Welcome and/or welcome back frugal friends,
menu planning, tips & tricks for saving money, encouragement and financial chitter chatter.
Wishing everyone a very frugal May.
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Welcome and/or welcome back frugal friends,
menu planning, tips & tricks for saving money, encouragement and financial chitter chatter.
Wishing everyone a very frugal May.
reserved for goals/challenges
I'm trying very hard to keep an eye out on my food budget and avoid eating out at all costs. One great way I'm doing that is by making more meatless meals. You see, we only purchase our meat from a place that only sell hormone free, free range, etc meat and therefore costs more. My newest addiction is lentils. They are so good and they happen to be good for you,great source of protein and best of all......cheap!
My MIL has been introducing me to a few ways to prepare them and I'm loving them. I adore Indian food and have an amazingly easy and tasty recipe. I will make a huge batch and it will last in the fridge for days and then dinners are lentils with a side of rice for carbs and a salad for greens. Well balanced meals.
ETA: I will have paid off in full a CC by next week that we've been fighting with for a while. What a load off!
Do you want to share your amazing recipe Harbie? Sounds like a nice recipe for us all to consider trying.
I second that Harbie, I love lentils and Indian food, and make a few dishes but I always want to try new things!!
May goal...recalibrate budget including getting rid of deficit. Now that LOC is paid off (one my goals since Jan!) I will explain. At present we are using current pay for fixed expenses. Variable expenses have been going on the credit card and are paid back with next pay. There was a time this happened for all expenses and we got out of it. I would like to get back to current pay = money budgeted for ALL expenses. We have a budget and all costs are covered, but there is a lag. I don't like spending tomorrow's money and want to get back to freedom.
We have money in savings we could use to get ahead. I would rather keep that money there and "struggle" (be frugal, go on a spending diet...etc) to get back in check. All of this was due to under budgeting heating in the new home and unexpected pay shortfall in January. Months of work to correct.
Anyway, have to get course work down. DD#1 has thrown up twice tonight. I am stressed (and queasy) at the thought of illness going through the whole house again with everything on my plate. Good news is that laundry, dishes, routine chores are all caught up and ready for disaster if necessary. Both girls bathed, hair pulled back tightly with towels on the beds and buckets ready to go...as ready as one can be.
Oh Granger I feel for you, hoping the flu stays contained. On the upside it is the weekend tomorrow so if you do all partake it will be over the weekend.......
Course assignments are now done for the week. I will have to comment on others' work over the weekend (low maintenance with only one other participant). I do still have to write up a lesson plan for tomorrow that is part of the practicum portion of the course. I will do that as soon as I am done this post. Then hitting the hay and hoping for wellness. DD#1 has not been sick since she went to bed.
I came back to post a link about the student in my class who died in January. There was an article about her in the paper today and I thought I would share her goodness to help me keep things in perspective. :)
RIP Zoe: http://www.thespec.com/news-story/55...CYw30.facebook
I will be seeing her dad and mom again with a few colleagues next week or the following to provide them continued support as they grieve. Dad came to visit me on the 3 month anniversary at school. 5 month anniversary is report card day and I plan to give him a report card of memories (one for each subject from last year!).
Granger, thanks for sharing that - what a wonderful young woman she was, and it's just so sad she passed...
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Love the name of the May thread! I may not always be a busy beaver, but sure used to be when I was younger and healthy!
My biggest goal this month is the kitchen. We are in a teeny, tiny house with a teeny, tiny kitchen. Even though we downsized, there is just no room there to put anything, it seems. We are maxxed out on shelving, but I really have to figure out something better because it's just not working as it is. I don't stockpile much, but we need to have SOME non-perishables, and space is just at a premium.
Let alone I just miss having 'nice' stuff out, if anyone knows what I mean. There is absolutely nothing decorative... and that doesn't make me happy.
April disappeared SO quickly, hoping May doesn't zoom by as fast!
Hope everyone has a great start to the month - a great Friday, and a wonderful weekend! :)
http://www.asatrublog.com/wp-content...ds/mayday1.jpg
TGIF!! And May already wow! I need to stop and smell the roses because I don't want to let Spring and Summer pass by me. Going to a school event tonight for DS. Then NOTHING tomorrow but hang around the house! Woohoooo! So happy about that. Sunday youngest has 2 sport practices lol. He will be a tired boy Sunday evening which means bath and bed early :) I left the house with a clean kitchen and DS and I even emptied the dishwasher this morning. Had a pick up yesterday for $7 (it was $6 but she left $7 :) ) Re-posted a bunch of stuff this morning so hopefully get a sale or 2 arranged today. Will keep at it tomorrow morning and clean up the "stuff for sale" room. Looking forward to this beautiful weekend we are suppose to have. Oh and for sure a bike ride tomorrow. Told DS we would go to DQ and the park (his brother is busy with a school event all day) Good thing my wonderful man brought my bike in to get fixed and its ready for pick up (oldest DS took it "jumping" at the end of last season and ruined my tire :( But good as new now :) Have a great day everyone and enjoy the sunshine!
Ugh, Nat, isn't downsizing a b#tch!? We sold our 3300 sq ft home to our DD and bought her semi and even after 5 years I still don't feel organized! My spice shelf, in particular, attacks me every time I reach in there! Our 3rd bedroom, our dressing room, seems to be the "toss in" room that absorbs everything that enters the house, and is the "temporary" deposit points for stuff that's waiting to find a home! I'm only semi-mobile, and can't demolish a room and start over, but that spice shelf? It's days are numbered!!
Good luck finding more space, Nat. :hug:
Thanks for sharing Granger, what a sad story. Her poor parents, I am sure they appreciate the contact they have with you to help with the healing process.
Good morning, everyone. :)
Had an interesting couple of days with my Mom (she had jury duty, so stayed with me so she wouldn't have to commute 1+hrs each way). Brats are annoyed they are no longer being spoiled & fed non-stop. :P
Better get back to consoling the brats. ;)
Hope everyone has a wonderful day. :)
Hi ladies. I've been a lurker on this thread for a long time and I hope you don't mind if I join in every once in a while.
@Granger - the article you posted was absolutely beautiful. How heartbreaking for those parents. I can't even imagine. What a beautiful young lady @Natalka - I too have a little kitchen and you're right, it appears there is not enough counter space nor shelf space. Had DH build me shelves in the basement so that's where I keep my stockpile/pantry. Not convenient but there's really not much I can do. I DO KNOW what you mean about putting some pretty stuff on display, however it just simply cannot be done in our kitchen. The layout is also not that great.
Have a good day ladies.
Good Afternoon Everyone,
Taking a small break as we are totally insane today at work. Part of me wishes it was over but the other part is happy it is not as my desk is still covered in papers I must attend too especially since I won't be in this office Monday. Now I just need to remember to pack up my car as I will be taking stuff for the other branch with me.
Tonight's dinner is another mystery, dinners this week have been a bit hard still adjusting to being in the busy season. Funny how quickly we fall out of it. So most nights I am so tired the last thing I want to do it cook so I have been relying on homemade freezer meals. Only downside is there are what I would call "winter meals" so a bit heavy now that spring is upon us.
Better get back to these papers, have a good day everyone.
Goals for May:
-stay under budget (April I managed to stay under by $63 which I was happy with)
-get a job (have an interview later today)
Good luck with your interview monkeydoodle.
I have the "gardening" itch. I want to plant perennials so badly however the radio said although it will be nice this weekend, that we should still wait for a couple of weeks as there still is the possibility of getting frost at night. I'm redoing our front door this weekend. It's a stained wood door but I plan on painting it black. I have already sanded it with an electric sander and now I will sand it by hand and then prime it. May paint it one night next week or next weekend. I'm trying to spruce up our house a little. DH only cares about the backyard so he told me the front of the house is my responsibility :omg:
@toronto166 welcome to the thread, great bunch on here, the more the merrier'
@granger thanks for sharing, so very sad but the parents should be very proud of their beautiful & giving daughter
@Natalka you are a busy lady and productive lady, I'm giving credit where credit is due, you are a busy beaver (lol). Hope the kitchen issues work out, my thoughts on nice things is use them, display them they make us happy so why not. Perhaps next time Milan is over get him to look through the boxes or bring them up and bring them back done so they are not in your way
@toronto166 . ME TOO!!! It is suppose to be really nice this weekend for us so we plan on cleaning up the yard, gardens etc tomorrow. Then plan/figure out what we want to plan and where. Tomorrow is tax free day at RCSS so I may take a look at a few things but will wait to plant them.
Went out on my lunch to grab a few things so I don't have to venture out tomorrow and can get cracking at the house stuff.
Spent $52.41. Topped up the gas tank ($29.00) 2 boxes of Olymel popcorn chicken $9.97 (GT- Treat for boys) At RCSS spent $13.44 for ceaser dressing (change from homemade) 4LB clementines (they are so nice!) $5.98 shredded parmesan. (we haven't had for long time (treat lol)
@toronto166 run with the wind, do as you please with the front of the house - that's exciting - have fun!!!
@monkeydoodle hope you had a great interview and great job being under budge in April
I went to NF's with FIL, I spent more than I wanted too but all was on my list and we're good for 2 weeks, with the exception of milk.
I purchased 4 large 1/2 loin's on sale for $2lbs and cut them up into packages for pulled pork, stirfries, pork chops anyways I cut & divided each loin into however many packages and calculated and wrote the amount on each Ziploc so I will be able to quickly calculate those meals :top:
Tonight is ham and potatoes quick and easy ;) I'm using on some homemade canned potatoes which I made a few years back :shock: going to fry them up cost would be maybe .30 and will use up 1/2 the ham which is $2.40 so total dinner is $2.70:excited:
Tommorrow's dinner will be 1/2 pork 1/2 moose burgers, buns @.99, pork $1.50 and well moose who knows but will say $1.50 because of the cost for dh's hunting. Will cook up some bacon for the burgers purchased bacon at $3. divide by 4 = .75 for bacon for burgers total for tomorrows dinner will be $4.75 I will figure out tomorrow how many burgers that makes, I'm sure we'll have a couple burgers leftover for lunches or something :shrug:
I'm going to keep a supper meal journal for costs to give myself some motivation of how low can you go :lolsign: and see that the overall costs balances out as I would like $5 suppers give or take...you know what I mean.
Wow I think $5 suppers with 2 teen or preteen boys is an admirable goal!
@Gra inger What a touching story. She left behind a beautiful legacy.
Wed I saw my kidney specialist. He was happy with my creatinine levels but a couple other things not so much.
Yesterday my friend was here and did more cleaning. Not very frugal but some things were long past due. There are some things I just can`t do.