This Week

My week was a frugal up and down.  We had started paying someone to do our weed whacking once a month $40 since my husband's health is not good and I have not had the arm strength to pull the weed whacker string.  We bought a new one yesterday that is batter operated and bought a extra battery about $179.00.  I can use it so we will save about $120.00 this year still in the hole a little bit but will pay off over the next 2 years.  We only had fast food once this week pizza on Friday night.  We did go out to lunch while on a road trip Saturday but since we can not go on vacation due to my work schedule, having 3 dogs and not wanting to board them this was a vacation day for us.  I made a very big lasagna today from scratch and we will have 4 more complete meals with the leftovers.  I found at Dollar Tree Aluminum trays with the lids (3 in a pack) for $1.00.  I put the lasagna in those, labeled and froze.  I will reuse them again.  My cherry tree in the front yard I had given up hope on it ever bearing cherries.. I found 3 cherries on it yesterday so looks like it's finally going to start producing.  I have cherries on my tree in the back yard it's a dwarf bing cherry they are green right now hoping I can get some before the birds do.  While at Dollar Tree.. I bought stems of silk flowers, one of those plastic cone things that you put the flowers down in the ground with and found these glass ceramic angels that are knick knacks.  I put the angels up against those cones and saw that they fit snugly against them.  Brought them home, hot glued them to the cones and made beautiful flower arrangements for the cemetery.  Cost for each about $6.00 versus at least $15 to $20 for ones already made into arrangements.  I found shelf stable milk both soy and regular $1 a box.. quart sized that I added to my pantry.  They have a year shelf life.  I keep powdered milk but I am lactose intolerant so the soy will work well for me.  I also found Peach Nectar in boxed containers $1 each which I will use to make Peach Jelly.  Peaches here are very very expensive and usually not very good quality so this is a cheaper alternative.  Box life year.  I also found 28 oz. cans of pears for $1.00 we eat a lot of canned fruit when we can't get fresh cheaper so these are a good pantry staple too.  We have a 70 year wedding anniversary to go to next Sunday.. was able to find dress clothes here at home to wear instead of having to buy them.  I kept all my work clothes from when I worked in a office years ago and some still fit.  Dh was fretting about a necktie found one he had here, he doesn't know how to do the knot so will go to youtube to figure it out.  In the past we always had to have a sales rep. in the store make them up for us or before that his Dad.  He wears a necktie once every cpl.years or so.  I bought another gc this week, this one a Kroger card and got dbl. points for it.  This goes in our emergency supply box for hard times.. they are good at least a year.  I also had coupons $3 off on Bic Razors.  They were $5.29 at Krogers so I got them for $2.29 each pack, bought 4 so we should be good for razors for awhile.

Today's Frugals

I have a 22 quart Nesco Roaster full of chili cooking.

Chopped up, mashed and put in the freezer approx. 8 lbs. of banana's to use in Fruit Smoothies

Chopped up 7 lbs. of strawberries to be used for making jam.  I also saved some out for this week's Fruit Smoothies.

I used a can of crushed pineapples for the fruit smoothies.

I have in the deep freezer and need to bring up today frozen spinach which will also go in the smoothies along with 1 tsp. of cinnamon each day.  Cinnamon helps lower blood pressure.  I need to do research someone told me parsley is good for your health, I think it lowers blood sugars but need to research that for sure.

I have in the oven a meatloaf using chicken burger for dinner tonight and a extra meal for next week.

I want to here in a bit before the oven cools down make a batch of brownies.

And I work tonight LOL!

Anna

How to test expired baking powder

I found 2 containers of unopened baking powder in my cabinet.  One exp. in 2012, the other exp. in 2014.  I didn't know if they were still good or not so I ask on one of my groups if anyone knew how to tell.

I got this website link and after doing the test, Yay! The one from 2014 is still good.  I threw the 2012 one out as it is 3 years or more older.

I want to make homemade flaky biscuits and not have to buy special flours or Bisquick mix so the recipe I have (very old from one of the original hard back books given to folks who bought the old General Electric Food Processors) that will allow me to really make these from scratch.  One of the biscuit recipes is called White Lightning.


http://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-test-if-baking-soda-or-baking-powder-is-expired-tips-from-the-kitchn-111759


Anna

Today's Frugals

Making strawberry jam today.  Made 10 jelly jars.  I still have strawberries left that I crushed, will need 1 more cup to make another batch which I'll hopefully do on Monday.

Will mow the yard instead of paying someone to do it for me.  Did the back yard yesterday, today is the front yard.

Will be working today working extra hours this week so the pay check next week will be a little sweeter.

Washing clothes will hang outside today as it's supposed to be another scorcher..

All meals from home this week but tonight will be fast food since I'm working on my day off.

Anna

Apple Berry Jelly

Today I used some partially saved fruit juices from fruit I made into jam over the last month or so.. Blackberry, Cherry and made up the difference with bottled apple juice from Aldi's.

I made 12 jars of what I'm calling Apple Berry Jelly.

Anna

Frugals This Week

Yesterday I went a little nuts.  My bil told me Meijers sells every day vegetable plants 4 for $1.00.  WHAT!!!  I called Meijers yesterday before driving the 7 miles to their store.  Yep, they are cheap.. but $1.29 for a plat of 4 prices went up a bit.  I madly dashed to my truck, broke the speed limits getting there and threw as many as I could in my cart.. not really counting just picking Early Girl, Big Boy, Rutgers, and some Habanero peppers.  Got to the register.. "that'll be $30.00.  Sigh!  I wasn't putting them back but that was way more than what I planned to spend or get.  So came home, dropped off the plants then went to Lowes and got 10 bags of Topsoil and 3 bags of good dirt for veggie plants.  Came home, got out all my big plant containers.. 10 gallon each at least in size, these I found at the curb of one of my neighbors several years ago, FREE.  I planted 22 plants yesterday.  Oh the Topsoil, I filled the pots up halfway with Topsoil, then the rest I put the good soil on top.  I still have more little plants out there waiting to be planted, will probably do that tomorrow on my day off.

I also had a coupon for Family Dollar $5 off a $25 purchase.  I had coupons for some of the items I planned to purchase.  So I saved $8 with the coupons, dang it still ended up spending $25 but got some stock up items that we are always running out of.

Today I researched online at Allrecipes.com and found a No Rise Pizza Crust recipe so I can start making our own pizza crust instead of buying it from a bakery.. should save me about $10 a month making my own.  The only ingredient I don't have here is active dry yeast will pick up some packets at Aldi's.

I have a wedding anniversary to attend the end of this month at a fancy golf club.  I needed a new dress to wear.  I saved all my work outfits from back when I worked as a receptionist.  So I shopped in my storage tub and found a very nice (one of several) skirt and matching top outfit, just need to run it through the dryer with a wet wash rag and a fabric softener sheet and we are good to go.  Savings at least $15 even buying at a thrift store.. yay!!

Anna

Recipes For Menu's I Listed

Chicken & Noodle Soup

Cook all 3 of your chickens in 2 or 3 pots of water, cook at least one hour per chicken. Cool, Debone. Use most of your chicken for a large batch of chicken and noodles, save some out for chicken sandwiches. Freeze all of it for later meals.

This recipe is for just the chicken and noodles, no veggies added.

Recipe for Noodles:

Egg Noodles Recipe - Allrecipes.com

Vegetarian Vegetable Soup:

1 jar spaghetti sauce
4 bags mixed veggies
1 or 2 chopped onions

Vegetarain Chili:
2 lg. cans chili beans (see shopping list)
1 lg. can diced tomaotes
1 Jar spaghetti sauce
2 onions

Servings: About 20

Meatloaf: Simple 

1 lb. Turkey Burger
1 1/2 sleeves of crushed saltines ( I use a rolling pin to crush mine)
1 onion chopped or diced with a knife
2 eggs
1 Jar Spaghetti Sauce

Mix all together, put in a casserole type pan and bake at 350 F for at least 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes. I use a square pan not a bread loaf pan.

Salmon Loaf

1 can salmon
2 eggs
1 onion chopped chopped or diced with a knife

Mix all together, put in a casserole pan again I use a square pan and bake at 350 one hour or make into patties and fry in a skillet.

Anna