Last Week's Thrifty Moves

Visitors at our front door

I took everything out of our pantry, washed all the shelves and walls inside and then adjusted the brackets to reposition the shelves for a better use of space.  I was able to clear out all the containers with little dabs of this and that left inside and get them used up.  I was also able to get everything reorganized and put away while rotating items to put the oldest things in front.  I made a list of the items we are low on and other things I want to stock up on for winter.

I made a big batch of refried beans and four pints of vanilla yogurt.

eBay gave me 20 free listings this month so I listed four more items.  I sold three of the items I listed the week before and relisted one of the unsold items.  Then I added three more items to my listings.

Monday evening I turned my daughter's bed pillow into two pillow forms.  She is a fitful sleeper and somehow managed to tear the insides of her new bed pillow nearly in half.  I gave her a new one and decided to see if I could do anything with the damaged one.  After washing it with hot water, laundry detergent and bleach I ran it through the dryer.  Then I simply cut it in half, added some polyfil stuffing to even out the gaps and stitched it closed on the ends.  When I was finished I had two perfectly good pillow forms.  I plan to make a couple throw pillows for our home.

While at work I got a text message from the girls on Tuesday telling me that there were two eggs in the coop.   Then on Saturday Penelope, our Americauna, laid us a green egg.  Now three of our chickies are laying.  Hooray!!

I was really big on the "no money" shopping tactics this week.  I did some more Christmas shopping and bid on some sewing supplies that were listed on eBay.  I used some of my earnings from my eBay sales to pay for those items.  Then I used my JoAnn's gift card to buy three small 1/3 yard pieces of fabric for some things I want to make for my Etsy store.

I took one of the pillow forms I made and turned it into a throw pillow for my bed using fabric I already had and a piece of lace appliqué trim I was given from a vintage wedding gown.  I love how it turned out.

We fed kitchen scraps to our chickens.  I composted coffee grounds, tea bags, egg shells, grape stems, a lettuce core and garlic skins.  I harvested tomatoes, lettuce, jalapeno peppers, bell peppers and cucumbers from the garden.

I was blessed with a gift of $75 to go shopping at the new grocery outlet store that opened a couple of weeks ago.  I grabbed my $10 OFF a $50 Purchase coupon I received in the mail and the girls and I checked it out.  We love the new store and we made quite a haul.  I treated us to humus, spinach dip and a variety of cheeses.  I also stocked up on baking supplies and items for school lunches as well as several other items we were low on.  The girls had a great time and we had a little Friday night party to celebrate our mini windfall.  We will definitely be going back.

I cut out a new tea towel and ironed on a chicken transfer.  Finally!  Let the embroidery begin!

The girls took the city bus to the library to check out books and borrowed a Wii game.  We played the game on Family Movie Nite.  It was a lot of fun and good exercise for the youngest now that she is a little more mobile.

The chickens blessed us with 12 eggs last week.  I love my chickens!

How thrifty were you last week?