Two Garage Sale Makeovers

Do you remember when I posted about this wooden box a couple of months ago?  I got is for .75 at a garage sale.  It was dirty and crusty with spider webs and dirt.  I had hubby power wash it and let it dry for a couple of months while.

After a coat of red spray paint, some stenciled words and a couple of stars glued on it took on a whole new personality.  So what do you think I should put in it?  I thought some greenery and pine cones would look nice.  Any suggestions?

I also picked these chairs up at a garage sale and thought I might be able do do something with them.

This is what I came up with.  The one on the right says 'Welcome" in French, at least that is what I found the translation was on google.  If it it different please let me know.

Now I am off to finish up a few more projects for the bazaar.

Findings From My January Pantry Challenge

For the whole month of January I took on a challenge to limit my grocery shopping to only fresh fruits and vegetables, milk, eggs, and bread. The point was to use what food I had on hand and to use up food items that were getting close to expiring. Along with the grocery buying I also decided to quit eating out too. Hubby and I had gotten in the habit of eating out every Friday night. Along with that I was stopping and picking up a pizza now and then or other takeout 1-2 times a week. THAT ALL STOPPED. This is what I learned:

I had a lot of food on hand. Because our church has encouraged us to keep a goodly stock of food stored up I knew we wouldn't starve by any means.

I found stuff in my freezer that I had completely forgotten about that would have gone bad had I not used it. I even found a whole chicken in the back of the freezer that was dated Oct. 2008. I would not have used it but it had been double wrapped, so I cooked it. I acutally go two meals out of it.

This challenge forced me to take a look at the amounts of food I was making for every meal. You see, I have four children (who are all grown and married) and I never transitioned over to cooking for two. When I made a pot of spaghetti, it wasn't a small pot, it was large enough to feed eight people. Was that necessary? NO! I would end up throwing it out the next week because we got sick of eating the leftovers. I can't tell you how much food I was wasting, it was sinful.

One of the best things to come out of this challenge was that I found that I didn't have to fix large meals with all of the trimmings EVERY NIGHT. Sometimes just biscuits and gravy were enough of a meal for us. Making smaller meals really cut down on the cooking and clean-up time too.

The BEST thing to come out of all of this is the extra $5oo I was able to put into savings.

This challenge has really changed the way I cook and buy groceries. I think the next step I will make is to start couponing. I have heard that you can have a ton of savings just by doing this.

Does anyone know of any good blogs or websites that help in this area?

JANUARY EAT FROM THE PANTRY CHALLENGE

I have been inspired to join up with an Eat From the Pantry challenge. If you would like to join along here are some basics for getting started:

1. Take stock of what you have on hand and make meals with what you have.

2. Limit the number of times you go to the grocery store for the month of January

3. Make up your menu's from what you have on hand.

4. Set a budget for the month of January for grocery shopping.

5. Use the money saved for something special, such as an emergency cash fund, donate to a charity, or save up for something special.{Note: I have copy and pasted these 5 steps from my daughter Maria's blog over at Rainy Day Farm}

Here is a picture of my food pantry. As you can see I do have quite a bit of things on hand so going for a month without going full on grocery shopping shouldn't be too hard. I am fortunate to have been taught by my church leaders to keep a plentiful supply of food on hand for emergencies or natural disasters. If you would like to know more about starting your own food storage go here and click on Family Home Storage for some basic information about getting started.

Here I have posted a few pictures of my three freezers (two of which are in refrigerators). We have been fortunate enough to have bought a half of a pig, one-third of a beef and the hunters got and elk this year. Those three things have filled up the freezers quite nicely. Not to mention the trips to Costco for stocking up.





My goals for the month are:

1. Inventory all three freezers.

2. Create a menu from inventory list.

3. Cook small enough amounts so that it will be eaten within 1-2 days. (I have a hard time cooking for just two and find that I throw a lot of food out because we just can't eat it befor it goes bad.)

4. Use more whole wheat in cooking and baking.

5. Make all desserts from scratch, no store bought cookies.

6. Limit myself to $25 a week for fresh fruits and vegetable, milk and eggs.

7. Do not eat out at all this month. (This is a personal challenge because I like to take Friday nights off from cooking and go eat out.)

8. Put money saved into saving account.