Friday, February 15, 2019

Thrifty Thursday-Bringing Out the Gift Cards

Did you have a good Valentine's Day?, Yeah, we don't celebrate it much either. Other than  the good deals the next day on chocolate and that makes me happy. I will check the deals out later today. The oven is a bummer but both DH and I are searching the Internet for possible issues. We don't think it  is the heating elements as both the oven (bottom) and the broiler,( top) are not heating and we don't see any evidence of defect. He thinks it might be a short trip or something to the oven part not getting power. We shall see and in the mean time, I'll use my crock pot. I even have a few crock pot baking recipes I've found. We will try and be thrifty with the oven repair but I've had a few other success this past week. 


  • Entertainment spending was low last weekend. Being sick last week, I didn't go out much at all which saves loads of money. I finally was feeling better and had cabin fever so joined DD2 at the brewery for a ginger ale and a beer while we both did some computer work. That was my whole weekend's worth of entertainment and DH stayed some watching movies and sports. DD2 did meet friends for dinner, school play (her bestie and a couple other friends were in it), and then gaming out at a friends on Friday, but she brought popcorn from home for the snacking. 
  • Despite the oven being out and thwarting part of my meal plan, I tweaked the menu a bit and didn't rely on take out, which was my first impulse. Sometimes my most frugal action is to just think before spending on the quick fix. 
  • I packed my own lunch items to eat for my road trip on Wednesday, but did "splurge" on a coffee from the gas station when I filled up my car. this saved time as well as money since I  didn't have to leave the conference center and could get caught up one-mails from the office in between  the session I delivered and staffing the resource table for QA.
  • DH and I went to Green Mill last night and used the $19.99 special which was a large(ish) heart shaped pizza (cheesy-I know) and an appetizer for $19.99. We each got a drink-I went for the Cosmo that was on special. We had gift cards, but to our surprise, one was worth a lot more than we thought was left, and we still have a balance of $13. Plus, because I booked in advance, we added 100 points to my account so I will get another reward usually for a free pizza in the next month or so. Our evening only cost the $6 tip, which. Despite both of us being pretty hungry and the appetizer and pizza both on the smaller size of what is typical in American chain restaurants, we brought home quite a bit of pizza which will be great for DH for lunch or supper tonight.  
  • DD2 had made bread as I mentioned yesterday for her boy friend and they just hung out playing games at his house, but she was home by the time we got home. He is also an All State singer, so both had homework to stay on top of despite no school today. 
I'm feeling more human like and not like just  a big head full of congestion. I had a productive work week, though hone has become a bit chaotic. However, we should be home by mid afternoon Saturday and I have Monday off to put order back again. That will keep me busy and less likely to spend money we are trying to put to better use. Please share your success and areas of your budget you are trying to put on a diet. 


5 comments:

  1. I'm with you - on the road to recovery from a sinus/congestion/coughing issue that has made me feel sluggish all week. I'm finally almost through it, thank goodness.

    We need to clean up our groceries & eating out. We rarely eat out, but have had a few random things (power outage), etc & poor planning a couple of times. The groceries are due to my husband's special diet. I thought it was short term, so didn't even both trying to optimize. Now that it looks more long term, I'll investigate how to best optimize while allowing him to stay on plan.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm sorry to hear you too have comedown with the crud. It takes so long to truly feel better. My older daughter has me really exploring (not making me-I just think about it more) more vegan, clean, and whole food cooking. She actually is not spending more, other than for a few ingredients like nutritional yeast and more nuts, but uses so little processed foods it is incredible how well she eats for her budget. She doesn't preach-just shares,like the vegan carrot cake that folks devoured at her work-big burly meat eating men! I know there are resources for shopping and I wish you good luck meeting his needs without blowing up your food budget. Still, good health is a bargain so if it keeps him healthy and feeling well, you are probably resigned to spending more.

      Delete
  2. So happy you are on the mend. I hope you do not have to have a new oven. I actually stopped for jack in the ox tacos last night $4.23 as I could not look at another meal of chicken which I roasted yesterday.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Glad to hear you are starting to feel better!
    We didn't do much for Valentine's Day. Both girls were at their boyfriends' houses and ironically enough, both boys cooked dinner for them at home! My husband and I did the same here with ingredients I already had on hand.
    Definitely a bummer about the oven...Hoping it's a quick and cheap-ish fix for you! Kudos for reworking your meal plan around the oven. I'm not sure I would have been able to resist pressing the easy button and just eating out/relying on convenience foods - especially being sick to boot!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Nice that you are feeling and breathing better.
    It is great that you have found a way to use the crock pot as a substitute oven. I think they are fabulous inventions.I don't use my oven a ton so as long as my stove top is working I can get by fairly easily but I have been considering buying a toaster oven for the occasions I do bake or broil just because it is silly to heat my regular over to warm rolls or broil one piece of fish.

    ReplyDelete

Join the conversation. Your comments are welcome. Dissenting and different opinions are welcome as makes for good conversation. I moderate comments to be sure I read them all and stay ahead of the spam. Advertising products or services without permission will be deleted, as will anything that may be harmful to others-read promotion of debunked "experts" and conspiracies. If you're a blogger, feel free to include your blog URL.