Last Week's Thrifty Moves

This past week whizzed right on by, but fortunately we didn't have nearly the hectic schedule as the week before.  We had all kinds of yucky weather to contend with though.  We got dumped on Tuesday and then it changed to rain and was a sloppy mess Wednesday morning.  All the snow was gone by the afternoon and we even got a little sun.  Then back to rain.  By the weekend we had sun and it was really nice to see.

I did a great big meal prep on Sunday, but it only took me an hour and fifteen minutes including cleanup and preparing Sunday dinner.  I was pretty excited about that and the fact that I had plenty of quick and easy meals to heat up throughout the week.  It was mostly just me and the young one as the oldest worked after school all week and the weekend.

My youngest made up a package of penne pasta and added butter, pesto and parmesan cheese to it to make a side dish to go alongside all of my Keto entrees.  We finished up a lot of salad veggies I had in the crisper drawer and I steamed up a nice bundle of asparagus to go with our meals as well.

I decided not to color my hair and leave it natural.  My girls insist my streaks of gray look really pretty and I think they might be right.  Plus I'm not all that excited to put a lot of strong chemicals on my head.  I'll be taking the hair dye back to Rite Aid and getting a refund.

I filed my income tax returns on Sunday and plan to put my refund straight into my savings account once it arrives.  That will be a nice boost to the balance and I'll easily be able to make those two balloon payments to the orthodontist when they come due.  I will still continue to add to my savings each pay day as part of my 2019 savings goals.  So far, so good!

We managed a driving lesson on Sunday to include the interstate.  Driving on the freeway is an essential skill to master, in my book, so we have been working on that lately as well as finding our way through town and improving parking skills.  My oldest doesn't have a lot of time to devote to learning to drive, but she's doing quite well nonetheless.

Thursday I ran errands after work stopping first at the bank to deposit all of the loose change I'd been saving in a jar.  Sunday morning I had dumped it out and wrapped in coin rolls coming up with a total of $43.  It was heavy and made a nice thud on the counter at the bank.  Next stop was to get the emissions test done on the car and then a quick stop in to pick up lay pellets for our hens at the feed store.  I was home and had the feed put away in the bin in our garage in less than 45 minutes.

The ads and coupons weren't the best last week so I didn't do much in the way of grocery shopping.  Instead I stopped in at Cash & Carry on Saturday and picked up some things on sale there.  We have plenty of grated cheese and lean ground beef now.

I worked a small amount of overtime.

We didn't add much trash to the big bin outside and with the weather so crazy we opted not to set anything at the curb last week.  We added more items to our big blue recycle bin and have almost filled it up.  I think both bins will hit the curb this week for pickup.

We composted tea bags, coffee grounds, egg shells, onion skins, avocado peels and banana peels last week.

Love this big guy

The hens kept us in eggs and we gave them our kitchen scrap as well as their daily scratch grains to supplement their regular feed.  I went to the feed store and picked up a 50# bag of feed pellets for them on Thursday.

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

Laundry Room & Half Bathroom - super scrubbed the toilet, vacuumed floors & rug, wiped down washer & dryer, mopped floors.  Daily swish & swipe.

Dining Room - vacuumed the floor.

Kitchen -  vacuumed & spot mopped floor, cleaned the microwave & range hood.

Bedrooms & Main Bathroom - vacuumed & dusted.  My oldest cleaned the bathroom.

Other - three loads of laundry, dusted & vacuumed living room, hallway & entry, mopped front entry.

How was your thrifty week?