Baby Gift

My cousin had a baby boy recently and I wanted to take her a gift. 

I didn't have much money to spend. I did have some leftover fabric from making my Grandson a few things.

I made a large blanket, a burp cloth and a reversible bib

Here is some pictures of both sides of the bib.

All the items were well received. I think I will be making more in the future when baby gifts are needed :)

Budget? What Budget?

Summer is killing my budget. I think we have over spent in every area of our budget :(

I haven't been home much and with Kid # 5's injury we have just been doing whatever to keep her entertained.

Hopefully once school is started and I am back to work, we can get a grip on this. In the mean time, I am trying to be more mindful of our spending!

How is everyone else doing this summer?

Food Waste

I still have a few pictures to show unfortunately :( 

I had one half of a bagel go bad before it was eaten.

I had to dump out half of this bottle of pineapple juice that we did not end up using up before it went bad.

Those were the only two things this week, but still more the I hoped for. Oh we'll maybe next week :)

5 Things I Did That Were Frugal This Week

1. Took some fresh produce that was offered to us by my Mom and Sister.

2. Went to the "free" children's movie in my home town with Kid # 5.  Remembered our popcorn bucket we had bought the week before so that we got it filled again at a discounted rate.  Shared a soda and spent around $10 for the movie. 

3. Made a baby gift for my cousin who just had a baby boy. I used items I already had.

4. We are having very mild weather for the end of July so off went the air conditioning.  Woohoo for cheap gas and power!

5. Combined my driving so I didn't waste gas

Food Waste Friday

Well I thought I would have no picture to post for Food Waste Friday. Most of our leftovers were eaten this week and what wasn't I moved to the freezer to use at a later time. Then I went to make some toast from the English muffin bread I made last week. Yeah not gonna happen, this is what it looked like....

Big fail on our part eating that up :(. It was really good too, not sure why we didn't finish it.

 

I am linking up at The Frugal Girl

 

5 Things I Did That Were Frugal This Week

1. Bought a few things at Lowe's to do a few projects.  2 are Christmas presents.  Used a $10 off $50 coupon.

2.  Made my Christmas lists, wrote down everything I have already purchased so I would not forget about them. 

3. Took Kid #4 and 5 to the free movie in my home town. We did buy popcorn and drinks but still only spent $15 for the 3 of us.  Still pretty good considering the cost of going to the movies.

4. Kept the air conditioner set 78-79 even though it is hot outside.  It is still cooler in here!

5. I had some leftover zucchini, black bean, rice skillet meal in the refrigerator.  I didn't see us finishing it up so I froze it for use later in a soup.  That is now 4 freezer meals I have in the deep freeze for use during the school year.

Few Recipes This Week July 7-13

I posted a picture on Friday of the English Muffin Bread I made here.   I found the recipe on Pinterest but here is the link to the original blog it was posted on, One Good Thing by Jillee . It was very good and I will for sure be making it again.

There are several Farmers Markets around us.  Yesterday I went to a fairly new one near my house and bought some blueberries.  Today Kid # 5 and I went to the bigger one along the river front here.  I also bought some blueberries there.  When we came home I decided to make a cobbler with some of them.  I used this recipe. 

Here is how it turned out, hubby ate some before I could get a photo :)

 

Last night we had this Tortellini and Pepperoni Pasta Salad.  It was awesome! 

 

Edit* - forgot to mention, I used dried tortellini from Aldi.  I cooked two packages, rinsed in cold water and then went from there.  I also used canned diced tomatoes ( also from Aldi) because that was what I had on hand.  I did use some fresh basil but I didn't have enough so I added some dried basil too. 

 

 

I recently tried this, cocktail drink recipe also.  It was not to bad :)

 

 

Food Waste

Once in awhile I try to remember to snap a photo of our food waste for the week.  This is it.  Not to shabby I guess.  I got the idea to do this from reading over at The Frugal Girl.  She use to do this and post about it.  Not sure if she still does but it seems like a good idea to me :)

I hope to do it more often so maybe I will have more weeks with no pictures then ones with :)

 

5 Things I Did That Were Frugal This Week

1. Made use of our clothesline

2. Cut open my tube of tinted moisturizer to use it all up.

3. Ran my dishwasher only when it was full ( I had taken a few things out before I snapped the photo)

4. Made 4 loaves of English muffin bread instead of buying English muffins. I had all ingredients to make.

5. Made a fruit fly trap using items I already had and it worked fabulously!

Few Things I Made For My Grandson

I have been trying to use up some of the fabric and craft supplies I have bought on clearence and at garage sales.  Sometimes when I see things I might use in the future that is cheap I buy it even if I don't have a plan for it. 

I decided I would like to make a few things for my grandson, that would be useful to his parents, so I made them some burp clothes and a couple of blankets. 

I think they turned out good :)

Feeling Trapped

With Kid # 5 in a full leg cast, it is not easy to get around and go places.  We both feel a little trapped in the house.  Hopefully as she gets better with her crutches and more confident moving around this feeling will go away.  We had a friend loan us a portable wheelchair, so that has helped some in being able to get out and go places.

One would think since we have been spending so much time at home, I would have more to show for it, but really I don't lol.  I guess if I really think about it, my laundry is done and my house is clean.  I just need more motivation to get my projects done.

I have started a curtain for my closet in my bedroom.  It is really the last project to do so that I can call my bedroom done.  Started it the key word here though, I am not really motivated to finish it :(

I have a skirt I made for myself that I need to finish.  Today I plan to stop and pick up the elastic I need for it.  Hopefully I will be able to show it all to you by tomorrow.

I  have started a wall gallery project in my hallway, key work again is started.  I really need to finish that and decide what pictures I would like to place there.  Right now there is just cutouts from newspaper of the frames taped to the wall.

I spend alot of time waiting on Kid # 5.  You just don't realize how self reliant a 10 year old really is until they can't get around on their own.  Right now she can't even shower, so we are having to do sponge bathes and wash her hair in the sink.  Next week she will get a different leg cast which will be water proof so then we can go back to showering.

Anyway, that is my little pitty party for the day.  Really the summer has not been that bad and I do like that I have been spending alot of time with Kid #5, she won't always be 10 and before I know it she will be grown too :(

Searl House Summer Happenings 2013

1. I wrote about Kid # 5 hurting her knee here.  After having an MRI we discovered it was more serious then we thought.  Last Wednesday she had surgery on it.  She now has a nice light blue cast until next week.  She will then get that one off and get a new cast for another 4 weeks.   She will spend all the rest of her summer in a cast.  After that she will have physical therapy for most of the rest of the year.  Not what we were hoping for at all, but we are adjusting.

2.  A few weeks ago my husbands grandmother passed away.  She was 105 years old.  Yesterday we attended a memorial service for her.  My hubby's family has all been here visiting for the weekend.  Including his brother and wife who we have not seen in 5 years. It has been a nice visit and I am sad to see them leave!

3. We have blown our budget for most of the summer so far.  I hope to get back on track for the rest of the summer.  We will see.

4.  I have started my Christmas shopping already.  Have you?

5. This week I plan to buy several pounds of hamburger which is on sale at our local Kroger until tomorrow night.   I am going to use most of it to make some freezer meals to use when school starts.  The starting of school is always hectic around here.  It will be doubly so since Kid # 5 will be making many trips to the Dr and I will be working a few hours 5 days a week this year.  I think having freezer meals will make my life easier.

6. This week Kid # 3's tuition for her first semester of community college is due for the fall.  Kid #3 is splitting this cost with us.  I am so proud of her for saving up her portion.  My extra income from working in the spring is what paid for our portion.  It is now paid in full with cash!  Now we just have to get books.  I have purchased her one so far on our local face book site for $40.  A $20 savings from anywhere else I could find it used.  We just have 3 more books to purchase and then that is done also.

7.  I have a new skirt I am working on.  I hope to be able to show pictures of that soon.  Hopefully a few other projects soon also.

That is what has been happening here in a nutshell.  Hope every one is having a nice summer.

5 Things I Did That Were Fugal This Week

1. Made Kid # 5 this dress from an up-cycled tshirt, and other materials I already owned. Free dress and the straps can be changed to different colors also.

2. Made a big pot of fresh green beans ( which I bought local), potatoes ( which needed to be used up), and diced ham from the freezer. There should be enough for at least one dinner, a couple lunches for my hubby and then a freezer dinner also.

3. Sold something small out of my garage and made $5. Every little bit helps.

4. Made Kid #1 a birthday cake completely from scratch using items I already had.

5. Took deviled eggs to my family reunion. I already had all the items on hand to make them. They were a big hit and I did not have a single one left :)

Few Recipes We Have Had Lately

I am way behind in posting the Pinterest recipes we have been eating.  So hopefully I can catch up.  I have been trying to remember  to take some pictures of them.  Some I have remembered, some not :)

I have made several crockpot recipes which we found good.  One is Honey Digon Chicken. The recipe is orginally found here.  I had some chicken thighs I found on "manager special" at our local Kroger, so this was a useful recipe to use them up.

We have had this Baked Ravioli, recipe several times.  It is a new favorite.  I buy the frozen Ravioli from Costco and it makes 2 dinners.  We make our own spaghetti sauce.  One of these days I will write down a recipe :)

On Friday nights, we have now deamed them snack nights instead of full meals.  I am a lover of dips so I have made a few for our snack night.

This Crab Rangoon Dip, now one of my new favorites.  I have made it a couple of times now.  I eat it with Tortilla chips :)

Another dip I have made is this BLT Dip.  It was very tastey also and will be making the rotation :)

Next up I made this Lemonade Pie.  We ended up sticking it in the freezer and eating it as a frozen pie.  We liked the taste of it better that way, it was very very lemony otherwise.  I also made the graham cracker crust it went into.  No recipe for that though.

 

Here is another recipe we tried and found to be pretty good. Philly Cheese Steak Sloppy Joes.  This was pretty easy to make and I do love easy!  Sorry we had eaten most of it when I remember to snap a picture.

Well there you go, hopefully I will be able to catch up with my goal soon :)