Monday, January 9, 2017

Pantry challenge frugal week

Hubby said he knows why we don't do menus ...I take the leftovers and keep adding to it to provide one more meal...  this was said after I cooked a combination of veggies to add to our subs and then served them in  4 more ways to provide meals. I put the last of them in enchiladas tonight but we still have enchiladas left for tomorrow so I guess that makes 5..it was 3 bell peppers, 1 jumbo onion and 1 lbs of mushrooms .. that I added 1/2 cup of cooked sausage, 1 cup of leftover cooked shredded beef and tonight I added refried beans to it... We had it this morning with eggs and country style gravy.

We had bbq ribs, mashed potatoes and kraut and repeated it the next day. I had poorman stroganoff (hamburger stroganoff with horseradish) over Ramen noodles.  I baked a ham and served it with mac and cheese and green beans. The next day we had ham sandwiches with leftover mac and cheese. I cut of what was left of the ham for 3 casseroles (put that ham in freezer) and simmered the bone to make ham broth for soup that I canned. I roasted a chuck roast and used it to make beef and homemade noodles with a molasses custard baked in wee be little pumpkins (usually used for decorations).

I canned beef broth and turkey broth and butter ....yes butter. I grew up with canning butter so I don't worry about doing it now. It's what we used during the summer because it would stay soft in the frig and leaving butter out during the summer was usually not good idea.

I mended a shirt for Hubby and 2 dog toys that the dogs got for Christmas.

We redid the 2017 budget. Had to increase some areas and decreased others to make it balance and still be able to put some back in savings. We did better financial in 2016 than we had the five years before that even though we lost income. I garden more and we get what I don't grow at the Amish produce auction instead of buying organic at the store.

We went to the store even though we are doing the pantry challenge. I matched non food coupons to the sales. Ended up getting 3 lbs of meat for free due to coupons and sales also. Got my dairy and produce that I was out of. Saved over 30 % so I felt better about going to the store. I downloaded the free Friday coupon from Krogers. Matched rebates with Mobisave, checkout51 and Ibotta.

I'm decluttering daily and repurposing things so I don't have to buy anything.

I started my sweet potato slips.

Hope everyone is safe, warm and having a good week