Monthly Archives: March 2022

March in Review

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March was a long hard month.  I knew that this would likely be a one paycheck month and planned accordingly   But even with that knowledge it has been a difficult month trying to decide what to spend and what to wait on.  The fact that we had COVID for the past 10 days also added to the stress.  April has a shot of sunshine and family fun along with the promise of additional funds arriving  even out our budget!  I have also noticed a significant increase in prices. Gas was above $4 a gallon but has return below that mark currently.

Groceries– budget amount is $200 until June.  Not Met! $314.16 This does include our Amazon subscribe and save which was $145 by itself. We are continuing to eat out of the freezer and pantries but with the price increases we have seen it may be impossible to stay under $200 for April, May and June.  This is the goal. I will be readjusting the grocery budget in June no matter the outcome.

Auto/ Gas. My goal is $400 a month.  NOT met! $410.89   We have really limited our driving this month so I am going to assume that I will need to adjust this budget based on the price of gas. We will be traveling to Florida in April so I anticipate at least $400 in gas expense so I would assume we will spend around $800 in gas for April.

Cash Envelope system- You cant spend what you don’t have so this is working well for us!

Blogging- 15 post per month. Post number 13 for March!   Hopefully things return to normal and I can get back in a good routine soon!

Exercise days-  No progress to report! Knee pain much better…. no excuse!
 No Spend Days- 3 while I was so sick from COVID that I could not leave the house! 

As I stated before March was a hard month for everyone in addition to several rounds of sickness. Looking forward to April with sunshine and lots of warm!

Monday Menu Planning

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Being sick is no fun!! The last week has been a long long difficult season.  Besides the physical aches and pains, trying to keep everything going was just mentally exhausting as well. Luckily, I had already put a meal plan in place before I got sick last Tuesday, I had not shared here but it was on the whiteboard.  All the meals were able to me made with modifications needed only for the weekend.  One of the accomplishments for the week is that we made a couple of extra servings that can be used for lunch this week which made several kids very happy. I did end up tossing a couple of items that had gone bad but so is life.

Breakfast– Saturday-   Homemade Bagels with bacon, pimento cheese or tomatoes. Sunday-Cinnamon waffles    Tuesday- zucchini bread, Monday-, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday -choice of breakfast muffins, eggs, sausage, oatmeal, cereal, pancakes, French toast or grits or breakfast burritos.  We do have some left-over baked oatmeal from last week which needs to get eaten
Lunch- – Saturday-leftovers      Sunday – Mexican rice   Monday- Thursday we are taking zucchini rice and Mexican rice for meals along with the usual left-overs.
Dinner- – Saturday- Egg salad and bacon sandwiches     Sunday-   Chicken soup from freezer (I threw in the left-over turkey) Monday- Spaghetti and meatballs. I made an entire box of spaghetti noodles so the kids will use these for lunch as well.  Tuesday-Pork Chops, mac and cheese and green beans.  Wednesday- Left-over or find your own night Thursday- first ballgame of the year!  Friday-Steak, twice baked potatoes and salad.

Saving at Home

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Beside saving on gas by not going anywhere the other focus of saving lately has been with gardening. I am continuing to focus on using items in my freezer and pantry to help control my grocery bill but I also plan to do a lot of restocking this summer.  One of the things that I am hearing on repeat from the channels I watch on you tube as well as with most of the blogs that I follow is that we need to grow as much of our own food as possible.

Last year was a complete bust on growing food thanks to the awful soil that I ended up purchasing.  This year we have started with better soil so hopefully that is a better result.  My initial plan was to purchase most of the plants to start with as I think this is easier and have had better luck in the past. But as I started looking at my current selection of seeds I realized that I had lots of seed just sitting her. I also have containers and extra soil on hand.   To start plants from seed would save lots of money especially since the out of pocket cost was nothing.  I decided to go ahead and try and if I failed then I just wasted my time and effort. We started the seeds inside the house so that the temperature would be more consistent. The plan is to move these to the greenhouse next weekend.  Currently we have 27 pepper plants and 46 tomato plants!

In the red cups, I am trying to start our sweet potatoes!  I am very hopefully that after we return from Disney we will be able to move both the green pepper and the tomato plants out of the green house and into the beds.   I have WAY more tomatoes than I have need for or  have dedicated room for but will just plant what we have and use every spare pot and spot I can find in the mean time.

We have ended up with just a little bit of harvest from the greenhouse with some lettuce and spinach. I am not sure it will be worth using year round but it was a fun experiment. We also continue to have kale.

 

5 Things Friday-COVID Edition

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1 Timeline-  I started with a slight cough on Saturday night while attending LIly’s performance in  Sound of Music.   Worked on Monday but did end a session 10 minutes early. Came home and went to bed.  Tuesday- woke up and took a COVID test- it was positive, Doctor’s appointment on Tuesday.  Wednesday was Awful. Thursday some improvement but went medicine free and started IVermectrin.  Friday- functioning human being but still no where near normal.

2. I have learned that sometimes no medicine is the best.  I had a horrible time both Monday and Wednesday night when taking Nyquil. Thursday night-just honey and 100% improvement. I also have tried the nasal decongest given by my doctor and it makes me soooo sleepy.   Guess I will try again at night.  Uggghhhh

3.  I am planning to be out of work until at least Wednesday.  I will be out of quarantine then as well.  This is the longest I have ever missed work.

4. Symptoms- include NO fever, loss of part of my taste and smell, congestion, coughing, sore throat and ears, coughing and wheezing, chills, nausea and vomitting.

5. Zach had the stomach bug just prior to the last time we had COVID in November 2020.  This time as well!

5 Things Friday

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  1.  Kendall had the stomach bug last Sunday. Today Zach has a stomach bug. This thing is awful.  I am praying that it only last 24 hours so Zach and I both can enjoy Lily’s performances on Saturday and Sunday.                                                                                         Now for more positive news!
  2. I found several packs of tomato and green pepper seeds in my seed box a couple of weeks ago. I decided to use some of the containers I have been saving along with dirt that we had left to try and see if I could grow any plants from seed.  I planted 2 packs of both.  Currently, we have about 75% germination rate for the green peppers and about 25% for the tomatoes which were planted almost 2 weeks later!   The goal would be to be able to transfer these to the garden in mid April and at least half survive. If I can get even 25% to survive that will decrease my out of pocket for the garden!
  3. Gas prices have seemed to level out and have returned to just under $4 a galloon for us.  This week we have focused on having the Tahoe sit as much as possible and using the Equinox which get a minimum of 10 miles per galloon better gas mileage. It has worked so far as we have put 2 additional tanks in the Equinox this week.
  4. I stopped by the store on my way home from work today in order to purchase a couple of items that we needed because of the stomach bug.  I spent $49 which included TIde pods, 2 containers of deodorant, 4 6-packs of soda, a bag of chips and 8 packages of sausage patties. I found the sausage patties on sale for $2.39 for a package of 8 patties.
  5. Our electric bill came in this week and it is over $100 less than last month!! I am so thankful!  The next bill is typically the lowest of the year due to not needing heat or a/c for several days at a time!

 

Monday Menu Post

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We have several “food accomplishments” to celebrate this week. First we are at 50% in the chest freezer. I am beginning to look at how we want to organize this for the future. I also have some tiny spaces in the freezers in the house. The next goal is to move all the connivence foods into the house where they can be convenient!  Next we have not eaten out this week, we will have guest this weekend for Lily’s play and I am going to assume that means we will be eating out several times.  Third, total grocery spending for the month is $20.   Thanks to a trip to Costco using our credit card rewards! Dinners are a little bit less work intense as we move into the busy season,.

Breakfast– Saturday-   Homemade Bagels with bacon, pimento cheese or tomatoes. Sunday-Muffins from Costco    Tuesday- muffins from Costo, Monday-, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday -choice of breakfast muffins, eggs, sausage, oatmeal, cereal, pancakes, French toast or grits or breakfast burritos.  We do have some left-over baked oatmeal from last week and with the muffins no need to make anything extra this week.
Lunch- – Saturday-Turkey Dorito Casserole     Sunday – Sausage potato soup Monday- Thursday I have 2 salads and one day of chicken salad and one left-over day.
Dinner- – Saturday- Turkey, stuffing, air fried corn and zucchini.    Sunday-  left-overs and we finished up the soup! Monday- Shrimp Alfredo  Tuesday-Taco Soup   Wednesday- Turkey noodle casserole  Thursday- Beef and Broccoli  Friday-Lasagna and Garlic bread.

 

Saving On Saturday

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This weekend I have saved money in two areas food and gas!

We knew when we purchased the Tahoe that it was not fuel efficient, but we also knew it was what we wanted to fit all the needs we had.  With the significant increase in prices, some folks are talking about how they are reducing trips and changing habits to save on their fuel bill.  I can honestly say that although we are seeing a bigger saving, we have not changed how we drive. First of all, we live at least 5 minutes from the closest gas station and Dollar General. At least 10 minutes from the closest store or restaurant, so not driving is just not an option. What we do is to combine trips whenever possible for example, Matt had to attend a parent meeting uptown for Lily yesterday, so I asked him to stop by the store to grab some drinks that were on sale.  We also combined a trip to Costco with filling up our tank to save money as well. The other thing is that we try to use the Equinox as much as possible. I have not left the house this weekend, so the Tahoe has been sitting in the driveway with me while the Equinox is running all the errands.  By doing this we are able to fill the Equinox about the same number of times as the Tahoe for $20 or more less.  Every little bit helps and adds up.

Food is our 3rd largest expense.  Our goal this year is to use up as much of the food in our freezers prior to the summer so that we can restock it.  We currently have a stand up freezer and a chest freezer in our building. Both were completely full at the end of 2021.  This week we have been able to use and move 50% of the items in the chest freezer. Our goal is to purchase a whole cow this summer and we will need every bit of room in this freezer in order to do so.  My plan is once we get the freezer emptied to turn it off and defrost and clean it, then I will begin the hunt for a cow to fill it back up! Another area of savings is that we have not eaten out this week.  We did enjoy Chick A Filet on Friday but we used money that was earned by selling a car box. This was a win win situation for us!  We have several other items listed to sale on Facebook market place as well so hopefully we can continue to clean out and repurpose the funds.  We also have been working really hard in order to use up and not waste left-overs. I decided on Saturday to use the left-over turkey we had from last week to make a Turkey Dorito casserole.  I used this recipe  subbing turkey for the chicken. It was a hit. I also make a turkey noddle casserole that we will eat on Wednesday for dinner.  We added a box of stuffing, sauteed zucchini from the freezer, air fried some corn and that was our dinner.  Matt and I made bagels on Friday night which turned out awesome!  Again it is all the small things that count!

 

5 Things Friday

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  1. North Carolina weather in March…last Sunday 80 and this Sunday expected low of 18*
  2. The greenhouse is currently empty. We have moved all the plants outside, one of the reasons is that it was getting over 100* during the day in the greenhouse and that would cause most of the colder plants I had planted to bolt.  We have been enjoying both lettuce and spinach. The best part is walking by the lettuce and picking some to eat.  We have started both tomatoes and green peppers inside. It is easier to start inside for the first few weeks.  They will be moved outside about 4 weeks prior to plants to continue to grow in the greenhouse and for protection against our final freeze that usually occurs sometime in April.  We also turned off the heater to save a bit on electricity.
  3. This week for the first time in history, we paid over $4 a gallon for gas. $4.11 to be exact. But the knowledge that it took 16 years for gas to go from $3 a gallon to $4 should bring us all comfort.
  4. We are doing excellent on the grocery budget for the year. We have currently spent $2.82 for groceries this month.  For the sake of transparency, we did make a trip to Costco yesterday and used our credit card earnings to purchase sugar, dog food and some other items that we were out of.
  5. Our busy season is starting. Lily’s play is next week, Zach is managing the middle school baseball team while enjoying playing his last year at the booster club. I am now working 2.5 nights a week in Guam. And best of all our Disney countdown is shrinking!