2025 Frugal Friday File, July 18...

 

1.  I came across two puzzles from when the grandkids were little that I thought I could donate to the library if all the pieces were in their boxes.  One was less than 50 pieces, and featured Elsa and Olaf from Frozen.  I put it together, and it was missing one piece.  :(  The other was a round puzzle with 101 pieces and was an image of a U.S. penny.  I started putting it together and found all the edge pieces.  When Carey came in, he finished putting it together, and all the pieces were there.  As he was dissassembling the puzzle and putting the pieces back in the box, he turns to me and says, "You know, it would have been a lot quicker to just count the pieces instead of putting them together."  Head slap moment!  

    Oh well, the one with all the pieces can be donated to the library now.  LOL

2.  I did a rough inventory of the chest freezer.  I had a sale turkey from 2024 holiday season in there taking up a good portion of the space.  I decided to bite the bullet and roast it and use the FoodSaver to prepare small, usable amounts of the meat, and freeze them ready to use  for casseroles and salads and sandwiches.  

     Additionally there is 20 pounds of flour in the freezer, along with several packages of bacon,  sausages, a couple of large bags of pecans from Costco, various bags of frozen vegetables, and three Dreamsicles.  

      In my opinion upright freezers are much more efficient to organize and access, and the most useful thing about a chest freezer would be a scenario where you might have a dead body that need's hiding. I would dearly love to have an upright freezer, but as long as this one does the job it can stay. 

3.  Grocery total this month is lower than expected.  I'm not sure why, but I've been a little creative in cooking with what we have.  Mostly because I don't want to go out into the heat to restock.  

4.  Frugal fail: Carey took the new car in to get an estimate on replacing the passenger side external rearview mirror.  Wish I didn't have to claim responsibility for that one...it was sheared off by the menu board/speaker while I was backing out of a Sonic parking spot.  $1,200+.

5.  Frugal fail: I caved and resubscribed to Audible.  I have projects to do, but I need to be reading!  I checked the library for the audio book, but I was something like 21 on the waiting list.  :(  Now if I can just find my earbuds.  Found 'em!  :)

On the menu this week:

Saturday:  Family supper at Kasey & Beau's

Sunday:  BLTs

Monday:  Quiche (red onion, bell pepper, broccoli, cheddar & parm)

Tuesday:  leftovers

Wednesday:  Turkey Penne Casserole

Thursday:  out for Tex-Mex

Friday:  leftovers