January Frugals

The draft stoppers weren't anything fancy; just took about 6" of very firm fabric the length of the door, they are just laying on the floor,
not attached to the door or anything like that. I did stuff them fuller then when I have made the rice bags.
Our basement is fully finished so one of these was for the door that goes into the storage space under the stairs, that is unfinished.
I can really feel the difference in that area with the stopper down...I sure it will help make the basement more comfortable.

Stella. Would you be willing to part with your lemon herb chicken recipe? If so, I'd be forever grateful.

Haven't been posting much this month. I started my new job, which has been fantastic, but exhausting. Some great frugals that come with it: a bigger paycheck than I was getting, free health insurance, and I'm working from home so no commuting costs for the most part. Can't beat that!!!

In other frugal news, went out to dinner with my beloved last night and used gift certificates to pay for it. So all it cost us was the tip we left for the server. And we still have money remaining on the gift cards for the restaurant so we'll go again at some point in the future.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by lhamo

Wow --
Wishing you guys all the best in 2012. It was great to meet you in person the other day and hope we can meet up again next time I'm back in the Valley.

lhamo

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It was good meeting you as well. Let me know when you're in town and we'll get together.

Jan 16
--last two mornings had used up bread for toast that I had put in freezer a few weeks back
--meatloaf for supper that I had frozen awhile back...the theme here is using up things before they are in the fridge or freezer too long
--trip to store for special on way to an appt...only spent $10.00

Mrs. M it wasn't so much a recipe as something I just kind of made up as I went along, but I'd be happy to share it with you.

I sauteed the chicken in a mixture of half butter and half olive oil. Then when it was browned I deglazed the pan with some chicken stock and added some Penzey's Parisien Bonnes Herbes seasoning, which is made of chives, dill weed, French basil, French tarragon, chervil and white pepper, but you could add whatever sounds good to you. I added the juice and zest of one lemon and cooked it down just a bit. If you wanted a thicker sauce, you could probably add some corn starch, but I left it a little brothy and tossed the noodles with the sauce. That was all it took. It was quite tasty.

We took second place in the snowman contest! That was fun. We did a snow bird (bird made of snow) with a chow mein noodle nest and snowbirds (old people who move south in the winter). The old lady had blue hair made of dyed coconut and the old man was golfing. They had free snowcones and marshmallow roasting for all of the participants. It was great.

Hi all!

We had a very busy weekend at the house. With the gluten free diet we are pretty much only doing meals at home. We tried to go out yesterday for lunch and it was a disaster. So today I made up a soup with stuff we had laying around - butternut squash in the freezer, half a box of almond milk, chicken broth, nutmeg and pepper. So yummy! Usually my experiments don't turn out so well, but this one was good :)

Happy Monday, all . . .

I forgot one that I think will make a real difference. I put together the Winter 2012 Chore Schedule and redid the Weekly Overview form and Daily Assignment form that I fill out at the beginning of the week and post on the bulletin board in the dining room.

The The Weekly Overview gives us an idea of what is on the schedule for the coming week, especially for homeschool. That keeps us focused and helps me use my resources more efficiently. If we all know what is coming down the pike in the coming week we can plan for it better. It also reduces arguing and negotiating, which kids who know their mother is prone to fits of spontenaiety are good at doing. :) No honey. We can't make a triple layer chocolate peanut butter cake today. It's not on the list, but we need to accomplish x,y and z. Put it in the suggestion box and we'll find a time for it another day. That is what I need. I'm good at getting stuff done, but it's not always the stuff I should be doing. :)

Each person's Daily Assignment sheet has their school and/or housework tasks on it. That helps them to be self-motivated and organize their time. It means I don't have to nag, which is beyond priceless. Everyone knows what the expectation is for the day, and when the expectations have been met they are free to do what they want. It's lovely. It's tangentially related to frugality too, because the more efficient and happy we are, the less we spend.

Thanks, Stella! It sounds delicious.

Stella, love those sheets you do. My kids rib me about being addicted to checklists. If I want them to do something, all I have to say is "I'll make you a checklist" - and they're off! I use the Motivated Moms calendar (not that every single thing gets done every day, but it helps) and meal planning pages (different ones).

Yesterday I took some curtains I dug out of the bathroom closet, cut them down to fit the dining room and hemmed them. I had been thinking about buying new curtains. Also made one for the kitchen window out of fabric I already had. It looks kind of dark, though, so I may dig around in my stash and try another color. The same excavation of the bathroom closet yielded a set of cloth napkins - another thing on my to-buy list. We started using them yesterday. The cost of all of those items would have probably been $50+ even at a store like Target, but instead $0 (or sunk cost, actually).