Been busy here but thinking of you all. Great work! And congrats Danna!
Have continued to be good about taking my lunch to work. Being the holidays I've gotten a bit lucky with yummy leftovers from the previous night's potluck.
I exchange gifts with just a few people and my shopping is effectively done.
But I'm crazy-busy with my community things. I'm working on being mindful of "me" time. Am thinking I'll watch holiday movies tonite and give myself a cheap pedicure.
Dec 04 & 05
---Sale steak that was not all that tender cooked a crockpot full in homemade BBQ sauce and had two meals and pizza
for Dd and I,,,still one serving for the freezer
--Dbil sent money for Christmas so I splurged on two new small appliances I have been wanting for the kitchen both
will make eating at home nicer...not necessary but, nice. Used a deal at store that was offering $20.00 gift card if you used
their credit card and spent $100.00....so got a lot for the Christmas money.
--attended a friends Christmas evening tonight my contribution to the food was made from everything on sale. This was NOT a diet night...lol
--They did a gift exchange of a Christmas ornament worth under $10.00...I had a beautiful one, tag still on it, very original and
worth at least $10.00 bought early this year at a yard sale for $1.00...the women that received it loved it.
---driving so only drank water....very fun evening with good friends.
Leftover homemade pizza for lunch. Making a huge batch of convict's macaroni for dinner (essentially grown-up mac-and-cheese). Watching TV shows via Netflix and resisting the urge to rent movies on iTunes. Went to a new local place that sells loose leaf tea. They had mailed out 30% off coupons to everyone in the neighboring towns so figured I would use it to stock up. Spent just shy of $21 for 4 different types of green tea -- a total of 16 ounces. The prices are pretty good -- $1.79/oz for most of their green teas. Plus they gave me 2 more 20% off coupons for my next visit. Now to see if the quality is any good -- first taste test tomorrow morning!
Deposited a paycheck from substitute teaching two classes. Now just need to track down a check that has been owed to me since a speaking engagement I did back in late September. Signed my contracts for one of the classes I'm teaching during January (winter session) plus the contracts for four of the classes I'll have during the spring semester. Now just waiting on contracts for the last three classes. Got a $138 raise for each 3 credit course so I'll get ~$1000 more for doing the same work I just did during fall semester. I'll take it!!!
The brain is wider than the sky. -- Emily Dickinson
Congratulations on the raise, Cdttmm!
We went WAY over budget on groceries this week. Trader Joe's just had too many tempting seasonal specialties and we succumbed! We did save 15% on our cat food purchase at PetSmart. We had a particularly long wait behind an annoying customer who was trying to get some deal that was no longer in effect. When the cashier rang us up, she said she was giving us 15% off for our inconvenience. That was a pleasant surprise because we weren't grumbling or giving dirty looks or anything.
We had homemade pizza Friday night, and ate at a party Saturday night. Tonight DH made a great dinner of baked schrod, steamed carrots & steamed spinach. He cooked the fish with just some lemon juice and no butter. It was perfectly delicious, so now we know that we can save some fat calories and a tiny bit of money on this dish that is one of our favorites. I've also been snacking on clementines a lot; they are a favorite.
We went for a walk on the beach this morning, and then a sunset walk in the woods, so our entertainment was very frugal. We had beautiful weather this weekend, sunny & high fifties/low sixties. Not bad for December!
I've managed to avoid frivolous shopping (other than Trader Joe's), which is a bit more challenging in December. I'm putting a lot of catalogs in the recycling bin unread, and that definitely helps.
Dec 06
---wonderful dinner for just myself (Dd does not eat seafood) shrimp, frozen asparagus from the spring, green onions from the freezer, pasta, sauce
made by rinsing out my chunky peanut butter jar with pasta water and soya sauce, grated ginger ( from the freezer) and sweet chilli sauce
excellent supper with a nice glass of wine or 2...lol
--volunteered at the seniors home Tuck Shop only frugal because I felt good and did not spend money...then stoped by at the store and got
$35.00 worth of groceries all on sale (all stockpile items) and by spending over $30.00 got 3000 points ($3.00) and then came home and scan the receipt for
Checkout 51 (buy 2 Folgers coffee and get $3.00 back).
That is all for today....
Dec 07
--no spend, no drive
--started wrapping Christmas presents...using up paper and ribbon I have, actually they are looking very nice
a little odd in some of the combination but, nice done the less.
--bought a whole chicken for $5.85 yesterday at $1.47 a lb. first I cooked it gently with some broth, water and mix of veggies
then I took the chicken out, let it cool and removed all the meat (it was very yummy and moist) then put the bones back in the
broth to finish the soup. Stained it and added more vegetables. Using the meat to add to the soup and made sandwiches at supper.
Still lots of each left.
Danna: The soup sounds great. I've asked DH if he will make a chicken soup/stew or "stoup" some day soon, maybe NY's Day because he has it off from work. When he makes something like that, we're usually able to freeze quite a bit in containers for quick weeknight meals.
Hi all!
For anyone who isn't finished with all of their holiday shopping, I saw this great article from HighYa.com with 28 tips for saving money during the holiday The site also supplies great consumer reviews for products so if you have some things in mind that you're unsure of take a look and see if you can find any reviews on it to help make your decision. Hope everyone has a great holiday!
Last edited by bthatch; 1-7-16 at 10:05am.
Only 1 week of the semester remains -- woo-hoo!!! Very pleased that I only spent about $80 in the cafeteria at school this semester -- my goal was to be under $150 and I blew that away. For next semester, I'm going to try to get it under $50. I know, I know, some of you are able to manage with $0 for buying lunch, but there are some days when I'm just not that organized!!! I have been very good about bringing tea with me every single day, so I haven't spent any money on tea at school. If I can find a good deal on bagged tea over the holidays, I'll stock up on some nice bagged tea to keep at school. I've mostly been bumming tea bags off a generous co-worker when I've needed them and don't want to continue taking advantage. Although, I do keep the supply of "good" chocolate well stocked in my desk drawer so it probably all evens out in the end.
We got our first inquiry from an Air BnB customer. Don't know if they are going to stay with us, but if so it will be a nice little holiday bonus! I taught an extra Tae Kwon Do class last night because my teacher was sick and asked who could fill in. I jumped on the chance because I was planning to go to class anyway, so might as well get paid to be there!
Randomly came across a $1 off coupon for cat treats and noticed that they were on sale in the grocery store flyer at a price of 2 for $3. Then realized that the grocery store flyer also had coupons to allow you to double any coupon up to $1 off. So paid $1 + tax for 2 (little) bags of cat treats. I normally never buy this stuff, but for $1, I figured it was worth it. My one cat is a bit of a terror -- probably because she is deaf and is easily startled -- so I'm going to see if I can feed her and one of my other cats treats in close proximity to one another in an attempt to get her to calm down and be more accepting of the presence of other cats. So far so good -- they ate treats within about 18" of one another this morning and nobody was attacked.
The brain is wider than the sky. -- Emily Dickinson
Dec 08 & 09
Welcome to the thread bthatch lots of great ideas and information here
--ate out with friends last night but, ordered two apps instead of a full meal and was more then full and really enjoyed.
--finishing up the pot of soup and chicken today....it went a really long way....froze several servings for later.
--volunteered for 6 hours today...they bought a light supper as we worked extra hours over supper time to move over
the new Gift Shop
--wrapped a few more Christmas gifts...have everything set up on the dining room table to I don't need to put it all away.
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