My Thrifty Retirement - Week 2

 

We had snow last Sunday morning!  Big huge flakes, but it pretty much melted right away.  Winter still wants to hold on a bit longer.  I spent my wintery day in my craft room making cards before preparing a full Mexican meal for our Sunday dinner.  It was fabulous and cost a fraction of what one entrée at a restaurant would have been.  Plus I had plenty of leftovers for more meals the first half of the week.

 

Our weather continued cold, windy, snowy, rainy, hail, you name it we had it weather wise.  Needless to say that pretty much put all of my outdoor plans and activities on hold.  In light of the situation I kept crafting until the top of the dresser I keep my sewing fabrics in was completely covered with greeting cards.  I've had an industrious past two weeks!  I put all of my cards into sets and photographed them, then got to work and started loading them into my Etsy store.  I was shocked at how much inventory I was able to add.  And I think I've really upped my game on the creativity and details I've put into these cards.

 

I'm pretty sure if I sell these I will be working for minimum wage from my very first job where I worked for someone else at the age of fourteen.  We were all excited too because they had just raised the minimum wage to $3.15 an hour.  Doubtful I will make that much this time, but I'm having a lot of fun and that is the most important thing.  If I can earn enough to pay for my hobby and find good homes for these beauties in the process then that will be a bonus!

 

A homemade egg "mcmuffin" - cost me 40¢ to make!

Between Sunday dinner and a pasta dish I pulled out of the freezer for my daughter, plus leftovers from the week before I didn't have to cook again until Thursday.  Did I end up getting tired of leftover enchiladas with all the trimmings?  Surprisingly no.  I loved every bite of it.  But had I, I could've easily frozen the extra enchiladas and eaten them later on.  I did the math on what everything cost to prepare and determined I was able to eat for five days for only 80¢ a day!  I have no complaints about that!

 

All the trash I could come up with for the week

We had no food waste and very little trash to take out this week.  I emptied all of our trash cans into one grocery bag and took it out to the wheelie bin, which ended up at the curb for the first time in a month.  It was only a quarter of the way full and we have the smallest bin available.  I was pretty pleased with the lack of trash we are contributing.

 

I used up every last bit of a tube of toothpaste before opening a new one.  I made a batch of foaming hand soap solution and topped up all of our dispensers.  I collected some more items to plant seeds in - two toilet paper tubes plus a cream carton.  I also emptied the kitchen collection bucket into our compost bin and am now working to get it filled back up.  When I refilled the shampoo and conditioner dispensers in our shower I added a little bit of water to each one and gave it a good shake to extend the product.  You can't even tell I did that.

 

I spent $0 last week bringing my total dollars spent this month so far to $0.  I will admit it does feel a little weird not to look at the grocery ads or do any shopping.  But it also feels really good knowing I don't need to either.

 

I hope you all had a fabulous week and a lovely Easter Sunday.  Let me know how your thrifty week went.