Todays Weekly Revue

On either Saturday or Sunday, I do a quick weekly review of what happened over the past week. Keep in mind that I challenge myself to save more, some people wont. Its like a little stupid game to see if I can save more than I did the previous week.

I start off Saturday with my free fun time. I walk dogs at the animal shelter. I love animals and cant think of anything better to do. My son wants to start going, and what a better way to spend quality time, help the animals, and its free.

I start by reading my electric meter, logging the amount on the calendar, and comparing usage against last week, to see where I am for the month. Last week I was using an average of 40kw per day, this week I am down to 33kw per day. I was really surprised. I cant think of much different that I did except maybe because it is cooler outside I opened the doors toward evening on the side of the house that the sun wasn't shining in and let in the cooler air that we are finally getting.

Next was an inventory of the food supply so that I can go grocery shopping either today or tomorrow. I still have plenty of meat, lots of pasta, rice and canned & frozen veggies, all picked up from earlier sales. I checked the grocery store flyer online and didn't notice anything earth shattering, so I made a list of what I needed which was really only ketchup, milk,bread, and my son ask for english muffins. I learned to ask my son what he wants, rather than just buying things, and only buy what he asks for if it is something that I cant make.

Next I do a mental, sometimes written menu for the week. I have a bag of boneless skinless chicken breast I bought last week for $5.99, still have several steaks left from a larger box of meat I bought in May, one package of loin chops left from a buy 1 get 1 free sale, about a lb of ground chuck, a cornish hen left from a 2 for $5 sale, and a package of split chicken breast from another buy 1 get one sale. So I base my weekly menu from this and shop accordingly.

As I cook for the week, I will cook two extra chicken breasts and cut them up to mix with pasta, 1/2 bag of frozen veggies, and stir it together with a jar of alfredo sauce left from another buy 1 get one sale for another night.

I need dog biscuits, but its so much cheaper to make them, and the dogs love them. A bag of dog bones is about $5, this recipe is about $1 or less. Some people I know have kids that love to make them. When I cook the split chicken breast, I will save the bones, simmer them in water for about 15 minutes. Here is the dog bone recipe.

Dog Biscuits
2 cups flour, 1/2 cup cornmeal, 6 tblsp oil, and 2/3 cups of water which I replace with the water I boiled the chicken bones in. Mix everything together, roll out the dough and cut into squares or shapes, bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes. I use the toaster oven of course and I usually double this recipe since my dogs are pretty big. Instead of rolling out the dough, I press it into a flat oven pan and cut it into squares before putting it in the oven, then I just break them apart.