Last Week's Thrifty Moves

Sunday morning I sneaked out of the house while my girls slept in and went grocery shopping alone.  It was heaven!  So quiet and lovely as I drove to Fred Meyer armed with coupons and a strategy to get as much as I could and stay in my budget for the week.  Which I did!

Fred Meyer haul

I only had one item that we needed, we were running low on mayo, so that left my list wide open.  I had a coupon for $2 OFF $10 Meat Dept Purchase at Fred Meyer set to expire soon so I thought I'd use that up along with some others - 85¢ OFF cheese, 40¢ OFF sour cream, 55¢ OFF two boxes of Kroger tissues, 75¢ OFF kitty litter and $1 OFF ground turkey.  The tissues were on sale for 10/$10 so I got two boxes for $1.45 plus the 20# bag of litter for $2.44 adding $3.99 to my non food total.

Meat bargains

On the way home I swung by Albertson's and picked up eggs, I had downloaded a digital coupon for 99¢ a dozen, the mayonnaise we needed and some cheese snacks on markdown for $1.49!  Even still my final total came in at $18.96 which left me with a dollar to spend.  I think I got quite a lot for my $$.  I dropped my oldest off at work later that afternoon so the youngest and I popped into Dollar Tree real quick and spent my one remaining dollar on a jar of sweet relish bringing my grand total to $19.96!  Whoooo, hoooo!

Sopa Seca

I cooked up the brats I bought on markdown for my lunches last week, cooked up one of the packages of ground pork to make Sopa Seca (dry soup) and put the rest of the meat in the freezer.  I also baked up another cake mix from my pantry in my bundt pan for the girls to enjoy.

My youngest daughter and I went through the photo box and chose a chunk of what we will be working on.  I had already gone through, sorted, organized and divided photos into stacks.  Now it is time to work on getting those stacks archived.

Creamy tomato basil soup with grilled cheese

Monday I made homemade tomato soup with grilled cheese sandwiches for the girls while I had a couple poached eggs.  The cake I baked on Sunday came in handy when we had friends stop by that evening after supper for a visit.  I brewed a pot of tea and served it with slices of the cake which they enjoyed very much.

Tuesday was a fun evening for us.  The girls had leftover Sopa Seca for supper before we headed out to the $1 movie.  We saw Instant Family with Mark Wahlberg and only spent $3 for all three of us to go.  Love dollar movie night!  The movie was very good and I heartily recommend it.

Beef noodle soup

Wednesday I made a pot of beef noodle soup and served it with some of the dinner rolls still in our freezer.  I served the noodles separately so I could have the soup and the bonus is they didn't end up getting soggy in the broth.  Thursday the girls had clam chowder and I ended up making myself a fried egg before we headed off for a band concert at the high school.

Friday we finished up leftovers and spent a quiet evening in.  After a full and busy work week I was ready for it too!  Saturday we still had leftovers to finish up and I made a big salad to go with.

I combined items and was able to get rid of a lot of packaging that took up extra space

Last week I checked the ads and planned out my next grocery shopping list.  I downloaded digital grocery coupons to my store rewards cards which will help me shave even more off of my total each week.  I am able to use that extra savings to buy additional items I wouldn't otherwise be able to get.  I also downloaded my Fred Meyer Friday Freebie offer for an organic iced coffee beverage.

I trimmed my oldest daughter's bangs saving her the cost of a $5 bang trim at the salon plus a tip.

Baking spice cabinet all tidied up

I've had a lotion bottle upside down on my desk at work and I was able to use up every last bit of the lotion last week.  I replaced it with one I got for FREE with a coupon from Bath & Body Works.

I used a rubber spatula to scrape out an "empty" peanut butter jar and had enough to make my girls peanut butter toast for breakfast one morning.  I set a sugar free syrup bottle upside down and was able to get out the last of it for my keto waffles one morning.  I used up the last of a bag of walnuts and a bag of mini chocolate chips to make a batch of cookies for the girl's lunches.

I also went through my coffee and tea cabinet

I saved the rendered fat from cooking bacon for our Sunday breakfast.  I poured it into a jelly jar and put it in the refrigerator.  I used it to cook various things throughout the week.

Our chickens have started laying again!  We got 10 eggs last week.  Hurray!  I made them a suet cake using up some rendered beef fat I had saved and put in our freezer.  They loved it!

Homemade suet cake

We fed the hens our kitchen scraps and some stale bread.  We composted coffee grounds, tea bags, onion skins and egg shells.  I added one small bag of trash to our garbage bin so we opted to not set it out for collection again last week.  We did, however, add plenty to our big blue recycle bin.

I worked a little bit of overtime.

Our weather was a bit odd last week starting out cold and snowy and hitting 50° by the end of the week.  I ended up spending some time out in the garage tidying up and purging Friday night.  I filled up the garbage bin halfway and added some more cardboard to the recycle bin.

I do not need to buy any more molasses!

Saturday I loaded up the glass recycling into the back of our truck and hauled it over to the giant collection bin at the grocery store.  It feels really good to have that out of our garage.  I did some more tidying up in the garage and found a one gallon jar I had forgotten I had.  I brought it in and washed it up with plans to use it for food storage in my pantry.

Finished up these walnuts and baking chips by making a batch of cookies!

I went through my spice cabinets and baking supplies again to purge and reorganize getting rid of another bag of items I don't need or use.  I used up quite a few items from our pantry and freezer last week to make meals and reduce food waste.

Some of the 15 Minute Chores I accomplished to keep my home in order:

Laundry Room & Half Bathroom - scrubbed bathroom sink , wiped down counters & toilet, vacuumed floor.  Daily swish & swipe.

Dining Room - dusted shelves, wiped off window sill.

Kitchen - pulled out the stove & cleaned floor underneath, completely wiped down stove & moved back in place, scrubbed & bleached kitchen sink.

Bedrooms & Main Bathroom - my youngest washed mirrors & vacuumed, my oldest cleaned tub, toilet & sink.

Other - four loads of laundry (we all folded & put away), dusted & vacuumed living room, hallway & entry, polished end tables & buffet (currently our TV stand), cleaned hearth, TV & fireplace.  My oldest swept front porch.

How was your thrifty week?