Monday, September 19, 2005

The Week Ahead

I'm strongly considering just going back to bed. This week is just chock full of things to do. I've got three meet the teacher events to attend, a doctor's appointment for my youngest, my inlaws are visiting and that's before the regular events that fill our week. As an added bonus, Jim's working late the next three nights. There's not enough coffee in the world to get me through this...or is there?

Fighting the urge to hide is the first step to winning the battle. As with most aspects of frugal living, you need a plan. Dinners are my first priority, thanfully, we had company yesterday and I have a fridge full of leftovers. For tonight at least, dinner is covered. As for the rest of the week, the crock pot will be a huge help. Today I'll plan the meals so I know if beans need to soak from the night before.

Breakfast is the next challenge. There's a two hour window between when my kindergartener gets on the bus and my oldest gets home and needs help with homework. I'll use the overripe bananas to make enough muffins to get us through the end of the week. Half will go in the glass server on the table, the other half will go in the freezer so they stay fresh for the end of the week. There is nothing more aggravating than hard work destroyed by mold.

Snack for the week may be pumpkin cookies since we've cooked our first pumpkins of the season from our CSA last week. Time will tell, if not there is always sunflower seeds and raisins or popcorn.

I'll also need to budget some time for freezing the last of the CSA pickup from last week. I've still got beets (I'll make these into French fry like sticks, bake a bit and then freeze) and carrots (I'll cut these into coins for quick additions into winter meals). I know root cellar type storage would work well for these veggies but my house isn't ideal for it and everything will rot. Its definitely something I plan to explore more down the road.

2 comments:

Barbara said...

I've read all your posts and I wanted to thank you! You've inspired me to get frugal. In part it's due to a one income (small income!) couple. We need to save money however we can. But, we also want to simplify our lives, and save money.

So, anyway, thanks, and keep posting!

Barbara

Katie said...

Hi James, I'll give you the short answer here but for a more detailed description of how a CSA works scroll down on my blog until you see Archives on the left. Click on May and then scroll down to the Thursday, May 26th entry, Opening Day at the CSA. Check out the links to find a CSA near you.

CSA stands for community supported agriculture. People pay a set price for a share of the harvest at the beginning of the season and agree to work a certain number of hours on the farm over the growing season, in our case 12 hours. The result of this is a weekly pickup from June to early November of fresh, pesticide free veggies.

Hi Barbara! Thanks for taking the time to post. There are more ideas in the archives, you can scroll down and click on the month and then scroll down again to read the posts. Thanks for reading!