Month: April 2024

Cheap Art

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn CraftingLeave a comment

Today I had to run by Donny’s work to pick up my Aldi bags that we had put in his trunk when we went camping. He asked me to run by Dollar Tree since it’s next door to Aldi. I really and truly went in with the only intention of getting the bleach and spray bottle he asked for. But then, you know you just have to walk around the store, I found this really cool sun made out of metal. The metal was a weird silver that looked kind of awful, but I really liked the sun.

I brought it home and spray painted it. I didn’t know where to hang it, but then I realized it would look good against our turquoise door. So that’s where it ended up. For $3.00, I think it looks pretty good.

Aldi also had some good looking watermelons. We always leave some meat on the rind for the chickens because they love watermelon.

I love wild looking plants. The more unkempt the better. Aldi had some really pretty flowering ones. My favorite color is yellow so that’s the one I grabbed. I also had to re-pot the palm that was in the rooster because it was flat out dying. I think the metal gets hot and the plant didn’t like that.

It’s suppose to be nice tomorrow but rain the next few days after that. I’m planning on rearranging our flower beds. They are a little sparse right now. I’ll take some pics to show how it goes, hopefully.

P.S.

My brother in law sent the photos he took of Hannah. I can’t wait to share some of them. They turned out so good.

Family

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn familyLeave a comment

All of our family members are scattered all over Texas. Since Donny’s weekends are Thursdays and Fridays, it makes it hard to get to visit any of them very often. Luckily we got to see some of them this past weekend.

Nikki, our oldest, lives in Dallas. We got to spend a few hours with her two oldest kids before they left for their dad’s.

I wish we had gotten to spend more time with Myles and Everly, but we are planning a weekend together when school get out.

We got to spend more time with Phoebe because she is Jake and Nikki’s daughter together. Y’all, she is the funniest kid. And she loves her PawPaw.

Donny was hiding his face from their puppy and Phoebe joined in.

We also were able to go visit Donny’s mom who lives in the Fort Worth area. I didn’t get any pictures because we were all too busy chatting.

Saturday Donny’s brother James and our nephew Justin came up from Austin to take Hannah’s senior pictures. It was so good to see them. We did a photo shoot downtown and boy was it windy. I can’t wait to see the final pictures.

I don’t think I can thank them enough for taking time out of their very busy schedule to do this for us. We all got to have dinner and then they drove the 6 or so hours back home. I wish they would have just stayed the night.

We closed down Don Benito’s.

When we were at Nikki’s we were looking through my old wedding album to her dad and this is one of my favorite pictures of my friend (much more like a sister since I’ve known her since birth) and me after she caught the bouquet.

Oh my Lord, we were so young.

Hopefully during the summer we will get to visit more of our family. Nothing like a little road trip.

And a bit off topic, but I found out that I could remove the candle in my lantern and my oil diffuser fits perfectly. No more ugly white plastic.

A Little Shopping

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn thrifting, WeekendLeave a comment

We had a little bit of time to kill the first day in Dallas, so we decided to check out the Goodwill outlet a.k.a. The Bins. I forget how long it actually takes to get anywhere in the DFW metroplex.

If you have never heard of the bins, it’s a giant warehouse with row after row of bins that you just dig through. When we got there they were bringing out new bins. Everyone has to stand behind a red line and after they put them out they say “GO” and the race is on. People run and grab. I had no idea what to expect, but I got the hang of it pretty quickly. Even Donny and Hannah were having fun looking through everything. There are no prices, you just pay by the pound. I think clothing was $1.49.

These were the “older” bins.

It’s such a crazy fun experience. Well, if you like thrifting that is.

This is what we came away with.

A pair of Levi cropped jeans and an Old Navy dress

Donny found the Bob Seger Tshirt for me because I absolutely love Bob Seger. I found this Johnny Cash shirt.

Hannah found an H&M dress, hoodie and some Pink yoga pants. I also found her some Seven jeans that aren’t pictured. It was a pretty good haul for the short time we were there. I wish we had something like this here.

The next day, on the way home, Jack asked if we could go to one of his favorite stores. Well, of course!

We made it inside before a torrential downpour. We decided to have lunch in their cafeteria and to our surprise most everything was half off. Jack and I weren’t really hungry so we shared chicken strips and fries. They were only $4.49. Hannah had the salmon and Donny had what we had. They always have such good food. The Daim Bar cake is Hannah’s very favorite.

Here’s what we bought.

Both of the kids got these stuffies. Jack’s was a cat astronaut that he took the suit off of and put on the alien. Apparently, these stuffies are popular with the teenagers. Who knew? I got two candles that were on sale. Pillowcases, also on sale. Veg peelers and kitchen scrubbers. I love their light bulbs, so I picked up 2 boxes. Jack needed a new charging cable and I found this awesome collander that stretches across the sink, also on sale.

Can’t wait to go back to both places!

Birthday Concert

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn Date Night, Road tripLeave a comment

Several months ago Jackson decided that for his 17th birthday he wanted to go to the Hatsune Miku concert in Dallas. We kept the kids out of school on Thursday and headed to Dallas. Luckily our oldest daughter loves to go to concerts and happens to live in Dallas so she was escorting Jackson and Hannah to the concert in Deep Ellum.

Of course, we had the obligatory stop.

Since it was Jackson’s birthday (well, the next day was his actual birthday) he got to choose where he wanted to have dinner before the concert. He wanted to try Jollibee. We had never heard of it, but it was on the way, so that made it easy. He actually asked me to take his picture with the bee.

Here’s the whole gang.

Jake and Phoebe headed back to their house and Donny and I dropped Nikki and the kids off at The Factory in Deep Ellum. The doors opened at 7 with the concert starting at 8. We got there at 6 and the line was wrapped around the building. Deep Ellum has gotten a lot sketchier since I used to go to concerts there back in the day. I’m so glad we decided to have Nikki go with them. The concert is not your typical concert. It’s an anime hologram with an actual live band, but the hologram does the singing. Jackson was right when he said, “Mom, you will not like going to this concert”.

Donny and I decided to hang out in the West End. It’s not far The Factory, but a safer more walker friendly area. We decided to get a drink and some chips and salsa at RJ’s mexican restaurant. This was the HOTTEST salsa. Donny loves super spicy food and even this was almost too hot for him.

The weather was nice, even though it was a bit muggy. There was the world championship high school robotics competition going on so we got to people watch. It was funny seeing people from other countries coming out of the western shop next door with cowboy hat boxes.

We had a few hours to kill so we decided to go shop around the western shop

I really wanted this Tshirt, but they didn’t have it in my size

We found this park that was just in the middle of all the buildings. There were swings that seemed just right to sit a spell.

As it got dark we heard live music and ended up at Jack Ruby’s. The guy playing was really good and I was able to drink about 4 glasses of ice water to try to cool off my digestive track from that salsa we had earlier.

There were only a handful of people there, but we had a lot of fun singing along to the music and chatting with the bartender and other customers.

Finally it was time to go pick up the crew. It’s so strange being in a big city with super tall buildings. I think our tallest one is 7 stories.

Anyway, Jackson had a great birthday. They all had fun at the concert even though there were only 100 light sticks (bad planning on the company that puts these shows on) so they didn’t get one. But they did get a concert Tshirt and they were really happy with that.

Sunshiny Day

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn Home StuffLeave a comment

I vowed at the beginning of Spring, that any day that wasn’t raining, I would do some type of work out in the yard. There is so much that needs to be done and I feel like if I don’t stay on top of it, it will never get finished.

Today, because there is a lot of rain in the coming days, I mowed the front and the back yard. I also had to pick up all of the cardboard that Donny had laid down in the greenhouse to kill the grass. Since the greenhouse is no more, we need that grass to grow.

It’s brown right now where it was, but it will get better.

I thought I’d go gather the eggs that were in there, but Penelope was busy doing her thing.

Our tomatoes are starting to bud.

The potato plants are getting really big.

I moved the front stepping stones, which we never really used for what they were meant for, to the side garden. We need to get some more and these need to be repainted.

I got the pineapple top planted and the random cantaloupe seeds I planted are sprouting. All in all, it was a productive day.

Oh, and I also ran by an estate sale near our home and picked up these goodies.

Now I’m off to bed. We start Jackson’s birthday celebration tomorrow. I can’t believe he’s about to be 17!

The Nasty Shed

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn OrganizingLeave a comment

I had three major things on my to do list today: clean out the shed, clean out the laundry room and remove the winter “cat house” from the patio and get it back into usable shape. I honestly did not think I would be able to get them all done, especially when I walked out to look in the shed.

It was SO bad. We had just been throwing stuff into it, especially me, because I was always being stalked and chased by the homicidal rooster. Now that he was gone, it was time.

Here is what I walked into. The right side that holds our garden tools and lawn/coop stuff.

Before:

After:

The left side before. It holds holiday decorations, camping gear, suitcases and just miscellaneous stuff.

After:

This took me about 4 hours because I had to take everything out, sweep and then tetris it all back in. I have to call the city tomorrow to schedule a bulk pickup for everything I got rid of.

I was able to clean the laundry room out. It was just really straightening it up. The hardest part was the patio because we had a large heavy wool rug on the table and containers underneath so the stray cats could stay warm in the winter weather. I didn’t take any pictures of the before because I was running on fumes and just forgot, but here are some afters. We still have a lot of work to do on our yard and the patio, but now at least we can eat and sit out there comfortably.

I found that my rug I’m not using makes a great table cover and protects the table from any sun damage.

The trunk Donny picked up at the estate sale makes a fine little table. Now I’m just praying that I can walk tomorrow because I’m already so sore.

Check it Off

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn OrganizingLeave a comment

I have a dry erase board right by our side door. I’ve started writing the things that I need to get done under the To Do category. I feel like if I have the list where I can see it, I will get it done. So today was basically just checking off the chores that needed to get done. Boring, I know, but much needed.

I was so tired of playing Jenga every time I opened the pantry, a.k.a. two cabinets, If you have an actual real pantry go give it a hug right now because having to use two precious kitchen cabinets is the pits. But when your kitchen is on the small side, you just have to make due with what you have.

I honestly don’t know how it gets this bad. I think we all get a bit lazy and end up just stuffing items back in.

Ok, that’s a little better. My home will never be pinterest ready, but that’s ok.

It’s pretty bad. I was just waiting for a can avalanche.

At least I can find everything now.

This one wasn’t too bad, but I realized that I keep replacing spices that I already had in my restock area. I also threw away anything that was expired or that we just didn’t use anymore.

Next I started on our shared closet. The weather has been getting warmer so I knew it was time to switch out my winter clothes for spring ones. I really wanted to quit halfway through. I share a very small closet with my husband so every square inch of it is used.

I guess it has to get bad before it can get better. Hey, at least there is cutie Dean Winchester on the screen. I love Supernatural and it helped me get through this mess.

Purses get hung on hooks to save space.

I have plastic drawers to the left that holds my shorts and ball caps. The baskets on top hold my jeans and pants. I still need to pare everything down, but first I want to see what I wear and if I don’t wear it, out it will go.

All bagged up ready to get boxed up and stored in the shed which is on my clean out list tomorrow. That’s going to be a project.

And just because, here is our stoner cat Monkey that is always high on catnip.

Old Hwy 80 Sale + Easy Dinner

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn Easy meals, Frugal Life, thriftingLeave a comment

For more than 25 years there has been a 392 mile garage sale than runs down old Hwy 80 from Texas to Georgia. People bring their trailers and just set up shop in parking lots and on the side of the road.

It happens twice a year, once in the spring and again in the Fall. I needed to run to Aldi today so I thought I’d take the back way down Hwy 80 aka Marshall Ave. The first one I saw were two very sweet ladies who told me that a lot of the vendors had packed up and left the day before because of the heavy storms. I’m glad I stopped because they had some cool stuff for sale. I ended up with a Buddha head and a cute little plant all for $2.00.

A little ways down the road I saw a whole parking lot filled with different vendors. There I found a lampshade, curling iron and a pretty summery blouse by Indigo Soul. I spent a whopping $9.00 there.

The lampshade worked pretty good on the lamp I was wanting it for. I like the fact that when you turn it on it looks like glowing little moon.

The Buddha head works well next to the stereo with my other brass objects.

I specifically got the plant for a flower pot that I had picked up several months ago.

When Donny got home from work we needed to run to the grocery. He’s been itching to find a plant for the rooster he got me for my birthday. It has been sitting in our living room and has now found its place outside. Please excuse the dead circles, we have moved a lot of pots to the backyard. It’s some kind of palm. I just know it works well in shade or sun.

After a busy day, I didn’t really feel like making a big messy meal. A shrimp boil is one of the easiest meals to make with very little to clean up. Right now shrimp is on sale here.

Growing up on the coast in Corpus Christi, we would go down to the T-heads when the shrimp boats came in a buy shrimp fresh off the boats. This is definitely not the same, but it will do in a pinch.

I like to use the bagged shrimp boil, but when did it start coming in the plastic pouches and not the net ones? So strange.

I also like to throw in a healthy dose of Old Bay seasoning.

I make a pretty simple boil. Fill a big pot with water. Add seasoning and red potatoes. Boil until they are tender. Add sausage and corn on the cob. Boil for 5 minutes. Add shrimp and boil for 3 minutes. You’re done.

I use a big commercial kitchen pot. I worked at a catering company and the owner gave me this pot so I’d always have one big enough to do this, gumbo, etc. Using it reminded me of the fun, hectic, sometimes stressful time I worked there. He has since passed away so it’s pretty sentimental.

And that’s it. My son doesn’t like shrimp so I made him some boudin and cut up some pineapple. Easy peasy meal.

B.O.B. + Discarded Art

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn Easy meals, saving money, thriftingLeave a comment

We woke up to a terrible thunderstorm with rain so heavy you could hardly see across the street. That’s unfortunate because it is the weekend of the Old Hwy 80 garage sale that stretches for 392 miles. Hopefully there are places that are getting to still have it.

Anyway, yesterday I was making one of our favorite breakfasts, the BOB aka Breakfast on a Bun. We used to get them all the time at Whataburger. When my husband and I were both working, we never really thought about spending money on fast food or eating out. Now that we are living with one income, I watch the finances much more closely.

If you purchase a BOB and hashbrown sticks at Whataburger it will set you back $6.05. That seemed like a lot to me so I did a breakdown of how much it actually costs to make it yourself at home. My go to grocery is Aldi, so this is where I have gotten the prices for what I use.

Hamburger buns – $1.45 (8 count) .18 per serving

Sausage patties – $9.45 (20 Patties) .47 per serving

Cheese – $1.89 (11 slices) .17 per serving

Eggs – $2.29 (1 dozen) .19 per serving

Hashbrowns – $6.05 (20 count) .30 per serving

That totals $1.31. Plus you get actual cheese and not the American rubber cheese. That is such a huge savings. I know a lot of people just like the convenience of a drive thru and I get that, but you are saving $4.74. If you are getting this for a family of 4, it’s a savings of $18.96. That’s a nice chunk of change for just a little bit of effort.

And because I like to save money anywhere I can, we needed more than the 20 hot rollers I had for Hannah’s hair. Some of you may cringe, but I ran to the thrift store down the street and found a nice set for $3.50. Even though they looked like they had been barely used, I still sanitized them with my spray.

I always have to look through the artwork to see if there is something handmade. Discarded handmade art just makes me sad, so I was very happy when I found this sweet cross stitch for only $1.

I also found this cute little owl that was only $3.00. I had needed something to fill in on the window shelves in the kitchen since I moved one of the plants outside.

Such a cutie!

Hopefully, the rain will stop by tomorrow and the kids and I can hit the Hwy 80 sale. I’ll let ya know.

Prom 2024

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn Date NightLeave a comment

Hannah’s last high school prom was tonight. It’s hard to believe that she is a senior and will be graduating next month. The theme of the prom was exotic enchantment. She voted for Old Hollywood Glamour and was a bit disappointed when it wasn’t chosen. The tickets were very interesting and for some reason I kept referring to it as erotic enchantment. I mean, c’mon, just look at those tickets.

The students were released at 11:50 so everyone would have time to get ready. Hannah wanted big hair. This took a lot of hot rollers.

Because it was so muggy outside, I pulled out the big gun.

We were headed to the school to take pictures because their campus is beautiful. It has a pond and gorgeous landscaping. Unfortunately it started sprinkling, so we headed downtown to see if we could find a dry place to take some pictures.

First stop was outside of the Children’s Theatre.

Outside of the coffee shop downtown. Gavin is 6’6″ so it worked out well with her standing on the step.

The best pictures were taken outside of Cheddar’s where we had dinner.

Yes, we sat in the booth across from them. No, they didn’t mind one bit. Shout out to Cheddar’s because the food was so good and the server was amazing. It seemed to be a popular prom dining spot because they ran into other couples from the school.

I sure hope they are having fun. I guess we’ll find out in a few hours.