Category Archives: Watching my pennies

Saving Money, Watching my pennies

My January Use-It-Up Project Update-Jan. 29

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This week, I continued my project of deliberately using up items in my freezers, pantry and basement that needed to be used.  Some items are getting old, so I am specifically targeting them, and using other food storage to the max!

We had popcorn. I buy it by the 25 pound bag.  Mine is a few months old, so is in no danger of going bad, but it’s sure nice to have that crunchy, buttery treat on occasion.  I have a large plastic food-grade bucket I keep it in, then transfer a reasonable amount into a Tupperware container to keep in the kitchen cupboard.

I dug way back into one of the freezers.  I found 2 packages of steak from last year’s beef. One was t-bone and one was another kind–rib steak, I think.  I am thawing them in the refrigerator for our family Sunday dinner at my sister’s. We may add some marinade today and then Rob will BBQ them Sunday at her house, along with a couple of packages from her freezer. I like to use all old meat before the new to prevent freezer burn, but obviously missed these 2 packages. They came to light after I removed some other items from that freezer.  From that same freezer, I found an older loaf of gluten-free bread which I will make into crumbs today.  I also found a few more packages of peaches from 2014.  I thought they were gone.  So– you guessed it–Ja’Ana made another peach crisp. She just loves peach crisp and was very excited when I found those old peaches.   Yum!  These peaches were a little browned, getting kind of old, and really needed to be used, so we just added a little extra cinnamon and it turned out great.  We ate most of it for dinner last night–so no waste!

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I made soup from some broth that didn’t seal when I canned it last week.  I also used some of the meat bits from when I made that broth.  In that soup, I also used some canned carrots, onions from my garden, home-canned tomatoes, the last of a celery stalk that was pretty wilted in the refrigerator drawer, and some potatoes that were getting pretty shriveled.  It came out great and we had it both Wednesday and Thursday nights.  There is still a little left.

We used green beans and frozen broccoli for our vegetables this week, along with the vegetable soup.  We also had salads several times.  At the beginning of January, we got a lot of lettuce.  We are just finishing it up now.  It was very reasonable at Costco and Cash and Carry, when we bought a 3-pack of head lettuce, or a 5-pack of Romaine.  I figure that we ate about 8-10 heads of assorted lettuce this month so far.  Those 2 kinds of lettuce keep a long time for me.

I was able to use up a head of cabbage from our garden that has been stored in the fridge for 4-5 months now.  I simply put the heads in plastic grocery store bags, and refrigerated them.  I have great success with using cold-storage with carrots and cabbage, and still have both.  However, they are getting to the point of needing to be used.

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The big girls cooked twice.  Tuesday was Rob’s birthday and they made Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo, beans and birthday cake.  They got out the sparkling cider I had in the garage (also needing to be used) and made it into a celebration. On Thursday, we had leftover soup and Lovana made muffins and salad, and we had J’s peach crisp.

I am making progress with my project.  There are a few empty spaces on the pantry shelves and one of the freezers is starting to have quite a bit of empty space.  I promptly filled that space with some bread we were given, though!  (6-8 loaves)  I targeted that extra bread by making French toast one morning.  I made a lot and have been just having the kids warm it up each morning.  I am going to make another batch soon.  That space will empty quickly, because bread is so bulky,  and then I can see what is in the back and corners better so I can get it out of there.  The freezer that has the chickens and beef is starting to show some space.  Frozen bananas keep getting turned into smoothies (we’ve used at least a gallon in the last 2-3 weeks).

I will continue this project in February.  Now that we’ve decided to sell the house for sure, I have even more urgency to clear some of these items out so that we have an easier time moving.  I also want to be wise, though, and have plenty to use at our new place–so, as always–balance is the key.  In fact, we have pigs that will be pork in another month-6 weeks and will need room for that in one of the freezers.

I’ve decided to join in with Erika at The Make-Do Homemaker and try to keep the grocery shopping at $50/week.  I anticipate that there may be weeks when I can keep it even lower than that, as it is not uncommon for me to go a couple of weeks without shopping.  This week, for instance, we stocked up on cheese (5 -2lb bricks) because it was a good deal.  We also got some milk and a couple of other items.  The only 3 things on my list so far for the coming week are celery, Parmesan cheese and ground ginger.  I may need to add salad stuff, as we may run out.  Any extra $ will be saved for re-building the stockpile after we move.

Saving Money, Watching my pennies

Saving Money–Week Ending January 24, 2016

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This week, Rob brought me this beautiful bouquet.  He is the kind of guy who often brings me little surprises, but we have been on a tighter budget lately than sometimes, and I was kind of surprised when I saw such a lovely arrangement.  Later, he shared with me that there were quite a few flowers on the end of the check stand and the check-out clerk asked him if he wanted some flowers.  He answered that he wasn’t planning to buy some right then, but they were very pretty, and thanked her.  She said that they were giving them away because they thought they were getting too old to sell.  He gratefully accepted a bouquet and brought it home to me.  What a blessing!  As far as we can tell, there is one slightly droopy flower–hardly noticeable.

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Ja’Ana attended a formal dinner in this beautiful dress she and Rob found for her at Goodwill for $12.95.  It still had tags on it and fitted her perfectly.  She used a sweater shrug she had already and other accessories she borrowed or already owned.  The dress is floor length, and looks very nice on her.  She had a great time.

I kept on with my project of using up things that needed to be used.  We had scalloped potatoes, peach cobbler, and I canned beef broth from some bones that have been piling up in the freezer.

We had a work party here on Saturday.  5 men and young adults came over to help clean out the barn.  There were a lot of heavy things that needed to be moved, so they came to help Rob do it.  I worked on burning piles, but didn’t get very far.  The younger guys had a blast burning up lots of debris and worked on the slash piles for a while as well.  Then I went in to finish up the lunch I had mostly pre-made on Friday.  I made split pea potato soup, green salad, quinoa salad, chips with home-canned salsa, home-canned pears, and blueberry crisp.  We were very thankful for their help.  Feeding them lunch was the least I could do, and I was able to use items I had on hand.   If we had needed to hire people to do what they did, I shudder to think how much it would have cost.

I sorted out some home-school curriculum that I am finished with.  I put some for sale on E-bay with Rob’s help and put some in a box to take to a used homeschool book store.

We finally found Tillamook cheddar cheese for sale for $5.49 for 2 pounds.  It’s a little higher than it has been before, but still the best price I’ve seen for quite a while.  In fact, we just used our last brick from last time it was on sale.  I got 3 today and will get a few later in the week.  Milk is also on sale for 99 cents for 1/2 gallon.  We will get a few groceries this week, but don’t need very many.  I will stock up on cheese with any extra money I decide to spend.  It keeps a long, long time in the fridge.  I’m delighted to get my cheese supply back up.  I think I have mice for children sometimes–they eat a lot of cheese!

Saving Money, Watching my pennies

My January Use-It-Up Project–Update Jan.23

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This week , I was able to use many food items that have been lurking around for way too long.  I feel that I am making progress on my project to use things up, but it’s like cleaning–the more you do it, the more you see a need.  I will definitely continue this project in February as well.

Having such a nice stockpile has served me well this past week.  We are having a group of people over today, Saturday, to help with some barn and outside clean up.  I will be serving lunch to them.  I also am taking a bunch of food for the family Sunday dinner.  I love to cook, so have enjoyed getting these foods ready.  We have been able to stay away from fast food, as well.

Ja’Ana has been loving peach crisp lately and made another one.  We ate that one up. She has used all of the frozen peaches, that we can find, that were older than from this past summer.  She used some canned peaches to supplement, and I will now rotate the newer peaches into the house from the shop freezer. I made a blueberry crisp from some home-canned blueberries that were several years old for the work party today.  I  think I originally canned them to make blueberry sauce for pancakes, but  used frozen ones and forgot about these.  There are a few jars still down there, so I think I will try to make cornstarch-thickened sauce soon.

I made split pea-potato soup from stored split peas (not old at all) and some potatoes that need to be used.  I’ve had them a while and they are starting to sprout, etc. I put home-canned carrots in it.  There again, in a year of abundance when the garden produced a huge crop, I canned carrots and haven’t used them because I prefer fresh ones.  I also made scalloped potatoes with those potatoes.  There are only a few in the bottom of the bag now, and I’ll deal with those this morning in another batch of scalloped potatoes or some potato salad to take tomorrow.IMG_2072

I made some bar cookies with some outdated sweetened, condensed milk.  I used to buy a few cans and keep it on hand, but haven’t used a can for a few years.  The cookies are addictive, and I may make them again since I have a couple more cans on the shelf, also outdated.

I canned a lot of beef broth (7 quarts and 15 pints), using up soup bones that had been building up for the last 2-3 years.  This will make the broth handy, and I will use it more frequently in this form.

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I used up 1 home-canned jar of soup from 2011, and one cardboard carton of soup from the shelf that also needed to be used.

I cooked another Sweetmeat squash from last summer’s garden.  A couple have recently rotted, but there are still more than I think we are going to be able to eat, storing nicely in my cool, dry front room.  I froze some of the puree and used some in cooking.

Overall, I’m very pleased.  I can see a few gaps on the pantry shelf now.  I can tell that one of the freezers has a lot more space in it.  I have brought many full jars up from the basement, and taken many empty ones back down.  This week, I hope to re-organize a few areas and see what else I can find hiding in the stockpile.  I am looking forward to a day when I can completely empty one of the freezers.  I’d like to shut one off to save electricity when it’s not needed.

 

Saving Money, Watching my pennies

My January Use-It-Up Project–Update on January 17

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This week, I was really busy, but I still managed to use up a few items that needed to be used.  I got some help from the girls.

I used some cauliflower that I preserved in the fall.  I used some green beans from 2014.  I always have a carry-over and use the oldest jars first.  When all of the ’14’s are used, we will start on the ’15’s.  My husband thawed some lunchmeat of undetermined age and we ate it.  I used some home-canned grape juice from 2009.  It was great.  I found a few more jars down there in the basement, where I keep my canning, that will be used soon.

One daughter used 2 containers of gluten-free pizza crust I had bought quite a while ago at Grocery Outlet.  They were expired, but were still fine.  We used the rest of the personal-sized pizza bread rounds that had been purchased as a school fund-raiser, as well as the rest of the little packets of sauce, pepperoni and cheese that came with that kit.  There were some really, really old packages of sliced salami buried in the freezer–like 3 years old or older.  I wasn’t sure if they would be eatable, but they were.

My older daughter used the croutons I had made a couple of weeks ago in a salad.  She made Caesar Salad with homemade dressing.  She also used some bananas in a chocolate-banana cake and used a 1/2 package of milk chocolate chips as well as some of that huge box of bananas we were given.  She also made a white-bean, sausage soup that used some canned white beans we’ve had for ages.  Some of the garden carrots from last summer were used in that soup as well.  She informed me that the remaining carrots are not in good shape, which makes sense–they’ve been in there for months, so I’d better put them on the list to sort this week.

I have a very large amount of food storage.  I save a lot of money and we eat very well.  I have a basement full of home-canned items.  I have a garage with shelves of food, and several freezers.   Right now, those freezers are stuffed with home-grown turkey, turkey burger, and chickens, as well as fruits and vegetables from the summer.  Each year, we buy 1/2 beef, and we have most of that right now.  I also store loaves of bread and other baked goods in the freezer.  That way, I can cook from scratch when I have time, and use it up on days when I’m busy.

I buy in bulk and when things are on sale.  It is not uncommon for us to buy 25 pound bags of things like beans, sugar, or rice.  I have many plastic ice cream buckets I have saved over the years that I fill with these bulk items.  I also use old tins, Tupperwares, and plastic zip-top bags, and anything else I can find.    I also buy cases of things like canned mushrooms or mandarin oranges if I find an excellent deal.

We grow a huge garden.  Right now, I still have carrots and cabbage in the fridge in cold storage from that garden.  I still have squash and onions that are keeping fine at room temperature in the garage, shop and front room.  The rest of the garden I preserve or eat fresh.  It is normal for me to can 100 quarts or more of green beans alone.  That is only 2 jars per week and we regularly eat that amount.  Canned peaches, pears and applesauce are a regular part of our meals around here.

So, as you can imagine, it is easy for something to “get lost” in that amount of food storage. I work pretty hard at not letting that happen, but sometimes a few things get away from me.   I am very happy with the amount of things we are using up this month, and can’t wait to see what else I can clear out during the rest of the month.  Since I preserve so much, it is a natural thing to have an overabundance in the fall, and makes sense for me to bring that amount down to a smaller amount during the winter.  After all, that’s what it’s for!

 

 

Saving Money, Watching my pennies

My January Use-It-Up Project–Update on Jan. 10

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I’m still on a mission to use up things that need to be used up, instead of buying more.  These dried bananas have been in the cupboard since 2014.  They were still great.  I put them out for the kids to try at 4H and then showed them how to make more.

I used some quinoa that expired last summer–finished up the package.  I made a salad with it, using the leftover dressing Patsy tried out for me the other day.  I also used some feta that had been languishing in the fridge for a couple of months in that salad.

I used some crusts of gluten-free bread to make croutons.  I will probably grind them into crumbs for cooking.

I used some millet flour, sorghum flour, and cornmeal and had the 4H to make some gluten-free waffles.  This was in addition to the batch I made earlier in the week when I was testing the recipe.  I also finished up a very old package of flax meal from the fridge.  I was able to remove another package from the freezer and start using it.  It had been in there for at least 3 years.

My carrot-coconut bread turned out terrible.  It was dry, crumbly, and fell to pieces before we could eat it.  We ate a bit of it by squishing up a bunch of crumbs between our fingers and stuffing that ball of crumbs into our mouths.  We finally decided that sometimes you win–sometimes you lose–and we gave up and fed it to the pigs.  At least those ingredients went to some good use.

I pulled some lemon bread out of the freezer and served it.

I also got out a bunch of fish, tried out a recipe for some fish nuggets and had the 4H make it.  It was swai fish, which was very inexpensive, and ended up working well for the recipe.  I’m not familiar with this fish, but got the entire 2 lb bag for only $5 a while back, which is a pretty good price for fish.  It also used some corn flake crumbs I crushed up several months ago and have stored in a jar in the pantry.  It included home-made tartar sauce, which used some of the pickles from 2014.  They were a dill pickle, but had a little sugar in them, which we ended up not liking as well as our tried and true recipe, but they worked well in this sauce.

I took some bread and butter pickles from 2012 to a birthday party today, and they were devoured.  Home-canned foods last for much longer than 1 year, but I always use the oldest first, as they are nicer when they are fresher.

 

Saving Money, Watching my pennies

My January Use-It-Up Project

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The first week of January is a good time to reflect on what goals and projects I want to accomplish in the new year.  I didn’t want to decide what I wanted to do for a whole year.  Life around here is always changing, so any plans I make now for months into the future would probably be changed anyway.  A bout of winter weather kept me home for a couple of extra days after the holidays and I was able to decide what I wanted to do as my January project.

I decided that I wanted to use up as many odds and ends as I could, especially from my food storage.  It really bothers me to store foods and then have them go bad because I didn’t use them.  It really, really bothers me to think that foods I’ve preserved might go bad, since it is a lot of work to can, dry and freeze food.

So, I set myself a challenge to use at least 31 food items up that are odd, getting older, unusual, etc., an average of 1 per day. I am especially  looking for things that might go bad if not used promptly.  I don’t anticipate working on this project on days that I work, instead, I’ll double up on my days off.  I expect to actually use far more items than that.

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I started by going out to the garage, where the bulk of my food storage is.  I grabbed a gluten-free flour mixture Ja’Ana had mixed up for a recipe last summer.  I also grabbed quite a few other gluten-free flours that needed to be used. I grabbed some dried cherries that had been there for a long time.  Patsy and I made sweet cherry biscuits yesterday.  Today,  Ja’Ana decided to make a cake with the remains of her flour mix.  I mixed up some waffles and froze them for easy breakfasts.  I also am trying a carrot bread recipe I found.

So, for January so far, I’ve used:

some dried cherries,  sorghum flour I was given quite a while ago, millet flour, oatmeal, carrots from our garden that have been in the fridge since September, the rest of the flour mix Ja’Ana made months ago, some jam I canned several years ago, emptied 2 mustard containers from the fridge, and a bottle of Diet Coke that has been in the garage for WAY over a year.  That’s already 10 items and it’s only the 5th!  (I only listed things that had been there a long time)

How about you?  Are you putting any of the grocery money you’ve previously spent to good use in January?  I plan to put any extra money I save by doing this project away for future purchases to restock.

 

 

Menu plans, Watching my pennies

Menu Plan for the Week of Jan. 2, 2015

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Rob was able to capture these ice crystals this morning when he went out on hours and hours of errands with the kids (Bless that man!).  I stayed home to clean, do laundry, and otherwise organize things after a busy holiday season followed by a few days away at the coast.  One thing I wanted to do is make a menu plan.  Ready or not, our busy life starts again tomorrow!  We both do better if we are not staring at one another saying “what do you want to eat” while the children demand food.

Our breakfasts are usually yogurt, cereal, toast, and often, leftovers.  Each person gets what they want.

Our lunches are usually leftovers, salads, packed lunches, or sandwiches.

So, I’ve just written down 1 meal per day.

Saturday:  Lasagna, green beans, salad  (The lasagna was frozen in the camper and now gets to be used up at home.)

Sunday:  Big birthday lunch at my sister’s house after church.  We are celebrating 3 birthdays.  There will be sub sandwiches, soups, and dessert.  My share is a large platter of lettuce, tomatoes, onions, pickles, etc. and gluten free buns.  I made those today. 

Monday:  Chili in the crockpot (I work a lot that day)

Tuesday:  Pork on bbq–Rob’s choice of cooking

Wednesday:  Turkey soup in the crock pot (Work again, sure glad Santa listened and got me that new crock pot–the other one would constantly short itself out while I was gone!)

Thursday:  Leftovers (girls have dance and we aren’t home until 6:30-so food quickly heated up in the microwave is best or a crock pot meal)

Friday:  Tacos

I pull vegetables from the canning cupboards or freezer daily to go with these meals.  Right now, I have frozen broccoli, cauliflower, squash, green beans and a few pea pods to choose from.  I have home-canned carrots and beans.  One of Rob’s errands was to get large bags of lettuce from Cash and Carry so we will have enough for the condiment tray for tomorrow and salads all week. He also got us huge bottles of salad dressing there, for a much cheaper price than the regular store.  He also went to Costco for a few things, and finished up at Fred Meyers.  I had him pick up tomatoes, too, but am not sure where he got the best price, as he isn’t home yet.  I have home-canned pickles, and home-grown onions from our garden last summer.  We will make gluten-free muffins, cornbread, or other gf bread products on occasion when we have time, for breakfasts and to go with dinners.  Often, though, we have a main item, salad and a vegetable, or 2 vegetables for a meal and forget the bread product entirely.

I wrote this information on the whiteboard for all to see.  My children thrive on routine and order.  We can change the menu, though, with a swipe of the eraser, if need be.

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Watching my pennies

Ham Broth in a Slow Cooker

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When we finish with a ham, there is usually a nice bone left over.   I can save a bit of money if I turn that bone into broth.  I cut as much meat off of the bone as I can, slice or dice it and package it up in zip-topped bags.  I store a bag or two in the fridge for immediate use, and put the rest into the freezer.  The last ham we did left me with very little to freeze, it was so good. I did not want to waste a single bit of it, so I used every scrap!

It is extremely simple to make ham broth in the slow cooker.  I usually fill the  bowl 1/2 full with water.  Then, I add the bone.  Ham is salty, so I don’t add additional salt.

I put the leftover bone and water into the slow cooker last evening and pushed the “low” button.  This morning, I woke up to a delicious smell; smoky and rich–and my broth was done.  I let it cool down, then packaged it into cartons for the freezer.  I ended up with the basis for 1-2 more meals made from a bone and just a little bit of my time!

Watching my pennies

Frugal Accomplishments for this week–Nov. 9, 2015

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This week, we cooked up 2 of our huge Sweetmeat squash.  There are still a lot left, but I froze 10 bags and we’ve got lots to eat besides.  I also cut up a few Butternut squash into cubes and they have been used throughout the week for quick dinners.

We cooked quite a few things, including cauliflower, Swiss steak, lots of things from the 50 lbs. of potatoes I got for $10 a couple of weeks ago, and used several odds and ends that came out of the garden.  It frosted pretty hard so most things are dead now, so now my menu planning will focus on using all that we preserved.

Today, I cooked pinto beans with a little Anaheim pepper,  spaghetti sauce with 1/2 lb pork burger, stuffed peppers with the other 1/2 lb pork burger, and a huge batch of chili with pinto beans and hamburger.  This will be the basis of our meals for the next few days.

IMG_1665We got baby pigs to raise for meat and to sell.  If all goes well, we will be able to sell the others enough to pay for the cost of ours.  We have pre-sold most of them, so it’s a matter of them growing properly, and staying healthy.  We’ve only had trouble one time, ever, when a pig got tetnus and died, but that was very rare.  Most of the time, it goes as planned.

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I enjoyed watching a woodpecker that has decided to take up daily residence in a dead tree near our garage.  He just spends hours each day hammering and pecking on that tree.  It’s fun to watch.

We used the library and returned materials promptly and did not get fines this week.  When we couldn’t make it, we renewed our materials on-line.

We’ve done some extra cleaning and either used up the “surprise” items we found or donated them.

I’ve been sewing on Christmas presents.

Since Rob’s job loss in September, I have deliberately decided to focus on my blessings.  It’s easy to fall into feelings of self-pity, anxiety, fear of the future, anger or despair.  It’s harder to focus on the overabundance that we have been blessed with, the promises of Scripture-assuring me that God will take care of us, and the every-day beauty that surrounds me.  Worry will not change anything.  I might as well enjoy my time right now as much as possible and not ruin this season, this day, this time with worry.  Because in the end, probably at least a year from now, I will be able to look back and say, “Yes, it was hard.  It was unfair, it was awful.  We were blind sighted.  We cried a lot.  We felt betrayed by those we thought were our friends.  People who said they loved us, didn’t.  But, God was faithful, and we made it through!”  I firmly believe this with all my heart.  And, during this Thanksgiving season, I am truly blessed!