Savings and Goals Journal #9

Last week I didn’t feel super-motivated to do extra things to save money. I did okay, but I didn’t feel as though I’d accomplished as much as I’d hoped. This week, I was back at it, and I feel I was much more proactive about saving. I’m glad to be feeling more inspired to save money.

In the Kitchen:

I made a batch of Homemade Granola. Grampy likes yogurt, fruit and granola as breakfast or for a snack.

I made a pan of Baked Oatmeal. I like quick, easy breakfasts, and this is so easy to reheat. Having something fast to make for breakfast makes it so I can get outside in the garden early in the morning.

Grampy had a day off, and we did some major rearranging of furniture. We switched our kitchen table from our small, drop-leaf table to my grandmother’s dining table. We removed the high chair and replaced it with a booster seat. We took out the desk and computer we never used and replaced it with a hutch, which we are going to turn into a coffee bar. This will allow all of us to sit at the table for meals and the hutch will provide tons of storage in the bottom. I plan to fill it with all of my home-canned tomato products.

I checked the grocery ads and was able to find meat on sale to stock our freezer, as well as some dairy products and fresh cherries. We are not doing anything big for the 4th of July holiday, but we will make some special foods and just be together as a family. I will definitely be checking the sale ads this week. Our menu may change if I find something different on sale.

This week’s meal plan:

• Monday: Leftovers
• Tuesday: Meatloaf, baked potatoes, mixed vegetables
• Wednesday: Leftovers
• Thursday: Poor Man’s Steaks, salad
• Friday: Breakfast for dinner
• Saturday: Hot dogs, bratwurst, potato salad, veggies and dip, watermelon, chocolate cake and ice cream
• Sunday: Leftovers

In the Garden:

We are not harvesting any vegetables yet, but the plants are growing and we have several little sweet and hot peppers beginning to grow.

I harvested almost a pint of fresh raspberries from our raspberry bushes. We had them with our yogurt and granola.

Grampy believes in pinching off the blooms from the tomato plants until the plants are fairly large and well established. This is so the plant puts its energy into growing rather than trying to produce fruit. I normally prune my tomato plants quite a bit, but this year I am going to prune them a little less and see how it affects the amount of tomatoes we get.

And, as they do every year, the dreaded squash bugs have arrived. I do not use pesticides on my plants. So the best way I’ve found to battle the squash bugs is to hand-pick them and drop them into soapy water, and also use duct tape to remove the eggs from the leaves. I learned this method from this article. It requires diligence and consistency (daily checking of the plants) to keep ahead of them, but it helps keep the numbers of them down so I can actually harvest some squash.

Home and Family:

During my decluttering, I found some outdoor decor I’d tucked away. Grampy and I hung up two metal barn quilts and a metal star on one of our sheds.

I didn’t get much sorting done in the craft shed this week. But we did thin out the childrens’ clothes a bit, getting rid of things they don’t wear or that don’t fit. I figure even if I can only get rid of a few things a day, I am gaining.

I also started organizing the cabinet above where the desk was in the kitchen. It was very much a catch-all for papers and such. Since it is near the kitchen table where we do activities, I made space for the childrens’ art supplies.

We went to a yard sale where I found a Christmas plate I will use to decorate the coffee bar at the holidays, and also a pillow case that matches our bedding. I paid a dollar total for the items. The plate is the Fiestaware kind. I looked it up and it sells for around $20 new. So fifty cents was a good price! I’m trying hard to not bring too many yard sale finds home. Otherwise, I’ll be going backwards with my decluttering!

My goal for this week is to take another load of things to the thrift store and to finish sorting through all of the items I had leftover from selling at craft shows. I may keep some for gifts, but the rest I will donate.

I cut flowers from in front of the house to bring inside. I don’t have many flowers blooming right now, but they do add some cheerfulness to the kitchen. I put them in a milk glass vase I found at a yard sale last summer. I love milk glass, but have only two items so far: a lamp my grandmother had given me when I was about five years old, and the vase. I’d love to add a few more vases or other pieces, but I haven’t found exactly the right ones yet.

Have a wonderful week!