Frugal Accomplishments for April Weeks 1-2

We've been working really hard the past few weeks to clean out more at home in preparation for selling the house.  We've taken a lot to Goodwill and the library for donation, sold a few more things online, and packed up quite a few boxes for my mom's basement.  It feels really good to have this much cleaned out, but we've got a ways to go too.

Eating more healthfully has been challenging with my kidney issues, but I'm slowly learning what seems to trigger things and what's ok.  I've been doing a pretty good job of eating my nine cups of veggies a day (a smoothie helps a lot with at least 2-3), but eating this much produce is certainly expanding our grocery budget.  Especially since I'm trying to do more organic to lessen the toxin load on my kidneys.  But, it's good for our health, so we'll continue on this route.  The dietary changes also really seem to be helping baby with his gut issues, so I think much of this will become our new normal.  I kind of miss baking, but it does simplify our life a bit to not do it as much.

Here's what we've done to save a bit over the past week:

• Used boxes from the paint store for packing, saving on cost there.  Used tape we had around instead of purchasing.
• Cooked all meals at home, trying to make use of what we had in the freezer, including:  veggie stir fry, black beans and rice, roasted veggies with salmon and brown rice, paleo pancakes and berries, eggs with sauteed greens, homemade pizza, and split pea soup and salad.
• Repaired a shelf on our own with a part from Lowe's.
• Exercised at home by walking or working out with YouTube videos.  Enjoyed free yoga class again, which included dinner and child care.
• Washed clothes in cold water with ecofriendly detergent and essential oils.  Hung clothes to dry.
• Trying to lessen our toxin load, so I switched deodorants to a natural one (Benny was already using one) made with baking soda and coconut oil, began washing my face with an organic soap, began oil pulling with coconut oil in the mornings, and continued cleaning with our baking soda, borax, and citrus powder mix.  All these are fairly inexpensive and should have a positive impact on our health.  I've also researched some detox baths and compresses that should help too.
• Used a few herbs from the garden in smoothies, for tea, and cooking:  mint, lemon balm, chives.
• Enjoyed fresh eggs from our friends' chickens we care for a few days a week.  These make wonderful breakfasts, lunch additions, or salad toppings, and are much more nutritious than grocery store eggs.
• Made fermented carrot sticks, which the boys really enjoyed.  I will make these again, since it was such a hit and a good way to get some probiotics in them besides yogurt cultures.
• Began journaling again, which I've needed to do for a while.  I found an old journal that I hadn't used many pages in, so I'll use that for now.  Once I finish that, I'll see if I can find another one inexpensively, or maybe with Barnes and Noble gift card money.  This is a great stress relief, and a wonderful way to be able to look back and reflect on things.
• Went to a community wide event, Buildfest, which is put on by the local children's museum.  It was free and a great time for the boys.  A local dentist was there, so we also came away with some free toothbrushes, toothpaste, and dental floss.
• Benny and I began researching and discussing windows for the new house.  We've found that fiberglass is more environmentally friendly than vinyl, and will be more stable.  By carefully choosing where we want single-hung vs. double hung windows, we should be able to make up some of the increased expense.
• The realtor came to check out the improvements we've made.  She said things look good, so we should be able to list the house within the next week or two.  We really have some packing and cleaning to do between now and then, but it is looking great!  Kind of wonder why we didn't tackle some of these improvements before now.

What did you do to live and save green this past week?  I'd love to hear from you!

April Menu Plan

Our April menu will be largely based on eating from our pantry and freezer, since we're trying to clean out things for selling the house.  We will take our large freezer to my mom's for storage while we build the new house, so we'll still have access to that if we need it.  We will take advantage of some things from the food pantry, and we'll pick up what fresh items we need in the way of fermented dairy (kefir, yogurt) or produce.

We're also trying to convert to a gluten free, low sugar diet to help alleviate some yeast overgrowth issues that some of us have had (and prevent it in the rest of us).  This means we'll be incorporating more coconut items, garlic, oregano, and ginger, all of which are natural antifungals.  We'll be experimenting with some more fermented veggie recipes, and be eating more veggies as a family to add good bacteria to our guts.  We're doing well with our goal of more veggies at each meal, and slowly are getting there with a healthier diet (not that it was too bad compared to the standard American diet to begin with).  I'm using The Wahl's Protocol, Body Ecology, and The Microbiome Diet as resources for recipes, etc. to help us with this transition.

Breakfasts:

• overnight crockpot oatmeal with unsweetened coconut, chia seeds, and flax meal served with blueberries or dried fruit (dried fruit for those not dealing with yeast)
• eggs and sauteed/steamed veggies
• smoothies with yogurt, almond milk, flax seed meal, and fruit
• almond flour muffins with blueberries or chocolate and orange flavor (chocolate made with cocoa powder, so not added sugar)
• yogurt with grain free granola
• paleo zucchini pancakes with homemade blueberry syrup (super simple:  1 cup berries, 2 T water, 1/2 t cinnamon cooked at a simmer for 5-10 minutes), chicken sausage, sweet potato hash, and fried eggs

Lunches:

• leftovers
• veggie sticks and garlic hummus
• salads with homemade dressing and fermented veggies

Dinner:

• crock pot black beans and brown rice with fixin's (avocado, salsa, plain yogurt, cheese) and paleo cornbread (I might add in some tumeric into the cornbread for added color and nutrition)
• black bean and smoked turkey chili with leftover cornbread
• coconut chicken curry soup in the crockpot with salad with fermented veggies
• veggie stirfry over coconut rice or quinoa with Asian cabbage slaw and frozen egg rolls
• lentil and sweet potato soup with kale salad or veggies and dip (incorporate fermented veggies)
• Friday night pizza night with gluten free pizza crust and salad (x4)
• egg sandwiches on gluten free bread (love the first one with garlic and feta) and salad w/ fermented veggies
• meatball subs (using gluten free bread or rice) with peppers and onions and salad w/ fermented veggies
• lentil sloppy joes over coconut quinoa and salad
• black bean tacos with corn tortillas and fixin's (avocado, salsa, plain yogurt, cheese, jalapenos, and spoon of fermented veggies) or taco bowls over quinoa/rice

Snacks:

• nuts
• gluten free crackers and cheese
• fresh fruit (mostly low sugar varieties like berries or grapefruit) or veggies
• air popped popcorn with garlic and oregano (both are natural antifungals for yeast)
• almond flour muffins
• grain free granola with plain yogurt
• coconut chia seed pudding
• homemade jello with blueberries and coconut milk
• hard boiled eggs seasoned with oregano and garlic

Frugal Accomplishments for the End of March and First of April

We worked really hard over the past two weeks to side hustle a bit, clean out more, and stick to eating primarily from our freezer and pantry.  This has yielded some great results, which will go towards our emergency fund and upcoming medical bills.  We also got our tax refund amount, which will be helpful once it's deposited.  The house has been prepped for sale, trim touched up, doors cleaned, working on ceiling fans, etc.  It's looking really good, and we're wondering why we didn't do some things sooner!

• Cooked meals at home including a double batch of quiche, homemade pizza, picnic (homemade hummus, veggies, crackers and cheese, chips and salsa, hard boiled eggs, and fruit), overnight crock pot oatmeal, smoothies, and bagels and cream cheese.
• Enjoyed shared meals a few days with Mom over our break.
• Took advantage of Grandfather Mountain's discounted days for local area residents over vacation for a cheap day trip.
• Used our science center membership for another relatively inexpensive day trip for vacation.
• Benny worked a full day on Monday, which gives a few extra paid hours this week.
• Sold more items on Craigslist and eBay, cleaning out and putting a little more in the emergency fund.
• Continued with all recycling, composting and reusing efforts at home to save on trash.
• Took several more things to Goodwill and the library for donation.  Saved tax receipts.
• Washed most laundry in cold water, except diapers, and hung to dry.
• Reused a door from a previous time to rehang on the back door.  It is a 15 light door, so it lets a lot more light into the kitchen, making it look brighter.
• Painters/carpenters got a lot of work done downstairs, prepping it for sale.  We've got a call into someone for a little electrical work and some tree trimming.  Hoping all this will come in for under $1000.
• Continue to work to pack boxes around the house.  I haven't met my goal of 15 boxes for the week yet, but I have managed to take several things to Goodwill/Craigslist sale, etc. so I guess that's progress.
• We're using free boxes from the paint store for packing.  They're a great size and really sturdy.  It's nice that they're all similar size so that they stack well.
• Gratefully using Mom's garage for storage of items while we stage the house.  We plan to rent a storage unit, but are holding off on that expense for as long as possible.
• Continue to eat from the freezer and pantry to lessen the items we have to move.
• Working towards a cleaner diet for us all.  We're still buying conventionally raised produce and meat, but I think this summer we'll be able to stock up some on good quality meat from the farmer's market and our CSA farm.
• Glad to have the use of our new neighbor's truck.  He generously allowed us to borrow it for moving some things and picking up items from the building supply store.  We so rarely need a truck that it doesn't make sense to own one, but it's so nice to have a neighbor in the new neighborhood who is willing to share.
• Worked in the garden on Tuesday adding more compost and straw to raised beds and trimming back blackberries, etc. that needed to be trimmed.  Little man was a big help and it was a beautiful day.  Great to get some good exercise and vitamin D in!
• Worked out using free YouTube videos at home and did free yoga class through the Children's Council.

What did you do to live and save green this past week?  I'd love to hear from you!

Frugal Accomplishments for the Third Week of March

This past week has been sort of a roller coaster.  We've had some unexpected blessings in the form of baby's pediatrician.  He recommended we make some phone calls regarding the size of the medical bill, and we've discovered (after truly hours on the phone, messaging, and automated menus) that other area hospitals would have charged us between $200 and $700 for the x-ray with our insurance, as opposed to the $1200 our hospital charged.  So, we're in the process of renegotiating that bill.

On the flip side, we've been referred to specialists for both me and baby.  Baby is seeing an allergist, while I've been referred to another specialist by my wonderful OBGYN.  I'm hopeful that with further testing, they'll be able to accurately target the fungal infection I have and clear it, and I'm going for further testing with my endocrinologist to help analyze and regulate my thyroid.  Hopefully all of this will help me to feel more like myself.  All the specialists and tests will cost significantly more than seeing our regular GP, but are worth it for our health.

Frugal accomplishments for the week include:

• Cooked all meals at home including smoked turkey chili verde and corn bread, breakfast for dinner (pancakes, bacon, eggs, and fruit), homemade chicken noodle soup, roasted veggies, oatmeal, and smoothies.
• Shared meal with Mom, making things easy.  We had fish tacos, which were really good.  I did mine as a bowl with quinoa, to avoid the grains.
• Worked to clean out several more things to send to Goodwill and sell on Craigslist.  We took a whole load of stuff on Monday, which was nice and yielded a tax receipt.  Several of the Craigslist items are selling, so this money will go back into our emergency fund.  So far, I think we've sold $40 worth of stuff and are negotiating pick up and payment on several more items.
• Gratefully accepted produce from the food pantry gleaning, including:
• bananas (froze them)
• mangoes
• pears
• cauliflower
• eggplant
• salsa
• peppers
• Went to state science competition with students this past weekend.  Was able to submit travel receipts, so will get about $300 back for the weekend, which will go toward the emergency fund.  We were able to combine it with a visit with family, so the boys got a good visit in while I worked.  I was able to submit my time for makeup time for the snow days, so no annual leave will be taken.
• Saved a few more boxes for packing up things for moving.
• Sold about $50 worth of Mary Kay.  This cleaned out a bit, and made a little extra money for the emergency fund.
• Continued with regular laundry, recycling, and composting habits. Cloth diapers were used also, though we're working toward potty training.
• Had two snow days, so Benny got to work some of that time.
• Gratefully participated in free yoga class at the Children's Council, with free child care and dinner.  Also did YouTube workouts for free at home several nights.
• Enjoyed listening to The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe in the car over the weekend.  Little man calls it The Lion, The Witch, and the War dragon, which I think is entirely too cute.  He wanted to read the book last night, so we began reading the first chapter or two.  
• Contacted our real estate agent, so we'll begin pictures and posting for the house in the next week or so.  Exciting!

I'd love to hear from you!  What did you do to live and save green this past week?

Frugal Accomplishments for 2nd Week of March

This past week was definitely up and down.  We did a great job with our usual frugal things, but kinda got blind sided with a few things, like a medical bill way higher than we anticipated.

• Cooked all meals at home including chicken tacos (using the crock pot for chicken filling), beef stew (using leftover steak and baked potato from a birthday meal we were invited to), roasted veggies and flounder, homemade pizza, chicken sausages, oatmeal, banana bars, and smoothies.  Tried very hard to limit food waste by saving some for compost, chickens, and the freezer veggie stock bag.
• Enjoyed a shared meal with my mom once and an impromptu invitation to a birthday dinner at a fancy steak house.  This was a lot of fun for us, even though it was a stretch for the boys.  They both behaved really well overall, though, which made for a nice dinner.
• Saved three cartons of milk from the school cafeteria, which was nice.
• Continued with regular recycling and composting efforts to save on trash going to the landfill.
• Worked really hard with all the things from my grandmother's estate to make sure we got the things we wanted.  We were also able to give several things to our current upstairs tenant, who will be moving out in a few weeks.  This is a big help to her, and makes us feel better that Grandma's things are going to a good home.
• Cleaned out several more things, including three large paper bags of maternity clothes.  We posted these on Craigslist, and have had an offer on them.  It's nice to have this cleaned out, and be making our way toward a tidier house for putting on the market.
• Continued with regular laundry activities, washing mostly in cold water and hanging things to dry.
• Worked out at home most nights.  I tried a new routine on YouTube with hand weights, which I like, and hope to continue with.  
• Took advantage of the free yoga class at the Children's Council, which included dinner for me and little man.  This was nice and the instructor was great.
• Enjoyed birthday celebration at home for baby who's now two!  He did a super great job blowing out his candles, and enjoyed his few presents from family immensely.
  
• Going back to review our parenting class materials because little man is giving us a run for our money lately at 5 years old.  We're re-instituting the sticker chart with fidelity, and really trying to be intentional about giving him the attention he needs so that we diffuse situations before they're meltdowns and blow ups.
• On the down side, we received a bill for the chest x-ray we had back in February for baby.  The bill was almost $1,200, which was way beyond what we had expected.  Apparently we didn't understand a change in our insurance from last year to this year, and while this would have been a few hundred dollars before, it now goes toward the deductible (which seems high to me).  We're grateful that the test came back negative, and that little man is better, but struggling with the size of this bill and the timing (since we're trying to prep the house for sale and both of our rental spaces are empty).
• To make up for the medical bill and lower emergency fund, we've come up with a plan:
• sell what we can on Craigslist and eBay (which will also help us clean out the house for sale too), including baby things we don't want to keep, clothing, electronics that Benny has, and other home items that we no longer want or need
• increase my Mary Kay sales through parties and selling to existing customers (so if you're local and would like to do a party, let me know!)
• continue eating from our pantry and freezer as much as possible
• I'll pick up little man one more day a week, saving Benny a trip to school and back.
• Take advantage of as many free meals as possible, so continuing with yoga class and Benny and baby will go to the food pantry soup kitchen on Thursdays for lunch.
• Monetize this blog
• Apply for a teaching award that has a cash award too (we'll see if I get it)
• Save any unexpected windfalls including tax refund, travel reimbursement for work, and a mentoring check I expect at the end of the year
• Continue to take advantage of gleaning from the food pantry for produce and milk especially
• Do what we can of the work to prep the house for sale ourselves (painting, caulking, cleaning, staging)
• Keep travel to a minimum
• Have Benny pick up as many extra hours at work as possible
• Keep superfluous spending to nil.  We will find creative ways to do special things for the boys (like spring break outings) that are free.  This might include a picnic on the parkway, trip to the park, or outing to Grandfather Mountain for dollar days (if Mom can go along with us).
• Since we had several snow days recently, I stayed home with the boys and Benny went to work.  This allowed him to pick up about 12 extra hours of work, which will help to pay for some of the carpentry work that needs to be done to the house before we sell it.
• We saved gas by staying home on snow days.  The boys played in the snow some, watched The Sound of Music, and we played with play dough and made some crafts with existing things around the house.
• We signed up baby for preschool.  He's on the waiting list, so we're hopeful that he will get a slot.  It would really help us out for Benny to be able to pick up some extra hours at work while he is in school, and we think it would be good for his speech too.
• The gas logs needed repair, so we called, and the repair was done free of charge (hurray!).
• The workers who came to help get the house prepped for sale came one day this week and got a lot more done than we anticipated.  This was encouraging, but they won't be able to come back for another week or so, so that sets us back a little in terms of timeline.  
• I carpooled one day to work because of the snow.  We weren't able to get one car out, so a colleague brought me to town after work to meet Mom.  This meant that it wasn't out of his way, and saved a little on gas.

What did you do to live and save green this past week?  I'd love to hear from you!

March Menu Plan

This month is again about clearing out the pantry and freezer.  Since we're now looking at prepping the house for sale, we want to have to move as little food stuff as possible.  The big freezer will go to my mom's for storage, so we can still access it there and she can share it as well, but we'd rather be able to defrost it and move it empty.  We're also trying to save where we can to be able to put the extra money toward the land purchase and our emergency fund.

So, to that end, here's what I think we'll be eating this month:

Breakfasts:

• Eggs, chicken sausages, and roasted/steamed veggies
• Overnight crock pot steel cut oatmeal
• Yogurt with homemade granola
• Smoothies with frozen fruit, yogurt, and frozen butternut squash
• Peppermint tea made from frozen mint from last year's harvest
• Banana bars
• Almond flour muffins with cocoa powder and shredded coconut

Lunches:  

• Leftovers
• Salads
• Yogurt parfaits with frozen fruit and homemade granola

Dinners:  

• Tomato basil soup
• Spaghetti and meatballs with frozen homemade marinara sauce and side salad
• Steamed flounder (frozen) with roasted veggies or salad
• Creamy chai pumpkin soup using canned coconut milk instead of cream and frozen butternut squash instead of canned pumpkin, served with side salad
• Split pea soup using a mix we have, frozen ham, frozen stock, and frozen chopped celery, served with bread or gluten free crackers
• Butternut squash and chickpea salad served with brown rice or greens (uses up dried chickpeas and a butternut squash hanging out on the counter)
• Breakfast for dinner:  pancakes (using a mix in the pantry), bacon (freezer), eggs, and fruit or roasted veggies
• Taco chicken in the crock pot (using frozen chicken) for tacos, taco salad, taco bowls, quesadillas, or enchilada casserole; served with refried beans (pantry), Greek yogurt, and Rotel tomatoes (pantry)
• Chicken pizzaiola (using chicken and marinara sauce in the freezer) in the slow cooker (America's Test Kitchen) served over egg noodles or quinoa (pantry) and a side salad
• Smoked turkey tortillas soup (using smoked turkey and stock, bell peppers, jalapenos, chipotle in adobo, and cheddar cheese all from the freezer) served with corn chips or a side salad
• Homemade pizza x 4 (using frozen pepperoni, cheese, homemade pesto, bell peppers, and olives and flour from the pantry)

Snacks:

• Air popped popcorn
• Pretzels from the pantry
• Frozen soft pretzels
• Fresh fruit
• Carrot sticks and dip
• Brownies or lemon bars from a mix in the pantry
• Crackers and hummus or with cream cheese and pesto spread

Frugal Accomplishments First Week of March

We had a pretty frugal week this past week. We enjoyed some shared meals, accepted hand-me-downs, and did what we could to save.  My health has improved slowly with the dietary changes and supplements I've been taking, which is all good, even though it's more expensive.  We've also been making some decisions about things from my grandmother's estate, so are hopeful that we'll have all that worked out by the end of the month.

And, in exciting news, we put in an offer on the land we've been wanting!  It was for more than we'd ideally want to spend, but we're hoping to have the closing on that soon and begin the process of putting our house up for sale, etc. to fund the building of the new house.

Here's the rundown of our frugal accomplishments for last week:

• Cooked all meals at home including tomato basil soup, homemade mac and cheese with gluten free pasta, roasted veggies, steamed flounder, homemade pizza, oatmeal, smoothies, homemade banana bars, and Asian ramen slaw.
• Composted and recycled as usual to save on trash.
• Accepted items from the food pantry gleaning including:
• gallon of milk
• apples
• pineapple
• romaine hearts
• purple cabbage
• gluten free crackers
• gluten free cereal
• chocolate coconut water
• bananas
• Took advantage of HT super doubles coupon event to stock up on meat, cheese, gluten free crackers, coconut milk, frozen peas, and a few other staples.  Also found parsnips on the discount produce rack.  Said no to some items that were on sale, but weren't needs.
• Continued to work down what is in the pantry and freezer including canned tomatoes, tomato juice, dried mincemeat (used in oatmeal), frozen bones and veggie scraps for stock, and frozen butternut squash and bananas.
• Continued to work on cleaning out and added another 15 items to our donation bags.  Some will go to Goodwill, some to the library.  Baby clothes will go to some of the Hispanic families Benny knows through the paint business.  We are also looking at items we can sell on eBay and Craigslist to help give us more of a cushion for building the new house.
• Did our usual laundry routine with hanging laundry to dry and washing cloth diapers.
• Enjoyed a shared meal with friends.  We took some roasted acorn squash that we made in the crock pot.  We'd had the squash for a while, so it was good to use it up.  The boys had a great time playing together, and we ended up with a few hand-me-down clothes from their recent cleaning out.  
• We did our usual Sunday night dinner with Mom, which was an easy sheet pan meal with chicken, onions, and roasted squash.  We had a side salad to go with it.
• Finalized my list of things I'd like to have from my grandmother's estate.  We're hoping to get some special pieces of jewelry, artwork, blankets, and furniture.  It would be nice to get some of her kitchen things too, which would replace some of ours from our wedding that are wearing out.  Will see how things all sift out with other family members.
• We are looking at creative options for housing while the new house is being built.  We want to save as much as possible, so we might look into borrowing a camper and renting a month to month site at a local campground.  It is cheaper than most rentals in the area, and would allow us to have the dog with us too.  This might be fun for the boys, and would also really force us to weed through belongings and decide what we need to live with and what could go to storage/sold/donated.
• Since I'm feeling better, I cancelled an appointment with a specialist, saving the $80 copay.  My labs didn't indicate that I needed the specialist appointment, but I thought I might need one since I was still having some issues.  Glad things are getting better, slow but steady progress.
• I kept the boys for a while to give Benny some time to gather tax documents.  We still have a little to do here, so we'll need one more session like this and then we'll have things ready to file.  We plan to use the refund to reseed our emergency fund.
• I began making plans for what I want to take from this garden to the new house.  I will pot up these plants this spring and summer so that we can move them to the new house.  They will probably live at my mom's while we're in transition.  This will save us some money with landscaping the new house, so hopefully we'll only need to purchase a few evergreens and maybe a fruit tree or two.  There are also neighbors in the new neighborhood who love to garden, so I'm sure they will have things to split and share too.
• I used a free gift card to Tanger Outlets (from the ski slopes trip we took with school) to purchase a clearance jacket for both boys and a pair of shorts for baby.  Baby's birthday is today, so these will be birthday presents for him.  I only spent $1 over the $20 gift card amount, so I think it was a win!
• Working with little man to make baby a tie dyed t-shirt to go with the new shorts.  He really likes this craft, and it makes for a cheap birthday gift that is really useful.

What did you do to live and save green this past week?  I'd love to hear from you!