My 2022 Challenge

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alliesmama4
Posts: 8591
Joined: Sun Aug 30, 2015 10:10 pm
Location: Southern IL

Re: My 2022 Challenge

Post by alliesmama4 »

It has been a while since I posted here. If you read the daily check in you will see why. I have had several power outages due to problems within my utilty company having a substation problem and then a wire was down. This has me rethinking getting a chest freezer. What if I have it full of food and we have prolonged power outages? So my plan is to check into getting a solar generator that can supply energy for a chest freezer. I plan on putting the freezer in my garage. It opens to the south, and I get ideal sunshine from that direction. I have been looking into it, but it is mind boggling. So for right now I am not going to stress myself out.

I have the money put aside for the freezer and have decided to buy a new stove. My current stove came with the house and is 21 y/o. The stove top works but the oven died about 5 or 6 years ago. I have been using countertop convections ovens and an Emeril's air fryer/oven. All of the convection ovens have died, and the Emeril oven is showing signs of problems. I have looked into stoves and a GE with a built in air fryer and convection oven was mentioned as the best for 2022. I checked various appliance stores and they were all on back order until March. However, I put myself on the wait list for Lowe's and they notified me today that it is back in stock. If I buy it before the 13th, they will knock $200.00 off. Their price is the cheapest so on Monday I am going to go to their store and look at it and buy it. Right now, I cannot imagine why it will not be a good purchase. I figure the money spent on countertop stoves could have gone for a nice down payment on a regular stove so no more making do. It will make it so much easier to bake keto and gluten free things in a real oven. I have been limited with what I can do in the smaller sized ovens. I do have the cash but plan on putting it on my Discover card for the cash back.

My no spend challenge for January was a bust. I do have some other ideas floating around in my head and will look into them.
Janet Alliesmama
alliesmama4
Posts: 8591
Joined: Sun Aug 30, 2015 10:10 pm
Location: Southern IL

Re: My 2022 Challenge

Post by alliesmama4 »

Decided to not buy my new stove due to unexpected car repairs. It came close to $400.00. My insurance would not pay for my new glucose machine or the testing strips. That came to $60.00. Had a problem with my garage door and the service call came to $75.00. All of this within the first couple of weeks of January. So much for the No Spend Challenge. lol I have decided to put the new stove on hold while I build a bigger emergency fund. This past two weeks has put a big dent in it.

I am still able to use the oven part of my air fryer, but it will not toast or air fry. So, I bought a cheap toaster from Amazon $30.00. Thankfully I still have my air fryer from before. I was going to give it to a friend, but he bought one before I had a chance to offer it to them. It is small and you can only do like one hamburger in it, but it has come in handy when I need a quick meal for Teddi, and his roast is still in the countertop oven. I just hack off a hunk and throw it the air fryer and it is done in no time. As long as I can bake in the air fryer and have my countertop cooker, I will try to wait on buying the new stove. All of the stores I have checked with except for Lowe's has the stove on back order until March so that gives me time to build an emergency fund and pay cash for the stove. I will still put it on my credit card for the cash back but will pay it off when the monthly statement comes.

We had snow the other night into Saturday morning. Only about 2 inches. It is only 28 F. I had hoped to have some of it melt down today but not much has. I need to drive my car up and down the driveway to make ruts for my auto shipment from Amazon tomorrow. I have a few things on Auto ship that are much cheaper through them plus Walmart has been out of some of the items. The cost is comparable so not a concern about price. I no longer have Prime, but you do not need that for Auto ship. I am lucky to have all of the food that I need for myself and Teddi as well as my medication. No last-minute dashing out to the store like some people have to do. I grew up in the country and we always made sure we were well stocked at all times.
Janet Alliesmama
alliesmama4
Posts: 8591
Joined: Sun Aug 30, 2015 10:10 pm
Location: Southern IL

Re: My 2022 Challenge

Post by alliesmama4 »

Tomorrow I turn 77 y/o. Yikes! Where have all of the years gone? I have no one to celebrate with my SIL and I used to celebrate our birthdays together since they were so close, but they are at their condo in Mexico. She unfortunately has covid. However, my brother has taken her to the hospital, and they gave her an IV and some shots and kept her for 5 hours then sent her home. It is safer at home they said. They told her to take Tylenol and Ibuprofen every six hours. She has very weak lungs due to chronic asthmas. However, my brother said she no longer has a fever, and he is watching her oxygen with an oximeter, and she seems to be doing ok. What a relief. I had asked my brother many times not to go to Mexico because of my concern for both of them being exposed to the virus but they thought they would be ok since they were vaccinated and boosted. Guess not. At least it is not as bad as those that are unvaccinated.

Since I will be on my own tomorrow, I have planned my birthday dinner. I am going to have pot stickers. They are gluten free from Walmart. Just as good as a restaurant and cheaper. I will be making my own dipping sauce using my mom's recipe. The one that comes with the pot stickers is not as tasty. My Mom was a great cook and used to make pot stickers. Some year I hope to tackle making my own at home. I am also making hot and sour soup. It is really easy to make, and I try to keep a can of bamboo shoots and the few simple Chinese ingredients on hand to make it at least once a month. It is very good, frugal and low calorie. I should make it more often. The main course is a stir fry made with chicken, snow peas and mushrooms. Very simple but tasty. My birthday cake will be pineapple upside down muffins. My aide has been bringing me single serve cups of fruit from one of her other clients. She gets food from a food bank, and she does not like the canned fruit. So, I have been saving the pineapple tidbits to make the muffins. I have a gluten free yellow cake mix. It will make 24 muffins but since I do not need 24 muffins, I am going to only use half of the mix. I have a food scale so I can weight it to get the exact amount.

While rummaging in the fridge freezer for the chicken I found another small pork roast for Teddi. So that is good. Unfortunately, also found a small half of a chicken breast that has freezer burn. Also, some gluten free baking items that were too old to work with, so they had to be tossed. I am going to do an inventory and then work my menus around what I have on hand in the freezer.

January was a bust as far as no spending. However, Feb will be here before we know it. I am going to try to only use gift cards for Walmart grocery shopping for the month of Feb. It should be fun and interesting trying to use up things in the freezer and buying what I need using gift cards.

For breakfast I had free oatmeal with free raisins in it with cinnamon and butter. My SIL gave me some food items that she did not want to sit around while she was in Mexico like two nice bags of organic oatmeal. The raisins are from the other client. So, from now on I will just mention free without mentioning the sources.

For lunch I had free hot tamales from my aide. She bought some for herself and gave me half. They were frozen and very tasty. I used the last of a little bit of leftover chili on the side.

Dinner is going to be homemade pizza using a new gluten free box mix for the crust. I hope it turns out well. Gluten free pizza crust is horrible. The store-bought frozen crusts are like eating cardboard and the frozen pizzas already made with the topping are not much better. Once I bought a gluten free pizza from Dominos and they used the same cardboard crust so why pay extra for a pizzeria pizza? So, the hunt is on to find the best pizza crust that is gluten free. I just add canned tomato sauce and use some yummy pizza spices I keep on hand and sprinkle them on top to make the sauce. I also try to keep mozzarella cheese in the freezer as well as pepperoni. I have some diced green pepper and canned mushrooms and sliced onion to add to the toppings. Also going to make a nice big pitcher of lemonade using organic lemon juice. I bought the lemon juice a while back when Vitacost had a big sale with free shipping. It is Saturday so tonight will be pizza and a movie night. An old tradition that I need to try to get back into the groove of doing. I have a lot of taped movies that I am looking forward to seeing in the near future.
Janet Alliesmama
HappyDaze
Posts: 4186
Joined: Tue Oct 15, 2019 11:11 am

Re: My 2022 Challenge

Post by HappyDaze »

alliesmama4 wrote: Sat Jan 22, 2022 3:07 pm Tomorrow I turn 77 y/o. Yikes! Where have all of the years gone? I have no one to celebrate with my SIL and I used to celebrate our birthdays together since they were so close, but they are at their condo in Mexico. She unfortunately has covid. However, my brother has taken her to the hospital, and they gave her an IV and some shots and kept her for 5 hours then sent her home. It is safer at home they said. They told her to take Tylenol and Ibuprofen every six hours. She has very weak lungs due to chronic asthmas. However, my brother said she no longer has a fever, and he is watching her oxygen with an oximeter, and she seems to be doing ok. What a relief. I had asked my brother many times not to go to Mexico because of my concern for both of them being exposed to the virus but they thought they would be ok since they were vaccinated and boosted. Guess not. At least it is not as bad as those that are unvaccinated.

Since I will be on my own tomorrow, I have planned my birthday dinner. I am going to have pot stickers. They are gluten free from Walmart. Just as good as a restaurant and cheaper. I will be making my own dipping sauce using my mom's recipe. The one that comes with the pot stickers is not as tasty. My Mom was a great cook and used to make pot stickers. Some year I hope to tackle making my own at home. I am also making hot and sour soup. It is really easy to make, and I try to keep a can of bamboo shoots and the few simple Chinese ingredients on hand to make it at least once a month. It is very good, frugal and low calorie. I should make it more often. The main course is a stir fry made with chicken, snow peas and mushrooms. Very simple but tasty. My birthday cake will be pineapple upside down muffins. My aide has been bringing me single serve cups of fruit from one of her other clients. She gets food from a food bank, and she does not like the canned fruit. So, I have been saving the pineapple tidbits to make the muffins. I have a gluten free yellow cake mix. It will make 24 muffins but since I do not need 24 muffins, I am going to only use half of the mix. I have a food scale so I can weight it to get the exact amount.

While rummaging in the fridge freezer for the chicken I found another small pork roast for Teddi. So that is good. Unfortunately, also found a small half of a chicken breast that has freezer burn. Also, some gluten free baking items that were too old to work with, so they had to be tossed. I am going to do an inventory and then work my menus around what I have on hand in the freezer.

January was a bust as far as no spending. However, Feb will be here before we know it. I am going to try to only use gift cards for Walmart grocery shopping for the month of Feb. It should be fun and interesting trying to use up things in the freezer and buying what I need using gift cards.

For breakfast I had free oatmeal with free raisins in it with cinnamon and butter. My SIL gave me some food items that she did not want to sit around while she was in Mexico like two nice bags of organic oatmeal. The raisins are from the other client. So, from now on I will just mention free without mentioning the sources.

For lunch I had free hot tamales from my aide. She bought some for herself and gave me half. They were frozen and very tasty. I used the last of a little bit of leftover chili on the side.

Dinner is going to be homemade pizza using a new gluten free box mix for the crust. I hope it turns out well. Gluten free pizza crust is horrible. The store-bought frozen crusts are like eating cardboard and the frozen pizzas already made with the topping are not much better. Once I bought a gluten free pizza from Dominos and they used the same cardboard crust so why pay extra for a pizzeria pizza? So, the hunt is on to find the best pizza crust that is gluten free. I just add canned tomato sauce and use some yummy pizza spices I keep on hand and sprinkle them on top to make the sauce. I also try to keep mozzarella cheese in the freezer as well as pepperoni. I have some diced green pepper and canned mushrooms and sliced onion to add to the toppings. Also going to make a nice big pitcher of lemonade using organic lemon juice. I bought the lemon juice a while back when Vitacost had a big sale with free shipping. It is Saturday so tonight will be pizza and a movie night. An old tradition that I need to try to get back into the groove of doing. I have a lot of taped movies that I am looking forward to seeing in the near future.
Happy Birthday to You, my Friend. I hope you have a very nice day tomorrow!
"All his life he tried to be a good person. Many times, however, he failed. After all, he was only human. He wasn't a dog."

Charles M. Schultz
alliesmama4
Posts: 8591
Joined: Sun Aug 30, 2015 10:10 pm
Location: Southern IL

Re: My 2022 Challenge

Post by alliesmama4 »

Thank you, Sheila. I will.
Janet Alliesmama
Beverley
Posts: 553
Joined: Fri Oct 09, 2020 11:33 am

Re: My 2022 Challenge

Post by Beverley »

Happy Birthday Janet! It sounds like you are making it a good one.

\Bev
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