Last Week's Thrifty Moves

Sunday morning I slept in for a bit before getting up to begin our Easter.  It was pretty low key this year as you can imagine.  I cooked up a nice ham with all the trimmings.  I made macaroni & cheese and baked beans for the girls along with a fruit salad made with canned pineapple and sugar free lime gelatin, deviled eggs and steamed asparagus.  For dessert we enjoyed a slice of low carb coconut cream pie.

We had the best Easter dinner

I put together Easter gifts for my girls by taking a couple cosmetic bags I'd picked up at Wal-Mart $1 each (after Christmas clearance in January 2019) and filling them with full sized candy bars I'd found on sale and clearance in the past two months.  They loved the bags and the candy inside.

We had several meals from this ham which I cooked in our large Crockpot.
I saved the rendered broth for soup and the fat for making suet cakes.
The bone will be used to make bean soup and is now in our freezer. 😋

Surprisingly our week went by fairly rapidly.  Every evening I came home and worked on either my garden plans or my prepper pantry.  It is going to be a process to put together this pantry and I know I have a long way to go, however I am really enjoying the work I have done so far.  Every day I come up with another idea too and add it to my list.  And I've got tomatoes sprouting!

I got started on my Prepper Pantry

I did not do any shopping or grocery shopping last week.  We are blessed to have plenty.

Ham broth, leftover ham and veggies made up a nice pot of split pea soup
I made cornbread to go with it and the girls loved it

Saturday was my busiest and most productive day spent cooking, cleaning, washing a load of laundry, prepping, doing some small projects and just enjoying being inside my home.  Obviously the extended stay at home order isn't bothering me too much.  The girls were both at work so that left me with most of the day to myself and I was able to get quite a bit done.  I even ordered myself an early Mother's Day present and I can hardly wait for it to get here!  I'm so excited!

I made a double batch of homemade granola

Our weather has been nice enough to turn off all of the heat in our house and open the windows on occasion for fresh air and some much appreciated sunshine.  We're a little late, but the pear and apple trees are starting to bloom finally and I've got tulips in the yard.  Our mornings are still pretty chilly, but once the sun is out it warms up quite nicely.

I boiled up a dozen eggs using half of them for egg salad

We gave the chickens loads of yummy kitchen scraps and in turn they gave us a load of delicious eggs.  We gave a dozen eggs to our neighbors as well as another dozed to some friends.  Normally we sell our extra eggs to offset the cost of food, but it just feels better to give them instead right now.

I washed out several Ziploc bags to reuse.

Prepper Pantry = 5 packages of rice (8 cups each), 4 packages of popcorn (6 cups each), 2 packages of flour (10 cups each), 6 seasoning packets (au jus, chili, taco), 4 boxes of gelatin, 8 cans tuna, 4 cans chicken, 4 bricks of coffee (6 oz each), 4 packages of pinto beans (2 cups each).

A little bit of Barkeeper's Friend will remove the stains from inside
your slow cooker.  Looks almost new again. 😊

Some of the 15 Minute Chores I accomplished to keep my home in order:

Laundry Room & Half Bathroom - vacuumed & mopped floors.  Daily swish & swipe.

Dining Room - vacuumed & mopped  floor.

Kitchen -  vacuumed & mopped floor, cleaned microwave, bleached sink.

Bedrooms & Main Bathroom - vacuumed & dusted.  Scrubbed sink, mopped floor.  Daily swish & swipe.

Other - two large loads of laundry, vacuumed & dusted living room, hallway & entry, mopped both entry ways.  Swept front porch.

How was your thrifty week?

Home Management - Maintenance & Improvements

An important part of home management is maintaining and improving our home.  Making regular repairs, replacing worn items and upgrading things as we can afford to do so not only keeps our home nice but it improves its value and overall sales appeal.

Paint is not only cosmetic, but it protects the walls and makes them easier to keep clean.  Replacing worn carpets, repairing or replacing flooring, fixing leaky faucets and drains, updating old appliances and light fixtures, etc.

We had a leaky drain that could've caused a lot
of damage had I not repaired it right away

I try to maintain my house on a regular basis.  I fix leaks and repair broken items as quickly as possible to mitigate any damage that may occur.  If you fix things right away you will avoid a larger and much more expensive repair down the road.

I opted to reface and repaint our cabinets rather than  to invest in new ones

Whenever you make repairs and improvements to your home I suggest you only do what will truly be a marketable improvement and appeal to the masses.  I carefully consider what I am going to do before I begin a project.  One important thing I try to do is make sure I don't over improve my home meaning I don't want to invest more into my home it is worth.  I consider the neighborhood I live in and the market value of my home and scale it to fit within those parameters.  And since I know I will one day sell my home I don't want my improvements to be too personal that they wouldn't be appreciated by others.  I want my home to be desirable when I put it on the market.

My home is my largest investment so I need to take really good care of it.  If I take good care of it I know my efforts will pay off in the long run making all my hard work and all those mortgage payments worth it in the end.  And in the meantime I get to enjoy living in a very nice home.

2020 Christmas Gift Idea #2 - Journals

A few weeks ago I took an old spiral notebook we had laying around and started using it as a journal of sorts for retirement planning.  I thought it would be a good thing for me to make all of my many lists in.  I love to plan and part of that is making lists of all kinds for all kinds of reasons.

This notebook still had most of it pages inside, still very usable

This spiral notebook was one my daughter had used only a few pages out of for her math class last year.  The cover had worn spots on it and it wasn't overly pretty.  Not like my cute retirement planner I put together a couple weeks ago.  So I grabbed my scrap bin full of various size pieces of scrapbook papers I had used for card making and got busy.

Lots of scrappy leftovers

I "laminated" the cover with strips of packing tape

I had a lot of fun selecting the papers and arranging them on the cover.  I used my glue stick to slap them onto the notebook cover and arrange all of the pieces like a crazy quilt.  Once I was finished I let it dry overnight.  In the morning I decided to "laminate" it for added durability.  I don't own a laminator so I grabbed a roll of packing tape and covered it with strips.  I also went along the edges to add some extra reinforcement too.

I added some cute little tabs to separate my lists

A handy little pocket

When I was finished I cut some short pieces to make tabs so I can easily separate and locate my various lists.  I also used a scrap piece of cardstock which I covered in more scraps and let that dry.  I "laminated" that too and added it to the inside of my cover as a pocket to hold slips of paper.  It worked so well I made another one for inside the back cover too.

I think this is the perfect companion for my planner

Afterward as I sat and admired my work I thought what a super cool idea for a gift.  How fun to make one of these and include a notepad and pen, a sheet of fun stickers too and give it as a gift.  What do you think?  I love it!

Focusing On A Prepper Pantry

NEVER did I ever in my life seriously contemplate having a long term food storage or as a lot of people refer to it, a prepper pantry.  I've always been really good at making sure we've had enough, more than enough, to keep our household going for at least six to nine months in case of a natural disaster or financial crisis.  But, I have to admit, as I've struggled lately to find basic pantry staples like beans, rice and flour that I'm changing my tune about it.

While I personally do not consider COVID-19 to be a SHTF situation I will say it is a pretty good test run for one.  And I do know for a lot of people this is their SHTF experience and they are struggling.  So even though grocery shopping at the moment is tenuous at best I am getting started on my prepper pantry right now.

Canned and dry goods

I made a lengthy and detailed list of what I want to keep in my pantry as well as how much.  I also made a list of supplies that I will need and currently do not have.  The first thing I did was to order a food vacuum storage machine, a commercial Seal-A-Meal, and two bulk rolls of material to make vacuum bags.  I ordered it from eBay and received it last week.  Next on my list is a food dehydrator.  I have loads of canning jars and supplies in my garage so I do not have plans to purchase anymore of that at this time, but I am contemplating a pressure canner.  Right now all I have is a water bath canner.  I haven't decided yet just how much canning I plan to do.

Every time I go to the grocery store I pick up some items 

I plan to purchase quite a bit of food items in bulk and process it in a way to last a long time.  I will most likely be doing a working prepper pantry where certain items will be used and replaced in order to keep it fresh and reduce the chance of any spoilage.  The bag material I purchased is reusable and resealable which will make having a working prepper pantry much more cost efficient.

I bought 100ft of vacuum bag material
I have ordered a vacuum sealer that should arrive soon

If you are at all interested in what I am doing and want to hear more about it as I get going let me know and I will be happy to share.  This is going to be a big learning experience for me and I am kind of excited about it, just not excited about the reason why necessarily.  But for me this seems like the proper course of action.  I've been doing a ton of research but I'm open to any tips and advice you may have as well.

A Garden? Me?

I have sworn off gardening on more than one occasion.  It's a lot of work and I'm not very good at it so my results aren't always terrific.  However, given the circumstances of the times we find ourselves in I feel it would be prudent to put in a garden this year and a much bigger one than we've done in the past.  We don't have a very big yard so this is going to add to the challenge I already face, but I'm willing to put in the effort and am hopeful for good results.

Last week I ordered and received twelve strawberry plant starts.  I have always wanted a strawberry patch and have put one in before, however my demented squirrels pulled up the plants and that took care of that.  This year I'm putting in another one and will be putting up barrier mesh to keep the squirrels out of it.  So far I have turned the soil and added some of our homemade compost to the raised bed I am planning to use.

This bed will be a nice sized addition to our garden

I used heat treated pallet wood so it is safe for garden beds

To begin the add-on of our garden area I took up some pavers in the backyard and with Jack's assistance and good company I built a new raised garden bed.  I have a lot of wood that I've dragged home from the FREE WOOD bin as well as leftover from other projects.  I used heat treated 2"X 4"s and long screws I had in the garage to but it together.  I then added some cardboard from boxes we had to line the bottom of the bed.  This will provide a nice weed barrier, initially, and then as it breaks down it promotes earthworms to take up residence.  I will be adding dirt and some of our homemade compost to this bed.

Jack checked it out and gave it his seal of approval

I mixed up old potting soil I had in flower pots with some of our homemade compost to use to fill seed pots I had out in the garage.  I have a lot of seeds that I've collected in the last few years as well as some new ones I picked up at the feed store last week.  I planted six pots of tomato seeds, summer squash, zucchini, spaghetti squash, bell peppers and jalapeno peppers.  I set the pots onto foam meat trays I pulled out of our recycle bin and washed up with soap and water.  Then I set the trays of seed pots on top of our dryer in the laundry room to sit and germinate.  Lastly I added our clamp lamp to the shelf so it shines onto the pots offering light and some heat.  Now we wait to see what happens.

Tomatoes & peppers

Every day I plan to do something to make preparations and amend the soil to prepare for planting and to expand our garden space.  I should have plenty of time to get everything done in time for planting.  I usually start planting the weekend of Mother's Day so that gives me just over a month to get ready.  As long as I can get everything planted by Memorial Day I will be pretty happy.

Last Week's Thrifty Moves

Our stay at home order in Idaho has been extended through to the end of the month.  I wasn't a bit surprised by that decision and I'm sure most of you are under the same.  We are hopeful that by May things will begin to return to a more normal state, however I'm quite sure things won't be the same as they once were.  We will need to develop a new normal and that's okay.  We can do it.

Turkey chili

Since this all began I have been bulk cooking simple meals for the three of us and it seems to be working out pretty well.  Although we do tend to get tired of the repetition we are grateful to have plenty of healthy food to eat while keeping our grocery costs as low as possible.  We are also working really hard not to waste anything around here.

Chile rellanos - click here for the recipe

Grocery prices are much higher now and since people are buying so much there is no reason or incentive at this time for grocery stores to do much in the way of bargains and sales.  This is making it really tricky for me to stay on budget, but I'm figuring some things out.

I had set these aside thinking I would donate them
I've since decided to keep them and use them

Thursday evening I pulled out some beautiful compost from our bin in the backyard and filled up our old trash can about three quarters with it.  This is the first year we've had compost from our bins so this is super exciting for us.  I mixed some of it with old potting soil we already had in pots and filled up seed pots so we could plant tomato seeds.

Regrowing our lettuce

I decided to take a much needed break and have a long weekend so I took a vacation day on Friday.  Instead of going to work I got up at my regular time, dressed and headed to Winco to see if I could actually get the items I had on my list for a while now.  As it turned out I was able to get the items I needed as well as some items on my new "prepper" list.  On the way home I stopped at Fred Meyer to pick up a ham for Easter and found a few more items on my "prepper" list.  Yay!  That made me happy.  I am actually getting excited about this new pantry idea because it gives me something new to focus on.

I did pretty well at Winco & Fred Meyer

My youngest and I went to the feed store to pick up a 50# bag of scratch grains, a bag of oyster shell, grass seed for our lawn and a few more packets of seeds to add to our current supply.  My youngest really wants to grow onions so I got her an onion set while we were there to plant next month.  While we were there we stopped in next door at the grocery outlet.  That morning the grocery stores were out of dish soap, but they had plenty.  I picked up a two pack of large bottles of concentrated soap for only $3.99.

Dish soap and dried beans have been difficult to find

Saturday morning I mixed up some old potting soil with some of our homemade compost and filled up some seed pots.  I planted tomato, pepper, pumpkin & squash seeds.  I'm not much of a gardener so we shall see how well I do.

I bought a ham for Easter

Friday evening I went outside and turned up the soil in one of our raised garden beds and left it overnight.  Saturday I added a bag of soil and some of our homemade compost and mixed it all in before raking it smooth.  I'm hoping to plant some strawberry starts in that bed.

I used leftover wood from making the outdoor grilling station to build a new planting bed in our backyard.  I had several heat treated 2"X4"s left from pulling a couple pallets apart that I'd picked up from the FREE WOOD bin last spring.  I used screws in our can of miscellaneous fasteners I keep in our garage and had just enough long screws to finish the job.  Talk about using stuff I already had on hand.  Yay!

Seeds planted

I sold an item on eBay.  As you can well imagine eBay sales have slowed quite a bit, but I keep trying.

I have two big projects going on right now

Some of the 15 Minute Chores I accomplished to keep my home in order:

Laundry Room & Half Bathroom - vacuumed floors.  Daily swish & swipe.

Dining Room - vacuumed floor, cleaned dining room chairs.

Kitchen -  vacuumed & spot mopped the floor, cleaned microwave, scrubbed sink.

Bedrooms & Main Bathroom - washed pillows & mattress covers, vacuumed & dusted.  Scrubbed sink, scrubbed tub & cleaned mirror.  Daily swish & swipe.

Other - three loads of laundry, vacuumed & dusted living room, hallway & entry.  Swept front porch.

How was your thrifty week?

Financial Management - Savings Accounts

I think everyone should have a savings account, even children.  Most banks and credit unions offer no fee bank accounts for children.  Regularly putting money into a savings is a fantastic habit to develop and it is never too late to begin a habit if you are not one who already does this.  I keep one savings account.  It is the account I've had for ages and my checking account as well as a small line of credit is all tied to that one account which makes it easy to track and manage.  Every payday, before anything else gets paid, I contribute a planned amount to that my savings account.  I keep myself on a pretty tight budget and once the bills are paid if there is anything leftover I will often add that to my savings as well.

I save my change in a jar and every once in a while, about once a year, I will count it up and take it to the bank to deposit into my savings account.  I am always surprised each time with how much change I actually save up in that jar.  Every little bit really does add up.

I map out savings goals each year - emergency funds, travel funds, project funds, planned expenses (my annual car insurance bill), etc.  In order to keep track of those funds I keep a running tally on a spreadsheet so I know how much money is in each "fund".  If I ever use the money in that fund I begin working to replace it as in the case of my emergency funds or for a planned upcoming expenditure.  Even once I hit all of my financial goals I keep saving or I create new goals.

Adding money to the account and watching that balance grow is empowering.  For me it just makes we want to keep doing it and growing that balance.  Hitting those milestones and saving up for something you want like a family vacation or new furniture is really exciting.  Not having to put things on credit when you need things is even better.

I have often heard people say they "can't afford" to save money.  My thought is you can't afford not to.  No matter what circumstance we find ourselves in we need to figure out a way to set aside money into savings.  I can't stress enough the importance of having and regularly contributing to a savings account.  Especially during hard economic times.  We can't afford not to.