Friday, November 8, 2019

Frugal Friday.....

My two days of running around are finished and I am back in the retirement nest. I've been to lunch and happy hour, and attended a church meeting where I took on the responsibility of seeing if our church should become a meals on wheels partner. I also hit my normal knitting schedule. Back in the fold, I'm now at home until a brief foray to church on Sunday (the coming week is my food hosting for the homeless obligations.

I'm not even going to think about hitting the recumbent trailer or the pool any time before Monday. My leg has been throbbing by the end of each and every day, and since today has involved some organizing (two bags of donations out the door almost two weeks worth of laundry to fold and put away plus dinner) I'm considering that my working.

I've managed at least a few frugal things in this neck of the woods this week:

1. Today I am cooking a large package of chicken thighs pulled from the freezer. Barbecue chicken and biscuits will have to do. I also perused the sale ads for the current week and found that almost everywhere had boneless chuck for three dollars. I will buy one and make Italian sandwiches and freeze the other, or maybe two others. I also checked out my local butcher now that I am following them so closely, and found a couple killer deals on prepared and ready to cook foods so my weekly outing will probably include those. 


2. I received and am preparing to pay my $40 bill for the urgent care treatment of my earache from hell. This may not seem frugal at first. One of the hallmarks of many Advantage plans is that they are geographically specific and when you go out of network you will have co pays.  Even so $40 seems darned cheap to me for a double urgent care visit (post call and in house treatment) and a small price to pay as it was my only out of pocket cost over the past year other than drugs. Never mind the fact that the nice doctor saved me from what can only be described as excruciating pain in the middle of wedding planning.

3. My social butterfly-ing this week consisted of a movie (five dollar Tuesdays plus discounted and rewarded food), lunch ($11 for the shrimp bisque lunch special) and happy hour (hello, diet coke and it's refills). Next week is a five dollar movie again and I plan to do without the goodies or throw some candy in my purse.

4. I've spent my time at home reading books from the library on my kindle, sewing Christmas gifts from fabric on hand,  alternating between two knitting projects, watching my how to paint classes and religious music classes on the great courses plus, and watching TV (Jack Ryan and football)

5. I reinforced my low spend, handmade gifts and experiences mainly plan buy spending some time online and in Pinterest looking for food recipes (liqueurs, flavored fudge and ice cream toppings) small sewn and knitted projects that will actually be useful (cloth napkins) and checking out experiences and day out trips (I don't mind spending more for an experience especially when I am spending less in other areas, and one of my options is a glass ornament blowing class). I'll be sharing a recipe post on Monday.

This afternoon along with writing and thinking about dinner, I'm sitting with a huge pile of every sock in the house I found (I love bright colored socks and manage to loose socks easier than chapsticks). Everything will be made into pairs and the extras will be moved to the cleaning pile.

Unless I can think of a creative use, of course.

17 comments:

  1. Okay, now I want barbecued chicken, biscuits and lemon cake.

    I use old 4-5 stocks to tied together haphazardly for my dog. He loves to play tug-of-war with them and to carry the 'toy' around. When he shakes them, they slap his face. LOL

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hmm. Okay, I may have to see how that works with Wilson....

      Delete
  2. OK, so you made me look, and the cost of the pumpkin and mushroom lasagna I just assembled was a healthy $18.00. However . . . it literally weighs 10 pounds (One pound each of mozzarella, ricotta, mushrooms, onion, plus two pounds canned oumpkin, a cup of half and hakf, 8 oz. of parm cheese . . . ), so that brings it down to under $2.00 a pound, a veritable bargain not to mention absolutely fresh and flavorful. I feel better now! 😅

    I've been likewise frequenting our local library. The shorter days of fall, and all. Our libraries seem to once again be tbriving, which makes me very happy.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yea, I'm actually not etting the lasagna but rather some meat dishes. But definitely the cake.These days I'm going with cooked meat from the meat market or casseroles from downtown dinner or freshly at least half the time. Our libraries are always, always busy.

      Delete
  3. Oh my, you are one busy lady. So important to stay busy and engaged. And, you are doing a great job at it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Somedays more so than others. I plan to veg for the nest two and a half.

      Delete
  4. Our church does 2 months of Meals on Wheels deliveries each year. It is a wonderful project for a church to take on.

    God bless.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It sounds like it may be a fit for us and they are right down the road.

      Delete
  5. I took a glass blowing Christmas ornament course once! It was a lot of fun!

    ReplyDelete
  6. My Medicare Advantage plan has provisions for emergency care out of my area.I would think a painful earache would qualify.You maybe be able to file it and get reimbursed.It's not a big amount but you don't know till you try.I read the policies very carefully to be sure I had emergency care anywhere. I think most policies do.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think the difference here is walk in urgent vs emergency. Emergency is probably fully covered but urgent care out of area is the forty bucks..and I'm loath to do an ER when it's not one. I'll check out the reimbursement options.

      Delete
  7. You do stay busy! I can't keep track of my chapsticks either!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm trying to have one in every room in every purse and the car!

      Delete
    2. Me too! I need to remember to put it back where I picked it up from...:-)

      Delete
  8. I am getting good ideas from this post of yours. Pain relief and treatment is priceless so that $40 is money well spent. My church does wonderful work too, right now it is Operation Shoebox which I love.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Good golly you do keep busy! I was frugal this week because I didn't drive myself anywhere ... I usually get a Starbucks or have lunch. So it was forced upon me. And it felt GREAT! My Village has no host events so I'll save up my $$$ to use for those (lunch, breakfast, happy hour), get a little socializing done AND support WLLO Village! Win/win/win.

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for stopping by! I love to hear from others, and I also love to hear all points of view.. Just leave the profanity and insults at home, OK? Thanks!!