As you know we have had a busy few weeks. With friends coming to stay, celebrating Dad’s birthday, and finally ending up at Kidfest, we have spent more out of our finances than usual.
Having ice cream out for Dad’s birthday.
We planned for it and was prepared, but now that all of the sugar cereal, special treats, and sodas are gone it is time to detox off the “rich foods.”
I purposed to not spend anything on groceries this week because we had a lot of “gathering up our scraps” to eat. One thing that I had bought a lot of last week were eggs. The price of eggs has been high this past year here ($1.80/dz), thus the reason we got some laying hens. This past week I saw them for 89 cents! I couldn’t believe it. So I bought 10 dozen eggs and we ate multiple breakfast dinners during the week and then I decided to freeze some for baking in the coming months.
When we moved here, we left behind our 25 laying hens but brought with us 18 dozen eggs. Those don’t travel well, so I decided to freeze them. It was so nice to be able to pull them out and use them in our baking without having to run to the store if I was out of eggs. Last time I did it in ice cube trays, but this time I used yogurt containers, as I had those and not the trays. I cracked 2 eggs into each cup and whisked them with a fork carefully. Put them in the freezer and then took them out when solid. If they sat out for a few moments to slightly thaw, they were much easier to pop out into bags to freeze. Now I have a few dozen stored up for later use.
We also made a bunch of hard boiled eggs. These were great for easy snacking and quick meals for myself.
Now that we have had our fill of eggs, I had to make meals out of my pantry and freezer. Here is what we had this week:
- grilled chicken and couscous with parsley,dill, and chicken bouillon
- spaghetti—we ALWAYS have this on hand
- ribs for men and mac and cheese and smoky links for kiddies
- hamburgers—using canned biscuits for the buns—yes I could have bought a $1 pack of buns but remember no spending:) for the men and tostadas for the kids with refried beans, cheese, and salsa
- chili and corn bread—we almost always have this stuff on hand too
Lunches were mixtures of things—-creativity. One day I took some cabbage vegetable soup that I had in the freezer and added the leftover mac and cheese and smoky links to it and made a soup?!?!? Served it with crackers and sliced cheese. The stipulation was if you ate some of the soup–chocked full of kale, and veges–not always my children’s favorite, then you got to have ice cream later that evening. They ate it:)
One meal was peanut butter and crackers, string cheese, and orange slices. If your children are not running around being super active, they don’t need tons of food to keep them going. We ate light this lunch but made a fuller dinner.
Haitian rice and beans we ate a few times. This is easy and cheap to make as well and my children all love it.
For a treat, I had all the ingredients for granola bars, as we had leftover smores material so we made that for this week. I added a few candy bars ground up in the food processor because I only had a couple.
We have many oranges still in the refrigerator so I push those when someone needs a snack. I had bags of french toast sticks that I made about a month ago and froze that we used for breakfast each day. Normally we have cereal everyday, but we ran out of milk and I did not want to buy any.
My son and husband take a lunch everyday and I am thankful that they love ground up ham with miracle whip spread on sandwiches. I even got creative for them after I ran out of sliced bread and used my skinny buns for bread. Normally they would not eat them, but they said they were very tasty:) Today I used up the last of the sub bread I had in the freezer for them. I take whole hams that I get cheaply and grind them up and store them in the freezer. When I need some, I take it out and let it thaw. Mix it up for sandwich spread with miracle whip and spread on bread. Easy and they love it!
We also have many homemade popsicles that we made last month. I bought pudding for 10 cents a box—birthday cake flavor and chocolate and I got powdered milk for less than 50 cents a box. That was very cheap so we have a whole shelf of frozen popsicles to eat up as well.
We are definitely not starving—there is plenty of food to eat—it is just about gathering up your fragments and using what you have. Today I have to run out and get a few household items like toilet paper, laundry soap, dish soap, and sandwich bread:) I will pick up a few items for Collin’s birthday dessert this weekend but I am still not going to buy food items. I will wait until next week when I absolutely have nothing left:) or so I think I have absolutely nothing left–we always have something, its just about what we will tolerate. Keep your meals simple.
I still have a bushel of sweet potatoes that I throw in and bake each day. I make sweet potato fries out of them and I love eating them. My family not so much, but it is food for your belly and good for you so that is what I eat.
I have continued to hang out my laundry only using the dryer a few times this week due to rain. Even when we had a household of people–my dryer was broken and did not get fixed until later in the week, but I survived, it was about planning ahead.
Even when it was hot here—high 90’s we could have put in our air conditioners, instead we filled up the pool and splashed in that. By night time the air turns cool and we are fine. Some nights it was a little warm but I knew this week was going to be cooler so we didn’t. Saving and putting off as long as we can.
Our chickens are starting to eat scraps from our meals which is nice. I have been letting them out earlier in the day around 2 so that they can eat off the land instead of just chicken feed. That will save as well. They love food and it is better for them then just feed. So it works. The problem is, I was used to 30 ducks and chickens eating our scraps so nothing was left for waste, well now we have only 6 so they don’t eat as much. I have to be selective in what foods I throw out for them otherwise I will have a pile of rot!
Being frugal this week was about being laid back as well. My children are tired from all that we have done lately and that is okay. As a mom I recognize this and let them relax. We didn’t do a whole lot, just enjoyed being home. I didn’t have anyone over, we didn’t run anywhere, we spent most of our time catching up on much needed rest and quiet. That is important for emotions and such. It is okay to not do anything but sit by the pool and chill. I know my days will be busy but for now we enjoy some quiet.
I hope that if your week has been overwhelming you choose to do what is best for your family and yourself. Sit and relax. Play with your children outside. Go sit by the kiddie pool or better yet get it in it! There is nothing wrong with doing nothing for a change:) We as moms are busy, taking a much needed break is good. Put down your phones and just chill. Let your mind relax. Do nothing and don’t worry about what you are “supposed to be doing.”
Have a great weekend! Be blessed and know you are thought of:)
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