Low Spend Month

 For the month of January grocery expenses were under $300!!  It wasn't that hard when there is only 1.5 people to feed. There were only 4 trips for groceries mostly gingerale fresh fruit and veg. One was for  a few road trip snacks. I am not a big eater.  You wouldn't know that by all of the weight that has added in the last 5 years.  To that I give all of the credit to menopause and stress.  I'm still 15lbs over what I would like to be.  That isn't thin, that is just fit into my clothes better.

I also only had the older kids and grandbaby over x1 meal.  With the sickness that the man had I didn't want to spread it to the kids.  For that meal I only needed a few fresh vegetables.  Everything else was freezer and pantry.

This month will be a bit more as there is a big birthday with family I'm hosting and the man has his appetite back.  I grabbed a couple small beef roasts on sale as they are good for at least 2 meals for us.  They were $10 each.  Last month I got a tray of chicken breasts $5 off at Costco.  I divide them into bags of 2 after I hammer them /tenderize them flatter and remove the icky tendon.  Tonight is Honey Garlic chicken with noodles and broccoli.  Leftovers for tomorrow with a small salad.

Last night I made 2 doz gluten free banana muffins with a new recipe that called for some almond flour and sour cream.  They turned out awesome!  You cant tell that they are made with the gf flour.  As a bonus it cleaned up the frozen banana wasteland in the freezer and used all of the soon to expire sour cream.  They would be even better with walnuts or pecans but I had neither.  I also can't eat chocolate anymore as that seems to exacerbate my new autoimmune rash.  But chocolate chips would be great.

My love of reading is back in full swing it seems to be directly related to how cold it is outside.  Example -30 = lots of reading!!  In January I finished 4 books, and I'm starting #2 for Feb.  My genre is mystery and thrillers now.  And almost all women authors. Last year of my 25 books read only 2 were written by men. John Grisham (because none of my ordered books were ready yet and I do like a good lawyer story) and a highly recommended to me: Timothy Egan "A Fever in the Heartland".  A fictional book based on real events.  It explains much about below and somewhat here above the 49th parallel.  It was a very enlightening read.

Some of (my opinion) best reads in the last couple of months:

Ask for Andrea by Noelle H Ihli  

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn (I know that I am late to the hype on this one!)

Listen for the Lie by Amy Tintera

Our travel was survived (barely) with about 18 hours of driving there and back (including 2 pitstops).  I drove 4 hours there and 2 hours home.  The man came back and relapsed with his health.  He went to the mediclinic and came back with a mega dose of antibiotics for a week.  After 2 days he's better.  Our hotel had a small kitchen, I didn't cook, but the full sized fridge was nice instead of the little ones that always seem to freeze everything you put in.  I brought some food and snacks from home. So I was able to have a nice salad for dinner one night and milk for my cereal stayed cold. There was always coffee/tea/hot water plus a flavoured water available for guests in the lobby which was really nice. Also the coffee maker in the room.  So that saved a trip to starbucks.  There was a free daily big continental breakfast but with my dietary restrictions now I didn't have much.  The man ate pancakes bacon and eggs every morning.

Our kid did great!  It was nice to see him playing well and enjoying himself.

Well I need to get back to my doing "retirement things": laundry, cleaning, yoga session, reading and getting lunch (egg salad sandwiches) and dinner ready.  I may just add a little nap too :)

Things that are great:

kids

grandkid

trip away was not as $$ as feared

when a new recipe is better than you hope!

Things that suck:

the hellscape to the south

my parental units

If one more person asks "What do you do all day?" "Aren't you bored?"