My Emergency Fund

 

If I can give anyone any solid piece of financial advice it is to have an emergency fund.  I cannot express enough how important it is to have one of these.  If nothing else the peace of mind that is provided to me just knowing I have the funds set aside to cover almost any emergency makes it entirely worthwhile.

 

The amount we should save and set aside depends entirely on the individual.  How large is your household?  What type of a house do you own?  What kind of cars do you drive?  What are your typical monthly expenses like?  What other resources do you have available?

 

Don't forget to adjust for inflation

I personally keep a $5,000 emergency fund at the ready.  When I was raising my family it was adequate to cover us.  With the rising prices and inflation I have left it at this amount even though it is now just me in my household right now.  It may surprise you to know that since I established this account I’ve never touched it.

 

Try to plan ahead for unexpected expenses

Many things can constitute an emergency, such as my recent need to replace my refrigerator and that is a perfect example of where I might tap into this fund, but my goal is to never need to.  Before I will use my emergency fund I will do everything else I can think of to cover that expense before I head to my emergency fund.  Usually I can find a way.

 

Don't panic! 
Before going for your emergency fund look at all options

With the refrigerator I was able to finance it on my PayPal credit account for 0% interest for six months.  I didn’t buy a fancy or super expensive refrigerator and I knew that I could probably cover the cost of this appliance using money from my part time job to make payments and pay it off long before the six months is up and I accrue any interest.  If, for some reason, I can’t do that then I also have my savings to fall back on and pay it off.  In the meantime my emergency fund remains untouched and intact for what I consider a “true” emergency.

 

For me a true emergency is any unplanned event and expense that I’m not able to cover on my own by any other means.  Then, once I pull money from my emergency fund I will get myself busy, tighten my belt and work hard until those funds have been replaced before I do anything else.  It is that important to me and I take it very seriously.  My emergency fund provides me with security and it keeps me safe.  There is no better feeling in the world than to feel safe and secure.  Do you have an emergency fund?

 

Meal Prepping From The Pantry - #2

 

One of the best things about meal prepping is that it helps me to use up those random items that end up taking up residence in the pantry, refrigerator or freezer.  I’m able to collect those items together in a bin and make sure I incorporate them into meals so they don’t go to waste.

 

I had a handful of home canned jars of meats that I wanted to make sure I got used up and a boxed rice pilaf mix that had been hanging out for a while.  One day I grabbed a jar of pork roast and that box of rice pilaf which I prepared with an extra quarter cup of white rice and a bouillon cube to add some extra flavor to the water I used to cook the rice. After heating up the jar of pork roast I was able to put together a quick meal that ended up making five servings which I divided up amongst three of my food storage containers.

 

I had extra eggs on hand so I scrambled up half a dozen of them along with a few strips of bacon I had diced and fried up nice and crisp.  With some salsa, grated cheddar cheese and flour tortillas I made breakfast burritos with the eggs and bacon mixture and put them away into the freezer.  I will occasionally have breakfast for dinner so these will come in pretty handy for a quick meal after a busy day.

 

Since I was already in burrito mode I decided to cook a cup of black beans in my slow cooker.  Half went into a freezer container to use later and were frozen.  The rest were used in my meal prep.  I went ahead and heated up a jar of pork verde (my last older jar, yay!) and made some rice which I used along with the black beans as well as more cheddar cheese and tortillas to make restaurant style pork verde burritos.  They are so good!

 

It didn’t take me very long at all to put the rice meals and burritos together and once I was done I had several more meal options to add to the freezer.

 

Vintage Cookery - Muffins!

 

Many, many years ago I acquired my grandmother’s All About Baking cookbook.  She gave it to me and told me it was her very first cookbook.  It was reprinted in June 1936 which made her just about to turn thirteen years old.  I suspect it may have been a birthday gift, although I don’t really know for sure.  What I do know is that I've made a lot of recipes out of this book over the years.

What I do know about my great grandmother is that she was all about raising and preparing her girls for life as a wife and mother so she taught them all how to cook, clean, sew and do needlework from a very early age.  Lessons that my grandmother admitted she didn’t necessarily appreciate most of the time.  She’d much rather go outside and play in the dirt with her cousins.

 

Muffins were one of those quick bread items one could whip up and bake in no time to accompany just about any meal – breakfast, dinner or supper.  With a good basic muffin recipe you can make them plain or add ingredients, either sweet or savory, to jazz them up to go with whatever you happen to be making.  Adding in fresh, frozen or dried fruits and a little bit more sugar for a sweeter muffin goes well with breakfast foods or perhaps some leftover corn and some bacon bits for a savory option next to a hot bowl of soup.  The possibilities are pretty much endless.

 

I hope you enjoy this muffin recipe I’m sharing from 1936.  I’ve been making these for years.  They are definitely heartier than the commercial modern muffin mixes you can buy in the store.  I think they are so much better and tastier.  Add a smear of butter, maybe some jam, they just never disappoint.  So good.

 

My Tireless Retirement – Week 120

 

We enjoyed another HOT week last week and I spent a great deal of time making sure the animals were well hydrated as well as the garden and my flowerbeds.  It’s what you do this time of year.

 

Despite the heat I did not let that deter me from getting busy early last Saturday morning and canning eighteen pint jars of dry beans.  I was down to my last two jars son I wanted to get some more on the shelf before I ran completely out.  did navy beans, black beans, pinto beans and a combination of black and pinto beans that I like to use for a quick batch of refried beans.  My last batch of refried beans I made I went through really fast and I actually didn’t quite have enough when I needed them to take to a baby shower so I grabbed a jar off the shelf and I was back in business.  A perfect example of why I like to keep home canned beans in the pantry and LTFS.  It feels very nice to have that gap filled in now.

 

Stella loves to help me

On Sunday I was able to tick a few more items off my quarterly housekeeping checklist.  I washed all of my bedding including the mattress pad and pillows.  At the beginning of the year and midway I also like to rotate my mattress, vacuum it really good and clean underneath the bed.  I’ve figured out a good method for me that works well to stand my mattress and box spring on end and lean it against the wall so I can clean underneath the bed without too much effort.

 

In the garage I purged and reorganized my stash of shipping supplies I like to keep on hand.  I reorganized my canning and preserving supplies a little bit while I was out there.  On the way home from work one day I stopped and dropped off my glass recycling.  When I got home both the glass recycling collection bin and my regular one got a good scrubbing with some hot soapy water and then air dried outside.  More items checked off the list.

 

Meals I Prepared: 

I began the week by thawing and baking one of the mini tater tot casseroles I’d meal prepped and put away in the freezer.  I’m not even going to apologize for enjoying every last bit of that thing.  It was good!

 

Next I needed to finish up some leftovers, including the rotisserie chicken I had bought at Costco.  I made myself a chicken sandwich, put some of the chicken away in the freezer for later and used the rest in a pasta salad that was nice and refreshing on a hot summer day.

 

A jar of home canned sloppy joe filling made for an easy meal a few nights and allowed me use up three hamburger buns I had in the fridge.  I toasted the buns, heated up the sloppy joe filling and then enjoyed it along with a little green salad and a few tater tots on the side.

 

I refilled the shampoo and conditioner pump bottles I like to keep in my shower.  Once again the product was so thick I could barely get it squeezed out of the bottles so of course I watered it down to a nice consistency.  The last bottles of shampoo and conditioner ended up lasting me about a year and a half by doing this so I’m definitely not complaining.

 

While I was in refill mode I went ahead and made up another batch of my homemade laundry detergent.  I still had a third of a half gallon jar left from the last batch I made so I dumped it into the new batch and stirred it all up together.  I ended up filling two half gallon Mason jars so I’ll be well set for quite a while.  I then refilled the stain spray bottle and the bleach.  I don’t know why it feels so good to get those little things done around the house, but it sure does.  I always feel so accomplished.  Do you feel that way too?

 

Early Wednesday morning I got up and opened all of the windows downstairs and set the box fan at the back door to blow in the cool air while I whipped up a batch of blueberry muffins and got those all baked up.  I’d been craving muffins (recipe is coming!) for a while so I decided to not let a heat wave deter me, turned on the oven and baked some anyway.  I’m glad I did because they were delicious and I didn’t really heat up the house either.

 

Even when it is hot outside Jack still wants to snuggle

I sure hope you all had a wonderful week.  Take care, stay well hydrated and stay cool! 

FYI - My retirement week runs from Friday through Thursday.

 

My Freezer Setups For Successful Meal Planning

 

One of the things I really enjoy doing these days is designating an hour or so each weekend to do some meal planning and preparing.  It is super easy to make two or three meals that I can divide up into food storage containers and then have meals for the week ahead as well as meals to freeze for later.

 

Frozen future meals

The freezer attached to my refrigerator is the one I use to store my future meals as well as any open bags of frozen fruits and vegetables or any frozen items I want to make sure I use next time I cook.  I will also use it as my “staging area” and put meats or vegetables I’m planning to use in my next meal prep session.  I often squirrel away any leftover items that I know won’t get consumed before they spoil into the kitchen freezer as well.  In a nutshell, like my refrigerator, this freezer is my short term frozen food storage area.

 

My deep freezer for long term food storage

The deep freezer is where I keep my longer term storage, mainly meats and vegetables.  New stuff comes in and the older items are rotated out for meal prepping.  Through trial and error I’ve been able to come up with a good system now to keep my food fresh and avoid any freezer burn or food waste.  This has been a very important part of my process and one I’ve worked hard to master.

 

I now freeze meats in smaller individual size portions

Every week I take an inventory of my kitchen freezer to make sure I’m using up those items inside within a few months so I don’t end up with a bunch of stuff taking up residence and not being eaten.  I find leftovers and prepped meals just taste better if I used them up in a shorter timeframe so I try not to keep anything in there longer than three months.

 

Meals for one or two people

I take an inventory of the deep freezer about once every three months so I not only know what is in there, but to also make sure I’m rotating and using up the older items before they get a chance to freezer burn.  It also helps me to make sure that what I’m stocking in there is of a reasonable amount so I don’t overbuy things and that I’m not buying any additional items I already have plenty of.

 

I make a lot of mini sized meals now

Downsizing from a family situation to a retirement lifestyle with an empty nest has definitely taken some adjusting, but through trial and error I’ve been able to make those adjustments.  It did take me a couple of years to truly figure it out, but now that I have I’m far less overwhelmed by what I have on hand, I’m only stocking the foods I enjoy eating and have kept my food waste near zero.  In the process I’m also spending a lot less money.  I don’t mind that at all!

 

Are You Worried?

 

With the upcoming election, countries at war as well as civil unrest, inflation and rising consumer debt, skyrocketing housing costs, not to mention our own government’s financial deficits I have heard many people state that they are worried about the future and where we are currently headed.  Some are really scared.  Are you worried as well?

 

I personally am not.  I have reconciled myself to the fact that in the grand scheme of things I have very little to no control over what is to happen.  I just don’t.  The future is completely unknown and it has always been that way.  If you look back in time every decade has given us something to worry about.  Every.  Single.  One.  Some country has always been at war at some point in time.  Crimes are being committed.  People are not very nice to one another on a regular basis.  We face the unexpected event or circumstance.  It’s life.

 

Worrying myself silly isn’t going to help anything, nor is it going to change anything.  Worry isn’t helpful.  All I can do is be the best human being I am capable of being.  Do the best I can to take care of myself.  Prepare as much as I can for “what if”.  Help others as I am able.  Pray.  A lot.  At the end of the day I have to lay my fears and worries at His feet.  He knows what is best for me and will guide me in the right direction.  I truly believe that.

 

Do pay attention to your instincts.  If your spidey senses are tingling or your gut tells you it might be wise to do something like pay off debt, stock up your pantry, buy some toilet paper, repair or replace something you’ve been putting off, then by all means do that.  Add to your emergency fund or if you don’t have one perhaps now is the time to establish one.  Those are the things we can control.

 

And remember, as long as we have enough TP
everything will be just fine 😄

Be positive, be helpful, be supportive and be prepared, but don’t isolate yourself or lose sleep worrying over what might happen.  In most cases what we fear and worry about most of the time never comes to pass anyway.  And if it does and you’ve done all that you can to prepare, then we just have to learn to live with it, just as our ancestors had to do too.  And know, that together we can get through anything.

 

Stretching My Food $$ - Eggs

 

Except for that brief period when they were off the chart crazy expensive, ($7 a dozen! Are you out of your mind?!) eggs pack a lot of nutritional bang for the buck.  Their versatility makes them a great staple item to always have on hand.  I am fortunate in that I have a space to keep hens in my backyard and not only do they provide me with fresh organic eggs, but also loads of entertainment on a daily basis.  I love my girls!

 

I do use them occasionally for baking, but most of my eggs end up in main dishes like scrambles, omelets, breakfast burritos or sandwiches, breakfast hash or my most favorite way – quiche.  I love to prepare many varieties of quiche.  They only use a handful of eggs, three to six, depending on the size of the quiche you want to prepare and you can fill them with so many different things like meat, cheese and/or vegetables making them not only packed full of good fats and nutrients, but also great flavor.  Quiche is a perfect way to use up leftovers too.

 

You can make a quiche in a pie crust or on its own in a buttered baking dish.  I happen to have two mini pie pans that I like to use to make small four serving quiches.  I will line the pans with a pie crust and fill both of them with a single recipe that I split between the two pans.  If I’m meal prepping I can freeze these raw, wrap them in plastic and whenever I’m ready just unwrap and bake them in the oven while they are still frozen.

 

Basic Quiche 

6 eggs

¼ cup heavy cream

½ to 1 cup grated cheese

½ tsp salt

¼ tsp ground black pepper 

In a bowl crack eggs and blend with a fork.  Mix in cream and beat until smooth and light.  Stir in cheese, salt and pepper until well combined.  Pour into a prepared 9”deep  pie crust or well butter deep dish pie pan.  Bake in a preheated 350° degree oven for 40 to 45 minutes until center is set and top is golden brown.  Makes 8 servings.

 

Add ins: 

Sauteed diced onions, peppers, grated zucchini, grated carrot.

Fresh or frozen chopped broccoli or asparagus

Diced ham or crumbled bacon

Browned and drained sausage or ground beef

Finely diced chicken and chopped artichokes

Roasted red peppers or sundried tomatoes

 

This recipe is good for making a nice large quiche, but also two small ones.  I love to make broccoli and cheddar cheese quiche.  One of my favorites is sausage and grated Swiss cheese.  Both of these combinations are so simple, yet really tasty.  Diced ham or bacon with sautéed vegetables, oh my goodness!

 

Hard boiled eggs are great on their own, but also good for making deviled eggs or egg salad.  I chop them and add them to potato or pasta salads, tuna salad, or even fresh green salads for extra boosts of protein.  Club or Cobb salad for the win!  I used hard boiled eggs a lot in my meals.  Good nutrition, still economical and very tasty.  Eggs are still a great value!