Last Week's Thrifty Moves

We just ended the final full week of 2019!  Hard to believe a new year is upon us already.  Only a couple more days.  My girls have made it through the first half of the school year and are about to start their second half next week.  Unbelievable to me, and to them as well, that this is where we are at the current moment.  We have much to look forward to and that is quite exciting.

It was a pretty spectacular week to end off on.  Sunday morning I was up bright and early to make two batches of fudge and a lovely loaf of fresh bread.  I put together food gifts for friends and my darling daughters made the deliveries.  I stayed home to clean up the kitchen and put things back in order.  I also made a delicious pot of chicken and vegetable soup for supper.

I worked Monday and Tuesday and had the rest of the week off.  On Tuesday, Christmas Eve, I was gifted four tickets to the Idaho Botanical Garden for the Winter Garden Aglow light show.  I was so excited!  When I got home I waited until we sat down to dinner to surprise the girls.  We finished eating and off we went.  It was so pretty and in spite of the 35° temperature we really enjoyed ourselves.

Christmas day was quiet and lazy.  We opened gifts, ate breakfast, played games, took naps, ate some more, watched movies, talked, laughed, giggled and had a really nice day.  I gleaned some bows, boxes, tissue paper and gift bags to go back into gift wrap tote.

Our gift wrap tote is about to be no more, however.  Thursday morning I ordered a hanging gift wrap organizer from Amazon for $15.99.  I'm super excited about it because it looks like it will hold everything including the rolls of wrapping paper and hang on the closet rod.  The tote is bulky and doesn't hold everything so I find myself storing things in multiple places.  My goal to keep like items together is hampered a bit by my current storage system.  I am hoping the new organizer will hold everything.

Jack & Stella had a nice Christmas too

I went to the eye doctor Thursday morning for my annual appointment.  I have the very beginnings of cataracts, no surprise there, but everything else is healthy and not much change in my prescription.  After the eye doctor my daughter talked me into stopping at DSW to shop for shoes.  I love that place and she got a gift card for Christmas and was itching to use it.  While we were there I found a pair of brown suede ankle boots on clearance for $49.98 plus an additional 40% OFF for their big clearance event.  When we checked out we got an additional 15% OFF for signing up for their rewards program and that brought the boots down to $28 with tax.  That was my big Christmas splurge for myself.  When I got home I found they had added a couple rewards club coupons to my bag, one is a $10 OFF a minimum $10 Purchase coupon.  Friday we went back and got some socks with that.  They have nice socks.  My daughter was able to find two beautiful pair of boots for $46 out of pocket after all the discounts and her $25 gift card.  We did really well.  You could easily drop a small fortune in that store, but we didn't!

Clearance gift wrap & tissue paper

Thursday evening the girls and I pulled a whole bunch of old inventory from my optical shop out of the garage.  We organized, categorized and grouped it all together into lots to sell on eBay.  No point in all that stuff still hanging out there taking up valuable real estate and no sense in keeping any of it either.  We hope to make a little bit of cash to offset a few little expenses we have planned next month.  We'll see how that goes.  Mainly, we just want all that stuff gone.

Kitty in a box!

Friday morning I was planning to sleep in but that didn't happen.  I was up long before daylight so I made myself some coffee and sat in the light of a candle and our Christmas tree and enjoyed the early morning hours before sunrise.  Stella kept my lap warm, bless her.  She is healing up quite nicely from her surgery the week before.  We are all relieved to have her whole and healthy once again.  And ornery.  That's how we know she is feeling better.

Clearance gift wrap & tissue paper

At noon we dropped my youngest off at the movie theatre to meet a friend for Frozen 2 and go for yogurt afterward.  While she did that we popped over to Walmart as it is literally across the road from the theater and I picked up four rolls of gift wrap and two packages of tissue paper on clearance for 50% OFF.  I spent less than $4.50 and I'm pretty pleased about that.  We'll have plenty of wrap and tissue paper for the next few years, I'm sure.

Three pair of black stocks (free) plus 2 pair of clearance Christmas socks

Next we stopped by DSW for our planned sock with coupon purchase.  I picked up three pair of dress socks for work, the last clothing item on my 2019 "to buy" list, as well as two pair of Christmas socks on clearance for $1.98 each.  I had tossed a worn pair last year and this year I ended up doing the same with my last pair of Christmas themed socks.  Now I have two new pair and am set in the sock arena for a good long time.

My girls gave me all these wonderful stickers for Christmas

Lastly, I dropped off my eyeglass frames to have new lenses put into them.  I already had the frame and was very happy to find my vision insurance covered the cost of the lenses in full.  No extra expense out of pocket for new glasses this year.  Then it was home to use up leftover wonton wrappers and make potstickers along with some fried rice and leftover green salad for supper.

The maple tree got a much needed trim

Saturday I stayed home and really enjoyed being there.  It was really nice to have no plans for the weekend and only do things around the house as the urge struck.  It was a lovely day outside so I was struck to work outside in the sunshine and fresh air.  With a little assistance from my youngest we pruned the maple tree and I spent a couple hours burning up yard debris in our firepot.  I also burned up the pile of shredding I'd accumulated in the last few months.  The tree looks great, the yard looks better and I no longer have a pile of junk sitting on a shelf in the hall closet waiting to be taken care of.  It felt really good to get all of that accomplished.

The fire pot got a workout

We finished up the last bit of shampoo in a bottle that had been sitting upside down in the shower for a couple of weeks.

I washed out a couple ziploc bags to reuse.

All done and looking good

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

Laundry Room & Half Bathroom - vacuumed floors, tidied up the laundry room & bathroom.  Daily swish & swipe.

Dining Room - vacuumed floor.

Kitchen -  vacuumed the floor, pulled out the stove to clean underneath, cleaned the exterior of the stove, cleaned the microwave.

Bedrooms & Main Bathroom - vacuumed & dusted.  Cleaned mirror & scrubbed tub. 

Washed bathmat.  Daily swish & swipe.

Other - two large loads of laundry, vacuumed & dusted living room, hallway & entry, tidied the garage.

How was your thrifty week?