The rest, after that, I thought I could swing alright, including some flats of soup for the pantry. Well, that was before everything medical hit. The latest in the drama department is my daughter had to be run to Urgent Care last night as I picked her up in tears from school because she was so miserable and she kept saying her nose hurt really bad. I thought for sure it had to be a sinus infection. Nope. Turns out that a couple little tiny sores, one on her wrist (which we assumed to be an ingrown hair and was treating it as such) and such ended up being a staph infection. Her nose was hurting because she's also got two small sores in her nostrils. I blame the cold-like virus we had a couple of weeks ago for all of this. Whatever it was it REALLY knocked down our immunity in the family. Thank goodness we didn't mess around with any of it and got all of us to the doctor's pronto before the infections got bad. But, either way, my daughter is home until Friday to make sure she's not contagious anymore.
And my list went from 10 items down to zero today as I just had to pay my nearly 400.00 bill (after the co-pay for the doctor visit and the lab work) for my doctor visit last week on top of everything. So, we're officially "scream into pillow in moments of panic" broke again *sigh*. Oh well, I needed to get treated for the strep, so it can't really be helped. Just...ouch.
Luckily, with money being tight, I picked up a turkey early this year when they were on sale super cheap in like February, so the turkey for Thanksgiving is already in the freezer. Residual items for Thanksgiving won't be a big deal to get (a bag of cranberries, a couple of oranges, some fresh herbs, etc) and I'll just work those in with my normal grocery shopping throughout the month. The grocery budget this month is going to be as low as I can make it just to try and recoup all the financial hits we've had of late. Hopefully it'll all work out.
On top of everything I need to get whole wheat flour. I'd ordered a variety pack of flour from Amazon with a bunch of different whole grain flours in it, one of the main ones being (I thought) whole wheat flour and coarse whole wheat (graham) flour. But I get the variety pack in the mail today to find oat flour and seven grain flour instead of the whole wheat flours. Went and checked on Amazon and I missed the "variety pack contents may vary" in the fine print. I cursed. I'll admit it. So, yeah, I spent more money than I wanted to get a bunch of flours, and I still have to either find the arm power to grind my wheat or the money to buy whole wheat flour yet. Blah!!! The last two weeks have been on a real roll around here.
So, yeah, here's my grocery list for this month.
Regular Stores (if on super sale and can work into regular shopping):
- Flour
- Sugar
- Butter
- Whole Wheat Flour (if I can find somewhere that sells it decently cheap)
- Olive Oil
- Fresh Herbs
- Oranges (2)
- Cranberries
And yeah, that's about it in the way of grocery goals for the month. How about you? What's on your list?
It sounds like you have been hit hard in the medical department, again! I'm sorry your insurance did not cover more than that--$400 seems like a lot to me for a physical.
ReplyDeleteI already have turkey for Thanksgiving as well. Today, one of my sisters, my mom and my aunt made a list of what they were bringing, and now I need to see who else is coming and assign the rest of the items out. It is nice to be able to divide the meal up. I'll do turkey and potatoes. Then, I'll pick at least one thing I just want to make for fun, beyond then basics, and make that. Others will bring salads and desserts, and most likely rolls.
Last month I got a small case of pineapple and one of mandarin oranges, oil, 4 butters, and some flour from Bob's Red Mill. In September--a case of tomatoes, beyond the food we just ate. This month, my stock-up items will probably be sugar, brown sugar, butter, and whatever else I can find for a good price.
That's not even for my physical (hopefully that is covered as I got that done today), that was just the doctor visit co-pay and labs for my strep test and throat culture. Medical procedures are NOT cheap up here in my experience, so I was prepared for it to hurt, just not quite that much.
DeleteWow, that's a lot of medical problems for one family in a short time. Hope everyone is feeling better soon!
ReplyDeleteAt least the most expensive item, the turkey, is already purchased. That should help with keeping the Thanksgiving meal fairly inexpensive. Just out of curiosity, could you not use the seven grain flour in place of whole wheat flour? Seven grain bread sounds pretty good to me.
My pantry is pretty much bursting at the seems right now, so I don't have excessive needs for daily meals. I am watching sales closely right now for baking supplies. We'll use a lot for Christmas as well as throughout the year. Surprisingly, I need salt which is cheap at the dollar store. I'm also watching the sales at Costco for boneless skinless chicken breasts. We're OK at the moment, but certainly could use more to stock up the freezer with pre-marinated chicken souvlaki. I want to buy another big bottle of conditioner for back up, but I can wait for a sale. That's about it for my list at the moment.
I'm not sure with the seven grain flour. The main reason I wanted the whole wheat flour was to just add some to baked goods to up the nutritional content without messing with the taste much. Kind of concerned the seven grain flour would be too noticable, but it will come in handy for making bread anyway. Not quite sure what to use the oat flour for yet, so that might get interesting *laugh*.
DeleteI would think that oat flour would be good in things like muffins or even cookies. If you would possibly put rolled oats in it, then I would think oat flour would taste fine in it as well. Should be fun experimenting anyways! I mean, really, at least you get some yummy baked goods out of it.
DeleteAny idea how to use oat flour in relation to AP flour? Somehow this was a lot easier to figure out when I had to bake gluten free because I knew my proportions were to make the baked goods come out good. I'm trying to figure out if I should just do a 1 to 1 sub with like 1/3 of the flour and see how it goes or use more/less.
DeleteI might just start with the recipe they have on the bag, see how it turns out and mess with it from there *laugh*.
Make your life simple and find some recipes using oat flour on Pinterest. That's how I would handle it. I mean, why make life complicated by trying to convert an existing recipe when someone has already done that for you!!!
DeleteI do not have a turkey yet, and every time I get room in the freezer, something comes along to fill,it. This year might be a last minute buy. Ugh.
ReplyDeleteOur food store order came in, so I am hoping this week's groceries will manage to stay light, to balance that out. I don't need tons, but my kids have to go with me so that can go either way!
A plus though, for the next few weeks I will be able to get a few extra work hours, from home. I am really excited about that. I am hoping when it's all said and done, to get an extra 10 hours, which, this time of year financially would be great. And I am very grateful because I am going to have to visit the chiro soon, I am so miserable with pain in my back again. He's out of town until the 17th though, so that's when I'll go.
I hope you all get mended over the weekend! Thank goodness you took your daughter in so quickly!
Man alive how do Americans afford to be sick?? I cringe when I read your health related costs. If you want to immigrate to Canada, I will host your family :). Here's praying you will have a very long stretch of good health.
ReplyDeleteWell, the honest to goodness truth is we CAN'T afford to be sick here anymore. The sad part is we were self pay for years and were able to get by most times if we had to go in for a doctor's visit as they'd give you a discount for not having to deal with insurance and they'd give you lab costs up front and things so you'd know how much it was going to hurt. Now a days, since our poor excuse for socialized healthcare went through, costs of prescription drugs and health care have gone through the roof and I'm finding I'm paying MORE, AFTER insurance, than I was just a year ago being self pay. It's upsetting for sure especially since next year we have one, count um one, insurance provider sticking around the state and their deductibles are so ridiculous I pray we never go over them (like over 6000.00 type of deductible) and they cost me than our current insurance costs. It stinks.
DeleteI've heard Samaritan Ministries does pretty good in place of insurance. You can google it and see if it would apply to you. Then you get discounts as well.....
DeleteHuh. I'll do that! Thanks!
DeleteHi Erika,
ReplyDeleteWith regards to milling the whole wheat flour. If you have an electric coffee grinder it may be possible to grind small amounts of the wheat kernels at one time and just repeat until you get the amount you want to add to your baked goods. Hope everyone continues on the mend. Dorothy
Erika, I have done as Dorothy suggested. I used my coffee grinder for years before I could afford to buy a real grain grinder. You can only grind about a third of a cup at a time but it only takes about 30 seconds to do each one. It was a chore I would do while sitting in a rocking chair. Just sit and rock and grind, quite brainless.
DeleteI also buy my grain at the farmer's co-op. It is illegal for them to sell it to people for consumption, (isn't everything illegal these days?) so I tell them it is for animal consumption. That way they let me know if it has been treated with chemicals. It must be listed on the label if it has anything on it. I then sit on the front porch on a windy day and winnow it to get the leaves out. The cost is about $12 for 50 pounds. Quite worth the effort.
Jeannie
I'll have to give a combo of the grinding in the coffee grinder and using the oat flour as a nutritional add in a shot and see how it goes. My coffee grinder, that I use just for grinding herbs and spices now a days, is ancient...it's over 12 years old now...so I get nervous about overworking the poor thing and killing it *laugh*. Best 3.00 clearance item I ever bought at Wal-Mart when I worked there, though. That Braun has just chugged right along all of these years.
DeleteWith wheat, my mother-in-law and father-in-law YEARS ago bought like some ridiculous amount of wheat from the mormon church (like thousands of pounds of wheat type of purchase) and my mother-in-law shares wheat if we need it. I think between what she gave me and what I bought myself from the cannery (it's super cheap through them...like 5.00 for a 25 lb bag of wheat berries) over the years I have 200 lbs of wheat sitting around in different storage areas. I usually try and mill some when I need whole wheat flour just because I have it, but my manual wheat grinder is hard on my bad arm right now, so I was trying to figure out a way to cheat, really. The coffee grinder might be the best cheat, though :). Thanks for the advice, ladies!
WOW! 200 pounds of wheat berries, you are ready for the Apocalypse! I have read that it stores good for decades.
DeleteMy coffee grinder is a Braun also, bought from Goodwill. It has really been a work horse. I wish all my appliances were made as good.
On weeks that money was REALLY tight I would focus on meals made with mainly wheat meals: pancakes or muffins for breakfast, sandwiches for lunch and soup with homemade crackers for dinner. It was not uncommon for us to just have homemade bread right out of the oven as the whole meal. It would really be filling.
Oh, and I would not bother to roll out the dough for the crackers. I would mix it up and add extra water until I could pour the dough onto the pan. It would take longer to bake, but it was work saved for me. The boys liked breaking the one piece of HUGE cracker.
Is your daughter able to eat the bread or does it upset her stomach?
Jeannie
Oh she can definitely eat bread. Sometimes all she wants to eat is bread and butter when her stomach is acting up, so thank goodness we have that!
DeleteNeat tip with the home made crackers! I'm going to have to try that. Anything to cut some of the rolling out right now is definitely inviting with my arm, so thank you for the tip!
We receive a free turkey from my husband's job each year so that is off the list. I also cook a HUGE meal for all my family and also send food home with them. Mom used to bring all the deserts but is no longer able to do that now. It is a mountain of a job for me but it is the only time in the year that my family all gets together. All my boys will be home for the weekend so I will have four hungry men eating from sunup to sundown.
ReplyDeleteI will start cooking and freezing starting next week. I take my casserole dishes and arrange them in my oven to see which ones will fit before I freeze the food in them. I have three shelves and each one will be full. I take all the frozen dishes out early in the morning, arrange them in the oven and slowly heat them up. It saves me work on the morning. My boys arrive the day before (starved) and it is hard to keep them from eating everything before the Thanksgiving meal. This solves that problem because they won't bother to eat frozen food in the freezer.
And don't worry, the refrigerator will full when they get home.
This is a meal I plan for way ahead; I think almost everything is purchased and in pantry.
Oops, a typo. My Mom brings desserts, not a desert.
Delete