1. Groceries: I spent $38.26 this week on groceries. I spent $35.76 at Walmart for staple items. We also stopped at a mom-and-pop grocery store, where I found some brown bananas. I bought 19 bananas for $2.40.
2. Cooking: I canned a lot of tomatoes this week; some from my garden, and some that were gifted from my mother-in-law. I canned salsa, tomato sauce, and diced tomatoes. Most of my free time this week was spent canning tomatoes. I didn't mind since this was the main garden "project" I had planned for the year. I also froze more Chinese long beans and some sweet corn that we were gifted. My sweet corn failed this year, unfortunately.
3. Gardening: Apart from canning tomatoes, I spent the rest of my free time weeding strawberries. Little by little I have been chipping away at that enormous patch. Thanks to some help from my husband, I think I can finish the rest in decent time. Just when you have one end of the patch weeded, the other starts to need it. Gahhhh.
4. Personal care: I used coupons to get shampoo and conditioner for $0.53 per bottle. I used another coupon to get Hubs' favorite (only acceptable) brand of deodorant for $1.48 per stick. Lastly, I got some free toothpaste at Kroger with a store coupon, or "Best Customer Bonus." But you know what was truly a bonus? I found a manufacturer coupon in my purse for the same brand. I used both coupons then, and earned $2.00 by getting the free toothpaste.
5. Storage: Hubs made me several new wooden crates. Then he screwed them together to create a storage shelf. For the past year, as Baby gets bigger and leaves more stuff in her wake, I've been struggling to find storage space for everything. The crates are perfect because they are sturdy and you can arrange them however you want to make a piece of furniture. We tipped the boxes on their sides and screwed them together to form a tall shelf. I put Baby's eating and cleaning toys on it. The best part is this: When I don't want her (or any other kids) getting into the toys, I just turn the whole shelf around so it's facing the wall! Then you can set things on top of it like books, baskets, etc. When we move out of our current home, we can unscrew the crates from each other and use them like... well, crates. Hubs makes all of our boxes out of scrap lumber, so they're practically free. Plus they're sturdy and will last for years, unlike some of the pressboard furniture we have.
That's all for this week folks!
Til next time,
-Bethany