Frugal In Florida

came home on Friday night - SeaDoo ... we put it in the water on Saturday, late afternoon and played a bit before driving it home to put on the lift. Trying to get dh to commit to "doing the do" today ... friend of mine is going up to Hillsboro inlet to anchor ... would be a nice ride. But then again, I think the kids want to play a bit on it. Ds wants to pull the tube BUT I think it would be better to do that during the week after school, less boats & traffic on waterway in front of the house ... We got a 'good' deal on it, dh says. Said that they sell for about $5K used, still. We paid $3K. I had thought he was going to pay $2500 to $2800. This is a high performance model, which means fast. To the point where they offer a key that limits the speed to 35 ... told dh that is what I want the kids to be using for awhile. Otherwise, if they can stomach it, they could go 75-80 ... I slowed down when my cheeks started to flap in the breeze yesterday!! It was fun!...

This morning, I was up way too early for a Sunday. I'm fighting dizziness & funky head feeling. Hope I am not getting the same thing dh has had for 10 days now (sinus infection, 2 antibiotic shots & oral antibiotics & he's still sick!). Regardless, life goes on & things still need to be done. Made waffles. Funny, we bought the waffle maker back in 2005. Used it maybe 10 times. All started from SIL making waffles & dh raving about the them. She sent us the recipe on February 10, 2005. How funny that I noticed that! Anyways, dh normally makes the batter the night before, BUT he totally misses the fact that the batter needs to be lumpy and you fold eggs in for a reason! Oh well. I made today & they were good. Mix together: 1 3/4 cup flour (I used 1/2 cup whole wheat & rest white) 1 T baking powder (I assumed this was a tbs) 1/2 t salt Mix together and add but leave a little lumpy: 2 egg yolks 1 3/4 cup milk 1/2 cup oil Whip til fluffy and fold...

Hmm...seems to be every Thursday is frugal clothing day! Today: Crocs - g/f gave to me, they were too big for her. Actually, I should not be wearing them in the office, but nothing really going on today! Lime green pleated skirt. Gorgeous. I love this thing - $1.00 @ Out of the Closet Thrift. White cotton & lace insert sleeveless top - 25 cents from Broward County Woman's Aux. Thrift store (years ago, this may be the last time wearing as the lace is thinning and tearing a bit) Liz Claiborne cream knit cardigan with beautiful tiny flowers embroided throughout, $1.00 @ Broward County Hospital Woman Aux. Thrift (new location down the street, much smaller than used to be) Yup, I'm lovin it!

In this case, BJ’s Wholesale Club. As you may have noticed from reading some of my earlier posts, I can’t decide between Costco and BJ’s. Well, I can, but, no, I can’t. As we were all home due to Tropical Storm Fay on Tuesday (and she is still making news!) we of course got a little stir crazy. Ds wanted/needed to get stuff for lunches (see my later post on the agreement we’ve made for lunches this year), the weather was ‘clearing’ up which means the winds were finally below 30 mph and the rain was coming every 20 minutes instead of 5 (could almost time it!), we decided to go to BJ’s. Costco was out of the question because a) it’s much further away and west, where the rain & winds were probably MORE constant , b) it was 4pm and I didn’t want to go into the early evening hours shopping and c) I had a visa gift card – Costco only accepts debit cards & AE credit cards. Off we went. Noticed the gas was 2 cents cheaper than my local station. A LOT of people in the parking lot…...

I had picked up a bundle package of these on clearance at Target a while ago ... there was the box with 7 X-LARGE bags and the box with 10 regular bags. I don't remember how much I paid, but surely, it was under $2.50 for the two! Anyways. Debating all morning long on what to do with myself today. What to make for dinner. Do I want to make cookies. Pizza dough, etc. Was in guest fridge (in the guest kitchen) and noticed that I still have lots and lots of taters. Yes, I keep them in the fridge. Here in south Florida, we don't have cool, dry, dark places to store stuff like taters in the summer time. Anyways. Take out 1/2 of a 5 lb bag and start scrubbing. Figured I'll start with baked taters for dinner & fill in around that. I grab the tinfoil and see the big box of bags and think, hmmm. Pull out a bag, see it says 5 medium size taters for 8 to 9 minutes and figure what the heck. Dump in 5 of them, zip it up & turn on the microwave. After about 7 minutes, rea...

and Tornado warnings, flood watch, etc. Geesh. The kids are now short 2 days of the school year. I'm hoping tomorrow will be back to normal. That's just odd, they will go back on Wednesday & Thursday and have a 3 day weekend already (they don't have school on Fridays). Today is a 'free' day for me at work. Boss called at 8am and said after discussing with other attorney, both agreed, why bother as no one was in the offices yesterday either and today is 100 times worse than yesterday. Was a good day for typing however! Got a lot of probate forms completed finally ... and of course, the billing for one attorney who likes to procrastinate!! The cat is safe and sound in the house, under my bed. I'm guessing he was cold since he was wet when he came in at 6am. Poor thing was freaked out. I got up throughout the night to see if he was waiting to come in but must have been hunkered down somewhere relatively safe, but not too dry. I don't know why he i...

Well, we woke up this morning under a Tropical Storm WATCH. Not a big deal, really. Except that tomorrow is the FIRST day back to school for the kids & it really would suck if they missed the first or second, even third day back. I don't think we will get much here in Broward County. A little wind, a little rain. Maybe a little more tide (it was just a full moon...). But no hurricane force winds, thankfully. I did do a quick rundown of my hurricane supplies though :) I have batteries, water bottles (not 1 gallon per person per day as recommended...), tons of pantry supplies, etc. I started to fill up large ziplocs with ice yesterday just in case. Like I told dh, if nothing else, at least I will have ice for boat cooler when we go out next. DH was watching to see if he should consider taking the boat out of water & off of lift. It's 12,000 lbs swaying between concerete pilings. Come on. Thats not a pretty site if it starts happening!! The new waverunner lift is si...

Chocolate Chip & Oatmeal Muffins In my quest to find the ‘perfect’ muffins for teens, I’ve tried this one out. I’m not even going to include the topping as it burned on top (could be my oven, who knows??) 1 ¼ cup oatmeal 1 ¼ cup milk 1 egg ½ cup veggie oil ¾ cup brown sugar ¾ cup chocolate chips 1 cup chopped pecans 1 ¼ cup flour (all purpose) 4 tsp baking powder 1 tsp salt *I didn’t use pecans as ds doesn’t like nuts* Combine oats & milk, let sit for 15 minutes. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease muffin tin (12 cup). Stir egg, oil, ½ cup brown sugar & chocolate chips (if using pecans, add ½ cup pecans) into oatmeal mix. Combine flour, baking powder & salt. Add oat mix to this. Stir til just moist. Fill muffin tinss 2/3 full. Sprinkle with remaining brown sugar (and pecans if using). Bake 20 to 25 minutes. NOTES: you can add a bit of cinnamon & vanilla. I didn’t and these still turned out good. My topping (brown sugar, butter & flour) burned to a crisp on ...

So today, I’m wearing my $2.00 white polo, my $1 tan & white striped linen skirt and my $9 tan and white wedge heel sandals. I love it when I can wear office clothes for so cheap. Top – kmart (hadn’t been there in a looong time so it was a surprise that they had upgraded their selections), Skirt – Out of the Closet Thrift and Shoes, Payless. Of course, as I’m standing there, admiring myself in the mirror, I notice that I really should not be doing my toe polish at 6am when it’s still kinda dark in the house!