Last Week's Thrifty Moves

Sunday morning I awoke to snow.  It was beautiful outside.  White, quiet, calm and very peaceful.  I drank it in along with a hot cup of coffee and was grateful I didn't have to go anywhere.  I just sat my warm little home and enjoyed it.  So very pretty!

I made a batch of my dinner roll dough in my bread machine so I could make the girls some homemade cinnamon rolls for Sunday breakfast.  I was able to use up the leftover cinnamon sugar from making Snickerdoodles at Christmas.  It was the perfect amount I needed.

Taco meat and ground turkey for taco soup

Monday through Friday was a busy week for us with loads of appointments and activities.  I was able to pull items from my latest meal prep to fix supper and we had plenty of good leftovers too so I didn't have to cook a whole lot.  Monday I thawed the taco meat I had made up and frozen.  We both enjoyed two taco salads and two large tacos each.  That took care of two suppers and two of our lunches.

Wednesday I made breakfast for supper.  We had waffles and bacon.  I made regular waffles for my daughter and I had my Keto version.  We had plenty of leftovers to enjoy the rest of the week for breakfast.

Taco soup, mini cornbread muffins, green salad

Thursday I pulled all the things I needed from the freezer and pantry for a big batch of Taco Soup.  I had some leftover whole wheat flour and some all purpose flour leftover from Christmas.  I combined the two and used that along with some cornmeal to make muffins for the girls.  I made 3 dozen mini muffins and half a dozen small muffins.  I put the small muffins into a bag and froze them for my oldest to take to school with her.  We aren't huge carb consumers anymore so the mini muffins work perfectly for us.

Friday and Saturday my youngest had two basketball games she needed to cheer at.  I waited for her at the nearby library annex and did some work on my laptop until the games were over.  It saves me a lot in gas not running back and forth from home to the high school.  I'm trying to stretch my fuel as far as I can this month.  I also think it saves me some time and makes me more productive.  I also checked out two books to read, which I haven't done for quite some time.

Vanilla, pumpkin spice, hazelnut creme & pumpkin brittle
All combined they made a really nicely scented large candle

Saturday I collected all of my candles with leftover bits candle wax in them and melted them all down.  When combined I had enough nicely scented melted wax to make one large jar candle.  I reused my pretty Bath & Body Works candle jar and placed the rest of the jars into our glass recycle bin.  I decided to try using two wicks in my new candle and after trimming them I reused a couple wick bases I had saved from other candles and the leftover wicking to make two more wicks for next time I make candles.  By doing this each time I'm able to double the number of wicks n the package I purchased.  Even though I only spent $6 for that package of wicks it still seems wasteful to me to cut off that much and toss it in the trash.  I'm glad a figured out a way to use the extra wicking.

I collected a few items from the giveaway bin at work.  They are nice enough for me to use for some gifts I have in mind as most of these things are brand new.  Yay!  I've decided as I purge I'll take some things in as well, share the wealth.  I did put a stack of coupons in the bin which someone has already helped themselves to.

I pulled all this stuff out of my garage
It will be very nice to have all of this gone

I sold some old inventory items I had leftover from my little optical shop on eBay.  I'm hoping to earn enough money to add to my PayPal account this year for our miscellaneous items such as new ink cartridges for our printer.

I completed my income tax returns and have them ready to file at the end of the month.  Our refund this year is really going to help a lot with our medical debt repayment.  That makes me pretty happy as it will cover about a third of the amount I have left to pay.

I kept the veggies simple.  I cut up a head of romaine lettuce and added baby spinach to it in a large bowl.  We had that ready to make our salads and stuff our tacos.  I had some cherry tomatoes and black olives for topping our salads and we had plenty of dressing left to use up.  We were able to finish up some vinaigrette and some ranch dressing we had in the fridge.

I used a tablespoon of my Warm Vanilla Sugar shower gel to mix into a cup of warm water and refilled the foaming hand soap dispenser in our kitchen.  I love that I can refill those dispensers for mere pennies.

I saved the rendered fat after cooking bacon.  I keep a glass jelly jar in our refrigerator for collecting the fat and then reuse it for cooking.  Good fats and great flavor added to our meals.

We gave the hens our kitchen scraps which included a few leftover cinnamon rolls.  They seemed pretty happy with that.

We did a quick little grocery shop Saturday for a few items we were low on

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

Laundry Room & Half Bathroom - vacuumed floors, cleaned washer & dryer, tidied the laundry room.  Daily swish & swipe.

Dining Room - vacuumed floor, cleaned dining room chairs.

Kitchen -  vacuumed & spot mopped the floor, cleaned microwave, tidied the junk drawer and spice cabinets.

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

Other - two loads of laundry, vacuumed & dusted living room, hallway & entry.  Swept front porch & shoveled snow.

How was your thrifty week?