Last Week's Thrifty Moves

Oh my gosh!  Another busy week flew by in a flash.

Bread rising

Getting ready for the week ahead

Sunday morning I got my dueling bread machines working to make dough for an Italian loaf and a batch of whole wheat dinner rolls.  Then I made a triple batch of granola and while that was baking I did some food prep for packing lunches.  I prepared sliced bananas in cherry gelatin, filled up the milk containers and made a batch of peanut butter cookies.

Fresh baked peanut butter cookies

I watched a couple Nascar races on Youtube while I worked on various projects around the house.

I repaired a tear in the lining of my oldest daughters faux leather jacket.  I also re-hemmed the pants of her band uniform and then steam pressed them to remove the old creases and reset the hem.

I saved the lid from an empty peanut butter jar to use with my regular mouth canning jars.  I pulled out all the ones I have saved up and used them to cap the 1/4 pint jars I used to for the gelatin.

I made a pint of creamy Italian salad dressing.  After using a rubber spatula to scrape out the last of the mayonnaise I put a splash of milk in the jar and shook the living daylights out of it.  I used the milky mayonnaise in the salad dressing, so no waste.

I printed more embroidery stencils onto scrap paper and then traced the designs onto fabric.  I embroidered quite a bit throughout the week.  I also used scrap paper and scotch tape to make more patterns for another project I've got in the works.  I will be sure to share that with all of you when I am finished.

I taught my youngest how to make a vegetarian lasagna.  We had a lot of fun making all the parts and putting it together.  It was very tasty, a lot like baked ravioli, only better and much less expensive.

Using the cheap dish soap I buy at the dollar store I mixed up some foaming hand soap solution for the dispenser at our kitchen sink.  2 Tbs liquid soap mixed into 2/3 cup warm water.  Easy as pie.

Dinner rolls for the freezer

I did another Fred Meyer store survey and added 50 extra bonus fuel points to my rewards card.

The squirrels were kind enough to leave us three apples on our tree this year and no plums or pears.  Little buggers!  (I usually say worse)  The girls and I enjoyed one of those apples sliced and shared with a couple peanut butter cookies for our dessert one night.  It was delicious, so I can see why they steal them.

Cute! Like new and only $1.95!

On the way home from marching band practice the oldest and I popped into one of our favorite thrift stores.  I've been on the lookout for forever for a teapot and guess what?  I finally found one I liked.  For a whopping $1.95!

$4 well spent!

Very nice condition

I don't think it saw a lot of use

I also happened across another bread machine.  No, not for myself.  Remember my friend that fixed the one I had?  Well ever since they have wanted to get one so I bought this one for them as kind of a thank you for him fixing mine.  Now they both can make homemade bread to their little heart's content.  I got a screaming good deal on it.  Only $3.95!!  Can you believe that?  And it works too!

The ads last week were not all that spectacular so I did not do any grocery shopping.  Yaaaaay!  Lots of money stayed in my pocket.  And we had plenty of good stuff to eat all week long.

I worked a little bit of overtime.

Thursday night we went to my oldest's high school football game.  It was also homecoming.  The highlight, of course, was to watch her band march the halftime show (proud mommy moment).  They won the game too.  It was a lot of fun.

Before the game we had about an hour to kill and I had a couple really good coupons to use at Bath & Body Works.  I picked up a small size hand lotion (Christmas gift) for free and a tube of body cream at 20% OFF.  I use the cream as my face moisturizer and I was almost out.  They also gave me another good coupon to use next month for another free item (probably another Christmas gift).  Love that!

The youngest had a school dance Friday so the oldest and I decided to run our errands and free up the weekend before we needed to return to pick her up.  First off we needed to eat.  We used a coupon I got in the mail for a couple of bacon cheese burgers and an order of fries at Burger King for $4.  It also came with a drink.  I added a side salad and gave my daughter the fries and drank water so our entire meal was less than $6.

A trip to the liquor store for a bottle of brandy and a bottle of spiced rum was on the docket.  With the holidays approaching I have a couple of cocktail parties planned and I want to stock the liquor cabinet a little at a time until then.

Next we headed to the dollar store for a few items and a get well card for a friend of  mine who had double knee replacement surgery last week.  I also picked up a birthday card for another friend.

This guy is kind of a mama's boy

As we were shopping my daughter informed me her school backpack had a huge rip in it and one of the straps broke.  An unexpected expense but, not entirely.  I had noticed her backpack was pretty worn out.  I just didn't think it would rip out like it did.

A lifetime supply of backpacks!

We picked up little sis and headed to Walmart and boy am I glad we did.  I was expecting to spend $20 for a new backpack and as it turned out we hit a clearance sale.  The backpacks were marked down to $1 and $5!  I decided to spend the full $20 on backpacks and now we have enough to see both kids through high school and probably college too.  Two of them are for me to use for day hiking.  They have pockets for my water bottles too and are the same colors as my two favorite football teams - Boise State and the Raiders.

Can you believe this?

How was your thrifty week?