Thrifty Tuesday (normally Thursday): Getting Back into the Frugal Swing Over the Weekend

I was working 5 days a week for 2 weeks of summer camp and everything else went out the window even though it was only about a 6 hour day, it was all that I could take because I had time to run maybe one errand or do one thing before picking up my son from school.  Sadly, I got behind on everything- housework, cooking, cleaning and anything else!  Everything suffered!!

I spent the monthly grocery budget in the first half of the month and only had $1.12 left in the budget and still more spending to be done.  I decided that I better hunker down and use the things that I had at home well and get back on track.  I only got popcorn made for my son's lunch and was starting to use frozen rolls for my husbands lunch because I was totally out.  I made a batch of fresh rolls which he said were really yummy!!  My encouragement to know that the frozen ones weren't really making the cut because fresh is always better.

On Friday after I was done, I tried to catch up by doing dishes....haha!!  The stack was too large to handle.  I had broken into a sweat with the air conditioning running and had to take a break.  I did a few loads of laundry to get back on track with clothes during the break from dishes.  I did a bunch more and ran the dishwasher.  There were still more when I had to give up and run to the library before picking up my son from school.  I had some books that were due back with no renewals left.  I almost cried when we had late charges this week because I was at the library and didn't renew the books!!  I was so disappointed in myself that I have to pay $0.90 because I didn't renew them so I returned them instead.  Bonus is that I remembered to pick up the local papers to get the free coupon inserts and I picked up a reserve of a book on CD that my son wants to read so that we can listen to it as a family on our vacation.

We went to the pool on Friday night and then, I made even more making a mess for dinner.  My husband really thinks that we should go back to using paper plates but I am hoping for actually having enough energy to clean up after dinner which I never do!! We went with a mix of leftovers and other items to get dinner on the table.

I slept horribly on Saturday and woke up to my husband saying that he was washing dishes, emptying the dishwasher, and putting things away.  With a bonus cleaning the stove which he said took him 2 1/2 hours.  I continued to wash a few dishes but we had to head out for soccer. We stopped at the library on the way home from the game because they emailed me like 15 minutes after I left on Friday to let me know that one of the books for my son was in!!  I hate that because I go in the afternoon because I know that is when the reserves come in but they stock them at 4:15 after school gets out!!!  Anyway, picked up a few more of the free local newspaper.

After getting all these and hearing from Natalie that Super Doubles was coming, I realized that I better get going on the coupons.  I sorted all of the inserts that I had and then went through and started cutting (way too much cutting so it happened in a few shifts).  I worked pretty hard to get my basket totally cleaned out and ready to go!  Now I have to go through and make a note of the $1 or more coupons that might be great values!!

I came home and made a bigger mess with brownies from a box mix (my husband's favorite), nutella oat breakfast cookies (I am the only one who likes these), and cinnamon rolls (for our fathers day treat).  I did more dishes and finished all the old dishes...sadly, made more that I didn't get done before going to bed. 

My husband made another batch of ice tea!!  We finished all the Lipton tea bags and we are on to the Tetley which is my favorite brand.  Sad thing is that means that we are cutting into the supply and we have not gotten enough sales and coupons recently.  The good news is that I have a fresh pot of tea.

I made a loaf of bread.  Because my son loves peanut butter sandwiches during the summer when he can get them fresh. It also helps because I use them for paninis and other meals.  Fresh bread is hard because it doesn't always stay fresh long enough to use but we use a lot more in the summer.

It was a team effort to make popcorn to get ready for the week.  My husband helped me while I was doing other things in the kitchen. We also then washed the popcorn maker to stick back in the cupboard.  It doesn't get washed every time but I so love it when it is cleaned and put away.

We also made a big batch of brown sugar because we were totally out. We made 4 cups of brown sugar which filled up the brown sugar and emptied the white sugar so I filled that too.  I mixed and shook and got exhausted.  My husband helped and finished the mixing so that my arm could rest.

We had meal of leftovers including buffalo chicken panini, grilled buffalo mac and cheese, rice and other leftovers for Friday night.  On Saturday, my son asked for chicken fries and diced hash browns so I made them for him and me and my husband had a burger.  On Sunday, I made edamame, egg rolls and chicken lo mein stir fry from a bunch of things in the freezer.  YEAH using up what was on hand!! I am glad that I had the flexibility to do that this weekend and use a bunch of things so that they weren't wasted.

While making dinner, I realized that I needed to package and freeze the ground beef that I bought so I took the package and put it in individual bags to make at least 6 meals. Put them in the upstairs freezer but I need to carry them to the deep freeze in the basement.

We also spent some time on Sunday cleaning out the grill and seeing if we could get new parts for it again.  I am so glad that I have a husband that fixes things!!  He headed to Home Depot to pick up the needed parts with gift cards.  He used most of them recently to buy the attic ladder for our garage so I have a feeling that we are going to run out soon.  Buying another one through Swagbucks in July again because we still have tons of things that we need around the house!!  Hoping for a grill that I can work again so that I can at least preheat before he gets home if the occasion calls for it! Here is hoping we can get it cleaned up and working. The other great news is that we both cleaned the inside of it so it should work even better through the summer months.

I was excited to use the weekend to get my act together and clean the house and get everything ready to have a good week.  I am hoping to get lots done this week and follow this super productive weekend but that usually doesn't work out as well as I plan.  Great news is that I have a few days of no working while my son is still in school.  Plans to make blueberry strudel muffins and banana bread for the week.

How are you doing with the beginning of your summer?