I had a pretty thrifty week, although we were gone for some of it.
1. Buttons on dress: several weeks ago I bought a cardigan from Amazon. I bought a navy blue one and a white one. Do you know how sometimes color options are cheaper than others when ordering on Amazon? Well, both of my colors were "on sale" for $2.00 less than most of the other options. However, they both had big, gaudy red buttons going down the front. The blue sweater actually came with a pack of blue buttons, so this week I simply replaced the red buttons with blue. The white sweater, oddly enough, did not come with any extra buttons. I replaced one of the old red buttons with a mother-of-pearl button, but it was too big for my liking. So I am going to fish through some of my old buttons this week and see if I can find five matching white ones to put on the white sweater. 2. I have been trying to use a lot of eggs in our meals lately. The real problem is simply that I have too many chickens. However, the chickens I do have were mostly free. Right now the chickens are laying six eggs per day. We have eight dozen eggs in the fridge, so my goal is to use up 6+ eggs per day. I have been making quite a few devilled eggs and quiches, plus fried eggs and egg-using dessert recipes. I also made mayonnaise this week, but I made a mistake and it all separated. Better luck next time. 3. Microgreens and tester seeds: I started another batch of microgreens last week that are now ready to harvest. I also began viability testing on my garden seeds this year. Unfortunately many of the seeds I tested were just too old. However, I planted the spinach, basil and beet test seeds in dirt and they sprouted. I will transplant the spinach and basil seedlings into larger pots to be grown indoors, and I will use the beets for greens, rather than actual beets, since I don't have a pot large enough for that. 4. Currier and Ives prints. Several weeks ago I bought a Currier and Ives book at a discount store. I loved it so much that I decided to buy a second, used copy to cut prints out of for wall artwork. This week I went through the lengthy process of removing the book cover, separating al of the pages, and throwing away the pages with words. Unfortunately the prints didn't fit my thrift-store frames very well, so I may try some alternative methods of framing. 5. Reorganized a cabinet with school supplies. I will be going through How To Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons with our non-reader this fall, so in the coming months I want to make sure she knows all of her letter sounds. I moved our preschool/kindergarten supplies into a cabinet in the kitchen where they will be more accessible to use every day. That's all for this week! I hope you're all staying warm. Blessings, ~Prudence~
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Hi everyone! I had a relaxing and productive week at home.
Bedroom: I removed a cabinet out of our bedroom closet and replaced it with a full-length mirror that we already had. After a year of thinking it over, I decided to replace the plastic hangers on my side of the closet with wooden ones. Over the past year I've kept an eye out for used wooden hangers, and they cost about $1.00 each. Since Amazon sells a set of matching wooden hangers for $1.00 a piece, I decided to go that route rather than thrifting the hangers. Was it thrifty to spend $20.00 on hangers? I'm not sure, but they sure make my thrifted clothes look more appealing! I love the "boutique" feeling they give my closet. I also purchased a duvet and duvet cover for our bed (each cost about $30.00 from Amazon). This is another change I've been contemplating for some time, now. Over the past two years, I've had a hard time with sheets. Five years ago we bought a nice set at Kohls, which lasted a long time, but it got to be pretty ragged. I replaced it with a Walmart Black Friday special, which I struggled to keep from popping off of the mattress. I even used those little sheet clips to keep the corners on, but it would still pop off. Recently, I realized that the set wasn't even 100% cotton, but 50/50 cotton and polyester. It was all this trouble that brought me to the point of switching from a traditional quilt/sheet set to a duvet cover and single fitted sheet. For the fitted sheet, I decided to take a chance on a rather expensive Boll and Branch sheet ($110.00). The upside: it fits over our mattress! Yay! That being said, I don't think it feels all that much better than the free used (100% cotton) sheet I got from my sister. We're at a point financially where the splurge isn't a big deal, but in the future I will look for more affordable 100% cotton sheets that are made for tall mattresses. Bathroom: I installed a bidet that we had in our old house. We don't use the bidet all that much (the water here is COLD!), but it will at least get some use if it's attached. LOL! I've discovered that apart from cleaning body parts, it is also useful for cleaning #2 out of our toddler's potty. In addition to the bidet install, I also set up a separate compost can in addition to the bathroom trash can. You can actually compost a lot of bathroom refuse; drain hair, toilet paper tubes, toilet tissue. Last year I figured out that it costs about $2.50 for every bag of trash that we have to throw in the dumpster. Since then, I've tried to do all I can to keep things out of the trash. I started saving all paper and burnables out of the trash, for example, and tub hair is just one more thing that can actually serve a purpose rather than fill up the dumpster. Cooking: I also tried making a few new recipes this week. One was a Bajan-style pork roast, and the other was béchamel. I've made white sauce informally before, but never the "proper" way. This recipe was out of Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I was excited to find that béchamel it is something I can prepare, refrigerate, and then use little by little. I will add it to my list of regular food prep and batch cooking tasks. That's it for this week! Blessings, ~Prudence~ |
About PrudenceI am a Christian homemaker who lives in the Midwest. I enjoy sewing, gardening, reading and thrifting. Archives
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