What I Did With My Two Weeks Off

I tried to make the most of the time off of work but I spent a lot of it not doing anything which was a nice break.  I did a few things to try to save money but I am not sure that I was totally successful because we did have a few expenses with a big lunch out and too much shopping.  I realize after looking back at the long list that I did a few things and almost all of them involved food.  Here is my list:

I made tea everyday for myself to drink (and anyone else that might have been visiting).  Sadly, that cup dropped through my hands in a parking lot and cracked.  I was so upset with myself for not having a better grip on it or leaving it in the car but I guess that happens.  It is just so hard to find a nice reusable cup and that one has outlasted many others.

I made a double batch of Christmas cookies with lots of sprinkles including the homemade ones that my son made awhile ago because we were running low on the store bought ones.  We are very low of lots of sprinkles so I have been keeping my eye open for sales and I guess I have to get some soon because my son likes them in his oatmeal sometimes... I think that I still have Halloween ones so we will be using those for oatmeal.

I made a batch of chocolate chip muffins which we really enjoyed for lots of snacks.  I also took blueberry muffins and English muffins out of the freezer which we enjoyed around the busy holidays.  Always great to have a few extra baked goods in the freezer.  I usually have something but currently we have cleaned out everything to make room for new.

I took bags and bags of bread ends and cut them into cubes and toasted them.  I am totally ready for more breadcrumbs or stuffing for the rest of the coming year.  I ended up with four big gallon bags of toasted cubes and one bag of non-toasted cubes.  This took a few days and made quite a mess but I decided to use the cookie sheets instead of the pizza pan that I normally use so that I didn't destroy the new oven.

I made some dinner rolls for Christmas dinner and I made two batches so that I could leave the extra because my brother in law enjoyed the leftovers after Thanksgiving.  We didn't take any home this time so this picture is from a previous batch of yumminess.

I roasted the pumpkin that I have had sitting inside our front for ages so that I could make some yummy pumpkin bread.  I got a pumpkin free from work and used it to make pumpkin puree.  I might have cut myself when cutting it up but what can I say, I always cut myself!

I separated out the seeds so that I cold clean and bake those to enjoy.  Yummy and salty when I was done even though there weren't that many.

I worked to get my daily amount on Swagbucks so that I could earn a $25 gift card for my mother in law.  I got it and emailed it to her even if it was a little after Christmas.  At least it was before the new year by a few minutes.  

We took many trips to the library to get books for both my son and myself.  He also got to participate in the reading program there so that he could get neat little gifts for every five books he read (limit one per day).  He got Bingo cards, puzzle, some game with wood tiles that I don't know how to use and a stop watch.  He also got some summer stuff like a frisbee for the pool and a ball that swishes because both his didn't make it through last year.  We have until the end of February to continue this so I know that we will be keeping track of all of our reading because he is enjoying these prizes.  He is also enjoying the attention from the librarians because this is a new library to us so they don't know him yet.

I went to CVS and bought four bags of popcorn and two nut bars with coupons so they were all free.  It was only tax that I had to pay and my parents picked up the tab because I shared way more in coupon with them to get nuts that my dad wanted.

I made some cinnamon rolls for Christmas morning from scratch and things that I had in the house including some yummy cream cheese frosting.  I didn't take a picture so the best you can have it an old one but they looked a lot the same and then I smeared them with cream cheese frosting.  I think that we have discovered that we actually like them better leftover then fresh.

I cooked a roll of sausage that I bought on clearance and had in the freezer.  I wasn't sure what I was going to use it for but I figured that it would get used better if I cooked it.

I made some homemade spaghetti sauce and added the sausage so that I could use it for making dinner that night and then I used it for lasagna which took me way too long to make. After making everything, I had nearly a full jar so I threw it in the freezer to use for next time.

I made chicken stock with a carcass and leftover veggies from the freezer.  My sister in law also gave me the turkey carcass and I made more broth with that and more leftover veggies from the freezer.  We have a fully stocked freezer with lots of stock.  I used the stock from both to make soup three different times too!!

My mom brought two sad looking zucchini with her which I used to make oven fried zucchini to go with pasta one night for dinner.  I also saved a bag of very sad green beans and stir fried them to go with another meal.  She also left us two wonderful heads of romaine which we had for salads on two different nights with yummy homemade salad dressing.

I made some yummy scones with blueberries and lemon and a little strawberry when my parents were here with the remaining berry yogurt that I had.  They really enjoyed them.  Then I had Pumpkin yogurt to use up  so I decided that needed to add a little more cinnamon to the mix.  My mom also bought me the yummy caramel bites so I put in half the bag with made them amazing!!!  Instead of sugar on the top, I used cinnamon and sugar so they were super tasty and a great treat.

I made a lasagna to eat and one to freeze with the homemade sauce and the noodles that I had leftover in the cupboard.  I probably could have used more noodles but I never know when I start how much it is going to make.  I made one in an 8 x 8 baker to freeze and we put these these in the oven to have for a super yummy lunch.  I was planning on saving them for dinner but they smelled too yummy and my husband asked if they could be lunch.  Loved them!!  Made with freezer garlic bread.

I made seasoned oyster crackers with the free Chex Mix flavoring that I got at Walmart on Black Friday.  I ran out of all my other seasonings so it seemed like a good idea.  I also had a sheet pan already greasy from the pumpkin seeds so I used that so bonus was that I got a little extra salt and only had to clean once.

I made a loaf of bread in the bread machine.  I needed to have it for sandwiches and everything for back to school but I also have to use the rest of the milk again because we didn't finish the gallon that my mom bought while she was here and we are near the end of it.  I hate wasting so I am going to have to come up with more things to make with it.

We tried out the popcorn machine that my mother bought us for Christmas.  I made two batches to fill the container with popcorn and we made a third batch to enjoy while watching the DVD Home.  I still don't think that it is as good at the stove top kind but I am hoping that I can work on it and get it better next time.

I made some chocolate chip cookies too!  I thought that it would be a nice treat since we were out of most of the treats from the beginning of the vacation.  Super happy to have a nice treat to tide us back to real life if they last that long.  Sadly I only had enough for a single batch because of my lack of brown sugar.

Our best frugal save was the three bookcases that my husband saved from the garbage.  We set two up with DVDs because we have too many.  The other was for all our board games because we moved 8 or 9 boxes of games!!  UGH!!  The new bookcases were free and my husband installed them over break. I unpacked a ton of boxes with all the DVDs and my husband took two loads to the recycling center to get rid of them all.

I took our other bookcase to use for all of my son's video game parts.  I decided to use the cubes that my mom bought us at Aldi to organize all of the different systems because my husband pulled out the old ones before the holiday to entertain my son with some of the older games.  I think that there are probably a few others that we would have fun hooking up but I am trying to not have too many hooked up at once.  I guess we will see but this helped for more boxes to get recycled and emptied.  We still have to move things around a bit but the cubes are a little big to fit on the shelves so it might take a little shelf moving.

Lastly and not least, my husband took the shelves in the linen closets and repainted them.  We thought we were going to be able to replace them with shelves at Home Depot but they were a few inches to short so we end up saving money and using the paint that we already have to prime and paint them.  I unpacked the stuff for the one linen closet and then had to find the boxes for the other linen closet.  This also helped to get more things organized and got rid of more boxes.  Super excited that I am actually going to know where things are soon!!

As always, I was hoping to get a few more things done to save money but there is never enough time.  I did get my thank you notes written which was on my to do list.  Lucky thing was that I had plenty as soon as I could uncover the box in the storage room.  Hoping that we are going to be more settled after these few weeks including getting my son's bed frame set up and his new ceiling fan installed which were too big milestones.  Lots more things on the list to do but I think that this break gave us lots of progress on the house!!

How productive were you over your holiday??