Eye Surgery Update

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On Tuesday I had the first of two eye surgeries. This one went well with no complications. I am amazed at how much brighter everything is and that I can see far away now.

The surgery has messed with my reading,visi9m though, so the doctor is thinking I will need to have readers to be able to see to read. So, until I get that worked on it will be hard to read blogs and comment because it is like having double vision right now only when trying to read though. 

My surgery for the other eye is in two weeks. I just wanted to update you for now. If you see any types in this post please excuse them. LOL

Belinda ~ Living within our Means ~ My Linktree

Frugal Friday ~ September 24, 2021

Welcome to Friday! 
We’ve had rain here all week until Thursday morning when a cold front moved through. We woke up to a temperature of 53 degrees and it felt so good!
Quote of the Week

The fall hurt like hell, but I found grace in the wounds and a version of me I never knew. Stephanie Bennett-Henry

My Frugal Week
The washer repairman came out on Saturday as the washing machine is making a weird noise. We’ve already had them out here once for the same issue. The warranty runs out next month, so we want to get it fixed before then. 
Bailey and I went to a consignment sale this week up in Hixson. We went on the first day, the day when items went to 50% off and the day they went to 75% off. She probably ended up with 200 pieces for her shops, which is more than she picked up at yard sales so far this summer. 
Bailey left on Sunday afternoon for a pet sitting job and I quickly did three loads of laundry, folded them and put them away. It’s nice to have that chore accomplished. 
She stopped by the bread outlet on her way home and picked up bread and buns. 
We had a Walmart grocery order delivered on Thursday. They substituted the 6 ounce pepperoni we ordered for a 21 ounce sized bag for the same price, which is good for us. We were able to stock up with twenty-four canned goods of vegetables, which makes me feel better about having them on hand. 
We ordered 5 pounds of ground beef for the month, up from zero ordered last month due to the price. I will use my best resources to stretch it as far as I can. I noticed the price of cheese creeped up by about 45 cents. I also ordered cake supplies for Bailey’s birthday next month. 
Earning Money
Bailey earned money this week pet sitting in Chattanooga. 
Saving Money In My Frugal Kitchen
We picked up one dozen Rubbermaid bowls at a yard sale for 50 cents this week. These are the perfect size for making my own gelatin fruit cups. I used to have a bunch of the Gladware bowls in a similar size, but they’ve all disappeared over the years being used for various things. 

We picked up an order from Aldi on Saturday, but when we got home we realized it was not our order. We called Instacart and they gave us the option of a complete refund or to repick up our order. We decided on the complete refund since we were already home at that point. We did not want to waste gas to pick up a new order. 

The Instacart employee told me we could either keep or donate the food we did get. We ended up with 8 bottles of Gatorade, 1 bag of Frito Lay chips, 1 bag of Kettle Chips, 4 cans of corn, 2 cans of carrots, 3 boxes of Mac and Cheese, and 1 bag of string cheese. We will keep some of the items and donate others. 
Meals This Week
It was just me for dinner Sunday through Wednesday, so I didn’t put as much effort into dinner as I usually do. 
Saturday: Chicken Sandwiches, Rice,  Lettuce & Tomato
Sunday: Asian Salad (It was just me for dinner)
Monday: Grilled Chicken Tacos, lettuce, tomato
Tuesday: Grilled Chicken Salads, Baked Potatoes, Steamed Broccoli
Wednesday: Homemade Pizza, Salad
Thursday: Country Style Ribs, Mashed Potatoes, Corn, Pickled Beets

Recipe of the Week
Linda asked for my cabbage roll recipe last week in the comment section, so I decided to bring it here for this week. I use my meatloaf recipe for the meat part of this recipe and then I top them with some tomato sauce before baking. 
Cabbage Rolls

Ingredients:

2 pounds ground beef
1 to 2 packages saltine crackers
1 cup ketchup
1/2 cup milk
2 large eggs
1 large onion, chopped
1 large green pepper, chopped
Worcestershire sauce - just a splash
Salt & Pepper One head of CabbageTomato Sauce
Directions:
Bring a large stock pot of water to boil.  Add the whole head of cabbage and boil for 5 minutes.  Remove to colander to drain and cool.  Once cooled cut 1/2 inch off the stem end of the cabbage. Carefully remove 12 leaves and cut the tough rib out of the stem end.Spray a 9x13 casserole dish with nonstick spray.  Place a small amount of the meat mixture in the center of the cabbage roll.  Bring in the sides and roll tight.  Repeat until all the cabbage rolls are made and in the casserole dish. Top with tomato sauce.Cover with aluminum foil. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 80-90 minutes.

Saving on Entertainment
These days I watch more videos on Facebook than I watch on YouTube, although I do watch Moss Family TV every night on YouTube. Someone recently posted one of Dr. Phil’s shows on Facebook this week and I really enjoyed watching it for free. 
That is all the news to report on our frugal week in Tennessee. Thank you for dropping by, you are always welcome here. We would love to hear about your week in the comment section.
Belinda~ Living within our Means ~My Linktree

If you are encouraged by what you read here, please consider supporting this site. 

 1. As an Amazon affiliate, I earn a small percentage that helps me to earn a living. Any items you place in your cart from one of my links means I will earn a small percentage from that sale. 

 2. My PayPal Tip Jar

Menu Plan Monday

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In no particular order, these are the meals I plan on making this week. As usual, we have plenty of salad and vegetables to serve with these meals. 
Grilled Chicken TacosGrilled Chicken SaladsHamburgersCountry Style RibsCabbage RollsVegetable Stir FryHomemade Pizza
Come back on Friday if you're interested in reading which side dishes we chose for each meal

Belinda ~ Living within our Means ~ My Linktree

Frugal Friday ~ September 17, 2021

Welcome to Friday! 
My Frugal Week
This blog post will be shorter than usual because I’ve been working on getting my prescriptions refilled all week long.
We went to town on Tuesday as I had a doctor appointment for prescription refills. I’m not sure why, but it has been like pulling teeth to get my prescription refills this time. I think I have it all straightened out now and should be able to pick those up tomorrow. 

My brother bought a new house last week. He works very hard and saves his money. His down payment was $58,000. I am so proud of and happy for him. 
Saving Money In My Frugal Kitchen
We’ve been adventurous in the kitchen this week. Bailey has been tired of spaghetti for a long time now and I had multiple cans of spaghetti and meatballs that were gifted to us that we weren’t eating. Today I opened several cans and took the meatballs out and rinsed the sauce off of them. I added BBQ sauce to them and she enjoyed them for lunch. 
Bailey did a small Aldi pickup for us on Wednesday, so we did get a few things, but she is going to pet sit in Chattanooga for the next few days, so we didn’t need a big grocery order 
Meals This Week 
Although we ate at home every day, I didn’t blog about it. So here are a few of the meals we ate, but not all of them. 
Monday: Hamburgers, French Fries, Sautéed Onions, Lettuce, Tomatoes
Tuesday: Chicken Sandwiches, Sweet Potato Fries
Thursday: Chicken, Carrots, Potatoes, Pickled Beets
That is all the news to report on our frugal week in Tennessee. Thank you for dropping by, you are always welcome here. We would love to hear about your week in the comment section. 
Belinda~ Living within our Means ~My Linktree

Frugal Friday September 10, 2021

Welcome to Friday! 
My Frugal Week
We went to 15 yard sales last Friday and Saturday. There were not as many as usual since it was a holiday weekend. The weather on Saturday was so nice and cool, just beautiful yard sale weather. 
There were protestors at Hamilton Place Mall on Saturday while we were there. They were chanting loudly, which made me nervous. I was glad when we left the area. We were looking for a restroom we could use. COVID has shut down so many indoor fast food lobbies that it was hard to find one that was open. 

We found the cats a new tree house at a yard sale. It has cat nip in it from the previous owner and the cats were lined up  to get inside of it. Of course, Polka Dot was the first one inside. 

I made homemade Oxiclean this week. The recipe calls for 1/2 cup of baking soda, 1/2 cup hydrogen peroxide, and one cup of hot water. You’re supposed to use it up within 24 hours or it will lose its effectiveness. So, you could mix up a smaller batch if necessary. 
Speaking of laundry, I got mine all done on Tuesday this week. It makes me feel good to get it all washed, folded, and put away on the same day. 
Avoiding Spending
I did have one prescription to pick up this week, but that is the only spending I’ve done. 
Saving Money In My Frugal Kitchen
I’ve been making a gallon of iced tea every day for the last month or so. I like to have two to three gallons at a time in the fridge during this hot weather. 
I inventoried my freezer and pantry again over the weekend to come up with meals for this week. I’m happy to report we had no food waste this week as we either used it up or froze it for later use. 

On Labor Day Monday I used up a can of pumpkin that had been lingering in my pantry and made pumpkin waffles for breakfast. 
I took the last of the Beans and Franks and the last of the Chicken Fried Rice, labeled them, and put them in the freezer in individual containers for a quick meal later. I now have six meals like this in my freezer. 
I’m very excited to report that Chattanooga now has a Trader Joe’s. I have wanted to go in this store for a few years now, but none of them were close to us. We are going to wait a month or so until we go as we want the new to wear off while the Delta variant from COVID is so bad right now. 
Meals This Week
Friday: Chicken Fried Rice, Steamed  Broccoli, Chopped Tomatoes
Saturday: Beefy Baked Beans , which I made with hotdogs instead of beef since beef was so expensive the last time we ordered groceries we did not buy any. This is why we've had so much chicken on our menus lately.  
Sunday: Grilled Italian Sausage, Prince Edward Vegetable Medley, Rice Pilaf, Cucumbers and Radishes, Salad

Monday: White Chicken Enchiladas, Prince Edward Medley, Lettuce, Tomatoes, Cucumbers, and Radishes. I placed my enchilada on top of a bed of lettuce and tomato, which really made it taste like a dinner at the Mexican restaurant. 
Tuesday:  Tonight is movie night, which means I will make a pizza for Bailey. We will have a late lunch making a Baked Potato Bar. That way I won’t have to make any dinner for myself as I probably won’t be hungry. 
Wednesday: Salmon Patties, Rice Pilaf, Home Fries, Green Peas. The Rice Pilaf is what was leftover from Sunday’s dinner. I also had one baked potato left from yesterday, so I made home fries out of it. Between the two side dishes there was plenty of starch to go with our meal and we had no food waste.
Having sweets in the house isn’t something we have often. But I did make a batch of brownies this day.
Thursday: Dirty Rice, Steamed Carrots, Sweet Corn, Pickled Beets

Saving on Entertainment
Have you all been watching Frugal Queen in France videos on YouTube? They are really done well and her husband Michael does a good job of editing them. And of course they are free to watch and learn from, so be sure to check out her channel if you haven’t already. 
Another YouTube channel I’ve recently learned about is SeeMindyMom. She has videos where she will take $10 and make three meals with the money. Other topics include grocery hauls, budget cooking, meal prep, clean out the pantry, etc. Her channel goes right along with many of the things we do here. 
What I've been Reading This Week
Lost Pies of the South over at Southern Living
https://www.southernliving.com/desserts/pies/southern-state-pies?did=672523-20210908&utm_campaign=sl-best-of-the-south_newsletter&utm_source=southernliving.com&utm_medium=email&utm_content=090821&cid=672523&mid=66494526424&slide=b2d1410a-5db1-410b-9ffc-70731320dc7c#b2d1410a-5db1-410b-9ffc-70731320dc7c
Freebies
General Mills is offering a rebate for a free box of Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal here. It is not good on the mega box or any individual cereal container, so be sure to shop carefully. Also, Publix has it on sale this week for buy one get one free, so you may be able to get two boxes out of the deal. 
https://freectc.com/
That is all the news to report on our frugal week in Tennessee. Thank you for dropping by, you are always welcome here. We would love to hear about your week in the comment section. 
Belinda~ Living within our Means ~My Linktree

If you are encouraged by what you read here, please consider supporting this site. 

 1. As an Amazon affiliate, I earn a small percentage that helps me to earn a living. Any items you place in your cart from one of my links means I will earn a small percentage from that sale. 

 2. My PayPal Tip Jar

Throwback Thursday

When it comes to our finances we need to get the most out of our money. We do this when we buy second hand items, go to yard sales, thrift stores, accept hand me downs, Freecycle/Craigslist, barter and swap. We don't go into debt to buy things to keep up with people (and with a teenager in high school, I can attest to the fact that they really feel the pressure to keep up). We simply do without those things that are beyond our financial reach. I would rather do without those things than have the added stress of paying for them later. 

I am fortunate to have learned/taught myself more skills over the last few years, so that we've been able to stretch our resources as far as possible even as we continue to hone our budgeting skills further.   We should never stop learning or trying how to do things better and more inexpensively. 

We make our own fabric softener, make do and mend clothing, grow some of our vegetables, preserve food, cook from scratch to sufficiently meet our needs. Whatever money I can save by making or doing it myself is money I can spend on necessities like food, insurance, car repairs, etc.  

We need to teach others these things as well and make sure no one is left behind. We especially need to teach these things to our children, so they don't make the same mistakes we made. My daughter experiences some of the same sticker shock that Amy D. wrote about her children experiencing. She helps me in so many ways with couponing, looking for bargains at yard sales, and she isn't even afraid to ask if the seller will take less for an item either.  I just love that about her. :)
Belinda ~ Living within our Means ~ My Linktree

Menu Plan Monday

In no particular order, these are the meals I plan on making this week. As usual, we have plenty of salad and vegetables to serve with these meals. 
Baked Potato BarItalian SausageHawaiian ChickenMacaroni & CheeseDirty RiceSalmon PattiesWhite Chicken Enchiladas
Come back on Friday if you're interested in reading which side dishes we chose for each meal. 
Belinda ~ Living within our Means ~ My Linktree

Frugal Friday

Welcome to Friday! 
My Frugal Week
We had rain this week off of Hurricane Ida, which started on Monday night. The electricity flashed off and for about a little bit, but we only lost power for about an hour.  

Mending - I finally got around to mending two pairs of shorts for myself this week. The stitching had come out in the elastic waistband in three different areas. This is the type of waistband where there are three lines of stitching, so it was a bigger job than usual, but I finally got it done on Wednesday. Now I can put these two pairs of shorts back into my rotation. 
This week I experimented with making my own body wash. I prefer body wash over bar soap, but the cost is higher with body wash. Doing some research, I found this video on YouTube on how to make my own body wash using bar soap.

Here are the supplies I needed to make my own body wash from soap.

And here is an old shampoo bottle, which I put the body wash into once it was finished. I have enough body wash left to refill this three or four times.

Earning Money
I earned $13.50 from Amazon Associates for June 2021. 
I earned a $10 Amazon gift card from MobileXpression.
I made a sale of two different Dish Towel Dresses on Etsy. 
Avoiding Spending
I stayed home this week and did not spend any money. 
Saving Money In My Frugal Kitchen
On Sunday when we had baked potatoes for dinner, I baked an extra one so we could have home fries for breakfast Monday morning. I served those with eggs over easy. 
This week I needed to make rice, so it would be cold for the Chicken Fried Rice and I also needed to soak beans overnight for the Bean and Cheese enchiladas. Cooking from scratch does require a certain amount of planning. 
One of my favorite spoons in the kitchen went missing recently. Since then I’ve cleaned out two drawers, pulled out the fridge and swept and mopped behind it and still can’t find my spoon. I hope it shows up before too long. 
I took inventory of exactly what food I have in my pantry and freezer. This helps me in a couple of ways, helps me know what I have on hand and can plan meals off of it, uses up what I have so no food expires, which all saves me money. 
Meals This Week
When I post the things we eat during the week, I usually just hit the highlights. I don’t post everything we eat because that would be boring. We do eat plenty of fruits and vegetables with our meals and maintain a healthy diet. 
Sunday: Baked Potato Bar
Monday: Fajita Baked Chicken, Mexican Rice, Steamed Baby Carrots 
Tuesday: This is Family Movie Night, but I haven’t been participating due to my eyesight. So we had a late lunch of soup with cheese and crackers. That evening I made pizza and salad for Bailey to have with her movie night. 
Wednesday: Chicken Tenders, Rice Pilaf, Steamed Broccoli
Thursday: Sticky Pineapple Chicken, Basmati Rice with butter, Steamed Broccoli

Saving on Entertainment
Someone has posted the TV show, American Dreams, on YouTube. The show only lasted three seasons, but they are there if you would like to watch them for free. 
Freebies
We were able to pick up a free, after Ibotta rebate, bottle of All laundry detergent. And Bailey was able to pick up four free slices of ham from the deli. 

How was your week?
Belinda~ Living within our Means ~My Linktree

If you are encouraged by what you read here, please consider supporting this site. 

 1. As an Amazon affiliate, I earn a small percentage that helps me to earn a living. Any items you place in your cart from one of my links means I will earn a small percentage from that sale. 

 2. My PayPal Tip Jar

Wordless Wednesday

Photo Credit

Belinda ~ Living within our Means ~ My Linktree