Frugal February 4, 5 and 6

Hello everyone 

First here is my weekly to do list.  As I expected, several undone tasks from last week’s list have been rolled over to this week’s list.

But that’s fine and that is just life. 

I think I need a new black ink pad. My stamping images don’t look as clear as I prefer them to.

On Saturday, I saw a Facebook marketplace ad and I knew the people.  

I got all of this and lots more for $25 

I don’t think I’ll ever need to buy another zipper or button. 

And as long as the elastic is still viable, I won’t need to buy any more elastic for a long, long time either. 

Now my sewing room has stuff spread everyone and I’ll be working on that this week.

  Lots of good stuff but it’s still stuff and I need to find a place for it.  

No photo but my husband smoked a $35 commissary brisket on Saturday.  We‘ve at it 3 days in a row and it is just delicious. 

He doesn’t follow the brisket experts advice, and he trims most of the fat from the brisket. But we like it that way. It is still flavorful and tender, just not fatty or greasy. Tomorrow I’ll put what is left in the freezer in meal size containers.

 We could have gone out to eat and spent $35 on one brisket meal but this way we get many brisket meals for the same money.

Sunday afternoon I made a double batch of energy balls. Most of these will go in lunches for grand children who pack school lunches. In our town, all children can eat breakfast free but I think school lunches cost $3.50  or $4 a day.

This is my basic energy ball recipe. I usually heat the peanut butter in the microwave just to make it easier to stir.

Corn syrup and pancake syrup can be substituted for the honey with very good results.

I usually stir the wet ingredients together, then stir in the oats and then stir in the M&Ms or chocolate chips

I’ve used traditional peanut butter, sugar-free peanut butter, and a low sugar peanut butter. All have worked just fine.

Shape into balls, whatever size you desire, and chill in the refrigerator.

They are very filling, much more filling than a store-bought granola bar

One  morning I had an unusual opportunity to help my daughter shop at Aldi. 

 After that I went by myself to Dollar Tree. 

I needed 2 things and got both of them for our home (tiny trash bags and a particular type of toothpaste) I was also looking for some shampoo and conditioner that I saw on YouTube, that had good reviews, but this dollar tree did not have them.

Then I sent some photos to my daughter to see if she wanted some of these things as I thought she might.  

She picked out a few things. Can you guess which things she asked for?  

  

  

  

  

She wanted things in 4 of these photos.  If anyone gets it exactly right,  I’ll send the first one a little gift.  

Hope you all are having a good Monday 

❤️ Rhonda 

Frugal February #3 needles, pillows and nails

Hello everyone 

I got some sewing things earlier this year from a relative.

I think this pack of sewing needles from Wonder potato chips is such neat thing.  

I’m guessing it was a freebie inside a specially marked package of chips or maybe it was a mail in offer, like mail in 2 proofs of purchase and 

Wonder would mail the customers their needles.  

When was the last time you saw anything marked “made in japan”

A company won’t do a freebie like this now.  Somebody would eat a needle and say they didn’t know needles weren’t edible or something ridiculous like that.  

But I think this is neat reminder of past things.  

And I used one of those needles today……..

When I unpacked my Valentine decorations,  I found 2 pillow covers that I didn’t remember. 

I didn’t have pillow blanks to put in them so I just made some.

I had 2 older bed pillows.  

I marked them to fit into the 17 inch pillow covers- I only had to cut off 1 end- 

The filling was thick and it took a bit of an effort to cut through it but it wasn’t a hard job. 

Then I turned under the pillow fabric edges and hand sewed them shut. 

There are the pillow covers zipped onto the just made pillow inserts 

And I have an idea about what to do with the pillow stuffing ends- stay tuned. 

I gave Ducky a bath this morning and did a few cleaning jobs.  My manicure didn’t hold up to well to all that water 

and I wasn’t crazy about those 2 color nails so I put on a fresh set just now 

And there are still sooooo many nails in this bag! 

Have a good weekend everyone

❤️ Rhonda