Last Week's Thrifty Moves

A friend emailed me some really good coupons for JoAnn Fabrics.  I used two of them to purchase fabric I need for a couple of projects on my list.  I had to do two transactions in order to use both coupons so my oldest went through and paid for one piece with my gift card making that order cost nothing out of pocket.  I paid cash for my order which will be a Christmas gift.  The coupons saved me a considerable amount of money overall.

I finished up some Christmas and birthday gifts for my daughters and wrapped them with gift wrap I had bought at the dollar store a while ago.  The Christmas wrap was actually from two years ago and I finished up the rest of the roll.  I'm excited now to get to use the new stuff I bought after Christmas last year.

I listed three more items in my Etsy store.  They are a few of the "rustic" signs I made.  I hope they find a good home.

I rinsed out an empty bottle of laundry detergent which gave me enough soap to wash a sizeable load of clothes.  I rinsed out an empty bottle of dish soap which gave me enough suds to wash a load of dishes.  I added plain tap water to my bottle of facial cleanser and shook it up to give me another week or so of cleanser.

I used up an apple that had gone soft by chopping it up and making apple fritters for breakfast.

The school district had a two day state in-service for all the teachers meaning my daughters ended up having a four day weekend.  I took Thursday and Friday off from work and decided to stay home with them and enjoy a long weekend as well.  We had a fun and productive time.

Thursday we took the insulation I bought at the Habitat thrift store for $4 and installed it in the chicken coop.  Actually, I instructed the girls on what to do and they did the work.  They thought that was pretty neat.  I also wired the light I had bought for $1 to an extra extension cord I had in the garage and installed that as well.  Afterward we went to one of our favorite diners for a burger and then made a trip to the feed store and got us an extra water feeder for under $6.  Now the hens are officially ready for cold weather and we each got a delicious burger for our efforts.

Penelope approves

One of our neighbors, who buy eggs from us, stopped by to give me an extra egg carton she saved for us and said we have the best eggs ever.  Our neighbors on the other side told us the same thing a couple weeks ago.  It makes me so proud of my little flock.  My aunt says it might have something to do with the" mansion" they live in and the fact they are loved so much.  She might be right about that.  J

I treated myself to a pair of potted chrysanthemums at Lowe's for $10.  I pulled all the spent petunia plants in our pots and replaced them with the mums.  I put out some fall décor and my ceramic jack-o-lantern.  It is so nice to have our front porch decorated for fall now.

Friday morning I went out early in the morning and picked a dozen fresh jalapeños and a bell pepper.  I went in and immediately made a batch of hot pepper jelly.  I love to spread cream cheese on top of a Wheat Thin cracker and then place a dollop of the jelly on top.  Yum!

After the jam was done I put on a pot of chili and let it cook low and slow all day while we headed off to walk along the Boise river on the greenbelt.  On the way home we stopped at the library to return books and check out new ones.  

We finished up our day out by stopping at Dairy Queen for a small Blizzard treat.  (I couldn't believe we were sitting outside, on their patio, enjoying the sunshine and eating ice cream in October)  It was such a nice time and when we finally got home dinner was ready. After playing with the chickens for a little bit and getting them fed we enjoyed some of the best chili I think I have ever made.  It was so good.

I put a quart size container of chili away in the freezer for later and the rest went in the fridge to enjoy over the weekend.

The chickens blessed us with 20 eggs last week.