Ahhh, The Smells Of Christmas

I am in the holiday baking mood once more.

The caramels are cut and wrapped. The Bavarian Mints are cut and packaged. Both these packages are now in the freezer away from Harvey's wandering fingers.

English Shortbread, Whipped Shortbread Cookies and Surprise Toffee packaged and put away for when Kurt and Kris get home.

Tomorrow I will have a bit of a break from baking and do my weekly shopping and biweekly bill paying trip. I should also be able to cut out two more sewing patterns, and get a bit of decorating done upstairs. Baking will start up again on Friday when I hope to get some more cookies made as well as some squares.

Slowly but surely getting things ready for Christmas.

The tree is set up in the basement and twinkles every night for Harvey's enjoyment.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Thrifty Tuesday

The Collins Canadian Dictionary defines thrift as: economical management; the habit of saving.

Harvey and I have not always had a habit of saving, and I have not always economically managed the household funds to the best of our advantage.

It took Harvey being laid off of work for almost a year and trying to live on unemployment for the light bulb to go off.

Ever since that time I have purposefully watched what we have spent, taking the time to price things out to get the most bang for our buck.

Over the years since then we managed to pay off our house in 12 years rather than 25, and pay cash for each of our vehicles. It has also enabled us to pay off our credit card in full each and every month. Now I know some of you are shuddering over the credit card thing, but we do get money back each and every year. In fact with my credit card I buy groceries and since I buy them from the Coop that I am a member of we get twice the money back. This enables me to actually get probably close to a months free groceries every year.

I always save all the change from my wallet every two weeks, and any cash that is left from my biweekly spending money gets stashed away as well.

Old clothing is donated if it is in good shape, if not, zippers, and buttons are removed (they can be used over on other items) and the clothing is cut apart either into rags for cleaning or into usable quilting materials or patches for other clothing.

When I make meals leftovers are saved and used for another meal. If the food isn't frozen (such as leftover roasts, leftover chicken, turkey or ham), it is stored in air tight containers and used within a few days. It is amazing how many wonderful meals a person can get from a Sunday dinner (always our big meal of the week) and then the carcass of a chicken (or two), or a turkey can make lovely stock and still more meals.

Rather then buying lots of tupperware or expensive plastic containers I have been know to collect ice cream containers, soft margarine containers, yogurt containers and the like specifically for storing all those lovely leftover in the freezer.

Through saving and thrift we are having a wonderful retirement with enough to see us through and even take a trip or two every year. Perhaps not big trips, but nice relaxing holidays.

It has even enabled us to help Kurt and Kris.

Will we continue to be thrifty? Of course, it has become a habit now and one the two of us enjoy immensely.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Menu Monday

Monday

Chicken breasts served with rice and green beans. Not sure how I am going to cook the breasts, but I hope to figure out or find a new recipe to try.

Tuesday

Leftover roast beef, made into a type of hash.

Wednesday

The container of Turkey Soup from the freezer, along with Grilled Cheese sandwiches.

Thursday

Leftover hash.

Friday

Lazy Perogy casserole.

Saturday

Sweet and sour ribs, rice and peas.

Sunday

Roast Chicken, roasted potatoes and carrots. Serving with a tossed salad.

Everybody have a wonderful day.

God bless.

Sunday Ramblings

Today Father Brian spoke about preparing the way. One of the ways he spoke about was Reconciliation. This is something that I need to really think about and make time to do. As a convert to the Catholic faith it is the one Sacrament that I have a problem with. Father Brian says it is supposed to make a person feel more at peace, while I feel as if I am the worst person on earth whenever I take part. I need to pray about this Sacrament more, and realize I am not being judged and found wanting.

This was the start of my Christmas preparations. I started my candy making today and hope to finish it tomorrow.

Today saw me making......

Almond Bark.

and Peanut brittle.

I hope to make much more tomorrow between my regular household chores (laundry being the biggie).

Last night I pulled out the ham bones I have been saving in the freezer and made Pea Soup

It was scrumptious and served with egg salad sandwiches more than filled us both up. I even managed to put a container in the freezer for a meal later on when things might be a bit hectic.

And here is the ladies gift for our Christmas day exchange. Turned out not too badly really, considering that I used mostly fabric scraps that I had made into 2" strips. I was going to try something a bit different but with time being at a premium, went with the straight strips instead.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Frugal Friday

Hmmm, Frugal Friday is here once again.

This week we processed and froze sandwich meat and bacon for our future use.

I continued to use up items in the fridge freezer to make room for Christmas baking and more leftovers.

Instead of running out to buy a new top to wear at our family get together on Christmas day I found a free knitting pattern on line and the yarn in my stash to make a new top.

Made my ladies draw gift for our Christmas get together. I used up 2" strips from my stash, some backing I had in my stash also. The only purchase I made was some batting. Nice change from running out and buying something.

Went for my daily walks each and every morning.

Watching British TV series on Netflix.

Baked bread.

Used up leftovers in the fridge.

Hung up three loads of laundry in the basement once again.

Not a bad week at all.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Thursday Tid Bits

Quiet day around here again.

I spent most of the morning shopping for those bits we did not pick up while in Regina on Saturday. My cupboards are now filled and we should be good until I need to pick things up for when Kurt and Kris arrive as well as when we have our Christmas party with the family.

The afternoon was spent working on the quilt top. I am hoping to finish it off tomorrow, or at least get to the point where I can begin quilting.

Harvey set the tree up in the basement "man cave" and I hope to get it decorated in the afternoon. At least I hope to. Seems as if everything is needed to be done at the same time. Oh well, I will keep plugging away and things will soon be completed.

We are now up to 24 people here on Christmas day..... Help!!! I am pretty sure we don't have enough seating for everyone. Perhaps buying a few more folding chairs is in our future.

I hung up our first Christmas ornament.

This Jingle Bell Wreath. It was made by a blogging friends grandson and he did a wonderful job. I love it.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Processing And Freezing

When Harvey and I went into Regina we stopped by The Great Canadian Wholesale Club after our stop in Costco.

This is where we buy sandwich meat much like what you would buy in a deli (I am sure they get the sandwich meat from the same place).

We bring it home and using our meat slicer, slice each chub and package the meat for the freezer. The number of slices in each package numbers or in some cases weighs the same as what we would buy at our local groceries deli.

Yesterday we spent a couple of hours getting this done and placed in the freezer.

Here is the sliced roast beef and chicken breast packaged and ready to put in the freezer.

This is the pile of Summer sausage ready to freeze.

And lastly the Salami, which I seem not to have gotten a picture of.

The total cost of the meat was around $80.00. The cost to buy the sliced meat according to the number of packages we ended up with would have been closer to $185.00. So an overall savings of just over $100.00. A great deal all told and we will have sandwich meat for a very long time. I will be looking for an on sale ham that we can slice up and add to the mix.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.