Yup it's cold here. -29C windchill -36C. Because it's too cold to snow they say March will come in like a lamb. I disagree. Tomorrow is to be just as cold, then the warm up. I am tired of being so cold.  Oakley has spring fever or at least I think it is. Everyday now he takes out all his toys, rips the blankets off the couches, tosses the cushions on the floor and has the zoomies at least three times a day. I guess even dogs get bored. Can't get one of the zooming. He's too fast. Enjoy the last day of February. May March come in like a lion and leave like a lamb. Jean

 Well since we only have three days left in February, I thought I would do a recap. I had hoped to do most of the month without going to the store. Did not happen I ended up going six times. I decided not to include my regular rent, utilities in with my calculation and some of it is dog needs which I am not including as his needs are there regularly every month. With his I went seven times to the store and he had grooming this month. From now on his regular needs dog food and treats will be only on one trip to the store. I will stock up. Just groceries and other spending I only had the six days but they were a doozy. I spent another $171.00 on groceries and had twenty no spend days. I had no other incidental buying this month. I hope this makes sense. My mind has a way of its own today.  I am hoping March will be better, but I will need to buy seeds for the garden. Normally we can’t plant before May 24th to around the first week of June. That’s why I will only get seeds in Mar...

 So my many belongings go from one child to another as the need arises. Most have kept articles they’ve borrowed. After my husband passed away, his recliner walked out for a number of years. It ended up in daughter’s garage. I got that back after I said, I would clean and fix it. Done deal, however, when it first walked out of my place, I bought one that suited me. It stayed for a bit then it too walked or rocked away. Yesterday I finally got it back. It’s in a well worn shape, but hey it still reclines. I cleaned it up this morning. I never saw so much animal hair in my life. But it works and will still work for the foreseeable future. I still haven’t got back a bed, night tables, kitchen items and I probably won’t. It’s okay I don’t mind helping my kids. Now if I could just figure out who has my down quilt. My husband's. This one has prompted me to make Oakley's room into a library reading room. This one is mine. For now it's in the living room.

 This week O took time to clean my living room area and my sewing room. I rearranged both areas. Still a bit to do in the sewing room. The living room will get another chair that was previoudly loaned to my youngest son. Jean

 Yes I still have lots of meals, but I wanted to use up the brussel sprouts I purchased. I also felt like some meals with rice. No pictures this time. But I made 5 portions of button bones, sprouts and rice. I also made 4 meals with pork chops, rice and the sprouts. Then I found a couple more meals lurking in the freezer, Soviet can now make it through most of March on what I have. I still need to make bread which since it’s going to blizzard the next few days, I just might make the bread. I also have four pizza shells I made that will need to be used up. The cost on these meals was very cheap. The button bones total cost was $2.51, The Brussels sprouts cost $7.00 for the bag, but I shared with daughter so my share I estimate at $5.00. And the rice I have had around for quite awhile, so I estimate my cost per portion was .35 cents. The pork chops were  1.25 each Button Bones per serving: .50 Rice per serving: .35 Brussels per serving: .55 Total: $1.40 per meal Pork chops per s...

Post: Edit ) Been doing some reading, but this is only #2 and #3 books this year. Went to my daughter's today. She gave me a plastic drawer cabinet. I will use it in my sewing room. She also gave me back my steam mop. Using it on my floors. She also gave me some maple pecans. They are good but so, so. My youngest son is getting some things back from his ex. My good chair and his remembrance quilt I made out of my husband's jeans. The chair was loaned due to his injured back. The quilt I need to repair for him. Happy to see we get both back. Jean

Was quiet around here. No mail nor male! Well, besides Oakley.  I worked on making some sewn microwave baskets. They are used to put a bowl of what you are cooking/warming up into the microwaveable container. You cook your item them when you take it out, you pick up by the basket. No hot fingers and it can go right on to the table. Sorry no pics yet. May finish some tomorrow or maybe Monday. Other than that it was a nice day so lots of outside for us. He would have spent the whole day walking, however we had dense fog for most of the day. Tomorrow will be better so will do a long walk. I think Oakley thinks it’s spring already.   Did the usual chores. Picking up toys, making the bed, dusting, load the dishwasher and make meals. Other than having that expensive day we are still on no spend days. BTW those statements, on a blog or two back, was actually money put into various savings accounts. To me it is still a spend as those accounts are not to be touched till the appropriate...

 There was a sale on grooming today so, of course I managed to squeeze Oakley in. It was $67 versus $73. A bit of a saving but every bit counts.  I picked up my meds they came to $363. 47. All of them took a huge jump up. I also picked up a bottle of white wine and a bottle of Rye for a gathering that is coming up. That came to $53.78. I received two statements also so paid those. One was $350 the other one was $140.  Now on Friday, I will have a bit more to pay I.e. hydro and another couple of statements. Then except for maybe some salad fixings, I am good till the end of the month.  To date in February I have 9 no spend days. Nice. I hope that Friday will be the last spend day for the month. Oakley's new doo. My valentine wreath and a hardanger coaster. Jean

 For the next week anyway we will be in the plus or low minuses as far as temperature. Right now we are sitting at +3C. I believe tomorrow will be a mite colder -16C but after that we will be warm again. Well, warm for us. It is, however, February and we can still get really cold so we take what we can get. I noticed on our afternoon walk that there are bare patches on the sidewalks. There are still patches of ice from all the freezing rain we had in December and January. I am hoping it all gets cleared off. In the meantime, I am still wearing my cleats everywhere. I love my cleats. Oakley was sure happy to get out walking. One of the items I purchased at Costco yesterday was their chicken Alfredo. It was quite a big one. I cooked it up today and ended up with thirteen servings. Yes, I measure my servings. Waste not want not. I don’t do this very often but sometimes I just want something I haven’t made. I had a serving today. It was good, but dry. The serving filled me right up. Th...

 Total spend: 173.61 Groceries: 80.52 Gas: 64.09 Canadian Tire Misc. 29.00 The gas will do me two to three months. The groceries gave me 10 more meals, Misc. was spot remover for carpets, rubbing alcohol for cleaning and Draino for cleaning out the drain. The alcohol and Draino should last a few months. I hope this is all the spending for February. Jean

 I can’t believe it’s the 3rd already. What happened to 1 and 2? Guess that shows that I must have been busy. With what I don’t know. I made two maraschino cherry loaves. I did what seemed like a million dishes. The usual walk the dog a million times, do the regular housework. Paid no attention to the groundhog. If he can dig his way out of all that snow, then he deserves an early spring.  I know I did too much thinking on goals for February and realizing meh I don’t want any goals this month. I am going with the no spend days again this month. I actually got a kick out of thinking up ways to not spend money. I am  egging myself on to see what other ideas I can come up with. I do have 25 meals in the freezer that need to be used up. I also have 1 hot sausage, 3 loin pork chops, 1 package of stir fry beef ( that should do three meals), two long links of farmer sausage that would do another 10 meals for me, 1 roast beef that again I can make probably five meals from, 1 beef...