March 2015 Frugals

[Selah]

Wow, for the first time I'm starting a Frugals thread! I'll start it by giving a very modest frugal effort DH and I made, which was to give a family member the gift of medical marijuana lotion to ease her neck pain. She has her own medical marijuana card, though, and it's all legal to buy here in Washington, so it's all good. Since her medical insurance doesn't cover it, and she is trying to declutter her own home, we felt we could give her something she truly needed, wanted, and would consume. We saw her yesterday and when she put the lotion on her neck, she got virtually instantaneous relief. It was great to see the tension on her face ease as the pain dissipated. I'm not sure if that qualifies as necessarily frugal, because there was no discount on it, but we knew it was something that was fairly priced, of excellent quality, and something she would use...more along the lines of simplicity, plus allowing her to spend her own money on other needs besides medication.

[rosarugosa]

Hey Selah, that is really interesting; I had never heard of topical marijuana treatments before!

I'm going to re-post my post from earlier today here, since I had posted on February, hope nobody minds!

Like so many in New England, we've been spending virtually all our time indoors either at home or work or in transit between the two. Yesterday was a beautiful sunny Saturday, and we went for a great walk in Lynn Woods, which we haven't been able to do as often as we could last winter. While we were there, it occurred to me that lots of folks were probably at the mall or someplace like that for similar reasons, but probably getting less pleasure at much greater expense. Bonus: we didn't come home with anything but smiles and some images on our digital camera, no superfluous stuff!

[Stella]

We are having a quiet Sunday at home. Zach decided to work on some to-do list stuff this weekend. Yesterday he hung a microwave that he got for free from a house he was working on. It was in very good condition and ours has been on the fritz lately. He also built a can holder for canned goods in some wasted space behind a basement wall.

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There is a good sale on ground beef this week at a small, local market where I have been finding some good deals on meat. I'm going to stock up later this week.

Other than that, we are just having a quiet simple day. We went to mass last night, so today we are reading, going for walks, playing cards and listening to music.

[Stella]

LOL. That picture is upside down, but I'm not sure why.

[lessisbest]

Stayed home all day and all meals were made with leftovers! That's always a budget bonus. I have beef broth from Friday to make into soup tomorrow. Leftover fresh (gluten-free) bread crumbs to use to make crumb pancakes for breakfast in the morning. Lunch is leftover-leftovers from today.

[cdttmm]

I've not posted frugals in a few weeks -- been surprisingly busy.

Been eating up what's in our chest freezer. And it turns out there's some stuff in there that might be beyond human consumption. One badly freezer burned pork chop became a little treat for the dogs a few nights ago. An ancient bag of frozen green peas became dinner for them last night along with some rice and the last of the dog food. They'll have some more peas and rice this morning and I'll buy actual dog food this afternoon. They seem perfectly happy to eat this stuff up, thankfully! Also found a bird seed/suet cake so that went out in the bird feeder. I swear there is another one somewhere in the freezer, if I can just find it...

Still trying to eat our way through the giant pasta stash. Finished off a black olive fettuccine the other day that had an expiration date of 2008. Not the best pasta ever, but I can't be sure if that was because it was really old or it was just not that good to begin with. I suspect the latter, which might be what led to it languishing in the pantry for so many years. Covered it with generous amounts of pesto and cheese. Which will pretty much make anything edible. Also polished off a box of gluten free pasta in the form of homemade mac-and-cheese. Again with the cheese. Can't really go wrong! I started in on a jar of homemade kimchi that was gifted to us last year. It's gonna be a challenge to eat all of it, but I'm determined. My dearly beloved heads back to NYC this morning for an entire week so this gives me a chance to eat all the random things.

Made a dozen chocolate-stuffed scones last night. Those will not be a challenge to consume.

Convinced the dearly beloved to switch from the higher priced Republic of Tea decaf green tea bags to the lower priced Bigelow decaf green tea bags. He brews an entire pitcher and then drinks it as iced tea. Fortunately, he does not have the same tea snobbery that I have and is perfectly happy with this change. I will likely negate money saved there by buying more high-priced fancy tea for myself.

In non-food related frugals, have managed to keep the house at 58 degrees F nearly the entire winter. There were a few really cold days when I kicked it up to 60 degrees, but otherwise, keeping the temperature low. I keep the Snuggle Safe pads heated for the cats and the dogs seem quite comfortable.

Yesterday, we built some beehives from some donated supplies. Once we got into the project we realized why the supplies were donated as pieces were warped or missing. But we improvised and managed to make everything work. (It's always good to have some basic woodworking skills!) The hives are destined for a beekeeping project in New Jersey.

[Stella]

We ran out of laundry soap today and we are making our own. We had steel cut oats for breakfast using the milk/water mix Ishbel suggested in the hot cereal thread. It was delicious. Lunch was quesadillas with refried bean dip I had made on Friday. We are making a point of being better about leftovers. That bean dip lasted through three meals for 9 people and cost about $3.

Zach is doing a quick side job for our elderly neighbour tonight. It will pay $100, which we will put into the jar we have for our trip fund. I found a $5 bill in the laundry that will also go to our trip fund.

Dinner tonight is mushroom and chicken quiche and a salad using leftover chicken. I'm going to make a few extra pie crusts to freeze for pot pies.

I am using up the last of some free coffee I got from a neighbour who is giving up coffee. It's lasted me almost a month. I also made challah bread dougg. It's rising right now. I will make a loaf of bread and a batch of cinnamon or caramel rolls for tomorrow's breakfast. Tomorrow is our 12th anniversary, so it will be nice to have a little treat.

[Stella]

Tonight I am roasting a chicken for dinner. I'm going to make a chicken casserole with the leftovers of that chicken and another one for a quick dinner in Thursday night, when Cheyenne has guitar.

I have some potatoes that need to be used up so I am going to make mashed potato cakes for breakfast tomorrow. I love those.

I am on my neighbourhood's 50th anniversary committee and I am researching licensing for an outdoor movie night. I think it might be in reach for our group financially. A free will offering will probably cover it. That will be some good frugal fun this summer. I'm also in charge of organizing an arts and music event with neighbours who are artists and musicians. I'm super excited about that too.

[rosarugosa]

Welcome back, Stella. How is your sister doing?

[Stella]

Thanks Rosa! She is doing OK. She is deciding whether or not to have a risky surgery, but she is overall starting to find her new normal. She has an amazing caregiver now, so that has been s huge load off our minds. Thanks for asking! I've missed you all!