Monday, October 29, 2018

Last Week's Thrifty Moves



After the craziness that was our week I slept in a bit Sunday morning and didn't crawl out of bed until 8:00, just as daylight was beginning.  I got up and started my day off by clearing everything out of our refrigerator and giving the inside a good scrub.  Then I put everything back and neatly organized the shelves.  I took some leftover salad and rice out to the chickens, collected an egg while I was at it and then took out the trash.  Once that was done I settled in with a hot cup of coffee to do some writing and even watched a few Youtube videos.  The sun was out and with the changing fall leaves my view out of my living room window was superb.  A great start to my week.  Around noon I got busy once again, clearing out and reorganizing our hall closet.  During our construction projects over the summer, this space ended up being a bit of a catch all for stuff that needed to be somewhere other than its usual spot.

All spiffy clean & organized

Monday is always such a tease.  We usually don't have anything scheduled that day so I just come home, fix dinner and spend some time with my kids.  But then Tuesday arrives and we are off to the races.  After meeting my oldest at band practice it was teacher conference time.  Same on Wednesday with my youngest only I picked her up at home and then off to teacher conferences we went. 

My oldest got her senior yearbook picture email prompt so we could go online and order some.  I was super excited and all set to place an order.  Oh my gosh they are expensive!!  Too far out of our budget I'm afraid.  So I did what they hope you won't and snipped the picture and printed them off on photo paper using our inkjet printer.  Not perfect, but not bad either and since I already had the paper and the ink it didn't cost us anything extra.  I printed off two 5" X 7"s and 9 wallet size that would have cost $169 had I purchased them from the studio!  I personally don't know how most families can even begin to afford that.

Oh my gosh, my sweet baby all grown up

After cleaning and reorganizing the refrigerator the week before I made it my mission to use up all the little odds and ends I had found in there so nothing would go to waste.  Lunchmeat, cheese, soup, salsa, juice and some condiments got all used up in lunches I made throughout the week.  I pulled stuffed bell peppers, sirloin steaks and a lasagna from the freezer for supper.  The girls had a canned soup night while I had scrambled eggs one evening.  The freezer lasagna saved the day both teacher conference nights as the youngest was home Tuesday and put it in the oven for us and then we reheated the leftovers on Wednesday in the microwave.  Bagged salad both nights with cherry tomatoes from our garden.  Easy peasy!  We also did quesadillas one evening and finished up the leftover lasagna for lunches.  Quick and easy meals to get on the table last week.  Pretty darn tasty too.

Friday's Fred Meyer grocery haul

I cleared out the bread drawer in the refrigerator and took out stale hotdog and hamburger buns to the chickens.  They also enjoyed all of our kitchen scraps from me making salads.

I picked up our Christmas dinner too! NY Strip steaks

Even better than the sale price, I had a $3 OFF coupon for their meat dept
so five NY Strip steaks for only $13.15!!  Yaaay!

Friday there was no school, but there still was band practice.  I picked up the oldest and one of her band mates from marching band practice (last one!-sniff, sniff) after work.  We dropped off the band mate and then we stopped at Fred Meyer on the way home to pick up a few groceries.

Found some markdowns
  

Saturday was all about the BIG high school marching band competition as Boise State.  We are all about supporting those kids so off we went to drop the girl off at the high school to join her band and then the youngest and I were headed to the stadium to watch and cheer everyone on.  I absolutely love marching band competitions.  I cheer on my old high school (Go Braves!) and my daughter's, plus everyone else for that matter.  It just makes my heart soar.

That's my girl on the left making her mama so proud

I washed out several Ziploc bags to reuse.  I put anything and everything recyclable into our big blue bin and dumped another collection container full of stuff into our compost bin outside.  My daughter added rabbit litter to the compost as well.


I mixed up some more Fabulosa and water (1 part Fabulosa to 3 parts water) in my spray bottle to use as our all purpose cleaner.  I use it on just about everything, including my tile floors.  I also used my Mean Green degreaser to give the new range hood a good cleaning as well as our stove top.

Fall in Boise, Idaho is pretty gorgeous

I mended a couple small holes in one of my favorite NFL T-shirts.  Awhile back one of our kitties had gotten startled and leaped off of me tearing my shirt and scratching up my tummy pretty good.  I don't even remember what had scared him.  Scratches have long healed by my shirt hadn't so I was glad to finally make that repair.

How was your thrifty week?



12 comments:

  1. Hi Dana!

    I know I'm repeating myself but you are a whirlwind. If I accomplished in a week what you accomplish in a day, I'd be so happy. My favourite part of Monday is eating my lunch at my desk and reading your roundup of the previous week.

    I *love* the picture of your daughter. She is so beautiful and she has such a bright and ambitious face: the world is that lovely girl's absolute oyster.

    I had a couple of frugal wins last week. Because of my working hours, I am rarely in the supermarket for "yellow sticker" reductions but yesterday I found myself in a Tesco (major UK food retailer) a few minutes before they closed. I made out like a bandit! Just a few scores: two organic chickens for 25p each, a turkey crown for 47p, 25 meatballs for 10p, a pound of mushrooms for 13p and two Romaine lettuces for 6p each!

    The other win was that a girlfriend and I decided to go for a glass of wine at the less expensive of the two pubs in our village. It's a longer walk but much less expensive. Anyhoo, as well as saving on our glass of wine, I found a book I have been so excited to read (but couldn't justify buying) in the pub's book exchange bin.

    On the downside, winter has appeared much earlier than I expected so I had to put the heating on before 1 November. And I decided to put my washing on the clothes line this morning since it's dry and windy. I had just done so when a seagull flew over (I live at the seaside) and left a "deposit" so I'll need to wash everything again.

    Some you win; some you lose!

    Anyway, have a brilliant week.

    Love,

    Heloise Xx

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    1. Oh Heloise! That darn seagull. They tend to do things like that. I love that your pub has a book exchange and that you found the book you wanted. Yay! Your yellow sticker prices are remarkable. Good for you. I bet they get snapped up quick. Thank you for the lovely comments about my daughter. She is a bright star in my life and I am so blessed and fortunate to have her.

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  2. PS. Hi again, Dana. I am planning to start a blog soon so that I can make a contribution but, in the meantime, to say thank you for the entertainment and education you offer, I thought I'd send you some pictures I thought you would enjoy. We had unexpected snow here in North East England and this poor postman was caught short:

    https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/snow-durham-today-uk-weather-15336944

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    1. Yay! Please share a link once you are up and running. I'd love to visit. You got a fair bit of snow I'd say. I was grumbling because we got a slight bit of frost a couple nights two weeks ago. I'll be quiet now. Ha, ha.

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  3. Your daughter is beautiful. I can’t believe the cost of the photo package. How do single parents like yourself afford it?
    Great price on the steaks. I bet they will be delicious.
    I love how you are able to participate in your daughters activities like band competitions. I bet she’s great. How do you do it all?
    I wish I lived near you so I could get some one on one mentoring on our budget. Your savings put us to shame!! Lol
    What NFL team is your fave? Mine is the Carolina Panthers.

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    1. Thank you Lee Ann. Her beauty radiates from within, let me tell you. I love her so much. Frankly, I don't know how dual income families can afford those pictures. I nearly choked when I saw the prices.

      Come on over and we'll pow wow! Or email me and you can ask me anything. I'll try to answer the best I can. ]

      Diehard Raiders fan. Have been since the age of 5. I even got to meet Ken Stabler in 1979. Wow! :)

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  4. Your daughter is so lovely. You were very smart to copy the photo. I don't understand how or why they are so expensive, but they are the same here too.
    I need to follow your lead and get my refrigerator in order, but mainly I need some time at home to get things done.

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    1. Thank you Anne. She really is a wonderful girl.

      I couldn't believe what they were charging for the photos. I was shocked. They weren't even done in a studio, just the common school photo shoot. Crazy.

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  5. Your daughter is so lovely & looks so excited/happy. Love the pic!

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    1. Thank you so much. I just can't believe we are here already.

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  6. My son was in the marching band in high school (he's a Junior in college now), and we always loved going to band competitions to cheer him on. Glad you're able to spend this time with your daughter. I enjoy reading what you're up to and am so inspired by your frugal ways. Thanks!

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    1. That is awesome Jennifer. I love it! I was in marching band in high school and have loads of fond memories. It has been a lot of fun watching her.

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