This and That

Another Friday, the last one in April in fact.  Time just seems to be flying by.  I just figured that I would use today to catch up on this and that.  For those of you who have inquired, "Vic" and I are still going strong.  My numbers are great, and I'm feeling better.  Tomorrow I go for blood work.  I know that my A1C will still be high, since it measures your number for the previous three months.  But I know that the next one will be better.  Yesterday, I finished the six mug buckets that I was making for Mary,(will post photos when I find the camera) and now to finish the Saddle Up quilts.  Hopefully, next week I will have some quilt photos to post.

Exactly 5 months from today we leave for Disney.  We are so excited to be there for the Food and Wine Festival, and the anniversary of EPCOT.   Pam and I continue to plan our trip   We have made our touring plan and all of our Advance Dining Reservations. Our airline tickets are paid for.  I have purchased some pins for trading at the parks.  And the trip is about half paid for.  But I still need to find the money for the other half of the trip, tips, and spending money.  Not to mention the rental car.  We had gone through AutoSlash last year and got a really great price.  But this year, the companies we like to use are no longer available through AutoSlash, so we made reservations through AAA.  In an attempt to find extra money, we are tightening our belts.

The price of almost everything seems to be going up, our electric budget has jumped $30/month.  Food costs are enough to give you a heart attack (without eating bad stuff).  And gasoline - let's not even discuss that.  Rod drives 100 miles each day to and from work.  And we have a car that gets 27 miles/gallon.  Still he's spending between $60 and $90/week in gasoline.  I don't understand how people with SUV's and large trucks are making ends meet.  In the past, I've lived in what I call "lay-off mode".  So many of the years in the '80s, Rod was laid off, and I had little tricks I used to make ends meet.  One of my best was to look at the grocery ads and plan my menus around what was on sale.  I'm back in "lay-off" mode to try and save a little money.  Do you Pinterest?  Boy I do.  I love finding some of the cool things that are posted by others, especially recipes!

This week one of our neighbors brought a gift of 8 pounds of butter, and 3 huge heads of cabbage.  It was so thoughtful.  The other night, I made fried cabbage and noodles.  That used 1 head.  I had found this recipe for a stuffed cabbage casserole on Pinterest, and made it before.  The family loved it.  Since our local grocery store has tomato sauce on sale, it is a perfect meal for next week.  Tonight Rod will stop at Costco on his way home from work (since it's on his way home, it saves gas to not have to drive there after he comes home).  He's going to bring one of their rotisserie chickens home for dinner.  Since it will just be the two of us tonight, there will be leftovers.  I found this recipe for chicken crescent roll ups on Pinterest and they look so good.  I have 4 oz. of onion/chive cream cheese left over from a recipe that I made last night, and I think I could substitute it for the onion and garlic in this recipe.  And  crescent rolls are on sale this week.  I have a large package of corn tortillas that I bought at Sam's Club two weeks ago, and need something to do with them.  Back to my Pinterest recipes, and I found this recipe for shredded beef tacos.  I always have beef roasts in the freezer, and I have a bag of taco seasoning that I made.  Don't they look good?

I have been buying 100 calorie snacks for the kids and I.  But this pay, we decided to buy store-brand sandwich cookies and cheez-it's and package them in sandwich zippie bags ourselves.  I keep a "snack basket" where I put the snacks that the kids know they are allowed to have.  I think this will make them just as happy and save me some money, maybe more so since the bags will be see through.

I'm off to find more money - have a great weekend.