So I'm not much of a couponer. It's just plain hard to find coupons for the sorts of foods I buy, which are generally unprocessed whole foods. Not impossible, but hard. I can download and print two milk coupons a month from Organic Valley for their organic milk, but considering it's still $5 a gallon after you take off the $1 coupon, it's still not much in the way of coupon savings for the month. But with the great store coupons on produce at Cost Cutter this week, I suddenly found myself with a whole lot of coupons I could use.

I'm not just thrilled with how much I saved, but on how much I spent overall, which was $17.75. I got 15 pounds of potatoes, 2 pounds of strawberries, 5.25 pounds of oranges, 1.66 pounds of tomatoes, 1.5 pounds of lettuce, and a 4 ounce generic saline nasal spray for my son for $1.99 + .17 tax. Take out the $2.18 for the spray and I paid $15.57 for 30.41 pounds of food. My average food cost for this visit is 51 cents per pound! 51 cents! How often does that happen? Never, that's how often.

I seriously considered getting another 15 pound bag of potatoes and 5 pound bag of onions since you could get 2 each on their limit and those things will keep for a couple months, but it's a question of storage space, so I didn't. Oh, well, I did great and I'm very happy with it.

I went to the grocery store with all my store coupons and I saved $8.92 off the regular price. I ended up spending $17.75 for 2 pounds of strawberries, 15 pounds of potatoes, 5 pounds of onions, 5.25 pounds of oranges, 1.5 pounds lettuce, 1.66 pounds of tomatoes and $1.99 + .17 tax for a bottle of generic saline nasal spray for my son.

$17.75 total
-02.18 medicine
--------
$15.57 groceries

So I spent $15.57 for 30.41 pounds of food. That averages out to 51 cents per pound! I love that. And the great thing is that maybe I'll have .5 pounds of waste in peelings, and everything but the orange peels goes to feed the chickens, so even that isn't really waste. I'll be zesting and drying some orange zest for future use in making orange chicken, too, but probably only about 4 oranges worth.

I may not be able to use regular coupons much for food, but I am thrilled that I was able to save so much on produce this week with the store ones.

Last night when I was trying to figure out what to do about the taxes, whether to take it out of debt repayment or the EF, I went over the budget again. I was letting myself get a little panicky. I kept looking and looking for places to cut and then I realized I'd allocated $1000 for savings each month. I thought I'd allocated $100 for savings each month.

I am not used to this new pay grade yet and in my head I'd fixated on $100, but obviously when I set the budget up with the actual numbers, I'd put in what we could scrape up each month. So I'll have $2000 from that before the April 15th deadline and can take the rest ($4000) out of the EF and then immediately pay back $1000 of it to the EF at the end of April when there is a payday. Then I'll only have $3000 to payback to the EF, and with an allocation of $1000 to put in each month it'll be back up to where it is now pretty soon.

Although I didn't sleep great last night it was better than the night before and I think I have definitely turned the corner on this cold. Of course DS decided to come down with it instead. He's all fever, snot, and cough and walking around like a zombie. I've covered him with Vick's vaporub and have the vaporizer going with the inhalant poured into the litte cup thingy and he's taken two steamy showers this morning to help him breathe. Poor boy. So no school today for him.

Mom is going to watch him while I go to the produce sale later and I will pick up some saline mist for his nose. He won't use regular nasal spray or I'd be able to clear him right up. Fortunately I still have plenty of the dye free cold and allergy medicine. Walgreen's has their own house brand and even though it is dye free it cost less than non-generic cold and allergy medicine. But I stocked up on it several months ago and have a couple bottles of each on hand.

As for meal planning:

Breakfast for 3:
Soft-boiled eggs (free from chickens)
Toast and free jelly from aunt (.50)
Milk ($1.50)
$2
Total Breakfast: $4

Lunch for DD
Leftover slice of pizza (so free, accounted for cost last night)
baggy potato chips (.50)
orange (.50)
water

Lunch for Me and DS
TJ's chicken noodle soup ($1.29)
Crackers for DS (.20)
Grilled ham and cheese sandwich (split between us) ($2)
Oranges ($1)
$4.49

Total Lunch: $5.40

Dinner for 4 (Mom is eating with us):
Whole Roasted chicken (free, bought with gift card)
Olive oil and herbs (.50)
Baked potatoes (with the sale price this will be about .13 for a pound) so (.20)
Butter (.50)
Green beans ($1)
Milk ($2)
Total dinner: $4.20

Total daily food: $13.60

Well, apparently I am in a very talky mood today. This is my third entry and I guess I am doing a lot of thought organization as I go. Anywho the grocery flyers came out today. Their Valentine's savings are actually pretty incredible, way, way better than their super bowl ads last week, except on beef.

I don't tend to use coupons often on groceries as we don't buy too much in the way of processed foods because of my son's allergies to additives, preservative, stabilizers, food colorings, grapes, raisins, and apples. It's shocking how much that is healthy is sweetened with apple juice or raisin juice, unfortunately.

But there are a few things we buy like Healthy Choice chicken noodle soup if there is a good coupon or sale. I like to have canned soup on hand for those times when I just feel too sick to cook or have an interminable case of the lazies. I won't pay more than a dollar a can for HC (but up to $1.29 for TJ's). Usually it's too expensive. This week they have a special on that if you buy any ten of certain items you get $3 off produce. Well, the soup is on special 10 cans for $10 and it qualifies for the ten items. And since broccoli and cauliflower prices finally fell to $1 a pound I can get three pounds for free. My kids love both of these things, but since they've been hovering near the $2 per pound mark I haven't bought them for a while. They also have cameo apples on sale for .59 a pound. It is so rare to find apples anymore for less than a dollar a pound (even in an apple state like this one). Even if my son can't eat them my daughter can. Also organic chili powder for 3.99 for 6 ounces. I don't use it enough to buy it in bulk, but I use it enough to keep a bottle around and I'm out. The sale is on the 11th through the 14th so I will go first thing Friday morning after dropping my son off at school.

Another store is having a sale Wednesday through Sunday with a bunch of produce coupons. 5 pound bags of yellow onions for $1.48, 15 pound bags of russet potatoes for $1.98 (ten pound is almost $4 on a non sale price lately), .68/lb for navel oranges, 1 lb of fresh strawberries for $1.98 a pound (limit 2, and that's rare to find even in season from the local farms), salad blends for .98 (limit 2, but cheaper than two heads of lettuce at the moment), and .98 cents a pound for fresh tomatoes (cheaper than what I can find canned for at the moment which will mean club sandwiches sometime this week for me for lunch, yay).

They have 4 ounce lobster tails on for $3.98 per pound. Per pound not per tail. $3.98 for four servings of sea food is an awesome price. I can make lobster tails for my birthday without breaking the bank! It's a nice surprise. I certainly wouldn't have thought to get them otherwise. Valentine's Day, I guess you are good for something after all!

They also have a store coupon for Bryer's ice cream for $2.87 (limit 2) and since my son can have the Black Label vanilla I'm going to get some. That's cheaper than the ingredients (and the time effort) to make homemade. It's on for $2.49 at another store but it would require a fifteen minute drive there and then a fifteen minute drive back and I don't think it's worth the gallon of gas to go clear over there for one item to save 56 cents when gas is over $3 a gallon. That's penny wise, but pound foolish.

I'm pretty excited about the produce sale. I should be able to have enough produce in general for the next two weeks and the potatoes and onions should last a month. I'm definitely going to be under the $500 grocery budget goal this month!

DH finished doing our income taxes and for the first time ever we are going to owe money. We also didn't qualify for any of the child credit this year. We knew it was coming because of the contract buyout lump sum. They did send a substantial portion of it to the government in taxes, but we figured it wouldn't be enough. They warned us it probably wouldn't. It'll be almost $6000. Our EF is $8200. I don't want to touch that.

On the other hand, if we take it out of our credit card repayment plan for the next 3 months we wouldn't have to. We are currently sending $3500 to debt repayment each momth. The problem with doing that is interest is at .9% in savings and the credit card we are repaying is 11.4%. If we paid the almost $6000 out of the EF we would still have $2200, plus whatever we contribute the next 3 months which will at least be $100 a month and whatever else I can manage to scrape up. So $2500 at the very least will be left in the EF if we do it.

I think we probably will even though having $8000 in there was something making me feel very secure. I just can't see hobbling our repayment plan. Maybe I can go halfsies. Take $3000 out of the EF and $3000 out of the debt repayment plan. Still that interest. I don't know. I guess I have some time before I have to make the decision. We don't get paid until the 18th so I'll spend some time seriously thinking about it between now and then.

I went up to Walgreen's after school with DD to see if they had that Organix Renpure shampoo that some of you were talking about that was buy one, get one with a rebate attached. My daughter was out of shampoo and she can't use mine because it is for oily hair only (and I'm very possessive of it, because it is super hard to find unless I order it online and incur shipping costs). Her dad's shampoo is too harsh for her hair and smells very masculine, and her brother's special chemical free, fragrant free, allergen free stuff is too expensive for anyone else to use.

She's good about using whatever I buy, but it has to be available. Usually I just get the 99 cent bottle of VO5 in strawberry, but this works, too. Two bottles of shampoo for the eventual cost of just a stamp, envelope, and sales tax sounds good to me.

I ended up spending a total of $38.12 there, $6.99 of which will be reimbursed. They had the VO5 conditioner on for 79 cents on sale in Freesia, which she likes the smell of. Also got cheap hairspray, a package of headbands for DD because her head is too big for the ones she's had for years, 100 count Excedrin PM, and a thing of Vick's Sinex because I ran out. That nasal spray is expensive and I never see coupons for it. The register printed out a coupon for a free bottle of Afrin nasal spray or up to $7 off, so I will use that the next time I go. I prefer Sinex, but Afrin is one of the few other types that works on me.

I set up a spreadsheet when we got home to track rebates and filled out the form and got it ready in an envelope to send off tomorrow. Rebating only works if you remember to do it! I'm not sure that I'll get into it too much, but doing it once in a while when I find out about it and it takes no effort on my part, then I will.

DD and I also had a talk about why we are pinching so tight right now in some areas, like eating out, so we can finish getting out of debt and save up for a new house. I find it helps to talk to her periodically about it, because sometimes she forgets and thinks she can't have anything she wants so doesn't ask for it at all. She does get what I think is a quite adequate allowance of $10 a week so she has plenty of her own spending money. She does a lot for it, including making dinner a couple nights a week on her own, and helps me almost every other night unless she has a ton of homework.

And if she babysits her brother for any serious length of time (more than an hour) she gets paid for that, too. There was nothing my sisters resented more when I was growing up than being forced to babysit me for free when they could have been babysitting the neighbor kids for a profit. It isn't much, just $3 an hour, and it's pretty rare, maybe once a month that it happens.

I found a recipe online today for pita bread. I looked through several until I found one that looked easy and still made pockets. Most of the easy ones were flat and didn't puff. It is more simple than making English muffins which I've done before. We're getting bored with buns all the time for sandwiches so I thought I'd change it up. It'll be cheaper than the bun recipe to make, even accounting for the fact that it only makes 8 servings, so I'd have to make two batches in a week. If it works well I will post the recipe.

I called the old homeowner's association to make sure that they received the dues since they still haven't cashed the check we left on 1/31 or sent out a receipt. The girl at the desk said that yes, they'd received it, so now I just have to wait for them to deposit it.

I paid the mortgage payment today of $386.14.

The propane bill for the old house came today and ouch. It was just over $400. This is the first fill up we've done since July. I'm going out to the house Sunday to finish packing up the laundry room and the one kitchen cupboard, maybe finish the living room, and put out the rubbish bin. We've been keeping the temp at 60 so the pipes don't freeze, but it's been around 45 outside for the past month, with no snow since mid-January, so I am going to drop it down to 50. The house is pretty energy efficient and the thermostat may not even kick on unless it drops below freezing outside. Come the end of March we can turn it off altogether.

I haven't been setting money aside for propane but that will change with the next paycycle. I'll start putting aside $80 a month. We may not need to use it but at least it will be set aside. I used to do that, budget for bills that weren't monthly, but I got out of the habit. I've set up a new spreadsheet for the budget that goes into effect on the 18th. It has categories for these non-monthly payments.

Okay, now food today:

Breakfast:
Eggs (free from chickens)
Hashbrowns ($1)
Milk ($1.50)
Total: $2.50)

Lunch:
2 kids
Orangic deli meat sandwiches on homemade buns ($3.25)
orange (.50)
apple (.50)
baggies of plain potato chips (.50)
water

Me
Leftover bowl of TJ's chicken noodle soup (free)
Chicken leg (.50)
salad (.25)
water
Total: $5.50

Dinner:
Homemade pizza:
dough ($1)
cheese ($2)
sauce (leftover from homemade spaghetti sauce, so free)
herbs (.25)
2 ounces pepperoni (.75)
2 ounces salami (.75)
4 ounces ground beef with sausage seasoning (.60)
1/4 chopped yellow onion (.15)
Homemade breadsticks:
Dough ($1)
Parmesan cheese (.25)
Can of Pineapple ($1)
Can of green beans ($1)
Milk ($1.50)
Total: $10.25

There will be an extra ball of dough for a future pizza out of this as well as leftover pizza and breadsticks so that will make a future meal or two this week, especially with DH gone and not eating it. With that in mind the $10.25 is not as expensive as it first appears.

Total $18.25 for the day, so under the goal of $20 a day.

The wind is blowing like crazy today so I made sure we had our flashlights located and found a supply of fresh batteries I knew we had in case of power failure tonight. We've also got those rechargable things that plug into outlets and when it gets dark or there is a power failure they come on, so we are set.

Added $1.91 in coins to the change jar.

I hate it when I don't sleep well at night. It just throws me off for the whole day. Especially when I have a cold. I was just starting to feel halfway decent and today I've been sneezing and having a runny nose like I was three days ago. I'm taking something to make sure I sleep tonight so that I don't go back downhill. I really don't want to have to buy another box of cold medicine to manage my symptoms. It is getting expensive to buy and I don't have any coupons.

Today was a busy day. I had my physical therapy appointment today so that was $90. I will be so glad when my deductible kicks in, but they raised it this year to a ridiculously high $1,250 per person or $2500 per family. Well, I'll definitely make up the bulk of that. The kids have each been to the doctor once this year, but probably won't need to go again this cold season. They will have to get physicals before camp. But mostly it's going to be me.

They did start an HSA though so DH is going to start having them take out $300 a month pretax for that since we easily spend that much on my medical alone and I am likely going to have to have another surgery in the next couple of months. I see a specialist on the 15th. Our out of pocket for the surgery, if I need it, will be about $2000, since it's just a laproscopy and will be done in office as an outpatient. Glad I decided to keep a decent sized EF. We'll try to swing it without touching it, but it's nice to know it's there.

Just once I'd like to go more than a year and a half without a visit to the slice and dice boys. My last surgery was 12/07/09. This has been going on more or less since I was 33. I'm turning 41. That is a lot of surgeries to have. On the bright side I might get my jury duty postponed again, which would be nice, as it's scheduled for a time when DH is supposed be gone for most of it. If I could postpone it for two weeks it would be perfect since he doesn't work when he is home.

We got gas for the car, so that was $38.02. It was running on fumes. It's a twelve gallon tank and it took 11.89 gallons so definitely don't want to cut it so close again. DH has been doing a lot of running around without me this week so I hadn't kept as close of an eye on it as usual and DH doesn't pay much attention to it.

I paid $4.46 on BoA MC #1, the one we paid off, but the last bit of interest came through. I also transferred off the autopayment for our credit monitoring service to the other card so nothing more will be put on that card. It has been put away. Once the second MC is paid off we will cancel it entirely.

DH called today to get a refund of the $218.18 we overpaid on the Gold Star Loan that we paid off last month. They said it will be in our bank account by Friday and to call them back when we get it and they will officially close out that line of credit and will report to the credit bureaus that it has been paid in full and the account closed by us.

I'm trying to get our available lines of credit down lower well before we are ready to buy a new house. Our credit score is at 780, but it says because we have so much available credit it will not go above 800 until we get rid of some of it. I know it'll take a dip first, closing accounts always does, but that is why we are doing it so far in advance of buying a house, to give it time to bounce back up again. The loan line of credit is $41,000 available and the MC is $3000. I think I might have them lower my AMEX limit, too, since it is $15,000 and we never use more than $2000 at a given time with it and we pay it off in full each month. So maybe get them to lower it to $7000 or something.

I spent $35.79 at the grocery store today on organic milk and orange juice (very much a luxury but I like it when I am sick), veggies, some organic deli meat, and the giant jar of peanut butter that's the size of a tub of Crisco.

I took DH to the airport as he flies back to Alaska for work. I won't see him again until the 2nd or 3rd, I believe. I don't remember if he comes home on Tuesdays or Wednesday now. Which means he misses my birthday on Saturday, but then he usually does. He will be home on both my son's birthday and our 16th wedding anniversary in March so that is much more important to me. I will go this week and pick up my two birthday presents on my own, a giant coffee table sized cook book (that I got my niece for Christmas and coveted greatly) from B&N and season 4 of Lost. I have the money set aside. At first I was tempted to just add it to my laptop fund, but decided I really want to have something this year.

Meal planning for today:

Breakfast:
TJ's Crisped Rice cereal ($1)
Milk ($2)
Bacon ($2)
Total: $5

Lunch:
2 Kids
PB&J sandwich (.50) (free homemade jelly from aunt)
PB&H sandwich (.50) (free honey from Mom's bees)
apple (.50)
banana (.25)
hard pretzles (.50)
water
$2.50

DH
Leftover pot roast (free)
Leftover potatoes and gravy (free)
Leftover green beans

Me
Leftover spaghetti (free)
Orange juice ($1)

Total: $3.50

Dinner:
Me and kids
1 can of TJ's chili ($1.50)
1 can of TJ's chicken noodle soup ($1.29)
Can of Green beans ($1)
Oranges ($1.50)
Milk ($1.50)
Homemade cookies ($1)
Total: $8.79

DH will eat at the airport. That is part of his work travelling budget and does not come out of the grocery budget.

$14.29 for the day and there is a bowl of leftover chicken noodle soup so I will have that tomorrow for part of my lunch. With DH gone and work providing all of his meals for the the next 22 days, our meals should cost much less. We should easily be able to hit the goal of keeping it under $20 a day. Probably under $15.

So in my quest to save money on food by meal planning I put several books on hold at the library. Another one came in on Friday and I just had a chance to finish it up today. It's called How to Feed Your Whole Family a Healthy, Balanced Diet with Very Little Money...and Hardly Any Time, Even if You Have a Tiny Kitchen, Only Three Saucepans (One with an Ill-fitting Lid), and No Fancy Gadgets--Unless You Count the Garlic Crusher.... Well, with a title like that you have to read it, don't you?

It's by Gill Holcombe, who is English, but the book is written in American (no extra u's or re's), only they forgot to translate for dollars so stuff is still in pounds. And there are a few foods mentioned that I'm not sure they even have here, and a couple of things I had to look up on

www.britsfood.com. Might as well have kept in the u's and re's then, silly publishers, thinking we can't read British English or something.

The author has a great sense of humor as you might recognize from the title. The organiztion of the book leaves a lot to be desired since the recipes are scattered throughout the very wordy (but funny) chapters instead of neatly organized and there are no photos (I do like photos in a cookbook), but I did find a few promising recipes. One for hashbrowns and one for making a small amount of tomato ketchup if you happen to run out of it and need some in a pinch. It's 3 tbsp tomato paste, 2 tsp vinegar, 1 tsp brown sugar, and 2/3 cup of boiling water. It's all stuff I keep on hand and I am tempted to try making it anyway since ketchup has gotten so expensive and we can't use the brands with corn syrup in them. Tomato paste is still relatively cheap. If we like it I can make it up and just pour it into an old ketchup bottle in the fridge.

It also had a recipe for Lancashire Hot Pot which is a lamb dish that looks so good. It's meant to be cooked in the oven as a sort of layered casserole but I think it could very easily be adapted to the crockpot. Lamb is forever being marked down here. The stores carry it, but never seem to sell enough of it that there isn't always some in the discount bin that needs to be used or frozen that day. So I will make that if I find some marked down lamb and let you know if it's any good. Also will make the hashbrowns and report back on them.

I found a few recipes for cakes and a simple fudge that I am going to write down and try later on. I don't like to make those unless there is a birthday or something, but we've got two coming up in the next six weeks. The recipe for ginger beer (ale) looks promising and would be simple to make the next time I have a stomachache and don't feel like running to the store for ginger ale (the kind without corn syrup). Though I have six bottles at the moment so that might actually be a while.

I haven't gotten around to roasting that chicken yet and using the extra for enchiladas and the carcass for soup stock. Maybe Tuesday. The chicken is still frozen. Yesterday was eggs and pancakes for breakfast, leftover spaghetti for lunch, and tacos for dinner.

Today's meals are--

Breakfast:
Blueberry pancakes made from Jiffy muffin mix (.79)
Eggs (free from chickens)
Milk ($2)
Total: $2.79

Lunch:
Leftover spaghetti with leftover sauce (price already taken out the day I made it, so free)
Hamburger ($2.29)
Bananas ($2)
Salad (.50)
Total: $4.79

Dinner:
Beef pot roast ($5.69)
Mashed potatoes ($1)
Green beans ($1)
Homemade gravy (.50)
Biscuits (.50)
Milk ($2)
Total: $10.69

It's a pretty large pot roast and there will be leftovers of it and the potatoes and gravy so there will be at least most of another meal out of this for 2 of us, probably Monday's lunch for me and DH. Maybe more, but it depends on how hungry everyone is tonight at dinner. Mom will be eating with us tonight so this will feed five people instead of four. Mom drinks her own milk that she buys herself so I never count that in our food costs.

Even though dinner is pricier than usual, lunch and breakfast are lower than usual and I still came in under $20 a day which is what I'm aiming for at the moment. If I can get to $16.50 per day as an average I'll get the monthly grocery budget down to $500. If I can get it down to $15 a day it'll be $450. But those are goals for later months. $13 would put me just under $400 by ten bucks, which is the ultimate goal. Right now just keeping it under $20 is good for February.

After lunch we dumped the kids off with DH's parents and borrowed their truck, put $30 worth of gas into it and took it out to our old house. We managed to get almost everything packed up. There are two cupboards left to clean out in the laundry room and kitchen and then the sorting area in the living room and the cupboard under the bathroom sink in the kids' bathroom. Then from there on out it's just cleaning the inside of the house up.

We still have to clean off the clutter trap that is the front porch so I can call the piano movers and get the piano moved to town. Not sure how much that's going to cost but it was $75 five years ago when we moved it in so I'm figuring with inflation and the cost of gas these days it'll be closer to $100, though we won't be moving it quite as far as before, 25 miles as opposed to 40.

We also have to finish cleaning out the shed. Everything is boxed and ready to go to storage and it will take at least two runs with the truck. Altogether I think we have about three runs left to completely empty everything out of both buildings. Then we will have one, if not, two dump runs to make and have to call someone to come take away the old chest freezer for recycling.

I found 70 cents while cleaning and added it to the coin jar.

Well, on the new count we are five days without eating out, with no plans to do so before the 18th. My goal is to make it to the 20th without eating out because that will be 3 full weeks. The way I am going with meal planning and homecooking, I honestly think I'm going to be able to cut my food budget from $700 a month to $500 a month, without sacrificing quality or cutting back on organics. I would like to get it down to $400, but I don't want to push too much at first and with DS's allergies there are just some things we cannot buy cheaper.

DS was begging for nuggets today so I thought I'd change the meal plan which had called for roasting a whole chicken and I thawed out some boneless, skinless chicken thighs instead. I cut them up, saving the pieces that were too little and throwing them in the stir-fry baggy in the freezer. I try to make the nuggets a uniform size and shape so that they'll cook evenly, so there are invariably little bits leftover. The baggy is finally full enough I can make stir-fry with it next week.

I love making nuggets at home. It's so easy and they taste so much better than McD's. Plus I can make enough to feed five people for around $4. The same amount would take $12 at McD's. Here's my recipe:

1.5 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs
1/2 cup flour
1/2 TBSP corn starch
2 beaten eggs
1 TBSP water
2 cups panko (I use Ian's organic, plain one)
Salt and pepper

Cut chicken into nugget size pieces. Mix corn starch and flour in one bowl. Mix eggs and water in a second bowl. Put the panko in a third bowl. Dip chicken in flour mixture, then egg mixture (letting excess drip off or it can get really thick and gummy and not cook enough), then panko. Place on a plate and add freshly ground sea salt and pepper. (You don't need to season both sides).

Heat canola oil in a wok until very hot (or use a deep fat fryer). Fry nuggets for three minutes. This amount usually takes us two batches.

I use the same breading recipe to make homemade fish and chips style cod fish pieces or fish sticks. And also homemade deep fried mozzarella sticks (except in that case I use the panko with Italian seasoning or if I only have plain add a couple TBSP of Italian seasoning to the panko).

I'll roast the chicken tomorrow for lunch. Whatever is left will be picked off mostly for enchiladas with half a cup being saved for chicken fried rice and the carcass will go to make chicken broth. I found what looks like a great recipe for egg drop soup so I will use the broth to make that on the same day we have the egg fried rice. I love it when I can get three meals out of one thing like that. Even better is it's the chicken I got for free with the gift card from DH's work. Since the chicken is free, and the eggs from Mom's chickens are free, that soup is going to be dirt cheap, just the cost of ginger, salt, pepper, which I have on hand, and scallions and peas and carrots (the latter two I have on hand) which will also go in the rice.

So I just read another blog urging me not to forget to buy stuff for Valentine's Day for my sweetie and my first thought was, "Umm...no." In my mind, this holiday is just a major waste of money, not just that of the lovebirds but of all the companies who are advertising. It goes into high gear right now. And I don't say this as someone who is down on love, but as someone who has been firmly in a committed relationship for twenty years.

I don't feel like I have to prove my love by buying overpriced waxy chocolates, overpriced out of season roses, eight dollar fancy singing cards encrusted with enough glitter to keep a classroom of six year olds supplied for a year, or expensive gadgets, nor do I expect $1000 jewel encrusted bracelets or necklaces and cutesy stuffed animals in return.

DH will get a free e-card. I will get one from him. We will try to out cute each other and be the sappiest. Since he will be away that day we will talk on the phone. If he were home we'd probably shunt the kids off somewhere and have a cozy dinner at home that we prepare together, followed by a snuggle in front of a romantic DVD.

The best way I've ever found of telling someone you love them isn't buying them something, it's saying the words, "I love you," and showing it in your daily behavior. What more do you really need?

I forgot to do today's menu on my other post so here it is. I made a batch of Jiffy Blueberry Muffins this morning (.79). It's a safe brand for my son's allergies.

Breakfast:
Scrambled Eggs (free from chickens)
Blueberry Muffins (.40)
Bacon ($4)
Milk ($2)
Total: $6.40

Lunch:
2 kids
Organic Deli meat sandwiches on homemade rolls ($3.25)
Orange (.50)
Banana (.25)
Hard pretzles (.50)
water
$4.50

DH
Tuna fish sandwiches on homemade rolls ($2)
water

Me (I took a nap and slept through lunch)
Snack of blueberry muffin (.10)

Dinner:
Spaghetti ($1)
Homemade Sauce:
Onion (.40)
2 cans tomato sauce ($2)
1 can diced tomatoes ($1)
Garlic (.25)
Basil, oregano, marjoram, thyme, salt and pepper (.50)
Milk ($2)
Total: $7.15

True the homemade sauce is more expensive than a couple jars of Ragu, but we can't just use regular brand names due to DS's allergies. So we'd be looking more at a couple of jars of Muir Glen Organics, in which case the homemade sauce is cheaper.

No, I didn't use some kind of magical couponing/rebating system. I had exactly one coupon for $1.50 off TP. DH and I simply used the $40 gift card he got to a local grocery store from his work for Christmas. But to make it stretch as far as possible, I waited until meat went on sale to use it. So we ended up with 4 beef pot roasts, 1 whole chicken, a 24 pack of Charmin toilet paper (son's allergies dictate this is about the only brand we can buy), six apples, six oranges, six bananas, 2 shampoos and a bodywash.

So now I have enough crockpot meat for the next five Sundays and enough fruit for a week.

We also signed up for their club card for greater discounts. It has the added benefit of giving you Alaska Airlines (the carrier he uses to go back and forth to work) miles for every $250 you spend. Now, I doubt very much we will be going back to that store any time in the near future because it is across the county and generally more expensive on a regular basis than the stores we normally shop. But if on the off chance we do go back there, his miles will build up.

We also picked up some milk on a rain check at our usual store. It was on sale Tuesday for $1.98 a gallon but they were sold out so DH got a rain check. We used it yesterday to get 2 gallons at $3.96. The price was back up to $3.29 a gallon, so it would have been $6.58 for the same amount, a savings of $2.62.

I am feeling somewhat better now. My nose has mostly unclogged and I can breathe out of both nostrils again so that is a positive step forward. I still feel a bit dizzy and a little weak but I should be able to start cooking again. Today was a rough it day again, with DH muddling through. We had the other box of gluten free frozen waffles we found when we did our freezer inventory last month and scrambled eggs for breakfast.

Breakfast:
Waffles ($4)
Powdered sugar (.10)
Scrambled eggs (free from chickens)
Milk ($2)
Total $6.50

Lunch:

2 kids
PB&J sandiches ($1)
Apple ($1)
Orange (.50)
baggy potato chips (.50)
baggy natural Cheetos (.50)
water
$3.50

DH
TJ's brand spaghettio's ($1.50)
2 hot dogs ($1)

Me
Can of TJ's chicken noodle soup ($1)
Salad with dressing (.50)
Glass of orange juice ($1)

Total Lunch $8.50

Dinner:
Tacos
Box of shells ($1.29)
Ground Beef ($2.29)
Homemade taco seasoning (.50)
Cheddar Cheese ($1)
Lettuce (.50)
Milk ($2)
Quart of homemade canned peaches from aunt (free)
Total: $7.58

DD has the assignment of writing down and cooking a recipe for her cooking and nutrition class on Friday so she will make dinner tomorrow night but I will be there to talk her through it. We will make spaghetti with my special sauce. I've got an onion that needs to be used so it'll be perfect.

I sent $100 off to ING today to add to the Emergency fund.

$6031.35 ING account
+0100.00 Transfer amount
--------
$6131.35 Total ING amount
$2068.65 Safety Net at local CU
--------
$8200.00 Total Emergency Fund

I probably ought to transfer that $68.65 of the Safety Net over to ING since it makes more in interest there, and I feel comfy with only having $2000 in the safety net, but I wasn't thinking about that when I made the transfer. I'll do it next time I make a transfer.

Made a mini-payment to BoA of $86.16, just to chip away a little bit more at what we owe. We won't get paid again until February 18th. I have $800 left for six days. $450 is set aside for bills that come due between now and then (cell, insurances, storage). $200 is set aside for groceries. $150 is for miscellaneous expenses, like gas or anything I forgot about. Anything left over when payday hits will go to the laptop fund and the EF depending on how much there is.

I should only need to buy milk, fresh fruit and veg. We still have plenty of meat in our freezer, but we will be using the $40 gift card to Safeway to buy meat. Either whole chickens or beef potroasts (or if they aren't too expensive picnic hams). I need something for Sundays for the crockpot.

I didn't feel good enough on Monday to do my usual baking. I didn't really feel good enough to do it today either, but DH is home until the 8th so he did most of the work under my directions. He's good like that. I'm probably too contagious to really be touching the food anyway.

We made two batches of hamburger buns today because we decided to make up a bunch of cheeseburgers to freeze. We had gotten into a habit of buying 20 of the cheap double cheeseburgers at a time from McD's and freezing them for days when things were just crazy. Each one costs $1.29 with tax for a total cost of $25.80. I figured we could do them cheaper from scratch, but the other way was just more convenient. Well, today DH grilled up 20 hamburger patties and then we assmebled 20 cheeseburgers for the freezer, wrapped them in plastic wrap and then into two large tupperware container made for transporting cakes. Total cost was $12 (including wrap), so a savings of $13.50.

Normally a batch of hamburger buns is twelve, but we made smaller dough balls this time on two of the batches and just let them rise for 3 hours instead of 2. So each batch made 18 instead of twelve. This left us with the usual twelve leftover to use for the next several days worth of sandwiches and rolls.

Then DH made up two batches of biscuits. To one batch we added garlic powder, parsley, and a handful of cheddar cheese and brushed the tops with butter and they taste pretty close to the Cheddar Bay Biscuits that Red Lobster makes. DS loves them and I figured they'd be pretty cheap to make at home. We froze half of each batch for later in the week.

When DD got home from school today she made a batch of her sugar cookies so we will have some sweets this week. I like having sweets when I'm sick, though I tend to limit it to one serving per day.

Meal planning is really hard to do when I am this sick, mostly because I can't cook and DH is so limited in what he can cook. So I have to tailor it around what he can do.

Breakfast:
French Toast with real maple syrup ($2.50)
Milk ($2)

Lunch:
2 kids
PB&J sandiches ($1)
Apple ($1)
Orange (.50)
baggy potato chips (.50)
baggy natural Cheetos (.50)
water
$3.50

2 adults
Chicken and vegetable soup ($2)
Grilled ham and cheese ($2)
water
$4

Total Lunch: $7.50

Dinner:

Beef stir-fry
-beef ($3.50)
-1 pound bag of mixed veggies ($2)
Can of pineapple ($1)
Biscuits (.50)
Milk ($2)
$8 total