Thriving In My Thrifty Week–July 29, 2019

The last couple of days have been busy. A lot of produce has ripened up and we have been processing it like crazy. When Rob went up to my sister’s farm on Saturday to spend the day, she sent home peaches. These are New Havens and they will be frozen and made into jam.

This morning I picked an enormous bowl of zucchini. There were both yellow and green ones, and I also got some cucumbers. I made one pint of dill pickles and ground the rest of them for relish, because they were a little large. I ground the zucchini too, plus a bunch that were in the fridge. I got about 30 cups, so made a triple batch of relish. I had Rob buy some red peppers and I had onions from my sister’s garden. I used a very old hand-cranked meat grinder. I’ve had it for my entire marriage, and I’m sure it was old when I got it. It’s a handy tool and gives the vegetables a good consistency for relish.

We got 19 jars of relish. The beans needed picking, too, and Rob canned 7 quarts. It was nice to have his help today. I picked everything while he took Patsy to an appointment, then he canned the beans while I worked on the relish.

Patsy got to go to some lava tube caves called Ape Caves. It is in Washington state, and I was happy her youth group was going. It was an entirely new experience for her. It only cost $5 for gas, and the kids packed lunches, so it was also very economical.

Rob checked the Whoo-Hoo rack at Fred Meyers and found 2 boxes of Cheerios for 99c/each. He grabbed them. I didn’t shop for groceries except a very small handful of items we were out of. We ate a lot of garden produce, and I used some dried beans to make chili. Rob cooked a very small turkey we got for free or very inexpensively last Thanksgiving, and we used the meat on salads, a casserole and some soup, for ourselves and others.

We worked a lot this past week. We were able to finish making up the hours we needed from when the kids were gone with their parents on vacation.

I did a lot of deep cleaning and organizing. I filled my garbage can to the brim this week with things I don’t need anymore. I love filling it–after all, it’s the same price full or empty!

I also filled the yard debris bin this week. I’d love to fill it each week, but some weeks, I just can’t find the energy. And, I’m pleased because the front flowerbed (where I got the weeds from) was sorely needing to be cleaned out.

How was your week? Did you do anything frugal or fun?

10 thoughts on “Thriving In My Thrifty Week–July 29, 2019”

  1. Love the “whoo hoo” rack! I found my favorite egg noodles on one at Big Lots that were 1/2 price. I couldn’t figure out why, as there were ones with a closer best by date (both were in 2020) on the usual rack for full price. I made sure they weren’t broken up badly, or buggy, and grabbed all 4. Hubby & I shelled enough of our lima beans to fill a gallon bag. You two do good work with the canning!

    1. Good job on the lima beans! That is a ton. I’ve only grown dry beans a couple of times, and right now I don’t have room for them, but I remember how much work they were to shell out.

    1. There aren’t many caves near where we live, so they had to travel a distance to that one, making the trip even more special!

  2. I saw two of those old grinders at a thrift store this morning. There was no price on them so we moved on but now I think we should have asked. I see another stop there tomorrow.

    1. Mine is so old. I’m sure it’s an antique. When I’m done using it, I wash it and hold it under the Insta-hot water so it gets super hot and dries quickly. I store it on a cloth just in case it ever gets wet.

  3. Love the peaches!! We went to a farmer’s market on Friday and I bought a crate of New Havens for $23. (over 110 peaches) I was going to teach myself how to jar them over the weekend but ended up going on a trip to see my son….so I blanched, chopped, and used my Food Saver to get them into the freezer. I even pushed the skins through a fine strainer to restore juice for them! Eight quarts in the freezer! Woo hoo or us!!!

    1. I’m glad you got to see your son! And, you got those peaches preserved, too. Way to go:). Mine are all either jam or frozen now. Whew! Once they had been here for a couple of days, they really started going bad quickly. The brown rot was bad this year. So, I was really glad I got them done, even though I had to do it early in the morning and late last night!

  4. I just noticed today that our Colorado Peaches are in at King Soopers (a Kroger store). They are the best!! It will be canning and freezing time next week, definitely! And I’m sure I’ll get requests for peach cobbler, too. What do you eat your homemade relish with? I guess we only have hot dog relish! And you inspire me to do more deep cleaning. a never-ending task! Have a great rest of the week!

    1. My husband loves the relish. He ate most of it, and we’ve been out of this zucchini relish for quite some time! For the most part, he mixes it with either canned chicken or tuna and puts it on salads. Because he is losing weight, slowly and steadily, this has been going on for over a year, so he used a lot. We put it on hot dogs, sausages, hamburgers and pork burgers. The burgers are lettuce wraps these days, but it still works. A little is also good in macaroni salad, but we haven’t had much of that lately. This time, I canned it in pints. No more messing with those super tiny jars like we used to. Now, just let’s hope he continues to want to eat a lot when he opens one of these jars:)

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