Blue House Journal : Living a Full Life on a Budget
Saturday: We had another night of freezing temperatures. I will say that these super cold mornings make that cup of hot coffee so enjoyable each morning. I've always had coffee in the mornings, even as a child, but I swear that the older I get the more I enjoy it. Sometimes, even when I want to 'lie in' as my British friend says, I will go ahead and get up early because there is coffee.
I'm already thinking about Pantry Freezer Challenge 2026... Seriously, I know I'm (almost) done with this year's pantry freezer challenge, but I'm already looking ahead to next year. There are a few things I want to change about how I managed this year so that I can do better next year.
1. Meat. I had more than enough meat on hand, except hamburger meat. Truly we rely heavily on ground beef and chicken to help keep our budget under control and I had not realized that I had so little on hand. Thankfully we had several roasts on hand that I'd 'saved' since I knew them to be the more expensive cuts. But I want to be more mindful about my supply of ground beef and that means I need to buy at least nine pounds a month. How do I figure that?
I didn't think I could do it. I didn't think there was any way I could possibly manage 8 weeks of the Pantry and Freezer Challenge, but here we are. Only the last meal will use meat that was purchased in the past 6 weeks. Everything else is from the pantry or freezer.
So, while I was ruminating about what to make with all the older freezer items in weeks past, I more or less just ignored the pantry. Oh, I'd think to grab a few things here and there that I knew were expiring like cranberry sauce, pineapple, tomato soup, black beans, but I completely ignored the wealth of canned meats on the shelves and the variety of other things that might be used to nourish us as well.
I know February is the shortest month of the year, but anyone else feel like it was about as long as could be? Mind you, we had a lovely mix of weather: cold and warm, wet and dry, cloudy and sunny. Variety was there, but the weeks just lingered and lingered...Or so it seemed.
And may I confess that the older I get the harder I find it to take the cold? On Thursday when I was out with Mama, I stopped to refill her car with gasoline and despite having on several layers of clothing, I was chilled to the bone by the time I hopped back in the car. That wind was cuttingly cold. Brrr! I still shiver just remembering how cold it was.
Saturday: We went to the Homeless Outreach this morning. It's funny...Two years ago, John asked me to go along with him and I was in such a poor mental/emotional state at that time that I literally felt pain looking at the unfortunate people who came to be served. A year into John's role as worship leader for the pastor who oversees this ministry, I realized as I looked around the room how many faces had become familiar to me. I noted which children had grown. I watched various folks and noted who looked better than they'd looked a few months ago and who was looking the worse for wear.
Saturday: Breakfast Sandwiches. I used canned Spam slices as my breakfast meat. I still haven't restocked breakfast meats. I only have one more can of Spam, too. I always make a sort of well in one bread slice, then crack the egg into it and then I layer cheese on another bread slice and I lay Spam flat on the pan with the toasts and bake it all at once. It's really quite a hearty breakfast which is what we needed today.
One morning a couple of weeks ago we were headed out to an appointment. We had to leave early that morning and I was hurrying across the yard. I was stopped in my tracks by a strange little flower in my path. It was perfectly round and white. I leaned to look closely at it and realized it wasn't a flower at all, but a Dandelion gone to seed. The fluffy seed ball had captured moisture from the fog that morning and looked much more substantial than the seed heads do in their dry state. It had been completely transformed by that coating of fog and was unrecognizable as a dandelion.
John and I went to Sam's Club today. I will confess I spent a little more than I'd planned but there was nothing frivolous about the shopping. I looked for a whole lot more that I never found at all. We have yet to make it through the whole store. We always end up too tired!
I was absolutely convinced last week would be my very last week doing this challenge. And then...I was plundering in the freezer for an item and came across a few packages of meat that I know too well have been there quite some time. I decided to try to do one more week of this challenge and realize now that I could quite possibly go two more weeks. We shall see. I'll plan for this week first.
I've just reviewed last week's to do list and found I missed only a portion of one item. The front porch got cleaned off but not the patio or back porch. Then I went to review February's plans as a whole and realized that I am okay on that list. I haven't by any means completed all the jobs and things I set myself, I completely missed out on half of the family getting even a card for Valentine's Day, but I've two weeks to go in this month and should be able to manage to hit hard at that remaining list.
Saturday: Protein Pancakes, Spam. I had a very upsetting blood sugar reading this month. While it might appear the rest of the day I cast worries to the wind, I did not. I was very careful under the circumstances and drank loads of water in addition to practicing precautions.
Saturday: I woke from an awful dream that upset me mightily. Then I checked my blood sugar which had spiked at a number that I personally found shocking.
We went across the field today to celebrate a late birthday and an early birthday. Millie and Isaac have birthdays just 8 days apart and each year they do one party for them. They each get their own cake and presents, and they seem perfectly happy to share their party at this stage.
At the end of January, I made two grocery shopping trips. Those counted towards February and consisted mainly of meats to help restock the freezer and a bit of produce to see us through these past two weeks. I have not shopped since then.
Tuesday, I went out grocery shopping with Katie. I'd looked over sales and found nothing much to consider buying but I knew I had some outages that I wanted to fill. I also wanted to restock our produce. We were down to a single head of lettuce, carrots, celery and two mandarins.
I got well and truly ticked off the other day at a statement made by someone online. Ticked off enough that I quickly wrote out a response before reading anyone else's comments. I found the majority of people were in agreement with me but still, the offhand comment made really riled me.
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I think we'll mostly be at home this week. I know I'd like to go out for groceries but I'm not planning on eating out this week. I would like to finish this week strong in my pantry/freezer challenge. As I near the end of the week I'll determine if I'm going to try and continue through the end of February. There's a chance.
I always dread going back to look at last week's goals and plans when I get ready to write the post for the new week. Something in me is just certain that I planned a whole lot that didn't get done. I must have been using my right-thinking brain last week because I could happily check off every single item on the week except having guests and that was because poor Bryan got terribly sick, and they decided to pass on bringing it to us.
Saturday: I spent all day long working on my genealogy, notebook one. My purpose going through this time is to organize information that I have and get it printed on the same pages for each relative rather than having random notes all over the place. I thoroughly enjoyed that time.
True confession: It is 1:30 a.m. as I start this post. Why so late? My mind would not shut off. John was just up checking to see if I'm all right and I assured him I am just fine. The headache I had when I initially went to bed is gone. But as I told him, in my mind, I have cleaned and organized and straightened everything we own and then I began to replan the meal plan I'd already written up and thought of umpteen dishes I might make with what we already have on hand. And for your benefit I'll add that none of that planning included the meats I bought in the past week, only the foods already on hand when January began.
Here of late, I've been realizing more and more that there are things I've 'always' done or thought and that by simply changing my mind I can save us a bit more money. It started when I was watching "Old World Home" vlog. Hilary makes bread for her family every week and she always uses packets of yeast. Someone asked her 'Why don't you buy yeast in bulk?" Sheepishly, she admitted that it had never occurred to her to buy it in bulk...
Hello dears,
Here we are in a new month and six weeks or so of winter remaining. Fortunately, for us in the South, our winters are not generally terribly cold, or terribly grey. Nor do we do with a lot of snow and ice. Admittedly those things make life a good bit easier. We might hit a spate of rainy miserable days (or weekends while weeks are sunny and bright) and want to shelter at home but for the most part our winters are tolerable.
I know it's just February, but in my area, it will soon be Florida strawberry season. I can't wait! I love strawberries.
In the meantime, let's see what we can expect to use that is in season this month. I've mixed citrus and fruits in with vegetables this month. I'm more than a little surprised at how much we can expect to find seasonally speaking.
Just as I am getting deep into the swing of cold weather cooking, we warm up. It was in the 70's last Thursday. There are more of those days ahead for this week. Lovely weather. Kind of makes you not want the heartier foods though.
Never mind. I've got plenty of food in the freezer and cabinets and I'm certain I can make some good meals whatever weather we have. You'll see some things that will look like repeats, but they are meals I planned but we didn't eat.
1. Hopefully having guests the first of the week. Bryan and Ginny are supposed to be in town this week and it's my hope we will get to see them before they head back to Texas. I did not hold their feet to the fires in a promise but did let them know they are welcome and that we're really looking forward to seeing them.
Saturday: Bagels and Croissants.
Pizza with the kids.
Cheeseburgers and chips. When I was digging in the freezer doing an inventory last week, I found two beef patties at the bottom of the basket. I pulled those out to thaw, along with the last two homemade burger buns and made Cheeseburgers for supper tonight. I've no idea how old that meat was but I'll say they were from before July because that is when I started dating meat that I put in the freezer.
Goals for February:
1. Finish the deeper cleaning. I didn't quite finish that task up. I confess this last week of January I took it easy and thoroughly enjoyed doing so. I've read two books, am itching to take up a third...but with a new month, I definitely want to finish what I started in deeper cleaning. I want to get the guest room and bath deep cleaned and then I want to go back to the living portion of my front room and get it cleaned up really well. Honestly there's no reason why this should take me a long while this month, but I do know it will be intense, so I'll give myself grace enough to work on it properly and not rush through it.