Friday’s Frugal Five

I liked doing the $20 grocery challenge last month so I’m going to keep it going for the rest of 2016. The goal is $20 a week for groceries and allow a $50 a month for “good sale” allowance. The $50 will help out for those times I run across a good buy on things like the maple syrup last month. The budget will be for food items, not to include health, medical, work related, entertainment or travel expenses. I like giving myself little challenges each month, they tend to keep me in line which is never a bad thing.

Friday’s Frugal Five:

The Z Man found me a stash of seed starter trays that I purchased several years back, so I was able to use them for our seedlings. Keep your fingers crossed for me that they will do well this year and that we won’t have to resort to buying already established plants.
I transplanted most of my indoor plants into larger pots using pots I already had on hand.
Returned my books on cd and books to the library on time, and checked out more.
This weekend will be a lot of organizing and planning for the upcoming busy months. I look forward to the OT income from working longer hours, but if I’m not prepared that extra income can get sucked up into little emergencies because of poor planning.
Lunches were from leftovers, dinners from the freezer and pantry, clothes dried on the clothesline, bills paid, and money in the pickle jar. Still breathing fresh air and loving it!

How about you, what frugal fun did you have this week?

Have a great weekend,

Till Next Time,

Lori

March Madness Grocery Challenge – The Score

This is it, the last day of the month. The last day of the March Madness Grocery Challenge.

As of last Friday I had a balance of $5.50 remaining in the MMGC fund, and guess what… Go ahead, guess. I’ll wait… Did I make it? What do you think?

Yes, I made it! As of right now I still have $5.50

You know what the crazy thing is? The crazy thing is that I didn’t think about it all week. I wasn’t stressed about it. I didn’t worry about it. I just didn’t go to the grocery store. That’s it, I just didn’t go. No big deal.

At the beginning of this challenge I allowed myself $20 a week for groceries. I also thought it probably would not be horribly difficult because the pantry and freezers were full. Actually, had it not been for the gallon of maple syrup and the dinner items purchased when we were returning from our out of town trip, both of which I am completely ok with, I would’ve done even better. The Z Man would interject here that (ahem) “we also haven’t had a loaf of bread in the house the entire month” That probably has more to do with me wanting to make real bread instead of buying highly processed junk from the store.

What I take away from this challenge is that, if I’m being honest, I have a grocery store habit. It probably stems from too much Food Network, but I truly enjoy cooking. I enjoy the entire process of planning, shopping and cooking a nice meal. There is something about chopping vegetables and putting them into a pot to cook, having the lovely smell of it cooking wafting through the house and then sitting down to enjoy that meal. Well, for me, it’s more than just getting dinner on the table. It’s nice. It gives me joy.

On the other side of the coin, I hate the grocery store. Even more so now that I’m researching better ways of eating because more often than not what you think you are buying isn’t at all what it really is. Bread is not bread, cheese is not cheese. It’s mostly highly processed ingredients that are unpronounceable and indigestible.

As for the MMGC, yes I stayed in budget, and we ate from the freezers and pantry. That’s great. But, that too all comes with a price of hard work. It’s taken us several years to see our homestead flow in full cycle like it is now. It’s also taken me a long time to learn the cycle and use it as it’s meant to be used, the benefit of the price we pay. That is to say, it is time to start the process of breaking my habit with the grocery store. Or have I already started it unknowingly with this challenge?

Putting in perspective this challenge and that what I’ve learned isn’t so much about the money but more importantly about why we do the things we do, and to understand that perhaps it’s more about the habit that can be changed, and recognizing the pleasure of doing it differently.

She Goes Up… She Shoots… And… She… Scores!!!

Till Next Time,

Lori

The Right Tool For The Job

Last week I was whining about being a frugal fraud because I had made quite a few purchases lately. And I do need to rein it in and focus more on making do instead of adding to cart. But one of the purchases I made was a meat slicer, and I’ll now be adding that tool to my list of must haves on the homestead.

I had reservations about buying a meat slicer and bringing another appliance into the house, but I’m so glad I did.

We raise our own pork, which means we also process and smoke our own bacon. However, no matter how hard I tried I could not slice the bacon thin enough and consistent enough to get the texture of bacon. I mean come on, one of the best parts of raising and processing your own pork is the bacon. I was meticulous about processing and curing the bacon, so why would I not be meticulous about the finished product? I don’t know.

What I do know is that now I have a lot of perfectly sliced bacon packaged and in the freezer just waiting for us anytime we want it. Bacon that is homegrown and free of nitrates, steroids and antibiotics… the best bacon I’ve ever eaten.

Having the right tool for the job can make the difference between good and great, and it can make the job a lot easier.

Till Next Time,

Lori

April Goals and Little Balls

It’s time to start thinking about April’s goals. As I mentioned in a previous post a group of friends and I set goals for ourselves each month. Monthly goals for me are easier to focus on rather than 3 or 4 or 12 goals for the entire year all made on January 1st, which are usually forgotten about and / or given up on by the end of March.

My big goal or resolution if you will for 2016 was to quit smoking. I had also set a smaller goal to get some exercise in to try and offset the 20# “quit” gain. So far so good with those goals. And on a side note, I have to admit that the smell of cigarette smoke disgust me so much now that it’s hard for me to believe that I ever smoked. How cool is that?

My April challenge / goal is to kick the Omeprazole. If you’ve been reading my blog then you know I started my April challenge in March. But I’ll be refining it in April to include daily exercise, keeping a food journal of what I can and can’t eat, when I can and can’t eat, and slowly lowering the dose of the medicine.

All the research that I’ve done so far indicates that there really isn’t one diet that fits all, especially in this area of trying to heal the gut and prevent GERD. There are many different opinions out there about what foods to eat and what foods not to eat. But one thing that does seem consistent in the research is eating habits that will help. Such as smaller portions, eat less but a little more frequent, drink plenty of water, but don’t drink beverages with your meals, go for a little walk after your meals if you can, and don’t eat 2 to 3 hours before going to bed. Also there is a consensus that there are specific triggers for GERD and should be avoided. Chocolate, Alcohol, Mint, Coffee, Caffeine and Smoking.

There is a lot of information out there on different ways of lowering the Omeprazole dosage. This is what I’ve done. Each of my capsules is 40mg which has approximately 190 to 200 microscopic little pain in the ass to count balls in them.

Yes, I did that, I opened a capsule and counted the little microscopic balls of one pill and decided that it would be a fair assumption that every pill would have the same number of balls in them. Think about that for a minute. You probably have the same look on your face that the Z Man was giving me. That side eye look like “what the hell is she doing now”

Anyway… I removed 50 of the little microscopic little balls and closed the capsule back up. Then I repeated this process for 6 more pills. See where I’m going with this? This is what I have in mind….

3/27 – 4/2 capsule with 150 little balls
4/3 – 4/9 capsule with 125 little balls
4/10 – 4/16 capsule with 100 little balls
4/17 – 4/23 capsule with 75 little balls
4/24 – 4/30 capsule with 50 little balls
5/1 – 5/7 I will take a capsule with 50 little balls in it every other day. Then DONE!

And I am fully aware that after I’ve counted out all these microscopic little balls for a month that I will probably be in need of some other form of medication for my insanity, but hey, we’ll cross that bridge then.

So, that’s my challenge for April. I’m going to be playing with a lot of little balls all month. WOW, did I really just type that?

What’s you April challenge going to be?

Till Next Time,

Lori