Frugal Friday - Week of November 22, 2020

A beautiful sunrise earlier this month!

 This week the U.S. celebrates Thanksgiving - a holiday dedicated to giving thanks for everything good from the last year.  I am so grateful for a day to rest, a day with my immediate family, phone calls with others, and lots of good food to eat!  I am grateful that we have everything we need, some of what we want, reliable housing and transportation, and jobs we can still do.  I am grateful that I was able to work from home two of three days this week and that my husband was able to have the minor surgery he needed this week.  I am grateful he is recovering well from that surgery and will be back at work soon.  I am also grateful for the ability to help others and to call and write (email, text, and letter) those we love when they cannot be with us in person for the holiday.

We have been enjoying not doing much this week: we have done a  lot of staying home and watching movies and reading.  It has been heavenly!  I have a fair amount of work I need to do this weekend but having two days to do only things I want to do and not things I need to do has been absolutely wonderful!

Here are some things we have done this week that we consider frugal:

* Cooked all meals at home.  We did no eating carry out this week, cooking all meals at home. These included: stuffed winter squash, chicken wild rice soup, waffles for dinner, sandwiches with cut veggies. Lunches were salads, leftovers, or fruit and yogurt smoothies.  Breakfasts included toast and eggs, muffins, more smoothies, and pumpkin or apple pie.  Snacks included yogurt, crackers and cheese and fruit.

* John had a minor outpatient surgery this week and I was able to drive him both ways. Due to Covid-19 restrictions I was not able to stay with him.  That was okay - it was 7 hours of total time and coming home and working online from home kept me from worrying for that time.

* We ordered three last Christmas gifts online with deal codes during the week-long "Black Friday" sales.

* Our daughter started making Christmas gifts for two friends using items we already have at home.

* I have been working on homemade Christmas gifts for each of our children and my husband.  I am hoping to share photos during December but no promises!  The photos may come in January.  

* We finished cleaning up the yard for the winter - leaves are done, outdoor items that need it are put away, and all the flower and vegetable beds are mulched for the year.  I brought in the sage and rosemary plants for the winter - we will see how they do.

* I sewed button back on two winter coats.

* We continue to clean out.  We donated 3 more bags of items this week and shredded a full trash bag of papers this week.  Slow and steady wins the race!

* We baked bread and cookies this week.

* My Mother celebrated her birthday this week.  She and my Father has been in quarantine in another state since February, when my Father had heart surgery.  They are well and happy but missing the grandchildren.  She had a wonderful birthday - we sent a little box with small treats (her favorite tea, some cookies, birthday cards, school photos of the kids) and flowers and she had many friends and family call. I am grateful she had a good birthday even if we could not be together.

That's all I can think of right now.  What did you do this week that was frugal?

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