Last Week's ThriftyMoves

Sunday I spent the day crafting and it was really nice.  I used a lot of items I had around the house to make some fun Fall signs for our porch, an art piece for my kitchen and to spruce up my cute little rummage sale Halloween piece.  I even managed to make a couple Christmas candle mattes.  They'll make great gifts paired with a nice scented candle.

On the way home from work Monday I stopped again at the FREE WOOD bin and found some more treasures.  I stocked up on some more wood and trim for a bunch of projects I have planned.  I can hardly wait to get started on them.

This is all trim, molding, 1"X 3"s, & 1"  4"s
I'd better get busy!

Board ends in all different widths and lengths

They filled it up again on Wednesday so I stopped and loaded up once more.  It was full again on Thursday and although very tempted I drove past it as I already have quite a bit in my garage to work with.

Thursday evening my oldest joined the rest of the marching band and they attended the Homecoming Queen Pageant.  After dropping her off I went over to the mall to purchase my daughter a gift for her eighteenth birthday coming up in November.  Although money is tight right now I was able to get her something special at JC Penney.  Without giving too much away it came from their fine jewelry department and it is a loss leader item.  I think she will really like it and I'll post a photo of it after her birthday so you can see what it is.

Friday evening our old Bunco group got together for a one time night of dice rolling.  It was really nice to see everyone again and get caught up on what has been going on.  It was also the homecoming football game which worked out really well for me because I dropped my oldest off at school went to Bunco and was done in time to pick her up after the game.  My youngest was invited to join us at Bunco and she seemed to have a really good time.  I won $10 and broke even!

Saturday I woke up tired.  After doing my household chores and the laundry I was out of gas.  I think my busy nonstop weeks caught up with me and I ran out of gas.  I had planned to finish up a project and start on another one, but instead I decided I'd better take a break.

Very pretty in a $4 dress!

My oldest attended the homecoming dance Saturday evening and in true thrifty form managed to pull it off for very little $$.  She and a friend went dress shopping at thrift stores last week and she came home with this lovely blue satin dress for only $4!  I love this color on her and thought she looked very pretty.  She already had the shoes in her closet and did her own hair and makeup.

There has been a nip of Fall in the air here lately

A really sweet friend of mine gave me a rolling electronics case for travel and a nice Liz Claiborne suitcase.  Both pieces are in practically new condition.  She knew I was planning to put together a set of luggage for my oldest as one of her graduation gifts and thought this might help.  Boy, did it ever!  After pricing good quality luggage to get her through college and off to her career all I could see was big $$ signs and this is the smaller of the two big gifts I plan to give her.  She also gave me a second rolling electronics case that I plan to keep for my youngest.

I picked some tomatoes from our garden.  I my gosh they are so good!  And brought in a lovely carrot for Daisy.  She gobbled it right down.

I cleaned and reorganized the pantry and kitchen freezer.  I ended up sticking a lot of recyclable packaging into the blue bin for curb pick up.  I also took a quick inventory so I'd know what we might be low on and found we are doing pretty darn good at the moment.

I pulled items from the kitchen freezer to make quick meals throughout the week and used up a lot of stuff we already had on hand.  I plan to do the same thing this week.

The chickens laid loads of eggs and I sold two dozen to a friend.  Our first egg sale since last fall.  I'm hoping the hens earn enough to put up their winter feed this year.  We gave them our kitchen scraps, which thrills them to no end.

I made this cake plate last week by gluing a candlestick
and a plate together with some E6000 and I love it
Both items came from Dollar Tree so only a $2 investment

I decided to reuse one of our bathroom soap dispensers in our kitchen to dispense dish soap.  I use Palmolive concentrated detergent and a bottle of it lasts a really long time.  I buy a big bottle of it on Amazon for the same price ($4.97) they sell the regular stuff at the grocery store.  After filling it up I added water to the empty detergent bottle and gave it a good shake.  It was enough soapy water solution to wash dishes all week long.

I picked up bath soap and toothpaste at the dollar store.  I also grabbed a few more craft items while I was there.

I spent my $20 grocery money on a few pantry items.  Mainly I stocked up on the girl's favorite canned clam chowder on sale for 99¢ a can as well as cheese for 99¢ a package.  I also got some whole wheat hotdog buns for $1 a package, bagels on markdown, tortillas on sale (and I had a 50¢ coupon, making them only 75¢), tortilla chips and taco shells also on sale.  Not a bad haul.

How was your thrifty week?