Thrifty Mom In Boise: Last Week's Thrifty Moves

I spent most of Sunday crafting and then organized and tidied up said craft room so it is all ready for more creativity. I got all of the trash cans throughout the house emptied and ran a load of laundry too before I did my quick 15 minute chores for the day. I also cut up some bell peppers I had picked up from the Fred Meyer reduced produce bin and put them in my dehydrator. With my home all in order and a nice batch of peppers drying for the prepper pantry I was ready to begin my work week ahead. And then, I got a call from the HR department at 10:00 in the evening.

Leftover wax became a new candle

Apparently I was likely exposed to a co-worker (or two or three, but it had been a couple weeks since I'd been around any of them) that has tested positive for COVID. I've been trying for several weeks now to get on the work from home program, but for whatever reason, until now, it hasn't been possible even though the HR department strongly recommended it due to my underlying health issues. It's neither here nor there. Fortunately, I am symptom free at the moment and praying I stay that way. Monday was a gorgeous day so I opened up the windows and our back door and let the fresh air in. It was also a great day to tackle a couple hot spots in our home where some clutter had accumulated. It now feels so good to have those areas cleared out and that square footage reclaimed as open space. Love it! I also did some future planning and really appreciated my unexpected time off of work while my boss figured out a work from home solution.

Lunchtime!

Tuesday was my first full day of working from home and it wasn't too bad. I don't think I'd want to do it long term but for now it is working out pretty well. I ran my daughter to work when I was done and when I picked her up later that evening I also took in the glass recycling to the bin in their parking lot. This included six empty glass candle jars I had decluttered the day before. I used up the leftover wax in those jars Monday morning to make a new candle. It felt really good to have that project little project complete and all of the glass out of the garage and off to be reused.

By the time Friday (still symptom free) rolled around I was ready to venture out for a short jaunt and take care of a couple errands. I clocked out and headed off to get the emission test done on my car, then over to Fred Meyer to pick up items on sale as well as redeem some coupons they had sent me in the mail including one for a free package of Ball Park hotdogs which my daughter loves.

This time the bargain on meat was up to five packages of breakfast links so I bought five for $1.99 each and then I spotted smoked sausages on closeout for $1.99 each so I picked up two of those. I'm sensing a bit of a weenie theme here. They also had an abundance of milk they were clearing out with a week left on the date so I added a gallon for only 99¢ to my cart. Produce on sale was strawberries for $1.50 a package and grapes for 99¢ a pound. I grabbed a couple onions and two bananas and that was good enough for produce this time around.

When I got home I wiped everything off with hot soapy water, washed the grapes and strawberries in vinegar water and then got them into clean containers and into the crisper drawer of our refrigerator. Next the breakfast links went into a gallon size Ziploc bag and into the freezer.

I had a carefully crafted winter stock up list so we headed out early Saturday morning with masks and hand sanitizer to gather up the items we needed before enjoying my delayed birthday celebration. Wal-Mart and the feed store were our destination since they are located close together. We also stopped in at the Grocery Outlet to see if they had a good deal on breakfast cereal, which has been my daughter's snack of choice lately. While we didn't find cereal we did manage to pick up black olives, some condiments and lunch meat.

We stopped at DSW and I got a new pair of trail shoes using my birthday coupon (my birthday present to myself). After that we enjoyed lunch out at Red Robin (I had a free birthday burger) and then because it was Smithsonian Day and we had FREE tickets we went to our newly renovated history museum. I absolutely love that place and have visited it many, many times, but not since the renovation was completed. I was very excited to go there and finally see it. In all of our travels throughout the day we were able to maintain our distance, had access to sanitizing wipes and hand sanitizer, kept our masks on and washed our hands often. None of the places we went were crowded either, surprisingly. We were very conscientious about not exposing ourselves to other people and not exposing other people to us. So far, so good.

Black bean soup - some for now and some for the freezer

THINGS WE ATE LAST WEEK: Leftovers from the week before, chicken fajitas, grilled hotdogs, black bean soup, egg salad.

THINGS I CLEANED IN 15 MINUTES OR LESS:

Laundry Room & Half Bathroom - Cleaned mirrors, scrubbed sink, vacuumed & mopped floors, washed rug. Daily swish & swipe.

Kitchen & Dining Room - Scrubbed & disinfected sink, cleaned microwave, wiped down appliances, vacuumed & mopped floors. Daily swish & swipe.

Bedrooms & Main Bathroom - Cleaned mirror, scrubbed sink & tub, vacuumed & dusted, mopped bathroom floor, washed rug. Daily swish & swipe.

Other - two large loads of laundry. Vacuumed & dusted living room, hallway & mopped both entryways.

THINGS I DID TO SAVE A SMALL BUNDLE OF $$: I made some foaming hand soap solution to refill our dispensers. I watched all of the Star Trek Next Generations motion pictures on Youtube for FREE. I worked from home most of the week so no commuting on those days which saved fuel. I washed out a couple gallon sized Ziploc bags to reuse. I trimmed my bangs. We removed the A/C units the week prior and stored them away for the season. Opening the doors and windows is more than adequate now to cool a room or freshen the air. We have been very careful with our power use lately in hopes of a nice low electric bill this month.