Day #26 Only 4 days left for my grocery challenge

Dec 7, 2011 by pearsonsprogress    No Comments    Posted under: blessings, Blogroll, Bobbie's Store, Grocery Challenge, saving money

  “A penny saved is a penny earned.” -
  —  Benjamin Franklin

“Contentment is natural wealth, luxury is artificial poverty.
  —  Socrates

Proverbs 24:3-4
Through wisdom a house is built, and by understanding it is established; and by knowledge the rooms shall be filled with all precious and pleasant riches.

Proverbs 27:23
Know well the face of your flocks; and pay attention to your herds.

Proverbs 10:4
Poor is he who works with a negligent hand, but the hand of the diligent makes rich.

Proverbs 16:8 Better is a little with righteousness than great income with injustice.

Here’s an idea to track your spending:

The most important thing is to carry around a little notebook. Every time you get money whether it’s from a paycheck or a garage sale or picking up change from the ground;write it down. Every time you spend money whether it’s paying bills or buying coffee or paying bus fare write it down. Try keeping track of every penny that enters or leaves your life.

Tracking your spending helps to demystify money you begin to perceive it as a tool. You gain a sense of power & you no longer feel that money controls you, but that you control your finances. Your awareness of your money habits is sharpened, allowing you to make changes to improve your situation. This is an essential money skill, and it’s easy.

This exercise may lead you to change spending habits.

Here are some pointers:

• Be careful with transactions that are easy to forget. Some transactions cash transactions, online transactions, transactions without a receipt  are quickly forgotten.
• Get a receipt for everything. It’s easy to forget were you spent your money on just 24 hours later. Make a habit of putting all your receipts in one place so that you know where to find them.
• It’s best to process your transactions daily. I find this easiest but some prefer to do it weekly. Takes minutes!
• Make it a routine. If you get into the habit of tracking your spending, it becomes second nature.
• As always, do what works for you. No one system is perfect for everybody. The important thing is to track your spending.

This process paints a picture of your spending habits as they actually exist, not as you think they exist. You can use this information to create a budget. Or, at the very least, to serve as snapshot of where your money goes.

Day #23 of the grocery challenge & oranges!

Dec 4, 2011 by pearsonsprogress    No Comments    Posted under: Baking, blessings, Blogroll, Bobbie's Store, Grocery Challenge, recipes, saving money, Spain

Look what a neighbor brought me!

December 4th, 2011~Sunday

I always feel so cared for by the Lord when I receive gifts from HIM. Last week while in the village,  a neighbor dropped by to give me a bag of oranges from her tree. Wasn’t that nice?! Of course I am so thankful for her but I know that my loving Father directs these gifts to me. It’s personal.

The oranges  will be perfect to serve to a guest coming, for fresh juice, and for baking an orange cake for Bible study. It feels like one of those cooking shows where the contestants are handed a picnic hamper with food in it and the chefs have to be creative and make different courses out of the ingredients.

I don’t want to waste one single precious orange!

What I have spent: 7,26€

What I have left: 2,74€

Beat and Bake Orange Cake

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 cups white sugar

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup orange juice

1/2 cup vegetable oil

3 eggs, beaten

1 1/2 teaspoons grated orange zest

Frosting:

6 tablespoons butter, softened

2 cups confectioners’ sugar

2 tablespoons orange juice

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon grated orange zest

*because this frosting recipe uses so much powdered sugar, which I’m low on,  I’m going to make the cake in a bundt pan and then a glaze using the powdered sugar and fresh orange juice.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour 2 – 8 inch round cake pans, loaf pan, 9×13 pan or bundt pan.  In a measuring cup, combine milk, 1/2 cup orange juice, oil, beaten eggs and 1 1/2 teaspoon orange zest. Set aside.

Sift flour, salt and baking powder into a large bowl. Mix in sugar. Make a well in the center and pour in the milk mixture. Stir until thoroughly combined.

Bake in the preheated oven for 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool.

To make Orange Butter Frosting: Cream butter until smooth. Gradually beat in confectioners’ sugar. Beat until light and fluffy. Beat in 2 tablespoons orange juice to bring to spreading consistency. Stir in vanilla and 1 teaspoon orange zest.

my beverage shelf in the pantry

Here is the beverage shelf in my pantry. I’m making HUGE progress on the ‘milk shelf’. I still have  boxes of whole milk and for my non-fat milk requirements, I have a can of dried milk. The other milk products I have are: several cans of evaporated milk, one can of sweetened condensed milk & dried coconut milk. Sometimes I just forget to use the coconut milk! About the beverage section of my pantry; I have my individual juices above, and below are re-purposed plastic bottles with drinking water in case of an emergency. One the milk shelf, I would usually have it full with whole milk, 2% and non-fat. I’ve used all but the whole milk.

Day # 19~ saving for some ”down-time’…can’t wait!!

Nov 30, 2011 by pearsonsprogress    2 Comments    Posted under: Blogroll, Bobbie's Store, food, Grocery Challenge, saving money, Spain

November 30th, 2011

This February, John and I will celebrate 44 years of marriage and in March the publication of a New Testament after years of work. Part of my goal in reducing our spending, using up what we have, and ‘making  do’ is to take a mini jaunt ‘somewhere’ to celebrate these major accomplishments in our life. It gives us something to look forward to also! That’s why we do this… you know… to have some fun after months of  sacrificing the little treats in order to really celebrate on the things that are important to us.  So, the pennies, nickles and dimes get dropped into the piggy bank along with anticipation.

We are now in  San Martin working and we went to the market to buy 1 ½ liters of non-fat milk because I forgot to bring the dried stuff with me.  That was 1,09€ so now I  have …. drum roll… 3,39€ left to spend…yikes… getting close…I’m not in the RED yet!!! Eleven days left!!

Breakfast:

turkey dressing with a fried egg

potato cakes

Lunch

Spaghetti and meatballs ( meatballs I canned last year) served with whole wheat pasta

peas

garlic toast

Dinner

egg salad sandwiches

pumpkin pie

We’re in the ‘village house’ we don’t have everything… but enough for the 2 of us!

We remain thankful.

Day #12 and going great!

Nov 23, 2011 by pearsonsprogress    No Comments    Posted under: Blogroll, Bobbie's Store, food, Grocery Challenge, saving money

One of the biggest keys to saving money is being organized. When you’re organized you’re protected from wasting precious time and money. It makes your whole life easier! Unfortunately being organized doesn’t come easy to everyone – but a challenge can help with that. It is a step-by-step, methodical process which has to be followed if you are to succeed. You will have no choice but to be highly organized – so relax and enjoy the feeling!

Today my meals will be:

Breakfast

Pizza quiche~ leftover

Lunch

Lamb chops~leftover from yesterdays lunch

and any other leftovers in order to clean out the fridge for the Thanksgiving meal.

Dinner

We  have meetings again at our house and I’ll prepare a variety of ‘tapas’ to serve. That will be our dinner.

So far in these last 12 days of only trying to spend 10 euros, I have bought:

1 bag of oat bran- 1,25 euros

2 baguettes- ,95 euro cents

Total Spent: 2,20euros

The oat bran was necessary because of a particular diet I’m on and  the baguettes because of the meetings at our house last night and the canapes I made and served.

Day #3 of the NEW Grocery Challenge

Nov 14, 2011 by pearsonsprogress    No Comments    Posted under: Blogroll, Bobbie's Store, Canning/Preserving, food, Grocery Challenge, recipes, saving money

 November 14th, 2011~Monday

Another day of excitement to see how creative I can be with my food budget. I guess we all get our ‘kicks’ in differently and one of mine is to see how far I can stretch the grocery budget.  I love the challenge of that. I also like to eat and cook. I love to shop for food too! All this together makes it even more fun and challenging for me.

Breakfast: John will have the last piece of french toast with an egg. I’m always glad to see that I have used everything and have not had to throw anything out. I will have yogurt as usual.

Lunch: I’m going to make stir-fried rice today. I want to use the last of the chicken breasts from yesterday and I have plenty of rice in the pantry. For vegetables, I’ll add some greens I have growing in the backyard, green onions I have growing in a pot, carrots that I canned in the pantry & green peppers from the garden. I also have rice vinegar and sesame oil to give it that authentic flavor. I like to add a scrambles egg too; which my hens give me daily.

Supper: Hopefully we can finish off the last of that spaghetti! With just 2 of use food tends to last a long time! Since we have our Bible study tonight, we will be eating late. I also made an apple cake to take with us tonight.

I still haven’t spent any money for groceries these past 3 days. Hooray!

Christmas in October

Oct 5, 2011 by pearsonsprogress    2 Comments    Posted under: blessings, Blogroll, Bobbie's Store, Family, saving money

 This is MY month to start and FINISH all of my Christmas shopping.  It’s the month I spend all the savings in my ‘Christmas Fund’ to look for that little gift for all the children & grandchildren that the Lord has given to us. Our Christmas probably doesn’t look like some of yours. We aren’t able to be with most of our family, and we don’t spend as much money as I imagine the typical American family spends. We also  don’t charge (use credit) for any gifts, but rather I put a few dollars away each month throughout the year for these Holy Days.

Now I get to REJOICE because:

* I have 12 children to buy for

*25 (almost 26) grandchildren to buy for

*  parents (praise the Lord for healthy and strong parents)

*Gift Cards are easy to purchase from overseas on the internet and can be mailed directly to a recipient.

* some of our kids prefer to buy their children the gifts from ‘Papa & Grandma’ knowing their needs and desires. This is a HUGE help! I just send the check to them. Talk about a WIN/WIN!

*We have a family that is not materialistic and more and more has a desire  to focus on the Lord and His AWESOME gift of salvation.

John and I will give each other a week of vacation. We could both use that and we really don’t need anything else.
Here are some ideas:

Also, a couple of years ago our daughter Rebekah (who is a very wise steward of her/their resources), told me about EBATES. I signed up and if and when I buy something via the internet, I get some cash back. Love that! It’s free… you can do that here:

Gifts from the Village

Oct 4, 2011 by pearsonsprogress    No Comments    Posted under: blessings, Bobbie's Store, saving money

We arrived in the village yesterday and within 30 minutes, a neighbor came bearing gifts.  Take a look at this beautiful bounty:

We feel blessed by the Lord with these special gifts.

I got my KINDLE in hand!

Sep 15, 2011 by pearsonsprogress    No Comments    Posted under: Blogroll, Bobbie's Store, What we're Reading

wow, I mean WOW. Yep, I love it. It’s like having a library at your finger tips! I have versions of the Scriptures, books I’m reading, dictionaries… love, love, LOVE it!!
It’s so comfortable to read, I sometimes reach up to turn the page! Crazy! Check it out!

Where my grocery cash went to…

Jun 28, 2011 by pearsonsprogress    No Comments    Posted under: Bobbie's Store, food, Grocery Challenge, saving money

Last week I had to buy:

dishwasher tablets

margarine for baking

butter

garlic

yogurt

1 bag of mandarins

Little by little I’m working through my fridge, freezer and pantry ingredients,trying to use them all up and at the same time, dedicate that grocery money for other needed/wanted goals.

Today I used the last bit of corn tortillas (5), opened another (my last) package (of 25), and made rolled tacos using:

1. meat from the chicken back & bones from the chicken I bought & cooked last week (I still have 4 jars of broth from this for soup)
2. green chiles (canned) from the pantry
3. 1 scallion from my garden
4. 1 tomato from my garden

Ground it all up in the food processor, fried them and grated cheddar cheese & Greek yogurt on top. I also took out re-fried beans from the freezer to serve with the rolled tacos.

The salad is all from my garden: lettuce, arugula & tomatoes. I’ll dress it with olive oil & vinegar.

We love tacos, rolled or folded!

I still have about 20 corn tortillas in the fridge and my plan is to use some for the crust for a breakfast quiche, tacos and ???

Lots of great ideas and I realize just how many options and resources I have here.

My next marketing day will be Tuesday July 5th and so far I have nothing written on my list that I need. In any case, 10 more euros goes into my change purse for next weeks spen

I have substantially less since this photo was taken.

ding if necessary.

More garden photos

Jun 22, 2011 by pearsonsprogress    3 Comments    Posted under: Blogroll, Bobbie's Store, food, Gardening

My little garden has started to produce! I have gotten 5 tomatoes already and we usually don’t harvest those until August. It’s nice to not have to buy veggies. We don’t have a huge variety but  we certainly are enjoying our:

Swiss Chard

Tomatoes

Peppers

Green Beans