Frugal Accomplishments

For reasons we're not likely to ever understand, Tallulah Mae really enjoys draping her front paws over this cross
bar on the parson's bench.  This is one of the more normal things that she does.

We stayed home quite a lot this week.  Earlier this month there were a lot of appointments and such, so it felt good to get back into our at-home routine.

I took some items we had on hand and increased the usefulness of a corner in our basement.  We don't wear shoes in the house, so I hung a shoe-holder by the door and added some more coat hooks.  We were already using an old armoire as a place to hold gloves, scarves, etc.  It's not 'pretty', but it's fairly functional.  It makes me think of what Red Green always says...."If the women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy."  That sounds about right. :)

I weeded the children's books in our home library.  The books we no longer want or need will go to the used book store first, to get some trade credit.  Anything that remains can be donated.

dirty clothes + homemade laundry soap + drying racks = low cost clean laundry :)

We got books and media from the library.  I also subbed six hours this week.

We had some pretty, warmer days, so we made sure to spend some time outdoors in the sunshine.  When it was cooler, we used our wood stove to keep the house warm.

I'm pet sitting, and I was able to bring home some wasted hay to use as bedding/litter in our henhouse.  (I had permission, and was told which stack I could take.)

We received a late Christmas present from my parents and brother.  They bought these pecans for .50 a pound and sent a box of them to us.  Yum!  They mailed them parcel post, which is supposed to take longer, but it was only a day longer than priority.

We planned a menu, which is here, and ate leftovers when there were some available.  I am trying to 'use down' our pantry a little, so I will be planning with that in mind over the next several weeks.  We didn't have that many leftovers for 'leftovers night', so we had panfried ham, baked potatoes and steamed cabbage with butter and caraway, all of which we had on hand.

We had some canned fruit this week.  I used the juice/syrup to help sweeten some fruit punch.  It adds a bit of fruit flavor and cuts down on the other sweeteners, plus nothing goes to waste.

Daughter and I have been having 'drawing time' at least a couple of days each week.  We just sit at the kitchen table with crayons, pencils, paper, etc - all things we already own - and we draw.  I sometimes like to draw prayers, and it is nice to just spend the time chatting, drawing and enjoying one another.  It doesn't really cost a thing, either.  (We have to do something with all that free copy paper we keep getting, yes?)

We are out of home-canned salsa, so I made some from a can of tomatoes, some fresh onion, fresh jalapeno, lime juice, chipotle, chili powder, cumin, garlic and salt.  It's tasty, and was very low cost to make.  I also made King Ranch Chicken Casserole (think Mexican lasagna) for the first time, and we really liked it a lot.  Gluten-free is not as hard as I thought it might be...at least so far. :)

Not the best photo, but this was so tasty!

I cleaned out the fridge this week - really deep cleaned it, which was good.  The frugal part?  There were a very few things that went to the hens as treats, but now that it's better organized, it's much easier to see what's there, keep the leftovers in a designated spot, etc.

I hope you had a good week!  What did you do to save money and make do?  Leave a comment if you please! :)

-Laura at TenThingsFarm