Tag Archives: Costco trip

Friday things

Posted in budgeting, budgets, California, swimming, travel, Uncategorized by

I think the week was fairly frugal. But as usual, there are always things.

I did do another Costco stop but that was not too much. I bought a workout set for B( zipped hoodie and sweatpants) so he has something nice to wear to Stanford. Actually, If I get back in there I’ll buy another set for him.

Then my son paid for the movie and I paid for the pizza.

This is the empty theatre.!!

Since we had pizza on Wednesday, I won’t do pizza tonight. I’ll figure out something. I made some of the homemade pasta and I might try that. It needs to dry but can be used. I’m not too sure how it will come out. The Imperia pasta machine did work great though. I guess the true test will be how it cooks and tastes.

I’m trying to decide if I’m swimming tomorrow. These weeks have just been so off with appointments; next week is the same. I guess I’ll see how it all looks if I swim on Monday and then the gym on Wed.

Simple Sunday

Posted in budgets, California, cooking, decluttering, Flylady, Pantry, Uncategorized by

Wow, lots of rain yesterday. This morning is still a little drizzly. Sadly, there is no Sunday walk but once I see the PT I’ll ask if I can even do a little. I don’t see them till near the end of the month unless there’s a cancellation. Definitely difficult for me but also don’t want my knee to buckle and then if I fall cause some other problem.

We did venture out in the rain to get the monthly Costco done. I was quite surprised it wasn’t packed. We found a place to park near the entrance and had no problem going down the aisles. We even got to the register without waiting. By the time we were leaving though cars were circling the parking lot because of the pouring rain.

Today I plan on doing the Flylady zone of the bathroom and I’ll add the bedroom too. I usually do these together as both don’t take very long. I also want to write down the meal plan for the week and see what needs using. We had freezer stuffed peppers last night and I also have some chicken enchiladas that I took out so I’ll have those tonight. I have some rice so I thought I’d make my favorite Greek lemon rice soup. Plus I have a lot of Meyer lemons that were given to me to use.

I have put a few things on Facebook market place I’m not using to try and sell. One is the Food Saver vacuum thing. If it doesn’t sell then I’ll put in a box for the Assistance League thrift store. My food saver hasn’t been used this year except when I did the corn this summer. I can just use ziploc bags for that this summer. I did use it when we were in the pandemic for oats and such but now I’m not interested in that kind of food storage. We gave the food bank all the Mountain House food I’d gotten during the pandemic and lots of cans of things I don’t need. That felt good to do that. The barn pantry now is officially closed and I’ll only keep bulk items in the house either in my jars or in the 2 under the bed bins. I still have plenty of beans, rice and canned goods plus my own shelf stable foods I canned. I’ll have to think about what might need to get stored out there as I have the nice bins I bought for food and I’d like to see them used for something.

This just arrived from Williams Sonoma. It’s my Christmas present from my daughter. I’ve been using it constantly and it’s really great. The rice came out perfectly. If you’re going to invest in Staub, be sure to wait for the sales. Most of the time you can get 50% off if it’s around Christmas.

This week I’m planning the gym once if I feel my knee can get me in there and I need to drop books off at the library. If I’m wearing the knee brace my knee does feel more stable.

Frugal Friday on Saturday!

Posted in Blood test, bread, budgets, California, cooking, seasonal things, simple foods by

The day got away from me and I ended up not blogging. I went to the pool and it was great. The water was perfect. I did use the stairs to get in and out. I did see some other people also doing that so I didn’t feel too awkward.

My son’s birthday is Monday and he wanted pulled pork sandwiches. I wasn’t able to find the small seasoned ones so I got a seasoned tritip. That was from Grocery Outlet. I picked up a few other things and that amounted to $50. I might try our Holiday Market and see what they have.

The Costco trip ended up a little more than planned at $250 but that was mostly non-food like laundry soap, dishwasher pods etc. Those all will last months.

I’ve been a bit fanatical working on the sourdough sandwich bread but I think on try 3 I’ve got the right combination. The dough is a soft dough, unlike the no knead bread which is a much stiffer dough. So if I can tweak it just a bit more and get the right rise, we’ll have sandwich bread rather than buying it.

We didn’t have any takeouts or dining outs( which we rarely do anyway). This month is our anniversary so I’ll plan something out. We’ve been eating lots of good home cooked meals though and using fresh tomatoes from the garden and peppers.

My budget is all set for August and accounted for. The only big expense is B needs a crown. He’ll put that on a card and then we’ll pay it off that way.

He’s almost done with the window remodel and it’s already making a difference in the temperature in that space. So it’s probably another$200 to get that done. 😦

We filled up the VW and the Santa Fe and we should be good for a while on gas. Driving to Roseville definitely adds to the gas bill but for now, the trade-off is worth it.

I have labs in a few weeks so I’ll know what my numbers are. I didn’t get the lipid and thyroid test done Monday as their computers were down and they couldn’t access anything. So I decided to reschedule and do it all at once. That way it’ll be just one draw. So once I see the kappa light chain numbers, I’ll know a bit more about the timing of when I’ll start Velcade. Oh well, it is what it is.

Frugal Friday

Posted in books, budgeting, budgets, home stuff, Pantry, reading, Uncategorized by

I guess it’s been a frugal week. By not going to Capitola we saved gas money and food money. So there’s that. But then I wanted to go to Costco and finish getting the extra things on my list like batteries, cheese, canned tomatoes, and some other small items, which added up to another $250. Oh, and B threw in a case of Sierra pale ale. Still, I won’t need to go back to Costco till the end of April when the coffee will need replenishing.

Yesterday, after Costco I picked up my library books. It’s a good haul of around 10 books. I’m really enjoying Phillip Margolin’s books.

When I got home I took the chicken broth I had made the day before, skimmed the fat off, and got the pressure canner ready. The chicken broth only takes 25 minutes at 15lbs of pressure so it went quickly. So far then I’ve done chicken soup, chicken broth, and pinto beans. Next is the split pea soup but I don’t plan on doing that till Sunday.

All our big annual spring bills are done which include property tax, Allstate, and IRS. So now there’s nothing big till Fall and I’ll start saving up for that starting in April. Oh BTW, we found out that the eviction of our neighbor was due to a foreclosure that happened last year but took this long to process and serve the eviction. Amazingly, it sold at auction for $105,000 which for Meadow Vista is shocking. You can’t even buy land for that price so whoever bought it basically ‘stole’ it from her but really she was the one who let it go. Sad… Now why she didn’t sell and make some money, IDK. Maybe her health has declined so much she wasn’t really thinking straight. The owners I’m sure will remodel and flip this house as it’s still redeemable. They have had the junk removal people there at least 3X with a big truck. As I’ve said she was a hoarder! I still feel sad about it.

Today is just home pottering around day. I’m doing some house chores and am working on a thrift store load and food pantry drop off for next week.

Is it a Frugal Friday after a Costco trip…

Posted in Blood test, budgets, camping, decluttering, prepper pantry, swimming, travel by

No, not really but we did go mostly to get the stuff that was on coupon so that did help. Still, $300 later…. Not that anything will go to waste because I froze some stuff and a few things are for the camping next week. It rained super hard driving down to Roseville by the time we got out it was not pouring. I also picked up a $9.95 large pizza so I don’t need to think about dinner.

Let’s see, other frugal things this week… ummm…I got nothing. We didn’t do too much this week so maybe that was frugal. After watching this one YTer this week that is a hot mess( bipolar) and her awful pantry with strange food she bought for the pandemic, I came to the conclusion that I will go thru my prepper pantry and redo it. Watching these YTers is quite eye opening and makes me re-evaluate what I do have. I think I will start a box for the food bank and see what I end up with. I always do a food donation around Thanksgiving anyway wo this will motivate me to do more:)

The pool has been emptier than usual so I’m wondering if the cooler fall weather is keeping some people home. It’s still busy but not crazy busy. Lap swimming only goes to 9:30 am so it’s a limited period of time. Since I’ll be gone next week I’ll miss swimming for almost a week. Hopefully we can just walk more while were there.

I had my bloodwork done this morning but won’t know much till we’re back. That’s okay. It’ll be whatever it is.