All posts by Becky

Garden, Saving Money

Thriving In My Thrifty Week–May 13, 2019

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This week was all about gardening. The artichokes have exceeded my expectations! We have been enjoying them and there are many more to come.

Rob spent a few sessions tilling. He has to break up big jobs to accommodate his bad hip. He finished Saturday morning. We bought some plants and also planted the small peppers we grew in the greenhouse. They’ve already grown since we planted them, so who knows! They didn’t get as big as we’d like, but we thought they were worth a shot. His tomatoes came out beautifully, and he saw ones smaller than his for around $3/plant. Since he grew way over 25 plants, he grew a worth of more than $75, minus the cost of seeds.

I worked many mornings, planting beefsteak, Glacier, Ultra Early, Sungold, Black Cherry, Striped German, Black Japanese, Roma and Willamette tomatoes, head and leaf lettuces, snow peas, beets, carrots, Anaheim, Jalapeño, green, yellow, banana and lunchbox peppers, spinach, SO many little onions, potatoes, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, 3 small groupings of green beans, yellow beans, pickling and slicing cucumbers, butternut squash, acorn squash, pumpkins, basil, cilantro, dill and watermelon. I may have planted more, but that’s what I can remember. The garden area has one more spot for corn, and a few places to fill in with transplants of head lettuce I’m growing in another spot, plus succession plantings of lettuce, basil and cilantro all summer.

I also worked on my flowerbeds quite a bit. Rob bought me this lobelia to add to a pot that I had overwintered a geranium in. It’s not blooming yet, but there’s a bud:). I planted a lot of flower seeds that had been around for a long time. Some have not come up. Some have.

I finished cleaning out the old strawberry patch, and added a lot of compost to top-dress the plants.

I have some more edging to do in front of the house but the back yard is pretty much finished. Because I’m doing some extra landscaping, it’s taking a while in each area.

We got the sprinklers set up so the garden will be watered when the system does it’s rounds, saving me hours. I was hand-watering until I got the garden all planted.

I did do a few other things this week, but sadly they didn’t include much laundry, cleaning in the house, or cooking beyond what absolutely needed to be done:). Oh, well. I was pretty happy to be outside and the dirt will still be there inside when I get to cleaning! Hope I don’t need a shovel:) 🙂

My sister took us all out to lunch for Mother’s Day. We had a really good time, and it was nice to not have to cook.

Alissa and I have been working for hours and hours to complete her schooling. We just finished the rest of the bookwork a little while ago. Now, she is happily watching “The Hobbit” while I type this. I have some correcting to do, and scores to add up, then I’ll take it all to the Homeschool Satellite School we use on Friday–she will get a high school diploma, graduate in a cap and gown, etc. once they get the final credits recorded. What a weight off my mind to know we have completed all the requirements! We are both pretty happy today:)

Rob took Patsy and they got 4 garbage cans full of free sawdust to use as mulch on the front of the house where she planted her bulbs. She trimmed the leaves of the spent bulbs and put down the sawdust. It looks great.

Garden, Saving Money

Thriving In My thrifty week–May 5, 2019

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There were a lot of branches in our garden area from the apple tree we heavily pruned earlier in the spring. Rob worked on cutting them up several times during the week. Even though he’s having a very hard time getting around, he finds he can still get some things done if he divides the jobs up into several short work sessions rather than the marathons he’s used to doing. We have the yard debris bin full, and another pile of cut sticks to put in it when it gets emptied.

On Saturday, Patsy mowed down the many, many weeds. Although it was being very difficult, and kept dying at first, Rob got the tiller going and tilled most of the garden. He said it must have been having trouble running with the old gas leftover in the engine from last summer, because it died over and over, but finally started running better. There is still a little more to do another time, but it’s well on it’s way. Patsy and I spread 20 bags of steer manure/compost as he was tilling. Then, Patsy planted a couple of things and I did many more. I’ve been hand-watering the little starts and seeded rows. We don’t want to run sprinklers until we have all of it planted.

Before it was mowed, I scurried thought the garden picking the volunteer lettuce, green onions and cilantro that were growing in the weeds and under the brush pile. I washed it all up, and we will eat it this week.

I made up a lot of frozen bean, rice and cheese burritos for future meals. Tortillas were $1/package this week, due to Cinco de Mayo. Many evenings when I am still at work, it makes an easy meal for Rob to give Patsy. She loves them.

I worked on homeschool with Alissa for many, many hours this week as well. I have an appointment to turn her work and grades in, in 2 weeks, so we are both working hard to get it done. One of our projects was visiting 4 different stores with a list of food items. We priced them out at each store, and added up the cost of the list. In the process, I gleaned the loss leaders from each store. I got plenty of bargains, and won’t shop this coming week unless I see an amazing deal, or run out of something small.

I did a lot of cooking, a fair amount of gardening, a little cleaning, no sewing at all, and stayed frugal through it all! How did your week go?

Saving Money

Thriving In My Thrifty week–April 29, 2019

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Rob’s been taking pictures again this week. Most of them were for Alissa’s senior pictures, but he took a few great ones of Patsy while he was at it.

Rob went to a retreat with a friend from Thursday to Sunday night. They went to Washington Family Ranch in eastern Oregon. It is a Young Life camp. He had a wonderful time.

While he was gone, Jake wanted to spend the night, so I let him. On Friday, I took my crew, plus my son Anthony, to meet Alissa and the little boy she was watching at the bowling alley. I used the Kids Bowl Free program, so only had to pay for shoe rental. Since I could buy a family pass for about $23 when I signed the kids up, I did that, so I bowled, too. I stink at bowling, but I had fun:)

Then, we moved over to a nearby park with our packed sandwiches and drinks, and the kids had fun playing there for a while.

I exercised in the yard for many hours this week. Things are looking better, but there is lots of potential for free exercise out there, still:)

How did your week go?

Garden

A Gardening Project–April, 2019

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This is my finished project, by my front steps. It was a pretty big project, so it took me a few days to get it done.

I was having trouble mowing the lawn. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get into the corner. I decided to enlarge the flowerbed. I also had a LOT of weeding to do. This photo was taken AFTER I did a bunch. Seriously.

So far, I’ve dug up the lawn, moved the edging pieces forward to frame the new portion, weeded down part way along the house, added some dirt to the new portion, and transplanted a few orange flowers that came up in the garden where my nephew, Jake, had his row of flowers last summer. I also put some compost on the dahlias that come up every year in the back by the house. I plan to weed further along the house, plant some flowers in the new portion, and dig out the edging all the way down to the end.

I have to confess, I’m a little stiff and sore, but now that the weather has turned nice, I think I will soon toughen up as I get out there more. I do love the process, the exercise, and the way it looks when I’m done, so that’s my motivation! Rob’s out of town, on a retreat with one of his friends, so I have more inside work to do for a few days. I guess I need to appreciate him even more than I do–there’s nothing like his absence to show me all the little things he does….

Saving Money

Thriving In My Thrifty Week–April 22, 2019

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Easter was a blessed holiday for us. We were able to go to church at 6:30 a.m., and were even able to keep our eyes open during the service, which was inspiring:) Rob cooked a ham, a turkey, and some grilled cauliflower steaks on the bbq and we had salads, desserts and sides to go with them, with everyone bringing something to share.

The card on these flowers SAID they were from Anthony and Allison, but I have a suspicion that Anthony didn’t know as much as Allison did about them:)….. They are sure pretty and are brightening things up around here today.

I set the tables with tablecloths I already had. I picked bluebells from the yard, where they are taking over the flowerbeds and used canning jars for vases. Rob got some ribbon from the dollar store which I used, and he also spread some chocolate eggs along the table right before we ate, so they would last more than 10 minutes:). I picked some parsley and cilantro for more bouquets and let people take some home if they wanted to.

Rob dug up some parsley plants from the massive collection in my flowerbed and let people take home starts for their gardens. This is also how we decorated the outside table on our deck.

Alissa headed up the Easter egg hunt in the yard. We call our aunt, “The Easter Bunny Janet” because she has filled the eggs with candy for many years. She brought the candy-filled eggs, Alissa hid them, and the younger ones found them. Then all candy was put in bowls, divided amongst everyone who wanted any, and sent home in baggies. I overheard Patsy telling Alissa that she might need to help hide eggs next year—I guess she’s feeling like she’s getting a little older….So, that would leave Jake to find all the eggs???? I’m sure someone will help him, or we will need to find another kid or two to invite:)

I did a lot of cooking and cleaning this week. I had to go grocery shopping since I skipped last week, so I looked for bargains, and used Ibotta for rebates. It went well, and I stayed in the budget I wanted to.

I got quite a bit of gardening done in bits and pieces whenever I had time and it wasn’t raining. I planted a new blueberry by the 2 old plants. I’m hoping the berries will be larger and sweeter than the ones on the old bushes. I’ve been digging up plants, clipping bushes, and digging grass out to make the edging cleaner in many flowerbeds. I have a lot more to do!

I made Patsy a skirt. We did some shopping and got a black lace top to wear over a black tank top to go with it. She also got a few other things, and I got a few as well. We found great bargains, and the skirt was from fabric I’ve had for years, so it didn’t break our bank. We both had gift cards from Christmas and/or birthdays, so that helped, too. We should be set for a bit.

I spent hours preparing for a homeschool meeting regarding Alissa. We go though a diploma program and I needed to have a meeting with them to show the work we’ve completed so far, grades, hours spent, etc. I wanted this meeting as a final check-up to make sure we’ve done it all, since she’s supposed to graduate on June 6. I called it my “anxiety meeting.” We now have a list of the final few things that need to be finished, another appointment in 1 month, and we will be done! Since I put in so much work on the record-keeping as well as having her do extra schoolwork to finish up this and that, it won’t be so hard when I do the final compilation in a month. Whew!

Rob has been taking her senior pictures. They got a lot of good shots on Saturday, but they aren’t done yet. They have plans for a couple more sessions. Already there are too many good ones to choose from….What a great “problem” to have!

Garden, Projects

Gardening Project–Compost Bins–April, 2019

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Rob has been working on this 2-compartment compost bin. First, he had to scrounge up as much free lumber as he could. He says this is 95% reclaimed/recycled lumber. At our last place, he made a 3-compartment one for me. Here, I actually want 2 of these guys instead, because I want them in 2 different parts of the back yard garden. This one will be moved into place once I get done shoveling away the old compost that I have in a heap right now. The cool thing about these bins is that Rob makes the front boards removable. They are just set into a slot. Then, when it is full and the compost is ready, I just remove the top board or two, shovel out that compost, remove some more, etc, until I’m down to the bottom.

There is a screen between the 2 compartments to allow for more air flow.

Yesterday, he finished the first one. He was able to find some boards towards the second one today already! He just goes around to the wood manufacturers in our town, and picks through their “free” piles.

Saving Money

Thriving In My Thrifty Week– April 14, 2019

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We had a nice, normal week. Jake spent the weekend, as he does on occasion. I always look for fun, but inexpensive, things to do when he is here. This week, JoAnn Fabrics had a craft for kids day. They got to make a Lego elephant or flower. Jake and Patsy both made elephants, then Jake traded his out and made the flower. That is what he ended up taking home. The worker was above patient, and it was a successful outing.

We made Jello. Jake got 3 baby spoons and was using all of them at once, sometimes with a little help from Patsy, sometimes by himself. “Take a picture,” he begged. “Call it Jake loves Jello,” he ordered. So, being an obliging Auntie, I did!

We read an entire Boxcar Children book aloud. I ordered it in on inter-library loan, and now need to order another one for the week ahead.

In addition to being entertained by Jake all weekend, we did get quite a few things done before he came over.

I finished one of the raised beds and also made progress on the area around them. I planted my strawberries, some snow peas on the end, a little lettuce, spinach and Boc Choi on the sides and sprinkled radish seeds all over in-between the berries. It’s been very wet, and I’ll see what happens. The little yellow flowers in the upper left corner of the picture are some primroses that had survived from a previous year, and I moved them out of the path and divided one of them. Behind them are some Oriental poppies that were just growing in the flowerbed last summer, so I moved them out of the path as well.

The Columbine plant re-bloomed. I’ve had it for years. I’ve been letting it grow in the greenhouse for a few weeks. The baby vegetable starts in there are not as big as we wish they were. We are hoping they grow rapidly. Rob transplanted a few tomatoes and some basil and he is going to give everything a shot of diluted fish fertilizer soon. The peppers look pathetic, if you want to know the truth. Time will tell if they do anything.

The river at my sister’s house was at flood stage for much of the week. This picture does not really do justice as to how high the water was. The log jam you can see is made from logs, brush and debris that have come hurtling down the river and were stopped by the group of trees. We watched for quite a while, several times, in pure fascination as logs and brush slammed into the pile. Such power! Although much of that log jam is on their neighbors’ properties, there are some logs on theirs. They will have to deal with all that brush when it dries out.

We made lots of good food at home. Taco salad, tuna-egg salad, chef salad, meat loaf from turkey burger, baked potatoes, chicken soup, potato soup, burritos and more were all consumed.

I did not do my regular Friday grocery shopping trip, but instead just picked up a couple of items here and there as needed. Rob and Michaela went to Costco and got me butter and tortillas. It’s got to go on record as the cheapest Costco grocery shopping run on record! He always likes to come up with one errand for her to help with on Tuesdays after swimming, and he wanted a couple of things there, so that was this week’s errand.

Saving Money

Thriving In My Thrifty Week–April 7, 2019

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I had one morning with nice weather. I was able to work outside. Rob had collected quite a few bags of used coffee grounds over the winter from coffee shops. I weeded out most of my existing strawberry bed and added many of them to top-dress the berry bushes. Any little plants that were growing in the grass were transplanted into the bed. I still have a little ways to go, but need to wait for another nice day.

I worked some more on the raised bed project. I put a lot of coffee grounds in the first one, and then covered with some topsoil. I will plant my new strawberry starts in there when I can. This project is taking shape now, but still needs more work.

Our 1/2 pork was ready. We paid cut and wrap. Our friends gifted us the meat. It’s so nice to have it. What a blessing!

I got these 2 things free at Safeway this week. One was from the Monopoly game, and the other from my phone app.

I had a nice visit with my friend, Harnet. Her daughter was invited to a birthday party, so one of the things we did was take her to it. We got to visit and she enjoyed her time with the kids. Win-win!!!

It was a great activity for a rainy day!

We also went to a family birthday party at my daughter’s house.

I went to the library and was able to order in some books I needed for Alissa’s homeschool.

How did your week go?

Menu plans

What Did We Eat? And, Feeding a Crowd From the Pantry And Sales–April 4, 2019

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When I returned from camping last Friday, I hit the ground running. With my daughter home from Hawaii for a few days and a big birthday party to plan for her, the camping things to put away and the house to clean and lots of cooking to do for the large amount of people who were coming, I decided not to use any of the precious time to go to the store. Instead, I tried to figure out what I could make from my freezers and pantry.

I was delighted to find a few volunteer green onions and some cilantro growing in the garden.

I made cake and mixed fruit crisp. There were blackberries, rhubarb and peaches in it, topped with an oatmeal crisp. The birthday cake was a tried and true gluten-free recipe, and I used up the last scraps of sour cream from camping in it.

Rob BBQ’d chicken with some of the bargain chicken he got a couple of weeks ago and he did salmon. One large piece was a gift a friend gave us a while back and the other smaller package was from Safeway, purchased on one of their Friday specials. I used the green onions in twice-baked potato casserole, so I could make it the day before and warm it on Sunday. In there, I used sour cream, cream cheese and cheddar, in small quantities because that’s what was in the fridge. I served home-canned green beans and home-frozen corn as well, and one of my sisters brought a large broccoli salad. It was delicious. There were hardly any leftovers at all.

To fill in, we had things that were left from camping such as lunchmeat, cheese, extra salad ingredients, etc. Rob used the cilantro in some turkey burger, which he fried as taco meat and topped salad with.

On Tuesday, it was our turn to feed the college group. Alissa, our niece, helped us. They got bargain chicken, which Rob applied a rub to and cooked on the BBQ. He then transported it in 2 crock pots, with a little water in them to keep it moist. It worked well.

We baked potatoes and kept them warm in the roaster. We bought rolls at the bread outlet. We made green salad, rice salad and put out toppings for the potatoes.

Alissa decorated some box-cake mixes I baked up.

They looked very springy and festive. We were able to stay way under their budget for that project, mostly due to the bargain price we got on chicken a couple of weeks ago. As usual, the group was very hungry and very appreciative. There were about 35 people there, but there was plenty of food and even some leftovers. For that group, when you are cleaning up, you package the leftovers in baggies, take-home containers, little cups….whatever works, and the kids take it home for their lunches the next day. It’s a good system for everyone.

The only shopping for myself this week was a gallon of milk, which I grabbed when I was shopping for the church group. I’ve been making things like muffins and vegetable soup, and odds and ends. Of course, we ate at church Tuesday night, with the college kids.

My grocery plans for April are pretty simple. I want to have a lower-shopping month again, as far as it is possible. January was very low-spend, low-shop. February and March were big shopping months, as I had run out of quite a few things and found some great sales, so I stocked up. I was also given a lot of food in March, including 1/2 pork (we paid cut and wrap, but our friend gifted us 1/2 a pig he raised), a 25-lb bag of gluten-free flour, and more. There are a few more volunteer items in the garden. Now, it’s ridiculous in the garage! The shelves are full. There is extra food on the table that won’t fit on the shelves. The freezers are absolutely crammed! What a delightful “problem” to have! It’s time to use up things again. This keeps my stock rotated, my grocery bill averaged out for other “high-need” months, and I can put any extra into the envelope to put towards the beef we buy each fall. Of course, I will continue to buy produce and dairy products, along with Jake and Michaela specific foods for when they are here and grab any super bargains I find.


Birthdays, Saving Money

thriving In My Thrifty Week–April 1, 2109

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This week was all about family, friends and the beautiful Oregon coast. We spent quite a bit of time traveling back and forth, getting kids where they needed to be, and visiting, but in-between those drives, we had a lot of frugal fun. In truth, we even enjoyed the drives. The weather was mild and the spring flowers were blooming, the trees were budding, the grass was spring-green, and there were many days with blue skies and puffy clouds to look at as we travelled.

We camped for a few days last week with Patsy. We came home so she could go on her youth group service project trip. Rob and I went back to the beach for 2 nights alone. We came back on Tuesday to pick Patsy up and to get Lovana who had been picked up at the airport by friends and was spending time with them. We took both girls back down to the beach and loved having a few days to really get caught up with Lovana. Then, we came home and she went off with friends for a night, other friends for dinner the next day…..you get the idea! Sunday was her birthday, so we had a big party for her with both friends and family.

We enjoyed days of gorgeous sunshine, and days of steady, pouring rain. We stayed in the camper and at the campsite most of the time we were down at the beach. We didn’t go clamming, fishing or crabbing this trip. Instead, we rested and I sewed and read lots of books. We ate out one night when Rob and I were having our 2-night get-away. We went to a restaurant and ate seafood while enjoying some live music. We cooked the rest of the meals in the camper or packed them for the car rides. I enjoyed several nice walks on the beach. I even found a heart-shaped fossil in a rock!

Patsy had really been wanting to fly a kite. Rob dug out the kites we’ve had for over 30 years and took her to a beach with easy access for him so she could fly one. They broke a dowel (go figure–it was very old) and then they went to the hardware store and got a new one and Rob fixed the kite for a little over a dollar.

I did several things to make Lovana’s birthday special and not too stressful for me. First, when we came back home to collect children on Tuesday, I sent Rob to pick her up at our friends’ house, and I stayed back at our house and cleaned. Then, it stayed clean because no one was home:) On Friday, we put all the camping paraphernalia away, so on Saturday, I could concentrate on cooking.

She wanted an apron for her birthday. I made a couple of them in the camper, after she got there, so they would be the way she wanted them. I got the coffee fabric for the pockets from apron #1 at a yard sale. It was a scrap and I paid either 25 or 50 c for it. I was happy to get it, since she wants the aprons to wear in her work at the 2 coffee shops she works at on Maui. I used some fabric I’ve had for years for the base of both aprons. For the rest of her gift, Rob is taking her to Trader Joe’s for some food items she can’t get for a reasonable price over there in Hawaii. Food in general is very expensive over there, but some things are SUPER expensive. She brought an extra suitcase to fill with things from here.

We had several of our kids at the party, plus aunties and uncles, a family of friends and cousins. We ended up with a lot of people, and I was delighted that it was a nice day, so quite a few people could overflow outside. Our oldest daughter and her husband made it, as did Ja’Ana, who moved out a few weeks ago. All of the relatives who were on vacation made it as well, even my sister and Jake, who got bumped from their airplane ride back from vacation Saturday night and stayed an extra night in LA. Rob picked up the crew that returned at the airport Saturday night, but Ron and Michaela had to go pick Gail and Jake up Sunday morning, and they got here for the end of lunch. It was good that Rob put a little chicken and salmon in the cupboard for them–this crew was hungry! (I was like, “Why are you putting that plate of food in the cupboard, Rob?” —but he was so right! It was needed for them!) I made rice salad, green beans (home-canned), home-frozen corn, twice baked-potato casserole, one of my sisters brought broccoli salad, Rob did chicken and salmon on the BBQ, and I made mixed fruit crisp and chocolate birthday cake. Rob went out and bought some rolls from the bread outlet store yesterday and I chose not to shop at all. I simply ran out of time. I mowed the lawn instead, and we made out fine! I put out some seltzers that were in the garage, Rob found 2 bottles of soda pop out there behind some stuff and put those out, and I made lemonade from lemon juice from a bottle. None of it was fancy, but they ate and ate! There was plenty, but not a lot left over. At all!

I picked flowers from the yard to put on the table. The house was pretty full, so they kept getting moved around, out of the way of people’s elbows. I think I will enjoy them more this week when they are not in danger of getting knocked over!

One of our friends who came to the party asked me if I used 1-1 flour, and did I want some. Of course I did!!!! He actually had it in the car, and shortly walked in the house with 25 lbs!!! I thanked him profusely, and let him know I would be sharing some of it, which he was happy for me to do. It was given to him, and he doesn’t use it enough to finish off a bag that size, so I was the lucky recipient!

Lovana flies back to Hawaii Monday afternoon, and then our lives will return to routine. It’s been a whirlwind, but I’ve enjoyed the week tremendously.