Day 61 I stay in budget but wish I thought ahead more...

 Today I was gone from home a lot.  It was another field trip day.  We had fun.  I wish I had planned ahead for my meals, though. 

The children learn that firefighters eat and sleep at the firehouse for 48 hours at a time.

 

Firefighters exercise while on duty.  The children see their workout room.

These firefighters also do search and rescue, so they have more "toys" than the other firehouses in town.  The children get to climb on the firetruck.

The children race to the fire training tower, and are allowed to go up inside the smoky smelling building.   Exciting.

Along the way, I spoke another mom who was  chaperoning the trip about her meal planning.  She plans ahead at least a week.  Another mom plans ahead for a month!  Wow, I'm impressed.  I've never done that.  This ten for ten for ten project is the most meal planning I've ever done in my life.  That's my confessional.

Last weekend I did take a poll of the other Coug moms about meal preparation.  All but one around our table don't plan ahead.  They just check around to see what they have, and create something on the day of the meal.  I'm with that group.  I guess I'm part of the crowd. 

However, I will say that planning ahead has the value of reducing stressful decisionmaking about meals when hungry or at the last minute.  Reducing stress has been helpful around here.  Just not today...

Here is my last minute meal today:

Notice the whole wheat bread.  Healthy.  And the leafy greens...uh huh, uh, huh. Cauliflower with cheese, a favorite.  Eggs, good protein. 

Not seen is a bit of chocolate milk which didn't get finished the other day.  I had accounted for it as a snack, so it was paid for previously, but people forgot to drink it, so I doled it out tonight, much to everybody's delight.

Noah begged for me to take a picture of his plate.  He was proud of how he had arranged his food.  The salad was sans dressing tonight.  Rabbit food.

breakfast:  frosted flakes and milk

Cost:  $1.75

half gallon milk (with coupon):  .75

one 16 oz box tony the tiger:  1.00

sack lunches:  cheese sandwiches, 2 each person, carrot sticks, lettuce

Cost:  $2.54

1 1/2 loaves my bread:  .65

8 oz cheddar cheese sliced thinly:  .75

23 oz carrots, sliced:  .39

3 heads (one package) romaine:  .79

snack:  bread with butter or peanut butter

Cost:  $.41

1//2 loaf my bread:  .22

1/2 cube butter:  .13

1 oz peanut butter:  .06

supper menu:  scrambled eggs and cheese, cauliflower and cheese, romaine, and toast.   Chocolate milk for dessert, half a cup each.

Cost:  $4.06

cauliflower, two large heads @ .50/head:  1.00

8 oz cheddar cheese, grated, for the eggs and cauliflower:  .75

14 eggs, scrambled:  .79

lettuce:  .53

one loaf  store bought whole wheat bread for toast:  .99

chocolate milk, about 1 1/2 quarts, paid for 3 days ago

additional snack:  chocolate easter eggs from the mark-down bin

Cost:  $.99

yum...

Today's total cost:  $9.76

And it was healthy (and chocolately)

One dollar boxes of cereal? Here's proof you can have it, too.

This great deal for dollar boxes of cereals or granola bars or instant oatmeal or pancake mix has no limits.  If you purchase in multiples of 5 they cost a dollar. 

One of the grocery managers stopped me along the aisle and made sure I saw the special.  He knows I purchase a lot of cereal.  This might be the deal of the year.  I purchase about 60 boxes at a time.  That may seem like overkill to you, but would only be 2 months of breakfasts for my family.

If you have Albertsons grocery stores near you, this is the week to shop there! 

Day 60, and I can't get my mind off beef

Because of my beef craving, I took a look at Wray's for any cheap meat they might have.  They mark down their close-dated meats every morning, which is my only chance for inexpensive beef.  Noah went with me after kindergarten.  He doesn't mind going to grocery stores, especially since they have free cookies for kids.

There it was...the cut of meat I was waiting for.  At a price we could afford, with some help from my slush fund, that is.

  petite sirloin steaks, all for $2.77.  I'm liking it...

Later, in my fridge, I found a box of strawberries I had forgotten to use up for our fancy dinner last week. It was in a lower drawer.  Amazingly, they had not gone bad.  So I added them to this dinner, which made the room smell sweet and seem really special. 

We had homemade bread and au jus to complement the meat, and a green salad with the sliced strawberries.  I also heated up the remainder of last night's soup for anyone who needed more food.

The strawberries were like fruit/dessert, because we sweetened them.

The loaf was huge, so the slices were generous.

The steaks were small, but they were steak...most enjoyable.

Au Jus is one of my favorite sides to a beef steak meal.  Doesn't that look healthy and fresh?

Today's breakfast:  cold cereal and milk

Cost:  $2.00

frosted flakes or raisin bran, 10 servings:  1.00

half gallon milk:  1.00

sack lunches:  peanut butter and jam sandwiches, romaine lettuce, raisins

Cost:  $2.89

2 loaves my fresh enriched bread:  .86

1/2 jar peanut butter:  .50

1 cup jam:  .50

2 heads romaine:  .53

1/2 ounce each person, raisins:  .50

snack:  1 loaf bread, sliced (boring)

Cost:  $.43

dinner menu:  steak, ju jus, romaine salad, strawberries, leftover soup

Cost:  $6.05

petite sirloin steaks:  2.77

au jus mix:  .39

3 heads romaine:  .79

1 lb strawberries:  1.25

beef soup, leftover:  n/c

1 loaf homemade bread:  .43

2 tbsp sugar for strawberries:  .02

5 oz dressing @ .03/oz:  .15

parmesan 2 oz:  .25

Today's total:  11.37 

 I'm over by 1.37, but I had counted on this.  Worth every penny.  Slush fund money will pay for the overage.

Day 59, a Tuesday with non-stop events

Noah and I stopped by Fiesta foods on the way home from kindergarten and before violin lessons.  There were some good deals.  I love cheap milk. 

And it has been too long since we had broccoli, so Noah picked out some of his favorite "trees".

I was planning to purchase some of the head lettuce you see here, but the romaine below was even better.

Noah weighed several packages. They came in 3-packs, so it was 3/$.79.  He loves to use the scale. 

We found a large variation in weights, and chose only romaine packages that weighed over 2 pounds.  The iceberg heads were small and weighed 1 pound or less.  We left them at the store...

foxy...

And tasty.  This is the best, sweetest romaine we've had all year. 

I made a soup which could simmer while we were away at lessons.  I also made some bread dough, but forgot to put in yeast, so we substituted crackers for supper.  Kate added the yeast later, and we baked the bread in the late evening, after I got home from my teaching.

Our daily food:

   breakfast:  cold cereal and milk

Cost:  $2.00

one box of cereal:  1.00

half gallon of milk:  1.00

lunch:  leftover beef gravy and rice, cap'n crunch, OJ

Cost:  $2.71

4 cups brown rice:  .92

beef and gravy, leftover:  paid already

half gallon orange juice:  .99

snack:  treats from WinCo, chocolate raisins, plus chocolate milk

Cost:  $2.47

chocolate raisins, bulk:  1.48

half gallon chocolate milk:  .99 (on special)

supper menu:  beef soup/hash, crackers, romaine leaves

Cost:  $2.87

beef strips, 1 lb:  1.57

1/4 cup beef soup base:  .50

1/2 oz minced onion, dehydrated:  .10

leftover pinto beans from the weekend, paid

sample pack lentils from Pullman:  free

1/3 of the rice from lunch, accounted for above

3 oz carrots from leftover lunch:  n/c alread paid

5 oz dried hash browns:  .32

crackers, 1 1/2 sleeves:  .38

1 romaine heart:  .27

Today's total:  $10.32  almost made it.  I'll have to borrow .32 from "the fund."

Sorry about the lack of pictures of the hash.  I left early from supper to teach a class, and missed a chance for pictures.

Day 60 must be the most beautiful day of the year! Here are some pictures...

I just had to pull out the camera and get some shots, so I can enjoy the blossoms throughout the year.  Hope you enjoy the them, too...

The apricots are done blooming, and are leafing out.  I managed to get the peak in the background.

here's a view of Jim's house from the cots

This Rainier cherry tree was later than the rest last year, so we had cherries at the market an extra week.

Smudge pots line the end row.

The chimney has a cover.

That will soon be a bunch of cherries.  Beautiful blooms are everywhere today.

the mudhole...

These pink blossoms are from the Marena peaches.

Astoundingly beautiful and delicate.

The orchard is newly mown.

The wildflowers on the mountain are in full bloom.  Gus is having the time of his life out chasing scents at top speed.  He put in many miles while I was hiking from flower to flower.

He's on the prowl.

Native wild phlox adorns the hills this week.

Yarrow

Phlox up close...

We heat our house with wood from pruning the orchards.  It sits out for a year to dry.

This is a pretty big hole.  I don't know what lives here, or lived here last year.  It isn't big enough for a coyote, but is too big for sage rats.  Maybe the dogs enlarged it while trying to dig out the critter.  Or maybe a grey squirrel?  I'm not alone on the mountain...

these bushes make a splash of color.  They smell kind of like tic tacs.

This area of the orchard was  peaches last year.  Now baby trees.  What a beautiful scene.  The irrigation ditch is where I used to ride my horse for miles as a girl.  It was against the law for motorcycles to travel on the ditchbank, so we were safe from the bothersome neighborhood boys. 

The neighbor's farm in the distance is where I used to dream of living when I grew up.  The house doesn't fit 12 kids, though, so, Oh well...

Apple blossoms from the Fuji's.

This is the same tree from an earlier post.  Things are popping to life!

It is hard to get tired of such beauty.  These will be Golden Delicious apples.

And I love the new shiny leaves.

More of the delicate pink apple blossoms.

Pear blossoms are white, and are also out  in force today.

They are all wide open, just finishing up the bloom.

looking up toward the sun...

The earliest cherry block, with the mountain in the distance.  Being on the hill makes these trees ripen about a week ahead of the pack.

This is the very tree that started and ended my career as a professional picker... at age 14.  I was going to get rich picking cherries, so my best friend and I worked together.

To make any real money picking, you have to be good at setting ladders.  These trees are on the side of a deep draw, and it is not easy to get good ladder sets.  We made money, but we didn't get rich.

An important comodity in the orchard.  On wheels, as you see.  Truly a port-a-potty.

"The ditch," where the kids love to stage stick-floating races, just like we used to.

This is the big canal.  We didn't ride our horses much on the canal bank.  The horses didn't like the gravel.

Each fruit ranch has a water box which measures the amount of water usage from the canal. 

What is this?  Salvador put these cones in each section so the bees wouldn't drown in the water that collects in the irrigation system.  Each cone is a "bee ladder."  The bees are swarming around this place, their favorite watering hole.  If you look carefully you can see the bees using them...  Tricky!  

I couldn't get a shot of the bees on the apple blossoms, but when they were working in the dandelions, they were totally unaware of the camera, which was only an inch away.

These bees are happy and focussed.

Work, work, work, collecting pollen.

These pictures have nothing to do with my project, but they have a lot to do with my mood!  A good mood is a good thing.