Waste Not, Spend Not

Since Christmas I’ve been trying to avoid food waste. I made potato soup on the 26th to use up potatoes, carrots and heavy cream that were in danger of being wasted. We all had it for dinner–delicious. On the 28th, I cleaned out the fridge and made apple pie filling with some Gala and McIntosh apples that had been hanging around for a while. Thinking we will have that tonight (Sunday) with some crumble topping. Unfortunately there were some apples that had to be composted, and some other things in the fridge that couldn’t be saved, like old chicken and beef broth, some horseradish sauce I made, and some extra eggnog frosting. I did freeze my remaining eggnog. The worst was that my son defrosted a whole pound and a half of ground beef, and then no one ever ate it. It also leaked juice all over the fridge, but that’s another story. So that expensive meat went to waste. I might have a little meeting with the kids and explain that after cooking, things like extra chicken broth can be frozen. But perhaps best for me to just keep monitoring the fridge more closely and take care of things myself. Wasted food drives me batty. It’s like lighting money on fire. And bad for the environment. In some ways I’m the biggest offender because I buy food that I only I like, such as southwestern salad mix with avocado dressing, and then I get bored with it before finishing it. But my tastes are pretty different from everyone else’s. I can’t eat only what they like, all the time.

Also on the 28th I made chicken cutlets with a cornflake coating (to use up cornflakes from the Christmas potatoes). I had high hopes. I baked them on a tray in the oven for max crispiness. That worked, but the coating was overly sweet and we weren’t crazy about them.

But, it capped off a week in which we didn’t eat out at all! Monday we had spaghetti; Tuesday and Wednesday we ate at my parents’; Thursday was soup; Friday we scrounged (I had tuna on crackers).

I bought one last gift, for my MIL, who we were about to see, on Thursday (and a heavy duty Frisbee for the dog for $5, since I hadn’t gotten him anything). Friday, I bought lunch at the office. Otherwise, I have not spent a dime since Christmas Eve! My son started a new job today and needed a new black polo shirt. Kohl’s cash to the rescue — it was free! (If he had had more notice, he or I would have checked Goodwill first, but it all came together rather quickly.)

I have managed to spend some time just relaxing. I find it hard to not be doing something. Usually if I’m on the couch, I’m also doing a food delivery order, paying bills, or cleaning out my email. Well, or playing Spelling Bee, which I’m totally addicted to. I downloaded a new library book to Libby, but haven’t started it yet. Christmas breaks past, I would do nothing but read. Days of reading.  I miss the 1900s sometimes.

Having a dog laying on you is a good excuse to not get off the couch. The dog is also a great reason to get off the couch, to take him for a walk. We also went to a new, huge dog park with trails, on Thursday, so that was cheap, fun exercise/entertainment.

Couple small wins:

• Canceled Peacock, which my husband had added just to watch one show.
• Tinkered with my Hulu account to shave off a couple bucks per month.
• Signed up for a free trial of Shipt in order to get baking supplies delivered for free, and remembered to cancel it.
• Won $4 on a scratchoff lottery ticket that I was gifted.
• Switched from Starbucks to Sprouts Brazilian coffee, which I can grind in the store and bring home in a paper bag. Not sure of the price, but I imagine it’s cheaper.

I started looking at seed packets online and added some to my cart, though I need to look at what seeds I already have. I want to grow bushels of food this year! It was 68 degrees out today and I spent some time tidying the front and back yards. If we could skip right to spring that’d be great…

Just remembered I signed Fiona up for 2 months of volleyball, so that was $150 spent, on Thursday. Well spent, at least.

Happy New Year!