The Professional Domestic

Week 17 – What We are Eating and How Much We Spent on Groceries

It’s been a few weeks since I posted what we are eating and grocery costs. In week 15 I spent about $200 on all kinds of fun stuff so for weeks 16 and 17 I haven’t spent much at all. Week 16 was $48.96 and this week I spent $49.17.

The only meat I bought this week was a pack of 6 Italian sausage links and last night we had 4 of them with corn and green beans. Tonight we are going to have big salads with the other 2 leftover sausages and some leftover pork tenderloin. I won a frozen turkey at a meat raffle a couple of weeks ago so tomorrow with it being 30 degrees I’ll roast that for our dinner. That turkey should carry us through the rest of the week!

For breakfasts the boys have just been eating their Eggo waffles but I have been really enjoying the quiche so again this week I’ll use up the rest of the bacon, plus add broccoli and cheese to it. Quiche are great for using up those extra leftovers in the fridge.

I also want to get some baking done to use up some fruits and such in the freezers and some of the jam before the new years canning season starts. I even have a quart of grape juice in the freezer that I need to make jelly with.

The goal the rest of the year is spending less than $100 a week on groceries until the garden is in full swing then from June till fall my goal is to spend less than $55 per week. Think I can do it? I am pretty sure I can 🙂

There is one more thing before I sign off today…I would love to blog about more things each week. There are so many things like recipes, cooking, baking, stitching, gardening, canning and preserving that I would like to write about but I guess I have been overly cautious about overwhelming everyone’s inboxes. If you don’t mind then I’ll go ahead. I guess I’ll let you decide which posts you have time and want to read right?

That’s it for now! Have a fantastic week 🙂 -MM

Getting Rid of our Junk Week 3 of 54

I had an interesting response from a reader after last week’s post. The reader loved the idea of clearing the clutter in her own home but didn’t feel that they really had that much stuff and she would struggle with the high cards such as the Kings which would be 100 items.

I want to explain my philosophy with this card game and clearing clutter from my life. The large number cards I reserve to go through my filing cabinets and get rid of paperwork and the small number cards I generally reserve for larger items like furniture and small appliances.

But remember this whole project’s goal is to declutter and clear out the stuff that is taking up space in our lives so that could also mean emotional mind space. You could delete 100 emails that you have been procrastinating on or trash 500 photos from your phone that keep you from feeling organized because it takes an hour to find what you are looking for.

We all individually set what the number on the card means for us. You could even use the cards to finish certain projects. (Example: Paint one chair for 50 which would be a Queen).

For week 3 I pulled a 3. I have to admit I struggled because I wasn’t ready to get rid of any more large items so I decided to do something else with the 3 card. I have been procrastinating about getting some things done with the Farmers Market stuff I needed to do. I am the Market Manager for our Town’s weekly summer market. This stuff has been weighing on me and for the purpose of this card game I decided to use the 3 to get this stuff done and off my mind.

I completed 3 things for the Market this week:

Completely updated the market’s website with current info for the 2022 season.
Filled out and submited the market’s paperwork to NY state
Updated the Market’s info on Local Harvest which hadn’t been done in over 10 years.

I am happy to say I got all of that done in only a few hours and off my mind for the year. See how that works? That emotional mind space is now clear of to-do list clutter.

For Week 4 I pulled a Joker. Yikes, that means a 500! That’s ok…I have lots of paperwork to toss 😁

If you would like to check out the LeRoy Farmers Market’s updated website please click on leroyfarmersmarket.wordpress.com

Happy decluttering! -MM

Getting Rid of our Junk Week 2 of 54

It’s already week 2 and I pulled a 4 for this week. A small card means large items need to be hauled out.

The smaller the number on the card means the larger the item I get rid of. 😁

We have a usable attic in this house and in the past it was my grandfather’s train room. From one side to the other were train tracks and the walls were decorated with landscapes. I have been working to clean it out so my husband can use it for a train room too but there were some larger items in there that I was procrastinating on removing.

The highchair has been in my family for multiple generations and it always had a prominent spot in the kitchen. I feel a little bad about it leaving but modern highchairs are much more comfortable for little ones and if I need a highchair for my future grandchildren I’ll use the one my mom has. The orange 60’s chair I am sure can be recovered and cleaned up by someone, the Christmas tree is just something I don’t use anymore and the half painted black chair is an old school desk chair and is really heavy duty but again, needs a fresh coat of paint and we don’t need it.

All four of these items will be going to the church sale.

One thing to note…there are two steps to this cleaning out operation, one is identifying and boxing up the items for removal and two, actually getting them out the door to their new homes. The key to the success of decluttering a home is the follow through. All of these items so far are indeed out of the house.

Total items decluttered and out of the house = 79

Card pulled for week 3….a 3! Imagine that!

That’s it for now! Join me next week to see what goes 🙂 -MM

New Blog Series – Getting Rid of our Junk Week 1 of 54

Welcome to my newest blog series! This series has been something I have thought about writing for a while. Last week when the Hubs was gone on vacation I looked at all of our stuff and I had a mini break down.

For some people, having lots of stuff is a comfort to them but for others, like me it is suffocating.

Over the course of 54 weeks I will be getting rid of our excess stuff. Whether we donate it, give it away or throw it out, one way or another all of it will be out the door in some permanent form.

How am I going to accomplish this you ask? I am going to use a game I played as a child which I still use to this day to motivate myself each week. It involves playing cards. I know this sounds a bit strange but hear me out.

A deck of playing cards is 52 cards but with the jokers the deck totals 54. Each week I will draw a card from the deck and whatever the value of the card is, that will be the amount of stuff I get rid of for the week. Cards 2 through 10 will be face value but Jacks are 25, Queens are 50, Kings are 75 and Aces are 100. The Jokers? Well they are 500!

I plan on drawing a card each week and I will give myself until the following Wednesday to accomplish my goal.

This last Friday I pulled a King. Wow, right off the bat 75 items to gather and heave- ho…easy peasy right? Here is what I came up with:

Lots of bowls! Now that I don’t have a bakery I don’t need so many

I have always hated that red oven mitt and the rest were all stained and I had way too many.

I have never used the big tube pans, I don’t like the blue mugs, I don’t need 3 cheese graters and I had lids for pots I didn’t have anymore. All out of here!

I also started getting rid of stuff in my canning drawer but got to 75 so I will work on this later

I got rid of so many pot holders that I can probably combine what’s left with another drawer and free up more space!

By the end of the 54 weeks if all goes as planned this project will successfully remove over 2000 items from our home that we don’t need, want or use anymore. I am not saying this is going to be easy and I suspect that I will get some push back from the other person in the house but I am betting it will truly make a big difference in how we feel about our home.

Now time to pull a card for week 2…

That’s it for now! Join me next week to see what goes 🙂 -MM

Week 14 – What We are Eating and How Much We Spent on Groceries 2022

Wowsers did prices go sky high in just over a week. I hadn’t really noticed that large of an increase until this week’s shopping trip. Eggs and butter seemed to be the biggest jump for me. $4/doz for eggs and $5/lb for generic butter. Yikes!

I asked the guys about the price and Mr. Chris said their cost for eggs was $3.03/doz. That’s COST. Apparently supply chain and the bird flu are pushing egg costs up and sounds like it will stay that way for a while. Seriously I can get eggs cheaper from my farmer guy up the street, which I have been doing anyways.

Rising costs on everything makes me just want to go local as much as possible. I have never been a person who relies solely on grocery stores for my food. If I am going to pay that much for meat and eggs I might as well get them directly from the farmer here, right?

These rising costs really concern me when it comes to the small mom and pop stores though. These prices will drive people to the large chain stores like Walmart. That’s a big deal for them. Even losing 10% of their sales could really hurt them big time.

I paid $90 this week for 2 bags of groceries. The most expensive thing I bought was a chuck roast for $17.50 and 90% ground beef for $6.21.

I am keeping our meals lighter on meat this week. It’s better for us anyways.

On the menu this week:

Dinners: tacos, pot roast, soup, breakfast for dinner, grilled sandwiches, big salads

For breakfast: I plan on making another quiche and blueberry muffins. We also have lots of eggo waffles, cereal and toast.

Lunches are sandwiches, salads, pasta and leftovers

In the green house (the basement) look at the peas! Aren’t they fabulous?! I am really pleased with the grow lights so far.

How are you doing with your meals and keeping your costs down?

That’s it for now! Have a fantastic week 🙂 -MM

Week 13 – What We are Eating and How Much We Spent on Groceries 2022 and the “Kids” are Up!

I spent a lot on food in general this week. I needed supplies and I have been spending way too much on baking essentials so I broke down and went to Walmart for baking stuff. Walmart is not my jam but in this instance it saves us a boat load. Here is what I bought at Walmart yesterday:

30 lbs Gold Medal Flour – $5.14 for 10 lb bag
10 lbs sugar – $5.34 for $10 lb bag
8 lbs Confectioner’s sugar $1.62/bag
6 Duncan Hines white cake mixes $1.24 ea
4 Duncan Hines Dark Chocolate Fudge Cake Mixes $1.24 ea
2 containers of Crisco $6.44 ea
a gallon of vegetable oil $7.27
Total $59.79

I also bought 10 doz eggs from the farmer up the street, he even delivered them. $30 for those.

At the grocery store I spent approximately $111 dollars (I forgot to save the receipt). I can’t say I bought anything very expensive there. The meats were all between $5 and $6.

Total spent on groceries this week was right about $200 but I will have supplies for quite a while.

On the menu this week:

Dinners: Roasted whole chicken with cheesy rice and veggies, loaded baked potatoes, boneless ribs in the crockpot, lasagna rolls which I didn’t get done last week, pizza, potato bacon soup and the rest of the time we will wing it.

For Breakfast: Mango smoothies (I keep forgetting this one), bagels with cream cheese and quiche and oatmeal and fruit, cereal and toasted St. Joe’s bread.

Lunches are tuna cold plate, deviled eggs, and leftover soup, and big salads

In other parts of the house the kids have sprouted! I planted 100 peas and a bunch of cold weather stuff like cauliflower and broccoli. So far my new grow lights seem to be doing an adequate job but the jury is still out on them. I don’t think they are bright enough. It may seem strange that I started my peas indoors. In past years I have struggled with getting peas to germinate by direct sow. Usually the red squirrels will get to the peas I planted before they even have a chance to germinate and starting them now gives me at least a two week jump on the season. I am determined to grow enough peas to harvest and freeze for the winter next year.

It’s snowing today here in WNY and all we want to do is be outside gardening and taking walks. We hope it will be soon because winter needs to be moving along.

How are you doing with your meals and keeping your costs down?

That’s it for now! Have a fantastic week 🙂 -MM

How Many Pounds of Food We Grew in 2021

Every year my goal has been to grow 1000 lbs of food out of our home victory garden. Each season I get a little closer to that goal!

2021 was a wonderful growing season for us. The peaches from the 2 trees we have were so plentiful they broke the branches. The tomatoes were overwhelmingly productive because they just loved being planted up against that pallet wall. The onions, beans, potatoes, cauliflower and don’t get me started on the zucchini all went above and beyond.

We had some misses too. Our peppers did not do well being planted next to the overbearing zucchini plants. The peas did not produce enough and the cucumbers and pumpkins just didn’t produce at all!

I tried to weigh everything we grew last year but I know there was a lot that didn’t get into the log book.

With all that said the grand total of what I entered into the harvest log book was a whopping 664 lbs of produce harvested in 2021! Not bad right?

I wonder what the average price per pound is for produce. Probably at least $2.49/lb maybe? So that works out to $1653.36. That’s huge.

Do you keep track of how much you harvest each year? I vow to do better but I am pretty darn happy with 2021’s harvest. God is good! -MM

Buying from Poshmark – Review

Have you ever wondered what Poshmark, the online used clothing marketplace is all about?

Poshmark is an online marketplace where people can buy or sell, new and used clothing, shoes and accessories.

Individual people sell items from their virtual “closet” to you so each item you buy mostly likely is from a different seller unless you are buying from one seller’s closet. You can even make an offer which they will accept or reject. If the seller sees that you “like” an item in their closet they may even send you a discounted price that is good for 24 hours to entice you to buy the item.

I love Poshmark and treat myself every now and then to a few items that I really need for clothes or shoes. I mostly look for and buy Banana Republic clothes because I know they will fit me properly. Full retail for that brand is way out of my budget so buying used from a thrifting source like Poshmark keeps me looking great without breaking the bank.

Poshmark can be a bit overwhelming though. It’s a gigantic marketplace, but you can set up a profile for yourself with size preferences and search for a specific designer or manufacturer.

Here are just a few things I have purchased and really loved:

I bought this Banana Republic dress for just $25 and wore it to my daughter’s wedding in Ireland!

These Banana Republic pants are light blue and were only $16!

I have had some misses of course when I bought something that I didn’t really like fit wise but really have had no major problems from buying from Poshmark.

Thousands of people just like you and me use Poshmark as their business platform which can be a very profitable online selling sideline for them. Many have turned it into to a full time business for themselves!

So my review for Poshmark is that I love it and give it an A!

Have you ever used Poshmark? Let me know what you think! -MM

Week 12 – What We are Eating and How Much We Spent on Groceries 2022

Last week was a bit of a strange week in the food department because my son was gone until Wednesday and the Hubbs and I just winged it. We only ate out twice. On Friday we got a pizza and on Saturday we went out for lunch.

I usually grocery shop on Sundays after church but I needed to go to the store on Friday and with the gas prices being oh so high I decided not to make the trip twice so Friday it was.

Total spent on groceries this week was just $89.48 with the most expensive things I bought being a pork shoulder roast at $13.73 and ground beef at $13.72.

On the menu this week:

Dinners: Pulled pork everything! I plan on roasting the pork shoulder and at least have the pulled pork potato skins out of it which are to die for. Of course there will be sandwiches and other dinners made from it too. More on that later. I made Ratatouille which we are taking as leftovers this week for lunch. Also Lasagna roll-ups one night. Honestly this week I just plan on winging it again. Strange for me, I know, but our schedule is a bit screwed up still.

For Breakfast: Mango smoothies, breakfast grain bowls (I made the rice for it!), cereal, English muffins and quiche and oatmeal and fruit

Lunches are tuna cold plate, deviled eggs, mac salad, and leftover soup.

Even though I was exhausted from the bakery orders and deliveries I had this weekend I caught my second wind last night and did a ton of meal prep.

I finished a chicken soup I had started, made a mac salad, boiled and peeled a dozen eggs to have in the fridge for salad and breakfast, made J-ello with fruit, cooked a batch of wild and brown rice for side meals, then I prepped a whole bunch of veggies for easy steaming. Asparagus, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, and celery for soups. We had three different containers of blueberries in the fridge so I sorted all of those and got them washed for topping oatmeal and such.

It felt good to get all of that accomplished. I still want to make a quiche and prep the green beans for dinners but I’ll get that done tonight.

All of this prep work gives us something to pull from all week which really helps the stress level and the itch to eat out.

I invested in a bunch of containers to help me with meal prep and storage. My favorites are the meal storage locking containers and what I like to call heavy duty deli containers. I use these containers for everything! They will take the heat of soup or the freezing of cake batter with ease. I purchased them all on Amazon.

I have a plan in place for growing our own food and preserving it this season. If you haven’t read my preserving goals yet here is a link to that post. https://marymargaretripley.com/2022/03/16/preserving-goals-for-2022/

How are you doing with your meals and keeping your costs down?

That’s it for now! Have a fantastic week 🙂 -MM

Preserving Goals for 2022

Last year was a bad year all around for preserving for us. The only thing I really got put up was tomatoes, chili sauce and jam which are of the utmost importance but there are so many other things I didn’t get done. I didn’t even get any herbs dried!

Here is a list I have come up with (yes it’s a long one) of what I would like to get preserved this summer.

I would like to can: beans, peaches, apricots, pickle relish, bread and butter pickles, beets, tomatoes, sauce, chili sauce, and veggie soup
I would like to freeze: peas, snap peas (for stir frys), applesauce, beet greens, chives, corn, blueberries, raspberries, pesto, prepared chili, and stuffed peppers, cut up peppers, and black raspberries
I would like to store: potatoes, winter squash, carrots, cabbage, brussels sprouts, pie pumpkins, garlic, shallots and onions.
I would like to dry basil, celery leaf, oregano, thyme, parsley, sage, lavender, peppermint and lemon balm and sweet chili powder I would also like to grow dry beans for storage too.
I also plan on making strawberry jam, violet jelly, dandelion jelly, grape jelly, peach jam, apricot jam, black raspberry jam, red raspberry jam and harvest our honey for the first time.
My goal is to also add asparagus, blueberry and rhubarb plants to the fleet this year.
I would also like to work on making our own lip balm, lotions and potions this year.