The Professional Domestic

October No Eating Out Challenge Week 2 Down!

This week was so hard in so many ways. My boss’s mama passed away the week before and her funeral was Wednesday. Mary was also a friend of mine and boy did she love my scones and herbs from my garden. It’s easy to sit at a funeral listening to the priest until you see the family cry and then well…you just lose all composure you thought you had.

I just couldn’t find a cooking rhythm this week. Every evening was either a hair appointment or a board meeting and on more than one occasion the hubs had to talk me out of going out to eat. It’s easy to just say “screw it let’s go, I deserve to have someone else cook.” But we didn’t and I am grateful for him keeping me on track,

I probably shouldn’t have combined two challenges together, not going out to eat and only spending $300 this month. My biggest goal was not to go out and spend $75 a pop for the two of us to eat. But hindsight and all that right?

In order to not go out to eat Wednesday night hubs brought home stuff to make our own subs. Very sweet of him but that would screw up the grocery budget for the month but that is ok. I really appreciated him taking that off my plate.

Here is what we spent on groceries this week.

$18.29 sub supplies, $3.99 Lactaid milk, chicken breast, $9.45, 18pk eggs $2.39, sugar, $3.29, evap milk $1.89, bananas $1.21, cinnamon raisin bagels, 3.99, celery, spinach, swiss chard from local farm stand $15.

Total for groceries this week $59.50 that leaves just $22.04 left in the budget to not go over the $300 goal.

I am definitely going to go over my $300 grocery budget this month but I am still determined to not go out to eat!

In the meal department I did manage to squeeze out homemade cream of broccoli soup on Friday and yesterday we had roast beef with mashed potatoes and sauteed chard. Homemade subs, leftovers and rice and peas seemed to have dominated the menu otherwise lol.

What are you eating lately? Anything interesting?

Until next update!

-MM

October No Eating Out Challenge Week 1 Down!

I can’t believe I struggled the first week! Not that I didn’t have enough food to eat but the irresistible pull to just say screw it let’s go out to eat! That was tough! We did cheat a bit. We went out and had a quick burger and split a fry and drink for $20 but that’s it. I still call that a win though because it wasn’t $60-$70.

We had a ton of lasagna rolls left over so we ate those all weekend and I made stuffed chicken breasts on Thursday so we ate that a couple of times. We also ate a lot of cereal and last night I made myself salmon, brussel sprouts and rice. The hubs sometimes won’t eat dinner because he eats lunch late.

In the using up creatively department I had leftover raspberry cake filling that I didn’t want to go to waste so I added some of the frozen tripleberry mix I had in the freezer to it and had a tripleberry crumb pie and boy was that delish!

In the groceries department we only bought 3 items some vanilla cream for $6.49, a bag of shredded cheese for $2.29 and 2 bags of local apples for $18 totaling $26.78. That leaves us $81.54 left.

I am planning simple meals this week. Hubby golfs on Tuesday nights so he won’t be home to eat and my hairdresser moved me to 7:00 tonight so it’s probably going to be a macaroni and peas night lol!

What are you eating lately? Anything interesting?

I’ll report back again soon!

-MM

October No Eating Out Challenge

We spent way too much in September! So to counteract that, I told my hubby no meals out until his birthday which is November 1st. Oh and my goal is to spend no more than $300 during this time period for groceries.

September 27th I stocked up and spent $191.68. Together with what we already have on hand in freezers, fridges and pantries that means I only have $108.32 left to spend until November 1st. Should be fun right??

So far these have been our meals:

Sunday, Dinner: Beef Stew

Monday, Breakfast: Broccoli quiche, Lunch: Leftover Stew, Dinner: Chicken, chickpea, cucumber salad

Tuesday, Breakfast: Chocolate zucchini bread, Lunch: Leftover stew, Dinner: Naan bread pizzas with chicken, tomato and basil

Wednesday: Breakfast: Chocolate zucchini bread, Lunch: Big salad and turkey and ham sandwiches, Dinner: Lasagna Rolls

On Sunday when I got all of this lovely food home I started prepping.

Grilled chicken breast strips, boiled eggs, broccoli cheese quiche, cooked chicken legs for soup and chix and biscuits, chocolate zucchini bread, and beef stew. Boy that felt good to get done!

$108.32 left to spent until November 1st. eeeks!

I’ll keep you up to date.

-MM

SAL-Heirloom Bride Ornament 12

Time for another 3 week SAL update!

I am stitching the last ornament out of the set of 12. I didn’t quite get it completely finished because I ran out of a couple of colors but I am almost there!

Here is where I left off last update:

Here is where I am now:

That’s it for this update. Thank you Avis for organizing this group. We are all working on individual projects so please visit each one to see who is working on what.

See you in 3 weeks!

Avis, Claire, Kathy, Margaret,

Sunny, Megan, Deborah, Daisy, Cathie,

Linda, MaryMargaret, Cindy, Helen

Cakes and Other Goodies I Have Done so Far This Year

I can’t believe I haven’t shared a cake update yet this year! To be honest though I haven’t done as many as last year because of my mom’s brain hemorrhage.

Here are some cakes and such I had fun doing:

500 cookies for Caledonia’s Memorial Day 250 celebration

End of year Elementary School retirement desserts Banana Cream Bars

Believe it or not this was for a 10 year old!

My favorite this time was the fish cake lol!

The one that gave me the most issue was the two-tiered wedding cake. It was hotter than hockey sticks that day and I just couldn’t get a smooth finish on it plus I was rushing!

Phew that was a lot, and I didn’t even take photos of all of them! I’ll update again soon 🙂 -MM

Not Impressed With Our Debt – in the 3000s

Photo by http://www.kaboompics.com on Pexels.com

I was able to squeak out paying another $1000 on our one credit card account. This was originally the largest amount owed between the three cards but now has moved to the middle of the pack. Balance on it now will be $3335.93 after Friday’s payment. Although this card has come a long way, for some reason it is still making me so anxious. Everywhere I look there are things we really need done around the house and this year was the first year in three years I haven’t had a designated home maintenance project lined up. In the last three years we have:

2023 – New Kitchen Flooring Installed

2024 – New Kitchen Countertops and Range Hood Installed

2025 – New Storm and Back Entry Doors Installed

The other projects we desperately need to get done are going to cost way more than these three combined probably and we may need a Home Equity loan for them. I don’t want to take a loan out having this credit card debt hanging around.

That’s it for now. Will update again soon!

-MM

SAL-Heirloom Bride Ornament 11

Time for another 3 week SAL update!

Here is where I left off last update:

Here is where I am now:

She’s finished! A happy dance for me this time.

I started the last ornament and made some progress on it this week. Here it is:

You can start to see a teapot and teacup emerging.

The goal is to get it all stitched and maybe even sew the last 4 ornaments to complete the entire set of 12. We’ll see. I am in the middle of canning season so stitching may be a wonderful quiet time project.

That’s it for this update. Thank you Avis for organizing this group. We are all working on individual projects so please visit each one to see who is working on what.

See you in 3 weeks!

Avis, Claire, Kathy, Margaret,

Sunny, Megan, Deborah, Daisy, Cathie,

Linda, MaryMargaret, Cindy, Helen

SAL-Heirloom Bride Ornament 11

Time for another 3 week SAL update!

Here is where I left off last update:

Here is where I am now:

These ornaments are so tedious with many small amounts per color. I have one more ornament after this one and I will be glad to move on to something else.

That’s it for this update. Thank you Avis for organizing this group. We are all working on individual projects so please visit each one to see who is working on what.

See you in 3 weeks!

Avis, Claire, Kathy, Margaret,

Sunny, Megan, Deborah, Daisy, Cathie,

Linda, MaryMargaret, Cindy, Helen

Not Impressed With Our Debt – Week 3

Week 3 was a tough week. I usually sit at the computer on Wednesday mornings and pay any bills that need to be paid for the week and I did not do that for the 8th. This caused a chain reaction and suffice it to say created a shortage the next week for the 15th. PLUS we had two repair bills, one for a pressure release valve in the basement and one to repair a broken axle on the riding lawnmower. Soooo today when I paid bills I was not able to pay anymore to our debt like I wanted. Bummer.

I am not going to dwell on it though. Everything I see for next week’s paychecks give me every indication that I will again be able to pay another $1000 towards the credit card debt.

I do have an interesting story to tell you though! When I was chatting with our plumber as he was repairing the pressure release valve on the water line he said his son had had his first birthday! Oh, how wonderful for you all I said! Being a baker, I know people tend to have a lot of people at first birthdays nowadays so I asked him, almost with a wince how many people they had at the party. He said well we invited 185 people….WHAT??! Then he said it was regrets only so about 120 people RSVP’d but only 80 something showed up but they had enough food for the 120 people.

I just shook my head at him. He said he asked his wife why they were doing this and she said because everyone does. That statement right there is why everyone is in debt. Let me repeat myself…people doing something because everyone else is doing it is one of the reasons debt occurs. A one year old, unless this child is a miracle baby, does not need a party for 185 people. I told our plumber he should have put the money they spent on that party into a college fund for him/her.

I could go on about the nonsense that is going on today with the overwhelming pressure others put on us to do something we can’t afford. I remember even 20 years ago thinking why am I doing this when it came to yearly school and sports photos for our son. I did greatly reduce the package I bought down to an 8×10 and 4 4×5’s and that was it. And do you know what? I never did anything with them. They are still in the package they came in because I was never a “display pictures on the wall” kind of mom.

I’ll end my thoughts right there before I get into trouble.

I’ll update again next week!

-MM

Not Impressed With Our Debt – Week 2

There are two methods of thought when it comes to paying off credit card debt. The “Snowball” method and the “Avalanche” method.

The snowball method is when you pay off the credit card with the lowest balance first regardless of the interest rate which would give the debtor quick satisfaction. Once that credit card is paid you would roll that payment into the next smallest balance.

The avalanche method is when you pay off the credit card with the highest interest rate first. Once that credit card is paid you would roll that payment into the next highest interest balance.

I have decided to create a third method which I would like to call the “Blizzard” method which incorporates a little of both of the other methods. I feel like nowadays we get some pretty decent forecasted warnings of impending blizzards so we can prepare for them. This is the same type of method I have taken with our credit card debt. I was bothered most by the highest balance credit card, it was keeping me up at night. Instead of paying off the lowest balance card which was $2600 I wanted to plow as much money into the highest balance card which at the time was $15,500. After doing a balance transfer and combining 2 cards, I had a year with zero percent interest. After the zero percent offer was done, I had paid about $6000 off on it bringing it down to about $9500. I went a couple of months with the interest rate at 23.99% and was drowning again so I called the credit card company, and they lowered the rate to 7.99% for 6 months! (It can really pay to ask for a reduction in interest rate) Now after a few shorts months I have that credit card balance down to $4200! So, if you can prepare yourself with getting the interest rate lowered and do a balance transfer to get yourself ready for the “Blizzard” you can then plow as much money into the highest balance card. (I love these snow references lol)

Now that the highest balance card is down to $4200 that means I have paid off $7454 of debt so far this year bringing me just $2500 left to reach my goal of paying off $10,000.

I still have three credit cards, but one card is $4200, one is $2600 and one is about $5800. And guess what? Because of my “Blizzard” method my credit score has soared to 805! Pretty amazing right?

I’ll update again next week.

-MM