Let's see, I went to the Goodwill outlet twice this week. I needed small sheets to cover the bottom of my chickpen. Of course I found more than that.
I spent a total of $23 and got all sorts of cool stuff including some canning jars. Got a tripod for my camera, a dog bed (our dog is tough on dogbeds, she shreds them
) a cat bed, a small cotton blanket (for the couch), lots of paper products (for making your own computer cards, binders, pads, envelopes, greeting cards), a roll of velcro, a nice feminin cotton vest (pink with embroidered flowers, I usually end up with men's clothing) a large rubbermaid bin, a small plastic drawer (for my bathroom), a new baseball cap, some craft kits, a calender with crochet patterns (I love a lot of the patterns and look forward to making them), a baby gate (we use them to keep critters in designated areas, especially when we foster puppies), a pie crust protector, a bag of what might be wine making supplies, a nice soft baby blanket (my kitty, Petey loves it) and other stuff I can't think of right now.
We hauled free firewood from FIL's rental, found a metal chicken waterer in the trash at the rental and rescued it, it just needs a good scrubbing, a stack of large plastic pots (we use them to start our tomatoes and peppers). In exchange SO weed whacked the yard.
We are raising Susie's chicks (with her help, of course) which we think are mostly males. We figure we'll either sell/barter them or butcher them and the pullets will provide us with eggs.
We have been using the wood stove insert exclusively for heat. Our electric bill went down by $100 since we stopped using the electric space heater.
We have been making meals using primarily what we have in the house. We do have two refridgerators and both freezers in them are filled to capacity. We have also been making a lot of egg dishes, since we have plenty of eggs from our chickens.
Last night we had chicken that came from Trader Joes (FIL had brought it to us last fall) it was seasoned with sundried tomatoes and basil. I sauteed onions, garlic and sweet peppers, added the chicken, and my own tomato sauce and a lot more dried basil and let it simmer. We had rice with it. The rice was given to us by our neighbor (he is a great scavenger
) All the vegies were from our garden and either frozen, dried, canned, cold stored or fresh. For desert I had my canned plums. We snacked on homemade trailmix (puchased nuts and seeds, home dried fruit)
We made sure to give the neighbor the dried stalks from our millet for his goats as well as several loaves of store bread, that we had (FIL brought us a box of it, FIL gets free food from a soup kitchen he volunteered at for many years)
The chickens are foraging in the field, so their feed bill is cut in half. And they look wonderfull. Beautifull shiny feathers, nice bright combs. We get 5 - 8 eggs a day from 12 hens.
Edited for typos
so I couldn't go to my regular mechanic. It all cost money, but I least I don't have late fees!!
