July Cheapchievments

I realized I didn’t do a June Cheapchievements edition, so I thought I’d better do July’s while I’m thinking about it.

This is one of the many delicious solar cooked meals I made in July.  It was a home run.  I made the  tasty beverage (sun tea), the main course (roast chicken) and the side dishes (powdered mash potatoes and vegetables - I did those in a separate solar cooker) all with the sun as my cooking fuel.

I also solved a problem that has been bugging me.  I’ve been having a lot of steam build-up in my cooker.  I finally fixed that by slipping rubber bands over my pots.  These keep the lids on tighter, creating a better seal so steam can’t escape from the pots and cloud up the lid of the cooker. Yay!

My brother sent me an email and said he “rescued” a pair of chain-link fence gates from a neighbors garbage pile.  He needed some of these for his own property.  He said he saved $500 off retail by doing this.  Good going, bro!

Sunday is my mom’s birthday.  I made her these cute dishtowels for her gift.  Don’t worry, she doesn’t read this blog so I know I can reveal them to you all without her knowing about it before the big day.  I love chihuahuas!  I was sad to hear about the death of Gidget the Taco Bell spokesdog.

In July I started my new job.  I’m closing in on finishing my first assignment.  That’s not strictly a Cheapchievment, but as soon as I get my first paycheck, I’m going to …wait for it….Save It!  Yay!  I worked really hard for it, so that’s the best thing I can do to honor my hard-workingness.

In July I also started my Wedding Diet.  I think it’s going pretty well.  Except for the weighing part.  On Monday, I decided to weigh myself to check my progress.  I was feeling pretty good about myself because my clothes were feeling looser.  I weighed myself…and the scale said I gained 1 pound!  I was devastated.  This ruined my Monday.  By Wednesday I had somewhat recovered from this unfortunate episode, and also come to a decision.  I think I’ll throw out my scale.  It is a bald-faced LIAR!  My clothes, however are not liars.  I dug out an old pair of jeans that are the size I want to be by November.  I’ll use those as my guide instead.  Now how, you may ask, is this incident a Cheapchievment?  Well,  mostly because I am being cheap about my diet.  I’m going outside to exercise instead of joining an expensive gym.  I’m also trying really hard to just eat smaller portions of my regular food instead of signing up with Jenny Craig.  And also, I’m being really good about not eating sweets and “empty-calorie”-type snacks.  So that actually saves money.

August is just around the corner!  Wow!