The Low/No Spend Tally Since The 1st of January 2012

It had been a "tad" damp and cool in the house this morning, as the woodstove had gone out through the night.  Not freezing by any means, just a bit of a "chilly" feeling.  Just as well, as I really can't remember when the woodstove had last gone out completely, as it was due for a good cleaning out of ashes anyhow.

Woodstove cleaned, fired up again, Missy Mercedes out and a coffee into me, it was time to think about getting the Peameal Roast I had taken out the day before, into the Slow Cooker along with some potatoes.

"We are still eating potatoes from our own garden.  I came across this "weird" looking tater this morning.  Um, just missing some eyes, a nose, mouth and ears ... oh yes, some legs might also be helpful.  Imaginations is such a wonderful thing  for a person to possess."

Once Rob had gotten up and a coffee into him, he took some time out to replenish our wood supply in the house.

"It is nice he can load it from the woodshed into the truck and drive it around to the other side of the house to load it into the house from this point."

"This should keep us nice and toasty warm for a week or so."

Once we had a little rest, Rob from doing the wood, and me from doing nothing other much then resting, oh no, not true as I did make our bed, peeled some potatoes, and had done up a few dishes, Rob drove us downtown to our local Foodland Store.

I was out of Yogurt.  I love Yogurt, eating it pretty much on a daily basis.  Yogurt and fruit.  I cannot seem to get enough of either.

"When we don' t get into Owen Sound for a "big" shop, this is our "go to" store.  This store does have a very nice meat department I have enjoyed since living here.  Oh yeah, there is Rob a million miles ahead of me .... lol."

Yogurt was NOT on sale and priced at almost $8.00 for 12 little 30 gram containers.  NO WAY, was I paying that price, and I will wait until I see it come back on sale, as usually it is on somewhere every second week or so.  We still managed to walk out after spending just over $10.00, by the time we had purchased some salad fixings and a couple loaves of  bread.

We got back home, where it was just a matter of steaming some broccoli to go along with our Peameal Roast  dinner, before our Dinner was all ready.

"Most often then not, my plate is 3/4 full with vegetables and maybe 1/4 full with meat.  I did have a wee second helping of the peameal roast though, as it was rather good."

After today's Dinner, I actually took time to sit down to tally up all the receipts we had saved up since the 1st of January up until today.  Just before Christmas, Carla over at her "My 1/2 Dozen Daily" blog, had started a "No/Low Spend" Challenge for the month of January, which I had signed up myself to participate, since I was curious on how much we would spend in the month of January 2012.

With the tallies all totaled, here it is to date:

Gas                                                                                                          $   91.00

Prescriptions                                                                                            $  26.14


Starfrit Skillet (Rob bought as a Christmas Gift after Christmas)   $   31.47      


Groceries                                                                                                 $   77.85


                                                                                            Total            $ 226.46


This works out to $13.32 per day for two people, $6.60 per day for each of us.  I am not sure if I am happy with this total, or not.  For some reason I was thinking it would have been less.  Now I am thinking about it, if I hadn't been sick and bedridden for two of these past few weeks, would it have been more?  *Sigh*, we will see how the remainder of the month goes from here.  I pride myself on being a very frugal person, and I suppose maybe I am just being too hard on myself.

Good thing we have been doing my "Don't buy any meat until the freezer is void of meat" challenge, or the grocery bill would have been higher then $77.46 for sure !  Onward I go forth, and time will tell how well we did once the 31st of January 2012 rolls around.


I was quite surprised when I had seen Wiarton Willie made the Ontario section of today's Toronto Sun, especially since I had just blogged him myself yesterday.  Quite the popular little guy that "Willie" is.  Read more about him at the following link, should you please.

http://www.torontosun.com/2012/01/11/wiarton-willie-is-it-winter-yet

The 2012 Chinese New Year is also just around the corner, beginning on the 23rd of January, 2012.  I came upon a, what I thought to be, a very nice recipe posted by Kevin at Closet Cooking for a Honey Lemon Chicken Recipe, and I thought I would like to share my findings with everyone else.  Here it is:

Honey Lemon Chicken
(makes 4 servings)

Ingredients:
1 pound chicken breasts
salt and pepper
1 tablespoon oil
1 tablespoon ginger (grated)
1 lemon (juice and zest)
2 tablespoons honey
1/4 cup chicken stock
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
1. Season the chicken with salt and pepper.
2. Heat the oil in a pan.
3. Add the chicken and saute until golden brown and cooked through and set aside.
4. Add the ginger and saute until fragrant, about a minute.
5. Add the lemon juice and zest, honey, stock, salt and pepper and reduce to thicken. (Note: Do a taste test here to make sure that the lemon and honey balance nicely.)
6. Pour the honey lemon sauce over the chicken.

I also shared this recipe on Cindy's Recipe Exchange on Facebook, so I am hoping should anyone get to try it out before I have a chance to, gives me a "heads up" on what they thought of it.  Ever try out any of the recipes I post on my blog, please let me know what you thought of the recipe:  justnorthofwiarton@live.ca

I have had a pretty easy day here today, really not doing too much at all.  I really do hate not feeling well, I really do hate feeling like I am down and out, I really best stop feeling sorry for myself and start making the best of it all until I have made a full recovery, without the ton of brick feeling on my chest and the shortness of breath .... really now, I must smarten myself up and learn to relax a bit, as it will all come together in good time.  *Sigh* Patience is  VIRTUE !

Since I have always done my blog first thing in the mornings for the past how many months now, I have been debating with myself if I prefer blogging in the afternoon as I have been doing since I have been sick, or going back to the early mornings.  I will have to ponder a little longer on this point, as I am still undecided on the matter.

Oh  my, I just took a glance out the patio doors and snow is coming down like crazy out there; it is so heavy you can't even see our bush line !!!  Wow, I most certainly hope my "Crabby Cabbie" is taking a slow go at it, or that it isn't as heavy out where he is at.  I do so believe that Winter has now entered the building .....

I still have the Dinner dishes to be done up, before the price of Hydro and hot water rise between the hours of 5 and 7 pm, so maybe I should be getting to it, "Just North of Wiarton & South of the Checkerboard".