Gardening:* Two words: Seed. Catalogs.
* Lots of growth on the salad greens. I'm allowing them to grow a little more, then later this week I'll thin the containers out to give the plants adequate growing room.
Cooking/Groceries:
* Found pineapples on sale for $1 each so I bought three. I'll eat a little fresh and dehydrate the rest. It'll be a nice change of pace from the dehydrated apples we've been eating. We also found bags of 6 clementine's for $1. I bought one bag as a treat.
Food Preservation:
* Nothing this week, as the weeks leading up to the holiday is crazy in the baking business.
Fun:
* This week Trucker and I started a shared file in the cloud. We have compiled a list of date ideas, hobbies we'd like to try out, and vacation fantasies. This will make it easier to avoid boredom and remember little things we'd like to try.
* Went out for coffee, talking and writing a couple times. It's cold and nasty outside, so most of our favorite activities are out. We had a coupon for BOGOF 3 hour bowling, but when we called they said they were booked solid til after the holiday. Sigh. The coupon expires Dec 30, so we've got a few days I guess.
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| This bird house was painted bright yellow with blue, purple, orange and green trim. In short, it was horrible. |
* Trucker and I spent an hour painting some thrift store bird houses that we had bought. We've been meaning to do it for quite some time, but never got around to it. We had some leftover paint from the house, so we painted them to match the house. We're going to put them close to windows so we (and Ray-cat) can watch them.Nature:
* Unfortunately, I didn't get outside as often as I would have liked to. I went out for a couple of runs earlier in the week.
Frugality:
* We were able to turn off the furnace for 2 days. One day it rained but the other was dry so I opened every window in the house. Indoor air can get pretty toxic in winter, so I take advantage of any opportunity to freshen the air.
* We avoided going out this week.
* Paid extra on a couple of debts. Did not put anything else on credit.
* Put aside some of Trucker's tip money aside for savings.
Waste Reduction:
* I am decluttering and made a box of items to donate. While I guess this isn't waste reduction, per se, I am avoiding throwing away items that others could use, and it's my blog so I say it counts. :)
Work:
* Trucker brought home his bag of goodies from his job. This time he brought: 5 english muffins, 2 bagels, 2 muffins and a scone. I'll freeze or dry surplus (as weird as it sounds, drying bagel slices or muffin crumbles are great to use in bread pudding, french toast, and baking). I used a few of the english muffins to make breakfast sandwiches for us one morning.
* Trucker closed the cafe on Sunday night. All of the Sunday papers were going to be thrown away, so he brought home all of the coupons. We'll cut them down together. We use a few coupons for our grocery shopping, but I want to start combining sales and coupons to get near-free items to donate to the food bank. A lot of the items that I could get for pennies are items we don't eat, but others do and considering that 1 in 4 kids in my city don't know if they are going to eat every day, anything helps. I don't have a lot of extra money, but want to stretch what I do have to get as much food to donate as possible.
* My job had our Christmas party on Wednesday. They provided a fantastic meal of turkey, ham, cheesy potatoes, stuffing, salad, honey butter rolls, pumpkin pie and cookies. I brought my packed lunch home to use another day and didn't eat dinner at home since I'd eaten so well at work.
* For our holiday gift, we each received a $25 grocery gift certificate. I get my store-brand discount, and will combine sales and coupons to maximize my gift certificates.
Preparedness:
* Nothing done this week.
Future:
* We both worked on books that we are writing several days this week.
Health:
* Drank water kefir every day.
* Went running on warm days.
* I came down with a bit of a cold. Ugh. Taking lots of vitamin C, drinking lots of water and hot tea with honey and trying to keep my diet as high-quality as possible.
Community:
* At the company Christmas party, there was a prize wheel and I won a $10 itunes gift certificate. I don't use itunes, and couldn't think of someone to give it to. I was talking with one of my coworkers and she said she had been hoping for the itunes gift certificate, but she got a grocery gift card for $5. I offered to trade with her. While my gift card was $10 and hers was only $5, I think I got a better deal. I will get $5 worth of free food, compared to some free music that I probably wouldn't listen to (I'm skeptical about digital music and prefer my CDs). She thinks she got the better deal because her son loves itunes and she is going to use the gift card for part of his Christmas gift. Gene Logsdon describes the ideal barter situation as one in which both parties think the other is getting took. I like that.
What did you do this week?
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