Today's meals

I worked from 8 until 430 in hospital orientation. This morning I put four large chicken breast in the crock pot with a boullion cube, some water, onion powder, garlic powder, and celery salt. I added 6 small potatoes and two large carrots. I cut up the potatoes and carrots. Everything went into the crock pot.

I took out frozen hot dogs for lunch for the family since my daughters were working, but my son and husband were home. They ate the hot dogs.

Dinner tonight was awesome. We have two large chicken breast left over. There's a few chunks of potato and carrot left. There is an awesome amount of chicken stock in the bottom of the crock pot. I put this in the fridge to let the fat go to the top and I will remove the fat and put the stock in the freezer. We had left over corn and Brussel sprouts from last night with our meal. My husband make a very small salad too.

Breakfast: This morning I had half a bowl of cereal and a cup of decaf tea with skim milk and two tsp of sugar.

I am not sure what we will be having tomorrow. I will serve the left over chicken from tonight. Just not sure what I am going to do with it yet. Work lunch consisted of left over taco stuff made into a salad. I added some pizza cheese to it since it is all we have.

My husband did a great job with dinner. He washed some laundry and cleaned house today.

What's been happening?

Work has been busy learning the hospital and how they do things. We have an extensive orientation. I have a hospital orientation until October 7th. I will have a few weeks with a preceptor after this time and I will be on my "own" then.

My birth certificate came in the mail. I am waiting for my marriage certificate to come in the mail. When I get the marriage certificate I will get both cars registered.

We have limited food in the pantry, fridge, and freezer.

Wed: My husband made chili with ground turkey and black beans. It was amazing.
Thurs: We had pasta, broccoli, and chicken drumsticks.
Fri: we went out
Sat: we went out
Sun: We had pork ribs (ohama steak house package from August) baked in the oven with BBQ sauce, meatballs with from scratch beef gravy, mac and cheese, corn, and brussel sprouts. I was hoping for left overs for my work lunches, but there was not much left. We also had a small salad and corn bread.
Mon: My husband made tacos. We had a kit in the pantry. We used 80 percent lean ground beef. We had a prepackaged "rice kit".

I took out a family pack of chicken breast that I bought a while back from Aldi in the fridge. I will put the chicken in the crock pot in the morning with some carrots and potatoes. I have some chicken broth that I can add to the crock pot. I was going to add half a thin sliced onion to it also. Having dinner ready when I get home eases some stress in the evenings.

Life

A couple of things! I started my job yesterday!! So very excited. I also found out this morning that my family and I have immediate coverage for medical, dental, and prescription coverage! I will get more to that in another post. I am so thankful to be working again. I have this week and half of next week for orientation. I have a week of classroom stuff to complete for week three. I will be in the ICU working with a preceptor for a couple of weeks until I can find my way in a new hospital regarding policies, procedures, and such.

We had some leftovers from Sunday dinner in the fridge. Our cousins brought over some sweet tea, potato salad, and a fruit salad to share.

Monday, my middle daughter, made the last of the marinaded chicken quarters, mashed potatoes, corn, and green beans. It was amazing and dinner was ready when I got home from work.

My daughters started a new job this morning. It is a part time temp position for both of them. They will work from 8 am until 330 in the afternoon. I am proud of them.

Tonight's dinner was a bunch of leftovers. We had a couple pieces of chicken, some potato salad, baked beans, one small piece of meat loaf, corn, fruit salad, and green beans. Every one got to pick and choose what they wanted and there was nothing left.

Lunches for work: Yesterday being the first day, the new job provided the lunch for everyone. There was a box lunch, with bottled water or tea. I took the roast beef box lunch and bottled water. Today, I packed the last of the gravy, rice, carrots, and beef that was in the fridge. It was pretty good. I had cereal this morning before work and my girls ended up having scrambled eggs.

I did make half a box of pasta for lunches tomorrow. My girls requested mac and cheese for tomorrow. We had a half a jar of cheese sauce in the fridge. I mixed it with the pasta and my girls will pack this for their lunch tomorrow.

I had half a container of ground beef in pasta sauce. I added some of the cooked pasta to this and warmed it up on the stove. This will go into my lunch tomorrow.

I got home from work, my husband took the dog out to go for a quick walk. My son gathered all the laundry. I washed two loads of laundry and my husband helped me clean up the kitchen. The dishes are in the dishwasher, the pans are washed, the floor is swept. I have one load in the dryer and the last load in the washer waiting to go into the dryer.

I stopped by our new "home" which is just the ground being broken and there is a frame on the ground!! There are permits hanging at the construction site. I am so excited.

I got a hold of human resources at my old job. I spoke to the head of human resources and explained about my overdue PTO "vacation time" that is due to me. I was told that the paperwork wasn't filled in on time and sent to the office. I have finally been approved for my "vacation time" and will receive this as a direct deposit on September 28th. FINALLY.

I received a notice from Wells Fargo. I had the mortgage paid off until September 1st. They sent me a check for 605.55 and this will be deposited into the bank. My husband was given 105.55 and the rest will be put into my checking account to pay the bills until I receive my overdue PTO.

Sunday dinner

Sunday dinner consist of chicken thighs, drumsticks, mashed potatoes, green beans, and a small salad. Our cousins are coming over tonight for dinner and we usually alternate houses on Sundays.

I took out the 10 pound bag of chicken quarters from the freezer the other day and put it in the fridge. The bag has thawed. I was able to separate the quarters into individual thighs and drumsticks. I used nine quarters and have enough chicken for the nine of us this evening.

I have six chicken quarters left in the fridge. I put them in a freezer bag and put some garlic and herb marinade on them. I bought the marinade from Aldi a while ago. They will be cooked tomorrow for dinner.

We are going to have mashed potatoes, steamed green beans, and a small salad for dinner with the chicken. I seasoned the chicken with some salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, and a small amount of poultry seasoning. The chicken is baking in the oven right now.

We should have enough chicken for each person to have two pieces each. If there is chicken left over I will send some of it home with our cousins and take what is left to work this week for my lunch.

Electric Bill

Our last electric was 188 dollars and was paid in full. My husband had been living in the rental for about three weeks before I got here. He arrived with the older children on July 15th and got the keys. He had been staying with his cousins from July 12th until the 15th.

We received our new electric bill. I arrived August 5th. I was surprised when I opened the email from the electric company. The bill was 101.44.

Yep. 101.44 total.

We use the oven. We use the AC at 78. We keep the ceiling fans on all the time. We have five ceiling fans and they belong to the rental. We wash clothes twice a week (Sunday and Thursday). We probably wash 4 loads each day. The dryer runs for 30 minutes total. I showed the kids how to set the dryer. The settings on the washer are for cold water wash and cold water rinse. The washer has a second rinse cycle but we do not choose this option. We wash on the medium cycle. We do have a television. We don't watch much TV. The blinds are closed in the bedrooms. I do open the blinds in the kitchen to let some light in. We have two large windows in the living room. The one window has a set of blinds that we keep closed. The other sliding door blinds we open half way to let some sunlight in. We use the crock pot. We use the rice steamer. We use the microwave. We use the dishwasher once a day. The fridge temp is set at 37 degrees. The freezer temp is set at negative two.

We all have cell phones and laptops that are used a lot.

Our bill dropped drastically. I am not sure what will happen with the next electric bill since so many people lost electricity and had down power lines from IRMA. I am going to wait and see if the bill increases. We will not change what we are doing. I think 101 dollars and 44 cents is an amazing electric bill for a house this size.

Old Jugs

Milk Jugs.
Juice jugs.
Water Bottles.
Any reasonable size jug.

Do you keep them? Put them in the recycling bucket? Throw them in the trash? I used to put them in the recycling bucket and still do at times.

I have been cleaning them out and rinsing with hot water after use. When we found out that we were heading for a hurricane I actually put tap water in the jugs. I filled a couple of them about 3/4 full with tap water and put them in the freezer. The thought was that if we lost power we could keep our food cold and prevent the loss from spoiled food.

As I keep thinking about this I thought that it would be great to boil the water and put the boiled water in jugs to have in an emergency. I have two in the freezer right now. I have one in the fridge full of "sweet tea" and another that is thawing. We will have cold water to drink and it will help keep other foods cold. It will prevent the refrigerator from having to work as hard. (I think I read that in the tightwad gazette a couple years ago).

My husband told me that he thought I was weird for using the older jugs. He didn't say much to me about it other than he thought it was weird. Oh well. He doesn't complain when he has cold water to drink or tea with ice.

Does anyone else reuse the jugs? If so, what do you do with them?

Plastic bags

We all have them. It's those plastic bags that we get from the store. It could be the bags that hold our sliced bread. It could be any bag, even a produce bag, that held a pound of apples.

The city we live in does not let us put these bags in the recycling for pick up on Thursdays. We have always used these bags to help with cleaning and scooping of cat litter. The bags get used to line bathroom trash baskets. We use these bags also to pick up our dog's mess when we take him outside to use the "facilities". My kids usually walk Jackson. When we owned our home we had a fenced back yard and could let him in and out as he wished. Now that we are renting there's no fenced yard and he needs to be walked a couple times a day.

Some times I use the bread bags to put dryer lint in and throw away when full.

We shop at Aldi and have our own brown bags that we use all the time. We do stop at other stores occasionally and have two bags that are filled with other plastic bags. We do put a bag in the car to have a place to throw things when we are out and about in town.

What do you use those bags for? Any thoughts?

Forgotten meal

I forgot to add that we had burgers from Aldi the other night. The burgers were 85 percent lean and 100 percent pure beef. We added one slice of cheese to each burger after they were baked in the oven. I did cut up some lettuce, cherry tomatoes (I sliced in half), sliced a small bit of onion, and cucumber. Everyone got to pick out the condiments they wanted. I opened one of the two last cans of baked beans that we had and warmed those up.

Overall, it was a quick and satisfying meal for the five of us. There were some baked beans left over and those are in the fridge for another meal. We did not have hamburger buns and people could have the burgers on regular bread if they wanted.

What's been cooking?

I went to Aldi the other day to get groceries. We have been using what was in the pantry prior to our shopping and will continue to do so supplementing with what I the other day.

My kids have been eating toast with peanut butter for breakfast. I also bought a toaster. We apparently didn't bring our old one with us in the move and I just noticed this week.

We finished the last two cans of tomato soup in the pantry and these cans were put into the recycling.

Dinner last night was two single serve meatloaves and one chicken cord on blue (both were single servings int he grocery package that my MIL sent in August). We had left over corn, broccoli, and brown gravy in the fridge. I warmed the veggies and gravy in the microwave and the kids got to pick and choose from. I steamed some white rice to give them something else. There wasn't much to choose from. We have a small portion of a meat loaf left (think about one small slice).

The night before we made pasta with jar sauce and ground beef. There is a moderate amount of ground beef and sauce left. I was going to add the meatloaf to this and serve as a small amount of pasta for lunches tomorrow.

When I got up this morning I put the last package of beef tips (in the grocery package from MIL in august) in the crock pot with a bag of baby carrots (bought several weeks ago and didn't use). I added half an onion, two cloves of fresh garlic, the last can of cream of mushroom soup, a cup of beef broth, and let this cook all morning. I will steam some more rice (my older kids like rice and it is filling). I am going to make a small salad to go with this and we will have a late lunch early dinner tonight.

I have thawed the 10 pound bag of chicken quarters. I am going to cut the legs from the thighs and have sticky chicken tomorrow for dinner. I am not going to use the whole ten pound bag for sticky chicken. We usually have Sunday dinner with our cousins and this would be more than enough for the five of us, the four of them, and help with leftovers for the week.

I also made a pot of tea on the stove. I made a lot. I used the biggest pot I could find. I boiled water, added four decaf tea bags, and half a cup of sugar. It will go in the "tea jug" in the fridge. The tea jug is just a washed and clean gallon container that had milk in it before.

Been down a few days

Comcast and Sprint have been down the past few days due to the electric companies in Florida doing their tree work and the after effects of Hurricane Irma. We did not have services for two days. I know, seems harmless right? 

Not when we have internet junkies in the house! 

We found out about an hour ago that it was back on. My husband and kids cheered in our bedroom. The house is really quiet now and everyone is enjoying their internet time. 

Our electric bill came in the mail. It is only 101.44 this month. THUD! Not what I was expecting but a very nice surprise. 

Our water bill was 145 dollars and a HUGE surprise. I looked over the bill and found that our home has automatic irrigation for the lawns in Florida. It is set by the home renter and is mandated in the lease to water the grass twice a week. I spoke to my husband. It is middle of September. We are going to look at the water irrigation meter today and figure out how to change the settings from twice a week to once a week. I can not afford a monthly water bill of 145 dollars. It stated that the use from the reclaimed irrigation water was 11,000 gallons and personal home use of water was 5,000 gallons (included showers, kitchen use, washing machine, cooking etc). I can not justify using twice the amount of water in a month to keep the lawn watered. I seriously can not justify that. It rains often in Florida (almost daily). 

My vacation time (PTO) Update: I emailed my director twice this week. I finally was able to call HR and left a message on the voicemail of our representative. I am hoping for a call back this coming week. I am determined to get this benefit from my old employer. I met the qualifications, worked for eleven years without any misconduct, and never had issues while being employed there. 

253 hours X 32.78 an hour is over 8 thousand dollars before taxes. This money would help my savings account and us to pay bills until I get my first pay check from my new job. 

I start my new job Monday!! I am so excited but very nervous. 

Mid month budget

I emailed my old director again this morning regarding my vacation time that is supposed to be given to me that I didn't use in the eleven years I worked for her. I emailed her to give her an update and asked if it would be deposited into my checking account this week. Tomorrow is a regular payday for this company. I am waiting for her response back.

Prior to getting the vehicles registered I need to get a certified copy of my birth certificate and marriage certificate. The DMV requested that I go online at vitalcheck.com and could get these two documents ordered and sent to me. The cost was about 70 dollars each.

I went online to the cities where I was born and get married. I was able to download the appropriate forms and I will get them printed out. The costs will be 10 dollars for the birth certificate and 15 dollars for the marriage certificate. It will take a bit longer to get to me through the mail, but I can't afford 140 dollars for the two documents.

I was looking at my budget. I have about 975 dollars worth of bills sitting on my table. I am going to have to take the money out of my savings to pay for bills, get gas for one car, and to get some groceries. I really don't want to take the money out of savings, but I don't see any way to get the bills paid, and unless my vacation time is more delayed, I really don't have a choice. I can always put the money back in my savings account when it gets direct deposited from my old employer.

I start my new job on Monday. I am so excited. I feel that we are blessed to have been able to move, begin new lives, sell our old house, and be able to rent while our new house is being built.

Meals, Life, Finances

Well the pantry, fridge, and freezer has many bare spots and the recycling bin is very thankful to be filling up.

I gave the kids the choice of either pancakes or oatmeal with milk this morning. They choose oatmeal. Lunch consisted of peanut butter with jelly, turkey, or tuna sandwiches. Two kids had peanut butter and jelly. One child declined. My husband and myself had tuna sandwiches. I opened two cans of tuna, mixed it with some mayo, added half a stalk of chopped celery, and 1/4 of an onion. Everyone enjoyed their lunch. Yesterday the kids had french toast for breakfast. I save all the bread ends in the freezer until we have enough for french toast. The kids and my husband had french toast. I did not have any. There wasn't enough for the five of us.

Dinner consisted of opening a package of pork chops. These were very large and only had four in the package. I baked them in the oven and when finished cooking we emptied 2 dredges of BBQ sauce on the pork and let it finish cooking. The BBQ containers were washed and went into the recycling. We made a package of red beans with rice. It was a prepackaged kit. The box went into the recycling. I also steamed some Aldi green beans that we had in the freezer.

We are almost out of milk. We used the last of the eggs yesterday. I made carrot cupcakes (a box mix in the pantry and used the last bit of frosting in the fridge). My kids had scrambled eggs the other morning for breakfast. I used the last of the butter yesterday for the eggs and had to scrape the butter container. We have no cheese. We have some pork and beans. No other type of beans at this time. We love beans.

For drinks: we have bottled water, tap water for the animals, decaf tea, and a small package of lemonade. I am making a gallon of tea to put into the fridge for those who want something other than ice water. (boiled water, four tea bags, 1/2 cup of sugar, one empty cleaned out milk gallon jug).

Snacks: a few carrot cupcakes are left and I will have to look around to see what else we have. We have no fruit.

Produce: a few potatoes, a head of lettuce, a couple of cheery tomatoes, 6 medium size onions, fresh garlic, a pound of baby carrots

Bread: a package of hot dog rolls, half a loaf of bread (I need to get some yeast. I have everything to make homemade bread including a bread machine). I have a Jiffy corn bread mix.

I took out a bag of chicken quarters that I bought a while back for 89 cents a pound and it is a ten pound bag. These are thawing in the fridge and I will come up with a plan. The ten pound bag will make quite a few meals for the five of us with leftovers which will be a blessing.

Frozen veggies: several bags of corn, peas, green beans, brussels sprouts

Meats: 2 large packages of chicken breast, two small packages of pork ribs (from mother in law grocery package in August), 2 pounds of ground beef, a pound of hot dogs, one pound of bratwurst, 3 pounds of ground turkey, one package of bacon, two single serve meat loaves (grocery package from MIL in August), one single chicken cord on blue, one package of beef tips (grocery package from MIL in August), and half a pork tenderloin.

We have spices. We are limited on canned goods. We have two cans of beans, one can of corned beef hash, two cans of tomato soup, one can of mushroom soup, and I am sure there are a few other things. We are out of canned tomato products.

So, with that being said I was looking over this post and noticed that I was rambling about groceries. We have finished paying off the old bills in Virginia. We have to get the two cars registered in Florida. We have to pay October bills. Funds are very tight and I am concerned that I will have to transfer money from my savings to the checking to pay the bills if I do not receive the vacation time that I did not use at my former job this week.

We have not been to the store since August 27th for any major grocery shopping. I am a bit stressed but thankful that the water/gas/trash bill is paid and the electric is paid. The rent is paid until November 1st. I start my job on Monday. It is a blessing.

Today's thoughts

The hurricane has moved on and I believe has become a tropical storm. We still have a bit of wind where we live, but we are blessed. We have a home, never lost electricity, had some shingles come off the roof, and a lot of broken tree limbs. I put in a maintenance request for the lost shingles, a few three limbs that are broken in half but hanging off the front tree, and for the clean up of the limbs that my family took from the ground and stacked them near the garage.

I have been in contact with my director at my previous job. She stated that she would ensure that I would receive my vacation time cash out. I spoke to her about a week and a half ago. This Thursday is a normal pay day for the company I used to work for. I am hoping that it will be direct deposited into my account this week.

253 hours X 32.78 an hour is a nice amount to receive and would help tremendously in getting the bills paid and put enough into savings. All taxes will come out of this money.

I start my new job next Monday. I have HR orientation and will receive information on the benefit package. I need to find out from this employer if they will allow me to roll over my 403 B into their retirement plan. I will know next week.

The new house hasn't been started to build yet due to the hurricane. We drove by there yesterday and there are several stakes in the ground. The utility lines are marked. It is a start. The mortgage loan was approved at 4.2 percent interest. My credit score is 731.

My savings account has 33,000 in it for the down payment and closing costs. We will be putting 20,900 down at closing. I want to keep 10,000 in the savings for emergencies and a cushion. The 3,000 extra will just stay there and gain interest. The savings account is in my name only to prevent my husband from spending foolishly. This savings account is considered an investor's savings and the bank stated that if I set up the savings this way I would gain more interest. I agreed. I earned 3.16 cents in less than a month in interest. It is free money. I will take it. Every little bit helps.

What'a been happening?

IRMA is here and we are safe at home. This morning I made breakfast for everyone. I scrambled some eggs in bacon fat (I am out of butter) and served these to the five of us. Everyone ate and did not complain.

Lunch consisted of cleaning out the left overs from the last few days. The kids go to pick and choose what they wanted from the last bit of chicken, peas, broccoli, pasta, and a few slices of pizza that were in the fridge. All the left overs are finally done.

Tonight's dinner consisted of thawing a pound of ground beef and making 15 meatballs. I baked these in the oven. I took five potatoes and boiled them to make mashed potatoes (I scraped the butter container to get some for the potatoes, it wasn't really enough). I steamed some corn and I made brown gravy from two packets in the pantry. I put the gravy over the meatballs and mashed potatoes.

There's some corn, mashed potatoes, and a bit of gravy leftover. They will go into the fridge for another meal. I am not sure what the plan is for tomorrow because IRMA is supposed to get worse overnight.

Our lights have been flickering on and off. We have the radio on to hear the weather reports. We still have cable and cell communication. We have been told that there are tornado warnings and watches. We have some broken tree limbs in our back yard. The winds are terrible and the rain is just overwhelming.

Thursday

We have been keeping up to date with the local news regarding hurricane IRMA. Southern Florida has mandated evacuations. We are not in southern Florida but Lake county (here in central florida) has decided to open shelters tomorrow morning at 8 AM for residents. If needed we will go to the shelter and stay until it is safe to leave and go back to our home. We have a rental home that was built in 2005 and appears to be sturdy and safe. The property management company has contacted us several times to give us information how to be prepared. They requested that we contact them through email once a day to ensure that we are safe and well. They are also going to be coming to each property to assess for weather related damages.


What has been cooking? Thursday morning we had left over chicken for breakfast. The kids had left over fried chicken and the last of the baked beans for lunch. These two things are finally gone! Lunch for my husband and I was a small bowl of chicken salad that I made using the marinated chicken breast that I baked slowly the other night. We will have some of the marinated chicken left. I only marinated two large chicken breasts and this had made enough lunches for a couple of days.

Thursday night's dinner was steamed white rice over shredded chicken, carrots, and gravy. The other day I put the other two chicken breasts in the crock pot with a bag of baby carrots, and a can of cream of chicken soup and the last of the chicken stock I had in the freezer. This cooked all day and I shredded the chicken. This was able to feed the five of us last night with a small amount left over to be used today.

Tonight's dinner will be pasta, with meatballs, and sauce. We need a break from the chicken! I have a pound of ground beef thawing and will make meatballs out of it. I have to jars of spaghetti sauce in the fridge with 1/4 cup left in each one. I will finish those two end jars up and if needed open another jar from the pantry. The kids will have some Parmesan cheese on their pasta. We will either steam some broccoli or peas to have with our meal.

What's been cooking?

Well, not much really. Last night we had leftovers served buffet style. I offered fried chicken, baked beans, potato salad, hot dogs, Italian sausage, and green beans. We still have some fried chicken, baked beans, and a small amount of potato salad left.

I did marinade two chicken breast yesterday and put them in the oven. I baked them at 325 until done and sliced the chicken breasts. We will use this chicken for sandwiches this week. I actually did cook the chicken in the hopes that we would have some proteins available if we lost electricity during the storm. We can make sandwiches or just eat the chicken cold with items from the cabinets.

I put the other two chicken breasts in the crock pot (my cousins gave packages of chicken breast to my husband when he moved in the house in July. We have been working on using this up). I finally used the last package this morning. I put the chicken in the crock pot. I added a bag of baby carrots (from the fridge bought a couple of weeks ago), the last couple cups of chicken stock I made a while ago that needed to go, and a can of cream of chicken soup. I added some pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, poultry seasoning, and celery salt. This will cook all day on low. We will simmer some long grain rice and serve with dinner this evening.

Our pantry has not been filled in a while. We have been using what we have until I get a pay check the first week of October. I emailed my old director yesterday to find out how long it will be until I receive all my paid vacation time that I did not use. I am trying to be patient and wait for a response back from her. She is not known for her timely responses to questions.

What's been happening?

One word. IRMA.

We have been getting ready a bit more seriously than we would have in Virginia. Being in Florida means that there are no mountains or a valley to protect the residents like we have in Virginia. We have shelf stable foods. We have bottled water. A TON OF WATER. We have cat food. We have litter. We have dog food. We have some cash in my husband's wallet. Not much. We have two cars with gas in them. We have four flashlights. We have a radio. We bought a lot of batteries. We have candles. We have matches. We have two coolers in the garage. I paid for the flashlights and batteries. We had everything else prior to the arrival of IRMA.

Shelf stable foods: canned beans (3) , tuna (2), peanut butter (2), jelly (2), dry cereal (1), bottled water, canned soup (in an emergency we can eat canned soup cold) (4), saltine crackers (1), canned soda (it is what it is), one can of corn beef hash, kool aid packets (several packets), two boxes of town house type crackers. We do not have much in the pantry since we have been using what we have to keep expenses down. We can supplement this with food from the fridge and freezer unless we lose electricity.

Water: We have several gallons of water. We have three cases of 20 ounce bottles. We have been filling zip lock bags with water and freezing them. We have an ice maker that I have been filling zip lock gallon bags with to keep in the freezer. I have an empty jug of tea that I washed out and filled with water to put in the freezer. (I have a couple more empty jugs that we will fill and put in the freezer later today).

Filling the bathtub: My husband suggested last night that we fill the bathtubs. We have a regular size bathtub in my kids bathroom. We have a spa size tub (which we hardly use) in our bathroom. I would consider filling the bathtubs with clean water to use for flushing the toilets and providing the cats and dog with water to drink.

Cash: My husband has a couple of dollars in his wallet. 99 percent of our money is in the bank.

Cars: Both cars have gas. We also have a full gas can in the garage if needed. There has been rumors that the gas stations have been running out.

Medications: We have three weeks supply of medications for everyone. We are going to need refills eventually, but at this time, we should be prepared and have enough for the next week. I also bought generic Tylenol and generic ibuprofen from the dollar store the other day.

Toiletries: We have a 12 pack of toilet paper. We have shampoo and bath soap.

Breakfast

My DD#1 refused breakfast. She said she wasn't hungry. DD#2 had an fried egg and cheese sandwich. DS #1 had a fried egg and cheese sandwich. My husband did not want breakfast. I made fried potatoes with onion cooked in bacon fat. It was just OK. This cooking with bacon fat will take some work. I thought the potatoes were very bland. I scooped out 1 teaspoon of hardened bacon fat from the small container I had in the fridge and melted it in the frying pan. The spices from the bacon were at the bottom of the container and I didn't get any of that in the potatoes. Maybe I need to use more bacon fat when cooking with it.

We are staying home today. I hope anyway. I have some chores to get finished here. Our last electric bill was 188 dollars for the month. It is due to be sent out again and we have used the dryer for a month. I am a bit concerned at what the bill will be because we had that episode for a week with the dryer not working properly.

The water bill came in. It is 145 dollars. This includes trash/recycling pick up/water/sewer/ and fees. This will be a monthly expense which is new to us. In our old home in Virginia we got a water bill every two months and it was about 140 dollars total. We will have to figure out how to balance the new monthly expenses.

The bills from Virginia are finally paid off. We still have to get our cars registered in Florida. I have to get my Florida license, but first have to get a copy of my birth certificate and marriage license, to take to the DMV.

Things are a bit tight here financially. We are doing well overall, and I start my job on the 18th. I am looking forward to getting a paycheck and health insurance. I have emailed my old director to find out about my PTO cash out. I have not received that yet. This is a bit concerning for me as I worked for the company for 11 years without any issues or concerns.

Labor Day

It has been a good day at home. We survived the storm and lost electricity for about 45 minutes while attempting to feed everyone. We had company so there was 9 of us to get plates of food.

I made potato salad (cheap, easy, and filling), baked a small package of eight hot dogs, a small package of Italian sausage links, opened two small cans of baked beans, served a small frozen container of Omaha steak (care package a few weeks ago from MIL) of green beans, and I cooked a pound of pasta for my kids to make mac and cheese. They use a basic white sauce and we added some Colby cheese to it.

My husband's cousins brought two large containers of fried chicken, soda, and sweet tea from Publix. We don't shop there and go to Aldi instead. Publix ix right next to our house, but the prices are a bit harder on the budget. The chicken was amazing. Just saying.....totally amazing. I never fry chicken. I don't even know how to fry chicken. I do like chicken and often either bake it or put it in the crock pot.

I washed four loads of laundry today, using half the amount of detergent recommended, and used two dryer sheets total. I figure we can cut our pennies and eventually it will help us become wiser about where our money is going.

The hot dogs, sausage, beans, green beans, potato salad, and mac and cheese come from our own kitchen. I cooked everything except the mac and cheese. My kids did the mac and cheese and put it in the crock pot to keep warm. They did a good job.

My son and oldest daughter finished off the last of two boxes of cereal this morning. We have a small bit left in the last box which will probably go tomorrow morning. My husband ate the last five strips of bacon last night. I didn't know because I was looking for it to add to the potato salad this morning when I was making it. He said it was great.

My middle daughter chose to eat the marinated pork from last night with some steamed corn for breakfast/early lunch. There was a bowl of rice left over with some cut up pork in it. I put some butter in a pan, melted it, added some sliced onion, and the rice/pork mixture. I told my husband that it was fried rice. We did not have any soy sauce or anything like that. He said he liked it and didn't complain at all.

The left overs from yesterday are gone. I have a bowl of potato salad, a large bowl of baked beans, a small bowl of green beans, a bowl of mac and cheese, and a huge container of fried chicken left over for tomorrow. We will be eating this for lunch and possible dinner tomorrow. My cousins took some of the soda home that they brought over. They did not want the chicken or the sweet tea. They said that they usually don't eat any leftovers.

We do and always eat leftovers. I have a small amount of bacon fat in the fridge from yesterday's adventure with the cracked black pepper bacon. I considered using this to fry eggs, but the bacon was so spicy I am unsure if my kids will eat the eggs if used in bacon fat.

Any suggestions other then fried eggs? I would consider using the bacon fat to fry potatoes later this week.

This weekend

A couple of weeks ago I bought two packages of marked down pork for 3.67 total and both packages had a dollar off coupon in addition on it. I didn't look closely at the packages when I bought them. I took them out of the freezer on Friday and it said "pork fat". 

Well, I let the two packages thaw in the fridge. When they were thawed I trimmed off all the pork fat and found that there was a medium mixing bowl of lean pork that we could cook for meals. I had some Aldi marinade in the pantry and used some of this to tenderize the meat and provide some flavor. The pork sat in the marinade for 24 hours in the fridge. 

I baked the marinated pork this afternoon at 325 in the oven. I took some frozen corn out of the freezer and put two teaspoons of butter in a pan and simmered both the corn and butter. I had bulk white rice in the pantry. I had some scratch chicken stock in the fridge that needs to go. I used 1 and 1/2 cups of chicken stock and 1/2 cup of water in the steamer and added one cup of long grain rice to steam. 

Dinner was amazing. I have a bit of rice left over. We have a small bowl of pork and corn left for tomorrow to have for lunch. I was considering making a fried rice for lunch using tonight's left overs. I have never made it before and found an easy recipe online. I will attempt to make this tomorrow. 

Last night we had pancakes and smoked cracked pepper bacon for dinner. The pancakes came from a mix that my husband bought prior to my arrival in Florida. The box is almost empty. The plan is to finish using this up during the week. The cracked pepper bacon was from the grocery package that my mother in law sent a couple of weeks ago. It was a 12 ounce package. I cut the strips in half and baked them in the oven. We have five strips left and those are in the fridge to incorporate into meals this week. 

I saved the bacon fat to use to fry eggs and potatoes this week. I am trying to be more frugal and save some money at the grocery store. 

Things that need to be used this week:

left over marinated pork

left over rice

left over buttered corn

5 strips of bacon

corn bread