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Home > I Guess It Sort of Counts as Saving Money

I Guess It Sort of Counts as Saving Money

September 27th, 2012 at 06:39 am

Well, I cancelled my dentist appointment for tomorrow. My ear still hurts too much and my throat as well, to sit through a cleaning and after having been on antibiotics for over a week with no progress, I'm sure this is a nasty virus. I didn't want to get them sick there, so I've saved or at least put off, the cost of a cleaning this month. I go three times a year due to some damage caused earlier in life and the third appointment is not covered. I've rescheduled to mid-October, which shifts the payment to a better month and hopefully that gives me enough time to get over this forsaken thing.

Oh, it is better than yesterday, though so hopefully that means I'm on the upswing. Yesterday was "oh my gosh, I think I'm going to die from this ear pain, will it never end," and today was "I think I'll live but I'm not going to enjoy it." LOL So a tiny bit of progress. At least I have my sense of humor back, right?

I have missed three weeks of seeing the woman who works on my leg due to her car accident, so that $90 a week has eased things a bit. She called me today and we've tentatively scheduled for Monday, but with the understanding that either one of us was likely to cancel depending on health or injury status. It was good to hear from her. She's become a dear friend over the last couple of years and we chat non-stop when we have a session.

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Homeschool has gone much, much better this week. We are getting through things better. Math and literature take more than the allotted time, but the other subjects go faster so it all evens out. Today we only put in a half an hour more than the required time and I can see that things are beginning to go more smoothly on DS's end as he gets into the swing of it. I am pretty sure neither one of us is going to go crazy now.

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The garden continues to chug along. Today I picked green beans, tomatoes, a kohlrabi, and some more prunes. The broccoli is getting bigger right on schedule and there are several tomatoes getting red and another kohlrabi that will be ready soon.

The pears on my table are now ripe so I will try to make and can the pear sauce tomorrow, though all I want to do is just bite into those lucsious things and eat them straight. Must resist. There will be more for that.

About half the tomatoes on the table are ripe, too. I hope the rest get there before I need to do something with the ones that already have because I don't want to make two small batches of sauce I want to make one big one.

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I am making chicken stock overnight in the crockpot. I've got 4 chicken carcasses and a bunch of vegetable peelings that I've been saving in the freezer as well as a fresh leek and some sad looking but still decent parsley and other herbs from the garden. In the morning there will be beautiful, delicious broth for mere pennies. I may end up doing chicken noodle soup tomorrow instead of pizza because of my throat. I have some diced, cooked chicken in the freezer I can throw in to make it pretty easy as well as some fresh veggies I can chop and let simmer all day tomorrow. If I have enough leftover stock I will can it, otherwise I will freeze it.

And I think that about covers it.

7 Responses to “I Guess It Sort of Counts as Saving Money”

  1. PatientSaver Says:
    1348750642

    I'm curious how you make the chicken stock in the crockpot. I've never actually made chicken stock but i see caraluzzi's has whole chickens for .79 a pound.

    Do you just plunk the whole caracass in the slow cooker and fill with water and any veggie scraps? I would imagine the carcass becomes so softened in the a.m. that the bones would all fall apart and then you'd have to fish them out? I also hate the thought of "wasting" vegetables just to make a stock, but as you said, do you routinely save vegetable peelings and freeze them? This is interesting to me. Smile

  2. LuckyRobin Says:
    1348764071

    I save up all the bones until I have a gallon baggy full and all the vegetable scraps and ends for the same, and throw them in. I also usually add a fresh chopped leek, parsley, a few smashed cloves of garlic, and salt and pepper. I then fill the pot up to the top and set it on low overnight. In the morning I pour everything through a collander and that is the stock. At this point you then throw out or compost the remains of the veg and chicken bones. They will no longer have flavor. All you are left with then is the stock and you add fresh veggies to make soup, of course saving all your peel and skins for the next time you make stock.

    Yes, I routinely freeze my onion skins and ends, garlic skins, carrot peels, celery leaves and those center stalks that are usually not great for eating raw. Just make sure you wash the skins before you peel them. Carrots particularly need a good scrubbing uually. There is a lot of flavor in the skins and this is a trick I learned that saves a lot of money.

  3. PatientSaver Says:
    1348769619

    Thanks, LR. That's not a bad idea, especially if the veggie scraps you save are organic to start with. If they weren't, I probably wouldn't want to use them for a stock. I think I'll start saving and freezing them.

    Now if i could just make some room in the freezer for stock!

  4. snafu Says:
    1348788422

    I freeze home made stock in sandwich size zip lock bags to stack in the deep freeze or 'file' in the fridge freezer. It's safer to stack the bags in a a 9 x 12 lasagna pan until frozen just in case one leaks. I've never had one leak...yet

  5. LuckyRobin Says:
    1348788835

    PS--Just make sure you don't put in broccoli bits. They will make any stock you make taste off with a bitter undertone. That might be true for all brassicas, but broccoli is the only one I know of for sure that can ruin stock.

    Snafu--I've tried freezing directly in baggies in the past but they always leak. If I don't freeze them in glass jars I freeze them in those reusable square containers that hold a quart. They stack nicely and no leaks.

  6. Wino Says:
    1348890034

    Great idea on making stock for free. As cheap as I am, I still always used those chicken leg quarters to make my soup and stock. I think I'll speak to my wife about trying your way.

  7. patientsaver Says:
    1349047490

    So how much in veggie scraps do you use for one big pot of stock? also a gallon size plastic baggie? and when you save onion skins, are you talking about the papery outer skins?

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