I spent $30 on medication this morning. I woke up feeling nasty. I had one day last week like this, but it followed a night of no sleep and then it was gone. This time it feels like the onset of a full on virus. Ugh. So I bought a jar of Vick's vaporub, some nasal spray and some plain white pseudophedrine, so at least this way I can breathe. I don't like taking regular cold medicine because most of it is colored with artificial dyes or has sweetners and fillers that affect my weight and make me bloat. I don't want any of that on top of being sick.

I used some of the money I was going to put into the HSA. Well, it was medical, but it's not deductible medical. Still, I'd rather feel good right now than pay a bill a couple days early.

I might go over to the club and sit in the sauna and try to bake this thing out of me. Sometimes that helps. Of course that requires effort so maybe a nap instead.

I also spent the last ten bucks in my checking to buy 20 cans of green beans. The store had them on sale and I was almost out and we eat them several times a week. This was a good deal anymore (20 cans for $10, so .50 each. There's like $1 left now. Well, there's more, but not everything has been processed yet this week. I still have $5 in cash in case I need to buy milk before Friday.

The no eating out challenge is going fine. It's nice not to be wasting money right now. I'm making a pizza tonight for dinner based on what we have on hand, instead of getting one as takeout.

So I inventoried my cupboards today and I have a lot of pasta noodles--angel hair, spaghetti, macaroni and egg noodles. And I have a lot of hamburger in the freezer. I like making one skillet meals if I can get away with it so I decided to look and see if I could find some homemade hamburger helper type meals. My kids really like these, but we can't use the normal type, we have to get the more expensive Gluten Free Mrs. Lepers. That gets expensive even getting it relatively cheaply buying a case at a time from Amazon.

Well, I found a great blog post on making your own from scratch.

http://chickensintheroad.com/cooking/homemade-hamburger-help... It breaks it down very easily with one version and then lists a bunch of variations at the end. Plus you can pre-measure your spices and pre-measure your pasta and have it all ready to go ahead of time for those busier nights. I am looking forward to trying several of these in my attempt to eat from the pantry and freezer as much as possible for the rest of this pay cycle.

The ones I am most interested in are the lasagna, chili cheese, chili mac, cheesy macaroni, and cheesy beef taco. Pretty much all I would have to do is add a salad or other green veg for a balanced meal. I am looking forward to experimenting some, too. Maybe with ground lamb and herbs de provence. Should be fun and I'll end up with some new meal time regulars that don't cost too much.

It's Thursday, the day before payday, and I don't need to buy anything, so I cleaned out my purse and my wallet. I had $3 in ones and 23 cents in change so added that to the coin jar. Don't know if I will make a deposit tomorrow or not. I don't have enough coins to roll anything and only have $13 (I think) in bills. I usually wait until I have around $30 to make a deposit, but then again, it's not earning any interest just sitting there on my dresser. Not that it's earning that much more in that particular CU.

I'm making pizza for dinner tonight. We have half a can of tomato sauce (which I'll add Italian herbs to), some leftover ground beef and leftover ham that needs using up. We also have cheese that's been open for a while that needs using up. I'll add pepperoni, onion, and some sweet bell peppers to that. I just need to remember to put the ingredients into the bread machine around three so it has time to rise before dinner.

DS is going away with his grandma this weekend, so I will have to take care of the chickens. Fortunately they come in on there own at night so all I have do is shut up the coop behind them and let them out the next morning, making sure they have water and a bit of feed. They scratch for most of their food.

It'll be nice to have a day off from both DS and Mom, to be honest. They will spend Friday night in a hotel and then participate in a decoy show on Saturday. Mom has done this a few times now as she sells off Dad's extensive decoy selection. DS makes 10% of the total profit for helping her (after she takes out the fee for the table rental and the hotel). Last time she made a profit after fees of $800 and he got $80.

He loves to go to these things and would do it for free, but he works hard for her and it's one of his few ways to earn money, besides his little aluminum can collecting business, and his allowance. He makes almost as much in a year at eleven as I did at 12 with all my babysitting (though not with the berry picking thrown in).

He's good with his money, too, saving up for things. He saved up for about half a year to get his 3DS. Now he wants to buy some software that will make his portable DVD drive run on his Netbook. He's patient with saving money which is good, because some of the things he wants take quite a bit of time to save for.

I wish DD was a bit more like that. I'm going to require her to start putting $10 in the bank every allowance day starting tomorrow. She's agreed, though grudgingly, to do so.

This weekend has been very busy for me. We went down to the creek today and waded around in it. It was so hot, but the creek is nicely shaded by trees and it is free entertainment. It is a lot lower than I am used to seeing it. Maybe down by 2/3rds. It wasn't as cold as I'm used to it being either, but it was cold enough to be refreshing. I was almost tempted to take the kids to a movie today because of the heat, but the creek (and my trying to be frugal) won out.

We went to the grocery store and did the shopping for the week. I spent $85.42 and found 2 cents in the parking lot so that went into the coin jar. I found two of the pot roasts that were cut right and were on special marked down so snapped them up. We'll have them the next two Sundays. I made the one I found last week today in the crockpot. It was nice not to heat up the house. I made corn on the cob and potatoes and green beans all in the microwave.

I bought several cucumbers and deli meat. When I got home divided up the deli meat and froze part of it for later in the week. It doesn't keep for more than 3 days since it has no preservatives or additives. I peeled the cukes and sliced them up. My diet requires a lot of low glycemic veggies per meal so it is so much easier to grab out several slices and add it to whatever protein I am eating at that meal. Without the prep I might be tempted to ignore the veggies. At least I never seem to get tired of cukes.

The diet is going well. I'm down 4.4 pounds just since starting it. That makes 31 or so since the surgery. I've got a ton more energy since starting it, too. Exercise was a bit lax this week, other than swimming on Monday and walking a bit today. This week will hopefully go better.

The painters finished the house today and the painted the front and back doors (which look gorgeous). They still need to do the back deck, but then they will be gone. I will be glad to see them go. They smoked a lot and the kids couldn't really go outside without having coughing fits.

I taught myself some more html coding today. I got the hang of most of it, but one more thing I need to work on before I move on with the lessons. I had to learn it since LJ's rich text editor has not worked correctly since the last "upgrade" a month ago. I prefer to edit my stuff there if I later see a mistake and RTE isn't making that possible.

Not too much on the financial horizon. I will have physical therapy tomorrow so $60 for that, $55 for DD's musical theater class on Tuesday, money for parking at Virginia Mason on Tuesday and a little extra "just in case" money. There shouldn't be anymore money out until payday Friday.

Tonight the house was too hot to turn on the oven or the range so instead I decided it was leftover night. There were some leftover chicken legs, some leftover tuna fish, and some leftover pulled pork. We all chose one and ate it cold. We also had cucumbers and watermelon and milk. Very simple and no adding to the major heatwave going on right now.

Tomorrow starts my diet and I will be using my new baby George grill. It was $19.99 plus tax. That won't heat up the house much, fortunately. I am roasting a whole chicken tomorrow, hot day or not so I can have a bunch of cooked protein on hand. Or maybe I'll put it in the crock pot and set it on the back porch.

As I've mentioned we had a ridiculously cool summer while everyone else was going through a heatwave. Now when summer is almost gone we finally get hot days in the low 80's. It's scheduled to be around that for the next ten days or so. I think we are in for an Indian Summer. We will definitely be using the pool as much as possible.

I forgot to mention that I added $1.55 in coins to the coin jar yesterday from DH cleaning out his wallet. Today I added $3.73 from my purse. I didn't make it over to the CU yet to deposit the money into the safety net. I forgot both yesterday and today. I will try to remember to make the deposit tomorrow after I take DS to school.

Today after swimming we went to two grocery stores. I bought a beautiful allotment of organic produce and proteins. I spent about $100. I misplaced the receipt (it's probably out in the van) but I know it was just a couple dollars more than $100. This way of eating is a bit more expensive, but in the past it has worked well for me so I know it will again.

I got marked down Dover sole, marked down red snapper, thin cut breakfast pork chops, a marked down t-bone, a marked down rib-eye, and three whole chickens over five pounds each (they were my best deal because they were already cheap and each one was marked down $1.50 making each one less than $3 a chicken). I repackaged everything up to freeze. I think I got enough protein for myself for two weeks plus several helpings for the kids.

I also peeled and sliced up some low glycemic veggies so they would be ready to grab. In the past preparation or lack thereof has always been my bugaboo. Most of them can be eaten raw and a few will have to be cooked (can't stand raw broccoli).

I have to be more careful than most people doing a low carb diet because of past kidney damage (from the tumors). I can't do Atkin's because I can't risk ketosis. So I'm settling more on the Carbohydrate Addict's Healthy Heart Program. It's geared more toward people with high blood pressure like me or a history of heart disease in the family (also like me). And I know it works because I've done (an albeit looser version of) it before.

It's been a few years and about 3 surgeries since I've done a controlled carb diet so hopefully I can get back into the swing of things pretty easily. I'd like to lose about 30 pounds before my next surgery. I think it would make recovery just so much easier.

My planned start day is Wednesday when the kids start school. It is much easier to get started when they are not in the house and also when DH is gone. I'm not going to have a big carb fest tomorrow or anything, but I'm not trying to do it on a day I have to run all over the place either.

In the long run I think I will actually save money eating this way because of the health benefits brought by losing weight.

I'm getting my exercise into gear before starting though. Started today with the swimming. I did 15 laps. 13 is 1/4 mile. It's nowhere near the 45 I was doing before reinjuring my knee last year, but I don't want to push too hard when both my back and my knee are not doing great. I wore my knee brace in the water and I did slow, careful strokes. I spent 25 minutes doing the laps and then played with the kids for another half hour and then the hot tub for a few minutes. The swimming did help loosen up my back which was good.

My entire family has a case of the blahs today. I think we all may have picked up a touch of something at the Fair on Friday. Everyone is running a low grade temp and has a variety of aches and pains from sore-ish throats to grumbly tummies or congestion. It's hard to tell sometimes.

We had a major weather swing yesterday, a day of rain and very cool temps after several days of very warm weather (75 to 88). Today it has swung back again to hot. I always feel yucky when the weather swings like that, as I am sensitive to changes in barometric pressure. It's not enough to put anyone down for the count, but it's definitely enough to give us all a case of the "I don't wannas."

I am going through the "I don't wanna cook," one myself. Fortunately we have leftover spaghetti, ravioli, cole slaw, taco meat, and baked potato soup so my "I don't wanna" is turning into an "I don't have to." If we didn't have so many leftovers right now I can easily see this as being a day of low willpower that sends us to the drive-thru (no one feels good enough for a sit down restaurant anyway, so it would be limited, but still).

I am debating on whether or not today will be a no spend day. I could get off my backside and make some bread or I could go down to the store and buy some. If I go to the store, I know I will be tempted to buy something we don't need like a rotisserie chicken or a premade meatloaf from the deli. Because that's even easier than warming stuff up. But it would be a stupid financial choice to go when my will power is so low.

Bread is time consuming though. Maybe I should just stir up some bisquits. That takes about 3 minutes. Same with cornbread muffins. Or maybe pancakes. Ugh. I don't want to do anything. Maybe we can just go without bread products tomorrow and we'll feel decent enough to make them then.

I picked up DH from the airport this morning and then we came back home and went to sleep. I was exhausted as I've been running on about 3 night's worth of insomnia. I got about 3 hours of sleep last night, but we napped from 9:30 to 1:30 which made a huge difference in how I felt, though I'm afraid it might keep me awake tonight.

We stopped at the store before coming home and picked up a half case of Pepsi Throwback (DH wanted it), 3 gallons of milk, non-fat organic for me and the kids, regular 2% for DH, and whole milk for baked potato soup. We spent $18.98 which leaves me with a little over $7 in checking and $10 in cash to spend until Friday. No worries.

Last night I threw some extra potatoes in the oven to bake alongside the ribs. DD has been wanting to make the soup for a while, so today she did. I had planned on making my spaghetti with its special homemade sauce, but she really wanted to make the other so we did. I can make the spaghetti tomorrow. I'll be using canned tomatoes instead of fresh since we don't have any.

Anyway it turned out pretty good, but I am pretty sure the salt and pepper ratio in the recipe is off. It has 1 tsp of each and I think it needs 2 tsp of each. We all added it rather librally to our bowls. We had leftover chicken for protein (well, everyone but me as I got full from the one bowl of soup (and it does have sour cream, cheese, and bacon in it for a bit of protein). No fruit or green veg, but if the kids get hungry later they can have some berries or cucumbers or both.

I still don't have my appetite back. I've lost 18 pounds since surgery. Which is okay, I had it to lose. It's just kind of weird. I've been dieting and exercising to the best of my ability for years. Now when I can't exercise much yet and I'm just not eating much it falls off without effort. Kind of annoying, but I will still take it.

I cannot believe it got so cold here last night. The middle of August is usually quite warm at night, but this year has been anything but typical. While the Eastern and the middle states have been sweltering in heat waves, we've been lucky to have the thermometer touch on 70 and even then there's a breeze that makes it feel like 65.

Last night was just downright cold for me. I added a blanket to the bed and when I still couldn't get warm added another one. Finally about an hour later, I got up and turned on the heater. This is just a small, energy efficient ceramic heater I keep in the bedroom. I only ran it for ten minutes, but it was enough to warm up the room so I could then fall asleep. I had hoped to beat the cold without it, but it was not to be. Still, ten minutes is not that much time so I don't feel bad about it.

I sewed a button on one of my nightgowns today. The buttons on it are star-shaped but the new one is round and a little larger. It might not match in shape but it matches in color, being opalesent. It's one of my warmer nightgowns and I've had it for several years, but the top part kept popping open after I lost one of the stars. If it doesn't keep them from popping open I will replace the rest of the star buttons with more round ones. We have the big bin of buttons my grandmother collected to search through to find similar sized ones. I don't really care if they match much as it's not like I wear it out in public.

We saw some meteors from the Perseids last night and the night before. This is the first year since I've started looking that I've seen them. Usually there's a cloud cover, but the sky was empty and bright. Moon was gorgeous, too.

I spent $27.18 getting takeaway for lunch today for me and the kids. It will last us about three days worth of lunches, so a total of nine meals (3 each). Put that way it is $3.02 per meal per person. Which isn't that bad. It still puts me under budget for the day if I watch what I make for breakfast and dinner.

I paid my daughter back the $3 I borrowed from her the other day while we were out and I'd left my cash at home. That leaves me with a $10 bill for cash for the week and enough money in the checking account to pay for physical therapy this week and still have $60 left (for milk and probably bread as I am not up for making it right now and maybe some fresh Udon if they restock the flavor the kids like).

Speaking of physical therapy, I am down to one hour a week instead of an hour and a half. That reduces the amount I pay each week from $90 to $60. With not going at all for five weeks, I saved a fair bit there, but I think the muscles around my knee atrophied a little with so much time in bed. PT thinks we can get it back in about six weeks, but doesn't want to overdo it because my abs are still quite sore.

Speaking of the abs, the incision site has now closed completely and scabbed over. My bandages have had nothing on them for 12 hours so I don't have to use them anymore. Which is great because I have been having a skin reaction to the tape (doesn't matter what kind, plastic or paper, they itched like crazy and caused a rash). It's less itchy already.

Today I made up a huge batch of homemade cole slaw. Well, I call it cole slaw. I don't like the traditional kind with carrots in it, so I just do an all cabbage version. I had a head of green and a head of purple cabbage so I cut them up. Usually I am Mrs. Lazypants and buy the pre-shredded cabbage from Trader Joe's when I want to make cole slaw, but I had some on hand because my daughter likes to just cut a wedge out and eat it straight.

This was technically the first time I cut up a cabbage. DH has done it in the past, but I had a real hankering and didn't feel like waiting another week or so for him to come and cut them up. It took me a bit to get the hang of it. I was cutting the strips too wide, but about halfway through the first cabbage I got it right. Wider strips still taste the same, though.

My dressing is super simple. For two heads of cabbage I use one cup of canola oil (corn oil, saffola oil, soybean oil, or plain vegetable oil is fine, too). (Olive oil or any of the fancier oils will overpower the flavors). One cup of TJ's organic mayo (but any brand will do), and 2 TBSP of honey. Whisk or stir well and dump on cabbage, mixing in until absorbed. It's easily cut in half if you only use one cabbage.

It's so simple and so good and so cheap, really, even with the cost of the mayo. I spent about $4 all told for a gallon of cole slaw. Not bad for a side dish that I will get a few days use from (though I tend to eat it as a snack because it is so tasty). A quart of cole slaw from the store is about that same price, so I'm pretty pleased. Plus I saved by not using pre-shredded cabbage.

What a day! I got two phone calls today. Well, one text and one call. The massage therapist texted me to say that her car wouldn't start so that massage I was looking forward to all week was cancelled. My body is pretty sore from all the bedrest and the massage helps with circulation and working some of the stiffness out of the muscles. The doctor's office called to see how I was doing and I asked about driving and they said I could as long as I had another adult with me in the car to take over if need be. So I drove today and I did really well. I am beat, though. Not from the driving, but from the grocery shopping.

First we went across town to The Market which is the only place that carries the additive free, preservative free, gluten free Boar's Head deli meat. It is expensive, but when you are dealing with allergies, sometimes it is worth it. I got a couple pounds of that and will freeze some of it. I want to pack sandwiches on Tuesday when we go back to Virginia Mason, but if I don't freeze some of it, it will go off by then.

I spent a total of $78.53 there and saved $10.15 with coupons and sale prices. I stocked up on Tostitos and Pirate's Booty as they had them on a good sale. I got organic milk and organic parmesan. I also got both Rainer and Bing cherries as they were on a good sale (though not as good as the cherry lady, but she wasn't there today). I also bought a book of stamps and impulse bought a bottle of Pepsi Throwback. I haven't had soda in ages, so I don't feel too bad about that (or bad at all, really).

After that we stopped by Joe's Garden since it was on the way to where we are going next and my mother got some veggie plugs. They were 25 cents each. She got lettuce, broccoli, and cauliflower. They had a produce market there as well and they had some gorgeous looking food (organic). I ended up spending $12.29 on 2 of the most beautiful looking bright yellow summer squash, 6 kohlrabi (YUM), 2 fresh garlic bulbs with stalks on still, a pint of strawberry jam (a bit pricey but it was made with citrus pectin instead of apple pectin), and a gorgeous, deep burgandy romaine lettuce.

After that we drove to Trader Joe's and paid $39.99 for 2 boxes of Joe's O's cereal, a 4pk of no caffiene, no corn syrup soda (for the kids), sweet potato fries, chicken fried rice, beef and broccoli, graham crackers, 4 pounds of spaghetti, 4 pounds of hamburger and a one gallon pot of basil (that was about a foot high and smelled amazing!) to plant.

Then we went to Cost Cutter and paid $52.97, saving $10.37 between coupons and sales. I got 20 pounds of chicken at .68 a pound and 10 pounds of beef ribs at $1.78 a pound (I hope they go back to .99 a pound when summer barbecuing season is over but that was the best price I've seen since winter). I got a gallon of OJ, a bag of Maui onion chips, 4 lemons, 6 nectarines, 10 ears of corn, and a bunch of green onions.

Altogether I spent $183.78 on groceries. I still need to go to one more store, but don't think I will spend more than $40 or $50 there. I shouldn't have to shop again for two weeks after that except for milk and OJ, which put me right on track for $500 a month grocery budget (Yay!). Even when I do shop, I shouldn't have to buy meat (though I might get a pot roast). I am really glad that all of these places, except the garden market, had ride on carts. I needed them. I am exhausted but I am not hurting, which is great. We got everything divided up (except the chicken which is still partly frozen and needs to thaw some more to separate it) and put away before I lost the last of my energy.

Dinner tonight is ribs, corn on the cob, and watermelon (Mom's contribution). I am so looking forward to that.

I went for my daily walk around the yard today and I didn't feel faint at all, so maybe that has passed. I hope so. Then I sat in the yard in the sun for about five minutes next to the blackberries and plucked off about 2 cups worth of fat, ripe, juicy, dark berries (and there are plenty more coming on) and then moved over to the bench beside one of the blueberry bushes for another five minutes and got about 2 cups worth of luscious ripe little blueberries. My son was with me, making sure I didn't get dizzy and helping to pick. The blueberry bushes are loaded. I told mom she needs to get out there tonight when it is cooler or she is going to lose them to the birds. DS and DD will help her pick. I've exerted myself to the limit allowed for the day. Free is my favorite price for organic food. Maybe I will just go with the Jiffy cornbread and add blueberries in.

I asked someone on the blogs about a recipe they made, cornbread with fresh blueberries added and I completely forgot who it was who made it so I can't figure out whose blog to check to see if they answered me. I do have a box of Jiffy cornbread mix I could pour some blueberries into, but I do not think it would be quite as delicious. Still might be pretty good though.

I am glad payday is almost here. Not because I need it, I still have money left, but because it means I can send a payment to debt and some money (at least $100) to the EF. It also means I'll get a look at what the new raise will look like and adjust my budget accordingly. Some of the bills I was hoping would arrive before payday have not arrived yet. Like the car payment, which is due on the 19th.

When we had Toyota as the owner of the loan we got our bills a whole month in advance. BoA, not so much. It wouldn't come out of this check anyway, it would come out of the next one, but I like to have them ahead of time. I am always afraid they will get lost in the mail and then I'll forget about them. Although I can pay it online or in person so I guess I'm just splitting hairs, really.

I may have to go pick up meds at the pharmacy. Seems like all the antibiotics (I've been on them about six weeks straight for different things pre and post surgery) are causing a yeast infection, even though I'm taking acidophilous bifidus and eating live cultures yogurt. What a pain. Like I needed another thing right now. Oh, well, despite everything I am starting to feel better. Far less faint when I'm on my feet for longer periods, so I think I'm starting to get my strength back a little. Still going to be spending most of my day resting. I am so glad someone created laptops. It makes partial bedrest so much easier.

I need to figure out what is for supper. Maybe spaghetti tonight. I can sit at the table and chop an onion and the kids will cut up the tomatoes so we can make the good sauce. DD knows how to do it, she just won't chop the onion. A couple of the tomatoes need to be used up badly so I think this is a good plan.

After lunch I sat down with the grocery ads today and I have to say there wasn't much in them that I would consider a sale. I dutifully pulled out coupons for Nally chili .77/limit 4 and Buddig chipped beef 2/$1 for my mother as she loves those. I found one coupon for Organic Valley Milk 1/2 gal, 2/$5/limit 2 for me. Since a whole gallon is anywhere from $5.69 to $5.99 this is a good deal, but only if I was going to this store anyway. I was planning to go there on Friday to get some of the preservative free, gluten free Boar's Head deli meats so we could have sandwiches on those more lazy days.

That reminds me, it is a new month so I can go to the Organic Valley Website and print out new coupons. They let you do it twice a month. I usually only do the milk coupons, but sometimes I will do the parmesan or sour cream if I am going to be making something using those that month.

One store has chicken hindquarters on for .68 a pound, no limit. That will be a major score. I haven't found chicken (or any meat) for less than .98/lb in months. Yeah, I'll have to cut them up, but that's not too hard when you have very good knives. Other than that the only decent price I saw was corn on the cob for .37 each, and even that's not as good as the 4/$1 we should be seeing soon.

All in all there is not too much that makes me want to head out the door, or shop outside a list. And I have enough produce to get through another week or two, thanks to the fact that cabbage, stone fruit, and cukes keep for a fair amount of time. I should be able to go in, grab the loss leaders and get out fairly quickly. Just need to remember to ride on the scooter carts and not try to walk yet.

Not too much going on in the financial arena today. I sent off the HoA half year dues for the old house, $100. It's due the 31st and I spaced out mailing it yesterday, so it went out in today's mail. I'm not that worried about it. The HoA people only work on Tuesdays and Fridays and it'll be there by Monday. In the past on the occasion that I was actually a day or two late, they never charged me the $5 late fee, because I was one of the people that actually consistently paid the dues year after year without them having to go knocking on my door to collect like they do with so many people.

I went ahead and paid my AMEX bill, $500 as well. It's not due until the third and I was going to just set it to pay that day, but then I was like, what does it matter, I'll just set it to pay today and be done with it and not have to worry about anything until next Friday. The autopays come out the 1st through the 4th and there's plenty of money in the account for that.

We are still working on that leftover ham. If DH had been home it would be long gone by now. The kids had ham and gnochhi soup and I had a warm ham sandwich. I haven't had a warm ham sandwich in a long time, maybe not since I was a kid. All I did was cut a piece of bread in half, butter it, put a nice thick slice of ham and thin slice of Swiss cheese in it and warm it up in the microwave for about 30 seconds. It was delicious. I don't really care for mayo on its own or I might have used that instead of butter. I could have used Dijon mustard, too, but didn't think about it. Besides I used butter as a child so that's what I thought of.

I bet it would taste even better on one of my homemade rolls. Right now we have actual store bought bread (Big Horn Valley) because I am not really doing extra baking yet. I thought about making drop biscuits today because they aren't that much effort, but DD said she wanted to make cookies instead and I wasn't going to argue with that. Maybe I can get her to throw in a pan of cornbread, too.

Dinner tonight is chicken, mostly because if I serve ham one more time this week I might have a revolt on my hands. I think I will do a package of wings and some thighs. We've diced up what is left, about a sandwich baggy full and thrown it in the freezer for a future pizza topping. So tonight is chicken (barbecue sauce on mine), mashed potatoes from scratch because they need using up, and broccoli because it needs using up. Also milk and cookies.

Then Sunday I will make a potroast in the crockpot for dinner. Monday will be Yankee Noodles, a recipe I found on

www.livingonadime.com, only instead of using ground beef I will use leftover potroast. I will also use some of the leftover meat in sandwiches for our trip back to Virginia Mason for my follow up appointment. Did I mention I had the day wrong? The appointment is on Tuesday not Monday. I was really frustrated by that because I want to be done with this part of things, but at least it doesn't interfere with my mother's schedule (because she is driving).

Not really much else going on today. The kids picked enough blueberries and blackberries last night for today so we will have the rest of those for dessert tonight. I know I haven't posted my food costs much lately, but I am keeping track of them. On big meat nights I'm averaging around $20 a day, but on leftover meat nights my costs are down around $12 a day. Not too shabby.

It is nice to not be spending money on frivilous things this week. No extras from the grocery store. No wasted gas. No DVD rentals from the cheap box (no excuse for this when I have Netflix). No fast food. No slow food from restaurants either. The kids are pretty happy with the food they've been eating and haven't asked to eat out this week, which is nice.

Just thought I'd share a couple photos of my yummy, made from scratch pizza and free dessert from the back yard. Can't beat free in keeping those food costs down.

Before cooking:



After cooking:



Fresh blueberries and blackberries:

Part of why I overdid it yesterday was that I did have to go to the store. I needed cloth medical tape and it has to be a specific kind or I will have an allergic reaction (though even this kind itches a little). I thought I was doing okay enough that I could walk all the way to the back of the store as long as I was leaning on a grocery cart. Well, by the time that I did that and got back out to the car (Mom was driving me) I thought I was going to be sick. It passed, but I definitely should have ridden the little scooter around the store.

Anyway, I needed the cloth tape to hold on the gauze for wound care. Still had plenty of guaze, just been going through the tape like crazy, so I did end up with some money for the coin jar after all, $1.22.

I thought my follow up appointment was on Monday, but they just called to confirm and it's on Tuesday. Fortunately that works with my mother's schedule, but it also means I have to wait an extra day longer than I thought to get this drainage tube out and it itches!

I am fighting a very strong craving to order a pizza delivered, but I won't do it. I won't spend the $27.18 for that. Not this week anyway. I am going to go and have my daughter put the dough ingredients in the bread machine right now and we can have homemade pizza with leftover ham, leftover ground beef, onions, tomatoes, two kinds of cheese, and chicken sausage for dinner tonight. Which will taste even better than Round Table. It always does. Oh, and we had the ham and tater tot casserole for lunch instead of dinner. There is some leftover for tomorrow, too.

I got a bill from the place I went to have an EKG before surgery. For some reason they billed it to my old insurance instead of to the insurance card I gave them, so I had to spend a few minutes on the phone today listening to Muzak (really loud Muzak) before I could get that mess straightened out. Fortunately I could give the lady all the information over the phone and didn't have to go down in person to sort it out. She's going to rebill it and hopefully they'll do it right and then I'll only have to pay 10% of $97.60. I am glad that I have been really paying attention to my bills lately. This is the second error I've caught this year.

Today was a long day and I completely overdid it and was useless from six o'clock on. But in the meanwhile, I did have enough ham broth to make both egg noodles (with ham and peas) and ham and gnocchi soup and the kids were doing cartwheels over the taste, so yay. A few weeks ago one of our stores started carrying inexpensive shelf stable gnocchi in the pasta section, and none of the stabliziers were ones my son is allergic to. I don't score that very often so I bought some. The original plan was to find a copycat recipe of Olive Garden's chicken and gnocchi soup, but this worked out just as well. There's enough soup left over for two more meals. The noodles vanished completely.

And there is still about a pound and a half of ham left. DD is going to make a pound of it into a tater tot casserole for tomorrow's dinner. I've cut up some for putting into eggs and onto pizza and the rest for sandwiches. I am really proud of how much we got out of this ham. When all is said and done it will be at least six family size meals, as well as ingredients in a couple others. Plus I've got a couple of recipes to try next time I make one, which won't be for a while. The next big crockpot meat will be a potroast on Sunday so now I need to come up with ideas for the leftovers besides hash. Meanwhile good old cheap chicken and a homemade pizza will be the order of tomorrow's day.

Back in April, before Easter, there was a massive sale on picnic hams. They were $1.29 a pound and I bought a lot of them, fifteen or twenty, I'm not sure exactly, but anyway, they were really cheap. I currently have one in the crockpot for tonight's dinner. It is just over six pounds.

So tonight we will have ham with potatoes and green beans, then I will pick all the meat off the bones and put the bone back in the crockpot all night with plenty of water to make stock. Tomorrow we will have ham sandwiches (or in my son's case ham rolled up in tortillas) for lunch and then I will dice up the ham that is left.

I will add some diced ham into the eggs (possibly omelets) in the morning for breakfast. I will make egg noodles with the ham broth and we will have ham and noddles for dinner. No one here cares for ham and bean soup so that's not an option. I might make pizza on Friday with diced ham as a topping.

Anyone have any other ways to use up ham? I mean these are probably sufficient for a six pounder, but for future reference? If anyone has a good strata or fritatta recipe, I'll take it. I really want to see how many meals I can get out of an $8 ham.

Since we had used up virtually everything in the refrigerator yesterday, leaving us with pretty much just condiments, butter, cheese, carrots, potatoes, and apples and Chris was leaving today to head back to work, I decided to do a last minute shopping expedition and get everything I should need until payday. I wasn't sure how I was going to handle it because I was only 11 days post op yesterday, but I had my handicapped parking pass and the stores have those scooters to ride around on with the baskets on front so I figured I'd be fine.

The first thing I did was sit down with the grocery ads of the four of the five main grocery stores. (Freddy's doesn't come for free, you have to buy a Sunday paper for their ads, so I didn't consider them). I found the store with the top deals and then the store with the second best deals in case the first store was out of what we wanted.

Cost Cutter was having a major produce sale and since my produce bins were virtually empty, I decided to stock up on a variety of shorter-lived and longer-lived produce. We'll eat the shorter-lived stuff this week and the longer-lived stuff next week. They also had chicken legs and chicken thighs on for .98/lb and full chicken wings for .99/lb.

I ended up with 4 white onions (the sale made them cheaper than yellow ones for a change), 4 beefsteak tomatoes, 6 nectarines, 2 lbs of strawberries, 1 head of iceberg lettuce (I know, not the best nutrition in the lettuce bunch but it was .98 instead of $1.79 like the leaf lettuces), 1 head of green cabbage, 2 canteloupes, 1.4 pounds of red grapes, and 2.17 pounds of broccoli. They had some lovely cherries for a very good sale price, but my mother had brought back some bing cherries from a family reunion in Eastern Washington, so free trumps very good price.

I also got a large Alaskan Wild Coho Salmon fillet that was marked down as it needed to be made that day. It was $8.99 for 1.57 pounds, which is unheard of outside of buying an entire fish. I got ten pounds of chicken thighs, ten pounds of chicken legs, and three pounds of chicken wings. Then I bought two bags of organic white cheddar popcorn (one for each week).

I don't get the fancy deals like some folks manage but I did get $41.62 off my order between coupons and sale prices.

After that I felt okay enough to go to a second store so we went to Haggen, because I didn't like any of the beef prices at Cost Cutter, or the cuts on their pot roast. I found a nice big pot roast at Haggen, a lovely chuck and it wasn't in the despised cuts of cross rib or bottom round, neither of which will get tender the way I like them in a crockpot. Suddenly that's about all that the stores are carrying and I just don't like them. I like it when there's enough fat in the cut that they fall apart when you try to lift them out of the crockpot. I shouldn't have to cut them with a knife.

I also got 10 pounds of flour and 8 pounds of sugar, 8 lemons (for making homemade lemonade), 3 gallons of milk, 2 gallons of orange juice, 2 12 packs of Charmin at $6.99 with two $1 off coupons, so $5.99 each) since I knew I'd not be making it to Costco any time soon to buy the huge package. I got two family size cans of both Dinty Moore beef stew and Chef Boyardee mini ravioli (it comes without MSG now and no preservatives!), and four cans of no beans steak house chili from Stagg (not on sale, not even close), a package of hot dog buns (.25), and both a Fine Cooking and a Clean Eating magazine. Between coupons and sale prices I saved $32.45.

I went through both magazines last night. I like both of these magazines because they have well explained recipes and they also teach you cooking techniques (like how to cut up an artichoke for example, which hardly seems worth the effort, frankly). I also like them because they don't use ingredients like "cream of something soup" or empty five cans into the crockpot with your meat. I don't have anything against recipes like that but we can't use them with DS's allergies. And I prefer as close to natural and organic as possible just because I've had so many health problems and need the best nutrition I can give my body. (Not that that stops me from craving a quarter pounder from time to time).

I found ten recipes in one and three in the other. I was happy. I've come to think a magazine is worth it if I just get one great recipe out of it, and I feel like I hit the jackpot with these two, especially Fine Cooking. Then I looked up a recipe online for Chinese beef and broccoli which I hope to have the energy to make later this week. The kids had some at the City Center when they went to the Pacific Science Center Saturday and have wanted it since. The only places around here that make it all use MSG, so I'll have to do it myself. Fortunately the place there made it without any MSG.

I'm pretty excited to be meal planning this week because I have so many fresh ingredients and so many different colors of food, the plates will look great.

Oh, we've also got fresh blackberries and raspberries right now as the canes in the back yard are producing overtime. I can't wait for the blueberries to be ready. The bushes are loaded and blueberries are just so good and so good for you with all their anti-oxidants and stuff. I love the taste of summer!

Today is definitely a use it up sort of day. I'm a firm believer in shampoo is shampoo (except for my shampoo, of course!) and so when I saw several bottles that all had about an inch left in them, I set them up one at a time with a funnel and put them all into one bottle. Presto, a new bottle of shampoo. Now these are all the same type of shampoo, moisturizing, so it's not like we'd have dry hair clashing with oily or color-treated. But we will have purple clashing with green or pink. My daughter and husband don't really care much. I've done it before and only gotten one comment about the multiple layers of different colors. I also got half a bottle of conditioner this way, but it is all white.

I've got a ketchup bottle upside down on the counter draining into another ketchup bottle. Ditto the last of one syrup bottle into another. I shredded up two bread heals and put them into a baggy and froze them for future meatloaf.

There are leftovers in the fridge being eaten up today as well. Leftover spaghetti with leftover sauce. Leftover pancakes. Leftover chili with leftover hamburger combined to make a sort of sloppy joe thing on a leftover bun. DD is going to make milk that has hit its sell by date into pudding and the rest of it into a homemade cream of chicken soup she found which will also use up our leftover chicken.

She wants to make a tatertot casserole recipe this week and needs cream of chicken soup to do it, but with DS's allergies we can't use standard soup. Thankfully TJ's has a clean cream of mushroom soup, because I can't find an easy recipe for that. Hard ones, yes. I found a very simple cream of chicken soup recipe online so if it is good I will let you know as I know a few of you also have to deal with food allergies or like to cook as naturally as possible.

It took upgrading from IE8 to IE9 and reinstalling Java, but I finally got into the Bank of America website and it is finally working like it is supposed to. I hate when places upgrade so I have to upgrade when I don't want to. I dislike IE9 and have been avoiding it since it came out. It is ugly, more squared off. IE8 was more streamlined in appearance, IMO. I'll deal though. At least now I can keep an eye on things as they come through.

I would think that all of our hotels from our vacation would have gone through by now, but half of them are still pending. At least I can see the amounts though, which I couldn't before, so me 1, technology (well, let's face it, 572 or something).

We have a lovely roast cooking in the crockpot for dinner and are definitely back on the no eating out route for the rest of the month. We had some great meals while we were on vacation though. We found a really great diner we ate at for 3 meals, and they cooked their food from scratch. It was great, but I missed homecooking. I can't do any yet, but I did direct DH and DD into making dinner.

We leave on Sunday for our vacation, a little swing around the Olympic peninsula before we wind up at Virginia Mason the night before my surgery. I have been looking up restaurants and menues along the way so that I could get a handle on what food costs will be. There are also a couple of grocery stores that sell Organic Valley Milk. We will have an ice chest with us for milk, cheese, and fruit. We are also taking along cereal, granola and fruit bars, and some deli meat, bread and peanut butter. Every hotel has a fridge and microwave except the last one which just has a fridge.

I am so glad that so many restaurants have menues with prices available online. Not only to see that even some extravagant places have some lower cost menu items like fish and chips and cheeseburgers, but to see what's actually in the foods. Like if something is prepared with a demi-glace then we know not to order it for my son or mushrooms not to order it for me. It just makes things so much easier to have that information at my fingertips.

There are a lot of Mom and Pop diners along our route and that's really the food we prefer. Most of them don't have a ton of additives if you avoid the soda and desserts. The food is hearty and not as expensive and the servings are such that it is easy to each split a meal with one of the kiddos, maybe ordering an extra side here or there. Then there are some restaurants where we will just order soup and appetizers and still be fed well but for far less money.

I've got my list of questions ready. Not only do we ask about food additives/colorings, and whether grapes or apples are involved in any way, but we ask what is in their eggs. At least one namebrand restaurant we know of puts pancake batter in their omelettes to make them fluffier (but are happy to leave it out if you ask), and some restaurants use liquid egg product which has all kinds of shelf stabilizers in it. So we need to make sure it's made with real eggs and has nothing added other than the fillings if we order omelettes. Most of the time I am very careful with eggs and simply order them poached. DS is allergic to margarine so if a place doesn't use butter or oil in the frying or scrambling process, poached is always safe since it is always cooked in water.

I added $6.09 to the coin jar. That was the amount leftover from the 20 dollar bill I gave the kids yesterday for dinner on the way back from my sister's house.

I gave the chickens an ear of corn I found in the back of the fridge. It wasn't moldy, you don't want to give chicken's moldy food, but it was less than fresh and had likely all turned to starch. I split it in half so they could each have one to themselves.

The chicks are still on mash, so I only worried about the grown ones. Those two love me because I generally bring them a treat of corn or melon seeds. Cantaloupe is their favorite and they also like the rinds. I love the fact that these two are so friendly now. They used to run away from me all the time like the little ones do. They'll even sit on my lap.

They are back to laying daily. For a while they were only laying every other day. I sure miss the days of a flock of six. Even when the chicks are grown there will only be four altogether, and we aren't entirely sure both of the new ones are female. They haven't grown up enough yet to devolop a rooster's comb. I really hope they are both girls though. Can I say again how much I hate racoons?

I finished reading my book last night, Little Brother by Cory Doctorow. It's like 1984 by George Orwell but for the digital future. And also not boring. It's really very current while maintaining a near future edge. It was definitely a hard book to put down.

Not much going on here. I've spent most of the day doing laundry and writing. I've got a lovely roast in the crockpot for dinner and no desire in the world to eat out. I've got four potatoes that need using up so will fry those up to have with the roast and probably add a can of green beans.

DH comes home on Wednesday. It can't be soon enough.

Well, I've made it a week without going to a restaurant or ordering takeaway food. One more week to go. I very well may extend it until we go on vacation in July as we are doing so well and not feeling at all deprived.

Breakfast:
Scrambled eggs (free from chickens)
Homemade beef sausage ($1.50)
Strawberries ($1)
Milk ($1.50)

Total: $4

Lunch:
Leftover spaghetti (free, used up last of sauce and noodles)
Cucumber slices (.79)
Chicken quesadillas
--leftover Cornish game hens (free)
--spelt tortillas (.50)

Total: $1.29

Dinner:
DS and Me
Steak ($8)
Corn on the cob ($1)
Can of green beans ($1)
Milk ($1.50)
DD
Mashed potatoes and gravy leftovers (free)

Total: $11.50

Grand total for day: $16.79

DD felt good enough to eat a bit more challenging foods today. She wanted me to get mashed potatoes and gravy from KFC, but I told her we had some potatoes and gravy left from meals earlier in the week and she agreed to that. Crisis averted.

Breakfast:
Scrambled Eggs (free from chickens)
Pancakes (.50)
Real Maple syrup ($1)
Milk ($1.50)

Total: $3

Lunch:
DS and Me
Cornbread (.50)
Chili ($2)
Milk ($1)

DD
Leftover mashed potatoes and gravy (free)
Scrambled egg (free from chickens)
water

Total: $3.50

Dinner:
Fresh Udon Noodles ($1.69)
Chicken ($3)
Can of green beans ($1)
Fresh strawberries ($2)
Milk (1.50)

Total: $9.19

Grand Total for the day: $15.69

Last night before I went to bed I was nosing through the freezer figuring out what today's lunches were going to be. The kids and I couldn't really come to a consensus of what we wanted so I turned to my stash of homemade TV dinners. I make these up when there are only enough leftovers for one person's meal, as opposed to enough leftover from dinner for everyone to have lunch the next day.

DS happily claimed the little chicken pot pie, DD was thrilled to find a turkey, stuffing, and veggie combo leftover from the turkey we roasted in April, and I discovered a chicken enchilada that was calling my name. It fed our need for variety without having to make up three different things for lunch today.

Breakfast:
Blueberry Muffins (.49)
Scrambled Eggs (free, from chickens)
Beef Bacon ($2)
Milk ($1.50)

Total: $3.99

Lunch:
Leftover pot pie (free)
Leftover turkey dinner (free)
Leftover enchilada (free)
Salad (free, garden)
Dressing (.25)
Strawberries ($1)

Total: $1.25

Dinner:
Cheeseburgers
--hamburger ($1.37)
--cheese (.50)
--1/8 cup tomato sauce (.13)
--1/8 cup onion (.25)
--condiments (.12)
--homemade buns (.50)
Milk ($1.50)

Total: $4.37

Grand Total for Day: $9.61!

I love it when the cost of leftovers really lowers that daily amount like that. It'll definitely help balance this coming weekend's picnic ham. Today is a no spend day, as well. Tomorrow won't be as I have to get a prescription for DD who is having her wisdom teeth out and I have to pay up front for our portion of the surgery. At least the money is available and it won't have to go on a card. Even last year we might have had to charge it so I am very glad about where we are right now even if it does seem we keep getting battered with medical expenses.

Today was a good day. Although I feel like I had to run a lot, it wasn't so bad. I started off at physical therapy and so that was $90 out. Had a visit to the chiropractor but the month is already prepaid so no money out there. Went to Trader Joe's to get the cheaper Clam Chowder to have on hand for after DD's wisdom teeth get removed so she'll have an easy choice that has plenty of protein in it. I also picked up peanut butter and two packages of nitrate/nitrite free all beef hotdogs. I spent $32.47 there.

I stopped at Link's Optical (because it was across from TJ's) to pick up a couple packages of the glasses cleaning wipes, so that was $11.50, but we'll be stocked for a good while. Or a while anyway. When you have four people in one household wearing glasses they don't last as long as when there was just two.

After that I went to Bank of America to pay on the credit card. I only paid $500 today, but I will pay another $500 on Friday which is payday. Normally I pay $1000 in one go, but with the medical bills everything is off kilter a bit and I have to pay up front for DD's oral surgery Wednesday and that will be $400 so I just did half for now.

Then I went to the store and got some Icy Hot Naturals to put on my back. It's not as good as Mineral Ice, but I wasn't going to drive around looking for it when my back was starting to lock up. It cost $7.99 for a big tube (8 ounce, I think).

Okay, so still no temptation to eat out which is nice. I thought this was going to be tougher because I am so tired, but we are all into the planning and the making of meals so it's working very well.

Breakfast:
Homemade biscuits with strawberry jelly (.50)
Bananas (.80)
Homemade Lamb sausage ($3)
Milk ($1.50)

Total: $5.80

Lunch:
Beef Quesadillas made with--
--leftover beef potroast (free)
--spelt tortillas ($1)
--shredded cheese blend ($1)
Cucumber slices (.79)
Water

Total: $2.79

Dinner:
Cornish Game Hens ($8)
Leftover potatoes (free)
Leftover gravy (free)
Can of green beans ($1)
Milk ($1.50)

Total: $10.50

Grand Total for day: $19.09

So under my daily goal of $20, not too bad. I was guessing on the cornish game hens on what they cost, based on what they are selling for now, which is $4 a hen. They've been in the freezer for a while and probably cost less than that at the time. I can't imagine I'd have bought them at full price. But it's close enough.

Tomorrow will be at least partially a seafood day. I've got some Langastino that needs to be eaten and while I was rooting around in the freezer I also noticed there was a two pound bag of prawns so those will go into a meal later in this week. There was lots of frozen salmon as well so I think we will have salmon for dinner tomorrow. I should take some out to thaw now. Or maybe I should save the salmon for when DD can barely chew. Hmm...well, I'll figure it out this evening.

I need to balance the checkbook. I skipped doing it this weekend so really need to get to it.

I am happy about how good the kids are being about not eating out. I told them we were going to try to go two weeks with just homecooked meals and they are actually pretty happy about that. Seems they really do prefer my cooking and it's more an issue of my not wanting to cook at times more than them wanting to go to a restaurant that makes them ask so much. Interesting what your kids will tell you when things slow down in the summer.

Anyway, today's menu:

Breakfast
French toast with powdered sugar and cinnamon ($1)
Milk ($1.50)
Chicken sausage ($2)

Total: $4.50

Lunch:
Clam Chowder ($1.49)
Chicken Noodle soup ($1)
Canteloupe ($1)
Cucumbers ($.79)
Cheese cubes ($1.50)

Total: $5.78

Dinner:
Beef pot roast ($7.52)
Corn on the cob ($2)
Green beans ($1)
Milk ($1.50)

Total: $12.02

Grand Total for day: $22.30. A little high but there will be leftover pot roast for sandwiches tomorrow so that will bring tomorrow's price down.

It is getting harder to find the pot roasts for under $3 a pound. Until all this medical stuff started this year I was seriously considering getting a side of beef direct from an organic farmer but we may well likely have to put that off for another year since I don't think we will have the money available by September which is when you have to pay.

That's what my kids declared after eating this tonight:



It was delicious and a third of the cost of getting hot meatball sandwiches at our favorite Italian place.