In the mood for new porch furnishings last year, I repainted the pieces I had. $3.59 a can for paint vs. $359 for a new table and chairs...I like my 'new' furniture a great deal.
Friday: Cooked four chicken breasts, only seasoning two for our dinner. The rest were set aside.
While I was working on prepping dinner, I worked ahead and prepped more of the same vegetables (onions, bell peppers, and mushrooms) and grated cheese for pizza that night. The pizza dough was homemade.
Leftover rice was put in the fridge for another meal.
Made the Easy Molten Lava cakes by the recipe posted last week. I got four little cakes. We set two aside for dessert later in the weekend.
Leftover pizza put in fridge for another meal.
I used up the last of a jar of spaghetti sauce I'd opened last weekend as sauce for my pizza.
Made rolls from the leftover dough to have as our Shabat bread.
Washed a full load of dishes.
Saturday: I thought we'd eat out. My husband had other ideas. Why not have steaks? That meant a cooked at home meal, which was fine. What I didn't expect was that it also meant a trip to that meat market we went to earlier in the month. You know...the one 50 odd miles away? Yeah, that one. It was a lovely sunny day, I was sorely in need of getting out of my own house and my own thoughts, so no complaints. I did take advantage of being there to pick up a few more items for the freezer. The prices are about average, the meat is tip top quality. I had $40 of the grocery money still in my purse, which is about what we spent. No more money for the next week or so though, so we'll be stretching things out.
We'd have spent about the same amount for two steak dinners and coffee at a restaurant. I brought home two large sirloin steaks (one for our dinner, one for the freezer), a whole chicken, 5 pounds of ground chuck. We were super hungry by the time we got home and cooked one whole steak. We hadn't had anything to eat since 8am that morning. Honestly the next steak will likely serve 3 instead of just two. I divided the ground beef into 1-1pound, 2-3/4, and the rest into 1/2 pound packets or about 8 servings. That averages out to about $2 per meal for all the meats we bought.
Sunday: Home alone. I don't think the television was on at all. The heat was. I kept having cold chills, but then it was chilly outdoors, too.
Washed a full load of clothes (sheets and such) and hung them to dry on the line. Lovely to hear them 'snap' in the breeze which blew steadily all day long.
Watered the plants on the porch with water I'd saved while waiting for water to run hot or from our glasses.
Dinner and supper consisted of leftovers from the fridge. John's work lunch was leftover pizza.
Monday: Cooked apples and a pear and made sauce. The apples had been flavorless, but oddly once cooked they were very tasty indeed.
Those two extra chicken breasts I cooked on Friday: chopped for chicken salad today. I was making potato salad.
I learned a trick from Mama years ago. Wash eggs well and add to same pot with the potatoes. I boiled three eggs: one for potato salad, one for egg salad, one for tuna salad to be made later in the week.
I'd meant to make hamburgers, but realized I had too much meat for just burgers. I also wanted to make baked beans. I found my 'beans' were flavored with chili powder and jalapenos...Not quite the baked beans I had in mind. So I took the extra ground beef, part of the vegetables I'd chopped Friday and the beans and made a pot of chili.
Used the leftover rice from Friday's dinner as a stretcher for the chili...which meant I had leftover chili at meal's end.
Added to freezer today: 2 servings chili, 2 servings leftover lasagna. We had chili for dinner and burgers for supper.
Ran a full load of dishes.
Tuesday: Mama's surgery day today. I packed lunch to take with me. It's so much easier than wandering all over a big unfamiliar hospital or leaving to go to a restaurant off grounds and discovering there's no place to park when you return.
Took along a big bottle of water too. No stopping at the soda machine for me. I did indulge in the free coffee though.
Not sure what time I'd come home from the hospital, I didn't plan supper. I decided today take out would do just fine. Glad I did. It was after 6:30pm before I got done.
John did laundry and hung clothes to dry while I was gone.
Wednesday: Back to the hospital. Purposely ate a larger than usual breakfast to carry me through the day.
Dogs didn't finish their morning food, so I put it back in the bucket to save for the evening meal.
Purposely looked the other way when I walked past the hospital coffee shop...Oh but it did smell so good!
It was so late when I left I seriously regretted my choice not to pack a lunch. I keep a little extra cash set aside and used some of that to buy a small fish dinner before I went on to Mama's home to tend to tasks there.
Made a small pot of coffee for myself when I got home.
Skipped supper after my late lunch.
Thursday: Another big breakfast for me.
Watered the petunias on the front porch with 'saved' water.
I just wanted an extra cup of coffee this morning before I left. I decided a small pot of decaf would do and I saved the leftover coffee for this afternoon.
Brought home leftovers from my soup and sandwich lunch today. Made notes on the soup I had today. I'll be making that one at home. It's a simple recipe, I'm sure of it and will be easy to replicate.
Avoided stopping at the grocery all week long even though I drive past several on my trip to and from the hospital. I've managed to 'find' the extra needed here at home. I'm determined to not spend another penny to add to the past month's budget, since my new one doesn't start until next week.
Credit card bill came in yesterday. It has more than the usual charges. We're cool with that since we purposely put the money aside the moment we made the additional purchases.
Earned $15 in gift cards courtesy Swagbucks and surveys.
AC was on last night due to the humidity. I made sure to turn it off before leaving home today.
Opened all the curtains the moment I got home today. It's gloomy outdoors and was dark and dreary indoors without lights. No need to turn on lights though with the wonderful big windows we have.
Set houseplants outdoors to catch some of that good rain water.
We'll wash a full load of clothes tonight, hanging most pieces to air dry.
Pulled cookie dough from the freezer to thaw so I could replenish our cookie jar.
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