A look ahead and a look behind

Before plunging into what is going to be a busy day I thought I would take a look at finances; both those of the last year and what is ahead. I am pleased at how last year turned out overall. I managed not only to take care of the day to day obligations of living but also to celebrate a new birth and a high school graduation. We made it through the summer months on savings and after my meeting with the business office we are finally set on a steady income for the entire year. I trimmed some fat from the budget by renegotiating my internet costs, not renewing the XM radio, and making some changes to reduce utility and grocery expenditures. 

I have a couple of goals for 2015. I need to rebuild my savings so this is priority number one. I am not sure how much of a tax return I will receive this year. With youngest turning 18 we are no longer eligible for some tax credits we have used in the past. Any return will go towards property taxes. If there is not enough to pay the full year I will be getting 3 paychecks in January and one of these will help out with that bill. I will be earning some extra pay for running the parish fish fries. I am earmarking this for savings but if I need to use this for those taxes then that needs to be done. I will continue doing the baking classes once a month and that money will go in savings. I feel as if I am still grappling with the new income amounts and often feel as if I am standing on the edge of a cliff and disaster is only inches away. Hopefully with sensible money management this feeling will fade away. 

I have set myself a challenge as well. Beginning today I am going to go an entire year without purchasing any clothing for myself. The only exception is for socks and undies if needed. I love new clothes so this is going to be quite a battle for me.  I am also determined to have more free ( no money spent) days than days where money goes out this year. 

Wish me luck. 

Boxing up the holiday & our whirl of gaiety

Not wanting to face both going back to work and putting away holiday decorations all at the same time I decided to do something I have never done before: do it before the new year. Tuesday and Wednesday mornings I set aside for this chore. By noon on Tuesday I had all the interior decorations packed up and the plastic bins stowed away on the cellar shelves. A quick vacuuming of the living room and dining room, a stiffer of the woods floors, and a mopping of the kitchen floor and my goal was met. 

Tuesdays are $5 movies at a local theatre so college age daughter, her boyfriend, his mom, and I all went off to see the final movie in the Hobbit trilogy. Tuesday night GF and I joined friends at the newly opened Hofbrauhouse for a festive holiday dinner. A fine time was had by all. A co-worker told me this is a pretty good approximation of a genuine German beer hall. A three piece polka band, long tables with family style seating, on site brewed German style beers and terrific German food. There was even dancing in the aisles and sometimes on the tables. My Bavarian DNA loved it.
Yesterday my goal was to get the tree undecorated and ready to be transported over to middle daughter's home. SIL wants to cut it up for summer bonfires. I got all of that done. I also got a nice surprise. Adult son had a couple of days off of work and he decided to get a major project underway. Due to a bathroom remodel three years ago plus a leaky second floor porch (now fixed) our kitchen ceiling had some large holes. The porch leak also caused a portion of one of the old plaster walls to crumble and break off the lathe. Adult son has cleared out the kitchen, hung up tarps to block off the room from the rest of the main floor and begun the removal of the remainder of the ceiling! He isn't sure when or how long it will be before he is able to start hanging a new ceiling, it isn't a one man job but both GF and a buddy of his have offered to help. Frankly just getting rid of the old ceiling is an improvement. He will also replace the broken plaster wall with drywall. And he plans to get some insulation into the area under that porch. This is the eating area of the kitchen and has always been noticeably colder than the rest of the room. This will be a plus to both comfort and the heat bill.
Tomorrow the exterior lights and decorations will come down and I will be able to go back to work without these chores hanging over my head.
And GF and I closed out the year with what has become a tradition a trip downtown with his brother and SIL to the casino for dinner, slots, and revelry at midnight.  I took $110 with me to gamble and brought $110 home so it was a good night for me. I was prepared to come home with nothing so I am  hopeful that this is an indication of good things in the new year.

That ham

Lingering in my deep freezer for the last year has been an enormous whole bone in ham. I have included it many times in my monthly menus but hadn't gotten around to actually cooking it. Looking to be even more frugal in this coming year I decided it was time that ham was used. Besides a year is really the max for quality. The ham I had looked identical to this:

 quite a hunk of meat n'est-pas?  Just thinking of dealing with it exhausted me. But I put on my big girl panties and got to work. I poured a bottle of beer over it and using my largest roaster put this in a 350 degree oven for three hours. I mixed up a quick glaze of brown sugar, mustard, and vinegar. Once the glaze had melted I served the ham with mashed potatoes and green beans. To two people. Yes only two of us for dinner. The ham was quite tasty, moist and not very salty. However with the exception of a small missing section it still looked pretty much like that picture above. I sighed deeply, covered it with foil, and stuck it in the cooler on GF'S screened in porch. 

This morning I faced the fact that I was going to have to break that monster down.  A large sharp knife, a pile of zip lock baggies, my food processor, and cutting board and I was ready. Forty minutes later and I had two bags of  ham slices, three bags of ham cubes, two bags of ground ham, and the bone broken into two pieces and wrapped in foil for soup making.

 A bag of cubes and one of ground  went into GF'S freezer, the slices went into his refrigerator and the remainder  is going home with me. We will get several more meals out of this in the next couple of months, easing the meat portion of the food budget considerably. 

January Dinner Menus

I have finished up my menu planning for January. Once again between the work schedule and changes in who was home for dinner I still have a lot in the freezer to use up. Most of these menus are based on what we have on hand.  Today I will be making a huge bone in ham so several menus are based on planned overs from that. During the work week I am alternating fast and slow cooker meals. The first work week of the month are menus for one since I will be the only one home for dinner that week. Fast meals are in bold, slow meals are in italic, and meals using planned overs are indicated with an *. Friday's are GF'S choice, either he cooks or we go out. 

1: Pork roast with sauerkraut, mashed potatoes, corn

2. Chicken cutlets, white rice, Harvard beets

3. Out to dinner

4. Spaghetti & meatballs, salad

5. Grilled tilapia fillets, hash browns, broccoli with lemon

6. Winter Vegetable stew, crackers with cheese

7: Ham & cheese omelet, *rye toast

8. Creamed salmon over rice, peas

9. Val's choice

10: honey glazed chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans

11: herb crusted eye of round, roasted winter vegetables

12. Kielbasa with sauerkraut, pierogies, green beans

13. Chicken stir fry, steamed rice

14. Swiss steak, egg noodles, mixed veggies

15. Pork chops, parsley potatoes, Brussels sprouts, applesauce

16: Val's choice

17: Beef stroganoff*,  egg noodles, green beans

18. Pork stew, crescent rolls

19. Austrian Ham & noodle casserole*, salad

20: Easy one pot chicken dinner

21: Ham & bean soup,* rye bread

22: Slub glub, corn

23: Val's choice

24: Heather's baked garlic chicken, risotto, salad

25: Pineapple Rum pork chops, white & wild rice, green beans

26: Hot dogs, baked beans

27: Beef stew, corn muffins

28: Harry's birthday choice

29: homemade pepperoni pizza, salad

30: Val's choice

31: Meatloaf, mashed potatoes, gravy, Harvard beets

The day after

Having had a joyous day filled with good company and rich food yesterday I was really looking forward to a quiet day.  I began with a cup of coffee and a book. A load of laundry in the washer and I was contemplating putting together my January dinner menus when oldest son gave me a call. He was wondering if I'd like to come over and collect the pans I had left behind as well as the turkey carcass from Christmas dinner. I am always in the mood for seeing my granddaughter so I changed my plan and headed over there. We had a lovely visit and I got to see all of the gifts little Miss E received and spend some quality time with her.  I brought home the meaty turkey carcass from the 24 pound bird we had enjoyed yesterday. I cut off the wings and thighs and popped the rest of it into the largest pot GF has with some onion, garlic, carrots, salt, pepper, and parsley. It is simmering gently on the back of the stove. Dinner is going to be a bowl of turkey noodle soup and crackers with boursin cheese. Right now I have a hot cup of tea and a couple homemade cookies for a nice treat. College age son has been working over his break with GF and staying at his house. Tomorrow I will be working my cleaning job also at GF's company so although he is bowling tonight son & I will be hanging out here. My plan is to pop in a holiday DVD I haven't watched yet ( either Miracle on 34th St. Or The Bishops Wife) and curl up with the dog. For me this kind of day is far more pleasurable than one chasing after holiday sales.  I think that although our Christmas was more modest than ones in the recent past it was still filled with thoughtful gift giving and receiving. Oldest son & DIL asked us to concentrate more on baby than them. We did pick up some small items, New bottles for their sodastream as well as flavorings for this & Keurig cups. Oldest daughter just wanted gift cards but we added a new book by her favorite author & an inspirational piece of art for her home. Adult at home son requested sheets, sleep pants, and a new day planner all of which he received. College age daughter got a new bathrobe, fuzzy socks, a couple of sweaters & a knit scarf. College age son got sweaters and these fancy gaming headphones he had asked for as well as an array of Axe products. Gifts will be given to middle daughter & SIL tomorrow night as well as the grandsons. GF got pants, shirts, a sweater & slippers ( all purchased day after Thanksgiving at deep discounts). And I received some beautiful dressy shirts, two sweaters, some scarves, a new Christmas table runner, a precious picture of Miss E with Santa, a wonderful piece of art that has her footprints on it, a pair of candle holders with candles, a new tv cabinet, a great new apron

 and the best gift of all time spent and memories made with the people I love. It truly is the thing that money cannot buy that means the most.

Merry Christmas to all....

After a busy couple of weeks at work that included not only my two regular jobs but also a special make and take session with some aftercare friends AND beginning planning for the Lenten fish fry I am finally on my holiday break.
Of course that doesn't mean that I have slowed down at all. There were still gifts to bought, packages to be wrapped and all kinds of goodies to be baked. I am happy to say that the budget is healthy though. GF and I stayed within the budget we set ourselves and my half is easily paid back within the next two months. I have also trimmed some un-necessary fat from the budget by dropping the satellite radio, talking TW into lowering my internet bill and sticking with the utility measures we put in place. Two salaried paychecks have now given me a really good idea of how to manage payments. All these things help me sleep better at night. Adult son and I talked about our individual Amazon Prime memberships which are going up significantly in price next month. We've agreed to cancel his membership and go halves on mine. Adult son recently gifted himself with a 55 " flat screen smart TV that he'd been saving for all year long and which he has chosen to put into our living room. My Christmas gift from him was a new tv stand that was much needed. Our old one had been used at one time by one of the dogs as a chew toy and it was in sorry shape. The tv that was in the living room has gone into college age daughter's room replacing an old box style tv that will be stored in the attic 'just in case'. I have no desire for a tv in my bedroom, not to mention the cost an additional satellite box would be to my budget. I do have to say that the giant tv is a fun thing. And we can get all the free programs Prime gives us as part of our membership right on the tv without hooking up a gaming system. Very nice.
While enjoying some recorded Hallmark Christmas movies on Tuesday I spent a marathon day in the kitchen baking for the holiday. I pared my list down to the 'classics' and baked:
My Mom's birdnest cookies:

My GF's Mom's Italian Anise Cookies:

 

Christmas cutouts:

 

"snowballs" aka Mexican Wedding cakes:

And gingerbread men:

 

Christmas Eve we were off to GF's house where I baked my mom's Kolachky:

 

And her pizzelles:

 

As is our tradition some of the kids came over for Christmas Eve dinner after Mass and we had our usual meal of salad, pork tenderloin balsamico, white and wild rice, candied carrots, crescent rolls and ice cream for dessert.

Here is our holiday table complete with our traditional Christmas crackers:

 

Today we will be going to oldest son's home and joining our family with my DIL (and GF who is her uncle)'s family. We are bringing the roast 'beast', shown here ready for the oven:

 

a cherry pie:

 

green bean casserole:

 

and a cookie tray of all the goodies I baked:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Moving Forward: Now I know what I have to work with

I finally received my first "salaried" paycheck on Friday and I can now put my plans in place as to how to divvy up the money. The first pay of the month will go towards mortgage, homeowner's insurance and car insurance. The second check will go towards car payment and satellite tv. Adult son's monthly contribution will go towards gas, electric, internet and part of the quarterly water/sewer bill. Cleaning pay will go towards groceries. Gas money will come out of both paychecks and the balance left over will go into the bank.
I recently read a blog about a woman who is a compulsive clothes shopper and who chose to go an entire year without buying any new clothing. I am inspired to try this myself. I love clothes and I love getting new things but I am going to challenge myself to go an entire year without buying myself anything new. I have plenty of clothing for both seasons and I look forward to getting creative with how I pair things up and use accessories (speaking of which my college daughter has a large array of scarves which I intend to dip into).
Speaking of finances. I was shocked to see when I checked my bank balance that I was $247 short because XM radio had made an unauthorized with drawl for an automatic renewal of my service. When this happened last year I called and after speaking to several customer service reps finally had it put on my account that they were NOT to do an automatic renewal this year. So much for 'putting it on my account'. They honestly have the worst customer service ever. Last year GF gave me a year of radio as part of my Christmas present. This year after college son showed me how to stream I Heart Radio through my Bluetooth in the car I realized that I can listen to almost exactly what I was listening to with XM for FREE. I called and after speaking with two customer services reps finally got a confirmation number for CANCELLING my service and reimbursing my money. Of course it will take them 3-5 days to do so. <sigh> believe me I will be calling if those funds are not returned by Thursday. The satellite radio and my Amazon Prime membership are two annual costs that I have decided are not really necessary. I have already set up Prime not to renew in January. A simple process done on the website. XM could learn something from them.