My frugal activities this week

Bronze garden mums

I did not clean any bedrooms today as planned because as you all know, life happens. This morning it was a chance to go to Food Basics and the Dollar Tree. I wanted to pick up some chicken legs with backs attached that were on for $1.79 a pound, pasta and egg noodles for $.88 a pkg., Dempsters whole grain bread 3 for $5.00, Triscuit crackers for $1.67 each, olive oil and canola oil both at great prices and cereal at only $1.99 a box. I found that Food Basics had the best food prices overall this week and I didn't want to miss a chance to stock up the pantry. I picked up another 5 lbs each of yellow cooking onions and carrots for $1.88 each. Fantastic price. Brown rice and tinned tomatoes were not on sale, but the regular price was good and these were items I needed for the week. I paid out $49.50  When I got home I put the 8 chicken legs in the oven to roast and finished up the pot of lentil and orzo stew that I had started (but needed a tin of tomatoes to finish up). I diced all the onions for the freezer. I then took as much meat off the chicken as I could and placed into 3 freezer bags for 3 different meals. The first one will be tonight, added to a stir fry. The broccoli, cauliflower  and green beans are from the garden. I was going to use one of my red peppers from the garden, but it could use another day or two in the sun, so I left it. I will use red pepper, carrots, and  onion from the freezer. All the drippings from the roasting pan was added with the chicken bones into the soup pot, and that is now simmering on the stove. 

GARDEN: I am still harvesting tomatoes and cucumber. I have just recently brought in cantaloupe and green beans. 

DIY: I haven't done any DIY this week but my SP was able to clean up the throttle body on the Jeep a few days ago when we thought we would have to replace the starter. He also tightened up the toilet seat in our half-bath. 

MAKING-DO: My small appliances are starting to go and will eventually need replacing. It started with my Electrolux canister vacuum cleaner when the switch no longer worked. It would cost us $240 to fix, so I bought new vacuum cleaner bags for my upright Electrox which was in the basement, and we are using that along with a broom and dustpan. The next appliance was the electric kettle. It doesn't switch off once the water boils, but it still  boils water. These things usually happen in 3's right? Let's hope not. 

SAVINGS: I continue to buy the grocery specials to build up my pantry and freezer. I am also on the lookout for ideas and materials to make some of my Christmas gifts. I am trying to get better organized to save time, and I am reading my money-saving blogs to incorporate even more ideas for saving. How did you do this week?