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Frugal Times part 2



Well, Haley and I are busily getting ready for our annual craft faire. For the last several years we have participated in the one at her school, but she graduated! So we had to look for another one. Our church is teaming up with their school and is having one on Nov. 8, so we are sewing like crazy. We are going to sell aprons, cupcake ornaments, stocking ornaments, jean aprons, and who knows what all else!! We were lucky enough to get to go to the International Quilt show in Santa Clara last weekend with my friend Cindy. We got all kinds of inspired there and got home and got to work! Thanks for inviting us Cindy!

On the frugal front, the primroses are doing great! Some are even blossoming out a bit. I fertilized them this morning and laid out MORE slug bait... Can't seem to get enough down! But luckily, we have had quite a supply on hand clogging up the garage so that is nice - no $ spent on that - when that runs out, I'll try the egg shells again, since Socks is hardly ever out front, they won't get eaten again.

On Thursday last week, I went to the post office and they told me that the local school district office was having a book sale. I dashed over there and low and behold, it was a book give away! I spent about an hour gathering up great books - there was no limit - they just wanted them hauled off. I came home and put them on amazon and they are doing quite well! As a matter of fact, the sales already have paid for a couple of expensive dinners at Walt Disney World, three if we are careful. Pretty good. Now as a tax payer, it kind of ticks me off that they just give this stuff away, when it could be sold and put back into the budget, but Frank tells me that all schools are under contracts with publishers not to sell them. So, better on Amazon than in the dumpster!!

A week ago Sunday, the Rite Aid freebies were worth celebrating! A couple of weeks ago, I transferred two prescriptions to Rite Aid, netting a $60.00 gift card for transferring. So, on Sunday when we discovered just how many items were going to be free after rebate at Rite Aid, we dashed over there. We bought $60.04 worth of things, $52.00 of which we will be reimbursed for. The best part is that we used the money they gave us, not our own... so we are not "out" any money while we wait for the rebate. And best yet, we will be reimbursed $25.00 from out pretax medical savings account for items purchased that are related to health care. All told we got $52.00 worth of products for free, $60.00 in gift cards and $25.00 just for shopping. Thats a good day.

I don't know if you have Freecycle in your area, but it is worth checking out ....

.....CHRISTMAS SPOILER ALERT FOR EDEN CHRISTMAS SPOILER ALERT FOR EDEN........

IF YOU ARE EDEN, YOU SHOULD NOT READ ON.....
I don't think she reads this, but thought it was worth a warning.... Eden wants to design clothes. So, I have been looking for a sewing machine for her. I posted on freecycle that I was looking for a good working sewing machine. Well after about a week, I got a call from a lady who had one. Yep it was free. I had to clean it up and get $19.98 in parts for it, but it runs like a top! I think I might splurge and spray paint it with the new plastic spray paint, but I'll let you know.. Pictures will follow.

We cured olives last week. Frank loves green olives and he inherited his father's tools for doing them. So, last week we went and found a couple of lonely trees that were on common areas of the area where we used to live and picked two 2.5 gallon buckets full. (free) We bought lye from the hardware store (2.29) and did two lye baths for them in the 5 gallon old crock. For the rest of the week, Frank or I changed the water every 12 hours. Frank salted them down (not sure how many pennies in salt were used) and filled 3 one gallon crocks with olives. He has been eating them every night. We are planning another batch and COLLEAGUE CHRISTMAS SPOILER ALERT we are going to put them in small jars (clogging up closet space here FREE) and give them for Christmas to all Frank's colleagues - we did about 30 pumpkin breads for them last year. This one saves me time and us $$$. Hurray.
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Cathi said…
You are amazing. Can you come and be my wife for awhile? Like, just until Christmas is over?
4:14 PM
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