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Sunday, February 7, 2016

FEBRUARY

Hello dear friends! Can you believe we are already one week into February?  How time flies! Several friends have inquired what I did this week, and to be honest, I couldn't say, but I do know that I kept busy.  For instance, today we spent an hour fiddling with trying to get the printer to work.  We were out of magenta ink and even though we wanted to print in black and white, the machine refused to do it!  Modern technology that is supposed to make your life easier  just gobbled  up an hour of  my day.  And you know what?  Never did get that stupid thing to work.  No wonder I long to go off-the-grid! Looks like it's time for a new printer, because the ink cartridges cost as much as a new printer.  All this rigmarole just for the "pleasure" of doing our taxes!   Do you ever have weeks like that?

One of the silly things I did this week was to make maple chips.
I couldn't resist photographing them in one of my Sugar Maples teacups from my Friendly Village set.  Every year about this time, I start to crave maple.  I found a recipe for maple cookies that required maple baking chips, but after a thorough search, I discovered that no such thing exists, but I did find this link on how to make some.   I didn't microwave mine, but used an old-fashioned double boiler.  And next time I won't waste my time piping them onto wax paper, but instead just spread the melted chocolate on some wax paper and break that up into little bits.  You can always buy white chocolate after the holidays when those little bunny, Santas, and hearts go on sale for half price.  Anyway, this had me thinking of all the different flavors I could make.  I think I will try coconut next.  And maybe strawberry would be good in a chocolate cookie?

THE VALUE OF MONEY

I was reading an article on-line about one of the most important steps young adults can do to prosper is to learn the value of money.  Today with electronic transactions, people often don't even think of money as money.  Just pull out the old debit or credit card.  That's why one of the ways people can learn to budget is to get actual cash, place it in an envelope for each expenditure, and when the money runs out, you're through spending for the month.  Nothing like a dwindling stack of cash to make you realize how little money you really have and how quickly it can slip from your fingers. I don't do that, but I check my checking account balance daily, and I keep lists of everything I spend money upon, even that fifty cent bottle of water when out shopping.  I make my own accounts book out of notebooks that I buy during the "back-to-school" sales.  On one page I keep my ledger and on the other page I keep columns for food, medical, utilities, clothing, etc. And I keep track of every penny.  This way, I can see where I need to do better.  Some things you just can't fight, I've discovered.  I was trying to keep my groceries at $75 for the month, but we eat almost that much in fresh fruits and vegetables in the winter. We try to eat green leafies every day.  I realized I really need to double that for a realistic budget.  Still $150 a month for three adults isn't bad.  That extra $75 dollars had to come out of one of the other categories,  in our case entertainment , gasoline and clothing.

One of the ways to help yourself from spending too much is to think of how long you have to work for each item.   Believe me, if you think that you have to  work three hours  (calculated on a wage of $20/hour minus the taxes) for that cute $45 sweater, the "cuteness'" sort of wanes!  Especially when you discover that you can buy ten just-as-cute sweaters from the thrift store for the same price.  A steak might sound tasty, but when you  discover you have to work an hour to have enough for you and your spouse, is it any better than a ten pound bag  of dry beans?  Enough beans for ten meals and ten sweaters or steak for one meal and one sweater?  It's a different way of looking at wealth, but you can be wealthy by wisely spending your money.

Not that I don't spend money foolishly from time to time!  This week we spotted a new to us thrift store on our drive home from the bulk food store  (had to stock up on flour, canning lids, and vegetable oil).  I found five skirts from the Sundance catalog at $1.50 each.  I figured I could sell them on Ebay if I didn't like them, but I do, so I'm keeping them.  I know that I have too many clothes! I also bought two pieces of fabric,  the plaid one is 3 1/2 yards that I plan to make an old-fashioned apron from and the cute one with the cherries  is slated to be made into either tote bags, potholders, or aprons for Christmas presents.


 ANOTHER WAY OF LOOKING AT WEALTH

I'm sure you know people that seem to have everything, but never seem happy.  Conversely, I've seen some seriously poor people that delight in mundane things that most of us take for granted.  Little children in third world countries that are given  a simple rubber ball that most American children would turn up their noses at, furnishes them with many more hours of enjoyment than those expensive video games we buy or children.  Every year we select a child from a charity,  some of the things they ask for, truly humbles us;  a warm shirt, mittens, a shaving kit,  warm pajamas.We have so much in comparison.    True wealth is being content and finding joy in what you do have, not  in wanting what you don't or can't have.

PRETTY GREAT MEALS FROM THE PANTRY AND ROOT CELLAR

We've been spending most of of our grocery money on stocking up on bulk items so we've been using a lot of home-canned goods  and things we have dried or are in the root cellar.  This week we had:

Chicken Cordon Bleu  Casserole (home canned  ham and chicken, dried mushrooms, onions from the  root cellar, and Swiss cheese  from the freezer)
Vegetable Lasagna  (cheese from the freezer, home dried peppers and mushrooms, home canned  spaghetti sauce and eggplant)
Beef Stroganoff (home canned sirloin and beef broth,  served on potatoes from the root cellar)
A ham, green onion  and cream cheese spread on homemade crackers with a salad (home canned ham)
A big pot of pinto beans cooked with a smoked ham hock on cornbread. (home dried beans, celery and peppers, onions from the root cellar)
Home made pizza (cheese from the freezer, home canned spaghetti sauce, home dried mushrooms and peppers, onions from the root cellar)

We serve most of our meals with a big green salad, which is where most of our grocery money goes. Can't wait for Spring, when we'll have our own lettuce once again!  In the mean time we are stretching our lettuce by adding our sprouts to the salad. Our  main meal of the day is lunch.  We eat the leftovers for dinner or I have home-canned soups in the pantry that we can heat up.
For dessert we made banana pudding and apple cake from the King Arthur website.

We're still working our way through the bushels of apples we picked last fall. This made a huge cake so we froze half of it for later.

Which just goes to show you, being thrifty doesn't mean you have to live poorly!

CRAFTS

For this month's charity knitting  I couldn't resist making a pair of pink mitts in honor of  Valentine's Day. I had to take a photo before I was finished because I was losing the light, but they will be finished today.
The little sampler is one that I copied from Pinterest.


THRIFTY THING WE DID THIS WEEK

Found some more flagstones for our walk in the vacant lot.

Knitted a pair of mittens from my yarn stash.

Bought five Sundance catalog skirts for a grand total of $7.50.

Bought bulk canning lids at 12 cents a lid (a lot less than a box of 12)

Bought fabric at the thrift store, five yards was cheaper than one at the fabric store.

Sewed a doll for a Christmas present from fabric scraps.

Foraged for pine bark to make a tincture. (It's still in the process, I'll show you next week)

Snagged a free pallet for firewood.

Made banana pudding from milk and bananas that needed using up.

Made some pretty great meals from the pantry.


So that's it for this week at the old Zempel boarding house! Hope you have a wonderful week and hope to see you here again the next!

Hugs
Jane


26 comments:

  1. Every time I read your menus, I want to start canning meat. It looks like you make some pretty good meals from your canning. Right now, though, I'll put that aside for after we sell this house.

    We also eat a lot of lettuce. Although we ate strictly from the refrigerators and storage this past week, I will be buying lettuce in the next few days, as I'm almost out. I also buy large bottles of salad dressing from Cash and Carry for a much smaller price than at the regular grocery store. I know many people make theirs, but I rarely do that, although it looks like a good idea.

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    1. Hi Becky! I think you'd enjoy canning meat. It really is so easy and rewarding. I can pulled together a meal in around half an hour that way.

      My favorite salad dressing is to melt my homemade pepper jelly with a splash of cider vinegar. It makes a sort of wilted salad.

      Hugs
      Jane

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  2. Hi Jane! My that cake looks so good....! I was hoping we'd have an early spring but we have more snow in the forecast and then bitter cold after. Just in case, I bought lettuce and spinach seeds....so I am ready. Sorry about your printer. Very frustrating, I know. I think our modern technology is handy when it works, but stressful when it doesn't.
    My 90 year old neighbor had that Friendly Village set and boy did she take good care of it and was so proud of it!
    It is pretty!
    I agree that thinking of spending money in terms of how long you have to work for it is a good idea! Your meal planning looks delicious and nutritious!

    We rob our children of joy when we give them too much and nothing is special anymore. Moderation does bring more joy like you noted. And those mittens are pretty...I like the color! Andrea

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    1. Hi Andrea! It's supposed to get colder here too. Seems just about the time you start thinking you have winter licked, it really turns cold.

      Taxes and technology are very frustrating. It's always good to put it behind you. Can't figure out why the printer wouldn't print, it was working just fine last week without the magenta cartridge. Ah! The good old days of mimeograph machines!

      Have a great week!
      Hugs
      Jane

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    2. Hi! I hear Massachusetts is getting a blizzard. Now we are getting 3-6 inches instead of 1-3. Might stop me from traveling to church for Ash Wednesday. We are on our 3rd printer. We don't even use it much. This newer one (and i buy the cheapest) sometimes won't print. I don't know why...sometimes if I unplug everything that helps. I feel like putting a hammer to new technology..ha..Hugs back, Andrea

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    3. We hardly use ours too, Andrea. And every time we do, it's out of ink. Hope that blizzard misses you. We;re supposed to get 8 inches of snow today, but it's a beautiful sunny day, so I'm hoping they are wrong. Since we didn't have a white Christmas, I'm willing to skip winter completely.

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    4. Ha...true. No white Christmas, so forget it mother nature! Andrea

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    5. If you aren't printing that much (like a month or more between prints) try taking out the ink cartridges and wiping where the ink comes out with a cotton ball/q-tip with rubbing alcohol on it let dry a moment and place back in the printer. Where it comes out can get a little dry/dried out and that tells your printer you are out of ink. The alcohol removes dried ink to allow new ink to flow through. This has saved a lot of printers with family and friends.

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  3. Sounds like an awesome week! Your meals sound delicious, and apple cake is one of my favorite desserts. I made an apple crisp last night to use up some wrinkly apples. Oh I made your latkes last week for brinner, and they were so good. Thank you! I had to double check that I was reading it right...$150 for groceries for a month! Wow!! I spend over $100 week for my family of 4, and I thought I was doing pretty good. ;)
    I love your dishes; they are so pretty!
    Great deals on the skirts and fabric. Good idea to consider how long you have to work to pay for something. Unfortunately we had a $3000 vet bill for our cat who had a blockage/obstruction requiring surgery. He is doing well, and I'm glad that we have an emergency fund, but still that was a big expense...
    Sorry about the printer problems. My dh refills our cartridges, messy but cheaper.
    Hope you have a great week.

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    1. Hi Kathy! Glad you liked the latkes! Sounds like with that ginormous vet bill you'll eating lots of them this month. But what are you going to do with a beloved pet?

      During the summer I spend even less a month, some months nothing at all. The majority of our grocery bill comes from fresh vegetables. That's why I like to stock up in the winter on things like flour and oil and take advantage of meat sales, so come summer I won't have to set foot in the grocery store.
      The less times you shop the less money you spend.

      I think there's a place around here that refills cartridges. But in all honesty, I was just looking for an excuse to replace this printer. Ha! I never liked it. Just goes to show you that all this technology that was meant to save us time, sure seems to waste mine. Have a great week too!

      HUgs
      Jane

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    2. Thanks for posting your menu...you really do an amazing job with your grocery shopping. I have been in such a rut lately, and I can't think of anything that I want to cook so I appreciate your sharing your recipes with us.

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    3. You're welcome Kathy. I understand about being in a rut. Basically this week, I looked in the pantry and tried to use up some of my older canned goods.
      J

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  4. I'm glad I'm not the only one to feel that somehow we rushed into February headlong. I was surprised to find I hadn't done a blog post in nearly two weeks.
    What is it with printers? I've had a number of them and they all seem to have unpredictable spells of balking--usually when I'm in a hurry to print and be done with it.
    I'm envious of your skirt bonanza! I used to make all of mine--tailored, lined wool for winter--now I rely on charity shop finds.

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    1. Hi Sharon! It always seems it's either Monday or Friday here. I don't know where the rest of the week goes.

      Our printer always messes up when we want to print our taxes. Guess it doesn't like taxes too.

      I love to sew and in my earlier days used to do a lot of it, but a person simply cannot sew as cheaply as the thrift stores. Just the thread and the zipper costs as much as a thrift store skirt. Our local store sells skirts for $2. I have several nice woolen ones from Orvis that I bought there, but this year it has been too warm to wear them.

      Hope you will have spring soon!
      Hugs
      Jane

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  5. Visiting back from Dewey's Treehouse! Wow, you have some great ideas here. The Bulk Barn here sells lemon chips at Easter, but I don't think I've seen maple chips either.

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    1. Thinking of ways to use lemon chips now. Ha! You did a great job on refashioning that dress!

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  6. I never would have figured one could make their own chips! I love learning these new things.
    So true on on saving for wealth. Although, that every other month strip steak my husband makes and we share is sooo worth that money. Although, we rarely eat out now - so maybe that is our thrifty trade off! You managed to put into words what I try to explain to my friends/family. I am going to copy and paste that - so I can read it verbatim and not get such confused/pity looks - ha!
    I noticed our grocery budget for the Mister & I has gone up - mostly because we were told by our physicians to increase or veggie/fruit intake. We never ate poorly - but due to pre existing diabetes threats and gastric issues - and it has been so helpful. One way I am trying to stretch is to buy cabbage and use that as my main salad green. Cabbage, carrots and apples are pretty cheap here right now in PA. I mix it up with various dressings - sometimes a light topping of chopped walnuts.
    Thank you for you weekly posts - makes "serenity now" an honest thing.
    Have a blessed week - Jen

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    1. Hi Jen! First thanks for the tip about extending the life of my printer cartridges! We just got back from the store and ended up buying a new printer because it was $15 less than the cartridges. Just doesn't make sense!

      Fresh fruits and vegetables are expensive that's for sure. Especially in the winter. I haven't priced it, but is frozen spinach cheaper than fresh? We've been eating a lot of Brussels sprouts recently because they've been having a sales on those. My son taught me to place them in a pan cut side down with water 1/3 the way up their sides. Add just a dab of butter and simmer them until the water evaporates and they begin to caramelize on the bottom. Delicious. The little bit of butter wicks up them and makes them taste rich. Cabbage is great too, it has always been one of the least expensive of vegetables from time began.

      Everyone in my family has type2 diabetes, so I'm always looking for ways to avoid it. So far so good. Two things I do everyday is to start the day with a nice bowl of oatmeal sprinkled liberally with cinnamon (stabilizes sugar) and the other is to eat 2 Brazil nuts a day. Well, the another thing is to walk three miles every day. That helps with arthritis too.

      We all have to have our little indulgences such as your strip steak! Mine is that I love to make thrift hauls. I think fashion is so much fun. No crime in having fun, if you can afford it. Like you, the trade off is dining out.

      Thank you for the kind words and the tip!
      HUgs
      Jane

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  7. Jane,
    So glad you knitted the gloves -you may need them with all that snow that has been forecasted! $150.00 for a month sounds like a great budget for food for a month. Sometimes we need to spend a little more like that to eat healthy. Stay warm during the snow. Vickie

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    1. Hi Vickie! Did you get your insurance figured out? I have car insurance coming up next month. Kching!

      The mittens are for the Girl Scouts mitten tree. I try to knit a pair a month. I post them so I'll be shamed into knitting them if I start to slack off. So far it's working, one of my friends reminded me that she hadn't seen this month's mitts. Is it snowing your way?

      Hugs
      Jane

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  8. Love your blog, Jane. My reader has done me in by marking your post as read when I had done no such thing. I just happened to remember that you post on Sunday evenings and wondered if you had for this week, and lo, you had. Naughty Feedly. I may have to use another reader. Anyways....

    Your Maple Chips sound delicious, and they look so inviting in your gorgeous cup and saucer! That is a lovely, come-home-to-peacefulness set of dishes. :)

    What lovely fabrics, I love, love those neutrals. And how I'd love to run across some nice skirts at a great price. It just doesn't happen where I live.

    Love the mittens, and I can't wait to hear about your pine bark tincture. I had a crown done this week, and it's a bit of a pain so I caved and took Ibuprofen. Naughty me.

    Have a wonderful week!
    Toni

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    1. Hi Toni! I think something is up with Blogger because I normally have more Russian readers than I have American ones and this week I haven't had a single one.

      I love Friendly Village because it is one of the few patterns that has winter scenes.

      Guess one of the advantages of living up here in the sticks is that we can get some great deals at thrift and garage sales. I've never seen anyone wearing such things, so I wonder where they get them? Most of the women up here either wear yoga pants or jeans. Oh well, they're loss is my gain!

      I'm finishing up the pine bark tincture today. Has a lovely clean piney scent.

      Hope you're feeling better. Sometimes you just have to get some relief! Almost every tooth in my mouth has been crowned or capped. My teeth are as soft as chalk! I always laugh that my teeth will live long after I'm gone.

      Well, just sit back and relax. After a visit to the dentist, you've earned it.

      Hugs
      Jane

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  9. We had purchased apples in bulk at a good price. They were getting shriveled so I sliced them and dried them. There were a few pieces too soft to slice, so I made up a batch of Praline apple bread. I think I got a new marriage proposal out of that one! Wow, so glad I stretched those apples instead of throwing the scraps to the chickens!

    Thanks for sharing your insights! Can't help but want to shout a healthy Amen. Envious of your thrift store haul. I'm due for a wardrobe update. It's so easy for me to shop for my family and forget myself. No violins please, I just forget to buy clothes for myself as I don't enjoy trying things on. I seem to do better letting friends give me their cast-offs and thrift shopping for my children.
    Lovely little mittens!
    Blessings,
    Leslie

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    1. Hi Leslie! Apple Praline bread? That does sound good! I'm grateful for the bountiful apple harvest this year, but to tell the truth, I'll be glad when the apples are finally used up. I'd like to bake something that doesn't include apples for a change!

      I used to be the same way about buying clothes. My husband had to force me to buy them. I wore whatever he bought me for Christmas and birthday presents. Once you become a parent, personal needs sort of fall by the wayside, which is how it should be, in spite of all the new-age philosophy that tell us that we need to put ourselves first. Time enough for that once the children are gone.

      Hope you will have a lovely weekend. Very cold here, but inside it's nice and cozy.

      Hugs
      Jane

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  10. Great post, the chicken courdon bleu casserole sounds delicious, as do the rest of your meals. I spend way too much on groceries, but have really started to get back on budget by making a meal plan and sticking to it, which has cut my budget down quite a bit. Your posts always inspire me to be more conscious of my spending, which is definitely something I really need to tackle this year.

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  11. yes u are right now a days the used cloth really good for collect lots of cloths and look good every day
    supplier used clothing

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