Monthly Archives: March 2023

March in Review

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March has typically been a month of sickness and this year it continued. However, the last day of March has been much anticipated and make the month worth it!

Groceries- Budget = $975.  Goal Met!  We spent $329.49 on groceries including our subscribe and save from Amazon and a trip to Costco.  I was able to use reward points this month. I am sure that my grocery spending will return to normal but the goal for the rest of the year is to keep it the same.

Auto/ Gas. Goal -= $600.  Goal Met!  We have spent $491.70 this month!

Blogging- 15 post per month.  This is post number 10 . It is hard to write when you are sick

Exercise- Does tripping and falling count for the month.. Nope then the answer is NONE.

Expenses:  We are working on covering medical expenses and dealing with huge price increases!

Saving on Saturday

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The chicken coop needed to clean out and new bedding added. I am allergic to both hay and straw so I have been purchasing shaving to use. Although it is not extremely expensive, every little bit counts so we are cleaning out at work and have an abundance of paper.  I bought home some of the paper and shredded it using my shredder. Today, we clean the chicken coop of the shaving and filled the coop with shredded paper bits.  We re-used the bedding and chicken poop by adding it to our tomato beds to help with growing.  Total spent for new chicken bedding was $0.

Last week, I had meal planned but that plan went out the window. This meant that I had 2 cups of chicken left in the fridge. I had also planned to do a fried rice with brown rice and a cup of black beans.  These items needed to be used.  I ended up making chicken enchiladas with enough leftovers for 2 lunches.  and Lily used the brown rice, black beans and added a can of chicken to make herself a rice bowl for lunch. This actually made enough for 4 meals for her!

So far this month we have spent $215 on groceries. This includes $144 Amazon subscribe and save. This has become a huge money saver for me as it allows me to stay stocked up without buying everything at once. This month I have also used rewards from a couple of credit cards as well. I am hoping to keep the grocery spending under $350 for the month.  The kids have been bagging up snacks for school at night was we have used most of the individual bags but have plenty of larger bags. They also have been “digging” in the freezer for treats such as popsicles and “Hot Pockets” I know the Hot Pockets were purchased in August of last year and forgotten about.  Money spent on food this weekend $0!

We have started 34 tomato plants and 24 pepper plants from seed this year. Today we moved all these plants to the greenhouse. I was so excited to find that my “mosquito” plants have all survived the winter in the greenhouse. The goal is to keep as many plants as possible alive so we can transplant the first of May!

We did use a bit of sweat equity today but we also saved alot of money!

Five Things Friday

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  1. This has been one of the busiest weeks this year!  Monday was Zach’s ballgame, Tuesday a long dentist appointment, Wednesday- church, Thursday- Hair cuts and Braxton ballgame.  Today we are trying to get ahead on some outside chores as it is suppose to rain in the morning!
  2. The weather has decided to try again. It was 45* on Wednesday and 73* yesterday. I am hopeful that we stay at least in the sixties for highs from here on out.
  3. We have eaten out twice this week, Monday I picked up roast beef sandwiches and Tuesday we ate at Cracker Barrel. Wednesday- we ate $5 meals from Cracker Barrel so that really is three days of meal out!
  4. This evening, I knew we needed to use up most of the produce and I wanted to try and get some breakfast meals in the freezers. For dinner, we had breakfast bowls with onions, green peppers, sausage, tomatoes, hash browns and homemade gravy. I used the remaining mixture to make 16 breakfast burritos and then cooked some potatoes and made 16 “add a egg bowls as well.”
  5. We are in the single digits until our Disney trip!

Monday Menu Planning

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This week we are starting to see holes in our pantry and freezers. This is actually a good thing and allows me to really see what food we need.  I also have added a couple of new recipes to help brighten up the food!  The count down to Disney is on so at least I see a light at the end of the food tunnel!

Breakfast- Saturday- Pancakes and  bacon, . Sunday- German pancakes   Monday- bagels  Tuesday Wednesday and Friday-find it :  oatmeal, omelets cereal and milk, French toast sticks, bagels, Thursday- zucchini bread (I was able to find several more packs of zucchini in the freezer and would like to completely clear it out before May.
Lunch- Saturday-left-overs Sunday Gregg’s  This week I have 2 days of salad, a day of soup, and a sandwich for Thursday.  Matt has made 2 hamburger patties and two days of buffalo chicken nuggets.

Dinner- Saturday-Philly Cheesesteak casserole Sunday-Cheeseburger soup (used up all the Velveeta cheese) Monday- Left-overs and or ballgame food.  Tuesday-  Breakfast bowls Wednesday- Chicken Enchilada Thursday- we will like eat out as we have hair cuts and baseball Friday-Pork Fried Rice.

We can do this

Growing on Sunday

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I like themes and schedules and list!   Therefore I am going to combine all three and make Sundays  a good time to talk about what is growing around here!  I can easily know where to look back to see how things are changing as well.
The green peppers that were planted the first of February have decided to grow.  I had already given up on these plants and even started a second batch. This afternoon I counted and we have 22 pepper plants that have germinated.  The only difference until today was that I turned off the heat mat. I seriously think that it was drying out my dirt and kept the seeds from germinating.

This afternoon we decided to rotate the table that everything is growing on to be directly centered at the back door window. This window has better light exposure as well and without the need for electricity just works.

We have four different varieties of tomato plants growing including Roma, Cherokee purple and cherry tomatoes. Some of these plants have developed their true leaves.  They are definitely a little leggy (taller) but they are growing and I can even tell a difference with sun exposure today. We have a total of 34 tomato plants growing.

I was able to plant 50 sugar snap pea seeds in the front garden bed on Saturday, A gift of dirt was given to us by a neighbor. We were able to top dress or add extra dirt to all of the raised garden beds to bring them back up to full!
We have kale seeds sprouting outside in two different spots and radishes are growing in the green stock!
We will be moving the peppers, tomatoes and lettuce to the greenhouse next week. This will be a temporary (3 weeks at most) spot for them to stay warm, get lots of sun and grow!
The chicken are giving an egg each a day. We are so excited!  The current plan is to purchase 3 additional chickens in the middle of April!  On Saturday, Matt and Zach were able to hopefully fix the automatic chicken door. As of today, it is working without fail!

Tuesday Thoughts

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The temperature outside is currently 38* with wind gusts up to 20 miles per hour so of course, I want to give a square foot garden and chicken update.

I had decided last year that with all the additional expenses we had including 2 new Greenstock’s/vertical planners that this year I would try to just use up the seeds we already had.

I had purchased bare root strawberries last year which did not survive well. I contacted the company and received 25 more this year. I planted these in one of my green stocks. The goal is for this entire planter to be strawberries which will be a total of 48 plants.  These bare root strawberries have really taken off. I currently think we only have 5-7 empty spots on this planter. I will be hopefully using runners to fill these. In the future, I would like to have 2  entire green stocks filled with strawberries.

I did my research and started my pepper plants on February 4th.  I did break the rules and buy a heat mat that I was hopeful would help with germination.  I was wrong. Using the heat mat we got one of 20 plants to germinate. I think that the mat actually dried the soil out too much. We did go ahead and attempt to start a second 20 seeds as this was a packet that I already had, We currently have 11 small pepper plants!  I did not use the heat mat this time.  After thought and debate. I am planning to plant all 11 of these in our greenstock.  I am also going to plant some basil seeds in the green stock with the pepper plants.  This will be a total experiment to see how well they grow.  One plan with the green peppers is to make and can sloppy joes for next year. I would like to can 8  pints of sloppy joe  mix.

Tomatoes were started on Monday February 20th.  We had almost an 100% germinate rate with these.  I think we have close to 30 tomato plants. We planted a variety of different kinds including Roma, and cherry tomatoes. . We currently have 7 bags of diced tomatoes and 10 jars of spaghetti sauce left from last year. My goal is to can at least 24 quarts of spaghetti sauce and freeze 20 bags of diced tomatoes by the end of the year.  Both the tomatoes and green pepper plants will be relocated to the greenhouse during our Disney trip (approximately 2 weeks) and then moved outside to their permanent beds after we return and when there is no frost risk for 2 weeks.

My plan is to plant one 12 foot bed of cucumbers. The goal would be to can up some whole pickles as well as pickle slices to use instead of buying. I also would love to find a good bread and butter pickle recipe to use for canning as well.

Another 12 foot bed will be filled with succession planting of green beans. I will start one 4 foot section then 2 weeks later another 4 foot section and finally 8 weeks later a third 4 foot section.  The goal is to freeze 50 packs of green beans before canning. I would absolutely love just to freeze 50 packs.

I will be planting a 8 foot bed with snap peas.  The goal is to eat as many as humanly possible and freeze the rest of stir-fry in the winter.

As I have already mentioned, I will not be planting sweet potatoes this year.  I currently have carrots planted in this bed. I will be adding watermelon seeds to this bed. I have never had much success with watermelon but want to use up the seed packet I have.  I also plan to plant the remaining cantaloupe seeds in a couple of ground planters again to just use up seed.

I am still working on plans for both squash and zucchini plants.  These will likely either go in a bed with green beans or be split between several beds. I know I do not want to plant them directly next to each other as I don’t want cross pollination. I have 4 packs of zucchini left in the freezer so this is a definite need for the year. I do have plenty of squash in the freezer so squash may be a fill in or not at all plant this year.

Currently, I have Kale growing both in a black plastic bin and in one end of a bed.  This will be used to feed the chickens.  Again I am using up seeds that we already have.

Speaking of chickens, we are consistently getting 4 eggs a day with 5 eggs about 3 days a week.  I am leaning toward purchasing 3-4 new chicks this Spring to add to the flock. This should give us enough eggs to share with my mother. I also am thinking about the 1-2 month laying break for them in the winter.   I will make the final decision once we get back from Disney.

With the plan limits on our grocery budget, a huge garden with lots of stuff in the freezer is going to be essential for the summer.

 

Monday Menu Planning

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To be quite honest, I am done.  I am tired of cooking food, tired of planning to cook food and maybe a little bit bored with the food we have.  But I know in my brain we can do this. I can keep the grocery budget low for the rest of the month and then enjoy Disney with all it’s wonderful food that I am not responsible for planning, preparing or cleaning up from.   So for the time being I have to figure out how to make this work.  This week, I wanted to use up food that is already in the fridge. I did have enough time on Saturday to do some preparing ahead. I hope this makes lunch this week much easier.  I am also very hopeful that I can stick to the plan!

Breakfast- Saturday- Big Breakfast including sausage, bacon, eggs and a hashbrown casserole. Sunday-Biscuit and Gravy casserole Monday- Left-over biscuit and gravy casserole. Tuesday Wednesday and Friday- find it:  oatmeal, omelets cereal and milk, French toast sticks, bagels, Thursday- zucchini bread (I was able to find several more packs of zucchini in the freezer and would like to completely clear it out before May.
Lunch- Saturday-left-overs Sunday Mexican at Don Juan’s. This week I fried up 3 days’ worth of beef liver and onions, I will add some left-over veggies to make this a complete meal.  Matt has made 3 hamburger patties to use up the 3 hamburger buns that are on the table.  The kids can either take leftovers or sandwiches or grab and go.

Dinner- Saturday-leftovers um yum chicken (not a repeat) and squash casserole. Sunday-My Dad’s chicken stew (this leaves only 1 additional soup in the main freezer).  Monday- Left-overs (I will encourage either left-over breakfast or soups, but we will see how this goes). Tuesday- Baked Ziti (one more in the freezer) Wednesday- More Left-overs (We have most of a tater tot casserole to eat) Thursday-Cheesy Chicken Pasta (This was a hit a couple of weeks ago). Friday-Hamburger Helper Stroganoff (These are the last two boxes on the shelf).

My overall thought is that if I can make it through this week, it will get easier and we will be ready for some easy repeating food.

Sunday Catch Up

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The last three weeks have been hard. A constant struggle to keep a good mental attitude along with the additional stress of financial responsibilities have made things easier to leave unsaid until I could process.

I am hopeful that we are through most of the unknown and can now work on getting the financial part taken care of.  This is hopefully one of a couple of post in the next week to catch up with where we are at.  This post will focus on the medical side of things along with financial cost.

Matt had surgery on Valentine’s Day to remove a known basil cell cancer spot from his cheek. We knew that there was a strong possibility that future surgeries may be necessary.  Unfortunately, it was confirmed on February 16th that they did not get all of the cancer. We returned on March 22nd and were given four options.  After much thought and pray, Matt decided to undergo a second surgery. This surgery came with greater risk including nerve damage and facial weakness, along with the same knowledge that the surgeon may not be able to remove all the cancer cells. This second surgery occurred on March 8th.  My God is the great physician with the results a complete success, all the cancer has been removed AND no weakness or nerve damage!  This surgery is not the very end as Matt has another spot on his shoulder that will need to be removed this year. The surgery has also highlighted high blood pressure that will also likely require medical intervention this year as well. We have been discussing both of these needs and will attempt to address in a timely manner, but we also are trying to be good stewards of our money as well.

Matt does not have medical insurance.  His current employer does not offer it.  We have checked into having him on my insurance, but the rate is $400 a month.  He also checked into purchasing through the marketplace, but those rates are between $600 and $900 a month.  We knew going into both surgeries that we would be financially responsible.   Each surgery cost around $4200 with additional expenses we currently have medical bills at around $9500.   Obviously, these are not items that I had on my mind with our 2023 budget.

We also have been surprised by a $400 tax/ tag bill for the Tahoe. Although it is small it also adds to my financial stress.

So what does this mean financially for us.

We did not want to cancel our Disney Trip nor our annual beach trip.  I am determined to keep enjoying the kids over the next 2-6 years before we become empty nesters!  We have decided to increase our debt load over the next year.  This was not an easy decision and one that some people will not agree with however we decided and will continue to work toward our end goals.

One of the steps that I am taking is to continue to eat out of our freezers and pantry, I am also going to become even more diligent on not wasting food.  We currently have not spent any of our grocery budget for the month, instead used credit card points to purchase needed items. Although the pantry challenge is official over, my goal is to limit the budget as much as possible until June. More details of what we are eating will be given in my Monday Menu plan.

I had already decided not to purchase any additional seeds or plant starts this year. This is now even more important than ever.  I am planning to do a post this week with a garden update including current plans and dreams. A chicken update should be included with this as well.

We are re-evaluating all expenses and seeing where that we can reduce our spending.  I am not sure that we are prepared to make some of those sacrifices and if we decided to keep things the same we will continue to work at paying down debt and enjoying life at the same time.

Hope you will hang around for the journey!

5 Things Friday

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  1. I have been really emotional this week. Probably the most emotional I have been in years. There are a couple of reasons. First, I am transitioning off a hormone I have been taking for a year.  Next is stress!
  2. Matt has a second surgery coming up on Tuesday. I am believing that this will be the final surgery!  This is hard on us on all levels. Physically- making sure everyone can get to and from everything!  Mentally- I don’t even need to describe this stress. Financially- We have been able to cover the cost of both surgeries, but we are stretch really really thin.  Emotionally-see above.
  3. Lily tested positive for COVID today. She has not experienced this before. We are trying to prevent it spreading to the rest of us!  She has been extremely tired with a sore throat.
  4. I am going to declare that first planting of green peppers a failure! We have one seed to germinate. We decided to go ahead and plant a second batch of orange peppers.  My plan was not to buy seeds this year, so I am hopefully we get a couple of plants from this one.  Tomatoes have started to grow!  We also planted kale and radish to feed the chickens.
  5. We have plans to clean the camper out tommorow so we can start preparing for our upcoming trip!