After the excitement of Christmas, I didn't want to go anywhere or do anything. I haven't been blue, exactly -- just not motivated or enthusiastic. It was difficult to get anything done but the basics.
A vacation is in the planning -- it may help. Meanwhile, more snowflakes are drifting down as I write. Snow is great -- we always need the moisture. I keep telling myself that.
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| Castle Rock, where we live, is a thousand feet higher than Denver. We often get snow when they don't. (Sometimes it's vice versa.) |
(Note: this list got posted early -- because I didn't have time to do it later. )
FRUGAL HITS
*Didn't go out to eat while the Brick was in North Carolina. Oh, I wanted to...
*Our fruit and vegetable needs were helped out by canned and frozen stuff -- particularly some small packs of mandarin oranges I'd gotten for about 25 cents each from the Friday-Saturday store ages ago. I also got 8 peppers, green and red (5/$1) and three-packs of romaine lettuce ($1 each) from them. We need these crunchy salads right now, to balance out the heavier meals. Bacon bits help, for some reason. Both the Brick and I are really craving meat above most other foods. (Okay, maybe not peanut butter cups.)
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| You sweet thing, you. |
*A $3.99 marked-down bouquet of roses, snagged as a 'welcome home' present for the Brick, lasted for nearly FOUR weeks! Ironically, way longer than the beautiful bouquet of roses and alstromeria he got me for Valentine's Day.
*More $2 videos from the library used bookroom, including multi-DVD sets for The Maltese Falcon, Season #2 of House and a five-pack of James Bond movies. (These still sold as $2 each!) Several were used as birthday presents for the Brick. I also continued my usual pattern of checking out and requesting books from the library for current writing and research. We also watched nearly all of the Wallender series, which was wonderful. I love our library.
*Made the Brick's birthday cake myself -- from the last of the now-frozen carrots in the back-porch cooler. It was good, too. Here's the recipe. Both the Brick and Son #1 are big fans of carrot cake -- it was the featured 'groom's cake' at our wedding. Son's and Daughter #2's wedding, as well.
*Free Black Panther tickets. Unfortunately, all four of us fell asleep during the movie -- a telling review. (I did enjoy the wonderful costumes and fights.)
*Sold some books, plus a couple of videos. Always nice.
*We're in the 'household sharing' plan of Amazon Prime now. This let us see movies and series, including Stargate: Atlantis and Liam Neeson's terrific The Commuter. We're also getting into Justified. (I know -- this 'cowboy in Kenucky' has been doing his thing for years. But we just found it.)
*Two petsitting gigs. These are part of a swap that will cover our dogs during an upcoming vacation.
*Finally got a haircut! $6.99 at Great Clips.
*A 50-cent sweater for Daughter #2 from our local outlet mall. (Actually, it was a penny more.) Bought a few other things during my recent mystery shopping gig -- all bargains.
*Kept paying our trailer loan early each month -- and putting a little extra on principal. This wouldn't add up to much...right? That extra, over time, has covered our payments for at least four months ahead. If something went really wrong, we'd be okay. Nice.
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| Our baby |
*Free birthday burger at Red Robin, thanks to the Brick's birthday this month. We also earned a free burger from previous visits. Red Robin has a great special: use its rewards card, and every 10th burger is free!
*A $10 bonus at Outback...along with using up a giftcard. This finished up our Christmas bonus restaurant cards. (The Brick's leftover steak was featured in next morning's breakfast, sliced thin and stirfried with onions, mushrooms and peppers.)
*'Free' Valentine's candy. (Actually half-priced Christmas candy in disguise.) Yes, Daughters who read this blog, once again your mama fed you previous-holiday candy. And you enjoyed it, too.
*99-cent packages of cookies and chips. Also, multiple pkgs of York peppermint patties, peanut butter cups and other 'pogeybait' for marked-down prices -- courtesy of the Friday/Saturday store.
*I did a few appraisals, some restoration work and piano lessons. The usual.
*Some mystery shopping, as well. Not sure I'll continue this -- it was an awful lot of work for a $5/per store payoff.
*Daughter #2 and Son #1 went to Tucson without us. This annual trip is their stock-up on rock specimen's for their online store, Phenomenal Gems. We often go to Tucson, too-- but both felt we weren't supposed to this year. (Last year, we both got terribly sick from flu we picked up while there.)
Phenomenal Gems is a wonderful shop -- and it's filled with bargains right now, thanks to the trip. Take a look.
And one final stunning revelation:
*Found a penny in a parking lot!
FRUGAL MISSES
*The aforementioned petsitting gigs. It was for our neighbors -- some of the nicest people in the world. Their cat is on the shadow side of 15, though, and going downhill. For a while there, I was averaging cleaning up 3-5 poop and/or throwup 'accidents' a day. This got old really fast.
*Our vacation. More on this soon. Actually, it belongs in both the Frugal Hits AND Misses categories.
*Paid the first half of the annual property tax. Thanks to putting the house up for sale soon, we shouldn't have to do this again.
I may not be as specific on goals as Mavis on Hundred Dollars A Month...but she still inspires me to get my act together. (So do all the 'no-purchase' or low-purchase comments on this post.) It's also encouraging to realize that a lot of people have trouble being motivated in February. No matter -- March and spring are coming. So, unfortunately, is a heck of a lot of work on the house.
Here's last month's report -- and here's February's report from last year.
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