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My father’s sweet dog Buddy passed away last week and everyone is understandably sad. I went ahead and printed a nice photo of the family with Buddy and placed it in a curb picked frame for him. The total cost was 39¢ for a Walgreen’s print.
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I sprayed out and repaired my yard debris wheelie bin, which was both revolting and deeply satisfying. The lid was a repeat repair, but I’m happy to do the work if it keeps it in circulation and out of the landfill.
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Tonight’s dinner was what we jokingly call “after school snack for dinner.” Think carrot sticks, hummus, crackers and cheese. We did add a salad a couple hours later, but a frugal affair either way.
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My sister and I have been watching episodes of Buffy The Vampire Slayer through her Hulu account.
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I have zero-point-zero plans to buy anything from Amazon during Prime Day, or really any other day. Morally bankrupt billionaires don’t deserve a penny from me.
Five Tiny Frugal Things
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Hit Goodwill on Sunday half off color day, I found heavier hand weights for $1.49 for 2.
Goodwill puzzle prices often puzzle me. Some are 1.99, others 4.99. Looking at them I do not see why there is a difference, a new unopened was 1.99 while a beat up box one was 4.99. Anyway I bought 2 puzzles for 3.99. For that price I won’t care if there are missing pieces. These will get passed on to my fellow puzzle peeps if intact.
My puzzle peeps shared puzzles, I will put them back into rotation once I do them.
Mosquitos are horrible here. As part of our taxes we get sprayed at no cost as part of our tax base. They sprayed and it was marginally better.
Several meetings at work resulted in free lunch so yay!
Hubs is going to retire so he put in early for his free work phone. This should keep us with a spare and be good for the next couple of years.
1) Skies are overcast, but it is starting to brighten up. Forecast for rain this afternoon. One load of laundry on the line and one more to go. Praying it gets dry and I can get it in before the rain starts.
2) Have an appointment with my psychologist at 11. Will pick up a can of cream of mushroom soup, a package of flour tortillas, and any prescriptions ready for pick up while I’m out. Will also stop at our mailbox and pick up yesterday’s mail. Mailbox is down the road far enough we have to drive. Wasn’t wasting gas just to go to the mailbox. Also have to put a letter in the mailbox to go out today.
3) A friend of ours went through cancer treatment and is cancer free; however, before he can return to work, he has to get all of his childhood immunizations again. He’s had 2 rounds, and one round to go. He has to go to Philadelphia (where his cancer treatment was done), which is about 4 hours away and has to stay for several days. His wife normally goes with him and my husband babysits their dog at their house while I keep things going at our house. Anyway, wife and dog have doctor/vet appointments during that time and can’t go. DH is going to Philly with the husband and I am staying with the wife. She is currently having some mobility issues and can’t really take care of herself right now. I will be rummaging through the freezer/pantry to see what I can fix for meals while the boys are gone. I don’t like cooking in someone else’s kitchen, so I want things that can either be baked, nuked, or eaten cold. I’ll go to their house after church the Sunday before so I can pick up the necessary baking dishes I will need so I can haul them back with food in them and won’t have to bring mine back home.
4) Is it me or does your nose run every time you eat/drink as you get older? Using 1,000 sheet toilet paper for tissues. Ultimately cheaper than buying tissues. My dad, my mom, and, early in our marriage – my husband, used handkerchiefs; however, my gag reflex will NOT allow me to wash those.
5) Other than my appointment and the laundry, today is dedicated to filing and putting stuff away in the spare room. It currently looks like a bomb in there. You would think that after 23 years of secretarial work, filing would be kept up to date – it’s my WORST skill.
Living in a rural area, I am jealous of all your curb pick opportunities.
I also dislike cooking in someone else’s kitchen, and yes, my nose runs when I eat. My sister says the same thing.
Your #3 is a testament to what friends can do for each other. I love that you have figured out how to ‘cook’ in another kitchen without driving yourself mad, and how kind of your husband to go on the road trip (and of you to help out your friend, and dog).
Smart idea to pick up your friend’s baking dishes!
The flooring installers finished yesterday, and my hallway and computer room (wood-look)LVP floors look like the real thing! And it’s a close enough match to the LVP (on final clearance, $1.99 a sq. ft.) installed in the living/dining room by Lowe’s. But the new install used commercial-grade planks and I used a 15% off coupon, making it even cheaper ($1.66 a sq. ft.)
1. To save $, I had them keep the existing carpet in the closet floors. Since no one walks in the closets, the carpet held up these past 15 years and still looks new.
2. Got them to put some new door handles on the hallway closet doors, which are bifold doors. These were non-working door handles purchased for $3 each from Habitat ReStore. Brand new, still in the pkg. They look fantastic, and I will go buy more for the other bifold closet doors throughout the house. Thank you, ReStore!
3. Frugal fail: these guys don’t speak much English and didn’t understand me when I said to please keep the hallway carpet, I want to reuse it and make it into floor mats. They threw everything away and the trashmen got there before I could rescue the rugs. (“Carpet” was actually a lot of Walmart throw rugs fastened together. I loved the pattern! Too bad…)
4. Was able to pull some leftover LVP planks out of the trash. Workers thought I was crazy. But, hey, that’s how I got the mini-bathroom refloored (using the leftover planks from Lowe’s).
5. Bookshelves going into the computer room were purchased from Aldi. Frugal surprise: the “greige” shelf colors pick up the light tan colors of the LVP. They look enough like the floor coloring to look like it was planned that way.
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Note: Please notice how many things in this big overhaul I purchased from Amazon: zero. Not one red cent! And even during Prime Days, that’s the same amount I plan to spend, not buying from Bezos. Ever. Like Sen. Warren says, if he can afford to rent Venice for his (tacky over-the-top) wedding, he can afford to pay his fair share of taxes. But he got off scot-free from paying his rightful share of taxes. I believe that if he did, we wouldn’t have to gut Medicaid, ruin rural hospitals and take away SNAP (food stamps) from the poor. C’mon, Jeff, pony up and help out needy Americans! Ditto, the other billionaires.
Feeling kind of disheartened. I cannot seeem to get it through my cleaners’ heads that they are NOT TO THROW OUT ANYTHING WITHOUT ASKING ME. I always get the “it was old” excuse. IT WAS AN ANTIQUE FFS. A really nice nautical chart map fell off the wall in the cottage (because the org lady insists on goddamn Command Hooks to hang pictures WHICH DON’T WORK). The frame broke a little so I put it all aside for me to fix. NOPE! It’s gone now.
Latest: one of the original map shade from my 1940s buoy lights is just….gone. Did it fall off and being “old,” the cleaning ladies tossed it. I am so damn annoyed because I adore the two lamps and they’re $$$. SIGH.
https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/awesome-vintage-1940s-way-bell-buoy-1854777637
Like this but mine had the original map shade. Put a small red bulb in the upper fresnel lens and a regular bulb below. You can choose whether to illuminate the fresnel bulb or not, because it will blink red adorably. GRRR.
And every time I tell people that, they just give me this dumb look. What is so hard about it? DON’T THROW MY THINGS OUT.
Sounds like it’s time to seek another cleaning service.
I have encountered this over and over. Sigh. They do always show up on time and do a good job cleaning the place. Not exaggerating when I think those two things are among the most important when it comes to Airbnb rentals.
That is not at all normal for a cleaning service. Is there any chance they were instructed by the organizer to get rid of broken items? Is there a place to put broken items and a process for non-English speaking employees to notify you?
Maybe if you filed charges against the errant cleaning employee/company, they’d start following your orders. If the cops won’t let you file charges, maybe consider suing the moron who threw away your belongings. Antiques are not just old, they are valuable.
@Rose, maybe if you actually had them sign a paper that they have to read to you first, that says something like
“I understand clearly that nothing is to be thrown away without consulting Rose, including but not limited to things that I think are broken/trash/not worth keeping.
optional [I understand that I will be charged / docked the value of any item that I discard without consulting.]
I now am very aware that Rose has items that are of great value to her and I will respect her when she requests that I not discard them.
I understand that I might not recognize the value of something in Rose’s house, however I will no longer make assumptions and will not discard anything even if it seems broken or I judge it to be trash.
I acknowledge that this is Rose’s house, and of course Rose will always be the one who will decide when and if things anything should be discarded.
I loathe Amazon and while I have said that multiple times, I am disgusted with the wedding extravaganza. Yes, folks have a right to spend their money as they wish, BUT, Nomadland turned me off the Bozo Amazon train. He made that money off the 12 hours days of hard work of old folks with no insurance, no retirement, and living in company supported rv parks, that were just a copycat of 1930’s company towns, where folks lived in company houses and bought from the jacked up prices of goods at the company store. How older folks were treated during the Great Recession by Amazon still makes me mad.
I used to ask for advances on my 25c a week allowance sometimes. When I lamented I had no money left, my mom would sing
You load sixteen tons, what do you get?
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter, don’t you call me, ’cause I can’t go
I owe my soul to the company store
snort
“Work your fingers to the bone. What do you get? Bony fingers!”
my favorite aunt
One of our foster sons complained about how many chores he had (we worked alongside of him, he was just used to no one doing any chores in his home, so he had no problem living in filth and disorganization). When he did, the husband and I would loudly sing the entire bony fingers song and the kid would run off screaming. One day he joined in and yelled out bony fingers, at which point we knew we were making progress. (He is the same kid my husband dragged into working with him on backstage stuff in our local theater. Forward several decades and he now makes his living finding and making props for one of the small theaters on the West Coast.) Alas, the song did not work with any of the other kids placed with us.
Nomadland put the nails in the coffin of me shopping with Amazon and Bezo’s giant campaign contribution to the world’s next dictator kicked it right into the grave. I have not missed it and am able to do my shopping from eBay or in my neighborhood.
A few weeks ago I got a large postcard-style piece of advertising from Amazon pointing out how many small businesses sell through the platform. First time I have ever seen anything like that, so the boycott must be stinging a bit.
I have been sitting on a $50 Amazon gift certificate someone gifted me ages ago. I don’t know what to do with it because I haven’t shopped Amasucks in years. I briefly considered canning jars because I need another 30 or so, but they cost three times as much for the reliable brands there and I would rather give the money to my locally owned hardware store. I’ll probably eventually buy something from a carefully selected marketplace seller so at least some of the money will be routed into a small business and not just to the billionaire. Any other ideas?
1) I made a huge pasta salad using some garden veggies for dinner. There is enough leftover to serve as a side dish with tonight’s dinner.
2) Today was “culling of the overgrown and failing veggie starts” day at my part time nursery job. I saved a few big ol’ tomato plants, as well as stripping all the green tomatoes off the plants that were going into the compost. I’ll let them ripen on the counter, except for a few that will go into a green salsa.
3) I also harvested the basil plants that were about to flower before tossing them into the work composter. I brought home the tops and made a huge batch of pesto, which I froze in ice cube trays.
4) My son’s girlfriend received a notice that her license was suspended because she didn’t pay a $52 late fee on a small ticket she received and paid by mailing in a check to avoid card processing fees. She was just going to pay it, but I convinced her to pull up the canceled check on her banking app. We could clearly see it was deposited BEFORE the due date. One phone call and three transfers later, the fee was reversed and her license is valid again.
5) My wife borrowed a metal detector from our son so she could find an S-hook that had gone missing from the porch swing when it was stored behind the house over winter. She found it and the swing is operational again, thus saving us the $5 replacement cost for a new hook.
Jenny, many charities, pounds/animal rescues, teachers, etc. have Amazon wish lists to facilitate donations, and many smaller support organizations like food pantries can use Amazon cards to meet specific needs for their clients. Money still goes to Schmezos, but if you want it off your conscience, that’s one way. If you don’t feel you’re in a position to just donate it, keep in mind that many parts/repair materials are only effectively available through Amazon now, so you can hold on to it and use it over the long run.
Also, many gift cards are never used, so Schmezos keeps every dime. By actually using it, you reduce the amount of money the company keeps. And the longer you wait, the less value it has to you, and the more of the gifter’s intended value goes to them.
Thank you, Mati, charities are an excellent idea I didn’t think of. On Thursday I am taking part in a consumer panel about our local electrical co., which I thought was paid directly but apparently virtual attendees get Amazon gift cards. I may split the $150 between our local food bank and the Tennessee rescue I got my pup from last year.
Sadly, you can’t buy a different company’s gift card with an Amazon gift card! But you’re absolutely right – a lot of food pantries and other charitable organizations have “wish lists” on Amazon and that $50 could be put to good use.
Excellent reminder about charitable wishlists, Mati. Thank you!
In my area, the Future Farmers of America chapters are collecting gift cards to send to Kerr County, Texas, where that horrible and deadly flash flood occurred. Perhaps your Amazon gift card could do the most good if it went to help the flood victims down there. (The gift cards are being given to flooded- out residents who lost everything, so they can buy what they need to start over, and those folks may have also lost their vehicles. So it’ll be hard for them to go into San Antonio to go shopping.) If your local high school’s FFA is not doing this gift card collection, then please try Google-ing Kerr County’s website to see where you can send gift cards and donations.
What a wonderful suggestion. Thank you!
I love to repair, it gives such satisfaction. Well done!
1. The $15 mirror from FB marketplace turned out to be so much better in our bathroom than the set of 2 I had purchased for $150. I’ve already received the refund for the expensive set. Good save!
2. Asked for, and received, a price adjustment on an item I bought for my granddaughter’s birthday.
3. Printed free color copies at library for decor for same birthday. DIL sent me the file and I printed it for free. DIL is also borrowing mini clothespins from me for same project. DIL didn’t grow up in a frugal home but she does very well to watch their money and I’m always glad when she remembers the free things (like color copies at my library) and asks for them.
4. For free compost from the city.
5. Dropped vintage items that I couldn’t sell at the salvage yard. Didn’t get any money for them, but it saves them from the landfill and builds relationship with the salvage yard owner, which is always useful.
1. Made a huge batch of broth with saved herb and vegetable trimmings.
2. Moved money from checking account to Ally savings account to earn higher interest.
3. Got $1 off a multi pack of toothpaste at Target.
4. Received small, covered ice cube trays and new-in-package men’s underwear from Buy Nothing.
5. Redeemed a $20 email gift card on a Chewy order.
1) The staycation agenda for today is mostly free activities. We are going to a pet store (we don’t own any pets, the kids want to look at the small animals for sale), then go look at a railway crossing (son is very into trains at the moment), meet my husband at his work for lunch (not free but low cost since his company subsidizes the food sold onsite), and then a playground with a splash pad to end the day.
2) We got a new driveway a few weeks ago, it cost a lot but one small savings is my husband and I just sealed it ourselves last weekend, it wasn’t really that difficult and it looks good.
3) We’ve grown about 15 strawberries so far and 6 radishes, not bad for a not very well maintained garden!
4) Husband and I had a miscommunication and we each ended up purchasing 2 large packages of raspberries, I love raspberries but they start to mold very quickly so that was a lot to get through. I added copious amounts on my oatmeal each morning though and gave some to the kids for every snack and we made it through all 4 packs without losing any. Kind of a good problem to have given my love of raspberries.
5) I had a XL size jar of bonne maman jam that we got at Costco. The jam was good but I really wanted the jar, we finally finished the jam so now I have another nice big jar for storing things.
If you are worried about losing berries you can a) rinse them in a bowl of water to which you have added a tablespoon of vinegar – then dry thoroughly and put into the fridge. or even better b) spread them on a cookie sheet and plunk them into the freezer. once frozen pour into a baggie or a glass jar or whatever and stash in the freezer until you can use them. the cookie sheet freezing means you will be able to take one or twenty berries out rather than having a solid clump.
As for your free day with the kids it sounds AWESOME!
Same regarding Prime Day!
1. The teens asked for an electric knife sharpener. I wasn’t too keen (I usually just sharpen them on the bottom of a mug) but I do want to encourage them to cook so I relented and got a pre-loved one on Vinted. I use Vinted a lot at the moment, they still have the subsidised postage rate for the moment which is very good, most items cost just 2 Euro in postage. I guess they want to encourage people to use the app!
2. I have started to partially substitute eggs with flaxseed “egg” for baking (1 tbsp ground flaxseed meal soaked in about 2-3 tbsp water for about 5 minutes = 1 egg). E.g. the oat bread I make usually needs 4 eggs, however, now I use two real eggs and 2x flaxseed “eggs”. Much cheaper and healthier. I will try and increase the flaxseed “eggs” to 3 next.
3. I found a bottle of perfume for a fraction of the price it would cost new in the local charity shop and bought it for my daughter.
4. Tidied up a cupboard in the kitchen, threw out some ancient spices that smelled off and now have a good idea of which products need to be used up soon / replaced / not restocked for a while.
5. Solar/wind laundry drying all the way! The weather has been very good.
As a long time baker with flax eggs, replacing 2 will probably be the limit. They just don’t work as well for that many. I also used flax eggs in a meatloaf.
Thanks Casey, that’s good to know!
No Amazon Prime Day for me either. I cut the cord with Amazon two years ago, and send kudos to everyone else here who has done the same. May Bezos, Zuckerberg, Musk, various others, and You Know Who himself all roast in a special circle of the Inferno dedicated to conscienceless billionaires.
AMEN! to that, A.Marie!
@A. Marie – you know who is *not* a billionaire. The others likely so if they liquidated. But you know who would not be. There are two (legal) business that unless you are incompetent are guaranteed to make make money – banks and casinos. You know who filed bankruptcy twice on a casino. I do need to check if wifey one (Ivana) was involved in said casino. She had the business smarts, not him.
TSA IS DROPPING THE SHOE-REMOVAL POLICY AT U.S. AIRPORTS!!!!!
As most of us don’t want to make shoe bombs, or any kind of explosive, and wouldn’t know how to anyway, and it is possible that problems might be detected by other screenings, I am not too worried about safety. The news article sort of danced around the idea that TSA is not popular and shoe removal is one of the most disliked policies.
Watch the lotion – hand or otherwise. The first time my daughter ever flew was from Philadelphia to Fort Lauderdale. While she was in line, she used some hand lotion. It set things off and she got the full “TSA physical.” She was traveling with 2 cousins (1 male, 1 female) and 2 other folks. My daughter was the only minor (17), so my niece had to accompany my daughter to where my daughter was checked over. My daughter was TERRIFIED! Apparently, you can make bombs with hand lotion?
Before a flight home, I put flowers on my parents’ graves and used the little packets in the bouquets to keep them fresh longer. In hindsight, that was silly because it was summer in Florida and they’d only last as long as the water stayed in the holder. The chemicals in that packet set off the explosives touch alert and I had to undergo nearly another half hour of extra screening and waiting for someone to give me the final clearance. We finally landed on that being the culprit after a lot of discussion. Luckily I was plenty early for my flight so no issues. Lesson learned.
After school snack dinner. I love that and we do it occasionally. My husband does not think that it is dinner,and seems to think he needs more food after. I make sure to make it interesting and have enough protein, that most times he agrees that it was enough.
Not much frugal here this week. The rescue pup had to have booster shots and flea, tick and heartworm meds but that’s still cheaper than treating a sick dog. We both needed some new clothes, not frugal, but I tried Thredup so I got a 50% off coupon and my lovely husband got his work pants on sale. I was having huge guilt about new to us clothes until I realized neither of us had gotten any in over 2 years. Still, we are eating at home. Last night was a baked Mexican bean and egg dish that was amazing, using stuff we grew or had in the pantry and tonight is Khachapuri with homegrown salad, so that’s some thing. I did buy an upholstery cleaner on Amazon but it was 40% off and I had almost $20 off from accumulated points so no billionaire made a huge profit off me. So not a complete failure but not a huge success.
1. Because I spent $8 on popcorn a few days ago, I only had $12 for this week’s groceries. Not really a problem since I am pretty well stocked. I just filled in some holes — got butter, frozen peas, plain yogurt, and teriyaki sauce. I spent $11, actually, and this was an Aldi trip.
2. I found a quarter!
3. Made a frugal lunch almost like yesterday’s — bean quesadillas — the only difference is that today I added a dollop of plain yogurt on each quesadilla.
4. Walked for a half hour in the community center, my daily free exercise.
5. Continuing my slow perusal of The Tightwad Gazette. I think I will try the “create a muffin” recipe soon!
– Today is DH’s birthday, but we’re navigating the job loss, so minimal spend. It’s also still uncomfortably hot, so indoor activities it is. We’re seeing a big summer movie on the local independent theater’s $7 day, taking advantage of $7 burger week to go to a restaurant that isn’t otherwise frugal, and I have a small placeholder gift, a bluetooth meat thermometer that will help him navigate heat intolerance on long summer days over the coals, that goes with the quality splurge barbecue he wanted that will have to wait. It would replace one nearly 25 years old that will soon be unsafe, and his BBQ beats all others, saves a ton of money over takeout, stocks the freezer with convenience protein that works in many dishes, and is made in a healthier way, so a worthy investment. I will, of course, keep trolling for a gently used one.
– Eating down the pantry. I love jello and never make it, so I’m making a habit of using the plain gelatin packets that have been sitting around with the juices, frozen berries, and liqueurs we have stocked. It’s very fast, using a lidded “working glass” that’s just the right size and making it at the same time as my tea. The same mix can also go in the ice cream maker, after it cools down but before it sets, to make sorbet with less sugar than storebought.
– I’ve always done 95% of the grocery shopping/saving, and he’s looking for more chores, so I’m teaching him how it works. There have been some expensive errors, like thinking the digital coupons load automatically or buying a slightly different product, but it’s a small price to begin sharing the mental load. He’s beginning to understand the math on my major stockups and why I’m so finicky about the details to get deals and rebates. We’re keeping the variety of purchased foods minimal to reduce waste and just preparing things in different ways.
– I’m preparing to do a major eBay death pile project, same philosophy as the pantry: things have to be sold, used or passed on, period.
– Instead of buying new Lume deodorant, which is pricey but effective for me and goes a long way, I’m using AHA facial serums I already have that weren’t my favorite, most of which I thrifted or traded.
@Mati,
Lume on sale for $11.17 at Walmart. Sale ends today
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Lume-Whole-Body-Women-s-Deodorant-Smooth-Solid-Stick-Aluminum-Free-Soft-Powder-2-6oz/2290121650?classType=VARIANT&athbdg=L1800
I’d like to think everyone I do business with is a wonderful person. They are not. I’ve had people with Amazon accounts order strange car and appliance parts for me. They were cheap and worked great. I’m looking at one now.
1. I refilled the zillion year old foaming hand soap dispensers in the kitchen and bathroom. I use 1+ parts water with 1 part liquid soap refill for the foaming dispensers. I buy the large refill bottles.
2. DD cleaned out a couple boxes of stuff that was still at our house. I scored paper for printing on the back of. One more clean out session and I think she will be done.
3. I have long grain and wild rice in the Instant Pot. They both need to be used so I combined them and added a bit of Vegebase for flavor.
4. I picked a few more cherry tomatoes.
5.
I made the Rice Cooker Burrito Bowl recipe without chicken from Dollar Tree Dinners on YouTube and it is awesome. My ingredients were slightly cheaper due to shopping sales in other stores, so it came out to 61 cents per serving.
DH and I are refinishing the wood on the soffits of our house and have spent a bit less than $100 on supplies. We can do this with an extension pole, as neither of us are safe on ladders any more. It helped that our local hardware store has a sale on Cabot deck stain right now.
I was released from physical therapy today, having seen vast improvement in just six weeks due to doing the exercises at home. The hot weather means drying lots of clothes on the sun porch. The fake snake I made from old blind cord has cut way down on birdy predation of my tomato plants.
Hooray for finishing PT!
I also “graduated” from therapy today, and unexpectedly got a free t-shirt. PT has come a long long way in the last few decades.
Just got word from the vet that my rescue pup has heartworm. The treatment is far from cheap, so doubling down on my frugal ways!
1. Brought my lunch today – salad made from greens purchased from the farmer’s market and half a leftover sandwich from a friend’s birthday brunch on Sunday.
2. Didn’t renew my fitness center membership for the summer. It is easier for me to stay active with the nice weather, so skip until dance classes start again in the fall.
3. 2/3 of my work outfit is thrifted
4. Dinner tonight will be leftovers
5. Decided to not book a weekend away for my partner’s birthday next month. We’ll do a staycation weekend instead.
1. Our neighbor was getting a new roof and siding. We told her to park in our driveway. It costs us nothing to be good neighbors.
2. I garbage picked a bag of jewelry supplies and 4 picture frames(still wrapped in plastic).
3. Hubby and I did lots of yard work. It only cost our time. I am still picking lots of lettuce, spinach and basil. Raspberries are starting to pick up. Lots of baby green tomatoes.
4. I brought lunch to work. I drink water most of the day from a Britta filter. We had ice cream as an afternoon snack. My client’s daughter had asked what flavors I would eat a few weeks ago. We are trying to get her to gain some weight. She will eat if I eat.
5. Keeping the A/C at 76 on the first floor while we are at work for our dog. I put up the gate so she stays downstairs. We turn the A/C on in our room a 1/2 hour before bed and keep the door closed. When we are home the A/C goes to 72-74.
1. Made the Momeye breakfast cake with frozen cherries and it was a hit. Made the house smell so good!
2. Our grill cover had seen better days. After repeatedly “patching” it with duck tape, we re-invented it in the form of a much needed patch for our canvas umbrella bag that had a hole that wouldn’t stop growing. We will save the rest of the cover and use it to protect some outdoor items when the season is over.
3. Instead of buying items during Prime Sale days, we sent the money to an outreach helping the folks in Texas. God bless them!
4. Planted morning glory seeds that sprouted beautifully. We had some leftover bamboo skewers that we glued together to make a “trellis” so they had something to climb.
5. Stretched a head of lettuce from a local farm into 3 nights of meals. Love supporting our local farmers!
1. I’m still harvesting a few spears of asparagus a day from our patch.
2. I’m caring for a friend’s garden and harvested peas and lettuce for free.
3. I used up some wrinkly potatoes in a curry I’ll eat for days.
4. I resisted the urge to ho into a store to “just look around.”
5. I don’t buy from the smile company and have never been to Venice.