Frugal Accomplishments Last Week

Pear tart with free pears!

​1. Groceries: We spent $34.25 on groceries this week, all from Kroger. You can see a picture of my haul below. There were so many manager's specials this week! Everything except the sugar and chicken breasts came from several different clearance sections.

You can see there are quite a few random/abnormal things:

The Halo Top ice cream was terrible! It had little gelatin chunks in it that I don't think were supposed to be in there.

2. Garden: I harvested beets, tomatoes, Chinese long beans, Borlotto bean seeds and a few ornamental squashes from the garden. I also foraged purslane for green smoothies.

3. Cooking: I made tomato marmalade with extra tomatoes from the garden. It tastes a lot like ketchup, but... fruitier. I plan on using this in the same way as barbeque sauce, plus I want to use it with grilled cheese.

I saved celery leaves/ends and put them in ham and potato soup. 

I measured out oatmeal into 1-cup mason jars for quick single-serving Instant Pot oatmeal. I made nine jars. While at it, I transferred my muffin-in-a-mug mixes from plastic bags to more little jars, so they too will be ready for the Instant Pot at a moment's notice. Filling the jars en-masse saved time because I only had to get the oatmeal out once, only had to find the lids and rings once, and only had to wash the measuring cup once. You wouldn't think it would save that much time, but if you figure it takes one minute to fill each jar, I saved probably seven minutes by filling them all at once. Again, it doesn't sound like much, but that's eight minutes that I could spend reading or doing something that I enjoy. Plus, having the jars ready means I'm more likely to chose oatmeal as a snack instead of something unhealthy.

Lastly, I made a pear tart from free pears out of our little orchard, for a total cost of $1.41. The only ingredients were pears, sugar, flour, salt and butter. Lots of butter. I LOVE pear tart but haven't made it since I did the farmers' market two years ago. I haven't baked at all much since I did the farmers' market and burned myself out. I do enjoy baking though, and I want to start baking something again once a week. So the pear tart was a start.

4. Garage sales: Baby and I went to several garage sales over the weekend. I was able to find some toys, baskets, a sippy cup,  LOTS of books, a little folding chair, a shirt for me, and some salt and pepper shakers. 

5. Time management: Over the last week I've been rearranging my daily activities to increase efficiency. I did this because nap time would come every day, and I had to decide which two of the three urgent activities I should do. Something was always being left undone. Not only that, but leisure time was almost nothing. 

I think the best thing I tried last week was moving dish-washing time to 9:15 p.m., when Hubs is at home, instead of trying to do it during the day. Not only does this free up nap time, but it gives me 20-60 more minutes during the day to do other things. The second change I made was to start waking up a little earlier than Baby each morning. Usually (but not always) Baby wakes up around 8:00 a.m. Instead of waking up with her, I got up right after her last feeding (between 6:00-8:00 a.m.) to have some "Bethany" time for reading, prayer, a cup of tea, etc. I set the alarm on my phone for 8:00 a.m., so I would not oversleep even if Baby did.

The combination of doing dishes at night, waking up a little earlier than Baby and not sleeping past 8:00 a.m. made a big difference in how rushed or rested I felt during the day. I don't love getting up early and doing dishes at night, but it does make for a happier and more productive day. So I think I'll keep doing it. 

How did you all do this week?

Til next time,
—Bethany