Saturday night's all right...for basketball Day 7

     Pancakes were on the menu this morning.  No sleeping in for me today!  Both early morning texts about yard-saling and hungry young children can override even a pillow over the head.  I sat beside a warm fire in the relative quietude, and planned out my food day.

     I will confess to making less pancake batter than in my pre 10for10for10 days.  Pancakes are full of carbs, (which Rodger needs to regulate throughout the day) and I'm against too much syrup and butter and childhood obesity (just like Michelle Obama), so I limited everybody to 3 pancakes, and 5 for Rodger.  With tea it was just enough.  You wanted another, but your stomach didn't ask for another, after you left the table.
  

That griddle in the picture is a mondo griddle.  The pancakes are not dollar size, they are about 3 1/2 to 4 inches in diameter.

     My sister was asking me today about Boothie syrup usage.  I have always limited syrup because we usually use real maple, which is almost as precious as gold.  We try to stretch out our Christmas costco syrup jug as long as possible!  So my syrup cost isalways fairly low, probably below average, but it isn't a fluke or a lie, or anything related to the project.

     We also finally found some imitation syrup which did not, repeat, did not contain high fructose corn syrup.   We had to search 4 grocery stores before finally locating one brand of syrup which didn't contain any high fructose corn syrup.  Cash and Carry's cheapest house brand had gallon jugs of the stuff.  I'm  good with that---cheap and the least unhealthy syrup at that.

breakfast menu:  pancakes with syrup or jam, tea with milk

Breakfast total:  $1.68

1 batch pancake batter: 1.10

1/2 cup syrup:  .16

8 pats butter:  .16

2 cups milk for tea:  .26

     Lunch had to be on time for all the hungry little ones, so I made something easy and fast.  Rodger had picked up some marked down bagels last night for 99 cents, so I figured we had better eat them asap.  Having beautiful onion bagels sitting around on the counter would be too big a big temptation to snitch on a Saturday.

    I've got lots more ham, which I had pre-sliced from a large ham, and then bagged up in 8oz, 75cent portions.  That made it simple.  Just reach in and get a meal's worth, no hurried up calculations.

lunch menu:  bagels with ham and lettuce, romaine salad with carrots and cucumber, orange juice

Lunch total:  $4.05

ham: .75

bagels:  .99

1 head romaine:  .46

1 carrot: .11

1 cucumber: .50

1/2 gallon orange juice:  .99

1 roma tomato for Rodger:  .13

salad dressing (for those who asked): .13

  Did you know that orange juice tastes better out of a beautiful cup?  An old professor of mine, Dr. Kalin, who taught the beauty of floral design as well, always said that.   Drink out of your most beautiful cup, he used to say.  Surround yourself with the beauty you can afford. 

   Check out the pictures.  Rodger's meal has the tomatoes.  The other (female or child sized) meal shows a small bowl containing the dressing.  Yum.

 

snack menu:  popcorn and kettle corn

Snack total:  $.62

    12 oz.  popcorn kernels, 1/3 cup oil, 1/2 cup sugar

    This afternoon Mercy whipped up a small, one loaf batch of french dough, then we took a stray, starving llittle chihuahua that the children found to the Humane Shelter  When we got home, Charity and I made the risen dough into fry bread, a traditional Yakima Indian treat.  It made a great addition to our split pea soup, and I didn't have to call anybody twice to the supper table.

     Here you can see Charity helping to fry the bread.  The next shot shows the bowls of soup dished up.  We let children choose based on age, from top down.  (There has to be some advantage to being the oldest!)  In this way, too, the largest portions go to the largest people generally. 

    Waiting their turn teaches young children an important skill and gives the older, more responsible ones a small privilege.  Those late to the table may lose their place in the choosing and might have to take last pick.  Sometimes I take last pick so that Noah feels that he actually has a choice.

Even though the steam clouds the picture a bit, you can see that there is a lot of soup left for seconds.  Everyone ate their fill on excellent soup tonight, with 2 large soup bowls left over, even after bedtime snackers had some thirds.  Take a look at the awesome price tag below.

supper menu:  split pea soup with carrots, potatoes, and onions, fry bread (and we were supposed to have grapefruit, but in my hurry to get a good seat at tonight's game I forgot to cut and serve them)

Supper total:  $2.06 (which hardly seems possible)

split peas, 1 lb: .68

4 carrots: .44

4 lbs potatoes: .40

1 onion:  .10

1 loaf recipe of french bread:  .24

1/2 cup canola oil for frying:  .20

Today's total cost: only $8.42 because I forgot the grapefruit  

  

Day 6, Friday, February 19

         Cold cereal on the menu made sense today.  It is the easiest and takes no prep.  Rodger took the twins to before-school practice, so was out the door before 6:30.  The early-birds ate before I was even in the kitchen.  Everybody else left on time with only a little hurrying on the part of one who looked gorgeous with curled hair.  Strangely enough, they missed the bus anyway!  I got a call several minutes later, from the bus stop, where they had been waiting.  Rodger had returned and was leaving for work, so he rushed them to the next stop, where they barely made the bus. 

     It turns out a substitute driver didn't know the schedule and had left 5 minutes early, so the kids were vindicated, plus, I didn't have to drive all the way to school this morning.  

     I got a knock on the door mid-morning, and had the pleasure of seeing Freddie, a wonderful spiritual lady with whom I spent a lovely hour.  She brought me the movie Julie and Julia to watch, because I am blogging like Julie.  We talked about the early years of her motherhood, when she stayed home with her young children and cooked on a very tight budget.

     Freddy's husband once brought home a 50lb bag of split peas, (which she didn't even care for) and her ingenuity was tested to find ways to serve up all those peas.  When she was looking forward to finally finishing it off, he brought another bag, and a bag of lentils, same size.  Freddy learned to like the economical and heathful legumes, and had tons of ideas for me about cooking and storing beans and lentils.

  

     Noah and I made pizza dough this afternoon, and his hundred day hat, which yesterday was a mitre, today was his chef's hat.  Noah and I also spent time outside hunting for our escape artist puppy, Eppie, who disappeared out of our completely fenced back yard.  She slipped out of a corner of the fence which our big dogs have always been much too big to try.

:

     The weather was beautiful, with temperatures above 55 degrees, and sunny.  Marvelous.  The children excitedly discovered that our rhubarb is already growing.  Amazing!  It is February, after all.

      

Here comes our food day in a nutshell:

breakfast menu:  cold cereal, milk, tea

Breakfast Total:  $2.00

oatmeal squares or life cereal: 1.00
milk:  1.00

lunch menu:  peanut butter and jam sandwiches, carrot sticks, pretzels

Lunch Total: $2.89

1 loaf plus 2 slices bread: 1.05
1 cup apricot/rasp jam:  .25

5 carrots:  .55

pretzels bags, 16 in each: .60

snack menu:  sliced banana in milk

Snack total:  $1.76

10 bananas: 1.50
2 cups milk:  .26

dinner menu:  pizza and breadsticks, cinnamon sticks

Dinner total:  $3.03

diced ham:  .60
pizza dough:  1.08

tomato sauce:  .25

spices: .10

mozzarella cheese:  1.00

$3.03 made a huge amount of food.  All the pans you see are different batches.   The sauce and cheese were light, but tasty.  The breadsticks, sprinkled with garlic, savory and fun to munch.  Unseen are the cinnamon sticks I made with the last hunk of dough.  With a light coating of oil and cinnamon sugar, we made a sweet and delectable dessert, satisfying every sweettooth.

Daily total: $9.75

Woo Hoo!

Day 5: Thursday, February 18

     Last night I went to bed with the idea of making pancakes for breakfast today.  I didn't announce it ahead of time, because pancakes take prep time, and if we were running late with getting dressed, etc, I didn't want to be committed to it or, conversely, give it up and make everybody disappointed.

     I did make the pancakes!  And they were cheap.  Everybody loved them.  The idea came to me after yesterday's mush experience.  Although I grew up eating hot cereal every day of the week except when my mom wanted to sleep in on Saturdays, my kids aren't expecting that very often, and so I don't want them to feel that this food experiment of Mom's is going to mean hardship---deprivation---endless mush.

   The pancakes did chirk(sp?) them up a bit.  The whole house smelled great.  The problem was that breakfast took longer than usual, because of griddle time, and messed with our schedule.  I can only cook twelve small pancakes at a time on my griddle, so everybody can't be served at the same time unless I skip the devotions to fix them, or cook the hotcakes beforehand and serve not-so-hot pancakes prepared before 6:30.  I'll have to cogitate on that problem.

     All of the younger kids were ready on time today, no problem.  We had the lunches made last night and ready, too, so that wasn't a stresser.  The late breakfast caused some stress on the older girls who like to have some time after breakfast to blow dry or curl their hair, so we all felt their stress...
 
     Usually Saturday is our pancake day, because there aren't time pressures, so maybe we'll have pancakes again tomorrow.

     At the end of the day, as I was adding the supper totals in my journal, I was disappointed to find I had over-spent for the first time.  It wasn't a big number, just 12 cents, but it felt miserable.

      I had miscalculated when adding up the midday totals, and so I included some applesauce for dinner when I found some "extra" money I could use up at the end of the day.  Everybody loved the applesauce, and we were remembering about canning it in the summer when we had our German exchange students.  Nobody was sorry about eating yummy sauce.  Only I, in my private sorrows, was feeling like I had failed the day.

    I have some few pennies left over from other days, so I might still come out ok for the week.  I can.  I will.

     Here is a look at what the Boothmans ate today:

breakfast menu:  pancakes, syrup or jam, butter, tea

Breakfast  Total:  $1.55

pancakes: 1.10
(I'll put the awesome recipe on my new recipe page)
syrup@  .02per tbsp:  .10

jam, 2 tbsp: .06

approx 1 cup milk for tea:  .13

(this was the number I forgot to add in, which messed up my daily total)

sack lunch menu:  Lentil soup over rice, carrot sticks, high pulp orange juice

Lunch Total:  $3.93

lentils .72
1.5 lb rice: .96

6 carrots: .66

1/2 gallon juice:  .99

pretzels@ 6cents/bag of 16:  .60

(the kids requested some snacky item to eat when they feel starved at morning break, so their stomach doesn't growl in the class period before lunch, so the pretzels fit the bill)

 afternoon snack menu: popcorn and carmel corn

Snack Total: $.62

12 oz popcorn kernels:  .35
6 tbsp oil: .18

1/2 cup sugar: .09

Here's Trudy with a half-eaten bowl of kettle corn.  The 12 oz of popcorn made 3 of these huge bowls full, plenty of munching power, really a lot of snack for the price!  We saved 6 ziplock sandwich bags packed full to feed the basketball twins and Rodger before supper.

  

supper menu:  tacos with homemade tortillas, salsa, lettuce, cheese, applesauce

Supper Total: $4.02

hamburger meat: 2.00

1.2 head iceberg lettuce:  .42

4 oz shredded cheese: .56

8 tbsp salsa: .32

21 homemade tortillas: .32

applesauce: .40

Today's Total cost:  $10.12

     The tacos were awesome.  We're not professional tortilla makers, but Emily and Christiana and I had fun making them on the griddle, and they were a bit crunchy, so we ate them more like tostadas, with the shredded lettuce making them beautiful. 

     Christiana has a tortilla press, which Noah found and the kids tightened up the bolts, but flour tortillas must be rolled rather than pressed, so I'll buy some masa and we'll use it next time.  Rolling out tortillas took way too long right at supper time, so, never again, unless I account for the time and start earlier!  Dinner was about an hour late, which encroached on homework time, and so the tortilla project was another lesson.  I must prepare ahead more if I am to keep up on my project without having a rebellion in the ranks.  Homework is not optional, so the gitls must have time to get things done, and trying to do your math on an empty stomach while waiting on supper is not the best way to accomplish it.

    
We are living it and learning.

Day 4 A Challenging Day

     Its Wednesday, and today was a miss-the-bus kind of a day.  Mercy and Christiana win the prize for making it to the bus stop on time.  Everybody is now going to be on a strict showers-before-6:30am rule, and don't try to finish your homework until you are ready to walk out the door to the bus!  We are going to try to come to devotions dressed and looking ready for school, work, etc.
     One challenge for me was that Trudy really wanted to make a cake.  That is a treat, with some pricey ingredients, but I thought, why not, let's see what happens to the budget with a treat.  Well, I found out why treats are for special occasions!  They mess with the budget.  We made it, but to make up for the treat, we are having vegetarian supper.
     The family  has decided to have dessert once a week.  We haven't set on a specific day, but today was this week's day, for sure. I priced out Trudy's cake recipe, and here is the pricetag: 

Buttermilk upside-down cake,

total cost: $1.83

1 3/4 cups flour= .18

1 tsp baking powder= .01

1/2 tsp soda;= .01

1/2 tsp salt= <.01

1/2 cup butter= .40

1 cup sugar= .17

1 tsp vanilla= .02

3/4 cup buttermilk= .15

2 eggs= .18

2/3 cups butter for carmel= .54

1/2 cup brown sugar= .17

     Another challenge today was the hot cereal choice I made to offset the expense of the treat.  Cooked cereal is easy on the budget.  There was a mixed reaction to corn-meal-mush, as we call it; Rodger was excited, as were a couple of kids, some were ok, some thought they couldn't eat it, or weren't that hungry.  But a morning in school on an empty stomach is a bad idea, so Rodger said basically that they had another "think" coming.  I let the kids who didn't want much put one of their spoonfuls into their Dad's bowl, but they all ate up, plus Rodger got enough to really fill himself full.      

     We had the applesauce for breakfast because I couldn't find the lids for the small portion lunch containers.  That actually was fine and went well with the mush.  Also, some of the children, but not all, wanted milk in their cereal, some wanted to drink their milk.  I figured the protein would be good, so we used about half the usual milk, or about 3.5 cups.

     Here's how the day's food plan looks:

breakfast menu:  applesauce, cornmeal mush, tea, milk

Breakfast Total:  $1.49

20 oz cornmeal, cooked with water: .50

sugar, 5 tbsp: .05

4 tsp butter: .08

3 1/2 c milk: .46

sack lunch menu:  beef and noodles, celery with peanut butter, upside down cake

Lunch total: $5.55

cake: 1.83

500 gr. noodles: 1.04

beef roast:  1.80

celery: .70

peanut butter, 3 oz: .18

snack menu: one box of cranberry trail mix granola, divied up 10 ways
Snack total: $.99

Christiana, Noah (with the word BIG freshly painted on his bicepby his sister), and Emily eagerly awaiting one of their favorite meals, broccoli and melted cheese.  Noah once told his teacher that broccoli and cheese was his favorite food.  What?  This is not a fabricated story, I swear it. You never know what kindergardners will say sometimes.

supper menu:  boiled potatoes topped with broccoli and cheese

Supper Total:  $1.94

broccoli: .88

5 lbs potatoes: .50

4 oz shredded cheese: .56

Today's Grand Total cost:  $9.97

We made it.

Day 3 is the first school lunch day

     Breakfast was as usual today, with one new change.  I decided we should have our morning devotional at the dining room table rather than snuggled around in couches and chairs.  There was a general agreement that this would be ok.  Sometimes people would just continue their sleepy dozing during our time together, so hopefully this change will be positive.  Nobody seemed bummed.  Also, I brought tea to the table, which I don't allow on the couches, and sweetened up the deal by letting everybody who was at devotions add sugar to their tea.   Learning takes place better in a learning environment, and a little added motivation never hurt the attitudes, either.
     Another good thing is that we could all start breakfast together, so our morning today felt more organized.  Not so much gathering people and waiting on laggards to get breakfast going.  Starting together and ending together really make things more organized.  And all this with no added effort, only reduced effort.  What a deal, all around. 
     Everybody pitched in and did their chore right after breakfast, and got off to the bus ahead of the curve for this year's averages, so good job and kudos to my kids.

     Guess what happened.... My friend Nola stopped by!  We chatted and drank tea and I was able to slice her some fresh french bread made by Christiana last night, spread with some yummy raspberry jam we made for the market last summer.  Well, shortly after we said good-bye, I drove off to pick up Noah, and forgot to put away that beautiful loaf.  It is now down Gus's gullet.  Grrrr.  Not so happy with him or myself.  I usually check the table and counters for anything a trolling dog might find, but forgot to do it this morning.  I don't have any more bread in the house, so I think I'll make some before violin lessons, and bake it when we get back.

menu: oatmeal squares with milk, tea with milk and sugar

Breakfast Total: $2.02

cold cereal: 1.00

milk: 1.00

6 teaspoons sugar for tea: .02

sack lunch menu:  hoagie rolls with ham and cheese,lettuce wedges, 1/2 banana, sugar cookie

Sack lunch Total:  $4.46

10 4oz french rolls, made by Emily:  .54

8 oz sliced ham:  .75

3 oz gouda cheese: .63

(not everybody likes gouda, so we only dole it out to the appreciative amongst us)

sugar cookies@ .05 ea: .60

(we gave two to each basketball girl for pre-game energy)

lettuce, one head, cut into 10 unequal wedges: .84

5 bananas: 1.10

snack menu:  one loaf french bread=2 slices each, with raspberry jam

Snack total:  $.59

Christiana's homemade bread:  .26

jam, 4 tablespoons@  .03/tbsp:  .12

1 oz cheese for Rodger: .21

supper menu:  beef stew and bread
Supper total:  $2.86
roast beef:  1.80
4 large potatoes: .40
3 large carrots:  .33
1 1/2 loaves fresh french bread: .33

Today's Total bill: $9.93

     It was more challenging for supper with Rodger gone to the twins' basketball games and the rest of us at violin lessons until supper time, and then Sarah needing a ride home from the Auto repair garage.  Proper portions are best doled out and not self-served, if those arriving at the end of the pot of stew wish to have their fair share!

     The stew made 18 cups, so even though some people over-fed themselves, there was still adequate for the stragglers, and they were given an extra slice of bread each to pacify them, since they didn't get any seconds on the stew.

       We found ourselves wanting something for a bedtime snack, because we are so used to helping ourselves, so this project is bringing a new awareness about the "off the record" eating we have been accustomed to.  We didn't snack, except to have a bit of celery which we were cutting up for tomorrow's school lunches.  That gave some small chewing satisfaction, plus talking about wanting a snack helped, and the celery will be accounted for in the price for tomorrow, so it wasn't technically cheating...was it?

      When Sarah, Trudy, and I learned CPR last week, Dr Krueger was one of the convention's speakers.  He spoke about how he had mistakenly believed that all calories are equal, meaning that if you kept your daily intake to a specific number of calories, it didn't matter when you ate them.  But research has not shown that to be true.  Eating a large breakfast and lunch, and then a small dinner and no bedtime snack kept people at a lower weight than the same caloric intake with small or no breakfast, small lunch, then big dinner or dinner and snack.  Those who eat mainly at night pack on more weight. 

     Dr Krueger recommends eating the largest meals early in the day, before 3pm, then a light dinner and no snacking in the evening.  This is why I am instituting soups for supper and spending the most money on school lunches.  We will see how the troops deal with this new way of eating.  So far, ok, but 3 days isn't much of a sampling.

    

Day 2: President's Day and everybody is at home

     Today took some effort.  I have to keep within a budget for my project, but the point of the whole thing is not to make the family feel like they are going to become deprived of everything good.  And not to deprive them of everything good, or of a balanced diet.  I'm trying to scrimp and save without it feeling like we are scrimpimg and saving.
     This morning started with a late breakfast and I found that it will be important for me to measure out the bowls of cereal ahead of time. It keeps the kids from accusing others of taking more than their fair share, or from actually taking more than their fair share.
     I also did lots more calculations such as prices of:  a teaspoon of baking soda ($.01), a tablespoon of yeast ($.07), a teaspoon of butter ($.02) and other amazingly small calculations.  Who thinks about how much they are spending when they are pouring a dolop of oil into the pan before they fry the meat?  I do, that's who.  And now I know---3 cents is the pricetag for every tablespoon I pour in there.
     Pennies do add up when everybody gets only 100 of the little coppers each to put together a whole day of feasting.  Here is today's feast and total costs:

menu: cold cereal

Breakfast total: $2.00

half gallon 1% milk:  1.00

one box life cereal: 1.00

menu: beef and vegetable soup with jalapeno bagels and bananas 

lunch total: $4.67

ground beef: 2.00
1 large onion: .10

1 lb. cabbage: .48

1 package bagels: .99

(prorated by size of the family member)

 yesterday's leftover stew, already accounted for in last night's totals, about 3 cups:  no charge

1/2 banana each=5 bananas@ .22 ea:  1.10

snack:  pretzels in a ziplock bag: .48

(8 bags of 16 pretzels, which cost only 6 cents apiece)

menu:  Lentil stew, bagels, and canned peaches 

supper total: $2.82

1 lb. red chief lentils:  .68

2 large onions:  .20

1 huge potato: .11

1 small can tomato sauce:  .25

5 bagels: .83

1.5 qts home canned peaches:  .75

Daily grand total:  $9.97

Hooray!

THE BEGINNING: Valentine's Day is our First 10 Dollar Day!

     An important aspect of the 10for10for10 project at Boothieville, (boothyville) is not making it so complicated that it isn't do-able. I want to do this thing!

     First step:  getting myself a little journal for notes and prices and calculations.  Rodger gave me a little orange 4x6 notebook which is just perfect, and it's orangeness has improved its value, already making it recognizable and "findable."

     Sarah and I did a few precalculations, not to be confused with pre-calculus. Using my store receipts, we calculated individual and useful prices.  For instance: I've just bought a 50# bag of flour for $13.67.  But since I'll be using this over many days, I will only charge the family as it is used rather than when it is purchased. 

     Per pound, the flour is about 28 cents, but that is a useless number to me.  I don't think about flour by the pound, so we had to come up with a better system, or we'll be killing ourselves trying to weigh everything out.  We measured and weighed a cup of flour, because that is how we'll use the flour---by the cup.  It costs about 9.5 cents, but we decided to always round up, so, flour: $.10/cup.

     Rounding up just felt more honest.  Rounding down might be fudging just a little bit, so if I round up instead, in all my little calculations, I might not be spending quite a dollar when my figures say I am, but it will be close, and I won't feel like a cheater.

     One more thing about the costs of food items...if it is at the grocery store and I can purchase it, just like any other customer in town, then it is a valid price.  We won't use any freebies or gifts to bolster our food without cost.  If we use gifted stuff then we will calculate using the normal market pricing.  Food we canned ourselves will be calculated according to the price of all ingredients from the orchard or fruitstand, plus sugar or pectin, etc.

       expenditures today (so far) follow:

Cold cereal Breakfast TOTAL: $2.00
one box Life cereal, 15 oz:  $1.00 (that's right folks, love Albertsons sales)

half gallon milk:  $1.00

Chef Salad Lunch TOTAL: $5.58
1 head romaine:  $.42

1 head iceberg lettuce:  $.84

1/2 lb ham:  $.75

1 dozen eggs:  $.99

8 oz shredded cheese, $1.10

1/2 gallon tropicana orange juice:  $.99

3.5 oz salad dressing: $.22

2 carrots:  $.22

Its 8pm, and we're back from our church homegroup now, so here is what we did for the potluck.  I decided to keep within the budget anyway and just not mention it, and take enough to feed our family, plus extra mouths. 

     Here is what I came up with and it worked!  Stew!  And guess what---everybody liked it, and the adults all had at least 2 bowls of the stew.  Simplicity isn't always bad.  It was a huge stew, far more than enough for one meal, and after serving up over 25 full bowls, we still brought home enough for anybody who gets hungry at bedtime.

Beef Stew Supper total: $2.42
8 lbs (before peeling) of potatoes @ .10/lb:  $.80

2 large onions:  $.20

2 large carrots:  $.22

a bit of round roast, cut up into small cubes:  $1.22

(ok, I didn't charge for the salt, but at .17/lb, the cost of a teaspoon of salt was so negligible that I couldn't bear to round it up to a penny)

Grand totals for today, breakfast 2.00, lunch 5.58, supper, 2.42

Daily total=$10.00 exactly,

and I didn't even have to doctor the numbers. Awesome.