Frugal Friday! Week of July 18-24, 2021

Greetings Frugal Friends!

How was your week?  Mine was busy and blessed! I hope your week was filled with many, many good things as well!

*My daughter’s birthday and my birthday are just two weeks apart.  We had wanted to invite a friend over to help us celebrate our daughter’s birthday, but had lots of other things going on that weekend.  So we finally got together and did a combination birthday celebration.  We had popcorn, grapes, and fruit ice cream made out of literally just bananas.  We “did” have birthday candles and a few sprinkles on top of our “ice cream,” but I forgot to take a picture of our dishes before we started into them!  But better late than never, right?  It was yummy, and perfect on a hot day!  I use my Champion Juicer to make my banana ice cream.  It is not an inexpensive juicer, but I do believe it will  last forever and if a tornado is in the area it also can double as a rather good “boat anchor” as well, so just hang on to it!  Honestly, I have never heard of a Champion Juicer that died.  In fact, true story—after I heard my at that time future daughter in law comment that she would love to have one, I found a used one for her on FaceBook Market place.  It was harvest gold in color, if that gives you any idea of it’s age, and the lady I bought it from was the original owner and was simply moving in with her adult daughter so was downsizing her kitchen things.  It still works great, and my new daughter in law was delighted to receive it for a wedding present! :)  We also make different flavors of ice cream by running frozen bananas through, interspersed with other frozen fruits such as mangos, strawberries, pineapples, etc.  For me, I always use frozen bananas as my base since bananas give it such a creamy consistency, but you can also just do the other frozen fruits.  My daughter in law is allergic to bananas, so she makes her fruit ice cream with frozen mangos, frozen strawberries, etc. 

*My cat shares my birthday—or as near as the vet could guess, since my cat was a stray.  So I had to get a birthday picture with my “Birthday Twin” on my actual birthday DAY.  My cat is two.  I am slightly more than two. A stray cat is considered by many to be of no significance—worthless—a menace.  But to ME, this cat is of great value and I love him dearly!  Even if he does favor my daughter over me.  Even if he has chewed up all the blinds in my house.  Even if he did refuse to smile for our birthday picture! Kinda makes me think about how others may consider us “worthless,” but when God looks at us, He sees someone of GREAT value!  I hope you know how much God loves you! 

*We are not finished yet, but we bought materials to enclose our breezeway at Lowes.  We used our Lowes cc and received 5% off of the purchase of the materials.  My hubby is doing the work himself, with a little help from me in lifting and holding and adjusting the two doors.  The space made by enclosing is tiny indeed, but I wanted to have a place that we can sit and actually take off our shoes before coming in the house, and even leave our shoes and not have to worry about chipmunks and such chewing on our shoes or dust and rain covering them.  We still need to enclose above the doors, calk and trim.  After that, we will wash down the ceiling and walls and can paint a top coat paint on the doors—right now they just have primer on them.  I bought a very durable throw rug to go in this area—it is one that you can literally beat with a broom and hose down with the garden hose when it gets too dirty.  After the cleanup and painting is done, I will place this rug there, and it will give a nice place to take off our shoes.  I am looking forward to it being finished, but since my hubby is a teacher and school will soon be starting, it might be Thanksgiving vacation before it gets finished!  I hope not, but it might!

*I found a YouTube video telling how to save tomato seeds.  I have always been intimidated just a bit, since I had read that you have to do things to get the seed coating off of the seeds before saving.  Well, I am glad I finally looked up and learned how, because I want to save seeds from my Carbon tomatoes.  They are heirlooms, so the seeds “should” grow true to what I grew this year.  Time will tell if the seeds I saved are viable, but we will see in February if they grow when I start them inside!

*Took daughter to take drivers test for her permit.  She passed the test on the first try—yay! So no need to pay the fee again for a second try!

*Stopped at Indian grocery store on the way home from DMV.  Bought spices, tofu, eggplant and rice noodles at much cheaper prices than regular grocery stores.

*Ordered two books for homeschool on a sale plus received free shipping.

*I made several containers of “freezer jam.” I try not to use refined sugar, so I just make up my own fruit spreads and keep them in the freezer so they won’t spoil.  My daughter likes them really well, so I guess that is what counts!  This batch I made a mixed berry since that is what I had for frozen fruit.  It had strawberries, blackberries, and raspberries.  I cooked them on the stove, cutting the large strawberries into smaller pieces.  Then in the blender I threw some water, a little corn starch for thickening, and some pitted dates to make it sweet.  After blending, I added this mixture to the frozen fruit and cooked it until it thickened nicely.  It tastes pretty yummy, if I do say so myself.  We also sometimes use fruit sauce like this to spread on waffles and pancakes, but when making it to use as “jam” I do try and make it thicker rather than runnier.

*We picked our “apple harvest!”  We have one semi dwarf apple tree that I planted after we moved here.  Actually, I planted three semi dwarf apples, but only one has survived.  It is a Red Gravenstein, and is the most wonderful sweet-tart apple you have ever had!  And THIS year is the FIRST year we have gotten more than maybe four apples off of it!  Of course, the dear little deer have always gotten quite a few apples off of it, but this year they actually shared some with us.  I have already made two apple crisps with these apples, but we ate them down before I thought of getting a picture!  So you will have to imagine these apples in a yummy, apple crisp hot from the oven! The rest of the apples are safely tucked away in our refrigerator, away from our deer friends!

*We picked our peach harvest!  I planted three semi dwarf peach trees as well, and two of those three trees have survived.  Like the apple tree, the dear deer always get most of the ones we can reach.  They cheat, as they pick them and eat them before they are ripe!  But the weather THIS year was better not only for more peaches than we have ever gotten before, but we also got out there with the ladder and got them picked before the deer got all of them!  I need to learn how to spray them, because they do get bugs in them—but I cut them open before eating and cut any bad parts out.  I prefer to think of them as “organic” rather than “bugged!” They ARE good tasting, and we have been enjoying them greatly!

WELL, that was my week!  Oh yes—I also picked LOTS of cherry tomatoes!  I will be sad when my garden tomatoes are all gone, and that day is not far off.  How was your week?  What did you do to save and to bless your home and family?  I would love to hear about it!

~Susan