5 Things Friday- Garden Edition!

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I am so excited that our garden actually is producing this year.  Because of the dirt failure of last year, I did have to purchase a large amount of soil.  With that in mind, I decided that I would try to use as many of the seeds as I could to grow to limit the cost.  I have spent around $100 in seeds but should have enough to grow next year as well without purchasing any more seeds.  I do plan to purchase some worms and will be heavily mulching the beds with paper at the end of the growing season.  But now for some exciting and fun news in a different format.

  1. Tomatoes- This is the first time ever that I have attempted to start all my tomato plants from seed.  I used just packets that were given to me.  We ended up planting out about 26 tomato plants after leaving in the greenhouse while we were on vacation.  I was able to make one pot of spaghetti sauce prior to our beach trip and was excited to return to find that the tomatoes began to ripen So far this week, I have made 3 double batches of spaghetti sauce (24 lbs. of tomatoes) a batch of salsa (10 cups of tomato approximately 4 lbs) and we have eaten and shared at least another 4 lbs.  Unfortunately, my basil is very limited this year after 2 failed attempts, but I was able to find some frozen basil from several years ago in the freezer as well as dried basil from last year.   I think that this is the most tomatoes we will get in a week but hopefully we can enjoy several pounds a week to eat.  I would also like to make at least one more batch of spaghetti sauce and Matt has requested another batch of salsa so we shall see.
  2. Peppers- The pepper plants have not looked as good as the tomatoes. I did end up purchasing about $10 worth of starts from the Farmer’s market. I used all of our Waxman peppers in the salsa and ended up pulling out of the freezer enough green peppers to use as well.  I did notice today that we finally have pepper blooms, so I am hoping to get some to eat and freeze during the month of August and September.
  3. Squash- I have actually planted two batches of squash and zucchini. We have been able to harvest and freeze approximately 8 bags for squash casserole and are eating squash at least every other day.  It is not an abundance, but we are enjoying, and we do have enough to use for at least one casserole a month!  So, this is definitely a success.
  4. Green Beans- frustrating!  The first set of seeds produced less than 5 beans total. I planted the second batch, and they are now beginning to give a couple of beans a day. I have also planted a third batch which hopefully will produce in the next month or so!
  5. Cucumbers- We have struggled with these as well. I have been able to harvest maybe 5 total cucumbers. I did start a second batch and they have flowers so these may turn into a nice harvest…time will tell!

For the record, this spring was extremely dry.  And that trend has continued this summer.  I am honestly glad that we did not lose everything during the week we were on vacation. At this point, we are watering every day unless it rains    We have needed to use water from the county for 3 days, but we also have decided to add an additional rain barrel in hopes that we cannot use county water again.   The goal is to get this tank up and running this weekend but we will need to flush at least once so I am hopefully for the additional water collection to start in August.

Thursday Thoughts

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This is supposed to be our least busy week of the summer. The reason for this is simple.  I had outpatient surgery on Monday.  I wanted to give myself a full week to recover and this has turned out to be a positive thing.   I did not leave the house after returning on Monday until this morning.

Today, I had to take Lily to the orthodontist office in order to get a new top retainer made. This was an expensive process.  Hopefully, this will be the final time it needs to be completed. Lily lost her retainer while packing to come home from Oak Island last week.  When she received her retainers over two years ago, she was informed of the $35 fee to replace. She did pay this portion today but due to changes in technology it was $150 to replace the retainer today.

I also headed to the nail salon to get my manicure and pedicure today as well. I have been budgeting this for once every three weeks along with a dog grooming appointment every month.  I think this will definitely be items we keep in the budget.

The garden is starting to produce, and I am planning on an entire garden/food preservation update for tomorrow.

We purchased a small chest freezer that was delivered this week. This is actually going to be kept in our dining room and used as our convenient freezer. It has items such as chicken nuggets, waffles and pancakes. We have been able to move and arrange the other freezers so that we have one large chest freezer that is empty.  It is currently defrosting and will be cleaned and ready for our cow that is currently being processed.

Our awesome friends provided an awesome dinner last night which was greatly appreciated.

We have purchased the final 27 pavers needed to complete the chicken coop. The goal is to get the pavers placed and the top of the coop finished on Saturday so that we can possibly get chickens in the next week.

I am looking forward to not leaving the house again until Sunday to go to church!

Menu Plan Monday

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Things are never dull around here! Last week we were at the beach so no menu planning that way except to decide what meal was going to be eaten out.  This should be the least busy week of the summer.  The focus is to eat our fresh veggies from the garden in addition to attempted to completely empty out a freezer in anticipation of our whole cow purchase. I also realized that I need to plan our at least some lunches with most of us home at least part of the day.

Breakfast- Saturday- Old Bridge Dinner (last morning of vacation) Sunday- Biscuits and bacon or jelly.  Monday –Cereal, Tuesday- Sausage muffins    Wednesday- omelets Thursday- apple sauce muffins or blueberry muffins depending on what I am in the mood for.  Friday- freezer breakfast which includes muffins, French toast sticks, bagels, breakfast burritos and pancakes.

Lunch- Saturday-McDonalds (traveling) Sunday- Longhorn Steak.  Monday- Chinese, Tuesday- chicken bacon ranch frozen pizza, Wednesday- salads, Thursday- probably chick-a -filet, Friday-sandwich

Dinner- Saturday- Left-over shrimp and sausage with sautéed squash. Sunday-Spaghetti with homemade sauce, Monday- Chinese.  Tuesday Cheddar and bacon burgers with fried squash.  Wednesday- Taco Rice and homemade salsa.   Thursday- Tortellini Alfredo Friday-Some type of chicken

Project Catch Up with Financial Implications.

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We are currently about halfway through the summer. I start back to work on August 17th with the kids all going back to school on August 29th.  We had a list of projects that we wanted to tackle this summer.  Some of the items on the list have been postpone due to financial implication and or time constraints.  We have been working hard on some of the projects, so this is a mid-summer update.

Kitchen Floor– This was our second project with the first being having the shower room floor replaced and repaired. The kitchen was last replaced in March of 2020. At that time, we chose a laminate floor that we had hoped would last 20 plus years.  This floor was not what it promised. The floor started to pull apart and pop up in different areas almost immediately.  It has gotten progressively worse to the point that we could not go barefooted in the kitchen due because it was snagging and tearing clothes and cutting feet.   We have decided to postpone having the shower room floor completed until next summer due to time and money. The kitchen floor did not give us the option. After some discussion regarding our options, we chose to remove the top layer of flooring and return to the previous floor.  The good news is that removal of the floor was fairly simple. We did need to do some minor repair work including screwing some of the floor in place to prevent gaps.  I am happy to report that we were able to complete this task last week. I have ordered a couple of rugs to cover the area that was previously a wall.  The total expense for the project is $120.

Chickens- After much debate and pleading on the kids parts, we have decided to get chickens as our next pet.  The ultimate goal is to have enough eggs that we stop buying but they will also be an additional pet. We knew up front that this would be a rather expensive project.  We are moving very close to getting the chickens which will likely be before the end of July.
Expenses so far:  Clearing of land- $1000
Purchase of chicken coop- $630
Wire for additional chicken run- $20 found next door!
Wood for additional chicken run and landscaping- $372
I will be adding to this and changing as we finish up but I am expecting around $2500

Bike Rake for Trailer- We actually broken even on this as we ended up selling both our luggage box and hitch rake for $100. The bike rake was $50 and we had to spend another $25 to update the wiring on the trailer.

My other goal for the summer is food preparation for the coming school year. This will be an ongoing project so stick around for the rest of the summer!

Holiday Plans

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This holiday (4th of July) weekend, we have been focusing on some project around the house.  First was installing a bike rake on the trailer.  We also ended up replacing some of the trailer wiring and working on a couple of the bikes. Next was finishing up the kitchen floor, we ended up removing the top layer that has been in place for 2 years. The ultimate goal is the replace this floor but first we need to have a bathroom floor replaced and we also need to decide what we want to replace the floor with.  The other big project will be to finish up the chicken coop area.

While most of this has not been frugal it is needed. We have been able to cook and eat at home for all meals except one and all have been under $5 each.

Saturday breakfast– pancakes
Saturday Lunch– Steak um sandwich- pack of steak-um was $4.97 from Aldi, used a green pepper and onion already here. Zach and I ate on hot dog buns that needed to be used, Matt and Lily used hamburger buns that needed to be used.
Saturday Dinner– I made scallop potatoes and ham. The ham is from the freezer so completely free.
Sunday Lunch- We has squash from the garden, I added onion and a pack of stew beef (purchased on clearance last year) that needed to be used this week.  We also cooked rice. We will sauté another squash on the Blackstone and have a second meal from these.
Sunday Dinner- BLT sandwiches, we have our fresh tomatoes from the garden again lettuce from another meal that needed to be used.
Monday Breakfast- Sausage patties (purchased for $2.34 on clearance) and eggs on bread. We also have an excess of bread this week.

The current plan is for Monday lunch and dinner to be from the refrigerator to use up left-overs. We could also have tomato sandwich or chicken salad or pimento cheese sandwiches as well.

Here to finishing up some projects!

5 Things Friday

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  1. Today is Kendall’s 14th birthday. She spent the night with friends last night and we are going to Red Robin for dinner.  She chose a pair of platform converse shoes for her gift!
  2. Kendall and Lily are scheduled to leave for Life (a national youth conference) in Orlando Florida, Sunday morning at 6:30am. We are working on getting everything pack for them. They will be joining us at Oak Island once they return.
  3. After much thought and debate, we removed the top layer of our kitchen and dining room floor. This top layer is 2 years old but a tripping hazard that was also very ugly!  We spent about 3 hours on Wednesday night just with the removal. This weekend the goal is to replace the quarter round and to order a couple of rugs.
  4. I finally (after almost 3 weeks) picked up my car from the dealership today. It needed an O2 sensor replaced as well as the radio. However, the radio is on back order to it will be at least middle of next week before it can be totally fixed. I will have to pay $100 due to the warranty on the car.
  5. My other big plan for the weekend is to plant more green beans, So far we have harvested only a handful. So hopeful the next round will produce better.

June in Review

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One of the biggest headlines that I am reading this month is that inflation is out of control. Most grocery items have increased in price between 15 and 25 percent since January.  The cost of gas has hit an all-time high but is slowly starting to decrease.  I am not at all shocked by the numbers this month.  I have spent a considerable amount of time reviewing the budget and planning but at this point I am going to wait until August to set the official budget for the remainder of the year. For the month of June and July, I am planning to offset any additional uncovered expenses with funds that are currently in our short-term savings.  This should allow us to enjoy our annual beach trip and also get a better idea of what we are currently spending in order to develop a realistic budget. My car is currently in the shop and also needs a set of tires this month. So we have lots of small expenses to pay out.

Groceries– budget amount is $200 until June.  Not Met! $1231.74 before the deposit on the cow which is an additional $300.  I did have a significant food expense for the weekend of Haley’s wedding and I also have already purchased food for the beach.   If I take the amount divide that by 5 people and 3 meals a day we are spending around $3.00 a meal per person which is still significantly less than I could purchase a meal any where for.  This is definitely a hard category to budget for.  I will continue to watch and average to determine where it ends up.  My thoughts prior to this month were $700 a month but I am not sure how realistic that is at this point.

Auto/ Gas. My goal is $400 a month. NOT met! $759.80 gas.   It is currently sitting around $4.34 a gallon.  I will like have to double this budget in August depending on the cost of gas which means I will also need to reduce spending in other categories to make this work. I do not want to continue to use money from short term savings every month.

Cash Envelope system- We are back to use a majority cash system.  I am hopeful that this will work even better in the Summer. This always works well for us!

Blogging- 15 post per month. This is post number 14 for the month. I have been much better at posting on a regular basis. Just need to squeeze in one additional post.

Exercise days- 2.

No Spend Days- ummmmm what ? I honestly have not been keeping track of this. One question I have is do I count days I spend from a budget category or only unplanned or over spending?

June was an interesting month.  I am actually not surprised at all with the spending but really feel like we need to get a handle on where we can reduce our spending and where is it just going to have to increase the planned amount.