Making Cents Of It All

I was running low on bread crumbs. I went to my freezers and started pulling out bread that I could make breadcrumbs with. Thanks to my son's job, there is never a shortage of bread items in our house. I grabbed Italian bread and lots of bagels. I used plain, sesame, poppy and everything bagels. They work well as bread crumbs. I turned the oven to 400 degrees and started cutting everything up.   I then layed them out on cookie sheets. They went into the oven for 15 minutes. They were toasted when they came out. Into the food processor they went. After a minute I had crumbs. I then sift mine. We like fine bread crumbs The big chunks are put back on a cookie sheet and go back into the oven for another 5 minutes. Be careful not to burn them. Burnt breadcrumbs are not good.  Then I put them back into the food processor. When I have a large quantity of fine bread crumbs I pour them into a container. I use old nut or herb container

Where did January go? I blinked and it is over. February is the shortest month so money wise it is one of the easiest. Lets see what we have going on this month.  Financial - Put 15% into retirement.  - Grocery Budget of $400 average for the year.  - List 30 new items on eBay and Craigslist.   - Make $250 side hustle - Go over our budget with Hubby   - Go over the kid's budgets with each of them.   - YD apply for scholarships.  - Get tax stuff together and send to accountant - File YD and son's taxes Family - Go on a date with Hubby - Celebrate Valentine's Day - Celebrate Hubby's birthday - Go prom dress shopping with YD - Talk with OD at least 5 times a week. - Take Oreo for recheck Personal - Work out 15 minutes every other day. - Read 2 books  Food - D o one meatless meal a day. - Do one day a week with no meat at all.  - Try 2 new recipes.    - Get another pantry item to 6 months.   - No food waste.    Cleaning

We have had a busy week. The laundry area is coming along nicely. Everything is painted and shelves went up. The dryer is hooked up and working. The washing machine is not hooked up because we are waiting for the the new hoses to arrive. I love that my vacuum fits in there now. It never has before. It always sat in the office because I didn't have any where to store it. I am love with the light. It just makes it look so much better.  I cooked another pumpkin. I still have one more in the basement to cook still.  I cleaned out the coat closet. We had so many gloves, scarves and hats. I donated a bag of each to my church outreach program. We also got rid a few coats, bags and board games. They were happy to have it all.  We ate really well this week. I grilled a bunch of chicken cutlets.We ate them with baked white and sweet potatoes and broccoli. The next night I made a big salad. We had pasta with veggies, and flank steak in the crock pot 2 other nights. 

If you have ever read any of my  Friday Freebies  posts, you know my son brings home lots of bread and bagels from work. I am trying to use more of what I have instead of buying processed foods. Hubby and I are trying to watch our weight/lose some so I have been making lots of salads. Hubby is allergic to dairy(butter, milk, cheese) and lots of croutons that you buy in the store contain dairy. I used to make croutons all of the time but have been lazy about it in the last few years. Not any more.  I took one of the plain bagels and cut in in half. I then cut in into slices Then I cut it into cubes.  I put them into a covered container.  I added olive oil, parsley, garlic powder and onion powder. I covered it up and shook it. I then put them on a cookie sheet. I baked them at 400 degrees for 10 minutes. They came out perfect! We had a big salad for dinner. I put out lots of toppings so everyone gets what they like.

The library had a Fairy Lights in a jar class. I drove my friend and I this time. The library supplied everything. We had a great time talking and crafting. I think it came out really cute. My sister's new house is almost done. They are having all of the final inspections and doing finishing touches. They have a storage bin on the property and were getting rid of it. They had 2 windows that were changed after they were ordered. They were custom so you can't return them. My sister asked if we wanted them. Otherwise she was going to let the contractor have them. They were expensive! Hubby said to take them. We have been talking about putting another window in our kitchen. So we now have another project in the near future. I am all for making it as inexpensive as possible. She also went through all of her DVDs. We picked out a few that we wanted. OD picked out a few and the rest we are passing on to friends and coworkers. My aunt bought Oreo a get well

I like to point out the good instead of the bad. Life will always have some bad but the good is always there if you look. I choose to look at the good.  1. Oreo if feeling much better! The anti-inflammatories are working great. Hubby said she is acting younger. She is 13 so the meds are helping all of her. She isn't limping or yelping. I am so happy that my puppy girl is feeling good again.  2. YD got into all 4 colleges that she applied to. We are so proud of her. She also got into the honors college for 2 of them and we are waiting to hear from the third. Scholarships have been coming in as well. She has been working very hard and I am so excited for her. 3. A friend of mine has been having a rough time lately. I was able to go and see her yesterday for a little while. I brought her some treats that my son brought home from work as well as a bunch of yarn that I was given for free. It was a short visit because she had to pick up her daughter. It was great to just get to giv

Tonight I ate dinner alone and I did not like it. My kids were at work and Hubby is working late. Dinner was ready and I ate it. I did eat in the dining room where we always eat but it was weird eating buy myself.  I am #4 out of 5 kids. My dad worked 9-5 and we always ate dinner together unless he was traveling for work. We always sat at the dining room table (our kitchen was tiny) and we talked about our day. It was loud but entertaining. I remember when my oldest sister got a job. My mom would sit with her when she ate dinner if she wasn't at home when the rest of us ate. I remember her doing it with me when I got a job. We always ate with someone.  We are big breakfast people. We always make a big breakfast on the weekends. We do waffles, pancakes with fruit compote, french toast with fresh strawberries, biscuits with sausage gravy, or omelettes with hashbrowns. Don't forget a side of bacon with that. We eat together as a family. Breakfast is at 9am so that is when they

It has gotten cold outside. It is in the single digits today with a windchill in the negatives. The wind is howling. Extra blankets were put on everyone's bed. YD and I have been doubling up our socks at home. Everyone has been wearing multiple layers.  We have our laundry in a closet in my kitchen. The closet is very small, very cold and just not done efficiently. The doors are horrible. Hubby decided to do something about it. He gutted the whole area down to the studs. It was a mess. Some of the studs were cut wrong. It was just shoddy workmanship. Hubby has been working with help from my son. They redid the plumbing and electrical. They put in 2 high hats as there was never any light in there. They added more outlets and replaced the one that was there. Next insulation was hung and sheet rock went up. They started sparkling too. I am so excited.  I printed out a $10 GC to Home Depot from Lucky Bucks and a $5 GC from Verizon points. They both went to the

My son was closing at work last night. He is lucky that his managers let employees bring home the leftovers which prevents them from going in the dumpster. He brought home a loaf of cinnamon raisin bread. He has never brought this item home. He mentioned that other employees use it for French toast. I usually use challah bread. This time we used the cinnamon raisin.  I did an egg mix with soy milk, vanilla and cinnamon. Then we put it into the frying pan with a little vegetable oil. About 3 minutes on each side (until they start getting brown). We used GF bread for YD.  They came out delicious. Sometimes we put strawberries with powered sugar on top. I didn't have any so I had a side of apple sauce.  We even have some leftovers for another day.