August - finishing the month

hello everyone.
We had a family gathering here Sunday after church.  We had 4 generations of family - my parents, my husband's parents, 3 of our children with their spouses and children.
I did a very simple menu but everyone liked it just fine,
We had grilled hamburgers and smoked sausage dogs.
Side dishes were raw veggies and dip and chips.

Very simple buffet 

4 generations of men

2 year old Charlie wanted to sit with her great grandmother. Charlie had her own plate

 of food but she put it all on RoRo's plate 😍 and they shared. 

Sewing- I didn't sew as much as I hoped but I did finish 3 LoveNotions.com laundry day garments.
I made a white top in shirt length with fabric from my stash.

I sewed a tunic and dress from the same pattern with low cost Walmart fabric. 

I also did a few simple sewing projects that got added to my 100 day sewing challenge. 

My daughter has been doing some organizing projects.  This one will help them have smoother mornings.   She has 3 young children and they each get a hanging organizer and shoe box,  the organizers hold their school outfits for each day of the week.

I happened to be in Walmart one morning when they were doing some crazy clearances.  

All of these socks and boys underwear were clearanced to $1. I got enough for all our grands. 

This store had oodles of these and it was fun listening to other shoppers to call people to find out sizes so they could buy for them.  

When my husband and dressed for church, we both ended up wearing red, white and blue.  We tried taking some selfies these next 2 photos are the best of about 30.

Now, welcome September ❤️

DIY children fun, batch cooking and etc:

Hello everyone,
school is back in session for all our grands that go to school and our grown children that work in education.   We are settling into a new schedule and so far,  everything is going pretty smooth.

I am still helping with childcare for some of the grands but I don't have a single grand that is here for any full weekdays,  this is a big change for me as I've been caring for different combinations of grands for the last 8 years while their parents worked.
Whatever will I do with all my free time?
So far,  I haven't seen that much extra free time but I am sure I will stay busy no matter who is here.

Here a few things our grands had end of summer fun with.

This was homemade chalk paint.  Each muffin cup held 2 T of cornstarch, 2 T water and 5 drops of food coloring.
Stir it up well and then paint.  Please look on Pinterest if you want more instructions but that is truly all we did

The grands had a great time stirring it and painting with it.  

It didn't really show up so well on the driveway but it was still lots of fun.  

It also completely washed away  when it rained.


All the grands like to pour and this 2 year old is having a great time with just water and a plastic tea set on a tray covered with a kitchen towel.
The towel controlled most of the spills and it was just water so it wasn't much a mess.

When the bigger grands wanted to have a tea party,  I got out a tea set my mom found at a yardsale years ago.  It is pottery and looks a lot like Fiesta ware.

My parents were here for this tea party.  They had some lemonade for pouring and some Ninja Turtle cookies the grands baked with a mix from Dollar Tree.
They all had a very sweet time and I know the tea sets will be used often when grands are here.

Children love to cook and help in the kitchen.  This 5 year old was helping me roll out noodles.
It costs nothing to have them help and they enjoy it so much.

Today I did some big batch cooking.  

I made a recipe of Energy Balls.  It is based loosely on a YouTube video by Keep Calm and Clean

I make them a little differently.  I mix up the peanut butter, honey and vanilla and then I add the quick oats and either mini chocolate chips or mini M&Ms.  Once mixed,  I use a little scoop and make balls,  chill until ready to eat.  In the video,  she also adds brown sugar but I think these are plenty sweet like this.
These are a favorite of the grands and they are quite filling and hunger satisfying.

If you look for other Energy balls or protein balls recipes,  most have a lot more ingredients.   We really like this simple recipe just fine.

I made a triple recipe of  Freezer Biscuits I've made this recipe many times and they are always good.  They are freezing and will get bagged up with frozen solid.

I also baked a triple recipe of banana bread/muffins and a double batch of chocolate chip muffins.



When everything was cool,  I put it in plastic containers for the freezer and in sandwich bags for school lunches.  We are having company this weekend and will probably serve some of the banana bread and chocolate chip muffins.
I also packaged up some to take to my parents at their retirement home.

I want to mix up a new recipe for a Cajun seasoning but I was out of onion powder.  I did have a couple quarts of the dried onion flakes.  I tried grinding them up a  little coffee grinder,,,,,

and it worked just fine!  I will be using this homemade onion powder for the Cajun seasoning as well as when I make more Taco Seasoning and Rub for smoked meat.
It always a win when you can use what you have instead of adding things to a shopping list, right?

Keeping it real though....
All that baking and cooking used lots of dishes.  The dishwasher was full and running as well as all the dishes I hand washed and have air drying.  (hmmm,  I'm not sure that is a complete and proper  sentence but you get the picture)

I'm still doing bargain shopping in small amounts  This was last week at Dollar General.  

I used just digital coupons on the Dollar General app and website.  

After deducting all the coupons as well as a $5 off $30 coupon for buying Gain products,  I spent $12.71
Before coupons, it was about $35.

I'm still walking everyday and keeping track of my steps with a Fitbit.
They sent me this badge last week.

Way back in 2009,  we canceled out satellite TV.  We've lived just fine without pay tv all these years and got most of my shows through a rooftop antenna.
But the weather has really been blowing that antenna around, and to adjust it,  someone had to go up on the roof.  My husband has no business being a roof anymore and our sons are helpful but all have busy lives.
So I pretty much insisted we get cable tv.   It is through the same company we have had our internet and landline phone with so the TV gets bundled in and the price was not bad at all.
Also,  there is no contract and we can cancel anytime if needed.

My husband really likes TV but I don't watch it much.  I did finally watch my first episode ever of "Fixer Upper"  It was OK but I haven't watched any more.  I thought I might of been really missing something and the show is nice but it turns out  I wasn't really missing anything.

I have only sewed for 3 days since I last posted about the 100 Day sewing challenge

I did finish a new top and have 2 more garments for me cut out.  Hopefully I will show those to you all soon.  

 That's the homemaking that's been going on here- thank you for visiting.  

Frugal July part 6

hello everyone.  Since July is almost over, I'll wind up this blog series with a few things from the last few days.

We had a family party this weekend to break in our new patio and celebrate my husband's birthday.
One son brought his bounce house and it's pool attachment.  The children had so much fun jumping and going down the water slide.  My son rents this bounce house out and he says it's more than paid for itself.  It's been enjoyed by his children and at several family parties too.

We bought a small wading pool for the 3 smallest grands but 2 of the bigger grands had a lot of fun in it too.

The party was in the backyard but our home was pretty dirty afterward.  I did a bit of straightening Sunday but most of it got done today.
Here is my home list, as well as my CVS and Dollar General list.
If you look close at my wrist, my Fitbit says I'd already walked a little over 3 miles this morning.

At Dollar General, I only used digital coupons on their App. 

I used a $2/$10 purchase, $2 Tide, $3 Downy, a buy 2 get 1 free for both the applesauce and breakfast  pastries. 

My total came to exactly $10. 

This haul is from CVS. It was a lot more complicated than the Dollar General but I got so much more.  I used newspaper coupons, personalized coupons from CVS, app coupons, printable coupons from PGEveryday.com along with a $5 ExtraCareBuck from a few weeks ago and some of the gift certificates earned through swagbucks and MyPoints.
Thr original total was about $109.  But after all my coupons, deals and about $40 from the gift certificates, I spent NO cash at all.
I got back $20 in CVS Extracarebucks, $1 from Checkout51 and .25 from Ibotta.

This closes out our thrifty July.  I'm planning on August being mostly frugal too. 

We will see though,  we make plans but we don't know for sure what will happen.  

Frugal July (sort of) part 5

Hello everyone,
we've had a very pleasant but busy summer so far.  I'm guessing most of you are just as busy.


A frugal activity with the grands that was a big hit was making "moon dough"

It's very simple. Just stir together any kind of hair conditioner and corn starch until it is a dough consistency.   It's just a little trial and error to get it right,  for us when the dough was too wet,  I sprinkled cornstarch on the table and kneaded the dough in it and that got it just right.
The moon dough molds  very easy and is great for cookie cutters.
I like that it is a soft feeling dough and didn't dry out my hands like traditional salt based Play Dough does.
If you have a mess after,  the crumbs wipe right up.  They don't adhere to the table or floor at all.

Our moon dough is white because I couldn't find any food coloring in my pantry.  The grands were shocked as they think I have everything.  One of them later told Grandpa to please take Grandma to a store that sells food coloring.
And yes,  I have since bought a box of food coloring.


I only did one deal at CVS a couple weeks ago

3 boxes of trash bags,  1 toothpaste and 8 bags of snacks - after coupons was $14.65
I paid with a gift certificate earned from Swagbucks and got back $5 ExtraCareBucks.

I have been pretty faithful about working on the 100 Day Sewing Challenge from
aworkingpantry.blogspot.com
Below is list of the what I worked on each day I sewed.

One completed project was this floor length summer dress for the oldest granddaughter.  

I used a pattern from my stash and just lengthened the skirt.  The fabric is a batik with seashells on it and was in a tub of fabric my dad bought at a yard sale a few years ago.  

I also made this top for me to wear to an upcoming Luau birthday party for our 2 youngest grands. They turned 1 and 2 in July.  This is called a Rhapsody top and the pattern is from LoveNotions.com

The fabric was from my stash and something someone gave me a while back.  

This a shopping deal from our recent military commissary trip.  

The commissaries have a reward card that is just coupons.  You can only use each coupon once but its easy as there are no paper coupons to deal with.  The Tide had a $5 coupon ($7.99 minus $5)
The Downy was $4.34 minus a $2 coupon.
Then I got back $2 for them from a reward app called SavingsStar.
I know most of my readers are not military but many stores are offering these electronic coupons now.  I told you about using them at Dollar General and CVS has them now too.
If your stores in your area offer E-Coupons,  it may be worth your time to check them out.

My son got this really nice treadmill for me a few months ago and I've been trying to walk at least an hour every morning.

This room is supposed to be a bedroom but we keep all the grands clothes and toys in here,  with some stockpile items and the treadmill.  One of the perks of being empty-nesters is being able to use spaces in the home however it suits us.



There is nothing frugal about the next topic - Lice
Lice showed up on some of the grands but its
a mystery as to where they originated as none of the grands are in school right now.
It was all new to us and after a couple of missteps, with products that don't work,  we found a solution.   Using a really good nit comb is key.  All the live bugs and eggs have to be removed.
If you've never dealt with lice,  they are no fun.  But if you have children in your life,  you might want to do some research *just in case* you ever have to fight lice.
This Fairy Tales brand kit comes with a really good lice comb as well as some removers.  It can be bought at Ulta and Amazon.  This kit is a back up that I'm keeping on hand, just in case its ever needed again.  Fairy Tales worked for us and it has excellent reviews on both Ulta and Amazon.
There are other products and methods that fight lice,  this is just what worked for us.

Some surprising lice facts are they don't jump or fly,  they just crawl from victim to victim.
Surfaces do need to be cleaned but lice don't live on surfaces very long.
I learned from a second cousin whose children also had lice that there are professional companies  that do lice removal.  She said the company did lots of nit combing and the children slept with olive oil saturated hair that was wrapped up for several nights.

I hope none of you ever have to deal with lice - eww- but it's good to know facts and what you're fighting if you ever do need to  

Frugal July part 4- Easiest Couponing ever!

I went to Dollar General today. I've been seeing posts by others about using the Dollar General app and the digital coupons.  I had free time so I went and checked it out and tried it.
I've been couponing pretty much since I married in 1980 and this was truly the easiest couponing I've ever done.  

I got all these great household products at Dollar General sale prices combined with their digital coupons and their Saturday save $5 on $25 any purchase coupon.  

I'm sorry this photo is dim
total was almost $40 but came down to $18 after coupons.

To shop with coupons,  first get the Dollar General app and register it with your cell phone number.

Then look in the DG digital coupon section and select any of the coupons you will think you will use.  

After you shop and the cashier rings up your purchases,  you will enter your cell phone number into the keypad where you also scan credit cards and such.  

The register will deduct your coupons and you pay the discounted price.  

that's it!  No paper coupons to clip,  no wondering if you cashier dislikes coupons, etc.  

the only disadvantage I see is you just use 1 like digital coupon so you couldn't get, say 5 of the Tide pods and use 5 digital coupons.  

My receipt had a place to do a survey and get a $3/15 coupon.  

They seem to have the $5/$25 every Saturday.  

I liked this easy couponing and I plan to do it again,  as long as I see sales that match with digital coupons for things we use.  I think you can use paper coupons at DG too,  but you cant use a digital and paper coupon to purchase 1 item. 

So, if your town has a Dollar General,  try the app.
So far,  I think its Great!  

I also looked on Ibotta and got back .75 cents