Of course, the week I had no time (rather unexpectedly) to post at all, is the week after I intentionally “took” a week off.

Sigh.

To those who’re new, or who’ve forgotten , I work full time AND I’m a student. And, this semester I’m happy to report I’m finally at my “last” campus (I did one year at Ithaca College before leaving to get married, got my associates this past spring (so that I got a discount at state school/could get my Gen Eds out of the way locally), and now am finally about 33 credits away from my B.A. *phew!*

While working on my AA, it worked out nicely since most of my classes were online or only 15 minutes away. Plus, they were community college courses. It was rather like Middle School. The only difficult courses were 2 due to this 1 professor, so last fall I only took 2 courses, this past spring just 1, and this summer I had off. Great for blogging regularly.

NOW, however, I’m commuting about 45 min-1 hr. each way in and out of Boston, taking 3 classes at “normal” college level, actually getting challenging homework/tests, and still working 40+ hours a week. In fact, let’s go all the way and write out my schedule for this fall:

Monday: Work 9-5:30, home at 6.
Tuesday: Get up at 5 AM, work 6:30-3:00, drive straight to Boston, class until 5:15, home at 6:30/7 PM (yay traffic!)
Wednesday: Work 9-5:30, husband’s Bible Study till 10 PM (I’ve been skipping a lot)
Thursday: Up at 5, work 6:30-3:00, TWO classes in Boston, get home at 10-10:30 PM
Friday: Work 9-5:30
Saturday: Class w/ driving times: 10:30-3:30; Class if I take the commuter rail: 9:00-5:00
Sunday: Church including after-church ministries

And add in dates with friends, and most importantly, homework, and I’ve found my blogging time reduced to about 2 hours if I’m on top of everything. Last week I was obviously rushed since I was camping all weekend, and that carried over…so, long story short, it’s hard, and I’m NOT planning on temporarily shutting down…but I beg your patience in the meantime. I’m ahead of the game this week, so…*crosses fingers*.

Thanks,

Kat

So, it looks like the Hannaford site circular is currently down…and I’m going to go to bed early to help fight off this cold. But I’ll try again tomorrow!

Have a good night, folks-

Kat

There is a LINE between good-frugal and ridiculous. And I really, really should learn to get on the good side of that line in all circumstances…because somehow, there is a mechanism in my brain that will ALWAYS let me buy the $3.99 DeSomethings Cream Puffs at Market Basket (that are always $6.99 at Shaws), but WON’T let me buy a box of tissues without a coupon when I feel a cold coming on (and when my stash is depleted…how did that happen?).

That decision never goes well for me.  Because now I’m here with a nose is so sore I can’t even SMILE. Eeeeh. But, I stayed home from church today and slept in till oh, about an hour ago, so I’m going to get ready for the day, throw in a load of laundry, and put up blog posts (market basket first!) in between trying to get my house back in order, since really, who feels like cleaning when they’re sick? Not meeee….and then I’ll have my husband pick up some Puffs Premium with Aloe tissues and maybe some Panera soup on his way home.

In some e-book I was looking at recently, I came across a simple “recipe” for a homemade linen spray. That one called for 1/2 cup of vodka and 15-20 drops of Lavendar, but since our Vodka supply was slightly low, I decided to go with this recipe for a homemade lavendar linen spray. Calling for 1/2 cup of distilled water, 1 teaspoon of vodka and 5-6 drops of Lavendar, it was just the perfect amount of scent.

I put it in a clear plastic bottle, but think I want something a little bit fancier…looking around online, I came across exactly what I want:

It’s frosted glass, but unfortunately only available wholesale…and I can’t seem to find it anywhere else online. Which means I might go to choice number 2:

6 for only $10.50 or $2.50 each!

I read another recipe for cucumber body/linen spray that used a real cucumber…but can’t find it anywhere. Anyone know of something similar?

]]> http://nesaving.wordpress.com/2009/08/30/homemade-linen-spray/feed/ 0 Kat 8oz Frosted Apothecary Glass Bottle W/ Clear Mister Frosted Glass Perfume Bottle http://nesaving.wordpress.com/2009/08/24/the-zucchini-project/ http://nesaving.wordpress.com/2009/08/24/the-zucchini-project/#comments Tue, 25 Aug 2009 02:35:49 +0000 Kat http://nesaving.wordpress.com/?p=1036 ]]>

When we left for New Jersey last weekend, I noticed a few more baby zucchinis growing. I’d already pulled 3 out of the garden the weekend before, and figured I would grab the growing ones in a few days or so. Yesterday was my designated baking day (in between church & a Fantasy Football draft for my husband’s league), so I trudged down to the garden and started pushing aside leaves. I guessed, um, wrongly. For now I had these to work with:

That’s 11, by the way. ELEVEN. And HUGE. And at least five more are growing. I’ve had trouble with what I thought was a normal 6 or so!

Then out came the recipes:

I used a 9 X 5 and 4 of those cute mini-loaf pans for each of the bread recipes, and a standard muffin tin & a mini-muffin tin for the muffins and somehow got 3 recipes down starting at 8:30 and ending the mixing processes at 10:30 (I got the last ones out of the oven around 11 or so).

I made:

*Standard Zucchini Bread using this recipe. One thing I LOVE about the mini-tins is that I can customize. So I did half with currants & walnuts (which my husband doesn’t like), and I made the big loaf and the other two mini ones without. Quick and easy, this one is incredibly moist–not that I’ve had zucchini bread that wasn’t…

*Zucchini-Chocolate Chip Muffins…these ones worked really well as mini-muffins, especially with the called-for mini-chocolate chips. Totally prefer them to the big ones since they’re so much more “snack-sized”, and are easier to manuever in our ridiculously-college-sized-freezer.

*Pumpkin-Zucchini Bread that honestly, I haven’t even tried yet! But the batter was delicious…

So, I forgot to take the obligatory drying-racks-full-of-food baking day picture, but here they are all wrapped up in tinfoil and bagged to go! (They all blend together, but there’s 6 mini-loaves and 2 Big ones + muffins). But after ALL of that…it only took up TWO zucchinis.

I also sliced and marinated 2 full zucchinis, which I’ll grill and then freeze (a trick I learned from my dad…he’ll grill up batches of zucchini, summer squash, eggplant, peppers to freeze for ready-made veggie side dishes).

Then lastly, I plan to cook with two (I’m thinking a zucchini quiche, and then some fried zucchini sticks with Panko bread crumbs), and then shred and freeze two for zucchini bread when I run out of the stuff I’m cooking now. The rest are going to friends, ’cause there won’t be ANY more room left!

Boneless Chicken Breast $1.69/lb.

Semi Boneless Rib Steaks $4.99/lb.

Strawberries 2 lb. Packages $2.99

Edy’s Ice Cream $1.99

General Mills Cereal 2/$4.00

Fresh Pork Spareribs $1.99/lb.

Ball Park Beef or Meat Franks B1G1 Free; Use with $1.00/2 Ballpark coupon (6.28 RP)

Ocean Spray Cranberry Juice Drinks 3/$5.00
Use with $1.00/1 Ocean Spray coupon (5.31 RP)
for 3/$4.00

Green or Yellow Squash $0.99/lb.

Green peppers $1.29/lb.

Sweet Red Peppers $1.99/lb.

DiGiorno Flatbread Melts 2/$6.00
Use with $1.00/1 DiGiono coupon (5.17 SS)
for 1/$2.00

DiGiorno Pizza 2/$10.00
use with $1.50/1 DiGiorno Crispy coupon (5.17 SS)
for 1/$3.50

B1G1 Free:
Steak Ummm Chuck Beef Burgers B1G1 Free
Hillshire farm Kielbasa or Smoked Sausage B1G1 Free; Use with $1.00/2 Hillshire Farm coupon (6.07 RP)
Plumrose Sliced Bacon B1 G1 Free
Louis Kemp Crab or Lobster Delights B1G1 Free
Smart Living batteries B1G1 Free
Smart LIving BBQ Tools and Gadgets Buy 2 Get 1 Free
Faberware grilling tools BUy 2 Get 1 Free
Elmer’s Glue B2G1 Free
Bic Pens B2G1 Free
Scotch Tape B2G1 Free; Use with $1.00/3 Scotch coupon (7.12 RP)
Smart Living Charcoal B1G1 Free

10/$10.00:
Prince Pasta
Banquet Value Meals
Chicken of the sea Solid White tuna
Del monte Vegetables
Mangoes
Butterball Thin & Crispy Turkey Bacon
Gatorade
Big Daisy White Bread
Nature’ Promise Honey Roasted Snack bar
Nature’s Promise Tea
Near East Rice Pilaf Mix
Stop & Shop Canned Fruit Cocktail
Hunt’s Manwich
Wise Chips
S&S Hometown Bakery Cookies
Fuze Drinks
Pillsbury Brownie Mix
Clif Luna Bar
Kraft BBQ Sauce
Poland Springs sparkling water
Hood Singles or Kemps Parfaits
Nabisco Go Packs
Renuzit Solid Air Freshner
Smart Living Light Bulbs
Hampton farms Roasted Peanuts

There are not enough English words in the OED to express how thankful I am that I took this past week off frugal-blogging, since honestly, that’s the last place my head’s been. And my empty cupboards can prove it.

I’ve been utterly glued to Nico Pitney’s liveblog on the Iran Election for the Huffington Post, and while I took the time off to spend with my family (they left the day after the results were announced), I couldn’t have blogged at the start of all this anyways. I’ve just been reading articles, watching youtube vidoes, scanning twitter posts, and figuring out how to incorporate green into my daily wardrobe pretty much non-stop.

I’ve mentioned before that I’m 1/2 Iranian (living in New England…it’s the other side that came here in the 1600s), and I still have family in Tehran, Tabriz, and other cities, so this is hugely important to me. I think I’m still absorbing a lot of it, but as an Iranian-American, I’m in this odd place of caring so much, and yet being able to do so little. So crazy, and I’m just brimming with emotion for my cousins that are still over there, my family living & watching here, and with thankfulness that the current administration is staying quiet. *HUGE* sigh of relief there. So, any prayers for my family’s safety & well-being are appreciated, as well as for the families of those killed during the rallies.

On the much, much lighter side, we had a fantastic time with my sister-in-law, her husband, and our unbelievably adorable niece and nephew…just so cute watching them run around, play (some hair-pulling involved!), and “read” their books. My other sister-in-law had probably the most beautiful baby shower I’ve been to (with the best food as well!), and it was fun seeing all the gifts that she’ll be setting up her nursary with. It would have been perfect except that most all of us (yet another reason I’m glad I had the week off here!) ended up getting a 24-hour flu bug, in all its 3-am-lying-on-the-bathroom-floor glory. NOT fun, that part.

I think in all, we made about 10 trips to NH & back, and gassed up a million more times than normal, but it was a great week–so many thanks for your patience, and I’m staring on Shaws & Stop & Shop right now!

So, apparently my plan of blogging from the next state up (NH) while watching my 3yo niece and 1yo nephew who’ve flown in from Seattle, while visiting with one of my best friends who’s up from Virginia, while going out to celebrate another friend’s birthday didn’t QUITE work out. I always get too ambitious, and what I just have to keep reminding myself is that it’s much better to take on what I can handle…otherwise people get left hanging!

So, I’m going to take off this week from blogging (on a Thurs.) which means that I won’t be posting MB/Hannafords for this ongoing week, nor will I be posting any for this upcoming week. And I hope this break gives me some extra hours to relax with these days off from work, catch my breath, enjoy the rare time together with my friends & family, and maybe even get a chance to finally write some non-grocery store posts that I really, really want to, but never have time for!

So, I thank you for your patience & I’ll see you next Thursday!!

My first blog award…I’m so excited! And I got the comment alert right after Bible Study, so I was nearly hopping up and down in church…so my thanks to Jen at http://frugalici0us.blogspot.com, who totally sounds eerily like me…same state, same age…interesting!

So, I need to tag 15 people with this award, but at the moment it’s after 1 AM, I’m planning to get up at 6 AM, and I’ll be gone all weekend (again, I KNOW!), so I’m going to defer for just a little while until I have the energy to link & comment on 15 blogs.

I love days like today. I got home from work at 4:30, grabbed my latest read: One Square Inch of Silence, and walked the few blocks to the beach. The wind had a bite, but I had a blanket (I won), so I got to read a few chapters with my feet in the sand, little waves washing up on the rocks, and a cluster of preschoolers trying to learn organized games on the grass.

There’s nothing like a break from EVERYTHING. I’m done classes for the summer; my husband’s graduation & party are over; a stressful work week is behind me. I, for the first time in MONTHS…actually, since last March…over a year! can come home, and have zero obligations hanging over me. I can read a book! I can bake! I can watch a movie! I can do the things I love to do! The relief is just washing over me every single day, and I am just So. Thankful.

I even found some beach treasures: a marble among the snail shells, some mussell shells I might make into this Martha Stewart wreath, some bigger shells for the ledge coming into our house.

I think they’ll go nicely with my one planned summer decor purchase: this beach sign from Uncommon Goods (which will hopefully come back in stock!)

I came home, made my wish list for the summer of 2009, and baked some bread for tomorrow.

And now, I’m going to clip coupons while watching Audrey Hepburn movies, finish my book, and once my husband wakes up, TRY to get the scanner to work again. And the night is still young.