I have a double whammy going on right now in that I'm super busy making Christmas gifts around here and then on top of that I have a daughter who is fighting off a really nasty cold that is going around (so far she's holding her own, but was still home sick today in the hopes of getting up some energy to fight it off) and a son who stayed up most of the night because we had some high winds that managed to keep him up JUST enough that his medicine that helps him sleep didn't work so he was up all night and not only was he up, but he was also over stimulated due to the wind so he was itchy and cranky about being up and itchy. Not a fun night for either one of us. As a result I was walking around feeling like a zombie today and I was counting down the hours till bedtime right about the time I dragged myself out of bed this morning. Fun times!
When it came to money saving things that happened this week, recounting those is going to be kind of short really, mainly because I didn't go anywhere last week for the most part and spent as little money as I could get away with at the store because I was trying to conserve every penny I could to see us through till payday this week.
So, let's get to the money saving things that happened this week.
1. Well, first off I should probably say that there aren't any shopping goals for this month. I decided not to do a list because it would have had one item on it, "Butter" and that was about it. Unfortunately, there just plain hasn't any great sales on butter thus far, which leaves this next week and that's all she wrote for holiday sales on butter, so I'm thinking I might just have to start picking up a pound a week of butter until I have a little reserve of butter again. I found I can pick up one pound cheap tomorrow as Carrs had a couple coupons I could stack, but that's about it so far. But hey, a short list also means that I took an inventory and for now we're doing okay on things, so I am definitely seeing it as a not bad place to be.
2. I finally broke in my Crockpot Express this week. I kept trying to think of something I could cook in it to try it out that I wouldn't be out dinner if the device was defective or something. I finally settled on steel cut oatmeal. I made some last night and then refrigerated it to reheat this morning. It came out pretty good! Today I gave the slow cooker function on the device a run and made chicken soup for dinner tomorrow night (I'll add noodles and cook them when I reheat the soup tomorrow night). So far I'm happy with the device (the device in mid-pressure cooking the oats seen up top). I'm really not sure how energy efficient the device will prove to be over time, but I have to say that I do like the time it saves me to do other things instead of having to babysit the stove top.
3. I made a bunch of Christmas gifts this week from materials I had on hand (more on those later here). I still have a few more I'm working on, but I have to say I'm super happy with the progress I've made in getting them done this week.
4. I managed to stretch left overs very well this last week. One way I've found that works really well is to just make new side dishes one day two and three and just serve the same main dish again. It helped to make the meals not so monotonous.
5. The daughter wanted to make a bunch of Christmas decorations for her room, so I went into the hallway closet and pulled out the huge stack of construction paper we had and a big container of crayons and told her to have a ball. She had fun and got to decorate her room for the holidays (she used some left over from school supplies glue sticks to put it all together).
6. I mended a work shirt of my husband's this week.
7. I went through and deep cleaned my vacuum cleaner, pulling filters and everything and washing them. I have found this definitely improves the air quality when you vacuum and it also helps to extend the life of your vacuum cleaner.
8. I spent a total of 33.00 at the store this week, which consisted of milk, "boy food" and a few side things I found cheap. The biggest find for the week was getting a pound of thick cut bacon for 1.50. The bacon was on sale for 5.00 as part of 5.00 Fridays at Carrs, was marked down 50% off and then I had a 1.00/1 coupon on that brand of bacon. I was thrilled as I really did want to get some more bacon to add to dishes for some extra flavor from time to time.
And there you go folks. It's short this week, but really my week was busy and hectic, but for the most part it was just a Christmas gift making marathon more than anything else.
So, how about you? How did your week go?
I received the instant pot for Mother's day and love it. I make the most delicious roast with carrots, onions, and potatoes in it. Doesn't really save time but saves me watching the pot and after the roast is done only 4 minutes to cook the veggies. Love cooking Steele cut oatmeal, no stirring the pot every 5 minutes and making sure it doesn't stick or cook too high of heat. Cheryl
ReplyDeleteI agree--the best part of my Instant Pot is not having to watch it! I've found that I always cook rice in it now--it comes out great whether is it white rice or brown. I did a soup in it the other day--just simple hamburger-vegetable soup and only cooked it for 6 minutes, then forgot about it for 17 more. The soup was perfect, and I could have let the steam go sooner, but I love that I didn't have to worry about anything burning or boiling over, and it was good soup in less than 1/2 hour.
ReplyDeleteI'm wanting an instant pot one day, but thus past week got myself an inexpensive electric kettle. Was the best $10 ever spent. It makes filling up hot water bottles go so much faster! The only Frugal thing I've done this week and that sounds awful if I got to have a free visit the eye doctor I work for after I got shot in the eyeball with a Nerf dart. I'm in a ton of pain but at least there's no permanent damage
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