Frugal Friday

It’s been a frugal week for the most part. We went to Trader Joe’s and Winco for some basics that will last 2 weeks. That was last Saturday I think. With me having my chemo week, I don’t go out after Wed, so that’s Thursday and Friday and by Saturday the dex has pretty much worn off so I can do something if needed. My face is still pretty red this morning from Dex.

I did get some stuff done though, I vacuumed, feed my sourdough,mopped the floors, 1 load of laundry going. We always do one load a day even if its small. It keeps it from piling up. I moved some envelope cash around and put some in an envelope to back to the bank. That’s for Amazon stuff. I might make that a virtual envelope but the money I took out was from my personal spending as there was a plant based cook book that Sue over in Wales recommended highly. So I slpurged on that.

B is going to his gym and will pick up some things at Holiday Market. I need red onion, garlic, baking potatoes, and polenta. It’s been a challenge getting Bob’s Redmill polenta for some reason. I checked Amazon and it’s twice as expensive as the store. So Holiday looked like they had some in stock.

We filled up the Santa Fe after going to Sacramento and that was $50. Costco is still the cheapest gas around. 

I might go to the Roseville gym tomorrow but it depends on the rain. We did have a nice break yesterday but more is expected over the weekend. If I go, I’ll go slightly later so I can go into the library which opens at 10 on Sat.

I worked up a very flexible menu plan for the week:

no pizza tonight, I think will do :

baked potatoes with toppings and a big salad

turkey breast(frozen) and some mashed potatoes (also frozen) and home canned cranberry sauce.

chicken tortilla soup from the freezer

a left over night

fetticine alfredo with garlic shrimp( so my G F daughter can have shrimp )and salad.

brown rice with broccoli and some kind of crispy tofu.and maybe some panko shrimp.( that’s different from just the plain shrimp)

taco night with pressure canned pulled pork, lettuce etc.

I’ve got February’s budget done and the only thing I didn’t add was the VW’s registration and smog that just came in the mail but it’s not due till April so that’ll give me time to get and envelope stuffed. I may not end up the full amount but it’ll help. And I’ll need to add in Turbo Tax fee and if there’s taxes.

Next week looks good budget wise, hopefully no surprises.:)

Here’s the big boy, Guster

He says this is my Poang chair!!

Frugal Friday

I think we’re on track with no spend/low spend even with groceries. With me not going out 3 days a week, it cuts down on driving/gas and I don’t go to the store.

I know we bought some wine for Christmas but I think that was it. B went into Target to buy 4 different sliced cheeses as we were out and Target’s brand is quite good and the price very good. Plus I needed Weimans stainless steel wipes too. I think that added up to $42. Since those are essentials they don’t count as extra buying.

I added a few more dollars to some cash envelopes, like $20 for car maintenance, $50 for DMV registration, and some other misc. ones. So I’m quite pleased with how it’s going. It may take a while to fully load these as our income is limited so no extra is coming in.

I wrote up as I always do our Minimalist Christmas dinner and gifts. I think I did really well not overdoing anything. Each person got 4-5 gifts and nothing too expensive. B got his garden Berkies and my daughter got a nice organic cotton PJ set from Garnet Hill. I got my son a Burberry scarf from eBay. I was concerned it was a knockoff but it’s pretty nice and doesn’t have any of the telltale signs of a fake. ( I guess the red stripe is blurry on the fakes.)

Today is another home day on Dex for me. I’ve done my morning routine, swish and swipe the bathroom, LR zone with windows washed, everything tidy and I’m making an apple pie filling crumble with oats so S can have it instead ofminimal pastry. The apple pie filling is what I made at the beginning of the month with apples a friend of my son gave us from their trees.

Tomorrow I plan to swim although it will be shortened as I don’t want to be set back again with my leg. I need to get gas at Costco and then stop in TJ’s for gluten-free bread for S. I had bought her the gluten-free madeleines and she said they were very good so I’ll get them again too.

Gus sitting in the cat tower on the winter solstice.