Frugal Friday With Marsha -- More Food

Food seems to be the subject for me lately. 

This past week my daughter sent me home with ribs from the smokehouse where they work (Woodies).  Those were our meat for 2 nights.

As far as my shopping, I did my looking through ibotta.  I was actually looking for the 25 cents back on any cookies that my daughter had in her app.  Nope, not in mine.  There was 25 cents on any cottage cheese though, and I found they had some marked down to just 79 cents.  We ate that the 2 nights with our ribs.
I "splurged" and got myself an Oreo candy bar with 60 cents rebate too.
Otherwise my shopping was a bag of cat food and since I was hungry, I bought a box of the store brand bacon, egg, and cheese croissants.

My mom gave us some of her commodity foods-- box of cheese, can of peas, bag of oats, and macaroni noodles.

I had 2 free coupons for Cole's Middles from Influenster.  I was happy to find those at Wal-Mart when my daughter needed to go there after work one night.  These have made a fine snack.
Forgive me for not getting a picture of what I bought and using the picture from their website.

Although he didn't have the money to do so, hubby shopped anyway.   I understand the need to have food in the house, but we did have a little tiff about it.  I need him to make sure the bills are paid, and then see if there is anything left.
With all that, he didn't do too bad.  He spent under $30 for 5 boxes of Betty Crocker Potatoes, a 4 lb ham, the sub package of Oscar Mayer ham and turkey lunch meat, bologna, cheese slices, and Ramen noodles.
The ham will be for several meals, especially since yesterday he cooked up an entire large crock pot of ham and beans.  We ate that last night and will again tonight for supper.  Then, the rest is going into the freezer for another week.  I just don't really want to eat it 4 or 5 nights in a row!!  Freezing the remainder will ensure they don't go bad and give us meal options at a later time.

I'm in hopes of getting more freezer cooking done.  If we start looking for the best deals on meats and other foods and cooking ahead and freezing meals then we will be ahead of the game and always know that if there isn't any grocery money that there will be food in the freezer.  I'm going to discuss this with hubby this weekend and work hard to get him on board.

For inspiration in this area, I just bought this book for my Kindle app.  It can motivate me, and give me something to read during down time too.  I will be sure to post anything we make from it.




Again this week I am including a linky.  I would love it if you would share your own frugal type posts!

WIP Wednesday -- Towels and Notebook Covers

The double towel scarves aren't a WIP as I finished 6 of them this past week.  Two are sold, 2 are listed in my etsy shop and the other 2 will soon be listed in my etsy shop.
I do plan on making more as I can.

I managed to get 8 more of the covered composition notebooks done for my Christmas gifts.  Add these to the 9 I already have done and I have 18 more to get done for my goal of 35.  No, I don't need all of those for Christmas, but do want them done to have a nice choice of who gets which one.

In this picture my son gets the fish because he loves to fish.  My middle daughter gets the peace signs because that's who she is.  My 4 yr old grandson gets the animals.  My mom gets the roses, her favorite flower.  I think my sister-in-law is getting the green meadows, and I know for sure that my brother gets one of the US print.

I have sit n' sew this week at the quilt shop.  I would love to get back to working on my Arkansas Crossroads quilt, but I think I better be smart and work on the notebook covers.

Cool gift idea for the quilter in your life---I would sure love it!

Quilting patchwork grunge quilter funny tee

by KnittingandSewing


In the meantime, I link up with the following blogs:



Jo's Country Junction:  http://www.joscountryjunction.com/

KatieMae Quilts for BOM weekly linky.  https://www.katiemaequilts.com/blog/

I also would love to have these t-shirts!!

Inspire Your Inner Artist With Art on the Rocks

Painted rocks have been popular for ages.  With Art on the Rocks you can bring out your inner artist, and have your own beautifully painted rocks.

From simple:

to intricate:

there is something for everyone in the more than 35 colorful and contemporary rock-painting projects in Art on the Rocks. 

When I was first looking through the book, I was in awe on just how you would successfully paint something so beautiful on rocks.  How would you, or could you get such perfect designs?

The first 21 pages of the book are all about the tools and materials, selecting and preparing the rocks, and techniques, methods and tips, including vivid illustrations.

There are vivid illustrations and step-by-step instructions throughout. 
Would you like to paint on hearts from the Patterns chapter, or an Owl from the Animals chapter, or maybe Raindrops from the Nature chapter?   These are just a few of the many patterns you can choose from.

I had picked out this one to start with:

Unfortunately I bought the wrong type of paint.  (Yes, it does pay to read the instructions).  I was excited to get started once I had found a rock that I wanted to paint.  I do fully intend to get the correct paints, or paint pens or markers and finish my rock.  I even plan to give some of the other designs a try as well.

I have some very artistic grandchildren so I am in hopes of getting them involved in a family activity of rock painting.....starting with my 13 year old granddaughter who is currently being homeschooled.  This will make a great art project for her.

If you know someone who loves to paint, including yourself, I highly recommend Art on the Rocks.









Disclosure:  I rec'd a copy of this book for the purpose of this review.  I was not compensated in any other way and all opinions are my own.  Post contains affiliate links.