Pearsons Progress

My 13th-Gotta give myself a raise… to 15 euros a week

This has been a good and fun week! Well, it’s been 12 weeks, 3 months of spending 10€ a week! This week, I have to give myself a raise… to 15€ a week instead of 10€. I am just out of too many baking items. After having our guests with us, and all the beverages (juice every morning, coffee, soda, chocolate milk for breakfast for the daughter) for the adults and their teenage daughter, I need a raise. Normally, I don’t have to buy that stuff in such quantity, but it was worth it too, because we love them and love being with them.

I still have plenty in the pantry, but the everyday staples and toiletries, have been depleted. I’m going to try to do the 15€ a week for a while but I also may decided to go back to 10€ and then do a quarterly “larger” marketing day of say, 50€. I will have to decide on that… My goal remains the same: use up my pantry, and save money for other “funds” or adjust for the changes in the economy as needed.

starting balance: 15 Euros

.49- 1 kilo of flour

.49- 1 kilo of flour

.49- 1 kilo of flour

.98- 1 kilo of sugar

.69- toothpaste

1.15- 1 dozen eggs

.75- margarine

.65- chicken hot dogs

.71- 1 liter of non fat milk

1.98- dish washing soap

2.65- 1 liter of olive oil

1.45- 1 liter of sunflower oil

___________________

12.28€

*- I am officially out of nuts of any kind in the village house. I think I may have some almonds in the Madrid house. We will live without them for a couple of weeks!

Menus for this week:

Breakfasts will be: oatmeal, banana bread with jam or peanut butter (Mom and Dad brought that for us last year)

Suppers will be: pita bread sandwiches, veggie sandwiches with all of the tomatoes, zucchini, sprouts and onions we have, or leftovers

John and I feel that we eat very well.

Thursday, August 20th- 1st plate: Gazpacho 2nd plate: Pinto beans and rice, salad

Friday, August 21st- 1st plate: Tomato soup 2nd plate: fish fillets, rice-a roni, pisto ( squash, tomatoes and onions)

Saturday, August 22nd-1st plate: bean soup (using leftover beans) 2nd Plate: Pasta and meat sauce, salad

Sunday, August 23rd-1st plate: fish chowder (leftovers from the fish) 2nd plate: Pork Loin, couscous, sliced tomatoes

Monday, August 24th-1st plate: cream of zucchini soup, 2nd plate beef fillets with mushroom gravy, spetzael, salad

Tuesday, August 25th-1st plate:Leftover soup, 2nd plate: pork Loin, rice, zucchini

Wednesday, August 26th-leftovers

Blessings I have received this week:

Look at these veggies! I took a photo each time I was given them. I have had so many tomatoes that I canned some of them… they just keep coming!

The green peppers have been diced and frozen on a cookie sheet then bagged for recipes during the winter.

How does my garden grow?

Here are my vegetable seeds that I started. I have peas, broccoli, haba beans (may be called fava beans in English…not sure), and lettuce. I made “pots” out of newspaper, using an empty can as a guide. As the plants sprout, I will then plant the whole thing into the ground, paper and all. I have a few peat pots in the house in Madrid, but I will use this method from now on to avoid the cost of buying them again.

My baking for last week:

This is the baked oatmeal that I have included on this blog. It is really good and full of dried fruit. Since we are still in the village and have run out of brown sugar here (we have some in Madrid), I used granulated sugar. It’s good but definitely better with brown sugar!

Chocolate snack cake (1 egg, water instead of milk) I wrapped them individually to keep them fresh.

Banana bread

12 Pita breads- these are really yummy!

Ok.. that’s all… tomorrow I will bake bread and other pastries for the week. I’ll post those later. I hope you will all stay encouraged in your own goals.