Friday, July 1, 2022

First Frugal Friday of July 2022



Welcome to Friday! 

My Frugal Week

On Saturday we went to several yard sales and one of the things I found was a vintage Tupperware Vegetable Dip serving tray for $1.00. New ones on the Tupperware website go for $49, although you can buy the vintage ones for around $10 and up online at eBay. 

We also bought a little chicken coop for a couple of chickens. We’ve been thinking about getting some again since the price of eggs has risen so much. 

We went inside Food City and I used their coin machine while I was in there. Mom had coins in several different places, so I had just been putting them all in a ziplock bag. Turned out to be $8.76 when the counting was finished. 



Some of my friends sent flowers after Mom passed away and I wanted to share the pictures of them with you. Both of them came in pretty vases to keep and one of them came in a pretty piece of purple tissue paper, which I kept to reuse later. 


We use these grabber tools around the house for various things like reaching for something we can’t get without assistant. They really come in handy for all sorts of little jobs. In fact, we have several of them around the house for various reasons.


This week one of the suction cups came off of one of mine and I was determined to fix it. I found the suction cup and using a sharp knife “drilled” a hole all the way through the suction cup and then used a plastic coated wire to fasten it to the end of the grabber. It works just as good as it did before the suction cup fell off. 

The plastic coated wire I had was saved from various new products we purchase. They are sort of like a bread tie, but much sturdier. They come in very handy for various repair jobs such as holding the cage onto a fan when the clips have failed. 

Question of the Week

Does your vacuum have a bag or is it bagless?

About one month before Mom passed away she asked me to buy her a new vacuum. The one I bought for her is a Bissell that uses vacuum cleaner bags. The one Bailey has is a Dirt Devil bagless model. 

I was vacuuming up dirt/gravel the other day and the Dirt Devil was throwing it back at me from behind. I could feel it hitting my bare feet. So, I got Mom’s new vacuum out and started to vacuum up the mess. 

I was shocked at how much better the Bissell vacuum worked over the Dirt Devil. It was a BIG difference, but it could be due to the fact that the Bissell uses vacuum cleaner bags. Now Bailey is using the Bissell vacuum cleaner as well. 

Avoiding Spending

I tried to avoid spending this week, but that cats needed some Frontline medicine for fleas and ticks, so I did have that expense this week. 

Saving Money In My Frugal Kitchen

We stopped in at Food City after we were done with yard sales on Saturday. They had two pound bags of rice marked down to $1.50 (75 cents/lb.), so I picked up five of those. I also found a couple of bags of marked down cole slaw, which I picked up to make deconstructed egg rolls for Sunday dinner. 

I also picked up four pounds of great northern beans and four pounds of cranberry/October beans. I feel the need to be stocking up on non-meat alternatives after watching this video on YouTube this week. 

Here is a link to the video if you’re interested: A Warning from a Farmer

On Sunday I made four gallons of tea, two sweetened and two unsweetened. We’ve been drinking a lot of tea now that the weather has turned hot. Of course, we do drink plenty of water, but I do like to have a glass of unsweetened tea with dinner.

Meals This Week

Friday: Blackened Chicken, Buttered Basmati Rice, Mixed Vegetables. 

Saturday:  Chicken Strips, Potato Salad, Watermelon. 

Sunday: Deconstructed Egg Rolls, Egg Rolls, Mixed Vegetables. 

Monday: Deconstructed Egg Rolls to finish it off, but first I doctored it up by using a mix of peppers and onions from the freezer and more ginger. I served it with steamed broccoli. 

Tuesday: Movie Night Pizza. 

Wednesday: Tacos with all the fixings, cheese, tomatoes, lettuce, onions, jalapeños, and I put potatoes and onions in the taco meat to s-t-r-e-t-c-h it out as far as possible. I grated the cheese and chopped up all the vegetables early in the day that way I just needed to brown and season the meat and warm up the tortillas. 

Thursday: since I had taco meat left from Wednesday night’s dinner, I decided to make a taco salad with the leftovers. I served it with corn and a salad. I made my own dressing using sour cream and two Taco Bell taco sauce packets. 

Saving on Entertainment

We’ve been watching North and South this past week, which is the adaptation of John Jakes’ trilogy of books. The mini-series depicts the lives of two families, the Hazards and the Mains and tells the story of the events and emotions before, during and after the civil war. It’s an old tv mini series from the 1980s, but has been interesting to watch. 

Freebies


Bailey went to her book club meeting on Friday night and one of the ladies gave everyone some cucumbers from her garden. We had them for dinner with several dinners this week, they were so fresh and delicious. 


Do you have big plans for the holiday weekend? We would normally yard sale, but often notice that not many people hold yard sales on a holiday weekend, so we will stay home and do stuff around the house this weekend. 

I did check for yard sales and there is one in Hixson, but we will not use the gas to drive there for one yard sale. We have to make it worth our time and gas money by going to multiple yard sales, so only one doesn’t work for us. 

Thank you for dropping by my frugal blog, you are always welcome here. 

We would love to hear all about your week in the comment section.

Belinda
Debt Free & 
~ Living within our Means ~
My Linktree





16 comments:

  1. I remember the North and South mini series. Aren't the families cousins? The flowers are pretty. It's nice to be in people's thoughts. I hope I benefit from people's gardens. That was a nice book club gift.

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    1. Thank you, Sam. I don’t think they are cousins on North and South, but several of them are brother and sisters. I thought the cucumbers were a nice gift too and we enjoyed them so much.

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  2. I have several grabbers around as well. G used them a lot, and now I seem to find myself using them often. I even have one in the garage. We had one br4eak like yours and G fixed it about the same way. It is still working.
    I have a bagless vacuum, and I have noticed that sometimes things get throw back as well.
    Staying home - no plans this weekend. Hope you have a nice one.

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    1. Thank you, Cheryl. I hope you have a great weekend. Staying home sounds good to me too.

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  3. There's very little quite as nice as fresh new laid eggs. So delicious. xx

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    1. I agree, Joy. Fresh eggs are delicious and the ones from home have those deep yellow yolks.

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  4. Belinda,

    The flowers are beautiful. I love the blue roses.

    Our vacuum is bag less. We have a Bissel it doesn't spit at us, lol. We had/have a Dirt Devil and that one is a spitter. We still have it in case our other vacuum is having issues. Not having a vacuum in our home is an emergency with all our animals in the home.

    I love, love, love North & South so much. Are you going to do all three of the series? I love Patrick Swayze so much in there. The cast was absolutely beautiful. I have the complete series on DVD.

    No big plans for the 4th. Two families in our neighborhood own firework stands. Both families have a large firework display that lasts hours. DH & I will watch that on our porch. We will be curled up watching Stranger Things. Catching up on housework.

    Work is very hard on DH. With the trucking shortages he has to work very long hours. He's been getting burn out. I am getting burned out taking care of everything he can't right now. I made him take a day off this week. We went thrifting and to the library. That was such a nice frugal treat. The rest of the week is normal frugal things.

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    1. Thank you, Safyne. The blue flowers were really beautiful. It’s nice to read that you had the same experience as we did with your vacuum cleaners.

      Yes, we are going to watch all three of the North and South series. They are so interesting as I enjoy history and this series has a lot of that in there.

      My heart goes out to you and your dh on his work. I hope some relief will come soon and you all can get some relief. I hope you have a terrific Fourth of July weekend. Your plans sound right up my alley.

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  5. Love the flowers! What thoughtful friends!
    Great job fixing the grabber. Those things are so useful.
    Great deal on the tupperware too. We received one of those for a wedding present 29 years ago, and we still use it especially in the summer. Is your's one of the round ones with the dip container in the middle?
    Your meals sound so good. Thanks for the video link. I had bought a couple of bags of hursts 15 bean soup and a couple of 4 lb bags of pintos and a 20 pound bag of rice, so that would keep us fed for a little while.
    Hope you have a great 4th of July weekend. We had planned to go to Pipestem state park with my brother and family, but I am sick. Dr thinks it might be covid even though my home tests have been negative. I had tried to be so careful these past few years.

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    1. Thank you, Kathy. Yes, my dip container is one of the round ones, although my dip cup is missing, but that is no problem. We will make do or find one at a yard sale hopefully. Sounds like you are stocked up too. We love the Hursts 15 beans. I keep them on hand regularly. I’m sorry your 4th of July plans have changed and that you are sick. We’ve tried to be careful with Covid too, but it gets weary if you know what I mean. Whatever you end up doing, I hope you have a wonderful holiday and feel better.

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  6. Your flowers are beautiful and what a kind thought from your friends.
    Our Fourth of July plans are small since it is just the two of us. Swimming and eating bbq is about all we have planned. We might go see the fireworks or we might just watch the Boston Pops concert on TV.

    I have two bagless vacuums. After we sold the lake house, the lake vacuum became my upstairs one. Wow, if I had realized how convenient it is to keep one upstairs I might have bought one years ago instead of lugging mine up and down. The lake house model was very inexpensive, but it works fine for upstairs. The only ones that actually use that floor (now that everyone is grown and gone) are houseguests. I do have a Dyson for the main floor, and it works great. I guess I could take it upstairs a couple of times a year to do some serious vacuuming, but I probably won't.

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    1. Thank you, Anne. Your 4th of July plans sounds nice. We thought about going to see the fireworks, but haven’t decided for sure yet. How nice to have the extra vacuum upstairs and not have to carry your Dyson up and down the stairs. I probably wouldn’t carry it upstairs anymore either unless there was some serious spill or something. 😊

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  7. We love to go to more than one sale too ...we used to do that but like you said the price of gas has to be figured in.
    Our vacuum is bagless but it's hard to push. I'll try something different next time I have to buy one. Hopefully mine last a little while.
    Have a great fourth of July!

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    1. Our old vacuum was ha4d to push too. I was so glad to get rid of it and get something lighter in weight.

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  8. The flowers are beautiful Belinda! Nice meal plan this week too. 7 years ago I invested in a Dyson vacuum. With 5 dogs and 3 cats in the house (at that time) it was well worth the (eek) $500. It's still running well! It's bagless and does a great job with the pet hair!

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  9. Our vacuum is bagless. It is so nice not to have to purchase bags any longer. I do have to wash the filters every so often though. I have the same grabber and boy does it come in handy.

    God bless.

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