Sunday, March 17, 2024
Happy St. Patrick's Day...
Friday, March 15, 2024
2024 Frugal Friday File, March 15...
1. We made our monthly (approximately) pilgrimage to the recycling center. Not a hugely exciting trip, but we always stop for ice cream on the way home. Yesterday we took Rudy with us. He had so much fun with the trip in the truck AND licking the ice cream cups. Can we count this for date night? :)
2. We've been working on the coffee table. I didn't get around to starting the faux painting technique until yesterday, and since the humidity is rising with spring, I left it to dry overnight. Today we will decide about another step to add what we used to call 'antiquing' back in the day. Really just trying to get close to the other wood tones in the room. I'll show the process and end result in a post soon,
3. I haven't made a grocery order in a month! We have been eating out more than usual, as we've been pretty busy, so it was kind of necessary. Even so, our grocery/meals-out total so far is pretty low. When I do have time to cook, I've been able to pull meal ingredients together from pantry and fridge. Carey has done small grocery shops for just bread, milk, etc.
4. Jared was on vacation this week, and chose to stay-cation and catch up on car maintenance that has been somewhat put off to get through their busy season at work. Carey helps/advises as asked. I'm so impressed with what Jared can do on his own. He never seemed terribly interested in it when he was younger, but has grown really adept.
5. Beau called Carey about dark one evening this week when their electronic gate opener went on the fritz. He is very able to fix things around the house on his own, but being that it was so late, and he would have kids trying to get through the gate as they came home, he needed another pair of hands. I love that the 'boys' feel free to ask Carey for help, and I know he does too.
#4 and #5 aren't really frugal wins for us this week per se, except that it is so nice to have a little tribe of knowledgeable handymen in the family and all close by. They can truly get things done!
On the menu this week:
Saturday: leftovers
Sunday: Sunday family supper at Kasey and Beau's
Monday: out for Chinese food
Tuesday: Tuna Sandwiches
Wednesday: Sausage w/ Rice, onion, bell pepper
Thursday: Pasta Alfredo w/ Chicken
Friday: leftovers?
**designates meatless meal
Tuesday, March 12, 2024
Highs and Lows...
This has ticked lots of boxes from my to-do list, and jobs that would have taken me weeks have been done in a long weekend thanks to young muscles, joints, and energy! Now Caitlyn is off to the beach for a few days. She has promised to come back for one more day of cleaning before she heads back to school. Now that the hard jobs of ladder climbing and floor-level deep cleaning are done, my job is to get as much done as I can in the next few days to ready more projects that she can help me with.
I'm a lucky grandma. I miss them being little, but I'm reaping the rewards of them being grown!
Friday, March 8, 2024
2024 Frugal Friday File, March 8...
1. Today makes five days I've worked this week. Money in. And it was HARD! :)
2. I finished my library ebook, and picked up a just-out book (Hero) by a favorite author (Thomas Perry). Man I love that the library sends out notices of new arrivals now, I can jump on the reserve list like a bird on a cricket! This is about the 4th book in the last couple of months where I've been its very first reader at our library.
3. I saw an Instagram post at lunch yesterday that said if you want to lose $10,000 all you have to do is mindlessly spend $27.40 a day for the next year. I did the math; it actually does total $10,001. Now, I don't spend $27 a day every single day, but I am guilty of this more often than I want to think about. It's so easy to do.
I bought several houseplants in the past week that we could have lived without. On the other hand, I've had zero houseplants since I left the two I've been caring for over the past four years at the office when I left. So I've gone quite awhile without replacing those...and they will improve our inside air quality at least a little...and they are aesthetically pleasing. See how I can justify?
Guilty of buying meals out when we have groceries at home, though we're doing a lot better than pre-retirement. And I can definitely cave on impulse craft supply purchases that I really, really need want.
Heck I have filled my Amazon cart with half a dozen items over the past couple of days totaling $128. After I started thinking about it, I realized we do need some of the items. I deleted two items after checking supply closet and found virtually the exact items, only nicer, that have never been used. I deleted another item when I got realistic about why I wanted it. That brought the total down to $101. I remembered that I had a $50 gift card that I had left from cashing in credit card rewards points late last year. So with tax it came to $59 out of pocket. At least now I'm sure it wasn't mindless or duplicate spending.
4. Carey has been working on our coffee table. It is a very sentimental piece that I wrote about here back in 2010. (The preceding sentence is a link that you can click on if you are interested in reading about what is so sentimental about the coffee table.) Its yellow pine color doesn't coordinate well with the new living room, so I was about ready to donate it...until Caitlyn asked, "Does this mean I won't get surprises in my drawer any more?!" She's almost 20, but that's all it took.
So Carey has now sanded the entire thing, drawers and all. We bought three different colors of stain (one at a time), and it just didn't take any of them well. So he sanded again. Now we are trying a paint and faux finish. (He's painted this week, I will try to do the faux finish in the next few days now that the work week is almost over. Those stain rejects got expensive, but I will donate them (barely used) at the nearest Re-Store. Fingers are crossed that the project will turn out well in the end. Not exactly a frugal win, but cheaper than buying a new coffee table, and its special-ness is priceless...at least to me.
5. I'm writing this on Thursday night, and it is getting late, and I have to work in the morning. So I'm going to keep the list at four this week.
On the menu this week:
Saturday: dinner out
Sunday: Sunday supper at Kasey and Beau's
Monday: subscription meal that has been languishing in the freezer
Tuesday: homecooked meal from the freezer - Jambalaya
Wednesday: takeout Barbecue Baked Potatoes with Brisket
Thursday: homecooked meal from the freezer - Beef Stew
Friday: out for favorite Tex-Mex
**designates meatless meal
Wednesday, March 6, 2024
What I'm reading Wednesday...
Monday, March 4, 2024
On kitchen windows...
Friday, March 1, 2024
2024 Frugal Friday File, March 1...
2. The credit card that we use solely for groceries and meals out is doing its job of making me more aware of what we spend for meals each month. This month it totaled $690, which seems high to me. But I Googled "monthly grocery spending for 2 person household", and it seems our spending falls between the low-cost and moderate-cost average grocery spend for those search parameters.
I was expecting a slightly higher spend this month, since we were out of town, and thus ate out, for several days, so I'm not going to worry about it too much. But seeing that total makes me long to do better.
3. I finished all my library books and returned them.
4. I made a list by room of all the tasks I would like to accomplish in the coming months. I can't do a marathon clean in a day or two like I used to. But making this list is a way I can stay on task, and hopefully avoid having to pay someone to help me.
5. The electric bill came, and after last month's I was a little afraid to open it. Whew! This month's was almost half of what last month's was!
On the menu this week:
Saturday: Lentil Soup w/ Cornbread
**Sunday: Sunday supper at Kasey & Beau's
Monday: Tamale Casserole
Tuesday: takeout Schlotzky sandwiches
Wednesday: Spaghetti Pie
Thursday: leftovers
Friday: Spanish Rice
**designates meatless meal