Last Week's Thrifty Moves

I suck at sleeping in so at the crack of dawn on Sunday morning I cleaned out and reorganized the freezer and the chest freezer in our garage so I know what I have.  I rotated older items to get used up before they freezer burn and took a good inventory.  Now I know what we have and what we need to restock.

We have been saving gallon ice cream pails all summer to use for food storage.  Luckily for me my girls were very happy to help me empty the ice cream out of the pails.  I filled them with oatmeal, rice and flour I had purchased in bulk at Cash & Carry awhile back.  The flour is in the freezer while the oatmeal and rice is in our pantry.  No longer do we need to store the big bags in our hall closet.

I made salsa and canned 6 pints to put up in our pantry.  I hope to make another batch in the coming weeks to put up as well.  We have plenty of jalapenos in the garden, that's for sure.  My girls insist it is the best batch I've ever made.

Albertson's had boneless skinless chicken breasts on sale for $1.66 a pound.  I splurged and bought 25 pounds since the price of chicken is likely to rise before too long.  I laid out the pieces on a baking sheet and pre-froze them before placing them into bags.  I filled up two of my two gallon bags and put them in the chest freezer for lots of delicious future meals.

I hemmed two pair of pants my daughter had received from a friend last year.  They were too big to wear so we put them up for awhile.  Now that they fit her she can wear them to school this year.

First day of school is hard on a girl.

The new school year began on Monday.  The week prior to school beginning I received a letter in the mail from the school district notifying us that both of the girls schools were providing breakfast and lunch free of charge as part of a new program for students.  While I had reservations about it my girls were super excited.  While I worry about nutrition and food quality, not to mention there are 18 dozen mini muffins in my refrigerator, I agreed to let them give it a try.  It definitely shortened my "to do" list Sunday not having to prep for a week's worth of lunches.  It also means that I have to make other plans for all the lunch food I had already purchased.  I'm curious to see if we notice a big savings on our grocery bill or not.

On the way home from work Monday I stopped at the "Free Wood" bin at the millwork company near my office and picked up several good pieces to use on some craft projects I want to make.

I made another jar of pickled jalapeño peppers to give to some friends of ours.  It's fun to be able to share our bounty with others.

Tuesday I used a $10 OFF $10 Purchase coupon at ShopKo to purchase a 16# bag of cat food on sale for $9.99 which made it FREE!  Whooo hoooo!

After work on Friday the youngest and I headed off for a trip to Cash & Carry.  She loves to go there with me and I love having her along.  I bought ten pounds of lean ground beef, ten pounds of lean ground pork sausage and five pounds of grated cheddar along with several bottles of seasoning sauces we enjoy, a bottle of sesame oil, ten pounds of onions and two huge bags of frozen veggies.

Saturday I was up early again.  I got all the meats and cheeses divided up and put away in our chest freezer in the garage.

I baked two loaves of bread.  One whole wheat and one Italian loaf.

My oldest made cupcakes using one of the 50¢ cake mixes and the tub of frosting we bought at the Grocery Outlet Market.  She also made a fruit and gelatin salad for our dinner.

I gave a couple dozen of our smaller eggs to some friends of ours.  We'll be selling our larger ones soon.  Feed money!

I used a $10 OFF $10 Purchase coupon at JC Penney to buy a new pair of knit pajamas from the clearance rack.  Final price was 7.99 plus tax.  I also went online and bought some more shirts for from the clearance rack.  I used an online coupon to save me an extra 20% and had my order shipped to the store for free.  My total cost for five tops came in at $39.42.  I shouldn't need any more tops for a very long time.

I harvested peppers, tomatoes and cucumbers from the garden.  We gave our kitchen scraps to the chickens and composted the inedible parts like onion skins, garlic skins and a lettuce core.  I also composted coffee grounds, tea bags and egg shells.

Look at that huge green one in the center.  Its Jumbo sized.

The chickens blessed us with 22 eggs.

How thrifty were you last week.