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| Moringa Pods |
A cooler and cloudy day, today. I spent a good portion of the morning speaking on the phone with family - my half-sister, cousin P and cousin V. I also did a load of laundry and changed the dust sheets on the family room sofas.
In the afternoon, I did some sewing, Yesterday, I renewed an old skirt that had a very thin elastic sewn into the waistband; the elastic had stretched so much that the skirt could not be worn. I unpicked the waistband and the stretched out elastic, sewed a new, wider waistband using a piece of fabric I had in the stash for the inside where it can't be seen, and passed a wide elastic through the new waistband. Today, I sewed some mindless patchwork piecing with some of the "crumbs" of fabric in my stash.
Later, I watched news and ordered some groceries. My August grocery budget is $100, minus the $23.50 I over spent in July, which means I have $76.50 to spend this month (I am not taking into consideration the additional $68.23 that I spent at the Sri Lankan store in July, at this time; I am covering that with funds from another account!). What makes the August budger more challenging is the fact that I need to order a minimum of $35 worth of groceries per order to qualify for free pick up (there's a minimum of $35 per order for delivery, too, in addition to the delivery fee). I will have to limit myself to two grocery pick ups, this month, each totaling $38.25 if I am to keep to the reduced August budget and still make sure that I get enough fresh produce with each order to last me for a couple of weeks. Failing that, I will need to have a stock of canned or frozen vegetables and fruits. It's a bit of a challenge, but, I'm up to it!
In the evening, I walked up and down the driveway for 10 minutes. Neighbor S was walking in her driveway, too, and we waved at each other and called out greetings across the street! LOL. Still later, I chatted with friend R, video chatted with my daughter, and cleaned the litter box.
Brunch was leftover milkrice, the last of the fish curry, and seeni sambol. I had some apple slices and peanut butter for an afternoon snack, along with some of the Sri Lankan spicy snack mix at tea time. Dinner was rice with some of the ground turkey mixture I had in the freezer. The mixture was cooked with zucchini, bell peppers, carrots, tomatoes, celery, etc., so contained a lot of vegetables as well.
Today, I am grateful for:
- A cooler day
- Being able to order groceries online
- My paper shredder!
- Electricity to run the shredder, the fan, the sewing machine, the laptop, etc.
- Chatting with family and friends
Today's joyful activity was sewing.
Plans for tomorrow include:
- Picking up the groceries
- Gardening with M
How was your Thursday? What are your plans for Friday?
I was thinking that you must be happy for your paper shredder so you don't have to cut up all of your papers by hand, and then I saw it in your thankful section. Paper shredders are great especially if you have sore thumbs like I do.
ReplyDeleteI resisted getting that paper shredder for so long! But, now that I have it, I'm very thankful for it. I use the shredded paper as mulch in the back garden. It's not the most attractive mulch, but, it works well.
DeleteIt won't be easy sticking to a tight budget with prices rising as fast as they are but you can do it. We have a minimum spend here for grocery deliveries but I always meet that and will stock up on something to make it over the line.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your vote of confidence in my ability to stick to my budget, Eileen. :) All I really needed this week were bread and some fresh fruits, which didn't come to much, but, I added some stock up items and brought my total up to the minimum purchase amount (and just a couple of dollars above it, actually).
DeleteHi Bless, I hope you can work it out with the grocery budget. It sounds like you can shop every two weeks. I have been building my stockpile again. Love that you redid that waist band!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Stephenie; yes, I think I can manage to stay within budget, this month! I kept yesterday's grocery order to under $38 and if I wait 2 weeks to do the next order and keep that to $38, I'll be fine. :) I ordered some stock up items, too.
DeleteThank you - the waistband makeover worked out well! The skirt is about 25 years old, but, it still looks good and I can get another 5 or more years of wear from it, with the new elastic!
Glad you had a nice chat with family and friends. I hope you manage your grocery bill okay. Things seem to be going up all the time. I really need to make sure to use everything up. It was one thing I did pretty well this week.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Sharon. It was good to catch up with family and friends. I did manage the grocery shopping well, today. I spent just under half of what I had left in the budget, which means I have enough for another shopping order, later this month, in about two weeks. Well done with using up all the items you bought. :)
DeleteIt's very satisfying to renew a garment that you enjoy. I had to replace a zipper in a skirt that I love. It's ancient (over 25 years since I bought it in a consignment store) but it is not going anywhere without me in it!
ReplyDeleteYes, it is very satisfying to renew a garment that still has many years of wear left in it.
DeleteI like a good grocery challenge! And I am certain you will achieve yours. You are a creative cook - I've seen you make marvelous food with what others would think wasn't much.
ReplyDeleteAnd you have the ever-producing broccoli plants to fill any holes.
Are those tomato plants to the left of the Moringa pods in the picture?
If so, it looks like you have some fresh tomatoes coming your way.
I've picked one large tomato and a few cherry tomatoes so far but I have lots of green tomatoes ripening. Or I hope they are ripening lol
Fingers crossed.
Good job on fixing your waist band. That was a multi step fix but now you can wear your skirt again. I enjoy mending. It feels good to give something life again, doesn't it?
I did some sewing last week too. I did all of my mending (excluding "that" quilt lol) But I fixed a few holes and replaced a button on my husbands shirts, I adapted some of my headbands the were too tight, I mended a few of my shirts and fixed a pillow case whose seam had come out.
And I started embroidering a pillow case I've had for probably 30 years.
You know how some pillow cases and other things have a pre stamped x embroidery pattern? Well this one has that along the bottom of both sides. I use the pillow case as a sort of dust cover for my sewing machine as it's pretty as it is. Then after all the mending, I was in the mood to keep sewing and thought I'd do that embroidery.
I nixed the x pattern as I think other stitches look much better so I'm free handing over top of it and it's coming out pretty good.
I'm really enjoying embroidering a project.
The grocery challenge is on! LOL. I picked up $37 worth of groceries the next day and I'm set for the next two weeks! Thank you, Debra, for your kind words about me being a creative cook; I try! :)
DeleteThe plants to the left of the moringa pods, growing along the garage wall, are the lemon trees. The "tomatoes" are actually lemons. I haven't picked more lemons since M got stung by a wasp, pruning one of the lemon trees!
I did pick a tomato from the "wonky" tomato plant (which is growing at the foot of the moringa tree, but, not visible in the photo). I hope you are able to harvest many tomatoes from your plants, this year. :)
Sounds like you got quite a bit of mending done! Thank you for mentioning sewing on a button as that reminded me that one of my jackets needs a button!
Your embroidery project sounds lovely! I hope to see pictures of it when you are done! As for "that quilt", it'll be a nice project to work on during the winter. :)