Savings and Goals Journal #11

I can’t believe it’s mid-July already! The weather has been Hot and we’ve definitely been planning our work around the heat, working inside in the afternoons and outside mornings and evenings.

Again, no huge savings, just all the little things we do that eventually add up and keep us within our budget. We’ve had large expenses this week. They were things I knew were coming (insurance, taxes, veterinary bills) but I still cringed when I moved the money from savings to pay them. But, now I’m motivated to work even harder at saving to replace it quickly!

In the Kitchen

This week’s kitchen savings were achieved by eating simple meals at home and making the most of our leftovers. I am thankful my family is willing to make a meal of what’s in the fridge. We’ve also been cooking in the morning so we don’t add more heat to the house in the afternoon.

I made myself and Grampy a week’s worth of overnight oats in Mason jars. (Just the dry ingredients. We add the milk the night before we are going to eat it). He takes his to work and eats it on his morning break. I take mine with me to the garden and eat it when I take a break. I’m not sure how much money we save by eating overnight oats, but they are a very convenient breakfast for us.

My older daughter made an applesauce spice cake for us using ingredients from the pantry. It was delicious with the ice cream we had left from the 4th of July! And my younger daughter picked up a few extra ingredients we didn’t have and made a big pan of enchiladas for dinner one night. We are now down to one jar of home-canned tomato sauce from last year. I’ll be happy to refill the pantry shelves with more sauce when the Roma tomatoes ripen.

My older daughter is more like me with cooking. We both usually follow a recipe for the most part. My younger daughter takes after Grampy and can throw random things together and it’s always delicious. I am glad they’ve learned to cook meals at home.

This week’s menu:

• Monday: Leftovers
• Tuesday: Slow Cooker Pork w/mushroom gravy, brown rice, veggies
• Wednesday: (Breakfast for dinner) Ham and Green Chile Breakfast Casserole
• Thursday: Leftovers
• Saturday: Slow Cooker Lemon Pepper Turkey Breast, sweet potatoes, green beans
• Sunday: Turkey bowls (turkey, mashed potatoes, corn, gravy), Salad

In the Garden

Garden Update:

So many tiny tomatoes coming along! For slicers, we do enjoy the flavor of Cherokee Purple tomatoes. They often split near the stem, but we just cut that part off.

I was given seeds for some early ripening varieties: Independence Day and Oregon Spring. So far, the Independence Day plants are loaded with tomatoes. I planted both last year and can’t remember which we liked the flavor of the most. I’m wanting to streamline my gardening a bit and plant the things we like the most that also give us a great yield for the space we are using.

I also have some Celebrity tomatoes and some Bigger Boys planted. For cherry tomatoes, we have several Chocolate Sprinkles because Grampy thinks they are the best thing ever. We also have a large red cherry. The large red cherry tomatoes have produced very well in the past. I am thinking about dehydrating some cherry tomatoes if we get overrun.

I’m hoping to can enough tomatoes to last two years, and then next year concentrate on getting our raised beds going. A gardener never knows. I remember one year having to rip out and throw away all my plants right as the tomatoes were ripening due to late blight. Another year the bean beetles took out my green bean crop. I just plant and hope for the best.

I have several zucchini growing. They will probably be included in dinner one night this week. My butternut squash plants are still small. So far I am keeping the squash bugs at bay by checking the plants each morning and removing any bugs or eggs I find.

Our green bean plants are huge. It seems like they might have liked a taller trellis. This is our first year growing climbing beans as opposed to bush beans. Lots of blooms. I should be canning green beans soon!

So much anticipation in the garden this time of year!

Home and Family

A friend cleaned out her clothing and offered me the things she didn’t want. I was able to find five shirts that I really like. Two for summer and three for fall/winter. I was able to get rid of some shirts I was keeping that were too large for me. Now I have more shirts that fit well, and I didn’t even need to go to the thrift store! She also had a bag of things her brother was getting rid of and there were several things for Grampy. He needed a few nicer shirts in a smaller size to wear to church.

We made sure to get rid of some older things when we brought new things in. I am still in decluttering mode!

I cleaned out my pots and pans cupboard this week. I didn’t get rid of much. I’m actually pretty minimal with my kitchen items. I did clean and organize the area and it’s much more functional now. I still need to declutter my deep corner cabinet in the kitchen. I think there are some things in there that can go, since I’m not even sure what’s down there!

While cleaning the shed, I found a light fixture we’d bought years and years ago on clearance. The plan was to put it in the half bath. The project just kept getting pushed aside. So, finally this weekend, Grampy installed it. It was quite a job since we needed to relocate the wiring from the ceiling to the wall. I’m glad we didn’t have to pay someone to do it. The light in the half bath is much better now, and I don’t have a light fixture cluttering up my shed!

Have a wonderful week!