Weekly Update–Saving Money–March 18, 2018

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This weekend was not as fun as last weekend.  I caught some kind of crud and have been on the couch, whiny and grumpy and bored.  I am a terrible patient!  But, Rob has taken excellent care of me, it’s nothing serious, and I’ll soon be back to my regular ways.  So, since I do most of my chores, money-saving activities, and projects on the weekends, there’s not much to report.  There were a few things that did happen, though, so I’ll get on to those.

One of my orchids re-bloomed.  I accomplished this amazing feat by putting the plant in the laundry room, forgetting all about it, and barely ever remembering to water it.  It rewarded me with these delicate blooms that are a little over an inch across.  I’m enjoying them so much!  I moved it out to the main part of the house when I realized it was going to bloom. I hope the extra care and attention doesn’t mess things up for the plant!

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Earlier in the week, I hoed out a small area in my garden, under the trellis where I grew purple pole beans last year.  It was very wet, and I don’t like to work in the garden very much when it is so wet, so I removed the weeds, poured down a little super-cheap topsoil from Walmart, and planted Alderman Tall Telephone peas.  Hopefully, they will come up and start growing.  I can get in there and straighten up the trellis and replace the baling twine when the garden dries out a bit.  Once it does, Rob can till a small area and I can get some early cool-weather crops planted, such as carrots, beets, lettuce, onions, etc.  The greenhouse plants are doing well.

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I cooked one of the turkeys I got last Thanksgiving for a super low price.  I boiled the bones, and Rob strained the broth and froze it.  The meat was supposed to be for Sunday dinner today, but they are sick over there, too, so I froze most of it.

Rob went shopping for me and got all the bargains from 2 stores, even visiting one of them twice.  Some of his notable finds were:  butter for $1.89!!!  (As most people know, I’ve been on a butter hunt for months, trying to find it for $2/lb.  I’ve found a few, but not many boxes at my price point.  My Safeway app popped up with this deal.  He went and asked, there was no limit, and he got 10!!  That is a man who knows how to make his wife happy!!) 2-lb bags of shredded Kroger cheese for $3.99/bag.  He got the 5 allowed.  He got the Friday Freebies, and even got them to substitute for the item they were out of.  I hadn’t been to that store for a while, so he got 3 weeks worth.  Chips and candy.  Yum.  He got 2 more jugs of laundry soap for $5 each.  1 carton of 18 eggs for 99c.  Those were the main stock-up items he got along with a few other items on the list.  I was impressed.  The Great Butter Hunt is over for a while…..at least until Jake comes over for bagels and popcorn!!

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I picked a bouquet of daffodils from my yard.   The previous owners had planted quite a few in various places. Along the sidewalk, Patsy’s daffodils are blooming like crazy now, and promise to fill out more and more each year.

Some weeks are like this.  It’s a part of my crazy, wild life, and getting sick sometimes happens, even though I’d rather skip that part.    Still, I am very glad to get this sickness out of the way now, since I plan to go on a little trip at the end of the week.  Rob and I are planning to slip away to visit friends for a couple of days.  Just us.  A rare, priceless gift, that so seldom comes my way.  I can’t wait!

27 thoughts on “Weekly Update–Saving Money–March 18, 2018”

  1. Wow I am impressed by the re-blooming orchid! It has never happened here no matter what I do. I am sorry that you have been sick but I am glad it did not interfere with your trip. Have a wonderful time!

    1. Well, throw it in the laundry room…..ignore it….who knows?

      I’m really looking forward to the little trip, both to spend hours and hours in the car with Rob, and to see one of the best friends I have in the world, who lives far from me now. I miss her, so this is going to be so fun.

  2. I’m so glad you’re on the mend! Your Rob sure knows how to hunt a bargain too. Good for him! Enjoy your trip together – sounds delightful!

  3. I’m sorry you weren’t feeling well. You are so lucky to have such a helpful husband. Your flowers look beautiful. We had more snow the other day and are supposed to get more this week. I can’t wait to get in my garden and plant some peas but that will not happen this week with the weather. I may start doing some seeds indoor this week for tomatoes and peppers. I started a blog and hope you will come check it out. Have a great week.

  4. When I read the butter price you found at Safeway, I stopped in my tracks and opened up Safeway’s website to see if I could get the deal! Sadly, it was a no-go for me. I have the same stock-up price, $2 a pound. If I find it for less, I buy as much as I can.

    1. I’m sorry it wasn’t on your app for that price! There doesn’t seem to be a lot of rhyme or reason to the way things show up and disappear on my app, but I was very thankful that one showed up on mine. I hope you find it for a low price soon:)

      1. Thank you, I have a a month or so worth of butter in the fridge, so we’re ok for now. I just thought it was funny that somebody else has the same price point as I do. ?

          1. How much butter do you go through in month? My kids loooooove butter toast and buttered pancakes and waffles, so we go through a lot. If I’m baking something that uses a lot butter, then we use more, of course.

          2. It depends greatly on what I’m making, and who’s here. Here’s my best guess:

            If I’m baking, I always use butter. But, I don’t bake often, so maybe 1 lb a month for that, and 2 on a “big” baking month.

            If my niece and nephew are spending time here, they love, love, love butter and will eat a stick a day, if they eat their usual bagels, toast, ciabatta bread, etc. So, I easily go through 1/2-1 lb a weekend, if they are here.

            I’d say we average 1/2-1 lb a week for family use. We also LOVE butter!! I use it to saute green beans in with garlic, people use it on toast, etc.

            So, 3-4 pounds per month, more or less.

  5. Hope you get well soon! Sadly, I cannot find butter for under $3.00 here. However, I regularly find chicken at 49 cents a lb…go figure. We are a large chicken producing state so that probably has something to do with it. Have a great trip!

    1. Thank you. I see what you are saying–every place has its advantages. 49c chicken is almost unheard of here, and when we do get it, it is a large, frozen 10-lb bag of hindquarters from (you guessed it!) somewhere in the south:). Local chicken is much more expensive. Under a dollar, even for drumsticks is a bit rare, although I do see some for around 80c/lb occasionally. Breast meat is usually around $2/lb.

      Thank you for your kind well-wishing. I will recover, of course, it’s just a virus or whatever. But, it’s never fast enough for me:). But, this is actually a good week for me to be sick, since I would only have worked yesterday and am off until after Easter, regardless. It was going to be a small paycheck either way, and I already requested some PTO, so that will arrive in April sometime. It would have been kind of hard to miss work now and some other time.

  6. I am so sorry you got sick Becky and I do pray it passes quickly so you can enjoy your upcoming time away. That orchid id gorgeous! It brought back lovely memories for me of my grandparents who grew orchids also. Your garden is looking good and those flowers are just so pretty! Be blessed my friend!

    1. Thanks, Debbie. I’m still coughing my brains out, running a small fever, and whining a lot! But, I’m getting spoiled–my nieces brought me flowers and agreed heartily that I was a “doer, not a sitter,” laughed good-naturedly at my restlessness, and went on their way, leaving me much cheered up! My aunt brought me hard-boiled eggs and took my daughter places. My mom and sister sent me nice notes and soup. My husband….well, he did the rest. So, I decided to quit grumping and start enjoying all the attention! At least for one more day! So, I cancelled everything for tomorrow, too. It’s easier to be cheerful since I did get a little sleep last night-the 3 hours the night before wasn’t enough:)

  7. Becky, so sorry to hear you have been ill. I hope you are on the mend and are able to go visit your friend (since it is the weekend, already – sorry, I am behind with my commenting). I’m glad your family have been taking such good care of you.

    Your re-blooming orchid is lovely! My mother could get orchids to re-bloom; I just seem to kill them off, right away!

    How wonderful that you were able to get butter under your price point! I, too, had a price point of $2.00 for a long time, but had to go up to $2.50 because we never get butter under that, anymore, and, sometimes, have even stocked up at $3.00/lb! Butter is normally around $4/lb. here.

    1. I was so excited to get that butter. I guess I’m easily excitable:). It just hasn’t gone down in price for quite a while. Now, I’m stocked. Good thing, because I’m planning a huge cooking day today.

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