Thrifty and Frugal Thursday

Thrifty and Frugal 

This past week I have once again been sticking pretty close to home. Meaning I am managing to get things completed, put away or decluttered. Which I am happy about. 

Frugally I have been trying to use up every bit of food in the fridge, cupboard, and freezer. That has been working out very well. Once again the fridge freezer is pretty much cleared out, and with the organization of the baking pantry, and pasta cupboard I am beginning to find things once again. 

I did go shopping today at Walmart, and of course spent more than planned. This was because I stocked up on some items. It has been a very long time since I have seen blocks of cheese for $4.88 a package, or coffee pods marked down by $6.00 a package. Large cans of creamed corn were on 4 for $6.00, and a big can of pineapple chunks was marked down to $1.27. I just could not pass those bargains up as well as the others I found. While this will more than likely put me over the grocery budget for this month, I feel the savings will be able to keep me under budget next month and into the new year. A big plus since prices keep going up. I may do a bit of a stock up next week on some meats as those are on sale right now as well. I do need beef products so the next trip early in the next week will add to the overage. 

Baked bread this week and today I made buns to take to Kris's. The leftover spaghetti and meat sauce tonight will be processed into a tray of Baked Spaghetti to be taken to Kris's as well. Probably the second meal will be something pulled from the freezer that I have already made. 

As far as craft stash, I am still working on using bits and bobs of yarn making the mittens. Those will come with me to Kris's so I can continue using up more yarn.

There is warp left on the loom and instead of wasting it, I am going to fashion a runner. I want to use up as much of that as possible this time around. I have been very wasteful with leftover warp lately.

I fixed the bottom of a zipper on one of my jackets early this week, darned another pair of socks, and saved some elastics and twist ties. 

I also found a quarter on the way to pick up the mail and that has been added to the change jar. 

Used up a small tube of hand cream after cutting it to get the last little bit out.

Rinsed out the dish soap to get another load of dishes handwashed and will be refilling them tonight.

That's all for this week, other than the usual things that are done every week.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Midweek and Almost Mid Month

 

The sun is shining, the temperature reached the double digits and all bills that are due midmonth are paid. We don't have to worry about being late paying things, and we still have quite a bit in the bank. 

I have found a sewing machine repair establishment close to where our son lives. According to the repair person it does not matter the age of my Baby Lock machine either. Also according to her it could take as little as two weeks to be repaired. I can work with my gift machine or my Mom's old machine until this one is fixed. Or even just not do any sewing until after the New Year, which at this time really does make more sense at this point.

I finished off the rug today. Just stuck with it until done. Now I need to block it and work in the loose ends. I will then sew the rubber backing on by hand. 

Next up I will be re-threading my machine and making a runner for the top of the fake fireplace/heater. An extra project, but I do not want to waste any of the warp. 

The rubber backing will be done when we return from Kris's place and until then I will work on mittens, and embroidery. Perhaps even managing to get more of those monthly projects completed. My knitting will come with me to Kris's, should be able to get a pair or two at least done there. 

Baking for the holidays will begin shortly. Probably cookies and shortbread first, and then some squares that we love. I still need to get almonds and white chocolate to make Almond Bark and peanuts to make Peanut Brittle. I really will be cutting back on sweet baking this year as it seems we eat less and less of these types of things. I might make some Kahlua and Irish Creme for the holidays as those could be given as a Hostess gift. 

This is what we missed seeing last night, but hope to get a glimpse of tonight.

I guess the Northern Lights were dancing in the sky last night and are supposed to happen again tonight. Keeping my fingers crossed that we can get to see them tonight.

Oh yeah, still waiting for my containers to be delivered, supposedly out for delivery now. This means a bit of a clean up of the pantry, I hope once they arrive and are washed.

Everybody have a wonderful evening. 

God bless.

Tidbits and Stuff

Today I went to our Remembrance Day service and spent some time at the cenotaph and went for the lunch the Legion puts on here.

As usual the ceremony was very touching.

Once back home I got to work on my various projects. I can see a steadfast movement towards being completed by the end of the month. Knitting will take place tonight after supper. 

In fact I am off to work on supper right now and will visit with you all a bit later.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Menu Monday

This week I am going to be trying to use up bits and bobs from the fridge and the freezer. We will be heading to Kris's place on Friday so things need to be cleared up. Of course I will take a meal or two with us so that he does not have to feed us for three days. Thinking two meals would be about perfect.

Monday

A kind of cottage pie using the leftover mashed potatoes, some gravy, and a bag of chicken meat from the freezer. I also added some frozen veggies, some onion, and the last of the frozen peppers. There will be enough left for another meal.

Tuesday

Soup and sandwiches. I will pull out a container of soup from the big chest freezer and make some grilled cheese sandwiches. 

Wednesday

Leftovers from Monday.

Thursday

Spaghetti and meat sauce. I will make some peas to eat with this.

I will also put together a Baked Spaghetti to take up to Kris's for one of our meals. 

Friday

Gone

Saturday

Gone

Sunday

Gone. 

We should be back on Monday and I will either head out shopping right after unpacking, or wait until Tuesday and get a few things done around the house. 

Everybody have a wonderful evening. 

God bless.

Sunday Ramblings

 This morning dawned foggy and very cold. In fact at -19.5C we could say that winter has arrived for sure, even though there is supposed to be a warm up over the next week. I will be driving on icy roads to take the car in to get the winter tires put on, something I really did not want to be doing. 

The fog was not an ordinary fog either, it was one the deposited hoar frost on all surfaces.

So beautiful, and yet so cold. The wind managed to take all of this decoration down just a bit after noon. At times one might have thought it was snowing once again. 

I contacted Kris last night and we will be going to Regina on the weekend. I plan on phoning the store that might be able to fix my machine, and hopefully drop it off there on Friday. While I probably won't be able to pick it up before we leave, I am sure Kris will be happy to do so for me, or we have another excuse to go up for a visit or even just a day's shopping (a visit would be better though 😊

Harvey wants to stay with Kris until after the Grey Cup game on Sunday. That will mean my to do lists for the week after that are going to be switched around a great deal. This could mean that I won't have as much time to work on my projects for the first part of the week. I do plan on taking the knitting with me and perhaps get most of that completed while there. 

The church was freezing today, and the children did not go downstairs for their special church as it was so cold. I guess there is something happening to the boilers and they just were not working correctly. Father kept his sermon a bit shorter than usual, but by the time we left my hands were like ice cubes. Hopefully, by keeping our coats on we will not have exasperated our colds. At the end of Mass we had a short ceremony for Remembrance Day. Ended Mass singing O Canada.

Harvey made us brunch today, and I cleaned up after. Any time I do not have to cook I am happy enough to clean up and really it was just a few items. 

Off to visit with all of you for a bit.

Everybody have a wonderful evening. 

God bless.

Saturday Roundup

 

I really have not gotten that much done on my list this past week. Little bits done on many different things and only one thing completed that I could check off.

My gift jar soups are done and all the spice mixes, drink mixes, and soups are labeled and have the directions added. Just a couple more gifts for the baskets. Those are getting pretty full and I hope to finish them off very soon.

Weaving, embroidery, and knitting are happening and while the items are slowly but surely getting completed I really have nothing much to show for my efforts. I honestly think that sometimes I just try to do too much at one time and might be able to finish more if I worked on one project at a time. Now that would be slightly boring.

I have been working on getting the house ready for winter, new drapes have been purchased and others moved around to be used in another area. Still have a bit to do in this area, and now that we received snow (not a great deal), I will be concentrating a bit more in this area. 

Some easy knitting, sewing, quilting, and cross stitch patterns have been downloaded and printed. I am doing some research each day on good old fashioned cooking and looking for recipes to use beans more and not just in salads or baked. 

Decluttering is slowly taking place and I am finding it very true that once retired the wardrobe does not need to be so extensive. I no longer need to try and keep up with those who love to be dressed to the "nines" (and believe me I have a few SIL's that believe just that), and what I have is just fine.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Moving Towards Simplicity

 

My quest today on the way to simplicity was to get more room on my rather small kitchen counter. This was not an easy task as everything on it at this point in time is used or in the case of the jars of dehydrated herbs will be used whenever needed. 

I did manage to get a bit more room by moving the KitchenAid mixer on top of the portable dishwasher, and by getting all the spice mixes, and soups in a jar labeled and into the gift baskets. There is still way too much on one side, but slowly things will be used up and the area cleared. I really need to make my way through all my teas as that would clear up a great deal of room. I do wish that I could set up a coffee/tea station, but I just do not have the space for that. 

Next move towards a simpler life will be going through the drawers in the kitchen once again to see what I can declutter and perhaps make room for other items I have stored away and really do use almost every day.

Still more winterizing must be done inside. Nothing too expensive, but I do need to get those insulated curtains for my sewing/craft room and figure out what to do with the lace curtains I replaced. They are still in very good shape and I wonder if in the new year I could make some produce bags from them. I would love to hang some heavier curtains over the front and back doors to cut down even more drafts from entering the house, but those may have to wait until next year. 

Harvey had his truck into the dealership today for an oil change and a check of the block heater. Turned out to be a bit more costly than we thought as the truck needed a new block heater and a new plug in cord. Still we were quite happy that the total cost was a bit less than the one quoted, it was enough though. As Harvey says now we have a new battery and plugin on the SUV and a new block heater and cord on the truck, should be set for the winter for sure. That will definitely make life much easier and simpler over the winter. 

Everybody have a wonderful evening. 

God bless.