Cheap & Cheerful Suppers for the end of July

Friday

Chicken, vegetable and noodle skillet dinner
Fruit salad -- apples from our tree, blueberries from our garden and a banana in a dressing of plum liquid from stewed plums and homemade strawberry jam

Saturday

Homemade mushroom and black olive pizza
Fresh blackberries
Celery sticks

Sunday

Chicken soup, made with the leftover chicken and stock from Friday
Crackers and toast
Bananas

Monday

Vegetarian enchiladas, filled with rice, black beans, beet greens, garlic, onions and seasonings, topped with cheese/olives
Snow peas and carrots from our garden, raw, with homemade dip
Apple jello, made with old green kool-aid from pantry, lemon juice, gelatin, sugar, and added chopped apples from garden (apples that had been knocked off trees by squirrels. I cut off the bruises and chopped)
Blackberry cobbler

Tuesday

Leftover enchiladas
Leftover apple jello
Tossed salad
Leftover cobbler

Wednesday

Dinner at church, we had a taco bar and cookies

Thursday

Kale frittata topped with marinara sauce
Brown rice
Fresh apples, from our tree
Hot fudge pudding cake, topped with blackberry sauce (wild blackberries picked on our property)

Again, this week, I planned for an easy night, with making twice the amount of enchiladas that I normally make. Doing so gave me time to work on my knitting!

As I was watering the garden yesterday, I realized that we can get quite a lot for our meals, just here on our property, for the next 6 weeks. This should free up some of my grocery budget for stock-up items at Cash & Carry. For this month, I'm still below my budget. Of course, I still have some shopping to do later today. We'll see how I do by the end of the weekend.

On Wednesday, I worked in our church's kitchen helping to prepare the taco bar for about 100 members. I was working with 5 other ladies. It was interesting listening to them talk about some of the meals and foods they like to prepare. And it really drove home the truth that some folks cook frugally while others cook expensively. How we spend our money is an individual choice. As you all know, for me, I choose to cook frugally so that there is more money in other areas of our budget.

I hope your week went well, and you were able to keep cool. What were your favorite meals this past week? If you have a garden, what are you able to harvest right now? I'm still a few weeks away from tomatoes, but maybe we'll get green beans in a week.

Have a great weekend!

Planning for the most difficult purchase of this life

So, while I'm not exactly ancient, in years, it's time that I put aside the nonsense of living as if I'm immortal. That was fine when I was young, but planning for that most difficult expense is simply the mature thing to do, now.

Yes, I'm talking about planning our (husband and myself) funeral/burial expenses.

I won't go into what a frugal person should choose -- a pine box vs cremation, or plots with a view (who are we kidding -- whose view?) or remains scattered at sea (a lovely touch is to bring rose petals, and drop those along with the remains). But where I am in the planning process, right now, is getting used to the idea, and determining our wishes, on this.

My dad passed away in 2002. My brother, sister and I had to hastily make arrangements within a few days time. His passing came on very short notice -- diagnosed with cancer at the beginning of the month and gone by the third week of that same month. We didn't have a chance to talk about what he wanted, with him. We loved our father, so, of course, we wanted the very best of everything for his burial and memorial service. Isn't that how this plays out in most families? You want the best, so you spare no expense.

By talking about this now, and doing local research, I can let my children (they're all adults, so not talking to school-age kids about my end of life) know just what matters to me and how I want to be remembered. I'll tell you, this isn't something you can marathon your way through. I've had to do research, in small bits at a time, to prepare my mind for all of these details. But it's best to do this now, and not let the unspoken continue until the time for planning is too late.

Things that I've thought about . . .

. . . that I wish to be buried and not cremated
. . . but I do not want a viewing or embalming (which means I don't want someone putting makeup on my face for burial), and I'll wear my own clothing, thank you
. . . that I want a wooden casket and not a metal one (my box does not have to last forever)
. . . simple flowers, I don't need a large elaborate spray of flowers
. . . that I do want to be buried near our family home, so my kids can visit as they need, in the early years
. . . that I want a weekday burial service
. . . and a weekend memorial in our church (more friends and family could attend if they wish to)
. . . some music that was meaningful to me
. . . a small home reception, in the family home, perhaps using a grocery delivery service to provide deli catering trays
. . . that I'd like to help write my own obituary, now, with the possibility for updates by my children, later. I'll keep my obit with a copy of our trust documents.

And that's about as far as I've gotten on this.


What I learned in doing my research, besides caskets coming in a large range of price points . . .

. . . that there is such as thing as a cardboard casket -- who knew? And families will decorate these caskets to reflect the life of the passed family member.
. . . a large spray of flowers for the casket can cost a couple hundred dollars -- yikes! that is so not my style. I am honestly fine if my kids go to the grocery store the evening before the burial, and pick up a few bouquets to lay neatly, on the top of the casket, themselves.
. . . you can pay up to $10,000 for a plot in some memorial parks (and yes, that seems to be the industry name for cemeteries, these days -- memorial park sounds much lovelier), and a family garden (with room for several family members, a bench and maybe a small tree) goes for $150,000 in a swanky memorial park that I'm familiar with. But our local memorial park has comparatively reasonable rates of one to two thousand per plot.
. . . that Saturday burials often come with a surcharge
. . . that you can buy burial clothing through the mortuary. Um, just weird, to me. Something from my closet will do.
. . . that you can rent a casket. That sounds laughable, right? But seriously, if you plan to be cremated, you can rent a casket, for a viewing, prior to cremation, if that's your wish.
. . . and that there may be lower-priced caskets whose models are NOT on display. You need to ask about these, specifically.
. . . embalming is not necessarily required. It's pricey. You can spend close to $1000, for embalming and body prep work. The alternative is refrigeration. Minimal cost, average seems to be about $50/day.
. . . that there are lists, online, of popular music used at memorial services, and you can even find lists of the music played for the services of a few famous people (like JFK, Princess Diana). Ditto for poems and sayings/quotes.
. . . that there seems to be a charge for every single detail from death to final rest. Transportation of the body, death certificate copies, storage of the body before burial, a sealed casket (presumably to keep the elements out -- and, but why? I ask).


What I learned from my experience with my siblings, when our dad passed . . .

. . . there were so many decisions, large and small, to be made in such a short span of time.
. . . we each had our own ideas of what we thought should be done. Fortunately, the 3 of us are very good at compromise. But if we had known what my dad would have wanted, we could have saved a lot of time and energy.
. . . it was very easy to get swept away in the spending, with a thought process like "well, it's Dad's money after all, might as well go for the very best". And while the 3 of us get along very well, we have different spending/saving personalities.
. . . that while the funeral director is required to provide a list of all of the services with a breakdown of fees, we weren't in the right frame of mind right then, to take our time going over that list and find alternatives or do without some line items.


There's a huge benefit to beginning these talks now, while I'm still in good health. This difficult conversation is not charged with emotion the way it would be if I were seriously ill. And financially, planning for this right now, and talking about this with my children, will allow me time to budget and set aside money to specifically cover this expense, so my kids won't feel the financial burden when I pass.

This isn't morose. It's loving, to want to take care of my kids one last time in my life. Okay, someone hand me a tissue, please.

What I'm drinking this summer, for about a nickel a gallon

How much is a 2-liter bottle of soda? About 99 cents? How about 2 quarts of Kool-Aid? Maybe 20 cents? What about iced black tea? Plain, no sugar or lemon, depending on how strong you like it, if using 6 Dollar Tree tea bags, per 2 quarts, it would cost me 12 cents per gallon, and that's unsweetened.

I could be drinking plain water. And that would certainly be healthy. But I prefer some flavor in my water, and just a hint of sweetening.

This summer, I've been making pitchers of iced herbal tea, using the pineapple mint, spearmint, peppermint and lemon balm from my garden.

I use a large tea pot to brew the infusion. I stuff a very full handful of washed, fresh herbs (various combinations of the above), in the tea pot. Then I pour boiling water over the herbs and allow to steep. I pour this infusion into a 2-qt pitcher, add 1/4 cup sugar, and stir until dissolved. I then top off the pitcher with fresh, cold water, making 2 quarts.

The herbs are free. The sugar costs me about 2.5 cents per quarter-cup.

Would you like to hear an interesting comparison? Many years ago, I had a huge diet cola habit. I bought and drank a 12-pack of diet cola, any brand, every week. At the time, a 12-pack cost about $2.50 to $3. I was spending about $10 per month on soda, or $120 per year, just for me.

If I drink herbal iced tea, year round, my cost, at a gallon per week, would be about $2.50. That's a savings of $117.50 per year.

Knitting tips from one beginner to another

Yesterday, I showed you my first hand-made Christmas gift for this year, hand-knit dish cloths. There was a little more that I wanted to add about the subject of beginning knitting, in case one of you is also a beginner, and attempting to make these yourself. I know, many of you are much more experienced knitters than myself. In no way am I suggesting these tips would help better knitters. Just tips to help someone who is just starting out.

Avoid paying full price for your knitting supplies.
Shop sales, use coupons, and buy at thrift stores.
Michael's (the craft supply store), often has either a great coupon (50% off), or a good sale (40 to 50% off) on their yarn. Jo Ann Fabric's seems to always have a coupon out for at least 40% off, sometimes as much as 60% off.

If the yarn is on sale, but the needles I need, are not on sale, I've been able to use a high value coupon on the needles, buy my yarn on sale, and come out spending about half of retail prices. Thrift stores have a spot, usually tucked away, with needlework supplies. If you thrift much, just make a run past that section, and check out what they have, each time you're in their store. Know the retail prices for the items you might find.

If your project requires stitch markers, you don't need to buy anything.
Find a cheapo plastic straw in your kitchen and a pair of scissors. Snip off bits in 1/8-inch increments, for however many stitch markers you need. So long as your knitting needle can fit through the straw piece, this will work for a marker. Need a larger marker for really fat needles? Open up and bend a paper clip into the size marker you need.

Before you begin a project, do a sample of the stitching.
A small patch about 2 and 1/2 inches square, will be enough to get the hang of what you're trying, and a chance to change your mind, if it feels too difficult for your level. Also, at this time, check your work against an online tutorial or with someone you know who knits well. I discovered that my purl was wrong, during my last sample. Better to catch it on a sample, than at the end of the project and discover I'd done it all wrong.

As a beginner, knit in quiet.
Don't try to knit with the television on, or listening to music, or carrying on a conversation with anyone outside of your own head. Learning to knit is just like learning any other new skill. It requires concentration. You wouldn't attempt learning to drive with a bunch of distractions in the background. Think of learning a new skill as training your brain. Until your brain is well-trained in this skill, those distractions will cause you to make mistakes. And try counting out loud, if you have to. "knit 1, purl 1, knit 1, purl 1". Something about saying the words kept me on track with this pattern, in the early rows. It also guarantees that everyone will leave the room, and leave you alone to your knitting, giving you that un-distracting space to learn.

Find the "checks" in your project's pattern.
The checks are what I call how you tell if a row of stitching is on track or correct. For instance, on my dish cloths, the pattern is in an even number of rows, all the way through -- 4 rows to each section of the pattern. You know the yarn tail from casting on? Well, I know that if I'm knitting towards the yarn tail, I'm on an odd numbered row (row 1,3), and if I'm knitting away from the yarn tail, then I'm on an even numbered row (rows 2,4).

How does this help? In the pattern for the body of the cloth (not including the all-knit stitch edges), the pattern goes as such -- (row 1)K,K,K,P,K,P,K . . ., (row2) K,K,K,P,K,P,K . . ., (row 3) K,K,K,K,P,K,P,. . .(row 4) K,K,K,K,P,K,P. . .  Rows 1 and 2 begin and end with 3 knit stitches then switch to purl, knit, purl, knit, and rows 3 and 4 begin and end with 4 knit stitches, then switch to the purl, knit, purl, knit. If I know what direction I'm working on (towards tail - rows 1,3, or away from tail - rows 2,4), I can figure out where I am in my pattern of 4 row-pattern. This comes in handy when your mind wanders and you lose track of what you should be doing.

Also, on these dish cloths, if I come to the end of a row, and find I only have room for 3 knit stitches, when I was thinking I was on a row than ended in 4 knit stitches, then I know I've made a mistake along that row, somewhere. And I can fix it before I go onto the next row.

That's what I mean by the "checks" in my project's pattern. Those little details that tell you if you are on the right track or not.

Don't try to knit commando-style (this has nothing to do with going commando, that one is totally up to you).
Don't force yourself to knit for hours on end. Just knit in small fragments of time. Promise yourself that you'll just do one or two repeats of the pattern, then get up and do something else. When learning a new skill, mind-fatigue can set in, and that's when you're most likely to make a mistake.

If your knitting has a repeating pattern, try to always do your work in sections of repeat.
You will always know where to start up again -- at the beginning of the repeat. And if you do have to leave your work in the middle of a section, to say, answer the phone, write down on a slip of paper, where you are in your pattern and what to do next. And if you have to track how many sections to knit, write those down, tally-mark style, on a slip of paper, as you complete each section.

And when you make a mistake (it's not an "if" situation, all knitters make mistakes), don't give up.
Don't even unravel to the beginning and start completely over. Force yourself to make an attempt to fix your mistake. Sometimes, it will mean undoing 1 row of stitches, sometimes it will mean undoing 4 rows of stitches. If you at least try to fix the mistake, there's a very good chance you won't have to redo the whole thing. Get someone else's input on your mistake. Ask someone to help you undo it, if you need. For me, all it took was some emotional support from my daughters, when I went to undo one row. Then the next time I made a mistake, I felt confident to correct it all on my own.

You see, learning to knit is as much about learning to correct your mistakes, as it is learning the stitches. And your progress will be greatly hampered, if you don't work at learning to correct mistakes.

And this brings me to an obvious tip -- if while you're making a stitch, it feels "wrong", "tight" or something else, stop in your tracks, and look it over. 
Maybe you've not picked up the full loop of yarn, but are missing a very thin strand of it. Or maybe, you've picked up more than you should, on the end of your needle. If you stop, right at this point, and figure out why it feels wrong, you can save yourself a lot of correcting work, 10 minutes from now.

Go by measurements and not by row numbers, when working someone else's pattern.
Your knitting may be looser or tighter than the person who wrote the pattern. With my dish cloths, if I had knit the cloth exactly the number of rows specified, my cloth would have turned out to be about 8.25 inches wide by 7 inches long -- not square at all.

And her pattern had me measure to 7.75 inches long. She didn't specify how wide my 35 cast-on stitches would become, once knit. Mine came to 8.25 inches wide. And the border of 4 knit rows on my knitting was 3/8-inch long/tall, so the length of my knitting, before adding the border on the final end, should be 8  1/4 inches minus 3/8 inch, or 7  7/8 inches. Only 1/8 inch difference, but it would make the cloth not quite square. And since I do have the ability to make it square, shouldn't I try?

So, use measurements as your guide. You'll be more satisfied with the results.

And finally, take the time to do a clean job in finishing your project.
Leave about 6 inches of yarn for the tails. Weave the tails in neatly, wrapping around a couple of stitches, here and there. Try to do this in a way that is not visible to the front side. Then cut the last fraying bits of the tail, clean away. How you finish a project can make a simple dish cloth look well-done, or sloppily slapped together. It makes a difference.

And once that first project, following a pattern is complete, do another, just like it. And then another, and another. Really master that one item. You'll soon be able to make them with ease, and you will have that same basic stitch pattern down pat, to use in a future project. I'm on my way, with getting this pattern mastered. I've now completed almost 2 of these dish cloths. Hand-knit household items make great gifts, if you happen to knit, say, 10 dish cloths.


These are my rudimentary ruminations, from one beginning knitter to another.

I didn't learn to knit until I was well into adulthood. And I mostly learned from books. My daughters had the fortune to learn to knit, through their high school. Knitting qualified as a "art" class. They had a very talented knitter on staff at the school, who could walk them through large projects, helping them to correct mistakes, showing them how best to hold the needles and yarn, etc. And so, that's why they are my resident "experts" when I have a problem with my knitting.

First hand-crafted Christmas gift

Last week, I hinted a bit about making Christmas gifts. Here's the first I'll share with you.

Last year, just after Christmas, I bought this set of 2 tea towels on clearance from Williams-Sonoma (half-price, I believe). This pattern suits someone on my gift list, my step-mom (she doesn't read my blog, so no worries that I've spilled the beans).

To add to these tea towels, I'm knitting dish cloths in this sage green, all cotton yarn. I bought this yarn in 2.5 oz balls from Michael's this past week, at $1 per ball (on sale, regularly $1.99/ball). I bought 2 balls, and used about 2/3 of a ball to knit one dish cloth, following, a pattern from this blog, Creating Laura. The finished size is about 8.25 inches, square, on size 7 needles, with worsted-weight cotton yarn (Sugar 'n Cream, by Lily).

I'm a beginner knitter (still after all of these years, I've not made much progress LOL), but I was able to knit one cloth in about 6 hours. My plan is to make 3 dish cloths, with these 2 balls of yarn. If I can make 3 cloths, with 2 balls, at $1 per ball, my cost per cloth is 67 cents.

To this gift, I'll add a vegetable brush (from Dollar Tree), and several homemade, gourmet soup mixes. My step-mom lives alone, and I think some easy-to-make soup will be a perfect gift for her in winter. As I find soup mix recipes that I try and like, I'll share them with you.

A handmade gift is a gift of time, love and thought. At least that's how I feel about it.

Cheap & Cheerful Suppers for a summer week

Friday

Bean and vegetable soup, w/sliced hot dogs
Cornbread
Tossed salad

Saturday

Tea sandwiches (given to us)
Tossed salad (lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes given to us)
Macaroni salad (given to us)
Grapes (given to us)

Sunday

Leftover tea sandwiches (given to us)
Tossed salad (given to us)
Vegetable and egg fried rice

Monday

Salisbury steak covered with Hunter's Sauce
Macaroni salad (given to us)
Creamy dilled cucumber salad (given to us)
Steamed carrots

Tuesday

Rice and beans, topped with cheddar
Tossed salad of lettuce, celery, black olives and shredded cheese, with homemade creamy vinaigrette
Fried corn tortillas
Stewed, frozen plums

Wednesday

Kale and onion quiche
Steamed carrots
Blackberry rustic tart

Thursday

Kale and onion quiche
Steamed carrots
Mixed fruit rustic tart


On Saturday, the girls and I volunteered our kitchen and serving abilities, again to our church's monthly fund-raising tea. After the clean-up, the lady who coordinates the teas gave us enough leftovers for a couple of night's meals. making dinner on those nights was easy-peasy.

Later in the week, I knew I'd want Thursday off from cooking duties, so I made a double batch of everything, on Wednesday. Maybe it was a bit boring to eat the same thing 2 nights in a row. But it solved the problem of how to cook when I wouldn't be home for much of the next day.

I am trying to use up my saved fat in the freezer. The ham and bacon fat is always used quickly. Next easily used would be either the chicken or the beef. The least popular reserved meat fat is the turkey fat. So, I am making efforts to use that one up. The kale quiches had such a strong flavor, anyway, with the kale and onion, that the turkey fat flavor went unnoticed. I'll be remembering that the next time I cook some kale.

My grocery bill went up by about $30 this week, and will go up again another $20. That's $50 spent, bringing me up to around $110 for the month, so far. I found sharp cheddar cheese on sale for $8.98/5 lbs. I bought 15 pounds. And I'll be stocking up on coffee tomorrow. Last week, I'd thought about buying coffee, but it was $6.99 a can at Fred Meyer, and that was more than I wanted to spend. So, I'd thought to myself that we'd just manage to get by with much, much less coffee until Senior shopping day in August, when I'd save 70 cents, at the least. Well, wouldn't you know it, coffee is on sale at Fred Meyer this week, same cans, for $4.99. By not buying any last week, I saved $2 per can. I like that! Coffee goes on sale in early fall, so I'll buy enough to get to then, and hope to find it on sale, on a Senior discount week, then stock up for winter.

I resisted going out to eat on several occasions. Yesterday afternoon, coming back from errands and a stop by the beach, I was very tempted to buy a burger and fries. Then I thought, maybe just the fries. And then I talked myself out of both of those ideas, and into a peanut butter on whole wheat, with the last of the macaroni salad, and a sliver of the blackberry tart. It was a wonderful lunch, all homemade, and didn't give me a stomachache. I'm glad I resisted the take-out.

What were the yummy things you ate this week?

So, that's it for me for the week. I'm working on some Christmas gifts. Maybe I'll give you a peek next week, if they seem to be turning out okay. Have a great weekend!

A loose clasp on my tea balls

If you drink loose-leaf tea, you know the frustrations of a tea ball whose clasp will not stay closed.

You fill your aging tea ball with tea leaves, close the clasp, drop it into a mug, and then pour water over it.You can't dunk the tea ball up and down, as it comes open too easily. And even when the tea ball is just resting at the bottom of the mug of water, the ball manages to open itself, just enough to allow leaves to float out and into your tea.

Yes, this is my frustration, with not just one tea ball, but with both of my tea balls. I tried using pliers to tighten the clasp, to no avail. I considered buying a new tea ball. But it bothered me that 2 tea balls that otherwise work for steeping tea, would no longer be used, simply because of a loose clasp.

My rather crude fix involves a rubber band from a bundle of radishes. The rubber band must be somewhat food-safe, if it's been holding my produce together for several days, right? Anyways, after I fill my tea ball with loose-leaf tea, I wrap a rubber band around the outside, holding the whole thing together. Found my fix. It's not pretty, but it does the job!

I wanted this to be as effortless as was promised

Getting labels and their adhesives, off of glass jars with baking soda and vegetable oil

After I soak and peel the label off of jars, I'm left with that white adhesive on the glass jar. I can scrub and scrub, or I can try a short-cut.

There are commercial solvents on the market to remove labels and stickers. But if you don't happen to have any, or you wish to use something totally harmless, and that you have in your pantry right now, this may work for you.

Using a paste of baking soda and veg oil has worked on a couple of jars, but not on all of them. This was one of the stubborn labels, on a jar of peanut butter.

I peeled as much of the label off, as possible.

Then I spread a mixture of 1 teaspoon baking soda and 1 teaspoon vegetable oil, generously onto the remaining label.

As advised, I let it sit for about 30 minutes.

I used a clean, dry, rough rag to rub the label off. Not much came off, so I used a table knife to scrape the rest of the paper off. But it left the adhesive residue.

So, again I generously wiped the paste onto the jar and allowed it to sit.

When I came back, I used the same, dry, rough rag to wipe the adhesive off. I will say, almost all of it came off. I had to rub vigorously in places.

Then I washed with soapy water, dried with a towel and it did come pretty clean.

It just wasn't nearly as effortless as the other jars I had cleaned. So, just one of those things that sometimes works very well, and sometimes you have to put extra effort into it to get it to work.

Overall, I did much, much less scrubbing than just with soapy water, on these really stubborn labels. So, it did work well, in that sense. And it didn't cost me any extra money, buying a commercial product. And it didn't dry my skin out or require me to wear gloves. So, yeah, it was worth it. Just not totally effortless.

I've been keeping this dish of baking soda and oil paste in the cupboard, and using it for a month or so. I had to use some the other day, when I discovered a piece of chewed gum was stuck to the kitchen counter. I pulled up the bulk of the gum, then spread this paste onto it, and wiped it up with a clean rag. On chewing gum, stuck to the counter top, this was brilliant.

Since I showed you our living room, already, thought I'd show you our family room, too

Why would I want to share our family room?

• Well, some of us are just curious. We like to see how others live.
• Some of us are looking for ideas and inspirations for our own living spaces.
• But mostly, there's this one wall in particular, that I want to share, and think someone out there might be able to use this idea. And I have to say, most importantly, this was an easy project for amateurs, with zippo carpentry skills. An yet it gives the room "mood".

I'll start with this accent wall.

This room was part of a kitchen remodel in 2008. We had an open floor plan with the kitchen, casual dining and family room, previously. We wanted a separate family room from kitchen, with eat-in area in the kitchen. So, we added a wall, separating the kitchen/eating area from the family room. The wall was erected where a visible, heavy ceiling beam supports the attic above. It seemed to be a natural dividing line between the kitchen and new family room.

In building this wall, we found some oddities, which needed camouflaging. So, it seemed the quickest option was to lay plain, very thin, mahogany panels, on the family room side of the wall.

We hired someone to actually frame the wall and lay sheetrock on for us. (Like I said, no carpentry skills whatsoever, and we didn't want this wall, umm, leaning, when a wall probably shouldn't lean.) And he nailed up the mahogany luan paneling (he had tools, we didn't). Mahogany luan is typically very thin, and very smooth, but could have imperfections, so it is primarily used where it will be painted. Also, it's very inexpensive. Our local lumber store sells it for about $20 per 4-foot by 8-foot by 2.7 mm (about 1/10-inch) thick sheet. This type of very thin panel is designed to lay flat against another smooth surface (like sheetrock).

While we did this pseudo wainscoting on the smooth paneling (to camouflage some issues in the wall underneath), this project could also be done on smooth-finished sheetrock.

What we used --

• 2.5-inch wide by 5/8-inch thick, MDF, plain rectangular trim (the silhouette, from the side is a plain rectangle, no fluting, carving or ridges
• 3.75-inch wide by 1/4-inch thick, 48-inch long strips of unfinished, birch trim
• 2.5-inch wide by 1/4-inch thick, 48-inch long strips of unfinished, birch lath trim
• 3/4-inch coved, corner moulding
• nails (finishing nails to attach birch trim to mahogany panels) and ordinary hammer
• inexpensive miter box and saw

We used the plain, 5/8-inch thick, MDF trim as a chair rail, the whole length of the wall, the 3.75-inch wide birch trim as vertical stiles, and the 2/5-inch wide birch trim as the horizontal base and top stile. The coved corner moulding "finished" the ends of the wall and transitioned into plain drywall.

Cost --
Our total cost (not including primer/paint) was under $150, for a wall about 20-feet long and almost 7.5 feet high, or about 150 square feet. The luan paneling (only necessary to cover some wall problems) added about $100 in materials-cost. So, without luan, about $1 per square foot, or $1.66 per square foot with luan cost.

In contrast:
Prefab wainscoting averages about $7 per square foot, for materials only (not labor). For 150 square feet of wall, that would have cost about $1000.

Time spent --

My husband and I worked on this wall, 2 Saturdays in a row, about 4 hours each day, for a total of 16 man hours. If we had known what we were doing (neither of us had a clue when we began, and wasted a lot of time trying to figure things out), we could have done this in about 6 hours, working together. As it was, for a savings of about $750, divided by 16 man hours, that's an "earnings" of about $46/per hour.

What we did --

We had already installed the crown and baseboard moulding, prior to this work.

The mahogany panels left seams every 4 feet. These seams became our design-starting point.

Dividing the wall in half, horizontally, we worked on the upper half first.

We used the 3.75-inch birch to cover the seams between mahogany panels, from the crown moulding down. After covering the seams, every 4 feet, we added an additional vertical stile, in between every seam-covering stile. So, our finished vertical stiles are 24 inches apart, center to center.

After the upper vertical stiles were in place, we placed the MDF chair rail, just below the bottom of the birch stiles.

Once the chair rail was installed, we added the 2.5-inch birch strips, cut to fit, as horizontal stiles, at the top and bottom of each panel (just below the crown moulding, and just above the chair rail).

With the upper section of the wall finished, we duplicated this work, below the chair rail, cutting the birch pieces to fit.

Ends of the wall were finished with by dead-ending the horizontal stiles against a piece of vertical cove corner moulding. A mitered cut was made on the chair rail ends, up against the adjacent walls.

After caulking and filling nail holes, we painted the entire wall in the same color as the rest of the room (Cookie Dough by Glidden).

Above the fireplace we did a similar trim. The above mantel area was covered with plain panels, then we added the birch strips for accent, and painted all.

The mood we were trying to set with this room is cozy English country hunting lodge or rural farmhouse, if that's possible.

This room is most used in the late fall through winter. It's the room with a television, so we watch videos on those cold winter evenings, for home entertainment. The wall color is darker than the living room. It's meant to wrap you up in warmth, like an extra blanket on a chilly night.

We duplicated this idea in our entry hall, on the wall below the stairs. This area is painted in white, and only on the lower part of the wall.

There's a bedroom in which I'm wanting to do this same sort of wall treatment. I'll update you if/when that ever happens.

A typical week of grocery shopping during mid-summer

This was at Fred Meyer last week. In summer, we tend to live from our pantry, freezer and garden. We supplement with purchases of milk, eggs, some produce, and any special deals that I could stock up with. Otherwise, my weekly shopping can be quite small, this time of year. Come fall, I'll make up for it, with some big shops, on a regular basis.

Last Friday, I made a once-every-other-week stop at Fred Meyer. This is how much I got for about $10.

I take advantage of whatever weekly freebies I have coming my way. Fred Meyer (and other Kroger affiliates) allow just over 2 weeks to use the freebie coupon. So, if I go shopping on a Friday, just after downloading that week's freebie, I can pick up 3 week's of the free item.

Those freebies are usually squirreled away for particular needs in the future. They're often junk/convenience items, so in my book, they're treats and saved as such.

Freebies, this week.
I picked up a 2-liter of cola, which will be saved for the Christmas holidays. (Family tradition for us, to have cola wile decorating the Christmas tree.) The PACt juice flavor that I chose was the cranberry-cherry-blueberry. My cranberry crop this year will be dismal. (I'm rejuvenating the bed, and it will take a year or two of good care to get my cranberries back to producing 3 or 4 quarts of cranberries again.) So, with this juice, I'll make a fruit juice jello salad, adding chunks of apples to the cranberry juice gelatin, for our Thanksgiving dinner. And in place of cranberry sauce, made with fresh berries, I'll make a dried cranberry relish, for Thanksgiving, as well. The Gatorade Fuel Bar was set aside for a long drive my son and his girlfriend made over the weekend.

What I paid for.
I also bought 5 half-gallons of whole milk, 1 half-gallon of orange juice, 1 8-count package of hot dogs, 1 pound of organic, whole mushrooms, on markdown, and 5 bananas, on markdown.

Total spent, $10.11. The cash register receipt reflects the savings of the freebies, and store coupons on the milk and orange juice. It doesn't include the savings on the marked down mushrooms or the bananas. If I include those savings, then my actual total savings would be closer to $12.50.

Obviously, one couldn't make a week's worth of meals on what I bought. But perhaps this gives you an idea of how my grocery spending can be so low in summer months.

Cheap & Cheerful suppers for mid-July

Friday

Refried beans, homemade from pintos, olive liquid, oil, tomato paste and spices
Brown rice, both topped with a green tomatillo-cilantro salsa (a gift)
Watermelon
Tossed salad of garden lettuce, garden carrots, celery in a homemade dressing
Scratch brownies (using this recipe)

Saturday

Homemade cheese pizza, scratch crust, quickie scratch marinara
Watermelon

Sunday

Scratch macaroni and cheese (Dollar Tree macaroni noodles, homemade cheese sauce)
Mustard glazed carrots
Watermelon
Deviled eggs
Brownies or lemon bars (leftover from serving at coffee hour)

Monday

Huevos rancheros
Fried corn tortillas
Green salad
Carrot sticks
Watermelon
Lemon bars

Tuesday

Meatloaf, gravy
Brown rice
Tossed salad, with garden lettuce and store carrots and celery, topped with deviled egg wedges, and covered in scratch dressing
Last of the watermelon

Wednesday

A lecture and dinner at our church (Sloppy Joe's)

Thursday

Cheesy scrambled eggs
Scratch biscuits
Steamed carrots
Apple, celery, raisin salad


I was bit surprised, this week, that I could begin picking some of the apples. They're still tart, but work in salads, and are a nice change from all the berries and melons. And they're free -- lol! I have a couple of favorite variations on apple salad. Sometimes it's more like a traditional Waldorf salad, other times it's apples, shredded cheddar and raisins in mayo dressing. I bought celery last weekend, so our apple salad last night had apples, raisins and the celery. Yummy.

I also bought 10 pounds of carrots last weekend. Our garden carrots still need time to mature. I was able to pull a couple of good-sized ones, but the rest are from a reseeding effort, and need another month to grow. The store carrots, though, have given us lots of steam carrots, glazed carrots and carrot sticks this week.

I am missing potatoes, these days. but I do believe that we're close to being able to dig new potatoes. Maybe next week there will be rosemary potatoes on the menu.

With my grocery shopping last weekend, I'm now up to about $50 spent for the month, so far.

How were your menus this past week? Anything stand out as being particularly welcome and enjoyed?

Have a great weekend!

Owning the information

You know what I love about blogs, the internet, books and magazines?

Once you learn a piece of information, you "own" that information. That information becomes part of your knowledge-base. You have it stored away in your mind, to use over and over and over.

You know what I love about frugal blogs and sites?

Learning a piece of information won't just save you money when you use that information, one time. But if you continue to use that same information over and over and over, you save money many times, and often improve the pleasure-quality of your life, many times over. And if you share that information, the amount of savings can potentially be endless.


Yesterday, we talked about the raspberry lemonade that I made for a friend and her children, earlier this week.

If I had bought a bottle of commercial raspberry lemonade, I would have spent $2 on that bottle. And because of the cost, that would have likely been the one and only bottle of raspberry lemonade I would buy this summer. Maybe I would have had 2 glasses of that special lemonade, for my entire summer. Then the raspberry lemonade would be gone.

Because I know how to make my own raspberry lemonade, I can make this special drink 3 or 4 times this summer. And I may wind up having 5 or 6 glasses over the course of the season, for about half of the cost of what I could buy a commercially bottled product, ONE TIME.

I save money, WHILE I add enhancement to my daily life.

And now that you know how to make raspberry lemonade, you, too, "own" this information. Not only will I save a dollar or two every summer, making this, but you will, too. And whoever you teach this information to, will also save, and on and on it goes.

Owning the information -- it's kinda like the saying, "give a man a fish and he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish and he eats for life". All because he could own the information of how to fish.

A friend over in the afternoon and some of the last of the raspberries

A friend and her 2 children came for a visit yesterday afternoon.

I'm at home, by myself during the days, Monday through Friday. I have a few occasions to go out and visit with people, or attend Bible studies. But most of the week, I spend on my own, keeping those home fires, if not burning, at least smoldering. It's such a lovely diversion from work, to be able to sit and catch up with a friend, for a couple of hours.

Needing refreshments that could be kid-worthy, as well as would suit us adults, I turned to my pantry, garden and freezer.

From the freezer, I dug out some lemon bars, leftover from baking last week. From the garden I found about a teacup's worth of ripe raspberries. And in the pantry, I had dried cranberries and about a half a peck of raw sunflower seeds.

I toasted some of the sunflower seeds and mixed them with dried cranberries, for a quick trail mix.

For an easy-to-make beverage with a bit more "wow" than ordinary lemonade, I made raspberry lemonade.

This is what I used:

scant 1 cup raspberries, rinsed (this is a good use for the motley-looking, close to overripe berries)
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup bottled lemon juice
chilled water to total 1 quart of liquid

I used my stick blender to puree the raspberries. But a potato masher, or back of a serving spoon would also work.

I scooped the raspberry puree into a mesh strainer set over the opening of the pitcher.

With a rubber spatula, I pressed the puree through the strainer.

To the strained raspberry puree, I added the lemon, juice, sugar and water to the 1 quart line on the pitcher, and stirred until the sugar was dissolved.

The verdict on the raspberry lemonade was not only that it was delicious, but you "could really taste the raspberry flavor - yum" -- and that came from my friend's children.

For a little less than 2 quarts, you can buy the Simply Lemonade brand of raspberry lemonade for about $2, at places like Wal-Mart. My homemade version, cost about 15 cents for the lemon juice and sugar to make 1 quart, and the raspberries were basically free, putting my cost at 30 cents for 2 quarts. I just throw all that mathy-math stuff in, cuz I think we like to show ourselves just how much money we're saving -- not that I would really buy prepared raspberry lemonade ;-)

The first batch of watermelon rind pickles and what to do if you don't have a water-bath canner

It's a 3-day process. That doesn't mean that I'm slaving away at it for 3 days, straight. The first day is the most labor-intensive, with slicing off the dark green of the rind, then cutting, plus simmering and making the brine. The next day, I strained off the brine, to reboil and pour over the rind pieces. And on the third day, I boiled the brine, one more time, poured over the rind as it's packed in jars, and finally, water-bath process.

I packed these jars tightly, so I'm guessing each jar will last through 4 or 5 family meals. I think I have about a 4 to 5-month supply of this kind of pickle. It's something we enjoy, but I also forget about it at times, when there's something else we're into in the moment.

I'm hoping to do 2 more batches like this pickle, for a total of 9 pints.

I store the rind pieces in a Rubbermaid container or plastic bags, in the fridge, for up to 4 days, until I have enough to do a large-ish batch, about 3 full pints.


You wanna see my make-shift water-bath canner? So a water bath just needs to cover the lids and jars, about an inch with the water. Any large stainless, or enamel stockpot works well for this. But you need something to hold the jars off of the bottom of the stockpot, while it's boiling. I don't have a rack.

I had a bunch of regular-size, (the smaller ones, not wide-mouth) used canning jar rings. I tied them together with cotton, kitchen string, to make a circle of rings, about the size of the bottom of one of my stockpots. When placed, top side up, inside the stockpot with water, the jars rest on top of the rings, about 3 or 4 fat jars or 6 slimmer jars, in this stockpot. I've used this exact circle of tied-together rings for about 20 years now. Doesn't look pretty, but it works, and can be replaced any year, with the next batch of worn rings. And it doesn't take up much space to store.

Just an idea to keep in mind, if you'd like to try canning some jam or jelly this summer, but don't have the "official" supplies, like the canning rack. I do have a jar lifter, which is a set of tongs with a wide opening to grasp a jar out of the hot water. Indispensable to me now. But before I had the jar-lifting tongs, I managed with some regular tongs in one hand, and a thick towel in the other to grab each jar as I pulled it out of the water. What's that saying? Necessity is the mother of invention. Homemakers have been figuring out how to do any number of things without every gadget out there, since the beginning of keeping the home fires burning.

Repairing damaged surface of faux leather shoes

I know, real leather doesn't get this sort of damage. But sometimes, what you have is the faux leather. And once it's damaged, they look awful. What to do about it?

Faux leather is a plastic-like surface over a fabric structure. When some of the plastic surface gets scraped off (usually on the toe or the heel of the shoe), the fabric under part is revealed, and makes it so obvious that the shoes are a cheap, faux leather.

We've repaired this kind of damage to several pairs of shoes, over the years, using craft acrylic paint and clear fingernail polish.

About a year and a half ago, one daughter repaired her brown prairie boots. We didn't have a shade of brown which matched her shoes, so she took several browns that we had and mixed a suitable match. Her repair lasted about a year, and she recently retouched the surface of her boots.

About a week ago, my other daughter was lamenting needing to buy new black shoes. I told her to hold off, and we'd see about fixing her current ones. One day when she was sick, I decided to do something nice for her while she napped, and I fixed her shoes. They were pretty scratched on the toes and the edge of the buckle.

I used black craft acrylic paint (the kind you pay under a dollar for at Michael's or Jo Ann's), and a paint brush and dabbed paint onto the revealed fabric, under the plastic faux leather surface, on the toes as well as the buckle. I allowed the acrylic to dry thoroughly, and then a coat of clear nail polish over the paint. That's it. 5 minutes of hands-on time.

Here are the shoes, close up, with the fix.

And here's what it looks like from a normal, eye to shoe distance. Before, you could definitely see that the shoe was scratched and damaged. Now, you can't tell unless you are up close.

My daughter has a hard time finding shoe that fit her foot comfortably. So, we're always reluctant to have to replace a comfortable pair. Making these shoes last another year, at no cost (we had the supplies at home), is all Win.

Cheap & Cheerful Suppers for a summer holiday week

Oven frittata

Friday

Basil and red pepper frittata
Garlic toast
Watermelon
Blackberry-rhubarb pie

Saturday

BBQ pork on buns
Watermelon
Roasted cauliflower
Blackberry-rhubarb pie

Sunday

Kale and cheddar quiche
Brown rice
Cantaloupe
Brownies

Monday

Hot dogs, buns
Watermelon
Macaroni salad
Creamy rhubarb jello
Deviled eggs
S'mores

Tuesday

Macaroni salad topped with egg salad
Watermelon
Creamy rhubarb jello
Mexican fried rice

Wednesday

Bean burger patties, topped with quickie marinara sauce and mozzarella cheese
French bread
Watermelon
Green salad from the garden
Cream puffs, filled with raspberries, whipped cream and raspberry sauce *really good*

Thursday

Leftover bean burger patties, topped with marinara and mozzarella
Corn souffle
Cantaloupe
French bread


A week ago, Thursday, I stopped at the produce stand and picked up a load of produce, including 2 whole watermelons, a couple of cantaloupe, celery, and red sweet peppers. The meals this past week included all of this bounty.

Oven frittatas are a fall-back item for us, as I can quickly get one put together, then into the oven for a decent main dish, with minimal work. The frittata from this week included some of the sweet red pepper, and basil leaves from our garden. It was yummy!

The creamy rhubarb jello, which was made for the 4th celebration, is a puree of sweetened rhubarb sauce, cream cheese and gelatin. It's a favorite way to eat rhubarb, in our house.

Mexican fried rice? This was like rice and beans, but with scrambled eggs added in. It was leftover from weekend lunches.

And now, we're back to "normal" summer meals. The produce stand goodies are almost gone, and I'm still working through the freezer and pantry surpluses. I'm doing well with the grocery budget for July, so far. We're 1 week into the month and I've only spent $1 (graham crackers for Monday).

How did your meals go this past week? Did you find that you had a lot of leftovers from the 4th of July, or Canada Day? Anyone using their watermelon rinds to make pickles this summer?

Have a great weekend!

Sometimes when you keep a kitchen garden . . .

you have no idea why some things do well one year,

and others do poorly.

If I were a farmer, then I'd be spending all of my free hours educating myself on how to grow a good crop, each year. But, as just a lowly, kitchen garden-keeper, my free time has to be divided amongst a variety of subjects.

Therefore, I have no idea why the raspberries did so well this year, but the blueberries, so poorly. It could have been the weather at the time of pollination. Or it could be the abundance of rain showers we've had in June this year. Or perhaps, raspberries like our yard better than blueberries.

Whatever caused the disparity between the two harvests, it may have been out of my hands.

All I can do is give thanks and enjoy what I've been given. And maybe make an extra jar or two of raspberry jam, in case, next year, the harvest amounts are reversed, and we receive a pitiful raspberry crop and an abundant blueberry one.

Not breaking the bank with my wardrobe this summer

Ah . . . change of seasons, time to take stock in my summer wardrobe. Time to go out and splurge on a brand new wardrobe for the new season. Yikes! Not going to happen, here.

A week ago, I took my daughters to St. Vincent de Paul's, for their Sunday 99 cents/ all clothing. (Yes! They started that back up!) I was looking through the jackets for something lightweight for summer, and I stumbled across this one.

When I saw it on the rack, I thought it might be too small, but I tried it on anyways. And it fit, and was flattering. And it was 99 cents! Does fashion get any better than that?!

It's become my favorite, go-to jacket of this summer. I wear it with casual, distressed-by-life jeans (why pay extra money to have a pair of jeans "distressed"?) or a skort, as well as more polished-looking dark denim or black jeans. I grab it when I'm going out to the store, or when I visit a friend. I wore it to church the other morning.

On Sunday, I got a compliment on the jacket. I looked down at the rest of what I was wearing, and I chuckled to myself over the rest of my outfit:

jacket . . . 99 cents, thrift store
sleeveless, black cotton sweater . . . 99 cents, thrift store (this past March, before my trip to SF)
black jeans . . . on sale, with $10 off coupon at Penneys, 4 years ago, I believe I paid $14 OOP for them (I take good care of jeans, and hang them up, in between wearings)
sandals . . . on sale, with $10 off coupon at Kohl's, about 2 years ago (I think they were $14, on sale, minus coupon, bringing them down to $4 something plus tax)
handbag . . .Target in 2006. It's my only purse, used every day, and still looks good

I thought to myself, you know, it really doesn't have to break the bank to look put-together. I don't need a $200 Dooney & Burke handbag, or to spend $100 on clothing, or have expensive shoes, to pull an outfit together.

I'm willing to spend more money on jeans than tops, as a good-fitting pair of jeans makes a difference in how I look and feel in my clothes. But my idea of "spending more" on jeans just means I'll spend $14, instead of 99 cents. LOL!

I've found, with tops, there's such an abundance of good-quality, excellent-condition tops on the second-hand market, that buying tops, brand new is a waste of money that can be spent in other areas.

In contrast, with jeans, it's hard to find a classic style jeans, that are super comfortable, and in good condition, at a thrift store. At my mature age, with mature taste and style combined with the desire to wear comfy clothing, when mature women find good-looking jeans, that are comfortable to wear and are flattering, they hang on to those jeans like a life-preserver in the white-water rapids of a rushing river. Those classic, yet comfortable jeans, with the minimizing panels/fabrics designed to slenderize us, just don't make it to the second-hand market very often. So my thoughts on jeans, my plan is to use a coupon, combined with a sale, and find a pair that fits and flatters.

Casual jackets can be another good find at a thrift store. My daughters have found several casual jackets that they've worn and loved to death, and I've found this khaki zip-up. So, thrifted casual jackets can save a bundle on the clothing budget.

As for handbags, I'm surprisingly satisfied with just a plain and inexpensive one from Target. It does the job. I used to think I "needed" a fancy-schmancy handbag. Now, I think I'm ultimately satisfied with a handbag that lasts for many years, so that I don't have to think about buying another one for a long while.

And the sandals. I almost feel like shoes are a controversial subject on frugal blogs. Some folks really want a certain type of shoe, or certain level of quality, while others can wear less expensive brands of shoes and be satisfied. For me, with sandals that I will likely wear for 2 to 4 hours at a stretch, I go for inexpensive, but comfortable. So these sandals, at $4 have worked well for me. I've worn them every Sunday for the past 2 summers, and an occasional day, mid-week.

So, this year's big splurge on a new wardrobe, for a new season -- 99 cents.

I love that St. Vincent de Paul's has restarted its 99-cents-all-clothing-on-Sundays deal, again. My daughters and I have decided that we'll check back there twice a month, this summer, for items on our wish-list.

What have been some of your favorite clothing finds at thrift shops or garage sales?

Feasting on the 4th of July

As usual, we tried to put on a feast for the holiday, without extra expenses. The only extra item we bought was 1 box of graham crackers, for making s'mores. Not too bad. So this is what we ate:

hot dogs, cooked over an open fire (that's the fun part)

homemade buns, half wheat/half white

macaroni salad (I found a jar of green olives in the pantry, plus added celery and bell pepper)

watermelon cubes

deviled eggs

creamy rhubarb jello (rhubarb sauce pureed with cream cheese, and gelatin)

lemonade (made from bottled lemon juice)

mint and lemon balm iced tea (garden herbs)

s'mores and cocoa/coffee

The weather has been on the chilly side, in my area, so the sorbet that I'd planned, was out. In it's place, s'mores and coffee/cocoa. We forewent the chips and sodas that are often at 4th picnics and bbq's. The herb tea and lemonade were enjoyed instead, and I made a creamy macaroni salad, for a starchy side dish, to take the place of something like chips. And of course, we're still eating a lot of eggs, so a platter of deviled eggs was a must. 

I already had hot dogs in the fridge. One daughter and I made a batch of burger and hot dog buns on Saturday. I had all of the ingredients for the remaining dinner dishes. 

We have a fire ring on the patio in the back yard. After roasting our hot dogs, we all sat around the fire to keep warm while eating dinner, and waiting for the hour to set off some fire works.

And for the s'mores, I had a bag of marshmallows and some clearance Easter and Valentine chocolate candy, to go on the graham crackers. 

The whole dinner really didn't require much time to prepare, in comparison to other holiday dinners. So, in all, I think the dinner went well.

I hope you enjoyed your holiday weekend. I'll be back tomorrow morning!

June 2016 Grocery Spending Journal

June 1. Out late with one daughter while she had some printing done at FedEx (they're open 24/7). While she was printing out stuff, I ran over to Fred Meyer just down the block. I have 2 FM in the area. This one is always dirtier, busier, and has a strange clientele, especially at midnight. But it's close, and milk is on sale for 99 cents/half-gallon, limit 6. I pop in for my 6 (all whole milk) and spent $5.94.

June 2. This time going to my regular Fred Meyer. In addition to more milk (4), I'll pick up 2 orange juices (also 99 cents), my free w/ coupon bakery donut (I chose a Bismarck, tomorrow's breakfast), 1 box of Quaker Breakfast Thins (Friday freebie), 1 2-ltr soda pop, lemon lime (Friday freebie), and 1 small jar of blackstrap molasses ($3.79). I had a $5.69 reward to use towards this purchase, so all I spent was $4.04. The cashier did a double-take when he saw the price, because he'd about filled the top of my little cart.

June 2. As I was driving, I remembered I had a rx to pick up for my husband at Bartell's. I stop in there, but also check their dairy case and found 2% milk in gallons marked down to $1 each. I buy 3, and spend $3. The sell-by date is today, so I'll freeze most of it, make some pudding, and make a bottle of chocolate syrup (for chocolate milk).

Total spent for the month, so far -- $12.98

June 3. Cash & Carry for a case of 15-dozen large eggs (about 57 cents/dozen), $8.59, 2 4-lb jars of chunky peanut butter ($5.27 each), 9.60 lb pork loin, boneless, at $1.68/lb, 5-lbs shredded sharp cheddar ($9.48), 5-lbs shredded mozzarella ($9.73), 8 bananas at 45 cents lb. Spent $56.10

Total spent so far -- $69.08

June 7. Fred Meyer for the Senior Shopping discount. I spent 1 hour and 20 minutes from the time I pulled into the parking lot, until I drove out. That's about my limit for focus when shopping. I'm trying to be mindful of that, as I make more errors/bad choices, when I exceed that amount of time shopping. Here's what I bought:

1 box of Nabisco Good Thins rice crackers (free with download coupon), 1 small jar of blackstrap molasses ($3.41),  25 ounce canister of decaf coffee ($4.49 -- I don't need it yet, but it was on sale and I had my discount, so this will get me through August, I hope),  30 ounce canister regular coffee ($4.49 -- I didn't go with French Roast this time, as those cans are significantly smaller now. I'll blend what's left of the French Roast can with this one, to stretch the dark roast flavor), 1/2-gallon 2 % milk, marked down to 99 cents (I was hoping for the Senior Discount on it, but was told dairy markdowns no longer get that discount), 3 lb canister vegetable shortening ($3.73 -- it was on sale, plus discount, better price than WinCo, with the sale & discount, otherwise, WinCo has the better priced shortening), 3/4 lb of whole almonds, for $5.84/lb, 4  10-oz packages of sliced baby portobello mushrooms, marked down to 99 cents each. They had several packages, I took them over to the scales and weighed them all and chose the 4 heaviest ones. The price works out to $1.58/lb.

On groceries, I spent $25.62.

While at Fred Meyer, I also bought ibuprofen, duct tape, bathroom tissue (a package with a small tear in it, marked down, plus it got my senior discount), plastic wrap (also a markdown, due to box had a tear in one end, now taped shut, works fine), and an inexpensive box fan, on sale (no AC, here). All of these items qualified for the Senior Discount. I used my calculator to price out best price per unit on the OTC, the tape, the bath tissue and the plastic wrap. The bathroom tissue is about the same price as what I bought at Cash & Carry several months ago, but better quality. The plastic wrap was $1.07 for 200 feet. The last time I bought plastic wrap was at Dollar Tree. I spent $1 for 100 feet. So, today I got twice as much for almost the same price as Dollar Tree.

So far, month to date spending on groceries -- $94.70

June 9. Dollar Tree for once per month or every other month. I bought 5 24 oz bags of pasta (rotini, spaghetti and elbow macaroni). The price works out to 67 cents/lb, which is the best I can do around here for pasta. Spent $5

June 10. WinCo for bulk stuff. I bought steel cuts oats (62 cents/lb) ground chipotle pepper ($9.87/lb), chopped dates ($2.14/lb), yellow split peas (73 cents/lb) milk chocolate chips ($3.11/lb -- plan on making English toffee candy this week), cocoa powder ($3.08/lb), raisins ($1.79/lb), soy beans (85 cents/lb), raw sunflower seeds ($1.36/lb), unsweetened coconut ($3.15/lb), 9 bananas (48 cents/lb), sliced almonds ($6.55/lb), dry roasted peanuts ($1.55/lb) and a 72-ct package of corn tortillas. I spent $19.61

June 10. Also went to the produce stand and bought a bag of small red potatoes, 2 zucchini, 1 large green pepper, 2 onions, Roma tomatoes, a bundle of celery and a lime. Spent $7.03

Spent so far this month, $126.34

June 14. Fred Meyer -- milk on sale again. I'm over that way so I stop in and pick up 4 half gallons of whole milk and 2 half gallons orange juice (99 cents each, limit 6 total of beverages). Spent $5.94

June 17. Cash & Carry for another 15 dozen eggs, at $6.98 (about 47 cents/dozen), 3 5-lb bags of mozzarella cheese, at $8.75 each ($1.75/lb), 8 bananas at 45 cents/lb. Total spent -- $34.54.

June 24. My daughters and I had a girls night out at Five Guys. I decided to take the cost of that night out from the grocery budget, as I'm doing okay with it this month. Cost -- $19.72. Was it worth it? From a stand-point of was a meal of 2 burgers, 1 cheese hot dog and an order of fries worth almost $20. No. But was a dinner out with my daughters worth $20? I think so. It's not something I would do every week. But it is something I would do every once in a while. We also ate the free peanuts, and drank free tap water. Anyways, for the month of June, I'm now up to $186.54. Time to rein in the spending for the month! Our freezers and pantry are well-stocked, and the garden is producing, so we're good with what we have on hand, until July's budget kicks in on Friday.

June 30. I was going to make my run down to the produce stand tomorrow, but I was visiting a friend today, and this friend lives near the produce stand. So, even though this will put us over budget for this month, in the end it saves us money in gas, on my not driving back down to that part of town.

Country Farms produce stand -- I buy 2 watermelons (39 cents/lb), 2 lbs of cauliflower (50 cent/lb), 3 red peppers, (33 cents each), 2 small cantaloupe (25 cents each), a small bundle of celery (49 cents), 8 bananas (50 cents/lb). Total spent -- $16.27

My monthly budget for groceries is $190. As the month ends, I have spent $202.81 for all food purchased, over budget by $12.81. Subtract that surplus from the $252.70 surplus from the past several months, combined, and I now have $239.89 in surplus, to use for stocking up in the fall.


Free meals -- large bowl of tossed salad, plate of brownies, 3 tomatoes, 3 slices of pie


What I bought this month:

Meat

almost 10 lbs of pork loin

Dairy

14 half-gallons whole milk
1 half-gallon 2% milk
3 gallons 2% milk
30 dozen large eggs
5 lbs shredded sharp cheddar
20 lbs mozzarella cheese

Produce

4 half-gallons orange juice
33 bananas
4  10-oz packages sliced mushrooms
chopped dates
raisins
small red potatoes
large bundle of celery
2 zucchini
1 green pepper
2 Roma tomatoes
1 lime
2 onions
2 large watermelons
2 small cantaloupe melons
small bundle celery
2 lbs cauliflower florets
3 red peppers


Pantry

2 ltr lemon lime soda (Friday freebie)
1 box granola-type bars (Friday freebie)
1 Bismarck donut (freebie with coupon)
two 16 oz jars blackstrap molasses
8 lbs of peanut butter
1 box crackers (Friday freebie)
25-oz can decaf coffee
30-oz can regular coffee
3-lb can shortening
3/4 lb whole almonds
7  1/2 lbs pasta
steel cut oats
ground chipotle powder
yellow split peas
milk chocolate chips
cocoa powder
soy beans
sunflower seeds
unsweetened coconut
almond slices
dry roasted peanuts

Meal out

2 burgers, 1 cheese hot dog, 1 medium order of fries, free peanuts in the shell