Last week of Jan

One of the "plates" I have made from our dinner and shoved in frig for Daughter 2 to eat when she gets in around 11 PM. She had bought a white wine with herbs marinade for chicken which we loved so I picked up some more of the packages that were on sale and made this porkchop with OJ which was an option. I might try chicken with pineapple juice which is another option listed on the package. She is now splitting a lunch with the server that works with her so she's not bringing leftovers home and both are saving money.

Hubby had bfast with some of his old co workers and used a gift card he was given when he retired.

I went to the store for odds and ends after our chiro appt(all errands at same time) and used the gift card that was bought for Dec/Jan groceries....still have $50 on the card and ALL of the money set ($420)aside for Jan/Feb(we run bills from 15th to 15th since that's when we get Hubby's retirement check)

We have washed plastic bags, foil, bread sacks and inserts to boxed food(not many of those).

We ate from the pantry until Friday night when we ordered a extra large pizza that has fed the 3 of us all weekend (added salad, fruit etc) since both Hubby and Daughter 2 was in and out with things that meant they weren't even home during the night. I thought I would get a quiet night.. nope dogs decided they needed out ever 2 hrs and since Charlotte isn't completely potty trained I wasn't going to just tell her to go lay down. One of them always pottied but the other two must have just went along.

Curtains are open to sunshine and closed with it's dreary and with windchills.

We no longer open the staircase to upstairs until Daughter 2 texts us that she is coming home. Told us to not turn on heater unless the windchill is below 10° as she has noted when she really needs to have it warmed up otherwise she will turn it on when she gets home and gets around for bed. As she has sever curvature of the spine we don't want the cold to trigger pain which is why she focused on when she needed the heater turned on sooner. She's paying the difference between what we budget for electric and what it costs so she's really trying to keep it down.

She started using the drying rack for when she doesn't have a full load of laundry. She has also tossed some of our laundry in to make a full load in the washer, side benny I don't have to do our laundry. 😉 when she does that.

We turned the furnace down 2 ° during the day when there is sunshine and 6° at night when we aren't getting the windchills.

We are buying items for 209 and keeping a  running budget. We went to Mendards for their 11 % rebate( after chiro appt also) to pick up some of the items. I stayed focused of general items that I know we will need like paint rollers, shower curtain rod, that kind of stuff. We meet with the contractor this week to finalize the plans so the mortgage guy can move to the next step of the rehab loan of 2 different inspections...things are moving a little quicker than planned according to the contractor as he had planned to have this meeting mid Feb so that's okay with us even if it means he won't actually start until mid March as he had planned as there is plenty of work for us to start on and not be in his way.

Daughter 2 was given a name of a restaurant that has all you can eat crab legs on Fridays until the end of Lent for $30/person...She KNOWS I love crab legs so she passed the info along to us as our anniversary is mid Feb and we were looking for a different place to eat out at.

She is also bringing home boxes and pieces of cardboard to use to separate the canning jars so won't have to buy so many speciality boxes for my 1000 plus canning jars....more on that on the 209 post.

Not frugal but definitely will save my sanity ...might be frugal if I don't have a break down over the work load LOL... I am putting together a project binder for 209... printing off things we need the contractor to do (kitchen sink, cabinets, countertop, what lights etc)so it should help eleminate part of the "got to call and ask" Need this answer etc. Put everything on hold until we get over there (an hour away and yes we have the gas budgeted for that for daily trips for 6 months). Gathering things we have in storage we can reuse in the house.