Savings and Goals Journal #41

A little bit of savings and a little bit of progress over the last week. But little bits add up!

Here’s our weekly update:

In the Kitchen

I deep-cleaned and reorganized our refrigerator. I used a bin I’d brought at the Dollar Tree a while back to contain Grampy’s collection of hot sauces, all on one shelf, so they don’t get shuffled to the back of the fridge. I designated one shelf for leftovers or things we need to use up soon, so that food waste is minimized. It can be a challenge sometimes to keep our fridge organized, as our daughter who lives with us purchases her own food and does much of her own cooking for herself and the grandkids. So we have kind of two households’ worth of food in one fridge. But we’re making it work. 🙂

I’ve started painting the edges of the pantry shelves with chalkboard paint. There is some damage on the ceiling of the pantry that I’ll need to fix. I’ll be covering the ceiling with beadboard that was left over from our backsplash project.

This week’s meal plan:

• Sunday: Leftovers
• Monday: Hot dog/mashed potato casserole, salad
• Tuesday: Leftovers
• Wednesday: White Chicken Chili
• Thursday: Leftovers
• Friday: Pancakes, eggs, fruit
• Saturday: Hamburgers, oven-roasted potatoes

I planned this weekly menu to use things we had on hand, except for salad stuff and fruit, which we purchased.

In the Garden

I spent time arranging my kiddie pool gardens in the kitchen garden area. I’m not sure we’ll have time to build the raised beds as we had hoped. Raised beds will make better use of the space, so I’m looking forward to getting them built someday. But the kiddie pool gardens will work for now. They were all recycled from past summers and had gotten holes in the bottom.

I will plant butternut squash in the two small pools and use the fence to trellis it. I’ll plant zucchini in the larger one. I have a metal planter that I think I’m going to put bell peppers in.

I’m pleased with the progress in my little raised bed. Things are popping up!

I moved a hollyhock that was growing too closely to my lilac bush out front and put it in the flowerbed near the front porch. We have several Russian sage plants growing near where the fruit trees are planted, so I moved a couple of them to the kitchen garden area. Bees love Russian sage! They are looking a little sad now, but I’m keeping them watered and I’m sure they will bounce back. They are pretty hardy. I relocated a euonymus bush that was really struggling. I think the area was too shady. It already seems happier in its new location at the edge of the kitchen garden. The red twig dogwood that I moved several weeks ago is doing very well in its new spot. When it grows taller I’ll be able to see it from the kitchen window.

The iris are blooming so I cut some to bring inside. I currently have lighter purple and dark purple iris. I would love to have other colors in the future.

Grampy and I cleaned up last year’s plants from the west garden area (which we are not using due to the water issues). I cleaned up the east garden area and my stepmom’s mother’s back yard. We burned all of the old plants and pine needles and weeds instead of hauling it all to the landfill. This saved us time, gas money and the fee for the landfill. I don’t think there will be anything else we will need to burn. Soon we will likely not be able to burn things due to the drought and fire danger, so it’s good that we got it done early.

Home and Family

Continuing with my goal of improving our space using things we already have, I dug out the fountain I’d gotten as a gift a couple of years ago and had never used. The grandkids and I set it up on the front porch where we can hear it through the screen door. I’m planning to purchase a timer so I don’t have to remember to turn it off and on.

We had a simple party to celebrate my daughter’s birthday. My older daughter, her husband and his son came to visit. I gave my daughter my bedroom dresser as it has always been too large for our bedroom, and she needed a dresser. I found a dresser I like on Facebook Marketplace. I’m enjoying having more space in the bedroom and having a smaller dresser gives us more options on how to arrange the bedroom furniture when we begin the makeover of that area of the house. Next, I hope to find something smaller to replace the coffee bar so that I can create a more comfortable dining area. Our table is currently too small for all of us to sit at there at the same time. Living in a small home can be a challenge, but with patience and creativity, I am finding ways to improve it.

Have a wonderful week!