Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Using what we have...

I took the last whole chicken out of the freezer to defrost. I am going to put it in the crock pot with one whole onion thinly sliced, four stalks of celery, five large carrots (I had to open my new 5 lb bag of carrots), poultry seasoning, thyme, and four potatoes (for the carb eating people in my family). I will add about two cups of water to this and let it cook all day in my crock pot. We will have the last bit of opened stir fry veggies that are lurking in the freezer.

The chicken was bought a while back at Aldi 0.95 cents a pound! Who can beat that kind of price for protein! It's cheap, easy to make, and can feed my family for a couple of days.

The first meal will be a crock pot meal. I will take all the stock out after and put it in the freezer for soup at some point. I will end up taking all the meat off the bones to make chicken salad or BBQ chicken sandwiches for the kids. The skin and bones will be put back into the crock pot later to make a second round of chicken stock for the freezer. I am hoping to have enough chicken left over to make chicken and gravy to serve over egg noodles for the kids and my DH. They love it!

I'm hoping to stretch this bird!

Tuesday, June 2, 2015

Using things up...

We had one chicken quarter in the fridge from a few days ago. I baked it with several spices, added the last three carrots, half an onion, and some celery from the fridge. My husband and I had that for dinner last night.

I had some frozen cheese tortellini to give the kids last night with some pasta sauce for their dinner.

Tonight's dinner is continuing on the same use it up theme. I have frozen bread ends in the freezer. I'm going to thaw them out and made french toast for the kids dinner. I have some frozen left over bean soup from Easter that is thawing for my husband and myself. We are working to keep our budget intact and using up what has been lurking around in the freezer.

I don't eat pasta, bread, potatoes, or rice any more. My husband and kids do.

Monday, June 1, 2015

It's June

Can you believe that I haven't posted in a while. I found that with school, the gym, work, and my family that something had to go for a little bit. I just want to say that I really miss blogging and reading how other folks are incorporating frugal living into their own lifestyles.

It's June. Who would have thought. Here's a few updates:

Sarah (20) is still working full time for a temp agency. She's decided that she wants to return to community college. She spend 6 months there a couple of years ago and dropped out. I am willing to work with her to help fund some tuition as long as she is serious about attending and maintaining her grades.

Mary (18) graduated high school last week! She has a part time job being a babysitter a couple days a week and wants to attend community college. We will begin applying after we get her a state ID.

I told both girls that they need to work on getting their permit and driver's license.

Kevin (16) is in his last week of 10th grade. Friday is the last day of school and my baby will be a junior!! My kids went to the dentist and only Kevin has some cavities. He goes back on June 15th to get them filled. I will be paying in cash for these.

My work is going well. I am up for my annual evaluation and hope to get a pay increase. I didn't qualify for the cost of living adjustment since my base rate of pay is all ready at the higher end of my clinical ladder and skill level. My director mentioned that to me this morning. Oh well. I do have to complete two case studies for my evaluation and this shouldn't be too difficult.

My car needs an oil change soon.

My husband is well and in good spirits. He has been doing a great job making dinners while I am working. I have picked up extra time at work to help pay for the classes I am taking for the master's degree in nursing education.

I REALLY need to make a menu plan for June meals. The bills are paid every month on time. I had to buy a lap top for school and it was very expensive. My savings took a hit and I am left with 70 dollars in it. I would like to get that boosted up to one thousand, or to where it was a year ago, 3,850 dollars. It's going to take time. It's difficult sometimes to be one income and attempting to support a family of five and pay for a master's degree program (I refuse to take out a loan for it, and I am still paying off my bachelor's degree loan. My goal is to become debt free).