Five Frugal Things -- Electricity Rebates & Ceramic Turkeys
1. I made a great big batch of chana masala, this time adding a ton of spinach right at the end. (Which inevitably shrunk down to "never enough spinach!") Extra frugal since I cooked the garbanzo beans from scratch. It scratched that restaurant food craving without paying restaurant prices.
I'd share the recipe, except that it really was a little of this, a little of that. Essentially garbanzo beans, crushed tomatoes, coconut milk, curry powder, Thai red curry paste, cumin, paprika, cinnamon, salt, white pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, sriracha, chili pepper flakes, soy sauce, oyster sauce spinach and sautéed onions. This might sound like a muddying of flavors, but it's flavorful in the best way.
2. I got a notification that the electric company was offering rebates during a certain three-hour time period, so I turned off a couple devices and earned a 44¢ rebate.
So yes, I recently came into some money!
3. I think that listing so many pieces for the Goodwill Gift Card Challenge is helping my otherwise stale inventory find buyers. I've recently sold three (four?) things on eBay that had been listed for over a year. Not huge sales, but it adds up. I've always heard the rumor that eBay elevates listings when you list on a daily basis and I'm seeing this to be true.
Good to know.
4. My husband and I continue to have fun planning our trip down to Albuquerque later this year. We'll do a Santa Fe day, so I've added it to my research. We both went to the University of New Mexico, so we're already familiar with the area. However, much has changed. There's no longer a stuck-in-time Woolworth's on The Plaza to get Frito pie, but I saw there there's a place called Five and Dime General Store that still serves this local speciality, so we'll definitely hit it up!
I also saw that the state capitol has an impressive art collection, which of course is free to view. They even have free scheduled tours, which would be fun. Much more budget friendly than the $22 it costs to buy a ticket for the Georgia O'Keefe museum.
Although I haven't been to my own state capitol building since a school field trip in 1977, I loved exploring the Nebraska capitol building a few year's back, especially the ornate mosaic floors.
5. My husband glued a broken turkey head back onto a ceramic piece of artwork. His mother collected pottery and this Peruvian piece moved into his teenage home after a trip to Arizona. We still have an overwhelming amount of artwork and general stuff to go through from his parents' estate, but at least we got this piece back to whatever is the opposite of "beheaded."
Reheaded?!
It's very charming.
"Reheaded"! I love it. I think Louis and Antoinette would've loved it too.
1. Hotdogs and scratch Boston Baked Beans are on the menu for tonight's dinner. The beans are leftover from Christmas Eve. They freeze nicely.
2. Pulling the shades down and drawing the curtains closed at night to help keep out the extreme cold. My thermostat gets turned to 60 degrees before we go to bed.
3. DH is back to shoveling our driveway after the guy I hired to do it was a no-show. The snowstorm we're getting Sunday into Monday is predicted to drop light, fluffy snow although a lot of it, so I hope DH won't find it hard to do. I have a medical issue which prevents me from heavy lifting so sadly he's on his own with shoveling.
4. I met a friend at the library for a talk on ice harvesting on ponds and lakes in New England before refrigeration. Excellent talk from a well informed speaker and informative slides to go with it.
5. I'm making a boiled dinner for tomorrow during the Patriots game. Kielbasa and cabbage. Tempted to get take out pizza but I have all the fixings for a full meal already. Mom was right...we DO have food at home.
Stay safe and warm everyone who is in the storm's path.
That mosaic floor is beautiful.
1. Repaired a blanket at our Airbnb using my travel sewing kit.
2. Watched all of the Blue Zones episodes via our basic Netflix subscription.
3. Finished another free puzzle.
4. Read a book from the Little Free Library and returned it when I was done. Highly recommend Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult.
5. Picked up three more books from the Little Free Library. All light reads; I can't take anything heavy right now, maybe ever.
1. Purchased discounted tickets at our local community theater for the musical Come From Away. Normal price is $60 but they offer a limited number of $10 tickets for each performance.
2. We purchased life insurance for me eleventy billion years ago when I was a stay at home mom with small amounts for our kids. My husband updated the policy now that my kids are all grown and we no longer need to pay the premium for them.
3. My husband has a season ski pass at a local ski resort that includes kids under 6 ski for free - only Monday through Thursday. We packed a picnic lunch and snacks and took our grandson on his Monday off school. My grandson loved it and I did, too. I don't ski anymore but took my library book and had an afternoon of reading.
4. I did a pantry clean out after all our houseguests from the holidays left. Anything that they had purchased and we wouldn't eat I listed on my Buy Nothing group.
5. We celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary over the holidays and I was delighted that all 3 of our kids could be here - one who lives next door, one in New York and one in Australia. An added bonus was a little get together that they threw for us - sandwiches, cookies, a veggie tray, and champagne to toast. It was absolutely perfect.