Frugal Friday

 

The usual frugal habits are on going. I am not too sure if anything new or interesting took place. I am sure it is pretty boring for all my readers to see the same things over and over again.

I am going to transform a few items from the fridge into frozen meals. Last night it was baked beans. I managed to get 9 containers into the freezer. Cost wise each container was probably about $0.50, 7 of them were at the 2 servings mark, the other two could be used when the boys are home.

Then I pulled the frozen raspberries from last year out of the freezer and made some jam. Should be enough to see us through the year.

I have 5 bags of blueberries frozen from last year and will make those into jam come Sunday.

Tonight I plan on making Cream of Mushroom soup and freezing it, and tomorrow at some point I will make Cream of Celery soup and do the same thing. 

Meals already prepared from on sale items is always frugal. 

I am spending some time looking up other ways to live frugally and use everything up I possibly can. It is only the best thing to do when prices keep rising and we want to be able to travel or help out our sons.

Everybody have a wonderful evening. 

God bless.

Thrifty Thursday

 

My thrifty practices this week are much the same as always. Saving small plastic bags and their twist ties, using up leftovers, making the most of garden produce, and turning one of the collars on a shirt belonging to Harvey. I notice that I need to replace the elastic in one of the sleeves of the shirt I am wearing...that will be done after the trip when I have more time.

I have also added to the refashion pile in the sewing/craft room and have been busy using up small bits and orphan balls of yarn. The odd colours of embroidery thread (or rather the less expensive than DMC threads) are slowly being used up some on this embroidered tablecloth and some will be used making more cloth napkins later on (plans for those coming to mind). 

Today I used up the last of the raspberries from the previous summer's harvest and made jam. I am also making baked beans in my slow cooker. I get lots of containers of those beans in the freezer and when the cost is divided out it is half the cost of buying the same amount of already canned in the stores.

I have also been watching free television or at least free series by using the Netflix subscription that Kris shares with me and my android box. I am loving the fact that old series actually go at least 26 episodes if not more in a year. Now why can't today's series be the same, lately you are really lucky if there are 13 or 14 episodes. 

I am loving the ways that some are using to save water and just might have to try a few of those ideas out. That is perhaps the only one of the cities utility charges that we can control.

Pictures of projects, garden processing, and perhaps a few surprises coming on Saturday.

Everybody have a wonderful evening. 

God bless.

Midweek

 A quick post just to let you know I am surviving the rush to try and get ready.

Today I picked in the garden, washed and froze the blueberries, dehydrated some parsley and got the beans soaking for baked beans. 

Tomorrow I will do more dehydrating, make the beans in the slow cooker, make raspberry jam with last years frozen raspberries, make some cookies, water the plants, weed and do the usual household tasks. 

I will also have to re-trace the final corner design on my tablecloth. Seems like the tracings do not last as long as I had hoped.

Off to get some knitting done, then jump in the tub.

Everybody have a wonderful day.

God bless.

Tuesday Tidbits

I managed to get the shopping done today in record time. However now I just have to work on getting the fridge and freezer cleared out and some jam made, baked beans made and ask my friend if she can drop by and water my plants. Seems like Harvey wants to get away for a few days so we will head to Kurt's on the 16th, leave on the 19th and stop at Kris's for a couple of days. 

I have talked to Kurt and he is fine with those dates, tried to get ahold of Kris but no answer so I will try later or sent a text to see if us staying the 19th and 20th is good with him. Keeping my fingers crossed that it is. We can also do a bit of shopping at Michael's and Costco while there. Perhaps even a stop at Body Works so I can use my gift card. 

We went and picked a phone for Harvey today. I think he will like this one as it is a Samsung foldable and fits in a pocket much easier.

This is the one he chose. I finished setting it up for him just a bit ago. 

This will be a spendy month what with new phones, and we should probably try and get the car in for an oil change before we go (though Harvey will probably say it can wait). Then there is the gas cost for our visits, and probably we will have a meal out at each place. Since this will be our vacation this year I am fine with it. 

Off to work on projects, or perhaps take a bit of a walk before doing so. The weather is lovely and I need to move a bit more.

Everybody have a wonderful day.

God bless.

Menu Monday

 

Good evening all. It is time for the next weekly menu.

Monday

Soup and egg salad sandwiches.

Tuesday

Leftover ham (one of the 5 packages residing in the fridge freezer) made into scalloped potatoes and ham casserole. Served with sliced raw veggies and dip.

Wednesday

Hamburgers, pasta and baked beans.

Thursday

Stuffed chicken, salad, and corn.

Friday

Breakfast for supper, we will have pancakes.

Saturday

BBQ smoked sausages, air fried onion rings, mushrooms, and cut up veggies and dip.

Sunday

Roast beef, mashed potatoes, and green beans from the garden.

Hoping that clears a bit of room in the fridge freezer. Things are beginning to add up in there once again.

Everybody have a wonderful evening. 

God bless.

Sunday Ramblings

 A whole week gone in this month already. I can tell that the garden is pretty far behind other years as by this time I had canned relish, froze tomatoes, made apple pie filling, dehydrated some apples, and was starting to make salsa and eggplant parma for the freezer. This year I am lucky to have made a couple of containers of cherry pie filling and three quarts of dills. I think I just might have a very busy September.

Our home is heated by natural gas and since we got our new energy efficient furnace a few years ago our bills have been much lower than previous years. This year however our provincial gas company is raising their rates and so I have been trying to figure out how to save even more, or at least keep our costs from increasing. 

So far I have come up with turning the thermostat down a degree or two during the day, and turning it down lower when we go to bed (I can always turn it up in the morning as I get up first). Now we won't sit and freeze like we are in the ice age, but wearing layers would be okay.

I think I will get Harvey to check the seals around the furnace and air conditioner pipes to make sure they are still good. If they need it we will add some insulation around them.

Checking into the costs of an energy efficient water heater. Our old one is almost 12 years old so it is probably time to replace it. Cost could be high, but the savings could in fact pay for it over a couple of years.

Check again for leaks around windows and doors and fix if necessary. I will still use draft stoppers and plan on making some for Kris as well. 

I will continue to think about other ways and hopefully keep our bills at least where they are now.... Considering what they want to raise rates to any little change will be a big help.

While we were sitting around the deck propane firepit last night Harvey mentioned that while we aren't there yet, pretty soon we will need to look into moving into a condo (he stated no way does he want to live in a nursing home). So today I have been looking at condos for sale in the city Kris lives in. Wow, the costs are pretty high right now for something with a fairly large balcony and an elevator. I will continue looking and perhaps things will go down in price.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Saturday Roundup

 

It has been a fairly busy week but not so busy that I didn't have time to work on my projects. I really didn't make a list of projects for this month as I want to get my carry over completed and that seems to be working right now.

I finished the knitted blanket, have done a couple of corners on the tablecloth and started the third corner. Just one more after that and I can set up the center portion with the pattern, then just a few more days work and it will be done.

I cast on another knitted blanket last evening and am midway through using up another small ball of leftover yarn. My goodness do I have lots, never in my wildest dreams did I think I had that much.

Slowly going through my closet and drawers. I have a few things to drop off at the Salvation Army thrift store, and some that I might refashion (if I don't do that I will probably cut them down to usable fabric). 

I am finding meatless meals to add to our menu. Meat will slowly become a smaller portion of our meals. Also looking up new ways to use leftovers in order to get the most from them.

The garden is producing and I now have three quarts of dills made (one done today). I may be doing these one at a time as I am not getting many cucumbers when I pick. Still every quart I make means I will not have to purchase a jar. I plan on processing all that I possibly can and eventually will be asking my neighbour if I can pick her apples and crab apples. 

Looking at using some of the larger pots from my replanting to bring in plants to overwinter. Buying potting soil will be much less expensive than buying both pots and soil.

I really feel that most countries will be entering a recession if they haven't already. That means interest on savings and investments will not be as good as they have been. Scary for us seniors that saved for our retirement and now see those savings dwindling. 

Rising costs means finding new ways of doing things. Here, perhaps one of the few places we can save is on groceries. I am well stocked on pretty much everything (well not sandwich meat, but we can work around that) but I do not want to eat down absolutely everything. That would just mean replacing all with more expensive items. So I will continue to buy on sale meats, and stretch them as far as possible. 

I don't know about other countries or provinces here in my own country, but our electrical costs are set to rise. So I am thinking of new ways to cook. Over the past few years we have been slowly moving from CFL (still have some bulbs to use up) to LED saving a bit that way. Eventually I hope to have all switched to LED. They last longer and use less power.

This winter I plan on using my toaster oven and other appliances to cook. Might even purchase a plug in burner to use (or one of the double ones). 

This is another area that we could save a bit. Working on that.

I will continue this for another day....Don't want to scare too many people.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.