Inching Along Towards …..

The Gift Card Dilemma Resolved and February Wrap Up

I know we aren’t actually at the end of this, the shortest month of the year, but I’m calling it good and wrapping up today, the 26^th.  I know I won’t be spending anything between now and Tuesday.

My final grocery shop of the week was $12.05.  H had purchased milk mid-week $5.69 for a total of $17.74. 

I started the month like this:

And ended it like this:

So, if you’ve been following my ramblings, you know that I scored the $10 gift card in January from my favorite grocery store when I purchased some cleaning items. Since then I have been trying to decide how to use this. Is it an addition to my weekly $20, bumping a week to $30?   Or is it a substitution for $10 of my regular allotted $20?

Well, after perusing the Fareway ad for next week, I’m doing a “planned overage” and going to use the gift card plus all of my $20 for Week 1 of March. After 8 weeks of coming in under $20, it seems like a Yikes! moment to actually do more than that.

I have started to really think creatively about how to avoided letting my $20 get away from me. I knew that we needed to “restock” our rolled oats.  But a box of Quaker Oats is over $5 at Fareway.  As I was scanning a gas receipt into Fetch, I realized that I had enough points for an Amazon gift card and so, jumping over to Amazon, I was able to buy a huge package of rolled oats for about the same price as the grocery store with no cash out of pocket.  The rest of the gift card I used to get some of my immune support supplement, which I would need to buy in about a week anyway.  I ended up paying only $6.69 out of pocket for that instead of my usual $15-something. So excited. 

So, did this bring an end to my no-buy string of 19 days?  After some thought, I’m gonna say no.  What breaks a no-buy string is the purchase of unnecessary items.  Trust me, staying healthy during tax season is necessary. 

What brought me to the end of my no-buy run was on Day 20, when I picked up a couple of holiday door decorations for my office.  Totally unnecessary and I busted my string for $2.68. How sad is that?  Plus – you know, it was Dollar Tree where everything comes from China.  At this point I was in whole hog and ended up some pink curing salt so that I can brine a beef brisket for St. Patrick’s day (unnecessary, but uses a brisket from my freezer), fragrance oils for a candle making project (unnecessary, but uses up some candle making supplies that have been hanging out), shrink sleeves for easter eggs ( unnecessary) and a home blood pressure monitor.  I’m not sure how to categorize the BP monitor, but I jus got put on BP meds so I wanted to be able to track it without having to run to the doctor’s office.

So how did the month end up spending wise?

Well, I think I mentioned in an earlier post the birthday spending $34, moisturizer $32, Ipad battery $28, 1 used book $6 and my $2 kitchen brush (which I don’t like because the handle is too short).

Since that post – I’ve spent:

Necessary – animal feed $95, a massage $45, and zinc supplements $7, BP monitor $44 = total of $191

Unnecessary –  door decor $3, easter egg sleeves $21, fragrance oils $17, pink salt $10 = total of $51

Total non-grocery spending for February:  $344.

Well crap!  Even when it doesn’t feel like I’m buying much, it really starts to add up.  However, of that total, I’m going to say that $90 was unnecessary.  Still too much, but that just gives me a goal for next month.  Also, I still need to get my passport renewed but will eventually have to get it done if I want to go on my trip in September. 

My January unnecessary spending totaled $141, so at $90, I’m down 36%.  I think that’s a positive result! 

I’m still doing a good job “eating down” the freezer and pantry but its slow going.  With just the two of us and a firm commitment to waste as little as possible, it takes a while to make progress.  But I will say that the fridge is getting pretty bare, I’m being very thoughtful about what I buy so I don’t have vegetables going to waste and stretching what I have into multiple meals.

For example, I made some mashed potatoes from some aging potatoes in my pantry, stirred in some leftover stuffing (boxed) from dinner earlier in the week and topped up a pretty darn nice shepherd’s pie. It wasn’t pretty or elegant, but very tasty!

But with two of us, its going to last at least 3 more days.

I’ll also be using up more aging potatoes to make scalloped potatoes and hot dogs which will probably see us through the rest of the week. (No pic, I haven’t made it yet) The rest of the potatoes will go back in the ground next month, hopefully to yield a fall crop for us over next winter. I’m going to store them downstairs next time (I think my pantry is too warm).

This actually was a very rambling post, so I’ll call it at an end for now.

Have a fantastic week!

~ Carol

Lent starts tomorrow

During the Christian season of Lent, we observe 40 days of penance and prayer.  Typically this is through giving up or abstaining from something (kids usually give up candy). It is also a time of prayer and reflection as we listen to and meditate on the life of Christ leading up to his passion and crucifixion. This begins on Ash Wednesday, where we recognize our mortality with the receiving of ashes on the forehead. The priest reminds us “Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return” with ashes that were prepared by burning the prior year’s Palm Sunday palms.

In addition to my usual commitment to abstain from meat on Fridays in Lent, I often try something to DO as opposed to something given up.  This year, my plan is to read only spiritual/religious books for the next 40 days.

My beginning selections are:

Three are biographies:  Saint Therese of Lixeux, Saint Francis of Assisi and Mother Angelica.

The other three books are books with daily readings, which I will look at each day and use for my daily reflections. 

For those of you who do not observe Lent, I promise I will not go all preachy on you, but will return to my standard fare for my blog posts.  Mostly, this is a form of self-accountability for myself as once I’ve said it, I’ve kind of put myself out there.

Throughout Lent, my commitment to the $20 grocery budget will continue as there is nothing special for me regarding diet.  I currently have several fishy things in the freezer so will be fine for quite a while.

I did make another batch of thumbprint cookies, trying out some different fillings.  I was able to use up the rest of the orange marmalade as planning, but also tried red pepper jelly and chocolate frosting.  H and I both found the pepper jelly to be okay, but not necessary something that would be a “ooh make those again” review.  The chocolate frosting filled cookies were strangely bland.  So there were another do not repeat.

We need to cut back more on our milk consumption.  I ended up buying a gallon of milk midweek last week and H picked up more at the store this morning. That means we went through a gallon of milk in 5 days.  At over $5 a gallon, that’s a quarter of my weekly budget! 

~Carol

Made budget

Well, my Friday trip to the grocery store went as planned. I managed to stay on budget by sticking to my list. As you will recall, I needed to spend less than $14.41 to stay on budget. Well, I did better than that! My Friday shop was $10.84.

My list actually had just one box of cereal on it, but there was a special, so I was able to buy 2. Yay!

If you look closely, you can see that I bought only house brands. These are usually significantly cheaper. On occasion, out of taste preference, I will buy a preferred brand. But for things like the cream of celery soup, that will go into a casserole, I’m good with the less expensive option. The same can of soup in the brand name would cost half again as much or about $.50 more per can.

So my total spend on groceries for this week was $16.43.

Other spending was feed for the cows $95. Vitamin D for H $7.

Still no unnecessary spends. I’m on day 11 of a no spend string.

Since I’m now working Saturday mornings, my regular schedule is kind of turn on its head. I need to do more on Sunday to make up for my regular Saturday morning chores. That includes my regular baking.

This kind of sets the tone for the next two months.

Have a great week!

~Carol

Why no bread and butter?

If you’re keeping an eye on my grocery shopping pix, you may have wondered about some of items that appear to be missing.  Where’s the butter?  Does she eat bread?  Is she vegetarian?

No, I’m not a vegetarian – I raised my own beef this year and because it is in my freezer, the only meat that you might see me buy in the future is pork (bacon, chops, etc) and chicken. Since I have a tendency to buy meat and fish on sale, I currently have an accumulation of both in my freezer.  It will be some time before I need to buy pork, chicken or fish.  The exception might be canned tuna, which we eat frequently.

Bread, I make from scratch.  I also stock up on flour from time to time, keeping it in five-gallon buckets in my pantry.  H loves homemade bread, so I bake two loaves or more per week.  I also buy yeast in bulk.  I buy it in one pound vacu-sealed  blocks that I keep in the freezer, then the fridge.  If you like to bake bread, try to get away from those little packets. They are so expensive. 

What about butter?  Well, last fall when I saw that butter was heading the way of everything else pricewise, I stocked up.  Don’t be shocked, but I sprang for twenty pounds and tossed it all in my chest freezer.  We go through about a pound a week unless I’m doing heavy baking, so that should keep us for a while.

My biggest current priority was to use up random stuff from the fridge and pantry.  So, this week, while H was supposed to be on his trip (he came back early), I was supposed to be eating up these items:

Since H arrived back, my eat up random stuff plant has headed out the window, but here’s what I managed to use up so far:

The corn tortillas became tortilla chips and I ate those for dinner while H was away (you can eat like that when you are by yourself). I baked up the muffin mix and added the last of the craisins to the batter.  The Bisquick was used to make actual biscuits that were served with the split pea soup I made last weekend. The canned goods got put back into pantry but I’m still going to use up the noodles somehow.  The fudge is a work in progress.

Out of the fridge, we used up an avocado, tomato, cucumber, bag salad, some celery, pickled green beans, deli salami and a package of bacon. I’m still working on an open jar of peaches, the celery, the marmalade and some fried rice that I pulled from the freezer.  There’s a big jar of olives at the back of the fridge that I need to get to work on – maybe I’ll try making an olive spread for sandwiches. I also want to use the jar of French onion dip that I accidentally popped the lid on.

In other happenings, its snowing here today.  About 3 inches since I got to work. I think its my fault as I was mentioning that our winter had been pretty mild to a few people recently.

And when your spouse is away and you to vacuum under the chair cushions at 4:30 in the morning, this is what you find:

DD gave us this chair and it’s been in my living room for probably a year.  I didn’t really think about vacuuming it until now.  Can anyone guess what character that Pop is? 

A trip to the dentist gave me a filling replacement to look forward to.  I actually thought that I had cracked my tooth, but she said no, its just a chipped off section of filling.  If I can stand the zinging until after tax season is over, she’ll replace the filling in April.  I’ll put that expense in my April budget since I know insurance won’t cover it all.

I have gone 13 days without spending any money (except the groceries) and I’ve stayed on budget with the groceries each week since January.  It was perilously close last week at $19.22. I did pick up milk at the quick mart when I gassed up my car on the way home.  $5.69 for a gallon of milk which does come out of this week’s $20.  So I have $14.41 left to spend on my regular Friday shop.

~Carol

Who knew? And a two week recap

So, I thought I needed a can of refried beans for this really great tortilla casserole I have made a couple of times.  Let me know if you want me to post the recipe.  Anyhoo, I was doing my regular grocery shopping on Friday the fifth and standing in front of the refried beans.  $2.19 for a name brand was the cheapest because every single can of the 98 cent house brand was gone from the shelf. Every. Single. Can.  Yes, I did buy a can because I wanted to make the recipe to freeze for H to take on his road trip, but when I got home, I looked up how to make refried beans.  (Of course I later discovered that I already had some in the fridge.  I could have skipped buying that can of beans! Argh.)

All the recipes use canned beans, so that doesn’t help me much.  Luckily, I have a pressure canner, so I can buy dried beans and can them up myself.  I was already planning to can up some black beans, so I can do pinto beans (the traditional refried beans bean) too.

My grocery shop on 2/3 looked like this:

And totaled $17.06. Fridge is starting to be rather bare. 

As of today (2/11), what’s left from that first shop of February?  Down to half a gallon of milk and since H just left on his trip and I don’t use much, that will last me until my next shop on 2/17.  The can of refried beans is now in the pantry.  I still have the corn tortillas and the bag salad will be eaten for dinner tonight with part of the cucumber and the last of the tomato.

Gone is the cream of celery soup which went into the casserole I made for H. I also used up some bananas from the previous week.

So why did I go shopping on the tenth if most of the stuff from the third was still there? One, I only shop once a week and that’s on Friday so it was my day to go.  Two, there were a couple of things that I needed and another that was on sale which replenished that pantry item.

My 2/10 shopping trip was perilously close to the $20 mark – $19.22 and I didn’t even get milk. 

The most expensive thing was string cheese, which I take to work in my lunch.  A package of 24 was $9 (ouch), but that means I’m set for a month.  The bag of apples has 10 in it and I still had three from the last bag, so that’s another 2 weeks in lunches. And I finally got my avocado!

If my shops look boringly similar, it’s because they are.  When the plan is to eat down the freezer and pantry, very few other items are needed.  You may wonder how long this will last.  I’ll tell you, it may take a while.

So I did buy a few things, kind of busting my no buy plan. 

A new battery for my Ipad  – necessary because the damn thing died and I really don’t want to buy a new tablet. $27.

Mailed $10 to my nephew for his birthday and bought my grandson’s birthday gift using my AX points, so only $4 out of pocket.  I tucked another $20 into his card and he was happy.  I put these in the necessary column.

I bought 2 bottles of my favorite moisturizer because they were buy 1, get one 50% off, plus I had a coupon that added $5 to my Walgreen’s cash if I spent $15 before 2/5.  I had just opened my last bottle and even though I’m set up to get an autoship through Amazon (which I cancelled), it saved me at least $10 on the two bottles.  Plus, I have $11 to use next time I’m at Walgreens.  The total there was $32 and I walked out of the store without looking at anything else.  The moisturizer should last me about 4-6 months. 

In a turnabout, I actually ordered Chicken Scratch from Amazon because it was cheaper than making a special trip to the farm store.  Gas prices make a 30 mile round trip expensive.  I could go on my lunch, but the lines are always long there at lunch time.  Lastly, I find the farm store a very tempting place and might get sucked into buying things I don’t need.  So, $16 for the girls instead of about $30 including gas.

Dropped into to the dollar store and picked up a new kitchen brush for the sink.  Umm and no, it wasn’t a dollar, it was $2.50.  Probably still cheaper than the grocery store and I’m avoiding Walmart like the plague. I have discovered that I don’t really like it as the handle is shorter than the previous brush. I’ll try to remember that for next time.

The only thing that I would consider unnecessary would be the moisturizer because I still have some, but I did hit that good sale and used the coupon (sheer rationalization, I know).

Crap! And I ordered a used book on Amazon on Lord Woolton called Eggs or Anarchy.  With shipping it was $6, so I grabbed it. 

All the above purchases were made 1/30 – 2/4 and none were made this past week.  Yay! That’s it.  Total spending for two weeks (not including the grocery budget) $117.50.  But I’m going to say that $38 of that was “unnecessary”.

Last post I said I was going to try to regrow my celery in some water. Look at it now!

Nothing else exciting and interesting to report this week. It should be quiet with H away from the house.

Have a good one.

~Carol

Fridge clean out

H is busy getting ready for his trip. So my job is to stay out of the way.

Since I wanted a little look see in the fridge anyway, I decided to do a clear up. Sadly, I found several items that needed pitching, some on the gross side. I didn’t take a before picture because frankly, it was embarrassing. But here’s how it looks after I was done

Now I know what’s in there and what really needs to be used up.

A bunch of celery became this:

Which I will take in my lunches this week. Sadly, a bunch of carrots got tossed or they would have received a similar treatment.

I also found some refried beans to use in my recipe (more on that in my weekly grocery post). I was also able to use up a red pepper that was getting soft in the tortilla casserole that we will have for Sunday lunch (I’ll freeze the rest for H’s road trip)

After I chopped up the celery, I was left with this end piece. I have heard that you can regrow from this. Has anyone tried this? Do I start it in water or just tuck it in a pot with dirt? I’m going to try in water and see what happens.

I also found some thyme which looked a little dried out so I’ll let that dry out on my counter since the humidity in the house is very low.

So this week, I need to find a way to use up the following:

a jar of french onion dip – it was new, but I didn’t realize it and I popped the seal when I opened it to look inside

a jar of anchovies – hopefully H will eat this up, otherwise they will have to disappear into a casserole or sauce

a couple of tablespoons of red curry paste

some capers in an open jar

some fresh mozzarella that is coming up on it best by date.

a jar of red pepper jelly – do you suppose I could put this in thumbprint cookies?

a quarter of a jar of orange marmalade – this will definitely go into thumbprint cookies

2 bananas – banana bread or waffles

ginger root – peeled and grated for the freezer

10 corn tortillas – will be fried into chips

So that’s my morning. Hope yours is going well too!

~Carol

February Goals

Well, I wouldn’t call January a bust, but I didn’t meet several of my goals. I did manage not to exercise, so I’ve got that going for me 😊

I think we did rather well with the $20 grocery budget so we’ll keep going with that.

I’m going to keep going with no buy/spend. I’ve already mentioned a few unavoidable expenses this month – cat’s thyroid test and meds, renew my passport, H’s trip (he finally decided). Only one grandkid birthday requiring a gift and I think I’m good. 

Diet? – I’m going to keep working on eating down freezer and pantry.  I’ll try to avoid sweets but I don’t see going very restrictive these next couple of months.  Tax season tends to equal carb season.

Exercise – If the weather improves (warmer, less wind) then I might go out and stretch my legs at lunchtime but I’m making no promises.

Reading – If I can finish one non-fiction book this month, I’ll be happy. Our public library does a very nice “handpicked” service where I can log in and tell them what I generally like and they make selections and I just pick up the box of 2 – 5 books instead of meandering through the library, but I’ll take a break from that for the next couple of months. I always feel like I have to get them read before they are due, so I won’t participate in that again until May. Jacy at the library here does any amazing job of selecting my books!  If I need reading material, I have a whole stash of old cozy mysteries in my closet to read – no due date on those.

Decluttering – probably not going to happen until after tax season. I’ll try to toss the random item as I encounter it, but no focused clear outs for the next several weeks.  I could get a bug up my butt and do one, but I doubt it. Usually, this time of year I focus on not letting the new clutter pile up while H manages the rest of the household chores.  He even does the laundry and bakes bread!

I think that’s enough on goals or expectations for the month. I think most are doable, plus February is a short month!  77 days until the “end” of tax season! Ha ha, it never really ends because of all the other business, estate and non-profit returns have their own deadlines and lots of people extend past April 15 until October. But the pressure will be less.

Sorry no pix. Have a great weekend!

~ Carol

My Five Seasons

To start, Happy Birthday to my son!  He’s forty today.  I’m not sure how that happened.  Just brought him home from the hospital a few days ago (or so its seems).  It also means that I’m….never mind.

As the title of this entry states, I recognize five seasons – spring, summer, fall, winter and tax. Well, tax season has officially started.  I know this because my sleep is disrupted by weird dreams and a brain that won’t shut off.  Sunday night I dreamt that a friend and I had inherited a ski lodge but couldn’t decide what to do with it. Weird.

This morning I’m up at 3am writing this!  Plus, the minute the cat thinks I’m awake, (don’t know if my breathing changes or what) she’s after me to get up and fix breakfast.  On principle, I refuse to open the kitchen until 5 am, so I’ll be getting the stink eye for a couple of hours. She and I aren’t getting along too well lately as she has taken to running off when I want to give her her meds.   I refuse to give chase. She needs to have her thyroid checked before they will refill her prescription again and they need her to have taken all of her doses for at least a week before they can test her. 

As I was lying in bed, random thought generator spewing out stuff, I went over what is in the fridge that really must be used up this week.

1. I have several old carrots that have migrated to the bottom of the veg bin.  I’ll share those with the cows this morning since most are too small to do anything with.
2. I have some celery that is getting limp.  I’ll cut that up and put it in some water to revive it and take it in my lunches with peanut butter or cream cheese
3. Cream cheese that has been portioned to use in my thumbprint cooky recipe – bake thumbprint cookies on Saturday
4. A steak that didn’t get cooked up on Sunday.  That is an expensive piece of meat, so MUST NOT let this go to waste.
5. Bag salad from Sunday that didn’t get eaten
6. 1 serving of egg drop soup, the last of the Chinese takeout – in my lunch
7. Cheese pizza from Sunday dinner that the grandkids didn’t eat – in my lunch
8. Part of a pork chop – probably in my lunch
9. 5 water glassed eggs that I pulled out of the brine.  I either need to use them in peanut butter cookies or mix them with fresh eggs for a scramble.
10. Butter cream frosting – could make some sugar cookies and frost them.

The main problem with baking to use up fridge ingredients right now is that on top of the high price of eggs, butter is also high. Everything that I bake would probably have to be frozen (we’re still working on birthday cake from my birthday) and cookies are usually the way to go there.

In the pantry I really need to use up the last of the store bought cookies as they are getting rather dry and stale. I packed a few in my lunch yesterday and dunked them in my tea. I tossed some pumpkin seeds that I had roasted.  They had gone off.  I’ll keep them in the freezer in the future. We’re almost out of potato chips, so I’m trying to think up a homemade substitute for those.  H like to take them in his lunch.  I find that after the first day the bag is open, they get kind of stale and greasy tasting. I do have lots of potatoes, so maybe I’ll play with that this weekend (if my brain hasn’t come up with a hundred other things to do instead).

See – my brain took me rambling off topic.  What does tax season do to me?  Well, I work 48 – 50 hours a week instead of the regular 40.  I work Saturday mornings which is ok since H works every other Saturday morning anyway.  But since I get home later (plunged back into driving home in the dark), my projects at home tend to be neglected for 10 weeks. Strangely, when I get up at 3 am H likes to keep sleeping, so I can’t do anything that makes noise.  I can read or work on a craft project or write a blog entry, but not much else. I can manage to brew coffee without waking him, but I do have a tendency to make a bit of a clatter if I rummage around in the kitchen too long.  If I were here alone, I’d be running the vacuum and the washing machine and baking, mixer running, oven door opening and closing, etc.

At the other end of the day I sometimes go to bed right after dinner, which leaves poor H in the living room watching Youtube videos on his tablet with his earphones. So one of us tiptoes around early and the other late. 

Sorry no pictures today, but maybe tomorrow.  It’s the start of a new month tomorrow.  Where the heck did January go?

Happy Birthday J1!!

~ Carol

No Buy/Spend January

I realized this morning that I hadn’t recapped how my decision to “buy nothing” in January went. Since H doesn’t participate in this activity, I can only report on my own purchases. So, I consider it a “buy” when it is something other than what is included in my $20 grocery shop each week.  So here’s the report.

Other necessity items purchased:

Cat food, litter & meds $101

Feed for cows & chickens $132

3 birthday gifts $88

Passport photo $18

Driver’s license renewal $35

Tickets to grandson’s swim meets: $20

Non-necessity buys:

Tin pans for freezing meals for H’s hunting trip (50) $12

PDF crochet patterns $5

AAA renewal $107 – wasn’t sure whether to consider this a necessity or not.

Laundry soap & dishwasher liquid (while this eventually would be a necessity item, I only bought these now to score a $10 gift card at my favorite grocery store) $22

Mats for the chicken nest boxes (they help keep my eggs cleaner) $30

4 used books $20

H bought Chinese takeout for us $40 – I didn’t add this to my groceries because 1) I didn’t want to and 2) H wanted it and we really don’t eat out very often at all so I’m adding it to my no-buy list instead.  If that’s a cheat, then I’ll just have to live with it.

2 bars of soap from the goat soap lady $12– I’ve asked to her to see if she can recreate a bar of soap that reminds me of my grandma and I didn’t feel like I could do that without buying a couple of things from her shop

I actually had a long run of days (16) when I didn’t buy anything unnecessary (my idea of necessary may differ from yours) and am currently on day 5 of the latest string. I only have one birthday in February to deal with and I’ll be much busier at work, which will keep me hunkered down at home during my off time.  I have plenty of reading material and craft projects to work on, so lets see how February goes. I still have to order up my new passport ($130 – ugh). And I need to buy stamps (necessity item). I can delay the stamps until March, I think since I have 6 left, but I need to bite the bullet and order the passport since it takes 6-8 weeks to get it back.  The worst part is that I have to mail in my old passport and I always worry about it getting lost.

H is hemming and hawing about taking a trip to go hunting in a couple of weeks, which requires some prep and purchases, but I’m not quite sure how I will be categorizing that expense yet.  Should I just call his meals an overage on the weekly food budget? Or call it a vacation expense?  Of course, as much as possible will come out of our current pantry/freezer supplies but there will be some additional costs. I need to pin him down on that so that I can cook up some stuff for him.

Sunday ramblings – January 29, 2023

Wish I could say these were outdoor, going for a walk ramblings, but not so. The temp is currently 5 degrees F with a high expected of 10 F today. Not really outside weather. Chores get done, but everything else is of an inside nature.

I usually do my baking on Saturday, but somehow, other than the croutons, yesterday got away from me and not much else got done. I did get my African violets cleaned up and they are now getting a dose of light under a lamp and away from a window. No, the kitchen floor did not get mopped. I’m still wondering where my day went.

This morning I’m working on my usual 2 loaves of bread to rise, baking some cookies and I’ll start folding as soon as the first load of laundry comes out of the dryer.

For my cookies this morning, I used some of my water glassed eggs for the first time. Water glassing is an old method of preserving fresh eggs in lime water (slaked lime, not citrus lime). I won’t go into the method further since others have covered it very well on their blogs, but in this solution, raw eggs are preserved and can be safely used for several months. Some say up to two years, but generally I have been hearing 8-10 months. My eggs were put in the solution in June so they are about 8 months old.

What I found today –

The shells are a little thinner and the yolks are thinner, breaking very easily. This initially concerned me and I threw out four eggs before I looked it up and this is normal. Durp. With the price of eggs, this is kind of a double durp. As long as the eggs pass the float test and don’t smell off, they are good to use.

The thin eggs made my cookie dough very sticky, so I added more flour. The cookies came out flatter than usual, so I probably should have added a smidge more baking soda to compensate for the additional flour. Next time. They do taste fine and the texture seems the same to me. Not complaints from H, my household taste tester.

Last thing – I usually give my eggshells (crushed up) back to the chickens but since these shells have been sitting in lime solution, I will not be feeding them to the girls. If it were closer to spring planting, I’d save them for putting in with my tomato starts but I don’t feel like having them sit around for 3 months.

Now that that I’ve been thinking about it, I do remember a couple of things from yesterday. I must have had my head in the pantry for a while because I came across a box of “super seeds” which I bought a couple of years ago thinking they were actually grains to use in a multi-grain bread or for snacking, but they were a ground meal and I didn’t use them. After 2 years of sitting on my shelf, I’ve got to assume, no matter how well they were sealed at the factory, that they have gone off. So out they went.

I also must have been rummaging through the mug cupboard because I tossed out 2 “logo” mugs. Note to self – ok to say no when people offer you swag.

And, I organized (tidied) the storage container drawer and it went from the photo on the left to the photo on the right.

I found five lids with no mates, so those got tossed as well.

I did keep a few extra lids for the cheapy containers as their lids tend to crack over time especially if they were used in the freezer.

But doesn’t it look better?

Of course, it never stays that way.

So I guess I did manage to get a few things accomplished yesterday. Yay!

Have a great week!

~ Carol