A few years ago I started a little Facebook group called "Frugal Family." The purpose of it was to share websites on saving money with a few of my coworkers instead of sending links in emails. There were only about 12 or 13 of us on the site which was fine. When Covid hit, a few other people asked to be a part of the site. Then Facebook decided to make all groups public and the little site started to gain more, some were scammers of course. So, I had to make it a private group and had to approve anyone who requested to join. Not an issue. I'd get one here or there and it was fine.

Suddenly I'm getting far more. On Saturday and Sunday I got almost 20. I look at each profile to try and see if I can tell if they are legit, and most seem to be. Many are members of some of the same frugal sites I have also joined. I was telling my DH I think people are struggling and looking for ways to save money where they can. I approved 5 new people this morning and within 3 hours, I have two more. It's not like this site is amazing. When I run across articles or suggestions, I share them. 

Although DH and I are doing OK moneywise, I still have sticker shock when we visit grocery stores. I'm still trying to buy stuff on sale, on clearance, or finding a decent deal, although it seems to be getting harder. But I don't think this is the case for many; I think many are struggling. It seems like we get lots of emails from non profits asking for donations as families are feeling the pinch of higher prices. 

So, I guess I'm wondering how you are seeing things in this economy? Are you seeing more people struggle? Or is it about the same as it was a couple of years ago? 

Fortunately we have not sustained damage, but in the last few weeks, we've had lots of tornadoes and bad weather here in Central Illinois. It seems like every few days we are under severe storm watches and warnings. A week ago we had major tornadoes around us and then last Sunday we had multiple tornado warnings throughout the evening. We were blessed since we had no damage, but some little towns near us did sustain damage. Sunday night was really odd, we had a tornado warning until 8:15 and we took the pups and headed to the basement. We turned on the TV to watch the weather and there was a second system so we wound up with overlapping tornado warnings. I've never experienced that before. When both cleared we were thinking it was safe to head back upstairs and our phones went off with a third tornado warning, so we had to turn the dogs back around and take shelter. We had extreme rain in addition to the wind so there were flash floods. We have a pond and we had lots of water pouring into it. I'm going to try and attach a picture that shows the water in our front yard and the water pouring in from the ditch in the front and the water running down our yard into the pond. The black at the bottom of the photo is our asphalt driveway. The flower garden was pretty swampy as you can see. 

Fortunately we didn't have water in the basement or any storm damage. But, wow, what a storm. I think the front yard might finally be drying out enough that you don't squish when  you walk. I think we've had more tornadoes in June than we have ever had. I'm sorry for those who lost homes and property. 

At our Kroger stores, there is often a shelf of clearance baked goods. Sometimes it's good stuff and sometimes, well, nothing I want. Earlier this week I scored an angel food cake for less then $3. It was really good even if it was a day away from being "best by." I'm not sure I could bake one for $2.80 and tax. I know I've checking the difference clearance areas each time I shop. A couple of weeks ago I picked up a bottle of store brand soy sauce that had a best by of 2027 for less than $2. 

Our little town doesn't have a grocery store per se. We have a small Walmart and although their ads claim otherwise, Wally World isn't always the cheapest on things. I buy a lot of loss leaders at Kroger, trying to stock up on stuff when it is on sale. Anyway, today, after church, we visited Kroger again. I don't normally go twice in one week, but realized I didn't buy Jello earlier and I have the "joy" of colonscopy prep this Tuesday. We took advantage of some of the sales, and then I checked out the bakery clearance. There was a cherry pie. It was labeled a triple cherry pie and was marked down to a little over $5, but the regular price was $12.99. DH loves cherry pie and he said go for it. I haven't had time to make one from scratch, so I figured that might be a good deal. After we checked out, we discussed our purchases. Besides it being a day out of being "best by", he couldn't figure out why they cut it down to less than half. So we did some pondering. I'm wondering if people aren't buying the big, expensive stuff because they are cutting back. I could afford the $12.99 if we really wanted, but honestly, I can't see paying that for a luxury that we really don't need. We were commenting on what was in other people's carts. Most of the folks around us were buying stuff on clearance or stuff on sale. We are thinking that everyone is going through sticker shock and wanting to get as much as they can, saving where they can.

Tonight on the national news, the CEO from Bank of America was interviewed and he said that overall spending is up by 5%. He said people are still buying things. He explained this and that, but all I could think of was, people are buying what they need and spending might look like it is up, but not for the reasons he was outlining. I think it's up because stuff costs more. A can of coffee that we could buy for $9.99 a couple of years ago is now $16.99. We still drink coffee, but you can bet I'm waiting until it goes on sale before I buy some. 

I'm not saying I'm an economical genius, because I'm not. But I will say what I'm observing is people are buying stuff, but buying less of it and trying to find more frugal items. Or perhaps I'm oversimplifying. What are you observing as you grocery shop?

Besides working out in the garden, I've been making stuff with things we have. Last year I went to pull out the ironing board and it was broken. I'm thinking maybe the grandson went to use it and didn't realize it isn't as strong as he is. It couldn't be repaired. Believe me, my hubby is handy and can fix a lot of things, but this one wasn't going to fly. I looked online and found designs that are painted on them. Some even make "people" out of them. I wasn't that crafty, but I did paint it with a blue top and then red and white stripes. I figured it was a cheap decoration for our country's 250th anniversary. 

One of our grandsons asked me if I would give him a simple sewing lesson. I made a little sewing kit for him with some extra spools of thread, needles, some straight pins, safety pins, and some extra buttons. I had him sew a button on a piece of square material and then showed him how to pin two pieces together and then sew the three edges. He made a little pillow with a button in the middle and he really liked that. We stuffed it and I showed him how to pin the other edge and he sewed that together. I felt like that was a good use of our time and he was thrilled. He's hoping to move out from his mom's place in a few months so he's trying to learn life skills like cooking and mending. Last year he and I baked white bread from scratch and banana bread; he learned the difference between yeast breads and sweet breads. 

The vegetable gardens have been keeping me busy trying to keep ahead of the weeds, which is next to impossible. We've had about three batches of radishes and green onions and one larger portion of leaf lettuce and then a smaller portion. The reason I say gardens, is we have 4 different areas. The largest is in the back of the property and it has the best soil. Our soil make up is really weird. Most of it around us is tan and very clay like. But in the very back, the soil is darker and richer. We did add some manure and compost last fall and this spring and it's fairly rich now. I have two small raised gardens that we put bags of soil in. Then there's another small area where we planted sweet corn and sunflowers. It's not totally clay, but it isn't as rich as the the back garden. Then there's the small garden by the pole barn where I have herbs planted because they like that clay soil. My Oregano and Thyme are going to town. I used some of each for my pork roast today. 

I picked some mulberries a couple of weeks ago. I know some people think they are not great fruit, but they have lots of good nutrients. I made 3 pints of jam to put in our pantry. Last year it was so dry we didn't get any mulberries and very few wild black raspberries.

My daughter in law and I attended a class on herbs through an extension department. We figured we'd get a little information and maybe, if we were fortunate, we'd get an herb to bring home. Imagine our delight when they gave us a two tiered planter and had the dirt and different herbs so we had enough to plant in each area. That was an unexpected surprise. 

Although I did buy some plants, many of the vegetable plants I grew from seed. I wanted to try that this year because plants are expensive. I did buy three cucumber plants. I'm hoping to save seeds this year to plant next year. I'm learning as I go on some of this. One plant I have not been successful with is lavender. I've tried three different times and so far, I'm not getting them. I will get a couple small plants and then they die. So, I guess I need to do more research.

My husband's late wife had a Silhouette which is like a Cricut. I've been teaching myself how to use it. I make some of my own cards. We recently did interviews for the church secretary, so I made thank you cards to thank the people on the team. It was really nice when a couple of them commented how impressed they were with not only a handmade card, but the fact I wrote a thank you note. One person said no one does that anymore and he said he misses it. 

We received some well needed rain today. My rain barrel didn't have much in it and I emptied it the other day watering some of the plants, so I'm thankful for the rain today. I'm hoping the rain will make our plants thrive instead of just survive with the tap water. 

Writing this down, it doesn't seem like I've been all that busy, but I go to bed pretty exhausted, so either I'm getting old and weak, or I don't realize how hard some of this work is. But, it's good to be busy.