Category: Frugality
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A Cheapskate’s Guide to Repurposing Household Items in the Garden
The garlic is starting to poke through the leaves! Not surprisingly, it seems the cloves I planted that had already sprouted are the first to reach the surface. Four of them are up. This makes me happy. Some of the lettuce and arugula seeds I planted have sprouted. Too soon to tell which is which.…
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Wintry Walks & More Thrifting
I really needed this weekend. I was practically skipping home on Friday, so glad the work week was done. Work was extremely busy; at home I was pulling single-parent duty Sunday through Tuesday while Tom and T went to Green Bay for the Eagles game. I worked from home Monday and Tuesday. N and F…
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Sprouts Is Bankrupting Me
This past week I was off Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. It wasn’t quite as satisfying a staycation as the one I had in August. I had dreams about work from Friday night right on through, frustrating dreams in which nothing was going right. But it was still relaxing and peaceful. I got some things done…
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Closing Time
This was a catch-up, clean-out, clean-up, fix-up, and shut-down kind of weekend. Tom did the fixing up: unclogging sink drains, setting up the new dehumidifier, and attempting to fix the back screen door. The kids and I cleaned up: the bathrooms, the kitchen, changing sheets, the cat box, and more. The garden moved a bit…
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Home Is Where the Plants Are
Soooo happy to be home from Arizona! I took a red-eye home on Saturday, leaving AZ at 11:45 pm and arriving in Philly at 7 am. The flight felt surreal, the quiet and the dark; I would nod off for a bit, then jerk awake. There was a period of turbulence that was a little…
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Desert Bound
Posting a little early this week because I leave soon for Arizona, for a work trip. Today I borrowed and bought a few items, finished packing, and ran some errands. My flight is early Sunday morning. So far I have spent $125 towards this trip (haircut and color) plus about $20 worth of snacks for…
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Calm Before the Storm
Sitting here getting my grays covered up and my hair cut, ahead of my work trip to Arizona. I leave next Sunday. Trying to enjoy fall in New Jersey before heading to the desert. However, we’ve got a nor’easter blowing in today, so we can’t do much outside. The worst of it will be tonight…
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The Suburban Semi-Rural Sweet Spot
I have been watching a lot of homesteading videos. I’ve never been one to sit and watch YouTube, but in an effort to stop doom scrolling on my lunch break, I looked up the videos of More Than Farmers, an Ohio family I follow on Instagram. I have since watched quite a few of their…
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The Trying
Lots of crawly friends in the garden this week: The swallowtail caterpillars are growing. And this spider, perhaps a cross orb weaver or spotted orb weaver, built a web between two of the garden posts and now has a tasty treat stored there. Sunsets are creeping earlier and I have to rush into the garden…
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Mad Scientist
Hold up… do Ted Cruz and I agree on something? Cruz called the FCC chairman’s threats to media outlets “dangerous as hell.” Yep, Ted has gotten it right for once. ABC can do whatever it wants as far as Jimmy Kimmel is concerned, but the FCC has zero business getting involved. So zip it, Brendan…
Garden State of Mind 