Stretching My $$$$ - using what I have!

As you know we've decided to get 'frugal' mainly to start paying off our car loans a little earlier than planned. My main goal is trying to cut down our grocery bill and that means making my dollar stretch a little further. I've been reading a lot of 'frugal' blogs this week and learning how to use coupons at places like CVS and Target

This week despite the fact I made a menu plan on Monday I have actually changed it a little, I'll post more about that next week when I recap what meals we had. One of the meals I did make was the crockpot salsa chicken. I mentioned this in my Monday post but couldn't remember where I'd seen the recipe. It's simple to make though. . .

The recipe calls for an 8oz can of tomato sauce but my can was a 16oz size so I just used all of it! Add that with a cup of salsa to the crockpot and a tsp of cumin and a packet of Taco seasoning, then place your chicken on top. I used 3 large bone in chicken breasts that I got on sale a few weeks ago (I had in the freezer) and they were only about $3.50. Above is the chicken after 4 hours in the slow cooker, I had taken one breast out and already shredded it, then I did the rest and allowed it to cool. This made a huge batch which I will freeze for meals over the next week or so.

The next night I used some of the taco chicken and made enchiladas. I simply spooned some chicken in flour tortillas added a little cheese, then poured over half a can of enchilada sauce, topped with more cheese and baked them for about 30 mins til they were hot and the cheese had melted. There's plenty of chicken left to make at least another 2, or even 3 meals.

Also this week I made these. . . .

using these . . . . .

well, not all of them! Jason took a lot of the larger cucumbers to work for anyone that might want them. I don't think this variety is actually pickling cucumbers, but I used smaller ones to pickle because, well they'd probably go off before I got to use them fresh in a salad, so I followed THIS recipe and now I have some in the fridge for the next month.

On Wednesday night I was out wandering in the (overgrown) garden and noticed the apples on the tree were turning red, they were pretty large too.

I took pictures, then I thought I would pick some, they were so big I thought for sure they must be ripe!

I picked all of these! Don't they look wonderful.... do they taste wonderful? Hmmm, well to be honest I think they could have been left a little while longer, they seem to be a little dry, but I didn't want to waste them so I made . . . . apple sauce! I forgot to take a picture of the sauce but I only used 4 apples, 1 cup water, 1/2 cup sugar and boiled til soft, then mashed them. Wow! they tasted really good. We tried it warm with a little sprinkling of cinnamon on top and a spoonful of vanilla icecream! I am going to use the rest of the apples today to make more then I will either make a pie or freeze some til later.

So much food and I've hardly spent a penny since I got groceries in on Monday (usually I'm at the store at least 3 times a week getting other odds and ends!).... and I only spent $55 when I did go to the store this week. I'm on a roll, and rather proud of myself for spending so little this week. I hope I can keep it up. I've allowed myself a budget of $300 for food this month (that will include cleaning supplies and toiletries/personal items), but I'm hoping I can drop it to $200 next month.

I'm linking up to Frugal Friday today at Life As Mom. Hop on over to read about some other great money saving tips.

Giddy-Up Horsey!

Kristen has recently been asking about taking horse riding lessons! I don't know why all of a sudden, but she is all excited at the idea of riding a horse. I must admit she's asked before in the past about possibly taking a lesson, but when I told her that it wasn't just a ride on a horse, that she needs to have an interest in the horse's welfare and how to saddle it up, muck out it's stable etc. she seemed to go off the idea, at least she never pushed me to look in to it further.

Well this time, she seems more adamant about trying it out, no matter what it involves. Earlier this week I called a local riding center and talked to the owner. Our first step was to go along and watch a lesson, so that is exactly what we did yesterday (just before we went to piano lesson). I took my camera along . . . .

I've never really liked horses, and have never wanted to go riding, although if truth be told, I like the idea of riding on a horse I'm just too scared to try it! I've been on a horse before but probably only 2 or 3 times in my whole life. Kristen has therefore never really been around horses either

I'm sure she was a little nervous here, but only because she wasn't sure if she should pet him or not. We asked permission first and were told it was ok. This horse had just been out for a lesson and was getting his saddle taken off.

After looking around the stables (and trying not to stand in poop!) we headed out to the training ring.



The lady in the green shirt is the owner I spoke to, this little girl was getting a beginner lesson (I heard the lady, Sharon tell her she wouldn't be holding the reins that day but holding on to the saddle).

We could only stay 10 minutes more, so we didn't see the young girl get on the horse, she was being shown how to hold the horse on a lunge and how to command it to walk, and then trot etc.

Our next step is to call and arrange a first private lesson for Kristen. After that if she is really interested in it, we might be able to sign up for a small group lesson each week once school starts. No groups are held during summer as no one can commit to the same time and day each week (so Sharon told me). We have the option of keeping our lessons private or semi-private. But a group lesson is only 3 or 4 girls max. We'll just have to see how it goes.

I'm joining in with 'Outdoor Wednesday' this week. Don't forget to head over to Susan's and see who else is participating. One thing I do know, as summer ends and the cooler weather starts, I think a hobby like this would be great for Kristen. Oh to be outside again and it not be so darn HOT! Roll on Fall

Taking a break . . .

Don't worry, it's not from blogging! I've decided to take a few weeks break from doing the PW recipes. One reason is trying to be frugal with my grocery budget - I hadn't even thought about what to cook this week and I don't want to go back to the grocery store just to get more stuff in that I might need for a recipe out of the cookbook. Another reason, it is just so hot here right now that a lot of the recipes I want to make like chili or pot roast would be better to wait til Fall.

It doesn't mean I won't be posting on a Tuesday. I will probably try to keep up with a 'Monday Menu Plan... perhaps Tuesday I can feature a 'frugal' recipe that I tried in the previous week. And I might add, despite the fact I wrote out a menu for this week, it is not set in stone! Already today I'm changing what we're having for dinner. I saw a recipe for an easy pasta salad on Kraftfoods.com so I've made it.

(click on the picture for the recipe at Kraftfoods.com)

On their site it is served with grilled shrimp (which I would love, but Jason would not) so I'm just going to keep things easy (and yummy) and have grilled dogs and some bbq beans with it. The enchiladas will get 'bumped' to next weeks menu ;-)

Menu Plan Monday - July 26th

I'm trying to be on the ball this week and plan ahead. I worked on my menu plan all weekend. Honestly it takes longer than you think.... there's just too much choice out there! And I'm trying to make meals that use a lot of things from our pantry, so with that in mind, here's what I came up with for this week:

Monday - Taco Meat (may make tacos or taco pizza?) refried beans (I made my own using our dried pinto beans), and spanish rice.

Tuesday - Dinner Time Quesadillas

Wednesday - Creamy Chicken Enchiladas

Thursday - Spaghetti and Meatballs, garlic bread

Friday - Crockpot Salsa Chicken (I can't remember where I saw this recipe this week, but I made a note of it, you simply add 4 chicken breasts, 8oz tomato sauce, 1 cup of salsa, 1pk Taco seasoning and 1 tsp cumin to your crockpot - cook on low for 4 hours. Shred the chicken once cooked and serve in tacos or tortillas etc. I thought I'd give this a go and freeze some for another dish later).

Saturday - hot dogs on the grill, potato salad, bbq beans

Sunday - Chicken N Biscuits

A few of the recipes this week are from the Kraftfoods website and I haven't tried some of them before. I'll let you know how they turn out.

Last week I mentioned making Yakisoba for Jason (using our stored spaghetti instead of soba noodles)... there are lots of recipes on the web for this using chicken or pork, I didn't really use any one in particular but followed a couple and kind of 'improvised' a little too. Here's how mine turned out. . . .

It's quite a simple dish to make really, you just boil your noodles and while they are cooking I sauted one small onion and some garlic, then added half a bag of grated cabbage, some grated carrots and a red bell pepper thinly sliced. The cabbage cooks down a lot, then add 1/2 cup of soy sauce and a little chili garlic paste (more if you like it hot) .... drain the spaghetti noodles and through everything together - oh and of course I had precooked some thin strips of pork and added that back to the pan at the end too. It's kinda like a chow mein, really tasty and I'll definitely make this again as a change from our spaghetti and meatballs.

It's so hot outside, we just walked round to the pool only to discover it's closed? And there's no sigh up saying why. I'm sure we've been on other Mondays and it's not closed for cleaning or anything. In fact the pool guy was there last week adding 'safe stuff' to it (he said) while everyone was in the water! I'm so annoyed, and so very hot now after walking round there and back. I think I'll have to go take a cool shower!!!! Urghhhhh Mondays!

Sunday Musings . . . . July 25th

Good Sunday Morning to you all, it's a gorgeous day here in Central TX :-) Well, let me re-phrase that, it 'LOOKS' like a gorgeous day here in Central Texas, but I know that it is already way too hot outside so I'll just be looking at the sunshine from the 'coolness' of my living room!

This week has been very much the same as last, really I'm beginning to worry that my posts (especially my Sunday one) are sounding like a broken record! We aren't doing much at all other than hang out together at home, keeping up with housework and this weekend... messing about in the kitchen.

In my attempt to be 'frugal' I was going to make homemade pizza on Friday night (I've never liked spending a ton of $$$ at Domino's or even Papa Murphy's!), but we never got around to making pizza - we had leftovers in the fridge to eat so I just didn't bother. BUT, we did make some on Saturday night. . . . .

I did the PW pizza dough recipe again and here's Kristen showing off our 'creations' :-) I did a bacon and pineapple pizza for Jason, and tried to make it look like a heart - awwwww!

Kristen doesn't like pineapple so she did her favorite pepperoni and cheese one. They really are super yummy fresh out of the oven, not to mention fun to make together.

This morning I was in the kitchen again. Yesterday I was browsing websites for meal ideas and was on Pioneer Woman's 'Tasty Kitchen' blog, I found these delicious things, 'cinnamon bun pancakes'! Kristen of course loved the idea of these for breakfast today so I made them, and fried some bacon too! Oh my, hot coffee, pancakes and bacon . . . .

what a way to start the day!

Other news this week.... Boo went back to Petsmart yesterday (Banfield Vets) for his teeth cleaning. Poor little guy, he was not a happy camper when he came home yesterday afternoon. He is going to be on antibiotics for his liver values (did I mention this last week?) for another two weeks which should clear up any infections and he will have his 'levels' checked again in 3 months.

Jason has to work today (in his office at home) so we won't be hanging out like we have been doing most Sunday's for the past few months. Kristen's friend, Emily is home from vacation so I'm hoping they can play together today, that leaves me time to plan our menu for next week, put some laundry away, and put my feet up and knit :-)

Hope you all have a great day!

This and that.... and a little project. . . .

Wow, is it Friday already? And I haven't posted since Tuesday? We haven't been up to much this week which is why I haven't posted. What is there to post about when you spend most of your days each week doing the same thing.... laundry, grocery shopping, trips to the pool, piano lesson, more laundry! Some days I just can't think of what to write about, so I spend my computer time visiting other blogs and surfing sites I'm interested in.

Right now I'm very interested in 'frugal' blogs :-) Jason and I have started reading through the Dave Ramsey 'Total Money Makeover' book. I actually sit and read out loud to Jason, something I've never EVER done! It helps (as the book says) for both spouses to be on the same page and want the same thing when it comes to start seriously planning your finances. We are very blessed and have always been able to pay our bills and have money left over for spending, but because of that we have never really sat down and planned a budget together. As I said before we have just bought what we want when we want, whether we had the money for it or not. If we didn't have quite enough money we would just put it on the credit card and pay it off over the next couple of months. We hope to change all that pretty soon :-)

One great blog I found this week is LifeasMom.com, and today is 'Frugal Friday' I'm not participating this week (I may do later, if I have anything 'frugal' worth sharing!) but I'm enjoying visiting all the links from other bloggers that are taking steps to save and spend money more wisely.

So, changing the subject somewhat this week I've been busy finishing off a project I started a couple of weeks ago - a while ago I shared photos of our game room which I'd just finished off (sort of, I'm still wanting to add pictures to the walls and paint a little bit more at the top of the stairs) remember this picture? . . . .

actually, I have so many new readers that many of you may not have seen this post (hmm? perhaps I should do 'recaps' sometime soon and show you my 'rooms', just a thought for future posts). Anyway, see the table there with the two chairs, that is my old kitchen table that was downstairs before I got a new one. We've had it since we got married, it's over 13 yrs old, and you can see I painted the top black because the wood was starting to look pretty worn. Here's a close up . . .


It was ok for a while, but I recently got the idea to paint it cream, then add a glaze to it to get a worn 'brown' look to it. I painted it a 'milk white' then with a sponge brush applied a glaze (Valspar Mocha) and wiped it off with a cloth. This is what I ended up with. . . .

It still needs to have a finish on it, a blogger friend recently told me what she used .. Minwax finishing paste wax, so I might do this too. For now I've put the table back where I had it . . .

and I'm rather pleased with how it looks :-)

but if I'm truly honest, the reason I redid the table is because I want to move it back downstairs!!! Jason thinks I'm crazy. Down stairs I have a new table and chairs but it's a 'bar height' set, and I just don't like always sitting so high when I'm eating dinner. I want to have my feet back on the ground! I'm thinking the bar height table and chairs might look just as good where this one is and work well as a game/chess table when we are hanging out in the game room? I'll let you know if/when I change things around.

Linking to Met Monday at Between Naps on the Porch
and Transformation Thursday over at The Shabby Chick Cottage

Menu Planning - AGAIN and a PW Recipe!

I couldn't post my PW recipe until tonight because I was waiting to make the ranch dressing for dinner! Homemade Ranch Dressing . . . .

This is one of the recipes that Melanie thought she wouldn't make, so I thought I would do it while she's away. It was a simple recipe, just mayo, buttermilk and some herbs and condiments (like Worcester sauce and vinegar and a little hot sauce which is optional. HERE'S the recipe from PW's cooking blog.

I served the dressing over iceburg wedges and had it with our meatball sub for dinner tonight.

Very tasty (go easy on the garlic) but I don't think I'd make this a lot just for us. It would be nice to make as a dip for crudites if you're having friends over for a bbq or something.

I started writing another post last night, but I'm gonna tag it on to this one because it's about Menu Planning (which I would normally do on a Monday), and how I'm trying to be frugal . . .

Last week I read a guest post over at The Nesting Place written by Angela Coffman. This is the first time I've heard of Angela, her blog is called GroceryShrink.com

I was intrigued with what she had to say about how she and her family paid off a big bunch of debt really fast - she even won a trip to the Bahamas by doing it! I was so intrigued I bought her E-book and since last week I've been really thinking a lot about the debt we have. We don't go crazy with our money, but we don't really spend it that wisely either. We buy what we want when we want it, and I have far too many trips to the grocery store for odds and ends which amount to more money spent on things we probably didn't even need.... too many trips to HobbyLobby and Kirklands, again for things I don't really need. We do pay off our credit card each month (most months) and we save for retirement and Kristen's college, BUT . . . we have two very big car payments and a mortgage that will 'balloon' in about 15 years! I started thinking that we should get a little serious about how and what we spend our money on (the bit that's left over at the end of the month after bills are all paid) and start being a bit more frugal.

So, that brings me to Menu Planning. It's the first place I can start to cut back money on if I plan ahead and think about what meals we will have each night. I love checking out OrgJunkie's Menu Plan Monday posts and seeing what others are putting on the table. Laura often puts links to the recipes she's making that week, a lot of them are from Taste Of Home. I also checked out Kraftfoods.com this week, and I love their '1bag-5dinners' menus. That is what I'm trying out this week. We also have a lot of tinned food and pasta in our pantry. I need to incorporate these items in to our weekly meals.

Last night we had bbq chicken, mash potato and corn... and tinned pears.

Here's my menu for the rest of the week (mostly from Kraftfoods.com) :

Tuesday - meatball subs, lettuce wedges with homemade ranch dresssing, I also made a cucumber & mint salad using my cucs from the garden, it was quite refreshing :-)

Wednesday - polynesian meatballs and rice

Thursday - Yakisoba! - Jason wants me to try this using spaghetti instead of the Japanese noodles, I'll let you know how it turns out.

Friday - Bacon and Pineapple Pizza (I'm gonna make my own dough again)!

I'm never sure what to have at the weekends so I don't plan anything. I will try to plan for those two days but it will probably be something from the pantry using pasta, or even just grilled hotdogs.

I better end there, this is getting to be quite a long post!

Sunday Musings . . . . July 18th

First of all I'd like to say thank you to those who emailed me about the pumpkin hats. I'm working on them now and should have the first ones shipped out by the middle of this week :-)

It was a week full of appointments this week (or I should say last week because I'm typing this late again on Monday morning). On Tuesday I had my hair appointment, which you saw in the previous post (and thank you for all your lovely comments).

Thursday was the busiest day, I had to take Boo to the vet for his teeth cleaning at 7.30am! I took him in last week for a check up and signed him up on the 'Wellness Program', it includes two exams a year, all his shots and a teeth cleaning, which he seemed to be in need of as he's nearly 5 years old. At 1.45pm I had an ENT appointment myself and later that night it was Book Club meeting for me :-)

Boo last week before his grooming.

Boo's teeth cleaning never happened! The vet called me about 10am and said they were checking his blood before surgery and his liver values were elevated?!! I'm trying not to be alarmed about anything just yet, she went on to explain the main cause could probably be the break up of tartar from his teeth causing an infection. So we went to pick him up and he's on antiobiotics and liver vitamins for a week. He goes back in this Saturday to recheck things and if all is well he will have his teeth cleaned that day. He will probably be on the liver vitamins a lot longer than a week, I have a big box of them.

and after - he feels so velvety soft :)

I am back on antibiotics and steroids too for my nose.... that cold Jason gave me didn't clear up on it's own (as I knew it wouldn't) so I ended up with another infection. I feel fine now, the meds work pretty quick and the headaches and facial pain I had last week has gone away. Book club was fun on Thursday night. I really enjoyed the book 'The girl with the Dragon Tattoo'. I've been told the movie was really good too (although a little dark) and it is subtitles, but I really want to see it when it comes out on dvd.

I didn't get to do a PW recipe last week but I'll be making something for tomorrow. I'm also trying to plan menus again and thinking of ways to be more 'frugal' with our spending. I'll post more on that subject later in the week.

I'm off to get more coffee, it's 9.24am, Kiki is still sleeping (if you can believe that!) I let her stay up til 10pm last night, Jason went off to work early today, so it's very quiet around here. Have a great start to your week. I'll be hopping by later today to say hi.

How Does She Do It?

My sweet friend Melissa posted on her blog recently that she had her hair cut and she shared some beautiful pictures. I had my hair cut this week too. I was sorely in need of a color and had been waiting for this appointment for over a month! I thought I might share some pictures of my new cut too. Well I tried to take pictures and then I wondered to myself, how does Melissa do it? She posted this on her blog . . . .

looks like she's holding the camera herself, so I thought I would try that. But what I got was this. . . .


so I tried that again (must keep hand steady) and, well . . .

a slight improvement, at least not so blurry!

Melissa posted lots more lovely photos of her new 'do', if you haven't already read her post you can see it HERE. Not only does she look gorgeous in every one, but she actually can take a picture without it being out of focus, something I seem not to be able to do half the time!

I tried the ole 'camera in the mirror' trick too - first in the bedroom. . .

lighting is obviously not right, way too dark - tried again. . . .

it's lighter, but not in focus and not that close up!

now we're just going from bad to worse! I know, let's try the bathroom mirror!

yeah, that's not working either. In the end I gave up, took the camera downstairs, placed it on the kitchen counter, set the timer and knelt down in front of it - Say Cheese!

and there you have it..... over 40 pictures and I finally got one to show off my 'new do' :-)
How do you like it?

Pumpkins

Melanie is going on vacation so she won't be making any PW recipes for the next week or so. I said I would try a couple of recipes that I know she wouldn't want to make... but I've decided to skip this week, mainly because I am having issues with my sinuses and I can't taste or smell much! So for today I thought I would talk about 'Pumpkins'!

I was happy to see from your comments the other day that I am not the only one that is starting to wish for Fall. Stephanie said it best when she said "I don't want summer to be over, but I do want the heatwave to end". That's really how I feel too, it's not so much I want Fall to be here I just want the cooler weather that it (hopefully) brings with it.

Speaking of Fall, I knit an adorable pumpkin hat the other day and listed it at my Etsy store. I was happy to see that it sold very quickly and so I thought I would knit more, but then I got to thinking. . . what with it being a 'seasonal' item, I didn't really want to knit a lot and then be left with them all if they didn't sell. So I thought I might offer it as a 'custom order'. I wish I had a little guy (or gal) to model this for me, it is so cute :-)

To all you grandmas and Mommies out there, wouldn't you just love to see your little 'punkins' in a hat like this when you take them to the 'Pumpkin Patch this Fall? If you'd like me to knit one especially for your little one, just email me and I will get started on it straight away. Turn around time will be about 7-10 days before I can mail it out to you, but considering Autumn is quite a few weeks away yet it shouldn't cause any problems.

The hat can be knit in the following sizes: Newborn, 0-6mths, 6-12mths, 1-2yrs, 2yrs and up.
I am also hoping to knit a pair of matching booties this week for younger babies. I will list them at my Etsy store too but will also take custom orders on those if you would like them. There is one hat listed in my store right now... you can see all the details HERE. If you would like a custom order just send me an email to denise 'at' deniseschulz 'dot' com (I'm not sure how to make an email link on here - don't forget to replace the 'at' with @ and the 'dot' with .) or you can contact me through my Etsy store too.

Keeping with the pumpkin theme - do you want to see something really funny? You have my permission to laugh. . . .

This is a very pregnant me back in October 2000! My friend Julie gave me this idea when she showed me pictures of her belly when she was pregnant (she gave birth to her baby in Sept 2000), her hubby had painted a yellow smiley face on her 'bump'!

Jason painted a pumpkin on mine!!!

I thought it would be cute to buy some pumpkins and sit out in the 'pumpkin patch' with them. So yes, that is my actual tummy painted like a jack-o-lantern when I was about 8 1/2 months pregnant! I was 37!!!

The first picture is from my computer and for some reason is rather small (I may have just scanned it in because I don't think I was using a digital camera back then) so the next two larger photos I just snapped a picture of the original pictures today (using my digital camera) so they weren't as small. Ok, you can stop laughing now :-)

Linking to Outdoor Wednesday at A Southern Daydreamer

and Spotlight Yourself at Santa's Gift Shoppe