How We Eat for $30 a Week

First off, I don’t go grocery shopping every week.  I don’t know why, but every time I go to the grocery store I don’t leave without spending a minimum of $50.  We’ve always been living hand to mouth for the most part.  But a few years ago my husband started a new job and wasn’t able to contribute to the household income.  So I got the brunt of paying bills, and the only way to make it work was for me to cut down the food budget to almost nothing.  Those were dark days for food.  My in laws were raising chickens at the time so we had a ton of eggs, we had a freezer full of deer meat, and potatoes have always been dirt cheap.  So we got very creative.  At the time we were eating for around $10 to $15 per week.  We didn’t qualify for food stamps, but I still had a mortgage to pay and a heap of student loans and credit card bills.  It was stressful, but we didn’t default or lose the house.

Now a days money isn’t so tight, but I still want some money to save back and pay off my debit.  My goal is to be debit free in 10 years, that includes the mortgage, my student loans, all of it.  So keeping the budget trim and fit means keeping costs down and a lot of brown bagging it.  So here is how we keep our grocery bill down.  First off I’ll mention there are only two adults in the household and no kids.  My husband usually takes care of his own breakfast and lunches.  Mostly because every time I ask him what he wants to eat, he tells me milk and radishes or beef jerky.  So I have given up and leave him to his own devices.  I on the other hand know I need to have a quick grab and go breakfast, some snacks and lunches.  We have been spending between $55 and $60 every two weeks on groceries.  I like going every to weeks because it saves me time and ultimately money.  I only have to worry about impulse buys twice in a month.  Here’s how we save our cash.

Produce

We don’t buy a lot of fresh produce, mostly because it doesn’t last for two weeks.  I’ve found cabbage, apples, oranges, most root veggies, some squashes and peppers will generally keep for two weeks.  We usually consume any delicate veggies in the first week, and go with the hardier varieties the last week.  Or we find substitutions.  We eat a lot of tacos, and I love adding fresh veggies.  Instead of buying a bag of shredded lettuce and winding up with a bag of brown mush before we eat it, we go for coleslaw mix.  It’s basically shredded cabbage and carrots.  It lasts sometimes upward of three or four weeks and adds a satisfying crunch.  We usually get frozen or canned veggies when its appropriate.  Generally we do canned green beans and peas for sides, as well as having a bag of corn, cauliflower and occasionally broccoli on hand for recipes.   We don’t do fresh tomatoes any more.  I’ve found we can add the flavor of tomatoes by adding canned paste, sauce, crushed tomatoes or salsa.  I do get enough bananas to last the first week then switch over to apples, oranges or apple sauce depending on what is cheapest.  This is my mid morning snack and it helps fill in the gaps between breakfast and lunch.

Protein

Our biggest savings is on meat.  Buy low and freeze.  We don’t buy much beef, because my husband goes deer hunting most years.  We actually struggle to eat an entire deer by the end of the year.  I have a ton of meat that’s several years old and really needs to be thrown out.  We look for chicken breasts and pork tenderloin on sale.  I don’t pay over $1.67 per pound on chicken or pork.  I stock up those weeks, yes, I usually blow my food budget by around $15-$30 when that happens, but we only really do that quarterly.

I also stretch my protein.  Instead of having a juicy steak or whole chicken breast, I use meat as an ingredient.  We eat a lot of Mexican food, so tacos, burritos, nachos, enchiladas.  While meat is an important ingredient, we also add veggies, beans, rice and cheese to make it more satisfying.  In the end we use a fraction of the meat, and have a bunch of leftovers for lunches and to freeze for fast dinners later.  We also eat some Asian food, stir fry is always a great way to skimp on meat with out losing any flavor.  I love butter chicken, and instead of adding a pound of meat we add one small chicken breast, a can of chickpeas and half a bag of frozen cauliflower.  Serve it over some basmati rice and you’ve got a great meal, and two lunches for the week.  I sometimes add peas and seasoning to the rice as well.

We also always have Italian sausage frozen, bought during a sale, for an easy week night pasta dinner.  We do tend to eat a fair number of hot dogs.  These versifier little tubes of mystery meat have saved the day more often than not.  While not strictly the healthiest option, it is very easy to fry one up, slap it in a bun and call it a night.  Especially during those crazy hectic week nights.  I like to get the tastier all beef options when they are on sale, but I will settle for the $1 a package ones if it means I only spend a few minutes in the kitchen.

Stock up on Canned and Packaged Foods

Stockpile when you can.  I look for coupons, wait for sales and then I add a little bit extra to the list.  We go through at least one can of green beans, peas, black beans and crushed tomatoes a week, if not two or three.  So I pick up larger bulk items when it’s reasonable to do so.  I am using a lot of tomato sauce next week, we are having chili, butter chicken and lasagna.  So instead of buying six 15 oz cans of sauce, I had a coupon to for two 28 oz cans and picked up an additional 15 oz can.  I usually have at least one or two extra of these on hand at all times.  If I forget to setup the crock pot or just can’t deal with what was planned, I can whip up a simple and easy meal with what’s in my pantry.  Pasta sauce also a great thing to keep on hand.  There have been plenty of nights were I just can’t get it together, or wind up working late that a little bit of pasta and some sauce make all the difference in the world.

Easy meal makers to keep on hand are pasta, a few packages for ramen, mac and cheese and instant mash potatoes.  These make throwing together meals very easy.  I rarely spend over $0.50 on pasta, ramen is dirt cheap, $0.89 on mac and cheese and maybe $1 on mashed potatoes.  Add some veggies, some protein and you’ve got dinner.  If I’m home these also make an easy lunch.

Frozen Foods

I already talked about frozen veggies, but we also keep some quick grab and go things on hand.  We always have a pizza in the freezer.  There is always that one night where everything goes to hell and instead of picking up fast food on the way home, I know I can throw a pizza in the oven and call it an night.  I like to pick up a few french bread pizzas for quick lunches.  We keep some breakfast stuff on hand.  My favorite is Uncrustables, I know, they are expensive, but seriously how easy does it get.  Throw an Uncrustable in my bag with my leftovers from yesterday and a banana and I’ve got breakfast and lunch to go.  When the budget it tight, I make my own PB&J and freeze them so I can grab one and get out of the door in the morning.  Freezing leftovers also keeps us flush with cheap and easy dinners.

I also like to stockpile and freeze other foods.  Cheese does pretty well in most cases, butter.  I’ve thought about doing eggs, since we always wind up throwing away a few each month.  I also look for family meals that are on sale.  Skillet meals, pot pies, family servings of lasagna or enchiladas.  Anything to make meal planning easier, as long as I don’t go over my budget or wind out eating out all week.

Avoid Name Brands

I almost always go generic.  This is what my parents did, and honestly it saves me a lot of cash.  Kroger has several generic brands, the Kroger brand, Pssst which is dirt cheap, and Private Selects which is a bit more expensive but still cheaper than name brands.  I get Pssst bread, crackers, noodles, some canned goods basically anything I’m not really too concerned about flavor.  I avoid their “Cheese” since it’s really “Cheese Product,” gross.  Do yourself a favor, avoid Pssst toilet paper like the plague, I learned that the hard way.  I go with Kroger on most other items.  Then on specialty items we get Private Select, things like hummus, or if we are splurging on ice cream.  If you looked through my cupboards, 75% of what’s in there is generic.  It’s cheaper than most sale prices, or coupons I can get on name brand products.

There are very few items that I must buy name brand.  Laundry detergent is one.  I am allergic to like everything they put on most laundry detergent.  The only brand I can use is Tide, and even then it has to be unscented.  Years of pain and misery to drill that one through my dad’s head.  Or it might have been me waking them up at 2 am because I had broken out in a rash from head to toe.  Either way, I know what works and I stick with it.

Buy What You Need

This is especially true for things like trash bags.  After cleaning garbage off the floor a few times, I don’t buy the cheapest bags any more.  I stick to the store brand, or Ruffs.  Per unit price is pretty close, the store being slightly cheaper per unit, but sometimes the budget is tight and I don’t need a box of 500 trash bags.  I always try to get the biggest bang for my buck, but keep in mind what we are capable of eating in a timely manner.  Can I realistically eat a fifty pound bag of potatoes before they go bad?  Sometimes.  Usually, that’s not true.  You’re only really saving money, if you don’t wind up throwing it away.

Store it Properly

You will save literally hundreds of dollars if you store your food the right way.  The average American throws away $371 of food per year.  This comes from a USA Today article from May 2017.  That’s enough for my husband and I to get a pair of plane tickets to almost anywhere in the US.  That’s my food budget for over six months!  Buying only what you can use will help.  Storing your food properly will help even more.  Salad greens last twice as long in a mason jar than they do sitting in a bag.  Fresh herbs can last weeks if you put them in some water on the counter, rather than dumping them into your crisper tray, only to fish out a bag of brown goo later.  I triple wrap all my meat before freezing.  It gets a layer of plastic wrap, a layer of foil and then I bag similar items together in freezer bags, trying to get as much air out as possible.  The result is I have zero issue with freezer burn.  Never store onions and potatoes together.  The onions will cause your potatoes to go south.  Freeze what you can, cheese, butter, some veggies and meat.  Use cheap clothes pins to keep chips and crackers from going stale.  Use an air tight container for cereal, oats, rice and other grains.  I’ve seen people use rinsed out and dried water and soda bottles for storage.  I keep extra flour in the freezer.

An easy way to save leftovers from the is it good or is it trash dilemma is a simple roll of masking tape and a marker.  I write when we ate it, and try to eat up all leftovers in three days.  As your serving dinner, pull out what you need for lunch and portion it out right then and there.  If I have an easy ready to go meal, I tend to eat my leftovers more than if I dump everything into a big container and plan on fishing out a meal later.  Freeze whatever you can’t eat before it goes bad.  I have several meals on ice that I keep in the same place in my freezer.  I can grab out what we need on busy nights and move on with life.  Plan on eating leftovers.  Whether it is for lunch or what my family calls Skip Its, meaning we skipped cooking, have a plan.

Okay, I think I’ve talked enough for one week.  Hope this helps you stay in the black.

 

 

How I Save Money and Time Paying for Someone Else to do my Grocery Shopping

I can’t stand grocery shopping, this is attested to the fact I only go every two weeks.  I hate the crowd, I hate the lines, I hate the stupid displays in the middle of the aisles.  It’s enough to give me cart rage.  Don’t even get me started with holiday shopping, hello Amazon.

My local King Soopers offers Click List.  The first 3 transactions are free, then it’s $4.95 a pop.  I save myself about one to two hours every two weeks shopping this way.  I also save myself a lot of stress dealing with crowds.  Basically it’s an online store, you fill your cart then check out.  You pick a time to pick up your groceries, and boom it takes less than five minutes for them to come out load up your car and your gone.  I can go at noon on a Sunday and still get out in less than five minutes.

I’m not actually spending anymore time planning than I would have if I made a list either.  I do all my meal planning online.  I use Google sheets to write down our daily menu.  I use Google Keep to make my list.  So I skip the list part and go straight to the King Soopers website and fill my cart.  Occasionally I do forget an item, no more often than when I make my list.  I’ve also found it is way easier to save money.

At the store I was trying to keep a rolling total in my head of what I was buying and inevitably I would screw it up, or find something I just couldn’t live without.  My over spending ranged from $5 to $50.  I try to keep to a strict budget of no more than $60 per trip (2 weeks).  I was spending around $75-$100 on average, yikes!  I have consistently been able to cover our grocery bill, plus the $5 service charge every time I use Click List.  In fact, I’ve been going under by around $5-$10 in most cases.  Our food budget for the month is $120, this is for two adults.  But my husband tends to take care of his own breakfast and lunch, so I have my breakfast and lunches for the week, plus dinners and household items like toilet paper and trash bags.  Can also look at my rolling total, and if it’s getting too expensive I can adjust our meal plan to make ends meet.

For us the savings is worth $10 a month.

 

How I accidentally saved $300

I went through a funk for a while and haven’t been very inspired for the last few years.  Recently I had what we’ll call a come to Jesus moment with my finances.  I’m in my mid thirties, rounding the bases towards being forty, and I still live like I’m twenty.  At least financially speaking.  I was living paycheck to paycheck, never saving anything, freaking out because my paychecks never seemed to last very long, I get paid every two weeks and by the end of week one I was broke.  Even after my promotion and a few decent raises, I was still covering the gap between paydays with my credit cards.  This was no way to live.  I had nothing to show for all my hard work other than fast food wrappers and cheap junk I didn’t really need anyway.

It wasn’t until I got back into keeping aquariums that I had a drive to really start focusing on my finances.  Aquariums are an expensive hobby.  And of course I didn’t just want to keep one aquarium, no I went from having none to having five, my husband has three of his own.  I got really bummed out that so much of my paycheck was going to pay for credit cards and not back into my hobby.

***Warning*** Shameless Plug

If you’re interested in aquatic pets, such as axolotls, dwarf shrimp and tropical fish check out my other blog, Smitty’s Aquatics

I decided it was time to get my crap together.  I revisited my budget, updated it and put myself on a strict allowance.  In my mind I had calculated all my expenses down to a the last cent and I certainly wasn’t saving anything.  After a month of this strict regiment, and it was hard, $20 for pocket money doesn’t go all that far.  I didn’t do all that well my first month, but I was able to pay all my bills, and I didn’t have to whip out the credit card to for an impulse by.  In fact I actually paid an extra $200 on credit cards.

I looked at my accounts this weekend, going through the bills that needed to be paid, the allowance I have for the week, and I found after all my bills I have $300 left over.  I forgot that my husband gives me some cash to take care of a few bills and I kept putting that back into savings, and since my check covers all my bills it never got spent.  So there you go, I over budgeted and forgot about cash coming in.  Budgets man, they work.

The financial goals for this year (March 2018 – March 2019)are to pay off two credit cards and build up a $2000 nest egg.  Part of what keeps me interested is that I’ve made it a challenge to myself to spend as little as possible on other goods and services.  So I have budgeted $60 every two weeks for groceries (we’ve been able to do this really well for the last few years).  What ever I don’t spend on groceries goes into my allowance.  Same with gas, and my eating out budget.  What ever penny I save goes back into my pocket.  I know, I should probably be putting that back into savings, but this is what motivates me.

Let’s look at my discretionary funds this week.  My allowance is $100 per paycheck, that works to $50 a week.  $30 of that goes into the eating out fund, we go out twice a week, and each pay for one meal.  So I have $20 of walk around cash.

Last week I spent $15, so I get an extra $5, we are up to $25.

We went out for breakfast, and the bill came out to $20, so I saved $10.  I’m up to $35.

I went grocery shopping this week, spent $55, so I got another $5, we are up to $40.

I found $10 cleaning up the laundry room, $50.

I got gas for the week, and only spent $20 out of $25, so I’m now up to $55.

I don’t always have such an awesome week.  Last week I had stuck with my guns and didn’t even spend the whole $20.

I used to only look at my account once every few weeks.  I have started looking at it two and sometimes three times a week.  I know what bills have come due, I have a rolling count in a spreadsheet of what has been paid, and what needs to pay.  I double check that the money going out matches my spreadsheet and what I have in my account.  I used to look at my account thinking a bill was paid, spent a bunch of money, and then the bill hits my account.  Now we eat Top Ramen for the week, or the credit card comes out.  That sucks.

Eating on Less

Food is kind of a big thing at my house.  It’s a point of contention, and a point of frustration at times.  It is also a sense of camaraderie and joy at others.  I have a love hate relationship with food.  I love to eat a good meal and relax with my family, I hate dealing with meal planning and grocery shopping.  Since we can’t afford to eat out every day or have a personal chef we must take the good with the bad.  Here’s how I stay sane.  

1. Don’t shop every week.  I hate grocery shopping.  Going from aisle to aisle, gritting my teeth so I don’t take my cart and plow through the displays they set in the middle.  Trying my best to be patient for the guy in front of me who stops for like ten minutes to look at a display of canned green beans.  I avoid this like the plague.  So I don’t do it every week.  I only shop twice a month.  It saves us money, and it saves me time.  I spend an average of $50-60 every two weeks.  When I was going weekly I spend an average of $50-60.  Weird, hu?  This tells me I didn’t plan very well, buying things I didn’t need.  Plus if your not in the store, you can’t spend money.  
2. Plan meals with similar ingredients.   I also plan clusters of meals that use the same ingredients over and over.  Less waste, less money, less hassle.  I also rely on a lot of shelf stable ingredients like rice and pasta as well as frozen veggies to round out my meals.  We avoid a lot of the premade meal.  I used to buy heat and serve meals for the bulk of our food.  The cost adds up, and most of them aren’t all that healthy.  
3. Eat the most perishable ingredients first.  Nothing sucks like picking up a lovely eggplant to have it turn into brown mush before you get a chance to slice it up into a lovely Eggplant parm.  We eat all the fresh veggies in the first week, and switch over to using frozen or canned veggies after that.
4. Plan for life to get in the way.  Along with my meal plans, I use a spreadsheet to keep me organized.  I include three other sections.  A day by day list of work and social functions for myself and one for the hubster, and a list of prep I need to do that day for the next day.  We also keep a few frozen pizzas on hand in case we are both too tired to cook dinner.  A $3 pizza trumps $15 at the drive through any day.
5. Meat isn’t usually the main course.  We eat meat everyday, but we don’t usually have it as the main course.  About once or twice a week we’ll do pork chops or venison steaks, that’s it.  It’s usually a supporting role in things like tacos, or pasta with sausage.  We also tend to bulk up our meat with things like beans.  Instead of cooking up two chicken breasts for Chicken Tikka Masala, I do one with a can of chickpeas.  You are still getting protein, but you are also getting fiber and other nutrients.  Meats the priciest thing on my list, so anyway we can cut back saves us a few dollars.  
6. Buy low, and freeze a lot.  I know the rock bottom prices of most of the food we regularly consume.  I know if chicken breasts are $1.67 a lb or less, and I’m low it’s time to stock up.  I know that pasta goes on sale for $.49 every 4 to 6 weeks that I’m stocking up if we need it.  I also know what is better priced at Costco.  You can freeze all kinds of stuff, from meat and hearty veggies to cheeses and butter, even baked goods.  My freezer is stocked with probably six months worth of food right now.  Everything is individually portioned so we can grab what we need, when we need it.  Also make sure to double or even triple wrap to keep freezer burn at bay.  Try to get as much air out as possible will also help this.  
7. Freeze leftovers.  I like to make once and eat a few times.  There are two of us, most recipes are designed for four to six servings.  I plan to eat leftovers in my meal plans, we are terrible about taking them for lunch.  If we get to a point that we don’t eat something up after about two or three days, it goes into the freezer.  We waste less and I add the meal to my Freezer inventory list.  These also get put onto meal plans so we aren’t losing anything to freezer burn.  
8. Shopping multiple stores, when it makes sense.  I do this, but not like I used to.  I used to pull out all the ads in my area and plan an epic four store journey.  Ain’t nobody got time for that.  I shop King Soopers, because they are generally the cheapest in my area.  I also hit up Costco once a month to restock big items we need.  Mostly toilet paper, Kleenex, paper towels.  But also things like butter, cheese and bacon that tend to be less expensive.  I always check out the weekly ads though.  If there is an amazing deal on meat that is too good to pass up.  I’ll make a separate trip, but it has to be way better than I can find at King’s to justify going into another store…shudder.  
9. Keep your fridge, freezer and pantry organized.  I spent the better part of a day reorganizing my freezer.  I pitched things way out of date, like a 7 year old ham, and I put like items into bins for easy access.  I made a list of things we have so that we can see what we are running low on and start looking for deals, I update the list after cooking every night.  I usually clean out the fridge as I meal plan and put away groceries.  This way I know what we are running low on before I hit the store, and I have a place to put my new groceries.  Arrange items by oldest to newest so things don’t go stale in your pantry waiting to be used.  If bread is getting old and you aren’t going to use it, pop it in the freezer for a later date.  Just be sure to put it on your Freezer Inventory.  
10. Break it all down.  Take the extra few minutes to portion out food, especially for lunches and snacks.  Nothing like being five minutes late for work and realizing you forgot to pack your lunch last night.  If it’s easy to grab and go, then you’re more likely to actually do it.
11. Make what you like.  If you hate lima beans, it doesn’t matter how good of a deal you got on them.  You aren’t going to eat them.  Splurging on a few key ingredients will save you in the long run.  If you get tired of what you’re cooking, you’re more likely to break the habit and just hit the drive through on the way home.  I’d rather waste $10 on a recipe I didn’t like, than waste that same $10, plus another $30 eating out avoiding leftovers.

The bottom line is we spend anywhere between $140 to $200 a month for two people, the higher price reflects my big stock up trips.  A few hours of planning and packaging keep meal times running pretty smoothly for us.  We still have days were we just say forget it, let’s go out.  I’m working toward a zero waste kitchen.  We aren’t there yet.  There’s always that little bit of what ever that gets looked over, or forgotten.  It happens less frequently though with a little bit of extra planning.  Progress right.  

Budgeting Woes

I started a new job a few months ago, another reason why I haven’t been doing much blogging.  This new job is back in teaching, not something I thought I would do again.  But on a whim I applied for a teaching job, and they practically fell all over themselves to hire me.  So the retired teacher is back in the classroom.  I must be a glutton for punishment.  Being in a new district at a new school has been tough, especially on my pocketbook.  Here’s what I did.  

1. Made a Budget.  So I have a standard budget that I usually update once a year or so.  So I sat down and looked at where my money needed to go, and where it was actually going.  I don’t write down how I spent every single penny.  I’m way to ADD for that.  But I know all my major monthly financial commitments.  Mortgage, car loans, insurance, student loans, credit cards, utilities, as well as average cost of gas, groceries, and entertainment.  I found that my basic bills were about $500 more than I was making.  Yikes!  That doesn’t include eating out, impulsive buys, or going out.   
2. Looked at places to trim the fat.  It’s easy to say, well I just won’t spend anything on entertainment, or I’ll cut my groceries bill down.  Yes, I did cut from those areas, but sometimes you need to get more creative.  There is nothing worse than being broke, bored and hungry.  So I changed the deductible on my car insurance, I cut down what I was paying on my credit cards.  I’m in the process of getting my student loans lowered.  I got my cable bill cut down by getting rid of services I don’t need.  I saved about $300 just making a few small changes.  
3. Hello Library.  The library, my old friend, one I haven’t really indulged in much since I worked at a library.  A huge chunk of my earnings was going to Amazon.  Mostly in the form of books, but lately in the form of audiobooks.  My commute is hellishly long, so putting in an audiobooks saves my sanity, but it was killing my pocketbook to the tune of $100-200 a month.  My local library offers audiobooks online for free.  Getting set up took about five minutes, and the app works just as well as audibles.  So goodbye audibles and hello library.  Does it have all the books I want?  Nope, but it’s got plenty to keep me busy for a very long time.  
4. Cooking is your friend.  Okay, I’m not a great cook, mediocre at best really.  But I’m always trying to get better at cooking.  A huge chunk of my paycheck was spent on eating out, whether it was a quick burger at lunch, or dinner because I was just too darn tired to think about cooking.  It added up.  I actually went three weeks without setting foot into the supermarket.  Not good.  So now we don’t eat out, at least not on my dime.  My husband’s finances are separate from mine, and if he wants to splurge fine.  Or like tonight when my parents invited us out we jumped at the chance.  But I haven’t paid for a dinner out in three weeks.  Not even a Qdoba burrito, man I’m going through withdraws, but my bank account is happy.  Scratch is cheaper, but frankly a frozen pizza is cheaper than blowing three times as much at a fast food restaurant.  
5. Carrying cash.  It’s weird, since I almost never carried much cash.  But now I allow myself twenty dollars for two weeks to spend on whatever I want.  I carry it in cash only.  Mainly because if I don’t, I’ll spend three or four times that much, and then we’ll be eating top ramen for a week.  I find I’m really reluctant to spend my mad money.  Last week I really wanted to have a splurge night and get a Qdoba burrito, it was Friday right before a break, I’d worked hard and earned it.  I looked at that twenty and instead of stopping at Qdoba, I came home and cooked up some left overs.  Carrying cash totally changes how I think about money.  

Ditch the Clutter and Go Digital

Okay, so as an English Major, and later Reading Teacher, I love books.  Like I have a serious weakness for them.  When we moved into our house, I think I almost got a hernia from the boxes of books that we moved in.  Since then we’ve things have only gotten worse.  I seriously had this grand scheme of having a personal library, a room with wall to wall bookcases with a nice comfy chair and a light, that was it.  Reality check in 3…2…1…okay, we have a three bedroom house, and I totally could create a library, but that means no office, no art studio, no personal sanctuary.  I’m not willing let go of the rest.  If we move again, who’s going to pack up and haul all those books around?  I certainly have zero desire to do that.  Plus, I’m to the point in my life that I’m kind of tired of the clutter, and the ridiculous baggage that includes.  I’ve been watching the Tiny House movement unfold, and someday I’d love to live in a tiny house, but that means the books aren’t going to make the cut.  So I’ve decided to ditch the bulky books and go digital.  It was actually a lot less painful than I thought it would be.  

 

Okay, so I do miss the smell of books, the crack of a new cover, the feel of paper under my fingers.  But I don’t miss dropping my book and losing my place.  Forgetting my book somewhere and having to buy it again.  Having to sit in boredom, when I have a few minutes to kill.  I don’t miss hauling my book around with me, just one other thing cluttering up my car, purse or house.  The oh shit moment when food, or water gets on the book and you go into all out crazy eyes trying to get it cleaned up.  

 

I decided to go with Kindle, mostly because I already loved shopping Amazon for books.  I had some Kindle books for my tablet already.  But because I’m kind of an insomniac I got a basic Kindle reader.  LCD’s can mess with me at night resetting my brain to think it’s daytime.  This way I can get some sleep, that is if I can put the book down.  Slowly I’ve been replacing my original collection with ebooks and growing it.  Bestselling new books are generally a bit cheaper than bookstore prices.  Instant gratification is nice, you can get a book even if you don’t want to get off the couch to go to the store.  I can research authors and get their latest work in seconds.  I’ve also found some pretty great self published authors that are exclusive to Amazon, and cost only a few dollars each.  They also have sales pretty much everyday.  

 

My favorite part of using ebooks, is that I can read on whatever device I happen to have handy.  If I’m out and about, I can use my phone, at home I can use my Kindle or tablet.  I just need to open up my app and it will automatically jump me to the right page so it’s really convenient for me.  The hubster and I can share ebooks between devices.  I can borrow ebooks from other Kindle users, and the local library.  It’s pretty awesome.  I will say that I am not paid in any way by Amazon for this post, but if they want to kick me a few books, I won’t say no.  I just like the product, and its features.  There are plenty of other ereaders available, B&N Nook and Kobo have similar products as well.  I had a Kobo ereader back in the day, I didn’t find their selection to be great, but this was years ago, things have most likely changed.  I paid the extra $20 to get the ad free Kindle, it’s worth it to me, but it may not be to everyone.  

 

Not having to carry another box of books, priceless.  

Cozi…Making Life Easier

A few years ago I bought a laptop with an interesting piece of software on it called Cozi.  I started playing with it when I was trying to get organized…but life happens, and I didn’t do much with it.  When I started looking for a way to organize recipes I found online, I started looking for apps.  I wanted something that was easy to transfer the information to, searchable by key words, and had a feature to add items to a shopping list that I could access on my phone.  I looked through a couple of apps, but I didn’t find anything I liked.  Then I remembered Cozi.  I’d used the lists a few times, on different projects, so I gave it another try.  I’m glad I did.  Its fit my needs perfectly.

Cozi is a free (unless you want to upgrade for $30 a year) web-based program, that you can access online, through downloaded software, and with a smart phone app.  So if I add a job to my to do list at work, I can see it at on my list at home.  I like the number of features available in once place.  There are a few features only available on the Gold version, and you do have a few ads or pop-up boxes.  For me, I’m good with the free version.

Calendars

I don’t use the calendar setup as much, but I can see this being really useful for a family with kids…especially kids with lots of after school activities.  When you setup your family in the settings, you get to put in two adults and up to ten children.  You add in everyone’s email address and you get a weekly email of your schedule.  Each person is color coded, so you can see at a glance who’s doing what.  I’ve setup our dogs and cats so I can add in vet appointments, and when they need their shots updated.

To Do Lists

I do like this particular feature.  You can set up specific to do lists for each member in the family.  If your out and about and need someone to say take the trash out, simply log into your phone and add it to the list.  When Steve was into this, we used the lists to assign weekly chores.  I’m trying to convince him to try it again…maybe someday.

Meals

Now on to the feature I use the most.  It takes care of most of my meal planning for me.  There is a recipe box I can put my favorite meals in.  I have a calendar that I can either type in meals, or drag and drop any of my recipes I’ve entered into place.  Once my meals are planned out, I can take each of my recipes and simply add the ingredients to my shopping list with one click.  I can edit all of the items on the shopping list.  So if I don’t need something, or want to consolidate similar items its super easy.  All I need to go grocery shopping is my phone.  I can run around the store checking off items as I go.  The only thing, it won’t do is check the sales flyer for my local stores, but I can do that in ten minutes.

For a single program, Cozi really is kind of a power house.  While there are other programs out there, this one has a ton of features, I can access anywhere I can get online.

Recipe Review: Six Sister’s Stuff: Stuffed Mexican Chicken Shells…Kind of

When I saw this recipe, I was in love.  First it was stuffed shells, which I love.  It brings back memories of helping my grandmother in the kitchen stuffing shells as a kid.  Second it was salsa and cream cheese, there is nothing more decadent than that combination.

Six Sister’s Stuff Stuffed Mexican Chicken Shells…Kind of

Ingredients:

4 cups chicken breast, cooked and diced
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
6 green onions, diced
1 green pepper, diced
1 red pepper, diced
3 (8 oz.) blocks cream cheese, softened (not melted)
2 (14 oz) cans diced tomatoes with chiles, undrained (Rotel or store brand)
1/4 cup chicken broth
1 tsp cumin
1 1/2 cups sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
2 cups salsa
40 large pasta shells

Directions:
Cook pasta shells in well salted, boiling water until al dente (still have a little bite to them- if you cook them too long, they will be difficult to stuff). Drain the pasta and set aside while you make the filling.

For the filling, add diced chicken, drained black beans, green onions, diced peppers, and cumin into a  large mixing bowl. Mix well.

In a separate bowl, mix the cream cheese, chicken broth and undrained tomatoes with chiles. When thoroughly combined, pour it over the chicken mixture and mix well (if you have trouble incorporating the cream cheese and tomatoes, you can heat it slightly in the microwave).

You will need either 2 9×13″ baking pans OR one large baking sheet. Spread 3/4 cup salsa in the bottom of each 9×13″ baking pan.

Using a spoon, fill each of your cooked pasta shells with chicken mixture, setting them into the salsa-covered pan. Continue until all shells are filled and arranged in the pans.

When the pans are full, drizzle the shells with the remaining 1/2 cup of salsa (1/4 cup per pan) and then sprinkle with the shredded cheddar cheese.

Cover the baking pan tightly with foil and bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes or until hot and bubbly.

(I put one pan in the oven to bake for dinner and then wrapped the other uncooked pan with foil and threw it in the freezer for another night. When you are ready to eat it, pull it out of the freezer 24 hours in advance and let it thaw in the fridge. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes)

The reason I say “kind of” is that I couldn’t find any large shells for stuffing.  So in a moment of panic/brilliance…take your pick…I picked up two packages of Lasagna noodles.  I decided to make pasta roll ups.  Because of the larger pasta, I had to add 10 minutes to the cook time, I simply uncovered and cooked the extra 10 minutes and it came out wonderful.  I may take out the freezer meals 48 hours before cooking, since they are denser than stuffed shells.

I will say this particular recipe is on the pricey side, since I decided to buy a rotisserie chicken rather than cook up my own, the total came up to around $30.  That being said I was able to make a total of 30 rolls, not too bad.  With our small family of two that means five meals, and if we make a side we can have dinner and leftover lunch the following day, or five dinners and five lunches.  With a family of four, I’d say this would work for two or three dinners and possibly and maybe a few lunches.

I have to say this recipe is an absolute 10 on taste.  This just became one of my favorite recipes, I swear it was so good I would willingly stay in for this without feeling like we are missing out.  The process is time-consuming.  Between spending 20 minutes separating the chicken meat from the carcass, to having to boil up pasta in two different batches (I just don’t have a large enough pot for two boxes of lasagna noodles).  The result is one dinner this week and four in the freezer for the next few weeks.  I could reasonably make this once a month for those results.

The only change I made was in the pasta vehicle and cook time, everything else was wonderful.  I had two different flavors of salsa, one a traditional tomato salsa and the other a tomatillo based verde.  I have to say I’m loving the verde.  Seriously, this one is a keeper.

On the menu for tomorrow:

Crock Pot Red Beans and Rice…yum!

Dollar Store Drawer Organization

So this week we are short on the Get ‘ere Done, because I’m working on the bathroom down stairs.  Which will probably become next weeks Get ‘ere Done.  What I do have this week is a simple, cheap tip, and yet another reason I love the Dollar Tree.

They sell these great little drawer organizers, and for a dollar you get either two or three.  I’ve seen similar products at other stores for about twice the price.  I picked up five sets in various sizes, I only really needed four of them.  We have an Ikea Expedit entertainment center, with drawer inserts.

One set of drawers we use for the dog’s leashes and grooming things.  It got so messy that you had to dig for everything.  Every time we started digging for something the dogs would go crazy, thinking it was time for a walk.  Now it’s doggie zen!

The tool drawer was absolutely impossible.

The worst part of the tool drawers, is having to pull out everything tool only to find out the there isn’t a standard screw driver in the drawer.  I also saw these great little tool sets at Ikea for $8.00.  What I love about the tool kit, it’s got all your basic tools in a single box, there’s a place for everything and everything is in its place.  I can see when something’s missing, and make sure it gets put away.  I took out all the other tools and put them in a tool kit for down stairs.  Now we have two sets, one on each floor.  I used simple snack bags to organize the little bits screws and extra bits from RTA furniture we had left over.  Plus, it looks great.  I was even able to reclaim a junk drawer as usable space.

Get ‘ere Done: Cheap Backsplash

So when we bought our house it didn’t have a backsplash, and it’s always something we’ve been meaning to get to.  Well, I got sick of it finally and decided to do something about it.  I love the look of old tin tiles, but they are a little expensive.  I was thinking of doing the PVC versions, but I didn’t have the cash on hand to go that direction.  I came up with a different solution.  I had some paintable wallpaper that had a square pattern that reminded me of old tin tiles, I got some paint, and voila…new backsplash.  While this didn’t work out as great as I’d envisioned.  It looks much better then the torn up wall for now.

Here’s the before picture. Pretty blah.

Here’s the deal with this DIY Backsplash:

Cost:  About $40.00  (we had all the basic tools we needed, if you don’t, it will get more expensive)

Difficulty:  Medium (if you can hang wallpaper like a pro this will be easy, I suck at it)

Time:  about 24 hours or so (it’s taken a little while longer to dry)

Here’s what you need to DIY this one on your own.

Roll of paintable wallpaper (if you get the pre-pasted kind you don’t need past, if not plan on buying that as well)

Paintable Caulk (I got some that dried in 2 hours)

The wall was pretty banged up.

Paint of your choice.  If you want it to look metallic like mine, you’ll need a base coat color and metallic glaze.  You’ll also need polyurethane for the top coat.  The other paint is acrylic and will wash off if you scrub it to hard, the polyurethane protects the paint job.

And you’ll also need basic painting supplies, brushes, rollers, a sponge, utility blade the usual stuff for a wallpaper/paint job.  I used a disposable foam brush for the polyurethane rather than have to deal with mineral spirits.  

The original counter top was pretty ugly tile that went halfway up the wall.  When we replaced the counter it damaged the wall.  While I love the new counter top, I don’t care for the damage to the wall.

The first trick to doing a DIY project is prepping the space.  This means clearing everything out of the work space, and finding all the tools you need.  I assembled all the tools in a single area to keep things simple.  The wall had some embedded grease that I couldn’t get off.  So I used some Kilz primer and painted the wall, just to prep

Here’s the base coat of interior paint.

the space.  The paper was pre-pasted so I measured and cut what I needed then filled up the bathtub.  A quick soak and then I bookended it (you flip the two end, paste side to paste side into the middle and let it sit for 5-10 minutes.  I don’t know why you do this, I think it has something to do with the paste reconstituting).  Then Steve and I started papering away.  Don’t forget to wet the surface, it helps.  This part was the biggest pain in the ass, ever.  It kept sliding around, falling off, it was like a circus.  Finally we got it fitted into place, cut and stuck to the wall.   Or so I thought…

We left the paper to dry over night.  At about 6 this morning my husband came in the bedroom yelling, “if you want to save what’s left of that paper you better get up and fix it.”  He went to work, I went to Wal-Mart.  The adhesive wasn’t sticking and it was bubbling up in areas.  I read somewhere that someone used caulk to seal the seems, and decided to try some caulk to glue it down.  Actually it worked pretty well.  There were still some bubbling, but it wasn’t too bad.  So I started painting.

I know the picture doesn’t do it justice.  It looks just like copper.

Never trust the Home Depot guy when he tells you need a ton more paint than you think.  I got talked into buying four times as much paint as I needed.  I was just going to get a little sample jar, that’s about 8 oz.  And he talked me into a pint.  Then I was talking to him about the glaze and he told me I needed at least four jars.  I bought two just in case, and I only used about half a jar.  I used Martha Stewart brand glaze in copper penny.  Glaze is transparent so I literally took the jar of glaze and matched it to regular none metallic interior paint.

One base coat, one coat of the glaze and one coat of polyurethane.  The effect is incredible.

The final product looks pretty good, in spite of some issues.  I think I might add some molding around the edges, but it looks beautiful.  The paint actually tightened up some of the loose spots.  So it looks a lot better than I thought it would half way through.  We also got an Ikea Grundtal bar and hooks for about $13.00 that’s not added into the project cost.  It was sort of an after thought.  We just happened to go to Ikea and looked around at all the cool toys there.  It works great for hanging the lids of our pots, and pot-holders.  Before I just had a few cuphooks above the sink for some of that stuff.  Well, I think I’m almost done fussing with the kitchen in this house.  I’d like to install the dishwasher, fix the top of the half wall, and maybe do some art projects on another wall, but that’s it.  It feels so much cozier in there with some color behind the cabinets.  Hope you enjoyed this episode of Get ‘ere Done, come on back next week to see what else I will try to rip apart in my house…