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.