Sometimes miracles do happen.......

In my case, I actually wrote up a menu plan for this coming week:

Notice however there are no days of the week before each entry, but there are seven days dinner's/supper's there.

Went shopping on Friday morning at our local Zehrs and made out like a bandit with the 50% off selection.

Got a chicken pot pie for $3 and that will give us two meals for dh and I.  Got a cauliflower for $1, so while I cooked the pie on Friday night, I also roasted the cauliflower at the same time.

I got some stewing beef for just over $3, that is why the beef bourguignan is on the menu.  The beef sauce/pasta sauce was on for $1.99 which along with half price stuffed pasta will make another yummy meal.

I am itching to try this Red Lentil and Kale Curry recipe and this Curried Butternut Squash Soup.  I lucked out as our local Zehrs had the PC Brand of frozen veggies on sale for $1.77 a bag, so will be using the frozen veg in both these recipes.  I personally don't have a problem using frozen veggies in recipes.  I bought this package to use in the Lentil and Kale Curry:

Dh loves Omelette's and they are so easy to whip up with a salad.  So all in all I am happy with what is planned for meals.

For dessert we generally have a quarter of a sugar free jello/jelly package (made up obviously😏) with fruit added in it.  Sometimes with yogurt, sometimes just on its own.

I may make cheese scones using this recipe over the weekend, as they look so good and simple to make.

Do you use frozen veggies, or do you prefer fresh?

All set.........well sort of...

Today is the big day I am getting my left hand operated on today.  It shouldn't be as bad this one, as it is my left hand this time and I am right handed.

Anyhow, I have been busy putting together meals that are just to heat through, as dh doesn't cook.  I have the following in either the fridge or the freezer:

Lentil Stew
Sausage and Baked Bean casserole
Sausage, Broccoli and Pasta, all I need to add to that is some Alfredo sauce
Cauliflower with Cheese sauce, will make garlic bread with that
Ham Bone Soup
Egg Pie
Stew in the crockpot - I think there will be three meals of that as I do a crockpot full.
Turkey Casserole
Pasta sauce with minced beef - two meals of that.

So that looks like 12 days of supper there.  By then I will have limited use of my left hand as well as my right hand.

Still have cleaning to do this morning and a few other bits and bobs, but at least I won't have to worry about what we will be eating.

Saving money in 2011

Well it looks as though 2011 will be another expensive year money wise, with our continued renovations and the wedding, so I need to save money where ever I can.

I am doing the Daily Savings Pot again, I talk about it in detail in this post  I have actually been doing it for the past month or so, as I already have $46 in my box.

I of course still put $20 away each week for both Christmas and Birthday's.  The Christmas pot is a bit bare, but the Birthday pot is looking reasonably healthy.  I have now started to put money away each week to help out with wedding expenses.  It was for a holiday this year, but we'll use it for the wedding instead.

I want to be more organized with meal planning this year, and one thing I need to do is an inventory of what is in the freezers and the pantry.  That is something that is long overdue, and I am sure there is "stuff" languishing in the bottom or back of the freezers that do need using up.

I want to have more "no spend" days each week, and due to the high price of gas I want to have more stay at home days.  So far this year, I have had two no spend days and one spend day.  I need to put an icon on the side of my blog detailing that.

I will continue drying the clothes overnight on the clothes horse, until it warms up enough so that I can hang the laundry out again.  Most people can do that, just do laundry before you go to bed and hang it up to dry on a clothes horse/drying rack and by morning it should be more or less dry, especially if you have an open fire and heating vents in the house.  Hydro/electricity is so expensive for us now, that its cheaper for me to hang everything to dry.

It's our expensive time of year for heating oil.  We will go through a tank of oil every month now for the next couple of months.  I know we got our tank filled on December 17th, and we have used half a tank of oil these past two weeks, so will have to call the company to come by and fill up again next week.  Hopefully by the end of March that will slow down.  We still have plenty of wood to burn so that is good, and this year we are going to make more of an effort to clear up dead wood and branches off the property so we can burn that next winter, and maybe save on buying so much wood.

I would love to hear how you all are saving money?

By the way cashed in another 450 Swagbucks for another $5 Amazon e-card, I last cashed in on December 28th, so it took me 6 days to get 450 swagbucks.  Trying to make $20 a month in Amazon e-cards, such a simple way of getting money for nothing.

Wasn't sure what I was going to talk about again today, it's funny when you start writing one thing leads to another.....