Tag Archives: planning for success

packing, Uncategorized

Moving Update–Feb. 12–Working My Plan

10 Comments

IMG_2096

I have been taking every piece of advice all of you and my friends and family have offered up and am getting a good start on my pre-packing. I haven’t had to show a house for over 20 years.  The last time we sold, around 10+ years ago, there was someone who wanted the property, they didn’t care about the house at all, so they pre-bought the property and gave us 6 months to sort and get out, and used the property even thought we were still there.  This is a totally different situation, and is making me feel more stressed then that did!

Here’s what I got done this week.  The two pieces of advice I have used the most this week were to be ruthless when I’m sorting and get rid of a lot of stuff, and to label well. (I am trying not to flit from room to room, either, but am having limited success with that) I am still feeling overwhelmed, because the task is so great, but am starting to feel like I’m getting somewhere.

I sorted shelves and shelves of books that I have been collecting and using for over the many years we have home-schooled.   Ja’Ana is almost done with school, and Patsy goes to school.  So, now’s the time to get rid of a lot of it.  Rob and Lovana took 10-12 boxes away for me.  We sold some of them for around $100 and donated the rest.  I am putting that money into my fund for the new house.  I cleaned out a lot of craft supplies that my girls have outgrown.  I also got rid of most of the huge bin of toys I had been keeping for when small children come over to play.  I kept a small box full.  The sad thing is that there is still so much stuff in that schoolroom/sewing room, I have quite a few more hours in there.

Rob has been putting items up on e-bay and we have sold and shipped a few.  The kind of things we are selling are a few dishes that I did not need, a few more expensive books, some small tools he has unearthed in the shop, and things like that.  I am donating the small stuff that is worth less.  I could do a garage sale, but I don’t have time right now because the sorting is such a big job.

We collected more boxes at the liquor store today.  They are small, but sturdy and good for heavy things.  Rob and Ja’Ana took the first load from the shop over to my brother-in-law’s to store.  Long story, but he has an empty semi-truck trailer on his property.  We are going to be able to store quite a bit for free in there, and rent an unit for the rest.  It is all going to have to be stored while we are between houses.

My mom and aunt came one afternoon.  My mom sat with Ja’Ana in her room and did the second sorting out. (She is unable to stand for very long due to some problems with her feet, but she can sure help with decisions, and encouragement, and has been instrumental for the last few years helping Ja’Ana keep her room tidy.  It’s their special thing, and I’m grateful.  At first, it was awful, they cleaned it, J kept it that way for a while, then Mom came again and helped her get it back in order.  J was able to keep it clean longer, and so forth, until I can say she keeps her room the best of anyone in the house now.). They came out of there with a black garbage sack to throw away and a bag to donate and left things in pristine order.  Last week, she picked out 2 bags of clothes to give to her cousin, and several bags of trash and donations. So of all the children’s rooms, hers is actually ready to show.  It would just need a few more things out of there to make it look more roomy.  My aunt helped me sort things downstairs and do some of the household chores that are getting neglected.  She sold her house a couple of years ago and had lots of advice to offer.  Hers sold in the first week.  I’m listening.

IMG_2095

We had 4H club yesterday.  So, bins like these, and boxes, were stacked in corners, the schoolroom, and the garage–out of the way because we needed the garage table for club projects.  Starting first thing this morning, I started filling more bins and boxes and placing them right in the living room and garage.  We will rent a storage unit before next month’s 4H meeting, and put it all in there, so I don’t mind that it is in the way for 2-3 weeks.  We don’t want to rent the unit until the last minute.  We hope to list the house during the first week of March, so we will rent the unit right before we list. We will take as much as we can to storage and leave only what makes the house look roomy, spacious, clean, and hopefully very desirable to buyers.

I worked several hours in the garage today, cleaning and sorting, and I burned a huge pile of trash.  That makes the 3rd huge trash fire this week.  (These are things that I don’t think are nice enough to give to anyone, as well as literal trash such as the paper products from 4H yesterday)  We had a friend offer to take things to the thrift shop yesterday, so she loaded the back of her van up after 4H and took it away.

Today, Rob took another van load, his second this week.  I think he did amazing this week, especially in light of the fact that he stepped on a piece of glass about a  week ago.  On Wednesday, the same day he picked up a day’s work helping out a friend at a sportsman’s show and was on his feet all day, it developed an abscess.  I had worked on it, removed the glass, and put lots of stuff on it, and it was healing, so I hadn’t checked it for a couple of days.   When he hobbled home Wednesday night,  the minute I looked at it, I knew I wanted him to be seen by a doctor.  Thursday morning, she lanced it, cleaned it out, didn’t find any more glass, told him to soak, soak, soak in epsom salt-water, and put him on antibiotics.  It looked worse yesterday, but finally today, it’s improving.  I’m so glad we didn’t mess around.  He’s supposed to stay off of it, and he has, for several hours per day.  The rest of the time……..

So, this week, I’ll keep working my plan.  One corner, one area, one room at a time, as I keep marching through the house.  I will work for 2 days, busy with church on Sunday, have a few appointments with the kids, and sort and pack like a maniac the rest of the time.

 

 

Watching my pennies

Use-It-Up Project–February 11, 2016 A.K.A. Yikes! Again!

6 Comments

IMG_2143

Yikes!  After having the inside of the refrigerator get melted while we were trying to fix its problem of icing up and stopping the fan, it looked awful, but kept working.  Until today…..  Unfortunately, it started icing up within a couple of days of its “fix” and by Wednesday we could hear the fan clicking on ice again inside the back panel.  By this morning, it stopped clicking totally, which happened last summer, leading to several hundred dollars of repairs.  The food I had placed inside was slightly cool, but not cold as it should be.  We had 4H today, and quite a bit of the food was slated for immediate use, so I put a lot of things into the garage fridge and made do today with a lot of running back and forth.  There seems to be a bit of coolness in the produce drawers, so I left the lettuce I got last night in there.  Hmmmmm.  Tomorrow, I will work on emptying the freezer into one of the ones in the garage, and I think that fridge is going  away soon.

Then……a few nights ago, my popcorn popper made a strange noise and stopped working. After fiddling with it for a while, we determined that it was dead.  So, I used up my popcorn popper this week as well. 🙁 I did make popcorn in a pan on the stove one time.

Frankly, this was not exactly what I had in mind for my use-it-up project, but we will survive and get all of that figured out.  It’s part of life.

I did use up the celery and potatoes I pictured above.  There were quite a few potatoes starting to sprout, so I took off the sprouts, peeled them, trimmed the brown pieces off the celery leaves and stalks I had been saving from when I made celery sticks, and some frozen clams and made clam chowder.  I also used some milk I had purchased on a really good sale and had been storing in the freezer.  The clams were frozen in recycled plastic cartons after I used 1/2 of a very large can of clams I had (think old lunchmeat container, cottage cheese carton, etc.–I do that a lot with things).  I feel a sense of satisfaction when I turn food that looks “bad” into something delicious that is eaten eagerly.  I had to pry the clams out of ice–they were frozen to the shelf–a feel-good moment when I got those used!

 

IMG_2145

We had 4H today.  I planned the recipes around my pantry and freezers and cupboards.  I used canned beans (several assorted), frozen chicken and hamburger, onions from my garden, home-canned tomatoes (several pints), tomato sauce and paste, and a bunch of other foods.  I had to buy a few things, but not many, considering we made 9 recipes.

Rob used some freeze-dried peas and spaghetti we had been given a few years ago in his outdoors class.  He showed the kids how to re-constitute them with hot water, and sent them home with peas to make at home.  He told them how that kind of food could be used camping or in an emergency.  He also helped them make home-made instant oatmeal packets for camping or home use.

IMG_2146

I used up a lot of assorted noodles from several bags.  We used a couple of jars of juice that were on a bottom shelf in the back and had been un-noticed.  I used some gluten-free pancake mix that had been around a long time.  I kept working away at veggies, fruits and bread products from the freezers.

I’m happy to report that I will be making hamburgers at my sister’s house on Sunday.  There are lots of buns that we were given a while back, and that will create even more space in the freezer.  I’m going to need my newly cleared space for the food in the freezer below the fridge that clearly needs to be emptied.  The freezer has a different fan/motor/system than the fridge, so it still works fine and the food is still frozen.  I just think the more things that are out of the house, the better, with the upcoming move.

 

Menu plans

Menu Plan–Week of February 7, 2016

14 Comments

IMG_2126

Last night, Rob barbecued chicken.  He used a rub of barbecue seasoning, brown sugar and garlic powder and then cooked it on the grill.  That was an unplanned meal, but caused us no grief because it all came from the freezer and storage.  I sauted frozen green beans with butter and garlic, thawed squash, and cooked white rice from a 50 pound bag Rob got 2 summers ago.  We have put in quite a few hours the last 2 days packing, sorting, burning trash (lots and lots and lots of trash….), and the troops were all home working all day and were starving.  So, they burned through most of 2 pizzas, almost all of this chicken and vegetables, bacon, sausage, eggs, a huge pan of home-made hash browns, and I’m not sure what else.    Once I saw how the day was going, I cooked up a huge pan of rice, so there is rice left, plus a little chicken.

Sunday:  Family dinner–my sister made ham and mashed potatoes and gravy. We did green beans and my aunt brought salad.  I took cauliflower and a berry crisp.  We had 13 today, so a small crowd.  This evening, there is leftover chicken, salad, 4 pieces of pizza and peanut butter sandwiches to choose from.

Monday:  I found some chicken thighs in the freezer.  They had been in there too long, so I thawed them and trimmed off any suspicious areas and put them in a marinade to soak. I used ginger, soy sauce, brown sugar and water.  They will be sauted in a pan and will be teriyaki chicken, served with rice and broccoli.

Tuesday:  clam chowder

Wednesday:  Turkey noodle casserole

Thursday:  Lovana cooks.  She wants to do Mexican food, involving corn tortillas–her choice when the day comes as long as we have the ingredients.

Friday:  chili in the crockpot–4H day, so very busy and we are tired when they all go home

Saturday:  Cashew chicken.  I found some frozen pea pods from last fall’s garden, and some cashews when I was digging around in the freezer and want to use them.  I can make brown rice with this, as I have lots of that as well and we actually prefer it.

Sunday:  Hamburgers at my sister’s.  She and one of the girls will be out of town visiting our niece who is in college.  They will probably also visit Mickey Mouse:)  We will bring all of the dinner between us and my aunt and feed my sweet brother-in-law and the kids who are still at home.  He invited a couple of young adults also, and there are a couple friends of my kids who might show up, so we can just unthaw a bunch of burger from the 1/2 beef we bought last fall, and cook a bunch up, with hot dogs for Michaela and Jake.  I should know how much to thaw for sure towards the end of the week.  I will probably do potato or macaroni salad, a relish tray, and some kind of dessert.  Patsy and I made zucchini chip bars today–I may re-make them if they taste good.  Sometimes changing a regular recipe to gluten-free needs a few tries to make it work out.

IMG_2136

We also made some brown banana bread with flax seed.  They were a little less sweet than we wanted, but definitely edible with a little jam!

IMG_2130

 

 

moving, Saving Money

February Use-It-Up Project a.k.a “Yikes, I used up my fridge!”

4 Comments

image

Now that we are starting to sort and clean so that we can put the house on the market, I’m even more determined to use up items, especially food items. I have a very large stockpile and only want to move the freshest food.  However, I do not want to wipe out my food storage entirely, so I am seeking balance in this project.   After a successful Use-It-Up project in January, I am encouraged to work even harder at it in February.

This past week, I targeted what I call “freezer #3.”  Unfortunately, sometime in the not-so-distant past, one of the kids got something out of this freezer and didn’t get it closed correctly.  Sadly, this happens more often than I’d like around here, so I have a habit of going past those freezers and pushing on every one daily, sometimes several times a day, to make sure the doors are shut.  Thankfully, because of this habit, I caught the problem in time to save everything, but ice had formed on many items as well as the shelves.  I’m trying to empty it all the way out and defrost it, then re-fill it with stuff from another freezer, clean that one, and so on until some are empty and all are clean.

Sadly, the refrigerator in the kitchen developed some problems as well this week.  When Rob was working on correcting that problem, he put a heater inside to thaw some ice that had formed and was about to stop the fan from working.   It melted the ice all right…..and part of the fridge!!!! It now looks like something from a science fiction movie inside and some of the plastic shelves on the door are either gone, or will never be the same.  Also, I am wondering if it is sealing properly anymore.  We put several hundred dollars into the fridge last summer for the same exact problem, and he thought he’d fix it himself this time.  It still works!  Whew!  The fan isn’t stopped by ice anymore!  That’s a bonus, but I really didn’t exactly mean to use up the refrigerator when I started this project:)  So, we used up the fridge, but will make out with it until after we move and will not take it with us.  If it becomes inoperable, we will just bring the one from the garage in and make do.    It’s been trouble for us anyway, but now it’s really a troubled fridge. But it works for now.  I guess I’d better get some more items up on e-bay.  My “fix-up-the-new-house fund” needs more money in it!

I dug out some frozen lemon loaf and I served it with dinner.  I used a small amount of corn fetuccini noodles and a small amount of spaghetti noodles, also corn.  I used them both on spaghetti night.  I used a bit of frozen basil in the spaghetti and a carton of frozen peas that were 2-3 years old.  I found some salad shrimp that I thawed, but they were so old that I gave them to the cats.  I took some old glass jars of lemonade and juice and let the kids have them.  On Lovana’s cooking night, she used cabbage from last summer’s garden (kept in garage fridge since then), frozen fish, and potatoes.  Rob used carrots, also still lingering from last summer.  I also got refried beans out twice from #3.  I also moved 2 hams out of there into other freezers, opening up more room.  Now, there is a lot of room in there and I’ll be aggressive about getting more out this week.

I thawed and served a large bowl of ham and bean soup for lunch yesterday when a friend came to visit for a few hours.  She lives 2 hours from my house and I don’t get to visit with her very often and it was nice to have a prepared meal so I didn’t have to stop visiting for one minute.

I thawed some old bread and will feed it to the pigs.  The kids continue to eat frozen berries and banana in their smoothies.  I keep serving canned fruit and using canned and frozen vegetables.

Lovana made pizza one day and successfully used up some pepperoni and Canadian bacon that were about 3 years old.  (I’ll frankly say she didn’t want to use them, I actually tasted them first, could tell they were fine, and forced her to use them.  She was assuming that because they were so old, they would be yucky, but they weren’t.)  She also used up a large amount of chocolate chips when I was not paying attention, making cookies that were extremely chocolaty.  I explained for the umpteenth time (she says she doesn’t remember hearing this) that we double the dough part with the same amount of chips so the chips stretch farther.  I’ve been trying to not micro-manage her cooking choices, but at this rate, we will not have any chocolate chips left for me to manage. I’ll have to say, though, the cookies were really good to eat.  I didn’t have to worry about forcing anyone to use them up!

I’ve been loving it when I just thaw something to eat when I’m busy sorting.  We are making progress, but it’s a huge job.  We got a huge bonfire going today, and burned a lot of trash.  Rob took a huge pile to a Kiwanas Thrift shop.  I sorted out  a lot of books that I hope to sell on E-bay.  I have some set aside for a homeschool used book store as well.

I had to buy matches this week, but that was all.  I need to figure out what else I may need, and get it.Otherwise, it’s wonderful to have that $50 sittiing there for another week when I may have additional needs beyond my lowered budget.  I’m excited to see how it goes.

 

Life changes, moving

Moving–Pre-Packing Organization

14 Comments

IMG_2096

Now that we’ve decided to sell the house for sure, we need to get it ready.  I feel like I need to get some of my things out of the way so that people can see the house in its best light.  Also, a lot of my things will need to go into storage during the transition, so I want them to be packed carefully so they don’t get damaged.

I want to pre-pack for the month of February.  We have been offered the use of an empty semi-truck trailer to put many things into for free.  I hope to list the house in March, and I plan to have it looking nice by then.  Our house is not super messy, I just hope to make it look  nicer so I get a better price for it.  The shop is actually a concern.  There are a lot of things in there that need to be sorted and moved to storage so it doesn’t look so full.  The barn is 90% clean, thanks to friends who came a couple of weeks ago and helped.

It is likely that the house will sell quickly if we price it right.  The market is hot right now and the average time of sale is 12 days in our area.  Then, if it does sell quickly, we will need to finish packing, put all of the boxes in storage, and move into our camper for a few weeks until the new house can be purchased.

When I think about the amount of work that needs to be done, I feel like crawling into bed and putting the covers over my head.  I decided I needed a better, more specific plan than just staring around at all of my possessions and wondering if there were enough cardboard boxes in the world for all of them.  So, here’s what I came up with.

Rob got me a huge pile of cardboard boxes from stores.  He also bought a big pile of plastic totes with lids.  The boxes will be for things that cannot be damaged by moisture or mice and the bins will be for things like delicate dishes that need extra protection, fabric, and any clothing that ends up getting put into storage.

I started going through things like dishes, candles, baking pans that were seldom used, homeschool curriculum from other years and things like that.  I was completely overwhelmed until I convinced myself that I didn’t have to do it all at once.  I simply took the small amount of time I had available, say 1/2 hour or hour, and tackled one small area or shelf.  I then grabbed an item or 2 and made a decision.  I packed some for later, threw away a lot, and then divided the rest into “sell” or “donate.”  I also left quite a few things on shelves or in cupboards that I anticipate we will use during the interim before the house actually sells.  I haven’t gotten very far, yet, but am starting to see progress.  I figure that when all of my family and friends come to help me, now I can point to a shelf of books and say “pack all of those”  and not have to make any decisions, thus using their help more wisely. I won’t get it all done ahead, so I figure I will have plenty to decide on that day!

I am delighted that I sold a bunch of homeschool curriculum on e-bay already. It will ship out today, and that’s another big box gone.  All money we get from selling things will go into a special account for things like paint and curtains for the new house.  I anticipate that the new house will be needing a little TLC, since we are going to find one that doesn’t cost very much, since we won’t qualify for a loan.  How much TLC needed depends on the price we get for this house.

I started packing empty canning jars as we empty them.  I will actually go down to the basement when I get time and pack up several boxes of empty jars.  We will continue to eat from the full ones, and I will deal with those when the time comes closer to actually moving.

I am making a large pile of things to put into the camper, i.e. more canned food items, etc.  It is in the shop getting some warrenty work done (let’s not even go THERE today–I’m not pleased that it needs it–but glad it’s getting done for free), but when it comes home, I will pack and organize it for an extended “camping trip.”  That can be pre-done and will actually give me a place to store a few things.  I don’t plan to stop life when I’m living in there, so I want a few projects in there to work on.  I anticipate that it will be a short stay–and easier than moving in with friends or relatives while we wait for things to close.

IMG_2095

As soon as we get a big pile packed, and some strong friends to help, we will start taking loads over to pack into the semi.   We are still eating down the stockpile, but will have lots to move anyway.  I plan to put bins of food in the front of the storage semi and then “shop” from those bins each week while staying in the camper.  We already have a place to plug in our freezers and will shop weekly from those as well.

It’s a plan.  I’m eager to see which parts work and which parts need tweaking!  I’ll take any and all ideas you may think of.

Menu plans

Menu Plan For the Week of Jan. 31

4 Comments

IMG_1786

Last week the food turned out to be a little different than I had planned, but that’s ok.  I love having a plan.  If I choose to change it, no big deal, I allow myself to do that.  On days when I’m in a hurry, stressed, or have to delegate the cooking–the plan is in place and all of the ingredients are on hand.  When we ended up having some of our very best friends breeze in unexpectedly from out of town, I quickly thawed some salmon and–you guessed it–Rob barbecued it up for us.  Yum.

When the family dinner turned into 24 people, my sister and I thawed more meat, which Rob and Ron barbecued, she did about 10 lbs of twice-baked potatoes, and I made 2 dozen eggs into deviled eggs, and I plus-sized the berry crisp I was making.  My sister pulled out all rolls in her freezer, plus bought a couple more packs. We had assorted rolls.  My aunt brought a huge salad.

One more interesting thing I ended up cooking was a recipe for lettuce wraps done in the style of P.F. Chang’s.  I used ground turkey, water chestnuts, and some other things.  I bought some gluten-free hoisin sauce.  They turned out really good, but were rather expensive because the hoisin sauce was so high-priced–over $4 for the bottle.   The recipe used 1/2 of the bottle. If I am comparing the price of making them to buying them from the restaurant, of course they were less expensive.  I will probably make them one more time to use the rest of the sauce, but save them for a special treat, instead of a regular addition to our menu plan.

So, here’s the menu for this week.

Sunday night:  nachos or leftovers

Monday: hamburgers

Tuesday: Spaghetti

Wednesday:  tamale pies (homemade and frozen for some time)

Thursday: Lovana will cook –her choice

Friday:  Pizza

Saturday:  Leftovers or soup

Sunday dinner:  Sister–ham, Aunt–salad, Me–small quinoa salad (found a bag that needs using), potato salad or more deviled eggs (chickens going crazy right now), dessert (possibly crisp again, depending on what berries or fruit I find as I keep going through freezers)

Veggies will be canned green beans, frozen cauliflower or broccoli, green salad, squash, corn, and carrots.  There is always canned fruit to add.

Saving Money, Watching my pennies

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

4 Comments

FullSizeRender

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!

IMG_2064

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.

IMG_2079

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.

Menu plans

Menu Plan–Week of January 24

Leave a comment

IMG_2045

We enjoyed another great dinner on Thursday, compliments of Lovana.  She is not taking Community College classes this term, but is still working at a Starbucks in a Fred Meyers store.  So, she has some days off.  She has agreed to cook every Thursday, and this will be the 3rd time we’ve come home to a nice, hot meal after taking the other 2 girls to dance classes.  It’s nice to have some help with the cooking on busy days!  All that 4H cooking practice is now paying off for us.

Here’s the plan for the week:

Sunday:  family dinner-for the noon meal, leftovers for supper.

Monday:  Meatloaf, salad, broccoli

Tuesday:  Minestrone soup, French bread

Wednesday:  Split Pea soup  (leftover from yesterday-lots left), muffins or French bread

Thursday:  Lovana is cooking.  She says she will make something with turkey burger from the freezer–her choice, to be decided later

Friday:  Tamale pie, green beans

Saturday:  Pizza

Sunday: Family dinner at my sister’s (around 15 expected at this point–may end up more or less).  Steak and chicken.  We both have beef from a farmer, so we will both bring 1/2 the steak and I will bring the chicken, since I have a lot.  Twice-baked potatoes (her), salad (aunt), dessert (me).  If either of us gets into a mood, we can always make something else as well.  There have been more and more young people attending–niece and/or nephew, friends of my daughters or hers, etc. so we are needing quite a bit of food these days.  It’s so nice of her to host each week, and it’s fun and a good time of eating and visiting for everyone.  It also saves a lot of money for all of us.  Because they are so involved with their church, they often only had time to go out to eat previously between morning and evening church.  Rob and I get done at church first, head over and put the finishing touches on the meal, and then everyone gets to eat promptly after church.  Eating out is super fun, but we are saving our pennies these days, and rarely go out.  We’ve been using paper plates since so many are coming eat time.  I have a bunch we got for free a few months ago, so will take some there soon, or we take turns buying large stacks from Cash and Carry.

I plan 1 meal per day.  I always make lots.  We eat leftovers for the other meals, often including breakfast.  Breakfasts are also smoothies with fruit from the freezer, cereals or oatmeal, or pancakes, or anything else we feel like grabbing.   If it seems like the leftovers are mounting up, I simply replace one of the new meals with leftovers instead, to use them up.  I don’t micro-manage Lovana.  I just ask her to use things we have.  My pantry is extremely well-stocked, so I feel that is reasonable.  I have noticed she has picked up a few ingredients occasionally if she wants to make something and I don’t have all the items in the recipe–on her dime–and that’s ok with me as well.

Saving Money, Watching my pennies

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

6 Comments

IMG_2064

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.

IMG_2074

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.

 

Menu plans

Menu Plan–Week of January 18

Leave a comment

 

IMG_5606I’m a little late putting up my menu plan, but trust me, we have still been eating!

Yesterday, Rob made these barbecued shish-kabobs.  We had marinated some of the pork  he had purchased a while back for the great price (around here) of $1.27/pound.  Yesterday, he stopped at a fruit stand and got a few vegetables to go with the pork and this was the result.  I worked a lot yesterday, and was exceptionally tired for some reason, so it was very appreciated when I came home to a hot, cooked meal.  He paired it with cauliflower from the freezer, and some sweet potatoes he had grilled as well.  Yum!

Here’s what I planned for the week.

Sunday:  We ate at my sister’s as planned, and did some prep for the week.  We marinated the pork, and Rob cooked a ham on the grill.  we ate some that night, but most of it is for the week.

IMG_2057

He used the packet that came with it, along with some brown sugar, water, and a whole Tablespoon of ground cloves for the topping.  Then he put it on the grill, in it’s little foil pan, for 2-3 hours.

Monday:  Shish-kabobs, cauliflower, and sweet potatoes

Tuesday:  Soup.  I have some open broth that needs to be used.  I will probably make chicken-rice or turkey-vegetable.  Muffins or cornbread.

Wednesday:  Ham, potatoes, green beans

Thursday:  I’m asking Lovana to cook again, since we don’t get back from dance until 6:30. She wants to do Mexican.  We have ingredients for many Mexican dishes, and so she can decide which one she wants to make.

Friday:  Leftovers.  If they are all gone, I’ll have Rob barbecue something.

Saturday:  Green Split Pea soup, using ham broth and bits

Sunday:  It’s my turn to bring a bunch of food to the family dinner.  My sister is so gracious and generous, and often just provides the bulk of the meal.  So, I was actually begging for a turn!  We will thaw 2-3 of the chickens Rob raised, and he will barbecue them up.  On Sunday, I will just warm the chicken up at her house.  I also plan to make potato salad or deviled eggs (the chickens are laying well now) and a berry crisp (lots of them left in the freezers).  She will make some lettuce salad or whatever she wants to go along with it.  My aunt will bring something as well–whatever we tell her to bring.  She loves coming, and we love being with her.  Since she has always been single, she loves to just bring a bag of salad, or chips, etc. because cooking large quantities is foreign to her.  The amount of people has been ranging from 12-20, depending on who can come.  This past Sunday there were 13.  As the day gets closer, I will have a better idea of how many people so I know if I should thaw 2 or 3 chickens.

I will have to say that the best part of Rob’s job loss is the amount of extra time I get to spend with my family.  I know that things are always changing, and this arrangement is probably temporary, so I’m enjoying every minute of this time.