Homebody Getting Back to My Roots

Just wanted to let you all know. Hope everyone is having a great day!

The food challenge continues. This week's shopping left us with $8.00 to last until March 1st.

I think we are going to make it because most of our menus this week are based on this:



along with this weeks grocery purchases:



Saturday-Roast turkey dinner.

Sunday-Lunch turkey salad sandwiches with celery, diced bacon and walnuts. Some grapes would have been a great addition, but I was not going to buy some. Hey come to think of it some chopped carrot would have given it a little sweetness. Dinner was leftover turkey dinner for DH and I just had a salad with the leftover turkey salad on top.

Monday-Turkey enchiladas, made 2 small, one for the freezer. Used the dark meat picked from the thigh and leg.



Tuesday-New recipe adapated from Rachel Ray, http://www.rachaelray.com/recipe.php?recipe_id=510

Using these ingredients and the addition of 2 cups of cubed breast meat from turkey:





This was quite tasty with enough for leftovers tonight.



You would have thought I had teenage boys in the house I did so much baking this weekend:



I used half soy flour in all recipes to try to cut down on carbs. All other ingredients I already had in the house (including a past dated tub of light sour cream in the apple/nut muffins you can see in the frig picture).

We had a moment of panic briefly when we were down to one day's worth of coffeebeans left. Then I realized we had one more package of coffee bought in December at Costco when they ran the $4.00 Starbucks. Otherwise my challenge with my sister has been easier than I thought.

I also started this quilt that I finished Monday and drove down to the fabric artist to quilt yesterday.



This is for my BFF's first grandchild, (a boy obviously) born 2/18/2010 on my granddaughter's 18-month birthday!

Spring is on it's way as evidenced by the flowers that are starting to bloom (however a storm blew in yesterday here in Northern Coastal California). My tulips are coming up too!



I have a new computer arriving today that I got at Costco.com for $499.00. Keeping up on blogs and doing my finances has been painfully slow. I had my computer checked by my IT coworker and he said it would cost almost as much to fix and upgrade as getting a new one. I am kind of excited about Windows 7.

Finally, I received 2 checks for reimbursement from my FSA. I deposited into my daughter's account to buy my granddaughter a play kitchen. We took the one we had purchased back to Costco over the weekend (we thought they were living with us for a year, but SIL's orders were changed).

I feel like I was definitely back to my frugal roots over the past week!

So I tried some new recipes this week including this ricotta cake pictured below. The link is here:
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Ricotta-Cake/Detail.aspx#

I used half the filling mixture and it was so tasty. I used up that ricotta that was past dated.





DH called from the game and asked it I wanted to go out with the friend and his wife he was at the game with. I said NO!! We can't spend the money. I suggested they come over and eat tacos with us since that was what we had planned. They came and I had the cake for dessert. It was a great spontaneous meal with friends. I ended up taking the frozen lasagna out of the freezer and sent home with the friends since that is where we went for the Super Bowl. It felt really good to be so organized!!

This week ended up being quite a challenge in that I had jury duty that I was hoping would not happen (you know how you have to call the number the night before to make sure the case has not settled). But no chance. I ended up being an alternate and then yesterday seated as juror #11. That meant eating out for lunch unfortunately. So we have $82.20 left for food for the rest of the month.

Last week's menus were:
Sunday night-party at friend's that we contributed the lasagna.

Monday-Baked chicken breasts with TJ's sundried tomato bruschetta rubbed all over the tops.
Tuesday-Chicken Salad (leftover chicken from Monday), DH had BLT sandwich.
Wednesday-Turkey meatballs Rachel Ray recipe with gnocchi. Turned out quite tasty.
Thursday-Tacos again!
Friday-and tacos again!

I finished organizing my cupboards and pantry cupboards in the garage. I arranged all my baking things together instead of spread around different cupboards so now oil, sugars, spices for baking, raisins, craisins, oatmeal, flour and sugars, baking powder, baking soda, salt, etc are all together. Why didn't I do that sooner?

We don't have tomorrow or the rest of the week planned yet, but Sunday is filet mignon that DH bought at Costco some time ago for $4.99 a pound, (he says there are at least 8 in the freezer).

I also made muffins for my breakfast using leftover cooked sweet potato (instead of pumpkin) that I had used for Ally's little mini muffins I made her the day before she left. Here is the link and ingredients I used:

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Whole-Wheat-Pumpkin-Applesauce-Muffins/Detail.aspx#



I substituted dried cranberries and walnuts for the raisins and pecans. I didn't have any buttermilk so I added about a teaspoon of white vinegar to goats milk that I needed to use up that was also left from Ally's visit.

All in all a fairly successful week, now I just need to get through 2 more!

Oh and then last night after getting home from jury service, I made peanut blossoms, the classic peanut butter with a chocolate kiss in the middle cookies to take to work today. Here is the recipe I used:
http://www.landolakes.com/mealideas/ViewRecipe.cfm?RecipeID=7946

I have to admit I have been having fun trying new recipes and I think DH really appreciates the break from cooking.

I inventoried the freezer and cupboards including the garage which I didn't take pictures of.


DH and I went shopping yesterday since we had a break in the storms (just rain and wind, no snow). The challenge came at the same time my older sister and I challenged each other to staying under $200.00 for the month and $100.00 for her for the month of February. I warned DH and he is on board. Our total for groceries is $76.48 for the month.


We ended up getting some bulbs and a nice set of cookware for $9.97 at Costco. We bought another set for his mother. Ours we actually took the display set.


Along with the pantry and some greens still growing in the garden, I think we can keep it under the $200.00 goal.


Especially using up leftovers and pantry items like this chili I made for DH last weekend for his lunches:


or like this weekend for my lunches:


I am glad I have something to keep me occupied so I am not missing:


Although sometimes I think Landon misses her more:




All the cherrios she dropped and eating her leftovers that she threw from the highchair to him waiting below....

Time to watch Lifetime and knit while DH is at the local college game that is being broadcast on CBSC, quite exciting for our small local college.

Another earthquake at lunchtime today. DH is out of town, the wind is blowing so hard it broke a limb on the flowering cherry tree in the front yard. Now it is pouring down rain. The weather was bad enough that DH did not want to drive home from central Northern California over the mountains here to the coast.

It was 5.9 a quick jarring sensation then over. Not like the one in early January that went on and on and on. My little dog barked and stuck right with me.

I picked chard and kale out of the garden thinking I was making stir-fry and ended up just having salad with some chicken pieces I sauteed in a pan. Then I baked the chicken breast I was going to stir-fry. The weather is so bad I keep thinking we are going to lose power any time.

Glad tomorrow is Friday. Still have only spent the $5.00 on Starbucks Monday. So I have 3 points and $195.00 left for the month for food.

prescription and found a dime right in front of the membership area. (I think my granddaughter got ahold of my AMEX/Costco membership card). I managed to browse all the food demos and did not buy anything other than my prescription!

I made lentil soup in my crockpot before I left for work and it was delicious. It's amazing what a quart of chicken broth with added water, a package of lentils, a pound of italian sausage and half an onion can make.

A coworker's partner made her a 3 layer chocolate cake for her birthday and she brought in a large hunk to share. I took a thin slice home and had it for dessert after a bowl of lentils with a big glass of milk while I watched Lost that my brother-in-law recorded on DVD for me (since we don't get local channels with Direct TV...grrrr). DH is on a business trip. His costs are all deductible so I am not counting them towards the $200.00 limit I have set for us.

Tomorrow is our middle daughter's 29th birthday... gosh I feel old....



Ever the practical mother, I sent her a $100.00 Winco gift certificate. Her she is with my granddaughter (no she is not her mother) who loved to dig in my purse during her 6 week visit. Now if I can just find my AMEX card.

challenge, but taking it a step further and trying to keep it under $200.00 for both of us. I am in a contest with my sister who is single, she is trying to keep it under $100.00.

Unfortunately I blew today. I took a break after 2 hours at work to come home and say goodbye to my daughter and granddaughter and my dear sweet 17-month-old granddaughter cried and cried when I was going back to work. I was so upset I am not going to see her for 5 months, I stopped and got a Cinnamon Dolce latte on the way back to work. So $195.00 left for food this month!

I have been very busy with the visit and spent a lot of time doing this:



I am going to try to post my grocery purchases and my menus for the month. DH made a pan of lasagna and 2 packages of 3 cups each of more spaghetti sauce. We used italian sausage from the freezer, a large can of tomato sauce from the pantry, ricotta that was about to expire and lasagna noodles from the pantry. Onion, bell pepper and mushrooms were the only additions that we bought in the past week, but not purchased in February!

Last night I ate some chinese chicken salad and finished it up for lunch today. I will probably cook up some leftover steak from Sunday night with some broccoli left from the big bag bought over the weekend.

I took an inventory of the pantry and freezer and being careful I think this is completely doable. DH normally does all the cooking, but I am going to try to do both shopping and cooking for the month, which is a challenge for me!

It is a short month so I am shooting for $200.00 this month for food only. My sister is shooting for $100.00 since it is just her. We have a full pantry/freezer so it should be doable.

My shoulder/neck are bothering me, waiting for physical therapy to be authorized (comp injury), so I am making this short.

Happy February everyone!

and not for being the marijuana growing capital of the world....

I have lived in California my entire life and I think this is the worst I can remember or maybe because it is the most recent.

I was sitting right here working on finances when the earthquake hit. It was hard getting to the door of my office, which I had closed to keep Ally out. My little dog was running down the hall. I scooped him up and got to the front door. My husband, Ally and daughter were in the dining room area where DH scooped up Ally and they made it outside behind me. Our hanging flower baskets were still swinging 20 minutes later.

Financially we don't have earthquake insurance because it is so expensive. No damage done to our house, but we are about 30 miles north of the epicenter.

Also DH pointed out that our half a case of water is not doing to do much, so we need to get an emergency kit made and put out in our shed or somewhere we can get to it.

Otherwise on the financial front, earlier in the day, we ran out errands and paid cash everywhere sticking to our cash only challenge for the year.

Staples was running a rebate on paper for $1.00 a ream after rebate. I ran out of paper this week (I don't use that much) and went in to get a ream while DH checked out at Winco (spent $41.92)and luckily they had a standing ad right when I walked in the door. So I got 2 reams (limit was 2). I think it may run through today if anyone needs it. They had other items that were $1.00 after rebate too.

We spent $42.37 at Costco, which included $12.27 for dog treats, so our total groceries for most of the week was quite low, but we have lots of meat in the freezer and a full pantry. So basically we bought milk, half and half, big bag of broccoli, big thing of salad lettuce, bananas, apples, tomatoes, yogurt, bread, lunch meat, Diet Rite raspberry soda, brussel sprouts and Gerber snack items for Ally.

DH just left to drive to town which was much harder hit, to check on his business and his parents who lost their old china and glasswear.

I entered the AMEX payment as 1/1/2009 instead of 2010. Whew at least I found it. I have been using Quicken for the past 10 years or so.

However, I use YNAB for budgeting. I know it is time consuming to enter both, but until I am sure the newest version of YNAB is adequate for tax reports, I will continue to download into both. If I enter transactions every few days it is not that bad.

Okay I confess, last year I quit using YNAB around July/August when life got way too crazy planning both my mother's 80th birthday party AND my granddaughter's 1st.

I am not throwing any huge parties that I know of this year, so I am hoping to stick with it.

It's January 6th, what is going on?? I made a $2000.00+ payment to AMEX and quicken is not showing it in either the AMEX account or the bank account it came out of, yet my bank account balance is correct, AMEX is not. What did I do??

Isn't this the year I am going to finally be organized and on top of things??

Maybe I should just start over with a new quicken file for 2010, especially since I cannot download Chase right now and need to make a new account. I don't really compare from year to year, well I do, but I print out at the end of the year a total spending category report.....

DH and YD are at a San Jose Sharks game tonight, and I am home alone with my granddaughter for another 24 hours. Today went good. She is the happiest baby ever. Hoping DH can stop at Trader Joe's on the drive home to pick up some peanut butter.

Well 2010 is starting out with possible bad news. It is very hush, hush, but I was told I may be losing my job to outsourcing. I have been at the hospital for 13 months. It is possible I could get a different job in the hospital or I could do transcription again from home for an outsourcing company. The problem is the great health benefits I have.

DH and I sat this morning before he left for work (just to close out the 2009 books) and worked out our plan. Groceries and household paid for with cash that will be kept in envelopes in our safe. Gas may be charged on AMEX (Costco), but DH will give me receipts to pay immediately. Travel will also be charged on Amex, but that will most likely be sparse this year. We have a large AMEX bill as usual and we have enough to pay off all credit card debt (put YD and SIL's flight home on another) AND we have enough to cover January's expenses.

So I am following the YNAB plan of living on last month's income. If I had know I was possibly losing my job I would have made some different choices in the last few months. DH bought me an IPOD for my birthday and I suggested we take it back. He was very hurt by it and said we can just deal with the loss of the job if and when it comes.

We can survive on DH's salary alone, even budgeting $600.00 a month for health insurance, but we will be pinching every penny until it screams! DH has never participated in the finances except to be the main spender since he grocery shops and works 2 blocks from Costco. I told him no more bringing home filet mignon on the spur of the moment from Costco.

I told him I need help in being frugal like starting geranium clippings for hanging baskets this year instead of buying plants (other types of flowers). In other words we need to look at every aspect of our life, not just food.

My mammo and annual exam are scheduled for January and I am hoping to get my colonoscopy scheduled this month (first screening). I know I have health insurance at least through January since I have not been laid off yet. Who knows, it could be six months, but apparently it is in the process. I am going to live like it is my last day of work every day.

We have plenty of food in the freezer. We were able to pick up a case of Foster Farms chicken breasts at Costco for $1.39 a pound. So we have 108 frozen chicken breasts along with the rest of the side of beef and some venison from this year. Living in zone 9 for gardening, I think we can plant lettuce, spinach etc next month (we eat a lot of salad since I am low carb). We still have kale and swiss chard producing. We also have about $1800 in gift certificates for Winco (western cheap grocery store) that was DH's bonus from work.

So my goal is $300 for food and household (cash, not including Winco). Gas is hard to budget since we have to get to work, but last year it ran around $300 a month. I have plenty of yarn and fabric to keep me busy and I have been utilizing the library for reading. DH also got me a bunch of I-tune gift certificates along with the IPOD, so I don't plan to spend anything for that. Apparently the library where my daughter lives lets you download books, so she is getting a library card and will let me use it too because I would love to listen to some books on tape while gardening and cleaning, etc.

So I am trying to not be worried, but it is kind of hard at this point in our lives (I just turned 52, DH turned 51 in September).

So 2010, time to begin!

And all the other holidays too!

CreditCardFree's post reminded me of a stupid purchase I made at Mervyn's (closed so of course I can't return them) when things were on clearance, clearance.... I bought two cute sweaters that were a little small, but I'm going to lose weight right??? Okay so I am finally losing weight, but being petite (okay short), the shoulders just do not fit right. Ugh, now I have 2 sweaters to get rid of. I am hoping my daughters or sisters or someone can wear them. If not, off they go to donate.

Of course I could not return them, but I vow to not make any stupid purchases in 2010, time to begin!

My birthday was the 22nd, and DH bought be my first Ipod. I hate to say I was a bit underwhelmed by it until I realized I can probably download books on tape!! Then I started thinking about all the ways I can use it (apparently it has a record video feature), and the possibilities. Now I just have to figure out how to use it.

On the saving money side, DH spotted Foster Farms boneless, skinless chicken breasts at Costco yesterday for half price! They are dated 12/26 and they needed to get rid of them. Luckily the Costco butcher is a neighbor of ours and gave them to us for a little less for buying an entire case. We now have 108 chicken breasts for a little over $100.00. I think we are set for the entire year in chicken breasts!

DH picked me up from work and we went back and bought ourselves a Christmas present, a new reclining love seat for our TV room. We got rid of the old one (that was really ripped up and looking bad, but oh so comfortable) when we were planning on daughter and granddaughter living with us for a year while SIL was deployed. Now that deployment is put off indefinitely and they will only be here six weeks.

We sat and reclined in Costco at least 30 minutes deciding if it was comfortable since we will probably have it 15 or more years, making sure there was room between us for the dogs. Many people smiled and commented and one woman was downright excited, having I guess never seeing a reclining love seat. She said she wanted to get her husband a recliner, but did not want to sit away from him.

SIL and DH got it situated in the TV room and my dogs were so happy to have a love seat again, my little Landon jumped right up and spread out, I put a blanket on it first. I promised DH I would keep a blanket on the leather for the dogs at all times. At the same time, it is for our enjoyment and comfort and not to "look good".

I reminded DH that our new live on his salary alone was starting January 1st.

I am still mulling over the mechanics of how to organize things. I met my Orange Account purchase requirement at Starbucks.

My older daughters and SIL will all be gone on Tuesday, so I hope to really sit down and hammer the budget out. I did purchase the upgraded YNAB and hope to phase out Quicken. I may need to use it for our rental property though, still need to figure out that one too.

Winco gives local business the option of buying gift certificates at a 10% off face value for bonuses and we purchased $2000.00 worth. Between our chicken purchase at Costco and those gift certificates, I am hoping to keep household/food spending to $300.00 a month. We still have a fair amount of other protein in the freezer too.

We have our family altogether Christmas morning/early afternoon only due to SIL's entire family living here too. We are going to Children's mass today with SIL's family.

I guess I should quit yacking and get up and get ready for work. Have to be there in an hour. Hopefully off early, depending on the workload today.

Again, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone!

right by the sink in one of the lady's restrooms at San Francisco Airport yesterday.

We drove down to pick up YD, SIL the Marine, and our darling sweet granddaughter.

Down and back in one day is not easy, but well worth it. We paid for their flight home from South Carolina (since SIL is not deploying, YD and granddaughter are not living with us for a year), but that is their Christmas present.

With all the postings about found money, I just had to post mine. That's all.

and so far I only have one signature purchase, even though I used it everywhere including Target where I spent $166.00 on Toys for Tots.

Anyone know what the trick is? I am afraid I am not going to get enough signatures for my bonus because the one signature was for a huge amount of money (new Riccar vaccum).

The girls will all be home for Christmas (hopefully my YD, SIL and granddaughter will arrive in time) and I am looking foward to that.

I received a surprise bonus for over $500.00 from my work last week along with my regular paycheck stub (direct deposit).

My SIL is not deploying after all. Unfortunately the kids just finished selling or giving way almost every possession since YD and granddaughter were moving in with us for the year. So they are starting over. They are still coming for Christmas and SIL will be flying back to SC, but daughter and granddaughter will stay here for a few months in order to build up their savings.

Carpets were cleaned today, house is shaping up pretty good with all the stuff we have gotten rid of, which is nice.

Got home last night from our trip. Something smells in my refrigerator, which is weird because as soon as I got home and started to put food away (that we took to Reno and our stop at Trader Joe's), I threw everything suspicious out, but it still smelled this morning. I guess that means I have to take everything out and wash it out. That is usually my first weekend of the month chore.

My five:
1. Pay December bills.
2. Figure out rest of December budget.
3. Do paperwork for Flexible spending and 401K since papers must be turned in Tuesday by noon (this involves going to paycheckcity.com and figuring out how much can I put in my 401K and still have a big enough paycheck to cover whatever it is we decide my paycheck covers).
4. Okay which means doing the 2010 budget, crap by Tuesday??
5. Laundry.

Another five:
6. Clean bathrooms (okay at least the sink and toilets).
7. Prepare Seattle Filmworks roll of film for mailing (picked up mailer at Ace while buying Ally's tent/tunnel play combo, have no idea what this roll of film is, have had it laying around for 10 years, who uses film anymore?).
8. Pick up free 8 x 10 at Walgreen's (THANKS DEB!).
9. Plan week's wardrobe and hem navy pants? (Maybe I will do that next weekend...hem the pants anyway).
10. Watch Dexter!

Oh one more thing:
11. Submit over the counter receipts to FSP for this year.

DH is sleeping, I got up at 5:00 a.m. so I guess I'd better get started on this financial stuff!

PS Trader Joe's has some yummy oreo type cookies with peppermint filling called Trader Joe Joe's. I bought 2 boxes! They had an open box at the checkout for customers to try.... well yes I bought 2 (for work). I am a classic sucker.

We are in Reno, Nevada at our oldest daughter's house along with Landon and Lola. MD came over and a friend drove up from Sacramento, so it was the 5 of us for dinner. DH spent way too much time cooking and he told me today, never again, (yeah we'll see). He says he spent way too much time to have mediocre food. Yes for his cooking it was mediocre, but then it was not his kitchen or tools, but hey the pie was great! (Recipe posted earlier).

So this morning OD is working a 12 hour shift at the hospital (her moonlighting ultrasound job), so DH and I decided to shop a bit until MD got up and met us for a little more.

The day started out good with Starbucks not having any decaf ready so DH got my coffee for free (daughters do not drink coffee, so we buy when we visit). I can only have 3/4 cup of regular coffee a day, so I got 1/2 regular and half decaf. $2.15 for coffee plus DH always tips $1.00 so today of $3.15.

Home Depot for new fake tree: $52.77. We are still using the tree that DH's neighbors (when he was a kid) gave us a few years back. You have to manually stick the limbs in and DH said he was throwing it away this year he was sick of dealing with it. We found the an acceptable one at Home Depot, that already had lights, but missed out on the 99 cent Poinsetta's. Oh well. Don't need to poinsettas. I NEED a Christmas tree.

From there we went to Ultra to get specials for OD that she was not able to get since she was working. Of course I ended up getting the eye stuff and face color from Bare Escentuals for myself too.

Ultra: $22.15 x 2=$44.30. Since purchase was limited to 1 per customer, DH was a trooper and came in and purchased one set too.

Then to Ace Hardware where they had a tent with a tunnel for $14.99. Just the thing for Ally! We had been hoping to find one and Ace had one at a very good price. While there we picked up 2 under counter fluorescent lights for OD (She said she has a Daddy-Do list for DH, and that was one of the items on it). Also walked by puffy mailers that I need to send off a roll of Seattle Filmsworks film that has been lying around for at least 10 years discovered while DH and I were purging and decluttering to make room for YD and granddaughter who are coming to live with us while SIL is in Afghanistan for a year. Did I blog about that??

Anyway total for Ace Hardware $33.90.

Then we met MD at a new shopping area called Legends that has a huge sports store called Scheel's I think it is. Ended up eating some breakfast there and bought granddaughter Ally a little soccer ball for a total of $23.00.

Then we headed to the outlets connected to Scheel's and that is where..... (hanging my head in shame)..... I made the mistake of going into Ann Taylor that was having 50% off everything including their already marked down merchandise.I ended up spending $48.09 ($5.00 was a donation to ST. Jude's Children's Hospital) on 3 sweaters. I could justify the makeup because I did need the undereye cover, mine is almost out... but 3 new sweaters was definitely breaking my buy nothing for myself for a year vow. DH was very sweet and thought I was being way too hard on myself. I said okay I can't buy anything unless it is 50% off at least. Okay, okay apparently I have no will power.

Then off to Osk-Kosh outlet where I bought Ally a pair of pink striped overalls just like her mom wore and 2 other cute little outfits. Total $36.70.

We then went into the Carter's outlet and DH finally had had enough. Weren't you just in that store he said as MD and I walked in. We both decided we should not spend anymore (she bought 2 tops at Guess and Ally another little outtit) so we turned around and walked back out.

Then we stopped at In and Out Burger where we spent $7.83 for lunch. DH dropped me off, MD went home to her dogs and I came home to catch up on the blogs.

Now MD is here with her dogs and DH is on his way to Cabela's. He is buying a gift for his hunting friend who gave us the truck (did I blog about that?). Anyway a 1999 Chevy Truck.... so he is getting him a nice back of truck mattress for hunting.

Okay the dogs are going nuts, must go now!

DH modified a pumpkin pie recipe about 5 years ago and we have not looked back. We don't even consider using pumpkin anymore and with the pumpkin shortage I keep hearing about, I thought I would share this alternative... for us it is the new normal tradition.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Grandmother Pumpkin Pie
(Otherwise known as Grandpa sweet potato pie)

1 and 1/2 cups evaporated milk (not sweetened condensed)
1 cup firmly packed golden brown sugar
1 and 1/2 cups smashed cooked sweet potato
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
2 large eggs, beaten to blend
1/4 cup pure cane maple syrup

Spray 10-inch diameter fluted ceramic tart dish with 1-inch high sides or glass pie dish with nonstick vegetable oil. Press pie dough to thickness of ¼ inch into the bottom and up the sides of the prepared dish. Trim and crimp edges (we don’t actually do this). Cover and refrigerate 30 minutes (can be done 1 day ahead).

Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 375 degrees. Stir milk and sugar in heavy small saucepan over low heat until sugar dissolves. Cool slightly. Using electric mixer, beat pumpkin, cinnamon, salt, ginger, and nutmeg in large bowl to blend. Add milk mixture and beat 1 minute, stopping occasionally to scrape down sides of bowl. Add eggs and beat well. Add maple syrup and beat 1 minute. Pour filling into crust. Bake until tester inserted in center comes out clean, about 50 minutes.

Transfer to pie rack and cool (Can be prepared 8 hours ahead, let stand at room temperature) Serve with whipped cream.

No-Roll Pie Crust
3/4 cup (1-1/2 sticks) of unsalted butter (we use salted if we do not have any unsalted)
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon powder sugar
2 cups all purpose flour

Melt butter in heavy medium saucepan. Remove from heat. Add both sugars and stir to combine. Stir in flour. Cool 15 minutes (dough will be warm). Use dough immediately.



Here is grandpa (DH) and his sweetie (Ally):

I thought my 0% lasted until the end of the year. I was surprised with my last statement from our last credit card to see that I owed over $100 in finance charges. That's it. I transferred the money from ING and just paid it off in full.

I am embarrassed at how long it took us, but we are finally out of credit card debt. So now all we owe is our mortgage on our home and our rental home.

Our E-fund took a big hit, but with my buy nothing challenge for the year (personal spending), I am hoping it will be in a comfortable range before too long.

I can't even share the news with DH as he is asleep, still on East Coast time since he just arrived home yesterday after spending a week with:


By the way, I knitted the ladybug coat she is wearing. It is a bit long, but hopefully she will be able to wear it for a year. It is made out of baby alpaca yarn and the pattern is here if anyone is interested:
http://www.petitepurls.com/Fall09/fall2009_ladybug.html

We have started a new challenge tonight of how long can we go just buying fruit, veges, bread, milk and coffee. Our freezer is brimming with food that needs to be eaten including leftover party food from Ally's first birthday party in August.

Happy Veteran's Day to all our Veteran's, especially my 85-year-old father-in-law who served in WWII, my two older brothers who both served in Vietnam, and my dear son-in-law who is currently serving in the Marine Corp and is getting ready for his deployment to Afghanistan. He has not been overseas since 2006 to Iraq. 2010 is going to be a tough year for my family.

Attempting work today. Hopefully I make it through my 7 hours. That's all.

I think I am going to survive, Tamiflu seems to be helping, that's all.

Yesterday was payday and since I woke up a little early I decided to get up and check the bank accounts and go ahead and pay for the new washer and dryer. I process that payment at my bank web site, then I consider maybe I should go ahead and pay my AMEX bill.

Then the dilemma is should I pay everything that is owed to this point or just the balance due (closing date 9/30). I pay my Amex in full every month, but sometimes I pay several times a month so I don't have a huge payment at the end of the month.

Okay I will pay it all off, so then I download into Quicken the transactions. Costco, Coleman Co, AT&T, Direct TV, Costco, Comfort Inn, Comfort Inn, Costco.....wait Comfort Inn. The motel charged us??? We paid with gift certificates from our local radio station shopping show. We had to give them our credit cards in case we made a long distance call or something.

Grr.... get them on the phone, starting the conversation with them when DH says, "we didn't stay at the Comfort Inn". Fraud alert!! "Have your manager call me when she/he gets there at 7:00 a.m. please".

I immediately call AMEX and cancel my card, dispute the charges. I am fuming.... someone stole our information. I have been a victim of forged counterfeit checks several years ago, so I was very upset.

So I finally get off the phone with AMEX, am 15 minutes late to work. I call my mother's bank to check her VISA card to make sure there was no fraudulent activity since she also gave them her credit card (I am on my 80-year-old mother's accounts). No everything is fine on her account.

About 10:30 I realize Comfort Inn has not called yet, so I call them. Oh yes, she was just going to call me back. She remembers me, I was coming up for the US Figure Skating competition. Um... gulp... Yes "she is sorry, we did not call to cancel and they were booked solid so they charged my room"....

OMG I went to the wrong motel! No wonder Best Western Horizon Inn did not have a reservation for us when we got there (they had empty rooms though)!! That should have been my first clue.

"I am an idiot, I am so sorry". Assistant manager giggles and says "that's okay, I can refund you one night, but not both".

Umm yeah, I am lucky they didn't charge four nights of rooms since I also made my mother's reservation using my credit card.....

I'm telling you menopause does something to your mind. Luckily my dear sick husband was very nice about it. He didn't feel good enough to laugh, but told me "things happen".

So I might as well have set a match to a $100 bill. Ugh!

The Marine Corp 234th Birthday Marine Ball is on November 6th this year. Last year my granddaughter was 3 months old and I went back to take care of her so my YD and her DH could go (I had just flown home for 8 weeks after being there the first month after she was born).

This year my coworker grabbed that week off before I could... So DH is going back to take care of our little southern belle.




I found a flight on cheap tickets for $530.00 from here to LA to Dallas to Savannah, but it involved an overnight stay in LA. So he said try United Airlines (which is DH's business Visa Card). Their price was $630.00 out of here (which is cheap, we usually pay somewhere around $1000.00 for round trip from here to the Carolinas).

Anyway he says let's just check if we can use miles. Now may I just say we have never been able to use miles out of Humboldt except once when it cost us 40,000 miles to fly to Las Vegas. Otherwise there are simply no seats. We have to drive to San Francisco or Sacramento to use our miles.

So to humor him I pull it up on the computer and low and behold, we can book the round trip flight November 4-10th with miles. $10.00 fee and we splurged on the 5 extra inches of leg room for $79.00. Wow I could not believe it. First time ever. People must not be flying as much.

Now DH just needs to get over the flu that he came down with yesterday. DH is rarely sick so it is quite difficult. AND expensive. Yesterday he wanted Nyquil. Today he wants Thera-Flu. We were just at Walmart in Oregon (no sales tax)and I looked right at the Nyquil and thought we still had some... but no we don't. So yesterday I spent $8.96 on Nyquil and today $7.03 on Thera-Flu! Hopefully tomorrow he will not think of a different cold/flu medicine he wants.

Hoping I don't get it....

I ordered up the black yarn to finish up the ladybug sweater. I hope I get it by Saturday. I really want to finish it in time to send back with DH.

We are leaving soon for a trip up to Oregon to see my 10-year-old nephew participate in the US Figure Skating 2010 Western Regionals.

Our local radio station has a Saturday morning advertising/shopping show in which I obtained 6 nights (2 for us, 2 for my brother, 2 for my mom) at the local hotel for $44.00 a night. This is a $25.00 savings over the special price for skating visitors. I also purchased $40.00 worth of "blue money" for the restaurant across the street for $20.00.

One of my favorite quilt stores is in Medford and I am not even going to visit. Better to just stay away than fight urges that I vow to beat for the entire year (ending 9/30/2010). I am hoping to finish the red yarn portion of Ally's ladybug sweater over the weekend. My brother's family lives in Seattle, so this is a nice chance to get to see my nephew skate live and it is only 3 hours drive!

I am pretty sure the rooms have microwaves and I cooked enough oatmeal this morning for my breakfasts. We already have bottled water and I made iced tea to pack and take too. Still have some individual packs of that yummy trail mix from Costco with the M&M's in it.

While in Oregon which has no sales tax, we are making a stop at Walmart (closest from us is 1.5 hours) for some general merchandise including their almond face scrub. We were going to buy tires up there and have them put on but DH called the local chain tire center and they matched the savings so they are down being put on now. Cost $426.11 for 4 tires for my Toyota Camry.

DH is getting on board more and more and last night made grilled ham and cheese sandwiches with the last of the ham cooked last weekend. He used the last 2 Costco sandwich rolls too. They were yummy with the addition of the last of the avocado and tomato. Unfortunately we ran out of milk and didn't want to get more since we are leaving town for a few days.

My friends daughter will be feeding the dogs:



Lola's old blanket that she curls up on to sleep at night (behind the love seat in the TV room) is in the new washer right now. It is so nice to not have to go to the laundromat to wash bulky items. Plus the last time we washed our bulky items it was about $5.00 a load!

It's a beautiful fall day on the North Coast of California, but a storm moves in Monday.

I hope everyone has a relaxing weekend.

I bought a new washer and dryer set on Saturday. However, we paid cash for the Whirlpool Duet set with the steam option. I am hoping to save money on dry cleaning and the water savings should pay for our garden next year. This was a planned purchase so should not count for the no buy anything for myself year.

I have been really down the past few days after seeing my granddaughter on Skype. She is growing so fast and we are missing so much. DH will probably travel to see her the first week of November. I cannot go since my coworker beat me to asking for that week off (she is going to a Nascar race) that the kids need us to babysit so they can go to the annual Marine Ball.

This is what makes me happy/sad:




I have not seen her since August 21st and will not see her again until the end of the year when I managed to get a week off. I hope Ally remembers me and greets me like this:



I am knitting this:


I should have it done by the time DH goes back to South Carolina.

Time to get up and use up the last of the zucchini in this:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/zucchini-gratin-recipe2/index.html

and then if I have enough energy left I am going to make this:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/sandra-lee/shortcakes-with-warm-strawberry-sauce-recipe/index.html

Up and at em!

A new Kohl's opened this week in our area. While this may not be a difficult challenge for some of you, we have Ross, Sears, Target and K-Mart and now a Kohl's.

We received a $10.00 off coupon in the mail and DH needed some new T-shirts so we decided to go yesterday. First we went to our business for DH to make a schedule for the employees and take care of the cash register. Then we went over to his mother's house and had breakfast (I brought some bacon and some frozen french toast made last week to use up some bread). Finally it was after 9:00 a.m. and off we went. Well if we filled out a credit card application we received 20% of all our purchases that day and received another $10.00 coupon. DH and I both filled out applications so we had a total of $30.00 off purchases.

DH said he admired my goal of not buying anything for a year, but he thought it would be "okay" to get something. I admit I sort of looked but thought NO!

So we used the cash off to get my granddaughter a book and a Christmas Ornament. DH got about 10 new T-shirts at $4.80 a piece and my FIL's 80th birthday gift of an insulated looking long sleeve shirt with a matching Columbia Fleece Jacket.

So I did it, passed up the cute shoes, the Simply Vera Wang and the Dockers pants that would have been a nice addition to my work wardrobe (I live in jeans and T-shirts otherwise).

My five things for the day:
1. Got up, made coffee, let the dogs out and then tried to keep them quiet until DH woke up (we both rarely sleep in but wish we could).
2. Fixed the hem on 2 pairs of my winter wardrobe work slacks.
3. Doing laundry (this should count for more than 1).
4. Just got off the phone with Direct TV and got the HD football added for free after I screamed and yelled about their misleading advertising in their flyer and told them I would not pay the cancellation fee and it could go to collection for all I cared and actually it probably would fit a class action lawsuit if I could get enough people to say they had been misled too.
5. Going to go sit and knit and try to calm down after getting all worked up with the customer service people and getting transferred 4 times... yes 4 times before getting #4 resolved.

DH's 5 list:
1. Made breakfast.
2. Cleaned up kitchen really well including Clorox Cleanup on the drainboards.
3. Took a 1966 console stereo for the elderly folks next door to a secondhand shop since it still works and they hated to dump it.
4. Making split pea soup even as I type for same elderly neighbors for their dinner.
5. Has had lots of patience all day with menopausal me.

My self-imposed 1 year not buying anything that I don't absolutely genuinely need. No clothes, no shoes, no socks, no undergarments. No new makeup, unless I actually run out of something. No new moisturizers (I probably have enough assorted brands to last 5 years). No books, no magazines..... No nothing!

I had my first evaluation at my job yesterday and had no negatives or any place I needed to improve. That felt good. Today I saw the worker's comp doc and I felt ready to bump back up to 7 hours a day. My shoulder is much improved.

We had Direct TV installed today saving $17.00 a month over our cable TV with many, many more HD channels too.

DH is on board for this year, which is going to really help since he does 95% of the cooking and household/grocery shopping.

Our Christmas present will be flying back to see our sweet granddaughter, oh yeah and YD and SIL too.

September is traditionally the most beautiful month here on the North Coast of California and this year was no exception. However, looks like the temperature is going below 50 the next couple of nights so we need to harvest our butternut squash.

We have decided to not waste our time on tomatoes next year. The time, effort and water used to try to eak out a few is just not worth it. Besides FIL grows them 1.5 hours south of us and we get plenty once he starts harvesting.

In fact this weekend DH made salsa and jalapeno poppers from his dad's garden bounty. Earlier in the week I had made roasted tomato sauce for a chicken cacciatore dish, enough for our elderly neighbors next door too.

Has anyone noticed that 3 paycheck months don't actually seem like the extra check comes that month, but the month before or after? This month it was before and I was able to save $2200.00 this month.

Also our renters owed us the summer rent money since they were out working all summer. Another $1300 now and another $1900.00 by October 1st.

Then yesterday YD told me that when my SIL gets his re-enlistment bonus they are paying us back the money they owe us. So that is a nice surprise. I told her I would rather they just save it and we won't buy them Christmas presents this year, but she said no, they want to pay us back. Why is it so hard to take money back from my kids that I loaned them??

So the big news is that DH has agreed on a frugal year with a goal of saving a fairly large amount of money by 9/1/2010. My two older sisters and I have challenged one another to an entire year of buying only what we need, no wants... Of course I had to let him buy the gun safe at Costco (actually I encouraged him to buy it) since we really should have a gun safe now that we have a granddaughter visit (not that we keep loaded guns around, but you get the idea). It will also be a place to keep our important papers as it has a few shelves in it too.

A Kohl's opened up yesterday in our old Mervyn's at the mall. We did not go, nor do I actually plan to since I am embarking on a no spend year. Mmmmm..... that doesn't start until Thursday October 1st and I do have a doctor's appointment in town tomorrow after work.....NO!! I don't need anything. I can make it a year without new clothes or shoes or socks or under garments and so can DH!

My one exception to this rule will be yarn. I started Ally this over the weekend:
http://www.petitepurls.com/Fall09/fall2009_ladybug.html

But I will only buy yarn for a specific project that I am starting immediately like this ladybug coat. I hope to have it done by Christmas and hopefully before.

This month's spending:
Food/eating out: 431.89 (eek a little high except we have been feeding our neighbors too at least once a week, 2 meals out).
Gasoline: $327.80 (we both filled up over the weekend, mine will last 2 weeks).
Household: 788.47 which includes cleaning supplies, garden spending, pets and the above gun safe.

I ordered up Direct TV which will be installed Thursday October 1st. That is going to save us $17.00 a month over cable with more High def channels, more normal channels and fox business (that we don't get now, it was going to cost more, which motivated me to finally call Direct TV) so I can watch Dave Ramsey and stay motivated (I love personal finance stories).

We order DH's work boots every couple of years and when ordering today, the online store gave me 10% off for no apparent reason. Of course the fact that they cost $227.00 a pair might have had something to do with it and my wait on hold....



Anyway what a nice surprise. So I thought I would give a shout-out to:
workingperson.com

Tomorrow is probably going to be my last 4 hour day since my shoulder is definitely getting better. I see the doctor tomorrow and I imagine they will increase my hours.

So I guess I'd better get back to getting things done around the house.

Have your husband, partner, significant other or friend color and cut your hair for you. I waited for DH to get home from work Saturday morning to color my hair. He has never done it before and the last time I did it myself, when I washed it out I still had gray, so I figured he would do a better job. He did. He then trimmed it off for me too. Savings: $60-80. I used Nutriese Garnier Golden medium brown. It was a shade darker with a little more pizazz than my own hair. I found a coupon this week in the Sunday paper and it is on sale at Rite-Aid so I will be purchasing my next box for $3.99.

Now I gotta go find some change to pick up!