Last Week's Thrifty Moves

Sunday morning I awoke to a cloudy sky and some wind.  It almost looked like we might get some rain, but that didn't happen.  By noon the skies were starting to get blue and the wind had died down so the oldest and I headed off to shoot some more senior pics.  This time in her band uniform over at the high school.  We got some really great shots.

Love these!  I use them a lot for food storage in the pantry

After that she and I went to a couple thrift stores just to poke around and I happened across these vintage canning jars for only 69¢ each.  I love vintage canning jars so I was really excited to find these.  I think they are so pretty as well as very useful.

That afternoon I pulled out our Halloween decorations and a few new items I'd found at Dollar Tree last month and got our home all gussied up for the holiday.  I had also picked up a Halloween themed foaming soap dispenser at Bath & Body Works with a coupon I had for only $2.95 so my final tally for Halloween decor this year came in at a staggering $6!

Quick trip to Albertson's for some baking items on sale and milk
Found chicken breasts marked down 30% OFF from $1.69/lb!

Monday evening I dropped the youngest off at school for a cheerleading event.  Then ran a couple errands close by until it was time to pick her up.  I'm trying to conserve fuel in the car as much as I can.  I picked up milk and a few grocery items that were on sale finding a large package of skinless boneless chicken breast on markdown.  Yay!

Pumpkin and marshmallow creme from Dollar Tree

I also picked up a few grocery items and some greeting cards at the dollar store.  Man, they have a really nice selection of greeting cards there.  I sent my aunt a Halloween card, just because.

With all of the busyness that has become our lives lately I managed to sneak in some family time with my girls and took them on a date Tuesday evening.  My youngest had a football game after school to cheer at and my oldest had marching band practice.  The youngest got a ride home from her grandparents as they had come to watch the game and see her cheer so I picked up the oldest and headed for home.  Once the youngest had changed clothes I took them to dinner at their favorite pizza buffet (used a digital coupon so dinner was only $5.95 each) and then to a dollar movie at our neighborhood theatre.  We still managed to be home at a decent hour too.

I got this black cat hand soap at Bath & Body Works for $2.75 with a coupon
I have dish soap in the other dispenser that used to be in our bathroom

We finally got some rain.  It had been clouding up and threatening rain for several days, but nothing came of it.  Finally on Wednesday I gave up and watered the lawn and the garden thoroughly.  And then in rained.  We've had rain every day since then.  First time in months and boy has the ground been soaking it up.  So blessed to see the rains finally coming.

Henry & Leonard commandeered my daughter's throw
She was only gone for a minute!

Along with the rain came that damp cold that tends to get in your bones.  We've added extra blankets to the beds and come Friday I started up the electric fireplace to take the chill off.  It is a welcoming heat source, let me tell you, and much less expensive to run then the baseboard heaters.

That ginormous bag of fish sticks made me a hero.  Yuck!
I picked up flour, evaporated milk and baking chips for the holidays, all on sale!

Saturday morning I had to drop my daughter off at the high school at 8:00 a.m. so since I was up and dressed and out and about the youngest and I hit Winco on the way home and picked up this week's groceries.  I didn't need much and a lot of what I bought is for the holidays.  Getting a jumpstart on that this month and it feels really good.

When I went back to pick my daughter up she and I swung by the mall real quick to pick up a FREE hand cream and a Christmas hand soap using coupons I'd received in the mail from Bath & Body Works.  When I got there however, I found they had all of their hand lotions on sale for $5 each so I changed gears and picked out a couple of those.  I used a 25% OFF coupon and ended up paying only $7.50 for both.  The hand cream and the lotions went into my gift stash.

French toast and sausage links

Throughout the week I made meals using items I had prepped and frozen a couple weeks ago.  I used one of those marked down chicken breasts, sliced it into thin fillets, seasoned it with lemon pepper seasoning and gave it a quick fry.  Other meals we enjoyed last week included spaghetti, hamburgers, cheese quesadillas and tacos.  I also made some french toast and breakfast burritos using our farm fresh eggs for breakfast.

I did this little vignette as part of my daughter's senior photo shoot

The hens kept us well supplied in eggs.  I gave them kitchen scraps and stale bread.  I picked tomatoes, zucchini and cucumbers from the garden.  I took some of the cucumbers into work to share.

Stella and her girl snuggling on a chilly evening
She hates to have her picture taken, can you tell?  LOL

I added a container that we'd filled with coffee grounds, tea bags, onion skins, avocado peels, banana peels and egg shells to our compost bin.  My daughter adds the contents of her bunny's litter pan to the bin as well and we also add in chicken manure and pine shavings from the coop.  Soon we'll be adding in some mulched leaves although I plan to use most of the leaf mulch elsewhere this year.

And then of course this little girl powering down a stalk of celery
Such a cutie!  They both are 😉

How was your thrifty week?