Last Week's Thrifty Moves

I used the $5 Albertson's coupon my co-worker had given me the week before and funds from June's grocery budget to stock up on breakfast cereal and granola bars that were on sale for 10/$10.  The cereal will come in very handy over the busy summer.  I also bought strawberries for our Mother's Day dessert, cheese on sale and with a coupon for 99¢, cereal bars for 78¢ a box with a coupon, and ice cream for $1.49 each also with a coupon.  I also redeemed a Monopoly instant winner ticket for a free bag of caramels.  Nice!

I made four pints of vanilla yogurt.  I also made a half recipe of a Hot Milk Cake for strawberry shortcake on Sunday.  It was heavenly.  I made two small loaves of whole wheat bread.

The girls had me take them to Fred Meyer Sunday afternoon so I could pick out flowers and they bought them for my Mother's Day gift.  I got some pinks, carnations and begonias.  I picked out the pinks and had them pick out the rest.  I love what they decided to get.  While there I also bought two Hostas that were on sale for $3.99.

I hung two loads of laundry outside on the line to dry.  Sheets smell so good hung out to dry. 

On Monday I filled up my gas tank and used my rewards points at the Fred Meyer gas station to save an extra 10¢ a gallon.  Unfortunately they are no longer doing the surveys and bonus points for gas rewards.  Bummer.

After gassing up I stopped next door at Walgreens.  I used two $1 Off on two bottles of laundry detergent which just happened to be on sale there for 2/$3.  I now have a years worth of laundry soap for $4.  Not bad!

After Walgreens I went next door to Fred Meyer I bought three pounds of butter on sale for $5 bringing the total packages in my freezer right now to nine.  I think I'm well stocked with butter for the time being.

I also used three coupons to buy more cereal for my stockpile.  It was on sale for $1.59.  After coupons I got two boxes of multi grain Cheerios for 84¢ each, a box of cocoa puffs for $1.09 and a box of Trix for $1.09.  We are very well stocked on breakfast items.

I did my first official bit of Christmas shopping.  I had two 50¢ coupons for deodorant and it was on sale this week at Fred Meyer for 89¢.  Unfortunately they didn't have the deodorant in stock and because they are in the midst of a big remodel they didn't think they would get it.  The manager gave me the sale price on the larger size and after using my coupons  I was able to get two for just 39¢ each!  I will keep them for the girl's stockings.

I polished my work shoes.  Then I discovered I had a hole in the sole of one shoe and large cracks forming in the soles of both.  All of a sudden!  I checked the JC Penney website and printed off a 20% OFF coupon.  I took it in to see what they had on sale for replacements.  I ended up buying a new pair of black leather Clarks on sale for $59.99, regularly $85.00.  The coupon gave me an additional 20% off which ended up being another $12.00 savings.  While I wasn’t thrilled about the unexpected expenditure this month I was very grateful for the coupon and the sale.

I used brown shoe polish to touch up a small defect on the edge of our dining table.  Looks great and took less than 30 seconds.  Not sure why it took me over six months to get it done, however.

The girls and I put my new sewing table together and set it in place.  Once I have the sewing area put back together I'll be posting new pictures.  Right now it is kind of a mess and I haven't had a lot of time to work on it.

We had a lot of rain last week so I didn't have to water the lawn or garden.  I only hand watered the flower pots on the front porch.

That should hold us for awhile.

I fed our kitchen scraps to the chickens.  I composted coffee grounds, tea bags, onion skins, egg shells and a lettuce core.

I washed out two large Ziploc bags to reuse.  I saved a lid from a peanut butter jar to reuse with my canning jars.  They fit nicely and are great for jam and yogurt after I open it up.

I sliced up leftover strawberries, laid them out on a baking sheet and froze them.  I then put them in a freezer bag to use later.

I bought three skeins of yarn on sale at JoAnn Fabrics for $2.79 each.  While I was there I did some pricing of fabrics to make my oldest some uniform pants for school next fall.  She has also requested a skirt or two. 

I worked a little bit on the new baby afghan I started for my Etsy store.  I'm trying to squeeze that in whenever I can.

How thrifty was your week?