Thrifty Thursday: Savings or Quality?

 

Friday: I rearranged the flower bed about the Sweet Gum tree about a month ago. It was one day while the contractors were here. I had extra blocks that I set aside and today I went out to lay them to create the rest of the border of that bed.  It is finally done!  I don't have to purchase a single block to complete it.  Now I can concentrate on planting and forget the worry that there is nothing to keep children or mowers out of the flowers.

I checked the beets.  There are no roots on them as of yet.  If I have more seed, I'll plant them later this next week along with more carrots.  I have enough small lettuce leaves to harvest, but I'll need to do it before Tuesday when we're due really cold weather.

I made homemade honey mustard.  We like the creamy sort of honey mustard.  I had just about 1/4 cup of honey left in a jar, so I added yellow mustard and mayonnaise to the jar.  Caleb was sure he wanted ketchup but I always try to get him to taste things I made and he agreed to taste the honey mustard.  He promptly asked if he could eat some of it on his chicken patty and I assured him he could.  

Mental note to self: plan to use this up in the week ahead.  

This evening, when I was in the kitchen, I tried once more to make myself want the tuna cakes on my menu.  Nope.  My stomach just turned at the idea of them.  Tuna and I have that sort of thing.  I think it goes back to having eaten so much of it on one of those perpetual diets Mama was always putting us on.  Anyway, while I was making an alternative and quick meal (kielbasa from the freezer and a box of mac and cheese) I went ahead and made up my sauce for lasagna.  This is when I discovered that the ground meat, I'd bought on markdown wasn't as fresh as it might have been. The wrapper smelled a little sour.  It reminded me that even while costs have risen and I want to spend our money wisely, I'd rather pay the extra for the quality beef.  I won't pick up any ground beef in the future that I think might not be at its best.  This seldom happens to me anymore, but I need to pay closer attention so that it never happens.

I assembled the lasagna this evening and have it in the fridge to be baked over the weekend. I do not buy the no bake lasagna noodles.  I find the regular do just as well, especially if it's allowed to sit overnight in the fridge.

I cooked the chicken frame from yesterday's sandwich meal all night long. I got about a cup of meat off that frame this morning and fed the skin and soft cartilage to Rufus and Sassy.  I have a quart and a half of broth.  I'm planning to use both in the week ahead, though I don't know just what I'll make at the moment.

Meals:  Sausage and Biscuits for Caleb and I, just plain biscuits for John

Chicken Patties I cut into strips and served with Honey Mustard sauce, French Fries (made from scratch and fried here at home)  Mandarins

Kielbasa and Mac n Cheese

Saturday:  Quiet morning at home and then a lovely lunch out with John.  We brought half our lunches home, and we stayed well within our eating out budget with our choices.  

We went by the grocery on our way home to pick up NEEDS: half and half for my coffee/tea, eggs, coconut yogurt for Caleb who has asked for yogurt multiples of times, butter (very low on it), and fresh flowers for the house.  Yes, I consider flowers a need and as long as I can afford to buy them, I shall.

I picked up a few other items: potatoes, apples, bananas, mandarins.  John wanted a container of pricey strawberries and Pineapple for us to share. He seldom asks for much, so I indulge him.  Included here but on sale: chips, just for me Walker Shortbread cookies.  The shortbread cookies were a complete and total splurge but were on a very good sale. I'd just mentioned to John last week that it was one cookie I truly enjoy but never ever buy because they are costly.  Lovely, lovely, lovely with a cup of hot tea of an afternoon.

Other items were sales that I wanted to take advantage of for the future pantry: saltines, ground round ($4.99/pound but nice and lean), deli sliced ham, a multi-pack of yogurt for me and anyone else who wants it, taco kits (one soft and one crunchy), Mike and Ike theatre box of candy and a tube of original Sweet Tarts.  Yes, the candy is for me, too.  I didn't give up sugar as John has for this fast, but I did give up chocolate and somehow all I have in the house is chocolate.  To say I was starting to jones a bit for sugar would be an understatement.

I claimed $5.00 back from Ibotta and earned 6800 points on Fetch with these purchases.  Caleb's yogurt was on sale for $1 a cup and I got $1 back on each one.  

The fan we bought for the heater, to push heat out in the room does not work for our heater.  We think it's because it simply doesn't put out that much heat.  We even tried pushing the heat higher, but the fan just sat still.  I've requested a return from Amazon and will be sending it back.  

We've seen these fans work beautifully on wood and coal stoves and the photos online showed one on a propane heater but truth we seldom turn our heat up very high because it's such efficient heating that we don't need to.  We are ridiculously disappointed that this didn't work for us.  

I'll set that refund money aside towards one of the floor fans that John is wanting to purchase for this summer.  Our former floor fans are all 25 years old, and we've been buying lower profile, less obtrusive fans to use of the same brand.

Meals:  Croissant for me, Toast for John

We ate lunch out and brought leftovers home.

Grilled cheese sandwiches, chips, fresh fruit for John, strawberry yogurt for me.

Sunday:  A very easy day at home.  After we came home from church today, I slipped the pan of lasagna into the oven.  I had left it sitting on the counter while we were gone so it wouldn't be so very cold.  It was still plenty cool in the house and didn't get in the least warmed up sitting out but it did cut down on baking.  As it was, it took 1.5 hours to get it hot all the way through.

I still need to go divide that ground meat and get it into the freezer and out of the fridge.  I made 8 patties and put up 9 packages of beef.  One thing about it being just us once again, we can downsize packages to 1/2 pound.

We ate the last of the bowl of fruit we bought yesterday. We got a total of three servings each off that little bowl of fruit.  I don't know where the strawberries were from, but they were so delicious!  I raved over them so that John, who doesn't eat berries, had to try one, too, and he agreed they were really good ones.

After lunch, I divided the lasagna into three mini lasagnas which I double wrapped in foil and then put into a baggie in the freezer.  That will be three future meals for us and if necessary, could stretch to feed four with salad, an additional vegetable and a light dessert.    

I fed the birds and topped up pet bowls.  Sassy is part pig.  She is very demanding about food.  She looks like a pretty cat, but she will swear to anyone ready to listen that she hasn't eaten in days!  Many times, John or I have been convinced by her only to be told by the other that she'd already been fed.  One day we fed her four times because we didn't check with one another, lol.   I think it's a good thing Seneca likes to chase her, or she might be the size of a pig for sure!

For supper tonight we'll eat leftovers from our lunches yesterday.  

Monday:  I saved myself a load of aggravation if nothing else today.  While sorting out files, I found last year's tag receipts so we can renew car tags in two weeks.  That was a happy bonus of doing that filing work today!

We had a quiet day at home today. I ate leftover biscuits for my breakfast, John had his toast.  For lunch, he made us both a ham sandwich and we had those and lots of conversation.   Supper, I baked chicken thighs and the rice I'd found in the freezer.  That rice was NOT Spanish rice as I'd supposed but fried rice.  Reason #999 why I really ought to follow my own rules and label every blessed thing I put into the freezer that I've cooked.  So, we had a Spanish flavored chicken with an Oriental Rice.  Oh well.  

While sorting out books this evening after supper, I took time to look up a few volumes I have that I thought might have some value.  I now need to determine if I want to make time to put those up for sale or if I'll donate them to a local women's club that has an annual book sale.   

Tuesday:  I went out this evening and harvested the carrots (about a dozen or so) and lettuce.  I will save the carrot tops and dry them for 'parsley' which I add to potatoes, salads, soups, stews, etc.  Caleb saw the little carrots and asked if he could eat them.  Since he'd just eaten a tremendous supper (blueberry yogurt, pizza, soup, crackers and cheese) I didn't feel he needed more food but told him I'd pack some up for him to take in his school lunch tomorrow.  Before he left, he asked me where 'his' carrots were.  

I made bread, pizza dough and pizza today as well as a big Dutch Oven full of a thick vegetable soup.  I used 1 quart of beef broth I forgot I'd put in the fridge for that purpose.  I also added an old beef broth from the freezer that I'd thawed.  I opened canned potatoes that were near expiration to add to the soup as well.   This was very good and hit the spot with saltines and cheese slices for our supper tonight.

Not much else was accomplished today save child sitting duties.  

Wednesday:  We left faucets dripping last night, the propane heater on, and water in the kettle on the stove to help moisten the air.  I also opened the doors to the sink cabinets that are on outside walls.  Those cabinets stay cold most of the time, on a night like last night, they really need to be open and get some warmer air in them.   Our efforts paid off.  No more leaks, other than the known one. 

I reheated some of last night's soup for lunch today and put two 1.5-pint jars into the freezer for future.  I made pimento cheese and made John my childhood food memory of Toasted Pimento Cheese sandwiches to go with the soup.  

I put Swiss Steak in the slow cooker and will serve that with Mashed potatoes and some other side (steamed broccoli?  Green Beans?) tonight.  I chose to serve with green beans and made rice instead of mashed potatoes.  I remembered that Caleb simply does not like mashed potatoes.  For a kid who happily munches on bell peppers and celery, eats olives and avocado, I can make an allowance for not liking potatoes (except French Fries).  I also served this meal with rolls.  It is such a simple recipe really but so very good.

Mama's Swiss Steak:

1 round or chuck steak, cut into serving pieces

1 large green bell pepper,

1 onion, sliced

1 can tomatoes

Salt and pepper, garlic to your taste

A couple of dashes of Worcestershire sauce

Dump everything into the slow cooker and cook on Medium 4-5 hours, depending upon thickness of your steak.  When steak is tender thicken the juices in the pan with a cornstarch slurry.

Thursday:  We survived another night of below freezing temperatures without any damage.  I left the faucet dripping in the guest bathroom.  It's the last on the waterline and so draws water through all the rest of the pipes.  I followed a tip an older gentleman gave us when we first moved here and were in for freezing weather: Let the hot water line drip, too rather than just the cold-water line which is what people typically do.   That keeps the water line to the hot water heater from freezing.

I had Caleb last night due to Katie's being at the emergency room.  She's fine but it got very late before she got out and it was just easier all around to keep Caleb here for the night.   I pulled together a lunch from what I had on hand.  He went to school with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, a banana, celery and carrot sticks and a whole grain fruit bar.  

After we dropped him at school, I went into Dollar General. I went in to get paper towel which have disappeared at an alarming rate around here since last month.  While there, I stocked up on a variety of freezer convenience foods and I estimate I spent about $40 on what I purchased.  These foods are not for eating this month, but they are meant to give me a little help next month or two when I simply have no brain power or energy to make a meal.  I bought a better-quality Chicken Pot Pie, Chicken Tenders (a quality brand), Mini Pot stickers and Eggrolls and French Fries.  No, it's not a lot of food for the price, but I promise you that buying just one entree and sides anywhere here in town as take out would cost easily half of what I spent at the Dollar store today for just the two of us.   

I happen to know prices at the grocery stores and these prices were only slightly higher than sales prices.  The savings in gasoline alone made them worthwhile.  Not to mention they were actually in stock, something I keep running up against with the grocery sales.

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