Our 2019 No Spend Challenge

Want to up your frugal game? Join one of our challenges.
alliesmama4
Posts: 8591
Joined: Sun Aug 30, 2015 10:10 pm
Location: Southern IL

Re: Our 2019 No Spend Challenge

Post by alliesmama4 »

Months ago I bought a manual dicer thingy from one of the home shopping networks. So I brought it out today to make a quick job of chopping onions. I should have realized the people who were doing the presentation so easily were big men with muscles and big hands. I am an elderly, 5'4", disabled woman. I had to cut the onions in to slices and put my body weight down on my forearm to push the darn thing and it was still a challenge. I assume when I try to use it to cut potatoes for french fries that I had planned on making they will have to be cut down and will look like hash browns...gggrrr.. Currently do not have any potatoes but I am curious now to see how this "thing" works..lol. It did do a quick job with hard boiled eggs but they are not hard to cut up by hand. I am going to use it to cube the hot dogs for the sandwich spread. I hope it can cut those up nicely in a small dice. I have a hard time holding a knife for any length of time.

I picked two grocery sacks of pears this afternoon. I have more to pick. They are huge. They are keifer pears and not for eating fresh. They are for canning and cooking. However pears do not ripen on the trees so I am picking them now to let them ripen. Also afraid that the fruit bandit, who has stolen my peaches and pears in the past, might decide he wants to snatch them. We have a full moon and the tree is near my driveway. He stole the pears two years in a row during the day time when I was not home. The peaches he did once during a moonlit night and a couple of other times during the day when I was gone. Scary that he knows when I am gone. I finally got an idea of who he was last year. I think he thought I was gone since I had been keeping my garage door down to keep some moths out of my garage. He backed up my drive way with his truck and a trailer. I made my presence known and he left. I do not know where he lives but he drives up and down this road a lot so I could get nosy and drive around and see where he lives. My apple tree is more in the back of my house and if you look hard enough you can see the apples. I am thinking he would be stupid to back his truck that far down my driveway.. but then if you are brazen enough to steal someone's fruit in broad daylight and under the cover of a moonlit night you just might do it.

Making tuna fish salad. I am low on other forms of fresh protein from the grocery store but have eggs and tuna fish and I do like tuna fish salad. I am hoping to bake some quick bread of some sort this evening or blueberry muffins made with almond flour. I will use almond flour for the quick bread just need to go on line and find a recipe that fits what I have in the house.
Janet Alliesmama
alliesmama4
Posts: 8591
Joined: Sun Aug 30, 2015 10:10 pm
Location: Southern IL

Re: Our 2019 No Spend Challenge

Post by alliesmama4 »

I picked a total of 6 plastic grocery shopping bags of pears. I sort of have gone in to Betty Crocker mode. I cut up 4 apples.. 3 from the store and one from my tree.. to make cooked apples with cinnamon and a tiny bit of sugar. Baked off a pound of bacon. The house smells so good. I am running out of energy so tuna fish salad and quiche will have to wait until tomorrow. Although almost everything has been prepped just a matter of throwing them together tomorrow.

I had a snack of carrot sticks with ranch dressing and Teddi had carrot sticks.. I think the radishes are a bit hot for him right now. Usually they are very mellow in taste.
Janet Alliesmama
alliesmama4
Posts: 8591
Joined: Sun Aug 30, 2015 10:10 pm
Location: Southern IL

Re: Our 2019 No Spend Challenge

Post by alliesmama4 »

Did not accomplish much today. I made the tuna fish salad and have been cleaning up the kitchen from the marathon cooking yesterday. I made a box of Kraft mac and cheese for my dinner and Teddi had a little bit mashed in to his chicken.

Yesterday I used the last box of sugar free instant vanilla pudding and added some banana extract to it. It was really good. When I buy boxed pudding from the grocery store I usually get vanilla that way I can change it in to something else. Sometimes I add mint extract or mix it with some pumpkin puree and some pumpkin pie spice and make it more Fall like. I have a cook book that gives me some of the ideas to make the changes some I make up according what I am making to eat at the time. The cooked apples today were also a nice addition to my blah mac and cheese dinner.
Janet Alliesmama
alliesmama4
Posts: 8591
Joined: Sun Aug 30, 2015 10:10 pm
Location: Southern IL

Re: Our 2019 No Spend Challenge

Post by alliesmama4 »

Eating leftovers. I did buy another rotisserie chicken yesterday but will use it for my food. I am trying to get Teddi in to eating dog food again. I had accumulated enough points at Petco to get $5.00 off of his dog food. It came to $3.00 and change. He did eat it this morning so we are off to a good start. Also trying to get him in to eating carrots again. His teeth and mouth are so tiny I have to cut the carrots into small strips. So far so good.

I bought an Instant pot from HSN. Due to my disabilities it is getting harder for me to stand to cook so I am hoping this will make it easier for me to make healthy meals. The problem is when I stand in one spot too long I loose my balance that is why is it hard for me to do dishes all at one time. Also it is difficult to stand and cook something that requires a lot of attention. I think you are suppose to be able to just throw the ingredients in the pot and set the timer and let it do its thing.. lol. Also you can yogurt in it. I have yogurt culture in my fridge so looking forward to making some. I usually buy plain yogurt and add my own fruit or a small amount of all fruit jam or jelly. I think yogurt with fruit already added to it is too sweet even the ones that have sugar subs. It came on easy pay so no interest and the payments are small. So off to a new adventure. I hope it works as well as I anticipate.
Janet Alliesmama
Dgflorida
Posts: 4381
Joined: Wed Oct 07, 2015 8:10 pm

Re: Our 2019 No Spend Challenge

Post by Dgflorida »

I sure do relate to the standing for cooking and washing dishes. I don't get dizzy. My knee just starts hurting. Hope the pot works out for you. Everyone seems to like it a lot.
User avatar
Jackielou
Posts: 13425
Joined: Tue Aug 25, 2015 7:51 pm

Re: Our 2019 No Spend Challenge

Post by Jackielou »

alliesmama4 wrote: Tue Sep 17, 2019 6:04 pm Eating leftovers. I did buy another rotisserie chicken yesterday but will use it for my food. I am trying to get Teddi in to eating dog food again. I had accumulated enough points at Petco to get $5.00 off of his dog food. It came to $3.00 and change. He did eat it this morning so we are off to a good start. Also trying to get him in to eating carrots again. His teeth and mouth are so tiny I have to cut the carrots into small strips. So far so good.

I bought an Instant pot from HSN. Due to my disabilities it is getting harder for me to stand to cook so I am hoping this will make it easier for me to make healthy meals. The problem is when I stand in one spot too long I loose my balance that is why is it hard for me to do dishes all at one time. Also it is difficult to stand and cook something that requires a lot of attention. I think you are suppose to be able to just throw the ingredients in the pot and set the timer and let it do its thing.. lol. Also you can yogurt in it. I have yogurt culture in my fridge so looking forward to making some. I usually buy plain yogurt and add my own fruit or a small amount of all fruit jam or jelly. I think yogurt with fruit already added to it is too sweet even the ones that have sugar subs. It came on easy pay so no interest and the payments are small. So off to a new adventure. I hope it works as well as I anticipate.
Janet, I really enjoy my instant pot. One thing to remember is that any meat must be thoroughly thawed, and browned before cooking in the pot. One great thing is that you can sear the meat right in the pot.
Jackie
http://inthelandofthelivingskiesii.blogspot.ca/
Post Reply