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Wednesday, August 6, 2014

Are you staying frugal?

What I've been eating lately:



Lemon-Dill Chicken, Citrus & Beet Salad. Grilled Marinated Pork Chop, Roasted Sweet Potato, Lettuce Salad, Caprese Salad. Vanilla Mint Protein Shake.

Yeah, the oranges/beets/tomato/sweet potatoes are not really low-carb. But they are seasonal indulgences and eaten in small amounts (usually, ha ha). The coffee syrup behind the shake is actually J's, not mine.




What I've Seen Lately Snapshot:

Zinnias in the garden - what a brilliant pop of color. I love clipping them and having them on the kitchen table. Bugs seem to get pretty amorous in the raspberries - somewhere on this blog I believe I still have a pic of grasshoppers being... "romantic". Raspberries, lettuce and sugarsnap peas are the goodies going on in the garden. Last - holy cow. That's a giant mosquito.




Frugal Front Lately:

> adding up amounts to get a monthly average of what we're spending on food so that I can figure out a budget
> removed a stain from a silk tie for D for his work uniform (method below - if you're willing to take the risk)
> saved over $13 with coupons at Walmart on a $70 grocery trip
> found I was overcharged $4.64 on a separate trip to Walmart, will bring to customer service next time going there
> continuing to hang the heavy laundry items such as bottoms and shirts, towels, blankets
> framed some prints I have had for over 10 years from when I'd homeschooled A with wooden frames that cost $2 each
> borrowed the book Outlander from the library, as well as season 1 of True Detective on dvd
> sold A's dvd set of the whole series of Charmed, while not frugal for me, A will come out over $50 ahead
> putting leftovers in the freezer or to use by creating a new meal, such as a chicken hotdish made from leftover grilled chicken and leftover diced onion from a taco meal
> applied for and will be starting a second part-time job that I know I will really like at a coffeehouse



The first pic you can see what I believe is grease staining D's work tie. I looked up how to clean a silk tie and it sounded like it was not going to be too likely that I'd even be able to do so. But there were a few ideas. One was to use babypowder or cornstarch on it, let it set for a few hours, then shake or gently brush off. I tried that. It didn't work. Then I read a suggestion to use rubbing alcohol and q-tips to try to gently scrub it away and a blow dryer to quickly dry it so as to avoid a "water outline". No matter how careful I was, it kept leaving a line around the edges of where I'd cleaned, though it did seem to make the grease stain disappear. Finally, I thought, well enough fartin' around already! I dunked a cotton ball in the alcohol and just swiped it across the tie a couple of times (second picture), blow dried it, repeated about two more times... and it is now unnoticeable (pic 3)! Yeah, baby!








2 comments:

  1. Great job on the tie. And your food looks great. I love to save money too. Great job. :-)

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  2. I like to save money too but how did you save $17 that much at Walmart!!! Good luck on your new job and keeping up. Nancy

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