Last Week's Thrifty Moves

The great state of Idaho is now in phase one of re-opening.  How will that affect our life?  Not very much.  Our life and lifestyle hasn't changed much and for that I am very grateful.  With the exception of my girls having to school from home online and all school related activities coming to a grinding halt the rest of our life has been about the same.  We go to work, we come home and once a week we go to the grocery store to do our shopping.  I am hoping and praying more people will feel like I do and decide to maintain a low key lifestyle moving forward.

Sunday morning the oldest and I went to Cash & Carry to pick up a few more items on our prepper pantry list.  Later in the day I dropped my youngest off at work.  I popped into Albertson's and picked up two more packages of chicken, a package of 100ct paper lunch bags and two boxes of gallon Ziploc bags on sale buy one get one free.  Then back home I went.  One thing I noticed was hardly anyone was at the stores and it was rather quiet.  A couple months ago it was completely different.

Sunday afternoon I spent a good bit of time outside pulling weeds along the driveway and cleaning up our parking areas.  Monday after work I finished weeding along the driveway and got that pile of weeds tossed into the trash.  I filled up half the bin with weeds from that project.  That was a lot of weeds!  I am super happy to have it done and I really appreciate how much better it looks out there.  Things are starting to shape up around here.

These breasts were huge so I cut some cutlets

Tuesday evening after I got home from work I prepped the boneless skinless chicken I purchased for $1.49 a pound and got it all into the freezer.  Wednesday I divided up and packed twelve packages of rice from the 50# bag I bought at Cash & Carry on Sunday.  I had a little bit left in the bag to top off our rice canister in the pantry.  My youngest is now adequately satisfied with the amount of rice we have in the house.

Our new strawberry bed

I celebrated May Day on Friday by coming home from work and planting my strawberry bed.  I stirred up the soil after adding our homemade compost to it a couple weeks ago and the bed was loaded with big fat earth worms.

I started pulling weeds and added compost to the new garden bed

A week ago I had added a layer of leaf, stick and twig debris we raked up from the lawn to our new garden bed I built three weeks ago.  That created a layer on top of some card board boxes I'd torn up and laid down already.  I gave half of that leaf debris to the chickens and then added another layer of our homemade compost to what was left in the garden bed and raked that all out.  Now I need some soil so I'll be on the hunt for that next.  I think they refer to this as lasagna gardening.  Maybe?  I'm just filling up the bed.

After the yard work I treated the girls to a large pizza from Pizza Hut.  The girls went to pick it up curbside and while we ate we watched a movie using our Amazon Prime.  Dinner and a movie for $10.  Not a bad deal!

Huge pile of weeds and debris I cleaned out of the yard

Saturday I spent all day working in the yard.  I pulled weeds, turned up soil, pulled up pavers, raked up debris, burned stuff and pruned the fruit trees.  I finished up about 4:00 in the afternoon and I was pooped.  But it sure felt good to have all that work done.

Fat saved to make suet cakes for the chickens

Other thrifty things I did last week included putting almost three pounds of blueberries into the dehydrator to run overnight and into the next day.  I saved the fat from browning ground beef to make suet cakes for the chickens.  I saved the fat from cooking bacon for Sunday brunch.

I started a new jar of bacon fat

I washed out and reused several Ziploc bags.  I added water to both the laundry detergent bottle and the fabric softener bottle so I could get out every last bit.  After doing that I had enough soap and softener to run a large load of laundry.  I stopped in at Walgreens and picked up two bottles of laundry detergent on sale for 99¢ each.

I picked up these chocolate chips on sale for 99¢ each and baking cocoa for $1.99

With the warmer weather we were able to open doors and windows every day to allow in plenty of fresh air.  I spent quite a bit of time outdoors soaking up the nice weather and took a lot of walks too.  I really love this time of year.

I worked some overtime last week as I've been doing nearly every week.  I am super excited to share with you what I'm planning to invest this past week's overtime pay into so stay tuned!  I can hardly wait to show you.

Cheese packaged for the freezer

Prepper Pantry = 16# boneless skinless chicken breast, 5# medium cheddar, 5# monterey jack, 5# parmesan, 2 dozen eggs, 50# rice, 5# semi-sweet chocolate baking chips, dried blueberries - 1 pint.

5o pounds of rice prepped

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

Laundry Room & Half Bathroom - vacuumed floors.  Daily swish & swipe.

Dining Room - vacuumed & spot mopped  floor.

Kitchen -  vacuumed & spot mopped floor, cleaned inside of the refrigerator, scrubbed sink.

Bedrooms & Main Bathroom - vacuumed & dusted.  Scrubbed sink.  Daily swish & swipe.

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

How was your thrifty week?