Tree Is Up and Updates

The Christmas Tree went up the day after Thanksgiving. We went to KMart on Black Friday and picked it up for half price. The tree we had last year, the lights eventually went dead. That is what happens when you use your Christmans tree for a night light for about 3 months.

 

This is our third year with a white artificial tree. I really like it.

 

This weekend, my husband and I went to my mom's house ( currently renting to my son) to pick up some of her Christmas stuff. The is a manger scene that I had put together with the the of Woolworths that I wanted to display at my house.

 

Since we had my daughter's truck we decided to go through all of the remaining boxes of my mom's stuff. Initially, I thought I neded to keep some if not most of her things. My way of hanging on I guess. But, it has been six months since she passed and I know feel differently. All of the boxes of the Early American Prescut ( there were two truck loads) were sent to Goodwill.

 

Then I went through the remaining bags of clothes and other household items that were in her garage and went to the Goodwill too. All in all, almost four truckloads of stuff went to Goodwill. It was bittersweet, but I feel like a weight has been lifted. I did save her Christmas stuff and what I don't want I am letting the kids pick out what they want.

 

Sunday marked a year since my dad passed. We did not do anything special, although I thought I might. The day was more for reflection than anything else. Plus, dad was not the type for any attention when he was living. In fact, one of his last wishes was that he be buried in Wisconsin without ceremony or anyone there. He stated he wanted to leave this world like he entered it, "alone!"

 

Tomorrow is probate court. I have no idea what to expect and even after asking the paralegal, I still have no idea. Curiously enough, the judge presiding is the same judge who presided over the Casey Anthony case. The honorable Belvin a Perry. The paralegal did say dress appropriately ( not in beach wear) duh.... And remove all sharp items from your purse.

 

I hope after tomorrow we can move forward regarding mom's estate. But, I won't count my chickens before they hatch.

 

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Publix and Digital Coupons

 

On my way to work this morning, I passed by Publix. I have been experimenting a bit with their digital coupon website.

Yesterday, I registered and went through ALL the coupons and selected every one of them. I just wanted to cover all my bases.

I specifically remembered that Barilla past sauce was. On sale BOGO for $2.59. I also remembered that I checked a digital coupon for Barilla @ 0.75 cents.

For $1.84 I now have two additional jars of spaghetti sauce. And I know that the digital coupons work. The website also let's you select and print a list of your digital coupons that you want to use. I forgot to do that.

 

Pear Bread: Using It Before It's Too Late

Last week I stocked up on fresh fruits and vegetables. We never have much of a problem using the vegetables up. It is the fruit that will get soft and brown and eventually tossed.

Today, there were three very over ripe pears staring at me on the kitchen counter.

They were not going to last much longer. Enter in a search on Pinterest for over ripe pears.

Most of the dry ingredients went in this bowl.


The sugar found its way into the "wet ingredients"

Here are the shredded pears going in....

All mixed together........

Ready to pop in the oven. The batter was quite sweet.

The finished product is going quick!


Pear bread

[ from The Baked Life ]

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
3/4 cup butter, softened
3 eggs, lightly beaten
2 cups white sugar
2 large pears, peeled, cored and grated to make around 2 cups
2 teaspoons vanilla extract


Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour a 10-inch tube pan or two 9×5-inch loaf pans.
In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Whisk to stir thoroughly. In another large bowl, stir together the butter, eggs, sugar, grated pears, and the vanilla extract until well blended. I did this by hand with a wooden spoon, but you could also use a hand or stand mixer.


Scrape the pear mixture into the flour mixture and stir until the flour just disappears and the mixture is completely moistened. Transfer batter into the prepared pan(s).


 Bake for 60 – 70 minutes or until tester inserted into the middle comes out clean. Let rest on wire rack for 10 minutes before inverting onto a plate or on to the rack to cool completely.

September No-Low Spend Challenge: Week 4 of The Great Food Fight 2013

 

 

I am pleasantly surprised at how well we did this month on our Grocery Spending. I joined the Great Food Fight In April 2013. Crystal at Budgeting In the Fun Stuff is my motivator.

I don't do spreadsheets so I keep track in a small notebook. Above you can see that we spent $542.00 in Groceries this month. Last month we spent $685.00. This does NOT include personal care or non-perishable purchases. I have not quite figured out what my budget limitations are for those categories but I will be keeping track of them to monitor the purchases.

 

We spent $163.00 in eating out. Not too bad. In August we spent $232.00 in eating out.

Below you can see what was spent on non- perishables and personal care items. Now if you added them ALL together with grocery spending it will come to a total of $642.00, which is still pretty darn good for us.

 

What are our goals for for next month? Groceries, we will TRY to keep the groceries around $500.00. This should be easy because we will be going on vacation the third week of October. In fact, that will definitely affect the grocery budget, won't it?

 

I will still keep track just to see how it all comes out. It should be interesting.

There is also a sub total for our church pantry spending. We designate 10.00 a week to add items to the church pantry. This week I found 7 boxes of Kellogg's cereal on sale at Dollar General.

• How was your grocery spending this month?