Not Buying Any Meat This Month

 

No matter how good the deal is I’m not going to be buying any meat this month.  Coming off of a two month pantry challenge I have plenty of protein options so instead of buying meat I’ll be focusing my grocery budget dollars on other things like a Costco produce stock up.

 

I am so blessed to have a deep freezer plus an entire shelf in my LTFS well stocked with a nice variety of beef, chicken, pork & fish/shrimp.  During my pantry challenge I realized that I’d like to have more space in the deep freezer devoted to frozen produce and in order to do that I need to clear a shelf.

 

With the size of the bags of produce that Costco sells I will definitely need more freezer space.  My plan is to divide those bags into meal size portions and then vacuum seal them, label and date each package and store in the deep freeze.  I am really excited about this because this girl loves her veggies and I eat a lot of them.

 

I'd prefer to have two shelves filled with veggies
so I need to make room for my miscellaneous items

What will you be focusing on this month at the grocery store?  Are you seeing any good sales in anticipation of the upcoming holidays yet?

 

My Tireless Retirement – Week 178

 

Hello my friends.  I hope everyone is doing well as our summer is quickly winding down.  Last week was the final full week of August and we are swiftly heading into September and only a few weeks away from a new season - Fall!  Any last minute plans for your summer?  I, myself, am looking forward to taking some downtime and enjoying a little relaxation in the next few months.  Let’s see how well I do with that (wink, wink).

 

Last Friday was a bumpy day at the senior center where I worked all day.  I can tell the mood has shifted with our patrons who seem to toggle between sadness and uncertainty to downright edginess.  I know people are scared.  We even had a pair of gentleman get into a bit of a row with each other (one thought the other was disrespecting him) and the need for intervention.  Unfortunately I took the brunt of that altercation, but nothing too serious.  Later in the day as we were closing up, one of those men came back, apologized (sort of) for the earlier event and then proceeded to go off  again shouting at the pair of us until he stormed out declaring she and I were going to Hell!  I can say I was never happier to clock out and climb into my car to head home as I was on that evening.  Sheesh!

 

In relaying the day’s events to my BFF he was less than pleased with how my day had gone which led to a bigger conversation about my place of employment and then about our planned vacation to Washington DC next spring.  I have been so excited to go there, see The Mall, our nation’s capitol, but even more so to visit as many Smithsonian Museums as possible while we are there.  Ultimately we have decided to put that plan on hold because it just doesn’t feel right. We are shifting  gears and are now in the process of coming up with a different vacation entirely.  I know whatever we decide to do, it will be great!

 

Now what are you doing! 😂

Saturday morning I woke up in a funk.  I had loads of things I could do and all I really wanted to do was stay home and take refuge.  I didn’t even want to go outside and check the mail, although eventually I did.  The chickens and the kitties kept me company and got me laughing, which is always a good thing.  I puttered about the house throughout the weekend, baked four mini loaves of applesauce zucchini bread which I shared with others, reorganized the freezer in the kitchen, did a load of laundry, did a lot of writing and watered my flowers.  I also picked up all the fallen fruit around the pear tree and gave it to the chickens.  They were happy about that.

 

By Monday morning I was ready to take on the world once again.  I strapped on my invisible armor and headed out.  I worked Monday and Tuesday, a few hours each afternoon and was off Wednesday and Thursday.  The atmosphere was some better, but when you get right down to it our seniors are scared and on edge with fears of losing their social security, health insurance as well as many other concerns like paying their bills, housing and the rising cost of groceries.  I wish I could tell them it is going to be fine, but I can’t and I share these same concerns.  I just keep praying and hoping that better days are ahead for all of us.

 

This shelf was sagging in the back corner

Wednesday was an awesome day for me because I finally got a really good night of sleep and even slept in some, which I never do.  I began the day slowly with coffee and my journal and it went from there.  I puttered about the house and this time it really amounted to something.  One of the items on my “to-do” list was to fix a broken shelf in the garage.  I had jimmy rigged it when it happened, but to be honest, that was years ago.  Now, with the garage thinned out, it seemed like an easy task, and it was!  Items removed from shelf, shelf fixed, items put back on shelf minus a few things I decluttered.  Yes!

 

I love that I am able to spread my things
out more so they are easier to see and get to

I pulled down the Fall and Halloween bins, went through them and decluttered enough stuff for donation to combine and consolidate everything into one bin.  I made the monumental decision to let go of my electric jack-o-lanterns because they just make me miss my kids and they don’t want them.  Last year I thought about getting rid of them and this year I did.  My BFF was very proud of me because he knows how they tug at my heart strings.  I am such a sensitive girl!

 

Wednesday afternoon and well into Thursday we worked on “future planning” and some alternate plans of what I or we can do in the next few years.  I’m getting more and more excited the more we talk about stuff.  I will be sharing some of our ideas in some upcoming posts.

 

I am down to one bin now!

The week started out warm and then steadily cooled off until Tuesday evening when we finally got a good rain.  It rained all night until late into Wednesday morning thoroughly saturating everything.  We even had flash flood warnings.  It was so nice to get a good drenching which cleared the smoke from the air and watered everything so I didn’t have to.  The deck project remains on hold, but I’m just fine with that.  It is not that high of a priority to me right now anyway.

 

Things are getting a little bit thin around here

Have any of you had rain or been given a reprieve from the summer heat?  Are you ready for Fall?  It’s right around my friends!

 

This Month's 2025 Grocery Spending – August

 

I began the month of August midway through a two month pantry challenge and fairly well stocked with dairy products, a little slim on the fresh produce, but not too bad.  I still had plenty to work, most of a head of cabbage, a little bit of spinach, a third of an onion, a bag of carrots and a few stalks of celery.  In the summer when it is hot I find a greater need for fresh salad vegetables to have with my meals otherwise I just want to eat ice cream for dinner.

 

On the way home from work I stopped at Winco and picked up a container of the spring greens salad mix, another bag of spinach and a container of grape tomatoes.  I use the spinach for salads as well as in my smoothies so I knew that partial bag I already had would not last very long.  While I was there I decided to also get another carton of milk rather than need to come back within a week to get one.

 

However, a week later I stopped back into Winco again for a package of twenty five tortillas, which happened to be on sale for $2.48, and two onions for 89¢ so I could meal prep some freezer burritos.  As I was going to check out I couldn’t help but notice that prices on several items I typically buy had jumped up in price again just in the last week (sigh).  I managed to get out of there using up some of the change I had in my wallet and headed for home while trying not to feel discourage at this persistent rise in pricing.

 

One thing I have noticed in the past two months is that I wasn’t perusing the weekly grocery store ads on a regular basis because I really didn’t need much and only intended to buy what I needed to make my meals.  No need to hunt for bargains, download digital coupons and offers, or make shopping trip itinerary plans was a nice reprieve.  Although I enjoy it, sometimes it is nice to take a break from all that research and strategizing.  I also find that purchasing and eating only REAL Food makes a huge difference as well in not only the time I spend preparing to go to the grocery store, but how much it positively affects my budget.

 

With that being said, I noticed I was getting low on cheese so toward the end of the month I did go online to see if there were any good deals on cheese and as it turned out Fred Meyer had cheese on sale for $2.99 a pound so I stopped in one day and picked up two of their sixteen ounce blocks to grate, bag and add to the freezer.  I also picked up some fresh fruit because it just sound so yummy.  Even on a pantry challenge you can enjoy some goodies. 😉

 

Running low again on fresh stuff!

After using the milk I had picked up to make two batches of homemade yogurt as well as my smoothies I ran out toward the end of the month.  I was also running low on cream for my coffee as well as fresh greens so back to the stores I went.  I picked up my milk and fresh produce at Fred Meyer and then cream at Cash & Carry.

 

That's better!

Digital coupons saved me a ton on these items!

My biggest shopping focus this month was to restock the linen closet with some household products I was running low on.  After watching for a good sale and loading some digital coupons I was ready.  I only had a few Swiffer dusters left so I wanted to get another box of those.  I was on my last can of Comet cleanser and down to a handful of dishwasher tabs so I also had that on the list.  A large canister of Lysol wipes was also on sale so I decided to get those too.  I have decided to be a little kinder to myself and allow some convenience items so I bought these to use whenever I want to quickly wipe down the toilets.  The only thing left on my restock list was laundry supplies which I wouldn’t need to get until the end of the year so plenty of time to watch for a bargain.

 

This alone will last me well over a year

Well, I only had to wait a week and a bargain presented itself in the form of a buy one get one free sale on liquid laundry detergent and a digital coupon for a large bottle of Shout stain spray so I jumped on it and with that my 2025 Non Food Restock list was all checked off.  Reorganizing and restocking my linen closet was oddly cathartic as I realized I have everything I need to finish out the year and well into the next year.  I think I have enough laundry detergent and dishwasher tabs to last me well past 2026 and I am very comfortable with that.  My total spent this month on these things came in at $40.56.  I’m very comfortable with that too!

 

I did a good sized meal prep

Friends blessed me with home grown tomatoes & lemon cucumbers

Now that I’m done with my pantry challenge and will be going back to regular shopping I will be regularly perusing the ads again and taking advantage of any sales, markdowns and digital offers that I can in order to continue to keep my spending as low as possible and stay within my budget.  I’m pretty happy with how my pantry challenge turned out because I was able to use up a lot of things I already had on hand, do some meal prepping which has netted me quite a few meals still in my freezer and save some money in the process.

 

My total dollars spent on food this month came in at a whopping $45.21.  Going into next month I have $109.57 to rollover and add to my September budget for a grand total of $209.57 to get started.  I’m very excited about that!

 

Initial Planning Has Begun - Moving Out Of State

 

After a lot of thought and some conversations with my BFF I’ve come up with an initial plan for how I will be making my move once I have decided where I want to land and have sold my house.  It has been nice to have someone to bounce ideas off of and get input from, but at the end of the day the final decision about everything is mine.  It’s a bit overwhelming, to say the least, so I want to make it as easy on myself as humanly possible.  Especially as I will be five to ten years older and who knows how I will be feeling then?  My goal, of course, is to just get better and better with age.

 

This is the binder I'm keeping my ideas, lists & plans in

I’ve decided that when I move I only want to take with me what will fit into the vehicle I happen to have at the time.  Will that be my truck?  Will it be the Subaru?  Or will it be something else entirely?  At this time I don’t really know, but I have some ideas.  As the time draws nearer and I really get cooking on this scheme of mine I’ll have some big decisions to make about vehicles.

 

Right now, if I decide to use one of the vehicles I have, the truck would likely be my first choice.  It would require a camper shell in order to protect and secure my belongings and those smaller ones are harder to find.  The Subaru would be good on its own because with the backseats down I’d have a nice cargo area, but it would be quite a bit smaller than the bed of the truck.  That wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing though, I’d just take less stuff with me.  If I go with one of these I would sell the other.  If I decide to buy another vehicle altogether I would sell both of these vehicles.

 

As of right now I’m leaning toward the truck for a variety of reasons.  One is that of the two vehicles I have right now it is the one in the best condition.  Although it is much older it has lower miles and since I bought it brand new in 1997 I know everything there is to know about this vehicle.  Two, and this is a biggie, I have a serious emotional attachment to this truck.  I really LOVE my truck.  Three, it is practical.  I can do pretty much anything and it is a great size.  They don’t sell these smaller trucks anymore (which is a shame) and to replace it with a new one would be quite costly.  And four, I wouldn’t be out the cost or the hassle of buying another vehicle.

 

One thing I do know is that whatever I end up taking with me the majority of it will need to fit into banker boxes as they are sturdy, have handles and are easy to carry.  They are also small enough that I can’t overstuff them and make them too heavy.  Because these boxes will be all the same size they will stack nicer and fit better in the back of my vehicle.  Once I have decided what I’ll be driving I plan to do a mock up with empty boxes to see how many will fit and then I’ll go from there as far as the actual packing.

 

As I look around the house I see a lot of things I am willing to part ways with.  I do not plan to bring large pieces of furniture.  My furniture is old, worn (cats, kids & me have done some damage) and I do not see any logical reason to pay the high price of a moving truck or service to haul this stuff to my next destination.  Once I get to where I am going I’ll just get new furniture, which is actually something I’m really excited about.

 

The same can be said for a lot of my linens and clothing.  By the time I’m ready to go these things will be pretty well worn and ready to be replaced anyway so I don’t plan to waste my precious cargo space with these items either.  Craft and sewing supplies will need to be used up, food will need to be eaten (I will be starting over with my LTFS), sentimental items will be gone through again, the garage will be pared down to just the essentials and I’ll be clearing out all of the storage areas I have in this house.  Phew!  That seems like a lot!

 

Most of this will need to be gone

This is my preliminary idea at this time.  I have a lot more thoughts and ideas swirling around in my head too.  As with anything plans are always subject to change, I know I need to be flexible, but logically, from where I sit this plan makes the most sense right now.  We shall see, when the time comes, if this is what I truly end up doing.  I bet I do.

 

Amazing Meals From The Pantry #8

 

I started off the month midway through a two month pantry challenge and excited to try something a little different for me by using Gemini AI and telling it I had only $20 and to come up with 14 meals to feed myself.  At Fred Meyer (Kroger).  One of our highest priced grocery stores.  And.  I don’t like lentils.  It came up with a great list of food items plus a nice menu, but it was a little carb heavy for my liking so I decided to open up an Excel spreadsheet and see if I could tweak it a bit to make it better and I think I did pretty darn good.  I checked all of the prices to make sure I stayed on budget and came up with four solid meals with enough leftovers to carry me through the week and used that to do a meal prep and restock my freezer.  It was FUN!

 

Instead of actually going to Fred Meyer and plunking down a $20 bill I shopped my shelves and deep freezer to come up with a pretty identical set of items on the list.  I substituted cabbage and spinach from my crisper drawer for the head of lettuce since that is what I had and then I put on my apron and got to work.

 

First up was to weigh out a half pound of spaghetti and get that cooking while I used home canned marinara and ground beef plus an eight ounce can of tomato sauce to prepare a delicious spaghetti.  I opted to break the pasta in half so it fits in the meal prep dishes more easily.  In a large pot I combined the marinara sauce with the meat and the tomato sauce and let that simmer while the pasta cooked.  After draining the cooked pasta I added it to the pot of sauce and stirred it all together.  Then I evenly divided the pasta and sauce between four of my meal prep containers as well as twelve ounces of frozen broccoli florets.

 

This looks delicious!

I didn’t even wash the pans I was using as I moved onto the next meals which was to prepare taco meat and some rice bowls.  In the pasta pan I brought two and a half cups of water to a boil and added the rice mix as well as the extra quarter cup of rice and let it simmer over medium heat for five minutes with the lid ajar so it didn’t boil over.  I then turned off the heat and fit the lid on tight and set the timer for another twenty minutes to continue cooking.

 

This made a lot more food than I was expecting

Meanwhile in the larger pot I had simmered the pasta sauce in I cooked up the ground meat and seasoned it with taco seasoning, about a half packet so it didn’t get too salty.  Then I opted to add the black beans to the taco meat to extend it further.  After filling each of four small freezer containers with enough of the meat to make up two tacos I was left with quite a bit of the meat and bean mixture for my rice bowls.

 

Four portions of taco meat - top
Four rice bowls - bottom

When the rice was done I divided it equally into four of my meal prep bowls and then topped each one with the meat mixture.  Once everything had cooled I fitted them all with airtight lids and placed some in the refrigerator to start with right away while the rest went into the freezer for later on in the week.

 

Home canned Split Pea Soup

My final meal was to simply set out two cans of soup to reheat and eat.  You can’t go wrong with canned soups, especially if they are homemade so I chose two of my home canned jars of split pea soup to use for my two soup meals to round out fourteen budget friendly and nutritious meals for less than $20.

 

These portions were surprisingly large

Some for the freezer

What I really enjoyed about this challenge was that Gemini AI was able to quickly and easily get me started.  I could have gone with everything they suggested or I could tweak it to make it suit me better, which is what I did.  As Gemini suggests you can alter it according to sales prices, available digital coupons and of course by using items you may already have on hand to make substitutions or add to it.  For instance if you already have some sour cream or cheese on hand you can enhance the tacos and rice bowls.  If you already have salad dressing you can use some of the lettuce and carrot to make a simple salad.  I found the portions on each of these meals were definitely adequate as well as the nutritional aspects too.  They were also very tasty and satisfying.

 

Some for the fridge

The taco meat portions were so large that I only used half
which allowed me to have even more meals

Start to finish, including clean up, this meal prep took me only one hour.  My plan is to use these meals intermittently between other freezer meals I have and some lower carb meals I want make.  So, what do you think?  Would you use Gemini AI to help you come up with a meal plan and shopping list based on a set dollar amount and the store you want to shop at?  Because you can ask for low carb or gluten free options and also specify what you already have, like I would say I already have eggs on hand, you can really tailor it to your own specific needs.  I think I would totally do this again!