Saving on Saturday

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We have been spending quite a bit of time working on getting the yard and garden ready for the Spring and Summer.

This old jeep wheel makes a perfect hose holder!

When we finally got the deck replaced last year the construction cause us to lose our compost box as well as one of the side flower beds.  Since the weather has turned a bit nice, I have been working to get these spaces back to use this year for either flowers or vegetables.

All the wood has been reclaimed from the “waste of the deck” I have been adding shredded paper in order to make a weed barrier.  We also “salvaged” some lumber screws in order to connect the pieces to make it more stable.  This actually has taken several weeks to get together. Finally,

this weekend, I was able to purchase dirt on sale. I am really loving it’s new look. We will be adding cattle panel across the bottom to help give it more of a separation and hopefully keep animals from under the deck.

Next I ended up paying Zach to level the area where the old compost bins sat and He used brick edging that had been removed from our front yard. I am thinking that I will plant either watermelon or Sunflowers in this area.

I think that it is small details like these that always improve the look of our house!

Monday Menu Post

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The almost fail of the week was that again I forgot to put the chicken pie in the oven before the game on Friday.  I was able to recover with a quick chicken pasta that I made after the game which was an instant hit and requested by Zach.  I am hoping to use the chicken pie this week.  I did spend about 2 hours on Sunday, working on preparing meals for the week as well as making more items convenient to grab for lunches as well.

Breakfast- Saturday- bacon and eggs and cinnamon rolls.  Sunday-Cream cheese egg casserole (it was ok not a repeat) Monday- zucchini bread.    Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday Friday– find it (breakfast burritos, oatmeal, omelets , sausage, pop-tarts, and eggs.

Lunch- Saturday- Chicken and green bean casserole   Sunday-Breakfast time Monday- Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday- left-overs.  Friday- eat out.

Dinner- Saturday- Lily cooked! Totchos Sunday- I snacked but everyone else had white chicken chill. Monday- Meatloaf, mashed potatoes and green beans Tuesday- Arby’s after the game.  Wednesday Taco Rice bowls Thursday- Spaghetti and garlic bread.  Friday- Attempt number 4 at chicken pot pie from the freezer.

Pantry Challenge

1. Use at least one “meal/meat portion of the meal” from the stand-up freezer each week. (This is where most of the meals are) I pulled some ground beef from the other freezer this week.
2. Use at least 3 jars a week from the canning pantry. Lily used a jar for her dinner meal and I will use a couple of jars during this week. I am going to say this is good for this week.
3. Use one item a week from the connivence freezer in my room.  Frozen chicken pot pie is hopefully coming from the freezer as well as taco rice
4. Each Monday after menu planning provide a list of how I followed the guidelines for the week.  Done!

Sunday Garden Update

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I am so EXCITED to share this update with you!  On Saturday, I spent over an hour up potting a bunch of tomatoes and peppers!  They have been moved out to the Greenhouse where we have a heater that comes on when the temperature is below 50 and a solar fan comes on after 95* Hopefully

these will thrive for the next 5 weeks till we can plant them out!

We still have more peppers, broccoli and loofa in our bedroom!

Outside we have garlic We plan to add squash and a couple of tomatoes.

We have radishes starting out strong.

The biggest and best surprise is the asparagus

Finally, we have some spinach starting

5 Things Friday

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  1. The weather has absolute beautiful with highs in the 70s and lows in the 40s.  I have decided to turn off the heating and air unit in order to save money. In the past I can typically turn this off the first of April but even if I need to turn it back on then we are still saving money!
  2. Zach has been having baseball games or practice 5 days a week which means that our evening are even more pushed and busy.  I am learning that for away games we need to have a food option with us and home games we can typically eat at home if something is ready.  Unfortunately, this was an expensive lesson as we ended up spending $65 on a game day for food and entry.
  3. I am hoping that we are able to complete some outside upgrades and maintenace this weekend as we have 5 weeks till our typical last frost date.  I am planning on continuing with my weekly garden updates on Sunday.
  4. Zach’s truck sold this week.  I have decided that we will not be on the lookout for another vehicle until the end of May.
  5. The pantry challenge is starting to work. I heard from kids yesterday that “there is nothing to eat at home”   In reality we have plenty of food but things have to be prepared and made ahead. I have plans to also do some of this prep work this weekend.

Monday Menu Planning

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We are continuing to race forward in the Spring season.  I was able to do a major restock of our staple pantry items this weekend. I am now confident that we have enough to last without a major grocery trip for at least 5 weeks.  I am going to continue make a list of items we are out of and also purchase fresh fruit and veggies as I go.  I have gotten back to making bread and am trying to make all the bread products we are using but we will definitely see how that goes.  I am also very hopeful that I can reduce the overall spending we are doing on groceries this month.

Breakfast- Saturday- bacon and eggs Sunday-muffins Monday- treat of overnight oats that were purchased.    Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday Friday– find it (breakfast burritos, bagel thins (previously purchased on sale) oatmeal, omelets, cereal and milk, , sausage, pop-tarts, and eggs.

Lunch- Saturday- Left-overs Sunday-Time Square Pizza Monday- eat out as this is a workday.  Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday- left-overs.  Friday- eat out.

Dinner- Saturday- Lily cooked! Animal Kingdom inspired pulled pork, cole slaw and mac and cheese with Tres leche cake. I added homemade biscuits.   Sunday- Rotisserie Chicken from Costco with stuffing and cranberry sauce.  Monday- Hamburger and French fries, this will be my first attempt at making homemade buns. Tuesday- Game food or left-overs, Wednesday-Grilled chicken and green beans.  Thursday- Chicken – Attempt number 3 at chicken pot pie from freezer (we have ended up eating left-overs on the previous two attempts).

Pantry Challenge

1. Use at least one “meal/meat portion of the meal” from the stand-up freezer each week. (This is where most of the meals are)  Both the hamburger patties and grilled chicken.
2. Use at least 3 jars a week from the canning pantry. I used 1 jar of broth from the fridge for stuffing and we opened a jar of cranberry sauce.  First week in a long time that we have not met this one.
3. Use one item a week from the connivence freezer in my room.  Frozen chicken pot pie is hopefully coming from the freezer as well as chicken tacos
4. Each Monday after menu planning provide a list of how I followed the guidelines for the week.  Done!

Sunday Garden Update

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We are approximately 5 weeks out from our expected last frost date!

Matt and I spent all day yesterday working to get a watering system in place for the garden beds beside the house.  Our ultimate goal is to have all the beds on a watering system except for the vertical planters.  This will be a huge time saver and hopefully also encourage more production.  We are having some initial cost to get everything set up but because we use rainwater for watering it also saves and works itself out in about 2 years in cost.  It will likely take another full Saturday to finish the installation of the watering system and I will provide a cost breakdown when it actually works.

Zach helped me plant a new pear tree. This gives us a total of 2 pear trees, 4 apple trees, 1 peach tree and 2 pecan trees. We have finished the line I had originally envisioned and hope to have produce this summer.

We have tomato and pepper plants inside! I have also planted 8 total loofa plants that I hope will start growing and be ready to plant outside the first of May.  The tomato plants have the best germination rate which is above 95%. I do have some peppers growing but still no wax man peppers or Anaheim peppers. I do not see any sprouts outside which is disappointing, but we are expecting 70* this week which might speed up the process a bit.

Monday Menu Planning

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This week we have officially begun our Spring Schedule. I am also going to continue to try and reduce our grocery budget and continue/modify the pantry challenge. The hard part is that we have to eat at home for most ballgames to make this work.

Breakfast- Saturday- Pancakes, and sausage (left-overs will be used all week) . Sunday-Homemade biscuits and gravy. Monday-   Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday Friday– find it (breakfast burritos, oatmeal, omelets cereal and milk, , sausage, pop-tarts, and eggs. I also made some English muffins to use this week.

Lunch- Saturday- Left-overs Sunday-Mcalister’s deli in Charlotte.   Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday- left-overs.  Friday- eat out.

Dinner- Saturday- hot dogs, smores and biscuits, Sunday-Ham and potato soup (new recipe) Monday- Steak and 7-layer salad (using up veggies in the refrigerator) Tuesday- Taco Pasta, Wednesday- Chicken Lasagna Thursday- Chicken pie from Freezer, Friday- Depending on what the refrigerator looks like we may do left-overs or insta pot hamburger helper.

Pantry Challenge

1. Use at least one “meal/meat portion of the meal” from the stand-up freezer each week. (This is where most of the meals are) Both the Taco pasta and Chicken Lasagna are from this freezer.
2. Use at least 3 jars a week from the canning pantry. I used 2 jars of chicken broth from the fridge instead this week. We also opened a jar of strawberry syrup from the cabinet. If we make the hamburger helper, it will be using a jar of canned hamburger.
3. Use one item a week from the connivence freezer in my room.  Frozen chicken pot pie and hot dogs were from this freezer.
4. Each Monday after menu planning provide a list of how I followed the guidelines for the week.  Done!

Sunday Garden Update

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I like a schedule and routine. So I am going to start attempting to post a garden update on Sunday for the gardening year. I have really enjoyed looking back and figuring out when we did certain things and being able to document and decide if I am right on track or ahead of schedule. For example, I have been doing some reading and realized that the years I have had the best harvest, I started my tomatoes this early!  Last weekend, we ended up doing some major renovations to the gardens. First, we needed to replace the front board on the tomato bed.

After much thought and discussions, we decided to add cattle panel trellises to out beds in the back. This really doubled our growing space!

In total we spent a total of $96 for the upgrades.  I also purchased a 1000 worms to place in the front beds to hopefully prompt and encourage soil. The current plan is to add chicken manure at the end of the session in order to allow it time to age.

We currently have over a dozen pepper plants that have sprouted along with radishes outside and 7 broccoli plants inside.

I think we are off to a good gardening season!

Saving on Saturday

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The weather today has been absolutely beautiful!  So we spent a good amount of time outside prepping for the garden.  I had purchased these metal signs you see below at Dollar Tree at 25 to 50 cent each. We have label most of the beds where we plan to plant. This was also a good way for me to plan out my space.

I did plant out some sugar snap peas yesterday and some spinach. Matt and Zach were able to trim all three of rose bush. They also were able to prune out trees. This is the first time we have attempted to prune the trees.  We planted these trees in November 2016, with the pecan trees planted in April 2017. So most of the trees are beyond the time we need to prune. I am hopefully that this will also increase our production as well.

We are about 6 weeks away from our last frost. So it was definitely time to get the tomato plants started.

We started peppers and broccoli about 2 weeks ago.

I am trying to get back to making our bread products. Today I started loaf bread, biscuits and English muffins.  The biscuits turned out beautifully!

I did spend some time, making sure we used up leftovers and vegetables so I did a fair amount of food prep.