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 »

I had a complete change of menu yesterday evening. I decided it was too much work to make tacos with the standing and cooking of the meat, chopping, and shredding of things so I threw a package of brats in the oven and baked them. Added some sauerkraut that was open. Made for a nice Fall type dinner. Although it is not Fall yet we have had really chilly and wet weather due to Gordon. Later I cooked down the pears from my tree with a small amount of sugar and cinnamon. There were only 6 pears but they were huge and filled a pot about half full. Will freeze them in smaller containers for later on when I have the the brats and sauerkraut. Also froze all but one of the brats for later.

The pear tree is a volunteer. The original one was taken out a couple of years ago by a storm and this "tree" sprouted from the trunk that was left.I braced it with an aluminum pole and rope until it grew bigger and stronger. It only produced 6 pears this year but hopefully next year it will do better. It is called a Keifer pear.. They are for canning not for eating fresh and the mother tree was always a good big producer even from the first year it was planted. I have been enjoying some of my apples as snacks with peanut butter.. I figure if all goes well next year I will have peaches, apples, pears and strawberries all growing on my property and producing enough to can or freeze. Might consider a small chest type freezer.. It will make for easier storage and processing of the fruits.

Made pimento cheese yesterday and decided to only use half of the pimentos called for in the recipe. I cannot find the pimentos at Dollar Tree anymore and buying them at the grocery store they cost twice as much for half as many and is the most costly ingredient in the recipe. I decided they are more for color than taste so cut them down to half and froze the rest for another time. The spread still tasted good and the color of the pimento was nice but like I said I cannot really taste them so all is well with the adjustment in the recipe. I did not have any chips or crackers so I put some of my taco shells in my toaster oven to give them a little bit of a crisp texture. They worked perfectly.
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 »

Not much going on here. I had some necessary paperwork to get done and worked on it most of the day. Breakfast was simple an apple from my tree with some peanut butter from Aldi's. Lunch was a brat, cooked the other day, with sauerkraut and some of my cooked pears. Snack late afternoon another apple with peanut butter. Also had coffee with whole milk (.39 cents half gallon) off and on while working on paperwork. Dinner is going to be a stir fry of cabbage and onions with some ground beef as the protein.. Teddi will have some ground beef with rice and some green beans if he chooses to eat them.Many times he picks the green beans out and throws them on his napkin.. He had a scrambled egg for breakfast. Also he has had some baby carrots and a pupperoni for treats.. The pupperoni is still free from Amazon. Eating well and yet cheap.. Now that all of my paperwork is caught up hopefully will be able to get a menu lined out instead of hit and miss with things.

I plan on sorting my apples and cooking down the ones that are too small or have a worm hole. They apples have done surprising well without being sprayed but hopefully will be able to take better care of the tree next year since it is now producing enough to work with. Before it was just a few apples per year.. 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 »

Right now things are slow. Bills are paid up to date. Waiting to hear from the company that installed my furnace last year.. They offered an extended 10 year warranty on my furnace and they took their sweet time responding to my calls and now they are not sure they can get the paperwork to me in time for the deadline.. What the heck? Anyway I have to come up with $360.00 for a 10 year warranty for parts and labor..I do have the money but it will lower my emergency fund considerably.. However I cannot afford to not have some kind of coverage.. The last furnace that came with the house did not last as long as it should have so better to be safe than sorry.

I had a light breakfast of a keto English muffin with an egg and a few rashers of bacon. I really was not that hungry so picked the bacon off and gave Teddi half of the muffin and egg.. I had to remove the bacon from my freezer since there was not that much left and the container was taking up too much room to freeze milk, cooked apples and pears. I ate the last of the bacon for dinner with a fried egg and corn bread.. Lunch was an apple from my tree with some peanut butter and had a snack later with pimento cheese with the baby carrots that Teddi would not eat. He goes in spurts with his baby carrots so if he ignores them for a while they go in the fridge for me for a snack.

The weather has been wonderful during the day it is nice enough to have the doors and windows open with the ceiling fans on. At night just using a fan.. Actually gets a little bit cold before the sun comes up.. Love this kind of weather.. Although we did not get the huge amount of rain they predicted we are still under flood warnings in to Thursday due to the amount of rain that went north and is coming down the Mississippi. I live up in the hills and will not be affected but some areas nearby will be.
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 still have half of a month to get through in regards to making do with food in the house. I have $2.61 left from the $22.00 I set aside. I have been using some of my food to feed Teddi since his food was not available at Petco.. So when he eats some of my people food I add the money back in to my budget from his budget. So my fund has grown a little bit. I am hoping to buy his food tomorrow when I go in to town to have blood work done.

I only have a few apples left from my apple tree unless some of the ones at the top of the tree have finally fallen. I have a few fresh strawberries every day that I nibble while out checking the plants.. Froze all of the cooked pears in 3 various sized containers for later on. Need to go through and sort peaches in the fridge and cook them down either for eating or a small batch of peach jam. I had a couple of small apples yesterday with peanut butter for snacks and some baby carrots with pimento cheese for a snack. Yesterday took the carcass of a rotisserie chicken out of the freezer and cooked it down and then froze the broth for making soup later on.. Cooked the last of my chicken thighs (2) to make in to meals for Teddi. Dinner was bratwurst with sauerkraut and some cooked apples.

A day or so ago made keto sausage gravy with a roll of sausage (3.50) and some cream cheese (.79 cents) and a little bit of chicken broth to thin it out. Will have that for breakfast for several days. I had cooked a few sausage patties from the roll and had that for dinner one night with a fried egg (.08 cents) and cornbread.. Homemade but not sure of the over all cost.. Had cornbread for 4 meals and then sent about 1/4 of it home with my aide. Today I am going to make Sticky sesame cauliflower and salmon patties for dinner. The sticky cauliflower is sort of a veggie version of General Tso chicken. I am going to make chocolate pudding from scratch to use up some of the milk.. The expiration date is 09/13/2018 but it is still good.

I am doing well but down to 2 lbs of ground beef in the freezer. I think I have pulled all of the bigger chicken pieces out of the freezer. I need to go back through and check things out. I have a couple of cans of tuna and a couple of cans of salmon. I am thinking of opening a can of dehydrated pork chops. Still have a lot of canned cheese.. So I see quiche on the menu in the near future. Also need to start to add bean dishes to the menu. Right now I am enjoying the challenge. Janet Alliesmama
Janet Alliesmama
Momof2Still
Posts: 173
Joined: Mon May 14, 2018 10:05 pm

Re: Starting our 2018 No Spend Challenge

Post by Momof2Still »

Janet, sounds like you are doing a great job with stretching your grocery money.

Wow, seems like forever since I have had a chance to post. This school year has certainly been different. I think I was as tired going into the second week as I usually am at the end of the school year. I hope things are leveling out now. I still have a couple of large projects to complete, but nothing that is due in the immediate future.

I have done okay with the grocery budget- could be better, could be worse. I have wasted more than I care to admit, and it may not be over yet since I froze a lot of things to keep from having to toss them. I am not sure how well some of them will fare since I have not frozen them before, but it is worth a shot since they would have been tossed if I had not tried to save them.

I did manage to put together a menu plan for the upcoming two weeks, a shopping list, and went shopping, and stuck to the list for the most part- I think I grabbed a bag of sunflower seeds that were on mark down, and two boxes of instant low sugar oatmeal to keep in my office for those days I forget (or do not feel like eating what I brought). I love oatmeal, and usually cook steel-cut oats, but this will do in a pinch. It is a comfort food to me which is odd as I never had oatmeal as a child. I think a couple of things may get tweaked since I cleaned out the fridge (after shopping- I usually do that first) and found a couple of things to use within the next day or two (pkg. of mushrooms and a tomato).

RM is going home in a little over a week for a visit, and then upon returning will have about 3 weeks before he leaves for boot-camp. I think he is excited, and I am excited for him.

Dinner tonight was pizza for RM and I cooked a chicken breast that I thawed a couple days ago and never got around to using. I also used the rest of the left-overs in the fridge as sides. I think once RM is gone I will do a pantry challenge to use up some things. I have lots of things that I grabbed because we use it consistently, things I use were on sale, so I grabbed it- this is what happens when I do not plan and just shop on the fly. It could be worse, I could have grabbed things just for the convenience. I did grab more convenience items, but we used those for the most part. I have gained 10 pounds, so things have got to change, plus I need to exercise routinely and not every so often. Well off to bed. That is the other thing, if I did get home in time to cook, I was too tired to do so, or it was too hot. I like the hot weather, but even I am over it. The humidity is killer.
Momof2Still
Posts: 173
Joined: Mon May 14, 2018 10:05 pm

Re: Starting our 2018 No Spend Challenge

Post by Momof2Still »

[/quote]
Have you ever taken Allerga allergy meds. I am very sensive to meds and they are the only ones that don't make me want to kill someone due to the grogginess and being sleepy.
[/quote]

No. Maybe I should give them a try. At this point I am willing to try something different.
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