Last Week's Thrifty Moves

The rain and snow finally quit and the sun came out!  Temperatures have been in the sixties prompting me to turn off the heat and throw open doors and windows to let the fresh air in and the stagnant winter air out.  Hallelujah!

Sunday morning I baked up a lovely batch of lemon blueberry scones for our mid morning brunch.  Thanks to daylight savings time beginning our brunch arrived much earlier.  I also made another vegan chocolate cake which made my girls very happy.

I reused the lemon I had zested and juiced for the scones by sticking it into a half gallon pitcher and filling it up with filtered water - yum!  I refilled the pitcher a few times throughout the week before the lemon ended up in the compost bin.

Warmer weather and loads of sunshine have spurned me further with my spring cleaning.  I gave my sewing area the once over and reorganized the garage a bit to make it a more functional space.  I also moved some completed retirement house projects into bank boxes and put them in the storage space underneath the stairs.  It is turning out to be the perfect place to hold these things.

I "shopped" the chest freezer in the garage for ground beef for tacos, a package of sliced turkey for school lunches and a corned beef for the girls to fix on St Patty's Day.  I had purchased the vacuumed packed corned beef last year when they were on sale.

I finally had the opportunity to burn the huge bag of junk mail and shreddables I've been collecting in the garage all winter.  Once the ashes cool they'll be composted.

After work on Friday I had to make a quick trip to the bank.  As I left I stopped at the fruit stand across the street and picked up some produce.  They just opened up for the season a couple weeks ago and had some pretty good prices advertised.

I picked up a dozen old fashioned donuts for the girls on markdown $1.29

Saturday I did my morning grocery run.  I stopped first at Albertsons to drop off a winters worth of glass in the big recycling bin they have in their parking lot.  Since I was there I went inside and picked up four cans of diced tomatoes on sale for 39¢ each.  Good price!

Cup of noodles was my Friday freebie at Fred Meyer

Then off to Trader Joes for produce and a jar of minced garlic.  Fred Meyer after that for a few other things on my list.  I picked up more mushrooms and green beans on markdown as well as soy milk in vanilla and chocolate for the girls to try, also on markdown for $1.39 each.

A friend of mine gave me a veggie tray she didn't think she could finish up.  It had a full container of Ranch dressing with it, my youngest's favorite.

I trimmed my bangs.

I gave our new strawberry plants some spent coffee grounds.

I made another vegan chocolate cake

I had enough dryer lint saved in a toilet paper tube to make another fire starter.  I actually used one of them of them to start the fire in our chiminea when I burned the bag of shreddables.

We gave our kitchen scraps to the chickens.  All four girls are now laying.  Our Easter Egg chicken has started to lay which is a sure sign that spring is on its way.  I shared a dozen eggs with a friend of mine.

I composted coffee filters, tea bags, crunched up egg shells, onion skins, plus avocado, orange and banana peels.

How was your thrifty week?