| | It's 2.52 PM...
I learned a lot about gardening the past couple of months... I did a post a while back, with pictures, of my balcony container garden. Most of them are doing really well, except for my dreaded sugar snap peas  The heat wave from a month back killed half the plants, and the remaining ones were dry on the bottom half. Although the ones that survived kept growing and even gave flowers and a few sugar snaps, aphids got to them I also learned that my 3-foot bamboo stakes were waaaay to short for the ever growing sugar snap pea vines... This year, I will have to spend a little bit more money on good stakes and try growing sugar snaps again in the fall.
This past Friday though, I went out to the balcony and had to ask Vince to come look with me because I thought I was dreaming! After 3 months of waiting impatiently, worrying about whether my $13 blueberry plant will survive or die (people say it can be quite difficult to get a blueberry plant to flourish and give out fruit), I saw the green fruits turn purple!!!! Some of them are already very purple and plump, but they still need a few days on the stem (you can tell when the fruits are ripe because they'll come off the stem really easily) to sweeten a bit more. I was concerned that my soil isn't acidic enough. I used Miracle Grow potting soil, which has a neutral pH but for blueberries, I neede acidic soil. About a week before I got the plant, I started mixing the soil with coffee grounds, which the blueberry seem to enjoy. Then, after planting, I found out I can pour the whey leftover from yogurt making into the soil. I think the whey is acidic and has lots of protein. Blueberries seem to love the whey and I don't need to feed the plants with any other fertilizer. Just whey and lots of water  We'll see how those blueberries taste!
Gardening can end up costing a lot more than expected hahaha... Thankfully, I have quite a few pots now and hopefully I can make my own starters from this year's plants (necessary for basil and I'm crossing my fingers hoping the strawberries will send runners!).
Anyway... I'm a little afraid to look at all my food receipts this month... Quite a few "food ministry" opportunities came up and for June, I'm making dinner for the college group people going on a conference trip (we can't go because of cost, and we just got a new car) and because those items are on sale now, I feel a bit pushed to get them this month instead of next month. Since next month should be more quiet in terms of food ministry, it should still be OK overall.
Our monthly expenses also dropped this month and we met our goal of spending less than $1,000 on our credit card. Normally those expenses include anything related to food, clothes, car, housekeeping, health, toiletries, entertainment (going out to eat and movies), travel, gifts (if needed), miscellaneous things and our Cox bill. Basically, our credit card expenses consist of all living expenses with the exception of mortgage, some utility bill like gas and electricity, tithing, and our association fee. I'm actually quite pleased with the lower monthly expenses and hope to keep it going
So... today's actually my very last shopping trip for the month of May. I was debating whether to go today or wait til tomorrow but I'm so glad I went today. My Ralph's store had many ground beef chubs for very cheap! I got 4 3lb. chub of ground beef for $1.49 each, which comes out to $0.50 per pound! The reason behind the price is because the sell by date for the chubs is tomorrow. I grabbed 4 because I will need 2 to make lasagna for conference people, and I can always use ground beef for us too. Our 2 chubs will last us at least 2 or 3 months! The ground beef went straight for the freezer when I got home, so don't worry, people won't get sick from the lasagna at the conference. I have a rule that the food I make for other people (potluck, serving ministry, get togethers), is made of things that I actually eat and enjoy. I use the same ingredients for potluck food and for home foods (some people might not like to know what I put in my funky dishes at times... but it has nothing to do with the price hahaha...)
At this point, I hang my head in shame... I'm at -$16.28 for food which meant my budget next month is lessened by $16.28. I blame it all on me being sick last week, so I drank all the orange juice and milk... I also realized that taking medicine without eating is not such a good idea. I think I had a slight overdose from acetaminophen (not a good thing ever!!) because I was so sick I didn't want to cook but I wanted to get better so I would eat cereal with milk, and take medicine. Cereal and milk all day does not constitute a nutritious meal, especially when one is sick! So, today's shopping trip included some canned pasta sauce so the next time I'm feeling sick, I can just quickly defrost some ground meat, open the can, boil pasta and eat something more nutritious than just cereal and milk...
By the way, if you're a shopper for your household, note that June is Dairy Month. So, if you need eggs, milk, cream, cheese, butter, whatever is considered dairy, you should see tons of coupons and tons of advertised dairy sales in the store fliers. This is when I jump and grab as many flavored coffee creamers as I can (I think they can be considered dairy, they're in the dairy aisle). Christmas is a great time to get coffee creamer too (I grabbed so many last Christmas, I haven't needed any til now).
Anyway, on to other things... I think for food ministry budget, I'm at -$15.06 but now all the expenses for the lasagna is covered (I think I might still need to grab some cheese but am waiting to see if June will bring cheese prices down) other than the lasagna noodles. So, not too shabby I think and come June, I'll have about $15 to complete the lasagna meal Ah also, I'm not going to type out my shopping list anymore... It makes the post way too long, and who really cares about how much I spend on things anyway? I will mention crazy good sales like the ground beef from today but other than that, I think I might just take a picture and give the total amount! Much easier to read, much easier to post...
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| | Posted 5/17/2009 11:40 AM - 19 Views - 0 eProps - 1 Comment
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