Last Week's Thrifty Moves

Sunday morning found me awake long before the sun came up.  I was not able to go back to sleep so I got up and fixed myself a cup of coffee before settling in to pay a bill and write out a few cards to send to some of my friends that are currently in need of encouragement.

Then I got busy in the kitchen and made three different batches of whole wheat low sugar muffins so I could use up some leftover pumpkin, a very ripe banana, some sour milk and a small bag of wild blueberries I had in the freezer.  I packaged up half of them in my recycled Ziploc bags for the freezer and put the rest in a covered dish for us to enjoy for breakfast in the week ahead.

Once the muffins were finished I put a vegetable quiche in to bake for our brunch.

While the quiche baked the oldest and I headed outside to change the oil on the truck and top off the fluids before it got too hot.  We poured the old oil into the empty wiper fluid jug to set out for recycling.  By the time we finished the quiche was ready to pull out of the oven.

I did all of my baking in our portable convection oven that I had set up in the garage so I didn't heat up the kitchen with the big oven.

I added water to my youngest daughter's bottle of shampoo + conditioner so she can use up every last bit.  I also "laminated" the sliver of soap in the shower to a new bar so we can use up every last bit of that as well.

On the way to visit a friend I dropped off our water bill in the drop box along the way.  Saved myself a stamp!  And they got paid sooner too.

Now that we are hitting the 100s the girls and I installed the A/C window units upstairs.  We made it to the 4th of July weekend, which is always the goal.  We try to only need them between the 4th and Labor Day.

Fred Meyer had sirloin steak on sale for $2.97 a pound.  I hadn't bought steak for quite a while and I wanted to take advantage of that.  I picked up a few produce items as well.  At checkout I received a coupon for $5 OFF any housewares or apparel item.

I redeemed a coupon I had received in the mail for a FREE bag of cat treats.

I went back to Fred Meyer to use my $5 OFF coupon and picked up a new mini Crockpot for Laverne.  I noticed while we were on vacation our other one had a frayed cord at the base and the crock had several cracks.  Time to upgrade.  The slow cooker was on sale for $10.99 so my final price was a whopping $5.99! 

The girls used their bus passes to ride downtown to the library.  While they were there they each got to pick out a FREE book to keep!  They sure liked that!  They also checked out some movies and a game for their Wii to enjoy once it gets too hot to be outside.

I baked two loaves of whole wheat bread for a friend of mine just because he asked me to.  I used the convection oven in the garage so I didn't have to heat up the kitchen.

Saturday I had my girlfriends over to play pinochle.  I used items I already had on hand to make Chinese Chicken Salad.  It is always a hit, especially on a hot summer day.

Saturday's grocery haul.  More marked down produce & bread.

I washed out several Ziploc bags to reuse.  I ended up using them to repackage the steaks I bought at Fred Meyer.  The youngest labeled them and out to the deep freeze they went.

I found 11¢ lying in the Fred Meyer parking lot and a penny on the sidewalk near our house.  I added it to my change jar.

We composted coffee grounds, tea bags, banana peels as well as pepper seeds and stems.  Our new compost bin is working like a charm with things already breaking down.

The new pen area is working out quite nicely.

We gave our kitchen scraps to the chickens as well as plenty of cool water with the heat we've been having.

It was up in the 100s all week.  Thankfully it cooled down nicely at night so we haven't needed to run the A/C units 24/7.  Early each morning I've been able to open windows and set the box fan at the back door to blow in fresh air.  Sure makes a difference.

How was your thrifty week?