Used our 32 year old crock pot to cook pulled pork for tacos on Christmas Eve and last night to make BBQ pulled pork for dinner with friends. In between did a pork loin roast. I bet we have had 5 years stretches where the crock pot sat on the shelf unused but so happy I never decided to get rid of it.
My one year old washer had the lid lock light blinking. I was poring through the owners manual when DH came in. He unplugged and re plugged in the machine. Fixed. If I had been alone I probably would not have done that, and the manual,said nothing about it. I probably would have called a service tech. An electrical storm had blown through so it probably tripped something.
Heh. Technician's first rule: Is it plugged in? If it is, unplug it and plug it back in again.Originally Posted by flowerseverywhere
It seems unsatisfying to fix things that way, but it works too often to ignore.
Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome. - Booker T. Washington
Too much eating out this weekend. Some frugal successes, like line drying laundry. I also used a $10 off $10 coupon for Kohls to get a purple towel for DD. She needed another for when hers is in the wash. I will sew a hood on it out of the matching hand towel. Was going to buy matching thread but decided white would be fine since only one seam will show an its on the inside. No out of pocket cost for this project.
DH is also going to paint out bedroom for my birthday gift. It won't be to expensive and is something I really want. I feel so cramped in this house already; the idea of more stuff in here is less than appealing.
I think I will take the kids to visit my dad in the nursing home today. I will bring him some grapefruit and an article from the paper about his father's greenhouse.
Ugh! Sorry for all the typos. Am typing one handed on my kindle while the baby swipes at it. ;-)
I don't know if this is frugal or not, but a friend called me today. She said "I just got this great top and it doesn't fit me, but it would be perfect for you!" I replied, "girl, just take the top back...why are you buying things that don't fit you and then giving them away?" She replied, "I got it at the second-hand store, and I never try things on there because the 'dressing room' [a corner with a blanket as a 'drape'] is awful, and I can't take anything back!" So I will be the recipient of someone else's generosity, caused by a failed attempt at frugality. Second-hand frugality = free blouse as bonus gift!
By the way...DH made french fries in the slow cooker/deep fryer and they were amazing, and right now I can smell the stew cooking--beef, carrots, potatoes, onions, water and onion soup mix. YUM! So happy to have this machine!
More food related frugals happening over here.
First, I decluttered (read: ate) the entire loaf of chocolate chip banana bread.
Next, my dearly beloved discovered a ham steak in the deep freezer and decided that it would make a nice addition to the cabbage soup. So he put it on the smoker today and later we'll have cabbage soup. I'm a strict vegetarian so he'll be adding ham steak to his portion only.
We received a huge box of fruit as a Christmas gift from his aunt and uncle. It's some hybrid-orange-citrus fruit that is apparently only available in January. So they gifted us a box. Hmmm...not really my thing, but fortunately he is a huge juice drinker and so has been juicing a bunch every day for fresh "orange" juice. They will not go to waste and I don't have to try to figure out how to consume them myself.
Finally, the dearly beloved has been trying to cut down on his caffeine consumption so has been making a huge pitcher of decaf green tea every few days. He likes to sweeten it with honey and as beekeepers that is a no brainer. He just finished jarring some honey over the weekend from a 5 gallon pail so he poured his tea into the empty 5 gallon pail and used the last of the honey to sweeten it this time around. That was a serious waste not, want not moment. Usually we would set the empty pail out for the bees to clean out, but this isn't feasible in the dead of winter in New England.
Another tea related frugal. When there was a holiday special happening, I bought a box of 100 tea bags from Mighty leaf tea. I usually don't buy that brand because it's more expensive than buying loose-leaf tea. But the discount plus free shipping made it reasonably priced and I thought it would be a nice chance of pace from my usually tea. I've been using my Bodum tea pot for months now to make a pot of tea every morning. I figured out that if I skip using the insert/tea press gizmo that I could simply use a tea ball and have more room for water and therefore more tea! It works out to be about 40 ounces of tea so I figured I would need 2 of the Mighty Leaf tea bags to make it strong enough. Okay, fine, that means I'll have enough tea bags for 50 days of tea. One morning, after closer inspection of the quality of tea in the tea bags, I realize that perhaps I can get away with just one tea bag and 40 ounces of water. I figure it is worth a shot, worst case scenario, I have a pot of weak tea. Turns out, one tea bag works just fine. Score!
The brain is wider than the sky. -- Emily Dickinson
Dh has been experimenting with sprouting beans before cooking. Interesting...I think anything that involves using more dried beans is pretty frugal.
"All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” -- Gandalf
At the beginning of this year I had set some pretty lofty goals for savings each month. In order to reach these goals I knew I had to figure out where all our money is going. I decided to sit down and write my planned extra expenses for the month. Basic things, kids haircuts, money for school lunches, co-pays for scheduled dr appts, car registration. I now know how much extra I have for necessary expenses each month. I have also been tracking all of our spending and have a better handle on leakage.
I'm working on expenses for February and March, I'm trying to balance extra monthly costs to be able to keep up with my savings goals. DH told me today that the dog needs groomed, great, can it wait until February, I'll put it on the list for next month.
In the meantime we keep on track with cooking and eating at home. We have not eaten out since Christmas and that is a big deal for us. With two full time jobs and two teenage kids we are constantly running, it makes it a challenge to avoid eating out. It has taken a lot of advance planning but it is so worth it.
Cdttmm: Those sound like Honeybell mineolas. They are so good! They were a favorite treat when I quit smoking - for the first couple of weeks, Mom was rewarding me with daily presents of Honeybells and gourmet chocolates. We've been able to get really good mineolas at the grocery store these past couple of weeks.
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