11-21-12

7:35am

 Made the kids a nice breakfast this morning.

Fried up a couple eggs, hash browns and sausage links

then put them on a flour tortilla with a cheese slice

and a little ranch dressing and then fried the tortilla.

12:00pm

Already got two dozen mini cupcakes and

14 regular sized cupcakes made.

They are Caramel Apple Butter Pecan Cupcakes.

Getting flustered trying to get everything done today

along with fixing breakfast, lunch and supper as well.

Hubby informed me last night that

we're leaving for the lake around like 7:30am.

Do what??!! Takes about an hour to get there.

Dinner isn't until around 1-1:30pm.

So this is looking like an all day event.

I'm so screwed up on my days now

and think it's Saturday. 

Oh, and I can't post any more pictures under
Frugal Columbus Mom because I am out of space.
So it looks like I'm going to have to make a
new site soon.  


3:00pm


As of today I created another blog
so I can post photos on it
so please be sure to bookmark it.
From today on this is where any
new posts will be made.

FRUGAL COLUMBUS MOMMA

11-20-12

I was

11:30am

I hadn't planned on going anywhere today til

mom called and wanted me to go on a few errands

with her.  I also talked her into a few thrift stores along the way.

After one thrift store she wanted to stop

in McDonalds so we did and ate inside.

We never once talked about the thrift stores

while eating.  We ate close to another table with

a man sitting there who leaned over and asks

out of the blue, "do you know where any Goodwill stores are?"

I told him I thought that was funny because we just came

from a thrift store and was heading to another

one after eating.  He was a professional man of

some sort by looking at his attire.

He said he was looking for an ugly sweater.

Probably something for a Christmas party

where they have ugly Christmas sweater contests.

I ask him if he wanted to know where an actual

Goodwill store was or if any decent thrift store would

do.  He said any, so I gave him directions

to the Ohio Thrift on Indianola.

We left while he still sat there talking on his cell phone

to a business associate.

Me and mom arrived at the thrift store on Indianola

and sure enough we saw that same guy in the store

not long after.

This past weekend I found a Mr.Wonderful Doll

at a yard sale for .50 cents.  These  dolls go for

about $60 to $70!  And after researching them more

I found out they also make a Ms. Wonderful as well.

Wouldn't ya know it I found a Ms. Wonderful Doll

key chain at the thrift store for $1.99

and had to get it.  She says 7 different sayings.

These key chains go for $37 new on Amazon!

I was actually looking for an item my son

and hubby spotted a couple weeks ago at the one

thrift store and now had wanted.

It was a paintball face mask now that I got

Jonathan a paintball gun for Christmas.

I didn't really expect it to still be there

and nor did I even know what the thing

looked like that I was trying to find because

I shopped by myself in the thrift store weeks ago

while hubby and the boys were in another part of the store.

Well after making a couple of phone calls

to hubby at work trying to find this thing

and have him describe it to me, 

I hope this is the item they were looking for, lol.

I also got a 2 pack of plastic tablecloths for .50 cents

to wrap around my dryer ducts on the

solar heater to make them waterproof.

I also got a strand with about 15 

white lights surrounded by what looks

like colored ornament bulbs that are plastic.  $1.99

-New bottle of Caress Tahitian Renewal body wash .90 cents

($3.00 at Walmart)

-New can of Tresemme hair spray .90 cents

($3.50 at Walmart)

-3 packets of French's turkey gravy mixes .29 cents each

-4 pack box of Reynolds slow cooker liners .50 cents

($2.00 at Walmart)

-7 pack box of Planters Nut Mix

with Cashews, Almonds & Macadamia nuts .99 cents

(these go for $5.50 at Walmart a box)

3:00-3:05pm

Just got the kids home from the bus and we were all
sitting down at the table and having an after school snack
when it sounded like someone dropped a bomb.
LOUD explosion like noise outside that shook 
the house, floor and windows.
We all jumped up and went outside.
It scared the crap out of me that I was shaking!
Didn't see anything obvious.  A neighbor 2 doors down came
out in her bathrobe looking around to see
if she could see anything.  She said it shook her
house also.  Another neighbor 3 doors down in
his basement heard it.  It wasn't a firecracker,
a car wreck or a gun shot.  The only way
I can describe it is it sounded like something
exploded!  Don't hear firetrucks or anything like that.
I even started sniffing the air for gas thinking
it could have been a natural gas explosion.
Sure would be nice to know what the hell
caused a sound that loud!!

11-19-12

7:30am

I started setting the alarm clock a little earlier.

This morning I got up at 5:45am.

There was a beautiful sunrise at around 7:10am.

8:05am


Here is a little tip for those running fans on a 
solar can heater that don't have a solar panel
or maybe your solar panel hasn't charged or isn't up to par
putting out enough power,
you can connect your fan to a cordless drill battery!
Just think if your power or furnace goes out on a cold Winter
day you can still have heat without electricity or gas!
Other than to help cut back on utilities
this was another reason for making this.
I think back to an ice storm we had years ago
that knocked out power to many people including my
mom for at least 7 days.  They had no heat during that time
and it got to freezing temperatures in her house.
Of course we took them in our home at that time
but what if we didn't have heat either.
Then what would we have done?

9:25am


Got the 3rd duct covered in wool for insulation.

1:05pm


Mostly cloudy and 54 degrees out.
Even on a mostly cloudy day the solar can heater
is reading 135 inside it.  That's an 81 degree
difference compared to the outside temperature.
Not as good as yesterday's 210 degrees output in full sun
but I think it's pretty good for as many clouds
that are in the sky to still be producing
that kind of heat. 

1:50pm

Still mostly cloudy with some sun popping out here and there

through the clouds.  The temperature rose

another 47 degrees in the solar heater

in 50 minutes time to 182 degrees. 

2:05pm


Finally got through to the car insurance office to
cancel the pickup off it.  I kept trying and got a recorded
message every time I would call.  It should go retro active back
to the day we sold it as to when that coverage stopped.
That should shave 30
some dollars off our bill each month plus I won't
have to spend $53 or so to renew it's tags 
in another couple of month.
A savings of $410 or so a year!

Had to pop a couple acetaminophin.
Body's been feeling achy.
It's an everyday thing anymore.
Just wish it would go away so I could do more things!
Plus I got a cough that is killing my ribs.
It's like I'm trying to cough stuff up
that doesn't want to come up even though
I feel it in there.  So in turn I cough
harder causing my ribs to hurt.

MAIL CALL

Today in the mail I got a free coupon
for a medium beverage at Dunkin Donuts.
And,
4 free Airborne samples,
-blast of vitamin c plus 13 vitamins, minerals & herbs
natural honey flavored.
-plus energy with 8 B vitamins natural citrus flavor.
-zesty orange flavored effervescent tablet
-no water needed tablet, blast of vitamin C
plus 13 vitamins, minerals & herbs 


3:15pm


Working on supper.
I'm using up any leftover turkey and carrots I had
from the other day.  We had a mini Thanksgiving dinner then
had a couple days of turkey sandwiches with the one turkey.
So there was three meals from one turkey.
Now maybe another two more meals with the
remaining leftovers.
I cut them all up into small
pieces.  Then in a big pot I added the turkey
carcass with some water and will boil it to
make some turkey broth for egg noodles to
boil in.   Then will mix the egg noodles, turkey,
carrots and a can of cream of mushroom soup together.
Change of plans.  I think I'll use up the last two boxes
of mac and cheese to make this with instead of
a bag of egg noodles.  I'll save those for some
tuna and noodles another day.
So I guess this would be called Turkey Mac.
My body is really aching and I'm trying
my hardest to make this for supper
when I'd rather be in bed.
I took acetaminophen about an hour and a half
ago and I'm not feeling any relief from it.

Hubby's got the on call pager this week
except for Thanksgiving day.  He traded his
on call with someone else since he had already
made plans to go out of town that day.
But he does have to work the day after Thanksgiving
and gets Monday the 26th off.

3:55pm


Hubby's gonna be late getting home tonight.
He got an emergency call about a major clogged drain and had
to call Waterworks to get it and has to wait
on them to get there.  Then after that he's putting
a battery in a coworker's car for her.
Gonna make $20 doing that.
It would be nice if her old battery would fit
hubby's car.  Some shop told her that her battery
only had 50% life left in it.  It can be charged up
and would be better than one that dies after a couple
days of use that's for sure.  You know how those shops
are anyway.  They could probably tell you anything
to make a sale on a battery.  She's had no problems
with starting her car with this other battery in it
and bought another one because the shop told
her she needed one soon. 
My mom once had a car battery that lasted
10+ years.  That's about 6-8 years past
the time they claim a battery is good for!


7:50pm


Well hubby installed the battery for the gal at work.
The battery won't fit his car but the girl still
gave him the battery which means we can scrap it
for $5 to $7.  So in all actuality he will
have made $25 to $27 putting in a battery 
and keeping the old one!
Not too shabby for 15 to 20 minutes worth of work.

Hubby found me some goodies in a skip 
apartment today.  A skip is an apartment where
the people who lived there just up and move out
without any notice or telling anyone.

1500 Revlon Tourlamine Ceramic Hair Dryer
with attachments.

Wave Ceramic Ionic Hair Styler with attachments and box.

String lights with bird covers.

New bottle of Tide Stain Release Boost.

Well I think I'm gonna head to bed soon.
My body is hurting pretty good.
I went to stand up not long ago and my
hips and back feel like there is a kink in them
making it hard to walk again.
Almost fell over and stubbed my toe into
the corner of the wall because of it.
It figures this crap is gonna start back up
now that I got holiday cooking and baking to do
Wednesday along with giving the kids hair cuts and a trip to Indian Lake Thursday.
SUCKS SUCKS SUCKS!
The generic Tylenol isn't working too well
and that's all I can take for the pain.
Sucks you just never know when this
crap is going to make an appearance.
Earlier today I felt the pain starting but
didn't have trouble walking or with my hips and back.
That was a surprise to me within a couple of minutes
of sitting down then trying to get back up
and about falling on my face when standing.








 

11-18-12

6:20am

Ok, I got up a half hour earlier than I wanted to.

Why?  Because a little fuzzball has been meowing

non stop during the night to the point I turned

the tv on in our bedroom to drown him out. 

Why?  Because we shut the bedroom door and

he couldn't get in our room.  AHHHHH! 

Sitting here enjoying the quietness.

One child did get up though about the 

same time as me.  

I'm checking out some of the Hostess auctions

on Ebay and they are just so crazy at this time!

See for yourself the ridiculous prices people

are putting on these snack cakes HERE.

In the millions!  Come on now!

I'm pretty sure someone will come along and buy

the Hostess company and start making all

their products once again.

I don't know if these prices are to make

a statement about them going out of business or what.


1:45pm


At 12:00pm we set up the solar heater in the yard.
It's not connected to the house just yet.
The temperature outside is 54 degrees and full sun.
By 1:00pm the temperature in the
solar can heater got to 210 degrees!

 To show you the heat that comes out of
this solar heater I have a video clip of the shadow
behind it.  You can actually see the heat exhaust
in a shadow up against the car cover!
Look really close to see the heat waves.

6:00pm


I've been so tired today and actually just got
up from a couple hour nap not long ago
then fixed supper of creamed chipped corned beef
over biscuits for everyone.

This morning we went to the last day of the 
flea market for this year.
  
I bought 3 boxes of Little Debbies.
They were either .75 cents a box or 3 for $2.00.
So I paid .67 cents a box when I got three.
-blueberry swiss roll
-boston cream roll
-chocolate chip granola bars

I also bought 3 Betty Crocker cake mixes.
Those were also 3 for $2.00.
-butter pecan
-french vanilla
-butter yellow

And lastly I bought my honey
a Jeff Gordon item for $2.00.
He didn't see it and I plan to put it back for Christmas.
Just like this one HERE. 

It's a good thing I got a couple loads
of laundry done the other day.
I haven't felt like doing anything today
because of being so freaking tired thanks
to a bleeping cat! I probably got 4-5 sleep last night.
The kids only have two days of school this week
so I can play catch up some on those days off.
Well minus Thanksgiving day.  We won't
be home and will be going to Indian Lake that day
to the in-laws home.


7:00pm


This pisses me off-  I went to Sears website for
an early black Friday sale they were having this evening.
They had 32 inch lcd tvs for $97!
It said free site to store shipping but it also
said there were no stores in my area available
to do that.  Then in the side margin it said
free shipping on orders over $49 so I thought ok cool
I'll have it shipped to the house.  Well
there was no option available to click to have it shipped.
I tried my damndest to get it to go through and
nothing worked on the shipping part.  So bummed!
It is no longer available but they have some 
other things you may want to check out.
It is only good for 1 day 4 hours according
to their countdown timer.

11-17-12

10:35am

Took some scrap metal to the recycling place this morning.

Made $57.96 off the little bit we took there,

aluminum, brass and copper

along with a couple furnace motors.

While at the scrap place I noticed they had a dryer duct and asked

if they sell stuff that I was interested in

purchasing it.  The guy said yes and told me $1.00.

I would assume they would have deducted that

off my check but when looking at the check

I didn't see it on there so I must of got it free.

They didn't ask me for a dollar so who knows.

 A very good deal either way.

 

 On our way over to the bank to deposit

the scrap metal check I saw a garage sale and stopped.

I only had $1.00 cash.

Here is what I got for my $1.00-

Mr. Wonderful talking doll.

Mom had gotten one of these earlier this year

at a yard sale and gifted it to a friend so

that's how I knew what it was.

It didn't talk when I bought it and had to replace

it's batteries.  Now I'm gonna give mom

a Mr. Wonderful for either Christmas or her birthday, lol.

I also bought a pair of long black suede boots.
Loving them!  They are so lightweight.
I hate shoes/boots that are clunky and heavy.

After the bank we stopped by Speedway so

hubby could get a coffee.

I just had to get a package of orange Hostess cupcakes, lol.

My favorite!

I put them in the freezer once home.

We also got a coupon for a free cold drink or coffee

by using our Speedy Rewards card.

Well I'm gonna go fix everyone hot dogs for lunch

then go work on my solar heater.

4:30pm

Been working all afternoon on the solar heater.
IT IS FINALLY DONE!!!  YEAHHHHH!!!
Well except for hooking the dryer ducts up to it.
I have to let any and all silicone that we used on it
dry overnight.  Then tomorrow I have to 
set it out in the sun with no ducts hooked to it to "bake" and cure the paint and give it time to get any silicone or paint
fumes out of it before hooking to the house.
I do have one solar fan hooked to it to vent out the heat
and I'll use the electric fan indoors to put 
air into it.
I'm just too freaking tired to even post all the pics tonight
about everything we did, which was a lot!
I'll post them under the Solar Can Heater tab up top
when I get a moment.

Even added metal trim around the outside of the box
and drilled a hole in the
side and added a thermometer to see what the 
actual temperature inside the box gets to.


Even got the window piece done.
The dryer ducts will hook to these
and run to the solar heater.
The electric fan will go into the bottom hole.
This design I had to come up with myself.
Most solar can heaters you see on Google
or YouTube have them going into windows
that slide up and down or the holes going directly
into the side of the house.  I don't think I've seen
one going into windows that slide side to side. 

Tony must of told his boss/supervisor at work what I was making.
Well boss man doesn't believe that this solar heater 
will work.  I am so praying that it does!
I gotta show those maintenance guys
that a woman is also capable of doing something
like this and making it work. ;0P
I have studied so long and hard as to how
to make this thing and worked really hard
with putting it together!  I took my time
so as to not screw it up and have to redo anything on it.

We also did some yard work today.
And I managed to get a couple loads of laundry done.
Used a leaf blower and blew all the leaves in the
backyard up along the back fence where I planted
the rose bushes to give them a blankie this Winter.
Hubby mowed the front yard and just ran over
any leaves out there.  Got the gutters cleaned out
of any leaves and pulled up any dead flowers
in the flower beds around the yard.
I'm beat.  I couldn't find any acetaminophin 
for any aches and pains this evening so took
a couple ibuprofen which I'm not supposed to take.
I don't think it would hurt as long as I don't do
it all the time.

The boys did help out in the yard so that was a plus.

The leaves in the rose bed along the fence. 

Well it's 6:30 and I'm ready to head to bed!
I went to bed last night about this same time.
 Didn't go right to sleep and watched tv for a bit
and cuddled up with my heating pad.
I told hubby I'm cheating on him with the heating pad.
The heating pad is a HOTTIE!  Who could resist!  LOL.
I got up at 6:30am this morning
and plan to get up at the same time tomorrow
morning.  Heading to the flea market one last
time this year tomorrow morning.

11-16-12

7:35am

I just read that Hostess, the maker of

Twinkies, Ho Ho's Ding Dongs and Wonder Bread,

is going out of business.

:0(


8:30am


Video of my surveillance camera this morning.
The clock is wrong on the security camera
and needs set back an hour still.
The end part is funny.

9:45am


Testing out the twin fans I bought
at the flea market last weekend.
The electric plug that came with them
did not work.  When testing on a 9 volt battery
both fans worked.  Now have them tied into
a solar panel to see if they will work on that.
It is sunny in the spot I put them in.
My shadow is covering the solar panel while taking the photo.

Last weekend at the flea market I had
the idea to buy a set of training wheels
that go on a bicycle for a buck to put on
the sides and bottom of the solar can heater
to be able to move it around if need be
instead of having two people try and pick it up.
Tony didn't think it would work so I didn't get them.
It's something I thought I would throw out there for y'all though.
I still like the idea though and should have bought them!


11:15am


Got the two dryer duct hosed out.
Gotta remember to do that when you find them
along side of the road, lol.  Obviously they've
been used on a dryer and have some lint in them.
Don't need that blowing around inside
the solar heater or inside the house!


My goal today is to figure out the fans on the solar
heater and how to install them into the bedroom
window and solar box. 

Here is how I think I figured out the electric fan
to push air from the house into the solar heater.
First off I took off the grid on the back because
I thought it got much better air flow.
Then I inserted the fan into the back of the dryer vent.
This will be on the inside of the house. 

(fan was $3.93 at the thrift store.
2 vents were $5.00 each at Habitat ReStore)


On the front of the dryer vent I removed the slats.

I will add a piece of pipe to connect the dryer duct
on the outside of the house.
I'm gonna try and cut this piece in half so it's not so long.

 Two vents for an inlet and outlet of air
will sit in the window sill.
A piece of plywood with some leftover insulation panel
will sit in between the vents.

I'm still gonna try and add a solar powered computer
fan to the solar box itself on the outlet end
where the hot air will come out to go into the house.
The solar panel running this fan has rechargeable batteries
in it so the fan will still run after the sun starts to set
to allow a little more heat to be drawn out of the 
solar heater even if no sun is directly hitting it.

I know this all sounds confusing to everyone
as I work on it a little at a time.
It at least helps me as I go along.
I have started a Solar Can Heater
step by step guide at the top to see how
to make one.
I'm really hoping to get it all done this weekend.
By the time hubby comes home from work at 5 during the week
to even try to help me with it, it's dark outside.
So that's why it is taking so long to do.
We're pretty much doing it on the weekends. 


3:35pm


I took the wood headers out of the solar heater
and decided to use some of the insulation panel
in its place.  I took a knife and cut out all the holes
to line up with the cans.  That was much easier than trying to
drill holes out of wood!  Got one header siliconed
to the cans on one side then filled in any gaps on the other
side of the header inside the holes.

Still need to silicone the other end. 
But unfortunately I ran out of silicone.
I went back to using the waterproof silicone
which is flexible unlike the high heat caulk
which dries hard as a rock.

Need another tube to silicone the top header cans
and then to silicone the glass to the top of the box.
But before I put any glass on I still need to
cut out the top and bottom vent holes and
spray paint all the cans.


5:00pm

If you find one of these envelopes with this
card in it, in your mail, you should probably throw it
away after what I have been reading online about it.
 No where on the envelope or card inside is
a company name or phone number.  That was the first
red flag that made me go online and investigate it further.
Second, if it sounds too good to be true then
it probably is.  Don't send away for something
you know nothing about, especially with
your signature on it!
I'm gonna assume it's a scam.
It's in the trash!! 


The price of Hostess cupcakes & Twinkies
are starting to skyrocket on Amazon.
Going for $20 to $25 a 10 count box!!!
I love my snack cakes and all but ain't paying
that kind of price!  My favorite Hostess
was the orange cupcakes (sigh and hoping someone
buys the company and starts making them again along
with the Wonder bread!!)
but there's always Little Debbie snack cakes.