Tag Archives: library books

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.

Friday things

Posted in budgeting, budgets, California, cash envelopes, cooking, home stuff, Uncategorized by

Today has been mostly tidying the house and catching up on a few things. I returned a small handheld label maker I had ordered a couple of weeks ago from Amazon because the ink was skipping and after trying a bunch of times just gave up. I’ll look for a different kind of label maker when I feel like it.

I’m planning on using my cash envelopes for August for a few things like groceries, Target, Home Depot and, a few others. I feel like we need to be a bit more focused on where the dollars are going. I know our daily budget but lots of time I just say to B to get it at Home Depot and then he buys whatever. It’s covered in our checking but I feel like we need to say there’s this $amount and that’s it. I’ll focus on August and see how it goes. For some things like gas, I won’t do cash so that’s the debit card. But I will have an index card with the amounts as ‘virtual cash’. All our regular bills are automatic.

Today is our last really hot day and then we start to trend downward into the low 90s. Maybe we can start eating dinner out on the patio again.

After my gym workout, I went into the library and picked up my holds. Two were canning books but they weren’t quite what I was after so I guess I’ll just have to buy the Ball book again. ( I gave it away a few years ago because I hadn’t used it). Most recipes are on- line but I’d still like to have a copy for reference mostly. I was excited to get the new Anne Hillerman book. I still love all things Santa Fe and New Mexico and appreciate the native culture immensely. The pinion pines smell amazing and the sky is incredibly blue. I’ve bought pinion pine incense and it’s lovely.

Tonight is supposed to be pizza but alas, it’s too hot so we’re going to have a brown rice salad. Last night I made zucchini fritters from the farm. I’ll probably go out there later this afternoon for a few things.

Not much else going on here.

A goat cheese quiche:

Garlic herb butter

corn from the farm.

Five on Friday

Posted in books, cooking, Uncategorized by

Friday stuff….

  • Still sniffling and coughing but somewhat better though. Still, no gym though as I don’t want to be THAT person hacking away in the corner.
  • Got 2 books from the library I’m really excited about. Sue Grafton’s last book Y. And Cait Flanders ” the year of Less” which I heard wasn’t that great, but I still want to read it.
  • Made lots of extra pinto beans with garlic cloves so they are ready to go in the freezer to be used in other meals.
  • Haven’t been to the store much this week except just this morning. So I’ve saved a few dollars just by not going.
  • We received a $60 check from a life insurance we cashed in a few years ago and this amount must have been missed??

I’m not doing too much today. I have one load of laundry going and no other big chores.

Usually, it’s Friday night pizza and I did make the dough but with B still sick too I’m just going to make a big pot of organic brown rice and veggies.