End of June frugal

I have scarlet runner beans on the trellis. These were "leftover" flowers from the ones that went into hanging pots my daughters made. So I decided to plant them here with the scarlet runner beans I plant each year for the humming birds.They like the red blooms.

Every day frugal choices... windows open when it's cool, curtains shut during hottest part of day. Fans when in rooms and turned off when not. AC only when it's above 80° and it's set for 78°. We wash dishes by hand,,,no dishwasher here. I mix blue Dawn ,2/3rds soap to 1/3rd water and put that in small dish soap bottles. I use blue Dawn because it is a multi-use item. I use vinegar to clean the windows and the sinks (vinegar and baking soda helps keep drains clear).Turn off power strips to coffee makers, computers etc. We had summer heat in  the 90s-100s and now are down to low 70's with night lows in the low 50's ...was tempting to turn furnace on when the house was down in low 60's but instead got "Fall" like clothes back out and wore them. Did laundry with cold tap water, homemade laundry soap and dried on clothes line and drying rack.Make a point of transferring money to savings acct every week even it's only $1. Save all my change. Use Speedway rewards card for 3¢ off a gal. Used Kroger's rewards card  and split the point into 2 different fill ups. Used CVS points to get money off items that was on sale and I had coupons for. Kept my Walgreen's card connected to my exercise tracker to get points there.

Didn't water the gardens because of all the rain. Also couldn't fertilize so that's going to go farther.

Reorganized stock up in upstairs... made list of what is needed to run us through 6 months, figuring 4 months without income or very little income beginning of 2018 when Hubby retires. Researched his options with retirement. We paid off our Ch 13 (slow pay bankruptcy) in Dec that was caused when he went to 3 days a wk for 2 yrs and medical bills going through the roof with my heart failure. Rebuilding credit and savings and researched the credit cards to get. One for each of us. Didn't worry about interest rate because we pay in full before it's due. Do need to research best place to put savings for 3-6 months emergency fund.

Did click list at Kroger's. Definitely kept me reined in.  THEN went a week later to Kroger's with paper coupons after matching meat coupons with sales . Yes meat coupons that are so few and far between.My meat slicer I replaced has had a work out.  I also pulled a London broil that had been in the freezer and sliced half of it very thin for  Philly steak subs(wraps) and then used the leftover for stir fry with snow peas from the garden and finished those leftovers in a frittata. The other half was marinaded,
 grilled and then sliced. We used the leftovers on top of salad from the garden. Sliced eggplant, yellow squash and zucchini with my meat slicer for several meals.Sliced chicken breasts and did the same as the London Broil.

Harvest garlic scapes, garlic, storage onions, green onions, lettuce, snow peas (done), radishes (done),
thyme, oregano, garlic chives, chives, rose petals(done), and lavender. Have more herbs that will need harvested and processed for storage this coming week.

Cut my pain meds in 4ths with approval of doctor.

Got a $20 discount, swagbucks and 2 days free on the car rental I got last week when we were down to only the motorcycle and it was storming.

Our son borrowed our truck while his was in for repairs and he found we had a very small gas leak in the fuel line as he parks in the garage and we are on a gravel lane. Our mechanic (who lets us make payments without interest) said if he can just repair it instead of replace it he will. That will be done during shut down so we won't need to rent a car. Mechanic will bring Hubby back home when he drops it off and drop off truck here at home when it's done. Our youngest has our car as she lost her ride to work when she left her ex.

I cashed in my Pine Cone survey points and my Swag bucks.

Our landlord decided to NOT raise the rent with property taxes that went up and since we pay for our dogs to be here on a monthly charge we figured he would just want to leave is as if we still had Miss Kira but he actually lowered it by 5% due to us doing all the mowing including the part he said he would take care of in the lease. He has mowed the entire thing a couple times when our mower was down for repairs.

Hubby repaired the riding lawn mower, wheel broke off the mower deck.

Hubby got a bonus and we put half in savings and the other half was for a trimmer as ours died and it's big need here. We found one at the hardware store on sale for $50 cheaper than I had priced everywhere else at PLUS we had a $25 coupon off  $100 of anything we bought at the store AND then since we bought a gal of the fuel (50/1) for it we got another discount and double the yrs in warranty and they do the servicing of it for the warranty. SO I was able to put more in to savings. :)

Compared to last year we lowered our electric by 5 %. this past month AND our propane usage by 35%

Blessed Be

Mid June frugal?

The climbing rose bush has went wild. The front garden has exploded with flowers(weeds that bloomed) and the birds are thrilled. Frugal we don't have to buy bird food except for the hummingbird and only because we feel it's better for them to have calcium etc to make the egg shells stronger. AND YES I know the back door is propped open. When we are out we prop it open so Rascal will go get a drink of water...bugger butt won't drink out of the outside pan that he drank out before. LOL.

I harvested rose petals, lavender, spearmint,peppermint and choc mint for tea.

I harvest thyme, oregano, chives and garlic chives for the dehydrator and for use.

I harvest lettuce (had some bolt before it got the size of baby lettuce), green onions, some of the garlic bulbs to cure and snow peas. Might get one more meal off the snow peas.

I transplanted a hanging basket that now is 4 pots of flowers.

I planted Italian green beans (wide green bean), over 150 candy onion starts, beets, carrots, nasturtiums, zucchini, yellow summer squash, Armenian cucumbers, pickle cucumbers , red noodle beans and yard long green beans.

We had/have several doctor appts this month. Hubby has one left, I have 5.

Hubby was diagnosed with GERD. ENT doc put him on generic meds and changed his diet...which is now a lot closer to mine (SMILING BIG TIME). Not that I wanted him to have GERD but I'm not having to fix extra stuff for him any more .

I have a bone spur in my rotor cuff that is going to be dealt with ...Jumping the hoops of ins as both shoulders have issues but I can only to one at a time and have to wait for the MRI to be approved etc...

I used short wash with tap cold water and homemade laundry soap and used the clothes line.

I dug out the old drip hoses and put them in the south gardens. We were going to change how we watered but with knowing we will be moving within a year or so we decided to hold off on buying anything for gardens.

I have 2 rooms to finish prepping for summer this coming week and putting the last of the cold weather stuff away.

We took 3 loads of "stuff" to the thrift shop.... I think we are almost through what was the kids stuff. LOL

I turn AC off during the late evening to morning hours (unless it's storming) and leave the windows open.. Hubby runs a small AC in the bedroom while he sleeps days , it's set at 75 with med fan. He prefers 72 but with having the ceiling fan on also (only room with a ceiling fan) he sleeps ok.

We are looking for a home with land, our realtor is sending us updated lists that meets what we told him we were looking for in 6 different counties. Saves everyone time and gas instead of running around. When we go look at the houses , we do a "run by" before we call him... pictures of what looks far off the road or without close neighbors aren't always what they really are.

Hubby ride the motorcycle to work when it's not forecasted for rain.

I changed some of my routine to help ease the grief of losing Miss Kira along with Rascal changing some of his also. Miss Kira did  perimeter clockwise..Rascal walks counterclockwise. If I use the word perimeter he will walk in the driveway and watch me but not walk with me. If I say walk, he runs to the edge of the perimeter across the driveway and waits for me. He begs (sits pretty and barks at the truck door) for a ride in the morning when Hubby gets home and then doesn't care the rest of the day...if I/we are leaving and we tell him he can't go, he goes and lays down unlike Miss Kira that would HOWL and CRY and then go pout.. The only thing he begs for is a ride not food or his treats. He definitely was following Kira's lead instead of being himself. He is more of a barker than she was and he is jumping up and checking whatever is going down the road where she only did it if someone pulled in the drive.

We had our small tiller fixed instead of replacing it but are replacing the weed eater instead of fixing it. Based it on price and the age of what we had.

I broke down and applied through our bank for a credit card so I could rent a car when we went to go to Dad's as we only have the truck and bike now. I don't care for credit cards but rental cars required credit cards. I got a limited at my request amt for 0% interest for 15 billing cycles (which is less than 15 months) and then it goes up...but since I don't carry a balance I don't really care what it goes up to.Bank thought I was weird for requesting a low amt but what ever LOL.

We ate from the pantry except for twice, both times got "lunch" out and took home leftovers for dinner due to doc appts.

Blessed Be.




 

What I bought,what I will buy, what's in the garden

and the plans for it... just so you have some understanding of our home life... Hubby works graveyard shift at a physical demanding job. Both of us have  cholesterol issues...well he doesn't if he doesn't eat certain seafood). Mine is all over the place and it doesn't seem to matter if I just look at it or eat it. I have Crohn's. Regretfully with Crohn's it isn't just a one diet fits all and a lot of time something I ate last week that was fine won't be fine next week. It also calls absorption issues so I fight malnutrition constantly. I border lined diabetes due to meds...steroids... I am on a different steroid that doesn't seem to mess that up as bad and I am SLOWLY coming back down the dosage... My GI hopes I can come back off completely without a flare up. We eat from the pantry will fill  that I fill with food from my 1200 sq ft gardens and the Amish produce auction along with sales from the stores. I regularly shop Aldi's , Kroger's, Wagner IGA, Anna IGA( both IGA cut their meat and grind the hamburger and sausage in house), CVS and Walgreen's. Once a year I get meat from butcher shops, Kah and Davis butcher shops and I get my bologna (half roll of about 17 thick slices) from G&R bar and grill (well known in OH).

for total of $187.41

What I bought for emergency supplies in tornado shelter
2 beef stew
5 gal of water
4 canned kraut
4 canned peas and carrots
4 canned hominy
4 canned wax beans
Instant mashed potatoes

What I bought for stocking the pantry
2 each lunch meat ham and turkey (on sale with coupon now in freezer)
4 canned hominy
2 sweet relish
2 dill relish
2 coney sauce
3 tortilla wraps ( in freezer 3 sizes)

What I bought for NOW
10 lbs potatoes
1 milk
2 cottage cheese
10 lbs on sale apples (Hubby takes one to work every night and for apple salad plus to lettuce salads)
 ice cream 1 bucket and 2 Klondikes
4 Hot pockets/lean pockets for Hubby for lunch when we have soup or there isn't enough left to make his lunch from. (coupon with sale)
2 shredded cheese Co jack and moz)
1 each lunch meat:turkey and ham. (coupon and sale)
1 sliced cheese (coupon and sale) provolone
Ammonia (outside of windows need washed)
lettuce ,lettuce is just coming up and isn't going to produce enough ...planting more 30 day mix bag of romaine and 1 bibb
1  celery
2 avocado
4 ears of corn on the cob (I eat one for lunch)
4 limes
bag lemons
Lipton instant tea ( I make ice tea for me and can't drink it fast enough to keep it from going bad so I use instant lemon tea mixed with raspberry tea)
3-8 pks coke (sale with coupon)
4 canned hominy (Hubby eats it when I eat spinach)
1 ea. tortilla wraps of 3 sizes
1 pk of 8 slider buns that I also use as rolls
4 lbs strawberries (lost this years crop due to late freeze)
2 lbs grapes
1 pint blueberries
2 lbs bananas
2 lbs peaches
2 pints cherry tomatoes
2 lbs slicing tomatoes.
5 doz. eggs

What I will still buy this month 
raspberries (sale)
strawberries (sale)
broccoli
2.5 gal jugs of water (emergency supplies)
asparagus (sale)
chicken breast (sale)
London broil beef (sale)
Havarti cheese slices (sale)
bulk sausage
paper plates (sale)
milk
pork loin (sale) for roast and chops.
pork tenderloin (sale) to smoke for "Canadian bacon"
tomatoes/ milk/ bananas/ in season fruit later in month.
cabbage or cole slaw mix
Hamburger patties (Wagner's)
sausage patties (Wagner's)
smoked sausage
BRATS (LOL Hubby just reminded me)

ON THE MENU 
potato salad
mac salad
pasta salad
cole slaw
cucumber and tom salad (sometimes onion also)
anti-pasta salad (pepperoni, black olives, canned mushrooms, cherry tom, in Italian dressing)
Jell-o salad
broccoli salad
carrot raisin salad
assorted lettuce salads
mixed fruit salad
egg salad
deviled eggs
bologna salad
chicken salad
cucumbers sandwiches
frittata
123 pasta
mac and cheese
kabobs
stirfries
wraps (meat and veggies in a tortilla wrap)
quesadillas/burritos/ enchiladas/tacos
smoked sausage
brats (grill)
hotdogs (grill)
pork chops (grill)
steak (in freezer/grill)
hamburgers (grill)
sausage patties (grill)
chicken (grill)
fried bologna sandwiches
options for homemade subs/pizza/calzones

In the gardens
rhubarb about done

green onions (few)

snow peas are blooming but the regular peas didn't make it

lettuce is coming on a little bit

Will plant beans, radishes,other lettuce, spinach (again) zucchini and yellow squash

tomato plants are in except the 36 baby plants I was given that should have been started earlier. They might be big enough to plant next month. We plan to cover them this fall if necessary.

Planting more Candy onions for storage.

what is your plans?
Blessed Be