A Frugal Thanksgiving

I love when I can be frugal and make out like a bandit!

We started our Thanksgiving by shopping for food.

As always, I had a list, and on that list was a turkey.

They were awfully big and awfully expensive,

but you have to have turkey for Thanksgiving!

I had put a big old turkey in the cart

when Joe came by and said,

"Did you see those turkeys for $8?"

I said, " EIGHT DOLLARS?!"

Following him back to the frozen section

he showed me a bunch of turkeys that had a tag on them

saying if you bought over $25 worth of food,

you'd get this 14 pound turkey for $8.

SCORE!

We bought the turkey,

and on Thursday, Thanksgiving Day,

it made a wonderful meal!

On Friday, 

we ate leftovers. . .

turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, sweet potatoes,

stuffing, and green beans!

On Saturday morning,

I picked all the meat off the carcass 

and put the skeleton in the crock pot

with an onion.

I covered it with water, and let it stew all day.

That night

I took about 2 cups of the broth off the top

and made gravy from it,

and we had hot turkey sandwiches.

YUM!

Tonight,

I've cleaned all the bones out of the broth,

put the broth into the freezer so I can skim off the fat.

I've cut up all the leftover meat,

and will pop in some celery, an onion,

and a bit of rice

and we'll have a nice hot turkey soup!

Perfect on this cold, blustery day!

That $8 turkey has fed us for 4 nights.

Not bad...

Let's Make a Deal!

I've been wanting a small table

to set inside under a living room window,

so when it is too hot or too cold in my "outdoor room"

I can sew indoors.

Yesterday, I found one at a nearby yard sale.

The lady wanted $10.

It's an old metal school typewriter stand,

perfect size,

and I can paint it white and it'll be perfect.

But I didn't want to spend $10.

Sooooo....

I bartered!

A couple of weeks ago I ordered a set of acrylic paints from Amazon.

When they arrived, one of the paints had leaked.

I chatted with Amazon, telling them I would like a replacement

for the leaked paint bottle.

Instead, they sent me an entire new set of paints.

So I had an 18-bottle set of brand new acrylic paints.

I offered the paints

to the lady in exchange and she took it!

I'm so happy!

Here is my table.

I know it looks ugly now,

but free is beautiful to me.

It's absolutely functional, just the right size,

and like me, it will clean up good!

Today I'm starting a new watercolor painting

from my Anna Mason course.

It's going to be a robin, 

for Christmas.

Here is the drawing.

Stay tuned!