Savings and Goals Journal #13

I feel like I was more focused about saving money this week. I also made sure I wrote things down. Sometimes I sit down to write my weekly post and I know there are more money-saving things I’ve done, but I just can’t remember them!

In the Kitchen

I had my first canning session of the year. It wasn’t huge, but it’s a start. I canned three quarts and one pint of green beans from the garden. My green bean plants are just getting started. I hope to can somewhere around 30 to 40 quart jars of green beans.

Grampy picked, roasted and froze three one-quart bags of green chile, plus a little bit was left over for him to eat fresh. The goal by summer’s end is to have the entire bottom basket of our upright freezer filled with bags of roasted green chile.

I froze around two cups of strawberries. My strawberry plants have slowed a little. We used strawberries from the freezer and some nectarines I had canned last year to make smoothies one day this week. It was so refreshing on a hot day!

We had been given some oranges that we we not eating very quickly, so I made orange juice with them. The grandbabies love orange juice.

We are focusing on trying to minimize food waste, cooking and eating at home and using what we have available.

This week’s meal plan

• Monday: Corned beef, cabbage, red potatoes, Irish soda bread (This is one of Grampy’s favorite meals. We had an extra corned beef in the freezer from St. Patrick’s Day.)
• Tuesday: Leftovers
• Wednesday: Philly Cheesesteak Casserole, brown rice, salad (I use this recipe but will use less meat and more peppers and onions)
• Thursday: White Chicken Chili, cornbread
• Friday: Leftovers
• Saturday: Swedish Meatballs, brown rice, steamed veggies
• Sunday: Leftovers

My daughter is cooking a couple of the meals this week. I will need to purchase a couple of things for the meals she is making (a White Chicken Chili seasoning packet, and a package of Turkey Meatballs from the frozen food section.) I usually try to meal plan mostly from our pantry and freezer, but I figure buying a couple of extra items is worth it for someone else to cook!

In the Garden

We are picking green beans, jalapenos, tomatoes, zucchini, okra, potatoes and green chile from the garden. We lost one tomato plant. It looked a little wilted, and after a couple of days it was dead, so we pulled it up. A couple others had some wilted areas, which I pruned off. They seem to be fine now. We get a few tomatoes every other day or so.

I also lost one zucchini plant. I had planted three regular zucchini and two of the striped kind (Cocozelle). I’m not sure if it’s the soil in the planter they are in, or what the problem is, but the Cocozelle plants are not thriving. So far, I am still winning the battle against the squash bugs. BooBoo the dog and I go out to the garden early every morning. She wanders around the yard and I check the plants for squash bugs or eggs.

I am enjoying growing fresh, healthy food for the grandbabies. They have eaten peas, green beans and potatoes from Granny’s garden.

I pull at least one bucket of weeds a day. This is working fairly well to keep the weeds controlled in the garden. We had some rain recently, so weeds are popping up everywhere around the yard.

Home and Family

We received an unexpected refund check in the mail. Grampy and I decided to use part of it toward our pantry stock-up we will be doing, and part of it to purchase the materials to do our backsplash in the kitchen. We are thinking of using this material. I was originally going to use beadboard, but we liked the look of the weathered boards better. Later, I plan to paint our kitchen countertops. I will be using this video as a guide.

We have a joke about our house. It’s a late 70s mobile home, and it needed lots of repairs and updating when we moved here. So we always say that whatever we do to it can’t make it any worse than it was when we started! We’ve actually turned it into quite a nice little home. Due to zoning changes, we can’t put a different house on this property (because of the size of the property and the number of homes here already.) And at this time, I feel better living next door to my dad so I can be here to help him if he needs me. So, we are making the best of things. I plan to start documenting some of our DIY projects here on the blog.

My daughter and I picked up a couple of clearance and sale decor items at Hobby Lobby to finish up the coffee bar. She also found a beautiful sign to put above our granddaughter’s new bed. These things certainly weren’t necessities, but it’s nice to have something pretty to brighten up our home.

Our biggest savings of the week was a beautiful, like-new bedding set we found at an estate sale for only $5.00. I originally got it for my and Grampy’s bed. The comforter we had was given to us by our neighbor and was getting very worn out. But Grampy confessed he thought the new bedding was a bit frilly (which is his very polite way of saying he didn’t like it.) My daughter loved it. so we traded. Grampy and I now have her less-frilly comforter, and she has the beautiful quilt of my dreams. I guess at least I can enjoy it if I go into her room!

At the same estate sale I found two purses that I love. I’ve been searching for a purse to replace mine. The strap is about to wear through. The purses I found were like new, and when I looked them up online, I found they each sold for $50 on sale. I paid $1.00 each. They will last me a long time, and they have lots of pockets, which I love.

I called our auto insurance company to see if changing the usage classification on a couple of our cars from “commute” to “pleasure” would make a difference in our premium. The only car that is really used to commute is Grampy’s little car he drives to and from work. But our agent explained that in our state that wasn’t rated and it didn’t lower our premium to change it. But, while I was on the phone with them, I changed our billing to paperless. It will be a savings of $22.00 per year.

All the little savings here and there do add up. I’m happy when I can make our home a little nicer while not spending a ton of money.

Have a wonderful week!