Last Week's Thrifty Moves

Much to my daughters' delight I made homemade donuts from scratch for Sunday breakfast.

I saved the rendered fat after cooking some bacon.

We washed the girl's comforters and hung them on the line to dry.

We harvested our first vegetables.  Beautiful radishes from our garden.  We sliced them thin for a salad and gave the tops to our chickens.  The girls planted more radish, beet and green onion seeds.

On "Tightwad Tuesday" I took my girls to the theater for just $1 a ticket to see the newest Cinderella movie.

I burned my little stack of "shreddables" in our backyard firepot.  The cooled ashes will be added to our compost bin.  I composted coffee grounds, tea bags, egg shells and the hard core from a head of cauliflower.

I did not do any grocery shopping this week.

I bartered with an electrician for electrical parts and services in exchange for two pair of eyeglass frames from the inventory I have in the garage.  He came over after I got home from work and installed a new outdoor receptacle on the back of the house so I can plug in a heat lamp and water feeder for our chickens next winter.  It will also be handy for plugging in power tools when we do projects back there.  I am thrilled to have it.  Much more convenient for us than running extension cords from the outlet at the front of the house.

The girls used their new bus passes to go to the library and checked out books, a DVD and a Harry Potter game to play on their Wii.

We watched the last episodes of Castle and The Goldbergs on Hulu for free.  I watched a documentary about Prince John on YouTube for free.

Radishes from the garden

I finished reading a Dean Koontz paperback novel I had bought last year at the thrift store for 35¢ .  I took it over to my next door neighbor so she can read it now.  I started reading another one of my thrift store finds written by Mary Higgins Clark.

I started crocheting another scarf and headband set to give as a gift.  I am using up some of my yarns leftover from other projects for my accent colors.

We went through all of the girls clothing, passed down those that fit my youngest and filled up a black trash bag with the rest to be donated.  Now I am ready to make a list of items needed for school next fall.

This year I didn't need to print off the school calendar and supply list for next year.  My daughter's teacher sent it home on the last day of school.  On Saturday we went through all of the supplies the girls had brought home.  After picking out what was re-usable, which turned out to be most of it, I filled in with what we had in the "School Supply" box I keep in the linen closet.  Fortunately, I was able to cross off most of what is on the list.  We even sharpened the pencils!

I put the girls backpacks into the wash, hung them to dry.  I am so happy that they are still in really good condition.  Once they were dry I put the supplies we have so far inside and hung them up in their closets.  As we acquire the rest of the supplies we still need we'll add them to the backpacks.  By the time school begins again we'll be ready.

My oldest removed the pages she had used in a spiral notebook and gave me what was left so I can use it to make my infamous lists.  I am very glad to have it.

How thrifty were you last week?