This Week In My Home: Practicing Thrift

I recently rejuvenated this broken pot.  It's now a unique vessel for my favorite little flower bed.  

We've tried to glue this pot back together before and it didn't hold up.  I suggested we use tape as well as the glue.  As long as the pot is sitting upright it stays together.  I really wanted it lie on it's side but this is the way it works.  I filled it with kale and a tiny seedling coleus that came up in front of the back steps.  

Saturday:  One of my favorite rituals on a Saturday morning is to take the pot of coffee, my pretty little cup and saucer from Katie last Christmas, a pretty creamer and put it all on a little tray.  Then I drink cup after cup of hot coffee.  In reality I am drinking no more coffee than I do on any week day but it feels like more because the cup doesn't hold as much as a mug.  With all the frou frou, it feels very indulgent and I like that feeling of plenty and extravagance for absolutely no cost to me at all.

Last night I toasted cheese sandwiches in a big skillet on the stove.  I didn't use oil or butter, simply let the heat of the pan toast the bread and melt the cheese.  I left the pan covered on the stove overnight and used it this morning with a bit of olive oil to sear my roast.  Then I decided to just go ahead and use the covered pan to simmer the pot roast I was planning to prepare.  I couldn't think of any good reason to mess up the crock pot, too.  I think I got a lot of mileage from that one pan and I had no fear of contamination since it was only used to toast bread.

I made a simple Apple Crisp for dessert. No sweetener or thickening agent in with the apples and a homemade streusel topping using oatmeal, brown sugar, cinnamon, flour and butter as the topping. Golly but it taste good and rich.  I often will use brown sugar in place of white sugar as I make these desserts.  I find I can use far less and it tastes as sweet as if it were made with a full measure of sugar.

It's a cooler day than we've been having.  In honesty we are getting very near that "It's cold let's turn on the heater," conversation we have each October.  At which point, John always replies, "It's not even November yet!" lol.  It is an issue of economy because in reality the temperature indoors is just a few degrees less than when we run the Air Conditioner.  He's quite right we should hold off and wait.  At present the coolness is nothing that an extra layer or two, and perhaps socks on our feet, won't cure.

The coleus I pinched from a pot full of bronze colored plants at the meat market has started to root. I'll be potting them in soil this week.

As I made the bed yesterday, I noted that the fitted sheet is getting threadbare on both sets we presently rotate on our bed.  These are prints and I've determined the better economy is to purchase solid color sheets which I might easily pair with same color fitted sheets and pillowcases as they wear out.  And then I thought about all the preppers who are setting up food stores and recalled watching the BBC WWII series about rationing.  What if we were rationed where dry goods are concerned? Could we get sheets and blankets and pillows?  Would we not be wise to have a spare set or two for each bed in our homes?  In my early married years I had 14 sets of sheets given to me and thought they'd last forever.  You know they didn't.  They lasted a good ten or twelve years but they didn't by any means last forever.  I think I shall not only purchase fitted ivory sheets and new ivory pillowcases to go with the ivory flat sheets I have at present but I'll get a spare set or two to keep for future needs. I can keep my eye out at thrift and discount retail stores where quality goods aren't too expensive.  I will also reaccess my need of blankets and such.

This Week In My Home: Practice, Practice, Practice

Saturday as I prepared our meal I thought out my choices very carefully, not for dietary reasons alone, but for economy and overall appeal.  It was cool and breezy outdoors and cool indoors.   I wanted a hearty warming meal that was inexpensive but delicious.  It meant planning both that meal and the leftover meal that would result from making the planned meal.  The meal itself was moved from last week when we had no need of this menu.

I've been thinking hard this week.   I spent more than I meant to spend on groceries and I did not fill any gaps in my pantry at all.  I'm not in the least happy about that.  As well, John and I were talking over various things we want to do and we must plan for spending even small amounts these days.  I've decided that instead of planning to buy more groceries this next pay period, other than fresh dairy and produce, I'll plan to spend what I have (without spending ahead) on pantry supplies and fill in some of those gaps.  I won't by any meals fill them all, but I should make good headway if I spend carefully and thoughtfully.  So it shall be a sort of amended Pantry/Freezer Challenge, in that we'll eat from the freezer and work on filling up the pantry.

This Week In My Home: Practice Makes Perfect

I'm expanding the "This Week In My Home" post and adding in one that deals with the same theme. This week's theme is "Practice Makes Perfect" and the inspiration for this post is gravy.  Just plain old gravy.

I've shared before that in my Southern family each woman is known for a signature cake, or meal, and that is something they work to perfect and then present flawlessly every single time.  In my family Granny made the most beautiful little biscuits.  Mama's biscuits were cracked rough looking things and my first efforts were the worst of the family.  I soon discovered a recipe in the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook which I use to this day.  From my first batch, these biscuits were good, but I had to make them several times before I could honestly say they were perfect.  I could make them almost blindfolded at one point and Samuel learned to make them by watching me.  Now his biscuits easily rival my own as they tend to be super tender and light.

I perfected biscuits and then my dad challenged me to make gravy because the two went together in his opinion.  Here was an area where I had to work hard!  There is no real recipe for gravy and how you make it depends really upon your skill.  Roux didn't work too well for me, although I found it quite helpful when making a white sauce (which to my huge disappointment I discovered to be nothing more than a sort of milk gravy).  But gravy, thin and liquid yet with a certain weightiness to it that made it gravy and not broth, was a lot harder to figure out.

This Week In My Home: Fair Savings

Know what this is?  $8 worth of smiles that will last me months, from now until deep Spring.  

Saturday:  Rain woke me extra early this morning.  I turned on the light, took up my book and read in bed.  Gracious but that felt luxurious. And it cost me nothing but one hour of missed sleep.  No complaints over the rain.  It was a nice watering for my freshly planted things.

Made Apple Gingerbread waffles from Pancake mix, spices and one last wrinkly apple that was about three weeks old.  Boy were these good!

I put water in the pan I cooked sausage in and scraped it down good.  This went over Maddie and Misu's foods.  

I wanted a baked potato.  I'm allowed waxy potatoes but not Russets which have a higher starch content.   I decided to bake the Yukon gold potatoes I had.  I chose one about the size of what I'm allowed to have.  I wanted to dress up my potato so I sliced it, sliced onions thin, cut slices into the potatoes but not all the way through, and fit the thin onion pieces between the slices.  1 teaspoon of butter on each potato and salt and pepper.  I wrapped in  aluminum foil and baked.  

Coffee Chat: Isn't It Lovely To Have Fun?

My day yesterday didn't at all go as planned...For that matter, I struggled long and hard to remember what day it was!  In my head it was Wednesday all day long and if you think you can't possibly lose track of time in such a way believe me you can when your husband's day of work changes each week.  Every day he goes off to work feels like Monday and every day he's home after working it feels like Saturday, which is strange when you consider we've never had a proper routine weekend in years upon years.    It's not date that bumfuzzles me, it's the actual day.  Sometimes we sit here and flip channels and demand to know why some show or another isn't on...and then we realize that it's not the day for it after all, that we've gone through a whole day thinking it was another day entirely.

Well right now I am sure of what day it is, but only because I got sick of being confused and looked at a calendar.  Which means the weatherman was perfectly right in calling yesterday Tuesday and not Wednesday as I thought it ought to be.

Aside from my desire to get my head straight on the day yesterday, it was really just different all around.  I could not hold my head up this morning after eating breakfast.  I literally fell asleep three or four times and so I finally took myself off to bed where I slept the deepest and hardest three and half hours I've ever slept lately and I had to force myself to wake and crawl from bed.  Now I did lose a bit of sleep Monday night, was awake well before John arose at 4:15am and never went back to sleep after and then my blasted alarm went off a full 15 minutes early as well, so I was up at 4:45.

This Week In My Home: Fair Days

It is the week of the Georgia National Fair, something we look forward to and sometimes are able to attend.  This year the plans are to go...we'll see if our plans hold.  The weather at least will be very nice and pleasant all week long IF the forecasts are correct...but then again we only had a 30% chance of rain Saturday and guess what?  It was 100% raining from 5 until 7am that morning and after the skies cleared off it was clouding again by noon.  Pfft! Weather men.  The only sunshine I've seen today is on the televised football game.  I don't mind if it's cloudy when we go to the fair, but I will mind if it's rained out!

I did a lot of extra shopping this past week.  We purchased our quarterly bulk beef supplies at the meat market.  I stocked up on breakfast sausages (polska kielbasa, beef links and turkey sausage patties) and chicken breasts ($.88/pound and I'm figuring we'll get two servings from each breast as they are BIG).  So with the freezer fully stocked (I added bogo frozen cheese pizzas to the back freezer for easy meal days) I need purchase only eggs, bread, milk and produce this week.  Anything else is really and truly extra.  I suspect even with the spend ahead on the budget (not including the beef purchase but all the rest) I'll have money enough left to set a little aside and a little to indulge John's wants whatever they might be.  He's never unreasonable in splurges.

In My Home This Week: Settling into the New Budget Quarter

I often wish to renovate a space but renovations are not in my budget.  The creative side of me has to figure out how to make what I have work.  This is not a recent project, but it illustrates what a bit of  "Use what you have" can accomplish.  In this case  I had a cleaning closet without one item to help maximize the space was transformed with a $2 clearance key rack (that's where the broom and fly swatter is hanging) and four milk crates I'd used in my master closet but decided would best be re-purposed here.  Now  I have a space to hold cleaning supplies and the trash can, as well.


Saturday:  Last night before sundown I cashed in my Pinecone Rewards for $18 in Pay Pal credits.

Today I received my new purse in the mail.  I ordered it using Amazon credits earned through surveys and Swagbucks.  I am very pleased. The purse was a clearance item, formerly selling for $90 and I got it for $15.  It is the grey purse I kept saying I wished I could add to my wardrobe.  I love how God seems to listen to even my chatter at times and supplies wants as well as needs.

I dressed up a plain cheese pizza with some diced peppers and onion and a couple of pieces of chopped turkey sausage.

Went through the older magazines in my basket and culled out the recipes and articles I wanted to keep.

I was pleased with how streamlined dinner and dishes were today.  I don't like to work per se on my Sabbath day.  Today it really was easy.  Well worth the prep time I put in yesterday getting things prepared.  I had only to rinse a handful of dishes and stowed them right in the dishwasher.  Easy peasy and I liked it a lot!

Still in list making mode:  this week I'm thinking of those items we need only occasionally like first air and cold medicines.  Bandages, triple antibiotic, benadryl,   Vapor rub, Vitamin C tablets, Zinc, tissues.  I'm good on the Vitamin C and tissues but we need the other items.  I've put them on my watch list and hope to supply these items from sales.