Last Week's Thrifty Moves

My darling oldest daughter cut tulips from the garden and made two arrangements to decorate our home for Easter.  She used my one good vase for the table and did the second arrangement of red tulips in a quart sized mason jar.  Both were so pretty.

I bottled my second batch of home brewed beer - another 19 bottles.

Our Easter table

I "baked" the Easter ham in my largest slow cooker.  My youngest made Deviled Eggs for the very first time with some of the eggs we dyed the day before.  My oldest made my grandmother's cabbage salad and her biscuits.  Since I was low on potatoes I used items in my pantry to make my grandmother's macaroni salad instead.  By the time family arrived we had all worked together and prepared quite a spread.  It even felt as if my grandma had been here to prepare some of it. J

I saved an empty relish jar and washed out a two gallon Ziploc bag to reuse next time I bake a loaf of bread.  I sent leftover macaroni salad home with a friend on Easter in a Cool Whip container I had saved just for this purpose.

Homemade vanilla yogurt & raspberries

Sunday evening I pulled out my bag of yarn and began crocheting a new baby afghan to sell in my Etsy store.

I made a jar of homemade buffalo ranch salad dressing.  My youngest was thrilled.

As a family we watched three episodes of Castle this week on Hulu for free.  Now we are caught up and current.  We haven't been watching much TV since we got the chicks.  We prefer to be outside with them whenever we can, it seems.  They are so funny to watch.

I received my strawberry plants in the mail on Tuesday.  By Friday they had come out of their dormant stage and were ready to plant.  As I planted them I discovered they had given me two extra plants for a total of twelve making them less than a dollar a piece.  I was very happy to get the two extra plants.

The new strawberry bed

I stopped on my way home from work Friday afternoon and filled my truck with gas.  I used my Fred Meyer rewards points to save an extra 10¢ a gallon.  When I got home I did another survey to earn an additional 50 rewards points toward my next fuel purchase.  It really makes a difference in the cost savings.

I signed up for a free sample of Fancy Feast cat food to be sent to my home.

I won $15.00 at Bunco Friday night!

I ordered and received a used paperback book I have wanted for quite some time.  I got it from Amazon for only a penny.  The shipping, however, was $3.99 but since the book is out of print and I've been longing for it for so long I felt it worth it.  Plus, after telling a friend about it I am going to share it with him after I'm done reading it so it will be enjoyed twice as much.

My very dear friend shared some raspberry vinaigrette dressing with me.  Two pints to be exact and it is delicious.  She also gave me some soaps and lotions she collected from the hotels she stayed at on her last vacation.

Saturday I took my daughter to see her friend from the neighborhood we lived in last year.  I stopped in at the corner market after I dropped her off so my youngest could get one of their fabulous donuts from the bakery.  When we went in the store we discovered an unadvertised managers sale on strawberries.  Two pound containers for $2.50 each.  I bought two containers of the strawberries along bananas from their markdown bin (they aren't old, just singles taped together), two avocados for 67¢ each, a couple apples and a few oranges.

On the way home, after picking her up, I went to Albertson's to buy milk and a case of tuna on sale for $18.92 which makes it 39¢ a can.  Ramen noodles were 12¢ a package so I bought two cases.  I also picked up six boxes of cereal bars for my oldest daughter to tuck into her backpack for a snack at school.  They were on sale for only 78¢ each.  I love loss leader items.  Plus, because I spent $25, I received a free dozen eggs.

Plus, because of the ramen being a bonus game item we received 103 Monopoly game pieces.  The girls had a ball going through all of them.  I ended up with a gob of coupons plus an instant winner for a free bag of Peet's coffee and a package of Oberti beef jerky.  Not bad!

I'm hoping next week to go back to Albertson's and get some other case goods on sale and another free dozen eggs.

We got lots of good rain last week so I didn't have to water the new grass seed at all.

How thrifty were you last week?