Last Week's Thrifty Moves

 

Too much downtime found me with ants in my pants on Sunday.  I was seriously itching to do something!  So I made us a nice Sunday brunch, did some meal prepping and then baked something.  By the time I was all done and had the dishes washed up as well as my kitchen back in order I was feeling ever so much better.  Even better, I used up a bunch of odds and ends of things in the fridge and pantry that needed to be used up so they did not go to waste, including two very ripe bananas plus we had loads of delicious options for meals for the week ahead.

 

I made myself some deviled eggs

Wednesday morning I had a follow up appointment with my cardiologist.  I will get to go back to work next month on a part time basis which is a huge relief.  I got some incredible news that day too, which I am still processing.  It is a lot to process and once I sort through it and get my head wrapped around it I'll give you all an update.  You'll have to be patient with me because I have more tests on the horizon and a few more appointments to get through before I will have all the answers I need.  It is going to be a fair bit of a journey, to say the least, but I know I can manage it.

 

When my daughter got home from school she and I went to the antique mall (my happy place) and walked around.  Thursday and Friday I spent a good deal of time in my other happy place, my craft room.  There is therapy in creativity so I made sure I got plenty of that.

 

She came home from school starving

THINGS WE ATE LAST WEEK:  Beefaroni, French bread pizza, French toast & sausage links, leftover stir fry & steak, hamburgers, grilled chicken, gnocchi in alfredo sauce and lots of green salads with homemade dressing as well as steamed cauliflower & broccoli.

 

THINGS I CLEANED IN 15 MINUTES OR LESS: 

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

Kitchen & Dining Room -  Vacuumed & spot mopped floors, cleaned stovetop and rangehood.  Daily swish & swipe. 

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

Other - Two loads of laundry.  Vacuumed & dusted living room, hallway & both entryways, polished wood furniture.  Cleaned living room carpet (which took longer than 15 minutes of course, but figured I'd include it), swept front porch.

 

Chicken breast marinated in Italian dressing with steamed veggies

THINGS I DID TO SAVE A SMALL BUNDLE OF $$:  I washed out a few Ziploc bags to reuse, used up every last drop of shower gel, shampoo & conditioner by having them upside down in the shower for a couple weeks, used a rubber spatula to scrape out every last bit of mayonnaise from the jar, used 2 overripe bananas to make banana bread for my daughter's breakfast throughout the week (she loved it), made some foaming hand soap solution to refill our bathroom dispensers, I picked up a quart of whole milk on clearance for 69¢ and used it to make half milk.  I put two pint jars of the half milk in the fridge to use now and the rest (in a couple pint jars) went into the freezer to use later.  That is a budget stretcher!

 

I have loads of wonderful vintage cookbooks for sale

THINGS I DID TO EARN EXTRA $$:  I started making four sets of really pretty note cards to sell which I will be listing in my Etsy store very soon.  I listed a couple things for sale on eBay and I sold a sewing pattern on eBay and a vintage cookbook from my Etsy store.  Yay!  Every little bit helps, especially now.

 

Jack enjoying a spring climb in our tree

How was your thrifty week?