The theme for this year is “Laser focused, hunkered down and spending as little money as possible.”
(picture: our iris's are really showing off ... pure beauty!)
This week our temps have been in the mid-80's for a good part of the week! This of course, meant I was outside ... working in the yard and garden and in the pollen! I'm not exaggerating when I say that it has been so bad this week that there was a haze of green pollen in the air most of the week. It settled on the vehicles, on standing water and on my eyeglasses! The lenses of my eyeglasses had a green pollen film on them!
Oh, my aching everything! Even though I try to get in at least 30 minutes of exercise every day, using a hoe and a shovel and pushing a wheelbarrow along with lots of bending up and down uses muscles that obviously don't get used enough in my regular exercise routine. Even though I am sore, it is a good sore and a contented sore, if that makes sense.
So what did my week look like and what did I do to get my 'everything' aching all over. Let's find out ...
In the Vegetable Garden: Since this job ultimately benefits the vegetable garden (as in chicken poo for fertilizer), I'm including it here. I started shoveling out the chicken coop this week and hauled away several buckets of chicken poo to the compost pile and to containers that won't have anything planted in them for several weeks yet.
I noticed that the cabbage seeds I planted a couple of weeks ago are coming up. This made me very happy as they are old seeds as in 2 plus years old seeds!
(pictured: cabbage and broccoli plants)
I planted tomato seeds this week as well. It was a busy week in the yard and garden. Speaking of the yard, we mowed it for the first time this year and you know what that means. It means that all the winter sticks and debris have to be picked up. I had started cleaning up the yard a few weeks back, but you sure couldn't tell it the day we mowed. I think I bent up and down, it felt like a few hundred times!
With the warmer temperatures, our early spring garden is thriving ... and so are the weeds! Yep, I started weeding the row garden this week along with cleaning out several more containers in my container garden. (The chickens enjoyed the weeds!)
Did I mention that our blueberry bushes are full of blooms. I tried to get a picture, but it just didn't turn out right.
I harvested the first of the asparagus for this year.
Yes, spring is definitely here!
In the Kitchen: I made more bread and hoagie rolls, this time for the purpose of freezing.With us going into a very busy gardening season, everything I can cook ahead and get in the freeze will make things easier.
Nothing to report this week except that I found a free blouse pattern that I really want to make! I just added it to the always growing sewing list!
Bible Study: I completed and posted lesson 22 in our ladies Bible study on Esther. It can be found HERE.
I also download the Bible memory verse app, Verse Locker to help me memorize scripture. My hubby learned of this app from a friend of his. Part of the Proverbs study that I'm doing involves memorizing Scripture and I think this app will help. So far, we're memorizing Proverbs 1:7 and Proverbs 23:17. I've got the first one memorized and am working on the second.
In the Herb Garden: I pulled Stevia seeds from my seed bucket and read up on the best time to plant, which is after our last frost date, the first part of April. I used to grow stevia and want to start doing it again.
In the Flower Garden: still waiting on that 'warm enough weather' to plant the seeds. It won't be much longer!
Continuing Education/Skills: I'm working on my herbal education again. This week I did further research on nettles, mullein and detoxing the body through the use of herbal teas. Nettles are known for helping with allergies (I'm currently enjoying a small amount in my morning kefir smoothie.), mullein is known as a respiratory aid and of course detoxing the body helps the liver.
Also, I continue to collect herbal tea recipes and add to my list of herbs I need/want to grow for those teas.
This week’s frugal quote/discussion topic … Frugality doesn't happen without effort. What are your thoughts?
That’s it for this week, what has your week looked like?
until next time,
mrs. patsi @ A Working Pantry
She looketh well to the ways of her household … Proverbs 31:27
Sharing 44 years' experience of frugal, prudent living and pantry building
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Busy and productive week !!!!
ReplyDeleteDiana, very much so!
DeleteI am so jealous you have garden popping up! Still too cold here. My rhubarb is up about 6"!
ReplyDeleteI think frugality takes a lot of effort at first - maybe for a few years. Then I believe (for me) it becomes a habit - and it is just the normal way. I just do so much today that I don't even think about it anymore.
Have a great day!
Cheryl, I agree that living frugally becomes a way of life. I like the challenge to have the best life I can as frugally as possible!
DeleteThat's impressive, Patsy! No wonder you're sore! No gardening here. We had hail, rain and snow this week, and most mornings began with a thin layer of ice everywhere. Good weather for being busy inside with cooking/baking, laundry and book reading: "Grow Food for Free" by Huw Richards, as well as "Weck Small Batch Preserving."
ReplyDeleteWe'd had notification a week ago that our vehicle (a Kia) would no longer be covered by insurance due to the model's high theft rate. Hubs met with our agent in town. Nope. Since we'd just paid 2 years' registration, it was completely unexpected. Hubs paid $58 for a detailed cleaning and started looking at used cars. That $58 was well spent as we got $9,500 for trade in on an affordable, solid GMC. Our savings took a big hit, though. And I share that because yes, frugal living takes work. It's easy to get discouraged when the unexpected happens, but attitude is everything. Thank you for always sharing that here. --Elise
Elise, I'm sorry you had to unexpectedly purchase another car, but aren't you glad you could. Yes, your savings took a hit, but aren't situations like this one of the many reasons we work hard to live frugal and save? Your story is inspiring, thank you for sharing!
DeleteI'm going to check out the books you're reading. They look like ones I would be interested in reading.
Yes, and yes, Patsy. It occurred to me at the time how blessed we were to be able to do what we did. That wouldn't have been possible if we lived differently than we do. And one thing about living as we do is continuing to learn new-to-us habits, which is why those books--especially "Grow Food for Free"--are ways to keep learning, as well as reading what others are doing right here. Maybe it will work for me, maybe it won't, but it never hurts to learn! --Elise
DeleteWe are seriously considering letting our deck veggie garden go this year. We are both just struggling along health wise and it is just another thing to take care of. We can't grow enough to really lower our grocery budget in our little space. I agree with Cheryl, frugality does take effort but as it goes along it becomes habit and easy. Over on the Youtube channel The Queens Cabinet she had a tour of her seven freezers and one was nearly full of pizzas she had made and frozen. She has a tutorial and shows how she does it and how to cook them. It is really genius but she does not say how long it took to fill that freezer. I am considering doing some on a much smaller scale and see how we like them.
ReplyDeleteI had one of the weeks that I hate with my genetic disease. I go through these times when my mouth just has no filter and even I am surprised at what I say and comments I make . I can tell it is not over yet but I am hoping it will wind down before the weekend when our son's family arrives from out of state because our DIL just cannot take the things I say. What hurts the worst is the awful things that I can say to Hubby. My Dad got so bad with this that my Mom could just hardly bear it. Anyway....
Follow up to the comment I made about wanting to mentor another young woman. God has shown me who but I am only to pray for her right now. She was a friend of our kids when they were growing up and has a lot of baggage from DSS taking her and 8 siblings from their Mom and 6 years in foster care before being adopted at ten. She spent a lot of time in our home so I know her well and know how to pray for her.
On Friday I received a phone call from a friend at church. She insists on doing Easter dinner for us. Right now actually going to church is just too much for us so we watch live streaming every Sunday morning. How wonderful it is to be remembered in such a way. The parents of the above mentioned young woman are also home bound right now and will come and watch church with us and stay for the meal our friend will bring.
Have a good week everyone.
Lana, part of being wise and prudent is to know when to take a step back as in your decision to let the veggie garden on your deck go this year. It would be far better to let it go and find an avenue of living frugal to replace it then live in a stressed-out situation because you aren't able to do it this year. My advice, for what it's worth, is to just let it go this year and reaccess next year. Stressing over what you can't do will only slow your recovery.
DeleteI pray that you had a good weekend with your family.
I'm so glad you found your person to mentor. It does sound like she needs some gentle care, it's better to go slow then to jump in and burn bridges. You've got this!
Thank you!
DeleteThe weather is warming up here, too. We cleaned up some of the garden beds and planted some more spring weather crops. I'm also investigating more from scratch cooking and tweaking my cleaning schedule. I'm not really one to have meals in the freezer, but I may investigate that, too. A lot of them seem to use things we don't eat. lol Have a wonderful week!
ReplyDeleteJennilee, Freezer meals can be as simple as making your spaghetti sauce in quantity and freezing meal size amounts. Taco meat is another easy one. Pasta dishes such as mac n cheese, baked ziti and lasagna freeze well as long as they are thawed in the fridge before reheating. Broth based soups and chili are easy to make extras and freeze as well. I personally don't freeze anything with potatoes because I do not like the texture after freezing. If you are a Sam's or Costco shopper even picking up a few chickens and pulling off the meat and freezing in 2 cup packages can make meals easier.
DeleteJennilee, I mostly vacuum seal leftover pre-cooked meats and store them in the freezer for quick meals. As an example, if I can get lean ground beef for under $3 lb., usually sold in value packs of 3 lbs. or more, I'll brown it all up with just salt & pepper, drain, cool, divide that up into smaller portions and freeze for fast meals of chili, Sloppy Joes, spaghetti, tacos/taco salad, etc. I've done the same with all sorts of meats; the pouches can be thawed in the microwave quickly and I can have a meal in 20 minutes or less. One thing I learned years ago is to strain any cooked meat juices into a measuring cup, refrigerate that overnight, remove the hardened fat on top in the morning, and save the remaining "broth" in the freezer.
DeleteMy next step is [gulp] learning to safely can meat. I have leftover pork in broth that I hope to get canned today or tomorrow for shelf stable pork to use to make fast meals in the hot months when I don't want to heat up the kitchen too much. Lana, thank you for the tip about freezing/thawing pasta meals. --Elise
Jennilee, I'm with on the freezer meals, we don't eat a lot of the things that seem to be common when you search for freezer meal recipes. I do things like cook and freeze rice, brown ground beef and onions and freeze it, etc. Having items cooked and ready make it really easy to pull together a meal. Don't get me wrong, I do like a good freezer meal, but my freezer meals are not usually casserole style meals. Elise and Lana had some great ideas.
DeleteI so envy you being able to garden. We won't plant outdoors until the week after Mothers Day. However I will start seeds and sweet potatoe slips next month and I've started a little indoor gardening by regrowing onion bottoms. I've always had good luck growing onions this way. I'm also regrowing scallions . This week I finished Easter cards and made little boxes for candy for the Grands that look like little cottages. Hopefully, I will get to the post office this week and mail everything off. In the kitchen, I used everything up and produced 3 quarts of chicken stock. We changed out the wall quilts from winter to spring. Ordered the low acid, mold free decaf coffee, which is the only brand I can drink without having a histamine reaction. Watched a few youtube videos on using water color pencils. And,yes, frugality takes a bit of effort and a change of mindset. When embarking on this journey we have the choice of making it easy or hard. There are many who have gone before us and there are an enormous amount of resources, be it technology or books from the library or blogs, friends on line, that can help us along the way. Taking advantage what is available doesn't take a lot of time out of the day. Have a blessed day everyone. Cookie
ReplyDeleteCookie, your comment is such a good example of living frugal and you're so right, a change of mindset just might be in order if we find we're fighting a frugal lifestyle! Your comment is just so inspiring to me! Thank you for sharing!
DeleteToday I harvested a handful of carrots and a few pieces of lettuce that I'd missed in the fall. I noted that oregano, sage, parsley and chives are on the return, the garlic is growing. When I took compost out today, I spied broccoli and another plant that look incredibly strong and healthy. I guess all this rain has helped. I hope I can successfully transplant them.
ReplyDeleteLike you we were astonished at the great clouds of green pollen, especially as we crossed the river with all the woods in the swamps. You could barely see through it! Here at home, all is a coat of lime green and everything I touch makes me itch or sniffle or sneeze. I know it will be over soon.
This past week I made bread. I sorted out the prepared foods basket of my freezer and found two entrees I needed to use as they were getting quite old, so they went onto an altered menu for this week. I never let the fact that my menu is worked out stop me from changing it to use things up.
I noticed two areas of my budget where I can 'find' money to put towards a bill this month and add to the budget next month as 'extra'. Granted it will just go to a new category but it is a help.
I mended some clothing, washed and put away sweaters and then over the weekend pulled them right back out again, lol. I wasn't expecting it to cool off as much as it did this week.
I have been trying to make the guest room nice once more and yet spend no money on it. So far deep cleaning has helped. I mended an old comforter that I like rather well and pulled throw pillows from another room and found artwork in the shed. I just need to do something with those frames which unfortunately look like zebras...I will paint them one solid color.
We are so well stocked on long lasting produce items and milk and eggs that I think I may be able to easily skip all but the most excellent sales items at the grocery for the rest of this month. And due to the amount of older freezer items and pantry items, I may give myself a further Pantry Freezer challenge for the first part of April.
Yes, Frugality does take effort. I have reached the point in my own frugal life where I have recognized that I can only generate more savings by doing MORE, adding new skills as the places to trim and cut are not as numerous. Yet, I do find it very satisfying effort and fully see the rewards.
Terri, I read your comment several times, there are just so many good things, ideas and precepts. I especially like your statement that you have recognized that you can only generate more savings by doing MORE, adding new skills as the places to trim and cut are not as numerous. Yes! Yes! Yes! I am with you 100%, you are singing my song! Thank you for such an inspiring comment! I'm going to read it again!
Deletelast comment from Terri @ Blue House Journal
ReplyDelete"Yes, Frugality does take effort. I have reached the point in my own frugal life where I have recognized that I can only generate more savings by doing MORE, adding new skills as the places to trim and cut are not as numerous. " This is where I'm at, Terri. And by the way, your week is impressive! --Elise
Delete