Day #13 What is a Challenge?
November 24th, 2011
What is a Challenge? It’s worth the 1minute and 32 seconds to watch. Here’s a YOUTUBE video that says it all:
Day #12 and going great!
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 #11 of my grocery challenge
November 22, 2011~ Tuesday
Nothing in the pantry?
Are you sure the cupboard is truly empty? When most people look in the pantry, they pick up the things in pretty packages first. If they can’t see any of their favorite instant food to snack on, they immediately declare that the cupboard is bare. It’s called ‘Ingredient Blindness’. It’s a common illness across most of the developed world, where people’s eyes skim over simple plain-colored ingredients such as flour, sugar and rice. They simply don’t see them, let alone see them for what they are. These boring looking packages all contain valuable ingredients which will help you make dozens of yummy, filling dishes. They will help you get through your challenge – if only you use them. When you take all these basic food items into consideration, can you honestly say…
Day #10 of my grocery challenge
Pepperoni Quiche
November 21, 2011~ Monday
A new week ahead of us with a tidy fridge and the leftovers (almost) gone. I plan our menus each week because:
- It helps me stay on top of the meal preparation
- no temptation to run to the market or buy take-out
- I can use what I have in the pantry & fridge
- planning saves money
- I can do my work in the office without having to think about what I have to prepare
- Manages stress related to running a home
Everyday I get 3 eggs from my 3 hens so quiche is perfect to be worked into my meal planning. This with the pepperoni I have in the freezer will be just perfect.
Pepperoni quiche
- 1 unbaked (9 in) pie shell~ or make a rice crust.
- 8 ounces of shredded cheese~ I’m going to use mozzarella
- 2 ounces of sliced pepperoni
- 1 (12 ounce can) evaporated milk
- 3 eggs, beaten
- 2 tablespoons flour
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- 1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sprinkle 1 cup of cheese and half of the pepperoni onto the bottom of the pie shell. Whisk together the milk, eggs, flour, basil, and garlic powder. Pour into pie shell. Sprinkle remaining cheese over top and carefully lay pepperoni on top of cheese. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until done.
http://www.stampinup.net/esuite/home/jerushagish for card making supplies
Day #9 of my grocery saving challenge
November 20th, 2011~Sunday
Today is election day in Spain. Thinking of election day reminds me how our governments are in so much trouble for careless spending. They let million or billions slip through their fingers and we all suffer the consequences. If I didn’t believe it was the same in our households I wouldn’t be so careful with my spending but I see how the pennies turn into dollars just by ‘tweaking’ a few things around the house. I’m convinced that we can eat well and not spend a ton of money. I might add that this is probably a cultural issue too. For those of us who live in prosperous countries, waste is more acceptable than it is in poorer ones. We’ve lived in both and never is to me because, the greater issue is stewarding our resources.
Breakfast:
Leftover quiche
Toast
Lunch
Left overs~ anything in the fridge. Unless we have friends over for a meal, we eat leftovers on Sunday because we arrive home from church really hungry. It also gives me a fresh start to my week.
Dinner
Leftovers again
salad
Stores are not open in Spain except for the 1st Sunday of the month ½ day. I have had 9 days without buying one single thing at the market! Sunday evenings I enjoy planning my meal for the upcoming week.
For card making supplies, check out this site:
http://www.stampinup.net/esuite/home/jerushagish
Day #8 of my grocery SAVINGS challenge
November 19th, 2011~Saturday
It will be an early morning for me because our house guests who arrived late last night need to leave early.
In this journey I not only save money on groceries but also use up what I have. By the by, I haven’t spent ANYTHING on food in 8 days!!
I needed to find a good recipe for the whole fat yogurt that I have in the fridge. I think I have 4 ~ 125 gram servings. I ran across this recipe for pancakes using yogurt with fruit. It makes pancakes for 3 so I’m hoping that it will be a hit this morning with our house-guests.
Yesterday I promised to share with you one of my goals for my savings so here it is: We’re finishing a HUGE project here, which is the publishing of the New Testament in Aragonés and we want to celebrate (and a rest is always welcome too) this special event. We have no plans yet, but we want it to be memorable.
Here is my menu plan for the day.
Breakfast for guests:
quiche~ ham, swiss cheese, green onion with a rice crust.
sliced oranges
yogurt pancakes~ to make my mornings easier, I prep all the dry ingredients in a bowl the night before and just add the wet ingredients when I get up.
Yogurt Pancakes
½ cup flour
¾ t. baking powder
¼ t. soda
¼ t salt
1 T sugar
½ cup yogurt, plain or fruit
1 egg
1T cooking oil
Blend dry ingredients. Add yogurt, egg and oil. Mix well. Cook as usual. Serves 3
toast & jam
juice & coffee
Lunch
Bean soup~taken out of the fridge
Macaroni & Cheese with ham~leftover from yesterday.
salad
Dinner
pita bread pizzas~ we liked them so well the other night that I will open another package of 3 and repeat this meal. It’s Saturday night after all and I’ll make some popcorn too. We only have enough popcorn for 3 more batches.
Check out the videos for card making:
http://www.stampinup.net/esuite/home/jerushagish
Day #7 and haven’t spent anything on food!
November 18th, 2011~Friday
Gee, I’m encouraged! ¼ of the way done with this most recent challenge and I still haven’t had to go to the market for anything! I’ll share a bit more tomorrow about my plans for the savings from my food budget.
We have a co-worker coming this morning at 10:00 for a business meeting and it’s really great to not have to stress about a thing… just take some pastries out of the freezer. I took out an apple puff pastry and and apple cake. I’ll serve that with coffee.
Below you can see what I’ve found in the fridge to use up. It’s nice to have pesto on hand.. but I’m on a mission to get rid of stuff, empty the refrigerator and not waste anything! 
I got a couple of good ideas from my girls on how to use it and I did spread it on my pizzas last night. Very yum!
This morning I’ll fix breakfast that includes:
An egg with John’s leftover burrito from yesterday. I made him 2 and he saved one for breakfast.I’m always glad to get the Tupperware out of the fridge.
Lunch
Cream of Carrot soup ~from freezer
Macaroni & cheese with ham~ I found 2 thick slices of ham in the freezer
Brussel Sprouts~from the freezer
Dinner:
Beef & gravy over mashed potatoes~ I made gravy out of the broth from the canned meat, added some mushrooms & then added another jar of canned beef from the pantry. The mashed potatoes are the last from the fridge.
Brussel sprouts ~from lunch
Items I’m out of:
potatoes~fresh
tomatoes~fresh
non-fat milk ~ I’m using the last box.
Here is a super great website for crafts, stamping & card making. I could get into this! Check it out!
http://www.stampinup.net/esuite/home/jerushagish
This would be very fun to do with friends, have a brunch and make cards or scrapbook together. It would be a great way
to meet neighbors too!
Day #6 on my grocery Challenge
November 17th, 2011~Thursday
Yesterday in the kitchen freezer, I did a little inventory and found several packages of pepperoni. I generally buy this in bulk and divide in packages enough for 2 pizzas. This will work in nicely with my menu for today. Man! it feels so good to use up what I have!
Breakfast:
Fried potato patties (using the leftover mashed potatoes we had earlier this week).
1 fried egg
toast
Lunch will be:
Bean & cheese burritos (using the Gouda cheese I have + the leftover re-fried beans from yesterday + the flour tortillas I have in the fridge)
Salad
Mexican rice I can whip up in a flash with the plain rice in the fridge. I actually made enough rice for 3 meals at the beginning of the week:
- rice for the stir-fry
- rice for the Mexican side dish
- rice for the rice crust I will make for the quiche I’ll serve to house-guests on Saturday morning.
Dinner:
pita bread pizzas- using the pesto I have in the fridge, pita bread, pepperoni & cheese. I also have some dried mushrooms I will re-hydrate to add.
Salad
I’m staying encouraged and have not spent ANY money on food these past 6 days. Wonderful!
I opened the last box of non-fat milk today. When it’s gone, I’ll use the dried milk I have. We still have about 8 boxes of the whole milk (which I don’t drink). I have my entertainment budget of 25€ or…or $33.75 to spend for our Thanksgiving meal. What does it cost to put on such a meal in the USA?
Day #5 of the NEWEST grocery challenge
November 16th, 2011~Wednesday
Today I’m going to use some of the canned beef (shredded) that I opened yesterday and make beef tacos. Thankfully I have corn and flour tortillas in the fridge.
I also will take out of the freezer a Ziploc baggie of re-fried beans I made a few weeks ago. When I cook my beans, I use the pressure cooker and do the whole kilo (2.2 lbs.) at once and then just divide and freeze. It costs so much less than the store-bought ready to eat ones and I can add the bacon and herbs all at once. Being from California, we really just can’t get ‘Mexican’ out of our system!
Breakfast:
I’m so glad that John will eat anything! I fixed him,eggs & toast, with the last wee bit of spaghetti. T he toast was from that same loaf of dark bread I bought while in Germany last week.
Lunch:
Beef Tacos
Re-fried beans
Salad
Dinner:
Tonight it will be left over stir-fried rice from 2 days ago. Hopefully we can see an end to that!
I still haven’t spent anything at all in these past 5 days.
Everyday is a victory on 3 fronts:
1.) I don’t spend money
2.) I reduce what is in my panty, freezer and fridge and
3.) I get the pleasure of being a steward of our resources.
I’m working on a plan to use the last of the pesto in the fridge. The jar is really about ¾ full! I have some pita bread in the fridge so this week I’ll be adding some ‘pita pizzas’ to the menu and pesto is nice spread on them instead of tomato sauce or paste. If anyone has a good use for pesto, do let me know!
Day #4
November 15th, 2011~Tuesday
Today will be different than usual. John is on a trip and won’t be home until later tonight. I’m going to just eat some protein since this is fundamental to the diet I’ve been on. For lunch I’ll open a jar of canned meat and scramble an egg for supper.
No need to spend anything on food today! I’m sure glad about that.
Things I DON’T have:
~still don’t have fresh tomatoes or potatoes but we are doing fine without them so far.
~ looks like we may run out of fabric softener before the end of the challenge but that’s o.k, I’ll just do without. It’s nice to have here since all the clothes are line dried.
For several years now I have read the blog
http://www.simplesavings.co.nz and now their $21 Challenge book is offered in the USA. I haven’t read it yet but if it’s in KINDLE form I may order it. It’s a very helpful blog with lots of ideas that have help me with my own challenges even though it is mainly written for those in New Zealand.