Weekly Savings

Meals were all cooked at home this week.  I made an extra effort to make sure we used up the leftovers.  We had leftover green beans and macaroni and cheese so I cooked some deer steak to go with that.  We ate all of the sides but had steak leftover.  I sliced it thin and mixed in some lime juice, cumin, and chili powder.  That along with cheese and salsa made steak quesadillas.

 

W built me two more raised beds using materials (cement blocks) that we had on hand.  Those are partly filled with compost.  We will get horse manure from a neighbor.  I will purchase some peat moss, but that will be the only cost for five new raised beds.

 

The weather was much better this week so we were able to go without the heater.  This will help on the electric bill next month.

 

I found more reduced dairy while grocery shopping this week.  I purchased 3 half-gallons of whole milk for $1.79.  This went into the freezer and will be used for making yogurt.  I will use my homemade yogurt for a starter and will have cheap yogurt.  W also spotted a gallon of orange juice for less than a half-gallon of sale priced OJ.  Finally I bought reduced cottage cheese for spaghetti pies (poor man’s lasagna).    I did go a bit over budget this week and pulled from my extra grocery money.  It was worth it to take advantage of the reduced milk.

 

I made ranch dressing using free Greek yogurt sour cream.  I did not tell W that I used the Greek yogurt.  It tasted great, and he did not mention anything different. 

 

I received the 3 used video games for W’s birthday.  They are all in good condition and include the cases and manuals.  This will make them easier to resell later. 

 

A quiet week overall as we spent most of our time in the yard and garden. It was nice after the colder than normal winter.  My parents gifted me four onions they did not have room to plant so these went into the garden.  They also offered me some extra seed potatoes, but I had no place to plant these.  The blue seed potatoes gave me more eyes than I expected so I will need to use a second raised bed to plant the fingerling potatoes.  I should be able to harvest more potatoes than I first thought.  I planted radish seed left from last year in another raised bed.  I can hardly wait until it is warm enough to empty the greenhouse and have the garden in full swing.