Frugal In Florida

It's another rainy Monday morning in South Florida. I not only wake up to rain, but I also wake up to possible Change. Change is good. Well, it should be, and most of the time it is in the end. ONCE you get over the fact that it's Change. But this could be BIG change. As in: life altering. As in: lifestyle change. Hubby got an email last night around 9pm that there was a conference call at 8am eastern time this morning. That would be 7am corporate office time. NO ONE DOES THAT ON A MONDAY unless it's big news. It is. 5am. As always. Fire up the laptop. Google company name. Being bought out. Wow. Hubby is flipped. Torn. Broke the no F word rule for the month. Several times. Me, I do a quick tally of what I have in savings and what big expenses are coming up. What can we eliminate. Think quickly, thank God I didn't just upgrade me & the kids cell phone plans. How much does Princess need this week for classes? And the list goes on. Amazing how the brain ki...

Yup, I've made it quite clear that I love kitchen gadgets. I try to go based on the recommendation of others just to save the "oooohhhh, it can do ALL that". The Magic Bullet is a perfect example. Don't get me wrong, I like the bullet, just not all that much! So, today's star is the Crockpot. I can't exactly remember HOW I acquired this ancient thing, but I do know it's from my g/f Chatty and she didn't have room in her little kitchen for extra stuff to be stored. So since she knew that I use crockpots all the time (especially during holiday parties!!) she gave it to me to hold on to. Oh, 5 or 6 years ago. :) I have 3 other ones. Well, 4 actually. But 2 of them are the little tiny ones which I'm not fond of all as there is not a temperature control. But here's what I made for dinner all day long on Saturday: BBQ Pork. Tossed in two small roast that were onion marinated (still frozen) that I had picked up awhile ago on markdown, covered, set...

I think I've made it pretty well known that I love a good kitchen gadget. I try not to buy things JUST to buy them. And normally try to get someone elses opinion first. First up: This has been the best $15 I've spent in a while. Grab this little gadget and you can have this within 5 minutes, if not less: All this is was 2 tomotoes, 1/2 white onion, 1 jalepeno and a squeeze of lime juice. Tada! Next Up: The crockpot!

I can definately tell that Princess is back. My life is all helter skelter ... but not in a bad way. As you may have figured from the previous post, she is back home, safe and sound, where she belongs. Enrolled in 2 classes at the local college, online, which would NOT have been my preference, but at least its a start. Trying to find a job. Not as easy as she had thought. Suddenly all those who said they could get her a job here or there are not so confident. It's the way life is. Make it on your own baby, don't rely on someone else to make it happen. Sonny Boy is doing a talent show this upcoming week with the band. THE band. I'm excited. They've apparently sold out tickets. That's pretty cool. I will not be able to attend because I fly out that morning to meet Hubby in Chicago and then we will go see the folks & fly back on Sunday. Yes, I'm ok with leaving the kids here. 19 and 17. The 17 year old is very conservative. Ying and Yang. Had a friend over ...

Thursday night I was awakened by Sonny Boy about a phone call and text message he got. It was only 10:30 or so but I was already sound asleep. My response, was, whatever, doesn't surprise me, something not so loving and caring when really, it should have been more so. At 1am, Sonny Boy wakes me up again and asked that I call someone with a phone number. Uggg. Ok. I'm wide awake. Numerous conversations, text messages and voice mail messages. Pacing. Getting a little high strung. Nervous. Scared. Angry. Annoyed. (ok, it IS 1:30am now and I HAVE to get up and go to work in the morning, a mere 5 hours away!!!!) Finally lay back down in bed, with the phone close to my heart. And I think to myself. There is ONE person that I can call on to give me the help I need. God. Yeah. It's been awhile. I kind of felt like the girl in the book, Hello God, it's me ... I had a nice long conversation that night with God. It's been awhile since we've talked like this...

Ugggg. Life stinks at the moment. Hubby comes home this evening from New Orleans for the week and I'm sick. Go figure. I did get our taxes done last night. Just had to sit down and plug away. Done. Not so bad. Actually, hubby wants someone to review to be sure I didn't miss anything. Nope. This year, after 3 years of doing it myself, I am 100% comfortable with the return. That says a lot. In other words, there wasn't anything I questioned myself on, if that is right or not, etc. 100% Folks! Back to being sick. Not sure if I'm really sick or what. I've got a sore throat and a dry raspy cough. My throat feels tight. The sides of my neck hurt (you know, where those muscle/cordy things are? Those hurt). I'm extremely tired today. That could be from working out the past 2 days, but I doubt it. And I'm COLD today. I do believe the a/c in the office is cranking though, so I dont' think it's a fever. Headache. And my eyes tear up occasionally bu that could...

I never really thought of myself as a shoe freaky kind of girl. But maybe this is some kind of deep rooted issue I have that hasn't come to surface? Last week, when I had the day off from work (and apparently, so did alot of other people), I decided to hit a few of the thrift stores that I can never get to as they close at 4pm during the week and odd hours on Saturday. Well. 3 of the 4 were CLOSED for Good Friday. The nerve!! Oh well. Still ended up going to Out of the Closet, which I can get to normally anyways (they are open til 7 I believe?) Luckily though, it was April 2nd, meaning the $1 color tag was only 2 days old! Woohoo! I haven't timed it that way in quite a while. Not that it mattered, really, in the end. Earth. Naturalizers. Alfani. Oh so many others. I actually had to CHOOSE which shoes to put back. Oh. My. Gelron 2000 Earth Sandals. Retail anywhere from $70 to $120. Brand new. No tags (that's ok with me). Not the prettiest things, but oh are they ever c...

I am starting to see little 'pockets' of space in all 3 of the freezers. This of course, is because I took out a 1/4 ham, a turkey roast, bag of diced sweet potatoes, 1.5 lb bag of shrimp, a shrimp ring and a few other odds and ends for the feeding frenzy over the weekend. I would like to try and do a reduced spend (notice, it's not a no spend, I just can't do that!!) for April to try and clean out the freezers a bit. Unfortunately, on the 31st, I had stopped at GFS to buy some eggs (2 1/2 dozen for $1.99!) and ended up picking up 15 lbs of 80/20 burgers for $20. Folks, that is a LOT of burgers. They will not all stay as burgers, some will be transformed into taco meat, sloppy joes, etc. Just let them defrost and cook as regular ground beef. Anyways ... I have soooo much food in these freezers. And with Princess hopefully coming back for awhile longer, that will be 4 mouths to feed instead of 3 which equates to just a bit more food. Granted, she eats like a bird, b...

Easter is right around the corner. Really, 3 days away. Have you all been planning and shopping and preparing yet? I haven't! Well, not that I really need to. We don't do the usual big fanfare brunch/lunch/dinner type of thing. Afterall, we live in South Florida and the weather is just B.E.A.U.T.I.F.U.L! So that means outdoors. Sometimes boating. Sometimes just floating in the pool. It always means a friend or two or even 10 will be over at some time during the day. And the grill is usually involved. Along with a few cocktails. Then I've got the 2 picky kids. Even as teens. AND I used to be pretty picky myself (note: once I quit smoking, my tastebuds changed. Hey. That might be why the waistline did too?) So we normally made a little more fancier food than everyday but nothing like a big whole ham or anything. Plus, it was only the 4 of us eating and that's alot of left overs. We HAVE done the honey baked ham thing in previous years, but with the prices getting higher...