Thrifty Thursday-Slow Start January

      Well here we are already to our last Thursday in January. I keep thinking about Anne's post the other day where in her Q&A and then the comments, was a discussion on marking time. It all makes me think more about making the most of the time we have each and every day, though undoubtedly needing a few days to do nothing at all and let our bodies and mind rest. I went to bed by 7:30 last night, having taken a Benadryl as all day I was sneezy and stuffy, but didn't feel like a straight up head cold Something somewhere is triggering allergies and today, while I feel groggy from that darn little pink tablet, I have not sneezed at all and generally feel  better. With that exciting bit of information shared, on with my thrifty Thursdays where I try and recap how I best used time, resources, and money over the last week. 

Time

• I'm just going to add going to bed early was a good use of time! 
• To maximize my time, I ordered with a book, a 6 pack of the underwear I like for everyday. I don't think these were any cheaper, but I didn't see what I wanted in my quick look at Target last week, and wasn't going to hop to several stores. These were a need, and now I can do some tossing. 
• Friday night pizza night and a movie with my daughter was fun! She joined me for a glass of wine, a bottle from our nephew from Christmas. I think she ended up falling asleep and never really saw the movie, not bad, but not memorable as now for the life of me, I can't remember what it was. 
• My daughter was having a down day on Sunday so joined us on Sunday. We had much amusement listening to DH get excited about the Packers loss. 
• DH had a late pizza lunch at work yesterday, so barely touched any of the hotdish I had made. That will be lunch today as it's his day off. Eating a heartier lunch means I can get by  just throwing chili ingredients in the crockpot so a hardly any time kitchen day. We can just have with crackers or crackers and cheese. 

Resources  

• I froze two portions of cooked hamburger, ready to go for meals, after cooking three others for meals we had during the week. This will save time of course, but also saved energy cooking half a chub of a five pound ground beef at one time.
• I ended up freezing one portion of last week's enchiladas, something different to have one day over the next few weeks.
• I squirreled away 1/2 the spaghetti bolognese for a future spaghetti dish in the freezer. There was enough spaghetti and sauce even after doing so for lunch the next day.
• DH actually came home for lunch and had the last of the pot pie (I had a portion the day before for lunch.) We are maximizing our leftovers.
• I finally got my younger daughters massive stack of library books returned, and success! She found a book that went missing this summer so that was returned as well. The library is such a great resource, and during this crisis they have not charged ate fees, but I still felt bad returning books late.  

Money

• I started doing the Microsoft Rewards quizzes again. For some reason I just stopped before Christmas, but now I am back doing them each day. Surprise, I had enough points and already able to cash in for another $5 Target gift card. 
• It was  a splurge, but a cheap splurge as I found the book club book for $5.99 on-line and I had a $1 credit. I was too far in the cue to get from the library, even the download copy. My timing was right as a few weeks back when I looked the  paper backs were $12.99. 
• I needed hamburger and just a few other things and was determined to spend under $25 to close out January. I splurged on buying a 5 pound chub, even though it ate up $6 more of my funds, but the price per pound was only $2.54. I could have counted 1/2 towards next month, but chose not to. I still met the target and now have three additional  uncooked  pounds, along with meal ready two (smaller than 1 pound but enough for the two of us) cooked hamburger portions hamburger. I also have Sloppy Joe leftovers and the bolognese-all from that massive pack. All together, we'll likely get between 8 and 10 meals from that chub, not counting lunch portions from leftovers.
• For the bolognese, I ended up using only a small amount of hamburger since I bulked up with mushrooms that needed to be used up, an onion, and a grated carrot. DH likes the sauce runnier, so I added a little  water plus more seasoning. The sauce tasted meaty and hearty and so far, no complaints about the carrot  inclusion. 
•  I'm declaring victory on my $500 January challenge-in that I went ahead and spent whatever the first half, but then reined it in after sending my daughter back to school. I kept the overall food, household, personal, and take to under $500.

I didn't have many opportunities to save, but also not many opportunities to spend either. That always keeps funds in our bank accounts. I may or may not start February grocery shopping on Sunday. I don't really have to as we have staples in the pantry and freezer. My oldest sister and brother have birthdays this weekend, and I think I'm making them both loaves of banana chocolate chip bread. They both like puzzles so I'll add a crossword and or word search with a card-easy and I hope liked. I hope you found good ways to spend your time, resources, and cash-or earn more. Please share in the comments.