Tuesday Tidbits and Stuff

 

Winter is back once again, wind, snow and cold. I have stuck close to home the last few days, and it is amazing what can be accomplished.

I watched a YouTube channel this morning that had the title "Staying Busy At Home Saves You Money." How true is that!! Mind you cold weather has be doing the same thing. 

Because of the cloud cover I haven't been working on my embroidery as much as I would like, but knitting and weaving are coming along nicely. The first placemat is woven (still on the loom until I finish another three) and I have about 1/4 of the second one done as well. 

I also have about 3" completed on what I hope will be the last blanket for awhile. 

Laundry is done, folded and mostly put away. I just have my ironing to get away now. I did forget to iron the embroidered blocks I have completed, so perhaps I will pull out the iron and ironing board tomorrow and get those done. 

Harvey has his last dental appointment for a bit tomorrow afternoon when he will get his bottom partial plate. I have told him to make an appointment to get the top partial fixed (I think he will need one tooth pulled). May as well get that done with.

Harvey turns 75 this year and with his glaucoma we are a bit worried about his eyesight. Right now everything is stable and so we decided to take a trip. Plans are underway to head to Eastern Canada on a tour of some of the places he has never been to. I get to show him some of my old stomping areas like Toronto, The Thousand Islands, Niagara Falls, and Montreal. Me well I will get to visit a few places I have never been as well. Never been to Ottawa, or Quebec City. We don't want to go much further, like overseas, just in case there are eye problems or other health problems. We sure aren't getting any younger. 

Making these plans have actually excited us during this very long winter.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Menu Monday

 

A new week has arrived, bring with it a new menu and of course winter temperatures once again.

Monday

Leftovers from Saturday supper served with a salad.

Tuesday

Chicken casserole made with leftover roast chicken from Sunday and the remains of the salad.

Wednesday

Cream of Celery soup and egg salad sandwiches.

Thursday

Leftover chicken casserole and coleslaw. 

Friday

Pancakes. Breakfast for supper, yummy. 

Saturday

Smoked sausages, coleslaw, and probably pasta. 

Sunday

Pork cutlets, mashed potatoes, and green beans. 

So there it is. Still working my way through leftovers and bits and bobs that seem to add up in the fridge freezer each and every week. I think I might give up the roast meals on Sunday for awhile so as to clear things out a bit. I also need to use some of the meals I made when I batch cooked. 

Everybody have a wonderful afternoon/evening.

God bless.

Sunday Ramblings

 

I have been a bit ill over the last couple of days. One day, it was more not enough sleep, but I actually think that was leading up to today. 

I woke up with a major sinus headache, leaning towards a migraine type. I spent much of the morning leaning over the toilet bowl (if you know what I mean). I ended up in our bedroom with a cold compress on my forehead and drapes fully closed. 

Things are better now, but I am being very careful on what I do. Once I started feeling slightly better I did work on a few things. I managed to get some more done on the weaving, got my lists made for next week, brought up the food for next week, and did a tiny bit of journaling. 

Did a tiny bit of work on projects as well once the headache totally disappeared. Still not as much completed as I would have liked.

Sandy asked about my tinkle cloths. Yes Sandy I have cut some lovely soft fabric to use as toilet paper when I tinkle (the rest is regular toilet paper). I probably save at leas two rolls of toilet paper a week doing this.

Harvey has decided to phone and cancel the appointment with our dealership service department over his truck. Things seem to be working perfectly now. A bit of a savings there.

Everybody have a wonderful evening. 

God bless.

Not Looking Forward To Rising Costs And New Monthly Goals

 

I am not looking forward to the rising costs that will take place due to the blanket tariffs that were supposed to take place today, but now will be announced on Tuesday. Then of course there will be our targeted tariffs in reply. All this will do is make life more expensive for both Canadian and American citizenry. We are a much smaller country population wise and GDP wise so this trade war will cause us more problems than our bigger neighbour. 

Shopping Canadian is not inexpensive, I have found. In each area of my rather large, sparsely populated country Canadian products are sometimes hard to acquire. I joined a Buy Canadian Facebook page and man, those who live in the east, Alberta, British Columbia and even Manitoba have way more choices than poor stuck in the middle Saskatchewan. 

We do have an oil refinery though and the Co-op refinery in Regina hauls gas throughout our province. Surprisingly many of the other provinces do not have that capability as was noted on the "Buy Canadian" page. Thumbs up for that. 

Both Canada and the United States will hopefully get through this. I do know that many of us here in Canada will never feel as close to America again.

I haven't listed my goals/projects/plans in awhile so thought I would do so today.

1.  Continue decluttering.

2.  Finish weaving the placemats (changed from tea towels).

3.  Embroider at least one more rose quilt square.

4.  Knit the second blanket for Kurt's friend.

5.  Cut more scrap fabric up either for use in quilts or for tinkle cloths.

6.  Use the leftover fabric from cutting out my coat pattern to make a car blanket.

7.  Sew the tote bag that I stitched 4" squares for the front. 

There will more than likely be a few additions depending on how quickly I get these listed projects/goals completed.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Friday Frugal Tips

 

I thought that I would share a few more tips that we have used on our Frugal Living journey.

Make homemade gifts. I have found that when I do so I get the satisfaction of creating something, and our sons are so very happy to receive them.

Turn the water heater down a little bit. You can save almost $400.00 a year doing so.

Try not to use paper towels or paper napkins. I do use paper towels for really messy clean ups, but I am thinking of trying to make some cloth ones. I mostly use rags made from old clothes. You could save almost $200.00 a year if you switch to cloth.

Do not let the water run when you handwash dishes.

Change your lightbulbs to LED. Savings could be almost $200.00 by doing so. They also last much longer than regular bulbs or CFL's.

Don't use your credit card unless you can pay it off each and every month.

Practice thrifting or shopping at consignment stores. Now you can also shop garage sales online.

Buy clothing at your favourite stores after a season ends. Clearance racks have awesome reduction in prices.

I hope that some of these tips strike a cord and help you in these trying times.

Everyone have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Thrifty and Frugal Thursday

 

                                                    Thrifty and Frugal

Trying to stay thrifty and frugal this week. I do have a feeling as time passes there could be a bit of a problem with the frugal part. Thrifty will continue as usual. 

So what thrifty and frugal practices have been happening here on the old homestead. 

1.  Most of this month I have been using those small appliances to cook our meals (mind you I do miss my oven now). Hopefully this will show up as a savings on our electrical bill.

2.  I think I have managed to get Harvey to turn off his lights in the basement mancave. I am of course continuing this upstairs. 

3.  Combined errands in order to save fuel and vehicle wear and tear.

4.  Turned a collar on one of Harvey's dressier shirts. 

5.  Darned a pair of my socks.

6.  Used lots of substitutions while cooking this week. 

7.  Cut a whole pork loin into a roast and 5 meals of pork chops.

8.  I had some wrinkled potatoes and so weighed them and found I had the 2 pounds necessary for potato soup. That was made today and will be put in the freezer after labelling.

9.  Using up leftovers in other meals.

10.  Walking (even if it is in the house) for free and frugal exercise.

11.  Taking advantage of sales, and free entertainment.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Questions Answered

 I thought perhaps I would answer a few questions from my last post here, rather than each individually. If anyone is like me, I sometimes forget to go back and see if there is an answer to my question on a post. So here goes.

1.  I have never even tried to make my own microwave popcorn, but that sounds like a very good idea. Next time I shall pick up some lunch bags and regular popcorn to give it a try. After all I make my own bread, spice mixes, and yogurt this would be just another arrow in the frugal arsenal. 

2.  I know that Walmart and Costco are American stores (so is Home Depot) but Walmart carries lots of Canadian goods and does have a head office here in Canada. I kind of hold off on allowing Galen Weston (owner of No Frills, Loblaws, Super Store and so on) from becoming richer than he already is. He also price gouges. So purchasing a Canadian product in Walmart will still be helping a business in this country.

3. The nearest Giant Tiger is approximately 2 1/2 hours away from us. Perhaps the next time we go to Regina we will pay that store a visit. I did visit the one in Yorkton when we went to visit the Aunts (that is 3 hours away) and liked what I saw.

4. I will probably charge a nominal amount if this knitting class goes ahead. What I gather is that most of the ladies (and gentlemen) that would take it have no knitting experience whatsoever. That could be a challenge. While I have taught girls in the Guiding movement knitting, never have I taught an adult.

I think that what I thought could be tea towels on my loom are going to end up becoming placemats. The fabric just seems slightly too thick to make a good absorbent tea towel. I will be on the lookout for slightly thinner cotton yarn for the weft in order to make those tea towels a bit later on. Pretty sure the next thing I weave will be some kind of fabric to make a belted wrap, or perhaps a poncho, or perhaps another rug for an area in the basement that needs one. So many ideas and so little time. 

In my decluttering I found an old ball point pen that was given to me as a graduation gift from Grade 8 (so very long ago). The inner refill has been gone forever so I decided to see if I could find one in town. I did, but at almost $8.00 I am going to search online for the next one. I purchased the refill and have even done a bit of journaling with it today. So nice to be able to use it once again even with the cost. Oh, yeah, the refill came from France!!!!

I won't be finishing any more of this month's projects. I could perhaps do so if I did not work on the loom or embroider and just stick to knitting, but my hands and back need a change every so often. Hopefully at least the knitting will be completed very soon into February. 

Off to visit you all as supper is cooking and I have time.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.