Frugal Happenings for Beginning of February

Sunday January 29th  I picked up vegetables and a few loss leaders from a local store.  I also divided and packaged a pork loin.  I continued with our organization and organized all the kitchen drawers and the downstairs bathroom drawers.  I made sure to use a lasagna I had frozen rather than letting it sit in the freezer to long -- which I am ashamed to say has happened in the past.  I renewed our library books online because we hadn't finished them, rather than driving across town to renew them in person.  I gave my sister some extra casserole dishes I had and to Goodwill I dropped off a load of dishes I had been storing.

Monday January 30th I hung laundry to dry.  Ran a full load of delicates that I had been letting build up.  Worked on using up odd partial bottles of cleaner and I think I have enough of all of them for the next month.  Leftovers for lunch and cooked enough supper for leftovers for tomorrow's lunch. My pattern book that I purchased with a gift card (from survey taking) arrived and my first thought was I need to go buy yarn...but I stopped myself.  With a little pulling through I found the colors I need to make my nephew's birthday present and I've started on it.

Tuesday January 31st Since we have company coming I switched my cleaning schedule around slightly and washed bedding today.  (They'll be using my bed because my husband won't be here to help me arrange the guest bed...long story.)  When the quilt was almost dry I hung it over the banister to finish rather than tossing it back in the dryer.  Leftovers for lunch today and enough for tomorrow's lunch cooked tonight. I pulled beans I had previously frozen out to go into the beans and rice for tonight and I used 1/3 of a pound of beef.    The other 2/3 will be burgers for later this week.  

Wednesday February 1st
I mended a bra for my daughter.
We packed my daughter's lunch and I ate leftovers.
We had company over for dinner and I was able to prepare the meal with things on hand as planned.
My daughter brought home a free newspaper.

Thursday February 2nd
I spent some time tallying up the shopping for February and I placed a Sam's Club pick up order online to avoid being tempted to buy things I didn't have on my list.  I was able to buy some items on sale for future months and spread those costs out over my budget.
I switched around a shelf I was no longer using in my craft room and the move to the laundry room helped me organize it and now I have all my extra bathroom and cleaning supplies in the laundry room.  This visually cleared up my bathroom shelf, which now just has medications (prescription and OTC) and some basic personal items. 
We took some odd remnants from the freezer and had a nice meal for two.  (We had munched on the casserole from the night before and didn't have enough leftovers for a lunch.)

Friday February 3rd
We picked up our Sam's Club order.  I baked a heart shaped cake in a pan I borrowed from my sister -- and mixed the holiday with my grandson's Star Wars love.  He was thrilled.  We baked homemade pizzas.

Saturday February 4th
We ate all our meals at home and even though we rearranged the menu slightly to allow for a snack meal night -- tater tots, chicken nuggets, etc. -- we ate from what was here.  
I attended the local library book sale and bought 6 books.  Two children's books for my grandson, 2 cookbooks for me, 1 biography, and 1 reference book. Total spent was $8.