Category Archives: DITL

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!

 

Thursday Thoughts

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  •  I was able to see our electric bill for the month of February on the app this week. $301.49.  This is definitely the highest bill in recent memory, but I am also thinking all time high as well. It is also $40 over what I budget each month to cover the electricity.
  • I made a trip to the grocery store to mainly pick up salad supplies and fruits for the kids to use for lunches next week.  I also grab to loaves of French bread at $1.00 each. My plan is to make a batch of French toast on Saturday with adding some in the freezer for quick breakfast. Total spent 21.47 which brings our monthly grocery total to $127 before Amazon. I will add in Amazon at the end of the month when it is billed.  I will need to stop at Aldi or Food Lion to pick up eggs tomorrow as we are down to 18 eggs and with plans for French toast those will be gone quickly!
  • We ended up ordering Zach an electric toothbrush this week, which was totally unplanned, but the hope is that he will use this regularly!
  • I found a single steak in our black freezer and had put on the menu to make steak fried rice today. It turned out AMAZING!   We had enough for all 6 of us (Mom provided desert) both Zach and Matt have already been back for seconds, and we still have one serving left for leftovers.
  • I have a list on the side of the whiteboard of items that I want to put on the menu in the next week or so in order for us to continue to eat out of our freezer.  I am trying to use at least one item a week that is not a preferred items in order to make things go easier.
  • I decided to go ahead and put some eggs in the insta pot so I could use those on salads next week.   I ended up making egg salad for Zach as he wants to take it for lunch tomorrow. I may have to have an egg salad sandwich for breakfast.
  • When we first went into COVID lockdown, I was able to purchase air filters for ninety-seven cent each. I purchased six or seven case. We usually change at least 2 a month. Sadly, we only have 6 filters left. I am not at all hopeful to find this type of deal again.
  • After months of turning down extra work in Guam, I have agreed to take on four more schools.  I am hopefully to maintain only working 2 nights a week, but this will be a significant boast in income that should allow us to continue to live comfortably the remainder of the year and cover some unexpected medical expenses as well as tax payment that is needed.

5 Things Friday

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  1. The weather continues to be very different and mostly cold. Monday, I had a teacher workday while Kendall and Zach enjoyed a 3-hour delay.  Today, it is 69*. We are expecting more winter weather on Sunday…. I am so ready for Spring!
  2.  After our trip to the grocery store to finish purchasing food for Junk Food Sunday, we have spent $106 for groceries this month!  This means we are on track for another $200 month in February!
  3. Because of the nice weather, we decided to have a trail run putting up and taking down the tent.  The good news is that the tent is definitely going to be a huge benefit at Disney, giving us a whole room for storage and to allow the girls to get dressed in a much larger area than the camper beds. The bad news is that it took about 30 minutes each to put up and take down.  Guess we need a lot more practice.
  4. The plan for the weekend is to trim back the rose bush. This needs to be completed in February each year and it is much easier to do at 60 degrees than 30 degrees.
  5. I will have to work on Junk Food Sunday, but we are still planning on have lots of good food!

Random Thursday Thoughts

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One of the hardest things about having kids with food allergies/intolerance is that it is so hard to figure out if it is something my child ate or is this a virus. For example, last Friday, Zach was miserable, said he just did not feel good. He ended up sleeping a lot. We talked about what he had been eating at school and could not figure out what it could be.  Come to find out it was a virus that both Matt and I dealt with this week.

As our efforts to save money and reduce our expenses continue, I have been closely monitoring our daily energy use. My discovery is that the dryer and heat are the two biggest users.  The heat is simply one of the few things that I can’t do anything more about. We currently have the temperature set at 69 during the day and 67 at night. But recently with the temperatures remaining so low for multiple days, I have agreed to raise the temperature to 70 for part of the day. This is after making sure we all are in sweats and socks, but I am simply not able to stand being so cold. The dryer is the one thing that I usually manage to keep use steady and to a minimum. I don’t usually wash our sheets or allow anyone else to wash sheets unless they can be dried outside. We have developed a routine for washing one load of laundry a day and mostly using the dryer at night.  Unfortunately, again this was not the case this past weekend nor this week after we are sick. We ended up having 10 loads of clothes on Saturday and another 4 loads yesterday.  As I check the usage, we have been over 100 Kilowatts a day for 7 of the last 10 days and 12 of the last 15 days. Needless to say, I am not looking forward to the bill that I will receive soon for the past month.

Sunday will be our anticipated “Junk Food Sunday” The kids have all picked out their favorite snack.  The thing they are most excited for is that we are going to go to Food Lion on Saturday, and each will be allowed to pick out one favorite fruit or veggie in addition to their already chosen snack.

We have not been out to eat for 2 weeks due to the generosity of friends and a scheduled meal at church this Sunday. This will definitely help in the expense department.  The girls both have to contribute to the meal, but we have all the ingredients at home so that make things much easier.

We are actually on track with our grocery spending for the second month in a row. Matt made a small trip to Costco, but I am making sure to keep a good tab on what we are using.

We are starting to see some shortages in our grocery stores like Costco did not have any kielbasa but otherwise we really have everything we need to create good meals. I am currently using the grocery budget to replace items we use or special treat items.

Finally I am looking forward to a weekend with the weather on Saturday about 60.  That too is short lived as another cold front pushes us back to 40 on Sunday and Monday.

Saving on Saturday- More Food Talk

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This week we are continuing to focus on food and eliminate food waste as well as using the items we have in the pantry and freezers.  I am using today (Saturday) to focus on making some convivence items that simply need to be heated in order to serve. First up was an Artisian Cinnamon and Raisin bread. This used up 3 small boxes of raisin and was a huge hit. The downside to this bread is the 20 hours it takes to make. I will save this one as a weekend treat when we are out of bread again!

We took 5 pounds of raw ground beef from the freezer to turn into Taco meat. Matt fried up the meat and we added some tomatoes, tomato sauce, water and taco seasoning to the crockpot. It cooked on low for 2 hours and then on warm overnight. This morning I was able to turn off the crockpot and let cool down. I packaged a total of 8 meals – 2 one-pound packs and 6 -meat for 12 taco packs.  These are stashed away in the freezer for the upcoming spring busy season.

Matt found the last remaining pound of Italian sausage which I turned into 2 baked spaghettis. This meal actually used up all the provolone cheese and ricotta cheese from the freezers as well.

Additional time was spend moving items and looking through the freezers as well.  I have finally been able to relocate all the cans from under my desk to the pantry shelves.  From the freezers, our last gallon of milk along with several cartons of chocolate milk and containers of apple juice have been moved into the refrigerator so that we can begin to use up these surplus items as well.  I suggested that we may want to try and clean out completely our chest freezer and defrost in order to keep it working properly in the future; This appears to be a task that may take longer than my anticipated time frame as we can now close that freezer easily without weighting the top down, but it is nowhere near empty, and the stand-up freezer remains busting at the seams.

After attending our friend’s anniversary party, we were invited to help eat up the leftovers for our meal after church on Sunday. This is a huge money saver as Sunday lunches continue to be our treat meal out most weeks!

 

Freezer and Pantry Food

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Recently I have been spending/ wasting a considerable amount of time watching Youtube videos of grocery hauls, pantries and freezers along with the traditional January- Eat out of the  Pantry challenge.    It actually has brought several things to light for me and I decided that I would share a couple of those things with you.

First a couple of facts that I know I have said but wanted to make sure these are obvious when I am reading this 3-5 years from now.
1. Matt lost his job in November 2021. This was a sudden and unexpected change.
2.  We had budgeted $650 a month of groceries in 2021. We overspent this budget 3 months of the year but stayed under budget in November.  We were over budget in December due to some stocking up.
3. I set our grocery budget for January until June at $200 a month or $50 a year.
4. Once Matt returns to steady full-time employment, I plan to use the difference of $450 a month to save in order to purchase a cow this summer and re-stock our meat.
5. If Matt’s unemployment would end prior to him having a full-time job, I am planning to then switch my grocery shopping to only things that we are completely out of and NEED!

After reviewing that list, I can make the following statements:

1. We could likely exist on $25 a week if we needed to by only purchasing things we are completely out of.
2. I am keeping a rolling grocery list of items that we are currently low on. I am restocking to the level that I normally would. For example, we have 2 cans of corn left, I will be purchasing 8 cans on one of my next few trips. I really could get by with purchasing 2 more but instead, I want to keep a doable level for me. This will allow me to switch to number 5 above for several months in not longer if the need arises.
3.  I am continuing to purchase items I know we will use in the next couple of months when I see them on sale. For example, 2 Liter Diet Cokes are on sale this week. I will be purchasing my normal amount of 20 bottle plus an additional 10 bottles of regular Coke for the kids. I also plan to purchase 10 non-caffeinate soda to restock as well.
4. In order to use the items that we have in the freezer, I have to meal plan. And I am also trying to add one meatless meal a week and at least one meal a week to use items that we have in the freezer but normally would not choose like chicken legs or meatloaf muffins.
5. We are in a very blessed position that allows us to wait on God’s timing for Matt’s new job. Currently you would not be able to tell from our lifestyle that we are basically a one income family at this point.
6. I need to remember that we need to keep the budget at $200 a month including Amazon in order to enjoy things like our planned trips without it becoming a financial strain or hardship.
7. I am not the only person in the world who has enough food for 6 months to a year on hand!

5 Things Friday

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  1.  We are expecting our third snow in three weeks tonight. I have no plans to go outside the house before church on Sunday!
  2. The greenhouse continues to work really well. I am already beginning to think about what we could possibly grow next year…a lemon tree is high on the list.
  3. I have officially been able to complete my grocery challenge of $50 a week or $200 for the month of January. I even included my Amazon order which in the past I would have not!
  4. Our lives are on the uptick with events and practices, so it is really nice to have another weekend at home with most practices and events being cancelled due to weather.
  5. We can finally start to see a reduction in our freezers which is nice. I am currently making plans to start slowing adding more convivence meals back to the freezers using only the ingredients that we have!

Five Things Friday- Food Edition

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  1. Food Waste- I am actually excited and pleased with the way we have been able to reduce our food waste this week. For dinner on Monday, we used the remaining hot dogs from our camping trip and I used the single remaining bun for a bacon and egg sub on Thursday morning.  We all ate leftover PF Changs for Tuesday lunch with Matt finishing the leftovers on Wednesday at lunch. Thursday night I used the finally 2 remaining apples from December along with 2 applesauce cups to make Apple Cinnamon Baked Oatmeal for breakfast on Friday!
  2. Eating Out- We have managed to eat at home exclusively since we returned on Monday. I will be eating out lunch today since I am at work but with the weather so cold our only restaurant meal will be Sunday at lunch!  This is a huge accomplishment for us especially since we are eating out of freezer and pantry.
  3. Grocery Budget-We currently have spent $90.72 including the additional camping treats that we purchased.   I do have an Amazon subscribe and save order that will arrive next week which will increase the spending to $184.75. I also have $121 left in our grocery budget envelope. We are on track to spend less than $200 for groceries for January.  Currently, my plan is to keep as much of the grocery budget as possible even at $50 a week so that we will have the cash this summer to purchase meat, chicken and pork in bulk!
  4. New Recipes- Since we have been spending an extended amount of time at home, we have been exploring what we can make with the items we have on-hand. I made a copycat version of Olive Garden Breadsticks  which will be a definite repeat. Matt made a cheeseburger pie for dinner on Thursday from a new recipe, unfortunately it will not be a repeat as it was just eatable.
  5. The greenhouse is working great!  We actually were able to eat a salad from the lettuce we have been currently growing!  The kids were so excited and we hope to enjoy more of the garden soon.  We have been pleased to learn that first the heater is working well even on extremely cold day! And to Matt’s surprise the plastic roof is holding strong and providing the protection and heat that is needed!

Tuesday Thoughts

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  • We all (even Lily) enjoyed our 4 day camping trip to Conway SC this past weekend.  We arrived home on Monday (Martin Luther King Day_) to about 6 inches of snow in our driveway. The kids were super excited to “play in the snow.”
  • Today (Tuesday) was an official snow day for the kids. The community college even cancelled class!  I however worked remotely with a two-hour delay. I am grateful to be able to stay nice and warm and earn a paycheck. The same thing will happen again tomorrow.  We are actually supposed to receive more bad weather Thursday night and Friday morning, so this is turning into an interesting week.
  • We have our first official harvest from the greenhouse. Matt was able to harvest a bag of mesclun lettuce today. We will use this as part of our salad with Lasagna for dinner tomorrow. Matt was also pleasantly surprised to find that our greenhouse roof of plastic did not break or tear in the sleet, snow and wind. We are now strongly considering getting a lemon tree this summer to keep outside in the summer and in the greenhouse next winter!
  • So far this month for groceries we have spent $90.72. Which means I currently have over $100 sitting in the grocery fund. I have trade and left a $100 bill in the envelope to encourage me not to spend it. I am also on track to spend less than $200 on groceries this month. I do have a subscribe and save delivery that should arrive on January 28th but that still should not throw me over the $200 budget. My next decision is to keep saving the excess in the grocery fund until June or use this money to pay for some other items.  Right now I want to build an emergency grocery fund of $200 to start with.
  • Braxton has been staying with us this week so that both of his parents can work.  I will be the first to admit, I am glad daycare is open tomorrow because it is difficult to work with a toddler in the house!

Staycation?

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I am not really sure if this is a staycation or not. The reason, this is my second week of Christmas break.  Most years I get two weeks at Christmas from the school system, so it is really not unusual.  The difference is that currently Matt is unemployed, so he is also at home during the break. So, is it a staycation?  Still not sure but anyway, here is what we are up to during our staycation or second week of Christmas break.

Put away all the Christmas decorations- We are 50% finished with this. Yesterday, Monday, we took down and put away the outside decorations.

Clean out and organize my building- This is actually part of putting away the decorations.  Matt made a trip to Goodwill two weeks ago with the first load of stuff from my building. I found 3 large totes of clothes that he has missed as well as several other items. We ended up taking another car full of items to Goodwill to donate.  Even with getting rid of a ton of stuff, we still did not have room to store several large decorations. We decided to try and find some unused space under the house… JACKPOT. We used a cinder block and huge sheets of cardboard (previously stored in my building). This made an awesome shelf for holding large outside decoration that just needed to be protected from the elements.

New rain barrel for Greenhouse. Under the house we discovered a 55 gallon plastic barrel, neither Matt nor I remembered it. It is actually the perfect size for using as a water supply for the greenhouse. We switched out the trashcan and it worked perfectly.

Install a new monitor for Matt. This is in anticipation of him beginning a new job and also some additional project work. You know that it can’t be as simple as just hanging a monitor on the wall. We had to move the cabinets above his desk by 4 inches. This meant that the notorious junk cabinets that have been a catch all for many (7ish) years needed to clean out and organized. In the process we ended up re-arranging the storage shelves in my office as well. Because we are use to doing the one touch method (if you touch it put it where it goes and not just move it to clean) both of our office areas ended up being straighten and cleaned!

Kendall and Zach are spending Monday and Tuesday in Durham. Lily will meet them for Ice Skating on Tuesday.

As you can see, we are extremely busy with some not so fun stuff!  My goal is to get all this done and organized so we can continue our camping adventure this spring and have some much-needed rest time on the weekends!