November 1

Wow, it's hard to believe that it's November 1, especially considering that our high today is supposed to be 90. Gotta love Phoenix!

Wednesday we are going on vacation to California for a few days and I am so looking forward to highs in the 70s!

Because of our upcoming vacation, I am trying to use up the food that we have and not buy anything. I'm keeping a list on the fridge as we run out of stuff. I know that I will have a big shopping trip to do when we get home, but I'm ready. I've been a little lax about couponing this past month, so I'm going to take some time to get my coupon box ready and prepare.

Here's what's going on in my kitchen today:

Made the kids pancakes for breakfast. I went ahead and used up the last of the box mix, which was about three cups. The kids and I had a few pancakes and the rest are in the freezer to be eaten the rest of the week.

Jim took leftovers for lunch, as well as the big bag of candy that Dotty gave us. I so don't need all that candy in the house.

The kids and I had leftovers for an early lunch. If we get hungry later, I have a frozen pizza I can make.

I looked in the freezer to see what meats I had. Found a hunk of round steak and wondered what to do with it considering I don't have any potatoes for my usual "Pot Roast in the Crockpot". Rummaged around some more and found some frozen carrots from a "manager's special" veggie tray that I had bought and froze what we didn't eat, frozen peas, frozen green pepper, some almost-bad celery that I managed to salvage a few stalks from, half-a-bag of onion soup mix, and a can of stewed tomatoes. STEW! It's in the crockpot now and will make a great meal tomorrow after church.

I'll also make a loaf of bread in the machine.

Also defrosting some ground beef and will whip up a quick Hamburger Helper for tonight and Jim can take leftovers tomorrow.

I am determined to get better at using up my produce before it goes bad, either by eating it or freezing it.

For more inspiration, check out $5 Dinner Mom in my BlogRoll. She's really good about using up every little thing.

Spending:
I may have to stop and get some soda as I don't think we have enough to last Jim until Tuesday.

Total spent in November: $0
Total available to spend: $400