Frugal in the kitchen (small 209 update)

209 update... they are have primered the entire 1st floor and the only thing left to primer is the door to the lofts in the kitchen and that stairwell. The ODOR takes my breath away so I won't be in the house much when over there. Ceiling is suppose to be done next. Head contractor was hunting down my kitchen cabinets that hadn't came in Wednesday like they were suppose to.

I bought  3 thin steaks that were marked down, marinaded them in coke a cola and then sliced thin with bell peppers, onions and mushrooms for a Philly steak sub one night, stir fry the second night and the next will be a soup as what I trimmed from the steaks I simmered and then strained for broth. That's for tomorrow night and I might add a can of black beans to it if it seems on the thin side of soup.

I bought a pork loin and was going to cut 4 pork chops from for tonight's dinner, and put  what is left of the loin will go in the crock pot on Wed. When I opened the package I found it smelled horrible and immediately called the store as it was NOT expired. They credited me for the cost and added a bit more for the inconvenience. So Hubby dug through the kitchen frig while I dealt with that and pulled out the 2 hamburgers I have cooked last week to go with mac and cheese and a veggie along with the last of the strawberries I picked from 209.

My niece that just graduated was telling me at her party that she takes either left over chicken or pork and shredded it to put over tortilla chips with nacho cheese (optional lettuce, onions and tomatoes) for a quick meal. She has taken over the kitchen a lot since she was looking at going to college out of state , her parents insisted she know how to cook from scratch and run a budget for a home. She is staying at home for the next year as she took college classes during high school and found she can get her BA degree in a year if she stays in the same college. She is in robotics and has already done some work for a local company that offered to hire her but wasn't willing to work with her going to school like she wanted. Felt at this stage of the game remaining at the job she is working at and living at home and attending school full time on a scholarships and grants was smarter.

I cleaned out Baby, the 7 cu ft deep freezer. We are completely out of corn...sigh.That's a good 6 wks. away of being in. We need NO bacon, bulk or smoked sausage or ham bones or peas/peas and carrots. I've yet to figure out why there was 4 wadded up brown grocery bags and an empty box at the bottom of that freezer.

We started cleaning the pantry, one it's over due and two is to see what I must can or what we need to eat up and not get any more of. I acknowledged that I did can an "extra year's" worth to cover us this fall because I figured we wouldn't have a garden with planning to move... I didn't plan on us to almost stop eating from the pantry.I have a good 6 months extra in most things that I shouldn't have.

I have 11 of these units.Three of these units have dry goods or store bought can goods that I just got for the "tornado" season that has arrived. So they were easy to straighten and check if everything was good.

 I went through 5 of them today checking lids on the home canned jars and  moving the oldest to the front so it's used up and what needed tossed.

I also noted what we were not eating... dill pickles and hot salsa that only Hubby eats and must have stopped completely (it's his middle of the night when he used to eat lunch snack). Fruit... makes me scratch my head over that overage.Hubby used to drink 1 gal. of juice a week and now it's maybe 1 qrt. a week if that. We haven't been eating pancakes,waffles and French toast on a regular bases and it shows in the amount of different syrups and pie fillings I have on hand. I didn't bake pies last Tday dinner or cakes  or at Christmas and that shows by the abundance also.We need to eat at least 24 qrts. of chunky applesauce before apple season. Or I won't be canning any of that either.

If I only use spaghetti sauce (red sauce here as my Nonna was Italian and from the old country) every  3rd week we will make it until tomatoes are on again to make sauce with.  I don't need to make pizza sauce, enchilada sauce or tomato juice this year. Diced tomatoes if I have enough tomatoes for sauce will be wanted.

I have enough veggie soup, chicken potpie filling, canned turkey and canned  broth for this year until after Tday. Since we aren't doing much of a garden I might have room in the freezers to put the broth instead of canning it.

SO my thoughts on this line is .... everyday cottage cheese , applesauce (Hubby only eats cottage cheese with fruit on it), dill pickles and beets on the table.

EVERY NIGHT 2 jars/cans of fruit and 2-3 jars of veggies need to be brought up for meals the next day.

Let's see how that one works.

Blessed Be

Choices

It's seeing this

And knowing it's the answer to an area that is narrow in the bathroom that needs storage space at $75  BUT going out to the barn at 209 and rummage through the scraps and decided you can make it for the price of buy 4 wheels and use paint you already have.

It's deciding to run a portable welder ( a need in the community so a part time/full time income) and double checking what Hubby has and what he will need to do a good job(including business requirements) and stay safe. AND then looking for it as auctions/garage sales and word of mouth before paying full price in the stores.

It's about needing a narrow bookcase or something for the corner at the doorway to the staircase... right doorway of picture

and looking at what I have or what I can build before hiring someone else to make me something as it is a strange size and I am not making do for it's my dining room and a focal point when looking at this wall. I thought about floating shelves until I watched Charlotte pull on one that is upstairs. I do have a cabinet that might work but really wanted to use it in the one bathroom.

It's about waiting until the floor is done (as it will have a new stain on it along with sealer) and kitchen cabinets (suppose to be on site this week but nothing is ever on time on this project) before choosing what to stain my china hutch that is a orange-ish yellow that I hate. I would rather paint it then look at it as it is.

It's about sorting through EVERYTHING here including what is stored from the kids homes and only taking what we WANT not just pack it up and deal with it later. THOUGH that is tempting when it comes to the kids stuff and just letting them deal with it after we die ...except the one that would deal with it doesn't have anything here LOL. Trash guy probably hates me at this time as we are maxing out what we are allowed to put out each week. and I am now on a first name bases with the guy at the drop off for the thrift shop.

It's about focusing on how to save money when we move, a more frugal lifestyle to stretch the retirement funds out more. It was suggested we sell extra garden at the auction we buy from... that is a maybe. Hubby welding. I don't know how the internet is going to be so I am not counting on my surveys for anything.

We changed to a joint checking account when our bank decided to start charging if you didn't have an automatic deposit into your checking. Hubby does, I don't. We went paperless so we don't have any fees for that.Might help me to only be dealing with 1 checking instead of two, since Hubby is gotten very good about receipts and he will only use duplicate checks.

If it's not LED or can be changed to LED, the Christmas decorations won't be going with us. I already passed a lot of it to daughter 2 but I know I have more. All the lights have been changed to LED if they weren't already LED.Every appliances is energy savings.

It's about thinking about habits...Hubby has gotten better about turning off lights and setting TV on timer to go off but leaves his computer on about half the time. He has gotten so he won't kick the AC on until it's over 80 instead of 74  and found (thanks to Daddy) that by turning on a fan where he is that he is comfortable enough without the AC. He has taken to opening the windows if he gets up before me. Closing the top of the curtains to keep the sun out when it's hot. We chose to put 3 ceiling fans in all with LED lights in 209.
I still need winter curtains for 209.

I do full loads (doesn't matter about the water but it costs electric wise each time the washer runs) of laundry and will with dishwasher when we move. I have to use the dryer here (and drying rack) due to construction on the road in front of us spewing dust everywhere. At 209 I won't have that issue  we are installing a new clothes line that is towards the back away from the road and there is already clothesline INSIDE the house as Amish don't use dryers . Ester even told me how long it would take to dry on the porch if it wasn't snowing or raining during other seasons and how long in the basement when it was snowing or raining.

We went with gas instant ready water heater, gas cook stove and gas furnace. Saves on generator (fuel) when we have no electric for what ever reason. English neighbor told us 5 times last winter she was without power due to cars hitting poles.

We bought a TV and radio tower so Hubby can get local stations and connect with his HAM radio so no cable TV to deal with.

It's about planning more perennials in the flower and veggie gardens and more heirloom and less hybrid. Starting a compost area.

Our biggest yet to be dealt with complete is the food storage/cooking etc. It's gotten funny that we will hear Malinda or one of the kids ring the bell for Eli to come in for lunch and we look at each other and decide on lunch. Since Amish don't do day light saving time it rings at 1 pm right now.Breakfast bell is at 8 our time.

Still we know we want to grow and store most of our own food or know where it comes from, which means in season to eat or be processed. I want to go back to baking our own bread. Hubby loves bagels so he bought me bagel things that you put the dough on and boil then bake them on it so they are formed like store bought from King Arthur flour( not that I needed them ) to be supportive of me learning to do that. I have made English muffins, tortilla wraps, pita bread, naan bread, all sorts of bread loaves...bagels not on that list. Might be a Father's day gift since he will be gone all day the day before.

Blessed Be