Moving Forward

 I love those days where I can just stay home and putter. I usually end up getting a few tasks that I've often thought about doing, but just haven't worked on.

Today I went through a couple of kitchen drawers and managed to find a few more things to declutter as well as a few items from my closet and drawers. Perhaps tomorrow I will go through one of my cupboards. Probably lots more to declutter in there. We shall see. 

The more I can get done inside during rather nasty weather, the more time I can spend outside once the weather improves. There are lots of tasks that will need doing before planting, and enjoying the outdoors. There is painting to do, and lots of weeding. I do have visions of me pulling my sewing table and sewing machine out on the deck during some of our nicer weather. Is that silly of me?? Or sitting with my knitting or embroidery to enjoy the sun on my face and all the fresh air. 

A couple of days ago I took a short walk around the yard, checked on the fruit trees and bushes. All seem to have buds on them, I just need to check the kiwi and see how it is doing. 

The perennial bed needs some weeding, and I am looking forward to planting the Shasta daisies I have started and I am keeping my fingers crossed that the delphinium start to grow. I may just have to purchase some of those. Canary vines are growing like crazy with the grow lights, herbs are coming up and will need planting on as will the annual flowers. The way things are sprouting makes me smile. Such a simple joy. Simple joys are the best of all.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Thrifty and Frugal Thursdays

Thrifty and Frugal 

Welcome to the third thrifty and frugal Thursday of April. Hard to believe how quickly time is passing. Also hard to believe the rather winter-like weather we have been getting here on the Canadian prairies. We have had some lovely days where the sun was shining and the temperatures weren't too bad, and we definitely took advantage. 

So what were the frugal and thrifty happenings around the old homestead this week.

1.  Busy using up bits and bobs from my stash of craft supplies.

2.  Stuck to my list and have hopefully come in under the grocery budget this month. However there is a great meat sale on some cuts at our Co-op and I may just blow the budget and pick some of those up. It could end up saving us a bundle the next few months. We shall see.

3.  Lights have been turned off, clothes hung on the lines downstairs, and solar heat a few days this week kept the furnace from coming on too much during that time.

4.  More of my flowers are popping up. 

5.  Harvey planted some Eggplant and we are hopeful those will sprout as well.

6.  I am up to 13 no spend days so far this month, and pretty sure I can add more to that amount. 

7.  Put $0.45 in the change jars, and added $75.00 to the savings envelope. I use the money in the envelope to purchase fabric and yarn or at times buy new clothing/shoes. The change jars help with paying for the Family reunion every 2 years. 

8.  Fixed a zipper on one of my fleece jackets. I hate fixing zippers!!!

9.  Harvey moved his wine from the primary to the secondary and will probably be bottling either the end of the month or perhaps the end of the first week in May.

10.  Harvey used bits and bobs from his stash of lumber downstairs to build a small stool to use with the grow lights and when outside planting.

So that is pretty much all that has been happening here.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Midweek and Midmonth

 Once again the forecasted rain did not show up. In fact today has been sunny and mild. Enjoying this while it lasts by going for a bit of a walk today. Tomorrow, may not be as nice and you need to take advantage when you can.

The one good thing I can think of bad weather helping is that I get to stay home and work on organizing and beginning to get ahead on making some of my homemade cleaners.

Spray bottles at the ready. Onwards to starting to "Green Up" my household cleaners. At which point I realized there is more that I will need to purchase to make a full set of cleaning supplies.

So today I managed to make two. A window cleaner, and a cleaner to rid the tub and sink of soap scum.

The window cleaner is water, vinegar in equal measure along with a bit of dish soap. 

The soap scum cleaner is just vinegar and a bit of water. 

What do I need to purchase to finish off my cleaning supplies? I need to purchase Borax, liquid Castille Soap, some tea tree oil, lavender oil, and more baking soda. I also need small jars to make various pastes. I can see that this is going to be a learning experience already. Vinegar can etch tiles so I will need to be careful using any cleaners containing that when working around the tiling in the bathroom and kitchen. Still I have made a start on at least giving these greener cleaning supplies a try. 

I have even found a recipe for dishwasher soap that I may have to try out very soon. There is also one for laundry detergent, but I am leery of that one considering how hard our water is. Mind you it is better than it used to be now that we have switched sources. I will think on that one a bit more. 

It isn't that I really need to cut back on spending, more I am going to make it a game just to see how much I can save from our finances and put into our savings account. 

So meals will be stretched, more cooking from scratch, trying to remove more packaged items from my grocery lists, cleaning supplies used up and then replaced by other homemade cleaners, I am also thinking of making those makeup remover pads, and making my own skin cleansing routine. 

Simplifying is what will be happening here. One does not need expensive cleaning supplies or ingredients for a meal. I have found that purchasing grocery items in the international food aisles saves me money. Spices are in larger bags and are less expensive than the bottles or bags in the regular aisle. Rice is also less expensive, mind you I purchased the Great Value rice the last time and it really wasn't too bad in price or taste. 

As far as stretching meals, most of what I make says it will feed 6, so we will eat it the first night, transfer part of what is left into a freezer container (I use/reuse tinfoil containers for this purpose) put the meal into the large chest freezer, and the part that is left will make another meal later that week. 

This isn't doom and gloom, rather it is making sure I am using up all that I have paid for to the best of my ability and trying to keep as much of our hard saved money in our hands instead of the stores getting it.

I have heard of others using one shelf in their fridges for leftovers. If you do this can you tell me how that has worked for you. I hate having items pushed to the back of my fridge and forgotten about. 

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Tuesday Tidbits and Stuff

 

It has turned out to be a beautiful day. The sun came out at around noon, and the temperature sky rocketed. We are at 18C right now, but there are snow days ahead. Not looking forward to that at all.

I went shopping today and managed to get some very good on sale and marked down items. However shopping once again took almost 3 hours and my back was not feeling very good after that. Putting things away took some time, and I still have a few items that need to be put in containers, and the meat to be packaged up and put in the upright meat freezer. Tomorrow is soon enough for that.

Here is what was purchased today. Since I have lots in the fridge, freezers and pantry, most of this will be used much later. I could say that I stock up for many months down the road. 

I shopped at Walmart and our local Co-op store. Saw lots of meat mark downs at Walmart, but I know too many people who have gotten food poisoning from their meat so will stick with canned and baked goods. Our Co-op is a bit more costly, but we do get money back at the end of their shopping year (usually June) and get a nice build up of money in their account. I believe that account for me sits at almost $8K which I could pull out tomorrow. 

My Walmart shopping. It really wasn't bad at all this time around, however there were a few things I couldn't pick up. 

Co-op was next and this will be in a few photos.

I did purchase a few quick meals mainly because I was hungry. One should never shop on an empty stomach. As far as meat this shopping trip I got 2 packages of stew meat, a package of pollock fillets, and some split chicken wings. All on sale. I also purchased some luncheon meat, and those Pizza Pops (they were on sale for a really good price).

Not a great deal of fresh produce was purchased, but I am sure I have enough to last for a bit. If not there is always frozen or perhaps canned. 

We picked up our taxes today and I am breathing a sigh of relief. While Harvey has to pay a bit, it is not as much as it has been over the past few years. I even get a decent chunk back as well, which will cover his payment, the accountant payment, and gives a bit to perhaps put in the savings account. Life is good and I can stop worrying about make our money stretch even further, than I have to.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless. 

Menu Monday

 

Wow, it is the middle of the month, or close to it at any rate. One would think more April showers would be happening. While the next three days will have some rain, soon enough we will have lower temperatures and some of the white stuff. Really the type of weather that makes a person want to stay inside. 

So what are we eating this week. I am using a few things up from the fridge freezer and probably one item from the chest freezer. It all depends on if there are enough leftovers from one of my meals.

Monday

Ham and Pasta Bake. This has some extra veggies that I put into the casserole.

Tuesday

Sweet and Sour Ribs and I will pull out a package of frozen leftover rice from the fridge freezer. I will make carrots as a side dish. We do love carrots in this house.

Wednesday

Leftovers from Monday.

Thursday

Leftovers from Tuesday if there is enough for a meal. I may end up pulling a ready made meal from the chest freezer. I may make a salad.

Friday

Salmon patties, homemade hashbrowns (from the chest freezer), and peas. Leftover salad.

Saturday

Jambalaya which will use up some of the smoked garlic sausage from the fridge freezer, the last of the shrimp, and I will make another salad of some kind.

Sunday

Roast chicken, roast potatoes, and roast carrots. Served with any leftover salad.

This will take care of a few items in the fridge, fridge freezer, and the chest freezer as well.

Everybody have a wonderful evening. 

God bless.

Sunday Ramblings

 

It rained a bit overnight, and was cloudy most of the day. Now the sun is out and I am enjoying that I could turn off lights in certain areas of the house. 

My back felt wonderful this morning, so instead of staying home and going to Mass online, off we went to the church. It was wonderful to be able to celebrate in community, however by the end of Mass my back was beginning to spasm. I had to walk very slowly out of the church and going down the stairs was jarring. 

Harvey decided that rather than me cook, or him cook he would take me out for brunch. The padded seats did help my back pain. 

Once home I would work for 15 minutes at a time on the loom and then take a short walk to ease the back. 

I also did the walk when cleaning and tidying the baking shelves in the larger side of the kitchen pantry. When I go shopping, because of all the bending, stretching, and lifting it takes me much longer (okay conversations with friends takes up a lot of time) to shop than it used to. It also causes my back to give me much more pain than usual. This means that when I come home and begin to put away the groceries, I more or less just toss things into the cupboard. Today, everything got put in their correct storage container, and I noticed I really need to get a couple more of those. 

This is the finished tidy.

I am very happy with how it turned out, and I can actually see things a bit easier.

Off to get supper sides started. I have changed my menu slightly as I am not going to waste any food. So instead of roasted potatoes we will be finishing off the pasta salad I made yesterday. I am also going to make some frozen French style cut green beans as those have been in the freezer for a very long time and need using.

Everybody have a wonderful evening. 

God bless.

Saturday Roundup

 

It is really warm today, almost 22 Celsius which is amazing. Just too bad that the cold is going to be returning bringing with it some heavy, wet snow. I am keeping my fingers crossed that this will miss us. Heavy, wet snow can cause lots of damage to fruit trees and bushes.

I have actually gotten a few things completed this week project wise to share with all of you, and there will be a picture of the ongoing weaving that I hope will be finished very soon. I would love to get this first scarf completed, and the loom moved out of the way so as to cut out some clothing patterns.

Here are the binders that contain all those recipes and craft projects I printed off. The binder contains the recipes we really enjoyed, and the crafts I want to work on over the coming years. There is still room to add to both as I find recipes we like or crafts that could save us money, or use up items from my various craft stashes.

A new and much more organized inventory of my fridge freezer. Hopefully this will keep me on the straight and narrow. The older one was not easily cleaned and really did not look at all nice.

I have two more small white boards on my shopping list for this week. One for the larger side of my pantry in the kitchen, and the other for the top part over the built in microwave where I keep my pasta. I will next purchase another couple one for the smaller side of the kitchen pantry, and the other for the chest freezer. The one I have on the upright meat freezer is working a treat.

Working on the scarf, I believe I have about 12" completed and there are red stripes on the end you can not see. I am hoping to get at least another 20 to 24 inches done over the week and be able to take this off the loom. 

No picture of the mitts as of yet, just finishing off pair number 9 of this larger size and once pair number 10 is done, a picture will be forthcoming.

I also did lots of bean preparations this week and those are residing in the freezer packaged nicely in the chest freezer. I will try my hand at crackers, tortillas, and will probably make some mini donuts or cookies next week. Heck since I seem to be on a roll lately the black beans and pinto beans will be cooked and frozen as well. 

While my days might seem complicated to many, they really aren't. As I declutter and organize things just seem to get simpler. Cooking in bulk or getting those items necessary for different foods done ahead, make meal prep and meal planning so much easier. I no longer waste time looking for something I need and either not finding it or losing it in the cupboard, fridge, freezer or in the craft room. 

My lists help me concentrate and as I mark items off it makes me smile. I am so glad to know that I am not the only list lover on this planet.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.