Summing up April

We started isolating in early March, we’ve been at this a while, but April is the first full month we’ve spent in lockdown. Every day, beginning to end, all of us were here at home. We’re in isolation but not alone we have each other. March felt more normal than April. I’d been ill, hubby was ill, the boy had his wisdom teeth out. Once I recovered I was home taking care of my husband and son as they convalesced. It felt like something we were choosing to do. It was nice to have excuses to stay home because we were highly concerned about the virus. We were even worried my husband had the virus, he was really ill. The doctors wouldn’t see him, just called every day to check on him, let him know they had no tests, and ask if he needed more meds. It was scary, maybe it was something about all that fear, and the immediacy of my husband’s illness that made March seem less strange. We just weren’t’ focused on that.

April seemed to be more defined by what we couldn’t do. Stuck home, can’t visit people, go to the movies, can’t go out to a restaurant, can’t go to work, stop by a bookstore, get a haircut, kids can’t go to school or see their friends… there are a whole lot of “can’ts.” What we did do was adapt, at least somewhat, to our new circumstances.

We binge-watched lots of stuff. My favorite new show was recommended by my 17 year old son: “Overlord” on Hulu. It’s an anime’ about a guy that somehow gets stuck in some kind of ultra-immersive, futuristic, holodeck-y version of an online multi-player game. It’s for mature audiences and it’s hella cool. It raises a lot of questions and pushes a lot of buttons, it almost lost me a couple of times because of the actions of the main character. It’s complicated, it’s layered, and it really makes me think. On the surface it’s just some dorky anime’ but … watch it and let me know what you think, what you get from it. I hope they come out with a fourth season, I really want to see where it goes, and hopefully find out more about what is actually going on. We also watched a lot of old favorite shows, my comfort watches are likely getting worn out at this point.

As ginormous geeks we gamed a lot. We have a family Pathfinder game, a library Pathfinder game, another Pathfinder game we just started with far-flung friends, a GURPS game, and we’ve played 2 sessions of D&D with some people from our most recent, in-person gaming group. That last one is problematic, sadly, it’s the only one that isn’t being run by either my husband or myself, the only one we are playing in together, and it just isn’t working. The GM is inexperienced and she opted to create her own world and adventure. Her write up about the world was pretty cool, had some interesting politics and history, but the plot of the adventure is, well, weak. She had us make 3rd level characters and we were sent to a tower to remove some bandits, who turned out to be goblins, and to recover items stolen from the townspeople. It was pretty much a cake walk, of course, and therefore it got a little boring. I get it, she’s new to this, it’s tough to know exactly how much to throw at your players to challenge them, but that’s why you start them at first level and follow the DM guide and challenge ratings of the monsters. If fledgling DM issues were the main problem that would actually be fine, everyone starts out there, we all have to learn. But we have a player who is just, quite frankly, awful to play with. He monopolizes the spotlight, rules-lawyers Everything, and just generally bogs down the game and syphons out all the fun. We also rolled up our characters at home and his ranger has a 19 STR, 18 DEX, and 18 WIS… that I know of. I’ve rolled really well sometimes but never that well. I don’t know if I’ll find the time for that game again, it just isn’t fun.

We’ve also cooked a lot, eaten a lot, ordered things online occasionally, had a couple of board games delivered from our local game store. We’re read a bit, worked a lot, taken some classes, crafted a little bit. April was a weird mix of working through structured classes and meandering aimlessly, without focus through everything else. I feel sort of adrift, if that makes any sense. I think we’re all struggling a bit because the world is so uncertain.

But here we are in May, a new month with a cloak of real springtime around her shoulders, and it’s time to take the reins in hand. My library is closed completely for at least the next 18 days and pretty likely through the month and beyond so I’m planning for that. My boss offered to pay for a course we can take as part of a libraries and autism grant and I’ve offered to take it. It will last all month and I have no idea what the course load will be like, but it will count as work so while I’m learning I’ll be getting paid. I’m working on my Pet Month stuff, and planning for a virtual Summer Reading Program, and that sums up work. On the homefront I’m realizing I need to make a schedule for MY chores, I have been falling behind. I used to do all the housework when I was home alone so part of my brain just doesn’t accept that it’s ever time to do that stuff right now: There Are People Here! I’ve also just started getting ahead on my grocery orders. I had been waiting to put together the next orders until after the current ones arrived and we were having some gaps. Right now we’ve got one coming today or tomorrow and one already scheduled for next Thursday, so YAY! no gap!

So, for May, for my own little brain, I will be:

Taking a month long class for our LSTA grant
Creating and running programs for May
Working on our SRP
Making and keeping a schedule of chores for myself
Planning ahead more effectively for groceries etc.
Finding time for Art and Reading to de-stress
Finding a way to schedule in more activities as a family because we are all needing it even though we are tired at the end of the day.

So, onward! Into the merry month of May we go. Happy Beltane, Everyone!

Progress

I’m getting somewhere.

After a long time of feeling like no progress was being made in almost any areas of my life I am making some headway, however small, in more than one area.

Decluttering: In the past few weeks I have filled up the trunk of my car twice and dropped everything off at the Survival Center. Several bags of clothes, a few boxes of books, some household goods, and loads of CDs, DVDs, and video games are all gone. I’ve also been making an effort to put some items away that had been left in awkward places for MONTHS. Moving some of the things I will use for my studio to the shed has helped too. The house is feeling less out of control and more livable. I’m getting somewhere!

Meal Planning: Officially back on track after mucking it up for a while. It’s been 2 solid weeks now that I have planned everything out and I’m doing well. I even turned down an invitation to go out tonight for someone’s birthday because it would muck up the schedule and becauseI hate biggish plans last minute. I like small invites like let’s go get coffee/tea, are you free? But Dinner and movie on a Tuesday? The movie theater they are going to is over an hour from our house and the movie wouldn’t be getting out till after 10:00. My husband has classwork and we need to be here to make sure the kids do their homework too. I don’t know these folk’s exact schedules but I am willing to bet they don’t have to be up at 6 am tomorrow. I initially thought they meant this weekend some time. Spontaneity seems fun but I don’t have that kind of freedom.

Work: I am getting near to having things planned out three months in advance as my boss requested! Once I nail down a couple of dates for events and get some flyers made I will be right where I want to be and will just have to keep up planning for that 3rd month in the future as I go. Awesome. I am also about halfway through with pulling together my plans for next summer’s Summer Reading Program. I am starting to feel less overwhelmed and under-qualified. ^_^

My Son: His therapist reports progress is being made! He is less depressed and some of his other issues are lessening in intensity and he is feeling better. He reports he is doing well keeping up with school work and doing well socially! BAM! ^_^ That is awesome.

There are loads of areas that are still pretty much sucking but I am just going to be happy about all this progress right now. Things are good. Things are good!

Mostly Meal Planning/Saving $

I have to be at my place of work every day this week. I’m working tonight, tomorrow night, have a 1 hour staff meeting Wednesday morning, a 2 hour training Thursday, work Friday night and all day Saturday. I know, I’m lucky, I work part time not full time, but I’m still responsible for getting the kids to and from school every day, making sure dinner is on the table even when I’m not here to eat it, and doing most of the housework. The logistics of this week are nuts. I think I also have my handyperson coming to start working on the shed.

I won’t be here for dinner 4 nights out of 5 this week so I had to scramble to make plans for 4 dinners I can make ahead and implore the gods my kids will remember to put in the oven. Tonight will be vagabond packets, tomorrow I told my husband they can make sandwiches as I got the nice sandwich rolls, deli meat etc, Thursday will be seafood casserole, Friday Lasagna and I’ll be here to cook Wednesday and hopefully my husband will BBQ on Saturday since I’ll be coming through the door right at dinner time. Sometimes I really feel like having to cook for everyone all the time is some kind of tyranny imposed on me. I like cooking, it’s just trying to come up with meals, especially ones that have to be in a slow-cooker or can just be popped in the oven by someone else, is such a thankless task. I’ve had so many slow-cooker cookbooks, and searched for so many recipes online for casseroles, for slow-cooker recipes, etc. and there are millions of recipes out there but a lot of them are awful or variations on each other.

I keep the above list in my Bullet Journal and use it every week to try to plan our dinners. Some of the ideas refer to specific recipes and some are sort of just a theme. Soup and salad could be any of several homemade soups I like to make and any sort of salad, for instance, or tacos and rice could be any kind of meat, veg, cheese, & tortillas, chips, guac. etc. My method is simple, I look at my schedule and see how many dinners I will not be home for and then I pick that many meals I can more-or-less make ahead, fill in the gaps with whatever meals I want to make for the other nights and then make a shopping list based on whatever I’ll need that isn’t on hand already. What I’ll actually purchase is based on the list but gets adjusted to take advantage of any great sales I find at the grocery store. I might have planned to make turkey burritos but if ground beef is cheaper that week, or ground pork etc, I adjust.

I spend $70-$140 week on groceries for 5 of us depending on a few factors. (that figure includes pet food, paper goods, food wrap, and toiletries) I do not consider the amount I spend to be very low, it is less than most people I know spend and I know where I can make changes to spend less when I need to. If you are spending more than you’d like to and want to trim your food budget there is a good chance that you can. There are a few things I do that help me save significantly on food that you can try out or adapt to your needs.

#1. I think the most important thing I do to keep food expenses under control is maintaining a well-stocked pantry. My pantry consists of a decent sized double cupboard in the kitchen and a set of cupboards in my laundry room, I’m not sure what the cubic footage is but I’ll check soon and report back if anyone is interested. (drop a comment to let me know if you feel like it.) My pantry contains many things:

Baking Supplies: flour, sugar, baking powder & baking soda, brown sugar, molasses, honey, chocolate chips, vanilla, etc etc. (I keep lots of flour sealed up in the freezer too to prevent bugs when storing longer term)
Canned goods: Vegetables, tuna, all kinds of beans including baked beans and refried beans, as well as the plain kinds, pre-made soups and pasta in sauce, (for casseroles and power outages etc)
Boxes of pasta. I have a LOT of pasta. Upwards of 40 lbs. most or the time. Plus 10-20 boxes of mac & cheese and 50+ ramen noodle packets.
Jars of pasta sauce. I usually have 20-30 on hand.
Condiments and salad dressings. I keep 5+ ketchup, mustard, mayo, pickles, hot sauce, siracha, green salsa, red salsa, soy sauce, shelf-stable dressings, etc, etc.
Quick sides like instant potato packets, or packets of broccoli-cheese pasta that I can whip up easy for myself if I feel unwell or use with other ingredients to make an easy side casserole to go with dinner if I’m strapped for time, unwell, or suddenly have more folks at my table.
Tea and coffee. I have an entire shelf taken up with various teas, most cheap, some a little special. I like to have something that might appeal to anyone who stops by. I have coffee for my daughter and for guests it’s plain because I know nothing about coffee.
Cereals both hot and cold. I keep oats for cooking and various oatmeals for my daughter who likes it. I keep 1-4 boxes of cold cereal on hand mostly slightly healthier seeming stuff, no bright colors, no marshmallows, etc.
Peanut butter and jams/jellies. I keep around 3-12 jars of PB around at all times for sandwiches, snacking, and sauces. I keep a few jars of jam/jelly around in various flavors for sandwiches, baking, etc.
A mad assortment of spices bought in bulk, given to me by people moving, harvested, dried & jarred by me, or grabbed relatively cheaply at Trader Joe’s.

All that stuff up above? I buy a LOT of whenever it’s on an excellent sale. I almost never find myself forced to pay 4+ dollars for mayo because whenever it hits $2-$3 I stock up. I get my ketchup for $2/bottle at Trader Joe’s because that is very cheap for ketchup without high fructose corn syrup. Pasta I grab at $1 or less per pound, Pasta sauce when it hits $1/quart, etc.

#2 Making use of my freezer. Right behind the pantry in importance is my freezer, or freezers. I have the typical top-of-the-fridge and a medium chest freezer. I keep various types of foods in my freezer to save money.

Meat. I stock up when anything is super cheap and repackage bulk packs into portions that match the amounts I typically cook with. Ground beef, chicken, kielbasa, bacon, etc.
Frozen veggies. Mostly broccoli and sliced bell peppers, sometimes cauliflower and other things. I stock up when these hit $1/10 oz package and use when fresh is unavailable/too expensive.
Butter. I buy butter for $3/lb or less. (Only making exceptions at the holidays if I have managed to run out.) I keep 5-10 lbs on hand if I can.
Flour. I keep most of my flour, sealed up in layered bags, in the freezer. Flour can get moths in the cupboard and I hate to waste it. I buy when it’s super cheap and use it for AGES. I keep 20+ lbs around and buy when it’s .20-.40 cents/lb.
Rice. It can get buggy just like flour so the rice lives in the freezer. I keep 30+lbs on hand and buy it when it’s on sale. Prices vary wildly depending on the type of rice.

#3 Farmshare. You may or may not have this option in your area. We are part of a CSA: Community Supported Agriculture, where we pay a local farmer a certain amount in the spring and then stop by the farm weekly to get a share of the produce. Currently our farm share costs $650 and we get 8-9 items per week, June – November. (PLUS “field items.”) To give you an idea of what you might get here is this week’s share: (which I chose from among the available options) 2 lbs potatoes, 4 heads of lettuce, 4 lbs red peppers, 6 leeks, 2 acorn squash, 2 lbs onions, several hot peppers, approx. 5 lbs tomatillos, fresh flowers, fresh herbs: cilantro, thyme, oregano, basil. … I think that’s it for this week. Our farmshare only goes for 6 out of 12 months but it keeps us in winter squash, garlic and a few other things through to spring.

#4, (and lastly for now as I need to pre-make dinner and get myself ready for work) Meal Planning. I do what I outlined above. Check my schedule, pick our dinners, make a list based on what isn’t already in the house, and make adjustments based on killer sale prices. I used to use the weekly flyers from the grocery stores to plan meals around sales but have found my current method to be slightly more effective/less stressful. Meal planning saves us money in more than 1 way. First it takes advantage of the pantry & freezer & second it almost always keeps us from resorting to ordering pizza or grabbing meals out. If there is a plan in place, barring accidents, emergencies or migraines, I fit it into my schedule and it is pretty stress free.

That’s pretty much it. If you start keeping a pantry or stocking your freezer just ROTATE the food, meaning: put the NEW stuff in the back/bottom and pull the Older stuff to the front. Use your pantry don’t just leave it sit. Take the older stuff at the front to prepare your meals and add the new stuff to the back as you go and you should do alright.