2024 Frugal Friday File, October 18...

 

1.  On Saturday I made my Easy Enchiladas Casserole using up the chili left over from Thursday.  I love planned overs, and it is frugal of budget and the cook's energy to make something 'new' from work you put in previously.  Basically I layer corn tortillas, chili, and grated cheese until I run out of tortillas and chili.  I have never had success rolling up enchiladas, so I finally gave myself permission to just layer the darn things.  It used up the leftover chili, and made a couple of individual meals to put in the freezer.  

2.  Free vaccines...one of the benefits of being this old?  

3.  Monday I paid the electric bill.  It was about $90 less than last month's bill since we've been having some lower temperatures (finally!)  Tuesday we had an area-wide power outage at 4:30 pm, with a repair estimate of over 2 hours.  Carey didn't want to wait the two hours, and then wait for me to cook IF it even came back on as estimated.  So we drove 6 miles to see if anything 'in town'  had power, but no, so we drove to the city for a meal.  There went a big chunk of the savings on last month's bill.  :(

4.  Anybody else play the New York Times games?  Granddaughter introduced me to Wordle two or three years ago (maybe four?).  Then Carey and I started playing Weaver as well.  Then granddaughter said I had to try Connections.  And the other granddaughter wanted me to play Strands.  Carey sticks to just the first two.  Me?  I stay up until midnight to do all four of the new day's puzzles.  Just the free versions.

5.  I'm on my fourth library book in as many weeks.  Still wanting to read down my Kindle books...soooo many.  I have a blog friend from way back that now is a YouTube vlogger ( youtube.com/@CarolineMrsM ) who said recently that she wasn't going to buy any new books for the rest of the year, just read what she already owns.  I'm not sure I can do that, though as I was thinking about it, I realized that I may not be able to get through the ones I already own in my lifetime.  

So for my 2025 reading challenge, I think I will pick out 14 books on my Kindle to read in the coming year.  I did this quite a few years ago with physical books from my shelves, in fact, the photo at the top of my Reading List page (link found under the photo at top of the blog home page) is of the 14 books I selected to read that year.  It was very helpful, and I was able to accomplish the goal, and then I donated all the books to our library.  You may ask why 14...because it allows a book-per-month goal, so 12, plus allows 2 alternatives in case you find yourself really disliking and not finishing any of the monthly reads.

On the menu this week:

Saturday:  Easy Enchilada Casserole, sliced avocado

Sunday:  Sunday family supper at Kasey & Beau's

Monday:  Mexican Cornbread casserole

Tuesday:  meal out due to power outage

Wednesday:  Homemade Pizza

Thursday:  pot pies

Friday:  Twice-Baked Sweet Potatoes w/ Brisket 

**designates meatless meal