Last Week's Thrifty Moves

 

I cannot believe Christmas is only a few more days away and I'm super excited about it too.  Yay!  Santa is coming!  Ha, ha, ha.  Or is that HO, HO, HO?  Anyway, I had a lovely thrifty week last week and I hope you all did as well.

 

To begin with I started off my Sunday by doing some meal prepping, which I've not done for quite a while.  I wanted to use up some things in the fridge so I didn't have them go to waste as well as make our busy week ahead just a little bit easier.  For the young one I made a small tuna casserole to use up some leftover rotini I had in the pantry as well as some veggie fried rice to use up leftover vegetables I had in the freezer and fridge.  I made myself some keto meal of teriyaki stir fry with chicken and used up leftover carne asada and a couple low carb tortillas I had in the fridge as well as some leftover salad mix for a couple tacos to take to work for lunch.  Leftover cole slaw mix and kale as well as some Asian dressing and sliced almonds became a salad to go along with everything.  It was a delicious way to begin our week.

 

I made two batches of cookies.  After filling up our cookie jar I put the rest into Ziploc bags to take to work and share with my co-workers.  I made white chocolate cranberry cookies and a the "Andes" Candy cake mix cookies.  It was snowing outside too while I baked so it made for a perfect afternoon in the kitchen.

 

Using craft supplies I already had I made a new ornament for our tree.  It's Jack!  I've made one for every kitty we've ever had.  My daughter pointed out we have a lot of "dead" cats on our tree.  Sadly this is true.  Most of them are memorial ornaments now.  But still very cute!

 

It was a crazy and rather heartbreaking week as we all arrived at work on Monday only to learn that one of our fellow co-workers had passed away over the weekend.  A week after knee replacement surgery he had a blood clot kick loose.  That same day our beloved boss announced to us that he has decided to take early retirement.  His last day will be January 8th.  Needless to say we were all reeling just a bit with all of this.  But as a team we are strong and we will carry on.

 

The COVID cases continue to stack up and a co-worker on my team will likely be out the remainder of the year as her daughter tested positive on Tuesday.  The rest of us are hopeful she hasn't shared with the rest of us, but at this point we all know anything is possible.  We wash our hands, wear our masks and do all the things that are required of us, however I don't think it really matters in the long run.  Eventually this virus is going to run its course.  Some get it, some don't, some get it bad, some don't and in some cases it takes a life.  It is the strangest virus with little rhyme or reason to it.  I pray we see the end of this pandemic very soon.

 

Instead of focusing on all of that however, I am looking ahead and staying the course.  Christmas is coming and I'm so very excited about it.  We had some snow flurries last week and it has definitely been cold, wet and wintery around here lately.  I'm wondering if we'll have a white Christmas this year. I sure hope so.

 

I sold some more Christmas cards from my Etsy shop.  Yay!  I have plans in the works to make more to sell in the next few months too.  Once the holidays are over I plan to get back to my card making.

 

This past week I have been on a bit of a mission to use up little odds and ends of things we have in our pantry, fridge and freezer.  I was able to tailor our meals around all of these items.  It feels really good to see them used up and no food waste.  The chickens got all the food scraps and I even saved some beef fat to make them some suet cakes for Christmas.

 

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

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

Dining Room - vacuumed & mopped floor. 

Kitchen -  vacuumed & mopped floor, cleaned and reorganized inside of all the drawers, cleaned the base cabinet fronts. 

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

Other - one large load of laundry, vacuumed & dusted living room, hallway & entry, mopped entry floors.

 

How was your thrifty week?