3 more days and I will be home

From the sounds of the weather at home it would have drove me crazy , warm, cold, snow, rain etc...Hubby even said "you won't be able to get in the garden because it will be too muddy when you get home" which I came back with "that's why we have square foot gardens also." At least this year I won't be making him add more square foot gardens.

I have enjoyed work, enjoyed seeing old friends, enjoyed the warmer weather even though it's cooler than normal in this area, enjoyed paying off a couple bills...but I am so ready to get back home and get to work there.

I did use my down time here for catching up on some reading and starting the inventory for my pantry and reworking our budget. I was able to visualize in my head the shelves in the pantry (now I think just how huge our pantry is) and write out what items was there, should be easier to count them when I get home. I know I missed some things... condiments and spices/herbs...I have over 100 spices and herbs.

Got to get started on the spring cleaning, (warm weather for using clothes line YES!!!) and repairing and redoing the outside furniture.

Planting flowers,herbs and hundreds of veggies. Yes hundreds because I will have over 100 of various tomato plants besides the other plants. I can my own red sauce,bolognese sauce,red sauce with veggies,and pizza sauce. I might do salsa this year also since we do eat enough of it.Not touching diced tomatoes, diced tomatoes with seasonings, stewed tomatoes. I don't make tomato juice until I have enough of the other tomatoes needed done.

I need to really "clean" the pantry while inventorying it so I can see how much room and empty jars I have for this year's produce. I most likely will need more jars, I usually do.

I am going back to baking, I had stopped after Christmas except for cookies for Operation Thank You but since we decided to rework the budget to get a couple more large debts paid off in the next year. The grocery budget(food, non food, personal items, pets, and office supplies) took the hit.

Going to try drying greens this year. Haven't really heard of doing it before last winter, something new. But then I have had a  lot of people that have never heard of leather britches (greasy cut short green bean dried on a string. Will do a post later on it.)including my parents that were upset that they were tossing food they could have been eating,they made shelly beans (like dried beans) out of them and tossed the rest in the compost pile.I reminded them at least they composted it but it's hard to think of that when you know there was times you went hungry. Mother was sad that she had never learned to make broth from meat let alone from vegetable peels like I do.

Dad taught me the basics of cooking, the rest I picked up from others as I became an adult. Still learning each day something new in the culinary world which is probably why I enjoy my career as a Personal Chef even after all these years of working in the food industry.

Going to go "play" with my garden designs...even though I know I will change them when I plant them.

Blessed Be

Prayers for Boston and all those affected

We are praying for those in Boston and all those that are affected. We have a friend that has a friend that was there and their family hasn't been able to reach him so far.

Blessed be

changes

never come easy. Especially when you have done the same thing year and year , decade after decade.

We are changing how we run the budget. Keep getting caught with odds and ends that pop up. So we decided to try America's Cheapest Family's (Steve and Annette Economides) budget. Haven't even set it completely up and have found holes in our old budget.

I am also doing a price book for our groceries and non -food items. That is a huge project. I have an extensive pantry so it's going to take some time. I did start snapping pictures of the cost/item tags at the stores so I can put that information in later.

I have finally been able to get back to work after a year with my old boss. Missed them even though we talked,emailed, and texted several times a week. They moved a couple times and are now back in the area so it's great to be back to work with old friends.

Have a good week.

Blessed be

When Hubby rules

Hubby is pretty laid back and doesn't usually say much about how I run the house.Part of that is he is just laid back, the other part is he knows me well enough that if he messes with my system too much I will just hand over the complete job of running the house to him and he has seen the job when he was a single parent and doesn't want it.

Wednesday he decided that since best sales at the grocery store are at the end of the month in this area, that we needed to go at the end of the month instead of waiting until April 11th like I had planned. So with a look at the finances, the pantry and freezer (which I am still working on inventorying I add to our menu to take us to the end of April. Wrote out the grocery list, gathered coupons, checked the store ads and on Thursday we went to town after he got home from work.

Bottom line...I spent $38.48 on the dogs...$100 is in the budget for them as we average out their cost for the year. They will need dog food before I go back to the store but we will tie that in with other errands so it's not a special trip or Hubby will stop at local grocery on his way home from work. Cost of gas to town equals the increase in price at the local store.

I spent $63.21 on non-food and medical supplies and over the counter meds. I saved $31. 52 in coupons, discounts and mark downs on this . Basically around 30% savings.

I spent $120.28 on groceries and saved $76.68 in coupons, store card,and mark downs. That's around 39%. That included a ham and a turkey that was marked down.

I already had the ham for Easter so the first ham was cut up for sandwiches and cubed for casseroles, scraps are for flavoring and the bone is for soup. I took some of it to my son on Saturday since he wasn't going anywhere for Easter because he decided to do his spring cleaning,wished he would come do mine.

I baked the ham I already had for Easter. It will be dealt with today the same way as the first one minus the fact son isn't getting more ham.

The turkey is thawed so it will be for dinner tonight with me slicing the breast for lunch meat, cubing the rest for turkey salad and casseroles and making broth out of the remains.

Hopefully the weather will remain decent and I will be able to get my cool weather crops in the square foot gardens so I won't have to buy as much fresh produce.

Hope everyone had a great weekend.

Blessed Be Juls