Making Cents Of It All

I hope everyone is doing OK. We have been outside as much as possible with all of this wonderful weather. Hubby made me a beautiful garden work bench. I just love it.  We already had everything. The wood is from the kid's old swing set and my sister's swing set that we took down for her.   All of the screws and hooks we had from other projects or yard sale purchases.  I already started using it. My tomatoes needing transplanting into larger pots.  We placed it near the small garden off of the patio. It fits perfectly. 

I start my garden from seeds every year. I planted tomatoes (3 kinds), peppers (6 kinds), eggplant and celery.  My sister sent me Japanese eggplant seeds. They are her favorite. So I still have to plant them. Hubby hooked up the grow lights for me. They are pretty cool.  Do you grow your plants from seeds? What are you growing? 

Last weekend Hubby and I went to Maryland to visit our daughters. We stayed at a hotel right near the college. We got a free room upgrade. We were moved to the concierge level. It included free breakfast, free drinks, snacks and a lite dinner. I had brought food for breakfast so I gave some to my daughter and brought the rest home. We are happy to eat free breakfasts. One night we went to the free dinner. There was plenty of food for us to call it dinner. It included hummus and chips, veggies, cheese platter, ravioli, chicken skewers and fruit. I had grilled chicken cutlets at home and brought them with us for dinner. YD was happy to take them to her dorm since we didn't eat them.   We stopped in several times a day to grab drinks and a snack.  I also brought home the extra toiletries.  YD gave me her large pumpkin that she had gotten when she went pumpkin picking with friends. I brought it home and cooked it up.  We went to ...

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 ne...

Tomatoes are coming in like crazy. I have been using them up as fast as I can.  I dehydrated a bunch. I put them in a jar I had and added olive oil. They went into the fridge.   I cooked the rest of the tomatoes that I had at the time. I made pasta for dinner that night and I still had 3 containers for future, easy meals. They all went into the freezer.  I went to Aldi for milk and pumpkins. Pumpkins are $2.99 each this week. I got 4. They kids don't care about going pumpkin picking anymore. As long as we go apple picking I am told. We have gone apple picking twice already and are hoping to get a third time in soon. I will cook the pumpkins after Halloween.  I made cinnamon apples one morning. We were out of apple syrup so I cooked up the cores and peels to make some. It is so easy.  I got a little over a jars worth. Hubby used some on his waffles the next morning.  I cleaned out the fridge. ...

I am doing really well on my Christmas shopping. I had $10 in Kohl's cash. I bought this(can't show you exactly because people look at this blog) and I spent 3¢ so I am calling it free since I found a dime by the register.  My girlfriend and I went out to lunch using gift cards. Can you guess where? I was given a free drink. I brought it home for Hubby. My friend had a bunch of coupons for free cookies. She gave me one and I passed it on to my son.  A friend gave me this nail kit that she had been given. It went into the gift pile.  She also gave me these sticker labels. They went with the Christmas stuff.  Did everyone get their coupon for tuna?  I helped the high school PTA out on Open School. I manned the snack table so that my friend's could go to their kid's classes. There was a bunch leftover so they gave me some donuts to bring home.  They garden keeps on giving.  P wanted to go to Friendl...

Some weeks you get a few small freebies like last  week . I am happy with all of the free items I get. However the big freebies are amazing. This week we had 2.  Youngest Daughter was awarded a scholarship for this semester of college. She applied for it the first week of school and we were just notified. She was awarded $1,775. We are so proud of her. She would have to work a lot of hours at her job to make that kind of money. She spent less then an hour filling out a few scholarships back in August and it paid off for her. Since we already paid her tuition in full we can either leave it in her account for the spring or get a refund. We are opting for the refund.  Hubby's company had their annual free company picnic. They had a bounce house, sand art, crafts for the little kids, cotton candy machine, pinatas, and lots of food. They also do several raffles. Hubby won a $250 gift card. We also came home with a bunch of food, snacks and drinks. I shared...