Tag: eat from the stockpile

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Every Day

September Eat From Your Stockpile Challenge

I meant to post about this yesterday. However I was very busy doing things with company and time just didn’t allow. Since everyone is sleeping right now except me, I now have the opportunity.

We are doing a Stockpile Challenge this month. $25. per week will be allotted for necessities like bread, milk and produce. Any of the $25. that doesn’t get spent can be used for an item that has a rock bottom price.

We will be eating from our pantries, the refrigerator, and the freezers. We are hoping to use up a lot of random stuff that has been hanging around. My hope is to free up some space, especially freezer space for those November and December bargains like turkeys, hams, cranberries, butter, etc. 

Yesterday, I did Eggo’s with real maple syrup and strawberries for breakfast for my grandson. The rest of us had oatmeal and strawberries for breakfast. The strawberries were getting really ripe and needed to be eaten. The Eggo’s were left over from enjoying my granddaughter’s company earlier this summer.

Lunch was turkey and ham and cheese sandwiches with added tomatoes and lettuce on them. I used some of the meat that I purchased this week.

Dinner was spaghetti and meatballs. I was going to make homemade meatballs but I found a 3/4 full bag of frozen in my upstairs freezer. We had tossed salads on the side with lettuce, celery, onions, tomatoes, and carrots.

Today we will have scrambled eggs, fried ham, and homemade hash browns for breakfast. I grated all of the almost 5 lb. bag of potatoes so we will be having hash browns a few times this week either at breakfast or dinner.

We rarely do lunch on Sundays because of the big breakfast which is eaten about 10am. 

Our company will be leaving sometime this afternoon. So dinner will be the leftover meatballs and sauce (pictured above)on leftover buns with melted mozzarella cheese. We will have guacamole halves on the side. 

The two couples that I am mentoring are also joining me in this challenge. They both want to cut their grocery spending and eat some of the food they have stored. More on their numbers later this week.

If anyone else would like to join in, feel free. 

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Every Day

A Busy Day

It is so cold here that almost everyone in my neighborhood is hibernating. The temperature when I went out early this morning was  12 degrees. It is now 20. But it feels much colder than that with winds blowing 30-40 miles an hour. The blowing snow was a hazard when I was out driving. 

I had to go out to pick up Hubby’s medicine which cost  $ 3.68.  It had been sitting in the drugstore since last Friday when it was ordered. I was lucky to get out of my driveway because Hubby has been sick so the snow has been piling up since Thursday. So I drove a little over 7 miles to go to the drugstore and back. We had not used any gasoline yesterday.

I had planned on going to the market but after looking at the ads, I decided there was nothing that I really needed today.

So I came home and did some organizing after lunch. Lunch everyday is usually a salad with whatever veggies we have in the fridge at the moment. Today it was spring greens, onions and peppers with a little lite Italian dressing. 

I was tired of my coupons inserts, binder, and ads being either in the closet in the master bedroom suite (where they were stored) or on the kitchen counter where I would cut what I needed from the inserts. My computer is on my kitchen desk and I needed a place for them that I could quickly grab it all and make my grocery list and cut my coupons. So I emptied the two cupboards to the right of my desk. They have built in pull outs. That is where they are stored now. I can pull out what I need without even getting up from my chair.  In the basket, I have this week’s ads, my coupon inserts in a pile filed by date so that I can quickly find the one I need at the moment, and my coupon binder and envelopes that I put this week’s grocery coupons in. My planner with my menu and grocery list is always on the counter to the right of my computer. This will work beautifully for me. BTW, my inserts and coupons are all up to date. All the expired were tossed last Saturday.

I also keep my Entertainment Book and planner stickers in this pull out so they are handy for me. 

In the cupboard next to it in the pullout, I keep the scissors I need to cut coupons and other office related supplies that I use.  

While I was working in this area, I decided to clean out my desk drawer. So now everything is clean, neat and ready to be used efficiently. 

We have all of the energy efficient shades closed up tightly and the snakes on the bottom of the doors where they are needed. It has been very cold the last 10 days and is going to continue into next week. The weather service is saying that we will not get above 0 Thursday through Saturday. The next electric and gas bill will be horrendous but we have done all we can do. We have to stay warm.

Since I have everything I need for my trip, I doubt that I will go out again until I go to the airport this weekend for my Disney trip. I can’t wait to feel the warmth of the Florida sun on my face. So we will not be using much gas and most days will be spend free.

I pulled a package of ground chuck out of the freezer to thaw last night. Hubby and I will be having a tossed salad and a hamburger with cheese and carmelized onions for dinner. We rarely eat beef anymore but I was craving a hamburger and we have to use up what we have in the freezer.


Tonight Hubby and I will watch a movie on Netflix together. We just haven’t decided which one yet.

I hope you all are having a good and frugal day. Tomorrow I will be back with a frugal things post covering the last week or so. 

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Every Day

Strawberry KitKats et al

I had a crazy busy day yesterday. I started the morning going to an annual doctor’s appointment which is 16 miles away. So after the appointment on my way home, I did some shopping in a town that I don’t get to very often.

I stopped at CVS to use the $3.00 in ECB’s that they gave me for my birthday.  I picked up some needed foundation and then I saw the candy pictured above on clearance. I purchased two bags to put in my Halloween stash for $ 1.25  each. I will use these bags after I give out the candy I already had. If there are any of these left, I will save them for Christmas or Valentine’s Day. My family loves Kit Kats. 

Then I stopped at Home Goods. We use the Jordan’s SF Skinny Syrups in our coffee and Hubby finished his favorite. My sister told me that Home Goods has the big bottles for $3.99. That is $2.00 cheaper than buying them online at Jordan’s. They had one of the flavors he wanted but not all. But they did have the ones I like. I will keep checking back there anytime I am down there for new flavors. The cashier told me they change them often. BTW, the peach in my coffee is my very favorite. It is so good!

When I got home, I finally had some time this afternoon to finish my basement freezer inventory. When I was done, I sat down and made a list by category. For example, beef, chicken, pork, turkey, lamb, vegetables, fruit, baked goods, etc. have their own Master List. That way I can menu plan from those master lists. It is such a relief to know exactly what I have. I am not buying any beef, chicken, ham, sausage, bacon, etc. for a very long time. The same goes for fruits and vegetables.


As I was doing the inventory, I found this bag with 1/2 lb. of cooked ground turkey. Hubby was going to finish the Spicy Szechuan chicken that was leftover for his dinner tonight. It did not set well with my stomach the first day we ate it.

So I grabbed a packaged cheese pasta that I bought at Aldi’s for my stockpile. I cooked it up and added the turkey last minute. I also made a tossed salad to go with it. There is enough pasta for lunch tomorrow. I want to make sure that all of the cooked meats in my freezers get used up first.

I hope you all had a great frugal day.