Frugal February 7, 8 and 9 kitchen clean out, Google Lens, Dollar Tree things for my daughter

Hello everyone 

I’ve spent almost all day working on my kitchen. 

I took everything out of the lower cabinets and some things from the upper cabinets.

Then I  cleaned the shelves and put in new shelf paper.

It was a big job and I am tired. I still want to put some labels on the doors.

Most everything is put back now, and I have a big discard pile.

 And I will show you after pictures tomorrow.

Do you all know about Google lens?

You need the Google app. It was already on my Apple phone and it was also on my husband’s android phone.

It’s very useful if you’re trying to identify something. 

There were some mystery items in that batch of sewing stuff I got Saturday so I tried out Google lens for the first time.

To use Google lens, open the app, and then touch the camera icon.

Then take a picture of your mystery item.

The app will probably tell you exactly what your mystery item’s name is. 

It will tell you what it may be selling for in different places or where to buy one. 

I learned about this app, watching a YouTuber identify items in a thrift store.

I think it’s very useful. My husband thinks it could be useful to identify the name of a part on something when you’re trying to fix it.

So remember your Google app next time you have a mystery. It might be able to help you solve it.

A budget, but very delicious recipe that I made this week is nut bread. The recipe is originally from a Susan Branch  cookbook.

I’ve been baking this for years.

It has no added fat of any kind in the recipe, except for the egg and the butter that is used to grease the pan.

  

We like it a lot. Especially toasted with a little butter on top.

I don’t guess I gave out enough clues about which of the dollar tree items my daughter requested. So I’ll just go ahead and show you.

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She wanted the gnome, and those little carrots that I did not take a photo of, probably for her tiered tray in her kitchen.

She wanted the coloring tablecloth for her long dining table, they have three school-age children who will enjoy coloring the Valentine tablecloth.

On the right side of the picture, you can see their double entry doors and that is why she wanted the two bunny wreaths. 

And last, the felt bunny garland  will go on their mantle for Easter. 

She currently has felt hearts there for Valentine’s Day.




Nobody guessed  the correct items and I really wasn’t clear enough.

I will host a giveaway of some sort very soon

❤️ Rhonda 

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