First Freeze & Frugal Accomplishments

Hello friends.  Last week blessed us with some gorgeous fall days.  Our first hard freeze will happen this weekend, so Saturday we'll be preparing for that.  Our plan had been to do our prep on Friday, but it turned out to be a rainy day, so Saturday it is.  I sold a book through ebay, and harvested winter greens and chickweed for a winter salad.  We've both been under the weather with respiratory stuff this week, so I've been adding garlic to our meals whenever I can, in addition to taking homemade elderberry syrup and bought remedies.  We've been keeping an eye on two figs, and I was delighted the they ripened before the freeze.  Such a treat to be eating a fresh fig in November.  The wood stove is providing our heat.  I've used several of the dryer lint, wax and paper tube fire starters, after we've let it die down during warm days.

J & I discussed the laundry this week, and we're both in agreement that it is smelling great using the bought laundry soap, and things seem to feel a bit softer too.  I haven't noticed a huge difference in how it looks yet, but not having stinky laundry is reason enough to use it in my book.  If I couldn't afford the bought laundry soap, I'd use homemade again, but if I can, I'm convinced bought soap is the way to go.  Who knew?  I used a $5 reward at Walgreens, getting an item free except for tax.  A couple of inexpensive small gifts, including one on clearance, were purchased at Marshall's.  I took daily walks with the pups, which provides good things for both my body and soul.  A batch of yogurt was made, ziploc bags were washed for reuse, and fruit and vegi scraps were composted.

I had a serious frugal fail, related to our online shop.  I'm still not sure exactly what happened, as I had questioned myself and cut open one of the boxes to double check that I had it right before putting mailing labels on for shipping.  The third box was a different size, so it's confounding me how I switched two of the orders, mailing them to the wrong people.  It's never happened before, and I was sick that day, but it really bummed me out.  One person received a higher end item than she paid for, and was happy.  I've offered to refund the other customer and have her keep the item, and she was happy with this, thank goodness.  You can bet we've got a new system figured out, to ensure it doesn't happen a second time.

After an appointment, I stopped at a thrift store a few doors down from Whole Foods, but saw nothing that tempted me.  Not much other than fruits and veggies were bought at Whole Foods, including organic black seedless grapes.  I bought some on my last trip, and they were fantastic, so I was happy to find them again.  Also made a quick stop at Trader Joe's, buying produce and wine.  They had pomegranates for $1.49, down from the $3.99 I've been seeing everywhere, so I bought two to use in salads.  I received $20.26 cash back from ebates.  I bought several Christmas presents on amazon, using gift cards I had saved from swagbucks earnings for this purpose.  Before the freeze, I harvested tromboncino squash (30+, though all small to tiny), a handful of small eggplant, several cucumbers, lima beans, parsley, sage, oregano, a few leaves of wild sorrel, lemon verbena and chickweed.  I cut quite a few flowers for the last bouquets of the year, and will enjoy the flowers while they last.  We covered the lettuce, chard, and celery in the garden.

Laundry was done, and hung on the line to dry. On Sunday, I put a pot of our dried lima beans on the woodstove, taking advantage of the heat.  These were old beans, so I'll leave them overnight to cook.  If they don't soften up, I'll can them, which does the trick.  I requested two free samples of dog food.  For dinner, I made lentil soup, heated rolls, and made a salad with lettuce, toasted pecans, pomegranate, feta and homemade berry vinaigrette. It's one of my favorite cold weather salads, and the first of the season.  I found a movie I wanted to watch free on amazon prime, and added it to my list.  J & I are beginning to feel a bit better.  I'm hoping we'll be good as new in the coming days.  The week will be a busy one, with a musical to attend, and work with the local annual pottery festival.   If you're in this part of the world, I hope you'll visit.  Have a lovely week, friends.