Picture Collection #3

Aurora Borealis from the ISS and my new screen saver

Chest Radiograph with Elemental mercury contrast

 

 

 

 

My school's IT Dept Yearbook photo

Perhaps my favorite.

Southern Gun Control

Poor Decisions

I have been going over this post for a few days now, and have finally had the time to sit down and put my thoughts to paper. I'll do a quick update for the newest followers. We have been actively preparing for my full time student status, and it's here. This is the planning and foresight part.

This has meant getting out of debt, couponing, saving six months living expenses, stockpiling food, and generally being frugal with our money. We also refinanced our house to drop our house payment in half. Now, this hasn't meant eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for six months, but rather seeking out sales and good deals.

My number one personal goal during these two years of one income is to keep our financial safety net in tact. Don't go into debt and to pay cash for school. I don't relish the idea of saving money for another two years to replenish our safety net.  I would also like to expand our food storage to at least a year, while buying some quality camping gear for the family.

I'll be shifting some of my emphasis on this blog to cheap meals for my family. This is the biggest hit that we have taken on our budget. We used to have $320.00 budgeted for every two weeks for groceries, now it is $180.00. Heck, I'll just post our envelope cash budget. A big thank you to Dave Ramsey.

This is our old/new budget for two weeks: 
=========== OLD ======== NEW
Groceries.........$320--------------$180
Gas..................$140--------------$120
Car Repairs......$60---------------$20
Restaurant........$75---------------$0
Gifts.................$100--------------$40
Clothes............$50---------------$20
Haircuts...........$40----------------$20
Entertainment...$50----------------$0
Allowances......$20----------------$20....for Kids
Mad Money.... $100--------------$80

This is an all cash system that we use, so no overspending.

I figure that our tax refund will be used for a summer vacation, and to plug any gaps that have developed in our finances. Ex: New tires, etc....

Here is our current situation. We get paid on Friday and have $12.00 in the grocery envelope. Today, we did make it to Chinamart to round out the frig.

I did spend about $20.00 to make homemade beef jerky last week, and they had Community Coffee on sale for $4.99. Nearby was a hanging coupon dispenser that had a dollar off coupon that dropped the price to $3.99 each, so I bought 12 bags. That kinda killed the weekly grocery budget this pay period. They also had chips on sale for $2 each, so I bought 12- 14 bags.

The rest of the week we have on the dinner menu:
Tilapia
Breakfast Night / Eggs / Pancakes
Grilled Chicken when brother, sister, and kids come over for dinner on Wednesday.
Spaghetti

Lunch for Row and myself includes portioning out potato chips ( $2 for Lay's and Ruffles - on sale ) and peanut butter sandwiches. I take water while Row has a juice box and a fruit Rollup. The peanut butter is coming out of the stockpile, and we have around 15 9 jars put back. I'll wait a few more months, and hopefully replenish our stock.

It does make it easier knowing that we have a large amount of food set back for this time. I really feel for people that can't make ends meet. Here are my photos of some of our storage.

Drinks, Snacks, Mac & Cheese, Pasta, etc

Nuts and some of the longer term storage

8 cases of water, 8 seven gallon jugs not shown.

Sugar, Cornmeal, Rice, and Some Overflow.

Canned meat, Tang, Veggies, sauce, spices, and condiments.

We are going to have to learn to make poor decisions.

Happy Labor Day Video

Here is to all of the workers, blue collars, craftsmen, help, nine-to fivers, wage earners, working stiffs, breadwinners, serfs, cooks, waiters, producers, earners, and heroes.

Keep Right On !

John Lennon had it right...

As soon as you're born they make you feel small  
By giving you no time instead of it all
Till the pain is so big you feel nothing at all working class hero is something to be  
 A working class hero is something to be
 They hurt you at home and they hit you at school  
They hate you if you're clever and they despise a fool
Till you're so crazy you can't follow their rules  
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be  
When they've tortured and scared you for twenty odd years
 Then they expect you to pick a career  
 When you can't really function you're so full of fear
A working class hero is something to be  
A working class hero is something to be
 Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV
And you think you're so clever and classless and free  
But you're still peasants as far as I can see  
A working class hero is something to be  
A working class hero is something to be  
There's room at the top they are telling you still
 But first you must learn how to smile as you kill  
If you want to be like the folks on the hill  
A working class hero is something to be
 A working class hero is something to be
 If you want to be a hero, well, just follow me  
If you want to be a hero, well, just follow me

$10 for Two Dinners - Grilled Chicken and Chicken Dumplings

This is a new routine that I have been doing for cheap dinners for the family. The chicken and dumplings recipe is from my very country Ex-mother-in-law.

Finished Product w/ pepper on top

I purchased two whole chickens for under $10.00. I should have taken a picture, but the total came to $8.94. We added a few veggies for the grilled chicken on our first meal, and it all came in under $10.00

I'm going to save people a lot of money over their life time by posting this video. It's how to cut your own chicken...I did the math and it comes to about $26.00/hour that you can save for your time. This is one of the best videos on Youtube for learning how to cut your own chicken. It's only 4:23 minutes, and cutting a whole chicken while watching it was very helpful the first few times.

The first dinner I grilled two chickens to feed the family. This was to make sure that we had leftovers to use for the chicken and dumplings. I'd like to say a special thanks to Pioneer Woman Cooks Ree Drummond for the great pictorials of her recipes. I liked the idea so much, I'll be using her technique.

A large stockpot and 4 quarts ( 1 gallon ) of warm water.

1 Tablespoon Chicken Bouillon  per Quart of water

Add your chicken necks, backs, and any other scraps to the chicken stock

Cook the chicken until done on a simmer.

Okay, when a recipe says simmer it means just barely boiling. Bring it to a boil, then keep knocking it down a few notches on the dial until it is just barely making bubbles. All of this is happening while I'm grilling the chicken outside. Cook the chicken until it is done - around 30-45 minutes.

After the stock is done, I like to refrigerate it and save it for tomorrow night. Pull the chicken out of the stock and refrigerate them too.

Clean the leftover grilled chicken, remove the skin, and put in a baggie.

The next day, I'll pick and clean the chicken stock scraps since they are cool. 


DAY TWO: Bring the stock back to a boil. Collect a cup of warm stock to use for the dumplings.

Here is the cleaned chicken from the night before ready to be added to the stock. Be sure to clean the backs for any meat that can be added to the dumplings.

The skin shouldn't be used in the finished product, but be sure to use it for the stock....it's flavor!

One cup of flour for the dumplings. Don't be scared because this is real easy!

Make a flour volcano with the flour on a cutting board.

Add enough warm stock to make the "lava" in the volcano. Don't worry about how much liquid to add because you really want to have too much to start. We are going for a certain texture of the dumplings.

Mix it up and make a dough. It should feel a bit softer than playdough. Add more flour until you get the right consistency.

Spread it out very thin!

I placed a dollar near the cutting board for a comparison shot. Cut the dough with a butter knife.

To give you an idea of how thick.

Bring the stock w/ the chicken to a rolling boil before adding the raw dumplings.

Add the raw dumplings one at a time, then reduce to a simmer.

Notice that it took an hour and the drop in the liquid level in the pot.

Sample the dumpling to make sure that they don't have a "doughy" feel...you'll know it if they aren't done yet.

My plate!

Row's new favorite soup!

If you really wanna go Southern, serve with a loaf of white bread to "sop up the juices".

Enjoy!

Comments or questions are always welcome.

MRE Monday - Cheese Tortellini In Tomato Sauce with a BONUS REVIEW

I almost didn't have this ready for Monday. School has been taking a lot of time, but here it is. I cracked open a Basic Emergency Backup Meal from Emergency Essentials to get to our main entree.

 

Inside this package was:  

Cheese Tortellini in Tomato Sauce

Wheat Bread Snack

Peanut Butter package

Lemonade Beverage Mix

Strawberry Jam

Condiment package w/ salt, pepper, spork, handiwipe, and napkin

2 pieces of hard candy ( Butterscotch )

I have provided links for previously reviewed items.

  

Nutritional Information for Cheese Tortellini: 

Serving Size: 227g

Calories: 280
Calories from fat:  50
Total Fat: 6g or 9% DV
Cholesterol: 40mg or 13% DV
Sodium: 870mg or 36% DV
Total Carbohydrates: 45g or 15% DV
Dietary Fiber: 3g or 12% DV
Sugars: 8g
Protein: 11g
Vitamin A: 15% DV
Vitamin C: 20% DV
Calcium:  10% DV
Iron: 15%

Expectations: Chef Boyardee.

 

Realities:

I'll start with my oldest son, Row. He approached the table and said,"What is this stuff in my bowl? Hmmm..." He took a bite and dropped half of it into his lap. That didn't discourage him from saying that he didn't like it though.

Red Ant, our youngest, took a small nibble and said, " I don't want that."

Finally, we get to my favorite food critic, my wife. Here are some of her more memorable quotes," It's alright. Palatable. I'd rather buy Chef Boyardee." She decided that the noodles were good, but the sauce was off a little.

I thought it was pretty good. I'm not a big fan of canned noodles, but this was okay. I liked it.

Final Thoughts:

Our kids have never been exposed to Chef Boyardee, but only had spaghetti with Prego and my sister's homemade sauce. This could account for the initial dislike from the boys. The probably led to the  loss of their stars. Sweetheart would rather buy the canned Chef Boyardee, and save a few cents. Myself? I'd go for it, but agree with the cost factor. Sweetheart did dig into Red Ant's mini-bowl.  I just asked, and she would give it a star. I would too.

Stars: * * ( 2 )

Bonus Review since it is so late...

Strawberry Jam

I almost forgot to get a picture!

Nutritional information:

Serving Size: 1 oz.

Calories: 70
Calories from fat: 0
Total Fat: 0g or 0% DV
Cholesterol: 0mg or 0% DV
Sodium: 0mg or 0% DV
Total Carbohydrates: 18g or 6% DV
Dietary Fiber: 0g or 0% DV
Sugars: 17g
Protein: 0g
Vitamin A: 0% DV
Vitamin C: 8% DV
Calcium:  0% DV
Iron: 0%

Row doesn't like jelly, so we are giving the star to Red Ant.

Red Ant was really excited to see that we had jelly to sample. He cheered Sweetheart by chanting "Open it!", as she struggled with the packaging. I suggest a knife. He said that he " Really like it.", and said that it tasted "kinda like strawberry." Go figure?

Sweetheart also liked it and compared it to Welchs jelly. She looked at the ingredients:

Strawberries ( Strawberries, Strawberry Puree Concentrate),Sugar, Pectin, Citric Acid and was genuinely impressed. It could be Polander's jelly with ingredients like this, but she commented on the cost. I did mention that the cost was offset by the fact that once a jar of jelly was opened, it should be refrigerated. The packages would be ideal for on the move trekking, or if the power was out.

I would stock up if they got down to around 50 cents each. I just checked the latest issue of Emergency Essentails, and the jelly packages are 40 cents each. I'm buying more on the next order.

Stars:  * * * * ( 4 )

MRE Monday - Italian Bread Sticks

We actually tried this with another MRE which was reviewed last week. The current price at Emergency Essentials for each of the packages is $1.25, with four bread sticks being in each package.

 

Nutritional Information:

Serving Size: 4 bread sticks (2 oz. total)

Calories: 190
Calories from fat: 50
Total Fat: 6g or 9% DV
Cholesterol: 0mg or 0% DV
Sodium: 360mg or 15% DV
Total Carbohydrates: 30g or 10% DV
Dietary Fiber: 2g or 8% DV
Sugars: 3g
Protein: 3g
Vitamin A: 2% DV
Vitamin C: 2% DV
Calcium:  20% DV
Iron: 10%

Expectations:

I was expecting a lightly herb flavored bread stick with a fluffy texture.

 

Realities:

I will try to start off with my kids first, since this is the main reason that I am doing these reviews. I want to know what they enjoy, and what they will eat.

Red Ant, the three year old, was excited just to see them, and immediately took a bite. "Yummy!" was how he described it, and he finished off his half of a bread stick. It did have some butter on the top, and in all fairness, he does like butter. I usually try to do just a plain, no frills, or added condiments to these reviews since they might not be available. It just seems wrong to not have butter with bread.

Row, our six year old, was less than impressed with the bread sticks. "I don't like this" were his exact words. I couldn't talk him into another bite either.

My lovely wife, on the other hand, should be a food critic. Her thoughts are usually more involved than my typical guy responses. She said that she would "eat it, but don't really care for it." The herb flavoring of the bread stick reminded her of a herb flavored bouillon. The texture was also more caky than a true bread.

I thought it was too much herb flavoring. Was it too much oregano or basil? I did finish the entire package though, so that should count towards something

Final Thoughts:

My wife made a very good suggestion that the bread sticks would make a very good coating for wild game. The bread sticks would have to be grated, or worked into crumbs, but I can see it being very good with a fish dish. Maybe a pan fried bass/trout?

The price of the bread sticks was a big concern of mine. The two ounces of bread makes for an expensive MRE for the return on investment. This MRE gets three stars for taste, but I would rate it only one star for value. The one star coming from my youngest son.

Stars: * * * ( 3 )

 

Faith...

Please don't let the title of the post scare you off.

Faith is one of those things that I have a hard time grasping and keeping at times. I am a concrete sequential kind of guy. I find it easier to do algebra than geometry. I like my CDs in alphabetical order, and also by release date, if that gives you any clue as to how I roll.

I started college after hearing our pastor deliver a sermon on "Getting out of your comfort zone". I had been at the same job for a little over 23 years. I had gone through several bouts of burnout, and finally resigned to the fact that I had reached my apex at work. I hadn't had a raise in over seven years and had just found out that, "due to the economy", the one week paid vacation was gone.

The meat of the sermon was that if you aren't growing, you are becoming stagnant. He was talking to me. I talked with my wife about going back to college, and I started in the fall of 2010. I took six hours since it had been quite a while since my last period of education. I had stepped out on faith...this is what God wanted me to do. Not an "audible", as my pastor calls it, but that feeling or voice inside your brain.

At church, we had attended a Dave Ramsey class, and applied his principles to our lives. During these prerequisite years at college, we cut a lot of fat out of our budget. We paid off all of our credit cards and managed to save six months living expenses.  I started to find good deals using coupons and a log book, to build our stockpile for when I started school full time.

We gave up a lot of "fun things" to achieve our goals. We cut out a lot of eating out, dropped pay TV, worked extra jobs, and learned to live more frugally. I also received a $2000 grant this summer session, which helped to bulk up our one-income fund.

I quit my job about a month ago to take care of things around the house, and to go on a vacation. Hey, I wasn't going to be paid for anyways. We paid my tuition with a check on Wednesday, and Thursday I got an email from the lottery scholarship. After applying in December of 2010, I had finally made it to the recipient list as a non-traditional student.  It will cover all of the tuition and leave me with a surplus of $104.00/year.

Anyways, this post really isn't about my budget, but rather about listening to God, your inner voice, your gut instinct, or whatever you want to call it. Faith is a "belief that is not based on proof", but the results can offer proof of your faith.

A prudent man sees danger and takes refuge, but the simple keep going and suffer for it. ( Proverbs 22:3 )

I also have a gut feeling or faith that things are going to get a lot worse. Please get yourself in a good place, so things aren't as bad for you and your family. Buy a little extra water and food, get rid of debt. Mostly get ahead of the horde. Get yourself in a good situation, and get prepped. Listen to your inner voice. Faith is a "belief that is not based on proof", but the results can offer proof of your faith.

Picture Collection #2

An early picture of Steve Jobs

Too poor to buy gold, but I can buy lots of lead and brass.

Yep, It's dangerous out there.

I love this idea!

Deep Space Nine !