an evening on an island in rva

Friday evening one of my best friends, Rae, and I went down to our city's river and to the island in the middle of it - Belle Isle. We were in search of paw paws! Richmond is a gorgeous river city and I'm very fortunate to live only a couple blocks from the river. Our destination this evening, though, was just a short car ride away. I brought along my newest familial addition - Ogden, my half blind sharpei mix rescue! I brought him home in mid-July and he's settled in well.

Our view on our way to the island across the pedestrian bridge. Beautiful! Somehow neither of us had ever been to Belle Isle despite all our years here. 

Since Og is part sharpei, he's pretty aloof most of the time. He's not easily phased and in his own little world (unless he's checking on me). The bridge was a cake walk for him, but the river not so much. He's never been around water like that, so he unknowingly walked right into the river and it scared him! I tried in vain to get him to walk up closer after that. I believe he really wanted to, but he was unsure. He's grown leaps and bounds of his shy self when I got him in mid-July, so I'm sure I'll have him in the river soon, haha. 

Here's part of our beautiful city on our walk back! Our paw paw search was fruitful (no pun intended)! While the part of the island we explored was picked clean, we did manage to find two paw paws! Neither of us had had one before, so it was a special treat. And absolutely delicious. We hope to try again next year and find more!

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frugal friday

Just a few more ways I've saved and made some dollars

• I managed to snag a $350 Ikea coffee table for free from NextDoor and then listed and sold my little almost new Walmart coffee table for $15 all in one day
• A few items sold on Poshmark and I shipped them out using recycled mailing items
• My sister sent me home with two trays of vegetarian ziti after my nephew's birthday party. I ate it for a couple days, then froze it in individual containers for easy lunches
• I went to cancel my Paramount+ subscription after the free trial and they gave me two months free
• I earned 50¢ via Ibotta on an online Walmart grocery pick up
• One evening I dropped by my good friend Rae's house and after a tour of their beautiful new home and garden, she sent me home with some freshly picked basil (pictured above)
• I started my new job and fortunately have the clothing and shoes needed, although they are supplying me with a uniform once it comes in (and also free lunch every day!

I'm still on a decluttering journey. I hadn't been vigilant in a while, but really tried to buckle down recently

• Eleven plant pots, sold for $25 for the lot
• A K cup holder, sold for $7
• Four gift bags/tissue paper from my gift wrapping stash, to my nieces and nephews for their birthdays
• Small, but I brought another candle to my sister because I'm paranoid to burn them because of my anxiety 🙃
• While not intentional, I broke a baseball candy dish when I was moving the trash can

I've been dilligently trying to avoid food waste while eating through my pantry and freezer, so here's what I've used up:

• Some rainbow rotini, frozen fresh kale that I sauteed, and two chicken sausage links I don't remember picking up, tossed together with some vodka blush sauce.
• The rest of the rainbow rotini for pasta salad
• Finally used up a bag of tortillas - now only one bag left that I bought when I thought I was out
• The last of a forgotten bag of chicken tenders that I don't even remember buying
• I accidentally picked up a jar of Tomato, Onion, & Garlic pasta sauce and there were soooo many onions! I can't stand the texture of onions (I usually puree mine to still get that necessary flavor) so I ended up straining it and using the rest of it up!
• Also at my newjob, I was prepping hundreds of grilled cheese sandwiches and brought home a back of bread heels. I'm going to show my best friends how to make croutons when we do meal prep

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lucky bandit is a for profit blog. I use affiliate links and paid advertisements. I may earn compensation for a click or purchase through a link. Paid (whether via product or monetary) reviews will be noted in the actual post. Though compensation may influence the type of posts, all opinions and reviews will be legitimate and honest.

*All affiliate links will be marked with an asterick.*

frugal friday

Yet another week of how I've saved and made a few dollars!

• I never used to be a person who returned things, but now I am (within reason, of course, and never to a small business). I bought a $3.99 block of fudge from The Fresh Market that, after one bite, was just really really not good. I looked up their return policy and returned it and got my money back.
• I didn't renew my BJ's Wholesale membership, but I did redeem the $10 Sam's Club offer a bit ago to make up for it for laundry detergent and dog food.

• I earned $3.60 cash back via ibotta on a small little grocery shop. I don't eat meat, but those Deliwiches will be a nice little snack for friends. Between the ibotta deal, a sale, and a Kroger coupon, I only paid $1.49 for the frozen sandwiches.

• In another trip, I earned $8.05 via ibotta on things I would've already purchased, so I stocked up on razors, Febreze, Triscuits, and soup

More decluttering

• My office was looking for some greeting cards and I had an extra birthday card so I brought it in. I don't send them anymore, so it saved the card from the landfill. Small stuff, but it helped out!

Ways to avoid food waste:

• I made some croutons (pictured above) out of the last few stale slices of a loaf of bread
• Lately I've been really good about finishing leftovers and food I've made and haven't thrown out much at all, though I did lose a bag of hamburger buns I forgot about
• There were some miscellanous snacks in my pantry so I took them to work and I've been finishing them up so they don't go to waste
• I don't eat breakfast at home so I took my value bag of vegan sausage patties, some folded Just Egg, and a bag of slider rolls into the office. I keep them all in the freezer and just microwave as I get hungry. I break the Just Egg in half since it's a little too big for sliders and I can get two sandwiches out of one.  

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lucky bandit is a for profit blog. I use affiliate links and paid advertisements. I may earn compensation for a click or purchase through a link. Paid (whether via product or monetary) reviews will be noted in the actual post. Though compensation may influence the type of posts, all opinions and reviews will be legitimate and honest.

*All affiliate links will be marked with an asterick.*

link love

Recently when down the rabbit hole, I discovered r/WeWantPlates on reddit and I am living for it. 

Also loving these from KWT Designs - this Seinfeld flash print, and this voracious reader tote.

I stumbled upon this post about 20 rules for making the best salads of your life. I first thought "it's salad, how am I doing that wrong?" but holy - this article has some great tips.

Bolognese is one of my favorites and I really want to try Vegan Richa's lentil version. I say this as if I don't have three different jars of bolognese sauce in my pantry.

While it's not quite gotten hot here, yet, this simple cucumber tartine sounds delicious for when it does!

Photo by Jacalyn Beales on Unsplash

my poshmark closet | shop my mercari
lucky bandit is a for profit blog. I use affiliate links and paid advertisements. I may earn compensation for a click or purchase through a link. Paid (whether via product or monetary) reviews will be noted in the actual post. Though compensation may influence the type of posts, all opinions and reviews will be legitimate and honest.

*All affiliate links will be marked with an asterick.*