A Potato and One Random act of Kindness

Today I was suddenly inspired to make Brunswick stew. I bought a pork roast last week and I a lot left over after making BBQ sandwhiches last night.
After going over the list of ingredients I needed one thing to make the stew, and that was 1lb of diced potatoes. Today being busy with trying to finish the last of my college education I decided to wait until I picked my middle child up from school this afternoon. Its also the end of the week for grocery shopping so we had no money in that account. My only resolve was to scrap up a dollar in change and buy a can of potatoes.
I had also hoped to have enough change for a can of evaporated milk to use as coffee creamer until Saturday when our shopping week started over again.
I went down the isle where the the canned potatoes were, with my handful of change only get to get sticker shock .99 cent for a can of potatoes. I had a $1 in change and a few pennies, plus there was no chance of my coffee creamer.
I head off to the produce department. I found the fresh potatoes, they were only .89 cent/lb. I got the largest one there and weighed it. It was just at a pound. I could live that, I could at least avoid the embarrassment of not having enough money for a SINGLE can of potatoes.
I went straight to the cashier. There was a lady in line in front of me. She glanced back at me and looked at the counter. I had a single potato, and all I could think was how I couldn't get the milk I wanted too. The cashier rings up the lady's order, and the lady says "Get her's too." I nearly fell over. I realize this potato was less than a dollar but wow.
Its not every day people go out of their way for someone else, and when they do it might just have a HUGE impact.
The Cashier was floored. She couldn't believe it, and wanted to know if we were friends. We both told her, "No" and she began to cry. She told both the lady (at this point i got her name) that she'd restored her faith in humans.
I just wanted to share this most moving gesture with everyone. I told her I couldn't thank her enough and I'd certainly pass it on and I wouldn't forget.

What if??

The crush of the Economy is being felt in my house as it is in EVERY home in America. At this point we are middle middle class Americans. I stay home, DP works 40 hours for the local government. We do what we can and sometimes we simply have to put things off for many months. Unexpected expenses really strain our budget and often things are re prioritized. I know there's millions of middle middle class Americans out there in a similar situation. We don't make enough money to have a cushy savings, yet we aren't poor enough to qualify for social assistance.
Recently a Deer jumped out in front of the van and broke one of the headlights. For some families its as simple as loading up the Credit card, or just going and paying cash out of the Emergency fund for a new light, others might actually carry full coverage on their 10 year old vehicle. We however don't have that luxury at the current moment, but it did get me thinking. What if there was a small fund that everyone in my community contributed to..willingly of course, where expenses such as a broken head light could be easily remedied, if someone needed to pay for a prescription their insurance doesn't cover, maybe this spring your funds are short and paying for your child to play Baseball would mean making sacrifices on food. This fund as I see it would help.

I realize there's plenty of Charities out there and social programs for low income families but the beauty of my idea is that its for those who do in fact live above poverty, but simply have to put off the little things in order to make the big ones happen (college, paying off debt, mortgage ect). In my head this "Fund" would be localized within a small community and would be aimed at costs that are under $500, and the demographics to support are those who live above poverty.

I was just thinking WHAT IF???

The Scale Demon must leave

I have been trying to lose weight for a little over a year. Being overweight has plagued me for most of my life. I was bigger than other kids when I was a kid, and as a Teen I was in the "too fat to be pretty." club.
I spent from age 12 until about 17 coming up with CRAZY crash diets to drop four or five pounds only to gain them back and then some. I will not post the details of some of the "Diets"...lets simply say they didn't work for the long term.
Last year after several attempts to make weight loss stick after having my son, I finally decided to go with a "eat anything you want, but keep the portions under control" life style. I don't count it as a diet, I simply decided to stop eating a side of beef with a two liter of soda. I also took a bit from my house keeping guru "THE FLYLADY". I have taken weight loss and a healthier life style in baby steps. I want to lose weight, but I want to be healthy for the rest of my life. I can only achieve both through education and behavior modification.
In the past year I have learned some things that might help the rest of the world and hopefully will help me learn more to keep the weight off for good.
1. Skip the Mayonnaise. I realize you can weigh mayonnaise and keep the portions under control but at nearly 100 calories per serving its simply not worth it.

2. Smaller Portions are filling. I think too often we've been served ENORMOUS portions of food and think to ourselves "No way is a Cup of Cereal and Banana going to get me going for Breakfast." and surely it does and then some!

3. 20 minutes can be the difference between Binge, and satisfaction. When I am hungry or my blood sugar drops to where I feel like I might pass out I tend to over eat. A while back I decided to wait twenty minutes after a reasonably sized portion of food (that is weighed on scale) before getting seconds or desert. This rule has helped me realize my body doesn't need to be over stuffed, it needs time to catch up.

4. Working out probably will not help you lose weight, but it will certainly help the shape of the flabby body. This was a hard realization for me. Yes, you do burn calories, but more than likely those Carole's are eaten back. However, where my legs used to be flabby they have some sort of definition and my arms are actually toned. I can actually RUN.

5. Real weight loss and fitness does not happen in 30 days as many diet and exercise gadgets claim. Yes, you can lose weight and get shape fairly quickly, but if you do not learn the skills to maintain the lifestyle for a healthy body in that time then you've done it all for nothing. Its going to take several more years for me to learn everything I need to know to maintain my current life style.

6. You have to have mini goals. Big goals are wonderful but without some small mile stones along the way those larger goals can be nearly impossible to reach. In the past my mini goals have been "Run a Full Mile", "Lose 4lbs before summer," "Work out Three days a week". Each of these goals have gotten me further along in the over all idea. I cannot run a 5K without running a Mile, I cannot lose 40lbs without losing 4 more pounds, my over all fitness and stamina will suffer without working out.


Right now I have been trying to get 5 to 10lbs to move before summer getss here. Its just 25 days a way. No i want havea bikini body or even a swim suit body, but I'll be 5 to 10lbs lighter than I was last summer. I really need the scale to move as its been stuck on the same number for the past 3 weeks.

A rental garden

Every year I am faced with the same problem, gardening season comes a long and I get this "farmer's child itch." With that every year my loving DP reminds me that we are renting and we cannot go digging up the yard for a huge garden that has the potential to feed us year round. This year has been extra tough. We live a wonderful rental with a huge lot, and LOTS of shade. The trees are a welcoming oasis in the summer time, but not so much if I plan on growing anything.


The opening in the Trees right above the deck.

My resolve is growing everything in containers. A month ago I went out into the shed to take stock of everything we had only to find we'd left most of our large containers in the mountains. I was sad, we'd just started making back our initial investment from those containers. At that point I was just going to give up, and spend the rest of the summer hunting down cheap tomatoes, and zucchini.

My DP had other intentions, I came home from a wonderful mother's day picnic to find that he'd bought me all of the plants I needed for a my garden. He knows how much I love growing my own food. (who wouldn't, it tastes a 1000 times better than anything at the grocery store) Then he asked me where the containers were. I had to tell him the news about our old containers. He was disappointed and recommended we ask our land lords if we could plant in the ground. The problem however there's not one spot in our yard the receives a full 6 hours of sun. The only place that meets that condition is our back deck. I told him my plans to do containers again, even though in years past we'd had so so results.

We made a plan and I went shopping, only to have my head explode at the sheer cost of new containers. We bought our first containers using a gift card and some we'd gotten for free from various sources. There was no way I was paying $10 for a 5 gallon plastic "Flower pot" made in China. I told DP while we were looking that I was off to search the store of an "alternative."

My thinking was any large plastic container would do as long as I put enough holes in the bottom, along with a few inches of gravel. I found some 10 gallon rope handle tubs and one large Rubbermaid tub. I took them home and drilled about 15 holes in the Rope tubs and 40 or more holes in the Rubbermaid tub.

Here are a few pictures of the final results.

Zucchini and Peppers in Rubbermaid tub. Tomato in 10 gallon Rope tub

Just a Little Jam

To put it frankly I am back to blogging and I am not stopping this time. Between my Step son moving in, and me going back to school I have been SUPER busy. I am back.

Today I made homemade strawberry Jam. My venture into Jam making started last spring. My DP being very aware of my desire to DYI, bought me twelve diamond pleated Ball Jelly jars and Sure Jell Pectin.

I wanted to make some strawberry jam, but as it was in the Mountains, I couldn't find any U-pick strawberries.
So this year I got the jump on finding strawberries and there happened to be a patch just 5 miles from my home. A HUGE score at $1.25/ pound. After I got my strawberries home I told the kids they could have one basket

they could have one basket the rest were for Jam.

I made my jam using the instructions for Cooked Jam, inside the Sure Jell Box. It took me about two hours total, because my canning pot took a while to boil, but the results so far are 8 gorgeous jars of Strawberry Jam. Made with 100% All natural ingredients.

Happy New Year, and a No Spend Challenge

I took some time off this past Christmas season to be with my family. I hope everyone that reads my blog has done the very same. I want to go back to a topic I started earlier in December about saving money. It is very true our economy is in a recession and how we got where we are, can be blamed on a number of factors. One factor that effects everyone is our own personal spending. For too long many of us have lived beyond our means, we relied on credit to pay bills, make home repairs, buy a new car. You name it someone has probably paid for it with Credit card.
While I consider myself frugal in many ways, and my DP ranks pretty high on the frugality list, we too are known to spend money we truly shouldn't be spending. I am making it my personal challenge this month to spend as little as possible, and have even challenged many people to a "NO SPEND" month. Its a bit of diet for the bank account, but rather than losing we want our bank accounts to gain.
In this particular month we have a birthday, two cars that need repairs, plus state inspections, and not to mention the last hanging holiday get together that must have food bought. Why would I put myself to a No Spending Challenge if I there's no possible way to go without spending money? First of all to see how well I can actually spend money on necessities, and number two to quit spending money on things I usually waste money to buy. I am notorious for spending "Just $2 on Coffee", and Just $10 at the dollar store, and buying things for the house that shouldn't be bought. One expense that I am keeping in check this month is our Homeschooling bill. Seeing how much I love doing Montessori in the home, I can spend about $50 a month buying supplies. Its not that I Need the supplies, its just in that moment of inspiration when I see them on the store shelf that I buy them. As a result I have nearly two cabinets FULL of supplies. I have made a personal commitment to not buying any more supplies this month.
My other pit fall is expensive food, and this includes buying take-out. I don't know how many times I have been too lazy too cook, and too tired to hear the complaining from the kids about what's for dinner. Not this month though, I am doing everything in my power not to eat out under any circumstances, no even for my DP's birthday (We'll be having a steak dinner, if I can find steak on red label special)
Day one of my little no spending adventure cost me a grand total of $37 plus gas. We went to visit one of my DP's co-workers, and rather than showing up empty handed I came bearing tons of food. This is a trade mark of mine, I HATE showing up anywhere empty handed, and being a bit old fashioned I certainly had to impress my DP's co-worker if "All" I do is stay at home.
Today is day two, and so far I haven't spent any money, in fact after coming home from the grocery store yesterday I gave DP our debit card for safe keeping. We do have plans to go out of town for several days, and we have set a strict budget for this particular trip. The way I see it if I can figure out a way to spend as little money as possible on a three day trip I probably have something to brag about it once the month is over.

I am sure readers are wondering; If you aren't spending money this month, you'll probably just move on to next month and spend the money you save.". That's not the plan at all, personally I am hoping to figure out where it is that I spend too much extra money to begin with, and i hope to figure out a way to motivate myself away from expensive convinces like fast food and coffee house coffee.
I have challenge for all of my readers to try and not spend money this month. This doesn't include not spending money on essentials. We have to have food, water, lights, gas in the car ect. However, there's plenty we don't need and that' s where the no spend comes in this month. If any thing keep a diary of your daily spending. You might see some shocking truths about your spending behavior.

Good luck