At the end of each week, I like to ask myself a few questions (The What’s?) on how my week went. I think asking myself (or yourself) a series of inquiring questions, helps keep me (or you) focused and appreciative. It certainly helps me see exactly how I am doing, where I am going and if I am achieving anything in my life!
- What’s doing in the garden? As I mentioned before, most of the veggies I planted from seeds, bombed out. I had to go to a local garden nursery and purchase already started vegetable plants. I have to say that they all are doing splendidly. We got off to a late start, so the harvest will be late (as in September). Thankfully the weather has been warm and will continue to be sunny, so everybody (including me) is happy! Next year, I’ll be doing the same thing. NOT starting from seeds but purchasing the seedlings I’d like to grow. I do not think that I am a failure here. I blame the lousy seeds (which BTW I bought from a renowned famous seed house. Oh well) I have plum tomatoes coming in as well as beefsteak tomatoes. It just rained this morning and I was able to take these photos as the sun was coming out. I have several eggplants producing, as well as the standard green beans. My peppers are starting to bud and will produce within the next week. I have 5 watermelons growing. My zinnias (check out the butterfly on them!) and marigolds have finally bloomed way above my expectations and have completely engulfed my apple tree (it’s in there somewhere!) My herbs (rosemary, parsley, oregano and basil) are all doing well (from seeds!). My bibb lettuce is continuing to produce, as we’ve been enjoying a fresh salad every single day.



















2. What’s cooking? I had my daughter and granddaughter over this week, so there was a lot of marshmallow toasting as well as hot dogs and hamburgers served up. I did manage to get a fresh salad in every once in a while. One of our newest favorites is this Caesar Salad. Romaine lettuce, chopped cucumbers and minced red onions (all from the farm next door!) I made the croutons with left over whole wheat baguettes. The dressing is also freshly hand made. Click here for the recipe.

3. What’s happening (socially)? I self-invited my husband and I over to our best friends house to have lunch together, outdoors, in their backyard. This is the first time since March 1, 2020 that I have ventured outside my home and co-mingled with other human beings since the pandemic. My friends were very understanding. Hubby and I picked up lunch at a well-known. award-winning Italian deli we recently discovered. However, since the last time we ordered from them, about a month ago, the deli has upgraded their operations to address the dilemma most food/restaurants are facing during this pandemic. The deli streamlined their menu, installed a state-of-the-art online ordering service and coordinated it with hands-free pick up service. You order online, request the date and time you want to pick up your order and you pay for everything online. The new service is fantastic BUT the new service also came along with a 40% increase in food prices. Gulp. So, what would have cost us $40 for 4 sandwiches, now cost us $56.

4. What’s streaming? Thanks to my Prime Bucks (I coordinate Amazon shipping to a less busy shipping date and get dollars back in movie or eBook credits) I was able to view a fantastic movie, The Promise, on my Amazon Prime account for free. The movie is a sweeping, magnificent film about the Armenian genocide, starring Oscar Issac and Christian Bale. It will have you engrossed and mesmerized with stunning images of Constantinople as well as take you down into the horrors of a war, still not recognized by Turkey.

5. What music is playing? I still stream music into my home from dawn to dusk. The music helps keep a calm, quiet environment, which as we all know is very important for these times. This week I streamed in well known classical hits (through Amazon Prime Music, for free).
6. What are you most grateful for? As always, it is my family and my friends. I am also most grateful and thankful for our frugal ways throughout these years which has enabled us to have a savings account so that we can still pay our bills and keep a roof over our heads during these uncertain and dangerous times.
7. What did I do this week to stretch a dollar? This week seems to have been a week of constant price increases on most everything I touch. It has also been a week of again, being overcharged. Thankfully I read each and every bill that comes into this house before I pay them. This month I noticed a $77.79 increase on our mobile phone bill! Normally we pay $142 for two phone with a shared mobile account service. The bill includes my $33.34 installment payment plan for my iPhone 11 Max Pro. Apparently, last month I called the mobile company to inquire about upgrading my husband’s old, outdated (and fully paid for) iPhone. Apple has reduced their prices on new iPhones and I wanted to see if our mobile company will match the price. The sales rep could match the price but also asked me if I wanted to up my service. I said no and then the sales person went to inquire about the new iPhone. The salesperson left me on hold for over 12 minutes. So, I just hung up the phone. This month when I got the mobile phone bill, guess what? The creep charged my account for the upgrade, without my consent or written signature, to the tune of $219!! A full $77 MORE than the previous month!
I’m not going to go into the gory details, but after several hours on hold, being disconnected over 3 times and eventually turning the account over to my husband (because I was reduced to a stack of hysterical tears), he finally got through to a supervisor and got our bill adjusted, credited and returned back to its original plan. Hubby got us a refund of $112!! We filed a complaint against the salesperson but the lesson here is this: you can not call Customer Service and speak to any humans anymore. I wrote about this before here. The pandemic has shrunk human contact to a discernible level and that’s just a fact. We have to start utilizing robotics and computers. And as I have mentioned above, that’s going to cost us all money in the end.
To get my husband a new phone, I simply logged onto Apple.com, selected the iPhone he wanted (an SE for $399), paid for it with my Apple credit card, which automatically set up a 6 month interest free payment plan. Next day, when the new iPhone was delivered to my home, I simply removed the SIMM card from hubby’s old phone and inserted it into his new iPhone and voila’: service and purchase complete! Without a human involved.
Lastly, hubby and I have two main grocery stores that we will only shop at: Aldi’s and a local gourmet grocery, Adam’s Fairacre Farms (filled with all local goodies, meats, poultry, dairy, eggs and international specialties from all around the world, i.e Greece, Italy, France, Israel, Spain etc.) We go once a week each. Aldi’s to buy basics at extremely good prices. Adam’s to get those Italian gourmet treats we love AND to buy local poultry, sausages and in-season, local fruits and veggies (plus whatever is on sale!)
We did go to Shop Rite a few weeks ago to buy NY Strip Steaks and grated Romano cheese. Why? Because we thought the prices were good and we wanted to save money. To get to the end of the story, the steaks were tough and awful and when we opened up the grated cheese, it was full of mold and rancid. I may bring the cheese back but Shop Rite had the worst pandemic procedures NOT put into place. The store was crowded, no social distancing, not everyone wore a mask and none of the carts were being fumigated (as is done at Adams and Aldi). Needless to say, we won’t be back. If we have to pay more for our food, then so be it! We’re not eating cheap food anymore because in the end, we’re not saving any money at all. I’m debating whether to go back to the store and get my $9.98 refund on the 2 pounds of moldy grated cheese. Is it worth possibly jeopardizing my good health?
In the interim, here’s tonight’s (Saturday) dinner. I bought pappardelle pasta nests (@$3.79 for 8.8 oz at Adams). Hubby prepared a beef bolognese sauce (Omaha Hereford chopped beef @$2.99 per pound at Adams), click here for recipe (we made our’s all beef with wine. no milk or pork). I like mine served with a dollop of part-skim ricotta (@$2.49 at Aldi for 8 oz) and grated Parmesan cheese (@$1.99 for 8 oz at Aldi). A meal like this at a decent Italian restaurant would cost between $24 and $33 per dish. We had two, with enough left over for lunch tomorrow. That’s how we save money: by eating at home and using top notch ingredients!




Always enjoy your posts! I’m sure the price increase at the restaurant is just and necessary for them to stay in business. All those computer improvements, and changing the workspace so employees can stay distanced requires expenditures. They will be lucky even with increased income on their sandwiches, to stay in business, because THEIR grocery expenses have increased as well.
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Carolee, exactly! I completely understand the rise in their prices, the reason to consolidate their menu. I only wish them the best, best, best! For us, however, it’ll have to be a special treat and not as often as I would have liked. With all the other restaurants around us going out of business, it is wonderful to see one that continues to be successful (and with lines around the corner!!)
Thank you for your comment.
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1. I discovered my Backyard garden Along my house with my Roma tomatoes and cucumbers had a huge animal burrow and whatever cause it has eaten all the tomatoes and four of the cucumber Vines are dead from it eating the roots. So won’t be getting anymore production from this plot. Three other cherry tomato plants are heavily loaded but the nights are in the 50’s so this will stop them flowering. Green beans and chives are my only crops doing well.
2. Cooking: main courses I’ve written about and salads . Sunday was six weeks on the Leaky Gut diet and I will definitely continue. I ordered again Instacart from Aldi’s This morning and it was $92 for my monthly order with fees and tip. My son and I ordered together cutting the add on fees and tip for me in half!($10 saved). I have a lot of meat from last month and they were out of the salmon. So I will be spending another $25 when they get it in. I had a serving of their organic blueberries and strawberries as my dessert with my brunch. The organic produce and sweet potatoes are All super fresh now that they are getting deliveries daily. I am shopping there exclusively. Instacart keeps my order history and so it took ten minutes to put in my order and arrived at my home’s front porch in hour half later. Very close to my kitchen. Ten minutes To divide our two orders and put mine away.
3. Socially went to an outside luncheon celebration for my grandson First Communion and only myself and daughter’s best friends family wore masks. We also maintained Social Distances from my SIL family that don’t think in family gatherings they need to social distance or wear mask!
4. Walking to Kenny G saxophone music . So in car SiriusXM-the 70’s, and Pulse, and Coffeehouse.
5. I love watching British crimes and mysteries- Endeavor, latest seasons of Midsummer Murders on Roku , New Tricks and Australian series Harrow on Hulu at my son’s.
6. Grateful for my SIL improvement. My son and wife are hiking as a date , While I watch my grandson and mentally Both are in a better place . Extremely grateful, I feel so much better by eliminating foods with high lectin levels and losing so much weight by following the diet restrictions.
Best of all- getting into a routine that makes me very content daily.
7. You shocked me with your cell phone bill! Mine is $13.58 a month with Xfinity. I pay about $165 a year. Unlimited calling and texting. 2G monthly internet streaming. My utilities are down again ($20) with cooler nights no need to run air conditioner. My State Farm agent gave me a $25 grocery gift card to thank me for being a customer for so long! I put all my smaller summer cotton clothes into the dryer and shrunk them so they looked better on my slimmer body. Thus, Saving purchasing an end of summer wardrobe. Looking forward to buying some new fall/ winter items. Sincerely, Lara
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Hi Cindi, I am surprise Your Shop Rite wasn’t more on top of Covid19 procedures. It’s awful the cheese was moldy. If you charged your groceries perhaps by phone they can reimburse your credit card. I have also put a complaint in with my credit card to not pay for defective products too. I know Their individually owned and operated. I have not been in mine since January 4th when they had a super sale on paper products, my coffee, and can goods. Hopefully by the holidays when I get my baking supplies on sale we will have a vaccine or I will do Instacart from them and Aldi’s. Sincerely, Lara
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We’re NOT ever going back to Shop Rite. Too much chaos and congestion. Very awful experience. I’m not bringing the cheese back nor requesting a refund. I bought two packages. I stuffed the unopened one in the freezer for now. As to the moldy one, I removed the mold and the rest of the bad looks good. I think I may use it in recipes. Never for sprinkling over pasta or anything raw. I’m still thinking and debating about it. I hate taking a $9.98 loss. Oh well.
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