I harvested lemons and Swiss chard from my garden.
We made lemon meringue pies and lemonade from lemons in the garden.
I cooked cranberry sauce from scratch from four bags of cranberries that were on sale. It cost the same as the cost of a can (I am genuinely shocked at how much canned cranberry sauce is now!) and made as much as five cans worth. Plus, I love the taste! This is my second year making it from scratch; it was simply cranberries, sugar, water, and an orange, and was simply cooked over the stove for a short time with occasional stirring.
I sowed seeds in the garden for lettuce, green onions, parsley, Swiss chard, arugula, and cilantro (coriander).
I watered the potted plants in the garden with water I collected from the garden from the previous week’s rain.
I baked a white pumpkin from Halloween that my daughter had bought and turned it into pumpkin pies. I froze the rest to use later in pumpkin bread.
I didn’t buy anything on Black Friday.
I started sewing a project using fabric I already had. I’m hoping to complete it this week, as I need it to wear to a wedding on Sunday! I’m posting sneak peeks
What did you do to save money this past week?
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I got an offer of 2 dozen eggs for 2.99 each and 2 lbs of butter for 3.99 each. These are good prices here. I paid for this and other items with 20,000 loyalty points and was awarded 2,000 points back-worth $2.00 off my next purchase. My brother mentioned to my husband that his new computer had gone down $135-so a very worthwhile quick trip to Costco this morning for a refund.
Your pies look scrumptious!
This week, Thanksgiving brought a few snow flurries although nothing stuck but the much colder weather. Our highs are now in the mid-30’s and it looks like that will continue for the next couple weeks at least.
Thanksgiving was an electronic, device-free occasion for about 7 hours of family, food, Uno games, jigsaw puzzles, fabric “shopping” for 2 of my daughters with fabric someone just gifted me the day before to share the abundance! I found a recipe for Copycat Texas Roadhouse Cinnamon Honey Butter and made a batch to use on our Thanksgiving Dinner rolls! Definitely a winner! I also made homemade Turkey gravy from the drippings! (That was a first for me! ) it was also a winner!
Friday was my birthday so Hubs and I chose to keep it low key and relaxing. I did some quilting while he decluttered a little file box on his desk. In it he found an unused gift card for Outback Steak House which we decided to use for takeaway dinner for the 2 of us for birthday treat at home. We watched a new movie that just came out of a British mystery series we enjoy, so we watched that as our entertainment!
He also found an unused Amazon gift card that I used to buy 2 #10 cans of dehydrated diced potatoes to add to our pantry! Only paid $1.29 out of pocket so I’m pleased! I’ll start using it in my homemade pot pies!
On Flashfood, I picked up 10 pounds of yellow onions for $2.00 . I am chopping those up in my food processor and dehydrating them. Such a handy way to preserve such a good sale for later use! I also got a 3 pound pack of Jennie O ground turkey for $3. ($1/pound) marked down from over $5/pound. That will be used to stretch beef in things like chili, tacos, etc!
This week I used another of my homemade mixes- Apple Muffin Mix- to make muffins in a hurry. It was only 20 minutes from the time I opened the dry mix and added liquid ingredients and baked 14 of them in the oven until the time we were eating melt in your mouth muffins! https://www.budget101.com/recipes/1005-apple-muffin-mix/
Got gas at Costco for $2.25/gallon!
Client picked up 6 more of her Christmas quilts and paid me and dropped off the final 4 of her batch of 18! Just loaded the second of 2 quilts on my machine to quilt for another client. This work is keeping me busy but it’s also going to pay for new all weather tires for our minivan ! So I’m grateful for the extra income in spite of my sore shoulders and arms! It’s been said that many people miss opportunities because it comes wearing overalls and carrying a shovel (or, in my case, standing behind a 12 foot frame and hand-guiding a big sewing machine! 😉) . I am SO grateful for all of the opportunities that come to Hubs and me!
For anyone in the path of this next snowstorm coming in today, stay safe and inside! We plan to!
Gardenpat in Ohio
Happy Belted Birthday Pat! Sounds like a perfect way to have spent the day🥰
Love your lemons and love lemon meringue pie!
Love the lemon and flower pictures. I made pecan pies for the first time as well as a coconut pie with meringue, but the meringue is a story in it’s self. I put up my christmas tree with tree and ornaments I already had as well as two wreaths on the doors. I have wrapped what christmas presents we have. We still need to buy for one daughter and her partner. I just need their sizes and styles. We are buying clothes for the family. They all said that is what they need. I would rather buy what they need as something that will just be put in the closet and forgot about. We have had cold rainy weather so just staying inside and getting things done. My husband has been deer hunting. We use a lot of ground deer and deer sausage.
Those pies are lovely! Grandma used to make lemon pie at Thanksgiving and Christmas (not something I eat). Homemade cranberry sauce is the only way to go. Hubby eats it year round.
Received more $ from Neilson for doing surveys.
Hubby fixed a broken drawer.
My boss gave me a Starbucks gift card, mug, and biscotti gift set.
I filled out a foundation scholarship application for my university in hopes of receiving more financial assistance.
I was off work last week so I stayed home and did no black Friday shopping.
Cashed in rewards points for Amazon gift cards. I will use them towards buying the boy airpods for Christmas.
Used points for free pizza.
Sold an item on Marketplace and made $10.
Listed a few things on a buy nothing site to get them out of the house.
Keep Thanksgiving pretty simple. I used the free turkey breast I was given, then we made just a handful of things to go with it for dinner.
Brandy, I’m glad you are back and oh, how delicious that pie looks!
*I shopped on black Friday and didn’t buy anything either. The prices were much too high and items with good sales looked cheap.
*This week I continued to move my sewing things into my husband’s old office. He was laid off earlier this year and the extra space will be great. Previously my sewing area was on a small folding table crammed into the upstairs hallway beside the staircase. The office desk was too high for me so my husband cut the bottom off. What started as a simple idea turned into an ordeal. It is a cheap desk that is quite worn but it will be just fine. Everything doesn’t always have to be perfect. It is a tool that will help me save us money and that is what matters. My first project tonight was to repair one pair of underwear. It was sitting on top of the massive mending pile but I knew it would encourage me to get one thing fixed.
*We cut the huge cardboard box that held the new washing machine (not frugal but necessary) into pieces that will fit a few of the shelves in my downstairs pantry. It keeps canning jars from tilting over on the wire shelves. It motivated me to do some organizing and meal planning. Usually, I organize in the spring when planning the garden to see what needs to be planted but this time it revealed some things that had been forgotten. I stuck tape with arrows pointing to the sections that are needing to be rotated.
*I canned butter four years ago as an experiment and opened one this week. They have stored perfectly in cardboard boxes in my dark, cool basement. It isn’t recommended by the USDA but by rebel grandma canners. The butter was on sale for $.99 to about $1.79 and that was the regular sale price back then! I’m so glad I did a large amount.
*A local grocery had turkeys for $.39, (limit of one) so I chose the biggest they had only to realize I don’t have a pot big enough to hold it! They also had sweet potatoes for $.29 so I got the limit of 5 pounds since my sweet potato crop did poorly.
*We finally finished putting the hoop houses up in the garden. We used to do it in one day but we can only handle a few at a time now, just too much bending over. I’m not sure anything will survive because we are extremely late getting it out. I can’t figure out the weather anymore. If everything fails, we have only lost our time and the seeds I had saved. If we harvest anything at all, it will still save us quite a bit of money. Groceries are just too expensive. https://getmetothecountry.blogspot.com/2025/11/novembers-garden-2025.html
Jeannie@GetMeToTheCountry
I’m enjoying your blog as well Jeannie.
I agree homemade cranberry sauce is the way to go, and it practically makes itself. I still recall as a kid making it and loving it popping like popcorn sounds.
I avoided all Black Friday sales and buying. Have a bad toothache since the day before tg, got an appt w a new dentist for Wednesday. Here’s hoping they are both a good dentist and it doesn’t break the bank.
My sister in law got the tg pie from ace hardware, all these years and I never knew they sold pie. Also, a bit sad to hear they prefer it to my homemade apple pie, which I’m quite proud of and always gets rave reviews (my secrets are: upgraded cinnamon blend (not grocery store Cassia cinnamon), lemon zest, every apple is a different kind, and a flaky combo butter/shortening crust).
My Meyer lemons aren’t fully ripe yet. They’ve never been this late in well over 40 yrs of having this tree (mom before me), and my sister in SoCal, I’m in NorCal, is having the same issue. Glad yours came in.
I found 5 Spode Christmas tree coffee cups and saucers at the thrift store, for $10, right when I needed four more. At the same thrift store I found a like new set of wooden blocks for $1. They were a great present for the two yr old niece’s birthday party on Sunday. I love this thrift store as 100% goes to our local children’s hospital.
Hope everyone had a happy holiday!
Hi Brandy and everyone
Homemade cranberry sauce is so nice, a daughter makes enough for all the family to have several jars. All your pies look good, you make the most of every resource.
Our greenhouses yielded a few tomatoes this week and I pulled a few beetroot, they are a second planting so not very big but I’m glad to have them.
I have filled a small planter for a Secret Santa using some molehill soil mixed in with bulb fibre, sweet violet plants I’ve dug up from the garden, moss ditto and a big pinecone from my stash as a mini Christmas tree.
I made chicken stock from a carcass this week.
I attended a Christmas Fair and bought some unusual handmade presents at surprisingly good prices.
I had a voucher for 50 pence off butter which is almost never on sale. Only one pack allowed unfortunately!
I stocked up on baby shampoo on a deal.
I sold an item on Vinted.
I made a batch of sausage rolls up to the point of baking and frozen them for Christmas.
I found a lovely church playgroup to take my granddaughter to, it costs £2 for the morning which includes drinks for children and adults, fruit, cake and toast if you want it. It was really well resourced.
Hope everyone can enjoy the festive season lead up without feeling overwhelmed.
Oh, your sewing project looks so interesting! If you feel like sharing it here on the blog, I would love to see it!
We biked to get our (real) Christmas tree at the hardware store. The trees were inexpensive but so much nicer and bigger than expected, a real bargain! Even my son was happy! Some years they are quite small and not very symmetical 🙂
We are going to make candied orange peels with peels I´ve saved in the freezer. We bought chocolate for coating at the discount supermarket.
We decorated for Christmas using things we already have.
On the not so frugal side we bought cake and lunch at the Christmas market at my sons school and later at the Christmas market held by the local scouts, but the money goes to fund their activities, and we like to support both.
Have a nice week everyone!
Yesterday I found 6 lbs of apples and 5 lbs of carrots for $2.00 each-can’t beat that!
Oh I so want a piece of pie right now!
I had about 2 cups of cranberries left and made Martha Stewarts cranberry bread (with less cranberries) for a snack this week.
Made and processed 8 cups of poultry stock from Thanksgiving scraps.
Also did not shop on black Friday.
I shop thrift stores almost exclusively and found items that were on my list for pennies of what it would have cost at a retail store.
We had our first winter storm today, so I covered my kale and swiss chard for the duration.
Sadly said no to last minute plans due to the cost and time.
Found a simple nut recipe to hand out for holiday treat for my family. With the cost of chocolate, this (Ritz Carlton Lodge) Spiced Pecans will be a nice fill in.
Hope everyone has a calm and productive week.
I’ve started this twice and was interrupted on both occasions. I hope I’m not duplicating my entry.
I tried to stay away from Black Friday sales but ended up with a new cellphone. The representative from my phone company was Moroccan but worked in the Philippines call center. He was superb as I had a lot of questions on Thursday and finally he recommended I waited until Friday to see whether or not the company had put on a different model of cell phone that was a lot better than the one I was getting. He said he would phone back and indeed he did and he could offer me the later model for the same price as he’d offered the same model the day before. In the end it will cost me $20 extra per month for two years. I had been worried because my present phone is vintage and next year will be obsolete and difficult and expensive to repair if it’s even possible.
I spent $82 at Safeway and saved $55. From no-frills I bought frozen chicken schnitzels for 5.99 a bag, reduced from 12.99 and saved about $30. This means that each schnitzel cost me $1.49. I can bake potatoes, squash, beets and the schnitzel at the same time, thus saving on electricity used from my oven. It is an easy dinner for me and since my oven shuts off at the end of the time, I don’t have to worry about being in the kitchen all the time, unlike cooking on my stovetop where you do have to be present all the time. I am going to buy little cans of flaked chicken, turkey, or ham and save $1.72 per can. I don’t like to eat that because it has sodium nitrite and is high in salt but it is good to have them on hand. I am keenly watching the sales – since i get free delivery from one store, it pays to watch in its flyer.
I seem to have lost weight and inches so I will be on the lookout for a few items at the end of the season.
congratulations to Tammy for her weight loss!
Thank-you! Congratulations on your weight loss too!
It might help to rinse the canned meat, which will help lower the salt content. Don’t have a clue if it will help with nitrates or not but rinsing is what I ee a lot of people doing online.
Combined Thanksgiving with our annual family vacation. We are empty nesters so Thanksgiving works best for our kids to get away for a few days. We rented a lovely house in Florida, cooked all but one meal (which was planned as part of the itineary). Played Top Golf, but my daughter-in-law had a discount code so we got an hour for a decent price. Went to the beach and watched the dogs play in the water at the dog beach. (My husband and I go to this beach frequently and we love to watch the pups! It’s free entertainment for us!) Although we did spend some money for this trip, we did it as frugally as possible. We ordered a game called “Tenzy” off Amazon, taught it to the family, and the oldest grandson was immediately addicted and wanted to play the whole time we were there, so it was a win-win! The game was very cheap and created some fun memories!
I’m so glad to see you back on this platform posting!!
I planted yukon gold potatoes and beets at the end of October (Brandy we live in the same city). The potatoes are doing very well and I can’t wait to see how many I harvest. The beets haven’t shown any signs of doing anything. This is our 2nd year in this home and I’ve experimented with all sorts of herbs and vegetables. I’m currently drying basil and sage. There was an existing fig, lemon and pomegranate tree on the property that have yielded A LOT. My Meyers lemon tree in a pot produced this year as well. This is our 2nd year having chickens and we have enjoyed them. I’ve turned into that crazy chicken lady that is curating colored eggs. Our Rhode Island Reds lay brown eggs and our Easter Eggs lay green eggs.
During this time I’ve tried to re-think anything that I’m purchasing. I’ve tried to consider if it’s something we need, is there a less expensive version or can I make it cheaper. It turns out that there are a lot of items that can be made cheaper. I was purchasing whipped tallow balm for $30 for a very small jar. I started making my own for penny’s (or dimes in this economy). I’m also making my own face cleanser for about half of what I was paying with cleaner ingredients. Have a great week!!
Kim, I would love to try your face cleanser recipe if you are comfortable sharing.
Hi Kim! Would you mind sharing how you make your tallow balm? Thank you so much!
Those pies are beautiful and, I am sure, tasted as wonderful as they look.
My best frugal accomplishment this past week was making money on Black Friday more than spending it. Both of my antique booths had great sales weekends. I made enough to pay for 2 months of my oldest son’s orthodonture with money left over for groceries. Very encouraging!
I did buy one thing on a Black Friday sale. I have been looking for a chain to wear with a handmade pendant I got this summer from one of my artist son’s friends. I did not have a chain the right length or link type to wear with it. I found one on-line and by putting it in my cart but not checking out for a day, I was offered free shipping. That and the sale price plus an additional discount I got for leaving a review reduced it to a thrift store price. I will be so glad to finally be able to wear this special piece of jewelry. Patience is another of my top frugal tactics. Needing/wanting something right away can be very costly.
We have been feasting on Thanksgiving leftovers which is one of my favorite things ever! I also bought very inexpensive cranberries and made my own sauce. So much tastier (and less sugary) than store bought. We love it on oatmeal and swirled into muffin or quick bread batter. I also make a cranberry vinaigrette salad dressing with it, too.
Sitting here in my cozy house by the wood stove with the snow swirling down outdoors and a cup of tea (homegrown, of course) makes me feel very wealthy indeed! Have a lovely week, all!
Welcome back! I love your lemons as well as the pies.
We had my son, DIL and 2 granddaughters for Thanksgiving dinner. On the day after Thanksgiving my almost 3 year old granddaughter helped me make gingerbread for breakfast. I make my own mixes, using the Make-a-Mix cookbook. I poured in the ingredients, and she did the stirring. Our dinner used a turkey from the freezer. I also made cornbread stuffing, roasted potatoes, carrots and celery with the turkey, corn with butter and thyme, rolls and cranberry sauce. It was a lovely dinner.
I have started crocheting again. The arthritis in my left wrist doesn’t seem to hurt when I crochet anymore, so I started in again. Making some dishcloths to slip into Christmas gifts.
I have been volunteering 2 days a week, three hours each day at the local food bank. It sometimes hurts my heart how much need is out there. I decided years ago, that when I retired, I was going to volunteer at a food bank. I am so glad I kept that promise to myself.
At least three times a week, we are eating something from our garden. It might be frozen corn, cauliflower, broccoli or snow peas. Or it might be canned tomato sauce, crushed tomatoes, pickles, relish, or salsa. Or maybe dried white, black pinto or Italian heirloom bens. Or, dried oregano, basil, parsley or rosemary. I am so glad that we had the wonderful garden last summer, that we had. A lot of work, but very worthwhile.
I hope everyone has a wonderful, fruitful and blessed week.
The pies are amazing and to have made them from your own fruit is even more special.
-Thanksgiving travel plans by car to our daughter’s home were altered with snowstorms arriving when we were to leave/return. Thus, we left early and came home early. Our power was out for 28 hours. The generator kept the furnace going and we had enough LP to keep the generator fueled. It’s a beautiful winter wonderland with 14″ of snow covering the trees.
-Our snowblower needed a new spark plug and it started up like a charm.
-Put up the Christmas tree and reused wrapped candy canes that I saved from last year. Look great but decoration only.
-Made a Christmas tree skirt using fabric scraps.
-Saved Christmas cards from last year and am repurposing into gift tags and also adhering to wrapped gifts. I have been cutting them into shapes etc.
-Made a turkey casserole with leftovers.
Have a great week and enjoy the wonderful ideas from this community.
We enjoyed Thanksgiving! I got a turkey for 48 cents a lb with a 25 dollar purchase. I got a second one for the freezer. We will use it later. I boiled the turkey bones fo 36 hours in the crockpot and we made a lovely soup. My husband made Thanksgivng dinner this year. We had a butternut squash that we used to make a lovely casserole that tasted very much like pumpkin pie. My sons dog died a couple weeks ago and we were very sad. But now we are dogsitting a friends dog and enjoying it very much! We were so used to taking care of a sick dog that this dog seems easy. We have enjoyed seeing deer, hawks, possum, raccoon, geese, other birds and we even saw a mouse cross the road one day. We have also heard coyotes. I really enjoy the deer and birds the most. God has blessed us. We haven’t hit a deer. Of course, we drive slow in the country. We have enjoyed snow recently. It is really beautiful. I was tempted t make a snow angel. But honestly, my husband had to help me get up off the ground last time I did it! It was a lot of fun though! I’m more fearful of falling than I used to be. We have done a lot of the usual things such as using cloth napkins, hankies, and towels. We did buy a frozen pizza today. I really didn’t want to cook lunch from scratch. A frozen pizza is easy. Now I will go back to cooking things from scratch again. I try to use what needs using first in the fridge and pantry. I am happy we have already paid for propane for the winter. We have enjoyed looking at Christmas lights several times already. We turn errands into the city into an enjoyable trip by looking at lights. We are still getting eggs from our chickens. Oh yes, we also play Christmas music and sing in the car. Free, and enjoyable. I had fallen over a week ago. I am finally headache free. Makes everything more enjoyable. I didn’t shop during Black Friday or Monday either. I’ve cooked a white pumpkin before too and made pie. It was yummy! I have a couple pumpkins now. I may cook them tomorrow. My son would love a pie. I should make one for my other son as well. They both love my pumpkin pies. I love making pies for them because it makes them happy!
Hi Tammy,
I missed hearing about all of your activities when the blog was offline. I enjoy your wildlife sightings and am glad you are doing so well.
Thank-you Anne. I missed reading about your activities as well.
Yesterday my husband and siblings sold about half of their farmland in Illinois. This in combination with an inheritance from my Mum is a wonderful Xmas windfall for us-we are truly blessed.
Despite this I will continue to shop frugally. This morning I bought 3 shirts and a dressy cardigan for $4 each at the thrift store half price monthly sale.
As well I purchased a $5 fruit and veg bag on Flash Food. It had a cauliflower, 8 tomatoes, 15 apples and 20 oranges-which seemed like a very good value to me.
Those lemon meringue pies look divine.
Christmas shopping and present wrapping is finished. All in $278 for 25 people. No gift wrapping supplies needed as I have had 30 cent rolls of wrapping paper for about 6 years now. For a lot of adults I got medium sized, boxed rectangular painted ceramic servingware for $4. For my Mum I got a large brown leather tote bag ($5 on clearance) & filled it with face wash, creams, serums & sweets that she uses & eats. The childrens gifts include a few items I purchased in France while we lived there earlier this year (can not get them here and postage is extremely expensive) plus items I got on clearance.
We will be at the beach for Christmas with our extended family. It is summer here. I am taking pavlovas with cream and berries. I will take them in a cooler box (chilly box/esky) and assemble them just before they are ready to be eaten. It is hot and humid here. I got the pavlovas in packs of 9 for $2.79 at Aldi.
I am saving for our next live in France adventure, so any savings are going towards that.
We are off to a free Christmas concert with fireworks in a park in our suburb this weekend.
I took advantage of a 6am-7am half price coffee deal near work & bought my team member their favourite drink. This was thanks for being flexible and coming into the office when on a scheduled work from home day.
I didn’t shop Black Friday or cyber Monday deals.
I spent $14 on groceries for the week. Still have heaps of bean soup & lasagne in the freezer we are working our way through.
I’m so glad to see this comments section (forum?) active again! And Brandy, your pies are lovely! Homemade pumpkin pie is one of the true joys of life, in my opinion. 🙂
We spent Thanksgiving at home cooking and enjoying the time together. Our turkey was in our deep freezer from last November – it was a “free with purchase” at the grocery store, but I had already purchased our turkey for last Thanksgiving. Still, I couldn’t pass up the freebie so into the freezer it went! We brined and roasted it, and it was delicious. Most of our side items were homemade although we did enjoy a couple of convenience items that were purchased (mostly on sale!) from some of our favorite shops in neighboring small towns – a specific locally-made gravy base and cranberry relish that we love, local breakfast sausage, a cheeseball seasoning mix, etc. We also always have Starbucks Thanksgiving roast coffee that morning as a tradition since we’ve been married, while we watch the Macy’s parade. For dinner we enjoyed turkey with gravy and dressing, wild rice and craisins (my husband’s favorite side), candied sweet potatoes, potato rolls, rosemary apple pie and bourbon pumpkin pie. We used a few recipes from Kayla at Under a Tin Roof and loved them – I really enjoy her videos and aesthetic, and many of her recipes are also nice and are available on her blog. Tom at Come Sit at My Table is another great YouTube channel for recipes, particularly if you are looking for “grandma’s church potluck yeast roll” type recipes. 🙂 I use his fruitcake recipe each year (“Better than Grandma’s fruitcake”) and will be making it this coming weekend so we can enjoy it through December. Growing up, my mother always made fruitcake and it was wonderful, and his recipe is very close to what I remember. It is a simple spice cake batter with pineapple, cherries, dates, raisins, walnuts, & pecans – no mystery green & red citron or weeks marinating in alcohol. LOL. I always say that people who dislike fruitcake just haven’t had a good homemade one! We spent Black Friday and the remainder of that weekend buying our tree and putting up our Christmas decorations, watching Christmas movies at home, and enjoying leftovers. I did purchase a couple of small items online on black Friday – gifts for my husband that had gone on a deep discount. In combination with reward points I was able to get some great deals.
In other news… we have a massive auto repair bill on my husband’s car, which is frustrating because it was literally fine a week ago. We are able to cover it, and I am thankful for that, but it is just amazing to me how quickly a car can go from “everything’s great” to “12 or so major failures.” It is only 6 years old with less than 50K miles and we keep up maintenance religiously, but naturally it is out of warranty – except for one of the components, which has a manufacturer extended warranty. We plan to get the repairs done and then sell or trade it, as we are concerned about longevity and future expensive repairs. In the meantime, my vehicle is in good shape and the dealership gave us a loaner, so the inconvenience at least isn’t bad.
Looking to 2026 and ahead, we are really working to tighten the purse strings by cutting back on some things that we realize are money wasters for us. Off the top of my head – estate/garage sale shopping unless there is something we truly need, eating out – we eat out maybe 1-2x/week and usually when we’ve had rough days at work, but it can be very costly and usually not as good as homecooked! We’ve decided when we really want to “eat out” we’ll compromise with something less expensive but still convenient, like a Costco rotisserie chicken. We are dedicated to working through our stock of things at home such as health/beauty before we purchase more. This year we ran into several incredible sales (75-90% off or better) on items we regularly use, and were able to really build up our pantry stock, but now we need to work through the stock. I am hoping to do a “makeup/skincare no buy/low buy” for 2026. We plan to continue to seek out more free activities for weekends. I continue to color my own hair and do my nails at home. We continue to do most of our usual things – shop sales & secondhand, cook and eat at home as much as possible, etc. We donated several bags of instant mashed potatoes for a Thanksgiving meal drive at church. I purchased a book from Amazon and had it shipped to someone on my local freecycle group who needed a copy for her granddaughter’s school project, but could not afford one or find one locally.
Congratulations to Ellie’s Friend & Tammy on the weight loss! I have lost 35 lbs since July and it is a wonderful feeling.
I hope everyone has a wonderful week.
Life just keeps me traveling on the road of struggles. Just like clockwork on Thanksgiving ,my car rolled over on its back and cried. The best I can tell ,the starter went out , but heck , I’m just a girl. I used my handy dandy roadside service to tow me home. I had to wait 5 hours. I told my insurance company that I wouldn’t recommend them for anything. I’ve used them 3 times this year and all 3 times there were excessive waits. I expect better from USAA. They emailed me a 50 dollar gift card and I promptly used it towards a bag of dogfood for my needy allergy ridden dog. I’m on about my second set of bad things happening in threes. My mechanic and backup mechanic have all been away for an extended holiday. I finally was able to get my car towed to the mechanic with my insurance company. I’m sure that easily saved me at least a hundred dollars. I had to borrow my middle daughter’s car to take sugar cookie across the state line to meet up with her other family members for her annual holiday visit. Like a real dummy , I left my cellphone at the truck stop. The next day , I had to make a second 6 hour round trip to fetch my phone. The weather here is about the same temperature as it usual is every winter. For some reason , the weather seems cold and sharper. I have the heat off as usual and hope we can continue with it off. My bright spot is I’m leaving on a cruise in two days. This was bought 9 months ago when savings and finances were stable and plentiful. I paid 300.00 for a 7 day and 50.00 for a round trip plane ticket. I’m excited for this trip. It has rained for weeks and dark and gloomy. My Black Friday shopping was limited to a few cheap streaming services. I did pick up the CVS care pass for half off. It’s $24.00 for a year and a great deal. The $10.00 ECB monthly rewards and random gifted ecbs make this a great deal. If you learn to roll the rewards you can have quite a plentiful year. Last year , I easily brought home $500 worth of goods doing this. Meanwhile the sunshine is calling me.
Beautiful photos. Have been saving seeds from the garden for next year. 2 weeks ago bought 12 pansy plants for £1, after a bit of TLC they look amazing and have filled 2 hanging baskets.
Bought some baby clothes with 50% off in the sales, we are blessed to be expecting our first grandchild next June. Also bought wool at Aldi for a really good price, so have started knitting a baby cardigan. Washed baby blankets and quilts and line dried them, all ironed and sealed in bags for use next year.
Almost finished Christmas shopping, have been collecting gifts since last January. A notebook of who I’ve bought for keeps me on track with gift buying.
So nice to see you back Brandy. Also enjoying going over your old posts for ideas.
It feels like it has been weeks since Thanksgiving instead of just over a week. In that week, I have completed my Christmas shopping. My goal was to come in under my usual budget which I’ve had for years. I did by about $200 which is not to be sneezed at. Our family is larger than it was, yet I’ve had the same budget for about 5 years. I’m actually closer to the budget we had 7 years ago when our family included less people! I did all of my shopping with only a vague idea of what I meant to get and am happy that I stumbled upon so many affordable and good things over the whole Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend of sales. I officially finished shopping on Thursday, so did nearly all of it in less than a week (aside from a two packages delivered just before our vacation in November.
For the family out of state, I had their gifts shipped directly to them and let the women of the family know they were coming and what was meant for each family member. I do have one family’s gifts to send via UPS but they are light gifts and hopefully will be inexpensive to mail the one box. We shall see.
I am wrapping gifts early this year. I have always waited until the last minute which gives me no time to enjoy the pretty packages. This year, my gift to me is starting right out wrapping them, piling them under the tree and enjoying them. I do not buy ribbons or bows. I make my own from contrasting wrapping paper. No upsets if bows get crushed. Just replace them! I always felt that ribbons and bows were one of the silly expenses especially the cheap sort that I always bought. I could never keep leftovers nice for the next year no matter how nicely stored they were. This way I never have waste.
I have decorated my tree and house using what we have. Years ago, I felt it would be worthwhile to buy ornaments I liked regardless of color. I have used them year after year, and no tree is ever the same color theme. This year it is blue, white and silver. I bought wrapping paper and cards to send out at Dollar Tree. The paper is blue and silver as well. I am quite happy with it all.
We’ve had a week of rainy and cool weather. We have kept a pot of water simmering on the stove and put on socks and clothes (looking at my husband who thinks he should wear shorts year round) and we have kept warm enough with the heat turned a little lower.
We have discovered we will need a further repair to our car above the extra parts required to fix the original problem. This one too is not exactly cheap, likely going to run around $500 for the part alone. All I can do is tighten things up, so we’ve spent a full week eating from the pantry and freezer and will next week as well. I can’t say we’re eating poorly! We’ve had Chicken and Dumplings, a simple dish called Cowboy Stew (hamburger and beans), Chicken Enchiladas, etc. Many things were already made and then frozen as a repeat for later, so it was a super easy week as well.
Probably my biggest savings this week was NOT going to the grocery. I shall go in this coming week since I’m nearly out of half and half for my coffee. That’s my one indulgence.
I started making Christmas cookies. I went through and looked at my recipes and determined which I was going to make and which were maybes. For all but two recipes I had all I needed on hand already, courtesy pantry and freezer. I did buy white chocolate chips and made the copy cat Starbucks Cranberry Bliss Bars. I cut them smaller than Starbucks bars so they are more three bite cookies. I get about 30 bars from my pan. Figure that at the $5 each Starbucks charges! I paid about $4 for the bag of white chocolate chips and everything else I had on hand, bought on sale.
All in all, it’s been a good week, not a cheap one but I feel money was well spent and I’m pleased with the savings I made.
Soooo glad to have your blog back up and running!
I had my laptop screen crack — and since it was a touch screen, that meant my cursor would go flying all over at the slightest touch. I could not access my usual work (I was behind), but did get a baby quilt restoration done that I’ve literally been working on for years. Husband has been passing the old files on to the new — TWO WEEKS WORK. I finally got access to some of the appraisal reports tonight, thank God.
Brandy, would you consider doing a family update? Has Winter had another baby? Is your husband still working in other states? (Including Colorado.) Do you have another kiddo heading to college — and have your boys graduated yet? This would be so interesting to those of us who have watched your kids grow up via the blog.
My husband and children have requested to control their own social media, so I won’t be posting updates, except to say that my second is graduating with his bachelor’s degree next week!