It was a pretty low key week in the thrift department, but still trying to make good with my time, resources, and money. I'm sure there were more things to add, but here's what I can think of.
Time
- Walks have been brilliant with the unseasonably warm March (so far.)
- Book club was good-fun, and some deep conversations, then more laughing.
- Enjoyed lovely dinner at our daughters on Saturday.
- Sort of tried a couple new recipes-carrot-apple slaw from the Hawaii plan, and a made up sort of lo mein. Both successful, so a great use of time.
- Improved upon the easy no knead French bread recipe. This weekend I'm going to see if I can use for cinnamon rolls.
- I brought cookie dough and frozen brownies from my freezer for desert at my daughters. It was good way to stretch both of our resources.
- Registered my family and we have already been assigned a park for Adopt a Park Clean-up program
- An about to go bad banana was tossed in the freezer.
- Cleaned up a bit of garbage on my walk with pup-a few cans, a take out pop cup, and plastic bag. With melted snow, more is showing up.
Money
- I looked through the check book, estimated incoming earnings, and where we might have to tighten to pay the additional above what we estimated for state and federal income tax. The goal will be to not have to tap into savings to pay the overage.
- Found a bunch of loose change around the house and popped into the old Croissant and Baguette cannister. I will be going back to France-some day! We use cash so little finding any change is rare.
- I'm working from my daughters today as I have two meetings which are sound and WIFI sensitive-can't risk pup barking or losing connection. Her internet connection is so much better. I was going to stop and get a coffee and something to eat later, then decided to just "borrow" hers-for what I borrow I owe her a pound! I also packed leftover rice and a burrito from my freezer.
- We are hat losers-well, DD2 in particular, and I'm hoping three hats will show up when she moves back. Rather than pay full premium price next fall, I looked around on-line and found three, thick knitted ones, on clearance to tuck away for fall and winter.
- When DH stopped for gas, he found hamburger and taco meat for $1.99 a pound and bought two of each. I am going to stop today on my way home and get some more for the freezer as we are also out of bananas. I'm slowly restocking the freezer with loss leaders to keep our overall budget low.
- Added-brought receipts from last week so my daughter could upload to her fetch.
Belt tightening will do that, but yet we do not feel like we are doing without anything. We are fortunate to have belts to tighten! Not frugal at all, but I bought flowers for my team member who is graduating from a leadership program on Friday. I nominated her for last spring and she was selected, which was exciting, and has been part of a cohort the last nine months.. She is worth ever petal in the bouquet and I am excited to see her career flourish. I used a local to her florist, a woman owned small business, which seemed fitting since this week was International Women's Day. I've been blessed with some great women leader mentors, so happy to have the opportunity to give back to the next generation. I hope my daughter's get experiences like this in their professional fields. How was your week in the thrift department?
That was very thoughtful of you to send your colleague those flowers. Totally unexpected, I'm sure, and she will be delighted. Who wouldn't?
ReplyDeleteIf we were in the office, I'd have taken her out to lunch, but this was what was doable.
DeleteWhat a lovely gesture to send flowers to your colleague! xxx
ReplyDeleteShe is such a bright spot on our whole team.
DeleteSounds like another great week! Not many details here. I've stuck to the menu plan, zero waste, zero spending, and working on yard clean up for my project this week :)
ReplyDeleteWe are due for another bought of snow-but I will try and get some of the rubbish cleaned up as well.
DeleteWhat is the difference between hamburger and taco meat? Even though I have been pretty ill, I have managed to fix dinner each night and not gone out to eat or brought a meal home.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you are staying home and trying to get better-I know, you know it's not Covid. Taco meat is already cooked and seasoned ready to just heat and use for tacos, enchiladas etc. Hamburger is just plain raw hamburger.
DeleteWhat a lovely & thoughtful gesture for your coworker. A person on my team posted the loveliest message on International Women's Day about how inspired he was to work with such high caliber and bad a** women (we work in a part of an industry that's particularly male dominated). I was very touched & it was so nice & unexpected.
ReplyDeleteI picked up a few groceries for a little over a buck, using rewards & bonus sales. I like when those two things can come together. Otherwise, it hasn't been particularly frugal, because in the last two weeks, I've purchased three new pair of shoes for the kids (soccer cleats, tennis shoes & regular shoes).
I feel like this person, unless she is hired away, is my successor when I retire. What a nice message to read. Some weeks there are real needs that being thrifty just won't work.
DeleteHow neat that you have already been assigned a park for Adopt a Park Clean-up program. That is great that your DH found hamburger and taco meat for $1.99 a pound!
ReplyDeleteI was happy he found that sale. He thought he maybe should have got more, but I think two of each was the limit anyway. For us, we'll likely get between 6 and eight meals from it.
DeleteI would even disagree that the bouquet was not a frugal purchase. It sounds like money that was wisely spent!
ReplyDeleteIt was a good buy for sure. She was really appreciative.
DeleteI did go through my clothes, as promised. Not a huge purge but I threw out three items and put 12 items in the donate pile. Altogether I have two bags of stuff since the beginning of the year and next time I go to aldis I’ll stop at the goodwill in the plaza first. I did another grocery pickup at Walmart and I’m hooked. I spend so much less and have been getting exactly what I need instead of forgetting things or overbuying and the time saved is awesome. I picked up a shift at work today and it was actually a good and productive day. My only food waste was half a quart of yogurt. I accidentally bought (not from Walmart pickup) light vanilla and it was gross. I could only eat so much. I cleaned up some debris from our yard and the little park but there were two items that were too big for my bag so I’ll have to go back for them. It’s been mild enough to not only give the furnace a break but also air out the house. Hubby brought home two free sample packs of fancy face cream from the Freeosk at Walmart. I tried one new recipe this week-a rich and creamy mushroom soup. 10/10 delicious. So simple and a huge hit. No big moneymakers but some positives. JoAnn
ReplyDeleteI am at the point that if a new recipe is a hit, that is a thrifty win as it adds to the desire to eat home cooked meals instead of take out.
DeleteSo nice of you to buy flowers, I did all the usual. I do get tired of being frugal sometimes. I just want to go out and buy something just for the hell of it...
ReplyDeleteI was watching a youtuber, Jen's Tribe of Seven I thin, and she said the funniest thing, recognizing she just likes to buy crap. I wish I could come up with it. suppose recognizing it is a good first step.
DeleteI still use mostly cash, but I try to use up as much small change as possible so it doesn't accumulate. Taiwan used to be an almost strictly cash economy, but lately people use credit cards for even such small purchases as a bottle of water, making the checkout lines noticeably slower.
ReplyDelete--Jim
I try to keep a little cash on me for tngs like that, but now I'm not out and about so the same cash has been in my phone case forever!
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