Four Frugal Things -- Powell Butte & Expired Cat Food
1) I drove my sister and nephew up to Powell Butte to take full advantage of the 70 degree weather. We brought snacks (tangerines and cheese) and enjoyed a lil' hike.
I even found a disposable water bottle, which I'll return for the 10¢ deposit.
Say it with me:
"So yes, I recently came into some money!"
2) I got a $20-off-$49 Chewy coupon in the mail and although I no longer have a pet, my kids do. I know that my youngest occasionally orders from Chewy, so I texted them the code.
3) I made a huge pot of chicken soup, which I served with a green salad and bread for dinner. We've been 7-9 people for dinner each night, so it was nice to have a simple meal to prepare for one and all. It satisfyingly used up the last of some celery, carrots, onion and potatoes.
4) I curb picked some cans of cat food from a nearby neighbor, but didn't see that they're for "Urinary Care" until I got them home. I was about to list them on my Buy Nothing group, but noticed that they expired in 2019!
Stay vigilant, my frugal friends!
Now your turn, what frugal things have you been up to?
Katy Wolk-Stanley
"Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without."
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Working an extra 4 hrs this week. $$. Used our Humana rewards to get $25 and $40 Walmart gift cards. Using quarterly OTC allowance to get vitamins. Picked up free Easter lily from church
Katy, From a previous pic you shared of hubby buying coffee beans @ Costco. They are $5 off right now. I did not take note of the sale expire date.
Ooh . . . thank you!
I cooked a beef chuck roast for lunch today. The chuck roast was originally $17, but using my customer rewards card knocked it down to $14 and then the card applied the $4 in cash rewards I had accrued. The ending cost of $10 was a lot more affordable. This will feed us lunch for at least three days.
Bought the perfect pair of jeans last month at a thrift shop, but they are from 2012, according to the maker's tag, and had little sequins glued on the back pockets that made them look dated. So this morning I carefully picked all the bling off the backside. Much better!
Cleaned our neglected hall bathroom from top to bottom yesterday with a pile of rags and various cleansers from Dollar Tree. Though it stinks to high heaven, that yellow Awesome cleaner does wonders for our old bathtub and tile. (I rarely use this bathroom and the household members who do also do not clean.)
Do you dilute the yellow "LA's Totally Awesome" cleaner?
I love that you picked off the "bling," end of an era.
The most recent one I bought was pre-diluted. I still have to open the bathroom window, though. It's strong stuff.
Too bad the cat food didn't get to a cat who needed it before it expired so long ago. That stuff is expensive. I remember using it for a cat who had diabetes, and for my last cat, who had kidney disease.
Looks like a nice hike on a pretty day!
I have stayed home today, because my hip pain level has been difficult. I also had little sleep. I tried to entertain myself with Disney plus, but was asked for a code, which would be sent to my DIL. This has happened numerous times, and I hate to bother my DIL for it when she's working, so maybe it's time to admit sharing is not really working. I rarely watch DP anyway, but I did want to see the final season of The Handmaid's Tale. I hate all the rigamarole of streaming, and today I'm really missing the old days that were so much simpler.
I collected some items to list on eBay, but I'm going to tackle the actual listing on another day. Probably go back to one day at a time, which they say stimulates sales. I also looked up a lot of books to sell on Thriftbooks, but got low offers on only two, not enough to send them in.
So I took a nap and got up feeling more rested, anyway.
Yesterday in the mail I got two batches of free address labels. They don't save a lot of money, but they are convenient.
I heard some sad news from the woman who had hired me to house-sit and dog-sit next month. Her elderly dog was found to have cancer, which was causing her pain, so she made the difficult decision to have her put to sleep. I'm sad for her, and also disappointed to lose that little gig. But of course I agree, it is the best thing to do when pets are suffering. And I am somewhat relieved, because I wasn't sure I would be feeling up to the task.
Yes, it's shame that the cat food got wasted.
Sad about that woman's doggie.
I'm not sure where you're located, but my library has all seasons of The Handmaid's Tale on DVDs! It might be worth checking. We recently started using the library for TV series we didn't have streaming services for. We're trying to cut down our subscriptions to the barest minimum and it has helped a lot!
1. My cleaning lady brought me some homemade spaghetti. She is moving to a bigger apartment so I got her a bunch of big boxes for her DIY move.
2. Decluttered more books: collected some how to manuals and gave them to the thrift store that specializes in tools and DIY stuff. Now that YouTube is a thing, I don't need the books.
3. Found a wasp nest. Didn't have insecticide. Used hair spray instead. Wasps died but I suppose their hairdos looked lovely, Lol.
4. Had the handyman touch up the paint in the living room after putting the curtain rod in its proper place. Painters put one curtain rod up by ceiling and the other one down so it was just over the top of that window. They were uneven and looked weird. When moving the first one down, we discovered they didn't paint the wall under the curtain rod holders and this left big white blobs against the dark colored wall. Rod relocated, paint touched up, looks great.
5. Did not act so insane that even Marjorie Taylor Greene calls me out of control.
Hairspray for a wasp's nest? That's a bold and scary experiment!
The lawyer in the hairspray makes their wings stiff and also keeps them from breathing. We do this all the time for wasps, yellow jackets and other insects. Best to spray them at a distance.
Lacquer not lawyer. Spell checker strikes again!
I was imagining some dude in a fancy suit and hornrimmed glasses lecturing the wasps about their posture.... LOL
Hairspray, particularly Aquanet, is an excellent way to neutralize flying insects. Aerosol is the best but those of us with a quick "trigger finger" find the pump also works well. I've used it many a-times on flies.
More like 'hold and hairy', @Katy?
Cheap hairspray works really well on spiders that are on the ceiling, just spray and they fall off because it prevents them from releasing web or jumping. (I know it works because I had to get a banana spider out of a bathroom once and those suckers can jump!).
1. Took my middle school orchestra kid to a free string quartet concert at the library last night. The group are advanced music students at a local university, and they were amazing!
2. Upside had 11% cash back at Kroger, so made sure to claim the deal before I shopped today.
3. Lucked out and must have shopped at the right time of day - picked up a bunch of mark downs at great prices. Most of them were items that were in the "buy 5 get $5 off" sale, so I got an extra dollar off the discounted prices.
4. Batched my errands to save gas. Had not intended to make 3 stops after the gym, but figured I'd knock them all out today and not have to go anywhere tomorrow.
5. We have a travel trailer and spend our summers traveling around the U.S. We live 2000 miles from my hometown, and have a memorial service to attend there in June, so I am planning our summer vacation around that.
Airfare, hotel and rental car for a family of 5 is insane, and it's a rural area with few options so prices are higher. This way we have a vehicle and our hotel on wheels, and only have to buy a single round trip ticket for the college kid who has other commitments and can't travel with us.
1. Walked in my neighborhood for an hour.
2. Went grocery shopping for the week at the Pig ( (Piggly Wiggly) and got one lb of dried lentils for $1.35, the Pig’s 12 pk brand of Diet Coke 2 cartons for $10, Pig chicken legs for 89 cent a lb, the Pig brand of mac and cheese, 5 boxes for $2.00 for when I want junk food, Piggly Wiggly brand of Peanut butter for I can’t remember how much and the receipt is in the car, shredded multi coleslaw for $1.76, etc. Yesterday at the Food Outlet I got a bag of Fugi apples (8) for $2.77, 5 lbs of Idaho potatoes for $2.79, mustard for 89 cents, cream cheese for $1.75, sandwich bread for $1.75. Hot dogs for $1.75, and bologna for $2.00. It is more expensive than Aldi but I had to go to the town where the Outlet was located and I work where Piggly Wiggly is located so cheaper than driving 30 miles one way to Aldi!!!
3. Which brings me to the topic of gas. It was $4.10 gallon in Food outlet town, and is $3.94 a gallon where I work. I filled up where I work.
4. Keeping heat and air off. Luckily very easy to do this time of year.
5. Standard packing breakfast and lunch, eating food at home, using family cloth, taking good care of work clothes so they will last, etc.
What a beautiful hike.
1. I brought some homemade veggie burgers, buns from Aldi and homemade guacamole to my mom's for dinner. She and my sister provided the sides and other toppings.
2. My mom gave me a gift card to a local coffee shop as a thank you. We walked there with the dog, where we had lattes and shared a cookie.
3. I sold three more items on Ebay and listed three more today.
4. I'm also enjoying our 70 degree weather today. I'm sitting on my front porch next to my dog with a glass of wine and a library book.
1. Had an uncomfortable procedure at the doctor's office today so didn't feel like cooking dinner. Instead I opened three cans of ravioli I picked up a few weeks ago for .99 each. DH and I split them and both felt full.
2. Drove at 64 mph on the highway on the way to and from the doctor's office. Kept it in cruise control whenever I could. Sheeez, there's some crazy drivers out there.
3. I went to the mental health/social group I attend weekly at my friend's book store. Had a free cup of tea. We play Trivia and Hygge, a Danish game. Both fun and both conversation stimulators.
4. Reading a library book, Cave Mountain, and ready to start another library book, Bread of Angels by Patti Smith, said to be her best one yet.
5. I didn't sulk because other countries in NATO wouldn't help us out in a war I got us involved in.
That view is beautiful.
1. I made an omelet for breakfast with leftover Easter ham. Hubby had a free bagel and coffee at work.
2. I brought lunch to work with me. I read a library book while she napped.
3. I made dinner even though I didn't want to. There is enough for Hubby and my lunch tomorrow.
4. My friend offered me a bottle of Fabuloso cleaner that she doesn't like the smell of. Hubby said he can use it for cleaning outside stuff so the smell doesn't matter.
5. Our new neighbors had dirt delivered and had workmen at their house. I told them they could park in our driveway. Being a good neighbor and having good neighbors are priceless.
6. I waited to run the dishwasher until it was 7pm when our electric rates drop.
7. My husband is practicing golf in our yard with a golf swing and hitting trainer that we got years ago at the thrift store.
1) Ordered hydrolyzed protein wet and dry cat food from Chewy for Mr Mittens who appears to have a food allergy. Between two coupons from My Points and several discounts from Chewy brought the total down to $114+ at least for the first month.
2) For some reason my landline phone(s) won't work with the jack/line splitter in the kitchen even though my internet modem does. I know there's another jack around here (probably behind my very heavy bed) but for now I'm just getting rid of any mentions of that landline phone number I can until I can figure this out
1. I had outpatient surgery and an overnight guest at the same time . I prepped some food in advance and we used things we already had to refresh the guest room. Our company noticed and appreciated the changes.
2. I made soup and bread so my husband would be fed.
3. I made the copycat Aldi chickpea salad but with Katy's Tea Towel Salad Dressing instead of what the recipe calls for. So much better.
4. I made The Frugal Girl's granola and sent some home with our guest.
5. I will be finding free entertainment at home for the next week with no bending or lifting.
Get well soon, Ava!
Bringing your own snacks is always the best way to do it!
1. Finished listening to Fahrenheit 451 from Libby, I was pretty far down the list and somehow had never read it before. I also found two other ebooks to read, I'm loving Libby.
2. Baked some bread and demolished our pile of less than new bananas and made 3 dozen banana muffins.
3. We did not have sunshine or warm weather today. We had pouring raining but that didn't stop us. We did a grocery pick up from Fred Meyer (Kroger), cominges coupons and deals to save over $30. Then we used $0.20 off at the Fred Meyer gas station to fill up. Lastly we went to WinCo and each took a kiddo half of the list to finish as quickly as possible. Ibotta is a cruel mistress and we only got $0.10 back. Someone had dropped a receipt near the check out and we snatched it up, hoping for gold. It was from December so I laughed and threw it out.
4. I have a day of meal prep and freezer stocking tomorrow! We'll be slicing chicken into thinner portions and using the instant pot we'll cook some, shred and portion into individual recipes.
5. We had a pot of black beans soaking in the instant pot and is now cooking down to make refried black beans. We'll pair it with a pot of rice and some chicken enchiladas. This will be leftovers for at least one more meal, probably two.
FFT the Finally Turkey edition:
1. I finally got the Discount Easter Turkey into the oven – sans just about any attention, although I stuffed an onion, some celery and a handful of carrot batons into the spot that usually receives my delicious and time consuming stuffing.
I realised that the stuffing creation was my holdup, so I threw THAT plan out the window, then threw a handful of dried sage into my spice grinder (along with rosemary needles stripped off the rosemary 'bouquet' that has been drying on my counter, some peppercorns and some pickling salt), poured the resulting scented deliciousness over the turkey and smeared it around, and put the roasting pan into a hot oven.
I set the timer for 25 min and took the dog for a walk – I like to turn the oven down after 25 min. Well, I ended up talking to two neighbours that I don't normally talk with, and the 25 min was more like an hour. Then, when I came back in the house, I turned off the timer but neglected to turn down the oven. So the bird was on Hot for a long time. It browned very nicely, though!. Anyway, I turned the oven down, put tinfoil on the nicely browned bird, and guestimated how much longer to cook. Seems to have turned out OK.
2. Once the bird was out of the oven I popped in a discounted dried scalloped potato 'au gratin' mix. Then spent some time chopping some sad peppers, and peeling some yams, both of them onto trays to roast. If the oven is on, it should be doing something!
3. I did more garden work while the turkey was in the slightly cooler oven (with a timer on my phone). The Garden work consisted of finding non-leaking spray nozzles for two hoses (batting 500 on that endeavour) and watering in my grow room (no veggie starts, only canna and calla lilies and the like), then in the many pots around the house. Then a hopeful trip down to the field with a bucket of seeds, however watering the greenhouse came first and then watering the bits of raised beds that have been planted came second – and then I had to return up to the house and the turkey. I still chalk this up as a win of a day outside!
4. There are lots and LOTS of baby arugula plants coming up in the greenhouse so no more need to purchase any kind of salad greens for the foreseeable future. I'm going to work on my salad dressing game so I have a few homemade dressings ready in the fridge for these big green salads I am creating.
5. The turkey was de-carcassed, and the carcass was set to simmer overnight – too big for the instant pot! I threw in the 'stuffing' carrots, onion and celery and added a handful of onion skins from the collection in my onion box. I ended up with 4 full quarts of broth PLUS I made a pot of soup using another 2 quarts – I'm going to offer some soup to #1 son and family who are STILL SICK – will take it to them tomorrow. Today I delivered a hunk of turkey while I was in town for my workout – I didn't have the spoons to make them a meal, so i'll make up for it with a delivery tomorrow.
1. I got a ride to an event 40 minutes away. With gas costing $5.59 a gallon, this is a great savings.
2. Stocked up on some items that will be going up in price. One was irrigation tubing. A friend let me know that the prices online had not been adjusted yet, but the prices in the store had gone up (locally owned place). So I ordered online and got the old prices. Added bonus was that I could walk into the store and the items were already set aside for pick up, as opposed to my usual hunt through the extensive plumbing/irrigation store.
3. Roast a chicken yesterday, ate leftovers today and made broth in IP for soup for the next 2 days. Rain is in the forecast, so it's perfect soup weather. I still have homegrown green beans in the freezer from last summer, so those will be going in the soup.
4. Set up international calling on our phones so we can communicate with MIL's doctors. We use WhatsApp for calling family members abroad for free, but we need to direct dial the hospital. It's only 17 cents a minute through Consumer Cellular, which I feel is very reasonable. And the peace of mind gained from better communications with her health care team is priceless.
5. I'm making more effort to ask friends if they need something when I go to the store. I'm hoping to built a network that can help each other save some gas!
5.
Wise move checking the expiration date. A few months out might have been okay but pre-Covid is definitely not.
My kitty would not eat the “ urinary” food when she needed it so we kept her on the cheap but tasty Friskies she WOULD EAT and she lived another 3 years with kidney issues!!
Talking about pets: Since we HAVE TO buy cat food going forward,I have ordered some extra cases on CHewy at today’s prices.Things gonna be going up, including pet food,I guess.Ugh.Same with litter..I have a bit of a stock pile in garage just now.
I am stocking up on some people food staples too..
Whew, a sigh of relief (NOT!!!!!!) that Melania WAS DEFINITELY NOT FRIENDS with epstein and ghislane. Glad she cleared THAT up! I’ll sleep better. (NOT!!)
What a world! What a sleazy White House!
@Shyla--Ibotta is the cruelest of mistresses, lol! I checked the app today and was offered a whopping 5c for Any Receipt. Decided to go home and have a no spend day.
I was irritated to spend $3.89 on gas yesterday--$5.59 sounds insane!
Grabbed a meal prep for work lunch, but was offered a free boxed lunch from a different department. (I have made friends with people all over the building, so I get alerts when free food is available.) Brought the meal prep home for dinner and it looked a little dry, so I popped in a frozen square of "chicken squeezings" as DP called it (homemade chicken broth from the rotisserie chicken carcass). They are square because I found a set of large ice cube trays in that shape at the thrift.
Got a free jam of jam from a vendor gift to our department. Work is really paying off these days!
I decided to expand the garden this year in light of rising expenses. Talked myself out of perfection in lieu of action. Threw down some flattened cardboard boxes to start a new bed filled with sticks and lawn trimmings.