Popping In with an Announcement for the Ladies!

Over on my other blog, From This Heart of Mine, we're getting ready to kick off another ladies Bible class ...

Click on this link for the details... hope you'll be able to join us!

mrs. patsi @ A Working Pantry

She looketh well to the ways of her household … Proverbs 31:27 

Sharing 44 years' experience of frugal, prudent living and pantry building 

My second blog:  From This Heart of Mine, where I share my love for God and His Word through my personal Bibe study.  Physical preparedness is important, but not near as important as spiritual preparedness.  Ladies, join me over at From This Heart of Mine and study God's Word with me.

You can view my privacy policy HERE.

Thank you for using my Amazon affiliate link when placing your Amazon orders. I earn a small percentage that doesn't increase what you pay, and it helps me keep my pantry well-stocked! 

Disclaimer: Some of the links in this post may be affiliate links.  This means that if you click on the link and place an order, etc I earn a small fee at no increased cost to you. Thank you for your support through these means. 

A Journal of My Days: 5/6/24

Even though I have stepped back from some things and let others go, I've been burning the candle at both ends with my hubby being on light restrictions along with other commitments we had made.  Monday morning, I knew I had better start doing some self-care.  I could just feel it in my body that I was headed for a medical crash if I didn't intervene.

Self-care looks different for everyone so what I'm about to share in no way is any indication of what self-care should look like for you.  Here's what I did ...

After having a healthy breakfast, I spent the morning doing nothing but just soaking in the quietness of my home, mentally, I needed that.  I rested and relaxed in my recliner for the biggest part of the morning.  I did pop online at one point to listen to some Youtube videos I had been saving to watch.

After that I decided I needed some sunshine and headed outside to do a little foraging.  For some this would seem like work, but it doesn't to me.  It is calming and relaxing.  Next came a healthy lunch/supper (On most days I eat two meals a day.) and later after my meal had digested, I did some light exercise.  After that I spent some time reading and called it a day.

Yes, there was plenty to do inside and outside, but I ignored it.  My body was telling me I needed to rest and that is what I did.

God gives us an example in the Old Testament of Elijah feeling exhausted and overwhelmed as he fled from Jezebel in I Kings 19: 1-8.  My reasons for feeling exhausted and overwhelmed were far different than Elijah's but the solution is still applicable.

Rest ... Eat ... Rest ... Eat!  

The next day I felt much better and so my week officially began ...

“Laser focused, hunkered down and spending as little money as possible.” 

I planted 12 more Roma tomatoes that I had grown from seeds.   This gives me a total of 24 Roma tomato plants and that will be plenty.  I have several tomato-based items I want to make and can this summer and that should be enough to do what I want to do.

I had several zip lock freezer bags that needed washing, so I made up a bowl of hot sudsy water and let them soak for a couple of hours.  After they were finished soaking, I washed, rinsed and then hung them on a pasta drying rack similar to this one.  Pasta drying racks are the best things to hang your freshly washed zip lock bags on to dry!

This was one morning's herb/greens harvesting ...

Top left:  Echinacea leaves (for my 'greens' jar) under the first dill bunch for the year

Top right:  strawberry leaves for my 'greens' jar

Middle row:  carrot tops for my 'greens' jar

Bottom left:  raspberry leaves for my 'greens' jar

Bottom right:  chamomile flowers for herbal remedies

All these herbs and or greens kept my dehydrator busy for a couple of days!

Time out!!!! 

Before you read any further, I need to let you know that I started this post earlier in the week and rather than rewrite it, I'm just going to let you know that hubby has broken a bone in his foot and things have changed as a result. 

We've been going back and forth on whether to continue to plant a summer garden while we waited on hubby's testing to get finished, but him breaking a bone in his foot pretty much made our decision for us.  We will not have a summer garden this year other than what we already have planted.

So, how will we keep our pantry well-stocked while eating out of it every day without a garden?  Where there's a will, there's a way!  Our current pantry will carry us through the summer which will give us time to work on restocking it as opportunity arrives.

While future posts may look a bit different for a while, I hope you'll stick around!  There's more than one way to keep a well-stocked pantry and that's what we'll be concentrating on this summer!

That’s it for this week, what has your week looked like? 

until next time,

mrs. patsi @ A Working Pantry

She looketh well to the ways of her household … Proverbs 31:27 

Sharing 44 years' experience of frugal, prudent living and pantry building 

My second blog:  From This Heart of Mine, where I share my love for God and His Word through my personal Bibe study.  Physical preparedness is important, but not near as important as spiritual preparedness.  Ladies, join me over at From This Heart of Mine and study God's Word with me.

You can view my privacy policy HERE.

Thank you for using my Amazon affiliate link when placing your Amazon orders. I earn a small percentage that doesn't increase what you pay, and it helps me keep my pantry well-stocked! 

Disclaimer: Some of the links in this post may be affiliate links.  This means that if you click on the link and place an order, etc I earn a small fee at no increased cost to you. Thank you for your support through these means. 

Hunkering Down in 2024: Week #18

Here we are in the month of May with new goals for this financial journey we've embarked upon!  

We worked hard to make our April goals happen and in spite of all the extra medical expenses, we achieved them.  It took sacrifice and saying no to things we had planned to do, but we were determined and so we did it!

In April we were able to reduce our electric bill by another approximately $21 dollars.  We sure enjoyed seeing that reduction, but now the hot and humid weather has arrived in our area and that means that the HVAC unit will be switched over to air conditioning and it will run more.  Still, we will do our best to keep it as low as possible!

This week we got notification that the last debt we paid off was officially paid off!  We knew it was, but boy, oh boy, did it make us feel good to see the official proof!

Our debt goal for May is the same as it was for April.  Pay off another 1/3rd of the debt we have targeted.  The regular payment is not due until later in the month but today I made a small extra payment.  It wasn't a full payment amount, we will make sure that is paid by its due date, but between now and then we're going to throw every bit at it that we can to reach that 1/3rd goal by the end of the month.  If we are successful, we will have 2/3rds of this debt paid.

I realized yesterday that we are 1/3rd of the way to our financial goals for this year.  This knowledge and the official 'paid in full' notice we got this week gave us a shot of fuel for the rest of the journey.  

Month of May, here we come!!!

That's it for this week, how did your financial week go?

until next time,

mrs. patsi @ A Working Pantry

She looketh well to the ways of her household … Proverbs 31:27 

Sharing 44 years' experience of frugal, prudent living and pantry building 

My second blog:  From This Heart of Mine, where I share my love for God and His Word through my personal Bibe study.  Physical preparedness is important, but not near as important as spiritual preparedness.  Ladies, join me over at From This Heart of Mine and study God's Word with me.

You can view my privacy policy HERE.

Thank you for using my Amazon affiliate link when placing your Amazon orders. I earn a small percentage that doesn't increase what you pay, and it helps me keep my pantry well-stocked! 

Disclaimer: Some of the links in this post may be affiliate links.  This means that if you click on the link and place an order, etc I earn a small fee at no increased cost to you. Thank you for your support through these means.

A Journal of My Days: 4/29/24

The theme for this year is “Laser focused, hunkered down and spending as little money as possible.” 

How did we do this week?

Most of my week was spent getting ready for our church's youth rally which was Saturday.  

However, I did get a few other things done in and around youth rally prep.

(picture:  my rose bushes are showing off!)  

In the Vegetable Garden:  Nothing!  

All I did was walk by the garden area on the way to and from the chicken coup.   Hubby is still undergoing medical testing, so additional gardening is still on hold.  What I do have planted though, is doing well.

I did notice though that our apple tree has baby apples!!!    Lots of baby apples!

I also noticed that our elderberry bushes are starting to bloom.  We have so many that I'll be collecting some of the flowers for drying and leaving some to make the berries.  Elderberry flowers have slightly different medicinal properties than the berries do.

In the Kitchen:   I noticed that I was getting quite a bit of kefir ahead and decided to make some kefir cheese.  Once the kefir was drained of most of its whey (I didn't drain all of the whey out as I wanted a 'dip' consistency this time, instead of a firmer cheese consistency), I mixed the remaining 'kefir cheese' with a spice mix I had on hand, added a sprinkle of salt, mixed it up well and enjoyed it on crackers.  Mmmm ... it sure was good!  I made enough that I enjoyed it all week!

We had some store-bought snack crackers on hand we had purchased on a clearance sale that needed to be used.  That's what I used to dip in the kefir cheese.  I was out of our sourdough discard snack crackers, which is what we would have normally used.  I'll put that on my 'to-do' list for when things settle down a bit!

In the Pantry:   My dehydrator has been working almost non-stop drying herbs for several weeks.  One day this week it started smelling like something was burning and I noticed that the fan wasn't working.  My heart dropped!  I've had this dehydrator for about 7 years, so I can't complain, but now was not the time for it to stop working!  I was really sad as I knew that now was also not the time to be making unnecessary purchases.  Of course, it was full of herbs drying when it stopped working.  I unloaded the trays and started making plans to finish drying them other ways.  I went to pull out one tray and it wouldn't come .... hmmmm ... I bent down to eye level with the tray and spotted a stem from a piece of rosemary stuck in the back where the fan was.  I gently helped it get unstuck and turned the dehydrator back on ... it started purring like a kitten and was back to doing its job.  I gave a yep of joy and loaded it back up.  It continues to work just fine ... the moral of the story is 'don't throw in the towel, until you're SURE the towel has no more use!'  (I was in the process of removing it from the kitchen to the garbage pick-up area!)

Here's the dehydrator I have.

Health/Fitness:   I was able to get in some form of exercise most every day this week and it sure felt good!

Thrifting, Bargain, and/or Loss Leader Shopping:   we found olive oil on clearance at Sam's Club for $8.91 per bottle (regular price $16.98 per bottle).  We continue to focus on keeping our pantry stocked with the basics.

From my Sewing Nook: No time for sewing anything this week!

Bible Study:  I taught a tweens/teen girl's Bible class on the Promises of God in the Old Testament at our church's youth rally on Saturday.   I also created and implemented a scavenger hunt on the Promises of God from both the Old and New Testament.  It was a lot of work, but oh so worth it!  Be still my heart ... is there anything any greater than planting seeds of God's Word in young people's hearts!  It was an amazing day!

In the Flower Garden:  My flower garden is still on hold along with the garden.  

In the Herb Garden:  I did a bit of harvesting thyme at the beginning of the week along with some more rosemary.  I want to powder some rosemary for use in cooking, so I'm trying to get quite a bit harvested and dried.

What I'm Reading:  No time for reading this week!

Continuing Education/Skills:  I watched episodes of Melissa K. Norris, Homestead Skills Summit:  Building Resilience Today.  It was one of those events that was free but required you to sign up for it in order to get the daily links.  Some of what she covered were reminders of what I already knew.  Some of it introduced me to different ways of doing things I've done for a long time and then some of it was brand new information to me.  I never want to stop learning!  I enjoyed watching and listening to most of the episodes.

This week’s frugal quote/discussion topic …  What would you say to someone who's reason for not being frugal is time constraints?  In other words, they've determined that they don't have time to be frugal.

That’s it for this week, what has your week looked like? 

until next time,

mrs. patsi @ A Working Pantry

She looketh well to the ways of her household … Proverbs 31:27 

Sharing 44 years' experience of frugal, prudent living and pantry building 

My second blog:  From This Heart of Mine, where I share my love for God and His Word through my personal Bibe study.  Physical preparedness is important, but not near as important as spiritual preparedness.  Ladies, join me over at From This Heart of Mine and study God's Word with me.

You can view my privacy policy HERE.

Thank you for using my Amazon affiliate link when placing your Amazon orders. I earn a small percentage that doesn't increase what you pay, and it helps me keep my pantry well-stocked! 

Disclaimer: Some of the links in this post may be affiliate links.  This means that if you click on the link and place an order, etc I earn a small fee at no increased cost to you. Thank you for your support through these means. 

Hunkering Down in 2024: Week #17

We're going to do it!  In spite of the setbacks, we are going to meet our financial goals for the month ....

We reduced the amount that went into savings, but we did add a bit to our savings ...

And this is the biggie, by the end of the month, which is Tuesday, we will have paid 1/3 of the targeted debt for this quarter which was our goal for the month.  This was only possible because we had paid a big chunk of it before things got crazy.  This is why I recommend paying what you can as soon as you can and as often as you can on debt.  Had we 'saved' making the payment until we had all of the amount we wanted to pay, we likely would not have met our goal for this month.  

What about the month of May, in view of all that is going on, are we going to back off our goal of paying another 3rd of the targeted debt.  Absolutely not!  I'm not sure how we're going to pull it off, keep the medical bills paid and add a bit to our savings, but we're going to work like it all depends on us and pray like it all depends on God!

That's it for this week, how did your week go?

until next time,

mrs. patsi @ A Working Pantry

She looketh well to the ways of her household … Proverbs 31:27 

Sharing 44 years' experience of frugal, prudent living and pantry building 

My second blog:  From This Heart of Mine, where I share my love for God and His Word through my personal Bibe study.  Physical preparedness is important, but not near as important as spiritual preparedness.  Ladies, join me over at From This Heart of Mine and study God's Word with me.

You can view my privacy policy HERE.

Thank you for using my Amazon affiliate link when placing your Amazon orders. I earn a small percentage that doesn't increase what you pay, and it helps me keep my pantry well-stocked! 

Disclaimer: Some of the links in this post may be affiliate links.  This means that if you click on the link and place an order, etc I earn a small fee at no increased cost to you. Thank you for your support through these means.