My Frugal List: Week of March 11, 2019
Hubby and I celebrated our 26 wedding anniversary this week. He took the day off and we went to our favorite restaurant for lunch. They started doing a lunch special for $19 a person M-F 11-2:30 so we went during that time. You get an appetizer and a main dish.
Hubby got his favorite appetizer, Black pepper bacon. It is $18 on the menu by itself. I did steal a taste.
He then got the baby spinach salad with grilled salmon as his meal. He loved it.
I got the wedge salad to start off with. Yummy!
My main meal was the french dip with a side of duck fat fries. I shared the fries with Hubby because he loves them. I brought half of my sandwich home and ate it the next day for lunch.
We were stuffed so we didn't order dessert. When the waiter brought the bill he surprised us with a trio of gelato. The chocolate was the best gelato I have ever had. They make them all in house. I though it was very sweet of them. We had to eat them, it would have been rude not to.
The restaurant is on Main Street so there are lots of shops. The bakery a block away is YD's favorite. Our friend's daughter works there and they make some great GF items. We walked over to get some goodies to bring home. Our friend's daughter was working and she gave us a discount on our purchase. YD and my son were thrilled that we got them pastries on our anniversary. We walked around some more and went into a few other stores. Hubby treated me to a caramel, chocolate, peanut apple. I saved it for later. We had a great afternoon and the weather was perfect, high 50's.
We received some wonderful gifts from the kids and our family. YD painted us a beautiful picture. Hubby hung it in the living room.
The weather was great most of the week, 50's and 60's. I hung several loads of laundry outside.
I did walks everyday with the puppies. My son came with me once, YD came another day and Hubby came a few times. We are all loving the spring weather. I brushed Oreo outside and clipped her nails too. Lip hates it so I don't do it. His mom can handle it.
I got several items from the marked down rack at Meat Farms. The peppers were 99¢ each, the eggplants and pomelos were $1.59 per pack.
On Saturday my son was working. When he took his break he texted me that a donation had not been picked up. It was going to go in the dumpster. Did I want it all? I said yes. It was the leftovers from Friday night. Doesn't bother me at all. When he came home he had a giant box and bag.
12 loaves of bread, 4 sourdough bowls and 17 pastries. It was a lot. I started wrapping and freezing what I wanted. Then I started calling people. My neighbor was happy to take a loaf and 2 cookies. Hubby ran 2 loaves over to his parents with 2 cookies. My sister was coming the next day to get Lip and would take 2 bread bowls and a muffin top. Several others said no thanks.
While Hubby was at his parent's I was looking through Craigslist. I always look at the free section. People are always getting rid of useful items. A man posted that he had put tons of raspberry canes that he dug out at his curb. When Hubby got home we went. It was dark buy this point otherwise I would have gone by myself. We grabbed a bunch. He had so many more. He was cleaning out a lot next door that was overtaken by raspberries.
On Sunday, Hubby and my son planted them for me. They also put in 2 poles so I can attach wire and tie up the raspberry canes to keep them under control. I have to go get the wire. It ended up being 41 canes.
Our upstairs shower had a leak. Hubby fixed it with items we already had.
My sister came Sunday to get Lip.
I made french bread pizza for lunch. I didn't have room for all of the bread so I came up with several ways to use it.
My sister took us out to dinner to celebrate my son's 20th birthday. She isn't going to see him on his real birthday. It was a new restaurant for us. She had eaten there before. It was very fancy. My son loved it. He got a blueberry cobbler for dessert. We brought home all the leftovers and they were enjoyed the next day.
I shopped sales, used coupons and did Ibotta. I returned $4.70 in cans and bottles. Why are all of the bottle returns outside? It drives me nuts.
My Aunt came for lunch. She had asked me if I wanted to go out but I offered to have it at my house. She brought a fruit tray and a beautiful blanket that she made me.
Hubby and I got our taxes back from the accountant. The government owes us money so we will be getting that soon. With all of the tax law changes, I wasn't sure how it would all work out. I rolled my 401K into an IRA. Hubby and I payed our bills online and went over our budget.
Library registration was this week. I got into all 8 classes that I wanted. They were all free. Several friends are in a bunch of them.
I got my seeds organized and plan on planting seeds in door this week.
It was a busy week but a really good one.
What frugal things did you do this week?
You had a very busy week and that meal looks wonderful.
ReplyDeleteThanks, it was.
DeleteWOW what a fantastic week you had. Happy anniversary to you guys.
ReplyDeleteYou sure got a lot of yummies - what a budget stretcher!
I love the picture - you know you raised them right!
Thank you. They are great kids.
DeleteHappy belated anniversary to you and your DH Mcoia and glad you had a wonderful day out together :). What a blessing all of those bakery items were and the raspberry canes too. The plants are very expensive to buy over here.
ReplyDeleteI just thought I would mention that we had rain, glorious rain, and 70mm of it over a couple of days which will go a long way to filling up the household rain tanks and watering the parched grass :). I ran around in the rain and put water catching buckets everywhere to catch rain coming off the tank stand roof for watering plants too and DH ran around in it too to move the grey water hose to water a lot of the back lawns and native shrubs in the yard too. Drought does funny things to even adults and turns us into children once again :) .
Our savings last week added up to $1175.04.
Internet listings -
- Listed 13 free listings on eBay on a free listing and final auction value fee saving $21.45 on usual listing fees.
In the kitchen -
- Made 3 loaves of homemade bread in the bread making machine saving $10.47 over purchasing them in our local shops.
- Made 2lts of MOO yoghurt and flavoured it with homemade strawberry jam saving $5.62 over purchasing it in the shops.
House and garden maintenance -
- Cleaned out our grey water tank that had vines growing through the top of it from a bogainvillea bush we cut down and excess sludge in the bottom saving $1000 over hiring someone to come in and pump it out. Yes I was inside it as I don't think DH's shoulders would have got in there and he probably would have got stuck having back injuries. He lowered buckets in and I filled them up with sludge and vines and he disposed of it. While I was there I also inspected the inside of the tanks for breaches and there were none, adjusted the pump further away from the edge as the float was getting stuck and now it pumps perfectly without us having to set it off manually :).
- Pulled out 2 more upright posts from the vineyard when the weather wasn't stinking hot first thing in the morning.
Purchases -
- On a 50% off frozen goods promotion online in Woolworths we purchased 3 x 500g frozen blueberries, 1 x frozen passionfruit, 2 x 4lt Peters ice cream, 4 x 500g country harvest peas, corn and capsicum and 2 x pkts coctail spring rolls and 2 x 3kg valencia oranges on special saving $34.50 on usual prices.
- We went into our favourite op shop while we were in town for DH's doctor's appointment and purchased a near new complete easiyo yoghurt maker for $1, 2 music cd's for $1 for both, and 2 gardening books for $1 saving around $100 over buying them new.
- Found Steggles chicken drumsticks on clearance for $1.99 kg and purchased 4kg saving $8 on usual prices.
It has been a fantastic week for us here to stock up our freezer with absolutely low price freezer items and some secondhand good condition items too.
Hope everyone has a wonderful week ahead.
Sewingcreations15 (Lorna).
I'm so glad you got rain. I know you needed it. I hope your barrels are all full again. Great job on cleaning the tank. Sounds like a lot of work but saved you a lot of money.You got some great deals this week too. You had a wonderful week. I hope you have another one.
DeleteHappy Anniversary! What a week!
ReplyDeleteThank you.
DeleteI always used to get French Dip before I became gluten-free. It was my absolute favorite, and I've tried a few times to make it gluten-free, but it's not the same. Still, I will probably try again at one point since I love it so much.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on the berries. Do you know if they are ever-bearing or June-bearing? Either way, you're going to love them!
Thank you. He wasn't sure what kind of raspberries they were so I will find out later this year. I love a good French Dip. Good luck with making it GF. If you figure it out, let me know for YD. She would love it.
ReplyDeleteHappy Anniversary! Your dinner looked amazing! That bacon appetiser gave me ideas. Also later that cobbler inspired me for a desert plus presentation!! I cant believe all those baked goods! So much could be frozen for breakfasts, snacks, meals. How fantastic! What a good week!
ReplyDeleteThank you. We ate well.
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