Starting our 2018 No Spend Challenge

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

Re: Starting our 2018 No Spend Challenge

Post by alliesmama4 »

Dgflorida wrote: Sun Apr 22, 2018 9:09 am Janet, you are amazing. I am glad you have the time and energy to share your efforts with us. They are inspiring.
Thanks DG.. I love a challenge and to me it is fun to come up with ideas on how to use things up. I do go on line sometimes to see what I can make with the things I have on hand. Janet Alliesmama
Janet Alliesmama
alliesmama4
Posts: 8591
Joined: Sun Aug 30, 2015 10:10 pm
Location: Southern IL

Re: Starting our 2018 No Spend Challenge

Post by alliesmama4 »

My potato soup made with leftover potato water turned out really yummy. I did make some adjustments. I felt like the evaporated milk would add too much sweetness to the soup so I used instant potato flakes from my emergency pantry and about two oz of cream cheese to add some smoothness. I buy cream cheese when it is on sale around a holiday..It is usually deeply discounted and a fair price. The use by dates are usually months away..Also made gluten free cornmeal muffins. The gluten free All-Purpose flour was way past the Best by date but since it had been refrigerated I used it and it was fine. The recipe called for 1/2 c of sugar but it was too sweet for my taste so next time will reduce it to 1/4 c. Janet Alliesmama
Janet Alliesmama
gaylejackson2
Posts: 3172
Joined: Tue Sep 08, 2015 1:13 pm
Location: Utah

Re: Starting our 2018 No Spend Challenge

Post by gaylejackson2 »

**Reposted from my no-spend journal.**

To update from April 12th:

I spent on Friday April 13 for fruit, milk, gasoline, and laundry detergent. I also spent on Saturday for gasoline. No spent on Sunday, Monday, but Dh used my account to buy milk & fruit on Tuesday so I'm counting it. Then no spend on Wednesday or Thursday, then Friday I bought computer printer at Walmart and food at grocery store.
Then no-food-spending on Saturday or Sunday.

So spending-wise, here are my current totals:

Spend Days: 9
No-spend Days: 13
Still aiming for 15 no-spend days, and I think I can make it... but there are other factors coming into play now (read April 22nd check-in for more details if you missed the story).
--
We are out of milk, and almost out of fruit, so definitely spending for food tomorrow.
alliesmama4
Posts: 8591
Joined: Sun Aug 30, 2015 10:10 pm
Location: Southern IL

Re: Starting our 2018 No Spend Challenge

Post by alliesmama4 »

I am disappointed. I made cornmeal muffins yesterday and anticipated using them for meals and snacks for several days. I mentioned before that they were too sweet and they tasted worse later on. I think I may have used sugar sub from a jar instead of sugar.. They were so nauseatingly sweet I had to throw them away.. What a waste of good flour, eggs, and buttermilk. I need to start to put labels on things when I transfer them to jars.. While putting coffee grounds in my coffee pot doggie nephew barked to come in and I was distracted while measuring scoops so put too much coffee in ...gggrrr. However I saved it by making a mock version of cafe au lait. Not as lovely as when I had breakfast brought to me on a tray every morning when I was in Paris.. but acceptable. Those were the days of my youth and I treasure those memories.

Today will fry up a pound of sausage, 10 oz will go in to a ketogenic sausage gravy, and the rest will be made in to patties, and frozen to make breakfast sandwiches.. The price of sausage has gone up by .39 cents not a lot of money but when every penny counts it matters. So a once a month treat will be stretched by making the gravy and the patties. I have the rotisserie chicken bones and skin in my crock pot to make broth to make cabbage and Italian sausage soup. I am going to make a loaf of American/ Irish soda bread using either white whole wheat flour or gluten free flour..

My bills are paid but will need to buy doggie nephew some fresh dog food before the week is over. However it is in the budget but I will have to drive my car since my aide and I will use my one day a week outing for me to get my B-12 shot tomorrow. The extra trip using my car will use gas which I had hoped to save.

I have 10 no spend days planned for the foreseeable future.. May 3rd is my goal..I should do ok. Janet Alliesmama
Janet Alliesmama
alliesmama4
Posts: 8591
Joined: Sun Aug 30, 2015 10:10 pm
Location: Southern IL

Re: Starting our 2018 No Spend Challenge

Post by alliesmama4 »

I made egg salad with the last of the hard boiled eggs in the fridge. It is rather bland so I chopped up some sliced pickled jalapeno peppers. They are very mild so from past experience the egg salad needs to sit overnight to give it the extra zip I need. I am thinking of adding some fire roasted red pepper( from Dollar Tree) to give it more color and flavor.

Lunch was a big salad with some of the rotisserie chicken bits thrown in and some of the chopped hard boiled egg. I used some of my homemade ketogenic ranch salad dressing. I fried the Italian sausage for my soup and also some for the freezer for when I make pizza.. The smell was so enticing I decided to make pizza for dinner. I had about a cup of cauliflower "rice" from when I made Thai yellow curry. I went on line and found a recipe for cauliflower pizza crust and it used almost the exact amount of cauliflower "rice" I had left.. 1 cup. The crust looked great and did not taste like cauliflower but at the same time it was rather limp in texture. Could have eaten it with a fork .. Next time will wring the cauliflower out in a dish towel to remove more moisture to see if that will make it a little more like pizza crust. Also the pizza is suppose to be broiled after the toppings are put on but apparently my broiler is not working so the cheese was not as brown as I would have liked and maybe that would have tightened the crust up a little bit... still it was tasty and filling.. I have enough for lunch or dinner for several more days. Did not get to the sausage gravy.. It seems all I do is prep foods, cook food, and do dishes. Even with a dishwasher I had to do some by hand just to keep up. They say that at the turn of the century, 1900's, women spent 6 hours a day in the kitchen.. I can believe it and I am only one person.

When I made the pizza I saved money by cutting the pepperoni slices in to 1/4 th.. I still had a nice bite of pepperoni and it stretches what I have left for more pizza in the future. By the time I added some chopped mushroom, Italian sausage, and onions it was really nicely filled out and very inexpensive. The pizza sauce, mushrooms, and pepperoni all came from Dollar Tree and I am only using small amounts for each dish I am making.

The chicken bones should be cool by now and I will go pick the meat off and put it in the freezer to make BBQ sandwiches in the near future. I have gotten a lot of meals from this one chicken and will now make the cabbage and sausage soup tomorrow which will stretch it even further.
Janet Alliesmama
Janet Alliesmama
alliesmama4
Posts: 8591
Joined: Sun Aug 30, 2015 10:10 pm
Location: Southern IL

Re: Starting our 2018 No Spend Challenge

Post by alliesmama4 »

My cabbage and Italian sausage soup was/is really good. I had two small bowls last night and two for lunch with some Parmesan cheese sprinkled on each bowl. Yummy.

I did not get around to making my sausage gravy the other morning since I needed a cup of chicken broth to make it and the chicken broth from the bones was not ready.Before making my soup I reserved a cup to make the gravy. I will make it this evening and prep the almond flour for almond flour biscuits for breakfast tomorrow.

Dinner tonight is tikka masala chicken. The chicken is( free) since I used survey money to buy it.. The sauce is from Aldi's.. I like to keep a jar in my pantry for quick meals. I have cucumber that need to be used so will make a salad of marinated cucumber and onion with fresh cilantro. By the way if you buy fresh cilantro put it in a bowl of water when you bring it home. It will stay fresh for weeks.. I just snip off what I need with a pair of scissors. I change the water every 4 to 5 days.

I had not planned on buying anything until May 3rd other than doggie nephews dog food but Aldi's has avocados on sale for .39 cent.. so on the way home from my Dr appointment tomorrow we will stop to buy some. I do have slush money to use so it will not be a problem. I will make some guacamole and also freeze some for later to make guacamole or maybe just make a big batch of guacamole and freeze it for later.
Janet Alliesmama
Janet Alliesmama
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