My financial Year in Review

This being the last day of the year I pulled up the reports section of my Microsoft Money program and took a good hard look at last year. In short I was unhappy with how I was at managing my money and I can do way better. The Where is my money going report showed that as I expected my two largest expenses for the year were for my mortgage and my car payment followed by groceries, insurance, and real estate taxes. The same top five I would most likely see on anyone's list.  Number six is gasoline, an expense that was higher than normal for us due to two car trips to Kansas we took this last year. Again, something that I am not horrified to see. What then shocks me is the remainder of my spending habits, clothing in the top ten? Not this year. Books and Magazines in the top 15? Nope won't happen this year. My largest utility expense is surprisingly for electricity. I would have guessed natural gas since our furnace, our stove and our hot water tank all run on it. But this just is not what the numbers are telling me. I am starting a campaign to turn off lights, read my own meter (only 3 bills the entire year were based on actual readings...something the electric company could not  explain to me to my satisfaction...shame on my meter reader and shame on me for not noticing sooner), and get these bills under control. My second highest utility is my cell phone, since I am locked into a contract for yet another year no changes will be made until that time is up. Then I will most definately be finding another plan. We had a lot of special events this year which added up to a lot of money for gifts, the coming year will see a drop in this number for sure.
The second report I pulled up was the always interesting Who gets my money report. As expected my  mortage holder and my car loan holder get the lion's share. But what was shocking was who was in the number three spot: Target. Oh dear. I am going to have to end that relationship. I hate breakups but it needs to be done.
On the upside I paid off my sole remaining credit card and am on track to pay of a student loan I took to help out one of my older kids. This will allow me to begin to pay down on the principal on my car loan. My mortgage will remain what it is. Due to the recent real estates troubles that hit hard in my area the value of my property is way less than what I owe on it. Putting me upside down in that area due to no fault of my own. I cannot sell my property for what I owe and cannot rent anything similar for less than what my mortgage payment is so the only thing to do is ride it out. I guess the silver lining here is that my property taxes will decrease due to the new evaluations.
I have three simple goals financially for 2013:
1. Pay off student loan and pay down car loan principal.
2. Reduce unnecssary spending and increase savings. (bye bye Target and hello Credit Union)
3. Increase income by finding a part time evening job.
Here's hoping that the end of 2013 will see an acheivement of these goals and a much brighter financial picture!!

Dinner Menus: January 2013

Here are my dinner menus for the month. All meals are based on items already on hand with two exceptions, I will purchase two nice steaks for the dinner date night meal on the 17th and I will need to purchase one 3lb. bag of boneless skinless chicken breasts from Aldi to stretch the chicken already in my deep freezer. My food shopping list is extremely small and consists mostly of perishables and produce.
Dinner ideas based on planned overs are marked with an *. Meatless meals are in italics. I am trying a few brand new recipes and these I have put in bold print.

1. Pork Roast with sauerkraut, mashed potatoes, glazed carrots

2. Turkey and Wild Rice soup,* Basil-parmesan puffs

3. Pork Adobo, basmati rice, broccoli w/ sesame seeds

4. Hobo Stew, fly off the plate dinner rolls

5. One Dish chicken dinner

6. Roast beef, butter crumb egg noodles, Harvard beets

7. Curried Vegetable soup, Italian rolls

8. Lemon-Pepper tilapia, winter roasted veggies

9. Honey Glazed chicken breasts, mashed potatoes, brussel sprouts

10.(Dinner Date Night) Beef Stroganoff,* steamed rice, green beans

11. Shredded beef tacos, Spanish rice

12. Mom’s Chicken paprikash, knuffles, corn

13. Roast turkey, sage & raisin stuffing, cranberry sauce, peas

14. Mediterranean Lentil Soup, Honey wheat rolls

15. Salmon patties with chipotle tartar sauce, homefried potatoes, mixed veggies

16. Turkey Enchilladas,* yellow rice

17. (Dinner Date Night) Steaks, roasted balsamic mushrooms, baked potato

18. Deep dish Turkey Pie,* salad

19. Cranberry Balsamic pork chops, roasted potatoes, green beans

20.  Garlic pot roast, au gratin potatoes, corn

21. Corned Beef, cabbage and noodles, carrots

22. Minestrone, Garlic and herb rolls

23. Corned beef hash,* Harvard beets

24. (Dinner Date Night)Pomegranate glazed Cornish hens, white and wild rice, peas

25. Sweet and Spicy Kielbasa, mashed potatoes, corn

26. Pineapple Rum Pork chops, baked potatoes, green beans

27. Teriyaki Pork Roast, jasmine rice, mixed veggies

28.  Adirondack chowder, corn muffins

29. Pork Fried Rice,* egg rolls

30. English Fish and Chips, coleslaw

31. (Dinner Date Night) Chicken Marsala, cavatelle with sauce, salad

Pantry Challenge and Menu Making

  Reading a favorite blog of mine (http://ctonabudget.blogspot.com/) I came across this pantry challenge that my friend Carol is going to participate in. Without being aware of it while making out my January menu plans and thinking ahead to January expenses I too was involved in a pantry challenge. I checked out this particular challenge (http://goodcheapeats.com/2012/12/prepare-to-eat-down-the-pantry-2013-challenge) and liked what I saw here about specific goals. I am going to do this! My goals in January are to
1. Eat down a lot of what we have on our pantry shelves as well as use up the leftover turkey and  ham bones from the holiday.
2. Keep my food budget to under $150. Some things, milk, fresh produce, other perishables will have to be purchased but I have limited the amount of fresh produce this coming month relying more on frozen and canned goods that I already have on hand.
3. Get back to more cooking from scratch, especially making breads/rolls myself.
4. Eliminating a lot of food waste that has been going on and which I am ashamed of. I have gotten very slack lately and need to rededicate myself to making sure that by making do I don't do without.

To these ends I sat down today and made up a month's worth of dinner menus based almost entirely on what I already have on hand. Lunches will be eaten at work/school or will consist of leftovers or items already in the house (example today's lunch will be a quicky chicken-dumpling soup made with chicken stock from the freezer, garlic, shredded carrots, herbs from the cupboard, and homemade drop dumplings) and breakfast will be the  usual variety: yogurt, oatmeal, cream of wheat, toast, bagels, english muffins for weekdays with a cooked breakfast (waffles, pancakes, egg dishes with either sausage, ham or bacon) on Sunday mornings.
As I made my dinner menus I began to see a pattern arising with at least one meal per week being soup based (I love homemade soups in the wintertime) and most Sunday suppers based on a larger cut of meat I can then create a second meal from. Thursday has been Dinner Date Night for my gentleman friend and myself (with the kids doing a DIY meal at  home) and lately he has wanted to do some financial belt tightening as well so now I make a special meal just for the two of us on this night at his house. I have planned some nice dinners that won't break the bank and which  are based almost completely on what is on hand.
I am psyched to get started !

Early January Grocery shopping

Yesterday morning the stress of the holidays finally caught up with my body and I woke up with a dry scratch throat, a cough, and clogged sinuses. Ugh. My blood pressure is on the higher side of normal so when buying cold medications I keep this in mind. Of course I was totally out of Coricidin HBP which meant a trip to the store.
Not wanting to be wasteful of fuel while I am home on vacation I considered some other items we were out of (honey, steak sauce, pastas, fresh produce) and sat down and made a small list of things I could also purchase from the cash in my purse. My goal is to not touch the money in my bank account unless necessary (gas for the car) until January. My oldest daughter phoned as I was doing this and said she was tired of staying indoors and looking for somewhere to go so I invited her to go with me. She liked the idea of getting a head start on her January shopping and offered to drive. A done deal.

We went to Aldi, where I spent $51.10. I brought home a loaf of bread, a box of elbow macaroni, croutons, grape tomatoes, granny smith apples, bananas, spinach, spring greens, baby carrots, celery,  Orange juice, two Arizona green tea ice teas, sliced muenster, three bags of chips, a package of hard salami, bread crumbs, string cheese, ranch dressing, honey, two bottles steak sauce, half gallon of eggnog, a dozen eggs, roasted garlic 'triscuit' crackers, and a dozen eggs.   Our next stop was a little local Italian grocery store where they carry a lot of items I cannot find anywhere else as well as having an awesome deli. I spent $23.76 there and brought home a loaf of Italian bread, a pound of sliced pepperoni, a jar of sundried tomato pesto, a jar of pizza sauce, and three bags of locally Amish-made (Mrs Miller's brand) egg noodles in various sizes. Our last stop was at Marc's where I spent $16.81 and brought home a gallon of Arnold Palmer Lite, a bag of fresh sauerkraut, a cucumber, a jar of pineapple preserves, a bag of broccoli slaw, a bag of Ricolla throat/cough drops, and a box of Coricidin HBP.
I now have all the salad ingredients I need to take a nice salad to my middle daughter's house for tonight's dinner, as well as what odds and ends I needed for New Year's Day's dinner and some extras besides. I spent a total of  $91.67, $8.05 from my nonfood household item budget and the remainder of $ 83.62 from my food budget. This leaves me $266.38 in the food budget for future January purchases.

Our holiday

Once again it has been several busy weeks since I lasted blogged anything. The month was filled with work, occupational therapy appointments, and lots of holiday fun and shopping. Christmas expenses were kept to a reasonable minimum. Our tradition has been three gifts per person. My gentleman friend and I share the expense and this year we chose to keep gifts to under $30 per gift. The only gift we purchased that exceeded this limit was one that was given to both my son and daughterinlaw so in essence it met our limit goal. Decorations were ones I have used for years, the tree was an expense since we cut down our own but well worth it and budgeted for. This year we did not do Christmas cards but agreed that next year we will go back to this tradition and split the cost.
Food expenses were worked into the shopping trip I made at the beginning of December and I have been able to avoid any further grocery store shopping since that trip. I baked homemade cookies
   and we have a ton leftover so treats for the next couple of weeks are taken care of. I even made a holiday tin full of santa hat pretzels as a gift for my youngest son's girlfriend's parents.

My contribution to Christmas Day dinner was a 23 lb. turkey gifted to me at Thanksgiving by my single neighbor who does not cook and the 18 lb whole bone in ham he received at Christmas time from his company. We sent him two large plates of food from our dinner and I will send over soup that I will make from the turkey carcass and the ham bone.

The day after the holiday I divided up the turkey carcass and half went into a big pot with carrots, onion, garlic , celery, and black pepper


 which after I made a batch of homemade noodles became a big pot of Turkey-Noodle soup.  The remainder of the carcass I wrapped up and put in the freezer along with ham bone from yesterday's ham. I also brought home a sizeable baggie of ham that I will dice up and add to Ham and Cheese Bowtie casserole for Thursday night's dinner.  We will end up with several dinners and probably at least one or two lunches from these leftovers! A wonderful holiday and lots of frugal leftovers to extend our food budget, so a gift to myself!

December Grocery Extravaganza

Having done a very small shop in November in order to get my financial house in order we were in need of some major shopping for December. Keeping my budget in mind of course.
I set myself a goal to attempt to do all of our shopping at BJ's wholesale club and Aldi, and to get not only nutritious foods for meals but all the items I wanted for my holiday baking. I was successful on all counts. I also spent more money at Aldi than I ever have before, leading me to beleive that if push came to shove I could easily feed my family with only items from this store.
My first stop was BJ's Wholesale club.  I have a cash back membership there and it came in handy as I received an $86.62 gift card in rewards to use towards my December purchases. My bill totaled $188.67 but after deducting a $3 coupon and the gift card my out of pocket expenses were only $100.06. Toilet paper, paper towels, paper napkins (free after coupon with purchase of paper towels) tampax, and a holiday jar candle came from the household budget and the remainder was food. We brought home 1 6 pack of Chunky Chicken Gumbo soup ( a favorite of my teen daughter who arrives home early enough from school to eat lunch here), 10 lbs. Gold Medal flour, 1 large can hot chocolate mix, 2 chuck roasts, 1 lb. hard salami, 1 large eye of round roast, 3 lbs. organic bacon, 1/2 lb. proscuitto, 1 whole boneless pork loin (which I cut into a large roast for New Year's Day, 6 pork chops, 6 schnitzel, and 1 lb cubes),  a 4 pack of Pork tenderloins, a wedge of imported parmesan cheese, 1 jar of spreadable port wine cheese, and 6 lbs of clementines.
Our final stop was Aldi. I spent a grand total of $250.05!!! I stocked up on some specialty items for holiday entertaining and the needed baking items for cookies, fruitcake, and quick breads. From my household budget I spent $ 21.05 and got trash bags, storage bags in two sizes, toothpaste, shampoo, and a couple of new cloth shopping bags. The remainder of $229 was spent on food. I came home with a loaf of bread, a bag of tortilla chips, 4 bags assorted potato chips, 1 pck plain bagels, 100% cranberry juice, 100% red grapefruit juice, 100% grape juice, 2 100% apple juice, 1 bag frozen shredded hash browns, 1 bag mini marshmallows, 1 bag holiday marshmallows, 1 box rice krispies, 2 3lb bags boneless skinless chicken breast, 1 bag crispy chicken strips, 1 bunch celery, 3 lbs. granny smith apples, 1 bag fresh cranberries, 2 pomegranates, 3 lbs bananas, 1 pint baby bella mushrooms, 1 seedless cucumber, 3 lbs. red grapefruit, 1 pck. muenster sliced cheese, 1 pck. sliced provolone, 1 bag mini chocolate chips, 1 bag semi sweet chocolate chips, 1 bag white chocolate chips, 2 cans pumpkin, 1 jar pesto sauce, 3 cans cream corn, 3 cans evaporated milk, 1 100% pomegranate-cranberry juice, 1 can fire roasted tomatoes, 1 can Italian seasoned tomatoes, 4 cans beets, 1 box baking soda, 1 can baking powder, 1 can condensed milk, 2 Cornish game hens, 3 cans chunky beef soup, 1 can pineapple chunks, 1 pint grape tomatoes, 1 pck roma tomatoes, 3 multi colored peppers, 2 cans potato corn chowder, 2 bottles steak sauce, 1 can crushed pineapple, 2 cans green beans, 1 bag egg noodles, 2 boxes au gratin potatoes, 2 boxes rice a roni, 1 bag sliced pepperoni, 3 lbs lemons, 3 lbs.sweet potatoes, 2 lbs powdered sugar, 1 pck corn tortillas, 2 lbs brown sugar, 1 bag parsnips,  1 box buttery snack crackers, 2 jars bread and butter pickles, 1 bag coconut, 1 box onion soup mix, 1 box elbow macaroni, 1 pck fresco cheese, 1 box cream of wheat,1 box granola bars, 1 bottle ranch dressing, 1 jar mild salsa, 2 pcks colby cheese, 1 ball fresh mozzarella, 2 pcks cheddar brats, 1 corned beef, 2 pcks turkey kielbasa, 2 pcks imitation crab, 2 bags baby carrots,1 bag regular carrots, 2 lbs butter (I have 5 lbs in the freezer), 1 container french onion dip, 1 quart lowfat cottage cheese, 4 assorted fruit greek yogurt, 1 bag shredded Italian blend cheese, 1 pck neufchatel cheese, 1 pint light sour cream, 1 cabbage, 2 blocks NY cheddar, 1 pck american singles, 1 box golden raisins, 3 heads garlic, 1 bottle honey mustard, 2 bags chopped dates, 1 bag string cheese, 1 container caramel apple dip, 1 bag 'oreos', 1 bag dried apricots, 1 bag dried cherries, 1 bag dried pineapple, 1 pck. English Double glouscester cheese, 1pck Red Leicester cheese, 1 jar con queso, 1 container pumpkin spice creamer, 1 jar peanuts, 4 cans mandarin oranges, 1 jar cinnamon applesauce, 1 log summer sausage.

December Menu Plans

  December Dinner Menus

To say I am glad to see the back end of November is an understatement. I am hoping to close out the year with a much better month in December and have already acheived one goal I set myself, I made my final payoff payment on my credit card! I have a month's worth of dinner menus and have done a major grocery shopping trip. Some of the meals are carryovers from November and the ones with the asterik are based on planned overs.
Here are the menus:
December Menus

1. Broiled pork chops, au gratin potatoes, green beans, applesauce

2. Roast chicken, stuffing cranberry sauce, Harvard beets

3. Creamed chipped beef on toast, Capri veggies

4. Chicken and noodles*, salad

5. Pan fried whiting, hash browned potatoes, coleslaw

6. DDN: Heather's Garlic Baked chicken, pasta with garlic & parmesan cheese, salad

7. Pork Stir fry, basmati rice

8. Incredibly tender beef stew, dinner rolls

9. Pizza and Farmpark

10. Kielbasa and sauerkraut, pierogies

11. Cheese ravioli with marinara sauce, salad

12. Crab cakes, mashed potatoes, broccoli

13. DDN: Pomegranate glazed Cornish Hens, rice , salad

14. Valeries' party

15. Cranberry Pot roast, oven roasted potatoes, corn

16. Shepherd's Pie, candied carrots

17. Corned Beef, creole cabbage, parsley potatoes

18. Honey Glazed chicken, egg noodles, brussels sprouts

19. Corned beef hash*, corn

20. DDN: Pasta with tuna and sun dried tomatoes, salad

21 Tacos, spanish rice

22. Pork Schnitzel, German potato salad, red cabbage

23. Herb encrusted eye of round, Duchesse potatoes, salad

24. CE: Pork Tenderloin Balsamico, white and wild rice, Christmas salad, green beans almondine

25: Christmas Day: Roast Turkey, Brown Sugar glazed Ham, all the trimmings

26. Williamsburg Turkey soup*, rolls

27. DDN: Beef stroganoff*, egg noodles, peas

28: Spaghetti with Meatballs, salad

29: Ham and Cheese bowties*, green beans

30. Turkey enchiladas*, yellow rice, refried beans

31 New Year's Eve: Plans to go out.