PSE - I'm gonna Miss You

 

 



When Miss MoneyPenny's parents were alive, she used to worry that they were slipping into dementia because reading the mail was the highlight of their day.  In fact, Dad got really mad at the mailman because he thought he was spending too much time flirting with a "divorcee" and not getting the mail in the box in time. 

Guess what??  Now that I'm retired, reading the mail has taken on a whole new look, especially since I'm getting it delivered at home.  I even have the time to read the junk mail and have come up with quite a few deals that I would normally have passed by.  Who knew??

Anyway, I received some "junk mail" from PSE that I found interesting, so I called them and talked to a nice and very helpful guy by the name of Brian.  When I mentioned that he was going on Miss MoneyPenny's blog, he really perked up and I actually had a hard time getting him off the line.  Must be a slow day. 

The reason I called him was to talk about PSE's HomePrint Assessment program that was mentioned in the flyer.  This is a good deal.  For FREE, a trained energy specialist will come to your home and analyze your energy consumption and give advice for improvements.  Of course, the improvements are not free and you are responsible for them but you will have an idea of what needs to be done to make your house more efficient and hopefully lower your bill.

When I mentioned that my KitchenAid side-by-side fridge is 22 years old, Brian said that they have a program for people who are living on a lower income (he said that I qualify) where you can get a free new refrigerator.  I was very excited about this, but when he said that the free fridges didn't have ice makers, I was bummed.  I'm on my third ice maker with this fridge.  I drink water all day and it has to have ice in it but if you need a refrigerator, the list to choose from is all Energy Star models.

If you are going to buy a new refrigerator, there is a recommended list on PSE's site, with rebates.  Also, they will come and haul your old one away for free and give you a $20 check, so it doesn't have to languish out on the back porch.

Those of us who live in Jefferson County had better hop to it if we want to take advantage of these offers because we are leaving PSE in 2013 and joining the local Public Utility District.  I'm a little worried about this but time will tell.  Who knows??  It might be better, but I suspect that they will not have the programs that PSE offers.

QFC Grocery Basket 11/7

 

There I was, innocent as could be, in my own bathroom, when I spotted this guy giving me the eye.  He was on the floor in my walk-in closet and I was surprised at how big this handsome black house spider was.  I'm not really fond of spiders, not like with snakes where I'm crazy, but I don't kill them. 

 

I used to take them outside, carefully housed in Kleenex, but I've since learned that they will die outside since they are house spiders.  I left this guy alone but, of course, he was in the bathtub this morning, so I moved him over to the cat's water dish, thinking that he is thirsty.  Who knows??  Maybe he wants to commit suicide by swirling down the drain but he ain't gonna do it when I'm in the shower.

 

I stopped off at Port Hadlock Yarns today to pick up the free pattern and yarn to make a knitted watchman hat for the Homeless Teen Effort that Dale and Cindy are hosting.  I was going to buy my yarn but they do have a lot of nice yarn that they are donating to the cause, so I picked a very quiet dark gray and black skein.  I'll take a picture before I take it back up to PH Yarns.  The pattern is very simple and a new knitter could handle it.

 

Let's go shopping!!  QFC is still running their Buy 5, Save $2.50 promotion and there are tons of items on this that are not in the ad.  This is also a good time to buy for the food bank while you are at it.  I always have the checker bag the food bank items separately and just walk them over to the bin.  Easy peasy.

 

Orowheat Bread - $2.49/loaf Promo

Starbucks Coffee - $6.99/12 oz (coupon for $3 off 2 bags S/10/7)

Green Giant Canned Vegetables - $ .49/ea (stockup price & food bank) Promo

Swanson Broth - $ .49/14.5oz (coupon for $ .40 off 5 S/11/4) Promo

Oikos Greek Yogurt - $1/5.3oz

Fage Greek Yogurt - $1/5-7oz

International Delight - $2.99/32oz Promo

Land O Lakes Butter - $2.49/lb Promo

Tillamook Cheese - $4.99/2lb Promo

USDA Boneless Chuck Roast - BOGO

Fresh Rockfish fillets - $5.99/lb
Pears - $1.29/lb

Honeycrisp Apples - $1.68/lb

Tomatoes on the Vine - $1.99/lb

Yellow/Zucchini Squash - $ .99/lb

Nature Made Vitamins - BOGO

Kleenex - $ .99/ea Promo

 

I mentioned in my last post that when we cleaned out the blackberries we found a wrought iron birdfeeder stand that I hadn't seen in years.  My sister, Miss SmartyPants, gave it to me when I moved in to my new house in 1995, but the ground was so hard we bent it trying to get it staked.  The ground is still bedrock about a foot down so I clasped it to the deck for stability.  Here it is with my two ceramic feeders.  Now, I'm waiting for the birds to notice it.

 



Weekend Recap 11/5

I've been raking leaves like crazy for over a month now but my beautiful Red Maple is just about done throwing 'em down.  I've used them for mulch and I've got containers of them in the garden shed to feed into the compost through the winter.  No waste around here.

This weekend I had the guy from Seattle out fighting the blackberries.  I don't know why he keeps coming back around, but anyway, we finally finished up.  That whole corner behind the garden shed had become choked with the things.  They even grew all over the top of the shed and were threatening to come in the house, so something had to be done. 

It took us three Sundays of chopping and hard raking but we got them.  We even found a bail of chicken wire and a birdfeeder stand that I had torn the garden shed up looking for.  My plan is to CONTROL them as they grow back because they are good to eat.  Ha, ha, I know.  Good luck on that!!

I might have mentioned that I have lowered my grocery fund to $40 per week.  I get as many things at Costco that I can, keeping in mind whether I can use that Costco size.  Some things work, some things don't.  It is a work in progress but I'm seeing significant savings, along with shopping the QFC sales.

After shopping at Costco and Trader Joe's, I had $16 left for QFC this week.  This is my haul, after sales, promotions and coupons, coming in at $14.71 for a savings of 60%:

That darn cucumber was the only thing that wasn't on sale and it cost $2.37 but I needed it for the guy from Seattle's third ex-wife's special potato dish and it was worth it.

I wanted to mention that the two and a half pound brick of Bandon Cheese at Costco has gone from a price of $4.99 to $6.99 since last month.  A pretty steep increase - so I went with the Tillamook (2 pounds) this month which was $4.99 after the sale and promotion at QFC.

Below is a fuzzy picture of what came my way.  LL Bean sent me another $10 coupon, saying they were sorry that I had to exchange my jacket for a smaller size.  I don't know why they are apologizing as they let me keep the 20% off and use the $10 gift card in the exchange, but that is okay.  The bottom coupon is a $2 Catalina that shot out at checkout to be used on my next trip.  By the way, that box of Special K came free via a coupon mailed to me from QFC.  Thank you, very much.

On Friday evening I was at Sock Club and they were talking about homeless teens.  Now my son, the plumber, spent his school career at Chimacum schools back in the 80s and early 90s, and homeless kids were just unheard of.  Although I do remember noticing that one of his friends had been at the house for several weeks.  I suggested that maybe he should go home and check in.  He informed me that his parents were getting a divorce and that his dad had moved to Seiku and his mom to Seattle!! But that was a different deal.

Anyway, the schools are reporting that there are about 20 kids who are homeless but still attending school.  This is not counting the kids who are homeless and not attending school.  This is just crazy.  It breaks my heart. 

So, Dale and Cindy, the ladies at Port Hadlock Yarns, are putting together an effort to help these kids stay warm now that it is getting cold outside.  What they are doing is offering free yarn and patterns for fingerless mitts, scarves and hats.  I took a look at the yarn and it is nice stuff in colors that kids would wear.  There was a lot of Debbie Bliss yarn in there, no day-glo pink.  Teens are very particular in what colors they will wear.  I know this from experience.  I had no idea that there were so many shades of black.

If you are a knitter and are interested, stop by Port Hadlock Yarns and get a free pattern and yarn.  They are kicking this off on Wednesday (11/7) but you can drop by anytime.

QFC Grocery Basket 11/1

I stepped outside in the rain today and took a couple of snaps of the fall flower bed.  I would argue that it is just as beautiful as the summer bed.  That Japanese Maple is stunning!!  And check out this gorgeous hydrangea that my mother gave me back in the 90s.  Readers of this blog know that I have spent years trying to save it from a bad hacking job done by a well meaning yard guy.  I think that it has recovered quite nicely, from a couple of blooms last year to just plain amazing this year.

 

And this hardy fuchsia is hanging on and looking quite lovely, in my opinion.  I planted three of these plants before one finally made it through the winter.  The only thing that I am doing differently with this one is to leave it alone, even when it gives up the ghost and freezes to death.  In the spring, I go out and clean it up as soon as I see green poking out and give it a good dose of compost.  Seems happy with this arrangement.

 

Pictured above are a couple of coupons that came my way without having to be cut out.  The $5 one just came in the mail in a QFC mailing.  The other one shot out of the Catalina machine and is for $ .75 off my next shopping trip.  Thank you, very much.

Now that I am a great-grandma, I'm noticing deals on diapers.  This week, QFC is running a promotion where you buy $20 worth of Huggies, get $5 off next purchase.  They have Huggies on sale for $18.99 and there is a coupon for $1 off in S/10/21.

They are also running the Buy 5, Save $2.50 promotion with a lot of items included.  And their ad is shorter this week, running Thursday through Tuesday.  Here are the highlights:

Tillamook Cheese - $4.99/2lb/promo
International Delight Creamer - $2.99/32 oz/promo
Asian Pears, Persimmons & Coconuts - $1/ea
Fugi, Braeburn & Granny Smith Apples - $ .99/lb
Hot House Tomatoes - $ .99/lb
Hass Avocados - $ .99/ea
Mayan Sweet Onions - $ .99/lb
Asparagus - $2.99/lb
Draper Valley Whole Chicken - $ .88/lb
Fresh Alaska True Cod - $7.99/lb
Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup - $ .69/can/promo
Orowheat Bread - $2.49/loaf/promo
Gevalia Coffee - $6.49/12 oz/promo
Swanson Broth - $ .49/14.5oz/promo
Special K Cereal - $2.49/coupon for $1 off 3 RP/10/14/promo
Best Foods Mayonnaise - $2.99/30oz/promo
Kleenex - $ .99/ea/promo
Crest Toothpaste - $1/ea/coupon for $ .50 off PG/Oct
Hot Wheels Cars - $ 74/ea (think stocking stuffers)

When I was working at the Library, I noticed that a lot of retired folks were addicted to the Midsomer Murders series and I thought I would give them a go once I had the time.  Now that baseball is over for the year, I found myself needing something to knit by, so I stuck volume one, season one in the player last night.  I enjoyed it very much. 

These are mysteries set in a very charming village somewhere in England where there sure is a lot of murder going on.  They killed off four people in the first show!! and I think that there is close to 20 seasons of this show.  Why would you want to move there??  Anyway, they are very well done as only the Brits can do.



Weekend Recap 10/28

There she is. Is she a beautiful little girl, or what?? In her leopard skin hoodie, jeggings and little socks that look like Mary Janes with pink bows. My great-granddaughter is being held by her grandpa, my son the plumber, always mugging for the camera. This is a very calm and happy baby, content to be passed around and held by her adoring family, sleeping right through music, TV and conversation. I'm in love.

 

I was reading Cliff Mass's weather blog and he is saying that the computer models are all coming together with the indication that we are in for a "neutral winter".  That sounds good, doesn't it??  But "neutral" is misleading because that is when we can get our worst winter weather.  Think big wind and snowstorms.  I hope that it does not happen but I'm gonna be prepared.

So far, in my winter preparations, I've had the windows caulked, gutters and roof cleaned, heat pump installed, veggie gardens put to bed for the winter, and the car detailed and serviced.  This week, I'll have Costco rotate my tires while I'm shopping and have Chris, my yard guy, come for a final yard service.  I have yet to clean up my front flower beds because I've come to realize that now that I'm retired and gardening on practically a daily basis, I need to update my compost system.  What do you think??

I've outgrown my composter!!  This has worked really well for 25 years when I only gardened when I had time from work, once a week, at best.  Now it is time to add to it and I'm thinking something like this:

Pretty fancy and very exciting.  This is Costco's model and looks like it would really do the trick.  I'll keep you posted.

Vet Fund Update:

Now I know what the problem is with my vet fund.  I was reading Bob's blog on retirement and he thinks that putting $100 per month into his vet fund is spot on.  Me, too!!  One problem.  He only has one pet!!  I have four of them.  One is elderly with a bum ticker, one is aging with bad teeth, and one likes to go out and fight things. 

Only one of my critters is youthful and healthy, so the problem is that I need to put $400 per month in that fund!!  This is just not going to happen anytime soon.  It seems that I cannot afford my pets, and I am sure that this is a common situation, now that going to the vet has become crazy expensive.  I remember taking all four of my poodles to the vet for their annual shots and with litter rate, the bill came to $40!!  Those days are over. 

If anyone has any ideas on how to deal with the rising cost of veterinary care, let me know because I've hit the wall on this.  I just recently moved $1000 from savings into my vet fund and it still has a negative balance of $14!!

QFC Grocery Basket 10/24

Is this sad, or what??  Heartbreaking is what it is.  My old girl, the begonia, couldn't take it any more and gave up the ghost, but not to worry as she will be back in all her glory next summer.

Even though the begonia told me that it was autumn, I've been getting some clues in my food choices.  Gone are the glasses of iced tea, fresh salads, berries and melons.  Now I'm craving cups of hot tea and honey, oatmeal for breakfast, and big steaming bowls of soup.  I was even thrilled with a bowl of split pea soup over at the Farm's Reach Cafe the other day, when I would normally turn up my nose.

Last week I made soup out of the leftover pot roast and veggies and it was delicious.  This week I dug around in the freezer and came up with a bag of meat that I picked from the carcass of a Costco chicken and made spicy chicken soup.  I also used the broth made from that same carcass and onions pulled from the garden.  Very tasty, in deed.

Anyway, we need to go grocery shopping and QFC is running their 10 for $10 promotion and they are having deals on all frozen pizzas.  When you go to the store, look around because there are many things on the 10 for $10 promo that would work well for the food bank.  It is cold out there and folks are hungry.

These are what I consider to be the highlights this week:

Rosarita Refried Beans - $1/ea (coupon for $ .50 off 3 in S/9/16)
Oikos Greek Yogurt - $1/ea 5.3 oz
QFC Sour Cream - $1/16 oz
Crest Toothpaste - $1/ea (coupon in Oct PG for $ .50 off)
Herbal Essences - $2.50 (coupon RP/10/7 for $1 off 2)
Beef Boneless Chuck Roast - BOGO
Fresh Rockfish Fillets - $5.99/lb
Broccoli or Cauliflower - $1/lb
Honeycrisp Apples - $1.68/lb
Jumbo Pomegranates - $2.50/ea
Nature Sweet Cherry Tomatoes - $3/10.5 oz
Red, Yellow or Orange Bell Peppers - $1/ea

I'm thinking that I will roast cherry tomatoes, bell peppers, garlic and onions from the garden and then give them a whirl in the Vita-Mix with chicken broth and seasonings and a little sour cream.  This makes a great soup, especially if you add a small hot pepper or pepper flakes to the mix.  Very spicy and addictive.

Food Waste Update:

This is plain and simple waste on my part and I feel guilty about it.  This is leftover winter squash, complete with mold, that was given to me.  It was huge.  Instead of freezing the leftovers, I kept thinking that I would eat it.  And didn't.

Cha Ching:  $1.00

Weekend Recap 10/22

Check it out!!  I'm knitting socks on one needle!!  And cashmere!!, to boot.  On Friday I joined Sock Club which meets on the first and third Friday of the month at Port Hadlock Yarns.  It was thrilling to meet other knitters who are all about the sock.  I am a seasoned sock knitter but I sure picked up a lot of new ideas from these ladies.  Everybody was using different techniques and tools but still ending up with a knitted sock.  This needle is actually a 32" lace needle with sharp points, so your knitting goes pretty fast.  I learned this technique from one of the ladies in about two minutes.  You can teach an old dog new tricks, for sure.

This is the last of the beauties on my deck and they are not happy.  I was hoping that you could read the thermometer at 40 degrees but it doesn't show up very clearly.  These Latin lovelies will soon find their way into the compost pile and it will be heartbreaking.

I've been raking leaves like mad.  I usually cover everything with cardboard to keep the weeds from using up my fertile soil over the winter but I've got all these wonderful leaves and I'm putting them to good use.  This is my rhubarb corner:

And my new raised bed:

My plan is to cover the other two beds when I put them to bed for the winter.  I've never had time to rake leaves before and I had no idea that it could be such sweaty work.  It was 40 degrees and I was in a short sleeved t-shirt within minutes.

This is my junk pile.  When I've finished getting everything together in the backyard, my yard guy, Chris, will come over and mow and haul off this eyesore, which is full of blackberries and stuff I don't want in the compost.

Cruise Fund Update:

I'm starting to get worried as I haven't put anything in my fund since September.  I guess you have to spend money in order to get leftover money and I don't seem to be spending that much.

Food Waste Update:

I found this disgusting mess in the far reaches of the crisper.  I didn't know it was there and don't remember buying it, so I suspect that the guy from Seattle did it.  He is in Seattle so is not here to defend himself.  He gets the blame.

Cha Ching:  $1.00