5 Things Friday

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  1.  Kendall had the stomach bug last Sunday. Today Zach has a stomach bug. This thing is awful.  I am praying that it only last 24 hours so Zach and I both can enjoy Lily’s performances on Saturday and Sunday.                                                                                         Now for more positive news!
  2. I found several packs of tomato and green pepper seeds in my seed box a couple of weeks ago. I decided to use some of the containers I have been saving along with dirt that we had left to try and see if I could grow any plants from seed.  I planted 2 packs of both.  Currently, we have about 75% germination rate for the green peppers and about 25% for the tomatoes which were planted almost 2 weeks later!   The goal would be to be able to transfer these to the garden in mid April and at least half survive. If I can get even 25% to survive that will decrease my out of pocket for the garden!
  3. Gas prices have seemed to level out and have returned to just under $4 a galloon for us.  This week we have focused on having the Tahoe sit as much as possible and using the Equinox which get a minimum of 10 miles per galloon better gas mileage. It has worked so far as we have put 2 additional tanks in the Equinox this week.
  4. I stopped by the store on my way home from work today in order to purchase a couple of items that we needed because of the stomach bug.  I spent $49 which included TIde pods, 2 containers of deodorant, 4 6-packs of soda, a bag of chips and 8 packages of sausage patties. I found the sausage patties on sale for $2.39 for a package of 8 patties.
  5. Our electric bill came in this week and it is over $100 less than last month!! I am so thankful!  The next bill is typically the lowest of the year due to not needing heat or a/c for several days at a time!

 

Monday Menu Post

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We have several “food accomplishments” to celebrate this week. First we are at 50% in the chest freezer. I am beginning to look at how we want to organize this for the future. I also have some tiny spaces in the freezers in the house. The next goal is to move all the connivence foods into the house where they can be convenient!  Next we have not eaten out this week, we will have guest this weekend for Lily’s play and I am going to assume that means we will be eating out several times.  Third, total grocery spending for the month is $20.   Thanks to a trip to Costco using our credit card rewards! Dinners are a little bit less work intense as we move into the busy season,.

Breakfast– Saturday-   Homemade Bagels with bacon, pimento cheese or tomatoes. Sunday-Muffins from Costco    Tuesday- muffins from Costo, Monday-, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday -choice of breakfast muffins, eggs, sausage, oatmeal, cereal, pancakes, French toast or grits or breakfast burritos.  We do have some left-over baked oatmeal from last week and with the muffins no need to make anything extra this week.
Lunch- – Saturday-Turkey Dorito Casserole     Sunday – Sausage potato soup Monday- Thursday I have 2 salads and one day of chicken salad and one left-over day.
Dinner- – Saturday- Turkey, stuffing, air fried corn and zucchini.    Sunday-  left-overs and we finished up the soup! Monday- Shrimp Alfredo  Tuesday-Taco Soup   Wednesday- Turkey noodle casserole  Thursday- Beef and Broccoli  Friday-Lasagna and Garlic bread.

 

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!

 

5 Things Friday

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  1. North Carolina weather in March…last Sunday 80 and this Sunday expected low of 18*
  2. The greenhouse is currently empty. We have moved all the plants outside, one of the reasons is that it was getting over 100* during the day in the greenhouse and that would cause most of the colder plants I had planted to bolt.  We have been enjoying both lettuce and spinach. The best part is walking by the lettuce and picking some to eat.  We have started both tomatoes and green peppers inside. It is easier to start inside for the first few weeks.  They will be moved outside about 4 weeks prior to plants to continue to grow in the greenhouse and for protection against our final freeze that usually occurs sometime in April.  We also turned off the heater to save a bit on electricity.
  3. This week for the first time in history, we paid over $4 a gallon for gas. $4.11 to be exact. But the knowledge that it took 16 years for gas to go from $3 a gallon to $4 should bring us all comfort.
  4. We are doing excellent on the grocery budget for the year. We have currently spent $2.82 for groceries this month.  For the sake of transparency, we did make a trip to Costco yesterday and used our credit card earnings to purchase sugar, dog food and some other items that we were out of.
  5. Our busy season is starting. Lily’s play is next week, Zach is managing the middle school baseball team while enjoying playing his last year at the booster club. I am now working 2.5 nights a week in Guam. And best of all our Disney countdown is shrinking!

Monday Menu Planning

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This week we are adding in several after school activities which always adds to the craziness. Luckily, I knew this stage was coming so you will start to see lots more convivence items used!

Breakfast– Saturday- Full breakfast with eggs, sausage and bacon, cresant rolls and more!  Sunday-New breakfast casserole in the crockpot    Monday-Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday -choice of breakfast muffins, eggs, sausage, oatmeal, cereal, pancakes, French toast or grits or breakfast burritos.  The goal for the week is to have baked oatmeal once and probably another zucchini bread as everyone likes it!
Lunch- – Saturday-Sandwiches    Sunday – Turkey, stuffing, scalloped potatoes, dressing, green beans, cranberry sauce  and squash casserole  Monday- Thursday left-overs are theme of the week.  I did make more egg salad for Zach!
Dinner- – Saturday- Coconut shrimp and fries   Sunday-  left-overs Monday-Hamburgers and  Tator tots  Tuesday-Mexican tostado   Wednesday- Quiche  Thursday- Pork Fried Rice Friday-leftovers or taco soup.

Saving on Saturday

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  • The weather has finally turned nice on a weekend. So today we hung 6 loads of bedding on the line to dry. Which saved us over 8 hours of drying time plus they all smell so good!
  • Last weekend, we inventoried our freezers and listed 50 plus meals we could use. During this process, I realized we had 2 whole turkeys. We decided to cook one tomorrow and will have a great lunch with friends that has no out of pocket cost for us!
  • We rotated all of the cold weather plants out of the greenhouse. The temperature is not supposed to drop below freezing for the next 10 days and during the day the greenhouse reaches over 100 degree so in order to extend the growing life of these plants we have moved them outside.  In the process we discussed some spinach, lettuce and swiss chard that we can incorporate into our salads this week. We also turned off the heater which should save some electricity as well.
  • Matt was able to remove the sliding glass door and locate the defective piece. We were able to order the piece for $90 on Ebay. A fair estimate is that this saved us around $500 in the cost of a repair.
  • We took a clothing inventory and realized that new shorts are needed for most of the kids. I was able to order 14 pair of shorts at Old Navy for a total of $91.  I used my credit card rewards ($17), old navy super cash ($20) and combine with the current sale to really save.
  • I took both our vehicles to a local automatic carwash that is $5 for “the works” this is a huge savings for both time and money!

Menu Planning

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On Saturday, we dug through our freezers and put together a list 60 meals that we currently have the ingredients for!  This should last us well into April if not May!  I am so excited for this find. I am hoping to get back on track with grocery spending! One surprising discovery this week is that a single loaf of zucchini bread makes a nice breakfast for everyone!

Breakfast– Saturday- Gravy and Biscuits   Sunday-lots of left-overs   Monday-Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday -choice of breakfast muffins, eggs, sausage, oatmeal, cereal, pancakes, French toast or grits or breakfast burritos.
Lunch- – Saturday- Homemade Quiche   Sunday – Fish chowder   Monday- Thursday Salad for 2 days and left-overs for a third so that covers most of the week.
Dinner- – Saturday- Camel City BBQ to celebrate a birthday   Sunday- Snacks and left-overs again.  Monday-Sloppy Joes  Tuesday-Chicken Taco casserole   Wednesday- Rice Creola Thursday- coconut shrimp, fries and pineapple    Friday-Crockpot chicken and dumplings.

February In Review

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Groceries– budget amount is $200 until June.  Not Met! $505.58  We decided to go ahead and buy the drinks we need for our Disney trip. I also ended up placing a small ($75) Costco order that included toilet paper and saltine crackers.  Although this is double what I wanted to spend it is still below my normal budget of $650.  I hope to be back on track for March.

Auto/ Gas. My goal is $400 a month.  Goal  met! $295.41  Gas prices have jumped at least fifty cent a galloon this month so I am very thankful that we were able to control the gas budget!

Cash Envelope system-  We are doing extremely well with this!

Blogging- 15 post per month. Post number 13 for February which is good for me.  I do have lots to say in March so hopefully this will be including a noticeable improvement.

Exercise days-  No progress to report! Knee pain much better…. no excuse!
 No Spend Days- 4 for February, so double the days from January.  I am very hopeful to again increase this for March.

February felt like a long hard month. Things that I will want to remember in the future… Matt has been unemployed for 13 weeks as of today. All prices are increasing significantly.

Friday Food Five

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  1. We have tried 3 new recipes this week. One of the reasons is that I realized that we have been able to have a different meal every night for the entire month of February. This is quite an accomplishment and a way for us to use up items in our freezer that we would not normally do.
  2. Rotel Chicken Spaghetti I really had high hopes for this dish. I thought that Zach would love it. But it turned out ok. It was the favorite one of mine of the week, but I honestly don’t think we will repeat it again because no one was thrilled with it. And we have so many awesome Mexican recipes that we really enjoy!
  3. Tater Tot Breakfast Casserole- This is a recipe that I found on Facebook. The difference is that it uses sausage links and bacon. This actually turned out to be very good and filing. However, it was very time consuming. Matt made it for dinner, and it took almost an hour to prepare so even though it was good. I don’t think it will be a repeat especially with our very busy schedule.
  4. Chicken casserole- layer in order 4 cups shredded chicken, can of cream of chicken soup, can of cream of celery soup, packet of onion soup mix, frozen vegetables and a box of already prepared stuffing.   Matt made the stuffing at lunch. Kendall ended up assembling this while we did some quick planting outside.  She did forget the onion soup mix, so I simply threw it on top.  This took almost an hour to cook but was good. We probably will not repeat it again either, but it may be one of those meal we make just to eat and run.
  5. I have already made a list of 42 meals that we are going to plan to use during the month of March. The best news is that we already have all the ingredients needed so I am not planning on spending much for groceries in March!

Tuesday Thoughts

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  • On Saturday, we spent most of the morning working in and around the camper. We also practice setting up and taking down the tent.  We have started to add some drinks and food along with electrical cords and fans that we are anticipating needing on our Disney trip.
  • Saturday afternoon we ended up going to Costco which totally blew our grocery budget for the month. I also found 2 pairs of shoes and Matt found one.  We purchased all the drinks except for individual milks that we plan to use in April along with some drinks for my lunch and for Zach. Total spent was $207.  This amount seems large but I decided to figure out what we would “likely” spend at Disney. We will be there for 8 days, I think 2 additional drinks a day is good with 6 people going. That starts at $60 a day just for drinks multiplied by 8 days is $480 which is double the amount I spent at Costco.  Guess that turns it into a huge saving.
  • We are experiencing Spring-like weather which really has me thinking and anticipating our garden.  I am planning to plant lettuce and broccoli in the front beds and cover them with glass jars along with some broccoli seeds which I will cover when they begin to grow. I will be starting a packet of peppers in the house.  I have a packet that was purchased last year so if they don’t grow I will not be too concerned.
  • We are continuing to eat from the freezers and pantry.  I am looking forward to repeating some of our favorite meals in March as I wanted to give us a lot of variety during February. We actually had no repeated meals this month.
  • I have taken on several additional schools in Guam which should bring me to around 10 hours a week or double what I am currently doing. I decided that the extra money would be a nice boost to keep us on track with lots of planned spending happening this summer.