Tuesday Tidbits

 

Still very cold here and for some odd reason I seem to have developed a chill that I can not get rid of. Wrapped in a shawl and snuggled on the chair for most of the day. Well after the household tasks were finished of course. 

Yesterday Harvey quite surprised me at one point yesterday. He was sitting on the couch and all of a sudden he says we will have to downsize very soon as we will probably only be in our home for another 8 years (where the 8 came from I have no idea). I then asked where we would move to if that was the case. He said Regina which is the same city our youngest lives in. 

Now what is shocking about this is that every time I have mentioned moving he has brushed it off. I can't figure out what made him change his mind. 

Since he mentioned this I have been looking at apartments and condo's in the city.... I have also been looking at one floor bungalows as I think that if Harvey didn't have a garden in the summer he just might get a bit cranky. A double heated garage would be good as well then he could have a little workroom. 

I think I need to start making lists... List maker extraordinaire here, I love me a good list to keep me on task. 

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Menu Monday

 

Brr, it is a cold and frosty morning. We have extreme cold warnings out so I really do not plan on going anywhere, other than the couple of minutes it takes to pull the garbage bin to the curb for pick-up tomorrow. 

Getting this posted early so I can get started with the regular household tasks and then begin the good smelling things. I will be off and on between tasks to visit with all of you. 

Maebeme, have a safe trip today. I do hope it warms up a bit for you traveling.

This is a week where I continue to use up items from the fridge freezer. 

Monday

Leftover sweet and sour ribs, served over rice. I was going to make some frozen peas, but there is some cucumber that needs using so we will have that with some dip.

Tuesday

A bag of leftover chicken from the fridge freezer will be added to a pasta casserole.

Wednesday

A new month, but I continue to clear out. I will pull a package of leftover beef roast out and hopefully make a stroganoff type meal. Served over noodles and this time I will make either green beans or peas to go along.

Thursday

Leftovers from Tuesday. Definitely need to make a veggie, so will do what I didn't make for a side last night.

Friday

Soup and Sandwiches. I think I will pull one of the containers of soup from the freezer downstairs and make some tinned salmon sandwiches. 

Saturday

Leftover beef from Wednesday. I will probably make either corn or mixed veggies with it this time. 

Sunday

Sausage, hash brown potato patties, and brown beans from the freezer downstairs.

Everybody have a wonderful day. 

God bless.

Sunday Ramblings

 

Today was cold, but it will be getting much colder tonight and tomorrow. I am glad I bundled up and took a short walk today, because I sure won't be going anywhere tomorrow.

Saskatchewan is entering the deep freeze. That Arctic low from Siberia has arrived. 

I haven't done much today, watched Mass online, cleaned the outside of the fridge (tomorrow and Tuesday I will do the inside), made my household tasks lists for next week, and knit. 

Talked to Kris today and one of the draught dodgers just does not work right, so at some point this week I am going to make him one that is wider. He says the others work great and really cut down on the drafts coming under the doors. 

Since it is going to be pretty darn cold tomorrow I think I just might do some more baking (just a few gingersnaps left). It has been awhile since we have had cinnamon buns, and a cake would be nice as well. I have some dried cherries so I am thinking of making oatmeal cookies with those dried cherries instead of raisins. 

It is also time that I enter budget numbers for the month. I get to see how well or not well I did. Hopefully very well. I would really like to start the year off with a bang.

Now if I could only have started the year off exercising with a bang. It doesn't seem to be going that way however. I will need to work on that along with other goals. Just finding it a bit difficult to work up the enthusiasm. Guess I just need to buckle down and hope that it appears like magic. 

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Saturday Roundup

 

I spent most of this past week sewing, and cleaning/organizing the kitchen cupboards. The linen closet also got a going through.

But today was a bit different. I decided to try my hand at a bit of batch cooking. Really it feels like I was cooking most of the day, and when I mentioned that to Harvey he laughed and said I actually had. I did take a little bit of time off to phone my youngest brother and I actually went out into the cold to visit a neighbour for coffee. So all told up until just before supper was finished I had about 2 1/2 hours of not mixing or chopping, cooking or baking. 

So what did I make today....

As soon as I got up (well needed a cup of coffee first) I got out all the ingredients I was going to need for the days cooking.

I started a loaf of bread in my machine first. Here is the end product.

While that was baking I threw the 2 chicken carcasses, some black pepper corns, water, celery and onion into a large pot. Started to make chicken stock.

As that bubbled and started to make my kitchen smell even better, I started my next adventure in cooking.

A totally new recipe and one I do hope we enjoy.

The beginnings of Chickpea Curry. That also added another lovely smell to the kitchen.

I ended up with three containers of the chicken stock and two containers of the curry.

I had to do a wash up at this point as I had run out of a few utensils that I needed for the next items I planned on making. Once things were clean, I started up once again. 

First up was meat sauce for spaghetti. 

I managed to get three containers of this for the freezer as well. 

I then phoned my brother and talked to him for almost an hour. 

After that I mixed up some pumpkin muffins. 

Twenty-four pumpkin muffins which now are wrapped in groups of two and then put in a larger air tight bag and placed in the freezer.

Lastly I made what we were going to have for supper, putting it in with the muffins for the last 15 minutes they were baking and then turning the oven down. 

Sweet and sour ribs, served over leftover rice. This made us a meal for tonight and I have this leftover.

We will be having this remainder in a couple of days. 

I was going to bake some cupcakes or perhaps a cake, but I ran out of steam. I may do that tomorrow and use my toaster oven rather than the big oven. 

I will need to figure out if I prefer doing this type of batch cooking rather than just cooking extra if I make stew, chili or other such meals. 

Still I used up the celery from the crisper, an onion, the chicken carcasses from the fridge freezer, some frozen tomatoes, the coconut milk from the pantry, the canned chickpeas from the pantry, three jars of frozen homemade tomato sauce, 2 pkg of frozen pumpkin, and a package of frozen chopped orange peppers. This does not include the hamburger (ground beef), ribs, or chocolate chips (they needed using so I put them in the pumpkin muffins, instead of raisins). 

Things used up and made into new meals for another time.

Everybody have a wonderful evening. 

God bless.

Frugal Friday

 

I was asked what started me on my frugal journey, or was I always this way, and I thought that perhaps I would share my journey with you all.

I was actually born to a fairly upper middleclass family. We could easily have afforded anything we wanted, but my Dad being raised during the 30's in a very small town here in Saskatchewan with a family of 17 (including his parents) had to stretch every penny until it squeaked. He brought that outlook into his marriage. 

Mom was brought up in a smaller family that lived on a farm. She always told me that she could never remember not having enough food on the table. This was probably because they raised their own meat, eggs, grew veggies, and picked wild fruit. Grandma died when Mom was around 8 and her youngest sister was about 5. Grampa raised 4 girls all on his own. He even taught them how to knit (Scotsman). 

Mom got X amount to purchase groceries and that continued up until the year she developed cancer and passed away. 

By this time both of them were still very well off and funny enough Dad did start spending more. He helped us out a great deal when we bought this house, buying us new furniture (though it wasn't what we would have chosen), new carpet and helping us put a pitched roof on the back of the house. 

My journey was slightly different. When we married Harvey had a decent job, but after being married about a year and a bit that is when where he worked closed down for the first time.

We had a son and things were tough for awhile, but we managed just fine. 

There was a call back to work at the factory and things were good again, for a bit. 

I was expecting our second child (our daughter) two months into the  factory close down for the second time.

This time the shut down seemed to be worse than before. At this point in time we lived in the small village where Harvey grew up. His parents farmed and raised a few cattle, they also had a rather large veggie garden. We got meat (well at least beef and chickens) as well as eggs from them. Also lots of veggies which really helped. Many in the village would hire Harvey for various odd jobs. 

I learned how to can and harvested free fruit. Made jams and jellies, tried to make bread which was a big failure at that time. That is also when I started to only shop every second week and sew clothes for myself and Kurt. All gifts at this time were handmade. 

Harvey was without constant work for almost a year, but just before our daughter was born he got a job in the oil patch with Suncor Energy. He ended up working in "the patch" for 35 years, and had a great reputation with the men that he worked with and the farmers who had wells on their land. 

Still the hard times we faced during the not working period stuck with me. I never wanted to be in that tough financial situation again. So I saved and made sure we could pay off our home as soon as possible, kept saving so we could have extra for our retirement, and to help our sons pay for their university (both did work and contribute to the costs as well).

I have continued to keep a close eye on our finances and have enjoyed the frugal game over the past 12 years that we have both been retired. Makes life very interesting and has enabled us to do a bit of traveling and enjoy a cabin at various National Parks here in Canada.

Everybody have a wonderful evening. 

God bless.

Thrifty Thursday

 

We had a bit of a storm here this morning, at times the snow and wind made it impossible to see down the hill into the valley across the street. I believe we actually got more than was being forecast. 

Harvey went out and shut the door to the shelter. I asked him to plug in the car before shutting and zipping the door. The temperatures are supposed to plummet starting tomorrow night and since I won't be using the vehicle it and the power cord does not turn on unless it falls below -18 I won't worry about using power. 

So what thrifty things have I been up to over the past week. 

I mended a couple of seams, and used up some bobbin threads doing so. 

Cut up the pj bottoms Harvey ripped into rags to use around the house. 

Did my bill paying online, now nothing needs to be done in that area until the 15th of next month. 

Made up my grocery/shopping list using the fliers for next week.

Cleaned and organized all the cupboards in the kitchen. I need to go through all my baking pans. See if Kris can use any before I take them to be donated. 

Using appliances to do my cooking more. 

Planning to have a big cooking spree this coming weekend. I would like to have some ready meals in the freezer. Since I will be making Sweet and Sour Ribs and using the oven, this makes sense. I will use less power, things will be portioned out, and I will have used things up before they spoil or get freezer burn. 

Found some free online patterns that might help use up more of those bits and bobs of yarn. 

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Midweek More Snow

 

Thanks for all the lovely comments on my sewing. These were simple patterns that I have actually made many times before. I need to set the dresses aside as the tracing paper I have is not working on the knit fabrics to mark the circles, and such that need marking. I will look at Walmart the next time I go shopping and see if they have anything I can use, otherwise I will have to wait until February when we visit the city. I have other unfinished projects to complete so I will still keep my hands busy. Jackie not being busy could cause problems.

I have just one last cupboard to clean and straighten. I will get that done tomorrow. Pretty sure there is lots of empty containers in that area to get rid of or refill. 

I have found lots of baking tins and I am going to check with Kris to see if he would like any of them before taking the extras to the secondhand store. Perhaps it will save him a few dollars.

The Bank of Canada raised rates today and all the banks followed suit. Kris has 4 years before he has to renew his mortgage, so hopefully the rates will have fallen a little bit. The fixed rates are still not as bad as the open ones and I am keeping my fingers crossed that they don't go higher. 

I do believe we will be entering a recession. Looking at house prices in some of the cities, they are rapidly falling. Great for buyers if you can afford to buy, not too good for sellers. Bad for those who bought more house than they could afford if rates went up. 

I made my cancer specialist appointment for next month. We can leave a bit earlier than I had planned and visit a few places after the appointment before heading to Kris's. He has the Friday off so hopefully we can visit a few of the places I haven't been to and would love to see. My appointment is on Thursday afternoon, and we would stay the night as well as the next night and day. 

We had more snow again overnight and into the morning. Did manage to get the sidewalk where one goes into the shelter cleared (chipped the snow and ice away). I might do a bit more tomorrow depending on how I feel. It is good aerobic exercise if done properly.

I will be working on a grocery/shopping list for next week. I am thinking that I will make a trip to the Dollar Store to see what deals I can find. The problem with ours foodwise is that many items are either at or a bit past their best before dates. I could however pick up household items like SOS pads, dusting cloths, bleach, and even refills of liquid hand soap if I am lucky at a much lower cost. We actually have two different stores so I will be checking both out.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.