Friday’s Frugal Five & A Frugal Fail

Happy Friday Y’all!

I had to change up the dinner plans last night because when I got home the crock pot of bar-b-q pulled pork I had put on before I left for work had burned to a crisp. I’ve made bar-b-q in the crock pot many times, I’m not sure why it burned so bad yesterday. Anyway, breakfast for dinner it was. I whipped up a sausage, sweet pepper, onion and cheese frittata and it was delicious. I love our chickens, I love having pets that feed us 😉

Friday’s Frugal Five:

I completed a CE course I needed for work last Sunday and got paid 7 hours overtime for it.
I finally got our taxes done, and while there is nothing frugal about waiting till the last minute, getting them done and sending the check in is certainly more frugal than not paying your taxes. Uuuugghhh!
I’m seriously contemplating purchasing a desk top computer so I can set my lap top on fire. What’s frugal about this is that I’m doing my research of what we need vs. what we don’t and optional prices. Perhaps I’ll trade our laptop in on a desktop instead of setting it on fire. That of course would be the mature frugal thing to do, but it seriously would give me an abundance of pleasure to watch that POS burn in the front yard.
We use our outdoor clothesline year round but in the winter the clothes just don’t smell as good as they do in the spring and summer. I love clean sheet night with fresh air dried sheets in the spring. Even as busy as I get in the spring and summer, clean sheet night still happens every week.
Checked out several more books and books on cd from the library, made my returns on time = no late fees. All meals came from the freezer and pantry which means no meals eaten out or taken out, bills are paid, money in the pickle jar and still breathing fresh air and loving it.

Frugal Fail: Because I don’t like to put hot foods in the refrigerator I usually let them sit on the counter to cool a bit first. Earlier in the week I put the dinner leftovers on the counter to cool – ALL NIGHT LONG… Not cool! Maybe the food was ok, maybe it wasn’t but I’m sure what isn’t frugal is a hospital visit for food poisoning. No thank you!

Clean sheet night… one of my favorite things

What’s cooking 4/15/16?

Breakfast: onion, pepper, sausage and cheese frittata
Lunch: onion, pepper, sausage and cheese frittata
Dinner: taco salads, chips and salsa

Have a great weekend!

Till Next Time,

Lori

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

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

Quit Smoking Tips and The Pickle Jar

It was about 4 years ago when I tried to quit smoking. I tried and I failed. Then a year or so later I tried to quit smoking again, and again I failed. I’ve even blogged about it. Over the past 4 years I’ve tried and failed at quitting many times. I’ve used the patch, I’ve chewed the gum, I’ve tried cold turkey, I tried and tried and tried and failed every time.

It’s probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I wish I had listened to my father when he said “don’t ever start and you wont have to stop”

It is true, you have to want to quit and I remember someone saying that to me years ago after one of my failed attempts. It pissed me off. What did she know, she didn’t smoke, so she didn’t know how hard it is to quit. But, she was right. There is a lot of truth to what she said. You have to want it more than wanting to smoke. To the point that you are just really sick of smoking. Just sick and tired of the smoke, the smell and the expense (how stupid is that). Just flat out sick and tired of it! Every smoker I know “wants to quit” But it takes more than that because the pull is so strong, and the mind will play tricks on you, and the whole thing is a struggle. Look up side effects of quitting smoking, the shit is real and it’s not easy!

Anyway….. I got off on a little tangent there, sorry…. I had gotten to the point where I was enjoying lighting a cigarette and taking the first couple pulls and then it seemed like the cigarette smoked me. I had become sick of smoking. But it was the habit of smoking that was hard to quit. I honestly did not think my car would start without lighting a cigarette. Have a glass of wine, light a cigarette. Cooking hasn’t been the easiest either, because I timed my cooking around how long it took to smoke a cigarette. Put something in the oven, have a cigarette. Boil some pasta, have a cigarette. To my surprise my car did start without a smoke and now when I’m in the car I listen to books on cd to occupy the time. I use the kitchen timer a lot more now when I’m cooking, and I’ve put down the wine glass because my taste for it has changed since quitting. However, I do enjoy a ice cold Corona with lime now, but I’m watching my calories, so now I’m enjoying vodka and seltzer water with a squeeze of lime, 90 calories baby.

I honestly believe that I have kicked it this time. So, what’s different this time? The pickle jar is what’s different. See, I had this large empty pickle jar in my basement. I dusted it off and attached a weekly chart showing the amount of money I would save by not smoking. Each week I have been putting that money in the pickle jar. It is such a motivation for me to actually see that money saved. If I hadn’t started the pickle jar I know the money would’ve gotten absorbed into other spending and I wouldn’t actually “see” the money. I like money a lot more than I like smoking!

Sure, I still get a craving every now and then for a cigarette, but it passes quickly and when that happens I just say out loud “It’s Not An Option” The Z Man quit smoking too and we are both breathing fresh air and loving it.

Yes the pickle jar still smells a bit like pickles, but that’s better than smelling like cigarette smoke!

Till Next Time,

Lori