Monday, July 27, 2020

Last Week's Thrifty Moves


Sunday morning I awoke in a tent in the mountains.  It was our last day so we broke camp and headed for home.  By noon we had our car unloaded, taken hot showers and started the laundry.  As per my usual I had packed way more food than we needed so I had plenty left to put away.  I gave all of our camping equipment a good cleaning and washed the sleeping bags and blankets which I hung up on the clothesline to dry.  They smelled fresh and wonderful when we brought them inside.

 

I brought gifts home for Laverne

Monday I went to the grocery store to pick up two packages of toilet paper, 12 double rolls each, on sale for $3.99 each as well as two free items I had digital coupons for.  Free coffee and a free can of sparkling water made for some nice treats.  I also picked up two family packs of pork chops on sale for 99¢ a pound.

 


I installed the window A/C units upstairs in our bedrooms as we had a few 100° days expected.  Once we start hitting the high nineties our house heats up pretty good upstairs making it hard to sleep.  The two window units do a great job keeping our house cool without raising our electric bill too much.

 


I took an hour lunch break on Wednesday to go to Dollar Tree and see if they had some more of those fabric collapsible storage bins, which they did.  For the first time in a long time the store was fully stocked including the grocery aisle so I was able to pick up quite a few items, both food and non food, for my prepper pantry.

 

A $10 prep

And another $10 prep

I didn't do a $10 prep the week before so I did two $10 preps last week.  I know Pop Tarts aren't the most nutritious item I could have chosen, however they store nicely and every once in a while they do make for a nice treat.  I personally like the blueberry ones.  Definitely not Keto though.

 

My Cash & Carry haul, mostly for the prepper pantry

After work on Thursday I made a quick trip into Cash & Carry for meat they had on sale and cream.  I picked up #10 cans of crushed tomatoes as well as four bags of rice noodles for my youngest.

 

My Winco haul

Saturday was my busiest day of the week.  I began it with a hike and then stopped at Winco on my way home to pick up the last of the items on this month's shopping list.  Most of those items were prepping items as well as some fresh produce.  Before I left I had put on a huge batch of pasta sauce to be canned.  It took both my largest and medium sized slow cookers to get the job done.  When I got home and had put away the groceries I got nine pint jars of sauce into my pressure canner and processed.  Then my youngest and I headed out after she got home from work to do some back-to-school shopping.  I took coupons and a $50 gift card with me to shave off as much of the cost as I could and we ended up doing really well.  I'll tell you more about it tomorrow.

 

Keto Pizza Bake with a wonderful veggie loaded Caesar salad

My youngest daughter and I relaxed Saturday evening with dinner and a movie.  We pulled out a DVD we owned and enjoyed a nice evening together.

 

A couple more $10 preps for you!


I worked some more overtime last week.  That money will be used next month for more prepping and stocking up for winter.  I already used July's overtime money for the same thing.

 


I washed out several ziploc bags to reuse.  I used the quart sized bags to repackage some pork chops that ended up in the freezer.

 


Prepper Pantry = dehydrated apples & vacuum sealed Pop Tarts.  Pork chops, coffee, coffee filters, vanilla extract, minced garlic, laundry detergent & fabric softener, all purpose cleaner, toilet paper, windshield washer fluid.  Canned 9 pints of pasta sauce.

 

I picked up these three packages of marked down beef

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. 

Kitchen -  vacuumed & spot mopped floor, scrubbed & bleached the sink. 

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

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

 


How was your thrifty week?


4 comments:

  1. I love the visualization your $10 prep purchases give me---it's inspiring me to start being better about building our food storage! (Of course, we're moving this week, so the name of the game is the opposite--which is to use up everything we can--but once we move to someplace more permanent, I think I'm going to go a little crazy with building that up, ha ha!)

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    1. I am happy you find it helpful. Good luck with your move.

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  2. Your pantry prepping is inspiring. I have a question though, how long will the items last that are vacuum sealed? For instance the box in the picture above containing the pop tarts and other items? Do you date the box or each individual item?

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  3. I am honestly not sure on how long these things will last. I've been told you can double or triple the shelf life. I date each individual package and will be rotating my stock so nothing goes bad. Now rice will last a really long time, but to be sure I'd recommend really researching it. But be prepared, there are many different opinions on the matter.

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