Another casual coupon trip and library goodies

There is a new batch of Walgreens deals  this week.  

I pretty much followed Savvy Coupon Shopper’s plan from YouTube 

https://youtu.be/4ycpayaBX5k?si=HgqtY-v1t8xyD8Qy

I only used digital coupons and the 3 paper Walgreens rewards I got on last week’s trip.  

I paid $5.48 cash and earned back $10 in Walgreens rewards and about $7 in Walgreens cash 

My granddaughter was with me and she was pretty surprised when the total was so low.  

She wanted to go the library so that was our next stop.  

We have a very nice public library.

I picked up some free seeds there. 

These are the 2 recipes in that Burpee pamphlet that sound really good to me.  

I’m not sure this one needs a whole cup of olive oil though - what do y’all think? 

I’ve made a little more progress in the backyard garden, but no photos yet.  

This nice spring weather is misleading.  It makes me want to move my tomato plants outside when is 65 or 75 degrees.  But I see we have a hard freeze in the forecast next week.  

So I’ll be waiting until April 15 even though I don’t want to.  

Hope you are well

❤️Rhonda 

Winner, Winner, Turkey Dinner

It started raining last night and rained most of today so I didn’t do any yard work today.  

There has been a big turkey in our freezer since before Thanksgiving.  It wasn’t needed for Thanksgiving as our son brought turkeys he cooked. 

We are also out of frozen chicken broth.  

So I thought I would thaw out that turkey and make broth with part of it.  

So I cut it up and have the back, neck and wings cooking in this large crockpot for broth,  

The legs and thighs are in the fridge for now.  

I sealed  the breast in foil and baked it, low and slow- and it turned out so good! 

We had turkey with sides for supper 

And I guess we will be having several more turkey meals but that’s ok with me.  

I’ll probably make more broth with the legs -or  “bone broth” as the cool homemakers call it these days. 

Turkey 🦃 anyone?  

❤️Rhonda 

Progress taking back the garden spot- after working here today and yesterday.

There is still lots to do and that’s only 6 feet 

But there is hope! 

My son made this meatloaf with this recipe-he says  it’s the best turkey meatloaf he’s ever had and they will be eating meatloaf for days.  

The photo he sent doesn’t have the mixing and baking instructions but you all know how to mix and bake meatloaf, right?  

I think meatloaf sandwiches sound very nice.  

❤️ Rhonda 

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Pork cutlets, a livestock show and will we garden?

Hello everyone 

I cooked those bargain $1 pork cutlets and they were delicious!  

I also baked that big pan of sliced carrots, made some mashed potatoes and a mix white gravy.  

Below is my plate 

My husband was very happy with this meal.  

This morning we went to the local junior livestock show at the county fairgrounds.

  Our 2 oldest grandsons were showing their Guernsey dairy cows.  

They are in 6th and 9th grade now.  

This is  what our side garden spot in the back yard currently looks like 😵‍💫🤯😱

Because of physical issues and extended family needs,  we have not really gardened in a couple of years.  

This is what that patch looked like, a few years ago, before the weeds moved in.  

Weeds grow really well in Oklahoma 

We’ve talked about hiring someone to just take it all back to a grass yard.  

But spring has me wanting to garden so I’m going to see how much cleaning up I can do without tearing it all down. 

No photos but I did a bit of clean up today and found a little asparagus coming up and blackberry bushes with lots of green leaves.  

I’m hoping to clean up a little each day and see how it goes.  

So come back and see if I make any progress.  

Hope you are all well. 

It’s a beautiful springlike day for us 

❤️Rhonda 

Seedlings, soup and a good cookie bar recipe

Hello everyone 

I planted these tomato and pepper seeds Feb 5 and it was pretty cold then 

It took a while but they all sprouted and seem to be growing a little everyday 

We really like that cabbage bean soup I wrote about a few days ago. 

This morning I made a double batch of it.  

The photo is not beautiful but the soup is tasty 

I baked a new recipe I saw from Meals with Maria- she has a YouTube channel and a blog 

Oatmeal Cookie Bars

I followed the recipe. She said to add things as desired and I added cinnamon and pecans.  

She said to use a 9x9 baking dish but it looked like a lot of dough to me so used a 9X13 and I’m glad I did.  

It also took a little longer to bake.  

The oatmeal bars are delicious and I plan to keep this recipe.  

I took some soup and cookies to my older relative for lunch and they liked them both very much.  

So did my husband.

Hope you’re all having a good day 

❤️Rhonda 

March 4th

Hello everyone 

My husband and I went to Oklahoma City today, partly to shop and partly to have a day out.  

We went to the Air Force base and shopped a little. 

Our youngest granddaughter turned 5 and we bought her  2 spring church dresses.  

I think maybe that’s  just  a southern thing, calling nice dresses “church dresses”- back when people were concerned about dressing properly for an occasion.  Some occasions called for a school dress, some called for a church dress and some called for a fancier, formal dress.  

The commissary just didn’t have many good deals or even reasonable prices. 

They do sell marked down meat in a freezer bunker.  

I’ve never bought this cut of pork but they look very lean - and I think I bought them just because they were $1 a package.  

The look like slices of loin that have been tenderized.  

I’m thinking tomorrow I’ll bread and pan sauté a package, serve on a bun, like a fast food pork sandwich.  

I saw this on Facebook and it made me laugh.  

March 4th everyone 

❤️Rhonda 

Casual couponing

One of my goals for 2024 was to do casual couponing a few times a month and I’ve pretty much done it.  

I don’t use paper coupons,  just digital coupons on the store webpage or app.  

I’m not trying to spend zero,  I just want to get products my family uses at as big a discount as I legally and reasonably can.  

There are many coupon experts out there.  

Look on Instagram or YouTube and you’ll find all the advice you can use.  

I’ve been doing my coupon shopping at Walgreens and DollarGeneral.  And just a few times at CVS.

I plan out my deals but I never know just how they will go until I check out.  

Today I got 2 big packs of Bounty towels,  3 toothpastes and 1 tooth brush. 

My out of pocket cash spent was $23ish (I  should have planned to spend Walgreens cash but I forgot and the cashier didn’t ask). I also used some digital coupons and some Walgreens rewards from last week) 

Walgreens gives out paper rewards -made the $4, $3 and $5 rewards under the toothpastes?  

And they give out Walgreens cash- see my earnings and balance on today’s receipt 

I never know exactly how a transaction will go but lately they have been going great!

At Dollar General, I use their digital coupons and combine them with sales and cash rewards.  

I’ve been happy with my purchases there too.  

I’ve got a nice stockpile at home and I just started making a pile for my daughter.  They are not low income but they are raising a family, and their property insurance and loan interest rates are going up, just like so many people.  

The main products I see with the biggest discounts and rewards are laundry products and dental products,  next are cosmetics and personal care like lotions, hair products, etc.  

I’ve also found recent deals on paper products.   And air freshener products- 

This way of shopping isn’t for everyone but I’m thankful for it and it’s helping us.  
 

❤️Rhonda 

Homemade soup and thrift store purchases

Hello everyone 

I made a batch of cabbage bean soup for our lunch and it was so fast to make with already having the carrots, onions and potatoes peeled and chopped.

I like this recipe from Lena 

Cabbage Bean Soup

She doesn’t blog anymore but she always was so sweet and had really helpful content.  

We had some cheese and crackers with our soup 

I went to 2 thrift stores this week.  I used to think our town had wonderful thrift stores.  

But I’ve been in a decluttering and downsize pattern for a while now and most stuff doesn’t appeal to me anyway.

I bought these vintage magazines and 1 little jigsaw puzzle.  I think my total cost was in the $3 range. 

This is the vegetable chopper I used.  

I bought it from Amazon but,this model is not available any longer but there are many similar ones available. 

I like it but it don’t get it out unless I’m chopping a lot of things.  The green grid thar pushes the vegs through the blades can be a little tricky to clean.  

Hope you’re all having a nice weekend 

❤️Rhonda 

Back to homemaking

Where did January and February go?  Wherever it was, they certainly went fast for me.  

But I’m ready to get back to normal homemaking, as normal as is possible anyway.  

So last night I wrote out a meal plan 

It’s not a day by day specific plan but I think we have all the ingredients on hand for these meals and they all sound good.  

To get a head start,  I decided to chop up some vegetables and I ended up doing a lot more veggies than first planned.  

I wanted to make a big salad to eat for lunches and for a supper side dish. 

I wanted to cut up onion, celery and bell pepper for the dirty rice I cooked today.  

The 5 pound bag of carrots in the fridge drawer were starting to grow roots.  

We had 3 onions on had and 1 was just starting to get soft.  

So, I processed all of them and they will be waiting in the fridge for future meals.  

Then I saw we had a half bag of potatoes. My husband peeled all them and I chopped them into cubes in the same chopper used for the onions, bell peppers, part of the carrots and celery.  

It feels good to have ingredients ready for some easier home cooked meals in the future.  

And I hope we don’t turn orange from eating  so many carrots. 

Our main meal today was dirty rice and it was so good!  

I browned a half pound of lean ground beef and then cooked it with about a half cup each onion, celery and bell pepper.  

Then I added about 3 cups of cooked  brown rice, about 2 cups of cooked red beans, 2 t Cajun seasoning and 1 t sage.  

It’s not pretty but it’s tasty.  

About my husband,  he had 3 doctor appointments this week.  He has a shoulder impingement and will start physical therapy next week.  

He also had treatments to his shoulder and back, he’s not good as new but is feeling a lot better.  

I’m very thankful that for now,  surgery is not in his future.  

Thank you all for the YouTube channel recommendations 👍👍👍

❤️Rhonda 

A few home changes and my current YouTube favorites

Hello everyone 

I wanted to write a blog post before the month of February ends.

January and February have not been a lot of fun. My husband spent about half of that time helping his parents. You all know he came back from one trip with a respiratory infection that stayed with him three weeks. Thankfully, I never caught it.

Then, on the second trip down there, he injured his shoulder. 

Today he got injections in his back that he gets about every three months. Tomorrow he will see the ortho specialist about his shoulder. We both thought if he just rested his shoulder, that it might heal on its own, but it’s been about 10 days and it is not getting better. The doctor he is seeing tomorrow is the one who did his last knee replacement, and we are confident that he will have the best treatment plan.  

My husband and I know we are not getting any younger and we have been making changes over the last few years to make our home for comfortable and manageable as we age.

About 6 years ago,  we put adjustable beds in the master bedroom and we both like them a lot.

When my husband had that respiratory bug and I was sleeping in one of the guest rooms to avoid getting sick,  I missed my adjustable bed.  

So,  after we thought about it,  we got some more adjustable beds and put them in this guest room.  

They will be comfortable for for guests and they will be comfortable for either me or my husband if we end up sleeping in that room. 

The Queen bed was moved next door.  It looks like a nice bed but I don’t like this older mattress at all.  

I would have preferred to just get rid of this bed, but my husband wanted to keep it. And any of you that are married know marriage involves compromise.

But our granddaughter likes sleeping in this bed so for now, it’s in that second bedroom.

This twin bed is the bed that same granddaughter slept in when her family lived with us for a year. It is a really good mattress.

It was in a closet, but I moved it into the sewing room, because if someone was staying in that bedroom, there wouldn’t be any room for their clothes in the closet, because that bed took up the closet.

There’s still a ton of stuff in this sewing room

But if I ever get back to sewing, I can always spread projects out on top of that twin bed

And it will be a place for someone to lay and take a nap. If we have a lot of guest it will be another space for sleeping.  

I rarely watch regular TV anymore. The shows just seems so fake or extreme, I just don’t enjoy them.

But there are several channels on YouTube that I do really like

I really like Meals with Maria.  She is a mom of three that lives in a normal looking house and she cooks normal food. She does it on a budget and without any drama.

https://youtube.com/@MealsWithMaria?si=07bYDuDdU7eqI-kg

Big Bankz does Urbex (Slang for urban exploration) He explores abandoned homes and buildings. I don’t know why it’s so interesting, but it is. My husband and some of the grandchildren enjoy watching him too. 

https://youtube.com/@BigBankz?si=1ebHR-hyjGhcncuN

Taco Stacks does scrapping, trash picking, cleaning out houses,  selling on eBay, buying abandoned storage building contents,  thrift shopping and sell at swap meets. 

https://youtube.com/@TacoStacks?si=bhyr7O4DCt46TZpY

I would call all of those shows G rated.

The only warning I would give is if you watch very much of Taco Stacks or urbex videos,  you will start cleaning out your drawers and closets 😊 

There are so many good YouTube channels.

But I’d love to learn of some more.

Please comment if you watch any that you think I would like

❤️Rhonda 

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Meals, a sewing project, weather, etc

Hello everyone 

My last post was about concerns for my husband and that illness.  

Well, all my precautions worked and I didn’t catch it.  He is pretty much better but has been though a lot with so much coughing.  

So if there is sickness in you home,  my advice is 

- try to keep as much distance as possible between you and the sick person

-Wash your hands often and especially if you handle anything that the sick person has handled like their dishes

-Be careful with dishes-I sanitized hours by running the dishwasher on the sanitize cycle. But if I was doing them by hand, I think I would pour boiling water on any dishes used by the sick person

-If possible, sleep in a different room than the sick person

-I asked my husband not to go in the kitchen, but if he just had to, I put a box of latex gloves on the counter for him to put a pair on if he had to touch anything. And I think he only went in the kitchen one time and he did wear gloves

-Be careful with laundry and towels. If possible wash, wash the sick persons, laundry in hot water.

That’s pretty much what I did and it worked for us. But it’s just my advice. I am not a doctor.

  

My most recent sewing project is a cover for my KitchenAid mixer’s bowl.  

It was a simple, sewing project. I used a pizza pan to cut out my circles. 

Mine is reversible with chickens on one side and a print on the other.

Meals -We’ve eaten at home all meals, except once when we went to Oklahoma City a couple days ago

But apparently I took very few photos of those meals 

 

Breakfast for supper 2 nights 

Swiss steak from a recipe shared by 

Terri at Blue House Journal

I made it exactly as she posted.  I’ve made Swiss steak many times but never put bell pepper in it.  Terri’s recipe uses bell pepper and is delicous!  

It’s very easy too.  

I rarely bake anymore but we had a small family gathering and another family member was going to see other family on a road trip. 

So I bake a double batch of Pound cake and a single batch of cake mix cookes.  

The 2 containers were sent on the trip and the desserts on the white plate were shared with family that night.  

Weather!  

We had super cold temperatures and snow that kept bus home for almost week.

Then a few days after that mostly was over,  we had ice.  

Ice is the worst!  It makes every surface slippery with walking and driving both treacherous. 

Thankfully we in a stretch of pleasant weather for the foreseeable future.  

Hope you are all well 

❤️ Rhonda 

Cooking ahead… Just in case

My husband spent a week in Arkansas, helping his elderly parents.

When he returned, he had a horrible respiratory illness. He did not go to the doctor, so we don’t know what it was, but he had the worst cough, and just felt terrible.

I was afraid I might catch his cold.

I washed my hands all the time and we stayed in different rooms

And I was just as careful as I could be.

But just in case I might get sick, I spent some time doing some cooking so we would have easy things to reheat

(But if or your family don’t like “leftovers” this blog post is not for you) 

I used this big package of extra lean ground beef that had been in the freezer for awhile 

I used these fresh ingredients plus some cherry tomatoes

Those are the dry ingredients

Results - 

Tossed salad, A box with sliced tomatoes and lettuce for sandwiches, and another container with toppings for tacos

I used about a fourth of the hamburger to make the goulash, the dish with tomatoes, bell peppers and macaroni

I  used about a fourth of the meat with brown gravy mix and it can be served over the cooked egg noodles

Then, about half of the meat was seasoned with taco seasoning, onions, and bell peppers

We don’t normally eat beef meal after meal but I was cooking with what I had and was doing it easy. 

 It’s also 96% lean beef 

I cleaned up as I went

From start to finish it took just a little over an hour

And I’m very happy to have the mess of cooking over with for several days.  

After I loaded the dishwasher, I sat down with a bowl of grapes and my bowl of water

    

To help my memory, and in case, my husband ends up doing meals, I wrote down the ready made foods and put the list on the refrigerator  door. 

My husband got back Wednesday and he is so much better now.  And so far on Saturday, I have no symptoms of what he has.

He had the worst cough, I really don’t know how he is doing so much better so fast.

Other times, when either one of us have had a bad cold or respiratory situation, it has taken at least 10 days to get over it

When he got back here to Oklahoma, he started taking this daytime and nighttime medicine

We don’t know if that’s why he got better so fast. It certainly seemed to help his symptoms.

I’m not a doctor and I’m not giving medical advice. I’m just telling you what worked for him.  

I was told by a visiting nurse who was caring for  my older relative that there is some sort of a mystery respiratory disease going around, it has symptoms like Covid and RSV but it is neither one of those.

And again, we don’t know what my husband had except what he had mostly had terrible respiratory symptoms

I hope you all are staying healthy and warm, if you’re living in this cold weather right now.  

❤️Rhonda