5 Things Friday

Posted on December 10, 2021 by Sheila

We are continuing to focus on our electric usage. There are certain things that are beyond our control such as needing to connect the camper to the house when someone is staying it in. And the need to keep a heater in the greenhouse in order to prevent the plants from freezing and of course our usage will be greater with Christmas lights. We also have discovered ways to save electricity in small ways. Unplugging the camper even during the daylight decreases our usage and we are beginning to experiment with the temperature we must keep the greenhouse at. Turning off lights and using the dishwasher and dryer at night continue to save us.
I have realized that a year can change things completely. This year which has been our best year ever financially has also brought more changes and twist than are even imaginable. Matt is currently unemployed but yet the goal is to end the year with our only debit being the house and Tahoe payment.
Our final project of the year is going re-organizing and re-arranging our master closet. We have started making some simple changes which already make it feel much lighter and more open. We will be installing a new closet organizer on one side and continuing to sort through clothes which will finish this project. I am projecting that the entire project will end up costing less than $200.
We have several count downs going on in the house right now. First up is our first “camping” experience in Asheville right before Christmas, followed by Christmas and New Year then our January trip to Mrytle Beach which will be for 4 days instead of 2 and a longer drive. Finally our Disney trip in April. It has been an entire year since we have been to Disney! Plus this will be our first real experience camping at Disney.
I am starting to look ahead at some major home improvement projects for next year. These will be expense that we will pay out of promised money. We will likely end up spending around $20k on these so I want to make sure they will be exactly what we want and of top quality.

More of Lily’s Birthday

Posted on December 9, 2021 by Sheila

Menu Planning Monday

Posted on December 6, 2021 by Sheila

I did go to the grocery store with my mother on Saturday but managed to spend less than $5. This week we will be focusing on using the food we have on hand!

Breakfast– Saturday-Find your own. Sunday-yogurt for me Monday, Tuesday, figure it out! Wednesday, Thursday, Friday-choice of breakfast muffins, eggs, pop-tarts, sausage, oatmeal, cereal or grits, breakfast burritos, or omelets.
Lunch- – Saturday-Pulled pork for Lily Birthday Sunday- Olive Garden Left-overs, pizza and soup should work for most of the week.
Dinner- – Saturday-Left-overs Sunday- Left-overs. Monday- Left-overs Tuesday-Turkey Casserole Wednesday-Baked Potato Soup Thursday-Hamburger Helper Friday-Pork Quesadas or you guess it Left-overs!

Saving on Saturday- written on Sunday

Posted on December 5, 2021 by Sheila

This has been a crazy long and fun filled week. After spending Friday night partying for Lily’s birthday. Saturday was spending cleaning up from said party and finding ways to save and use as much of the food in my refrigerator as possible. Food waste is one of the biggest areas that I can save money. Lily’s birthday party was not on the frugal side so anything we can save and use.

We had purchased 3 veggie trays for the party at Lily’s request. We came home with extra carrots, broccoli, cauliflower and rainbow peppers. The peppers were placed in the fridge because I am positive that the girls will use these for lunches and snacks over this week. Matt was in charge of cutting up the baby carrots for freezing we were able to package a total of 9 cups of baby carrots in the freezer. The packages of frozen carrots to purchase are $1.25 each. The veggie trays are $14.99. By saving these we were able to re-coup the cost of one of the trays. I was able to steam and puree 5 cups of broccoli which was labelled for use in one of our favorite soups. another $2.25 found. The cauliflower is not a preferred food for any of us however, I plan to take it with hummus and some ham salad to use as a meal this week as well. We had purchased 3 bags of potatoes for baking. We ended up with approximately 25 potatoes that had been fully cooked. I made a baked potato salad to go with the pulled pork, Lily received for her birthday. We also used this as a lunch meal. We will use some of the potatoes for a baked potato soup this week. By adding some butter, cream cheese and sour cream we have 10 additional dishes of mashed potatoes to use for future meals. Finally we took the left-over turkey combined with celery, carrots and onion made a casserole for dinner on Tuesday of this week.

The other area that we are focusing on is electricity use. Our electric company has joined the modern age and I am able to monitor our use daily. We have currently increased our usage by 7.77% over last year. I want to figure out what is different and how we can decrease this use as rates are also increasing.

Any suggestions or ideas are appreciated!