Last Week's Thrifty Moves

It was HOT last week.  Record breaking heat and as a result I expect a high water bill as well as the electric bill next month.  The A/C units have been running much more than usual and I've been watering a lot more too.  I did my best to economize in other areas, however.

I made two small loaves of whole wheat bread.

I used a frozen water bottle placed in front of my fan to help keep my bedroom cool.  I used a metal cake pan on top of a towel to catch the drips from the condensation on the sides of the bottle.  In the morning I just put it back in the freezer and it was ready to use again by bedtime.

I shared another one of my thrift store paperbacks I finished reading with my next door neighbor.

I cleaned out the crisper drawer and made a chicken stir fry for supper.  We enjoyed the leftovers for lunch the next couple of days.

Miss Matilda

We gave our kitchen scraps to the chickens.  I composted coffee grounds, vegetable trimmings that were too hard for the chickens to eat, eggs shells, banana peels, onion and garlic skins.

A friend lent me the first season of Nip Tuck to watch.  I'm not sure I'm a fan yet, but it was very nice of her to lend it to me.

I harvested 10 fat blueberries (Edith harvested two for herself) off my new bush, delicious.  I also harvested lettuce, two red bell peppers and the last two radishes.

I had the day off of work on Friday and I spent the majority of the day sewing!  And yes, my daughter's curtains are finally finished.  She is thrilled and I am too because everything I used to make them I already had on hand.  Yay!  I am also happy to finally have this project off of my list.  I'll be posting more on my other sewing projects I completed very soon.

I sneaked in and took this while my daughter was sleeping.
I'll try to post some better pictures a little later.

My oldest daughter took a job Friday and Saturday working for a family friend who owns a moving company.  She helped pack up a house and it was hard work.  Our friends are also moving and they had done some purging.  My daughter came home with a tablet and a Nook, both in perfect, like new condition.  My daughter kept the tablet for herself and gave me the Nook.  I was so excited for both of us.  What a blessing!

Early Saturday morning I got outside ahead of the heat and finally finished cleaning up the backyard and getting it back in working order.  It looks so much better back there.  So nice now to sit on the deck and drink coffee in the morning or enjoy a meal.  I'll be posting more about this as well.

I burned our "shreddables" in our firepot.  I'll compost the ashes later.

I washed and reused several gallon and quart sized Ziploc bags.

I baked cupcakes and made a salad to take to our other friend's for a 4th of July celebration.  Every year they host a BBQ complete with a water balloon fight and fireworks display.  Every year the fireworks get better and better. It was a ton of fun!

How thrifty were you last week?

The blueberry thief searching for bugs