Time for No Bake Cookies

I have had one of those summer colds that you get from going outside in the hot weather and then coming back inside into the air conditioning.  So in order to help keep my grandson Ryan healthy, I haven’t had him as much as I usually do.  I have spent the majority of the time resting on the couch in our living room and watching movies in between sleeping.  I have drunk enough water to drain a lake.  Lots of rest is the best medicine for when you are sick.  When I was working full time I would be sick twice as long as I didn't get enough sleep.  This is the best part about being home.  Even when I have Ryan, I can always take a nap when he is taking a nap if I feel I need the rest.

Today we are back to our normal schedule.  I put Ryan in the stroller and leashed up our dog, Molly and we walked my husband to work at 8:00 a.m.  Then we took a long walk and got back in time for Ryan to have his strained veggies.  Today’s choice was carrots.  Then there was a quick run to Wal-mart and around 10:00 we had play time.  I sit and play with Ryan on a quilt that I use just for him and we sit on the porch swing and enjoy the outside before it gets too hot.  Before long he was tired so I gave him a bottle and cuddled him to sleep.  He is now napping in his bed.  However, I have no idea if this is going to be a 1 hour or 3 hour nap.  So, I don’t depend on nap time being a time that I can get a lot done.  I just do little stuff.

With it being so hot outside, I hate to heat up the oven.  However, it is hard to go without having a few cookies on hand to eat with a cup of coffee.  It is during the summer that I rely on no bake recipes AND I also rely on making cookie dough ahead of time to freeze.  Sometimes I make no bake cookies and other times I take cookie dough out of the freezer and bake a few cookies in the early morning before the weather gets hot.  If you have the cookie dough ready to go, it saves so much time in the morning.

I have two basic no bake cookie recipes that we enjoy.  One calls for sugar and corn syrup which I know a lot of people are trying to avoid, but cookies have sugar and fat in them so if you are trying lose weight or lower your consumption of sugar, then don’t eat them.  For me, I would rather eat one cookie with all the bad stuff in it than 3 cookies made fat free and with a sugar substitute.  All things in moderation is my motto.

No Bake Chocolate Cookies

1/2 cup margarine or butter

2 cups sugar

6 tablespoons cocoa

1/2 cup milk

Pinch of salt

4 cups quick oats

1 teaspoon vanilla

Cook the margarine, sugar, cocoa, milk and salt.  This means that as soon as it starts to boil, time it for 2 minutes.  Then stir in the vanilla and oatmeal.   Drop by tablespoons onto waxed paper or a cookie sheet lightly sprayed with cooking spray.  Cool.

Cereal Bars

1 cup sugar

1 cup corn syrup

1 cup peanut butter

4 – 5 cups cornflakes

Melt the corn syrup and sugar together.  Bring to a boil.  Add peanut butter and stir well.  Pour over the cornflakes.  Stir.  Spread into a greased 9 x 13 inch pan.  Let cool.  (You can add just about any kind of cereal to this instead of the cornflakes.)  Another option is to melt a bag of chocolate chips with 1/4 cup peanut butter and spread over the top.  I leave this off as the bars are good without the topping.

It's going to be really, really hot!!!

I just heard on the news that here in Iowa today the temperature will be hovering around 100 degrees.  The weather forecast for the entire week will be the same each day.  Hot.  That means the heat index will make it feel hotter.  This is not the time to scrimp on air conditioning.  I am keeping the window air conditioners set at 68 degrees in order to keep our downstairs nice and comfortable.  The one thing I can't stand is to be hot.  I can live with being cold as I can always add a sweater and layer my clothes to be warmer.

The challenge in August when it is this hot is to try to figure out what to serve for supper. By now we have done a lot of grilling so it isn't quite the novelty as it was at the beginning of the summer and it is too hot to stand outside over an even hotter grill.  It is on days like this that I pull out the electric roaster that I use to cook the turkey at Thanksgiving and I set it up in the basement.  I use it as a portable oven.

Tonight I will be cooking my semi-famous turkey casserole in it.  Here is the link to the recipe. Back in June I roasted a turkey that I had leftover from Christmas and I carefully cut the breast pieces for sandwiches or to use as the main dish for dinner sometime.  The rest of the meat was cut into small pieces for soup or casseroles and the carcass was boiled down for broth.  All the meat and broth was frozen for later use such as a day like today.

I will put the casserole together in a square casserole dish and place it in the roaster to bake.   The best part of this is that the heat from baking this casserole does not affect the temperature in my kitchen as it cooks in the basement and the heat stays there.  Also it takes less energy to heat the roaster and it preheats in no time at all.  To complete our dinner meal, I will serve watermelon and a tossed salad.

I know some people will think who wants to eat something hot on a hot day, but these are also the same people who will go to an air conditioned restaurant for a hot meal or stand in the hot sun grilling some meat.

As I write this post, Ryan is taking his nap.  He spent the morning at his other grandpa's house as I needed some extra rest as I have a cold.  While he is napping I may take a nap myself or go through some of my sewing patterns so I can plan my next project.  I'm already thinking ahead to Christmas and there are several gifts I want to make.  I don't want to wait until November or December to work on these projects.  Also, there are a few tops that I would like to sew for myself.

I better start getting more sleep at night as when Ryan goes down for a nap, it will be sewing and craft time for Grandma.

Renewed Focus

I have been back from vacation for two weeks.  Over vacation I started to think more and more about this blog and how I seemed to have writer's block.  After all it has been close to 4 years since I began this blog and what more could I say about frugal living?  Then it dawned on me this morning that with watching my grandson 4 days a week, I have so much more to contribute, so I will not abandon this blog that I love so much.

I will try to post every other day what I have been doing and give you a glimpse into my daily life which has changed tremendously from 4 years ago.  So let’s begin this new journey together.

Last week was the second week that I watched my grandson Ryan while his mom works at her family business and coaches volleyball and while his dad teaches math at the high school and coaches cross country.  Ryan has lots of aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents including a great-grandma that lives nearby.  I raised my kids living in the Midwest while my parents lived in New York and my in laws moved from the east coast to the west coast.  We were on our own when it came to caring for our sons, but we didn’t think anything of it as it was our normal way of live.

It would be hard to watch Ryan if it wasn’t for his good nature.  He is happy, and good natured.  Ryan has the same temperament that his daddy had when he was a baby.  About the only time he gets fussy is when it is nap time.

The one thing I have learned from watching Ryan is that basic items that you need to have in your home to care for a baby have gone up in cost tremendously.  Also there are more and more “necessities” for baby on the market. One day I went to purchase a pacifier for him to keep at my house.  There were about 50 different kinds of pacifiers to choose from.  When my kids were little I think there were just 2 kinds.  Also there are all sorts of unnecessary things that you really don’t need.  I don’t need a baby monitor or a wipe warmer. 

 I have purchased items as I have needed them.  For example, I purchased a Graco portable crib/play pen.  I bought it new and on sale for one reason.  Many times items are recalled and I knew that this one item was important for me to buy new.  It has 3 levels so that I have been able to raise or lower the bed as Ryan has grown.  This has been a big help for my back. 

I purchased the exact stroller that Ryan has at home.  It fits his car seat and it is a heavy duty jogging stroller.  I looked at a lot of strollers and I found more and more had wheels made of plastic.  Knowing how much a stroller can be used even for more than one child, my mind was made up to research and buy quality.  Again some online shopping paid off when I found a heavy duty jogging stroller on sale for $20 less than offered in a store along with free shipping.

Ryan is almost 6 months old so I added a walker and high chair as the final things I need for him.  I searched at local consignment shops for these items but found that I could get them on sale with free shipping to me for a bit more money.  In fact, the walker was only $5 more new and the high chair was only $30 on a close out clearance sale. 

I give Ryan a bath every now and then as needed.  I refused to pay $25 for a baby bath.  I simply put a folded towel in the bottom of the bath tub and took another towel and rolled it up to for him to rest his head on.  Then I simply lower him on the towel and wash him and let him kick in the water.

As far as items such as baby bath, lotion and powder, I went to the Dollar Tree and bought these items for $1.00 each.  I keep a large bottle of hand sanitizer near where I change Ryan’s diapers.  This was also purchased for $1.00. 

I have purchased a few toys along the way at garage sales.  Anything that is plastic such as rattles and the sort I wash and dip in boiling water to disinfect them. 

My son and his wife provide diapers, formula, cereal and jarred baby food for Ryan.  I supply the baby wipes.  Normally I would have just purchased white cheap wash cloths and used soap and water to clean him, but I came upon a deal at Wal-mart.  I was able to get 400 baby wipes for $6.00.  These are really thick wipes and even with a messy diaper, I only need one wipe.

I really enjoy caring for Ryan.  It is almost like I have been given a do over in my life.  I always wanted to stay home with my kids when they were young, but we just couldn’t afford it.  Now I am home and helping to care for my grandson and I am loving it. 

So, this is the challenge of my new life:  caring for my grandson a few days a week, managing my time and home along with continuing my dedication to frugal living.

Tips for Today: 

1.  The advantage of having a stockpile of pantry and freezer items has become invaluable to me as I don’t want to run out to the grocery store for one item with a 6 month old in tow if I don’t have too.

2.  I had been making my own hair detangler but discovered that a 10 oz. bottle of children’s hair detangler only cost $1.00 at the Dollar Tree.  It works great on my hair hair.  Also my hair is dry so I use conditioner in the shower.  After towel drying my hair I squirt a little conditioner into my palms and rub it on the bottom 3 inches of my hair.  I rub it into my ends and I let my hair air dry.  Air drying my hair helps to keep it from being damaged by the heat of the dryer and the additional conditioner helps to keep my hair moisturized.  

Vacationing, kind of

I'm on vacation for a few more days.  Actually, I'm visiting my mom out east.  I'll be blogging when I get home. I miss my family and home and am ready to get back home and cook regular meals. 

In my down time this week I have been working on a new household schedule for when I begin caring for my grandson 4 days a week beginning next week.  I know I will only be able to get household chores done during naptime.  However my walking time should increase as he loves to be in his stroller going on walks.  It's a pleasant and happy trade off.

Finding more money in the Budget and Inventorying

Last week is a blur and I didn’t post as often as I wanted to post.  Here are some updates on our budget and saving more money each month.  Back in April I quit getting my nails done and finally after 3 months, my nails are strong, healthy and grown to a perfect length.  My nails are just at the tips of my fingers which is a perfect length.  I had been wearing acrylic nails for 12 1/2 years and it was time for my real nails to see the light of day.  Savings is $50 a month. 

Today I decided that I would cancel my membership at the Curves fitness center.  Savings will be $36 a month.  I made this decision after pondering it for several weeks and I decided that with my schedule and their limited hours that it was getting harder to get there to work out.  Also I am finding that walking outside and lifting weights at home is doing just as good a job of keeping me in shape.

I downgraded our Netflix account to 2 dvd’s being sent in a month.  We used to have unlimited dvd’s mailed in a month, but frankly I find a lot of dvd’s at the local library so I wasn’t getting my money’s worth from Netflix.  One time I had a dvd sitting on my kitchen counter for almost a month before I watched it.  We will be keeping the unlimited streaming of Netflix as that is something we seem to use.  The savings will be $3.00.  Okay, $3.00 big deal right?  Pennies add up and so do dollars.  In time I will probably cancel having the dvd’s mailed to us altogether for an $8.00 per month savings. 

We are also looking at our cell phone bill.  We have a shared plan.  After reviewing some recent monthly bills we have realized that we are not using the amount of gigabytes that we are paying for.  By reducing this to what we are actually using we will save around $20 a month. 

Total amount of savings for the above is $109 per month. 

So, little things add up and inventorying our resources has really added up to a big list.  I was going to post what I have in my pantry but I want to delay that until the next post.  Instead I am listing what I have stored away for toiletries, paper, laundry and hair care products. 

As with everything that I have inventoried, all products were bought on sale.  However,  it is in the following categories that I used the most coupons teamed with sales. That is why I have so much laundry soap.  When there is a sale for $2.00 a jug of liquid laundry soap and you have $1.00 off coupons, you stock up.  In one case there was a major sale in which I bought laundry soap for 88 cents a jug.  It was that sale that really grew my stockpile. 

Here we go:

Toiletries

 Bar Soap – 36 bars of ivory soap, 144 bars of bath soap, 8 bars of Oil of Olay, 15 bars of Dove and 4 bars of Castile soap.

I also have 2 bottles of men’s and 8 bottles of women’s body wash.

Lotion – 8 bottles

Shampoo – 13 bottles

Conditioner – 6 bottles

Ladies Razors – 36 razors

Deoderant – 28 sticks

Toothpaste – 4 tubes

Paper Products

Paper Towels – 62 rolls

Toilet paper – 276 double rolls and 56 single rolls

Kleenex – 2 boxes

Laundry Items

Octagon Laundry and cleaning soap – 7 bars

Fels Naptha – 3 bars

Laundry Detergent (jugs) – 59 jugs – 50 oz size.

Laundry Detergent (powder) – 15 boxes

Softener, Sheets – 5 boxes

Softener, Bottles – 6 bottles

Purex Laundry Crystals – 5 bottles

Borax – 1/2 box

Shout Pre-Wash – 2 bottles

Tide Boost – 1/2 bottle and 1/2 box of powder

Bleach – 1 jug

There is some measure of pride and comfort in knowing that I can provide for my family through sales, stockpiling and inventorying to make sure that everything is managed and stretched in order to save more money.  It is a skill that I have learned and probably is right up there with being one of the most important skills I have ever learned.  

Counting Your Resources

This month marks my 4^th year of being home.  I have had a few little jobs along the way, the last was working at the local library for a few hours a week.  I quit that job to devote my time to being a grandma. 

Now my husband and I are facing our biggest financial challenge since I’ve been home – paying for the next 18 months of our youngest son’s college education.  We had enough money saved up to pay for his first two years of college and then we knew we would have to get creative.  We would prefer not to take out any student loans, but we may have to take out a small one.  In the meantime, we have to tighten our belts if we are going to avoid borrowing more money for his education.

The biggest way to save money, is not to spend money.  Sounds simple doesn’t it?  Well, honestly that is the best way to save money by not spending money.  So in an effort to not spend money, I have taken the time to inventory our resources.  You have to know what you have in your home (your resources) otherwise you end up spending money on food items you already have on hand (as an example). 

Beginning 4 years ago I became a person who stocks up on sales.  The summertime is the best time in our area to find meat prices at their lowest of the year.  I know that I can count on frozen vegetables to be at their rock bottom price in January or February.  When I have the money, I keep stocking up on sale items until I feel that enough is enough.

There are some decisions to be made when you are stocking up.  When is enough, enough?  Well my freezer was pretty stocked when they had an in store sale on 85% lean ground beef last week for only $1.99 lb.  Even though I already had plenty on hand, this was too great of a deal to miss out on.  I bought 40 lbs.  By reorganizing my freezer I was able to find space for it.  I know that I will not see that price on meat for a long time, if ever again.

It has taken a few weeks to inventory all the food in my freezer and pantry, toiletries, paper products, cleaning and laundry products.  Yes, it was time consuming BUT I now know all of the resources that we have on hand and I now have an idea as to how long I can make these resources last.  When I say make these items last, I am not going to sacrifice nutrition by only eating what I have on hand.  I will supplement our food resources with perishables as I go along.  I am also back to baking all of our bread products.

I will share over the next few days what I have in each category and the challenge will be on to see how long I can make everything last. 

The following is a list of items that I have in my large freezer and the freezer above the fridge in our kitchen.  Yes, it is quite a bit for two people but we do have family over to eat a couple times a week.  I enjoy cooking for my family. 

I was able to get everything on sale at rock bottom prices.  The only thing that I would like to add is some chicken hind quarters if I find a good sale.  There has not been a sale on chicken hindquarters for over 9 months.  By the way, I have never had a problem with freezer burn as I am very careful about double wrapping my meat. 

Beef:

Beef Roasts – 3 roasts at 3 to 4 lbs.

Italian Meatballs – 1 lb.

Hamburger – 80% lean – 3 lbs.

Hamburger – 85% lean – 72 lbs.

Hamburger – 93% lean – 3 lbs.

Sloppy Joes – 2 pkgs – enough for 2 meals

Pork:

Shredded Cooked Pork – 1 lb.

Pork Loin Roasts – 2 roasts at 3 lbs. each

Pork Cushion Roasts – 2 roasts at 3 to 4 lbs.

Iowa Chops – 6 chops

Pork Loin Slices – 12 slices

Pork Broth – 1 cup

Boneless Ham – 2 lbs.

Bacon – 5 – 1 lb. pkgs.

Bratwursts – 17 brats

Ground Pork – 11 lbs..

Smoked Polish Sausage – 3 ½ lbs.

Little Smokeys – 1 ½ lbs.

Ham Loaf – 5 lbs.

Ham Deli Meat – 1 lb.

Canadian Bacon – 2 pkgs.

Hot Dogs – 13 pkgs.

Shaved Ham – 4 lbs.

Chicken:

Bone in Chicken Breasts – 2

Breaded Chicken Patties – 3

Chicken Thighs – 10 thighs

Split Chicken Breasts – 2 packages

Boneless Chicken Breasts – 4 breasts

Ground Chicken – 3 lbs.

Turkey:

Ground Turkey – 2 lbs.

Turkey Patties – 12

Turkey Deli Sandwich Meat – 2 lbs.

Cooked Turkey Breast Slices (From a turkey I cooked last month)

Cut up cooked turkey meat – 3 lbs. (From a turkey I cooked last month)

Turkey Broth – 8 cups

Cheese:

Shredded Mozzarella Cheese – 20 – 8 oz. packages

Shredded Cheddar Jack Cheese – 8 – 8 oz. packages

Shredded Sharp Cheddar Cheese – 2 – 8 oz. packages

Shredded Swiss Cheese – 1 ½ cups

String Cheese – 4 – 12 oz. packages

Fruits and Vegetables:

Mixed Vegetables – 7 – 1 lb. pkgs.

Corn – 10 - 1 lb. pkgs.

Peas & Carrots – 1 – 1 lb. pkg.

Peas – 3 – 1 lb. pkgs.

Broccoli – 2 – 1 lb. pkgs.

California Blend – 1 – 1 lb. pkg.

Green Beans -1 – 1 lb. pkg.

Hash Browns – 2 lbs.

Small assortment of vegetables – 1 ½ pkgs.

Tomato Paste – 11 – 6 oz. plastic containers

Strawberry Freezer Jam – 9 – 1 ½ cup containers

Whole Strawberries – 3 – 2 cup containers

Cranberries – 4 – 10 oz. packages

Raspberries – 1 cup

Bananas - 7

Orange Juice – 7 Containers

Other:

Unsalted Butter – 3 sticks

Oyster Crackers – 5 – 12 oz. packages

Instant Yeast – 1 lb. 

Tomorrow's post:  My list of what I have in my pantry.

A Tribute to a Wonderful Lady

When some people are going through a lot of difficulties in their life, they find that writing helps them.  For me, it is the opposite.  I am more introspective and I don’t feel like writing until the crisis is over and then I find the words flow.  That is why my blog has been so “vacant” for awhile. 

My daughter in law and her family have endured a lot of heartache over the past 18 months.  Last year her two grandparents died within a few months of each other, her paternal grandmother died in April of this year and sadly her mother died last week. 

Her mom was only 57 years old and had been battling cancer for a few years.  When the term “battling” is used, it applies to her life.  She did whatever it took to be there for her family.  She was one strong lady.  There was a wedding and 3 grandchildren that were born after her diagnosis.  This was also her second round of cancer. 

My daughter in law’s family is very, very close.  It is remarkable to see three daughters who are close to each other and have a great relationship with each other.  They have been close all their lives which tells you something about their parents. 

Then it is wonderful to see the closeness they had with their parents.  But it is their parents’ relationship to each other that is remarkable.  I have said over the past few years that their marriage was what marriage was meant to me – in sickness and in health, no matter what, they were there for each other.  They were each other’s best friend and their love was contagious if you were around them.  My daughter in law’s father was devoted to his wife.  He took care of her and they were constantly together, living their lives as fully as possible. 

I will miss my daughter in law’s mom as we were grandmas together.  It was also her remarkable mothering that gave me such a lovely and loving daughter in law. 

Life goes on, and it will eventually return to a new normal for my daughter in law’s family, but in the meantime life is a little hard. 

Tomorrow I will be starting a series on living off the resources that you have in your home starting with what I have in my freezer.