Weekly Goals Update: Week 19

1.  Disaster Preparedness
Week 19 was food storage tools.  Aside from the freezer I depend highly on the Food Saver.  I use it to vacuum seal our stock up deals.  This week that will include tea and coffee.  I also use the jar attachments to vacuum seal things I dehydrate.  I also love my Excalibur dehydrator.  For years I had the cheaper round version and rarely used it as it took so long to dehydrate anything.  I saved up for the Excalibur and during the garden season use it almost daily. 

2.  Makeover the Garden
I have continued to work on this area.  We got nearly all of the fruit trees planted last week.  I have had to water them several times, but we have rain in the forecast for the next seven days.  Today I am planning to set out some herbs and move some marigolds.  I also need to get the pineapple plants into containers. I want to put out some more wildflower seeds too.  If there are some breaks in between showers this week, I plan to do a bit of weeding in the bee garden.

3. Organize Recipes
If it rains all week (which would not hurt my feelings), I will spend some time on my recipe books.  I have some new favorites to print and add into the books.

4.  Have 13 No Spend Grocery Weeks
I am planning a big grocery shop to last us at least the next three weeks.  That means I should have two more no spend weeks to add to the total. I sat down over the weekend and wrote out a meal plan. I am looking forward to staying close to home for a couple of weeks.

5. Focus on Saving
My church started a women's ministry group earlier this year, and I was put in charge of the Secret Sister ministry.  When I finances tightened, I considered just being in charge and not participating.  Since the focus was on prayers and contact rather than gifts, I opted to take part.  I had some extra bucks expiring at CVS last week.  I was able to use them along with some sales and clearances to purchase four months of small gifts for my "sister".  I also took advantage of free shipping on Joann's to order a skein of yarn on sale.  I will use it to crochet her a pair of fingerless gloves for winter.