Frugal Friday File 2022, week 17...

 

1.  Carey has begun painting the house exterior.  The paint is not cheap, but I can't even begin to guess how much more it would cost to hire it out.  Any job, big or small, Carey is a whiz to have around!

2.  I have been pretty successful at taking my lunch to work with me the past couple of weeks.  Cheaper, yes.  But also it means I have more time to read since there is no driving time required.  Which, bonus, means I'm also not using as much gasoline.  :)

3.  Free shipping this week on the meal subscription.  Yay!

4.  No impulse purchases this week.  I have some things in my Amazon cart, but they are pretty much necessities that have been in there for at least a week waiting for a dire need to hit the buy button and get them on their way.

5.  Taking a mental health day today, and a mini getaway.  Today we are driving to the coast just to get out of the house and away from the office.  As 'vacations' go, it will be very frugal.

What I'm Reading Wednesday...

 I must have missed posting WIRW for a week, because I have three finishes.

A Room Full of Bones (#4 of the Ruth Galloway Mysteries) by Elly Griffiths

A Dying Fall (#5 of the Ruth Galloway Mysteries) by Ellie Griffiths

The Rosie Effect by Graeme Simsion

This last one (above) was an audio book checked out from the library, which I listened to while I made a big batch of stamped cards last weekend.  I loved its predecessor The Rosie Project.  The Rosie Effect was very enjoyable as well.

And currently I am on...

Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris

This (above) is also an audiobook checked out from the library.  I had to break down and check out a couple of audiobooks so that I could get something done besides just reading.  I am listening to this one currently while I'm doing otherwise mindless chores.  As a compilation of essays, it is easy to break it up to fit the job at hand.

And...

The Outcast Dead (#6 of the Ruth Galloway Mysteries) by Ellie Griffiths

I have never been an avid reader of series books until last year when I started reading the quilting mysteries by Mary Marks.  (I think I still have one or two of those left to finish.)  Now I am blowing through the Ruth Galloway Mysteries by Ellie Griffiths, because a) I told my friend Joan she could borrow them when I'm done, and b) I've come to really like the characters and want to know what they're up to.

Not even REMOTELY Frugal Friday File...

There was a lot of impulse purchases this week.  

What I'm reading Wednesday...

The Sentence by Louise Erdrich

I've already showed this book cover, but thought I would show it again as a reader asked for a follow up after I finished it.  I don't want to give away any spoilers, but I will say that it was not what I was expecting, and I enjoyed it a great deal.  It is very current in subject.

 

Hooked:  How Crafting Saved My Life by Sutton Foster

I'm not really big on celebrity memoirs, but this title demaned I read it.  I read practically straight through it this past weekend.  It felt very honest regarding her family's disfunction and mental health.  

The House at Sea's End by Elly Griffiths

Now with those two library books completed, I can get back to the Dr. Ruth Galloway mystery series.  This one is the third in the series.  

Frugal Friday File 2022, week 14...

 

1.  Our meal subscription service offered free shipping again this week saving me $17.

2.  Having great luck seeing new books on Amazon, checking the library instead of buying, they actually have it, and I'm first in line to reserve!

3.  My car is still running beautifully after the accident with no repair necessary (knock on wood).  No, the tow truck to get it unstuck wasn't really a bargain, but repairs and a rental car could have been a lot worse.  Carey gave it a thorough once over, so we are feeling optimistic that we got off light.  (Carey says, "What's this we s&%t?")

4.  I gifted two Corning pie plates to Kasey (back from the days when I used to bake lots of pies at a time for church suppers etc.)  She was baking chicken pot pie, and sharing my extras was a simple thing when she feeds us every single Sunday.

5.  I am SO looking forward to the weekend.  Just to stay home and read my library books...aahhhhh!

The Sentence by Louise Erdrich

 A bookstore is haunted by the ghost of its most annoying customer.

I had trouble with the start of the book, but I have enjoyed this author in the past, so I persevered.  It seems a teeny bit autobiographical.  The bookstore in the novel is in Minneapolis and specializes in indigenous books and authors; the author owns a bookstore in Minneapolis that specializes in indigenous books and authors.

I'm not very far into it yet, but looking forward to more time to spend with it.

I'm an April fool...

Friday.  April 1, 2022.  12:28 p.m. CDT.  

I was on my lunch hour.  I ran by the library to pick up a book I had reserved.  I have entered and exited the library hundreds of times.  But this time as I was exiting I looked away for just a second.  My front passenger-side tire hit the curb and went over, and my undercarriage high centered on the curb.  You may or may not be able to tell from the photo that the driveway has a fairly steep angle of descent.

I was stuck but good!  I phoned Carey, and proceeded to wait.  

The library is a busy place, as is the Home Depot store whose driveway sits directly opposite the library drive.  Every single person entering and exiting the library rolled down their window to inquire if I needed assistance, as did numerous Home Depot customers.  The first fourteen times were very welcome.  The next twenty-two times were pretty embarrassing.  But the last hundred and thirteen times were just downright humiliating.  

Once Carey arrived and looked over the situation, we called AAA to ask for a tow truck.  Several hours and multiple calls later, I told them I would be calling for my own tow truck and submitting the bill for reimbursement.  Finally a tow-truck arrived, and the driver and Carey were able to fairly quickly get all four tires back on the ground, and after a quick once over I was amazingly able to drive it home!  All told, we were there for around five hours.  I never did make it back to work.

Carey gave it a closer examination once we were home, and he said that aside from a few small scratches to the under carriage, everything looked fine.

I am amazed and SO thankful!

Frugal Friday File 2022, week 13

 

1.  Sunday family dinner's dessert is so often decided by what I have on hand.  Yellow cake mix: check.  Instant vanilla pudding: check.  Eggs: check  Rum: check.  Pecans: check.  Butter, oil, water: check, check, check.  I didn't have quite enough rum, and I had a hardened bag of brown sugar that needed using up, so I subbed the glaze a bit. Turned out really yummy.

2.  Carey is painting the house trim, and rain gutters.  Then he will reinstall the gutters, which he took down before the new roof was put on.  He will paint the exterior walls as well eventually; that may have to wait for fall temperatures, however.  I'm just so thankful that he is willing and able to do these kinds of jobs that are expensive when hired out.

3.  I had accumulated enough 'points' to use for $10 off of next week's meal subscription order.

4.  I just finished a book that I really enjoyed:  The Crossing Places by Ellie Griffiths.  It's about a professor in forensic archaeology in a fictional English town who assists local police with a found skeleton.  It is the first in a series called The Ruth Galloway Mysteries, and I checked out the ebook from the library.  Unfortunately, it was the only one of the series the library had.  The subsequent books in the series are a little pricey as Kindle ebooks, and they are pricier still in paperback...I checked on Amazon and Ebay.  But then I realized that the boxed set of the first 10 books in the series broke down to less than buying them individually as either print or ebooks.  There are 14 books in the series.  As I work my way through the boxed set, I will watch (and keep my fingers crossed) for the last books at special 'deal' prices.

5.  And that's about it for frugality as it just didn't seem to be the priority this week.  We travelled to our hometown for a family funeral.  I sent flowers for the funeral and for my mother-in-law's birthday.  I've been eating lunch out entirely too often.