Our 2019 No Spend Challenge

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alliesmama4
Posts: 8591
Joined: Sun Aug 30, 2015 10:10 pm
Location: Southern IL

Re: Our 2019 No Spend Challenge

Post by alliesmama4 »

Dgflorida wrote: Mon Sep 23, 2019 8:21 am I kind of expect to get into cooking more as well once my new kitchen is installed. I expect to sit in the transport wheelchair and cook. I will use my knee up in the garden, but at the end of the day when the knee is done, I will be able to get a lot accomplished in the kitchen without my knee. I will have a vertical spice rack hidden in the "leg" of cooktop table that I will be able to pull out and select spices and herbs for meals. It is only about 4 inches wide and perfect. I use the transport chair in the office area since it is smaller than a regular chair. Do you use a wheelchair at all?
No I do not use a wheel chair but it could be in my future. I have a 3rd cousin who has the disease and she is much older than me. I told her I do not want to know what to expect until I experience a symptom. She said her Dad, who also was the first one diagnosed in our family, used a wheelchair. However we both feel a gluten free diet helps to slow down the progression of the disease. She said her father refused to make any dietary changes so his progressed more quickly.
Enjoy your new kitchen. It sounds wonderful. Glad you are able to make the changes.
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 »

The BBQ chicken turned out well. I have not made any bread but made a keto English muffin and served the meat open face on the muffin. It was quick, yummy, and a good use of leftover. I froze 2 containers in single portion size and have one for my lunch or dinner tomorrow. I put all of my pears in the fridge. I forgot to weight them but there are enough to fill an entire produce drawer and half of one shelf. I removed the pears that had been in there for a while. They were wind fallen and much smaller. However they have ripened enough for me to cook down. I also have more apples than anticipated due to more wind fallen apples but I will cook them down and freeze them in smaller container. They will make for an nice quick addition to a Fall meal. That is if Fall weather ever arrives..lol. So with dehydrated peaches fresh pears, and apples I should do well for fruit in the next couple of months.
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 »

Had a good day today buying groceries.I did not shop but my aide did it for me. I took advantage of combining some loss leaders and used my store rewards to buy a rotisserie chicken for $1.35. That will last me most of a week or I might freeze some for later. My total bill after the sale price and rewards came to $6.19 and I saved a total of $6.40. I did have to buy fresh produce, milk, and TP but bought them at Ruler for $13.79. Whole milk has gone up in price to $1.19. However still cheaper than at other stores. Also during the early morning hours, when I could not sleep, I bought some groceries from Amazon Prime. They offered me a week of Prime for $1.99. I had a $5.00 gift card from BING so applied it. Some of Prime foods are a little lower in cost to a grocery store sale but at he same time some of it is way too high. After applying the card I had $35.00 worth of food and dishwasher detergent. The dish washing detergent was much cheaper than the grocery store or Walmart. Then the cherry on top of my day was I received a coupon from Starkist for $5.03. Quite a few years back they were sued regarding the decrease of their product in their cans. You could apply for tuna products or cash. I chose the tuna..I had forgotten about it since it has been so long but they have issued coupons to several of us on the forum.. woo hoo. I can comfortably sit back and coast with what I have and will even have some nice discounted items for my stock up pantry.

Not feeling all that great today. Not sure what is going on. So I did not eat my BBQ chicken. I put it in the freezer for another time. I made a keto English muffin with an egg for breakfast. It is very frugal to make. Late lunch was the meaty part of two chicken wings and a leg from my rotisserie chicken. Dinner was 3/4 of a a huge apple from my tree with peanut butter. I ate the leftover 1/4 as a snack just a little while ago.

I stripped all of the meat off of the chicken while it was still warm. Makes it so much easier to use. Just take what you want out of the container instead of trying to cut a cold chicken. I have the bones and skin to make bone broth soon or will freeze it if I can find a place in my freezer. Also saved all of the lovely chicken juices in a small container in the freezer to make gravy when I make mashed potatoes.
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 »

Went over my budget last night and will again today to fine tune it. I have one large credit card that is due to be paid off in November. However the Nov. payment is under $100.00 so I am going to try to squeeze some money out of the budget and pay it off in October. That will be a big relief. Also another one is due to be paid off in January. I am going to try to add a little bit extra each month to try to get it paid off early too. I recently earned $30.00 on one of the sites that I go to so that will be applied to the Oct credit card. Getting really close to getting another $25.00 from another site and that too will be used to pay off the credit card. The sites I go to takes a long time to accumulate the money. One of them is literally pennies at a time. However I take a few times a day to sit down and do 30 to 45 min of work. It can be mind numbing but at the same time what else would I be doing? One area that will feel the pinch is groceries. I do have a nice stockpile of things but coming up with money for buying fresh produce and dairy is going to be interesting. However I am up for the challenge.
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 »

Yesterday pulled the last half of link of kielbasa from the freezer. I used about 1/4 and added cabbage and onion and made a stir fry. Also nuked one of my homegrown apples with cinnamon, sugar, and a tad of butter. Everything was so cheap yet very yummy. I had planned to use the last 1/4 of the kielbasa with sauerkraut but realized the leftover cabbage and kielbasa for my dinner tonight would not be sufficient. So I cut it up and added it to the leftovers. I realized I only liked the kielbasa when it is more of a condiment to the cabbage and onion rather than the main course. Which is great since I want to cut back on eating meat. Also it will stretch the budget a lot more. I saved 1/4 of the cabbage to make coleslaw for my dinner tomorrow which will be salmon patties.

The other day I had my aide drop off my chef's knife and two paring knives at our local chain store. Their butcher department will sharpen them for free. You have to have their special cardboard sleeves to do so. They were ready today. What a huge difference that makes. I plan on cutting up a lot of my ripe pears and some smaller apples and cook them down tomorrow. I will have to try to find space in my freezer but it will be so nice to have for a quick meal or snack. While arranging things in my freezer I will write down what is in there and then try to plan meals around the inventory. Every so often I do an inventory but then forget to keep up with the documentation as to what has been used or still in the freezer. Hopefully I will be able to keep things organized and utilized.
Janet Alliesmama
Dgflorida
Posts: 4381
Joined: Wed Oct 07, 2015 8:10 pm

Re: Our 2019 No Spend Challenge

Post by Dgflorida »

I prefer sharp knives. I have my grandmother's knife sharpener and I use it regularly. Glad you were able to get it done free.
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