Wow our pullets have grown so much and we put them in with the big girls so they all will be warmer this winter. They are so fun to watch, are discovering so many new things and learning a lot from the older chickens. I was worried for a while about them getting to cold but the weather has been abnormally warm so that helped to calm my fears. Now they are fully feathered so that will help keep them warm. The picture on the right are the older chickens and on the left is the younger (6 of the 8 we have). The older chickens have not been so nice when we've add to our flock previously but they seem to better with these girls, maybe because there is 8 of them not just 1 or 2. Chickens are so easy to raise and nothing beats having fresh eggs. You can't get more local than your own yard. I love my chickens. :)
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They are happy and loving life right now, they can run around in a bigger area and they are out of our house. Those little things sure can make a mess so we were ready for them to go outside. They have a little house and a heat lamp ready to go for tonight. Praying all goes well and its not to cold for them. It would make me sad if I lost a chick. Yes my chickens are spoiled I can't help it so is our dog & cat. :) I've been composting for years but never seem to make enough for my gardening needs so each year I end up buying some to add to my gardens. Check out the video. www.growingagreenerworld.com is my favorite garden show.
My answer to this question is everyone. If you don't know where your money is going you should. I attended a free Financial Class this week and learned a couple of things which I'll share.
1. I need to start paying myself (savings) first before paying anything else. This isn't a new concept to me I just haven't been doing it and I really should be. We don't have any savings right now so saving even a few dollars a week will add up. 2. That I'm am doing quite well is all other areas. I/we got rid of satellite tv & internet and bought an antenna so we only get free tv. It's not very many channels but that's okay then I don't spend a lot of time watching tv. We can always watch one of the vhs movies we have if we get bored. Planning meals by what is on sale each week and using coupons saves me time and money. I smile when a cashier says wow you saved a lot of money and got a bunch of groceries. Usually I respond by saying I always plan my shopping trip ahead of time. On occasion when my schedule doesn't allow the time to plan my shopping trip I'll grab a sales flyer, go back out to my car and match up coupons I have to the sales items. It makes for a quick trip because I only buy the sale items. Recently I started to sell the excess Duck and Chicken eggs to help pay for their feed and a little pocket money. There is more ways to save but I'll save them for another post. P.S. the class I took would be great for young adults just entering the work force, newlywed's or anyone wanting to learn about budgeting. I've been wanting Lasagna for a while but it's not something that I make very often not sure why. Homemade is always better to me than those frozen ones that you can buy at the store plus mine cost less for each pan. The picture is a pan of cold Lasagna but still looks yummy! I didn't use a recipe because I've made this so many times, it's just layering the ingredients.
This week at Safeway Old El Paso select items are on sale for $0.99 each. Plus you can print a coupon from coupons.com
We picked up 2 boxes of taco shells and a can of enchilada sauce for $0.99 each and used the $1.00 off of 2 coupon I printed plus 2- $1.00 coupon on my Just For You from my Safeway card. The 3 items were free and I made $0.03, that never happens. :)
Want more coupons? Click on the coupons link on the left side of this page or click on coupons at the top of the page. Thrifty living started many, many years ago Thrifty Living Part 3 is about food. I will list what works for me. First off I'd like to say I'm so lucky that my family has no restrictions on what foods they can eat and that they will eat pretty much anything I make. No picky eaters in my house. Having a plan before any shopping is pertinent. Step 1- Look at store flyer for the week to see what is on sale. Step 2- Make a meal plan around sale items and make a shopping list. Step 3- Look for coupons to use. (Step 4- Now days with smart phones you can use apps with coupons or get cast back on items you buy) Step 5-Eat something before you go shopping so you won't be tempted to buy something on impulse. Step 6-Gather coupons and shopping list and head to the store. Step 7-When returning from shopping put away perishable and non perishable items. Step 8-If time allows in the same day start the prep on some of the meals for the week. Chop vegetables, cook some of the meat (I cook ground beef ahead for quick and easy meals), measure and package meals for either the refrigerator or freezer. Step 9- Make dinner for that night from planned meals. Step 10- The next day do the work under step 8 if time didn't allow. It's so much easier to have meals planned out for a month. I kept the monthly meal plan on the fridge so my family would know what we are having for dinner that night. Plus a bonus for me if I have a meal prepped ahead in the freezer and I had to work late I would let my guys know to pull that meal out and put it in the oven. They could eat before I got home and not have to wait for me to cook. Yeah! We eat a lot of casserole type dishes, homemade soups, stews and chili. We all love meat but for the most part whatever the meat is becomes part of the dish not the main part unless we are grilling. Yet when grilling we try to grill lots of veggies too to bulk up the meal. Below you will see a list of meals or foods that I thought my family would like and so I based some of the meal planning around them. (this is from 8-2014). Who doesn't like comfort foods? For simplicity I would print of a generic calendar month to use for meal planning and write in the date and the meal. That's it for that part. If your new to cooking look at some cook books or online for inspiration. I never thought I would like split pea soup until I made it myself and now I love it. More food posts to come. Happy Thrifty Living! Condiments aren't something that I ask for when ordering fast food because I feel that if the fries are good enough they don't need ketchup. Now if they put them in my bag that's fine they will get used. The ketchup, mustard, mayo, etc packets get put in a zip top bag and put in one of the drawers in the refrigerator, in a lunch bag or used when we grill outside. My husband complains if we have to many and throws them away when he can so I try not to keep very many at any given time.
Salt and Pepper packets are different those get opened and put in the salt and pepper shakers. Plus the paper wrappers get put in my compost. These are everyday items that don't get much thought and get tossed out. You won't believe how many times we have ran out of ketchup, mustard or mayonnaise in my house and these little packets made it onto a sandwich of some sort. :) APS Arizona Public Service Company regularly sends out information on how to save money on electricity which is great because I'm always looking for ways to save money on everything. APS sends a newsletter with all bills and this month it has an article on Shift, Stagger & Save. Since our sleep schedule varies so much that we have been able to Shift running the dishwasher and doing laundry after 7 PM at night. Staggering major appliances has pretty easy too. Saving by unplugging all non essential appliances such as Coffee Pot, Toaster, Small Oven, Blenders, Juicers, etc. Set the Sleep Timer on the TV so it's not playing with no one watching it. Here's a good article about Energy Vampires and Fire Monsters. Don't mind the Halloween theme in this article it is still informative. I'm forever telling my family "Don't leave the cell phone chargers plugged in when your not charging your phone". :) Image Credit APS This is for information purposes only I am not being paid for this post.
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AuthorHello I'm Michele & I'm the matriarch of the Leverone Family Farm. I'm a wife, a mother of 2 grown/married sons and have 4 adorable grand kids. Thrifty for more than 30 years. I love gardening, cooking and saving money. Archives
November 2021
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