Frugal Foodie

It's the time of year when my oven gets a workout. We had our church bazaar and one of the big draws is the cookie walk. People line up early to get in to buy cookies by the pound. Prices have not been raised in a few years so it was $7 a pound. 

There is an insurance company that is sort of affiliated with our church synod, and I wrote for a grant to help cover the cost of some of the baking supplies. The insurance company was generous and gave us $250 to buy flour, sugar, butter, etc. I baked 21 dozen cookies, four loaves of sweet breads, and a dozen cupcakes to donate. We had a lot of stuff donated and a lot of it was purchased so that's good since the profits are used by our ladies guild to send to different missions.

But, I've been baking and cooking for gifts as well. Most of the people I know don't need more "stuff."  But they seem to like homemade stuff or jam or jelly I have made and canned. I have a fudge recipe that my grandmother used to use and would sell her fudge by the pound. One of my friends asked for it a couple of years ago and tried to make it and said it didn't set. The same thing happened last year. It's very simple so I have no idea why it didn't -- don't even need a candy thermometer. So, I stopped by their house last week and we made it together and it came out perfectly. I'm wondering if they interpreted the recipe differently than how it was written. I learned a long time ago people don't always connect to verbal or written directions the same way. But doing it with my friend seemed to help. 

I continue to experiment with bread and my sourdough starter and discard. I've been making our sandwich bread for months. I've successfully made a soft sandwich bread with no yeast, just the sourdough starter. It takes hours for it to rise, but if one isn't in any hurry, it is really good. 

My husband bought us tickets to a concert in St. Louis so that will be a great Christmas experience. Our little town has a festival of lights which just has a free will donation so we have gone through it at night and it is amazing. Most of our gifts are practical to each other and we aren't going into debt to get them.

I'm going to include the fudge recipe in case you are interested at the bottom.

So, are you watching what you are spending for Christmas? Are you doing more shopping or more of baking or crafting? 

Grandma Pannek’s Fudge

4 cups white sugar

1 12 oz can of Milnot or evaporated milk

8 ounces of semi sweet chocolate chips

1 stick butter or margarine

1 13 oz jar of marshmallow creme

1 tsp of vanilla

Chopped nuts (optional)

9 x 13 buttered pan. 

Have everything ready before you start because you cannot leave the stove. I have the chocolate chips ready to go and the marshmallow creme opened and ready to spoon out. Put these and the vanilla aside. Have the buttered pan ready.

In large pot, melt butter and add evaporated milk or Milnot. Then stir in sugar. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Boil 5 minutes. Take off fire, add chocolate chips, marshmallow creme, and vanilla. If you are using  nuts now is the time to put them in. Stir until everything is mixed in and pour into the greased pan. Cover with foil and put in a cool place. It will set up and be somewhat firm after a few hours. You can then cut it into pieces. 

Recently I watched the program on Netflix called "Buy It Now." It was touted as a way businesses encourage consumers to purchase things. It was both a frightening program and enlightening.

Sadly we do not have a recycling program in the county where I live. I try to reuse and repurpose as much stuff as I can and use a lot of containers and things over and over. But even so, the amount of stuff disposed of is considerable. One of the speakers went into a grocerty store and showed how so many products are encased in plastic, most of which is not recyclable -- although some claims to be.

I grew up in the 60s. My Papa worked for Coca-Cola Bottling and they actuall reused the glass bottles. He worked on the bottler, which contained machines that cleaned and sterilized bottles before filling and capping the bottles. I remember having to pay a deposit on the bottles of Coke when we bought them at the store, but these same bottles when returned would then have that deposit returned. Although not the most convenient, it sure was a better use of resources than all this plastic. In this video, it showed how much plastic isn't really recycled, but often said it is, then sent to third world countries for them to deal with. 

I've read articles which I'm sure most of you have on grocery stores put things on certain shelves to entice. I've seen the perusasion techniques about better get this now since there are so few and you don't want to miss out. 

As we face the biggest season of consumerism, I wish more people would pay attention to what this film said. I'm guilty of some of these items, but I try not to buy more than what I need or can use. I have been baking cookies for our bazaar and have been using some of the clam shell plastic cases to carry cookies to put in the freezer. I try to take my own cloth bags into the grocery. But I'm a long way from keeping from buying stuff that can't be recycled. I'm not really sure if that is at all possible unless one doesn't buy stuff at all -- the business world has made it almot impossible. We don't have any of those stores where you take your own jars to fill with stuff. And living in a small town, I don't have that many shopping choices. I try to make my big shopping when I got to a larger city where I can buy what I need and what is packaged, but that doesn't always work either. 

TV has advertised these great "bargains" as far as groceries for Thanksgiving dinner. However, there are certain things I'm picky on, so my price is more than what they are advertising.

But I play what I call the "Grocery Game" throughout the year. I check digital deals and then also check Ibotta to see if I can get a good deal. I use three other receipt apps too. My husband teases me about being frugal, but he has told me repeatedly how proud he is of me to save money.

Kroger recently has had turkeys on sale. Not name brand, but their brand. I got one for 69 cents a pound. I ahve limited amount of freezer space so I had to wait until this week to get a second one. I could only use that coupon for the 69 cents a pound for one, but did get the smaller turkey for 99 cents a pound. I waited and they put potatoes on sale. I had hoped to snag some green beans, but it seems they sell out of those quicker than anything else. So, I'm on the search for green beans that are reasonably priced. I have some in my stockpile, but hate to hit it. We are having more people for our meal than originally anticipated, so would like to buy what I need as far as our meal.

As I was rearranging the freezer, I noticed a pound of ground sausage. I thawed it and with some eggs, some leftover onion, a leftover Brat bun (why do Brats come in packs of 5 and buns in packs of 6), some leftover cheese, some milk, some herbs and spices, I made a breakfast casserole, It afforded us two  meals, and reasonably priced as well. The other day we had what I said was a free meal. We had met another couple for supper the other night and I brought home half of my chicken. So, I heated it up, had leftover risotto, and some leftover cooked carrots. It sort of balances out those times when we go out and spend money or have to use extra money for different meals.

My church has their Christmas bazaar coming up. We sell cookies by the pound so I will be baking soon. I normally get my sugar, flour, eggs, and butter at Aldi and have already bought some flour and sugar and butter. But there is this insurance company called Thrivent which offers grants for different church projects so I wrote a grant proposal to ask for some money for our church and they awarded the money, so we bought more baking supplies like vanilla as well as basics for everyone to share with so it will help alleviate the expense for those who might find it more difficult to buy these items but would like to bake. 

Are you finding any good ways to save money on groceries? 

I am going to make a confession here...I love looking through community/church cookbooks. I don't even have to know the folks involved in them. But I find them entertaining and informative. 

I have some of my own and some I've contributed to. It's nice to see recipes that people I know shared.

I've run across two that don't have covers on them, but I can tell they have some age to them. One has lots of recipes using oleo. Oleo was a term my mom and grandma used because it was cheaper than butter and butter was rationed during World War II here in the United States. They talked about how it was white and they would have a little color tube they would put in and then sit and mix it all together to get a more yellowish color. We don't think about that as we use the term "margarine" now. 

Also in one of these is canning and preserving recipes. I know for a number of years, people got away from canning and preserving as a whole -- there were still people who did it, but most would say it wasn't worth the work when you can buy a can of green beans from the store. I think these cookbooks are just time capsule treasures. 

One whole section is on rabbit, venison, and other game animals. Plus there are some recipe names that I think are local that I'm not familiar with. It's all a fun learning experience. I noticed that this one older one started with breads and rolls whereas some of the more current recipe book starts with appetizers. 

Do you ever use one of these cookbooks? Or do you have some recipes that you deem special?

I grew up in Central Illinois and we have our own little special terms for things such as cheese toastie for a grilled cheese. I ran across this recipe and I'm thinking it must be a Wisconsin term, but I think it is fun so here is the recipe:

Kamitch-Kamotch

1 lb hamburger

4 to 6 slices of bacon, cut up

1/2 small onion

1 cup peas and carrots

3/4 cup elbow macaroni

1 can tomato soup

1/2 can water

salt and pepper to taste

Boil macaroni and drain. Brown hamburger, bacon, and onion. Drain grease and add soup, water, veggies, and macaroni and ,amitch kamotch it together. Simmer 20 to 30 minutes. 

One thing I've inferred is that most of the folks who share these recipes must make them a lot and don't give specific details, such as the vegetables -- canned or fresh. I'd figure canned so they would be cooked. 

I saw this phrase on one of the pages and thought it was clever so I'm going to share it:

“A truer friend there cannot be, than one who shares her recipes.”

Near us is a John Boos showroom -- perhaps you have seen their cutting boards. I normally wouldn't be shopping there, but a local catering business combined with Boos and had a charcuterie board class. It was $60 and it included a small board, a very nice paring knife, and the food as well as instructions. I attended and it was a good class and it seemed like we got a lot for the money. My husband and I had two servings each of the food afterwards. I attended with my step daughter and she loved it as well. 

A friend of ours is a woodworker and he loves making things, so he said he'd make a personalized board. It is beautiful and such a kind gesture. He made one for our stepdaughter, personalizing hers as well. 

It was a nice splurge and I really enjoyed the time with my husband's daughter. Not a cost saving, but overall, I think we were ahead with the original board, the nice knife, and all the food. Plus, I learned something and one can never stop learning, right?

The local Ace hardware is going to have ladies' night to make some things (and demonstrate some tools) and we are planning on attending it. My husband already has the tool they are going to demonstrate so I will hopefully be learning how to use it. Since this evening is free, I figure if I only learn this tool is beyond my skill, at least I can say I've learned that. 

A few years ago I read about making a sourdough starter. It seemed easy enough...flour, water, and time. I named my starter Sammy and I've kept him going ever since. I've made sour dough loaves and used the extra or discard for other things and even given away discard. Then the bane of my existence...I was looking at Pinterest and it showed an easy recipe for sourdough sandwich bread that looked far less crusty than normal sourdough. I kept thinking, it won't rise without yeast, but figured I could try and if nothing else, redo the dough and add yeast. Much to my surprise, it did rise and made a beautiful loaf of bread. It just takes longer to rise and one has to make sure the starter is bubbly and ready to go. But it pleased me. My husband teases me and calls me his Prairie Woman since I'm baking bread and trying things like this.

Well, it goes beyond that as well...I'm always trying to figure out ways to reuse things. I tease about Pinterest being the banke of my existence, but I do get some good ideas from the stuff on there. Most work; a few do not. I'm working on making my own Pine Sol. We have pine trees and vinegar is cheap. Hope it works! 

I planted strawberries and blueberies  for next year and years beyond and I read where coffee grounds are good for the soil. Our soil is very clay like, so I have been adding it to other places as well as I have added sand, hoping it improves the quality of the soil. 

My husband's late wife was quite the crafter and in the basement are a lot of things. I've never mod podged stuff before, but a few YouTube videos showed me how, and I have been using material I have to decorate plastic containers of things. The other day I sent cookies with the grandson back to school in a coffee container. I save all the plastic things we get and reuse them. I sent cake home with my husband's daughter the other day in containers that were for something else and she laughed and said she liked my frugal ways. 

I had a doctor's appointment Friday and since we had to drive to town 40 minutes away, we decided to do some other errands to make it worth our while. We thought we'd get a quick lunch at a local chain restaurant. We were shocked...a sandwich, chips, and drink for each of us was over $30 before tip! So today after church we had vegetable soup I made the other day and put in the Crockpot to heat and some bread I had made for lunch. Far less than $30 and probably far better for us too. 

I was going to include a photo of the bread, but whenever I try to post a photo, I get an error message.

My post from last week asking about stocking up had some great replies. The sad thing is, I guess there was a run on toilet paper and paper towels because local stores had signs limiting these products. I wan't suggesting people hoard, just be prepared. 

Just curious if anyone else has been stocking up with the fear of the longshoreman's strike warning and then the actual strike coming about?

I always try to keep a few things on hand. I haven't been hoarding, but each time something comes on the news, my stomach clenches and hopes it isn't like the fiasco during the Pandemic as people go crazy and go for a hoarding frenzy. The media keeps claiming prices will go up and there will be shortages which makes me worry people will go crazy and start stripping shelves of stuff. 

I have always shopped sales and this continues. Yesterday I scored a great deal at Kroger. It was a digital coupon offer of Quilted Northern toilet paper for $4.99 for 6 rolls, normally $7.99. In addition, I had a $1 off digital coupon so I bought three packages to put back. 

I have canned some items -- I didn't have a huge garden, but hoping for a bigger and better one next year. A lot of changes this year so no time to put in a garden. But I'm planning for the future in my new home. I planted garlic yesterday. I've planted a few strawberry plants too earlier, hoping we get some next year.

So, the search has been on for reasonable priced canned goods. Dollar Tree here has had Del Monte vegetables for $1.25 plus tax. At Walmart they are $1.48 so I figured that was a decent deal. I have a few cans of stuff we'd eat. And a couple extra cans of tuna and things like that. 

Just wondering what's going on in your pantry!

There's a song from "Mame" that talks about opening a new window, opening a new door.

Well, not sure if it was a window or door in my life, but something wonderful has happened. I have married this wonderful man who treats me incredibly well. And our life together has been pretty miraculous. 

Fortunately he and I are on the same page as far as saving money, being frugal, and investing. I now have the opportunity to have the pleasure of loving his children and grandchildren. 

Our wedding was very small -- we went to the courthouse and had the judge do the ceremony -- just the two of us. We went out for breakfast and realized life is just good. I wanted to share my good news because so many of you have been so supportive of me. 

In other news, my dear husband was pleased I like to can things and suggested he build me some sturdy shelves to hold my full jars as well as storage for the empty ones. We are also finding some pantry stuff on sale and adding it to our shelves. We aren't hoarding by any means, but just finding things on sale so we have them to use in the next year. I have been baking our own bread for sandwiches and he suggested we go to an Amish bulk food store to stock up on some different flours so we did. So, we are having a variety of bread besides my sometimes using my sourdough starter, Sammy.

We plan to meet with our financial advisors to get everything figured as far as taxes so when 2025 comes, we know what we need to do. 

So, life has been pretty full and pretty exciting and I'm very happy!

Perhaps you remember John Denver's song, "Thank God I'm a Country Boy." The lyrics talk about the simple things in life and what pleasure they brought him.

I'm not a music artist, but I am learning to appreciate the simple things so much more. Good friendship is one of them when it is pure and deep. It's sad when people are so shallow that they use you for their own good, calling it "friendship." But those folks who are there when you are happy or sad, the ones who just are content with being, those are the diamonds in your life.

My vegetable garden has been hit or miss this year, but a good, homegrown tomato is a pleasure. There have been a few of them as well as some green onions and cucumbers. 

Wild black raspberries ripened and although they were sticky with those thorns and a pain to pick, what a pleasure it was to see them bubbling on the stove as I made jam. I love the look of seeing beautiful jams and jellies and vegetables in canning jars. 

My best friend is encouraging me to try new things. I have been looking at different Facebook groups for things of interest and one person posted some pictures of recipes for sweet breads from a 1941 cookbook. This one sounded interesting, although I'm wondering if there was an issue with World War II going on and rationing. 

Brown Sugar Bread

3/4 cup sugar

2 Tablespoons of butter

1 egg, well beaten

3/4 cup of milk

2 cups of flour, sifted

2 teaspoons of baking powder

1/4 teaspoon of salt

1/2 cup brown sugar

cinnamon for sprinkling

Cream sugar and 1 T of butter. Add egg, then milk. Add flour, baking powder, sand salt. Pour into well oiled pan and sprinkle with brown sugar and cinnamon and dot with butter. Bake at 425 degrees F for 25 minutes.

It wasn't too bad, not as moist is most sweet breads, but an interesting try. 

Speaking of old stuff, remember during the Depression in the 1930s (well, reading about it, I mean), how people were not going out and buying new and using up things? I had purchased two towels a few years ago that could be counted cross stitched. I did one to give away as a gift a couple of years ago, but still had the other one with the intention of working on it at some time. I saw it the other day and thought, I should do that. So, I found a simple pattern online that was free, and have been working on it during the day (as I age, my eyes need more light). I finished it today and hung it in the kitchen. I didn't buy anything new for it -- I used embroidery floss I already had and had to change the pattern colors, but it's for me, so it didn't matter. And I felt like it was being a good steward using something I had. I crocheted some scarves and had just little yarn leftover from the skein I had been using. I had enough to make myself a new dish cloth. So, not spending any money, I have two new kitchen things.

I saw there were some hydrangea blooms looking awfully pretty, so I went to cut some and put them in a Mason Jar. It just makes me smile! I am enjoying the simple things!

It's amazing that half of 2024 is passed and tomorrow is the 4th of July. Not a lot planned as far as celebrating, but will enjoy the freedom of living in the United States and having the benefits of that.

Glad the markets were good today and saw an increase in my retirement accounts.

Things are starting to even out as far as money and expenses. I'm living in a small town instead of a larger town and learning new places to shop. One store in a neighboring town gives 5% off on Wednesdays for senior citizens so I am often taking advantage of that. I still shop at Aldi, although I have to plan my trip since there isn't one nearby, the closest being between 35 miles away. But it makes me more mindful of what I'm buying. But I continue to cook a lot of things from scratch. I have made and canned chicken broth, and made rhubarb and berry jam and rhubarb jelly. It's kind of nice to see the jars starting to build up in the pantry.

Instead of buying store bought bread, I am baking bread to use. I feel like it is saving money since it isn't getting wasted. I had a little left of a loaf and made my own croutons for a salad and they were a lot better than one the store bought ones. 

My garden isn't going to town like I had hoped. We had extreme heat and although I water, since we have had little rain, it is surviving, but not thriving. We received a little rain this morning and we are supposed to receive some rain overnight. I hope it comes to pass. 

If you have big plans for July the 4th, hope you stay healthy! 

Hopefully I am saving money... I have planted a small garden, but am taking advantage of things that are already growing where I live. I've planted some radishes and green onions and have had the opporuntiy to enjoy both. There are also three tomato plants and two cucumbers that are under my tutelage.

But the ongoing joy is there is rhubarb and mulberry trees here. I know some think mulberry trees are "garbage" trees, but I'm living in the country and they are like a blessing. I've picked some mulberries and made some jam and I've been using the rhubarb for different things. I didn't plant the rhubarb and probably wouldn't have, but I'm all for using what's here. I've made a strawberry rhubarb pie and someone gave me some strawberries and I've made strawberry rhubarb jam and canned it. Supposedly there are wild black raspberries here so I hope when they ripen I can use them as well. There are two black walnut trees on the property too, so looking forward to that as well. 

One of the stores in a nearby small town offers a 5% discount on Wednesdays for folks who are 62 or older. You can probably guess I'm all over that as far as grocery shopping. I was telling a friend that and she said well, we are a generation that understands you have money because you learn to save it here and there. She didn't grow up rich, but learned to save and invest and take advantage of things like that.

The local electrical coop had an annual meeting last week and if you attended, you received a lunch and $15 off yoru power bill. The lunch was great -- two pork chops, potato salad, applesauce, and ice cream. It was an informative meeting and they even drew names for door prizes and won a $25 gift card to Walmart. Well worth a couple of hours and a filling meal to boot!

When I see on the news about folks who struggle to find enough to eat, I realize how awesomely blessed I am!

First of all, a big thank you for all the positive remarks on my last post. Life has changed quite a bit, but I can say lots of positives have happened. I think one of the hardest things is to tell friends of the changes and I consider you my friends although I've not ever met any of you.

I'm living about 40 minutes from where I used to live in a rural setting. Close enough to a small town, but very peaceful. One big change is there is not recycling so I'm working on figuring out how to reuse things that I normally would have put in the recycling bin. I looked to see if there was a recycling facility in any of the small towns near me, but sadly there is not. But having time to be creative is a gift so I've been doing that. I repurposed a dishwasher pod container that had a hinged lid into a car trash can with some Mod Podge and scrap material. 

I planted a small garden. I've already had a few radishes and green onions to supplement my meals. Hopefully there will be more to come! 

One thing was I went through a bunch of my stuff and donated a lot of it to area thrift stores. It was both difficult as well as freeing to get rid of a lot of things that I originally thought I had to have. Plus, all the stuff I left at the house when I moved out. There are some things I wish I had, but they aren't vital and maybe it's a good lesson in learning to live with things I don't need.

Again, thank you for the supportive, positive remarks! 

Life has been lots of changes. I haven't posted because I've been sort of overwhelmed, physically, emotionally, and financially.

After many years of marriage, my spouse and I divorced. Fortunately it was amiable and mutually agreed upon. We divided things as equally as possible, but these were big changes for both of us.

I have discovered a couple of things -- you find out who your real friends are when you do this. I have asked people not to take sides. We do not hate each other. You also get asked very personal questions by people who really have no business asking them. Because our financial picture changed, we decided to reassess our expenses and cancelled things. One person immediately asked me who gets the house? It wasn't any of her business. 

I also discovered who really cares. I had many offers of places to stay while I figured out where I would live. It was both generous and touching. I had offers of people to help me move or whatever I needed. And fortunately many people just wanted the best for both of us which is what one hopes when something like this happens.

Starting over is both scary and exciting. As we know, change brings lots of different things in one's life.

Yesterday we had an icy day here in Central Illinois and even if I had wanted to get out, I wouldn't have.  So, my reward was to go onto Pinterest (what a dangerous site for me) and look for bread recipes. I had certain ingredients like milk that was ready to expire that I wanted to use. I found this recipe for honey buttermilk bread. I did tweak it a bit, but it made two lovely loaves. I thought I'd use some for our supper to accompany spaghetti, again another pantry offering. 

Anyway, here's the recipe: https://www.restlesschipotle.com/buttermilk-bread/

My tweaks were I added some sourdough discard (I have quite a bit in the fridge) and I added some whole wheat flour since I had a little left in a bag in my pantry. 

Last night's supper was spaghetti with canned sauce I had made and the bread and some leftover vegetables that I heated up. I'm thinking for today's lunch I will make French toast since this bread had a little bit of sweetness to it. It is billed as a sandwich bread so I was thinking maybe it would make great peanut butter and jelly sandwiches too. 

I noticed there's some frozen soup in the freezer so I think that will be supper tonight. With the bread, of course!

I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed.

For those of you who have read my blogs, you know I'm quite active in my church. For the past year, I've been working on ways to fundraise to try and pay more on the mortgage principal for our church. Our treasurer who shared this idea a year ago talked about how it would be a good idea without coming out and saying the way our church is aging and losing members, we might not have the money to make the mortgage payment when giving declines. 

He and I have brainstormed ideas because we are afraid that just asking people to give more would result in fatigue of those who listen. Plus, who wants to be hounded all the time for money? 

So, in the past year we've tried different ideas. Monicals gave us a community day in which we got a percentage back in either take out or eat in when our church's name was mentioned. We realized over $100 for that. Kroger gives us a small percentage back if people designate our church as part of the community rewards program. We have realized over $300 for that in the past year. I crocheted dish cloths and sold them and one lady took my bag of dish cloths to work and sold them for me. That raised over $100. Then I baked. I would take orders for items people wanted and my friends would then give me what they felt it was worth to them, knowing the money would go for the mortgage reduction opportunity. That was over $335. Another way was we asked for people to donate unused gift cards. Some had the full amount on them and some had just a few dollars, but I have been working on selling them to folks and we received over $700 for those. A local butcher shop was good enough to give us 10% back for 4 days of shopping and we received almost $200. All in all, in just small items like this, we realized over $1400. This is over and above what members have given throughout the year in their offering envelopes. It's been great how people have chipped in to try and help.

As we start 2024, we are trying different things -- again -- we want to keep people from being fatigued. We are having a chili/soup luncheon in February to raise money and our pastor and vicar and a member are going to do a chili cookoff and people can vote by putting $1 a vote in the buckets. We are doing a silent auction and I have asked people to donate items, especially homemade ones. I am just touched by some of the items that are starting to come in. One man hand turns pen and pencils and gave me a set for the silent auction. 

Another man who also enjoys woodworking has made two trays and a lazy Susan. They are all works of art. We have another lady who has donated some small quilts. A friend of mine who isn't a member of our congregation is going to crochet some items and her daughter is going to make potholders. 

And the list goes on...one lady is donating Valentine and Easter wreaths and another is donating a trifle bowl that will have a Valentine theme with the candy and goodies. I suggested a free will offering bake sale and people are telling me they will donate to that. Another lady is making themed gift baskets, one with kitchen items and one for a reader. 

Do they have to do these things? No, but they want to be abundant in giving. I think people like to be a part of something and do good. 

It is truly generosity at its best. 

Funny how things change. 

I never used to mind grocery shopping. Now I dread it.

It isn't the shopping per se, it is the check out that unnerves me. It seems like each week the cost goes up a little more. I know the experts claim inflation isn't as bad, but I know my grocery bills have risen. I'm not buying anything different. In fact, I'm trying to cut back. For example, I'm trying to use less meat. Kroger had a buy one, get one free as far as chicken this past week. The package had three chicken breasts. So instead of having one meal and a little left over, we are having two meals out of one package. And I put the second package in the freezer for another time.

I ran across this article and wondered how she could spent $124 a month on groceries. Granted, she's single, but there are a lot of things that factor into saving so much. I never worked any place that gave free meals. Up until my last school, I never worked at a school that provided coffee. You brought your own coffee from home or did without. And the only reason the last school had coffee was because the principal bought it. 

Anyway, here's the url for the article if you care to read it:

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/12/14/i-spent-124-dollars-on-groceries-in-a-month-what-i-bought.html?utm_content=Intl&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=facebook%7CIntl&fbclid=IwAR0p6S0CgGgvr5xdPwPG5_xDBIpCN4-uZ9UEP0KKKorr0QnSi1KxWL6W2b4

So, how about you? Are you dreading the grocery store?

It's been a few months since I've been able to post. I went to the forum and commented and the IT person made suggestions, but nothing worked. Once a week I would come and try and it wouldn't work. So, I'm hoping this goes through.

Life has been going on. I've been busy with church things as well as getting ready for Christmas. We spent over $39 in postage for Christmas cards and I'm thinking we need to cut down our list considerably, especially to those we see often or use social media. I like a nice card and I like sending them, but this is getting crazy.

Our landline went up to $95 a month. A friend suggested we get a cheap cell phone since someone didn't want to give up the number. We have Consumer Cellular and they have great to work with as far as cell service. AT & T wasn't very helpful, but Consumer Cellular said they would do a three way call if need to be to move the number over. So, for  an additional $14.95 to my cell bill, we have the number at quite a savings.

Sadly we gave up our newspaper subscription as well. It used to be a daily, then the paper started not delivering on holidays. Then no paper on Sundays and Mondays. I think they were having problems getting people to even deliver and the paper got thinner and thinner. As a person who likes having a newspaper in my hand I miss it, but my bank account looks a little healthier.

The group at my church was busy making over 800 hats as well as dish cloths and scarves and blankets. Hats were given to the school we adopted, four classrooms for the teachers in our congregation, a soup kitchen, and a cancer care center where the lap blankets also went. The dish cloths were given to a food pantry to hand out with the Christmas baskets. Our congregation also was asked to adopt 50 first graders and give them Christmas bags with some items to open. We gave them socks, gloves, a hat, a coloring book, crayons, a slinky type toy, and some candy. 

Hope your holidays are going well and you have family or friends to cherish. 

Merry Christmas!

I spent the day a week or so ago washing and waxing my car. I like to do it once a year and go over carefully to make sure there isn't damage I may have missed. It cleaned up pretty nicely and I was very pleased with the end result. I also cleaned the inside. I was just thinking about how much I spend on this vehicle and its maintenance (amazing where your mind wanders when you are working). 

I don't begrudge any of the money I've spent so far on the vehicle. I had to break down and buy more car wax, but while I had it out, I also washed and waxed the charcoal grill we have that sits outside. It doesn't look perfect, but I think the coat of wax helps it weather a little better. 

So then my mind went to other things. I usually get my leather shoes and boots out and put polish on them to keep them looking nice. 

And as I sit here cooling off after doing housework and vacuuming and mopping, I think this is maintenance as well.

All time and money well spent, keeping things going and working and hopefully looking nice. And in a way, saving money in the long run. Maintenance on my car hopefully keeps it running with fewer problems and keeping it looking nice should help with the resale value when we decide to get rid of it. My shoes and boots, well, some of the shoes are  quite a few years old and I think polishing them has helped them look good. I rotate my shoes so I don't wear the same pair every day during the fall, winter, and spring and I bought some really nice ones a number of years ago. 

As for the housework, I like a clean house, but I also think keeping dust off of stuff helps, especially electronics. And keeping the floors clean helps by not letting grit scratch the vinyl and hardwood and we won't even talk about the ick in carpeting if it isn't vacuumed. 

So, this is my take on it -- taking good care of stuff is hopefully saving me money.

Although I've been busy, I really haven't had anything of consequence to actually report. It has been a bit expensive lately. 

We recently went for our dental check ups. DH had a tooth extracted and I had a crown as well as another tooth having a filling replaced. We have no dental insurance so it was all out of pocket expenses. Ouch. But any of the dental insurance available to us isn't really cost effective and we like our dentist and don't want to change.

My laptop was slowly dying so that was replaced. I got 7 good years out of it so I can't complain too loudly. 

Like many, we've had extreme heat and I keep pushing the a/c up so it won't run as much. Lots of water for the garden so that goes up each month.

And need I  comment on the groceries and how expensive they are? It seems like every week we pay a little more for the same items we bought the week before. 

It's getting tougher to save money.

My grandmother has been gone almost 40 years. Like most dysfunctional families, my mom and my grandmother were on the outs and I didn't really get to see her very much. I feel like I was robbed of the one lone grandparent who was alive when I was younger.

I'm not really sure how I inherited my grandmother's rolling pin and recipe box, but I did. A few years ago I tried using the rolling pin and found it was larger than I anticipated and found it unweidly. But I put it away because it was hers and I didn't want to part with it.

I have been baking things for church and was making cinnamon buns and decided to try and use her rolling pin. It is interesting how since I've gotten more practice using a rolling pin (not an expert by any means) how much easier it was to use it. And I enjoyed using it, thinking of my grandmother and wondering what kinds of things she used it for. It made me happy. 

The other day I was with a friend and he asked me to take some photos of him to use for his conference calls on his computer. I was playing around with the photo and on my iPhone, I noticed when I had my finger on his picture, it did a white running line around him. I wondered what that was all about and later, I played with it. Seems it "cuts" around the person and the background becomes white. I had a good time playing with that and told him about it and sent him some of the results. We had a fine time just sending photos back and forth after I told him what I had found. We laughed that we were easily amused and it wasn't anything we had to purchase since we already had the phones.  Learning something new and using what we had, we agreed this resulted in simple happiness. 

I haven't blogged for a bit because I really haven't had much to write about. Life is going along and I'm not complaining, but my days seem full and busy. 

I am continuing to work on ways to decrease the church mortgage. I'm not taking credit for all of this, but we have reduced the mortgage by $50,000 in 6 months. Granted, this isn't sustainable due to some large gifts, but it is pretty amazing and we have knocked off quite a few months since this was applied just to the principal. There have been other cost cutting ways applied to also just help with the regular budget. It's nice that so many of the people of our congregation want to help by saving money. 

I have donated a few things to the local thift shop. Someone wasn't happy when I said I didn't want to go every week to shop; it's easier to resist temptation when you aren't shopping. I wasn't going crazy and buying stuff every time, but honestly, I don't need to be tempted. I think I'm getting to that stage in my life where I realize less is truly more.

Just thought I'd check in. Hope everyone is having a grand day.

It's been some time since I've blogged. I guess it is because I haven't had anything to really say. Just working around here trying to keep things going as well as working on the church mortgage reduction opportunity. Since we started in January, we have paid down $44K already saving us $18K in interest. So, that's good news. It isn't sustainable because this came from some larger gifts, but figure whatever we do pay down is that much more than what we had.  I continue to bake and then ask people for free will offering for whatever they think it is worth to them. 

State Farm offered this free thing to plug in your home outlet to check if you have wiring issues. I sent away for it and did do it. The company is called Ting. It's kind of neat they send a report each week. 

A friend told me about the newest Facebook settlement claim and I applied for that. Don't know what it will bring, but figure it is more than what I had.

I have also worked a little on getting rid of a few things. DH isn't a big help on this; I've concluded he might have a little hoarder tendencies. LOL But if I haven't used something, I don't need it, right?

Just a quick catch up. 

Fortunately I am blessed to have many friends who have many talents. One dear friend is quite brilliant and he shares insights with me on many things whether it is finance or technology. I admire his many abilities because he is humble about them and is willing to share his knowledge. I feel like I'm constantly learning things that I would not have had the chance to do so before, but this person does it in a way that is gentle and encouraging. 

Another good friend is quite the woodworker. I'm amazed at how he can take a piece of wood and craft something. Again, he is very generous with his knowledge as well as his projects. He teases me that no one could afford his prices if he charged for his pieces and we laugh. 

Some talents aren't as visible. One friend is the kind you'd want if you want something done. She sees what needs to be done, does it, and doesn't complain. Always busy, always friendly, and what a joy!

One lady at church is quite excellent at crocheting. She can really make beautiful pieces and is happy to share her handiwork which enriches many lives.

We have quite a few people at our church who have vast talents. It is impressive that such a small congregration is so blessed. Two people are very good with technology and working with our pastor have made it so our church can stream our services as well as provide tech support during the service. We have some ladies who are amazing at organizing the bazaar and annual rummage sale and it always comes together well. Some of these same ladies oversee the funeral dinners which I'm sure are a comfort to the families who receive them. Then there are the grand cooks who provide so much of the food, all willing, all ready, wanting to help where needed at a time where food is often love.

One lady is very good with our children and has really turned our children's ministry into a success. It is great to see these children excited about coming to church and being involved. 

We have some people who are the unsung heros who serve on the church council or the board of elders, make the tough decisions, and look for ways to assist in the mission of our church. These meetings and duties are time consuming so it shows a great commitment on their part.

Our pastor is talented not only as a minister, but as a musician. But it is his love for the people that I would consider a talent. He listens, truly listens, and cares. His sermons are folksy and easy to learn from. 

We are fortunate to have an amazing vicar. A vicar in our denomination is like a student teacher who learns the ropes by doing. He is talented in technology as well as caring. 

One man always has something positive to say about everyone. He always looks for the good. 

Although probably not considered a real talent, there are those whose dedication to our congregation is heart warming. They are willing to do those things many wouldn't.

I know we often think about using our talent to make money, and there is, of course, nothing wrong with that. But it is enlightening to see people using their talent to better the world around them and the people they associate with. And sometimes that is a talent in and of itself. 

Not a whole lot to report. I realize it has been a while. I've stayed busy working on the church fundraising and doing stuff around the house as well as crocheting. I baked last week and raised $72 for the church mortgage. Not a huge amount, but it all adds up. 

We have to wait for a document before we can get our taxes done. I need to organize what we do have, but that won't take long since I already have it in an accordian file. 

We had quite the rain and wind gusts Friday with some damage to our house. At least we didn't lose power, but so many did and so many had far more damage. We feel fortunate, especially seeing so many of the natural disasters others are suffering.

A dear friend is teaching me coding. Not sure what I will do with it, but it is fun to learn something new and he's a patient teacher. My Papa always told me that if someone offers to teach you something, learn it, you never know when it will come in handy!

As many of you know, I'm pretty involved in my church. And like all things in our personal lives, prices have gone up for things at church too. The power bill has increased. Insurance increased for the few employees, the cost of materials like paper has gone up. 

A couple of weeks ago we passed a deficit budget. And that is scary since it is often a crapshoot on giving to begin with.

I'm friends with the treasurer and he and I have been brainstorming ideas on ways to "fundraise" to make extra money to throw at the church mortgage to get it paid off sooner. If the mortgage was paid off, it would free up money for the regular budget.

I like doing research so I worked on that. Sadly Amazon is discontinuing its Smile program so that was out. But Kroger grocery stores does have a community outreach program where they donate a small amount back. So, we are working on getting people to sign up for that if they haven't already allocated these funds elsewhere.

A local meat shop is going to designate a week this month and whatever we buy and say we are from Mt. Calvary Lutheran, he will donate 10% back to us. 

I know Rural King also has a Church Week program once a year so hopefully we can get some money back from that.

I have been playing around with sourdough, and I think I might have tweaked a recipe that is pretty good. I gave a loaf to a friend to try and asked if she thought it would sell. She said yes. I gave a loaf to my treasurer friend and he's going to try it and give me feedback on it as well. 

And this weekend I also talked to a couple of ladies who liked my crocheted dish cloths and I asked if I brought some to them, if they might be interesed in purchasing them.

I do these receipt apps and two of them does PayPal, so I am going to donate my money for the mortgage. It's what I consider found money. It's not a huge amount, but more than what we had to begin with. 

I know not one of these items is going to pay off the mortage, but I think it is like our personal lives where we chip away at stuff a litle bit at a time. Plus, having the Kroger store and the local meat shop giving back, we are helping our community by shopping, especially the local meat shop. 

So, off to look for more fundraising ideas...

When I was a kid, we struggled financially. It wasn't because my parents were lazy, it just that money was tight. I saw resourcefulness as well and hard work and believe I was raised with a Depression Era attitude.

Once I finished college and landed my full time teaching job, I listened to some of the older teachers talking about pensions, retirement accounts, and things like that. My dad and mom had to rely mostly on Social Security come retirement, and I can attest it was nothing but a struggle. I found a financial advisor who was willing to work with me because in 1986 teachers didn't make squat. So, $50 a pay period went into a 403b. And let me tell you, $50 a pay period was tough back then. I kept telling myself it was for my future and my retirement. 

Last week at the grocery I saw a very nice looking older lady. She was dressed clean and neat. I am nosy so I was waching what she took out of her cart. One potato, a loaf of bread, a bunch of celery, some canned vegetables, a couple other fresh vegetables. She paid most of it with the Link card and I could tell she wasn't proud of that, but she also had to pony up some other money. My heart went out to her. She looked like someone who probably had been an upstanding citizen her whole life, but found herself unable to make it on whatever she was getting, I am assuming Social Security. She was careful with her shopping -- no snacks, no junk food, just wholesome food. I imagine she is careful in other areas of her life as well.

Knowing how my folks struggled and seeing her is incentive to try to save. I was fortunate -- I could save in a 403b and a Roth and I have a decent pension. I'm not getting rich by any means, but I'm careful. I know when my mom died and I was paying bills, I realized how close to the edge she skated each month to not having enough to pay for things. In fact, a few of the bills she wouldn't have been able to cover if she had still been alive. 

I wonder if people who keep thinking they can't afford to put money in retirement accounts -- I'm not talking about the truly poor -- I'm talking about those who make good money, but tell themselves they will save later -- if they would have the incentive to save more for retirement if they had people like this lady tell them how the struggle is real. Then again, would they think it would apply to them?

I'm going to own up to it...

I did it.

I ate part of a dog biscuit.

Shocked? Well, here's, as Paul Harvey would say, the rest of the story...

I have a friend who has two wonderful dogs. I also have a love of baking. I ran across a recipe for making simple dog biscuits and I had all the ingredients. In fact, I had just opened a jar of chicken broth I had canned last summer and there was a little left. I was planning on baking some other stuff so the oven would be on, and well, I'm open to new things. The recipe was easy. I used a heart cookie cutter. Baked them and let them cool. I sort of wondered how they would taste too.

Years ago when I lived in the Chicago area, I rescued a dog from a shelter. My father, upon meeting my dog, informed me I needed to get some name brand biscuits to help with the dog's bad breath. So, I bought some, and offered one to my pup. Except he didn't know what to do with it. So, I bit off a little bit to show him it was a treat, and there was no going back after that. He was sold! I remember the biscuit as being quite salty and a little savory.

So, enter yesterday. The heart shaped biscuits were cooling and I wondered...so I bit part of one and chewed it. It was very savory (tasted like chicken) and wasn't too bad. 

Today at church I gave the bag of biscuits to my friend for his dogs, he teased me and asked if I tasted one and was surprised when I said yes. Another friend, after learning my gastric adventure, messaged me and asked if things were so dire with the grocery budget that I had resorted to eating dog biscuits and if so, he might be able to float me a loan.

I await to learn if the dogs like the biscuits. I, on the other hand, have taken quite a bit of good natured teasing which is fine. Nothing like some amusement in our lives! 

On Wednesday I did my weekly shopping. Same procedure every week. Usually get mostly the same stuff. But this trip had a little more frustration added.

A couple walked in ahead of me. I didn't think anything of it, until I couldn't get around them. They had a cart and between the two of them and the cart, they blocked aisles. The mister felt it was important to discuss every little thing they were shopping for. And it was usually a lengthy pontification. Seriously, how earth shattering is it to decide betwen regular cottage cheese and low fat cottage cheese? 

I try not to act to impatient, but inside my stomach is clenching. I take a deep breath and try to remain calm. I get what I needed and of course they head to produce. I need celery. But they are standing in front of celery and cabbage and he has to touch every head of cabbage. Then talk about why or why not they should get a particular head of cabbage. After all the chatting and touching, they decide not to get cabbage. This goes on for a bit. I finally snag my celery and eventually get around them. I see them still roaming the store as I try to get the few things I needed and head to checkout. 

I wait in line because there is only one checker and that is OK. I see the end is near. By the time I pay and am bagging my groceries, they wind up in line with 5 items. That's it...all 5 items!

I felt sorry for this man's wife or girlfriend or significant other...it wasn't like she was doing much of the talking, but all of the listening. I was glad to get away from them. I know, this might have been a big outing for them, but I would have preferred they wouldn't have blocked the aisles. 

We recently received our power bill and it was the most we've ever spent! It wasn't unexpected, but it still was painful. And this next month's will probably be more since we had that Polar Vortex with Winter Storm Elliott and it seemed like the furnace was running an awful lot.

In the bill was a flyer with suggestions on how to cut energy costs. I almost had to chuckle. The suggestions were things we've done for years such as turn the heat down when we leave for any extended time, make sure windows and doors are closed, and unplug any appliances you aren't using. I wondered who put together that list. I guess I was disappointed in not finding better information. Then again, those of us at SA are probably ahead of the game. 

One of my friends gave me a gift card for a meat market. I'm looking forward to using it. Last week I did our weekly grocery shopping and spent over $130 and wondered what the heck was so expensive since I only bought one package of chicken. And it was a small package! But prices keep rising and just buying basics and fresh fruit is getting more and more expensive.

We had some turkey left over from a meal last week. Actually we've had two meals from the turkey breast and there still was some left. I made turkey and wild rice soup for lunch today and there's enough to make a casserole for tomorrow night's supper. Plus, there is a little soup left which we will be having for lunch tomorrow. I don't want to waste anything! 

We used to buy a lot of crackers because we are big soup eaters. But I have been baking fresh bread and we have a slice of that instead. I did a sourdough starter a few months ago and use it and the "discard" or "excess" as well. The nice thing about using the excess sourdough starter is it adds moisture to what you are baking and  you use less eggs. And we know how expensive eggs have become.

As much as I enjoyed the holidays, I am looking forward to spending less. I did a lot of baking for Christmas, some as gifts and some for our church bazaar. I'm wondering if I will need to cut back on baking for next Christmas because I don't see prices dropping. One can hope, right? 

Like many, we were inflicted with a Polar Vortex yesterday and today. Fortunately we didn't get a lot of snow, but that wind was horrific. I went out and shoveled the little bit of snow that had drifted here and there.

Three of us play Wordle each morning and all of us had the same thing to say -- how thankful we are that our power didn't go out and that we have a nice home that is warm and safe. Hopefully that continues to be the case. 

Other than a few presents to wrap for DH, I'm ready for Christmas. Cards have been sent, gifts have been given to others, baking done, fudge made and given out. I'm hoping we can make it to Christmas Eve and Christmas Day services. 

Hope all of you have a lovely Christmas and stay safe if you are effected by winter storm Elliott.