Late January & Frugal Accomplishments

evening kitchen

I'm happy to be joining in with Brandy's Frugal Accomplishments.  This week, I did laundry with homemade soap and hung it on the line.  I made yogurt and kefir.  Baked sweet potatoes, and made a pie with some of it and our eggs; had the rest as a side dish.  Also cut and dehydrated sweet potatoes for pup treats.  So easy, and they love them.  Ends and baked skins went into the broth bag.  I boiled eggs for us and the pups.  Dry canned pecans and cashews.  It's the first time I've tried cashews, so I'll see how they do.  Had some sales in my online shop and one on ebay.  Walked with the pups in the evenings.

sweaters drying, doggy sunning, stove needs blacking

I made a quiche with our eggs, sweet red pepper, and garlic. I worked on my quilt with my stepmom, and brought leftover asian slaw, quiche and sweet potato pie for our lunch, so we wouldn't have to go out to eat.  Brought my reusable water bottle whenever I left the house this week.  Used leftover pasta sauce to make (vegi) chicken parmigiana.  Made tapioca from scratch with our eggs and homemade vanilla.  That's definitely one of my comfort foods... so good.  BTW, I mentioned animal tracks in the snow in the last post.  They were quite large, and different from anything I was seeing online.  Though they didn't look like it, I decided the next day that they must be McNibs' tracks, either sliding or one on top of the other, because I saw a similar fresh one on our walk back to the house the following day, where the pups had been walking.  Guess it's not the chupacabra after all :o).

I ran errands after working in town, including picking up a few things at Big Lots during their 20% off sale.  Ran by the discount grocery, and picked up a bag of Iams cat food and a tube of Jason's natural toothpaste, both for less than 1/2 price, along with a handful of other things.  Dry canned jasmine rice.  Washed plastic bags to reuse.  Composted fruit & vegi trimmings, tea bags and coffee grounds.  Tore up TP tubes and added to the compost.  Used my Lowe's credit card for a purchase, saving me 5%.  Fertilized the hellebores with nettle tea.  I helped Joseph plant two pear trees.  These are fire blight resistant, which is a major problem here.  The varieties are Potomac and Blake's Pride.  We hope these will do better than our original pear trees.  The season's first Downton Abbey disc arrived via Netflix, and I thoroughly enjoyed the episodes.  I'm really going to miss that show.