Last Week's Thrifty Moves

Last week was a much more satisfying and productive thrifty week for me.

After a busy and rather hectic month of March our poor little home was a bit neglected.  Sunday the girls helped me spring clean our living room, dining room, hallway and laundry room.  We also cleaned the kitchen, both bathrooms and mopped all of the floors.  I did a ton of laundry and even washed bedding too.  It was not the typical restful Sunday we usually try for but it sure felt good to have everything nice and cleaned up.

Banana muffin, scrambled eggs w/ homemade salsa, fruit salad

The weather was nice enough I was able to open the windows and air out the house that day too.  Fresh air makes the house smell so nice.  Makes it feel cleaner too.

My youngest went through all of her clothes and pulled out items she has outgrown.  She had a big bag full for us to donate to the thrift store.  I added a couple items to her bag as well.  We stopped on the way home from track practice Tuesday so she could drop it off.

I used a really ripe banana up by making a batch of delicious whole wheat banana muffins.  We enjoyed those for several days at breakfast.

We went to the library to return the books we finished reading and checked out some new ones.

I did a Fred Meyer store survey and added an extra 50 bonus points toward a fuel discount on my rewards card.

It was time to replace my toothbrush so I stopped in at the dollar store to get a new one, a few toiletry items, a box of sandwich bags and a large bottle of fabric softener.  I also got an Easter card to send to my aunt.  I spent $9.

Beef Stroganoff, sauteed green beans

We concentrated on preparing meals using items we already had on hand in the pantry, refrigerator and freezer.  As a result we had some really good meals which included Hoison Chicken with rice, Beef stroganoff with bowtie pasta, Taco Salad made with vegetarian chili, Sirloin Steak with baked potatoes & a nice green salad, Salmon with leftover veggies I reheated, plus loads of leftovers for lunches and additional suppers.  We also had a lot of fresh fruits and veggies to add to our meals and eat as snacks.

I got some serious mileage with some soap last week.  I added water to rinse out the last bit of laundry detergent in the bottle which allowed me enough to wash a load of clothes.  I also rinsed out the fabric softener bottle to add to another load I ran.  In the kitchen I added water to the tail end of a bottle of dish soap and washed dishes for another four days.  I rinsed the gooey soapy residue off of the cap and washed an extra sink full of dishes with the soapy water it made.

Freezer haul

Saturday morning I went through the freezer in the kitchen and pulled out all kinds of goodies - leftover vegetable lasagna, chicken verde and some pot roast.  It hardly made a dent.  Turns out I have more stuff stashed in there then I thought, which is often the case.  Needless to say the girls and I won't be doing a whole lot of cooking this week, which is great because we have a fairly full schedule.

I received another JC Penney $10 OFF $10 purchase coupon in the mail so I decided to incorporate a trip to the mall into my regular Saturday morning shopping trip.  I picked up a nice Christmas gift for my youngest daughter and only spent $7 out of pocket.  I'm pretty happy about that.  I also used the other free item coupon at Bath & Body Works to pick up a mini shower gel.  I put that in my stocking stuffer stash.  I now have two lotions and two shower gels.

Saturday morning groceries

I washed out several ziploc bags to reuse.  I composted tea bags, coffee grounds, egg shells and banana peels.  We gave our kitchen scraps to the chickens.  They laid oodles of eggs too so we are really well stocked.

How was your thrifty week?