Thursday Thrifty Roundup

This week I…

• Went to the chef store and bought a 10lb bag of dried garbanzo beans, 10lb bag of rice, 25lb bag of oats, a gallon of Frank’s red hot sauce and a 24-pack of frozen field roast burgers for $120. These are all things we use a lot, and it’s much cheaper to buy them in bulk. The veggie burgers are among the pricier things we eat, but it’ll probably take us like a year to go through the box and it’s way cheaper than going out for burgers.

• Got a library book and watched a series of free videos to try to refresh my memory before starting my new job. I’m excited to start the job, but this kid has my brain feeling utterly vacant.

• Used my student status on Target’s app to get $10 in rewards, and all I had to do was create a “college” wishlist and share it. I put the minimum number of things on it (literally just random shit, not even things I want), made it private to ensure nobody will ever actually buy anything from it, and I emailed the link to myself to satisfy the share requirement. It took like two minutes and the $10 was applied instantly to my account.

• Bought my kid a dollhouse for $25 instead of $50 by redeeming the $25 in reward points I evidently had at IKEA. I had been looking for a dollhouses big enough for his people toys and wasn’t having any luck at Goodwill, Offerup, etc. This one from IKEA was easy to assemble and he loves it.

• Downloaded the Kanopy app to our TV and watched a couple free movies courtesy of the library. We don’t watch a lot of movies, what with the kid, but it’s nice to add a few more free options.

• Food prepped, as always. This week I made lentil bolognese and turmeric rice for my lunches, and buffalo garbanzo beans to make myself little wraps for breakfast with some lettuce, tomatoes and corn tortillas. I made B some marinated cucumbers and a big batch of sweet potato, pinto bean and cheese quesadillas to keep in the freezer. I made two tamale pies over the weekend, one for us and one for a friend with a new baby. We ate seitan gyros from the freezer the last couple days, and tonight Kyle is making a big pot of lentil soup.