Sunday supper

 Baking off some chicken thighs and drums using a marked down, lurking box of pork yes, pork, shake and bake. Since the oven is on, I am baking off the rest of the sweet potatoes, which I will serve tomorrow. In the yellow lidded tub, I have a meal sized portion of homemade stuffing. These older carrots will be steamed and then some fzn peas added the last few minutes. I am also making home fried potatoes to use up the last of some far too long in the tooth, white potatoes. Dinners take their choice.

Simple tossed salad with choice of dressing.

What's been for dinner lately?

Saturday supper was French Canadian pate chinois (Sunday lunch leftovers pictured above) while Friday night was home made chicken burgers (stretched 1 lb marked down, ground chicken with some home made garlic bread crumbs from a former loaf of garlic bread, grated carrot, egg, spices) served on toast, with choice of sliced cheese and assorted condiments, leftover home made Calico baked beans. Yum.

May grocery top up

 Grocery replenishing/top up for the month. With impending surgery, I tried to replenish for the upcoming week, and to select some things that would be easy for those helping us, to prepare. Marked down finger rolls (thinking egg salad sandwiches), marked down Kaiser rolls (lunches if not fried egg and cheese bfst sandwiches), ALdi's hamburger buns, and potato hot dog buns

 2 doz eggs ($1 at Dollar tree), 2 gallons milk, 4 fzn OJ, qt 1/2 & 1/2

 2 pkgs tater tots (Dollar tree)

 8 boxes cereal from Aldi's, 2 Aldi's brownie mixes, brown sugar, large can coffee, bag of Hazelnut coffee (my Sunday treat)

 Marked down ground beef ended up costing just over $3/lb so I grabbed it, divided it into 8 oz pkgs and froze it. Some went into Sat night's supper.

 4 boxes Aldi's tissues

 2 tubs organic baby salad greens, tomatos, 3 lbs organic apples, cantaloupe, 3 Romaine hearts, rainbow chard

Busy day, so I grabbed 2 take n bake pizzas from Aldi's for our lunch.

I don't think so!

For months now, my electric bill has been just under $100. Perfect. Recent bill shot up to $122.32 while the previous month was only $97.41. Hmm . . what is up with that??!!??  While I did use the dryer a few times for non towel items, I can't figure out why the jump. There are 2 meters on the house, one is for the garage apartment next door, where the former tenant recently moved out, after 6 years. New guy came in after a few weeks. Could I have been billed for the electric for that place in the interim? Handyman was working over there, heat may have been on.  I plan on calling the electric company on Monday to double check that the electric for the garage was billed to the landlord and not me. I can't understand how it could jump $25! Could it have been the energy star dehumidifier down cellar?  Meanwhile, the electricity Natzi is back! This bill MUST go back to under $100.

Sorting through the teen's clothes

Image: http://www.weddingbeepro.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/wardrobe-008.jpg

While not as much, my living  room also now has 2 of these bags full of too small clothes from the teen boys here.

 Before sending them off to charity/donation or Freecycle, I pulled out several dress shirts, taking an idea from Frugal Queen (http://frugalincornwall.blogspot.com/) and reserving these shirts as valuable fabric resources for an upcoming quilt project I'd like to start this Summer, once I've recovered from my upcoming surgery. I've always viewed old clothing as a resource, but now ever more so, as I aim to do this project with as little money spent as possible. I have a slew of scrap fabric, some new, some trimmings from sewing so still new, some repurposed fabrics such as these dress shirts that I'll cut up over the Summer, in preparation for my quilt project. I've already purchased quilt batting (new in package) at Savers, plan on using an old sheet as a backing.

And the numbers are in

Image: http://www.wamycommunityaction.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/1221692138_ce23.jpg

Received another oil bill the other day, previous delivery was March 28th, this one was May 8th. I've been keeping a tally of when oil is delivered, the cost per gallon, how many gallons were used, what our daily usage on average for the time period has been. I initially guestimated my oil costs, upon moving in here, subsequently bumping that up, and now have officially gone over budget, redone a projection for usage until my current lease is up, estimating what my Summer costs will be. Besides for heat, oil is used to heat water.

The annual costs are off the charts, despite all of my efforts to conserve, budget, be frugal. Current budget for oil is now $454/month. I keep this figure in mind as I contemplate moving to more affordable quarters still in this area, vs toughing it out for another year. My new lease offer has yet to come, and I remain anxious to receive it, as I do anticipate a rental increase, but just how much? From what I have read on line, landlords can not significantly raise a rent while there is an existing lease. Great. Additionally (and this is the gray area for me, I'd need to research further), a landlord can not increase a rent within 6 months of maintenance repairs (specified as peeling paint, heating, water and electrical systems).

So, I continue to do my homework, monitor the rental as well as for sale market, keeping my options open.

Carla has a giveaway!

Image: http://halfdozendaily.typepad.com/.a/6a016300f919ba970d01901c0e799e970b-500wi


Carla from My halfdozendaily has a giveaway for the beautiful rainbow and linen pouch above:


http://halfdozendaily.typepad.com/my-half-dozen-daily/2013/05/a-rainbow-linen-pouch-giveaway.html#comment-6a016300f919ba970d01901c1264cc970b