I had a tough time today, but I am very determined to make it though the full two weeks without eating out. I really came close because I felt sick today. There was a huge weather swing down to 66 degrees after several days in the 80's and that always makes a difference in how I feel. I woke up with pressure in my ear and a scratchy throat and a headache. I just did not want to cook a third meal tonight. Fortunately I have a teenage daughter who was very helpful and dinner came together without a trip to a restaurant.

-------------------

We went to the food co-op and picked up a few vegetables and they had organic apricots still and since it is supposed to be cool tomorrow I thought I'd go ahead and make jam. If I am going to be doing it anyway, I might as well make another batch of apricot jam, too. Even if I still don't feel well tomorrow, I can't pass up a cooler day. I am going to go to bed early tonight and hopefully the extra sleep will help.

----------------

I finished off the last of the boughten eggs two days ago, and we are now on to eating just what our chickens provide. I wish the ducks would start laying. There are two males and two females. They are trying to *ahem* procreate quite a bit, so I would hope some eggs would show up soon as they are clearly at maturity now. Maybe it takes them longer than chickens to start laying.

-------------------

I picked up my son's immunization records from the medical records department of the group my son's pediatrician is in. The virtual school needs them for some unknown reason. I had called about them on Friday morning, but it took them until this morning to have them ready. I liked it better when the records were in the same building as the doctor's office. Things take longer the bigger the group gets.

We have a meeting with the head of admin for the school system in a couple of weeks about what happened to my son the last week of school with the bully who gave him a concussion. I still think we'll be homeschooling, though, even if there is a positive outcome unless DS has an abrupt about face on what he wants to do.

----------------

We also went to the library. DS had 13 holds come in. The entire series of something, but they are fast reads. I turned in the 3 books I was done with as I am trying to not keep a stack of read ones sitting around just waiting to pay fines. The library is only free so long as things don't get overdue.

Not much else going on. I should do a financial post tomorrow. Oh, I added $2.14 to the coin jar. Don't think I remembered to say that the other day.

It hit 81 degrees today. There is a nice breeze though, so the only place it really felt like 81 degrees was inside my car and that was with the sun shade up. Fortunately the car's AC cools it off in about 2 minutes. Having open windows and fans going is enough to cool the house right now. I am glad. We don't tend to have AC in this part of the country except in our cars. But I would totally want to use it on a day like today.

We went swimming today (and my super thick, long hair, which usually takes four hours to dry is almost dry an hour later). Although it was a little crowded, the lap lane was empty, so I got my 26 laps in. The pool had one of those really screechy toddlers in it. You know the type that have discovered they can scream and it echoes like crazy in places like indoor pools or churches or McDonald's playland? And the parents have given up trying to even shut them up when they do it? Yeah, love that. Glad I was underwater for most of it. The lifeguard did finally tell the dad that if he couldn't make the kid stop they'd have to get out of the pool. That seemed to shut the kid right up. Wish she'd said something sooner!

I'm picking more berries tonight as soon as it cools off a bit more and the bushes are in shade. I cut my first broccoli today. It was the one that was accidentally in with the cauliflower and way ahead of any of the other broccoli. And I finally finished transplanting the rest of the everbearing strawberries. They now live in pots on the deck where the chickens cannot eat them and the rabbits will not come. I still need to get the last of the cabbage starts in the dirt. These are supposed to be good for overwintering. We'll see.

Day 8 of the No Eating Out Challenge went just fine. No temptation today at all despite going swimming. How is everyone else doing on the No Eating Out Challenge? Anyone else still going with me for the second week? Anyone else want to join in for the second week?

I spent $90 today at my appointment and then $14.43 at the grocery store. I also gave the kids their weekly allowances ($7 and $12 respectively). DS also got paid for mowing my mother's lawn. He got in two mows last month instead of 4 because he was still recovering from the concussion early on, but she pays him $5 per mow so he got $10 and was happy. He's saving up for some kind of fancy new game machine. He also, the little stinker, won a free Kindle in a drawing at the chiropractor. Of course I don't want to buy him anything to go on it so he'll have to use his own money for that, too.

He asked me if he could have the gutters when they took them off the house and put on new ones. I laughed because I knew what he was thinking. Aluminum! He already has his aluminum can business, but he figures the gutters can get him a tidy sum when he takes in the cans next time. I said he could have them.

DS will be helping me with the transplanting. He's such a help in the garden, hoeing and watering and digging. And carrying heavy stuff. He is getting so strong now. You should see the muscles on this kid. He's starting to get six pack abs at 12! And his biceps are pretty impressive when he makes a muscle. Where did my baby boy go?

So we spent $253 on beef, pork, and whole chickens at

www.skagitriverranch.com today. That is approximately a four week supply of protein, though we do get about another $50 worth of ham, seafood, ground sausage, cheese, milk, sour cream, chicken thighs and legs at the food co-op.

We also picked up $18 worth of flour and $50 worth of produce for the week at the food co-op, broccoli, cauliflower, kohlrabi!!!!, cabbage, radishes, 4 nectarines, 1/2 pound of black cherries, onions, and some garlic. We have plenty of berries still. Oh, and I got about four more pounds of apricots to make jam with. The first kind I got were pence apricots. These ones are sundrop apricots. They were really inexpensive because they were in season. $1.29 a pound, and I spent $5.44 and they were part of that $50 of produce. They should make at least 6 or 7 pints of jam.

I need to buy another 25 pound bag of sugar. I am down to 25 pounds and I will go through that fast this week canning jams of apricots, blackberries and blueberries. Possibly even more raspberries.

I went down to the ranch with $300 and only spent $253, so the extra $47 is going into the Freezer Fund. I'll do an update on the Freezer Fund tomorrow. It's a couple updates behind. Now, to bed. It's already well past my bed time.

We went to the ranch this afternoon and purchased our beef and pork. They were having a sale on the pork chops, which made me happy. I had $60 left of my beef money so that will go into the freezer fund.

While we were down there we saw a sign for organic strawberries at a farm stand so I stopped and got 2 half flats for $12 each. I will be making jelly with that. I was excited because it is super hard to find a good source of organic strawberries around here. You can get a pint or a quart at the store, but anything bigger than that is not organic. Raspberries, blueberries and blackberries, yes, but not strawberries which get sprayed a ton. For my fellow NW Washingtonians, they come from Fir Island in Skagit County.

Of course all the other berries all grow in our yard so I know they are organic and don't need to track down a source. Now I have one I'll go back next year. When we move I will be planting strawberries. I thought about planting them here, but waited too long. I could probably still get a hold of some everbearing, but I find the Junebearing ones taste better to me.

I also added $8.59 to the coin jar. The eight ones went into the freezer fund envelope and on Monday I will deposit everything in that, along with whatever ones DH has left before he leaves. I also dumped all the coins out of DH's wallet and added that to the coin jar, $3.11. I am not adding leftover change and ones to the emergency fund again until I hit my freezer fund goal, which is $900. That should cover tax as well.

I think I was out from 11:30 to 2:30 today. It was hot, the car gets even hotter, and I forgot to take a water bottle with me. Plus I kept forgetting to put up my sunshade whenever I parked.

I did my big run to the Food Co-op. I got my freshly ground peanut butter so I will make peanut butter cookies tomorrow. I didn't get the Camano Island eggs this time. Instead I got some from Misty Meadows, which is an even more local farm (same county).

http://www.mistymeadowsfarm.com/eggs.html.

They do have a few stores in the greater Seattle area that they provide eggs for. I will report in on them when I have eaten some tomorrow. They are more expensive than the Camano Island eggs, but I figure our new hens will be laying in about four to six weeks and that's not too long to pay a little more for eggs if they are as good as everyone raves about.

Of course I got several other items, including Muir Glen Chicken Noodle soup. This is the only chicken noodle soup DS will eat other than homemade or Campbell's (which has so much stuff in it that I don't want him having/and or he is allergic to). now when he is sick he can have that if I don't have enough stuff on hand to make stock.

----------------

Speaking of stock I have been keeping two bags in the freezer lately. One is of chicken bones that I have picked the meat from and one is of things like onion and garlic skins, onion tops, carrot peels, celery leaves, etc. From what I have been reading there is actually a lot of flavor in those things that you would normally discard and you can use them to make your stock instead of using actual vegetables that you then throw away. We shall see. If it doesn't have the flavor it should I will just throw in the appropriate vegetables. Either way what is left after cooking will either go on the compost or to the chickens.

Another thing that I read is that you need the bones of four or five chickens (or at least two turkeys) to make really good stock. There just isn't enough there on one chicken carcass to get the really good meaty flavor. I've always had to highly season my stock in the past and think this might be the reason why. So I am saving all of the bones from the chicken I make. Well, not what we eat directly off of, but whatever is left over and I pick all the meat off.

I also read that for really good beef stock you need at least five pounds of beef bones and you need to roast them first. Well, I guess I knew that they should be roasted, but not that you needed that many to make a good stock. I am really learning a lot from some of these books I got from the library.

--------------

I am thinking about possibly making some homemade soap. When we get our beef, I am going to ask for some of the suet (the fat around the kidneys) for making tallow. I mean, I am paying for the whole thing (or half of the thing) so that should include the suet as well. You can get the organ meats if you ask for them, so I imagine the suet shouldn't be too hard for them to throw in. If not, oh well. You can make soap from vegetable oils instead of animal fat, so that is another course I could take. I have reserved the book Smart Soapmaking at the library and it should be arriving at my branch early next week.

------------------

I am also hoping that Joel Salatin's book Folks, This Ain't Normal will come in soon. I am third on the hold list, the library has 5 copies, and three of them are overdue. The other two are due on the 21st and 22nd. I hate it when people keep books out past their due date, especially new books that they know other people are waiting to read. Joel is a big advocate of pasture raised, humanely raised, organic livestock. He is the guy that the author of Omnivore's Dilemma visited and he runs Polyface Farms, which is featured in the documentary Food, Inc.

------------------

One of the chickens (Queen) dug up some of the plants in the vegetable garden. Fortunately I saw them and got them back into the ground in time. I then mulched around all the plants with straw, hoping that if we hide the dirt it won't tempt them to scratch in it so much. I also put up some white wire fencing from the old house to hopefully mark it as off limits. They could go through it though, so I am also going to get some rodent wire mesh and some zip ties and attach it to the fencing. A determined chicken could fly over it, but would probably have a hard time getting back out and would think twice before doing it again. Hopefully that won't cost too much.



The chicken was very indignant, as you can see in the photo, when I told her off and picked her up and stuck her back in the fenced area. She wouldn't even look at me. But then later when she got out again and I was sitting on the porch swing (which is not on the porch) she came over and snuggled my feet, so I think she's forgiven me.

I think I was out from 11:30 to 2:30 today. It was hot, the car gets even hotter, and I forgot to take a water bottle with me. Plus I kept forgetting to put up my sunshade whenever I parked.

I did my big run to the Food Co-op. I got my freshly ground peanut butter so I will make peanut butter cookies tomorrow. I didn't get the Camano Island eggs this time. Instead I got some from Misty Meadows, which is an even more local farm (same county).

http://www.mistymeadowsfarm.com/eggs.html. They do have a few stores in the greater Seattle area that they provide eggs for. I will report in on them when I have eaten some tomorrow. They are more expensive than the Camano Island eggs, but I figure our new hens will be laying in about four to six weeks and that's not too long to pay a little more for eggs if they are as good as everyone raves about.

Of course I got several other items, including Muir Glen Chicken Noodle soup. This is the only chicken noodle soup DS will eat other than homemade or Campbell's (which has so much stuff in it that I don't want him having/and or he is allergic to). now when he is sick he can have that if I don't have enough stuff on hand to make stock.

Speaking of stock I have been keeping two bags in the freezer lately. One is of chicken bones that I have picked the meat from and one is of things like onion and garlic skins, onion tops, carrot peels, celery leaves, etc. From what I have been reading there is actually a lot of flavor in those things that you would normally discard and you can use them to make your stock instead of using actual vegetables that you then throw away. We shall see. If it doesn't have the flavor it should I will just throw in the appropriate vegetables. Either way what is left after cooking will either go on the compost or to the chickens.

Another thing that I read is that you need the bones of four or five chickens (or at least two turkeys) to make really good stock. There just isn't enough there on one chicken carcass to get the really good meaty flavor. I've always had to highly season my stock in the past and think this might be the reason why. So I am saving all of the bones from the chicken I make. Well, not what we eat directly off of, but whatever is left over and I pick all the meat off.

I also read that for really good beef stock you need at least five pounds of beef bones and you need to roast them first. Well, I guess I knew that they should be roasted, but not that you needed that many to make a good stock. I am really learning a lot from some of these books I got from the library.

I am thinking about possibly making some homemade soap. When we get our beef, I am going to ask for some of the suet (the fat around the kidneys) for making tallow. I mean, I am paying for the whole thing (or half of the thing) so that should include the suet as well. You can get the organ meats if you ask for them, so I imagine the suet shouldn't be too hard for them to throw in. If not, oh well. You can make soap from vegetable oils instead of animal fat, so that is another course I could take. I have reserved the book Smart Soapmaking at the library and it should be arriving at my branch early next week.

I am also hoping that Joel Salatin's book Folks, This Ain't Normal will come in soon. I am third on the hold list, the library has 5 copies, and three of them are overdue. The other two are due on the 21st and 22nd. I hate it when people keep books out past their due date, especially new books that they know other people are waiting to read. Joel is a big advocate of pasture raised, humanely raised, organic livestock. He is the guy that the author of Omnivore's Dilemma visited and he runs Polyface Farms, which is featured in the documentary Food, Inc.

One of the chickens (Queen) dug up some of the plants in the vegetable garden. Fortunately I saw them and got them back into the ground in time. I then mulched around all the plants with straw, hoping that if we hide the dirt it won't tempt them to scratch in it so much. I also put up some white wire fencing from the old house to hopefully mark it as off limits. They could go through it though, so I am also going to get some rodent wire mesh and some zip ties and attach it to the fencing. A determined chicken could fly over it, but would probably have a hard time getting back out and would think twice before doing it again. Hopefully that won't cost too much.



The chicken was very indignant when I told her off and picked her up and stuck her back in the fenced area. She wouldn't even look at me. But then later when she got out again and I was sitting on the porch swing (which is not on the porch) she came over and snuggled my feet, so I think she's forgiven me.

Oh, my gosh, I apologize for all the typos in my last entry. I was writing it last night as I was drifting off to sleep, and clearly that does not bode well for my ability to type or spell. It's all edited now. 12 mistakes, though! Yikes! Must remember to post a little further away from bedtime when I'm that exhausted.

I had enough coins to roll one each of dimes, nickles, quarters, and pennies. I also had $29 in ones, and $30.56 left over from the June visit to the ranch. So that is a total of $77.06. I have decided not to add to the EF with my coin jar money for now and to instead put that money into the freezer fund.

$100.00 Beginning FF Balance
$+77.06 Deposit Added
---------
$177.06 Ending Freezer Fund Balance

$622.94 to go. I will be making another deposit to the freezer fund tomorrow, which is payday, of $100. Originally I had decided on the 17.4 cubic foot freezer, but I decided to go ahead with the 19.7 cubic foot freezer, which is big enough to hold an entire beef plus a couple of 25 pound sacks of flour. Although we will likely only get half a beef this time, we will be able to afford a whole beef next year, so having the extra space will be better.

We do also have our small chest freezer that is 5.0 cubic feet, which will probably be empty by the time we do get the beef. I'm in the process of using up everything in it and have it down to 2/3 full, so if we've underestimated the space needed we will have that space as well, not to mention the under fridge freezer.

We will probably have a November or December delivery date for our beef. We can choose it and that will give us enough time to save up for it. I will make the $300 deposit next time we go down to the ranch, which will be at the end of this month.

I cleaned out my purse and found $6.63 (and only $1 of that was a bill), so that went into my coin jar. It looks like I have enough to roll pennies and quarters and possibly dimes. I know nickles are close but I don't think I added enough to hit it.

I will figure it out tomorrow. I have over $30 in ones so it's time to make a deposit regardless.

----------------

Spending today--I stopped at Haggen to get cauliflower and broccoli. They just happened to have a one gallon pot full of pole bean sprouts and some regular cucumbers for eating not pickling, so I will have quite the variety there.

I also bought a pineapple while I was there. I should have bought milk, too, but I forgot. There's enough left for DS to have breakfast. I don't drink milk in the morning and neither does DD. We just have it at dinner and drink water the rest of the time.

I spent $18.05 there. For the plants alone I spent $5.98.

So $53.06 was my previous total on garden stuff.

$53.06
+_5.98
-------------
$59.08 total spent on gardening this year

-------------

After that I stopped by Youngstocks and got fresh Rainier cherries and some corn on the cob. I spent $11.93 there for four ears of corn (.50 each) and the rest on the cherries. I will not buy anymore fruit now until this all gets eaten and so does some of the stuff I have from before I bought all this friut yesterday and today.

That was all of the spending I did today.

----------------

My son had his orchestra concert tonight. It was really good. They've improved a lot, which is more than I can say for the 7nth graders, but it was mostly a good concert.

This being sustainable, humanely raised, pasture-raised, organic chicken. I had the first chicken we bought from the ranch yesterday and I was underwhelmed. It was good enough, but not spectacular. And it was kind of small. I do have two more to eat and I will prepare them differently, probably frying and rotisserie style. I don't really think it's the fact that I roasted it though. I didn't find their eggs to be all that great either. Maybe that's because I've eaten eggs from our chickens for so long, but the Camano Island eggs are as good as, if not better than, the eggs our chickens lay (when they aren't hiding them) and are far superior to the ranch eggs.

The ranch eggs tasted pretty much the same way as the ones from the store that are cage free, but not pasture-raised. I find this odd because these are definitely pasture-raised eggs, I saw them out in the pasture, but they are supplemented with grain (not soy, not corn) and maybe it's too much of that and not enough of the other? So maybe that's why the chicken isn't as good as I expected it to be based on the incredible flavor of the pork and the beef I've bought from them.

There are a lot more places that pasture-raise chickens as opposed to beef or pork in my county, so I will look for some chickens closer to home. One place I want to check out in person is the In Pastures Green farm in Ferndale. They follow all of the methods I most want in my food and they are about a ten minute drive away. And they are also substantially less per pound, $4.10 as opposed to $5.95. Also their chickens tend to be 4 to 5 pounds as opposed to the 3 to 3.5 pound average at the other place, so one bird will go a lot further, providing 3 to 4 meals instead of 2.

Based on their website and pictures, I think they actually come the closest to raising the chickens exactly like in the book I read, even having gone to train with the same person the author visited in The Omnivore's Dilemma. They also process right there on the farm. They have farm hours tomorrow so I think if the weather isn't too nasty (it's been raining for days), I'll pack up the kids and we'll go see. I really like visiting the places where we get our food from.

They do have ducks, too, so they may have duck eggs, but as of the last update about the ducks, they hadn't started laying, but the date on that was a while ago. I would love to get my hands on some more duck eggs between now and when ours start laying. The Food Co-op hasn't had them again on the more recent trips I've made and I used the last one on Tuesday. They are the best for baking cookies and rolls. Probably cakes, too, but I haven't tried that.

Two of our ducks seem to have paired up so we are pretty sure we have at least one female and will have some eggs eventually. I am hoping the non-paired two are both female as well.

They do require a $10 deposit per chicken if you are going to order them, which helps prevent no-shows. (They slaughter 3 times a year, it looks like). Which is about half the price per bird. So the overall cost seems like it would be $205 for ten 5 lb chickens. Again, it seems pricey compared to conventional chicken, but if you have ten birds and can get 4 meals from each bird, you've got a per meal cost of $5.12 for protein (based on a family of 4 to 5). Even if you could only get 3 meals from each chicken it would still work out to $6.83 per meal. That's pretty good for this type of meat.

I am thinking, also, that since they have you picking up the chickens on slaughter day, that means they don't freeze them, which means I could bring them home and cut up most of them and repackage them so that I could have all legs, all thighs, all breast, all backs, wings, and necks in their own packages if I wanted to. It'd be a bit of work, but I think worthwhile.

And I don't have to order 10. I could start with less. I'll have to think on it.

A few months ago I upped my grocery budget to $800. I figured that switching over completely to pasture-raised, organic protein and sustainably raised organic produce was going to really hit us hard and that there was no way I could manage at $600 a month. Well, guess what? I just added up all my grocery receipts for the month. I am under the original $600 budget!

$269.44 on beef, chicken, and pork (including duck)
__40.92 on organic milk
___7.00 on organic peanut butter
__15.96 on organic cheese
__21.95 on organic pizza toppings
__80.42 on organic vegetables
__12.73 on organic flour
__42.49 on organic fruit
__20.00 on organic, pasture-raised duck/chicken eggs
+_37.00 on organic butter (bought in bulk)
------------
$595.83

Okay, it's only $4.17 under, but I was struggling to hit that before switching. I think it helps that I am no longer buying any bread products, but making all of our bread. It also helps that the meat we are getting is much more filling so we are eating less of it. Actually that's true for the fruits and vegetables as well and the homemade bread, so everything lasts longer.

Another thing that helps is the meal planning, of course. Even if I don't stick to it every day, I have a list of pinch hitter meals. What are pinch hitter meals? Something I can get on the table fast when the other meal plan falls through.

Things that fall into the pinch hitter category:

Angel hair pasta in tomato sauce, ground beef, green beans from a can, fruit.

Boneless skinless chicken thighs cooked on the George Foreman grill, leftover vegetables or quickly boiled broccoli/cauliflower (only if it's been pre-cut up on another day), canned corn, bread.

Chili or soup (previously homemade or canned), club sandwiches, fruit.

Fish and chips in the deep fat fryer (not the best for health, but once in a while is fine). I do keep a box of codfish filets (with the fewest additives I can find) and a couple bags of Alexias organic French fries or sweet potato fries in the freezer. When I have time I will make fish and chips from scratch, but this is for a time crunch day. I'll usually skip the veg on this day because it is filling.

So it definitely helps to have the meal plan, but it also helps to have a backup meal plan list as well of things that are on hand. And of course, leftover management. That is always key.

I think I will leave the $800 budget in place for now. This month could have been a fluke. But any extra money will go first into the freezer fund and then into the beef fund. Well, first to the $300 deposit we need to put down to claim a half a beef for later slaughter, and then to the freezer fund.

DH and I drove down to Burlington today. Our main purpose was to go the ranch and get sustainable, pasture-raised organic beef, pork, and chicken. And that was accomplished nicely. I set aside $300 and I actually came back with $30.56, so spent $269.44. I could have bought a bit more, but I thought this would fill our available freezer space nicely and it certainly seems like a month's worth of meat (if not more). The leftover $30.56 will go to our freezer fund.

Surprisingly, as expensive as this meat is, I think our grocery bill is actually going down. This meat is much more filling because our bodies recognize it as being more nutritionally sound, so we are eating much smaller portions of it at meal time, probably by half. And it tastes so much better and is much more satisfying. Flavor can be so key. I also love, love, love the fact that there is so much less packaging. It is wonderful not to have all those polystyrene meat trays to throw out all the time. I noticed it took longer to fill the garbage bin this month.

I ended up with 3 whole chickens (between 3 and 4 pounds each), 6 packages of bacon (about 8 pounds), one package of sweet breakfast sausage links (1.5 pounds), 8 pork chops, 4 beef chuck roasts (2.5 pounds each), and 8 pounds of hamburger. I forgot to ask them about a ham, doggone it!

We do still have some meat left from last month's purchase as well. 2 packs of hamburger, an entire flank steak (about the size of a good London Broil), 1 New York strip steak and 4 ribeyes (they did not get made this week after all because LIFE HAPPENED). Plus we didn't end up ever making the duck, it's still in the freezer. I just got really sick the one day and went down for about 24 hours and then was fine again. Oh, yes, and while rearranging the freezer I found some Cornish game hens, as well, so those need to get made.

I asked them about Thanksgiving turkeys and they do have them. They start accepting orders in July so I will need to remember that so I can get my order in. They range in size from 12 pounds to 22 pounds, so basically you order a small, a medium or a large and get something in that range. We will order a small, which is the 12 to 15 pound range.

I also asked them about the pork family boxes and we can order one of those soon if we decide we like the pork. We already know we like the bacon and the polish sausage. We got the pork chops to try. I also asked them if they make anything similar to a hot dog and they usually do come summer time so I will ask again the next time we go down.

A pork family box costs $300 and contains 35 pounds of meat. That works out to over $8 a pound though. Yes, it's organic and pasture-raised and sustainable, and that is super hard to find, but about the only thing I usually pay that much for is wild caught Pacific salmon and usually I can get that for $5.99 a pound if I buy the whole fish. They don't sell a whole pig, unfortunately, the box is the best you can get. I may just stick with individually buying their bacon and sausage and the occasional pork chops and not bother with the other things. We'll just see how good those chops are, first.

I'm pretty much set for meat this month, but I will need to go to the Food Co-op to pick up some more turkey hot dogs so I can make DS up a big batch of corn dogs at the Food Co-op, some roast beef, ham, and turkey slices from the deli for school lunches, and some duck eggs if they have them as they are so good for baking.

I also will need to buy flour soon. While we were in Burlington we found the organic flour mill where you can buy the 25 or 50 pound bags of flour or you can buy the 25 or 50 pound bags of wheat berries. I do eventually want to get my own little flour grinder, but that's way down the road after the beef purchase. Unfortunately the flour mill is not open to the public on Saturdays (or maybe at all on the weekend), which is the only time the farm store is open, so we can't make just one trip to get what we want.

I am about to open a five pound bag of their flour that I got at the store so I will see how long it lasts us and then calculate what our flour needs will be. It might be worth it to get 100 pounds when we go and store them in the new chest freezer when we get it. I wish I could find it sold locally in the 25 pound bag. I am going to ask at the Food Co-op, since I know they let you buy cases of stuff at discount if you are a member. So maybe they have the big bags available in the back or something. If it will save us a trip it might be worthwhile.

I think we are going to switch back to the Organic Valley Milk but in the cartons, not the plastic jugs, unless we can find the other organic milk in glass bottles. The type in glass bottles that we are drinking now is not homogenized and I really just can't handle the cream separating. We've tried shaking it to death but sometimes there are still lumps, and it's just texturally weird and visually unappealing. If it was just me I'd cope, but everyone wants us to at least have homogenized milk. I will buy the other for making yogurt though if my first experiment with making it tomorrow goes well.

While we were down in Burlington we stopped by the Corningware Outlet Store and bought an 18-piece set of Pyrex storage containers at a good discount. These are glass containers with BPA-free plastic lids. We got 20% off. They also had some lids you could buy individually for some containers we already had at home that came without lids. They were $1.49 each and if we'd ordered them direct from Pyrex they'd have been 3X that much with shipping. I also picked up a new set of measuring cups and spoons (the sort that have six different sizes on each). I'm not sure what we did with the receipt, but we spent around $54 there.

We also got gas today, $66.90.

And I think that's it. Tomorrow should be a restful day. DH is taking the kids to his mother's after lunch. I will be making yogurt and baking bread, but that is all that is on my agenda. I will probably finish reading a book and do some writing and maybe even watch the other half of the movie I started on Wednesday. And take an uninterupted bath. Ah, bliss!

It's been a really long day, but here, as promised, is a photo of the ducks.



You can really see how much they have grown here. They tower over the chicks and they are not even fully grown, though they will be soon. They are so beautiful. It is hard to do them justice in photograph, because they don't let you get too close, but they are not just black. They have glittering dark green feathers mixed in.

We did not make it down to the farm store at Skagit River Ranch so that will go on the agenda for next Saturday. I've set the money aside. We did go to the Food Co-op and we became members. It costs $90 to buy a share (you can only buy one share) and that makes you a member. It is then $5 a year to keep your membership current. They do have a special program for senior citizens though where you can buy in at $3 a month until it is paid for. I thought that was great for people living on a fixed income. You can buy without a membership but it costs more.

We spent $156 on groceries there, but I should not have to buy too much else for the next while. Just milk and produce as needed. I bought a frozen duck. I've never made (or eaten) duck before, but I've been reading the Cook's Illustrated Poultry book (that's not quite the title), and it's got some great recipes in it so I will try it like one of those. It was a five pound duck for $20, free range, pasture-raised, and organic. So $4 a pound. Not bad. We also bought a locally produced chuck roast for dinner tomorrow. It was much less than the ones at the farm, so if it is really good we may just buy our roasts here and just get the other meats there. We'll see.

They also had ground elk, but I couldn't bring myself to spend $12 on one pound. I decided I didn't want to cultivate a taste for something that expensive. Though I was very curious to try it. If I knew someone who hunted it'd be on my list for sure.

I ground my own peanut butter. It was fun! Just peanuts and nothing else. I've never been someplace before that had a machine that wasn't broken. It smells so good and I love knowing exactly went into it. I will be making more peanut butter cookies with it this week.

I checked out all the flours and rices and many other things I didn't get to look at so closely when I went with the children. DH rapidly became a big fan of the place.

I need to plan my menu for this week still. It's half planned in my head, at least the protein dishes, but I still need to figure out the rest.

I spent a good part of the day cleaning and reorganizing the kitchen, but it's not done. It's not even that big a space, but there is a lot to do.

I need to bake tomorrow. I need to make hotdog and hamburger buns and also regular bread. DS uses the hotdog buns for his sandwiches to school. He likes them better than anything else. I also want to do another batch of peanut butter cookies and maybe some blueberry corn bread muffins. I found some great reusable BPA free bread bags at the store the other day and I think I will fill them all up with my baking this week. I want to make French bread mid-week for garlic bread, too. Busy busy I will be.

I haven't been feeling great the last couple of days. Not sick, really, just...yucky. Today I didn't stick to my meal plan. I cooked, it's just that the idea of doing a complicated new recipe did not appeal. Plus, I realized I was out of soy sauce, so I couldn't really make the marinade. I ended up just doing bacon cheese burgers, corn on the cob, and nectarines. It worked well. We picked up soy sauce so we can make the Tropical Chicken Stir-fry tomorrow and bump the ribeye meal to next week. They are frozen so it's not that big a deal. Plus DS is doing a make up tae kwon do class tomorrow for when he was so sick, which means a stir-fry will just be easier than the other.

-----------------------

I found this interesting booklet on meal planning:

http://nchstd.documents.s3.amazonaws.com/More%20Month%20than.... It's kind of a crash course for people who don't really know what they are doing. It wasn't exactly news to me, but I think it would be very helpful for someone who hasn't tried meal planning before and wants to dive in. It does require time though. I think this is more for families with a stay at home parent (and not of very young children, but at least preschool age and up, because some of it would just be hard to do with a toddler clinging to your leg or wearing a baby) or maybe one parent who is only working part time. I'd find it hard if I was working full time. Not that it's not doable, but it's probably not practicle in that situation. Also didn't really care for the breakfasts, because I don't like oatmeal (unless it's in cookies or bread or granola or Joe's O's), but it's not hard to plan breakfasts. And I liked the shopping lists. It's a good teaching tool really.

----------------------------

I added $6.98 cents to the coin jar. I picked up a prescription for $25. We filled up the gas tank on the van, $57.16. We did a major stock up run to Costco so I shouldn't have to go there for a couple of months, and picked up six LED lightbulbs there, batteries, toilet paper, and of course groceries.

I got really annoyed at a lady there. She was trying to squeeze between me and the shelves instead of going around DH and I. There was not room to do this and she was practically shoving her cart into me. I was probably less than gracious about it because I was having a bad pain day in my leg which always makes me walk slower. I walked even slower at that point. I get cranky when I hurt. She huffed loudly and finally just went around us. I wanted to tell her off, but I bit my tongue. People are rude enough at Costco without me adding to it.

-------------------------

Spent $10 on two foam swords for the kids. I probably played with one of them more than was seemly for an adult, but it was fun to whack something today. Very stress relieving. This was actually an expense for school.

-------------------------

Here, have a photo of the half grown chickens roosting in the coop. I will try to get a photo of the ducks up soon.



Oh, and here's a photo of the damage my mother "didn't" do to our older car. The suction cup dent remover does not work to pull it out, either. It cost $5.

Yeah, I know, me. I like Costco for a lot of reasons, but lately I don't even want to go there. The parking lot is always crammed, not just with Washingtonians, but also with Canadians coming across the border to get deals on food. And gas. For a long time Costco has been the cheapest gas station around, but the wait over the last year has gotten to be so ridiculous you can spend a half an hour in line waiting for gas and that's not even during peak time. In fact it takes less time to drive to the Costco in the next county and get gas then it does to go to the one in my hometown. Of course there's the return trip so it's not worth it, but that shouldn't be the case. It shouldn't be this bad. We aren't California.

I think it would help if they had county or state resident only hours of operation. It would be nice if there were an hour in the morning or an hour in the evening where if you were from out of state or country, you weren't allowed to buy then. Even if it was only one day a week.

Not even the handicapped parking spaces are vacant there. In the past year and a half that I've had my permit, I've parked in a handicapped slot there exactly twice. And after navigating the innards of this Costco and then waiting in the checkout line for 20 minutes or longer, my body is so messed up I need to have parked close.

We're not buying our meat there anymore since switching to grassfed beef and chicken, I can buy toilet paper and cashews somewhere else, but there are certain items I can't get anywhere else locally. 50 pound bags of flour, the organic tomato sauce, tomatoes, paste, and sauce. They have changed so many brands to their store brand, which is sometimes good but sometimes really, really not. They have stopped carrying the peanut butter my son can eat.

I don't know. We more than made back our money on our membership this year, and the thing renewed in January so I'm not in a rush to make up my mind, but the lengths at which I go to avoid going there (I usually send DH with a list) make me think maybe it's time to let it go. I think if before it expires I go and buy a year's worth of butter and freeze it and tomato products and store them, I could be perfectly happy without the membership at this point. With our new bed we could completely fill the underneath with tomato products and not have them sitting out in the way. Maybe that is the way to go.

I'll really have to watch my pattern of use for the rest of the year and if I'm avoiding it more than I'm going then there's not much point in keeping it any longer.

After having made cheeseburgers with bacon for lunch and beef potroast for dinner, trying three of the items we bought from the farm, I am very happy with our purchase of the grass fed, organic beef. The hamburger is so lean (5% fat) it doesn't make enough fat to fry the meat in, though. We ended up just frying it in the bacon fat for our bacon cheeseburgers, which was delcious though it took away from the 5%. The bacon was lean too, but being bacon still had some fat, but I was surprised at the much smaller amount of drippings.

The chuck roast was very moist and tender after cooking in the crockpot on low for 8 hours. It was incredibly flavorful. I am glad they warned us to not have such a free hand with seasoning because half of what I normally put on was all that was needed. In fact DH forgot to put seasoning on the bacon cheeseburgers that he made (they were out when I made mine, so he made his and the kids' when they got back) and he said it didn't even need the seasoning. I thought that might be from the flavor imparted from the bacon, though.

They also told us to take smaller portions than we were used to eating because grass fed, organic beef has more protein in it per ounce and it fills you up faster. So far I have found that to be true. I ended up giving the last few bites to my son because I wanted to have room for my fresh organic strawberries and my organic mixed greens. So even though it may be more expensive to buy it, the fact that you don't have to eat as much of it to get full, might help lower the overall cost a bit.

I am really looking forward to trying the steaks and the sausages over the next couple of days.

I want to get some meat from the other farm in Bow to try. This one was black angus but the other is chiangus a cross between angus and chianina. I know I like angus, and I know chianina is supposed to be wonderful but I've never had it. If they don't sell any steaks to try, I guess I will go with the first place.

So we are back from our trip to Skagit River Ranch. We bought $255 worth of beef, a pack of their bacon, a pack of their mild Italian sausage, and a dozen eggs (since our chickens still aren't laying enough to keep up with five people).

We got to see quite a lot of the animals as we drove in, there was a lot of acreage. It's almost funny to see chickens out in a pasture, it's not the idea of Americana farmer that I have in my head, though it should be.

We were greeted by a rooster, three hens and a dog who looked like he was mostly border collie who'd been rolling around in something as he had leaves and dirt on him. He smelled okay so not something else you might find on a farm! He was very friendly and had a tail that could thump you hard with his happiness.

We went into the little farm store they had that is open only on Saturdays and we got to pick out our meat. Since it was our first time there, the girl running the shop went to get her father, the farmer, and he talked to us all about his farming practices and how he'd started farming the healthy way after he'd had serious health problems.

It was interesting and I learned a lot about sustainable farming, pasture rotation, composting, etc. He is very passionate about it and isn't that what you want in your food producer? Someone who cares about the health of the land and the animals and their vitality?

I can't wait to try the beef tomorrow. We will be making cheeseburgers for lunch and having a pot roast for dinner.

In our quest to eat more locally grown, sustainable, and organic foods and still try to not break the grocery budget, I stopped by a local farmstand today. I got all of this:



for $6.09. Pretty food, huh? Except for the kiwis, everything was from my state, most of it from my county or the next county over. I can't even tell you how beautifully the green onions and celery smell. Quite often I shop with my nose, even with foods that most people won't normally think to smell. It's obvious to sniff pineapple and canteloupe, but did you know that you can tell how celery will taste by the smell? If it smells bitter it will taste bitter. If it smells sweet and fragrant and sort of like parsley, then it will taste exactly as it should.

I haven't made the menu plan for the week yet, but I will do that tonight. Yes, I know it's Wednesday. Today we are having leftovers, but I do need to make one up for the rest of the week. Now that I've got a bit more produce on hand, I know what I am working with.

I cashed out at American Consumer Opinion Panel for $20.05. I do kind of roll my eyes a little, because you can't cash out until you have $10, and it takes 10 days for whatever you do to even hit the account and then when you cash out it takes 1-2 weeks for them to process it, so they really make you wait for it, but then it does come through eventually and they do pay really well and have some very interesting surveys and product tests, so I guess it is all worth it even if I do roll my eyes. I just always figure payment will be a month later. They are better than many I have tried and I have been signed up with them for six years, so they are definitely tried and true.

I spent $3.38 at Youngstock's today. It is an outdoor produce and flower stand. Then I spent $72.50 at Haggen. DH is home, but we kept to the list pretty darn well. We are just a little over the amount for the week by about $5. Not bad for almost everything we bought being organic.

All right, I almost made it through the stores with only the things on my lists. I bought chocolate at TJ's and I bought 2 English cucumbers (on sale for $1 each) and 2 six packs of lettuce starts (romaine and red leaf) at Haggen. Not too bad. I would not have bought the chocolate if I hadn't taken the kids with me, as I would not have even thought about it. But I still would have gotten the cucumbers and the lettuce starts.

They had other veggie starts, but the ground is not prepared for them. The lettuce will go in window boxes up on the porch rail, because if we plant them within reach of the chickens they will eat them and I want to be the one eating them, thank you very much.

I ended up spending $52.18 at TJ's and $21.20 at Haggen, well within the budgeted amount for the week. I imagine it will be more difficult when I have to start buying more organic meat, but maybe I'll be so good at this by the time I run out of frozen meat that it won't be too much of a challenge. I allot $600 a month for food, so I think I will be able to manage.

I never did make it to buy the chiles and other things I was going to buy the other night and I also decided I am too tired to make chili anyway. I am going to bump all my meal planning down a day and instead make spaghetti for dinner tonight. It's far less labor intensive, though I will char the chiles tonight.

We are going to go over to Trader Joe's in a bit to buy what is needed for school lunches and some produce and dried pasta. I was going to go tomorrow, but decided I just want to stay home tomorrow and have the most intensive thing I do be make the chili. I will have to go to Haggen to get the chiles though. I've never seen any at Trader Joe's. I'm lucky if I can find taco shells there. The most ethnic stuff they seem to have is regular sweet bell peppers, Naan bread, and tortillas.

So, list of stuff I'll be getting at TJ's is as follows:

8 potatoes
2 sweet potatoes
1 bag shredded cabbage
1 package additive free deli turkey
1 package additive free deli roast beef
2 pounds of Cappellini pasta
1 package of taco shells if they have any
1 bunch of bananas
3 packages of grass fed hamburger
1 package of additive free bacon
2 yellow onion
1 bag whole wheat flour

Then at Haggen I need to buy:
9 Anaheim chili peppers
1 jalapeno pepper
1 jug of orange juice
1 can of cocoa powder

I intend to stick precisely to my lists so I don't overspend but can have nice mostly organic food, and if I need to go back to the store later in the week I will. We've eaten lunch so we aren't going shopping hungry. I just wish I didn't have to take the kiddos.

So meal planning changes to:

Saturday--Spaghetti and Meatballs
(I will also be roasting some turkey legs to have on hand for my daughter who is always starving after school and wants protein. I will pick off the meat and package it up for her)

Sunday--Tacos for lunch, roast chicken, potatoes, broccoli/cauliflower, fruit for dinner (will pick off any leftover meat and throw the chicken carcass in the crockpot overnight with water and veg to make stock)

Monday--(My lunches this week will be egg noodle, veggie, and chicken soup made from the stock and chili and the kids will have sandwiches)
Dinner--Enchiladas made with leftover chicken, fruit

Tuesday--Baked potato soup (very hearty so will probably not add much in the way of side dishes, maybe some rolls)

Wednesday--Homemade cheeseburgers and fried potatoes

Thursday--Oven-baked chicken, sweet corn, green beans

Friday--Homemade pizza and leftovers that haven't been consumed for lunches.

I think that sets me up for the week nicely.

Today was payday, so I made a payment to the BoA VISA of $1800. It didn't drop the balance much since all of the autopays went through since the last payment, the interest charges hit, and DH bought his next round trip plane ticket. New balance on the account is $6574.60. But we will make another payment next week of $500 (maybe more, I'm hoping to squeeze an extra $200 out of the budget) and all of that will go to make a good drop.

I know I said I was going to use most of the emergency fund to drop the balance, but I haven't brought myself to do it yet. I feel very unsure about it. Maybe I would feel better if I just dropped it to $2000 in the EF instead of $1000. Part of me just gets really insecure when that EF goes down. Which means not getting the BoA paid off until June, but if I worry less, that's a good thing. I know it's stupid to keep paying the interest, but it's a psychological thing. Security is very important to me.

I also spent $5.49 on a gallon of Organic Valley milk. It was on sale for 50 cents off, so that made me happy.

I also set aside $1000 for either cleaning/repairs at the old house, or to give to Mom, since she has been vacillating on weather or not she wants our monthly payment to be on hold or to use it to get the house more ready to put on the market. I think she's worried that the remodel on the bathroom is going to overrun her ability to pay it. She is going to have to make up her mind soon, though, because if it goes to repairs, cleaning, etc., we want to be able to use it when DH comes home next week.

We will be spending an additional $225 on the alarm system (we paid half in deposit at the estimate and will pay the other half next Thursday when all the work is done. I am going to have DH take the really good vacuum out that day and vacuum all the floors at the very least so they'll be ready to be shampooed.

Oh, I paid out 3 weeks worth of allowances to both kids (I was behind, so that was $36.00 and $21.00 respectively). My kids have higher allowances than some here might expect because they do a lot of work with the chickens and ducks as well as household chores. They probably put in five hours a week on poultry care alone.

I also took out DH's monthly allowance and mine, which is $100 each. This is our walking around money and our frittering away money and our don't feel guilty about spending it money and our we don't have to check with each other before spending it money, although DH usually does out of habit, since we've only been drawing an allowance the last little while and we've always discussed any expense over $50. This is the first that we've really been able to not keep such a tight lid on our money and it seems to be a sufficient amount so far.

Okay, I think that covers everything I've done so far. I might have a bit more out of this paycheck, but I need to set up the May budget before I know for sure. I'll do that tomorrow.

Okay, okay, so I've already posted twice today, but I could not let this occasion pass. My blog hit one million hits tonight! Hee.

And just to talk about something financial...I think I mentioned I have been reading The Omnivore's Dilemma. Well, I really do think I am going to have to find a way to start buying organic, grass fed, wild caught, or free range protein from now on. The more I read about the industrial food industry, the sicker I get.

It just frustrates me so much, because a pound of organic, grass-fed hamburger costs $6 a pound and a pound of hamburger from a corn-fed feed lot steer is $2.50 a pound on sale. I say corn-fed, but eww, the stuff that goes into that feed is just...icky and not just corn that's been stripped of it's nutritional benefit. Plus the poor cows. Their stomachs cannot actually digest corn properly and they have to do unspeakable things to the poor beasts to release the gas it causes them. It also allows bacteria to grow in their stomachs that they cannot fight off because they were never meant to eat corn. It is sad. I won't go into details because they are very gruesome, really.

So plans so far are to buy a half a side of beef in the fall from this little farm in Bow, but I need to investigate chickens and lamb, too. In my state it is easy enough to buy wild fish at the store and stay away from the farm fed stuff. It's weird. I don't have an issue with paying $7 to $8 for wild salmon, why is it so hard for me to pay that much for beef? Or chicken? Maybe that is just something I will have to get past.

I think ways to manage it, is to have smaller portions of meat (hard for DH particularly) and fill up more with organic veggies and fruits. Organic veggies like broccoli, cabbage, lettuce, and cauliflower are pretty cheap here as are bananas and quite often strawberries. I still have a huge supply of frozen blueberries from the back yard. Organic potatoes and sweet potatoes aren't too expensive either, and that is a good filler upper food. We can grow a lot of green beans here, that is one thing that never fails so we can put those up.

I also can go back to baking more rolls and bread again so I can control what is in the food. There are a lot of corn products that go into commercial bread, things I never knew were forms of corn syrup like maltodextrin. I knew it was a sweetner but not a form of corn syrup. As are polysorbate, glucose, and dextrose. I always thought glucose and dextrose came from fruit and I'm not sure where I thought maltodextrin came from. It's kind of scary how they can disguise it. Just like they do with MSG.

And don't get me started on what's in a certain fast food place's nuggets. Suffice to say I wish I'd known before eating there the other night. TBHQ? Really? I think I've finally found a way to set the fast food switch to OFF for good.

You know, I thought this book was awfully simplistic when I started reading it, but the more I get into it, the more horrified I am. I consider myself fairly well-educated when it comes to the food industry, but now...well, now I think my eyes were only half open and if I am going to protect my health, I am going to have to find a way to spend the money on real food. I also realize why my allergies have been so awful these past few years. And my kiddos, too.

I guess it's time to go back to serious meal planning again.

I stepped on a staple today, not like the kind you use to hold papers together, but a more heavy duty one, like they use in construction. It was on the fairly small side of construction staples, but it still hurt like blazes. It didn't bleed too much, it was in the thick part of the heel, and I really don't like walking on it right now. Of course I did it too late in the day to go to the doctor for a tetanus shot (I'm due), but I will call tomorrow. You have 72 hours to get one after a puncture to be in the safe window.

I did not end up going to the store last night like I had planned. I had also only planned to only spend $10. And ended up spending $129.21 today. Well, I bought more cold medicine, and they had hamburger and pot roast on sale, and then they had chicken noodle soup and beef stew and chili on sale, and my pantry has been looking a little bare because anything we could heat and serve was pretty much used up while I was so sick (still am, but more functional now). And I bought milk. So...it's not like I went out of my grocery budget or anything, I've barely spent any of it this month so far, but it was a lot of unplanned buying. Staple buying, but unplanned.

I made tacos for dinner tonight. I didn't feel well enough to make the hamburger on the stove so I did it in the microwave with my Tupperware stack cooker, then added the taco seasoning. We use the big container of McCormick taco seasoning they sell at Costco and we use half a cup per pound. The directions say 1/4 cup but it is not enough for our tastebuds. We didn't have quite enough shredded cheese for everyone so I improvised with some Tillamoos. I do have some cheese I could shred but I didn't feel like standing there and doing it. Mom gave me all the lettuce leftover from the family gathering, so we used that for the lettuce.

This is the second dinner I have cooked this week that did not come out of a can. I made chicken last night. So I do seem to be getting back on stride a little, but I don't have the energy or strength to do anything big and complicated.

I have to take DS to tae kwon do tonight, tomorrow, and Wednesday. I really don't want to, but he still has to get two classes in before the make up test Wednesday. He's missed so much being sick. It's already been four months to get the needed classes in. Usually at his age it only takes two months. I think I may just sleep out in the car. I am so tired and the hard benches inside for parents are so uncomfortable.

I swept DH's wallet and added $10.65 to the coin jar. I had enough to roll quarters so I did that. I have a pretty hefty deposit to make on Monday if I feel well enough to go to the CU.

DH decided to make a Costco run today instead of tomorrow so there will be some expenses to report after all when he gets back. He is just getting the minimal though, toilet paper, tomato sauce and chicken pot pies (DS eats these when I am too sick to cook, DD can fend for herself). Since DH goes back to Alaska on Monday and I have no energy yet, I want to have them on hand.

I got my summons for jury duty and surprisingly it's actually for the date they said it was going to be for. That has never happened before. I just hope I am over this borderline walking pnuemonia/bronchitis thing by then as I don't see me getting it deferred again or excused.

Daily Expenses Challenge will henceforth be abbreviated to DEC for me.

DH took the kids to see The Lorax in 3D yesterday so that was $36. They got 2 pretzels at Auntie Anne's for $6.36. They got 2 bottled waters from the vending machine $3, and a bubble tea $4.25. This is what happens when I don't go with them, other money gets spent. But I was too sick to go and frankly didn't care that DH would likely have loose fingers. They had fun and I had peace and quiet.

DH spent $39.27 at Walgreens to get various medications--the dye free cough medicine and dye free allergy medicine for DH, some fake Excedrin PM for me since the real stuff is still on recall, all natural cough drops, and some ice cream for sore throats.

DH took DS to the after hours clinic last night and then to get a prescription for antibiotics, $15. He spent $42.50 at the grocery store and $38.78 at McDonalds for 20 double cheeseburgers and 4 fries. I can't cook right now, I can barely stand, so when people want something they can warm up a cheeseburger. DH is making dinners, though. DD feels well enougn now to help with dinner tonight, which means it may or may not be more elaborate than tacos or spaghetti.

Today is a no spend day. Nothing will be bought and no one will go anywhere.

I am so sick it's ridiculous. Thank goodness the workmen were working outside so that I could sleep in. I went to bed at 9:30 last night and slept pretty well, but woke up every four hours or so coughing. Which is what the cough syrup dosage was for, every four hours. But fortunately I did get back to sleep. My skin hurts, my joints ache, and I am running a fever of 100.3 and can't get warm.

I went to the doctor this afternoon. DH had to drive me because I couldn't focus at all. It's not the flu which I feared, but borderline walking pneumonia. My bronchials and windpipe ache beyond belief right now. I ended up with four prescriptions, $25, $15, $15, and $7.55. My breathing was so bad he gave me an inhaler of albuterol, which I haven't needed in a couple years, and a nasal spray. I've also got an antibiotic (one that won't make me sick to my stomach this time) and the really good cough syrup which is helping already. I am so wiped out though. I have dozed off and on all day, I can't read a book, though I can read the computer a bit, and I can watch television for about 20 minutes before I doze again. I don't rember the last time I was this tired.

Let's see, other expenses have been 3/4 tank of gas for $63.73, $1.51 for a McDonald's double cheeseburger, and $25.71 for groceries. Also DH had to pay a deposit on the security system upgrade that we will be doing when he comes back home next time of $225. That's half up front, half the day of. DH also treated his dad to dinner yesterday at Subway spending $12.37, after he helped DH put up the drywall in the bathroom. I think that is everything.

I added .74 to the coin jar today.

I spent .50 on parking meters.

I spent $37.50 today, $30 for three types of the Boar's Head deli meats that we will divide up and freeze for DS's lunches for the next month and $7.50 for a bagel sandwich, small chips, and pickle spear for DS's lunch today as we were completely out of everything that he isn't allergic to and I was really, really behind on everything this morning and I had to pick DH up at the airport.

I went to the dentist at 11:30 to have some chips repaired and my portion was $68, so paid that, too.

Not really too much to report this week. DS has been sick with a nasty stomach bug and missed three days of school this week. I don't think this child has ever had such a sick year before. I really wish that parents would keep their kids home when they are sick. I am really getting sick of my child constantly being contaminated because other parents don't have a back up system in place if they are unable to stay home from work with their child. Plus these kids are 12, 13, 14. They legally and safely should be able to stay home alone if necessary. It's irresponsible to send them and I'm tired of my kid paying the price for other parents. He's always been so healthy and the last 12 to 15 months it's been one thing after another, poor guy. Sorry, that turned into a bit of a rant.

I cleaned out my purse and added $11.14 to the coin jar. I took $19 for allowances and divided them into the kid's envelopes. I also added the last $15 of DS's birthday money into his envelope. I really need to take him to the credit union as he's got quite a wad of birthday cash and saved allowances.

I've got the replacement all set up now except for installing Office, which I will do today and then I can enter in all the information into Excel for the past 3 weeks. I've kept track on paper, but it is not the same, especially since I've managed to lose and find the paper three times. I am definitely going to keep contributing to the laptop fund. It is well worth it.

I also need to update the HSA tracking spreadsheet and the EF tracking spreadsheet and the Holding Tank spreadsheet.

I am close to being ready to cash out my first $5 gift card for Amazon at Swagbucks. If I leave the SBTV player going to the side of the screen for the next couple hour or two, I should hit it, but I don't know if I want to make that kind of effort in one go, so it might take all weekend. I still haven't signed up for that other one that Laura (Keeping it Frugal) has where you watch the videos. I need to try to remember to do that.

I did another survey last night for GTM. They aren't as good as they used to be. Survey values have dropped from 50 to 35 and screeners are only worth 1 point or a drawing entry instead of 5 points for every screener. I think once I hit my 1000 points I may be done with them. They used to be so good and I could easily make money with them, but that was three years ago. Now that I'm getting back into it again, wasting my times with small payoffs is annoying.

I may have qualified for a market study at another company. If so it'll be worth $8. I hope I get that one. I won't know for a week and a half if I did. I wish they would tell you if you do. If you end up qualifying they send you the product. If you don't, you never hear about it again. But I made it all the way through the first screener and the second screener, so I think chances are good.

I have to go to the store today because DH finished off the ketchup (left the bottle in the fridge, but it was empty) and I didn't discover this until yesterday when I had already been to the grocery store. But I have to take Footloose and Puss in Boots back to the DVDExpress booth anyway, so I can pick up some ketchup then and some crackers and some more soup. They have a sale on right now of 2 cans for $1 and since soup is about all DS can eat until this virus finishes running it's course (no fruit, no veg, no dairy), I want to take advantage of the sale.

I'm also hoping to find some unflavored pedialyte since it doesn't have dyes or fruit juice or artificial sweetners. Even though he is drinking lots of water, he's really at risk of dehydration. I did put him on Imodium on the doctor's rec. It seems to be helping.

So my bid to eat mostly from the pantry or freezer, supplementing with fresh greens/veg and fruit for the next month or so is going well so far.

Yesterday I used one of my Rustic Crusts to make a pizza. Not quite as good as a homemade crust, but about ten times better than anything else out there and certainly better than that other really well known pre-made crust in a plastic wrapper. It was a parmesan herb crust which I like even better than the plain one.

I made my own sauce by adding basil, oregano, thyme, and marjoram to a cup of tomato sauce. I have plenty of cheese on hand so used 2 cups of shredded mozzarella and a sprinkling of extra sharp cheeddar. We had some Canadian Bacon in the freezer so I thawed that out the night before. I ate the leftover slice for lunch today and the kids ate leftover baked potato soup.

For dinner tonight I thawed out a pot roast and threw it in the crockpot. It'll be done at 6:00. When it is around 4:30 I will throw a couple of potatos and a sweet potato into the oven to bake. Then about ten minutes before the roast is done I will make the broccoli. I'll slice up a couple of oranges for the table and that should round it out nicely. There will be leftover potroast for lunch tomorrow.

I am hoping to only have to use half of my grocery budget this month by relying mostly on what's on hand. If I didn't want fresh veg and fruit and milk I could do better than that. We just really don't care much for frozen veg (other than frozen corn on the cob or frozen potatos) and the only canned veg we like is green beans. I do have some canned pineapple and pears that will get used up during this month, though.

I do need to go buy some brown sugar and peanut butter though. I forgot to get them both and they are pretty necessary to our monthly cooking/eating habits. I will buy some tomorrow when I pick up milk for the week and hopefully I will be able to keep it to that until next week.

I am just glad we don't have to buy eggs. The chickens keep us well supplied and homemade pancakes and eggs or toast and eggs or muffins and eggs never seems to get boring. I do need to sit down and figure out meals for the rest of the week. DH comes home on Wednesday so amounts will have to go up. I'll probably do one spaghetti with my special homemade sauce and my special meatballs and then I can do meatball sandwiches on the next day with the leftovers. I'll have to make homemade buns, though.

I'm going to make blueberry cornbread muffins this afternoon. The house will smell so wonderful and make staying in on this cold, snowy day so much nicer.

Why is it just when you finally get one kid well enough to be back in school for a day or two, the next kid in line thinks it's time for them to be sick, too? All I really want is one day to myself right now. One day. Really. Is that so much to ask. One day where maybe I can sleep and get well and not be running around with a low grade case of the yucks? Or even, you know, one night of uninterupted sleep?

I am very glad payday is here. Not for any specific reason other than that it means another step forward on my march towards financial freedom. I have the propane bill to pay, but most of the money for that has been set aside already. The water bill for the old house is due I wish they would switch to metered already, they said they would five years ago when they installed the fancy new meters we had to pay extra for and we are still on a straight rate out there. Since no one is out there more than once a month or so the water almost never gets used. I'll turn it off as soon as we're done cleaning out there.

All of the autopays will come out the first few days of the month, the insurances, storage, and security system. I'll pay the AMEX and the mortgage. And I'll see what I can squeeze out for medical.

I need to do a minor grocery run for things like milk, brown sugar, yeast, potatoes and some fruit (still have most of a case of oranges from the last trip to Costco). Also a quick run to Trader Joe's for dried mango slices, additive free bacon, and additive free all beef hot dogs. I am well stocked on fresh veggies (red and green cabbage, lettuce, cucumbers, radishes, peppers, broccoli, onions, scallions, celery). My freezer is doing great on protein. I am well stocked on chicken. I am well stocked on hamburger. I have one beef pot roast and some stew meat (for either stir-fries or chili). I have a couple of game hens.

I would like to get some codfish since they are having a major seafood sale for whatever that thing is that the Catholics do right now where they give stuff up (a lot of times beef, apparently) for a month. I was hoping for a good beef sale, but that's not in the cards right now. Maybe there will be a marked down for quick sale steak or two, but otherwise my grocery dollars are going to be as stingy as I can make them the next four weeks.

I think I will make baked potato soup today. I have all the ingredients and it is such a feel good food for such a nasty, rainy day with under the weather children. Either that or my all meat chili. Another feel good food for a day like today. If I make the potato soup today I will at least char the peppers as well for the chili.

I started my quest to eat mostly from the freezer/pantry right now last night. I made two Cornish game hens. We cut them in half and everyone ate half of one. We also had canned corn and canned green beans to round it out and an orange.