Pocket Change

We are all inventors,

each sailing out on a voyage of discovery,

guided each by a private chart, of which there is no duplicate.

The world is all gates, all opportunities.~
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Pocket Change

Insanity: Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.~ Albert Einstein

Day 143: Tortilla Shells

Still trying to use up the soft tortilla shells that I bought for a penny a piece about 6 months ago. They have been taking up alot of space in the freezer, but I think we are down to about 20 packages. Seriously, I don't have time to count them, but I think that's what's left. We have used them in:

soft taco shells/burritos

egg and sausage wraps

cheese quesadillas

taco pizzas

Rachael Ray's banana and peanut butter sushi bites (peanut butter spread on the torilla and wrapped around a banana and then sliced, BIG hit with the little one)

chips (seasoned with garlic and sea salt, cut into triangles, and toasted)

If we still have any left once the garden starts producing and I need the space in the freezer, I might start using them as edible frisbees for the dog. Thinking outside the box, that would be a cheap dog treat.

Freebie Thursday

Went to Wallyworld today and got:

Secret Clinical deoderant = $ free/moneymaker after coupon

6 bars of Ivory soap = $ free after coupon

personal care products = $1.67 after $2 coupon

Most impressive of all was that I didn't get a combative cashier. Very nice.

Pocket Change

A failure is a man who has blundered, but is not able to cash in on the experience.~
Elbert Hubbard

Fish in a Barrel

I am working on finding a few new rain barrels of some sort, but now that it is spring, I am anxious to get them found and set up. My goldfish are anxious also, I can tell by how they are much more active they seem to be. I guess it probably has to due with the length of daylight or more sunshine or something.

I have had the same 2 goldfish for about 3 years, so I must be doing something right. I bring them inside for the winter, although I have left them outside until the water has frozen over (but not totally frozen.) But as soon as it starts to warm up, they go back into the rain barrel. There they spend their days eating any bugs or mosquito larvae that happens to fall into the barrel. They never get fed fish flakes in the summer.

I wonder how long goldfish live anyways?

Pocket Change

Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.~
Robert Collier

Hamburger

Ended up at the local grocery on a Monday

Found 70/30 percent hamburger marked down to $1 a pound.

Three things were odd about this.

1. Meat is only marked down on Tuesday morning.

2. Meat hasn't been $1 a pound in a long time.

3. I actually had money.

Sooooo. . . . .

I picked up 45 pounds.

And walked around the store in shock.

While people stared at me and even said to me, "Wow, that's. . . a lot of meat."

I forgot the Manwich mix.

( I know, not frugal, but we haven't found a homemade version we like. Yet.)

So, when I backtracked to the 2nd aisle, I went past the meat section again.

The butcher was putting out more markdown hamburger.

This time it was 93/7 percent.

No.Way.

So I traded in the higher fat version I had in my cart for the lower fat hamburger.

And walked around the store some more.

Cool.

Thank you Lord.

Happy Mother's Day!

My chickies arrived! What beautiful colors.




A Welsummer's backside.



Jake the Jealous Dog. Very, Very Jealous.



A White Leghorn. We've never had homegrown white eggs before.




So, all in all, there are 5 Barred Rocks, 3 Welsummers, 2 White Leghorns, 6 Rhode Island Reds and 15 Golden Comets. I am still looking for a couple of Americaunas (Easter Eggers.)
I chose these breeds for their variety in egg colors and for the excellent egg laying track records (possibly 5 eggs a week per chicken!) I guess I better start asking the neighbors for egg cartons!

Day 126: New Herbs

Woring on starting a new herb garden this year. There are so many herbs to choose from! I couldn't decide which ones to plant, so I went thru my spice/herb cupboard and decided to only grow what I will need/use this year. Next year I may expand to something new if this year goes well. I have chives and mint left there from last year, but started lots of parsley seeds to put in there soon. The back corner has dill started, it's up about an inch. I really love dill leaves. ( I have officially changed the name of that herb, from dill weed to dill leaves. With teens around, you don't want them going around saying "My mom grows weed!" Kindof puts a damper on my public appearance.)

Got a rosemary plant for $2 at Wally's World last weekend. Guess I wasted my money because it ended up with mites or something and is basically dead. Still need a couple of oregano plants and my garden should be complete on herbs for this season.

Extreme Couponing

There has been alot of fuss about that new show "Extreme Couponers" and I was mostly suprised when my own teen voiced that "That would be really cool if we could do that." I think so too. Evidentally my years of yelling, "Stay away from my coupons," " Don't mess my coupon mess up," " Stop, those are my coupons!" have finally sunk in. Well, maybe he just wants to be on TV.

Pocket Change

Don't bunt. Aim out of the ballpark.~ David Ogilvy

Waiting for My Mother's Day Present

Just sitting around waiting for my Mother's Day present to myself to arrive.

Can you guess what it is?