January 2014 Frugals.........

fidgie: that was always my preferred method of meal planning too. Like you said, sometimes you just don't feel like having a particular meal, and some days are busier (and tired-er) than others - so having a list of 5 or 6 meals posted somewhere, and knowing you have everything in the house to make them - sure does make life easier. And cheaper.

I got in the habit of checking "the list" every evening, thinking about the next day's main meal and how busy or tired I would be, to see if/what I needed to take out of the freezer to thaw. And go from there. I still do this - only anymore I don't have any busy/worn out days to consider!

On the frugality front, same-o same-o around here. Mostly cases of "do you really need that?" (online ordering) And coming to conclusions of "nope, don't need that, don't want more stuff in the house. They're gonna have to discount that a bunch more to tempt me" etc. etc.)

Stopped at Dollar General on the way home for a few items, which means the grocery trip can be put off another week. Thursdays we all congregate at Mom's for dinner (it's her hair appointment day, we fill her fridge for the week, fix her pills, put out her trash and recycling, etc) and I added our trash to hers as we don't have trash pickup. I brought home some leftovers for my lunch at work today and some scratch for our chickens.

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I am also going to make a list to hang on the fridge of meal ideas we have on hand.

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...this is how I meal plan. Based on what we have in the pantry/fridge/freezer, I come up with the meals and then as the week goes on I use the ideas that correspond to how busy my afternoon/evening is. It's super simple and I can change things as I wish.
Last week I asked DD to plan the meals. I gave her a list of protein foods (choose 1 for dinner) and a list of everything else (salad, veg, potatoes, grains - finish the meal) and she did a great job both in using the foods and in having diverse meals. I assigned the meals to the specific days since I understand time and schedule. This was useful for me on multiple fronts - she was guaranteed to eat the meals (not usually a problem, but she was recovering from a stomach bug and had a low appetite); I got to see her preferences; and I saved myself some time.

Great week with my laundry challenge -- only 4 loads this week, down from our usual 6 or 7. Now to just keep that up for the entire year!

Brought my lunch to work on Thursday and Friday, plus green tea and water. So no trips to the vending machine for me this week -- woo-hoo!!! Also was gifted three bags of cough drops and a bottle of ibuprofen at work so those went in my desk. We're not supposed to distribute stuff like that to students even though they are all adults. But let's be honest...it's going to happen and I would rather they use it then go without. I'm going to stock my desk with some hand sanitizer, too, even though I never use the stuff personally. And I have a coupon for $3 off a bulk pack of Lysol disinfecting wipes so will pick those up when I go to BJ's this week. I'll consider that my contribution to the cause...it's worth it to me if it prevents me from getting sick myself!

Been doing a pretty good job of eating out of the pantry and fridge. Finishing off a package of corn tortillas, the rest of the the oatmeal, the bananas, and most of the oranges so far. Have been snacking on raw almonds and hard boiled eggs. Are cabbage soup from the freezer for dinner last night. Feeling much better about our grocery spending this month so now just need to keep it up and stay focused! I'll make some brown rice today so that I can have it to eat next week for breakfast in place of my usual oatmeal. And my dearly beloved is home for a few days so I'll get on him to bake a few loaves of bread, too.

The cats are still sick with upper respiratory infections and that has made for some not-so-frugal vet visits. There's not much more I can do for them -- like humans, it just needs to run its course. So I've been locking them in the bathroom with me when I shower so that the steam/humidity can help to clear up their breathing passages. And I've been I warming up their Snuggle Safe heating pads in the microwave in the morning so that they can be warm and cozy throughout the day and I don't have of leave the heat turned up when no humans are home.

Why so quiet on this long weekend frugalistas?!? I'm assuming it's not because you are out shopping!!! :~)

Very productive on the frugal home front yesterday. Made a batch of brown rice in the rice cooker. Enough for eight portions, which I separated into containers and stashed in the refrigerator for a week's worth of breakfasts. Dearly beloved baked two loaves of bread. We had some with dinner last night, which was carrot-lentil soup from the freezer. And then I made a batch of yogurt in the crockpot overnight. This morning I set aside a little bit of yogurt to use as starter for the next batch, which I think will be a double batch because we tend to eat a lot of yogurt around here. And dearly beloved also made a gallon on iced tea to drink. Wish I could convince him to switch to water, but iced tea is still cheaper than juice so I'll take it.

The leftover ham steak from last week has been deemed dog food, so I've been cutting up little pieces and adding it to the regular dog food in the mornings and evenings. The dogs are happy and it will save a little on buying their expensive prescription dog food. Don't get me started on what a racket that whole thing is...

Been using the delayed start option on the dishwasher so that it is just finishing the rinse cycle about the time I get up in he the morning. Then I stop the cycle and open up the dishwasher to allow the dishes to air dry. Saves on electricity and adds some humidity to our very dry house. Hung part of a load of laundry on the drying rack yesterday, too, to help with the same issue. I would hang all the laundry, but dearly beloved protests so I hang my stuff and not his.

Surprise snowstorm yesterday evening and through the night so now there is snow to clear. Good thing it's a weekend and we don't need to be anywhere any time soon. My dearly beloved postponed his trip to Vermont until tomorrow. Thankfully that's not screwing up anybody's plans or causing stress.

Made it through the week on a single tank of gas. Will have to fill up today, but will do it when I go to the gym for my Tae Kwon Do class, which means I can seek out the least expensive gas. We hit the gym yesterday, too, and we were able to combine that trip with several other errands. I think we could probably do better in this regard...baby steps, baby steps.

Hope everyone else is having frugal successes!!!

Well, DH took a full-time job after working part-time for the past four years. We were excited about what this would do for our budget, but the reality of the job was awful. He came home from his first day totally dejected, with back pain from standing all day and hundreds of cuts all over his hands (he was told he would build up calluses and would get used to it). The work was incredibly boring as well. So we talked it through and decided this was not a good fit for him. He's been through a lot of medical crap in the past two years, and I feel pretty strongly about sparing him any physical pain that can be avoided, and while we would have LIKED the extra money, we didn't really NEED it. Although I think we are frugal lightweights, we have at least been frugal enough to be in the position for DH to turn down this job, which is what we opted to do. So that's a major score in terms of the freedom even a somewhat frugal lifestyle can give you. Luckily his manager at his part-time job (which he really likes) hadn't even taken him off the schedule yet, and she was happy to have him back as though he had never left. :)
Our favorite flannel sheets developed a hole in the fitted sheet. I considered patching it, but the location meant that someone would very likely be laying on top of the patch which would be uncomfortable. Luckily, LL Bean still carries those sheets, so I was able to order just a fitted sheet to match and they're having a 20% off sale if you use your LL Bean visa, so this turned out to be a lot less expensive than it could have been.
I'll be working tomorrow, so no hanging out at the stores for me!

That's an inspiring story about your husband's job, rosarugosa. That may be the best definition of simple living that there is.

So nice you were able to make that decision rosaruga!

We went to watch Tyler run on Friday so that was not a frugal day. But so worth it!

Saturday we went to Meijer and bought a few groceries. Including grape juice for a new wine recipe my DH is trying. Spent about $31. Now we have about $13 left in grocery money until Friday. I can't think of anything we'll need though.

Today we stayed at home. Paid a few bills on-line but otherwise didn't spend any money. Worked on the budget. Did some housework and laundry. Hung several things to dry. I had leftover chili for dinner and DH had grilled ham & cheese. A quiet & frugal day.

My crock pot is getting a workout! Cooked up a batch of chick peas yesterday, separated into small servings and froze for future meals. At the same time soaked some black beans and, after coming home from the gym, put those in the crock pot to cook overnight. Now I've got plenty of black beans for the freezer, too. Felt super motivated yesterday afternoon and made a batch of chocolate tapioca pudding. Put it into single serving containers before refrigerating it. Hopefully this will mean it lasts all week. I've been known to eat the entire batch in one sitting in the past...

Dinner last night was mushroom soup from the freezer and homemade bread. We're eating a loaf of bread a day around here...they are small loaves, but still... So I've started more bread in the bread maker this morning. We just use the bread maker for the dough cycle and then take it out to rise and bake it in the oven. Probably uses more energy that way, but we think it is better bread than what comes out of the bread maker.

It's amazing how much food we have in our pantry and our freezers. Now that I'm developing some focus around this I can see that we don't really need to grocery shop nearly as often as we have been. If I can just get that meal planning thing down that would be fantastic! :D

Other frugals are just the usual stuff...maybe one day soon I'll have something big and exciting to report, but for now it's going to be all about the small stuff. :)

Haven't been home much this weekend until today. Didn't spend much money and had a lot of fun - Sat went to an antique show - paid admission but it was a fundraiser for a good cause. Did purchase a few items but spent less than I had allowed for. Sat evening my cousin scored free tickets to the local philharmonic, which performed with a Stones tribute band. Very interesting and fun show. We even got free garage parking (which was nice as the weather was crap and the car would have been snow and ice covered if on the street). Yesterday DD and I helped my DB and DSIL with some paperwork, for which they bought us lunch - and went to my mothers for the evening. Filled up the gas tank on the way home at the cheapest station (2.98 a gallon! cheapest in months!!). Barring something unforeseen, today should be a no drive, no spend day. I will write a few checks but it's a holiday so they won't be going anywhere, and thus I won't count the money as spent until tomorrow, lol.