Last Week's Thrifty Moves

I awoke Sunday morning to a downpour.  In spite of the weather the oldest one and I had plans to do some pretty significant grocery shopping, primarily to stock up her cupboards.  I had a list as well so we made a break for it and headed off to Winco to pick up the items on our lists.  Then home to quickly get it all inside before she needed to head off to work while I got busy and put all of my groceries away.  My shopping plan was for fresh produce and more items for the prepper pantry so that is what I spent most of the day working on.

 

I alloted my overtime pay from my last paycheck for
prepping and still have $$ leftover.  Yay!

I cooked up the ground turkey I had bought a couple days before to make up a nice sized pan of seasoned taco meat.  Then I cooked up a pound of Italian turkey sausage with some chopped onions.  I added leftover crushed tomatoes in the freezer from when I made and canned salsa, added a can of Italian style diced tomatoes and some crushed garlic and dried basil to make pasta sauce.  We cooked up a pound of pasta and my youngest had a nice lunch before she headed off to work.  I put away a dish in the refrigerator for her to have quick meals throughout the first part of the week and put the rest into containers for the freezer.

 

An easy roasted chicken dinner for Sunday

Our Sunday dinner was so delicious.  I roasted I'd picked up two good sized leg quarters on markdown for $1.28 at the store that morning.  After seasoning them with lemon pepper I placed them in a baking dish with a cut up baking potato, a half a bag of leftover baby carrots and a third of a bag of frozen broccoli.  I sprinkled the veggies with the lemon pepper and drizzled a little bit of olive oil over the top of everything before covering it with a sheet of aluminum foil and baking it at 400° for about an hour.  I then removed the foil and let it continue for another 30 minutes.  Moist, tender and so very tasty.  The girls absolutely loved it.

 

This broth smelled and tasted heavenly.  Can't wait to use it in soup.

When I got home Tuesday I put the chicken bones from our Sunday dinner along with some celery tops, leftover chopped onion, a handful of baby carrots, poultry seasoning, rosemary and peppercorns into my medium slow cooker.  I filled it up with water and let it cook for several hours to make a lovely chicken broth for soup or to add to recipes.  Once cooled and strained it went into containers for the freezer.

 

I had picked up a couple more bags of stir fry veggies on markdown and made those up with three thinly sliced pork chops I'd defrosted.  I use two pork chops with the family sized bag and it made enough for supper and three lunches.  I used the other with one and the remaining pork chop for another supper and had enough leftovers for lunch the next day.  We made sure we ate up all of our leftovers from the previous week too so we had no food waste and our chickens got all of our kitchen scraps.

 

I trimmed my youngest daughter's and my own hair, mended a dishcloth, washed out a gallon Ziploc bag to reuse plus I added water to a container of body wash giving it a good shake and making enough soapy solution for a few more showers or baths.  I did the same thing with the tail end of some dish soap too.

 

Friday evening I scored something awesome for Laverne on Facebook Marketplace for FREE!  I love that price!  I'll be sharing more about that great find and why I felt the need to acquire it in an upcoming post.  And yes, it is all about a project I am working on. 😉

 

I awoke Saturday morning to a torrential downpour.  Nonetheless, I went thrift store shopping with my oldest.  She had a list of items she still needed so we headed to her house first to put up curtains and hang up some wall art before the stores opened.  Then off in stormy wet weather to shop for what else she needed.  

Six "new" quart jars

While we were at it I found quart sized canning jars for 49¢ each so I bought those as well as a set of Revere Ware saucepans to clean up and give my youngest for Christmas.  Sounds weird, but she wants a set of her own to have when she goes off on her next great adventure (move out).  Smart kid!

 

Probably hard to imagine this could be cute, ha, ha!

We stopped at the Habitat For Humanity Restore shop on the way home and I found a cute porch light to makeover for $1.  When we went to pay for it we found out that all of their lighting was on sale for 50% OFF so it was only 50¢!  For a porch light!  Yay!  Once I get done giving it a makeover it will be super cute.  I am super excited to work on that.

 

Lots of marked down items plus a few freebies

Apparently I was still in bargain mode once we returned home and my girls headed off to work because I found two chairs for $10 each on Facebook Marketplace.  They go perfectly with the newly refurbished kitchen table I fixed up for my oldest.  At Fred Meyer I picked up a set of sheets on sale for 40% OFF and scored a rotisserie chicken from the deli for $2.50.  

A free pizza!

Since I was on a roll and I used a gob of paper and digital coupons to pick up groceries at Albertsons scoring a lot of freebies in the process.  One of my coupons netted me a container of yogurt for 4¢!

 

Peanut butter & honey to add to the prepper pantry

Prepper Pantry = Canned goods - tuna, green beans, corn, diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, black olives, pineapple chunks, cream soups, beef bouillon, chicken bouillon, pasta sauce, mayonnaise, shortening, peanut butter, honey.  Vacuum sealed pasta packets, rice packets, black beans, kidney beans, dry milk, flavored oatmeal packets.

 

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, cleaned baseboards. 

Kitchen - vacuumed & super scrubbed tile floor, cleaned base cabinetry.  Cleaned underneath stove, cleaned back, front & sides of stove. 

Bedrooms & Main Bathroom - vacuumed & dusted.  Scrubbed tub, tiles & toilet.  Daily swish & swipe. 

Other - one load of laundry, vacuumed & dusted living room, hallway & entry, cleaned baseboards, mopped living room entry, washed & rehung curtains, cleaned curtain rod.  Swept front porch & tidied garage.

 

My daughter's newly completed living room

How was your thrifty week?