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Archive for May, 2008

Frugal eating

May 20th, 2008 at 06:53 pm

Since this week's check will be about half of normal (since I was out of town for 4 of last week's work days) we're eating from the pantry as much as we can.

The man person had a lunch of creole chicken and rice leftover from last night. I just had steak and gravy pulled from the freezer and some steamed green beans and a small salad. Tonight, DH will finish off that steak and gravy, probably putting it on bread, and I'll have green beans, a few slices of apple, and some swiss cheese for my dinner at work.

I just dug through the freezer and found some barbecued beef roast from two weeks ago and cooked, chopped chicken from three weeks ago so I'll thaw those and use them this week.

Tomorrow night we'll have thinly sliced roast with green beans and a salad. Thursday we'll have the chicken with pasta and alfredo sauce with carrots and spinach. Friday night we'll have more of the leftover roast, probably rolled into low carb tortillas with fresh vegetables, and Saturday we'll have 'everything but the kitchen sink' salads to use any remaining leftovers. Sunday we'll have a roasted chicken with green beans and mashed potatoes and any leftover chicken will be used in the coming week's meals.

That takes care of this week and we have more stuff in the freezer for future meals. There are distinct advantages to cooking more than needed and cooking ahead. I love being able to provide DH with a good meal even when I'm at work and it's good to take a decent meal to eat rather than just a sandwich. And it really saves on eating out expenses! We've spent very little at restaurants lately and having a freezer stocked with cooked food is one of the reasons for that.

Do you like to cook ahead? If so, about how long does something sit in the freezer before its eaten?

A month has passed...& a stupid mistake!

May 20th, 2008 at 04:38 pm

since I posted an entry here. Life has been crazy hectic but I wanted to take a few minutes to post and then spend some time catching up on other blogs.

Let's see..what's new with me? My oldest son graduated from University of Texas in Austin this last Friday. Woohooo! He's going to work a year or so then go back to school to work for his Ph.D. My mother, sister, other son's girlfriend and I rented a great little cabin near Austin and had a wonderful time. We had a nice party for the graduate at the clubhouse where we rented the cabin and had a marvelous day of it. We spent too much money but how often does one's oldest son graduate from college? Wink This is the same son who is getting married in August so I'll spend a lot more soon.

On the job front, things are okay but very soon I have to make a major job related decision and am afraid I'll have to quit the job and find another. I don't look forward to that and am waiting to hear from the head of HR. In the meantime, I'm applying at other stores..just in case.

We completed Financial Peace University. It was a great course and we learned so much. I miss the classes now, though!

Oh yes, on the drive back from Austin my mom asked if I'd gotten my 'rebate' yet. I told her no, I hadn't filed. She asked why and I told her because I only worked about 3 weeks in 2007 and wasn't required. She then told me that I should have filed anyway so I could get the stimulus rebate. Duh! I didn't even think of doing that..I just knew I didn't need to file. Well damn, I missed that boat! Stupid tax on me, huh?

I just checked the IRS website and one of the qualifications is $3,000 of income so that disqualifies me. But at least my 'stupid mistake' wasn't!

That's about it for me right now. I'll post again later after I catch up with others. Smile