel Foods, producers of SPAM.
My husband works for that company, and they are a wonderful supporter of Veterans.
In their SPAM Museum in MN ( a very fun, educational experience and worth a visit if you are close), there is even a section devoted to their part in the war efforts.
That is a beautiful story of your FIL’s survival and a poignant reminder that all who serve do not make it home.
Please thank your FIL for his service.
Thank you, Another Bonnie! It is wonderful to hear how supportive Hormel is of veterans. I love hearing that! I was glad to share the story here but would not be comfortable sharing it in a more public way. My husband was an older teenager before his Dad ever told him the story and he was very emotional when he did so. I think there may be some survivor guilt there that I would not want to dredge up. But, I am so pleased the story resonated with so many of you and that there is still support of those who willingly go into harm’s way in whatever capacity. My Dad is an AF veteran (fighter pilot) and I am very grateful for his dedicated service, as well. 🙂
Mountain Mama Dawn…I actually thought your story about your FIL sitting down and eating would end with him eating ALL the sandwiches himself. My heart stopped when I read how the SPAM run actually saved his life. Thank God! Please thank him for his service from a grateful patriot whose husband also served.
Thank you, Laura S and thank your husband from me, as well! 🙂
Hello all. We have kept the heat off all month which hasn’t been difficult with highs mid 60s/low 70s and lows mid 50s. Our bill in Oct. was half of our average payment and the least in a year.
Gratefully rec’d grilled chicken thighs from a neighbor who is the BEST chef. We reciprocate by giving him desserts, HM soups and grocery gift cards as proteins are more expensive. He is generous and loves cooking for people who appreciate his talents-like us! My daughter and son in law, who are avowed “foodies” and enjoy the finer cuisines in the DC area LOVE this neighbor’s cooking. He’s also available for hire. Our gift to the SIL last Christmas (at his request) was one of the neighbor’s grilled pork loins, which are also amazing!
Grocery shopped for loss leaders. Shopped on seniors’ day to get an extra 5% off. There are a few deals to be had. Ground beef was 2.99 and whole chickens .99/# which are good prices here. With a coupon coupled with a sale, I was able to get antibiotic free chicken burgers for 1.50/# which was a great price point for a protein, especially for this brand (Springer Farms), normally 3.99#. I noticed that extra-large frozen turkeys were .99# in the store. I’m keeping an eye on these. I bought dried beans for .99/# an unadvertised special. That price beats the Dollar (and a Quarter) Store where I had previously gotten dried beans for a dollar before their prices went up. With the discount, these were .95/#. I plan to make red beans to add to the rice I’d cooked in the oven previously and frozen. To eat more vegetables and decrease the carbohydrates in rice, I cook cauliflower, mash it and add it to the rice in a half and half ratio. We eat cauli “rice” too, but with the half and half combo, the rice absorbs some of the liquids in recipes when needed. Cauliflower was on sale so that worked out well. I used the scale in the produce department to purchase the heaviest heads since the price was per each.
I used a rain check (provided when the product was out of stock earlier in the month) to purchase convenience food (steaks for sandwiches for DH who wants a variety of lunch options) for half price. I also bought it on seniors’ day, so an additional 5% off. In a restaurant, a steak sandwich (albeit bigger) would be $12-13. With my discounted bun and meat, sale provolone cheese and mushrooms, peppers (garden) and onions, I can fix one (again, a smaller version but sufficient for my husband) for a bit over a dollar. With chips and a pickle, it keeps him happy and from going to purchase one. Even if he ate two, we’d still come out way ahead. I fed said foodie daughter one when she was visiting and she gave it a thumbs up as well. I cook enough peppers and onions at a time for several sandwiches.
Used leftover baked potatoes for breakfast with peppers and onions and shredded some for hash browns in a casserole. Made bone broth from chicken bones in the freezer for soup this week. Eating from the freezer and pantry to make room for turkeys or hams. I am diligently monitoring produce to minimize food waste. It makes me crazy when I must throw away or compost food that went off-good hard-earned money in the trash. 🙁
Using the microwave, crock pot, instant pot and toaster oven to limit use of gas for the cooktop. When I use the oven, I load it with multiple dishes to maximize the electricity. Same for the dishwasher. I am great at dishwasher Tetris and can fit multiple days’ worth of dishes into it so that it is quite full when we run it, saving water, detergent and electricity. With just the 2 of us, this is easily done.
The fall garden is progressing. The lettuce seedlings have grown to bona fide plants as have the cabbage and broccoli. The cabbage “stub” I planted looks the best. I’m eager to see what, if anything, it yields. Also planted garlic for the first time. We’ll see how these experiments turn out.
Paid 2 bills by dropping them in our municipal drop box as I was passing by, saving $1.20 from mailing. Used a postcard to drop a friend a note (.44 postage) instead of a letter (.60). The postcard was just the right size for a few sentences to let her know I was thinking of her.
Picked up a handful of pecans when walking. Certainly not enough for a pecan pie or anything 😉 but maybe over time, enough for a salad or two. I could forage black walnuts, but I don’t think I’m up to that arduous process.
While in the grocery store, I saw fresh figs. They were in a divided carton (like an egg carton) with 9 for 5.99. Those of you with figs are sitting on a food “gold mine”. Unfortunately, my 2 fig bushes didn’t make it a few years back.
Composted food scraps to help amend our soil. Composting helps the earth and decreases our trash and expensive trash bags. We have a few leaves that have fallen in our yard. Here on the coast, we mainly have pine straw that falls. I raked for exercise and “browns” to add to the compost.
Brandy, many thanks again for hosting us all. Each week, I anticipate reading your informative posts with lovely pictures and the posts of your many followers from here and around the world. The posts from different countries show that despite being thousands of miles apart, many of us are facing the same world-wide challenges and are “all in this together”. Hoping that the employment picture for your husband is improving. I’ve got a family member whose work situation has been upended as well and the uncertainty is very unnerving. Everyone have a great, frugal week. Lynn
Sugar cookie and I are away on a planned vacation. I spread my step daughter’s ashes at her favorite island. I’m enjoying all the beauty in the world and trying to find peace. We flew the cheapest flights carrying a small carry on bag. We saved a great deal of money. Our two round-trip tickets for 2 came to $155.00. I stalked those tickets for months. My college daughter suggested the ” Hopper ” app to locate a hotel. We applied a $50.00 coupon and stayed at a lovely hotel for $5.00. I used a $15.00 lyft coupon for our transport to the hotel. I used sugar cookies meager foodstamps to buy food at a local 7 eleven store to buy cold sandwiches and drinks for our dinner. On our cruise , Sugar cookie spent about $50.00 on various items. Everything else had been budgeted for over the last year. We traveled to 3 islands. We utilized coupons from the cruise ship to receive free items at various stores on the islands. This is the first time that we have used them. We received a lovely bamboo fan and several pieces of free jewelry. The cruise ship has a free silver bracelet they give out. Each day a new charm can be purchased for $5.00. We already have all the charms. She has added her free island charms to the free bracelet. We had been told originally that each ship had its own series of charms but apparently that was not correct. We are still out at sea. I’ve mainly slept. The stress of sweet Kimberly’s death has left my medical issues in over drive. The moonlight is shining tonight and it is such a beautiful reminder of all the glory in the universe. Be blessed dear friends.
I have been thinking that if I were in Nevada and needed to change professions I might become a locksmith. The requirements are almost nothing in Nevada (cannot have a criminal record) and the ideal would be to spend a couple of months doing an apprenticeship or courses. Of course I suggest this as a result of having just spent a small fortune having a lock replaced.
Hi Brandy and everyone. Love the photos of your beautiful roses and am so glad that you’re harvesting zucchinis. I have pruned our rose bushes and cleared out the garden beds; we have not had a hard freeze yet, but the nights have been in the high 40s so only the oregano and some mints have survived these temps. The days have been lovely in the 60s and the past 2 days in the low seventies. Brandy, thank you so much for your email that listed this website and your FB page (I did’nt realize you’re on FB!) I’m saving your links as sometimes when my laptop anti-virus security updates, it tells me that your website is a dangerous site and wont let me access it. This is Norton Anti-Virus.
We are concerned about a possible shortage of diesel which is being predicted for the East Coast and how that will affect store deliveries, etc, so I have spent the past 2 days shopping and further stocking up the long-term pantry and the every-day pantry. Yesterday was JoAnn’s, super Walmart, Dollar Tree, Trader Joes, Aldi’s and the supermarket (for those in NJ/DE/NY/CT it was Shop Rite); today the county mall for Macy’s, Boscov’s, Penney’s and Sketchers and then to BJs. A close friend and I went with lists and were able to get some good deals. We each took our own SUV and we also carry coolers. Eggs were the least expensive at Trader’s and Aldi’s also lots of lovely organic veggies and fruit. Super Walmart had a ton of racks and shelves of clearanced merchandise/garden/summer items. Leather gardening gloves were on clearance for $8; bought 4 pairs. At the supermarket, these were the best deals for us: center cut pork chops $1.99 lb; boneless beef roast $4.19 lb (30% off); Jimmy Dean bacon $2.99 /12 oz (limit 4); family packs of hormone/antibiotic free chicken thighs / drumsticks $0.99 lb (no limits); fresh wild caught Dover sole fillet $9.99 lb; maxwell house coffee 11.5 oz can $2.99 (limit 4 per variety); Ronzoni lasagna $1.49 (both oven ready/curly); gallon of Wesson Oil (canola or vegetable) $9.99 (limit 1); Planters dry roasted peanuts 16 oz $1.99 (limit 4 per variety); fresh pineapples $1.49 (limit 2). Macy’s, and the other dept stores are having excellent sales on clothing/ household and also lots of clearance racks on summer clothing with super low prices; bought winter boots at Macy’s; thermal curtains at Penneys; and at Sketchers sneakers/walking shoes were buy 1 pair get 50% off a 2nd pair. Now I have no excuse not to attend exercise classes and take long walks with my new cute and comfy sneakers. Macy’s has the holiday fragrance gift sets for many name brands of perfumes/colognes and most of them have a gift with purchase. At BJs bought paper towels, toilet paper, laundry detergent, facial soap, facial tissues, lindt chocolate bars, cheeses, canned Goya beans, organic apples and some toys using BJs coupons on all items I downloaded & in their coupon booklet. My purchase also qualified for a free fresh Butterball turkey which I can pick up on November 12 or after. For BJs shoppers, a new promo: when you spend $150 in a single transaction (online or in person) between 11/1-10, then on 11/12, go online or on the app and clip the digital coupon for your free Butterball turkey with a value of up to $25.00. Make sure you have a digital account set up prior to your shop. I set up one (very easy to do on their website) years go when they first offered clipless coupons to download to my membership card.
In our town Trick or Treat is done on October 30; we had about 50 kids show up. I purchased the large packages of individually wrapped chocolate /candy at BJs. Have some left over and have stored it in the freezer otherwise I will eat it all; dh does not have a sweet tooth so it does not tempt him. Late this afternoon baked 2 pans of chicken Cacciatore with the on sale chicken thighs (one to eat, one for freezer); 2 vegetarian lasagnas (for the freezer) 24 orange/cranberry muffins (gifted 1 doz to next door neighbor who gifted me a lovely blooming kalanchoe plant last week).
From our electric company, we received a free very nice energy saver kit I ordered several weeks ago. It included 3 LED nightlights, 2-60 watt LED bulbs, 2 15-watt LED bulbs, 1 3-way LED bulb and 1 smart advanced power strip (the power strip alone is about $30 at Best Buy), a coloring page, 4 crayola crayons, a clippy thing (don’t remember what they called it) for the furnace to remind you to change the filter; a booklet with energy savings tips which I think everyone who post here already does. The website for NJ residents to order- if your electric co is participating – is https://jcplkits.energysavenj.com The phone number is 855-823-4298 (Mon-Fri during regular business hours). Have your account number as that will be asked to verify your mailing address and that you are a customer. Also if you have a working, older refrigerator that you no longer want, they will pick up for free (to recycle) and send you by mail a $100 gift card (like a visa that can be used anywhere). Also for a working, older window A/C unit, they will pick up for free and send you a $35 gift card. This program end sometime in November.
The past several weeks have been busy with house maintenance. Have replaced the central air system which was a several day job as we also had the duct work replaced in the attic. The unit is on a platform outside as it has to be 15 feet above sea-level as we live on a small island and the entire island is a flood zone. Very expensive but it had to be done as our unit was from 2004 and was on it’s last legs. We were grateful that it worked during this past season. We also had the second floor painted. Ceilings, walls, doors, closet doors, trim work took several days. This was also a planned budgeted expense as the second floor has not been painted in 12 years and we knew that when we had the AC work done, at least the ceiling in one hallway would need to be painted. The air handler and duct work for the AC are in the attic and the attic has pull-down stairs from one of the ceiling hallways on the 2nd floor. The technicians to their credit were neat, but black smudges ended up on the ceiling/walls.
The painters did an excellent job. I admire all of you that paint, tear down walls, etc., but this is something that we chose to outsource. We also had the outside sprinkler system drained and shut off for the winter; the technician, a sole proprietor, increased his prices 20% due to the cost of gas etc. The furnace was checked for the winter and we signed a maintenance contract with the company that performed the checkup – they are on call 24/7 and will not charge us a fee for a house call from now to next May. The contract price is up 10% from last autumn.
This was in today’s news, the new 6 month yield for I-Bonds and new rate for Series EE Bonds
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/treasury-announces-new-series-i-bond-rate-after-nearly-1-billion-day/ar-AA13CPta?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531&cvid=269d3dc8c92f47a3d1eedb58b6a1f7bb
Thank you Brandy for all your work hosting this wonderful site.
I think whenever an update comes out for security and I haven’t yet installed it on my site is when that happens. Just a guess, though.
My son and I went to the grocery store together. We found packages of tomatoes for 88 cents! Fresh Salsa and guacamole for 98 cents. Ribs for 1.68 cents a lb. Everything else was very, very expensive. We did not buy butter because of the price. $6 dollars at the cheap store! My son looked at the prices and it worried him. I told him that we are still ok. But we will be frugal. I plan on cooking at home as much as possible. Even my husband is on board. We aren’t eating out even if we are hungry we go home and I cook. We will do this and try to save. We would like to take another trip to work on our music with a talented musician we met in a few months if we can. My husband has written lots of songs and we are hopeful that we can do something with the songs. I have been turning off lights, using cloth napkins and handkerchiefs. I was so happy to find salsa and tomatoes so cheap today. We were hungry for tomatoes! I hope to stay home more often to save on gas. My husband needed new work boots. We talked about buying epoxy to make the ones he has work a bit longer. We bought some boots but will be on the lookout for some epoxy as well so he will still be able to use the other boots after we fix them. Family and friends have loaned us tools to work on projects at home. Family and friends are helping us work on some of the projects. We are very grateful. I bought a scarf for 1 dollar at goodwill. I asked if they had a veteran discount. The cashier said no but that she could give me a 50% discount. I was happy! We are hopeful that my husband’s work will hold out. Last year when it was cold he didn’t work or got less hours. I’m also hopeful that our car and truck will hold out. My car has over 170,000 miles on it. It runs good right now though. My husbands truck has more miles on it. I’m happy my husband’s truck is paid off. We live 30- 45 minutes from a grocery store. So we drive a ways when we go somewhere. I’m glad we saved to pay taxes. I’m glad we both have a job. I’m going to reread your 40 cent series. I think I will make more soups. I love that I have frozen soups in the freezer from homemade soups. Canned soup is expensive and I noticed the cans are smaller. I realize it is still cheaper than eating out. But if I can make a soup, I will. We had soup yesterday and my husband was happy. It was a vegetable lentil soup with bits of ham in it. It was even better since it had been frozen. The smokiness of the ham seemed to really make the soup quite tasty! I’m glad my son let me pick crabapples. We have spiced crabapples and I may give some as Christmas gifts. They are delicious!
Brandy,
You often talk about seed saving so I have a sweet seed saving story for you.
My nine year old grandson lost his Papa on his mother’s side on Sunday. It was a long battle with cancer. We were watching our grandson so his parents could be
with that family. My grandson wanted to carve a pumpkin for Halloween. I asked him if he wanted to save some of the seeds to plant next Spring. He said yes and began removing the seeds from the pumpkin guts. I told him I would dry the seeds so they would be ready when Spring comes. He said “I want to give half of the seeds to my Nana (the one that just lost her husband) so she has pumpkin seeds to plant next Spring. I thought that was very sweet of him to be thinking of her and wanting to help take care of her needs.
That warmed my heart so I wanted to share with all of you.
Kim, That is sweet! While subtle, a lovely example of the cycle of life. Blessings to you and your extended family. Chris
It was our last week with grandson (3) and Daughter living nearby. We continued with our schedule of the last two months of picking C up from nursery 3xs a week, and keeping him for a few hours each evening so that Katie could visit with her fiancé in the hospital. He was in a major car accident on September 1 and was in the hospital for 8 weeks. I went over two extra evenings to help Kate pack up her house. She moved out of state this past weekend, moving to her fiancé’s home state. So big changes for them. I used bananas from the freezer and leftover butternut squash to make Pumpkin Banana Loaf and muffins. I also made a roasted chicken, which I turned into a Poppy Seed Casserole and Pot pies for both households. I took another chicken from the freezer to thaw and roasted that Friday night to send with Kate to the new house so she’d have something ready to make sandwiches, or the start of an easy meal with canned sides, etc. Saturday I kept C so the moving van could be packed up. I can’t remember which day last week but I went in to pay city taxes on the house in town and check on switching water bill over to my name. The clerk suggested since it was in my daughter’s name I leave it in her name and pay it (the house is ours) and asked if we’d be renting the house out. I said No we planned to put it up for sale and she told me that houses in our little nowhere town are selling hot and fast often before anyone is aware they’re even on the market. May it be so! She then referred one of her co-workers to the house info which she pulled up online so I got a contact right off of a potential purchaser. How cool is that?
Friday while my daughter was packing up her pantry and kitchen, she started a “Mama” pile of things that she hadn’t used or didn’t typically use and had. I brought home a grocery bag full of items, many of which were on my shopping list! I also packed up frozen foods and fridge items that she didn’t pack to take that were well within use by dates, etc. So three bags of groceries FREE to me this week. I say FREE but as a parent, we’ll just wink at that one, lol. In the end, I find there’s seldom anything my kids do that is truly FREE to me, lol. This week is busy busy busy, with clearing and cleaning the house and getting it ready to list for sale. Amazing how many of my things I found in the house that had been borrowed. Nice to have them to use once more, lol.
Today I went to the store and looked for a Thanksgiving turkey as I heard they will be hard to get. They had the deal where if you buy a ham you get a free turkey. It was soooo expensive and it was hard to figure out if it was worth it. The ham was $5.99 and I nearly died. We made sure to get the smallest ham and the biggest turkey. So the ham was $38.34 and the turkey was $25.03 ($1.69.) I’m still trying to figure it out but I figured it was Thanksgiving and the ham can be for Christmas with the leftovers of both. I about died when I turned and saw bacon for $8.99 a pound. Yikes. Glad I bought the on sale stuff but it’s all getting crazy. My father-in-law loves the bargains as much as I do but there are just the two of them so things pile up. My mother-in-law recently gifted us with a bunch of food and several things of meat. Plus my daughter fished their pond and brought home about 5 pounds of bass. I had to admit that our freezers are dangerously full (like if you open them you take you life in your hands because something might come flying at you.) I’ve got to work through some of it. My husband usually bakes bread every week or so but he can’t now because we have no place in the freezers. I asked him to make only 4 or 5 loaves instead of 9. That kills him because once he is doing it and the oven is hot 9 makes sense but until we get the freezers situated we can’t do that. Actually, I pulled biscuits out of the freezer and have been trying to use stuff like that up. I guess I can’t throw everything in the freezer. I’m still working my way through free apples, and trying get dried beans hulled or whatever the word for that would be! Have a good week everyone. I read everything with such interest and even after many years of frugality, I learn a lot!
* per pound I mean!
It has been an average week of saving here. With lovely weather still ongoing, I have been able to hang all laundry out to dry. I have several drying racks so laundry will be hung up downstairs to dry when the weather turns nasty. We are also able to get our yard cleaned up before snow flies. I am hoping to have that finished by the end of the weekend.
All meals were eaten here at home. I only shopped sales and continued my pantry stock up where I could. I am hoping to be fully stocked up in the next couple of weeks and only have to buy perishable items. We really only buy a few gifts for our son for Christmas and that shopping is almost done. I am sticking to very simple recipes for Christmas baking so I have what I need there.
I have been blessed again by items from our buy nothing group. I have received a full large bottle of liquid fabric softener, an unopened package of chocolate salted caramel baking chips and a large bag of cat litter. I was also gifted a practically new instant pot/air fryer. I was thrilled as it came with the instruction manual and a cookbook. It never ceases to amaze me at the things people give away.
All books read were from the library and our son used birthday money for any books/magazines he wanted.
Hope everyone is having a lovely week!
Sorry if anyone else has posted this, but if not it should help a lot of people get some of their food for Thanksgiving a bit cheaper. I was on another website and they had a link to a Washington Post article about Starting Wed. Aldis was lowering their prices to 2019 prices.
My saving last week was I got enough hamburger which had a sale date for the next day for $1.87 lb for 85/15. I was able to can 27 pints. I also canned 12 half pints of pomegranate jelly from my tree. I blessed my youngest and a best friend with the remainder poms. The friend has two kids that love that I give them poms every year.
We were able to stop watering the garden after picking yams, a small watermelon, and bell peppers, I dug up 4 bell peppers to bring inside for the winter. 2 of the 4 are doing well, hope the other 2 bounce back. It started raining so we might of rushed the digging up part a bit on the peppers. We reset the lawn sprinklers to 1 time a week, so this should save us some money now that it’s officially fall.
Thanks for posting about the Aldi prices. I wasn’t aware of that. When I looked it up just now, I also saw that Walmart is offering Thanksgiving food at last year’s prices, so that’s another option for people who don’t have an Aldi nearby.