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Trying to ride my bike more and drive the gas-guzzling truck less. I'm in SoCal where it has been near 80 all week so I can easily do that.
Trying to eat at home more often - or at least make stuff like a sandwich to take with me.
Trying not to spend money on anything and just do things with the stuff I already have. No new toys for me right now!
*Bought calendars and pocket planners on clearance for 40cents each.
*Found out we qualify for our bank's senior accounts (actually qualified last year but didn't need it). Moved our business account over to the Summit Checking/Savings which earns double what a regular saving's earns (a big .2%) and it also includes free checks (no more pretty checks just plain). No more monthly business account fees.
We stayed in today and are prepping for the bitter cold. Carried wood in and put down extra bedding for the animals.
I made oven hashbrowns and scrambled eggs with fruit for lunch. My chickens are laying overtime and I'm trying to use up the eggs.
DD and I did "at home manicures" today. A little quality time and cute nails for free. We didn't leave the house. I work at home and am so thankful for it on days like this.
No drive/spend for the past 3 days. Today I ran some errands and met some former co-workers for lunch. The last lunch I ate out was with them in the late summer just before they went back to work. Tomorrow I will have to drive to the shop to set up for this month's sale but we are meeting early AM so no meal will be involved.
I did order a new Lands End coat and boots but with sale prices and a $15 off coupon, I spent less than $70 for $180 value - although, let's be real, I would never pay full price. The great thing about Lands End is that if they are not right, exchanges are easy and quick.
Pulled out the American Heart Assoc cookbook that has lots of good recipes - low fat but with lots of flavor - mostly via salsas and marinades. Committed to cooking from scratch as much as possible!
Frugal surprise today. Our trip to the vet was a free visit because the shelter we adopted him from has a program with our vet that provides us with an initial vet visit for the adopted pet for free. Wow -- what a deal! We have never adopted a pet from a shelter before, but we have used rescue groups when adopting our dogs. This turned out to be a great experience and I'm glad that we donated $55 during the adoption as this shelter is clearly doing good work.
Baked two loaves of bread today.
And contested a charge on the credit card. Long story, but hopefully it's resolved now.
Butchered three roosters on Sunday and cooked two of them yesterday. Yesterday's supper was roast chicken, turnips from the garden, sweet potato, carrots and cabbage that I had in the fridge, glazed with maple syrup that I buy locally for a really good price.
Tonight's supper was a kidney bean, chicken and rice casserole that was super yummy! (All from leftovers) There is enough leftover for my and DH's lunch tomorrow and another meal. The original recipe is here: http://dinoheromommy.com/2013/09/17/...ice-and-beans/ DH modified it slightly, using cream of chicken soup for the liquid and baking it in the oven, rather than the slow cooker. Very yummy!!
Started using myfitnesspal.com again to TRY to get this FAT under control! :(
Sold 7 dozen eggs, so that will pay for a bag of chicken feed, with $5 left over.
No spend days yesterday and today.
Jan 02
--fun for the day was volunteering at Seniors home, feels good and useful at the same time
bought a ticket for a raffle and a coffee $2.50...cheap day, went to library to do returns on my way there.
--leftovers for supper
--trying to keep heat down, but hard when it is this cold.
--put away some of Christmas stuff and sorted as I went about 10 things can be sold or given away
a decluttered organized home is a frugal home this is my mantra for 2014....lol...and I need to keep repeating it
over and over..
A snow day here in lovely New England. The college where I work was closed yesterday and is closed again today. I don't mind the extra two days of vacation or the snow. Unfortunately, as an hourly employee, I do mind missing out on earning a paycheck this week. Oh well, simply living means that I can swing the loss of income without much trouble. We adopted a new cat on December 31st and I think he's happy that I've been around these two days to help with his continuing adjustment to the house of chaos.
Today will be a pretty frugal day that involves snow removal and later some snowshoeing or cross country skiing. I made a batch of brownies for a treat. Granted they were not from scratch, but rather a gluten free mix I bought a while back, so not the cheapest of treats. But if it keeps us home to eat, then I consider that a frugal win. I'm making up a huge platter of black bean nachos now to refuel us from the snow removal adventures and fuel us up for the fun in snow later.
Spent a little time this morning considering future purchases that can go on the airline miles earning credit card. We don't buy many plane tickets each year, maybe 2 for my mom to come for a visit and 1 for me to go to see my family over the holidays. I'd love to earn figure out how to earn enough miles to cover 2 of those tickets each year as that would I easily save between $500 to $1000e every year. But we're so used to using debit cards for everything that I want to be sure we go about this in a strategic fashion.
Not much else to report. Hope everyone is having a fabulous start to 2014!!!
January 3 - My kids are still home from school, bitter cold weather kept us from running errands. Lunch was home made beans and leftover chicken made into quesadillas. Can't believe my teenager actually enjoyed the beans, they weren't from a can so I wasn't sure how it would go over. Happy about that.
My kids aren't terribly picky eaters, they'll eat all kinds of things like raw kale and butternut squash which a lot of their friends won't touch, but I'm bringing them further along the path to more whole foods.
Dinner is fish I found tucked away in the freezer and we'll stay in tonight watching netflix.
Hi, everyone! I always intend to pop on here more than once a month, but it never seems to happen! DS has been sick with ear infections and upper respiratory stuff, so my time and attention has been going to him!
January 1--No drive, no spend. Stayed in and enjoyed the day with DH and the kiddos.
January 2--Made arrangements with MIL to bring over a big girl bed for DD. We decided to do a twin instead of a toddler bed since we would have to buy either a toddler bed or a conversion kit for the crib and then buy a twin later anyway. MIL has a twin size mattress, box spring, and headboard she said we could have. She is bringing over a waterproof mattress pad, some sheets, some blankets, and a pillow as well. Oh, and the rains for the sides so DD won't fall out. This will save us a ton of money! I did break down and buy DD some Minnie Mouse bedding since she is apprehensive about leaving her crib. I spent $50 on it (on sale), but she really likes it, so...meh. Money well spent if she adjusts well and doesn't have a melt down every night because she misses her crib. She asked for a Thomas the Train pillow, too, and I decided to make one out of some Thomas material I got for free through Swap Mamas. She also mentioned a dust ruffle, too (her crib had one), and I think I will try to cut down and old queen sized dust ruffle I have. It is white, and I can dye it pink or purple to match her new bedding.
January 3--No drive, no spend again. We had bagels and cream cheese with fruit for breakfast (berries for 79 cents a pint from Aldi's), and DD was sad her daddy couldn't eat breakfast with us (he was at work). So I started some apple, cinnamon, raisin oatmeal in the crock pot so we can eat breakfast for dinner with him tonight. I'll scramble up a few eggs and call it good. Lunch was leftover beef stew and some biscuits. We played all morning in the toy room and will probably play and read library books after everyone gets up from their naps.