Am I the only one who has lost her desire to shop?
Don’t get me wrong…I don’t think that’s a bad thing. 😉
After all, I spent our #yearofno fighting the urge to buy anything that wasn’t essential.
And now, wearing a mask (with asthma and a touch of claustrophobia) isn’t appealing to me. It certainly makes me think hard about whether I really need that thing in the back of a big store.
Anyway, all the extra time around the house continues to give us opportunities to find new ways to use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without.
So here are the newest…
5 Ways We’ve Saved Money This Week
Borrowed A Pressure Washer
My Dad has a pressure washer and this week he let us borrow it.
I haven’t borrowed it in the past because I worried about using too much water. But our new cistern (!) holds more water so we’ve been able to use it with no problems!
So far we washed out the tanks we no longer need so we can sell them. (Fingers crossed they go soon!)
I also washed off half the house before the storms rolled in for the week. It looks SO much better!
Being able to use this now should help us make things last longer.
Chicken Stock In Muffin Tins
Now this one is cool.
We got our chickens processed last week, so we had to cook one up to see how it tasted. (Report…it was yummy!)
We’re fans of letting nothing go to waste, so I wanted to use the carcass to make some chicken stock.
The only problem with making stock is that I usually freeze it in a big ziplock bag…which means I have to think ahead when I want to use it. It’s very hard to get that to thaw out quickly.
Well, my brother told me to just start freezing it in a regular muffin tin. It gives you about a 1/2 cup, which you can thaw in the pot to make pasta, soup, or whatever you want.
I love the smaller portions for so many different recipes! And it takes up so much less space in the freezer.
This week I was able to freeze some chicken stock and some beef stock.
Leftover Cereal Into Puppy Chow
There were a couple of half boxes of Chex cereal that no one seemed to want to eat. So I mixed it up and made Puppy Chow.
I measured the cereal and had about half what the recipe called for, so I just halved everything and it turned out great!
Homeschool Books
We’ve made the decision to homeschool a few of the kids this year. So I began shopping for books and curriculum.
(Lots of people have been curious, so I’ll tell you that I went with CHC. But if you’re new to homeschooling, make sure you choose a curriculum that’s right for your kids AND for you.)
Once I settled on the books, I looked around for deals.
I thought it was cool that CHC had a bargain basement, with books that were slightly damaged (I didn’t really notice any damage from the ones I got).
I also found deals on Ebay and in a Facebook book swap group.
Make sure you ask around. You’re bound to have a friend who has tried homeschooling before and they’ll be a wealth of information!
Made Do
Here’s my method for cleaning the house this summer: each day I try to tackle one thing that’s been annoying me.
That’s basically it.
(Well, and I have the kids clean up the floors each day and we use the Roomba I got for Christmas, which I mostly love.)
Anyway, one day this week that annoying project was our junk drawer.
I have tons of batteries just rolling around that drawer at any given time.
Batteries that I’m convinced are new, but only work half the time when I try to use them.
(I found out that it’s because they roll around, probably striking ends together frequently. And that causes them to lose their charge.)
Well, I’ve always thought those plastic battery sorter things were cool. But who wants to spring for one of those?
(Well, not me anyway.)
Instead, I cut off the bottom of a cracker box and stood them on their ends. They didn’t quite fill the space, so I used a fat little screwdriver to make sure they didn’t tip over.
Good enough!
I'm Jamie, and I want to help you afford a beautiful life with your family. 
