2019 A New Year.

Budget is in place...

I joined Goodcheapeats.com for the Jan. pantry challenge.

I joined  Frugalwoods.com for the Uber Frugal Money challenge.

Then we went out to eat last night at the local Chinese buffet... granted I sat down and went to sleep at 2:30, thinking I would just take a break until 3 and Hubby woke me up at 4 when he came in and wondered why I didn't wake up when the dogs carried on. I'm still recovering from the crud most likely or worse I am getting it again thanks to Son 2 that ended up in Urgent care the day after we met for dinner.

So while at the Chinese buffet, which I had a coupon for, and have 3 more so we can eat out ONCE a month and I am taking it out of the grocery budget. We have 12 days to the next pay and we are doing fine. We talked about our goals for this year, two years, 5 years, 7 years *we will be full retirement age for SS* and 10 yrs.

We talked about the south garden, that I measured wrong big time. I thought it 40 ft x 40 ft west of the pond gate, the gate was 8 ft and then 37 ft x 40 ft east of the gate...NOPE It's 80 ft x 40 ft west of the pond gate. the gate is 8 ft (Hubby thought 10 ft which is why he was out measuring) and the east section is 24 ft x 40 ft. Which made us both realize that neither of us knew what the north garden was. We will be measuring it this weekend.

We talked about over lapping big projects... aka gardens along with putting in the deck and redoing one of the porches or back stoop steps. Continuing to go through boxes. Down to 4 in the office and 12 in the basement as I finally got through all of them in my bedroom.  We talked about lack of storage and closet and how we are glad I didn't put the closets in where I thought to as it would have not worked well at all.

We talked about changing how we eat. I brought up that March I usually start buying what we term as spring crops, asparagus, beets, radishes, fresh greens, peas, snow peas ...when reality those crops don't come in until late April, some times May. I buy summer crops in late May/June but those crops don't really come in until mid June. We start eating winter squash in Oct when really we should not be eating it until late Nov or Dec since it's what we should be eating come Feb/March. If we are going to eat from what is in the garden in season...we have to think about when the harvest is coming in , not the planting time.

We talked about sweets... I will eat one piece, maybe 2 of pie, cake or brownies.I maybe eat 2 servings of ice cream or sherbet. Which sticks Hubby with eat the rest. He still needs to lose weight. Cookies I will scarf down, M&M's also especially after Hubby makes his trail mix of M&M's, dried fruit, peanuts and cashews. That's he snack at break at work.It's my breakfast most mornings.

We talked about me making room in the kitchen refrigerator freezer for bfast items, like homemade McD's egg mc muffin, sausage egg burritos, pancakes, waffles and French toast.

We talked about healthy sweets that put dairy in our diet, Both of us have low calcium levels.

I brought up that with the work load for me going up with starting into the gardens and yard work, that I needed a day of baking that I can do the baking for the week. We needed a menu that focused of using up what was needed to have a place to put the harvest in when it comes in. We decided that baking day should be Saturday, maybe Friday and Saturday depending on the type of bread thinking of brioche and sour dough. IF I am putting bfast items in the freezer then how much. Hubby thought a month supply of 5 days with weekends being a brunch instead of bfast and lunch. With changing the menu plan from beef on Saturday to soup so I am just putting it together and letting it simmer. Having beef on Sunday instead.

I will testing this "new" menu and routine starting tomorrow.

Blessed Be