DG's frugal journal

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alliesmama4
Posts: 8591
Joined: Sun Aug 30, 2015 10:10 pm
Location: Southern IL

Re: DG's frugal journal

Post by alliesmama4 »

Dgflorida wrote: Thu Aug 22, 2019 7:42 pm Thursday evening

One day past eye shot day and I am still feeling poorly, but better. I hope to tackle the dishes tonight. Didn't feel like it yesterday. The kitchen planner is ready to meet with me. I wanted to have some ideas regarding new appliance before meeting with her. Been researching that the last couple of days.

Lawn guy says he will be here tomorrow. I need to go to Walmart market for basics and stop at Publix to get rid of a bunch of plastic bags and foam egg cartons for recycling and then car gas.

Going to give hubs desert early and go to bed. Sure hope I am 100% tomorrow.
Hope you feel better soon.. ((hug))
Janet Alliesmama
Dgflorida
Posts: 4381
Joined: Wed Oct 07, 2015 8:10 pm

Re: DG's frugal journal

Post by Dgflorida »

Friday afternoon

The yard guy is here and my grass is getting cut. Hooray.

The house is 83F, but the humidity of 80% is bothering me. It is running high right now, but should drop as the ac kicks on due to the sun. Mixed blessing. I like it when the ac stays off, but then the house humidity rises. (sigh)

The price of gas is down from last week and I had nursed the car along on a 1/4 of a tank. Feels good to have another $10 in there. It only brings it up to half full, but it allows me to budget it. I got the regular stuff at Walmart market. I wanted a cold discounted roast chicken, but they didn't have any. So I got hubs a sausage. I already have sauerkraut, so we have a meal for tonight. Tomorrow will be a roast on the outside kitchen. I also got a good deal on fresh broccoli and may cook that. The broccoli won't go with the sauerkraut tonight.

I plan to call the kitchen designer today and set an appointment for next week. I wanted to be here for the yard guy. He likes cash. I have selected my appliances, but not the exact brands yet. The energy star dishwasher sounds marvelous, very low water usage. While I don't intend to use it much, having a low water and electric use machine will feel good. The stove top still needs to be investigated. I have decided to go with the new glass top cooktops. My spine neighbor has one and likes it a lot. She told me how to clean it etc. Time to change my ways. I need to investigate energy efficiency.

I am making fresh solar tea. I love free energy. I feel much better today. Better is good.
Dgflorida
Posts: 4381
Joined: Wed Oct 07, 2015 8:10 pm

Re: DG's frugal journal

Post by Dgflorida »

Today, I look among my stash of recycled buckets to find one to use in the kitchen for my reduced garbage. I got this stash at the local grocery store. The bakery lady saved them for me. I have all sizes and I have lids. I used a lot of them for garden pots, but I should be able to find one to fit my needs. Recycle, reuse. Be part of the solution.

I also am using up my supply of leftover beef grease. I save it and use it on morning eggs and turkey bacon. Turkey bacon is quite lean and needs the grease to get crispy the way hubs likes it. Hubs enjoyed the sausage and kraut last night. For some reason, this one brand is very reasonably priced right now. I am considering swapping tonight's pot roast with stir fry in order to use the fresh broccoli.Beautiful and on sale. I used to steam it, but it seems to soften properly in the microwave. Then when I add it to the ground beef stir fry, it gets perfectly soft, stays favorable and pleases hubs.

Thanks to the ground beef, I am stretching my use of oil quite a bit. I use coconut oil and hubs favorite, sunflower/olive oil when I don't have any beef fat. I also save some chicken fat for cooking boneless skinless chicken breast in. They are such a good buy when on sale. But chicken fat adds flavor. Whole chickens were on a great sale last month. 79c/lb. I absolutely carved up those, leaving just a carcass. The carcass is in the freezer waiting for cooler weather. Fried chicken skins make a great crispy snack. But the meat people say the boneless, skinless chicken comes repacked, no skin. I used to get beef fat free or 50c a pound, but not anymore. Now they are asking $2/lb. Apparently, beef fat is becoming trendy.

I have researched the cooktop and the glass top cooktop is more energy efficient than the traditional coil. Not as efficient as the magnetic cooktop, but a step up in my efforts to save energy. So the 2 replacements, the dishwasher and cooktop will be good thing. The dishwasher uses less water and electricity and the cooktop is more efficient. Energy saved is a penny earned. The refrigerator is still not energy efficient, but I feel like I have reached my budget limit for the year.
Dgflorida
Posts: 4381
Joined: Wed Oct 07, 2015 8:10 pm

Re: DG's frugal journal

Post by Dgflorida »

My 2019 projects Time to evaluate them. I am going to mark done with a *

1) outdoor kitchen. This is actually a complicated project.
Stage one: enclose south end of porch for cooking area. Needed due to high winds *
Stage two: set up cooking area and storage. half done.
Stage three: re-organize the porch for outdoor eating.

2) build a second storage area with overhang to protect the water filter system. *

3) buy and plant trees

4) finish front patio

5) finish back patio

6) add fancy house "gingerbread" to the front of the house

7) paint various outbuildings

8) extend and develop gardens especially foundation planting.

9) buy or make curtains for the picture window, patio door and kitchen window

Well, didn't get that many done so far.
Dgflorida
Posts: 4381
Joined: Wed Oct 07, 2015 8:10 pm

Re: DG's frugal journal

Post by Dgflorida »

Got out another package of frozen bacon. Put it under the water container sitting on the kitchen counter to chill the water a bit. I like room temperature water. Hubs likes it chilled. This is a compromise. Hubs is testing batteries in preparation for hurricane season. We mostly use rechargeable batteries, but keep a stock of regular ones as backup.

I have decided to go with stir fry tonight to use the broccoli. Yum. Tomorrow pot roast with trimmed broccoli stems as potatoes.
gaylejackson2
Posts: 3172
Joined: Tue Sep 08, 2015 1:13 pm
Location: Utah

Re: DG's frugal journal

Post by gaylejackson2 »

DG,

How good of you to keep going with your journal. I think I stopped posting in mine sometime in June. I should get back to it, maybe I'll discover that I am still frugal. :D
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