Making Cents Of It All

Sorry I haven't been around a lot lately. We have been busy. We went to Massachusetts last weekend to visit Hubby's family. His cousin had surgery and his uncle can't travel so we went to visit them.  His Aunt G spoils Hubby. She made him a pasta pie. She does when ever we see her. He loves them.  She gave me these 2 kitchen towels that she makes to use for Christmas. She made matching pot holders with them. I love them. We ate all meals with his family so we didn't have to pay for any. We did bring some gifts and wine for them.  The garden is still giving me goodies. The kale is back. I picked my first batch yesterday. It went right into the freezer.  P gives me his older fruit that he isn't going to eat. I froze them for smoothies.  I went to the bank and took 2 lollipops for P. He loves candy but shouldn't have a lot.  P treated me to lunch. I brought home half of my salad and my son took it to work the next da

Apple cider vinegar is easy to make you just need to make it in advance of when you need it because it does take a while. Ingredients * apple scraps (cores and peels) * 2 cups of filtered or bottled water * 2 Tablespoons of cane sugar Directions I use a sterilized quart jar. Fill the jar 3/4 of the way with the apple scraps. Dissolve the sugar into the water. Pour the water over the apple scraps into the jar. Make sure the scraps are completely submerged. If they are not they will mold. Use something on top to keep them submerged. I use a shot glass or glass bowl. Take a coffee filter and put it over the top. Use a canning ring or a rubber band to keep it in place. It needs air so do not put a solid cover on top. Date the coffee filter if you are going to do more then one batch. Store in a dark place that it will not get knocked over. After 4 weeks, strain the apple pieces out. Put them into the compost. Cover the jar again with a coffee filter and put it back into a dark pla

My son started his new job last week. They ordered him uniforms. This Monday he was given 11 uniforms (shirts and pants). At my old job all I got was 2 shirts. I had to beg for a 3rd.  Some friends and I met for breakfast at Panera. I had a free pastry on my card so I got a cinnamon roll. I also used the $3 gift card I got last week from Verizon. You have to use the whole $3 in one transaction so I got 3 bagels. I ate one there, gave one to my friend and brought one home.  I picked up a freebie from Stop N Shop. We wont eat it so Hubby brought it to work and one of his coworkers ate it.  YD has food credits at college. It is a weekly use it or lose it system. Every Wednesday she goes to the market and uses any extra credits that she has. This week she got 3 boxes of cereal. She had eaten at some free events this week because it is homecoming this weekend. She will be doing the same thing this week. She has quite a pile of food stashed by doing this every week.

I am trying to do a  No Waste October . We went away for a few days and that made it a little harder.  My first complaint is junk mail. A lot of it can be recycled but not this plastic card. They email me the same coupons so why do they have to mail them also. Drives me crazy. There was more junk mail that went into the garbage as well.  On vacation I brought some single serve snacks.  They can't be recycled. Do you see a theme here? Chocolate. I try not to buy single serve snacks often for this reason but clearance candy is a weakness.  Next up is meat packaging.  There were more but my hands were a mess so I didn't get pictures. I don't want to touch my phone with raw chicken on my hands.  While we were away, the store only had potatoes in this bag or individually wrapped.  We got BK one day on vacation. I drank water from my water bottle so only the wrapper went into the garbage.  We also got pizza.

We went away with my sister for 4 days in upstate NY. We stayed at her friend's beautiful lake house. We bought them a thank you gift but that was all it cost for lodging. It was a very inexpensive trip.  The check for YD's scholarship came and it went right back into the college fund.  I got my free Starkist tuna.  I used a free item coupon for B&BW. It will go into someone's stocking.  When I left the mall, there was a mall stroller on the way to my car. No one was around and there was a bag in it. I guess when the person picked up the child, they left the bag behind. The perfume went into my gift stash.  I gave my neighbor some of the apples we picked and some tomatoes from my garden. She got us cupcakes as a thank you.  My sister dropped Lip off and some food items too.  I earned 2 gift cards from Verizon up.  The garden is still going.  What freebies did you get this week? 

We went to upstate NY for part of last week. We wanted to enjoy all of the beautiful fall colors and activities. This will be what I have gotten the last 2 weeks.  I bought 4 pumpkins from Aldi. They were on sale for $2.99 each. I will cook them up after Halloween.  Vegetable oil was on sale for $3.49 each, limit 2 so I grabbed them.  Whole peeled tomatoes were marked down to 21¢ each. I bought all of them.  Soups were marked down to 67¢. I only grabbed 2 for my son since I don't know if he will like them. I can't eat them because of the sodium and Hubby can't have them because they contain dairy.  Whole chickens were on sale with a coupon for 69¢ a pound, limit 2.  Pepsi was on sale for 77¢, limit 4. We host Thanksgiving so I got them early.  Taco kits were on the marked down rack. We love tacos.  They were $1.24 each. If the shells are broken, I will make a taco salad with them.  Hubby's favorite