Last Week's Thrifty Moves

I cut out and sewed two pair of gym shorts for my youngest who decided to join her school's track team.  We bought the sweatshirt fabric with a 50% OFF coupon making them just $4.50 each pair.  I saved more money by using a pajama shorts pattern, plus thread and elastic I already had.

A few years ago I figured out a way to use the narrower elastic in waistbands by stitching two sets of rows and working 1/4" elastic through each stitched casing.  I discovered I actually prefer this method as the elastic doesn't twist and the waistband is more comfortable.  I also double stitched the hem to give them the athletic look of store bought shorts.  She loves them.

I baked two loaves of whole wheat bread.

I cleaned out the jar a candle came in by removing the last remnants of wax and the labels before scrubbing it clean.  I think it will be great to re use it as part of a gift for someone.  Perhaps I'll fill it with candy or some homemade bath salts.  It's a really nice jar, too nice for the recycle bin at this time.  It would also be great for storage.

I added a half cup of bleach and some warm water to my Clorox Clean Up bottle.  I refilled my spray bottle with a cup of Fabulosa (I buy that at the dollar store) and the rest of the way with warm water.

The girls hanging out in the sunshine with my oldest.
They are really growing fast.

The weather was warm enough to keep the main heat off.  We have only needed to use our infrared heater periodically after the sun goes down.  It does an amazing job.

We got some pretty good rain this week so I didn't need to water the newly seeded area in our lawn.  I was hoping this would be the case if I seeded early enough this spring.

I worked several hours of overtime again this week.

I cut the bottom off a milk jug, filled it with soil from the garden and planted about a half dozen Roma tomato seeds.  The seeds were some my daughter saved and dried when she cut up a tomato to make a salad.  We will see what happens and if they germinate.  So far none of the other seeds we planted a couple weeks ago have sprouted.  We may need to start over.

I took the sliver of soap left in the shower and grabbed a new bar of soap then got them both good and wet so I could stick them together.  Laminating soap slivers to a new bar helps us to easily use it up with virtually no waste.

Thursday evening I sold my little washing machine after advertising it on Craigslist.  I was a little sad to see it go but I am very grateful to have the extra money.

Fred Meyer sent me another coupon booklet in the mail.  Yaaaaay!

My oldest won an award at school last month.  The prize for winning awards at our house is that we go out to dinner as a family to the restaurant of the winner's choice.  Since the youngest also won an award a week earlier we celebrated her dinner in February and then Friday night we celebrated the oldest's achievement.  I had a $5 coupon to use and instead of ordering a dessert to share we decided it was a much better deal for all of us to use that money and stop at Albertson's on the way home.  We used a store coupon to buy two cartons of ice cream for $1.99 each (less than the price of one dessert).  While we were there the girls turned in their winning Monopoly game ticket for a free package of Oreo cookies.  The mint ones were back in stock. 

The young one and I got up early Saturday morning to beat the crowd at the grocery store.  There were several pantry items I was low on or out of that I knew we could pick up reasonably at Winco.  I also had some bulk bin items to get.  I used the money from the sale of the washing machine to fund this trip.

I ordered some more beer brewing supplies from Amazon.  I also shopped online for larger chicken feeders.  I didn't buy any yet.

How thrifty were you last week?