Food Waste Friday: Lemon and Chicken

Hello, it's time once again for..








This week we had a few things wasted:

Half a lemon that went all moldy and mushy on me- it went straight into the compost.

Then, a tiny bit of leftover fajita chicken that had sat out for about 3 hours after I cooked it, then I put it in the fridge, but then felt like we shouldn't eat it, just in case. So I threw that away. It was probably one serving worth.

On the good news side of things, I've started grocery shopping weekly again as opposed to twice a month and it seems like we're doing a better job of eating up leftovers and not letting things go bad. I suppose it's because we don't have as many things to eat, so we eat what we have! Not a bad thing at all. :)

Also, I just had to share this picture because it was such a delicious meal:
Grilled BBQ chicken thighs (on sale at Aldi for $2.55!), rice, green beans, cucumbers from our garden and tomatoes from a friend's garden- there's nothing like home grown produce, y'all! It was SO good. And so pretty!

I  hope those of you in the States had a lovely 4th of July, and those of you outside the States had a nice Wednesday as well! ;)


This is linked to The Frugal Girl, who is the brains behind all of this food waste documentation.

How I Am Weaning Myself Off Of Target

I don't know about you, but I have a terrible time spending too much money at Target.
Like, terrible. I can't help it.
I love Target.

I go in to get diapers or toiletries and come out spending at least $10 (usually like 20) more than I anticipated on a cute accessory, adorable home decor or a small toy for the kids, a snack, or some other thing that just called out my name in such a sweet voice I couldn't refuse.

Seriously, Ya'll.
At one point, I was going to Target almost every day.
Not necessarily to buy stuff, but when Ethan and Ellie were really little I went more just to have some contact with the outside world. Even if it meant ending that contact with the outside world with a screaming kicking toddler.

Then it morphed into sometimes spending money...then usually spending money...and then we were spending over $200 a month last year at Target on who knows what.
I couldn't even tell you what all I bought, but I was frittering away money that we didn't have to spend!

I mean, really! Why do they have so many awesome things?! I love their home decor- the candles, the prints on the sheets and pillows (which I never actually buy but always want) the simple white dishes, the cool designer clothing lines that are limited time offers, the dollar section, THE CLEARANCE SECTION...the marketing team sure knows what they are doing!

I've been feeling guilty about giving in to such materialism for quite some time but couldn't bring myself to stop....going....to....Target.

I think I'm finally conquering the Target-itis that has over taken me so unassumingly, wedging its way in little by little til it took over too much of my life.

(Hooray!)

My secret weapon?

First, when we were thinking about moving to Oklahoma a few months ago, where we were going to move didn't have a Target. This was almost a deal breaker for me. (which is SAD!) :)
WHAT?! No Target? Whatever will I do??

Um...save a lot of money that I would've otherwise spent.
Hm. Not a bad thing.
So I started weeding out my weekly trips to Target in preparation of (sniff) not having one available.
Turns out, we're staying put here in Tennessee, but I decided that even with a Target in close proximity, I was going to shop there less. Much less.


My next secret weapon?
Which is not a secret now...

At the beginning, it had to be drastic.
I started letting Tim take the car to work.
I know this wouldn't be an option for everyone, but we only have one car so if he takes it to work, I can't go to Target. How sad is that?! I had to physically ban myself from taking the car so I would stay away.
It worked.


Next weapon:

Shopping elsewhere for toiletries.
Sounds so simple, doesn't it?
 I felt like a genius when I figured out that other places have just as nice toiletries as Target does. duh!

I started buying our hand soap, "ziploc" bags, toilet paper and trash bags at Aldi instead.
It's cheaper, and I don't spend extra money on cute accessories sitting out at the ends of the aisle. So it could be doubly cheaper.
And, the Aldi brand of toiletries and paper/house products seem to work just as well.
In fact, I really like the hand soap better than Target's store brand.



Right now, I've conquered the addiction to Target down to going only when we need diapers, which is about every two weeks. Better yet, last time I went, I only bought...diapers. And wipes, because we needed those too. And batteries. But those were on the list.

I didn't buy anything extra.

YAY!!

Now, if I can just keep it up.....

Here are some good tips about smart shopping at Target, if you dare to enter the store.
I'll be keeping them in mind next time my daughter needs diapers.

Starting seeds

Its quickly warming up around these parts (today it was nearly 90!) and I am itching to get some seeds planted in our new raised garden bed. I have cucumber, zucchini, carrots, watermelon and cilantro seeds that need to get into that soil and start growing!

We are also planning on growing some potatoes like this, in a tower of some sorts:

source

We just need a tower to grow them in.
Add that to the list of stuff to do. ;)

I started some pepper and tomato seeds a few days ago, and the tomatoes have almost all sprouted.

I'm still waiting on the peppers. I hope they decide to grow!

If you are starting seeds yourself this spring, here are a few pointers:

*Don't buy the seed starting pots at the store, make your own!

 *Use old egg cartons cut into sections and then plant a seed or two in each one.

*Or, if you have some newspaper lying around, roll up newspaper into cylinders and put organic seed starting soil in the middle of them.

* Make sure to keep both moist at all times so your seeds germinate more quickly.

*Also, a good tip that I read after I did mine was to pour some water in the bottom of the tray your seeds will be sitting on before you plant the seeds, then the water can be soaked up into your paper container without disturbing the soil. The soil is so light, when you pour water in it it kind of splooshes everywhere and you can easily water your seed right out of the container if you aren't careful.

*Keep your seeds in the sunlight in a warm location and cover them with some plastic to help keep moisture in and encourage germination. (notice the danish containers from Aldi that I used to cover the seeds in the top few pictures)

When my tomato and pepper plants are a few weeks old, I'm going to transplant them to the garden beds. Since my containers I started them in are biodegradable, I can simply plant the whole thing and be done with it.

Easy Peasy. That's my kind of gardening right there!
Of course, I have to water them and weed them...but still. Save a few dollars and use what you have around the house. You reduce your waste, and give your little seedlings a boost with some extra nutrients from the paper.

Are you starting seeds this year? What are you growing? I'd love to hear from you!


This post is shared at Wildcrafting Wednesday 

Do you like a little challenge once in a while, to better yourself? Here's one for you!

I found this awesome challenge the other day.

click here

So, I'm joining it!
You can, too if you want.
It's always good to learn more about being frugal, and in a sustainable way.
This girl's blog is right up my alley. :)


Check it out!
I'll be talking about how the challenge is affecting us over the next few weeks.
The challenge is from January 6-the end of the month.
I can't wait to see what I learn!
If you're interested in becoming more frugal, click on the link and join the challenge. Let me know if you do, I'd love to be able to do this with some friends!

Food Waste Friday, November 11, 2011

Ooh, it's 11/11/11, Y'all!
I really have nothing else to say about that, other than it looks cool on paper. Or a screen. :)

I missed posting last week about my waste, but the only thing we wasted was some milk that went sour.
 (No picture either, I took one but for some reason can't find it!)

Usually we do a really good  job of drinking all the milk before it goes bad, and I know that there are a lot of things you can make with soured milk, but it smelled disgusting and we were pretty much out of every kind of grocery you can imagine and I didn't really feel like improvising on a recipe so much that it would have probably flopped anyway, so I just chucked the milk down the sink and threw the carton in the recycle bin.

Have you seen the cool lunch pouches you can make with a recycled milk carton??

 I saw this on Pinterest, and some day will get around to making one. It looks so neat!


This week's waste was a little worse than last week's. We wasted quite a bit of half eaten meals; oats, pasta, the end of a sandwich. I always put the leftovers in the fridge for later, but these bits that we wasted had sat out too long to be safe to eat. Most likely either the cat had nibbled at them, or they were harboring who knows what kind of bacteria.


Oh, and this poor hummus started growing  nice fuzzy spots on it...

They're there, trust me.
I double checked to make sure it was really mold, and not just a bit of feta that got left in there on accident.
I was sad about wasting this, since I love hummus. Next time I should make more Greek pitas for lunch, I guess.

In other news...
~We're having a yard sale on Saturday! I'm excited to get rid of the stuff that's been cluttering up our laundry room and attic. Today we labeled everything with prices and got it all ready to carry out in the dark, chilly morning for those early bird, die-hard garage sale-ers.  We're using the money we make to fund a trip to visit my brother and sister-in-law in Oklahoma.

Here is the "before we lay it out and make it look all pretty so people will want to buy it" picture. :)

~Eliana is now 2! We had a quiet celebration for her at home, and bought her some cute boots and a my little pony toy for her birthday. I also made this butterfly mobile for her, because she is obsessed with butterflies.

I got the idea from here, and template to draw the butterflies from here. I am definitely not an artist, so I needed a template! I free-handed the little butterflies because I wanted different sizes for some variation. Ellie really likes it, although she just wants to touch it and play with it instead of looking at it.
I don't blame her!

I made the butterflies from some scrapbooking paper I had laying around, and strung them on thread, then hot glued some sticks from the backyard together to tie the string on, then used a ribbon I had to hang the mobile from the ceiling.
Total cost: $0!
My kind of project. :)

~Ethan got a hair cut. It was long over due.
I cut it first with scissors, but then had to bring the big guns in and finish off the job with buzzers, since sewing scissors + a wiggly 4 year old = a really choppy hairdo. He looks so cute with his little buzzed head! He told me he doesn't like it, and wants his old, longer hair back. (Sorry, buddy. You'll just have to wait for it to grow!)

That's it for now, I hope you all are having a lovely Friday!
This weekend sometime I'm going to post a recipe for some French Bread that we can't stop gobbling up as soon as I make it. It's so yummy! So, if you need a new bread recipe, check back in a few days. :)

Here's a preview of what it looks like, to get you hungry for more. ;)

This post is linked to The Frugal Girl, who is the brains behind all of this food waste documentation. :)

Tips for Saving Money on Groceries and for Eating Healthfully

Happy Monday!

Hubby and I have been trying to get back on track with our money-spending habits- we were doing really really well for a while and then we got our tax return and -bam! all of a sudden kinda went on a crazy spending spree. We bought things that we needed, (mostly...)  but didn't stick to a budget at all really, and now most of that money is gone. We did manage to save a little bit, which is better than we did last year, but since we're getting ready to move across the country we really want to buckle down and be wise with the money God has given us and use it to its full ability instead of just throwing it away on "stuff."
We also have a savings account to help with the cost of moving or for an emergency (hopefully we won't need it for that!)  and want to put as much as possible in there while still being able to break even.

Anyhoo, I thought I'd share a few tips that we use to help us save money on groceries, since that's where a lot of families spend a large chunk of their income, and its an easy place to shave off expenses from!
(warning: I am very passionate about eating quality food, so forgive me if I go off on a tangent about that subject at any point...I can feel myself getting all riled up already about it!)

*deep breath.*
Okay.
Here are some tips on healthy, frugal shopping: