Thursday

With a forecast calling for 90% rain today and tomorrow, I'm trying to keep myself inside.  I'm hoping that the rain will wash a lot of the pollen away.  It was cloudy all morning but still hadn't rained by noon.  I took a chance and headed over to Hancock.  The next fabric I will need for the Starburst quilt was on sale beginning today for 40% off and there was a 20% off total purchase in the flyer they mailed to me. (I try to buy all my quilting supplies on sale.). I ran over there and purchased 3 1/2 yards (regular 4.99 a yard on sale for 2.99 a yard).  My total was less than $10 after tax.  I considered buying for the backing as well but there is a 50% coupon in this sale flyer for next week and beyond. I have toy totally decided on what to back it with as the design keeps evolving.

While I was out, I stopped at Chick-fil-a and purchased a tea.  I came home and heated some leftovers for lunch.

Today was a quiet day with just some normal chores.  I did wash a load of clothes twice thanks to a tortilla that got washed in with the load.  I also ran the dishwasher.

Tomorrow, I will be working on our taxes.  Next week, promises to be more ambitious.

Never left the house today...

I had a fairly long list of things to do today and the pollen was awful so I just de iced to stay in today.  I did walk to the mailbox and pull the garbage can inside.  

I didn't really do anything frugal today but I didn't spend any money, other than paying a couple of bills, either.  

My days definitely go by better when I have a plan.  Tomorrow, I will be working on our taxes.  Unfortunately, as I may have mentioned, we will be paying a hefty chunk on the 15th.  I just dread finishing the filing because it makes it "real!"  It has to be done so I'm going to try and get the bulk of it done tomorrow.

Next week, as long as I am feeling well, I will be visiting a couple of placement agencies.  There are just too few jobs posted that fit with what I'm looking for.  The two that I have applied for appear to be great fits but I've heard nothing.  There are obviously jobs out there that fit my criteria and I believe that a placement agency (temp or perm) is the way to find out about them and get in the door.

Even if there's not a permanent placement, I would like to work a couple of weeks just to earn a little money to replenish out bank account and/or take a mini vacation.

Off to Walmart

I ran over to Walmart today stopping by the bank to deposit two small checks we had.  I tried very hard to stay on task and limit my purchases.  In addition to some necessities I went for, I also did buy a small package of tiny bulldog clips for a quilting project.  I priced the quilting clips at $6 but decided the $3 bulldog clips would do just as well and thee were 3 times as many.  I also bought a personal clothing item that I thought was $4.  When I checked the receipt later today I found out it was $6.  I was a little irritated but it does fit well so I will keep it.

Without a master plan today, I don't feel like I got much accomplished.  Tomorrow, I will revisit out tax return and make some progress on this.  

Our dinner partners cancelled dinner tonight so instead of cooking the chicken (more than we could eat for just the two of us), I stuck it back in the freezer and pulled out three small packages of ground beef from the freezer.  These are usually remnants from making burgers or hamburger steaks.  I added some fresh garlic, shredded carrots and diced green and red peppers.  I combined this with a jar of spaghetti sauce and a can of stewed tomatoes.  Some olive oil and dried oregano and basil were used for seasoning.  I served this over a half package of thin spaghetti in the cabinet with a small salad and some garlic bread from the freezer.  It was delicious and we have enough left for two lunches and maneuver some extra sauce going into the freezer.  We will thaw and cook the chicken next week.  This was a little bit of savings for the day.

The Menu

I'm keeping the menu rather simple this week and hoping that I can limit my grocery purchases to help offset the plumbing expenses from last week.

Sunday - Easter Dinner

Monday - Easter leftovers

Tuesday - Chinese teriyaki chicken and fried rice, simple Asian salad

Wednesday - Tacos

Thursday - Ham with scalloped potatoes (cut remaining ham off the bone, freeze extra)*

Friday - TBD

Saturday - big Salad

Sunday - black eyed peas, ham and cornbread

* I will freeze the ham in small and large chunks.  The small chunks will be used to make ham fried rice and the larger chunks will be for seasoning beans (I have a package of dried field peas.)

This menu should require few extra purchases.  I bought some deli meat, some produce, eggs and a few random things today.  I may need to purchase sour cream for Wednesday.

I'm planning for next week to focus on freezer foods.  I know there's a package of cooked roast beef that soups be excellent as either a beef pot pie or a beefy stew/hash.

Easter Sunday

There were peeps on the plates and cute little egg shaped place cards but Easter dinner didn't break the budget.  

We had ham (Smithfield from BJs; $19 less a $5 coupon), homemade baked mac and cheese (bought a 8 ounce block of seriously sharp cheese and used extra from the fridge), green beans (fresh from Burgers Market $12), sweet potatoes ($2), carrots ($1.50), rolls $3, pie ($5), brownies from the pantry, tea from the pantry.  Less than $39 to feed six adults and six kids.  We have plenty of leftover ham and beans and some of the other things.

Tomorrow all the decorations get packed away.

Wednesday and Thursday - on the mend

I managed a regular dinner Wednesday and had a marathon session of laundry and dishes.  I did notice that one of my wate pipes downstairs (in the basement) had a pinhole and was spraying water everywhere.  I was able to make a temporary fix by squeezing some rubberized material onto the pipe and securing it with two small pipe clamps.  It worked well enough to get us to the next morning without a complete mess.

While I think DH could have managed the repair, this has been an awful week for him work wise and certainly not something he would want to "try."  I called a local plumber to come Thursday morning,

The plumber arrived about 10 am Thursday and concluded that our copper pipes are just wearing thin.  He asked if we would interested in changing out all the pipes.  I told him "no way" that was happening at this time and we needed to just repair what was broken.  He replaced a straight section of cold line and a t section of the hot line.  I was stunned at the price $785 but I asked for the $50 coupon from their website and he agreed.  That's a big hit to our budget and after seeing how it was fixed, next time we will attempt q simple fix like this ourselves.  At least, we will try.

I also asked about the price to replace our water heater and was quoted $1600-1700 which included adding an expansion tank.  That's going to have to happen this year as we are 15+ years on our current one,

It's been an expensive day but I did save $5 on our Easter ham.  I just need to buy another 1400 hams or so to recoup that money.

Sick Days: Monday and Tuesday

I was so sick Monday that I hardly did anything.  I managed to wash a load of clothes and I think that may be it.  DH graciously picked up a couple of subs on his way home.  

Today (Tuesday) I felt a little better but I'm still sick.  I managed to take a quick trip to the grocery store and mad a pot of vegetable beef soup for dinner.  Just that wore me out.  

I'm hoping that I will be feeling better tomorrow.

The Weekend

My mother came for a visit this weekend.  We started Friday evening by keeping three of the grandchildren.  It was chaos but we managed to survive.  We did eat in which helped to control the kids and expenses.

Saturday was busy as well.  We had breakfast out and then prepared to go to the play one of the oldest grandchildren was in.  It was a long play, we finished up over two and a half hours later.  We stopped by Target to pick up a couple of birthday presents and then headed out to dinner.  A new little neighborhood restaurant had opened around the corner - Moxie Burger.  We tried it all: burgers, dawg and a salad.  We anticipated a belated birthday celebration for DH but it did not occur.

Sunday was almost as busy.  We ate in early because we thought we were meeting some folks for lunch but as it turned out, the birthday party's time had been change and included lunch.  After the party, Mom headed home and we went to the grocery store to pick up something for dinner - chicken soup.  I was already feeling like I was catching something after having a sore throat Saturday.

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday

A whole lot more of the same stuff for the past few days.  

Tuesday:  For some odd reason, I was a bit tired today.  No big projects, just regular stuff - laundry and dishes.  I made homemade bread to go with a chef salad we had for lunch.  We ate so little of it that I've out the bread machine away for now.  

We did make a change in our health insurance that should save us $14 a week and give us dental coverage that we don't currently have.  This should start in May and save us about $700 a year.

Wednesday:  more everyday kind of things today.  I worked outside spreading some pine straw and spraying for weeds.  (Looks like I will need to spray again because they are not dying.). 

I applied for a job today that looks good on paper.  It took nearly an hour and a half to recreate my work and educational history on their website.  It was a lot of effort so I will be disappointed if I don't get an interview. 

I made an appointment to get the tires rotated on my car for Friday.

Thursday:  I washed three (2) loads of dishes and one load of laundry today.  Watered the house plants and placed them outside.

I picked up a few things for the grocery store including a carrot cake of DH's birthday (his request).  I visited one of the boys school to cheer him on in a fundraising run.  I finished my daily activities by mowing the grass.  (Lawnmower cranked o the first pull!)

The best part of the day was that DH got a new work truck.  This is provided for his use by the company.  At his request, this vehicle is much smaller than what he previously had.  We have some tentative plans for vehicles and this will allow us to move forward with those.  We're looking at long term plans for vehicles that will last us (maybe) into retirement and what our needs are now and what they will be.

There's a lot going o this weekend so I may not be back until Sunday night.  Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Sunday and Monday

Do you notice it, too?  That once a day posting is turning in to multi day posting.  I'll try to do better?

Sunday:  it was supposed to be a rainy day but it turned out pretty nice.  Our time management was a little off since this was the first morning of daylight savings time.  DH noticed how cool it was so after every we grabbed a bite for lunch, we ran by the Home Depot and picked up 10 bales of pine straw.  While he spread this over our the bed in our side yard, I bagged up some clippings from the forsythia and some limbs that had fallen over winter.  It looks so much better.  I'm thinking that we may extend the bed towards the property line since there is no grass there anyway and it is very difficult to keep clean and mow.

I also went to the grocery store and bought for the week.

Monday:  Impromptu day with Tyler.  He had a little tummy problem Sunday evening so he came to stay with me Monday.  Of course, that meant that not much got done.  He and I went out and bagged up some more limbs but it was a little cool so we stopped with the one bag.

I did manage to get a little laundry done and folded (with some help).  

I hope Tuesday is a little more productive.

Saturday

Today seemed busy but not all that much was done.

DH and I had our normal Saturday breakfast out and came home.  We've had a run or gorgeous weather so he decided to go out for a ride.  I decided to go do some birthday shopping for him but just as I got on the way, he texted with "ideas."  It was something similar to what he was looking at so I called him and suggested that if he really wanted that, it could be his birthday present.  Only problem, he was on his bike and couldn't get it home.  I agreed to meet him, have lunch and go ring it home.  Well, that's almost a two hour event. 

I got back to the house about 2:20 and briefly considered mowing the lawn but I was concerned that I didn't have time before the 3:00 baseball game.  I surfed a bit and put on a load of dark clothes to wash.  

After the baseball game, we went over to the grocery store and picked up a few things and a redbox movie.  I made hamburger steaks (on the grill), red potatoes, and a tomato cucumber salad.  We tried eating outside but there were little baby flies that kept annoying us.  Good dinner, cheaper than going out.

Redbox movie, puzzle, and video games for entertainment.

Tomorrow is forecast to be a rainy day.  I still need a few things from the grocery store for the week so I will be doing that. I also need to return a pair of shoes.

Wednesday, Thursday and Friday

Wednesday:  I spent the morning pressure washing the back deck, grill and furniture.  It went quickly once I got the pressure washer cranked.  It wouldn't start the first time, but I let it sit a few moments and it started again on the first pull.  After it was dry, I swept the deck and set up the furniture.

I made my homemade macaroni and cheese ahead of dinner time to make dinner prep really easy.

I picked up the two littlest boys from daycare and then kept two while the third went for a doctors office.

Thursday:  a very busy day.  I pressure washed the front porch - all the turned spindles, handrails, furniture, and storage box.  Again, I set up the porch after it was dry.

I washed a couple of loads of laundry, folded laundry and reloaded and ran the dishwasher.

After a trip to Home Depot, I fixed the brackets for the downstairs shower curtain and put out a yellow jacket trap since we had a lot of them flying around.

My replacement mirrors (second set) arrived Thursday.  I unpacked one - very carefully - and installed it.  I installed the second one Friday.  

Friday:  I had some errands to run.  I picked up new rechargeable hearing aid batteries for DH from the audiologist' office and used my HSA to pay for them.  We have been very fortunate to have not had to use much, if any, of that money this year.

I also shopped at Sprouts today (I try to limit this to one trip every other week) for some tomatoes, a cucumber, a few bell peppers and a whole bunch of baking potatoes.  The potatoes were only .50 a pound compared to the 1.29 that Publix has been charging.  We may be having a potato are next Wednesday.  While I was on that side of town, I also stopped off at Whole Foods where I purchased some of their store brand Italian sausage, a few olives off the bar and a very small wedge of pecorino romano.  

I tried to get a birthday present but the store I went to did not have what I was looking for.  I will have to try again tomorrow.  

I finished the day up by taking my clippers to my gigantic forsythia bush.  No joke, the thing must be 10 feet tall.  It looks like it started out as two or three bushes and as the branches grew longer, they self rooted into a ring of forsythias.  I took a pretty good bit of the bigger ongerbrqnches out of the center and left the ring for now.  With this bush, as soon as the yellow blooms appear (which should be soon)' it will be days before it fills out with leaves and then trimming is very difficult.  This is the first time I've been able to really take some of the bush out. I still need to pick up the cut branches and get rid of them, but that can be done another day.

Throw out the plan Tuesday

II had a list of things to do today with deck cleanup taking priority.  I decided at breakfast this morning that we were going to have to replace the car battery sooner or later so it might as well be today.  (I've been driving the other car because the battery had a bad cell and I was concerned that it would leave me stranded.). I called and made an appointment for today at 10:30.  I expected it to take a little ove an hour.  I got there a little early and it probably took them an hour an a half.  I picked up some lunch on the way home.

While I was waiting at the dealership, I was able to finish my third book this year.  That puts me ahead of my schedule of reading one book each month.  Now, I need to find a new book.  I will be looking at the library site tonight to see what new stuff they have in.

Seeing that my whole day was now upside down, I tried to make the best of what I had left.  I got one load of laundry done and I picked up a little bit.  I cleaned off the bread machine that was in the garage and threw together a basic loaf of bread.  It's still cooking as I type.  My yeast was a little old but it's been kept in a jar in the fridge so I'm hoping that it worked.  (I was a little generous with the yeast - just in case).  I also changed our menu and made a pot of homemade vegetable soup.  Fresh onions, celery and potatoes but everything else was canned from the pantry. (Update:  the bread was good, probably coul have cooked a little longer but I had it on the rapid bake.  Next time, I will reduce the salt a little and use the regular bake.)

After every dinner, I will be cleaning off the dining room table and setting it for dinner tomorrow night.  I have kiddie pickup tomorrow and family dinner for the our group.  I am making homemade mac and cheese tomorrow ahead of dinner time to allow for the pickup.  The smoked sausage and steamed broccoli is quick to put together.

Most of today's to do list will roll over to tomorrow.  I am planning on getting the deck, grill and patio furniture pressure washed before it rains this weekend.

Sunny Monday!

Today was all about chores at home.  My to-do list was almost a page long.  I got everything except a couple of things done.  

I finally got to the grocery store.  I think I left with four or five bags .. $74.  That's hard to believe.  I bought just for the week and two jars of spaghetti sauce and two packets of small ham steaks.  I did get two packages of ground sirloin for dinner tonight which was a little splurge.  I probably have 3/4 pound to go into the freezer.

I worked for a while to get some of the sewing/guest room organized, wash the linens and two other loads of clothes, and spent a half an hour collecting dead branches from the yard.  I'd like to pressure wash the deck tomorrow but I'm not sure if it will be warm enough.  It's supposed to be 74 degrees so we will see if it happens.  I'm working on a list now.

I was able to get a little more sewing done on my star quilt and hope to get another hour or so done tonight.  If all goes well, I should be finished well before the weekend.  I will be taking a couple of weeks off before I start a new project.  As a matter of fact, I thoroughly cleaned my machine this afternoon and covered it up.  

Wonderful Weather Weekend

We got a bit of a late start Saturday morning and our usual breakfast place was packed.  Instead, we dined at Waffle House.  After breakfast, DH went in search for some new work shoes at a nearby store.  He found a pair that would be acceptable at $130.  

We had opening day at the ball field which took up a bit of time around noon but afterward we went looking at a second store for shoes.  Bingo!  He found a pair almost exactly like he wanted on sale for $70.  It's a name brand (Rockport) that he's bought before and had good luck with.  He can usually get 6-9 months out of a pair of shoes.  While we were three, I also found a pair of sneakers (New Balance) on the clearance aisle.  These normally sell for $60-75 marked down to $40.  We got both pair and called it a day.

We were able to get the lawnmower running after replacing the spark plug and putting fresh gas in the tank.  It's still not running great but I was able to get the lawn mowed.  We are hoping that after a few sessions it will run better.  The next step is a new carbuerator.

We had a $5 coupon for a neighborhood pizza place that we've been meaning to try.  Dinner was $17 after the coupon for a medium pizza with three toppings and two soft drinks.  We brought three slices home and ate those for lunch Sunday.  Saturday's movie feature was from redbox - cheap.

Sunday we were mostly home.  I baked a cake for DH and took it over for her to decorate.  In the afternoon, we went to the track for a walk.  3/4 mile for DH and 1/2 mile for me.  Dinner was a stuffed potatoes and fixings from the pantry.

I finished all the quilting on the star quilt, put the red picture frame border on the back side and I am now hand stitching the dark blue binding on.  Binding goes really fast except those pesky corners - either too much fabric or not enough.

It was a mostly a quiet weekend. 

Friday!

Today was a nice sunshiny day and it would have been really nice except that it was cold and windy!  I met a friend for lunch today and shared our stories of job hunting.  She retired from work just two months after I left and she was looking for strictly a part time job.  Luckily for her, she has found one that she will be starting soon at a well known retail establishment in their garden department. 

I'm still looking.  Of course, I'm not looking for retail and I don't want part time.  I'm also trying to focus on places close to home to cut down on travel time and expenses.  Before, I was driving a minimum of 45 minutes (15 miles) each way with good traffic and starting and ending my day much earlier than most.  I'd like to keep that to 30 minutes or less, if possible.

What else did I do today?  I finally took the torque wrench to the other Sears store to send off for repair or replacement.  (As directed by our local Sears store manager.). Guess what?  They don't repair those and they don't send them out so he directed me to the tool department and they simply replaced it with a new one off the shelf.  I was in and out Ike's than ten minutes.  No hassle.  Now, why couldn't my local store handle this so well?  Apparently, no one knows what is going on!  Just keep in mind that just because it says Craftsman, Sears may or may not warranty it.  So different from the way things used to be.

I washed two loads of clothes and a load of dishes.  I also paid the tag renewals for two of our vehicles on line.  I didn't get to the grocery store, maybe I will do that Sunday.

I finished the last quilting on my star quilt today.  I will be putting a red border 1 1/2 - 2" on the backside and then a small (1" or smaller) blue binding that will be seen from both sides.  This is new to me but my backing is a little short in a few areas and this seemed like a good way to fix that problem.  A little creativity to the rescue.  I may also appliqué a medium to large sized star on the back if I have the fabric available.

I expect next week to be a busy week.

A Winter Surprise Thursday

I expected it to rain today so I decided that I would focus on getting things tidy around the house.  I still have at least one more load of dishes from the night before and many things were out of place.

I unloaded the dishwasher and loaded it up again.  I had to pull every glass out, soak and scrub the inside before I ran it again.  Every once in a while, the dishwasher gets angry and neglects to rinse effectively.  I think this episode was due to a pair of tongs that slipped down and blocked the upper arm.

All the clean clothes have been folded and most have been put away.  I cleaned off the dining room table and put out the decorative items.  (It always pleases me to see the dining room in order.)

Then I ran to get the emissions checked on my car.  This is a yearly requirement to get your new tags.  My tax/tag is due in two weeks.  Tomorrow, I will pay the fee for two vehicles and be done with this early.  Fortunately, all of our vehicles now only have the $20 yearly tag fee plus the emissions and that runs around $25.  

After that, I stopped by Walgreens to pick up some drug store type items we needed.  My total was $20.64.  I cashed in $20 in points and paid the .64 with change.  My frugal hilight of the day!

I ate leftovers for lunch and quilted a little bit in the early afternoon while I watched a little bit of snow infiltrate our rain showers.  I couldn't believe my eyes but soon, the snow was on the news.  It's not unheard of to have snow in early March.  Shortly after we moved up here, there was a massive snow storm in early March (1993) that kept us house bound for a few days.

Dinner tonight was a chef salad, completely from what we had on hand.  I did not have any canned biscuits or bread mix so I made some homemade biscuits using baking mix, sour cream and lemon lime soda.  Yummy!  I may heat one up for breakfast.

Wednesday

The highlight of my day was taking my car to the dealership for an oil change.  We had some other concerns that had the potential to be very expensive.  Fortunately, I got a great report on the car.  The feared problems had already been resolved via a warranty repair last year.  I do need a new battery which will be expensive but we suspected that this was on the horizon.  I will likely go back in a couple of weeks for this repair.  I also need to get my tires rotated at the tire shop - probably next week.

I picked up lunch on the way home and did a load of laundry.  The weather was too cold to get outside today.  It had warmed up by 3:30-4:00 but it was getting too late to start an outside project.  I pulled in the trash can and called it a day.  Dinner tonight was tacos, refried beans and Spanish style rice.  I had everything on hand.

My Spanish rice tonight was adapted from a baked rice dish I made last week.  

2 c rice

Spices (cumin, chili powder and dried onions - about a teaspoon each)

2 T butter

1 boullion cube chicken and tomato and 1/2 boullion cube chicken

1 can of tomatoes

Drain the tomatoes (reserve liquid) add to rice, spices, boullion and butter in baking dish.  Add water to tomato juice to make 4 cups and heat to boiling.  Add boiling water, cover with foil.

Bake 20-25 minutes at 425 degrees.  Uncover and bake five more minutes if desired.

Very good but NOT spicy.

I am making good progress on my star quilt.  I have three more border sections and one internal section still to quilt.  I have had two areas that needed repair on the quilt.  One was a small cut that I backed with fusible interfacing.  The second area was a section that did not seam properly.  I had to place a small piece of fabric behind, turn the pieced areas under and stitch down with an appliqué stitch.  The repair is visible but acceptable.  The only other option would have been to remove this section and recreate.  

My replacement mirrors came yesterday but both were broken.  I got an email late today that they are sending two more.

I didn't really save or make any money today but I kept our expenses as low as reasonable today.

Tuesday

I got a lot of things done today and only left the house to vote.  

I made vegetable egg rolls from scratch.  They were easy to make but I think that they baked too long. I used the convection setting on my oven (reducing the temperature by 25 degrees) but I was looking for a golden brown and I got it but they were too hard in some places.  Next time, I will stuff them q little fuller and bake for less time.  Heck, I might even quickly fry.

Today, I was able to work outside a little more: taking the backyard, cleaning the mailbox planter up, and blowing off the driveway.  I even spent a few minutes raking out the "dry bed" that drains our gutters and opening the rain barrel to drain.  (It needs to be cleaned and repainted.)

My replacement mirrors arrived today but when we opened them, both were broken (one was shattered).  I took pictures and emailed the company.  I was looking forward to getting my mirror back. I guess we see now what they can/will do.  

I also got the cross stitch (that I was cleaning and remounting) back in its frame.  DS mended and required the frame.  

Tomorrow, I will be spending the morning at the car dealership.