Last Week's Thrifty Moves

I baked two loaves of whole wheat bread.

I finished the baby afghan and made another scarf set for my Etsy store out of the variegated brown and blue yarn you all seemed to like so much.  I also agreed to help a co-worker crochet a baby blanket for her new grandson.  Mainly she just needs a refresher course.

I watched two episodes of Downton Abbey and Antiques Roadshow on PBS online for free.  I watched a few cooking shows on PBS too.

As a family we watched Castle on Hulu for free.

We veered a little off course from our menu plan in order to use up some leftovers.

Somehow we ended up with extra milk again this week.  Lucky us!  I made a batch of homemade vanilla pudding and a batch of homemade butterscotch pudding.  Delish!

We used up a dab of sour milk in a batch of homemade cornbread which we enjoyed with leftover bean and bacon soup pulled from our freezer one evening.

My darling daughter decided to re-grow lettuce.  Using a wide mouth half pint jar she filled it half way with water and stuck the root end from a head of romaine we had just finished up inside.  Within two days we already had new growth!

After work on Thursday I stopped at the gas station and used my rewards points to save an extra 10¢ a gallon.  I paid $1.75 a gallon to fill my tank.  I am thrilled that my last tank of gas lasted me an entire month.

Since JoAnn Fabrics is next door to the gas station I stopped in and picked up more yarn on sale.  I have a lot of projects planned for each of these.  Now I just need to get them done.  I also used a 50% OFF coupon to get this one gallon Ball jar for $12.50..  Not sure yet what I plan to put inside yet, I have a ton of ideas though, but I fell in love with this thing so I treated myself.

I finally finished up that upside down bottle of lotion in my bathroom.  I even stuck my pinky inside to swipe out every last bit.  It is one of my favorites and I love it.  Now I get to start using the stuff my girls got me for Christmas.  Yaaaay!

My dear friend gave me more coupons from her Sunday paper.  I clipped a bunch of them and some online coupons as well.

I mended the lining on my daughters jacket where the seam had come undone.

Saturday the girls and I changed the oil on our truck and topped off the fluids.  We put the used motor oil in a well rinsed milk jug to set out for the trash man to pick up for recycling.  They have a receptacle on the garbage trucks to collect it in.

I installed the new light fixture I purchase from Home Depot online last month for 50% off the regular price and free shipping.  It replaced the broken one in my bedroom that our tenants mangled.  It looks much better than the original so in a way they ended up doing me a favor.  I love it.  Slowly but surely my bedroom is coming right along.

Before

After - Huge improvement!

After all that work we decided we had earned a trip to the Antique Mall just for fun and it was!  We love to go there as see all the neat stuff they have.  I will post more about our adventure in a separate post.  Afterward we went for a hamburger at our favorite 50's diner complete with waitresses on roller skates.

A trip to Home Depot on the way home to get light bulbs for the new light fixture also produced a new lawn rake and a garden rake as well, which we desperately needed.  We have been borrowing our neighbors lawn rake to clean up leaves with.  I also picked up a replacement electrical outlet for the one that isn't working anymore and a couple outlet covers to replace a couple in my bedroom that somehow got broken.  Many more projects lie ahead for us.

I was on my last one so I had a new key cut for our truck at Fred Meyer.  While I was there I picked up a 25# bag of all purpose flour for $8.29.  After doing the math is was a much better value than the smaller bags I usually buy.  That ended up being the only grocery shopping I did all week.

How thrifty were you last week?