We started out chilly and have warmed up a lot. Rain and stormy days and even got hail. I have taken advantage of dry days to get out and work outside.
I think my hummingbirds I saw last weekend were scouts - they were here for a few days then gone. Usually my regulars show up around June 1st. There are no real flowers around at the moment for them to enjoy - so once I get flowers around that will help as well.
I may have a new 'house guest'. Blackie cat - a neighborhood stray - seems to think this place is pretty nice to hangout! Momma and Fluffy are tolerating (better each day) and he thinks they are great. He has finally gotten to the point I can pet him. He is a big cat, but sounds like a kitten! That cry is so sweet. He eats here and hangs out most of the time. I even found him napping in the greenhouse one day! He likes hanging out on the deck where the greenhouse is. Yep, I do believe he has a new home!!
I ran out this week to the grocery. Everything was pretty much back to normal as far as stock. They had lots of everything. I did not go down the paper aisle (didn't need anything) - so I didn't even notice that stock. Plenty of fresh fruit and veggies - meat - milk - eggs - cheese - frozen goods, etc. The only thing that seemed a bit low was dry cat food and boxed mac n cheese! Plenty of pasta - just not a lot of the mixes. I don't buy - it just seemed odd to see.
My week:
- No heat or AC most of the week. Windows open and ceiling fans going
- I received 2 bonus coupon GC's from our local hardware. One is for $5 off $5 purchase and one for $5 off $25. Might be a good time to get some more furnace filters!!!!
- Both rain barrels are about full
- Started washing the cat's warm bedding from the greenhouse - they don't need the warm stuff now
- Mowed and trimmed the entire yard
- Have pulled LOTS of weeds from flower beds and from between pavers down the back walk.
- Did a really good vacuum. I have to admit the past few months I have not done that weekly. It is me and kitty - he stays in and I don't wear shoes in the house. No company - so I just don't vacuum as often. Bad me!!!
- Saved a square gallon ice cream tub (to use for storage) and an empty spice jar
- Got some deals at the store - Fresh head of cauliflower and 2 big bell peppers for .99 (clearance), a dozen jumbo eggs for .79, 6 large bagels $1 and a 10 oz. bag of stir fry veggies for $1. I also got some strawberries on sale for 1.88 for 2lb., bananas, more cat food (always add), milk, cheese (always add) orange juice and ice cream. I got my neighbor some strawberries as well.
There are still deals that can be had. You just have to pay attention. I am now good with fresh groceries for a while again.
I did purchase 2 cans of pre-made taco meat on clearance as well. I had never seen that before. It says a can makes 7 tacos. 2 cans was all they had and was 1.49 each. Figured it was worth having another canned meat item on the shelf. Can always mix with something!
I noticed everyone stayed their distance at the store and most had on masks. Not much need to wear make up when going out - no one sees your face! SO I made up my eyes and put on earrings to fill a bit dressier!!!! LOL
Meals this past week:
Fried chicken tenders and mac n cheese with broccoli added
Roasted potatoes, smoked sausage and coleslaw
Tuna salad sandwich and side salad
Fried cabbage with diced potatoes and smoked sausage (I made a pig of myself!)
Quesadilla - beef, rice, cheese and salsa
Stir fry veggies with chicken over rice
Bologna sandwich with cheese, tomato and lettuce and ranch chips (a favorite summer sandwich)
One potato diced and fried, added about 1/3 of a small head of cabbage (found in frig from March) and one individual size sausage cut up. OH MY GOODNESS this was so good! I ate ever bit of it!!!! I seasoned with a bit of soy sauce.
So how has your week been? Are you getting warmer weather and being able to plant?
Has anyone ventured into the stores yet (we are still on partial shut-down in my city). Only certain places are open here until at least next week or later.
Did you do anything frugal this week?
Give us a shout out.
Stay safe and healthy. Appreciate each and every day and moment to the fullest.
Blessings from my humble little home to yours.
Weather is up to 18C today (around 65F) and scheduled to go warmer by the end of the week - it tends to be like this now, one week we've got snow and the next week we can wear t-shirts!
ReplyDeleteIt was a busier week than usual - trips to the grocery store, drugstore, and my office occupied more time than usual, plus I seem to finally have my reading oho back. Did a bit of walking, not as much as I'd like but I am a bit nervous about going out when there are a lot of people around so tend to go very early in the morning.
Made meatloaf and a pasta bake plus added in some egg dishes - also made a poppyseed loaf but admit that it is getting to be more of an effort.
Things are only just starting to open up here - very slowly. Stores not in malls, can open but with severe restrictions. I have ordered a new bra from the little specialist shop that I love and will pick it up curb side in a couple of days. I'm not really ready to go back into shops as yet - don't really need much - but want to support a small business. Most of the other businesses that have been allowed to reopen are seasonal ones like garden centres, golf courses, marinas and some National Parks that had been closed but most are just for day trippers - no camping as yet. This weekend is our long weekend when many people open their cottages but its' tricky - while businesses in cottage country rely on tourists - they are also nervous about them bringing in the virus. People have been told to keep those going to immediate family only, take your own supplies, and stay put at your cottage.
Construction is reopening and we are expecting an announcement regarding schools and daycare next week - but - schools normally close here at the end of June and don't reopen until after Labour Day so no one is quite sure what will happen. Many schools aren't air-conditioned so having them open during the summer isn't really feasible. Our border with the US stays closed until June 21st - except for truckers back & forth - at that point it will be re-evaluated.
I totally understand. Large places like home stores, grocery and club stores are open but no small businesses. I kind of wish they would shut the big ones for a while and let the smaller ones open - less people in them - makes sense to me.
DeleteI will go to the garden center this week - it is a greenhouse. Other than that no plans to go any where for quite a while.
I figure I know I am safe here.
Have a good week.
I live in northern California, so the weather is pretty warm normally at this time of year. It's raining today, however.
ReplyDeleteYour menu looks really good! Grocery deals are super rare around here. I'm glad you were able to find some wins. I've also never seen canned taco meat before. Interesting!
I have heard it is hard to get a lot of really good deals out that way. Pretty expensive area to live, from what I understand.
DeleteI will let everyone know whenever I try that taco meat! Figured I would give it a try!
Have a good one.
This has been a rainy cool May so far with only two days of really warm weather. It is supposed to be rainy all week ao I am bummed about that, I just love getting out.
ReplyDeleteWe have rain for the next 2 -3 days and then drying supposedly. Who knows. I sure would like to get some garden planted.
DeleteI enjoy a bologna sandwich, as you do, with cheese, tomato, and lettuce. I sometimes add in a little sliced onion too - all those extras make it very tasty.
ReplyDeleteI am in awe of the grocery prices you mentioned. Eggs here are $4-$5 for eighteen. I never buy the dozen as it is just too costly. AND to get a cauliflower for less than $3 would be unheard of. Even with the exchange rate, groceries here are far more expensive.
Take care, enjoy the gardening, and stay well!
I got some deals for sure. Eggs usually run about 1.19/1.29 a doz. in my area. Cauliflower is usually about $3 - so I snatched that up.
DeleteThings are pricey for sure.
Have a great week!
Not many deals lately as I'm avoiding shops as much as possible. I have found if I walk to the small Tesco store by 8.30 on a Saturday morning it is fairly empty. I can then buy my weekly treat which is a newspaper with tv and radio magazine insert. I also go in the Polish shop as they rarely have shortages and no queues. Weather was better today and expected to be hot this week. I have been baking with what I have in the cupboards. I hope your hummingbirds come back.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like a nice walk. I wish I had a store close enough to walk to.
DeleteHope you don't get too hot! Oh, the hummingbirds will be back - I was just getting to anxious! Usually June or so for the ones that hang around.
Stay cool.
I was able to find b/s chicken breast for $1.73/lb, for $15 pounds and a whole chicken for .99/ lb, cheaper than any other meat. Freezer is full, so Icooked everything up and am canning it for later use. Was able to find the girls some pants and shirts on clearance at Walmart for $1 each, to add to fall wardrobe stock since most thrift shops are closed or picked bare. Also found bulbs at Walmart for half off, picked up echinacea, bleeding heart, phlox, also asparagus roots and 100 onion sets to plant this fall. Donated to a heirloom seeds site that Belinda over at Frugal Workshop recommended and received my seeds in the mail yesterday.I have pea plants with blossoms and one of my squash plants has a blossom too.
ReplyDeleteGreat price on the chicken. I have not braved canning meat - but I do want to try it.
DeleteGreat deals on clothes - my goodness. Sounds like you had a great shopping week. Super deals on plants. Won't be soon until you have fresh goodies!
After snow last Saturday to temps in the 80s today, I would say spring has come at last. Yesterday was garden day. I filled four 5-gal buckets with garden soil for tomato plants, but I won't plant those until closer to June 1. In the mean time, I planted a couple of sprouted cucumbers and the peat pots of unsprouted cucumber seeds in one of the buckets. I'll plant them in the raised bed around June 1 when they should have leaves (the slugs eat the seed leaves and kill the plant otherwise). I'm holding off on planting tomatoes. My plants are very spindly and small, though I have started hardening them off. I may just have to give up and buy plants at a nursery. (Nurseries were finally allowed to open May 15.) I also planted carrot, green onion, zinnia, marigold and cosmos seeds and overseeded the spinach.
ReplyDeleteNo shopping this past week, though I am going to Aldi on Tuesday. Only went out once, to mail an important item at the PO. I've put only 106 miles on the car in over six weeks, and 45 of those were to deliver masks last month.
My main frugal event this week was making a removable screen for the doorway in my bedroom. I had hoped to score a baby gate in the trash, but didn't find one. Charlie Cat is elderly and doesn't have run of the house any more due to accidents and barfing, along with clawing the furniture issues. She lives in my bedroom and is quite content...most of the time. I have had to keep the door shut because every once in a while she'll decide to go walk-about. I have wanted to be able to leave the bedroom door open for fresh air and light down the hallway, but keep Charlie in the room. I raided my construction materials stash and found a roll of nylon window screening and two tension curtain rods. Sewing a 2-in hem on each side and rod pockets across the top and bottom, I now have a screen that fits in the doorway and can be removed for me to come and go from the room. Charlie has not tried to escape but has discovered that if she yowls at the doorway, one of us might come pet her LOL!
Hope everyone has a safe and frugal week!
Happy planting!!! Just the thoughts of fresh veggies sound so good. Good luck at Aldi.
DeleteThat is a great idea for Charlie. Keeps everyone happy. Our babies sure do have us wrapped around their little paws!!!!!
That's ok - they are so sweet.
Have a great week.
Had to laugh about the vacuuming...it's just DH and I and no visitors at this point...vacuuming is rarely done! haha.
ReplyDeleteYour meals sound yummy. Many years ago, my favorite sandwich was white bread, bologna, and mustard. Haven't bought bologna (baloney?) in years.
That's how I loved bologna as a kid. It was our daily lunch when camping. One addition tho,. Lays potato chips in between!! I have "bologna day" every year in August. I buy country white bread, a bag of Lays, and 2 slices of beef bologna at the deli. I make myself the BEST sandwich- all crunchy and mustardy!! Once a year. I invited the guys that work maintenance at our church to join me one year. I brought everything. Now they ask me every year, "When's Bologna Day???"
DeleteTry fried bologna sandwiches. They were a tasty staple during my first marriage poverty days.
DeleteWell glad I am not the only one who isn't vacuuming every week!
DeleteYES, white bread and mustard! Always use mustard on mine too.
Debby how cool. Well I have to admit I didn't know other people put chips on their lunchmeat sandwiches. That is my favorite - love that crunch!!! I guess "Bologna Day" should be a national holiday!!!! LOL
I like them on hamburgers too! Of course I like to eat baked beans with potato chips as well!
Francis - I may like it on the sandwich and then make like a grilled cheese. Glen used to like just fried bologna with scrambled eggs. I don't like it fried like other meat - but on a grilled sammie - YES
We have 3 bedrooms and a big bonus room upstairs that nobody lives in now and we only vacuum that once a month. Why wear out the carpet if you don't need to!
ReplyDeleteWe have been getting Smithfield ground pork at the discount grocery for 75 cents a pound. We cooked 5 pounds up into taco meat and that made 6 meals for us, five are banked in the freezer. We added a can of tomato sauce for better flavor as it just tastes too porky otherwise. Next up will be a big batch of sloppy joe. Can't beat the price!
I agree - no need to wear the carpet out. I run the dust mop on the wood floors but I have big area rugs and carpet in bedroom. Just me - so it really doesn't get dirty!
DeleteThat is a fantastic price for any kind of meat. WOW - I would be buying that up and storing it away for the future. Prices will only go up.
Great deal!
We are finding that we need to look places other than the traditional grocery stores for good meat deals. We knew this before this all started. Another discount grocery in the area sells beef from a family owned packing house here and ground chuck is still plentiful and 2.99 a pound. One store has had McD's quarter pounder patties for 2.50 a pound. These are gorgeous lean burger patties and we can thaw them and use them any way we like besides they are great on the grill. If you can find a discount grocer in your area you can really get the deals but we found out about them by word of mouth so you need to ask around. They are getting in wonderful restaurant foods like big bags of frozen asparagus spears and I got two pounds of roasted red pepper strips for only $2.99 and ready to add to any dish that we use peppers in. It has been fun going to check out what they have in stock every few weeks but at this point we have so much meat that the freezers are packed.
DeleteWhat a wonderful resources to have. We do not have a discount grocer around here - I sure wish we did. I have done a lot of research to find one.
DeleteMany ethnic markets are good for finding meat and often different types of food we normally wouldn't buy.
I did get a reminder of a family owned grocery in the area the other day and they have the old fashioned meat dept. Nothing prepackaged. All their meat is purchased locally and cut and packaged as needed. We also have a nice meat market up the road a bit and it is all local meat as well.
You are so fortunate to have such fantastic resources. I hope this gives others some ideas of different places to look for meat.
Michigan is on a slow open up process. The restaurants way up north are going to open up soon for dinning inside but the lower peninsula is mostly closed.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad your stocked up again Cheryl and your finding things.
You really have to look for some stuff here and when you find it you had better get it. Well, that is if it's not a fortune to buy. Then we do without!
Have a great day!
Things are slowly opening here as well. My county (the capitol) is still mainly closed. Opening MUCH slower here.
DeleteWe get those things we need when we can!
Have a good one.
Aww glad Blackie cat has found a good home.
ReplyDeleteLove the poppies, and how special that they came from your parents house
Your sausage potato cabbage dish looks so good.
Hope you have a good week.
H seems to be here to eat - twice a day and sleeps here some. The girls are pretty chill with him unless he gets near their food!
DeleteSo many of my flowers can from Mom and Dads. I feel like I have them here with me!
It was soooooooo good. Probably the best meal I have eaten in ages and so simple.
Have a good one.
The cabbage and taters and everything sounds so good! I have been wanting fried cabbage but am afraid Roger won't eat it and there I would have it all.
ReplyDeleteMrs. D, my old employer, used to make it for me and her...no one else liked it so she would wait and make it for both of us. Her husband would just shake his head at us.
I made just enough for myself - just used a small potion of small head of cabbage. It was so good I ate it all!
DeleteGood eating for sure.