Savings and Goals Journal #18

It’s been a while since I’ve posted. I’ve been swamped with appointments, preserving the garden harvest and getting my daughter moved. Hopefully, beginning with this week, things will be mostly back to normal for a while.

I’m focusing on things that will help me save time, as well as money. I’ve started the seasonal work I do for my dad’s small business, so I’ll work a few hours a week from now until the spring. My daughter has several doctor’s appointments coming up that I will either attend with her or I’ll be watching the grandbabies while she goes. I know from experience that when I get overly busy, I tend to let my budget and my money-saving focus slide a bit. I’m trying not to let that happen.

In the Kitchen

We’ve been canning and freezing tomatoes and chile peppers. We are beginning to run out of pantry space and freezer room, and so Grampy has been sharing some of the garden goodness with his co-workers. They don’t seem to mind a bit!

As part of my time and money-saving efforts, I premade the meals for this week. It was a combination of meal prep and freezer cooking. I had forgotten how wonderful this was!! I am going to do this every week, and hopefully in the process get a nice little stash of freezer meals put up as well. Then I can take a week off from cooking all together!

I love cooking, but I don’t love lots of daily cleanup or coming home from working at my dad’s and needing to still make dinner.

This week’s meal plan:

• Sunday: Taco Soup from The Prudent Homemaker
• Monday: Leftovers
• Tuesday: Chicken Pot Pie
• Wednesday: Leftovers
• Thursday: Stovetop Barbecue Chicken, rice, roasted zucchini
• Friday: Leftovers
• Saturday: Italian chicken, Caesar salad, green beans

In the Garden

Just like every year at this time, there are some fairly good-sized weeds growing in my garden. I always start with the best of intentions, and this year I kept up with the weeds much better than in previous years using the “bucket-a-day” method. But then once I start canning and spending hours in the kitchen, I don’t get out to pull the weeds like I should.

The plants are still producing. We had a light frost, so we covered some of Grampy’s favorite peppers, but we are pretty much done with everything else. We did a big harvest on the weekend of tomatoes and chile peppers before the freeze came. Some green tomatoes we will ripen indoors and we’ll roast any of the larger green chiles. We will dehydrate and powder the small green chiles to make a seasoning mix. I don’t know much about that. That is Grampy’s project. 🙂

We are picking fall raspberries and eating them every day on cereal or in yogurt. I will miss all the fresh foods in the winter and I’m so glad we’ve spent time preserving some of our harvest.

Home and Family

My most wonderful and best friend is moving away, so I went to her yard sale. I found a brand new blanket and a new roll of drip irrigation line.

I helped my daughter sort and organize her clothes and the grandbabies’ clothing. It is so much nicer to have less in the drawers. We gave the clothing we didn’t want to a friend who knows several families in need.

I’m slowly continuing the project of decluttering the house and sheds. I seem to be very easily distracted from my project! But I do a little here and there and it is helping.

I am working toward a very big goal in the new year: I will be going back to work! I am both excited and apprehensive. It has been nice to be at home, especially while the grandbabies were so tiny, and to be here to help my daughter and my dad. It’s been several years since I’ve worked outside the home. I’m sure there will be some adjustments to be made as we all get used to something new.

Have a great week!