Happy Thrifty Thursday, everyone! There are a lot of exciting projects I've been working on this week, and some great deals that I scored.
1. Girls' bedroom: I finished up spray painting some accessories (photo frame, mirror, coat hooks). I also hung up a world map that we already had. I put pictures of people we know on the map, with a string going to where they live. Second, I started buying things for the knock-off Beddies project. So far I've spent about $45.00 on the top, minky for the inside and an extra-long zipper. I'll be using a bed sheet that we already have for the bottom. Right now all I need is batting for the inside. If I were feeling ambitious, I would pick apart an old quilt or comforter and use that batting. But for convenience I will probably just buy a roll of regular batting. 2. I harvested radishes and swiss chard from the garden. My row cover over the spinach is working very well. I would love to have fresh spinach in December. We'll see if that happens! 3. I went to a scratch 'n' dent grocery store with my grandparents. I bought sausage, ham, deli turkey, and bacon for about half of what we usually pay at Walmart. I also got a KILLER deal on chocolate. You can see some of what I got in the photo at the top of this post. They were selling 12 ct. boxes of organic, fair trade chocolate for $4.80 per box, or $0.40 per bar, for bars that normally sell for $3.50 or more each. I bought two full boxes and another half box, so in theory I "saved" $93.00. In actuality, one of the boxes was expired, and the chocolate had discolored and the texture wasn't quite right. However, I can still use those bars for baking hot chocolate. The other 18 bars were great. One box expires in December and the other half-box in January, though, so I will try to use them or gift them before too long (the bad bars were about two months expired). I don't like keeping candy around the house for us to eat, but I do like to have nice things for guests when they come over, so I put the chocolate by our coffee/tea bar. 4. Coffee bar: In addition to the $12.00 I spent on chocolate, I also broke down and bought a $40.00 milk frother/steamer. My sister-in-law recently bought a new fancy coffee maker, and I was fascinated with the steamer/frother. Tea lattes are the new thing, you know! They ended up returning the $70.00 machine and getting a higher capacity one without a milk frother, but the damage was already done. I couldn't get the tea lattes out of my mind. We already have a coffee/hot water maker, so I decided to just buy a separate milk frother/steamer. You can get cheap frothers for $10.00-$15.00, but they don't heat the milk. I wanted something that guests would be able to use themselves without having to run all over the kitchen trying to heat up milk. Where does the thrifty part of this purchase come from, you ask? Well, I was doing a little research on fancy coffee/tea drinks, and the price of a tea latte at our local coffee shop costs $4.50. The cost to make a tea latte at home is something like $0.30-$0.50 depending on the price of the tea bag. The steamer/frother, then, would pay for itself after 10 drinks. Plus, having that level of luxury at your own home is just really cool. 5. I finished Surviving the Coming Economic Collapse. By the time I was done, I had a half page of notes with issues or skills to read up on, along with a list of things to buy. After looking over our finances the other day, my husband and I came to the conclusion that we have some extra money that we can invest or use for something other than the stock market. He has a project in mind to buy some supplies for, and I will be buying some of the self/home defense items that I read about in the book. We don't have any debt and already invest and give some of our income, so it will be fun to use that money on other things. That is about it for this week! I had a lot of fun and I look forward to giving you an update on some of these things next week. Blessings, ~Prudence~
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Hi everyone! Well, I'm a day late and a few dollars poorer than I was last week. But here are a few things I did accomplish over the last 8 days:
1. I spent most of my free time this week painting our daughter's bedroom. This is something I've been wanting to do for over a year, and finally I just decided to do it. I found a paint color on the "rejects" rack for 50% off. It was similar to the pastel green that I wanted anyway, so I bought that and a can of white to paint ugly wood panel wainscoting on three sides of the room. The room is so much better now. If feels like a real bedroom and not an old man's office from the 1990's (which, in fact, it was). Painting the gold/red wood doors and paneling white had a tremendous lightening effect, and any color at all on the wall was better than the white walls that were there before. We also hung a rope swing, which will be a great way for her to blow off steam this winter when we're all stuck inside. Lastly, I exchanged an old, thin red rug for a more modern, plush off-white rug. The new rug is smaller, which actually makes the room look bigger. I am so happy with it. The only remaining projects for that room are: 1) wall art, and 2) coordinated bedding. For wall art I'm just going to spray paint some photo frames pastel pink or purple, and fill them with photos, educational posters, Biblical art prints or her own artwork. As far as bedding goes, I'm going to try to make a knock-off version of Beddy's bedding, which is basically a glorified sleeping bag. The Beddy's set I'm looking at costs $130.00. I seriously considered buying it to save on time and hassle. But I feel like I could put together something comparable for less than $50.00. 2. I started reading The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving the Economic Collapse, which I bought on Amazon. It cost $20.00, but I'm learning so much. Regardless of who wins the presidency, I feel like we are headed toward some kind of fiscal disaster, and I want to be prepared. A huge part of the book is dedicated to defending oneself, and the author's ideas seem to never end. Of course firearms are a big part of that, but part of an economic collapse is the marked lack of firearms and ammunition... something we've been experiencing here for several months now. Alternatives he lists include everything from knives to glass bottles and pepper spray. What I love about these kind of books is that there are always inexpensive options. While the book is more geared toward city-dwellers (which is probably why there's such an emphasis on fighting and almost nothing about gardening), it still has a lot of good tips from someone who has experienced such a crisis firsthand. 3. I acquired 10 dozen free eggs and a massive bag full of bread. We didn't really need the eggs (since I have chickens), so we gave most of them away already. I've been slowly using up the bread for sandwiches, toast, and tonight we had oven-baked French toast. It was far less time-consuming than regular French toast, and Hubby gave it two thumbs up. 4. I purged some of our toy collection. 5. I put a row cover on a small patch of spinach, lettuce and radishes. Last week I planted new spinach and lettuce seeds in my 4x4' greenhouse bed. And they've germinated! I'm excited about this, because this is the latest I have ever had usable greens in the garden. Right now I can harvest spinach, lettuce, radishes or Swiss chard if needed. Of course there aren't unlimited amounts, but I'm just proud of the fact that it's there. That's all for this week! I'm excited about new projects for this week, and hope to share some Thanksgiving decor photos in the coming week. Blessings, ~Prudence~ Hi everyone! Despite the election and all of the ensuing drama, I was actually able to accomplish quite a bit this week.
1. I cleaned up our tenants' garden. This took a few afternoons, as there was quite a bit of fencing, posts and weeds covering it all. The tenants moved out last weekend, so our rental is currently empty. They found a great home at a phenomenal price. It needs a bit of work, but I know they will be so happy there. The garden had been pretty well neglected since mid-July, so I helped myself to the green beans that had gone to seed (which was all of them) and some broccoli florets. In all I collected two quarts of dry beans... they look a lot like black beans, so we'll see how they taste. I also pulled up almost a whole wheelbarrow full of onions. A lot of them were small, since they hadn't been weeded. Our tenant offered to share the onions, but I feel like they could use the savings more that we can at this point. After looking at the mess of weeds for so many months, it was a real relief to get it cleaned up. 2. I switched up some of our decor from "fall" to "Thanksgiving". I put a nice tablecloth and candlesticks on the table. I also made a wreath base from grape vines out by the chicken coop. The wreath needs a little more decoration, but for being 100% free, I'm very happy with how it turned out. I got out the placemats we used last year around this time, and they looked pretty shabby. Out of four placemats, one was torn. We've been using those (thrifted) placemats for several years, and now there are not enough for guests. I ordered some more on Amazon. Not so thrifty, but I think they will be beautiful and clean up easier. Not to mention there will be enough if we have a guest or two for dinner. 3. I worked on some macrame plant hangers (see picture). I used this tutorial. It's not real macrame; just braids and knots. But I was very happy with the end result, and hopefully it will be easier to take care of my orchids this way. You can see that the wall behind the plants is in sad disrepair. This is one area of the house that still needs a lot of work, and I feel like the plants there give it a little more life. 4. I started listening to 1984 on Youtube, since I couldn't find it on Scribd. 5. I'm working on switching my social media accounts from Youtube/Facebook/etc. to free speech platforms. This is something I was planning to do even before the election, but now it is not even a question. Can I just rant a little here? We live in a blue state (for the most part) and I am just so sick of lies. From the beginning of the Rona, the data on our state's website seemed to contradict the draconian measures being taken. It has only got worse. I am convinced that our governor is trying to shut down businesses. Now that contract tracing is big on the agenda, I know there will be another lockdown this winter; maybe not a government mandated lockdown, but one that happens naturally, since so many people will be sick and you are supposed to self-quarantine if you've been around anyone with sniffles for more than 15 minutes. So yeah- blue state = lies. I can only imagine what a blue country is going to mean. I pray that we won't be forced to wear masks for another two years. So on that happy note, have a great weekend! ;) ~Prudence~ |
About PrudenceI am a Christian homemaker who lives in the Midwest. I enjoy sewing, gardening, reading and thrifting. Archives
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