Savings and Goals Journal #27
It’s a new year! I don’t make resolutions, but I do have some goals I’d like to achieve in different areas. I also choose a word for the year. Last year’s word was “Finish.” We start projects around the house, usually on a weekend and get them to the usable stage. Then the weekend is over, Grampy goes back to work and we often fail to finish little details like touching up paint, or adding trim.
I wish I had completed more of our unfinished projects last year. But this year I am going to give it another try! I am choosing “Finish” as my word for this year as well.
In the Kitchen
My kitchen goal for the month of January is to eat mainly from the pantry and freezers. We will buy dairy and fresh produce, and may purchase items if something goes on sale for a super-great sale price. Otherwise, I’m planning meals from what we have on hand. I’m planning to reorganize the pantry and freezers. That will be easier to do if they aren’t stuffed full.
We did purchase some meat on sale. We have lots of vegetables in the freezer but not lots of meat. Pork loins were on sale for 99 cents per pound. We used it to make several freezer meals using recipes from here. We also bought chicken breast on sale. I used my grocery app to save $7 on a meat purchase using my rewards, so it made the meat very inexpensive. I also used rewards points for a free box of hot cocoa mix and to save 60 cents per gallon on gas.
For New Year’s Eve, Grampy was on stand-by at the fire department (he’s a volunteer). They had a meal for the people working and he brought home turkey, ham, gravy, cookies and a fruit tray. We ate some of the meat and froze the rest.
He also asked for the turkey carcass so I could make bone broth. I cooked it in the slow cooker for about a day and a half. I made two batches of turkey, rice and vegetable soup for lunches and froze two quarts of broth.
The rice cooker we have had for years stopped working. I had one I’d bought (new) at a yard sale tucked away in a cabinet as a backup.
This week’s meal plan:
- Sunday: Turkey Pot Pie, salad
- Monday: Leftovers
- Tuesday: Meatloaf, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans
- Wednesday: Leftovers
- Thursday: Chicken stuffing bake, mixed veggies
- Friday: Leftovers
- Saturday: Lentil tacos, refried beans, Spanish rice
In the Garden
I measured in the kitchen garden and decided I’m going to place the raised beds I’m going to build along the east fence. I will still use some of the swimming pools I grow in until I can replace them. I grew tons of zucchini squash in a swimming pool garden last year!
Home and Family
Of course, with the start of the new year, I’m in full project and organizing mode. I’ve decluttered the baskets by the front door where we keep dog leashes, hats and mittens and sunscreen. I’ve gone through our messy messy cabinet of medications in the kitchen. We had probably thirty of the medication measuring cups and syringes that come with cough medicine and children’s medicines. Oh my. The cabinet is much better now.
On New Year’s Day, I worked on our laundry area. I had started redoing this area last January and then got sidetracked and didn’t finish. I’ve been living without cabinet doors for a year! I need to touch up some paint and put knobs on the doors. This will be my first finished project of the year! I’m going to reward myself for finishing by purchasing a sign to hang in the laundry area. I’m thinking about something like this one, but this is only a print and I’d need to have it framed.
I have many projects I would like to complete around our home. Most of them are small and inexpensive, or not very expensive and just time-consuming. I enjoy working to make our home a look a little nicer and be more functional (on a budget, of course. 🙂 ).
Have a wonderful week!
