Monthly Archives: February 2025

February In Review

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February has been interesting to say the least, we had several weather days which meant either working from home or my favorite delay starts.  Things have certainly started to get much busier this last week and I am anticipating the pace to continue to pick up and continue through the end of the school year.

Emergency Fund- Goal is $1000- We currently have $300 in this fund which is $200 less than December. I also have a $3800 tax bill to cover so this may not progress at all for the next couple of months.

Groceries- Goal $820 per month.   My goal for February is $400 or less. Well, that did not happen either. $662.25 total for the month. I have decided to modify the pantry challenge for the next couple of months.  I am unsure if I will save money, but I need to focus on using the items in the pantry.

Gas- Goal is $500. February’s total is $265.10.  I am very glad to see the price of gas return to a more normal level!

Blogging- For 2025- the goal will be 10 post per month.  Woo HOO This is post number 14 for the month!  One more than last month!  I am making an intentional effort to keep up with this goal.

Debit- Goal is 200000 for the end of the year! See tax bill from above.

Health/Exercise- Progress this month is that I had a doctor’s appointment and will be changing meds which will hopefully bring this to easier place.  Goal is 175 and exercise regularly.

Reading through the Bible this year- Our church and myself are following “The Bible Recap” program and I have currently managed to stay on track for 59  days!

Monday Menu Post

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Last week did not go as planned, we ended up cooking and eating different items because of the snow.  Things are starting to pick up around here. We start baseball this week. Looking at the schedule that is 2-3 evenings a week where dinner will be late think 7pm or we will be eating on the run.  I am hopefully that we can at least keep things a little bit more successful with only one night of eating out.  This week we have both games at home which is a 5 minute or less drive so I am going to try my luck and plan to eat at home on both days. I also have lots of thoughts about my pantry challenge, see below for details.

Breakfast- Saturday- Leftover baked oatmeal or breakfast casserole.  Sunday- Banana muffins Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday Friday– find it (breakfast burritos, oatmeal, omelets cereal and milk, French toast sticks, sausage, pop-tarts, and eggs.

Lunch- Saturday-Garlic cheeseburger bites (not a repeat new recipe) Sunday- Gregg’s Monday, – leftovers   Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday- left-overs.  Friday- eat out.

Dinner- Saturday-Pick a soup- tomato basil, chicken stew, chicken and rice and potato soup. Sunday- Left-overs Monday-Beef Fried Rice   Tuesday- Chicken -? This is the baseball game (instapot hamburger helper) Thursday-baked potatoes Friday- Spaghetti

Pantry Challenge
Looking at our grocery expenses for the past two month indicate that we have failed but I am starting to see a difference in our pantry, and I have come to realize that we have a lot of extra food.  I want to be a good steward of this, so my plan is to continue to use this list of goals at least until the end of May just to keep things moving in the right direction.
1.Purchasing items that we are completely out of that are staples such as diary as well as buns or other items that will help use items we already have. Total $662.25  On Saturday, I stocked up on soft drinks for the next couple of month. I also had to replenish our “dairy alternatives”.
2. 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)  We opened containers of potato soup and chicken stew that will be used for lunches as well as at least one meal.
3. Use at least 3 jars a week from the canning pantry. Using spaghetti sauce this week along with salsa and chicken broth.
4. Use one item a week from the connivence freezer in my room. I found two unopened pack of turkey and Zach requested on for this week of lunches.
5. Each Monday after menu planning provide a list of how I followed the guidelines for the week.  Done!

Saving on Saturday

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Matt and Zach have been able to finish the deck!  Total spent $0.  I will post those pictures on Wednesday.

Today I split myself several times and actually got a lot accomplished. First, I worked on our taxes. I have always completed my own taxes in recent years with the help of a tax program.  This year was not good we ended up owing 3800 to the Federal government and after some deep digging, I did not find much I could do to change this.

Next up I decided it was a good day to start working toward our garden, so I needed to clean out the greenhouse. I am very happy with the results

Before

After

I was able to “find” 4 5 gallon buckets of dirt that will be put in the tomato beds after they are completely repaired.

Next a trip to the grocery store with mom, I discovered an awesome deal on soda so this is the result

Finally we added a vertical growing space to the raised beds. I did not get any pictures but will try to include in a garden update.

 

5 Things Friday

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  1. The weather continues to be very different.  This week has brought 2 days of beautiful snow (Wednesday and Thursday).  Both the kids and I had a remote day on Wednesday. I had a second remote day on Thursday while the kids had a total day off.  The good news was that it was a very dry snow and mostly melted so we all returned to school on Friday.
  2. Our electric bill was significantly higher than usual this month. It was over $300 to be exact $319.  This is likely due to the cold weather so there is really not much I could do about this.
  3. Speaking of cold, we have realized that both my office and the living room are much cooler than the rest of the house.  We set up small thermometers in both room and have discovered that overnight the temperature drops to 63 degrees in both rooms with the heat pump set at 67* After discussion this is likely not a new problem but something that continues to happen and with the colder temperatures means increasing bills. We have purchased two small heaters to use in these rooms when we are in them.
  4. The 2025 gardening season has started.  We planted pepper seeds and broccoli seeds last Saturday. We actually have a couple of broccoli plants starting. These will likely go outside in the next couple of days.  I am planning to get out and try and straighten out the greenhouse later today. The next big project is to prune both the rose bushes and fruit trees hopefully next week this will be possible.
  5. Kendall and Zach have been participating in a weekly Bible study with some other from our youth group.   They have been meeting at Starbucks but this is expensive and hard to hear. We offered our house and we will be providing drinks and snacks.  This will affect our grocery bill but both Matt and I agree that we don’t want to change this so a higher bill will be the expectation.

Monday Menu Plan

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I am ready for this week!   On Saturday, Matt and I were able to get ahead on the week by preparing three different dinners that are heat and eat!  I also was able to can 10 quarts and 10 pints of chicken broth! Now bring on the snow and a couple of stay-at-home days and I will declare this is a awesome week!

 

Breakfast- Saturday- bacon and eggs. Sunday- French Toast Casserole Monday-   Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday Friday– find it (breakfast burritos, oatmeal, omelets cereal and milk, French toast sticks, sausage, pop-tarts, and eggs.  We also have muffins from Costco.

Lunch- Saturday- Matt and I used a gift card for Bad Daddy Sunday- Tin Tin sushi buffet.  Monday,- eat out as this was a work day.  Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday- left-overs.  Friday- eat out.

Dinner- Saturday-Chicken and rice Sunday- Left-overs Monday-Copycat 4 Ziti and homemade bread sticks Tuesday- Eat out for Baseball fundraiser Wednesday- Pick your soup* Thursday-Chicken enchiladas Friday- Honey Hamburger casserole.

* We have a couple of different ones in the freezer and at least one left-over. This is really no cooking .

Pantry Challenge
1.Purchasing items that we are completely out of that are staples such as diary as well as buns or other items that will help use items we already have. Total $543 for February. We went to Costco on Saturday as I had 15 items on my list and were low on water. I was pleasantly surprised with the $292 total.
2. 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) This was a failure as I added one container of Chicken Enchilada to the stand-up freezer.
3. Use at least 3 jars a week from the canning pantry. Not sure how to rank this one as we used 6 jars to make dinner but ended up adding 20 jars of chicken broth.
4. Use one item a week from the connivence freezer in my room. Failure on this one as well.
5. Each Monday after menu planning provide a list of how I followed the guidelines for the week.  Done!

Square Foot Garden!

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I am so excited today February 16th, 2025, we started seeds for our garden!

The weather FINALLY cooperated with us! Yesterday, it was very cold (38 degrees) and rainy!  We did not get outside at all.  Today started out very rainy, the temperature was 54 degrees this morning so that was a start. After lunch, the rain moved out and we headed out to get a couple of things done. Zach planted two pots of mums from the fall.  Matt and I worked to figure out where exactly the new trees needed to go.  For some reason, I received two of the four trees I purchased.  One of the apple trees and a peach tree arrived.  We hope to receive a second apple tree and a replacement for a pear tree at the end of next week.

I also have been doing some research on dates. I am going to use this as a place to document so next year, I will not be doing the same thing again.
Our last frost date is April 17th.
8 weeks from now is April 17th
Pepper should be started 6-8 weeks prior to the last frost date and need to stay inside for an additional 2 weeks after last frost for the soil temperature to be warm enough to support growth.
Tomatoes need 6 weeks to grow before the last frost day. Around March 1st, I should be starting my tomatoes.
Broccoli takes 50 days to grow, I need to have planted outside before February 27th for a chance to get a small harvest.

Today was a great day to start peppers!  I planted two per cell and will thin and use all the ones that grow as I have not had good germination rates in the past. I planted 12 cells of California wonder bell, 12 cells of monster yellow peppers, 12 cells of mini rainbow peppers and 6 cells of waxman (sweet) peppers.  Total of 84 pepper seeds.

I also planted 6 cells of broccoli to see what happens.

Last but not least, I have a whole bed of radish seed planted about 2 weeks ago for the chickens. I also have a bed of onion seeds planted. Garlic is along the front of the squash beds.

Grow plants Grow!

Saving on Saturday- Food Edition

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Food is always a huge expense for us, and I am constantly trying to find ways to save money on this expense. The biggest way to save money on groceries is to not throw away food.  We are fortunate to have chickens that pretty much like anything and what they don’t eat they poop on which can be used for fertilizer to grow more food.   I should also mention that yesterday was Valentine Day which added a bit of “celebrating” to this post.

We typically have a special or meal out for Valentine’s Day, but I did not want to deal with the crowds yesterday. Matt offered to pick up take out, which was a great idea. We have been going to the same local Chinese restaurant for at least 20 years so that was my choice for dinner.  We have discovered that recently, ordering out actually gets you more food than eating in. We ordered a Sesame chicken combo dinner which included rice and a soup, and a large shrimp lo mien, total $21.75.  This actually was enough food to feed 4 people dinner and one lunch!  Matt and I headed out early this morning to attend Braxton’s basketball game, we planned to head to Costco to do a stock up trip as I had over 15 items on my Costco list.  I had purchased gift card for a couple of restaurants last year with my Costco reward certificate, so this was a perfect time to use the remaining $25 one for Bad Daddy’s.  Matt and I ate for $8 including tip after the gift card, and we decided to add a Starbuck’s just for fun. Total cost for “Date Day” not including Costco $25! ($8 was to enter the ballgame).

Now on to more food content, I purchased a rotisserie chicken for $4.99 at Costco.  For dinner today, we chopped up some and made chicken and rice, this will also probably be enough for at least 1 more meal and a couple of lunches so that is enough for 10 people to eat, I also will be making a double batch of chicken enchiladas, one for this week and one to freeze, another 10 meals.  That means we spent approximately 25 cent a meal on meat.  But to make this an even better deal, I currently have my roaster oven going with a huge batch of chicken stock with I will can tomorrow!

We have some mini cinnamon and raisin bagel that we purchased a couple of weeks ago and 5 are left, which are beginning to become stale, I have cut these up and will be using for a French toast casserole for breakfast in the morning!

Finally, I have a couple of ears of corn left in the fridge along with a small portion from a can, this will get used for a new honey corn hamburger casserole this week!

I don’t mind food going to the chickens but I prefer to use what we have!

Monday Menu Plan

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This was a hard week for me to plan for.  I knew that I would be doing a significant amount of cooking for Junk Food Sunday, so I need a little bit easier meals for the week. I also planned for left overs to be used for lunch this week so I did not want to use for dinner as well. I did have more food spending for specific items we wanted but this should be the end of spending for the month unless we use up items very quickly.  Baseball officially starts this week with practice and try outs. We start high school baseball game next week. I am going to start adding details at the end for the plan at the end.  We do not have a bread on the list for breakfast this week but I may convince Kendall to make mini muffins one day.

Breakfast- Saturday- Pancakes, sausage and bacon. Sunday- Orange Cinnamon rolls(fridge) and sausage balls Monday-   Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday Friday– find it (breakfast burritos, oatmeal, omelets cereal and milk, French toast sticks, sausage, pop-tarts, and eggs.

Lunch- La Careta (Mexican)  Sunday- Fundraiser lunch at church.    Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday- left-overs.  Friday- eat out.

Dinner- Saturday- Lily made “sushi bowls”    Sunday- Junk food Sunday Monday-Soup * Tuesday- Taco Pasta ** Wednesday- Chicken and Broccoli Casserole Thursday-Hamburger sliders on Hawaiian rolls and French fries **- Depending on what the refrigerator looks like we may do left-overs or insta pot hamburger helper.

* We have a couple of different ones in the freezer and I want to finish up Mexican soup in the fridge. This is really no cooking but better than left-overs.

** I made extra taco dip on Sunday.  I am hoping to get 3-4 meals out of this. My plan is to make all these up in casserole dishes and place all but one in the freezer.  I will add a box of pasta and a pint of hamburger to each of these to make the casserole.

*** I found a bag of French Fries in the convenience freezer this weekend.

Pantry Challenge
1.Purchasing items that we are completely out of that are staples such as diary as well as buns or other items that will help use items we already have. Total $250 for February, $1129 for 2 months. Spending for the three months of the 2025 will be less than $1200     I am hopefully to cut spending for the rest of the month and this amount does include our Amazon subscribe and save.
2. 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)  Chicken and Broccoli casserole was from this freezer.
3. Use at least 3 jars a week from the canning pantry.  I used a total of 4 jars for Junk Food Sunday. I will also be using 2-4 jars of hamburger meat from the pantry this week. I also may pull out a soup on Friday if needed.
4. Use one item a week from the connivence freezer in my room. French Fries from the freezer.
5. Each Monday after menu planning provide a list of how I followed the guidelines for the week.  Done!