October frugals

[Gardnr]

We purchased 2 pork butts on sale a few weeks ago for $1.88/#. Saturday they became Kahlua pork for a tailgate party and hubby made 2 flavors of BBQ sauce. Well, less than half was consumed. Soooo, we vacuum sealed the pork and put it in the freezer. Dinner is ready for the next tailgate too! Just need to make more Bourbon BBQ sauce-it was almost gone!

[Teacher Terry]

That’s great Tybee! Big dog beds cost a fortune. When my big guy died I gave the bed to our neighbors who don’t have much money.

[iris lilies]

Priced two nice dog beds from LL Bean at 169 a piece. Remembered memory foam topper I bought for 5 dollars at a church rummage sale. Was going to buy denim at Walmart but when he went to ring it up, it was 8 dollars a yard not the 5 dollars I thought. Said no thanks and went home and realized I could use the 5 dollar velour blanket I bought for trips to my parents house where it is cold and dirty. Turned blanket and topper into two dog beds with memory foam, zero new dollars spent, 10 old dollars realized in value.

This was a giant win!

[rosarugosa]

I finally remembered to bring a baggie on my morning walk, so I was able to bring home enough fresh raspberries to load up my bowl of cereal.

[Yppej]

I'm impressed you found raspberries this late in the season.

The plumber was in yesterday and because I know him from work charged a very low rate. The electrician was running extremely behind and DS has things he wants done later so I cancelled. It will be cheaper to do everything together so we only pay once for the initial hour, which is higher than subsequent hours.

[Gardnr]

I found 1 large zucchini under the copious plant leaves-it survived the 2 nights of deep freeze. Soooo, grated it up and made 2 loaves of Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread. 1 is in the freezer and the other we are eating away.

I made a big pan of lasagna. It was oh so yummy. I generally only make it in deep winter but it sounded so good. A frugal meal to make IMO. I'm not sure why people say it's so expensive to make. We've got 6 meals in that pan!

I've stocked up our personal care items and supplements for the rest of the year. Free shipping and BOGO on my vitamin complex and discounts on each item to boot.

I'm using up free-to-me fabrics for 3 charity quilts this week. A friend near DC sent me a huge pile of squares she'd cut. This is the end of that pile. I'll donate them at charity group Saturday.

I'm using up free-to-me yarn for a Christmas gift afghan. It's all done now except weaving in the ends from yarn changes. I have just enough yarn left for 1 more afghan. That's the end of 7 boxes of yarn shipped to me many many years ago! Just this afghan would cost nearly $74. at today's price.

This will be my 3rd stay-at-home day this week. I'm still on the tank of gas I pumped Aug 24.

[catherine]

This was a giant win!

Definitely very resourceful!

[Gardnr]

Well, it appears the tomatoes covering the kitchen counter are ripening! I have enough salsa and ratatouille put up. I'm thinking of trying tomato paste. This is the one product I still have to buy year round.

I've found a recipe I like. If you have a recipe you LOVE! please send me the webaddress for it. I'm doing this Friday!

[early morning]

Gardnr, how did the tomato-paste go? I used to make what I thought was a lovely sauce, but the family thought it tasted "too tomato-y". Sigh. So we eat the bottled stuff from Aldi, when we want it.

I have had too few frugals to over this past year - I feel like a frugality drop-out. Between breaking my wrist this spring and spending much time with but losing my best-friend/twin-cousin to a fast moving cancer over the summer, we just threw money at problems and slogged on. I promised my DH a trip up east to visit his aged aunt, and to spend a few days on the Maine coast- for which we will rent a car (OMG! and have several nights in hotels - while on the Cape we'll stay with Aunt, but buy all meals or groceries). We will save where we can but this may be our last visit (I hope not, but she's 93, so....). And losing my cousin - 63, in good overall health, never smoked, diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer in March, died in Sept after a quick but steady decline.... that really shook us up. What good is money -not that we have much!- compared to time spent with family and friends?? So since the big things are steadily chomping at our heels, I'll get back on the wagon and at least curtail the small things! So yesterday, I went to an all day training, and instead of going to lunch with boss and buddies, I stayed put, networked with some providers who also stayed, and ate a free bagel left over from the breakfast provided. Last night we had dinner for DH's birthday at our fav Mexican place. Three of us, three lovely shrimp nachos dinners and two huge margaritas - $60. including tip, and we brought home enough for two lunches. I thought that was pretty good. Would have been cheaper w/o the drinks, but it WAS a birthday, lol. So I'm putting that in the "frugal dining out" column.

[Teacher Terry]

Early, sometimes the smartest thing to do is throw money at problems. I broke my right wrist last winter and it cramps your style for a long time. I have lost 3 friends between 59-67 so I totally understand what you are saying. Every time I go to Wisconsin to see my 95 year old aunt I think the same thing although she still lives alone in her own apartment.