Friday, July 17, 2020

Frugal Friday ~ July 17, 2020



Image Credit
Graphic Garden has free calendar pages you can print from home if you're interested.  She also has free cards on her website if you want to print them from home as well. 




The other day I noticed a mouse dropping on one of my clean kitchen dish clothes. I had just put them in there less than a week prior to that, so I figured there was a mouse in the house. 

We've had the best luck with the Tomcat mouse traps. We put a small amount of cheese on one and set the trap and caught him the second night after we set it. I'm glad I figured it out and caught it. 

These mousetraps are effective and cost around $2.50 each on Amazon, which is worth every penny to me. You can even reuse these traps.

My word of warning here is this: Make sure all of your food is protected. Anyone can get a mouse in their house and they can cause damage. If you are stocking up on food right now during these uncertain times, make sure you're protecting it.   


Saturday night is game night here. We popped some popcorn and played two of our favorite games Boggle and Sushi Go. We usually always play a couple of games of Boogle on Saturday night. It helps to keep our minds sharp. 

Tuesday night is our movie night here. We made a small pizza and iced tea and watched The Secret Garden. It's one of my favorite movies and is a sweet, beautifully told story based on the classic story of Mary Lennox, a lonely orphan girl, who goes to live in her uncle's British manor house, Misselthwaite Manor.  

The Secret Garden was set in 1911 and I hadn't watched it since I've watched Downton Abby, which was set in 1915 and beyond. The similarities in both films was interesting to watch. 



In my frugal kitchen this week I grated cheese to be used in meals this month. I like to buy the two pound block and shred it all at once. We prefer our own shredded cheese over store bought as the taste is better and does not have any fillers. 

One day we had grilled chicken salads for dinner as I wanted to use up and not lose the fresh produce we had on hand. 



Image Credit 

Last week I ordered a shelving unit from Amazon because I wanted to have more storage room in my bedroom. The unit arrived on Monday evening and my daughter I put it together. It's so great to have additional storage in that room. 

Since I had a new place to put things, I decided to clean out my closet and store the small bookshelf, where the new shelf was going, in my closet. 

So, I condensed things, threw somethings away, went thru papers and tossed some, and set aside a few things to sell online. 



Another item I bought this week, to stock up on, was four boxes of the 100 count Johnson & Johnson band-aids. They were on sale for $4.00 per box. They are no longer on sale for that price, but are priced at $6.88 and 50% off one when you buy two ($5.16 per box). We like these because they are made with fabric and not plastic. 



We have a raccoon coming during the daytime to eat our cat's food. I thought about buying a small animal cage to humanely catch him, but they cost around $30. 


My solution so far has been to set a timer when I feed the cats and then go and get the food after twenty minutes and bring it back into the house. 


Some days I sit out there with them and wait until they are done eating and then bring it back in with me. We always do this at night because that's when they usually visit so this daytime raccoon is an odd ball. 


When we had chickens I had to be careful of the bears getting into the chicken feed and eating it. As much as I would love to feed them, I simply cannot afford to feed all the wild animals that come here. 




That's all the news to report from here this week. How was your week? I hope you have a homemade, thrifty week and look well to the ways of your household.

Belinda
~ Living within our Means ~
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21 comments:

  1. It's not prudent to feed bears, dangerous, and in some places, illegal. I hate raccoons! A raccoon out in the day might be rabid. I like the shelves. I have been looking online for some for food.

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    1. Thank you. We don't want to feed them here, so we keep our animal food in the house for that reason. I thought the same thing about that raccoon, that it may be rabid.

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  2. I never saw the move "The Secret Garden", but I loved the book. I should re-read it, it's been years.

    I'm surprised your cats didn't get the mouse.

    Have a good weekend!

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    1. My cats are losers in the mouse department. LOL...they would play with it and then let it run off. LOL I should read The Secret Garden too. I was thinking the other day I should reread Fried Green Tomatoes, it was a favorite of mine and I've read it multiple times.

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  3. I also don’t buy grated cheese. I grate a block of cheese when I need some. I tried grating a large amount and storing in the fridge, but it alway got clumpy. How do you keep it without sticking, Belinda?

    I’m glad you caught the mouse. They can be very destructive.

    You have bears coming to the yard?😳 If I had bears around, I would not go outside after 6pm!

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    1. Our cheese is usually stuck together too, Nil. I take a utensil and separate what I need. Yes, the bears will come if there is food outside. They even get in the garbage too, so we keep that in the house until right before our garbage man comes.

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  4. Racoons are cute but a real pain. They can make such messes.

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    1. Yes! Once we had a locking container of cat food on the back porch. This raccoon would toss it and throw it to hit the porch, trying to get it to open. Ugh.

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  5. A mouse got into my pantry about a year ago! I found bags of nuts and seeds shredded so now anything that isn't in a can or a jar goes into some sort of bin. I also got the super to send in a pest control person and so far - so good. It's not unusual in this city as we have so many ravines and conservation areas - and I live right next to one.
    When I worked at a university at the north end of the city my dept. had a problem - one time a mouse peeked out from behind my computer and almost gave me a heart attack! If you came in very early in the morning the first person you would run into was the pest control person making the rounds and checking the traps!

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    1. Oh wow, they can do a lot of damage, Margie. That's a great idea to put food into a can, jar, or bin. Even bread can go into a plastic container. It's too hard to get groceries today and then have a mouse eating them. Pest control is a great idea as well.

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  6. I love your solution to the coon! Good idea.

    We have two cats next door that catch mice. You should have seen the grand daughters reaction when she figured out that cats really catch mice. She shook her head and buried it in her hands!

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    1. Thank you, Vickie. Awww...poor baby. It's nice to have those next door cats catching them though.

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  7. I love the movie "The Secret Garden". Haven't watched it in years.
    Raccoons that are around in the day can have Distemper. Be careful if he comes around. They are adorable but vicious :).

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    1. Oh, I didn't know that about the Distemper, Theresa. Thank you for letting me know.

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  8. Our entire neighborhood has rats. It's a real problem. We try to stay on top of it (tree trimming - they can build nests in trees! & getting rid of ivy that grows in large patches).

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    1. Yikes! It's good that you stay on top of that as they can cause much destruction.

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  9. I am so glad you mentioned band-aids here. I need to add them to my stock up list. I am pretty good about keeping food, meds, and paper product stocked but forget about simple first aid needs.
    I love Boggle too!

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    1. Yes, I use them regularly and am glad to be stocked up on them, Anne. :)

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  10. I have a cat who is s great mouser, outside! He likes to leave the remnants on the front step. I live in almost country area, next to the woods and when the cold season starts mice try to come in. Once in the house the cat seems to think they're part of the family? Has never killed one in the house and we have a few a year! Crazily the one thing that was a issue was a pantry door with stacked small shelves on it and I would stack bags of chocolate chips. Always went for the chocolate chips! Would set trap and get it! Clean throw everything and months later again. How was the message passed on ha! And not even sure how they'd get in the cupboard and on those shelves. Weird no flour/grains touched. I finally wised up and chocolate chips are stored in a large plastic bucket. Hate mice!!!

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  11. Those mice know what the good stuff is, chocolate chips! I'm glad you found a way to store them to keep those pests out of them.

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