Planning out the rest of the summer....

 I realized this morning that I have exactly 21 days of summer break left. 3 weeks. I took out the list I made for myself at the beginning of vacation and reviewed it. I still have a few 'must do-s' on there.
I must empty out the bookshelves in the living room and reorganize the books on there as well as clean up the 'catch-all' area behind our living room tv. I still need to fix the kitchen window screen (decided to leave the dining room screen door alone since the loose piece at the bottom makes a perfect 'doggie door' for the pets). I still need to take down the lace dining room curtains and wash them. I still want to clean out the coat closet and the linen closet.
I have been thinking of the fun stuff I want to do as well. GF has already said we are still going to the fair and the final church festival of the year ( his treat) despite the budget adjustments he himself is making. We cancelled our mini trip BUT we are still planning on taking advantage of our waterpark and zoo memberships. He also wants to do a day trip to Amish country and visit Lehman's Hardware. We've scheduled a college campus tour at a local university for youngest son for that week as well. We have yet to go to the beach. And I want to spend more time with my grandsons. All of these things are easily accomplished in the time that remains. And most of them will be free of charge!

When the menu plan goes out the window....

 After reviewing my menu plans for July to see what was left to pick from this week, I realized most of the menus were left. I hardly stuck to that plan at all this month. At yet what I cooked at home was made with items I'd either had on hand or bought for those recipe ideas. While I am a firm beleiver in menu planning and its benefits to saving time and money, I also love when having a fully stocked pantry hands the ability to go 'offline' if I chose to without it costing me more money.
Tonight was a perfect example. I took chicken out of the freezer, decided that I really didn't want the chicken marsala on the menu and got to thinking what I did have a taste for. The answer was a tried and true recipe for Honey Glazed Chicken. I had all the ingredients on hand (and discovered that I'd best add honey to that short grocery list for August since the honey pot is dangerously low) so off  I went. I added simple steamed basmati rice (for sopping up all the lovely 'gravy' this dish creates) and steamed peas seasoned with savory.
Teen daughter and adult son both never made it home for the meal so I have two nice chicken breasts in the refrigerator ready to turn into chicken salad for lunch tomorrow as well as a nice baggie of steamed basmati rice (I'm thinking the addition of milk, truvia, and cinnamon and a few minutes in the microwave will make this tomorrow's breakfast). Youngest son and I finished off the peas.
Without spending an extra cent I went off plan and managed to put a delicious meal on the table!

Weekly Money Review 7/21-7/27

  It is time again for the weekly review and this week I am smiling from ear to ear because it was a very frugal week for me. Even with daughter's grad party, a trip to the Farmer's Market,  and restocking all of the pasta as well as picking up a new plastic bin for this I did very well.

7/21: $18 on ice and incidentals for daughter L's grad party

7/22: $36.05 on gas for SUV

7/23: $0

7/24: $18.65 at Farmer's Market

7/25: $ 30 on restocking pasta; $7.99 on plastic bin to store pasta

7/26: $0

7/27: $0

August Menus and the Almost No Groceries Challenge

  Well after a good look at what was in the deep freezer, the refrigerator freezer, the fridge, the pantry shelves AND the budget I have come to a conclusion: we are going to have a Use What We've Got (UWWG) month. Grocery shopping will be bare bones: Oatmeal, spaghetti, elbow macaroni, juice, light sour cream, eggs, & sugar from Aldi.  One or two trips to the Farmer's Market for fresh produce (mostly salad ingredients, fruit for snacks, sweet potatoes) spread out over the month and that will be that. My goal is to keep the TOTAL expenditure to $125.
With this goal in mind I sat down and put together 30 dinner menus. I won't need all of those as we have some upcoming events: We will be going to a local county fair next Saturday, the following Saturday is a grad/18th birthday party as well as on the same day a 21st birthday party for a couple of family members, the day after that we plan on going to see my mother-in-law in PA for three days (GF said he'll pay for gas & hotel & expenses I can pay back half the total when I return to work), the Saturday after we return from our mini trip we have plans to attend the Feast of the Assumption festival in Cleveland's Little Italy (a yearly tradition for my Italian GF), and finally on the 25th my newest grandson is going to be baptized.  I wanted to give myself a nice pool of ideas to pick and choose from though. All of these dinner menus are based on items I have on hand already or the additional eggs, spaghetti, fresh produce I will be buying. After realizing I had a lot of what I think of as "big" cuts of meat (a whole bone in ham, a turkey, etc.) I also based quite a few of the menus on new dishes made from planned overs. Recipes using planned overs are in bold print, original ones with the big cut of meat are underlined, ones using items on hand have an *. As you will see most of these recipes combine at least two of these elements.   I don't plan on trying anything new this month but sticking with the tried and true stuff instead, turning to a couple of great resources: Pampered Chef's Main Dishes cookbook which has an entire 'cook it once, serve it twice' chapter, and The Plan Ahead Cookbook: 365 Delectable Ways to use leftovers as well as family favorites from my recipe box .
Here is what I have come up with:
Baked Brown Sugar Glazed Ham*,  au gratin potatoes*, applesauce*
Austrian Ham and Noodle Casserole*, sliced tomatoes*, butter beans*
Hot Ham & Cheese On buns*, Homemade potato chips*, peaches*
Ham & Cheese Quiche*, salad
Scalloped Potatoes & Ham*, garlicky green beans*,mini corn muffins*
Roast Turkey*, White & Wild Rice*, Capri blend veggies*
Open Faced Turkey & Gravy sandwiches*, mashed potatoes*, cranberry sauce*
Turkey & Stuffing Casserole*, corn*
Fettucine alfredo with turkey*, salad
Turkey burritos*, Spanish rice*
Mandarin Turkey salad with homemade dressing*, from scratch Fly-Off-The-Plate-Rolls*
Beer Can Chicken*, grilled rosemary potato packets*, Brussels sprouts*
Arroz Con Pollo (chicken & rice)*, green salad,  homemade green goddess dressing*
Texas Beef brisket* on buns*, Oven fries*, pickles*
Beef & Noodles*, Candied carrots*
Caribbean Pork Roast*, sweet potatoes, green beans*
Pork Pitas with Mango Salsa*, sweet potato fries
Pork & Gravy over rice*, cucumber salad
Pork Schnitzel*, Mom's knuffles (German drop dumplings) & cabbage*, homemade sauerkraut*
Pan fried Whiting*, Rice pilaf*, coleslaw
Lemon Pepper Grilled Tilapia*, baked potatoes*, broccoli*
Masala Salmon fillets*, Basmati rice*, capri veggies*
Grilled Ratatouille*, homemade honey whole wheat rolls*
Pasta with grilled veggies* (uses planned over ratatouille), homemade garlic parmesan puffs*
Spaghetti with mushroom marinara*, salad,  homemade dressing*
Balsamic butter Penne with broccoli*, garlic toast*
Pasta Carbonara Florentine*, salad, homemade dressing*
Grilled Chicken Provencal*, cauliflower puree*, peas
Family steak*, butter crumb noodles*, Harvard beets*
Mediterranean Steak salad, homemade Herb rolls*

An additional note on the big cuts of meat. I will also use some of this for lunches (ham sandwiches, turkey salad sandwiches), and make stocks from the carcasses of the turkey and chicken and the bone from the ham for the freezer.

Update: We won't be taking our mini trip after all. After reviewing budgets and factoring in the pay cut GF unexpectedly received this week this will not be do-able at all until the fall. Spoke with MIL and she was ok with that. This gives us time to save up for the trip to be taken over a weekend some time in October. Good thing I made a few extra meal plans!

Restocking from the flood & considering August's grocery list

  As I may have mentioned I lost an entire large bag full of boxed goods in the recent flooding in our basement.  How I never noticed it sitting on the floor instead of on the pantry shelf I just don't know (son who took this to the basement & I have had a talk about never leaving this kind of thing on the floor in the future). In any case the bag was stocked with mostly pastas along with a box of crackers and two containers of oatmeal. I will get more oatmeal when I do the August shop but since we are big pasta eaters here and I was out and about near GFS yesterday I decided to go ahead and replace the pasta (except the spaghetti and elbow mac from Aldi) I lost right away.
$30 later we have enough pasta to last us at least two months. I came home with:
1 5 lb. bag medium seashell pasta
1 5 lb. bag medium cut egg noodles
1 2 1/2 lb. bag orrechetti
1 3 lb. bag Amish wide kluski egg noodles
1 2 1/2 lb. bag linguine
1 2 1/2 lb. bag bowties

A stop at Target and I acquired a large plastic bin for $7.99. The pastas will go inside the bin which will then go on the bottom shelf of the pantry. This should give it double protection against any moisture.
I am looking ahead to August's grocery shopping and will focus on mostly fresh food items. We need no more canned or bottled goods except for juice. I will pick up oatmeal since the open container is almost empty and the 'backups' were flooded out but this and sugar should be the only dry goods I need this month. The rest will be proteins, dairy, and fresh produce. It looks like a short list which is good as well. I will be returning to work mid August but the paychecks won't start showing up until the end of the month. I am hoping to keep grocery expenses to under $200.

What has been for dinner

  Here is a run down on what has been served up for dinner this week.
Monday I found myself and adult son J home by ourselves. I opted to finish up a carton of Chinese food from last week (pork lo mein my favorite) and J opted to take himself to Wendy's. LOL. Tuesday GF and I had to attend calling hours for the inlaw of one of my relatives and afterwards oldest son R and his wife M joined us for dinner at a local pizza place.
Wednesday it was once again just myself and son J, this time I dug out a small package of three very tiny eye round steaks from the freezer and grilled those serving them with white and wild rice pilaf and green beans.
Last night was dinner date night and I planned on doing Chicken stir fry over steamed rice. I searched through GF's pantry cupboard only to find that the only rice on hand was Arborio and I did not want to use that. However there were several boxes of spaghetti so I changed the stir fry to lo mein and we were in business. Today's lunch will be the leftovers.
Looking back at my menu plans for the month I see we really haven't been sticking to them very much. On the other hand I'm still using food on hand and not buying additional ingredients when I decide to go off the plans, so still a winning situation.
Once again tonight I am off the menu plan. GF has a package of 'meatloaf' mix in the freezer that I intend to turn into a Spicy Meatloaf. Boxes of au gratin potatoes in the cupboard and a ton of baby carrots (left over from daughter's grad party) in his fridge to become candied carrots with parsley (to add some green color to the plate). Brown gravy from a mix in his cupboard for the meatloaf since he is a fan of this completes the meal.

Homemade Waffles & Strawberry sauce

 Today for breakfast I pulled out a recipe that is a combination of one my sister gave me when I was first married and one I came across several years after that in a local newspaper. It is our go to favorite for both waffles and pancakes. The ingredients are the same but the preparation is slightly different. In order to reduce saturated fat and calories in this I generally substitute Smart Balance spread for the butter and use either 1% or fat free milk. I have also subbed half the sugar for Truvia (the only time I tried it with all stevia we did not care for the flavor but half works well). When making pancakes I've also used eggbeaters in place of whole eggs.
Basic Waffles (or pancakes):
2 cups flour
3 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup butter
Separate the eggs and beat the whites until stiff, set aside.

Combine remaining ingredients, including egg yolks together into a smooth batter.

Fold in egg whites immediately before cooking.

Cook on  preheated waffle iron.
For pancakes you do not need to separate the eggs, just add whole egg to remaining ingredients and combine.

 

This morning I am going to top these with sliced and sugared strawberries and some whipped cream before serving.

Leftovers will be cooled and bagged and frozen for quick 'toaster waffles' another day.

Cookbook Review: Cheap, Fast, Good!

After having recently come across a mention of this cookbook I reserved a copy from my local library to read.
If  you are struggling with the food budget (and most of us are these days) and trying to put together meals that are not only healthy and tasty but also inexpensive I recommend you give this book a look-see.
Not only are there recipes there are large sections of helpful advice such as 'buying a freezer', 'the conventional wisdom of food cost savings', 'other places to shop', 'how to use a big hunk of ham', and my personal favorite:  'making school lunches reasonable'. There are side notes for almost every recipe as well.
The book is divided into several chapters you'd expect to see: soups, salads, entrees, dessert as well as a few unusual specialty topics : batch cooking, coupon advice, and a review of the author's own $100 a week experiment.

It certainly made a for a good read and I picked up a few ideas I intend to implement as well as several recipes I intend to try out in my own kitchen.

Farmer's Market Stop

After youngest son complained about the lack of fresh fruit in the house and I did a quick look at what was on hand I decided a run to the local farmer's market was in order. I'd been planning on trying a few new recipes and craving one of my favorite things: Grilled Ratatouille..so off to the market I went.
My area has a traveling market that sets up for a few hours on one day a week in my own community as well as those around me. Our day is Friday and I've been eyeballing it but haven't really seen many deals. I'm hoping as the season goes on I will start to see some good buys here. We have a permanent year round market as well and this is where I chose to go.
I gave myself a $20 cash budget for this and spent $18.65.
Here is what I brought home:

A bag of spinach ($1.99) , a locally grown cabbage ($1.50 ), two pints of mini cukes (2 pints for $3), an eggplant ($1.29 per pound), two quarts of on sale strawberries (99¢ each), a bunch of on the vine tomatoes ($1.49 per pound), 8 (2 1/2 lbs) plums (99¢ per pound), and 8 (3 1/2 lbs. nectarines (.99¢ per pound).
My plans: plums and nectarines are snacks, spinach will be used in a salad with some of the strawberries for today's lunch, cabbage will be used several times, I plan on shredding some and trying a homemade sauerkraut recipes I found online, some for cabbage & noodles one night next week for dinner, the rest as coleslaw. The eggplant will join tomatoes, onions, garlic, zucchini, and bell peppers I have on hand in the aforementioned ratatouille to be served as a side one night and as part of a main dish another night next week, the strawberries not used in the salad will be cut up and lightly sugared and used with cereal, yogurt, and over made from scratch waffles for breakfasts. Tomatoes will find their way onto sandwiches and in salads. Half of the mini cukes will be turned into my mom's cuke salad to go with tonight's dinner and the remainder will be used in a recipe for refrigerator bread and butter pickles I am trying.

Its Raining Its Pouring

It isn't raining today but it sure made up for all the dry days we had last week while it was so beastly hot with a nasty thunderstorm in the wee hours of Saturday morning. The rain fell at a 5 inch per hour rate for 20 minutes here. Basement flooding was everywhere including both my home (minor flooding, just a couple of inches) and my oldest son's home (major flooding, about 2 feet of water) in a neighboring city. My son's city is actually trying to get federal disaster status, 5000 of the 6000 homes in that city had some type of basement flooding due to the storm. So far FEMA is denying them funds. My son also found out that his homeowner's policy denies claims of water damage due to drain back up (which is what happened).
He is currently shopping for new insurance since his neighbors all have policies where this is standard coverage (as do I). I feel so badly for him since half the basement was a family room; carpeted with a built in bar and had furniture, tv, xbox, & wii. Only the bar, bar stools, glassware, and tv survived. They were fortunate in that items they had stored in the unfinished section were in plastic bins and only one bin filled with water and the washer and dryer were on raised platforms. They'd never had flooding in this house before (GF lived there for 17 years before selling to son 3 years ago) so this was totally unexpected.
Here we were lucky I guess. We've had some minor flooding  due to heavy rains before. My basement is just that, a basement, cement floor, basement walls. The deep freezer is on a platform Middle son J built from treated lumber and he also built shelving on three walls of the basement where we keep items in plastic bins (like holiday decorations) or on the shelves up high (like big kettles, small appliances). My pantry shelves are part of this system. Not much gets kept on the floor. The washer and dryer are on the floor but washer works fine and dryer seems to be ok (it still needs a new belt so barrel doesn't spin but motor came on when we checked). J says his next project is to build platforms for both of these. Fourth side of the basement is a large work table and we do have a small bathroom that is in the midst of remodeling so no worries with that. We did lose a couple of throw rugs that were waiting to be washed ( I ran them through the washer but they still smelled nasty and the backing was sketchy), some paper lawn bags, and an Aldi bag containing some boxed goods that didn't fit on the pantry shelves. Everything else that we tossed was mostly boxes of stuff we'd intended to get rid of anyhow. Five contractor bags filled and ready for the trash collection today. I spent $6 on bleach and have washed down the floors with bleach water twice. Another round is going to be done this morning before I go back to son's house and help daughterinlaw M wash down about 20 metal chairs they had stored for holiday dinners.  I need to stop at Aldi and buy more cat litter as well since the kitty box got washed out and that was the last of our litter.
I guess the moral of the story is to thoroughly check your insurance policies and make what preparations you can to avoid losing too many things.

Financial Roundup for July 14-21

Even with the expenses from youngest daughter's grad party it was a good week. I did MUCH better with the eating out thing!

Here is the breakdown:

7/14: $13.55 at Lowe's for wood cleaner, furniture polish, and Damp Rid bags

7/15: We went to the waterpark all day but since I packed lunch and drinks the cost here was $0 this time!!!

7/16: $37.01 on gas: it was $5 Tuesday at the movies but youngest son insisted on treating me so my cost was $0!!!

7/17: $0 (I did my every other week cleaning gig and earned $50)

7/18: $ 119 for daughter's grad party

7/19: $0

7/20: $0

7/21: $19 for ice for grad party

Graduation Party on a budget

This last Sunday I finally threw my daughter L's high school graduation party. I budgeted ahead for this, allowing for so much money from my savings to pick up the cost. We invited around 60 people (mostly family) and everyone except a cousin & her spouse who were out of town attended. When planning the first place I had to consider was the venue. My home at just under 1100 square feet is far too small, not to mention the issue with the dogs & cat and guests with allergies etc. My GF kindly offered his home but since he lives about 30 minutes away from most of the guests I decided not to make everyone drive so far. When my middle daughter K graduated I held her party at a local metropark pavilion. This is a first come first served situation but it is also free.  I decided it was my best option. I chose a random Sunday and we planned on being there at 7 a.m. to make sure we had the area. Party started at noon. We arrived at 7:10 and the entire pavilion was empty. We claimed half the space.
  The second thing I considered was decorations. I was fortunate at the end of the school year where I work that a large box with tablecloths and napkins was left behind after the 8th grade graduation party. All the items are marked 2013, so I asked the principal if I could purchase them. She said I could just have them since they cannot be used again. There were some plain blue and yellow paper placemats as well but these I will return since they can be used next spring.  My daughterinlaw and I went to a local craft store that had decorations on clearance and picked up some signs, a card box, etc. Daughterinlaw insisted on picking up this cost. Daughter L's boyfriend's Mom gave us some streamers she didn't use. These decorations worked very well and we were able to save everything except the tablecloths and napkins for next year when my youngest graduates.
The next thing to consider was food and drink and how to keep things cold. Last Thursday I met daughter K at BJ's so she could get some diapers for new baby and I picked up charcoal, paper plates, cups, plasticware, all the veggies for the veggie tray, chips, salsa, and some baking supplies. Cost: $94.  The burgers, hot dogs, buns, pop and water were bought on Saturday and GF insisted on picking up this cost. What a guy.
I have a super large 'fishing' cooler that we use for camping to keep food cold, and GF has a regular sized one for soda pop, Son R has another one for bottled water. Drinks were simple, canned pop, bottled water, and a two gallon drink dispenser with ice tea . No alcohol is allowed in the park and with teens in attendance I preferred not to serve it in any case.  Son R and I went and bought ice after we unloaded all the stuff at the park. Cost: $19 since we needed a lot of ice. I had froze water in several plastic containers to make 'blocks' of ice for the dispenser, which worked perfectly. This worked well at my sister's anniversary party and was a great tip. To keep food like macaroni & potato salad cold I had large containers filled with ice that I set the bowls of salad inside.
I did not  have to provide all of the food. My family's tradition is to pitch in and bring a dish for occasions such as this (just last week I took a dish to my sister's 50th anniversary). Family members brought potato salad, fruit salad, baked beans, pasta salad, tossed salad, cole slaw, brownies, and two kinds of cookies. Daughter K made a brisket and shredded it for sandwiches as well as bringing hummus and pita chips. I made macaroni salad,  a pasta caprese salad,  a veggie tray, pizzelles, assorted chips, and salsa.  And of course GF provided the hamburgers, hot dogs, buns, and beverages.
The fourth thing I had to consider was the cake issue. I debated doing a traditional half sheet cake and decorating it or making cupcakes. I settled on doing the cupcakes. They are easier to transport and to eat. The craft store had graduation decorated cupcake liners on clearance so I picked up enough to do 75 cupcakes, cost $6. Daughter in law joined me  and we did  24 white cupcakes (doctored up box mix from Aldi) with white frosting (from scratch) , 26 chocolate (another doctored Aldi mix) with chocolate frosting (from scratch), and 24 cherry-white chocolate chip cupcakes (Aldi white box mix doctored with maraschino cherry juice & chopped cherries with white chips added) with cherry frosting (from scratch) . I already had the cake mixes and supplies for frosting in my pantry so no extra out of pocket there.  I bought plastic graduate decorations at a local baker's supply place as well as a couple of large boxes to transport the cupcakes. A graduate cap cookie cutter and blue and yellow sugars (school colors) rounded out my expense to $19.
And finally the last decision to be made was what to do for entertainment. GF has a bocce set, his brother has a cornhole set, daughterinlaw's parents have a volleyball net, and GF has horseshoes for the horseshoe pit already at the park so entertainment was taken care of. We never did set up the volleyball net or play bocce due to the wet park conditions from the previous day  but the cornhole and horseshoes were very popular.
The recent heat wave broke finally and the weather was gorgeous mild temps and sunshine. I got very lucky since the day before was miserable.
We had a  terrific celebration! My total cost was $138 due to GF's generosity. I had budgeted $250. With what he spent the party came in at $318. I will remember this amount for next year when it is youngest son's turn and plan accordingly.

What we've been eating....

While out and about spending money like I'm growing it on trees in the backyard during the day I have been sticking pretty closely to the menu plans for dinner and being frugal at breakfast time as well. It was a busy week for me and that was without any cleaning gigs. I drove daughter K and her boys around on errands on Monday (her car was in at the mechanic), did the waterpark twice, the zoo once, ran up to the library, and went to the movies during the week and then yesterday attended college orientation with youngest daughter L as well as her boyfriend's grad party and then a church festival with GF. I guess I could consider this as making the most of the time off I have this summer.  This week isn't slowing down much either, another waterpark trip planned for Monday (and GF and I are considering a couple hours there today too since the temps are going to be close to 90), movies on Tuesday, cleaning on Wednesday then shopping for daughter L's grad party, baking for grad party on Thursday, rest of shopping (meat & buns) for grad party on Friday, cleaning then another church festival on Saturday and finally daughter L's grad party next Sunday.

In any case I blogged last Tuesday about the Vidalia Onion Pie we had for dinner. Since we'd planned on the waterpark for Wednesday I thought ahead about dinner, looked over my menus, and settled on Asian Summer salad for that night. Wednesday morning I popped a couple of boneless skinless chicken breasts seasoned with Asian seasoning blend in some water in my microcooker and zapped them until done. While cooking some linguine, I used my Pampered Chef julienne cutter to cut up carrots and a zucchini into strips and diced a red bell pepper. I tossed the cooled chicken, veggies and cooked and cooled linguine together and added some roasted peanuts. Then I grated some fresh ginger, pressed some fresh garlic, and added oil, rice wine vinegar, soy sauce and black pepper to this mixing well. I poured the dressing over the pasta mixture and put the entire thing in a covered bowl in the refrigerator for later on.
Our day at the waterpark got cut short due to severe storms but since the rain did nothing but increase the humidity it was nice to have that meal ready and waiting.
Thursday we took an unplanned return trip to the waterpark but since it was dinner date night and GF suggested he take me out I knew that leftovers of onion pie and summer salad would work for the kids.
Friday night I settled on the spaghetti and meatball menu altering it slightly and making a meat sauce instead.
And of course yesterday's dinner was party food at the grad party we attending followed by a few things shared with GF at the festival.

Day of Reckoning

  It is that time again to take a really hard look at the financial picture. It was an expensive week, no doubt about it, and I 'm pretty embarrassed to report on it. While we did take advantage of our zoo membership, our season passes to the waterpark, and the $5 Tuesdays at the movies the expense for food at these locations broke the bank. This week while we plan to do the waterpark and the movies yet again there will be a picnic packed to the waterpark and no snacks bought at the movies. Next Sunday is my daughter's graduation party so I will be spending some money on this (budgeted for already though), so all unnecessary spending is at an end I feel like I have said this more than once, sigh ). I will be bringing in some cash this week through cleaning. This is  earmarked though towards the amount owed for teen daughter L's fall semester of college. She just found out this week that her application had been accepted and she is going to be attending a local college and living at home. She got a tremendous financial aid package that will cover almost the entire amount of tuition and fees. She will pick up the cost of books and incidentals and I promised to cover the amount for tuition not paid for by the aid. This is due by August 1st but is such a minimal amount that this week's cleaning will cover almost all of it!
So here is the ugly truth about this week's spending:
 7/7: $0
7/8: $ 21.72 on gas for SUV; $10 at Farmer's Market
7/9;$5 for movies; $15 on popcorn/pop
7/10: $36 for food at waterpark for myself, son H & Son's girlfriend
7/11:$48 for food at waterpark for myself, daughter L, her boyfriend, son H & girlfriend
7/12: $48.28 on gas for SUV (we did A LOT of driving this week) $ 25 on food at the zoo; $48 at zoo gift shop
7/13: $50 on graduation gift for daughter L's boyfriend (GF and I went to another church festival after attending the graduation party where I ended up winning back what I spent on the graduation gift as well as coming home with $20 more in my pocket than I went there with due to instant bingo winnings)

Like I said a really expensive week.

Dinner & A Movie

 I have a confession to make, I am not much of an onion fan. I do love them caramelized and can tolerate them in any cooked form but raw onions, UGH. I like the flavor they bring to foods but just cannot tolerate how strong they are when raw. And out of the many varieties of onions there are I honestlyonly enjoy one:  a good sweet onion, especially the now in season Vidalia onion. Today is going to be another humid (ok, wet day since it is raining now and is supposed to continue on all day like this) and hot (mid 80s) day. Normally I would avoid turning on the oven (no A/C) however I have a taste for one of my favorite recipes. Years ago I used to post on a regular basis on an old AOL message board that shared recipes and I got this particular one from a lady on there. Taking advantage of the semi-cooler temperatures this morning I am baking up the blind pie shell and then letting it sit until I do the filling later on in the afternoon.
I love baking pies. So much so that I keep a handy cheat sheet for pie dough on the inside of the cabinet where my spices/baking supplies reside.

I also keep shortening inside the refrigerator and of course we have a pitcher of filtered water in there as well so I am always ready to go for pie shells.  I combined 1 1/2 cups of flour with 1/4 teaspoon of salt. Then I cut in 1/2 cup of shortening using a pastry cutter (I prefer this old fashioned hand method over a mixer). I quickly added 4-6 tablespoons of water and rolled the dough out on my marble pastry board:

A quick roll and a transfer to a 9 inch pie plate, a good poking with a fork to prevent shrinkage and it was ready to go into a preheated 425 degree oven for 15 minutes:

I will let this baked shell cool and then cover it with a clean tea towel and let it sit until I am ready to do the filling later on this afternoon.

 

 

Afternoon plans for today included taking advantage of the $5 special on movies at a local theatre. Teen son H and his lady friend, her grandma and grandma's friend, and  I all planned on seeing The Lone Ranger. While this movie did not get great reviews we are all Johnny Depp fans and went to see it anyway. We enjoyed it. It was great fun. Next week we plan on catching the Despicable Me sequel.

After returning home I did the filling for the pie and popped it in the oven. An hour later it was ready to be cut and served.

 

Vidalia Onion Pie:
1 baked 9 inch pie shell
3 large Vidalia onions, peeled and sliced thin
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup + 2 tbl. grated Parmesan cheese, divided
1 tbl. hot sauce
salt and pepper to taste
pinch of paprika

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Melt butter in a large skillet and cook onions until clear and soft, about 10 minutes. Set aside.
In a large bowl mix together the eggs, sour cream, hot sauce, 2 tbl. parmesan cheese, salt, & pepper. Stir in onions and cooking liquid and mix well. Pour onion mixture into prebaked pie shell. Sprinkle remaining 1/4 of a cup of cheese and pinch of paprika over the top. Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes. Lower temperature to 350 degrees and bake an additional 30-40 minutes until lightly browned on top. Let cool about 10 minutes before slicing.

Electricity Update

  I had the oddest experience with my electric company this week. For the last several months I'd been going around with them about my meter readings. I'd been receiving estimated bills for the last year. When questioned the company said they couldn't access my meter through my back yard. True since we have an 8 foot privacy fence and keep the gate locked due to the dogs. However my meter is clearly visible from the neighbor's driveway. When I mentioned this the company rep said the meter reader reported that the meter was blocked by bushes. I checked out the situation and while we do have bushes in the area you could still see the meter. The bushes were on my to-do list for trimming so I set about doing this as well as clearing away some ivy in the area that was getting out of control.
Then I read my meter and sent in the reading. Where it gets very odd is when I got my July bill. Well I actually received THREE bills. All with different amounts. I went 'green' with the electric company last year and get my bills via email. The first bill I opened was an ACTUAL reading and claimed I had a credit of $100.64. Ah ha, apparently for all those months before I started reading my own meter when I insisted to the electric company they were overcharging me (especially last November when I was without power for an entire week due to Sandy) I was right and they were , well, wrong, when they insisted their estimates were 'good'.  

The next 'bill' I opened claimed a credit amount of  $60.63. Huh? The final bill I opened was a credit of $32.72. I was perplexed to say the least. Then I started to read them in depth and realized that instead of just crediting me the entire amount of money they went back three months and divided what they considered my actual usage by three, then subtracted each useage amount for each month's 'credit' amount.
I am making no attempt to even try to understand why their billing department would handle it this way.
The upside is I had to pay $0 this month and I have a $32.72 credit going towards my August bill!!!

Eyeballing the budget: Weekly finances in review 6/30-7/6

As I have mentioned before although I filed an appeal nothing has been decided on the topic of unemployment so I am proceeding as if the appeal will be denied and relying on my savings (and the small amount of cash I make cleaning) to get us through the remainder of the summer months. This week I took care of a couple more bills (mortgage, car payment) and did the grocery shopping (see previous posting on this). I also cleaned twice (income: $175) which allowed me to pay my cell phone bill yesterday and have some cash in my wallet for future expenses. Once again my cell phone bill has increased. This is the second time in the last year with AT&T. I have six more months left on this contract and then we will be parting ways.

Other expenses add up this way:

Sunday 6/30: $0

Monday 7/1: grocery shopping $262.72 (more than the $200 I'd planned but still within the $350 I budget for each month) on food, $35.56 on nonfood household items (well within the $75 budget for this category) $5 for parking for event downtown (since son R drove I told him I'd pay for parking).

Tuesday 7/2: $63.55 at BJ's on steaks for July 4th picnic, I got half of this back ($32) from GF and shockingly we had three steaks turn bad by the 4th (although the sell by date was 7/4), I returned these and got my money back. GF insisted on picking up the cost of replacing these so we'd have enough food for everyone we had to feed that day so my end cost was $0.  $85 at eye doctor for 6 month supply of contact lenses. $3.42 at Lowe's for clothespins and DampRid bags for basement.

Wednesday 7/3: $34.25  on picnic supplies (ice, pop, bottled water, etc.) half of this reimbursed by GF so total cost $ 16. 

Thursday: 7/4 $0

Friday 7/5: $48.00 on gas for SUV

Saturday 7/6: $53.00 on card and gift card for sister's 50th Wedding Anniversary.

At first glance it looks as if I spent quite a bit on extras but with the reimbursements from GF my totals came out to be acceptable. I'd budgeted about $50 on the gift  so that was planned in advance and while gas was expensive this week I'd also ran the tank almost dry and did manage to gas up at the cheapest station in the area.

This coming week I anticipate having to gas up yet again and dropping a small amount ($5) on a movie 'date' with teen son H & his GF to see The Lone Ranger (a local theatre has $5 Tuesdays so we plan on matinees on several Tuesdays this summer). The teens and DIL M and I plan on finally using the waterpark passes we bought and going there midweek but we will pack food and drinks and parking is free. We've also talked about another zoo day and packing lunch for that as well.

Mom's Macaroni Salad

  Yesterday my sister M and brother in law B celebrated 50 years of married bliss. Their daughters planned a huge celebration and as is common in our family we all pitched in with a dish. I was asked to bring Mom's Macaroni salad. Since about 120 guests were expected when I grocery shopped I picked up a couple of 2 pound boxes of macaroni at Aldi as well as the celery and onions I needed. I already had a couple of extra jars of Miracle Whip (our family's preferred condiment for this salad)in the pantry and eggs on hand.
Friday I spent a good portion of the day at my sister's house helping with food prep and set up then went home to make this salad for the next day. I probably could have gotten way with half the amount I made since there was a ton leftover, but then as is also common we all made way more food than we needed for this party. On the upside all of us have some leftovers to eat off of today and several dishes will go in the freezer and reappear at my daughter L's graduation party in two weeks!

Mom's Macaroni Salad:

 10-12 side dish servings

1 lb. elbow macaroni, cooked according to package directions, drained and rinsed with cold water
2 ribs of celery, chopped
1/2 medium onion, chopped fine
2 eggs, hard boiled, whites and yolks separated after cooking
1/4 cup sweet pickle relish
1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper
1/8 tsp black pepper
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cider vinegar
1 tsp. prepared yellow mustard
1/4 large jar of Miracle Whip

Place cooked macaroni, chopped celery, pickle relish, and chopped onion in a large bowl. Chop cooked egg whites and add to macaroni combination. In a small bowl mashed cooked egg yolks, add salt, pepper, cayenne, prepared mustard, cider vinegar and Miracle Whip and combine well. Add dressing to the macaroni mixture and mix well. Cover and refrigerate before serving.
* Notes: For added color a bit of chopped red bell pepper or shredded carrot can be added to the salad.

Free Concert Picnic dinner

As I mentioned we took a trip downtown Cleveland Monday night for a free symphony orchestra concert and fireworks show that is an annual event here.  I love this stock photo taken from the Terminal Tower building because it really captures how popular this is.
Nothing says fun like setting up our chairs and picnic baskets right in the intersection of two major roads.
For Monday nights' dinner I put together an Italian Muffuletta sandwich which is one of my favorite Pampered Chef recipes. I cheated a bit by using the large round of bread I purchased on my shopping trip instead of baking my own. I cut the bread in half horizontally. Then I took black olives, celery, and green olives and put them in my magic bullet chopper and chopped them fine. I made homemade White Balsamic Italian dressing (1/4 cup white balsamic vinegar, 2 pressed cloves of garlic, 1 tsp. Italian seasoning, 1 tbl. sugar, 1/2 cup olive oil) and combined about 1/4 cup of this with the chopped veggies. I spread this mixture on the inside of both the top and bottom parts of the bread loaf.
Then I layered provolone cheese, hard salami, turkey and ham on the bread and put the top half on. I cut the round into wedges and wrapped each wedge individually before placing it all on a plate and putting my heavy cast iron grill press on top to press down the sandwich while it waited in the refrigerator to be packed up in the picnic basket.
Along with the hearty sandwiches I packed a couple of bags of Doritos and three cans of Arizona Ice Tea. Just enough food for myself, daughter L and her BF J.

July's Major Grocery shopping trip

   This being a super busy week (free orchestra concert & fireworks Monday night, cleaning on Tuesday, parade & festival on Wesdnesday night, July4th picnic Thursday, take daughter & grandson L to doctor again on Friday etc.) I knew I had to take advantage of a pretty much free schedule during the day on Monday and get the grocery shopping done. I needed stuff to pack for the concert that night and also supplies for our 4th picnic. Daughter K also needed to do some grocery shopping and with a new baby plus a 5 year old she was hesitant to go alone. I picked the group up and we decided we'd go to 4 different stores, all close to each other.
Our first stop was for K who needed to get a few things at Target. I didn't get any household or food there but I did pick up a few things that I will cover in my end of week expenses report.
My grocery shopping started at BJ's (in the same shopping plaza as Target). While K nursed baby L in the car grandson J and I shared my shopping experience. I spent $133.93 all on food. I brought home a 6 pack of solid white tuna in water, 10 lbs. of red potatoes (my preference for potato salad), a 48 oz box of cheezits, a 2 pck of Smart Balance, a 64 oz jug of soy sauce, 1 gallon of organic 1% milk, 6 lbs. vidalia onions, 2 lb. bag of frozen shrimp, a 6 pack of lamb shoulder chops, 3 lbs. of ground sirloin, 1 18pck hot dog buns, 1 18 pck hamburger buns, 1 lb. german bologna, 1 lb. hard salami, 1 lb. honey ham, 1/2 lb. roast turkey  breast. and finally 2 bags of Doritos.
Our next stop was Aldi. I spent a total of $11.35, $ 33.56 on nonfood household items (2 large reusable shopping bags, 1 box tampons for teen daughter, 1 bottle glass cleaner, 1 bottle body wash, 1 tube toothpaste, 1 bottle hand soap, and 1 8 pck. paper towels) and the remainder of $ 77.79 on food.
I came home with: 1 bag garlic/cheese croutons, 3 bags chips, 1 bag cheese puffs, 1 canister pretzel rods, 1 loaf bread, 1 3 pck. gum, 2 2lb. boxes macaroni, 1 box raisin bran, 2 boxes au gratin potatoes, 1 container sun dried tomato & basil feta cheese, 1 64 oz. apple juice, 1 64. oz 100% cranberry juice, 1 container coffee creamer, 1 6 pck. Hershey bars, 3 lbs. bananas, 1 bunch celery, 1 can crushed pineapple, 3 Arizona green teas, 1 64 oz. ruby red grapefruit juice, 1 64 oz. 100% grape juice, 1 can frozen oj, 1 jar cinnamon applesauce, 2 cans diced tomatoes, 1 pineapple, 1 pack string cheese, 1 bunch asparagus, 1 box taco shells, 2boxes 'slim jims', 1 packet taco seasoning, 1 packet dry Italian dressing mix, 1 packet dry ranch dressing mix, 6 yogurts, 1 pck sliced provolone cheese, 1 pint light sour cream, 1 quart lowfat cottage cheese, 1 cantaloupe, 1 can black olives, 1 jar green olives, 1 can diced tomatoes w/ jalapeno pepper, 2 boxes chocolate pudding, 1 pck. sliced muenster cheese, 1 box 'bisquick' style baking mix, 1 bag shredded mozzarella, and 1 pck. 8 in. flour tortillas.
Our final stop was a little family Italian deli/shop called DiStefano's that my daughter loves. She shops there so often they all know grandson J by name and were excited to see new baby L. (Seriously all the employees including the owner were gathered around to admire the baby and make a fuss over J for being a big brother.). I picked up a large round of their homebaked bread, 1 lb. of their made Italian sausage, and a 6 pack of Italian imported beer that GF tried at dinner last Friday night and really liked. Total cost: $18.
Yesterday I made a special stop back at BJ's to pick up a luxury treat for our 4th of July picnic. We actually spend the entire day at the picnic grounds, beginning with breakfast (I am mixing up pancake batter and taking sausage links from the freezer and we will have pancakes & sausages), through lunch (burgers or dogs, chips, pickles) and ending with dinner. After a discussion with GF we decided we wanted to do something special so I spent $33 and picked up 6 ginormous strip steaks for our group (myself, GF, adult son J, both teens L & H plus their significant others and teen daughter invited a girl friend to join us) . I will leave 4 of them whole for the guys and cut the other two in half for us ladies who do not eat so much.

In summary I spent $ 262.72 on food out of our $350 budget and $ 35.56 on nonfood household items out of the $75 budget.

Sunday's supper: Beef Brisket

Yesterday I tried a new to me recipe for beef brisket. My middle daughter (and new mommy) K had us to dinner a couple of months ago to celebrate grandson J's birthday and made this recipe which was really delicious. It being inventory time I knew GF would be going in to work for most of the day leaving me free to putz around and entertain myself while he was gone and I figured I would make dinner prep easy on myself by using the crockpot. A quick phone call to my daughter and a peek at what was on hand in GF's cupboards and I had a plan. I had brought the brisket with me from home and had defrosted it in the fridge here so I was ready to roll.
First I poured enough Worcestershire sauce into the bottom of the crockpot to cover the entire bottom.
Then in a small bowl I mixed fresh pressed garlic, salt, pepper, dehydrated chopped onion, and a bit of chili powder together (daughter skipped the Worcestershire & chili powder but I wanted  bit of kick) then rubbed both sides of the brisket with the mixture and put the brisket in the crockpot. I set the crockpot on low for 9 hours.
While the brisket was cooking away (and making the house smell fantastic) I took a quick trip to the local grocery store for a few items. We needed buns for the brisket and I thought coleslaw would be a good pairing with this. I picked up coleslaw mix, Marzetti coleslaw dressing and a can of crushed pineapple to make GF's favorite coleslaw. I mixed the ingredients together and placed the bowl in the refrigerator.

Once the brisket had cooked I removed it from the crockpot and using two forks shredded the meat
 then placed it back in the pan juices. We piled the meat onto the buns  and served with the coleslaw on the side. Delicious !!!

Last week of June finances

  It is that time again to look at the finances for the week. Overall it wasn't too horrible, although I only had two $0 days. :-(  I managed to make a little cash cleaning on Wednesday and again on Saturday when I cleaned the GF's house (and will be doing so again this Tuesday as well at my regular office cleaning gig this weekend which will pay my cell phone bill) and while having a blast at a local church festival this weekend GF and I hit FOUR $150 instant bingo tickets. After splitting the winnings and playing more tickets I ended up $200 richer at the end of the evening. Since we usually spend the entire summer donating money via instant bingo tickets this was a nice change. We both suspect though that we have tapped out our luck.
As for the rest of the week:

Monday 6/24: $0

Tuesday 6/25: $60.62 for produce at the Farmer's Market

Wednesday: $46.00 at Target for baby items for my new grandson L

Thursday: $0

Friday: $38.98 on gas;  $59.00 Old Navy on clothing for son H & myself; $42.28 at hair salon for haircut & special SPF leave in spray for hair (now that I've stopped coloring my hair and it is totally white my scalp tends to burn easily, this spray should prevent this)

Saturday: $60 festival expenses before winnings

This week is going to be a lot tighter. I will have to grocery shop but I am budgeting only $200 on this. Bills will be paid as well. And I am sure I will have to get some gas at some point.