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!

Pantry Challenge Success or Fail?

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This actually depends on how you are determining success or failure.

The quickest way to look at pantry challenge is based on money.   I completely failed at this as we spent $771 on groceries in the month of January. But wait this is still almost $50 less than our budget of $820.  But significantly more than my goal of $300.  I actually spent some time researching and checking out numbers today.  The only other time that I have spent over $500 during a pantry challenge was in 2019.   The year the world imploded so this does concern me a bit!

I also did some checking into what the US government is using as a standard.  Based on the numbers from December 2024 we should be spending $1309 on food. Or this is what food stamps would be based on for our family of five.$1309 is considered the “thrifty” amount so this is the lowest amount that the government thinks we could survive on.   Looking a bit deeper this amount indicates an increase from December 2023.  Another interesting fact is that for the year 2020 to 2023 the amount stayed the same! I had thought and even mention increased the amount to $1200 for grocery spending for the first three months of the year.  Now I am leaning toward using the $1309 amount.  Can I feed our family of five for 3 months for the thrifty amount that the government has set? In reality between some stops  at the grocery store already this month and our Amazon subscribe and save our current total for both January and February would be $984, leaving $325.   That may definitely work, I think I just talked myself into this amount.

The other method I could look at the success of the pantry challenge would be to look at the goals I have set.

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 spending for the three months of the 2025 will be less than $1309.  Discussed above!

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)  have been consistently doing this and I can start to see a difference and the ability to re-organize this freezer prior to the summer stock up period.
3. Use at least 3 jars a week from the canning pantry. I am beginning to see several lines of empty shelves and I am thinking about ways to use items. I currently have enough empty jars that I could use up pears that have been vacuumed sealed to make pearberry sauce and do a large batch of beef broth.  Again this has been a success!
4. Use one item a week from the connivence freezer in my room. This is also starting to show. My goal would be to completely empty this freezer prior to May in order to organize and use it more efficiently this summer.
5. Each Monday after menu planning provide a list of how I followed the guidelines for the week.  This also has been consistent.

So based on goals I am successful with the pantry challenge to date!   I am going to continue with this challenge using the same guidelines except for increasing the spending for the month of February.  I may need to re-evaluate at the end of February to determine if it is sustainable for the month of March?  Only time will tell but I am at least seeing a benefit.

Monday Menu Planning

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This week the focus is on cleaning out the refrigerator in preparation for Junk Food Sunday.  I will be continuing the pantry challenge this month and plan a separate post tomorrow to discuss the results in January.  I am excited that Lily wants to help with cooking on the weekends.  This should also be the least busy week for the remainder of the school year.

Breakfast- Saturday-  Biscuit King . Sunday- Beef and Egg casserole (my recipe, not a hit but it used up several items from the fridge. . Monday-  Apple sauce cake/bread. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday Friday– find it (breakfast burritos, oatmeal, omelets cereal and milk, French toast sticks, sausage, pop-tarts, and eggs, My goal is to make a baked oatmeal at least once this week but we shall see.

Lunch- Bad Daddy’s   Sunday- Kiminons    Monday- Corn chowder   Tuesday,- soup   Wednesday- eat out or leftovers Thursday- left-overs.  Friday- eat out.

Dinner- Saturday- Lily cooked    Sunday- Left-overs with cheddar bay biscuits and Peanut butter pie. Monday-Gyros Tuesday- Taco Bombs in the Air Fryer   Wednesday- No peek beef stew and rice  .  Thursday- Bacon Cheeseburger Pizza  Friday- Sloppy Joes on Hawian rolls

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 spending for the three months of the 2025 will be less than $1200   Current total $11.30   I will have more thoughts on this tomorrow.
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) I pulled out a pack of beef tips for Wednesday and the Pizza filling for Thursday was pulled several weeks ago.
3. Use at least 3 jars a week from the canning pantry.  Sloppy Joes on Thursday are from the pantry. I also will be using broth and salsa for Junk Food Sunday. Last week we used a total of 7 jars so this is actually going well.
4. Use one item a week from the connivence freezer in my room. Hawian rolls are out of this freezer.
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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We spent over half the day in Greensboro for the Swim Regional watching both Zach and Kendall.  The weather has changed significantly with the start of February. It was so nice that I was able to work outside with just a light sweater.

I am starting to think about and plan for the garden this summer. I have decided to try and grow cucumbers on a old chain link fence panel that was in the back yard. This meant we needed to move the panel and also secure it to the garden bed.

Next this particular bed was starting to warp really badly so we try to add a couple of pieces of wood to help straighten and prevent huge gaps that dirt can be lost thur.

We also removed a piece of cattle panel from the front that I am bending to use as an arch between the tomato beds. Total cost of garden repair was ZERO!

I was also able to plant some onion seeds and radishes in the container in the side year. I am hopefully to get an onion harvest this year. The radishes are going to the chickens, but I want to use the seeds I have and if they grow 3 or 4 radishes great if not then no harm done. If the weather stays really nice, I may go ahead and plant out some broccoli, lettuce and spinach in the next week or so just to see what we can grow.  It is currently about 11 weeks till our last frost date.

Zach and Matt have been working very diligently on building a bar on the back deck.

I am unsure of how often this will actually get used so I did not want to spend any money. So far they have been able to accomplish this!  All materials are from other projects!  Even the Blackstone is from Luzader’s in Florida. It will require some cleaning and oil before it can be used.

This Saturday was a success!