Financial Roundup

  It is time to hold myself accountable for my weekly spending. I have increased the number of days I did not spend any money, exceeding my goal of 4 free days and coming in with 5!! This coming week I am aiming to match this remembering that I will be needing to buy things for youngest son's graduation party.

Sunday: $0

Monday: $26 at eye doctor. 89¢ for burger buns

Tuesday: $26.85 for lunch & carousel ride at zoo

Wednesday: $0

Thursday: $0

Friday:$0

Saturday:$0


We are having another simple Sunday here this week. Errands were ran for GF to BJ's where I picked up a box of Damp-rid bags for my basement and a large container of magic clean erasers.$22.12 paid in cash from money earned from cleaning on Saturday. A nice ride and a special dinner request from GF for chicken Marsala with pasta and salad will round out the day.

Family Favorites

  Thursday was yet another perfect stay at home day. I finished up my laundry, gave the bathroom a good clean, cleaned the upstairs hallway and staircase including wiping down all the walls.  Next week my room (the attic) is getting a good clean, it has gotten very messy up there and I want to go through my clothing and put some aside to donate to charity. I also want to dig into old photos to get ready for a couple of picture boards for youngest son's grad party. I also intend to take down and wash all the curtains in the house.
Once I'd gotten all the chores I set myself done I turned to my kitchen. I'd invited eldest son and DIL and newest grandbaby over. It was Miss E's first visit to Grandma's house! I figured a meal cooked by someone else and including family favorites would be appreciated. And this granny needed some snuggle time with her newest babe.
I know that DIL loves flan (or creme caramel as we've always called it) so I turned to my favorite resource for this recipe, The Joy of Cooking. I had this dessert for the first time back in college at a restaurant and was blown away and I immediately began searching cookbooks (this was before the internet <gasp>) for how to make it myself. The Joy never lets me down, there it was, I gave it a whirl, and this recipe has remained my favorite ever since.
Creme Caramel (The Joy of Cooking)
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
Bring to a boil in a saucepan, cover and let gently boil for 2 minutes. Uncover and let cook until melted sugar becomes a deep amber color. Immediately pour this into one dish or 6 ramekins swirling dish to coat sides. Place dish or ramekins into a 13x9 pan and preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Warm
3 cups milk
 until it is steaming. Whisk together in a bowl:
 5 large eggs
1/8 tsp of salt
 3/4 cup sugar.
Slowly add milk whisking continually. Mix in
3/4 tsp vanilla extract.
Divide evenly into ramekins or pour into dish. Add boiling water in 13x9 dish halfway up the sides of the pudding dish or ramekins. Place in oven and bake 1- 1 1/2 hours until set. Cool on a rack then place dish or ramekins in the refrigerator. Allow to cool at least 4 hours before serving.
After getting the flan in the oven I turned to making a pasta salad. I had a bag of tri colored wacky mac in the cupboard which I cooked, added some broccoli slaw, diced carrots, celery, red bell peppers, cucumber, and green and black olives cut in half. I doctored this up with a healthy dose of McCormack salad supreme seasoning and then dressed it with homemade White Balsamic vinaigrette dressing.

Into the fridge went the salad. Then having taken out a london broil earlier in the day I mixed together my favorite marinade, 1/4 cup soy sauce, 1/4 cup Kitchen Bouquet browning sauce, 1 tsp. McCormack Montreal steak seasoning blend and 1/2 tsp brown sugar. I poured this over the steak in a large ziplock bag and stuck it in the fridge to marinate.

 

Once Son & DIL and Miss E arrived I preheated the grill, cooked the london broil to medium rare, sliced it thin and served. With three sons at the table there was no steak left behind although we do have a small amount of pasta salad leftover. As for the flan it is nothing but a sweet memory.

 

An orgy of cleanliness and something a bit different

  Yesterday was highly satisfying for me. Outside of a small trip to take youngest son to pick up a job app at a new fast food joint near us and then dropping him off at girlfriend's house I spent my entire day in my home. It felt so good. Cooler temperatures in the mid 70s and rain most of the day meant I concentrated on doing inside chores.
Although I prefer to hang laundry outside I have gotten quite behind in my laundry chores plus I wanted to wash all the throw pillows and blankets from the living room so I decided to just go ahead and use the dryer and catch up. I still have three loads to do today and it is threatening rain once again. I will finish up with the dryer and then it is strictly clothesline useage from here on out.  After feeding the cat and the dogs I went down cellar and tossed the first load in the washer.
My next goal was to give my small kitchen a good cleaning. The fact that the kitchen while eat in is still pretty small and it took me a good two and half hours of cleaning should tell you how deep this clean was. Top to bottom literally with me using the swiffer duster to knock down a couple of cobwebs on the ceiling (I cannot tell you how much I hate popcorn ceilings and the way everything sticks to them. UGH), dusting the ceiling fan and the tops of the cabinets, and working my way down to giving the floor a good wash. Continuing to move laundry along: washing, drying, folding, putting away I moved into the living and dining areas of my home (the entire first floor), dusting (once again top to bottom...I love my swiffer with the extendable handle, makes those 10 foot ceilings a breeze), sweeping, vacuuming, cleaning glass cabinet fronts and the storm door windows.
Midway through my orgy of cleanliness I realized I hadn't taken out anything for dinner. I knew it was going to just be myself and adult son so I grabbed a package of three pork chops from the freezer. I checked my menu plans and decided to swap the greek pork chops idea for a new recipe I'd been eyeballing from Gooseberry Patch's 101 Farmhouse Favorites for Maple Pork Chops.
I took:
 1/2 cup maple syrup ( I used genuine but 'fake' syrup would be fine)
3 tbl. soy sauce
2 cloves garlic, minced
and mixed them all up together. I placed the chops in a glass dish and poured half the marinade over the top as per the recipe directions:

I wanted to tweak this so I added about 1/2 teaspoon of rosemary to the marinade I poured over the chops then covered them and let them marinate for an hour, turning them occasionally. While they were marinating I scrubbed and put a couple of russet potatoes in the oven to bake and threw together a tossed salad.
When the hour was up I heated my gas grill and then put the chops on, turning every 6 minutes they were done within 18 minutes. I removed them from the grill, drizzled the remaining marinade over the top and plated them up with the potato topped with smart balance spread, plain nonfat yogurt, and salt and pepper:

Salad went into a small side bowl since I didn't want the dressing to mix up with the marinade flavor.  The reviews were good, both adult son and I liked the flavor and I was glad I'd added the rosemary. I think it would've been a bit bland without it.

What's been cooking?

  Having done my stock up shop for the summer I've been trying to stick mostly to the menu plans. On Monday I grabbed a package of ground beef out of the freezer deciding to make Sloppy Joes. Then I remembered we had no hamburger buns and it was too late in the day to make some from scratch. The eye doctor had called and my replacement contact lenses for my left eye were in so I knew I had to pick these up (mostly covered by insurance so only $26 for a 6 month supply) and it is located right down the street from Aldi so I grabbed youngest son to ride along and after I ran into the eye doctor he ran into Aldi for the 89¢ package of buns.  College age daughter is spending the week housesitting for friends so I knew dinner was going to be myself and my two guys who live at home. One package of buns was definately sufficient. I also made a mental note to myself to decide on a menu early in the day so I can plan ahead on things like homemade buns.
I chopped up half of an onion, a rib of celery, half of a red bell pepper, and pressed a clove of garlic into the pound of  defrosted ground beef in my dutch oven. I browned off the meat and veggies, drained out the fat and returned the mixture to the pan. I added about half a bottle of ketchup to this gave it a good stir and put the heat on low to simmer. My mom's recipe, simple and no special cans of sauce required.
Adult son has had a part time job at a local beverage store stocking shelves since he was in high school (he works this 3 times a week in addition to his regular flooring job) and on occasion he will bring home items that can no longer be sold (soda pop, junk food). Freebie!! He came home Saturday with a box full of assorted chips so instead of making homemade chips to go with the joes I pulled out a bag of plain chips. Bread and butter pickles chilled in the refrigerator rounded out our meal. The evening was spent 'porch sitting' with a good friend & neighbor. It is becoming our regular Monday night thing.
Last night it was just me. Youngest son stayed at girlfriend's house after our zoo trip and adult son was working his beverage store job and said he'd just grab something for himself afterwards. I pulled out a package of lamb chops, decided to just season them with some Penzey's Greek seasoning and then since it was storming outside I seared them in a pan on the top of the stove and finished them off in the oven. I decided to do a simple side of pasta and peas covering both my starch and my vegetable. Dessert was the last of a bag of cherries I'd gotten at the farmer's market while enjoying the season premier of Next Great Baker.

Summer Fun: Zoo Day!

  Now it is finally starting to feel like vacation.  Youngest son and his girlfriend M had planned on a zoo day and invited me to come along with them. I love the zoo so I said sure. We have a family + guest membership (which also allows us free access to hundreds of zoos across America..something we've taken advantage of when traveling) so getting in for all of us was a freebie.
The weather looked like it might not co-operate, sunny at 7 am but cloudy at 9 am. Finally at 10 am when we were picking M up it looked as if the sun was fighting to win this particular battle. Temperatures were in the low 80s. We'd discussed whether or not to take a picnic lunch along but in the end we simply decided to get either the McD's or the Pizza Hut food available in the main food court. I have budgeted some summer money for fun so the $40 I took along came from this money. I wasn't unhappy with the lunch bill since it came to just under $20 but I will say that next time we will bring water bottles along with us to keep hydrated since the price of a bottle of water has doubled since last summer. Yikes.
Just as we entered the Rainforest exhibit (indoors) portion of the zoo it decided to rain. <sigh> Well we were going to be inside for this so we forged ahead and enjoyed very much the orangutan who liked to wear her burlap sack on her head:

 

I was awed by the beauty of this parrot:

 

And a bit skeeved out by the enormous size of this capybara who is the largest rodent in the world. Ugh.

 

 When we finished up at the rainforst exhibit the weather had decided to be co-operative after all . We had lunch then visited the remainder of the zoo. I was so enthralled by my favorite animal, the giraffe that I totally forgot to pull out my cell phone and snap some close up pictures as all three of them fed from a perch right next to the viewing deck.  However I did remember to snap a quick pic as all of us laughed quite a lot over the antics of the meerkats

 

I figured we were all going to want to take part in the zoo's newest attraction, the Carousel of Wildlife, and we saved this treat for the very last. Created and built by a local carousel company each 'seat' is a different animal at the zoo. I of course choose to ride on the giraffe, my personal favorite, and from my perch I captured this cute picture of H & M:

 

It was truly a fun day. And no sooner did we reach home than thunderstorms rolled in, almost as if the weather was waiting for us to finish things up!

 

 

 

Simply Sunday

Some days are perfect not because they are filled with special events but because they are filled with small quiet moments. Yesterday was one of those days. It was a beautiful sunny morning. A pot of coffee doctored up with cinnamon started the day. I made a simple cooked breakfast of sausage links, scrambled eggs, and toast. GF had two showings scheduled at his house for the afternoon so while he painted the front door side-light panels I did some small chores to keep the interior up to viewing standards. Once we completed these jobs we showered, dressed, and collected his dog Jake and we all piled into the car for a Sunday drive. One of our favorite places to go is a small community just south of where GF lives called Hudson. We rambled in that general direction and spent a couple of hours checking out the real estate options for him available there. We agreed that as much as we enjoy the small town feel of the place it is not exactly what he is looking for.
A sandwich grabbed at a drive through and we headed back to his home. Thinking ahead I had taken chicken breasts out to defrost . I grabbed a container of a new to me spice blend from McCormick's

And made up a marinade from the recipe on the back. I put the chicken and the marinade in a pan 

While the chicken marinated I browsed GF'S pantry for sides. Au gratin potatoes and green beans were the winners.  I preheated the grill and got the chicken on 

Once cooked through I assembled our plates 

And we ate. I liked the marinade but GF wasn't so sure. Looks like this particular spice blend may come home with me.

The day ended with some reading and tv viewing and just enjoying each other's company. Small moments that added up to a relaxing day. 

June finances

It feels so good to FINALLY have my first two vacation weeks under my belt. What doesn't feel so great is that I only have four money-free days in that time frame.  This is the week however when it gets serious. I have one bill yet to pay for the month and one which will come out automatically. I don't consider bill paying in my definition of money-free since it has to be done and is not an option. On the credit side of things I have one more Saturday in the month that I will be earning money from my cleaning job. That money is ear-marked for youngest son's graduation party. I will purchase and mail invitations from that and the rest will be tucked away for food/drink. I have been thinking ahead towards the party and already have all of the decorations ( saved from daughter's party last year), as well as all of the paper goods. The party itself will be held at the pavilion at a local park which is free on a first come first served basis. This week I am going to be working on gathering photos and making a picture display of son. Food for the party has been decided on. Relatives have already offered to help by bringing dishes. I will be baking cupcakes and cookies, making penne with sauce, cheesy potatoes, pasta salad, baked beans, and coleslaw. I will purchase fried chicken and middle daughter will be doing a beef brisket. Fixings for the cupcakes, cookies, penne, baked beans, sauce and pasta salad are already bought. Drinks will be bottled water, soda pop, a dispenser of lemonade ( already on hand), and another of ice tea.  I am feeling prepared.
In any case here is how the week went moneywise:
Sunday: free day
Monday: grocery shopped: $98.84 on nonfood items, $16.99 for cat food, $ 304.72 on food.
Tuesday: bought flowers/plants $ 68
Wednesday: free day
Thursday: household cleaning items & clothing @ Target $72. Aldi $34.
Friday: gasoline $38.
Saturday: free day

This week is going to be different. My goal is five free days, anticipating a potting soil & veggie plant purchase for the raised bed box middle son made me, and the purchase of graduation party invitations.

Getting creative with dinner.

Once again I am off my menu plans. After gazing deep into the tiny side-by-side freezer section of GF's refrigerator I knew I was going to have to think on my feet.  There were several packages of Bubba burgers on hand so I grabbed three burgers.

The pantry yielded Brown gravy mix.

Ah ha! Salisbury steak it is!

White and wild rice pilaf

and canned corn on the side.

Gourmet? No. Suites our needs tonight? Sure does. 

Mid week catch up

 

It has been one of those weeks where I feel as if the harder I run the further behind I become.  In reality I was just busy. It doesn't even seem like vacation yet. On Monday I grocery shopped. On Tuesday oldest son and I went out for plants and flowers together. I had a gift certificate from youngest daughter from Mothers Day to a local nursery for $20 and I budgeted an additional $75 for this. I used the certificate and spent $68. Nicely under budget. I got two full flats of flowers (verbena,& begonias), a beautiful hanging basket of mixed colored petunias, pots of  heliotrope, parsley, Rosemary,  thyme, and a pot of a small yellow flower that I don't know the name of as well as a 40 pound bag of potting soil and a replacement trowel. I still want a big fern for the front porch and am keeping an eye out for a good deal. 

Wednesday I did some small chores around t he house and then babysat my grandsons overnight. Dad was out of town and Mom was working. It was quite fun to take 6 year old to his ball game and watch with 1 year old.  After the game we watched a cartoon movie before turning in. 

Thursday I ran middle daughter to the mechanics (an oil change & checkup on her van) and then took her to run errands for their upcoming vacation. One of her stops was Aldi. I ended up spending an additional $34 there on lemonade mix, canned four bean salad, canned German potato salad, sliced cheese, and trail mix. We also went to Target where I picked up cleaning supplies we needed: Pledge, solid air fresheners. Murphy's oil soap, Swiffer dusters, and sponges.  I also succumbed to the siren song of the ladies clearance rack and got two new dressy-er tops.  That evening I took GF's dog for a car ride while a realtor showed his house.  I have a feeling I will be doing this often.  

Today GF's dog and I again spent quality time together for the same reason. A top up of my gas tank at $38 and I am done shelling out money.  The purse strings are tied tight. My final paycheck went in the bank and oldest son deposited his monthly money. I paid the June utility bills and we are good to go.

Because I also steamed cleaned the hall carpets and did a general clean of his house GF owes me a tank of gas which I'm sure I will need by Sunday.  There are two more showings scheduled for tomorrow afternoon and one for Sunday and we will be using my car I'm sure since it is roomier than is. A graduation party of a nephew and a classic car show are also on our schedule for the weekend. 

Welcome to the 90s

June is giving us a taste of 'dog days' early with temperatures this week being in the high 80s and yesterday reaching all the way to 95 degrees. I have to admit I was not ready for this yet since just last weekend the highs were in the mid 60s. I dug out the two box fans for the dining room windows from the cellar and cleaned them and set them in the windows, had adult son haul up the huge round commercial fan he bought a couple of years ago up to the living room and cleaned it off, and set up a small oscillating fan in the kitchen ( I still need to dig out the window fan for this area). The only A/C in this old house is the window unit adult son has in his bedroom, purchased by himself and for which he pays the extra electric useage. He works laying flooring and by the end of a hot summer day he needs that A/C. I grew up in a house without A/C until I was in high school and have lived in this house almost 30 years. I can do without this luxury in the summer months. On average there are only a handful of days that are truly miserable each year and most times being only 1/4 of a mile away from the lake we stay pretty comfortable heatwise (humidity is another thing, ugh). I also sleep in the attic, the hottest part of the house, but no insulation means any A/C would be wasted up there. I have the windows all open,  two oscillating floor fans going, and before I retire for the night I take a cool shower and slide into cotton jammies still wet. Once asleep I generally stay that way (although last night I woke at 4 am with a bad headache, I took two Aleve, then sat with a cold wet wash cloth against the back of my neck and forehead before adjusting the fans to blow at the bed and going back to sleep).  Cold drinks in the form of a pitcher of filtered water, juices, and lemonade and koolaide are available from the fridge at all times and plenty of ice cubes in the freezer as well.  Frankly after the wicked cold winter we had I welcome the heat.
Since all the kidlets were elsewhere last night it was just me for dinner. No sense in cooking in this heat. I went off the menu plans and put together a nice salad of spring greens, broccoli slaw, shredded carrots, cucumbers, grape tomatoes, gorgonzola cheese, and faux crabmeat dressed with homemade White Balsamic Italian Vinagrette.

 On the side was delicious hunk of Italian bread with Smart balance. Dessert was a bowl of cherries.
Almost the perfect summer meal.

Summer Grocery Stock Up

  Well I finally got out and did my big stock up trip for the summer. I had pretty much stocked up the freezer with meat, poultry, fish last time. This time I filled in the edges of the freezer (you literally cannot fit another thing in there), stocked up the pantry items, and bought some fresh produce and dairy. In June and July it should be strictly produce, dairy, and eggs (as well as tri colored pasta which I forgot to get this time and will need for my youngest son's grad party). I will be keeping to a $250 or under food budget for those months, using money earned from my twice a month office cleaning job.

I went to five locations. My first stop was Gordon Food Service (GFS)'s marketplace store. This is a company I deal with for work on a delivery basis. In their stores they sell large sized quantities of items (similar to a wholesale club) but without any membership fees. I have a 'fun funds' card that I use there for personal purchases that goes towards my school. Similar to the program Target has. I stocked up my pastas this trip, as  spending $25.35 in cash and bringing home a 5 lb. bag of thin cut egg noodles, a 3 lb. bag of thicker "amish" egg noodles, a two and a half pound bag of farfalle (bow tie pasta), a two and a half pound bag of penne, a two pound bag of fettucine, and a jar of horseradish. I used cash, funds earned from cleaning.

My next stop was BJ's Wholesale Club. I had a coupon book and needed some nonfood items here that I had coupons for. I spent $80.52 (after saving $6.00 in coupons) on these items and brought home a 100 count box of Finish dishwasher soap (the cube kind), a case of paper towels (should last us three months or more), a large bottle of Gain detergent, a two pack of Crest Pro Health mouth rinse, and a 320 count bottle of Aleve (I've found this to be the best deal on this item which I take regularly for some arthritis in my shoulder). I also spent $16.99 on a very large bag of organic cat food which will last our kitty about two months or more. (we also have two dogs but my oldest son is in charge of buying their food). Foodwise I spent $79.95, saving $2.50 in coupons, and brought home a 2 pack of Smart balance spread, 1 container of edamame salad, a four pack of Ball Park franks, a 12 count box of Bubba Angus burgers, a 6 can case of Bush's baked beans, 1 lb. roast beef from the deli, 1/2 lb. turkey breast from the deli (we love their deli meats and the prices both these items were on special this week), a loaf of Pepperidge Farm hearty white bread (figured I wouldn't have time to bake until the weekend), and a two pack of Hidden Valley Farms ranch dressing (the only bottled dressing I will buy since I cannot find a recipe for homemade that comes close). I used my debit card here, using funds saved up for summer.
My next stop was the small year round farmer's market that I love here. I spent $39.21 and came home with 8 nectarines, 8 plums, 2 red bell peppers, a bag of shredded carrots, a bag of broccoli slaw, 1 container of strawberries, 1 container of blueberries, a bag of cherries, a pineapple, two mangoes, a cantaloupe, a small hand of ginger, 3 lbs. vidalia onions, 1 english cucumber, one pint grape tomatoes, and a stick of herb de provence covered dry salami (a luxury item ). I spent cash from cleaning.
My fourth stop was Aldi. I spent $161.33 in cash, money earned from cleaning. $18.32 was for nonfood items, a bottle of dish soap, a box of large freezer bags, a box of trash bags, and four reusable cloth shopping bags (we use these for lots of purposes and needed a few more). The remainder of $141.73 was for food and I came home with 4 'slim jim' snacks for the kids, 1 head of cabbage, 5 lbs. russet potatoes, 1 box rosemary flavored 'triscuit' style crackers, 2 lbs. elbow macaroni, 2 lbs. spaghetti, 2 packs neufchatel cheese, 1 bag faux crabmeat, 1 bag string cheese, 3 boxes cold cereal, one container old fashioned oatmeal, 2 packs hard salami, 3 packs of organic bacon, 2 packs cheddar brats, 1 block colby cheese, 2 blocks white NY sharp cheddar, 2 lbs. butter, 2 cans pineapple chunks, 1 can crushed pineapple, 3 cans mandarin oranges, 2 cans diced tomatoes, 2 bottle red grapefruit juice, 1 bottle 100% apple juice, 1 bottle 100%grape juice, 1 bottle 100% cranberry juice, 1 bottle 100% cranberry-pomegranate blend juice, 1 bunch bananas, 1 bag shredded mozzarella, 1 bag shredded cheddar, 1 bunch carrots, 1 bag baby carrots, 1bag romaine hearts, 1 bag baby spinach, 1 bag spring greens mix, 3 boxes cake mix (for son's grad party), 1 case ramen noodle soup, 1 bunch celery, 4 bottles steak sauce, 2 jars maraschino cherries, 2 can black olives,  1 jar Miracle whip, 1 bottle spicy brown mustard, 1 jar raspberries preserves, 1 jar apricot preserves, 3 heads garlic, 1 jar strawberry preserves, 1 quart lowfat cottage cheese, 1 jar orange marmalade, 1 bag whole unsalted almonds,  1 box cinnamon graham crackers, 1 bag lemons, 1 bag croutons, 3 containers coffee creamer, 1 bag veggie straws, 1 bag brown sugar, and 2 dozen eggs.
My final stop was a small local Italian deli/grocery store. I spent $18.48 on my debit card and brought home two cans chick peas, a jar of tahini, two envelopes hollandaise sauce mix, a loaf of their wonderful unsliced Italian bread with sesame seeds, a box of garlic and herb grissini, a box of mini sea shell pasta, and a wedge of gorgonzola cheese.
Total expeditures: Nonfood items: $98.84 (over my budget of $75 but I hadn't spend a dime on these items in May), $16.99 on cat food, and $304.72 on food. Since I budgeted $350 on food for stocking up purposes for June I am very satisfied that I was under this goal. I will still have to go out for a few cleaning supplies that we need to stock up on but I have a $25 gift card to Target that I received at the end of the school year that will cover these.

Beginnings and Endings

 The last two weeks have been full of beginnings and endings. The first ending was the high school career of my youngest child. He graduated on the 4th of June and I have never been prouder. We look forward in the fall to his new beginning, college. He has applied at three excellent schools that will allow him to live at home and save on expenses that way and been accepted. We are only waiting to see financial aide packages before he makes his final choice.  This was also an ending for me, the first time in 27 years I will not have a child in school. Wow. Although I will have two in college (not the first time for that though).  Then my own school year came to an end this week and I had to wrap up all my work and close up my kitchen for the summer. As usual I have been preparing for the lean months ahead when no big paycheck will roll in after next week. I will continue to clean twice a month at a local company which is what is going to pay for groceries. I've also come to a business arrangement with my GF. I will clean his house weekly in exchange for a tank of gas. He recently put this home on the market and it needs to be kept in apple pie order for buyers to look at. I can handle that. My adult son contributes to the household finances and that amount will cover basic utilities. The rest will come from monies in the bank. This means the beginning of my personal summer finance challenge. I will have more 'zero dollar' days than days where I spend money. My goal is 5 zero dollar days per week.
And finally we had one very big beginning. On the 9th my newest grandchild, a baby girl, was born!!! Welcome to the world Miss EMT!! She's quite a special little lady since she isn't just my granddaughter she is also my GF's great-niece. The tie that binds us together. I so look forward to spending a lot of time with her before going back to work at the end of August.

June Menus

  Better late than never, here are my June menu plans. We have several 'events' going on in June, a dinner with my aftercare co-workers hosted by our boss tonight, my youngest son's commencement so we will go out to eat after, a couple of church festivals and a graduation party for my nephew K. With the new grandbaby due momentarily I also figure I am probably going to have to be really fluid with these ideas and I will of course be making some meals to take to son's house to share with him and DIL after they get home from the hospital. Breakfasts will be things like yogurt and fruit, toast, homemade coffee cakes, homemade bagels or English muffins, cereal, or oatmeal. I like to save cooked breakfasts for the weekend.  Lunches will be leftovers or simple things like hot dogs, grilled cheese, tuna or egg salad sandwiches, simple salads, homemade stovetop mac & cheese.
Here are my dinner menus for the month. I have planned out at least one day with a meatless dinner that is vegetable based, a couple of dinners based on planned overs, and tried to alternate poultry, pork, beef, lamb, and seafood.
My plan is to put in a small garden this year to give us tomatoes, cukes, peppers, eggplant, and lettuce as well as fresh herbs. Obviously the only thing I expect to harvest in June is lettuce so most of our veggie based meals will come from the local year round farmer's market.
These are in no special order. I'm trying out a couple of new ideas which are in italics. Planned over meals are underlined. Meals that use a larger cut of meat are in bold.

We have already had grilled Pineapple rum pork chops with au gratin potatoes and pickles and calzones.

Penne with roasted eggplant and mozzarella cheese, salad

Grilled brown sugar chicken, parsley potatoes, Hawaiian coleslaw

Spaghetti with meatballs, salad

Grilled Garden pizza, salad

Greek pork chops, couscous with pine nuts, sugar snap peas

Bulgogi (Korean bbq steak), steamed basmati rice, Asian veggies

Grilled Rustic Italian Chicken, pasta salad

BBQ Pork chops, corn on the cob, Harvard beets

Beef Ravioli (trying my hand at making this from scratch) with Marinara sauce, salad, garlic toast

Pasta au pistou, sautéed zucchini with garlic

Lemon grilled salmon fillet, white and wild rice, capri blend veggies

Sloppy Joes on homemade buns, homemade chips, pickles & olives

Moroccan Lamb chops, pasta and lentil salad

Pasta with Sun dried tomatoes and tuna, salad

London broil, potato salad, corn

Mediterranean Steak salad, herb rolls

Spinach Quiche, Creole cabbage

Lime Chicken soft tacos, homemade Spanish rice

Baked Ham, cheesy potato casserole, green beans

Ham and cheese bowties, peas

Shrimp Orzo skillet, salad

Garden Omelets, Scottish skillet potatoes, fruit

Planning ahead and Summer Stock Up: The Freezer

 It is that time of year when I am looking at the long dry spell of summer. I have been unable to find a summer job. Seems all the things I can do are for jobs where they want college age people. <sigh> I did plan ahead though and have been squirreling away money in the bank for just such a possibility. Next year I will start the job hunt earlier. I will continue to do my twice a month cleaning gig so a small amount of cash will be rolling in and I have worked out a deal with the GF. I will clean his house weekly in exchange for a full tank of gasoline. This works for me.
I have spent some time considering how to live minimally. In regards to the utilities: We have no A/C in this house except for a smallish window unit in my adult son's bedroom which he pays for. I keep good records of our electricity useage and he pays the overage. I will once again use my clothesline for all items except bath towels which I will partially dry in the dryer before hanging outside. The dishwasher gets run only when full which means about five times a week. I will air dry the dishes instead of using the heat dry. We have trained ourselves to be cautious with water use-age around here. Showers are short, we don't waste money on watering the lawn, faucets aren't allowed to run aimlessly. My stove and hot water tank are natural gas. I do laundry using the warm wash/cold rinse feature for towels and whites. Colored clothing gets cold wash/cold rinse. In the summer time the majority of cooking takes place outdoors on the grill, or on the stovetop. The oven runs only for baking purposes. Our summer gas bill typically runs around $40 a month which I find acceptable.
We do have a sizeable satellite tv bill that I will be calling about to see if they have any current discounts that I can get applied to my bill. This company is really very good about working with you to keep your costs down. Which is why I am still with them. The library, the beach, our zoo membership and discount days at the movies will help provide summer entertainment. Not to mention that new grandbaby due any day now!
In May I did not grocery shop at all. Instead we ate down quite a bit of stuff in the freezer and the pantry and I saved up my cleaning money towards a summer stock up of the freezer. I focused on meats and using a $70 gift card (my cash back rewards from my membership) plus half of my cleaning funds I picked up quite a bit at BJ's Wholesale Club. In addition to the gallon of organic milk and the wedge of imported parmesano-reggiano cheese I bought I brought home:

 two whole eye of rounds, a package of two London broils, and a large package of ground beef. In the space of 20 minutes I'd turned these into 2 separate London broils, three large packages of ground beef, a smallish roast, a large bag of beef cubes (for shish kebob), a small bag of beef strips for stir fry, and a dozen nice steaks.

I also bought 24 bone-in chicken thighs and a nice rack of lamb. The chicken thighs are already vacuumed sealed into packages of four so I just popped them individually into the freezer. I cut the rack of lamb into 7 beautiful lamb chops. This will be our 'fancy splurge' meat.

 

I also purchased a whole rack of ribs which I separated into two half rack packages and two whole boneless pork loins. Another twenty minutes and I had 27 pork chops, a smallish pork roast, a large bag of pork cubes (for adobo or kebobs) and 6 thin cut pork 'scallopine'.

 

In addition to this we still have a large bone-in whole ham, a couple bags of boneless skinless chicken breast, a bag of chicken tenders, a small boneless leg of lamb (purchased at Easter from Aldi), a medium sized eye of round roast, a package of thin beef for Swiss steak, a package of short ribs, two packages of ground lamb, two packages of Irish O'Garlic sausages, a package of Irish "bangers", several individually packaged salmon fillets, several individually packaged tilapia fillets, two pounds of shrimp, and three packages of ground beef. My plan is to add another '

value pack' of salmon fillets, two to three more bags of frozen chicken breasts, 4 pounds of organic bacon, a box of Bubba burgers, two or three packages of brats, some breakfast sausage,  and a three package sized pack of hot dogs using the cleaning money I will earn this weekend. This will easily provide us with a variety of proteins for the next three months.

A stock up trip to Aldi is also in the future to fill in the corners of the pantry with things like coffee creamer, olives, pickles, juice, cereal, brown sugar, powdered sugar, and oatmeal.

 Baking goods including 25 pounds of bread flour, 20 pounds of AP flour, 10 lbs of white whole wheat flour, 5 lbs. of rye flour, and two large bags of dry yeast (tucked into the freezer) will mean home baked breads and rolls will be available. I have also stocked up on oils (canola, light olive, basil infused, garlic infused, and rosemary infused), and vinegars (white wine, balsamic, white balsamic, raspberry balsamic, & apple cider) means I am ready to go with homemade dressings and marinades.

 Grocery shopping during the summer will be limited to dairy and fresh produce and will come out of the cleaning money.