Thrifty Tuesday

A few weeks ago I finished a book on finding the best of life through thrifty practices. The author said she refused to use the word "frugal" because it meant cheap.

So I decided to pull out my Collins Gage Canadian dictionary and look up the meanings of those two words.

Frugal.... 1) avoiding waste
               2) so sparing as to be barely sufficient

I prefer to use the first meaning of the word when thinking of my life.

Thrifty... 1) economical management; the habit of saving. adj. thrifty.

Hmmm, to my way of thinking both of these go together. Kind of like hand in glove.

When one is thrifty, one avoids waste, and get into the habit of saving. I am not really sure if one can be thrifty without being frugal, at least in the way I understand being frugal.

Being frugal enabled Harvey to retire early, us to take holidays, have wonderfully filling and varied meals. Being thrifty meant paying off our debts quickly and saving the extra cash.

Now we really have no need to be as thrifty or frugal as we were in the past, but being so is more or less second nature now. Which is probably a very good thing considering that costs continue to rise here in Canada.

When I say we are frugal, we are not cheap. We buy the best that we can and these items last for a very long time. I buy on sale with a look to getting the most bang for our dollar.

So do I agree with the author of this book I read? Not really, I think perhaps she did not realize how the two words compliment each other, or perhaps she is locked into the second definition of frugal because of bad decisions (she did make some really bad decisions with her money and personal life).

What do you all think?

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Menu Monday

Ahh, May flowers are slowly arriving. My tulips are a few inches above the ground and one even has a blossom. I really need to get out and start cleaning things up in the yard. Don't know how much I can manage, but I hope to get quite a bit done this week.

Monday

Even though it is going to be warm I still need to cook. Tonight is sausage casserole (trying to figure out if I can make this in the slow cooker) and I will be serving it with some sliced cucumbers.

Tuesday

We have leftovers from the meal Harvey bought on Sunday so today we will munch on leftovers from this.

Wednesday

I am pulling some leftover ham from the freezer and making a stove top meal of some sort. Perhaps fried rice and ham, or a jambalaya type meal is possible with help from the cupboards.

Thursday

Soup and sandwiches will be tonight's meal. I have lots of frozen soup ( and stock) that needs to be cleared out.

Friday

Kris will be home so fish fillets is off the menu. I think I will make Lazy Perogies instead.

Saturday

BBQ time. I have some stuffed, marinated chicken breasts in the freezer. Served with a salad and some buns we will have a feast.

Sunday

Roast time! I plan on a pork roast with roasted potatoes and roasted carrots. Harvey and I will finish off the leftover salad.

Everybody have a wonderful day.

God bless.

 

Sunday Ramblings

We had a lovely trip to Regina yesterday and Kris helped me every step of the way. So nice not to worry about hurting myself pulling fabric out to be measured and cut he pretty much did all the work. I just told the woman how much of each bolt I needed or wanted.

Pictures of my haul to follow later this week.

Today, Mass was pretty much back to normal except for one thing. Neither Harvey or I could really understand what the priest was saying. Difficult to get anything out of the homily when all we could understand was the occasional word. However I managed to get the gist of the whole thing as I had studied the readings.

Friendship is a wonderful gift, requiring honesty, generosity, trust and love in equal measure. A friend accepts us just as we are, and isn't that what our greatest friend, Christ, does. We have no secrets that he doesn't know, just has he has no secrets from us. Everything he is, was and will be is laid out before us.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Frugal Friday

Okay blogger is acting very strangely. It is not allowing me to upload pictures at all. This means no frugal Friday jpeg. Got it working finally. Still blogger is acting strangely so I will quit while I am ahead.

This week has gone by in a blur and now that it seems as if spring is really here, I am pretty sure things will zip on by.

My frugals for this week:

1.  I printed out as many coupons as I could for our stock up shop.

2.  Scanned in what little shopping I did this week and managed to finish 5 surveys for even more points.

3.  Used up the leftover pink, navy and grey yarn to finish off the blanket of many colours.

4.  Made good headway in using up frozen bits and bobs.

5.  Made a bit of extra cash selling on our cities garage sale sites.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Thursday Tid Bits

Well I thought perhaps it was time I filled you all in on how things went on the decluttering front last month, and budget costs overall.

First off the budget. We came in at $767.00 under budget, thanks mostly to decreased electric bills, and my grocery budget. Of course some things were over like truck plates (they seem to have gone up this month due to taxes), phone costs (estimated low for the year) and a couple of other areas.

The cost of fuel is higher now and so I want to figure out ways to keep this budget line in check. Could be a bit difficult.

Decluttering went not too badly. I managed to remove a few more items from the house, so now my total for the year at the end of April was 127 items. I do hope to add a great many more to this at the end of this month. Things have started out well and I hope they continue to do so. Less clutter and more room for the things we both enjoy.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Progress

Yes, there has been progress on the renovations in the basement, but that isn't what I am talking about.

This morning at physiotherapy my therapist, Jenna, did the same measurements as she did at the beginning of the sessions.

There has been marked improvement in some areas, not so much in other areas. This means more work here at home. My sessions have been moved to once every two weeks which gives me time to work up to a higher hand weight, more reps and get used to playing with the theraputty.

Theraputty is much the same as silly putty, only a lot harder to work with. This is to help with strengthening my fingers and grip. I still have a ways to go in this area.

In talking to Jenna I told her that I realized I probably would never have the strength or mobility in my left wrist that I had before, but even once the therapy office figured they had helped all they could I was going to continue with the exercises. Jenna thought that was awesome as most people do not realize that quitting those exercises they have been given to do can cause a relapse. That is something I didn't realize either, I am just following Kurt's advice.

He had something similar happen. His was a torn ligament that needed surgery. As he kept on doing the exercises he gradually became able to do everything he could do before.

Keeping my fingers crossed for the same outcome.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Thrifty Tuesday

This past week the weather has been beautiful. Most days have been sunny and warmish. Makes me open windows to let in fresh air and in a thrifty move turn down the het during those sunny days.

I sold my old stove top pressure cooker. I didn't get a great deal for it, but at least I got something and it is now out of the house (it was in a box for donation).

Tonight or early tomorrow before heading out for my physiotherapy appointment I will list a few other articles on the garage sale sites online. Hopefully a bit more cash will be made and a few more items out of the house.

I turned a pair of Harvey's ratty jeans into a pair of shorts for him this summer.

My menu this week is mostly one of turning leftovers into brand new meals. Anything left over is packaged up and used for lunch or for another supper.

I found a gift card to a restaurant we usually go to for brunch. Must put it in my purse to use the next time we go.

Did up the budget for last month and we are almost $800.00 under budget for the month. That will change a bit after our stock up shop, but level out again. Usually I am well under the grocery budget after doing this for a few months. So while it won't be thrifty or frugal to begin with, it will end up being so.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.