Eating down the fridge! My loyal readers who have been with me for awhile will remember we’ve done this before for a week in an effort to save money, get rid of food that just hangs around and challenge my creativity as a cook (I just threw that last one in so I could refer to myself as a cook and offset my usage of frozen meats from M&M).
To review the rules, here’s what we can and cannot do during a week of eating down our fridge/kitchen: Continue reading
My Christmas craft 2008 will be on display this year, too
As I mentioned last time, I am going to follow along with Simple Mom’s 12 Weeks to a Peaceful Christmas, starting with doing a couple weeks at a time to catch up.
The first post dealt with the Christmas budget. You can download a budget worksheet from her downloads page, it’s really eye-opening how holiday costs add up. At first you think, it’s only the gifts I have to worry about… but the truth is the real costs also include baking supplies, wrapping supplies, stamps, etc.
I think the idea of budgeting for Christmas spending throughout the year is a great one. Simple Mom recommends doing a budget worksheet of how much you spend at Christmas then divide it by 12 and put aside that much each month. Then when December arrives it’s not a financial strain. Obviously too late for that this year but I am definitely going to see how my budget worksheet estimates hold up and then implement a holiday savings account in January.
We’ll have to go easy with our budget this year as we’re flying to spend the holidays with family and have more family members to buy for each year! But leaving home for Christmas does have it’s advantages as we never host meals or house guests and skip the real tree and other decorating expenses.
Ok, Christmas budget, got it. Next thing.
Since I’m catching up let’s do 11 Weeks Till Christmas: Gather Your Addresses.
I already have all our family and friends in a database because we raise financial support for our jobs. So that part is handled. But the second part of the task is to decide how we’ll be sending our Christmas greetings and what supplies we’ll need for that.
I think we’ll end up with a photo card for everyone, a letter for those who don’t have email and an email letter for the rest. It would be cheaper and more environmentally friendly to skip the written letter but alas, we still have loved ones without computers!
So now I have to finish this budget and plan what supplies to buy for our letters. I think I’ll even get a head start on making the those photo cards…
I’m already feeling the stress these days with a lot on my plate but start talking Holiday Season and the days get really full. I love Christmas so much (and yes I am talking about this in October but stay with me on this one, there’s a reason) and look forward to the sights, smells, sounds, shopping and traditions. (I tried to think of an S word to keep the theme there but couldn’t come up with anything.)
But I will admit that I do get pretty stressed trying to balance all that I love and not take on too much of a good thing. So I got pretty excited when my exploring on Twitter (which is currently my stress reliever and connection to all things I’d rather spend my time on) and led me to simplemom who has a site called, well, Simple Mom. (‘Life hacks for home managers’, love it.)
On 12 Weeks to a Peaceful Christmas she starts the first week of October with a post-per-week on what you should do that week to be totally prepared before Christmas. The idea is, do a chunk of things a week for 12 weeks and you’ll be able to enjoy some peace during the holidays.
I’ve already missed 3 posts so I am going to have to do some catch-up but since we don’t have kids and we’re spending Christmas away from home there should be some things I can cut out.
First up: Week 12 (Oct 2) Prepare Your Holiday Budget
I’ll read up and let you know in the next post how I do completing this step. Maybe you want to join me and see if we can stay sane together?
Breakfast: Slow-cooked hot millet cereal (recipe below) with brown sugar and vanilla soy milk. Cup of coffee.
Lunch: Mini roast beef sandwiches made with garlic roast beef, homemade whole wheat buns, spinach tomato, dijon mustard and cilantro and parsley from my herb garden. Pasta salad that used up our penne pasta, packaged sauce and cooked zucchini. Handful of potato chips.
For supper we’re going to a BBQ going away party so we’re off the hook for cooking. Tomorrow we should get by with leftovers.
I did go shopping today and bought two kinds of deli meat for $5.91, eggs for $5.49 (I like the free range brown ones) and quick oats for $1.06. All within the rules and we ate all day today with only one new item. I predict the only thing we’ll need to buy before next Saturday is cream and soy milk but we’ll see.
Recipe for Slow Cooker Fruited Millet Cereal
1 cup millet
4 cups water
1 t. salt
1 medium apple, peeled and diced
1 cup raisins
½ cup coconut, sweetened or unsweetened
Place all ingredients in the slow cooker and stir. Cover, set cooker on low heat and cook for 8 or 9 hours. Great treat to wake up to! My note: I recommend starting it the night before so it’s ready in the morning and eating it with brown sugar and milk like oatmeal. (Mosher Products recipe)