Frugal living

So we had a blunder...as in money blunder. Long story short the result of this blunder left us with 100 dollars in the bank and 100 dollars for groceries for two weeks. Usually, on food only we spend about one hundred dollars a week and then eat out at least twice. We have veggies/fruit that rot. Leftovers that will be trashed and items put further back into the pantry. Not this week. This week nothing went to waste. We had 3 meat dinners and then leftovers. Our sister-in-law cooked us dinner one night. She offered to let us take home the leftovers, which we did, and the kids are eating those for lunch today. My Mother took us out to Chick-a-fila once this week and my husband eats dinner at work. We used the end pieces of bread. Had pinto beans and cornbread leftovers for breakfast. No desserts, cokes, extras. We actually ran out of some staples like onions and sugar. Things I would normally just go out and buy if we ran out. With Hub's long drive to work and the gas needed we just couldn't afford it. What I've learned this week is we over indulge way beyond our budget most weeks. We are wasteful and unimaginative when it comes to food. We eat out far too much. We can do with even less groceries than we did last week. We will be doing much the same for several weeks if not for good. Not only because we were so wasteful but it will take months to pull ourselves out of the mess which we are in. I found several recipes which we will use over and over again. Cheap but yummy recipes. I will post this one for you. I have made it once a week since forever.

1lb boneless meat (chicken or pork prefered)
1 can beef broth
1 bottle bbq sauce (Sticky Fingers Memphis orginal is the best)

Put the meat and broth in a slowcooker for 4 hours on medium heat until meat falls apart with fork. Shread meat with fork. Drain the broth except for 2 tbs out add bbq sauce.

Thoughts for a friend

A dear friend of ours is having brain surgery today to remove a tumor. We are thinking of her and wish her the best and fastest recovery. Our thoughts are also with her two small children and husband who have to be incredibly nervous.

Where have I been?

I feel like I went to hell and back. Stash had the stomach virus last week then Bit came down with the same thing on Wednesday. Thursday he seemed better and then Friday it came for Hubs and I. This thing was terrible. 12 hours of pure hell. We have only one bathroom and this just furthers my conviction that when we have the extra money an extra bathroom (with a great big bath tub) must be added.

We went to see the Clinton parade tonight. I feel almost as the throwing/gathering/fighting of and for candy took away from the actual parade. I remember sitting in chairs bundled up with a cup of hot chocolate watching the parade just waiting to see the next float. That was so different than this year. While many exhibits grabbed the boy's attention (the 10 fire trucks mainly) there was only a couple floats and the rest were people riding in their often unwashed pick up trucks. Middle school homecoming queen (with candy) followed by fairest of the fair (with candy) followed by cheerleaders (without candy >:[ )then a dance team (with candy) and a pickup truck (with....you guessed it MORE candy! WOOOOOOOOO.) So now we have a bag full of candy and lots of, "No more candy tonight!". Next year maybe the kids on the block can put together a little Christmas parade of their own, my neighbor has a pickup truck.

Blogging more today

I am blogging more today than usual. That is because Hub is asleep with Stash and Bit and I are up. Usually when I am up early in the morning I log on to World of Warcraft and play for an hour or two. Tuesdays is when they do their maintenance so they are down until 1pm. I suppose I could clean but where is the fun in that?

Yesterday we did a big of online shopping. We had planned to get the Stash this digger. We visited with a friend and her son had this toy. Since playing with it only a few minutes Stash has brought it up about 500 times. After talking with the Hub about what we should get I decided to just see if they had any other deals when this caught my eye. It's perfect! The faces of my two boys replaced the faces of the boys in the advertisement and I was sold. Not to mention it was on sale AND it was about what I would spend on the only digger once shipped. Another bonus is that you can buy add ons which makes the next gift giving for the next 4 holidays easy cheesy. I'm still not sure what to get for Bit. I love looking at the Hanna Anderson catalog but it is just out of my price range. I did, however, happen to look up a hat and mitten set, striped pjs, and slippers to find it was more than 50% off. My Mom and I were ohhhing over it just last night. The dresses they carry makes me ache for a girl. Too cute!

Check it out

This is one of the only blogs I follow regularly. Some blogs I will read for a couple months then I just don't care anymore but the excellent photography at Camera Shy keeps my interest.

What more can I make from thee

We had Thanksgiving dinner over here. The in-laws and my parents who brought along my niece joined us. We borrowed a nice turkey fryer from my sister-in-law knowing how juicy the turkey would be and the convenience of saving oven space and time. Well, we should have known when we read the instruction manual and found it terribly vague. There was no mention of how much oil to use, if the turkey had to be fresh or frozen, at what temperature to cook and it was missing a critical piece to it, the part that lifts the turkey out of the basket. After a couple calls to the manufacture and dropping 30 dollars on frying oil we were set. We did just like we were told and even though we had a turkey 3lbs smaller than the max the oil wouldn't cover it. The result was us having to flip the turkey with out the tools to do so. A cardboard box, tongs, and icing knife did the trick but still left us with raw turkey when dinner time came. Luckily my Aunt sent us practially a whole pig which was delicious and saved the day.

We have recooked the turkey and still have much of the pork leftover. What more can I make with this meat. I can only eat Thanksgiving dinner so many times and turkey sandwichs have lost their appeal. I cannot let this go to waste after spending two weeks budget on this stuff. There is also still the job of taking down the fryer, filtering the oil, and loading it all back up. Ugh...maybe I'll be done by Christmas which we are eating out by the way.

Missing Brother

Once a week my Mother takes, The Stash, my oldest child for part of the day. They usually go back to the farm and play around. Yesterday, she came to pick him up and the youngest and I stayed here. More and more my youngest misses his Brother. He will go from room to room and just whine in general. He cannot go because of his allergies to my parents dogs and so he misses his Brother until he goes to bed. It's sad enough to see it for 4 hours once a week so I can't imagine how households who have blended families and share custody feel.

While he was at my parent's house my Mother called and informed me that he had been vomiting and was now asleep on the couch. He continued this all night but seems to be feeling better now which is good because once the baby gets up from his nap he will be thrilled to see Brother is home.