Savings and Goals Journal #19

I thought I would be starting to post more regularly here on the blog. But….life happens! Just when things were beginning to settle down from finishing up with the garden and helping our daughter move, Grampy had a work-related injury. He’s not completely back to his old self just yet, but he is getting better every day and I am so thankful.

In the Kitchen

I’ve been busy in the kitchen. Cooking everything for the upcoming week at once has been working very well for me. Overall, I’m spending less time in the kitchen cooking and I have less dishes to wash each day. This has been a great help because I usually work my part-time job for my dad right up until dinner time.

Next I’m going to begin pre-making breakfasts and lunches for myself. I’m much more likely to make myself a salad for lunch if the ingredients are prepped in the fridge. I used to do this and it only takes a little bit of time to have salad stuff ready for several days.

A coworker gave Grampy several pumpkins. We cooked some of them and froze six quart bags of pumpkin puree. I will use it to make pumpkin bread. We still have one large and one small pumpkin left. I will be cooking them over the weekend. We also have three small white pumpkins. Grampy is feeling creative and is going to turn them into pumpkin soup! I will make cornbread to go with it.

We found butter on sale for $1.39 a pound, so I bought several. We made homemade spreadable butter.

I’m trying to work through some of the things that have been in our freezer for a while. We have some fruit (pears and peaches) we had frozen, and some bananas. I am adding the fruit to oatmeal for breakfast and I made three loaves of banana bread with the bananas. Grampy loves to put Nutella on his banana bread. He says it tastes like a cupcake. 🙂 I buy the store brand of Nutella because it is considerably less expensive. It’s not a necessity, but it makes him happy.

Our freezers (both the upright freezer and the freezer on the refrigerator) are very full of garden produce. When we’ve used some of the stuff up, it will be easier to keep them organized. Right now we’ve just put things where we can fit them in. I’m just super happy our freezer is stocked.

This week’s meal plan:

• Sunday: Leftovers
• Monday: Taco Soup (from the freezer) over chips
• Tuesday: Hamburger patties, steamed veggies, rice
• Wednesday: Leftovers
• Thursday: Green Chile Stew
• Friday: Leftovers
• Saturday: Pinto beans and ham, cornbread

In the Garden

It’s that sad time of year in the garden. The plants are all done. We are just getting everything cleaned up. I hope to rototill soon and spread some older compost from the chicken coop to amend the soil. I did this last year in the pepper patch and the peppers were great this year.

We are discussing next year’s garden plans. Things will be more simple since next year I will begin working outside the home. We will definitely be using the PVC drip irrigation system we made this year.

Our little greenhouse needs a good cleaning and some organizing. I have way more seed starting supplies than I’ll ever need. I have several things that are in bad condition that I need to toss. I’ll probably save that for a really cold day. I love to be inside the cozy greenhouse while it’s cold outside.

Home and Family

We were given several bags of little girls’ clothing and some diapers. The clothes came from someone who had twin girls, so there were many more clothes than we could possibly use. We passed the extras on to a friend.

I have been looking for sleeper jammies for my grandson. He is a restless sleeper who kicks off his blankets, so we like the warm footie pajamas. I was able to find one pair in his size at a yard sale in like-new condition. He’s almost three and I often find that used sleeper jammies in his size have holes in the feet.

We are beginning to think about and plan for the holidays. I like the use the FlyLady’s Holiday Control Journal to help me organize. It’s free to print. I have it in a binder and refer to it each year. It has helped us simplify our holidays because it helps us focus on the traditions that are most meaningful for our family.

Have a wonderful week!