A Homemaker's Week of Savings: New Month of Savings

Thursday:  I followed John's urging finally and went to look for a new slow cooker.  I found out two things.  A crockpot, though the name was branded, is a metal liner with a crockery insert and glass lid.  A slow cooker is a base with a metal pot and glass lid.

I mentioned that one of my favorite and first slow cookers was a metal pot on a hot plate base.  I think the reason I finally stopped using it was that someone gave me a crock pot for Christmas one year, and then my metal pot was dropped and bent.  It worked just fine, but the lid no longer fit snugly.  Every slow cooker I've had since my second has been a crock pot.  

Yes, the pressure canner does have a slow cook function.  I didn't realize that until I'd already placed my order for this one.  And honestly?  It would be nice to be able to use the slow cooker AND the canner at the same time rather than having to juggle them.

I found a West Bend 6-quart pot for about $50.   The base can be used as a griddle.  The metal pot is safe for oven or stove top usage.  It comes with an insulated cover and a carrier.  I'm thinking it's a pretty good value!

 

Fingers crossed.  I am very hopeful that I shall have far better luck with a metal pot than I've had over the past years with a crock.  

I have the grandchildren today.   I made pizzas and Pink Lemonade.  They also had watermelon and little packets of Oreo cookies.  They all ate like horses from the youngest to the biggest.  

Yesterday I brought out a new toy, a small box of Magnetic tiles.  Caleb was enthralled with them and played happily all day long.  Today the other children have also enjoyed playing with them.  When they went outdoors, they played at the water table and then I brought out a second box of Kinetic sand that Renee kindly sent to Caleb a few months ago.  They enjoyed molding that into ocean shapes.

It's been a bit of a circus here but those new toys, things I'd set aside, helped save the day.

Katie will be out this evening.  She doesn't much care for Brats so I decided tonight would be a great time to serve Brats with peppers and onions, with chips on the side.  I had already sliced up the green bell peppers Sam gave me on his birthday.

While I was sautéing peppers and onions for the Brats, I heard a tap on the back door.  It was Sam.  He brought me a bag full of goodies: 5 huge Marconi green Peppers, 8 carrots with tops, another small eggplant, 3 squash, cucumbers and 2 bulbs of freshly pulled garlic.  Bounty!  I went right to work.   The eggplant and squash went into the fridge.  I'll make something from both those this weekend.  The peppers were seeded and chopped.  I put two quarts into the freezer.  I sliced most of the cucumbers and made 1.5 into spears then I reheated my previous batch of sweet brine and packed 1 quart jar of sliced pickles and onions and one pint jar of sweet spears.  I stripped the tops off the carrots and already have dried 1/2 the batch.  The last lot netted me a healthy cup of dried green leaves.  I expect I'll get as much from this lot.  I left the garlic on the counter to cure.

Now what I really need to consider is what I'm going to do with all the carrots.  I have a 2-pound bag of bought carrots, loads of individual bags of baby carrots, and twelve of Sam's carrots on hand.  I have carrots.  Of course, I realize they will keep in the fridge, but I might need some room for other things.  At the moment, I have one drawer mostly filled with just carrots!  

I could pressure can a few.  It's nice to have a few canned ones on the pantry shelf for a quick soup in winter.

John's not keen on cooked carrots.  He'll eat baby carrots raw and will eat shredded carrots in a salad or slaw or carrot raisin salad.  But he's asked me specifically to shred fresh carrots when I'm making soups and other dishes with cooked carrots.  The compromise is that I will not shred them for pot roast.  Katie and I both love them in our pot roasts. And stews.  But I do shred them for him in any other cooked dishes I might make.

By the time this is posted, you'll have read my goals for July and know that one of those is to inventory my pantry.  Caleb has been asking for raisins for days and yesterday I went to the back to find something else, reached into the snack bin for another item and came up with a packet of raisins.  I'd forgotten all about that plethora of dried cranberries and raisins we'd gotten from Sam the first two weeks of June.  I need to get into that bin and sort things into baggies or containers, so I know just what I have.  

Friday:  Ouch.  Went to the grocery with John today.  It seemed a good time to stock up on sale priced meats with a major grilling holiday ahead.  I restocked the ground beef, putting 9 pounds into the freezer.  Got bacon, chicken thighs, beef smoked sausage, hot dogs.   Those meats were reasonable enough.   Produce was up quite a bit.  I kept saying, "But that's in season..."  Doesn't matter.  I saw smaller packaging in many items and higher prices.

I walked out having spent half my grocery budget for July.  Half.  Needless to say, I felt alarmed and am seriously wondering if I can avoid going back to the grocery for two weeks.  That's my hope.

It was stinking hot out there.  We came home to have lunch, though I did pick up chicken and sides at the grocery.  It's still cheaper to feed several that way than to pick up fast food for two.  I had more than enough to feed the family twice over.

We are pulling shades and curtains on the 'hot' side of the house, blocking out as much heat as we can.  

Put John off about wanting an Apple Pie (not even a decent one) and told him I had one in the freezer I could bake for him.

Saturday:  This morning, I realized that I'm going to need to tighten my budget and create a few new notches.  It's been comfortable around here of late, but necessity demands what I knew was going to be inevitable.  It might be temporary but it's still necessary.

John and I went to our favorite restaurant today for lunch out.  I had a gift card and we used that to cover our meal.  We've got just enough to pay for about one more meal on that card.  It's been a lovely bonus to us.  I sure do appreciate my brother-in-law sending us that card each Christmas!

On our way home, we noted that while our hometown grocer was still busy, it was not as packed as yesterday, so we went in to see what they had to offer.  My uptake on it is that prices are less in many areas than Publix's prices and in some areas, they are spot on.  Potatoes, which ran $5.99 for 5 pounds yesterday were just $3.49 here in town.  Boston lettuce was 99c a pound.  The produce looks beautiful and lovely.   Meats were reasonably priced and will be competition for the out-of-town markets.  I told John I shall have to go in one day and do one of my 'eating on a budget' posts shopping at that local store.

 Again, John had his eye on the apple pies, this time in the freezer case.  "I have one at home in the freezer..."  Here's where I came to regret my stubbornness.  True the pies he was looking at are inferior in my opinion.  At $5 for a four-piece sized pie, it seemed stupid to purchase it.  Well, I was caught.  "So, when we get home, you'll take out the Apple pie?"  "Yes, I'll thaw it and then bake it." "Bake it?!  It has to be baked?"  "Yes...and it's so hot that I hate to turn on the oven."  "You mean you're going to take it out and then not bake it?!"  Sigh.  It's going to be just as hot tomorrow.  I'm going to be out at church all morning, so it will be late before I could bake it, anyway.  Why not bake the darn thing today?

I baked the blessed pie, and it took two hours of heating the kitchen up to get it cooked through.  The AC is running hard, the house is hot, but John has his pie.  Remind me next time to suggest a nice cool frozen pie instead...It's too hot to be baking pies!

Sunday:  Today has been so hot that no one really wanted to do much of anything.  However, a few things got done, all to promote better home life.

After church, we came home and I made lunch.  I used the cubed steak I'd picked up at the Hometown grocery yesterday. 

For supper we cleared the fridge of all the leftover bits that I hadn't already planned into a meal for the week.  

I planned meals.

I finished drying the carrot tops.  

I made a loaf of bread in the bread machine.

Caleb and John went out to work on the mower in the high heat of the day.  John removed blades and sharpened them.  He and Caleb washed the mower and put the blades back on.  It was so hot outdoors that I took out iced water and watermelon to help cool them down.  As soon as they were done cool bath for Caleb and a cool shower for John with another cool drink. 

I took a nap.  I'm learning the fine art of acknowledging when I'm well and truly tired and need to lie down.  I napped a good hour and slept hard.  Made all the difference in the world in how I felt.  How is that a savings?  I was a lot nicer than I might have been if I'd 'pushed through'.

I folded clothes.  I cleaned my bedroom and put things away properly.  I did stuff. Yay me.  Where on earth is the savings in all of that?  I had a neat and tidy space without expending a load of energy and I'll awake to a home that looks a lot less like a disaster area tomorrow, which will save me from feeling overwhelmed and getting testy with everyone.  

Monday:  Planted the sweet potato starts today.  Now I must buy more soil.  To help piece out the soil in the bin, I used crushed aluminum cans to help fill the bottom and keep the bin from being too heavy, laid down a sheet of thick cardboard that just fit inside the bin, poured all the shredded paper from the shredder on top of the cardboard, emptied soil from two flowerpots that plants had died in (Poinsettias I'd kept for four years), and then filled the rest of the way with the last of my bag of bought soil.  It all made just enough to fill the bin.  

Urged John to retrieve the Sevin granules from where ever it was in his shed.  I sprinkled it on the tomatoes and eggplants this afternoon shortly after we'd had rain, which saved the need to water it in.  I found another HUGE green horned worm this morning.  I found one tomato with what appeared to be blossom end rot and one that was partially eaten by the blasted worm.  That is the fifth or sixth ones I've had to pull off and discard.  I counted 21 remaining tomatoes and there are still a few blooms. That was this morning.  This afternoon when I went out to spread the granules, darned if I didn't see three tomatoes that had been nibbled by something or other.  Will I get a ripe tomato this summer?  Or shall I resort to going back to the grocery store and taking what I can get?

I removed some lower stems that had leaves turning yellow.  I stuck them in soil to see if they would root.  So far, my rooting procedure has worked very well.  I have the five tomatoes that have done well, two from the compost that are flourishing, and about six smaller ones that I've rooted from shoulder stems or from lower stems of the five original ones.  I've lost a few, but not enough to feel it's unsuccessful.  Now we'll see if any of them produce blooms and fruits.

Came indoors this morning and made Caleb and I a smoothie.  He wasn't thrilled with it.  I told him to put it in the fridge and I'd drink it tomorrow.  I think he prefers a yogurt/milk-based smoothie.  This was Mango and strawberries.  He asked for his usual juice which is 2/3 cup of water to 1/3 cup of juice.

I bought the Mighty Mango drink yesterday.  I love the Naked Juice Mighty Mango.  I've haven't had one in a long time but yesterday I knew it was just what I wanted.  I paid a stupid high price for it...But in the end, I'll have had three different drinks from it.  I drank some of it on my way home yesterday.  Typically, I blend it with ice so it's really cold, which is what I did today for Caleb and me.  I may blend it with more ice tomorrow when I have that third portion.  

I sorted out the buffet and neatened things up.  Then I went to the big freezer and sorted it out.  I brought out the meat for tomorrow, found the beef and rice burritos I'd frozen a month or two ago.  The burritos were reheated for our lunch. Katie opted to eat a portion of breakfast casserole that I'd frozen.

While I was in the freezer, I found a partial container of lactose free cottage cheese.  It's got 14g protein in it. I thought that might make a nice addition to Caleb's next smoothie, so I set it out to thaw.  His appetite is low just now, probably a result of the heat.  I want to get protein in him but all he wants is a smoothie...I think this will work out just fine.  

After lunch I began the process of making the Moussaka.  This is a fussy recipe.  I didn't have nearly enough eggplant but in reading recipes I discovered that it's not uncommon to make it with thicker potato slices.  I have potatoes. I decided to do one layer of potatoes and the second layer with my few thin eggplant slices. 

The recipe was too much to fit in the 9 x 9 pan I'd meant to use.  Fortunately, the new slow cooker arrived today, and the pot is oven and stove top safe, so I transferred my Moussaka to that dish.  

I won't be sharing this recipe.  It turned out lovely and thick, but the seasoning was just not what I would have wanted.  I have a recipe for a Corn Moussaka that I've just posted on www.bluehousejournalrecipes.blogspot.com.  I like that meat filling much better and in the future that will be the one I use if I'm making any Moussaka recipe.

I had to cook the Moussaka in the oven.  I did two things to minimize the impact of the oven's heat on the house.  I didn't pre-heat the oven but put the dish into a cold oven and let it heat as the oven pre-heated.  I timed it carefully and checked it about 8 minutes prior to the timer going off.  It was golden on top and sizzling, so I went right ahead and cut off the oven.  It was still warmer in the house, but it wasn't for a long period.  

Tuesday:  Went out to check the tomatoes this morning and so happy to report I found no horned worms, saw no more damage and found no beetles. I still have blooms forming on the most mature plants and the smaller ones are looking healthy and green.  Three or four, though just medium sized are just beginning to look like they are blushing.  I'll be pulling those this week and will allow them to continue to ripen here in the house.

We had our usual holiday breakfast this morning of Orange Danish.  I'd made Sausage Balls last week and put some in the freezer.  After pricing the baby sausages we'd typically purchase and finding them entirely too high to even consider last week, I decided that the remaining sausage balls would do just fine for our holiday morning breakfast.

I bought a sprinkler last week.  I'd looked at all sorts of super cute sprinklers meant for children but goodness gracious they all had twenty or thirty moving parts and while cute as could be, were pricey as well. I bought just a plain old fashioned rotating sprinkler, and you know, Caleb liked it as well as he would have any of the rest, and there's a whole lot less chance this one will break.

We've had two rain showers today.  I won't need to water a thing outdoors.  So glad of that.  For one thing it's stinking hot out there.  For another, I feel like rain is so much more beneficial.  Since we had enough rain to leave puddles standing, I'm pretty sure we've gotten as much as the plants could use.

That bread machine baked bread might not be John's favorite shape, but I noted today that it was time to bake another loaf, after just four days.  I have another in the machine right now rising and it will bake in the pan in the bread machine to save heating up the house unnecessarily.

Thinking ahead to Thursday, I put together a Cottage pie from a variety of vegetables and the leftover meatloaf plus some beef gravy I made up.  I topped it all off with leftover mashed potatoes I had in the fridge.  I wrapped it well and put it back in the fridge.

Katie cooked her sausage and potato boil tonight for supper.  It was really good and because it had only sale priced kielbasa and boiled eggs in it, as well as potatoes, corn and onion, it was a good inexpensive meal as well, very filling though.  I could easily have had a small portion and been completely satisfied for the evening.  We used the sea food boil seasoning I'd bought on clearance a few months ago which is basically just a seasoned salt heavy on the paprika.  All in all, a nice change from our usual fare.  I made a fresh loaf of bread and we used that to sop up the juices.

John followed his meal up with apple pie.  I opted for some of the fresh cherries I'd bought.  

Wednesday:  I did think to remove meat to thaw for today, but nothing has thawed. I guess I'll be cooking frozen meat for supper.  Not my most favorite way to cook meat, as if you try to thaw and cook too quickly it can be quite tough.    Fortunately, I thought ahead to the next meal or so and went ahead to pull out meats for that.

I've been rethinking menus in my head all morning long.  I thought I was out of lettuce, but then remembered that I have half a head of Boston lettuce and a full bag of spinach leaves.  I think we can manage a salad as well as red cabbage and carrots and peppers so I think I can manage without doing any extra shopping.  My big salad will go back on the menu for later this week.

John prepared eggs and toast this morning for us.  

My biggest challenge at present is to figure out what I'll make for lunch for tomorrow.  I'm thinking Mac n Cheese with fruit on the side.

We have hummingbirds of all sorts hanging about the house.  Katie fussed that they kept trying to drink her Dr. Pepper, lol, so we are setting up the feeding stations in various places.  I've put one of the shepherd's hooks near my little garden so the hummingbirds will hang out there, as well as one in front of the flower bed at our bedroom window.  We've already hung a feeder on the back porch, and I have a hook on the front porch where we can hang another.  I've got another hook that I plan to place near the living room window, too.  Hope that will kill their Dr. Pepper habit and give them a little better food source.

Checked the potato pot in and I have potatoes coming up!  Yeah!  These were sprouted parings that I'd tossed into a flowerpot and two weeks later found them living even though I'd forgotten all about them.  I just tucked them down into a pot of soil that was nearby and there they are, growing away.

Took time this morning, while it was less hot, to weed three or four flower beds.  They are small spaces and the recent rain made pulling weeds easy as pie.