Frugal In Florida

It's Monday (again!?) and that means time to link up over at Organizing Junkie Menu Plan Monday! Go check it out and link up ... tons of other ideas there too!  Hubby is traveling this week to Detroit ... Sonny Boy has school 4 days this week .... Princess has 4 classes this week AND starts her new job at Tijuana Flats (go get em' girly!)... And Me? Well, I have work this week. At the moment, as I type this in advance, I think it shouldn't be too busy but who am I kidding? I say that and then get slammed ... And I'm entering week three of the SRS program ... with very little cash left to tide me over after my Aldi's trip ... I really have NO need to go to the grocery store ... So with all those factors above, dinner time shall be simple and not at all difficult: Sunday - Pasta with my red sauce that I got up at the crack of dawn to make (not really) with a green salad and garlic rolls to hopefully celebrate finally getting the rope lights (LED) up a...

It hasn't been so very bad, into week 2. However, the gas pump wouldn't stop at 30, so I ended up putting $35.01 into the Tahoe ... that gave me a little over a half tank on Monday. I stopped at the grocery store (Publix) on Wednesday to get the Hood Smart Milk, beef broth and a few other SELECT items on my list with coupons in hand. Was aiming for $20. Uhhh. No Smart Milk. No Beef Broth. $60 later, with the majority of it being produce stuff (very disappointed here in the quality and PRICE of the produce) along with 4 cans of french cut green beans, 2 cans of black beans, 2 cans of pizza sauce, carnation instant breakfast, bread, hoagie rolls, and a few other oddball things ... was more than I wanted, and had to BEG for rain checks. Thursday got out of work early. WANTED to go to Aldi's but said NO since I just spent $40 more than I wanted at the grocery store the previous night. So instead, I went to Faith Farm, my newest favorite thrift store to look for a new pair...

Here it is, another Monday. Gee, have you noticed how they just keep showing up?? That means Menu Plan Monday over at Organizing Junkie, and Make It Happen Monday over at Domestically Obsessed . I highly recommend you visit both sites and link up if you are so inclined ... they are both great with a great deal of useful information to be read! As I am still doing the SRS program (that means Severely Restricted Spending), before I post this weeks proposed menu, I was lucky enough to start the freezer inventory . I got the main one done on Saturday and started the guest kitchen one on Sunday. Of course, Sunday, I was in a bad mood and after one shelf, was just overwhelmed and said forget it til the next day ... but you can link over here to see what's in the main kitchen freezer (alot!) Monday - Fried chicken and mashed taters and gravy (chicken and taters from freezer, gravy from pantry) Tuesday - Chicken apple sausage and macaroni and cheese , originally was going to do ta...

Its downright chilly here this morning. 54 degrees at 8am ... I've got windows open (not all the way!) and the house is cool so I figured now was the time to tackle this project! The funny thing … as I’m pulling stuff out (one shelf at a time) I see instant dinners in the making so I started to write things down, like for instance, the top shelf has the breaded chicken and 2 bags of mashed taters, so I grouped those together and wrote down on the side of my list, mashed taters & fried chicken, and then roast beef au jus sandwiches (RB lunchmeat & half loaf of Italian bread) and Hot browns (cooked turkey breast (good lord, I’m not sure when I froze these, but they are large chunks off a roasted turkey) and so on… so this WAS good to do that will definately help with the SRS this month! I did throw a few things out, a couple bags of bananas that were brown, a bag with 3 lonely freezer burned strawberries. Apparently the kids have been tapping into the freezer for foo...

So far, this SRS stuff hasn't been too bad ...except Hubby took my SUV today to have a tire looked at (it's wobbly) and they all determined that it was perfectly round and needed to be replaced (as it's not a radial tire, it's not like a belt is slipping but the same concept) ... so we can't buy just one tire BECAUSE we have to be special people and have special order tires on all vehicles. So now Hubby is driving to SOUTH Miami (um, sorry, but it's like another country) and he's buying a set of 4 new to me tires that came off a 2010 SUV. Guy did the same thing we did and upgraded his tires, only he's smart in selling the other ones for $500. Hopefully, Hubby can sell mine, with custom rims for about $400 and then I only spend $100 for new tires. Yeah, they won't look as nice, but at least I won't have a wobbly steering wheel when I go over 30 miles per hour. So ... again, other than that, its not been a big deal. Here's some of my f...

So far so good with the SRS ... I know, it's only Friday, the 5th day into it but I feel good (cue the music please!) ... I may stop at Publix on my way home. But really, for what? Other than the Smart Milk on sale at buy one get one free and I have 4 $1 off coupons which would make a total gallon be about $1.50 ... and I always just buy the chocolate for Sonny Boy ... oh, and then Solo products are b1g1f and I have 75 cent coupons off....WAIT ... stop the though process! See how easy it is to go into the "but it's on sale and I have a coupon" mode? Ick. So really, I don't need anything from the store at the moment. My menu plan has been stuck with pretty close, with the exception of Thursday evening ... Sonny Boy and I went to a college open house (FREE and I got away with FREE parking at the Convention Center!) and got home at almost 8pm. Everyone, fend for yourself! So we have a cold front coming in ... down in the 50's high in the upper 60's f...

The first thing alot of you have said is "No spend November? That would be real hard" ... but not really. I know, its the holidays. Thanksgiving. Christmas. Etc. I've got hubbys birthday. Thanksgiving. Father in Laws birthday, best friends birthday. Then we go into December and I have Sonny Boy's 18th, Princess 20th, my dad, my neighbor, Christmas Boat Parade Party (!!), trip to Indiana, Christmas. Oh my GOSH!! But, here's the thing. I can do this. That's why I revised it to be Severely Restricted Spending. Or, to keep the spelling errors in check, SRS. :) No, THAT is not for the gearheads around here, ahem. 1. Thanksgiving. I've got 2 turkey breast in the freezer. I also have 20 lbs of taters (at the moment), 6 pkgs of premashed taters in fridge, and 6 pkgs of taters in the freezers. I know, the premade stuff isn't quite golden, but it WOULD do if needed.  I've also got untold amounts of gravy in the pantry (never have mastered the from scra...