On my list today? Make dinner and dessert from the various odds and ends we had around. I made a batch of Paula Deen's beef/veggie soup. It was good, but made enough for a small army. It did use up cubed beef, a cup of frozen okra, black-eyed peas, green beans, and a cup of corn--all lingering freezer leftovers. So count that as a check.

Next item? Finish grading the online class. Although it took hours and hours, it's done. Check that one.

The mixed fruit crumble/crisp was also from the freezer. It used last summer's raspberries, some frozen cranberries, and last year's last rhubarb, supplemented with apples. Check that one off.

Checkbook? We got a call from the local bus company that someone found DH's checkbook on the bus and turned it in. He hadn't realized he'd lost it, but I'm grateful to whoever turned it in!

My plans to clean out the freezer are coming alone ever so nicely!

Despite the long drive and lots of talk about documentation and citation, Friday night didn't go too badly. The other instructor was clearly not prepared for the evening, but I always have too much stuff--so I passed out examples, did samples, and spent time with each student helping with their projects. I think I can get through three weeks of it just fine.

Saturday morning we three did a school fund-raising run-walk. MY DH was less than enthusiastic, but we had fun and got some exercise. And lots of gift cards, coupons, and vouchers for free food and travel mugs. Perhaps it was the run tee-shirt with the big cupcake on it that made him doubt he'd wear it again?

Saturday night DD had a sleepover birthday party to attend. She'd heard from the b-day girl a short list of what she'd like for a gift, and apparently there was some grumbling from other moms about the price of the gifts. But we stuck to our budget with a gift card and a few little trinkets.

That sleepover meant DH and I had the evening to ourselves--and we made the most of it. First to a tapas place that we loved--then a movie. Wow--that much fun without paying the babysitter. I'd have sprung for the expensive gift for the b-day girl!

Yesterday at church we sang my DH's mom's favorite hymn--and since we'd both lost our moms since last Mother's Day--it was particularly meaningful to be together and remember them. Then we went out to lunch, weeded the lawn, and did some home chores. All that dining out is really unusual for us--and we ended up eating frozen eggrolls last night with the sleep-deprived DD snoozing on the sofa. It sounds odd, but it was very fun.

Conscious of the impending NYC and UK spending, I avoided the grocery store and perused some Easter leftovers' recipes. And I'm happy I did. I made a Martha Stewart recipe spinach salad which used spinach on hand, leftover Easter ham, hardboiled eggs, and radishes topped with a warm olive oil vinaigrette.
It was fabulous. DH--who loves spinach salad anyway-- swooned. To combat the healthiness of it all, DD and I also stirred up some Rice Krispie treats.

About six months ago I bought a room painting daily deal for $100. I called the guy today and am scheduling DD's room redecorating. She and I spend an hour looking at paint samples at Home Depot. It was lovely, and we also spent $7.99 on a hanging basket of violas. That was the total of today's outlay.

We've had yet another spate of egregious plagiarism
with my capstone projects. I've had to take the flamethrower to the instructors and students both.
Not only are they copying from the internet, they're copying from previous capstone projects. Idjits.

Well, not leaping yet. But soon, eh?
Any one have any great ideas on something to celebrate the leap day?

I had a boringly frugal day today. I'm too busy to eat at school, I parked for free, bought nothing except coffee, and feel a bit like a hamster on a wheel lately.

The evening was spent helping DD with her homework projects, raiding the pantry for a homemade Tex-Mex soup concoction of leftovers and dribs and drabs of other things. DH actually loved the soup with chicken, black beans, and other tasty tidbits. No wine or dessert though makes for a less happy meal.

It's two and a half weeks until my university spring break and I wish I could say I had exciting plans. But the break itself sounds glorious.

It's still below zero here--and now it's snowing, which means I'm either sleeping,reading, or cooking.

I'm bringing soup today to my friend with the preemie twins. It's my favorite spinach soup. Many people roll their eyes when I say spinach soup, but I'm Popeye all over again. I make it with evaporated skim milk, and it was all I could do to stop myself from eating a huge bowl of it last night before I jarred it up (is that really a term?) for them. I also made a batch of hot fudge sauce to take over and some muffins. All this was accomplished while watching the PBS new-ish Sherlock Holmes.

I resisted the new PBS Sherlock Holmes, but ended up liking it. Great scenes of London--and I think they had the heart of SH right.

Off to lunch today with an old friend. It's the last of the pre-semester freedom and I'm planning on enjoying it--even with the snow and cold.

In financial news, I sold two books to make a dent in the Napa fund. My 2012 sales goal is $110 month between ebay, books, and Craigslist. That will pay for one of our UK tickets.

Still in teaching denial, but expect I'll snap out of it before I walk into the classroom on Tuesday.

Yep, it's the day after the long weekend and thankfully the beans have been soaking. I see bean soup in our dinner future. It's going to be a mighty cold week here, and the budget needs some tweaking, especially after reading Patient Saver's Atlantic article.

I've got a list; I've got a plan. I'll finish off class prep today, finish off the laundry, and file my flex spending forms.

I've still got some of my mom's clothes in my home office, and I've been having a hard time parting with them--especially her favorite boiled wool jackets. But I think I have worked through some of my grief with them, and remembering how she always was grateful to the Salvation Army for feeding her and her mom through the depression, they'll go to the Salvation Army thrift shop tomorrow.

I made a nice butternut squash and carrot soup yesterday, and although my SA blogging friends couldn't make it for dinner, it got me thinking about soup. Everyone says soup is a great weight-loss tool, and I'll bet lots of us make soup to use up bits of stuff in the fridge and pantry.
Yesterday's butternut squash soup recipe came from the Williams Sonoma Christmas catalog. That recipe called for pork belly to make some wacky sort of pork crouton-y things for a topper. The catalog also featured a gourmet pork belly slab at a mere $75 for 2lb and 10oz of this pricey pork. You could also buy more for $99. Now the odds of me buying $75 pork belly are a lot slimmer than either me or the pork belly; I substituted thick-cut bacon.

It's January, so it seems like you're all making soup. But what soup are you making? I tend to make lots of pho, chili, and minestrone, and would like to expand my repertoire.

The lost check for DD's lunch money has been located. And yes, as I suspected, it was in her bag--but stuffed in a side pocket where she keeps snacks and hair clips. I'd get mad at her, but she clearly gets this wacky propensity to lose things from me.

I spent the morning cooking. A formerly close friend (does that make any sense?) has had a run of bad luck and I made her a big casserole of ham and scalloped potatoes which is one of her favorites. I've also roasted squash and carrots for soup and then delivered the casserole, got gas (ugh $50) and headed home. It's another weirdly warm day here. My car thermometer reads 52 degrees. Good for the heating bill, I guess.

I spent 15 minutes trying to get INTO the mall parking lot and another 15 trying to get out before I screamed, "SURRENDER" and went to the local shops instead. Great bargains to be had and I spent probably too much. But except for stocking stuffers, a few odds and ends for DD, I think I'm almost done. Tomorrow is grocery shopping, a quick fling in Target, wrapping, laundry and ugh, more grading. But my evening class is wrapped up as are two of my regular classes.

I attempted a British mincemeat cake today. I always try to do either a Christmas pudding or cake for DH, but this recipe challenged my addled brain. It called for an 8" cake pan, and so without thinking, I put it in an 8" cake pan. A layer cake pan. Duh--As the smoke began billowing out into the kitchen, it occurred to me that they probably meant a spring form pan with deeper sides. Now two oven mitts, a kitchen towel, the dog's paws, and the bottom of the oven are all well doused in mincemeat cake. While I salvaged most of it--and indeed we liked it--I think the oven mitts are beyond rescue. Maybe I'll feel differently in the morning. Some days I feel like I'm living in a situation comedy.

As scheduled, DH and I sat down and had a budget meeting tonight. He's a bit prickly about it and has never been much interested in our finances. I think the poor thing is just emotionally exhausted and a bit disheartened by the whole thing.

We found that if we dramatically slash our retirement contributions, we could indeed live on my regular university salary. It won't be pretty, but it can be done. So that's the plan. We bank his unemployment, look for a new job with lots of energy and also bank my night class money to build our cash reserves further.

I have to say, it really hurt me to log in to the retirement accounts and curtail them to that extent. Although I know it's right, it just feels so wrong.

We're doing the opposite of freezer cooking; we're doing freezer eating. I found two of last summer's lingering bratwurst (Milwaukee life) and a frozen carton of chicken broth in the freezer. It turned into an amazingly good soup from a blog called "Eatin on the Cheap." I tweaked the recipe a bit, but who knew two brats, three potatoes, an onion, two carrots and some chicken broth could be as good as it was. I wish I had more!

I've volunteered to roast a turkey for the meal-share Thanksgiving through my church, so the house smells delightful--just like Thanksgiving. They want the meat taken off the bones and the drippings frozen separately, so I've done that. I really do not like pulling rurkeys apart (why does that sentence seem so funny to me?). Residual bones and skin have gone into two soup pots which are bubbling away now.

I want to make crockpot applesauce, but that might have to wait until tomorrow. I also did a little CVS shopping with a $5 offer from Mastercard and a lot of double coupon purchases at the grocery store. I sense a lot of economic anxiety out there. Lots of detailed lists and counting coupons were in evidence throughout the store. And not all of it mine.

I'm still processing DH's job news, but we're going out tonight to see "Margin Call." I'll likely think through this all tomorrow on this blog.

An old childhood friend of DH's turned up in town, and we all went out for pizza tonight. He had an interesting story: He was born in Tanzania, moved back to the UK when he was a teenager, met his wife in Morocco and now lives in Canada. I feel so boring!

My favorite part of the evening was the waitress' inability to understand a word either of the guys said. Neither of them have particularly thick accents--not heavy Northern or Cockney or Yorkshire---but she just stared at me every time they said anything to her--and needed me to repeat everything they said. We had a lovely dinner and it made up for the wet, horrible, rainy day here.

More on a new financial wrinkle tomorrow.

What a satisfyingly frugal day I had. First a great church rummage sale. DD and I bought her five tops and five bottoms--two denim skirts, some jeans, and two pairs of shorts and seven virtually new books for $20. Great quality stuff--mostly Lands End. Plus I met another local woman whose son is in DD's class and who would be delighted at some of DD's hand-me-downs for her 7-year-old. Frugal karma!

Then to double-double coupon day with 10 coupons doubled and double the game cards at the local grocer. I saved a lot--and got free cereal and other items for the food pantry.

We followed that up with a fun post- Halloween event at a colleague's home. They're v creative folks and had fabulous food and great games and potion drinks for the kids. Someone asked why they chose this weekend rather than last--and the husband replied, "Because all the Halloween stuff was 80% off at Michael's!) I love it.

A month late, DH and I got a babysitter for my birthday celebration. We needed to spend some alone time together before he's off for two weeks for his mum's funeral. So we busted the budget and had a fabulous dinner with fabulous wine, then went elsewhere for coffee, drinks, and then a movie. How decadent. How lovely.
I had great butternut squash bisque with gorgonzola and pepitas. DH, who professes to really like cheap wine, was suitably wowed by the deep oaky Chard. Wow--I like food.
But we also ran the numbers to see if he should borrow a friend's car in England or take public transport to his dad's house. The train has become really expensive, but it now looks like he'll take the bus from Heathrow. He hates flying and has been anxious and upset, so he'll never sleep, and I hate to think of him driving in that condition. Plus it's 150 pounds cheaper, the way I see it.

I'm winding up to mid-semester so have lots of work, but I did get some Christmas gifts purchased for him to bring to his family. Saves a bad exchange rate and expensive postage later.

After last night's luxury, DD and I went to yet another grocery store harvest fest after church today. She loves all the autumn decorations, and got to dip caramel apples, watch kettle corn being popped, eat free hot dogs and apples, and sip apple cider. All that and Honey Crisp apples for 99cents/lb.

I've begun to tackle the magnificent pile of apples picked the other day. I made cranberry apple crisp for us and apple cake to take to a housecleaning party tomorrow.
We've been busy little fall bunnies here--DH put up half the storm windows, I cleared downed tree branches, made soup, did laundry, and cleared up vast piles of paper. Then I graded papers. All this while listening to the Brewers beat the Diamondbacks. Man, I love baseball. My parents were both baseball fanatics; my mother used to hide behind the sofa when bad relief pitchers came to the mound. I end up spending lots of time explaining it to DH, but much of it, I suspect, goes right by him. That is exactly what happens when he does cricket play-by-plays for me.

It's cold here so a warm house with lovely food seems the best thing that could happen in my world right now. Oh, and my second job check came. Very satisfying day indeed.

I only wish it was a financial windfall, but it's apples. DD had the day off school, so we went apple picking with friends. We picked 1/2 bushel, but I was stunned at the number of windfalls, and had to restrain myself from correcting other people's children who saw an apple with the smallest of spots and promptly threw it (usually at a wayward sibling). We also bought a load of windfall to turn into pie and sauce and crisp and other delights.

Part III of Paycheck Drama: I e-mailed the payroll employee to whom I was directed yesterday. This was my second e-mail to her without any response. Today I got an out-of-office message, so called the office's general number. No answer, just voice mail. I left a polite but insistent message about my $700. No response by the end of the day.

I've made some decisions about home projects. We have plenty that need doing, but I'm putting off everything until our emergency fund is back to acceptable levels. That will be at soonest-- spring. Everything. Well, perhaps DD's room painting can happen.

Reading over today's posts, it seems we're all thinking about and talking about food. So yep, me too. It poured all day, and I made what was reputed to be "The World's Best Pot Roast" from an article in Cooks Illustrated. Not having eaten every pot roast recipe ever devised, I'm not sure I could swear to that, but it was pretty darn good.
Besides making and eating pot roast, I went to church, graded papers and did some lesson plans. I spent 15 minutes trying to think about how I could go to a Bob Dylan/ Mark Knopfler concert in London in November before deeply sighing and giving up. If I find $1000 on the sidewalk tomorrow, I'll send you all a postcard from there.

DD and I went to a Humane Society event at our neighborhood bank. I donated some cat food (that was free with the coupon!) and we watched dogs bobbing for hot dogs, enjoying free nail trims, and having a good time. They also fed us with hot dogs, chips, and cookies.

After she got home from camp, she picked some strawberries from our everbearing plants, I cut and froze chives and a bit of the last gasp rhubarb. Our neighbor invited DD over to pick his black raspberries which we had with enchiladas made from leftover rotisserie chicken. All in all a frugal, but very rich, day.

Purple Heart picked up my donated clothes, but left (why?) the desk, so I've found a freecycling home for it, I hope tomorrow. I've listed a few more things on ebay.

Our city is dominated by one grocery store chain--and it seems lately they've divided their stores into upscale and not upscale. The non-upscale one closer to our house has gone from bad service and stocking to worse. I never leave there without muttering how bad they are, hos many things they're out of, and how they can't seem to stock things without blocking the aisles completely.
I'm always unhappy when I leave there.

But it's close, and it's cheap.

We need more grocery stores!

Though I was running on fumes, I made it through all three classes today. I had visiting grad students in each, so they got me at not my best.

After teaching, I ran to two grocery stores and got all the week's deals, some of which were very good. One nearby store was closing out all their premium jams and jellies for 50% off. You know the ones--the St Dalfour (?), Bonne Maman, and those types. DH, my stereotypical English husband, adores jam. I bought 8 jars. The McCann Irish oatmeal was also half off, so I stocked up on that as well. One of them didn't ring up as half off, so the customer service worker checked, and then gave it to me for free! Free Fancy Jam! I think only I could get that excited about something sort of mundane. No, come to think of it, DH was also thrilled.

Picked up DD at play practice after school with a few minutes to spare, so I thought I'd have a root around in the lost and found bin where three (amazing!) of her winter hats and one hand-knit mitten turned up.

It has indeed been a day of small triumphs.
Now a good night's sleep, and I'll be well on the road to wellness!

I'm trying hard to be hyperaware of spending with all the salary and benefits cuts coming. I made it to double-coupon day between teaching and taking DD to dance. I got some very good deals: free pasta sauce, toothpaste, mustard, and half price chocolate milk. All very well until I dropped the gallon of chocolate milk on the tile floor, causing a chocolate milk tsunami. Tonight while grading I've discovered a failing student submitted a late paper that was entirely copied from a website.

While yesterday seemed like I was living a bad MI-5 episode, today seems more like a lame sitcom.

I see all our protesters against our governor's budget have made the national news today. I teach all day on Wednesdays or I would've gone to Madison with them. But classes went well today, the snow is melting (though I know it will be back,) and (wowee) I made it to double coupon day during DD's dance class.
Usually I just sit and grade papers while she's dancing, but the store is close, and I had great coupons that needed to be used today.

That's part of my boring strategy for dealing with the loss in income that I feel is probably inevitable with this "budget repair bill." (I wish I could repair my budget like that.) I'm going to the grocers both double coupon days, splitting our weekly shopping into two. The big local chain demands a $25 minimum when they double the coupons twice a week. Today I hit $25.25 and saved $10 with the coupons.

So, I had a big glass of wine with my spaghetti tonight and am trying to pull myself out of this funk. Only one nasty issue today--two students who turned in exactly (down to the misspellings) the same question responses.

I hope to make some progress of decluttering and other home stuff in the next few days. But more paper grading tonight and an early night.

Wouldn't you like 31 days in June instead of January? I would! January seems like it drags on forever to me.

School's been so busy I haven't had time to think about money much, but am just trying to adjust to the new schedule. I teach from 9:30-1:45 with only 10 minutes between those three classes. I'm trying to figure out how to eat, drink, and stand up for that many hours.

I didn't get home until almost 2:30--and then ate lunch. I think I need some energy bars, or better snacks in my bag. I usually bring water and some string cheese with me and a piece of fruit, but I was starving when I got home. Tomorrow will be better with only one class.

Any snack suggestions from anyone out there? I need something non-messy, fairly healthy, that I can put in my bag. Good cereal bar suggestions? Or should I try making my own?

Yep, that's what I got when I thought I'd use the Tortilla Soup Mix I bought at the church bazaar. I love tortilla soup, and usually make my standard recipe from Cooking Light, but this was for a good cause. I'm now thankful I only bought one jar. I followed the directions exactly a got very mildly soupy rice. Doublechecked the recipe--5 c water, 1 can tomatoes with chiles, etc. It tasted fine, but it was NOT soup.
And there's a vat of it. I think it'll go in stuffed peppers tonight.

I've been sort of ignoring our finances lately because I've been so busy at work, and I've decided it has to stop. No big crisis, they just need more attention. One case in point: Too frequently on the way home from teaching, I've been stopping at the local "expensive" grocers for their specials, and (it's true!) buying myself a deli lunch or some sort of food reward.

There's no real need for that, and today I came home and ate a decent-enough bowl of Progresso Veggie soup and a whole-wheat tortilla and cheese. Would I rather have a treat from the fancy grocer? Yep! But it was fine and saved me probably $5 over what I've been spending. Little leaks need attention too. Plus I was home earlier and watched MI5 on library DVD while grading. That's a real treat for me!

It's a catch-up week, and I guess I'm glad we had lots of leftovers in the fridge. Not the most exciting of meals, but it did take minimal prep and used up lots of bits and pieces.

I did manage to get some things listed on ebay last night, but it'll be a minimal week for me with ebay and other budgetary demands. I need to catch up on my grading after the fun of the weekend!

These cold days seem like soup weather to me. Maybe Thursday!

I've spent the evening eating cake. Not such a bad life, eh? A friend hosted a lovely surprise party for his wife, and we bought the cake. We had a splendid evening chatting with lots of different folks and eating. Another warm lovely October night with part of the party on their roof deck. Life is good and it was good to see friends before entering the melee at school again tomorrow.

No other money news--we've still got lots of things to do, but for tonight, it's all about cake.

I wish we could have gone apple picking, followed by reading that Robert Frost poem, but our usual apple orchard has had a bad year. First, May frosts killed some of the blossoms, then a bad hailstorm put another dent in their crop. We went out there today to find they're not picking at all. Their Honey Crisp crop was down by 90 percent, other varieties down by 50 percent or more too.

But we bought apples and squash from the shop and enjoyed the beautiful weather. I find it amazing to stand in a pumpkin field surrounded by hundreds of bright orange orbs. Spectacular!

I frankly haven't had much time for diligent coupon use lately. If we HAVE groceries, it's a triumph. But I managed to pull it together today and did very well, mostly because of the double coupons. The checker rang everything up, then looked at me when he announced the total, and asked, "Can that be right?" More than half the stuff I bought was free--soup, crackers, snacks, yogurt, etc. I love it when it works and I can actually get to it.

No other money news to report--just trying to get through the week and catch up over the weekend. I've been working on decluttering, and I'll need to do some ebay listing pretty darn soon.

Just read an interesting comment from Bill Simon of Walmart in Al Lewis's Sunday WSJ column.

"You need not go further than one of our stores on midnight at the end of the month," Mr. Simon said.
"It's real interesting to watch. About 11 p.m., customers start to come in and shop, fill their grocery basket with basic items, baby formula, milk, bread, eggs, and continue to shop and mill about the store until midnight, when...government electronic benefits cards get activated and then the checkout starts.
"The only reason somebody gets out in the middle of the night and buys baby formula is that they need it," Mr. Simon said. "We are open 24 hours.... If you are there at midnight, you are there for a reason."

Another brief but telling reminder that though we're eagerly awaiting my first paycheck of the school year, we're not in this situation.

DH did comment on the rather lean checkbook balance this morning. But our cupboards (literal and metaphorical) are full. For this we are truly grateful.

Here's the link to the article:
http://tellittoal.newswires-americas.com/