What A Great Thrifty Monday – Free Raw Honey, Cheap Strawberries, Cheap Healthy Eggs and More

Today was not like other Monday’s! Today was an AWESOME Monday!

It was a day in which we woke up early and traveled a 1.5 mile radius to get some awesome deals in 30 minutes!

First, we got 8lbs. of fresh strawberries from a local little farm for only $7.

Second, we happened upon a super, duper incredible price on raw local honey from a locally owned grocer.  I got four jars of honey for free because the packaging was a little damaged in transporting and they didn’t even have them on the shelf – because all that was left was the damaged bottles.  But when I asked about them, they said, “well actually, we pulled them because all of the ones left were damaged and we don’t have more right now.”  So…. the very kind employees as this local small grocer said “take them!”  So they just gave them to me! I was sooooo excited as local raw honey is a large portion of our grocery budget and so thankful that they were willing to give it to me instead of throwing it away!  Walmart needs to take a lesson from real grocers and not waste food! 

See all of the pretty colors? This is what real eggs look like! Browns, greens, pinks and even white 🙂 

Third, one of our neighbors has this fantastic Urban Farm…. well actually, it is still technically an agriculture plot on the city books, but in the past 10 years, property all around them was purchased and new homes went up all over the place and so now this newish housing neighborhood houses this gem of a farm in the middle! You actually can’t see it from the road as it is totally hidden. Well, they sell their fresh eggs for only $2 per dozen.  Now these are not certified organic eggs, but they probably would be if the neighbors went through the expense.  They are fed naturally, no antibiotics, etc. and allowed to roam free! So these are 2-day old healthy eggs and we picked up 2 dozen for $4!

Plus our daughter talked to the owner and she is willing to teach her how to ride horses and let her ride them for $20 per hour….. and she will even let her help with the farm chores to “pay” for her riding lessons! Let’s just say…. she was ecstatic – she wants a farm of her own and begs us for a horse and now she can get the farm experience and pay for it herself!  But obviously the only thing we can raise in our urban farm is fruits and veggies 🙂

After picking up our strawberries, raw honey and eggs all for $13, we then went on a 3 hour, several mile bike ride all over our little city! We are training for a 10-13 mile hike next month that our whole family will take in the Grand Teton National Park.  We are up to 6.2 miles (toddler and all!) and so walking, jogging and bike riding during the week help us keep up our endurance as we build the difficulty each Saturday on our hikes!

I now have no other things I need to buy this week, and so we plan to save the rest of the money we would have spent from our weekly budget (see our $20k Annual Living Expenses budget HERE for the breakdown) to save for our next financial goal!  I just need to make some bread and we are set this week to eat from our food storage, gardens, and left over dairy and store-bought fruits and veggies from last week!

 

WHAT A GREAT MONDAY! I wish this many wonderful things happened every Monday, but I am certainly not going to complain as even the tough Monday’s are lessons for strength, growth and creativity to meet our budget, meet our schedule and live a healthy whole life on that budget!

So for this Monday, I am thankful for cheap and free whole-food groceries, a good rigorous family workout, free horse-riding lessons with a bit of farming elbow grease and a house full of fresh and stored food to avoid grocery shopping! 

Oh…. but one thing I am not so thankful for today…. almost having a run-in with a garter snake that jumped up at my daughters and me as we were heading out to the garden to see today’s harvest.  Yes, I was quite spooked, twitchy and feeling creepy after this! It is usually Alex that runs into them.  But let’s just say don’t jump over something and nearly step on a snake…. they do not like it and will let you know (and we may have even stepped on it too, I jumped back so quick when it “stood” up that I don’t know what it’s problem was!).  After he was visibly upset with us, he creepily slithered away (with it’s head and half it’s body sticking out of the grass… EEEK!) and slithered behind our retaining wall….. I think it lives there!  Does anyone know….. are these a problem for gardens or are they eating the pests? I don’t know if they are good or bad! 

 

How is your Monday going? 

Photo Credit: mybest3ofeverything.wordpress.com and hi5love.com