Ploting once again

Just figureing what to cook first around here.  I am so sick of turkey at this point that it is not even funny.  We all ate the last of it this afternoon for lunch.  One nice thing about the rice cooker is that I can make rice and reheat leftovers in it also.  Now to make finger foods and I just dont have a clue to where to start at now.  I am at a loss and that is hard for me at this point in time.  Between friends breaking bones and haveing car trouble it has been a the worst end of the year so far on the books.  Well I am no worse for the wear except I want to help some and can't since I am about 14 hours away from some.  At least to cook and help out with my best friends place to help keep her going.  I will tell her to put a bag on the hand and go for the shower or bath eather way just like I did with 3 broken fingers.  Now I know why the Hippy was just totally throwing a fit along with the doctor.  I will always pay for the server ripping my left hand up now.  Broken bones and scare tissue all over the place and I still have the lace marks from the boots on my feet after 7 years.  I know about being banged up without help at all.  Anyway I may end up throwing the cheapest New Years bash yet this year.  Alot of the finger food is going to be made from scratch eather way I go.  The Hippy just shook his head at me today.  Normally we all order out this year is differant.  I have the means to make food from scratch eather way for cheaper than what they want from the pizza places around here.  Now that I do have 2 food processors I am doing good for this year.  And I have a blinder for the one so I am not too worried about drinks this year.  Even Olliver was happy with me since he got a plate of veggies and fruit out of the deal.  He is a happy birdy at the moment.  It doesen't take much to make him happy at all for my place.  Leftovers are out side and he has the veggies pluss fresh food.  All I could do was laugh at him this afternoon.  Olliver gave me the look like I have more celery and other veggies thank you mama.  I can't wait untill corn is in season again.  He gets excited when I put a plate in his cage.  He knows it is goodies for him.  That is one thing about Quaker Parrots you have to give them fresh fruit and veggies all the time.  Along with bird seed.  I have also gave him fish at times also.  Via tuna or shrimp.  Like it matters.  Fish is in the diet of a wild quaker also.  So are other meats.  Just like other parrots they like the meat and veggies also right along fruit.  Now I figured he would go after fruit first not this bird he goes after the veggies before fruit.  Olliver is worse than a 2 year old sometimes.  He loves the veggies and is a snuggle butt most times.  And then leaves slobbers on me.  I have worked with him since he got here.  He has came around alot.  I can pick him up with my sleaves instead of a towel now.  I am working with just a plain out hand still.  Once I get him with the sleaves he is fine with the bare hand.  It takes time since he was ignored where I got him from.  Olliver even Likes the dog now.  He flew over to her the other day.  Niether one snaped at eachother at all.  The dog barked and the bird cooed I was almost in tears.  I need to take a pic of Mr. Chunk Cheeks now after he gained all the waight that he needed to look healthy.  Now the Quakers are like the regular Parrots but a bit bigger than a cockatoo.  If that makes since.  They are a small bird with big bird syndrome.  Olliver already drew blood on me by Biteing.  I dident correct him since he was getting his nails cliped.  I watched him for 24 hrs and then some.  SO now I will be takeing his toush to the vet for clips of the beak and nails.  I rememmber how to do the wings without a problem.  Since I had a green back Parrot at one time in my life.  I have let the poor birds beak grow becuase of his other owner.  I am letting the scare tissue grow out a bit before I do anything.  I have always delt with the vet takeing the plyers to the beak instead of a sodering gun.  When we all would take the dogs in along with brut(the female that I had for a bit) that is what he did.  I delt with the Vet for Years and Years even with the farret.  The man had and still has my biss after 25 years.  If I was still was in Collinsville Illinois.  He is good.  The Man was a farm Vet on top of it in the area. 

Well finger food tonight

Every year for the new year I pull out the finger foods for the place.  Then there is no reason to leave my place hungery also if folks come over.  Well I can say I did an oppsie for kinda going overboard for some things at the store the last go around while I was there.  I picked up extra crakers and cheese.  Pluss pizza sauce.  I ended up streaching out more this month than what I thought I did.  And I will keep on streaching also around here.  I won't go back to do any grocery shopping untill about the 20th of next month for the can.  That is one of the nice things of haveing things on hand here in the place.  As I have said before I do try to shop once a month around here.  Some things I can not do once a month.  Like fresh veggies and milk.  I normally have the powdered stuff on hand anyway.  I still use alot of rice while nobody is around.  And I have a feeling I will be useing alot more rice here after the 19th of January.  Oh well at least it is food for the house.  Anyway now to get some things done for tonight and the regular chores also need to get done.  SO have fun and play hard.

Someone once told me

When I was back in High School one of the teachers had said something to me one day.  The one teacher had told me that she expected me to stop wearing make-up and to stop doing my hair at one point in life.  The teacher was right on the money for that one.  I hardly wear make-up and I smack my hair in a pony tail most times.  I can laugh becuase my hair never did lay right at all since I do have natural curls.  I have a couple of pairs of jeans that fit a couple of nice tops and very limited make-up here in my place.  I shop alot of the bargin racks and have been doing so since I was in High School.  Normally if and when I go out the Hippy is with me and we all go out to see friends play.  Otherwise I hit the grocery store and the dollar stores at most.  Includeing maybe a session of bingo.  It is very rare that I even go to bingo anymore.  With me I am more or less in sweats and I have got lucky and most of the work that I do the folks at the temp service do not mind me working like a bum.  The funny thing is, is that I really don't go out that much anymore.  I have cut back on that totally within the past 4 years.  Part of it was becuase, I was travleing so much between NY State and PA State that I really diden't have the time to hardly do anything other than being in the car/van.  After it was all said and done I became more blunt and out spoken on alot of things.  And I'm still pretty rotten eggs over that ordeal.  I won't go into everything and won't I'll just say that I am happy that I dident get a child that was no where near related to me nor the Hippy out of the deal.  The Hippy is my Dear Hubby.  And yes I do have an ex husband in the mix in the same neighborhood.  Anyway the Hippy doesen't mind in what I do unless it is way over the top for the can.  For example I started useing the one Kitchenaid food processor more after I rearanged my kitchen.  Instead of paying more for chopped veggies and grated cheese I use the food processor for all of that now.  Since I have 2 of them at this point in time it has made my life a bit easier for cooking.  And yes I saved for that also 12 years ago and caught a huge store closeing at the time.  So yes I do things out of the norm at times when I can get 75% off of an appliance I am there looking.  It doesent mean that I have to buy something at that time.  That is why I do not mind the bargin racks and shelves at the stores.  IF I can get 3 or more pairs of jeans and or sweats off the bargin shelf or rack for the price of one I am doing good.  Pluss when I go out to get things it is becuase what we have is so worn and ratted that I have no choice in the matter.  While myself and the Hippy were working at the computer place we both would rip jackets,  jeans and gloves all the time.  So I ended up at a local store that has now been closed up for about 4 years now to get jackets and thermal shirts.  Jeans over at Walmart or the Thrift stores it was whoever had it cheaper at the time.  Ok folks have fun and play hard.

I got alot done today

Between getting alot done today it kept my mind off of worring about the Hippy all day in the bad weather.  The Skyway is closed up here otherwise know as Route 5 in Buffalo.  I am waiting for all the schools to close down becuase of the weather out side.  Anyway today was a quiet day and I loved it.  I finally used my sandwich maker also today.  I put turkey and the 200lb mashed potatoes in a sandwich and talk about good, you will never know what combo I will put with the leftovers that are in the fridge.  Then I worked more around the can on things that I diden't get done during the weekend.  May as well keep busy while I am alone around here. 

Looks like a cruddy day

Theres about 4 inches of a dusting of snow outside already.  It will be snowing for most of the day also and tomarrow will be worse with the weather with the 50 mph winds and it being 19 on the outside with wind chills below zero out.  Thank goodness all of the windows are blocked up around here.  I will be staying home today and doing housework as normal and a few other things here.  This week is my trial and error week.  Of the one list that I made of the new things to try for next month.  This should be fun eather way that I go.  Today is an odd day anyway becuase I will be busy for most of the day.  Monday of course never fails.  I have turned most of the power bars off except to the monster that is sitting on my desk.  I don't mind the darkness niether while I am at it all.  I have 2 non sented candles going around here.  They don't bother any of the pets so that is why I use them.  Pluss I need the candles out anyway just in case if the power box goes with the weather.  And alot of blankets out also.  I will be a stickler today of doing things on the list and will let you know if they all work out by Thursday or Friday.  I will begin reading more around here and that is one of the things on my list.  Also to cut way back on alot more around here is another.  I may have a mad bird on my hands also while I am at it without his Paula Dean going at 6 pm.  Anyway I will let you know about the rest of the list later on here.  Ok folks have fun and play hard.

Just noticed

Now I do have cable, phone, and internet thru Time Warner.  I still have AOL becuase it is easier on me to navagate the web.  I have noticed in snow and bad weather AOL freaks out along with the turbo thru Time Warner.  Well after what Verison told me and would not fix the problem on thier end I went shopping for another plan and differant company.  For 6 months the only thing that worked well was the sattilite for the T.V.  The phone lines here in the park have went to snot and I was told it was eather in my can or in my head or a combo of both by one guy who came out.  The static on the line was over 80 desmals of noise.  I couldent connect to the net nor use the house phone at all.  So I would pull out the trusty cell phone to make calls for the time untill I could find a price package that I liked and could afford.  Time Warner did have the package that I wanted and needed for what I wanted to do.  Working in computers as long as I have I can tell you by the smell of what went on the board or hard drive eather way.  So when 2 boxes caught fire I knew what it was.  The tecks came out replaced both boxes for me without a problem.  The one guy I really liked and he quit on me.  Even the Dog that I have really liked the guy who came out.  The poor man was tall and moved slow and that's what my dog likes she dident feel threatined from the guy.  I have noticed something about the boxes and the modem for the cable and phone.  If I turn them off of course I will save some money that is first the second is that since I turn off the box and modem that I reset everything and I get better speeds when I connect to the net.  Pluss it helps if you dump out all the cookies (temp files) out of the computer also.  Alot of folks don't know that if you go to explorer and right click it then go to properties and dump that out also that the computer gets a break.  Now some of the computer tecks out there say it is impossible to blow up the bios chip on the mother board of the computer.  All I can say is it is not impossible I have done it to many of computers along with flames coming out of the north and south ports of the board.  The flames are scarry at first then it cool beans after the first tourching.  Just like folks don't know about you can vac the tower or desk top out from the dust bunnies.  IF you do it carefull enough you can vac the things out.  It just saves money all the way around.  The motherboard runs cooler and it doesent have to work as hard.  Ok folks have fun and play hard.

Now there have been questions

I do work out of the house with a Temp Service.  And I also work in the household.  I do computer work and factory work.  Why the power bills are so high in my place is becuase 3 quarters of it is taxes and where I am at here in NY State.  I got it out of the Power Company just recently that all of us here in the trailer park are on the commercial rates for the taxes becuase that is how the Slum Landloards wanted it all.  And yes I do say things over and over again.  Sometimes that is how some of us folks learn around here.  As I have said before in what I do will not work for everyone.  I can only say what is working for myself and my household.  Some things I have rediscovered in what I have been doing is not enough sometimes and I have to reach back for some of the things I use to do way back when.  I have brought out the scrap paper for my lists of things to do while I am not working thru the temp work and other work.  That is how I pay for all the bills that come into the can.  Pluss I have some help with people who stay here with me.  I will also warn folks on people who try to scam others.  When that happends I tend to blow up over it.  Or when folks tell me when I have gone overboard on being frugal or cheap here for my own place then tell me I have to spend every dime that comes into the place.  I once read someplace that there is no right or wrong way to be frugal or cheap.  I know folks who just jump in and start denying themselves right away for some things when they start going to the frugal side of life.  That is why I go in and every 6 months and get something that I can use for the household or for myself so I don't feel like I am deprived of anything.  I also save up for things that I want for the can before I can get a house.  I will always do things like that.  I refuse to rush out and spend top dollar for things at the stores.  It is like my mind and body reject that part of life.  I am very straight to the point and very blunt at times also.  If it comes out as hate so be it.  That is one thing is that you will not catch me lieing niether on things.  I would rather tell the truth on things and let it go from there. 

Getting to the lists

I must admit that I make a list for everything here in the can.  As I get something done then I check mark what I had put down for that item on the list.  I find it easier to make a list up for what needs to be done around here and go then I don't forget on what I am doing for the day.  Also then there are no arguements from folks that say what have you done all day.  Also if you are running a double lists for the household and the grocerystore all the better.  I know some folks that keep a list on the fridge or the pantry door.  I am not lucky enough to have a full pantery for my place.  I have the kitchen and part of a spare room and that is about to change around here also.  With a 700 square foot place it is hard to have a regular pantery.  I have shelveing units for extra food in the place.  Pluss I run a bucket system also here in the can.  It all helps out for a small space.  Now for the spare room I have to lean that out here shortly becuase a friend needs a place to stay untill he gets back on his feet.  There is just enough room in the main area to put another shelveing unit that is already here.  I will grab the storage buckets out of there also and they will go into my room as normal.  And I just got done rearangeing that room not to long ago.  Another good thing about haveing friends stay with us is that I get to learn from them in how to cook something differant here in the kitchen.  Besides what he calls junk food.  I have forgot in how to make alot of things becuase I do not make them anymore.  So I am out of practice and Aldi is my good friend for this one also for the corn flour that they have.  I will be on overload at first and I am going cheaper than what I have been doing anyway for here so I will have some help also to keep me in line.  So now I am writeing down stuff to remind me of being cheap and help me keep on track on alot of things here.  On the weekends I will be at the computer and cooking pluss laundery.  It helps pass the time on the wait for both of them.  It is not like I slack by being at the computer at all.  What I do is look for new recipies, coupons, and free stuff.  That is what alot of folks do not get about me.  And I have lost friends becuase I have got alot cheaper around my place.  There are ways to save money with barely trying.  Like keeping the place stocked up when you can find stuff on sale and the coupons to go with the sales.  Now some folks complain about useing coupons.  Now with me I have alot of  meals already put down.  I take my meal lists for the month with me along with the coupons to the stores.  With what I do is I write down the main course for the day and a month and work around it.  Alot of times the coupons will be the rest of the meal.  And other products that is needed for the can.  I refuse to be picky on the soaps, shampoos, conditioners, TP, paper towles, and a few other things.  I used Aldi laundery deturgant for years and I have stoped becuase it got to watery for me.  I am on the last bottle of it now and went back to Purex.  There are alot of tricks of the traide in what I have done and keep doing.  I had on the job training per say over it.  There are alot of ways to streach out the dollars today.  And I am going to streach out even more than what I have been doing now.  The nice thing about all of this is that I will be working everyday on trying to streach out even more.  Like the Green Works products that I have.  The dish soap has lasted over a month and I do and have done alot of dishes this month.  Ok folks have fun and play hard today.

Here I sit

I am sitting here with a note book of paper in front of me at the moment while I am jotting down some ideas on a cheaper way of doing stuff here in the next month.  Some of it some folks are not gonna like what I will be doing at all.  Like I care what they all think anyway.  Apparently I have lost some friends over being frugal and cheap all in what I have done so far this year.  Well after being down to about 1100 dollars a month you start to find cheaper ways to do things around the can.  I have not changed any of my habbits so far except to re stock the place that needed to be done anyway.  Then some folks have droped us becuase now all of a sudden we are bringing in more money than they are.  Of course they don't like it at all.  That is some folks up here in NY State for you also once I think about it now.  I got to thinking that most of the time when I am alone I can wait on alot of things like not useing the computer and T.V. so much during the 5 days I am alone and a few other things.  I will let you know who it is going around here when I start to do more things that are cheap and frugal.  I plan on doing alot around here anyway in the can. 

Went shopping anyway

I'm not complaning at all.  I saved about 100 dollars today at 3 differant stores today.  And picked up a few things along the way for next year.  All the dishes finally got done around here for now.  Untill I start makeing dinner once again out of the leftovers.  I am hopeing for a one pot meal tonight.  Dinner on the cheap is pick 2 leftovers for tonight marry them togeather then I have the roll out cressant rolls to throw on top.  Now I have been cutting back as much as possible for this month of course.  Next month is going to be a shock to everyone that comes over here.  I will get most of the stuff cut out once again.  Aldi will keep me shopping for the groceries and a few other things.  Right along with a few other places also.  It has seemed like the prices are starting to go up around here once again at the stores.  So I will start hot and heavy with the coupons also for the new year at other stores that take them.  And I usually shop with coupons anyway around here and I have been somewhat slacking thou.  Ok folks have fun and play hard.

Now to start in on cleaning

Last night I was exsausted after going all day.  I left the dishes where they all sat lastnight to get them all today of course.  So the kitchen is torn up majorly.  I will also start cooking the leftovers today once again.  Pluss there are turkey sandwiches also thru the week.  I will get the sandwich maker cleaned up today for Monday of course.  The funny part is that I can reheat some things with that also along to make the sandwiches of course.  Now to be very cheap for the day to get thru all of what I have to do.  Normally I start the laundery on Fridays anyway and since yesterday was a major holiday I diden't bother to touch what I had.  Yesterday nobody complained about squat that I cooked at all.  Even the pies flew off the table.  So now in what I have left will last me untill at least Thursday.  And no soup during the week niether once again.  I also went thru a pile of hand towles in 2 days and the basket for the dirty ones will tell on me as always.  Some times I am a huge slob in the kitchen while I am cooking.  Alot of what I will be doing today is to get most of the house work done on the cheap here anyway.  And it takes time to do everything here.  With everything going here I may not even bother to get out of the can today.  I am safer that way.  So now to get alot of it started around here and to get a few other things done also and I should be good by noon except with the laundery of course.  That is the bad part of the whole thing here.  Anyway I better get the move on here to get started.  Have fun and play hard.

Long day today

I baked and cooked all day today.  And dinner was a big hit once again.  Now it is time for for buff babies also.  What a holiday so far.  Ok I diden't ask for much this year at all.  The food processor works well along with the blinder part.  Have fun everyone and play harder.

More into the oven

Well one broken glass out of the day and and more into the oven once again just to drive myself nuts.  Well at least tomarrow will float by without any problems I hope around here.  With most of the prep work done now to try to clean up some of the hot spots that are left in the can here and I should be about done.  It's a walk in the park at this point in time now.  Most of the hard part is totally done except the Bird stuffing and a few of the sides that I will do tomarrow while the bird is cooking of course.  Pluss one load of laundery in the washer also while I was at it all today.  Now to get the cheese shredded for the taters and some cleaning done and I will be done for the day except for dinner tonight.  Not sure of what I really want for dinner since tomarrow is another turkey.  I will figure out something here very shortly anyway.  That is the noce thing about my place quick and easy for today after cooking and cleaning.

The old hurry and wait

Now the 2nd pie is in the oven and the bread is riseing.  Thank goodness that the cake was done yesterday around here.  I started this morning when my feet hit the floor and got coffee in me.  Alot of my lists are getting done still.  I have most of the day to get the rest of the place done and more prep work as always.  The cherry pie is smelling so good now that it is gonna be tough to let it get to tomarrow.  Pluss I have http://www.k-hits.com/ going over the couputer.  The radio station has been helping me get thru the day while I am cooking and bakeing up a storm.  I had to sit down for abit around here since I havent really sat down from about 8 am.  I also pulled my binder of recipies out to make sure of the measurements on everything.  Some I can keep straight but others they went out the door.  Now the final riseing of the bread is going on I can go do other things for about an hour around here.  I have really been working on the kitchen and getting stuff done.  The table is getting cleaned off little by little once again also.  Well I pulled everything and that is where most of it has landed untill I could get ready for it.  I got to laughing lastnight becuase, there was hardly anyplace to sit at when people started coming over.  The folks that come over also know that I have to cook around here and it helps to have alot of it on the table.  With the food processor it works pretty good so far.  The true test is the rest of today and tomarrow when I start useing the blinder part also.  The joys of cooking around my place.  The stuffing mix that I just started to make this year is pretty good after I put garlic in the whole thing.  Ok here it goes.

2 boxes of boxed stuffing mix
1 sausage bullit
1 small onion
3 stalks of celery
4 tablespoons of garlic

Now what I do is make the 2 boxes of the stuffing to the instructions on the box.  Then add in the other things while it is still hot.  Then put it in the fridge to make it easier to stuff the bird.  Now what doesen't go into the bird I put it in a bakeing dish pluss a stick of butter and bake at 350 for about a half hour to an hour.  It works well for my place eather way I go.  I use the off brand on both the butter and the stuffing mix in the boxes.  The off brands seem to taste better to me than the name brands do.  Between both Hippies they laugh about it now.  Becuase I can trick people by useing the off brand here and say its the name brand with a straight face.  It is all in how you season foods up also.  Just like with my BBQ sauce that is cheap.  The shot of Mr. Jack makes the differance.  Ok folks have fun and play hard.

Another long day of cooking

Well yesterday I ended up burning the snot out of my hand and I had to stop for a while.  For today I get to start other prep work for tomarrow.  I would rather stick my hands in really cold stuffing for to stuff breadcrumbs up the birds toush than hot ones.  Now for today I get to make pies and a few other things.  It makes it so much easier on me with the holidays coming up to work like all week than it is all on the same day then to fight for the ovens.  That is one reason why I ended up with the convection oven here in my place.  The other is when summer hits I use the crock pot and the convection oven alot.  The holidays I use the regular oven, crock pot, and the convection oven.  And yes I will have the timers going all over the place with 2 cell phones and the one on the oven also.  I will get further ahead today only becuase I have an extra set of hands to start helping.  Ok folks have fun and play even harder.

Now I realize of why

Now I know why I DOn't go down to the St. Louis area for family anymore.  My belly did the flip flop when my one Aunt walke thru the door at my grandmothers house.  Here I am on my own never ever asked for a dime from my grandmother and here comes the mouch of the family once again.  Now with most of the holidays in the December month I don't make cookies as a rule in my household.  Sorry for the people who love my cookies that I bake.  I have seen what my family went thru for the holidays for the dozens and dozens of cookies that I coulden't touch.  Now for the one Aunt that I just can't stand it has been going on since I was a little bitty thing growing up and watching her just ooooooo poor pitty me deal with my grandparents.  It gets old.  Thank God for the woman who raised me and taught me to be cheap thru out my life and never ask for a dang dime.  Pluss I learned years ago if I asked for money from the one side of the family I would get it held over my head untill whenever also.  So with me over the past 20 years I have done it on my own for the most part and a great support system from the Real Women of both sides of the families.  There was alot that I had to learn on my own of course on cooking, cleaning, and being cheap in my own place.  Now with some of the cooking here within the past maybe 5 years if not less I ran into the Hillbillyhousewife site.  So a HUGE thanks to the folks who have ran the site for this long.  There are things that I never realized that I could do with cooking on the frugal/cheap side of life.  With some of it it was an extra push in what I could do for my kitchen also.  Here in January I will be shopping once a month again for the household around here.  It will drive more folks just compleatly nuts of course and I don't mind it at all.  As long as I am streaching out the dollars more than some folks that I know and moved 14 hrs away from the St. Louis area I am good to go.  I can't get blamed for what the others are doing also now a days.  Ok folks have fun and play even harder today.

Now to start ploting

At this point I am trying to figure out what to do first.  I know I can make the cake today and put it into the freezer untill I need it.  It is all the veggies that I have to chop for Friday and get other things done also.  The fun part is becuase, of the new food processor that I got.  I will be letting everyone know how it works out for today and tomarrow.  I want to make pie crusts out of it also.  Lets see what happends with it and go from there.  Well I will have alot to do today and it never fails the couple of days before I start a huge meal like on the holidays of course.  Once I do get started it won't be so bad it's the getting started part that gets to most folks.  Alot also is where do I start at for alot of us.  So today I will jump in with both feet and go.  Ok folks have fun and play harder and I will be back here shortly.

I did get stuff done

Tomarrow is another day to get more done around here.  I have already did way to much and need to do more as normal since the Hippy diden't bother to help out at all over the weekend.  I may just start bakeing tomarrow also while I am at it since some folks want me to pick them up in Collins on Thursday of course.  This all should be good only becuase I need to get alot of things done here.  And I will start the bread early on Friday morning from the way this is looking at for the moment.  I may get lucky and say no take the truck in on Saturday.  That is what I am hopeing at this point.  Even Olliver got into it tonight with his food bowl he had seeds stuck all over his beak again.  All I could do was laugh becuase he is so cute when he looks up and gives this look like what did I do now.  And Olliver wants me to start the prep work anyway becuase he loves celery.  I can always tell when he is at a dish that I put in his cage becuase he starts crunching away and drives most folks nuts that comes over.  All in all Oliver is a good bird even though he does scream every so offten.  Small bird with big bird syndrome. 

After finding things

I cleaned for most of the morning today.  After finding what my own Hippy did I am about ready to beat him dearly for what he pulled.  He can fear me this week at all costs now.  And being as cheap as I am he better fear me after leaveing his charger for his cell phone pluged in at my place for the past 3 days here.  That is what sent me over the edge around here besides the Hippy not pulling the bird like I asked him to do yesterday morning.  I am not to the point of putting stuff on the lawn yet but close to it now.  The Hippy that is here with me knows I am very brutal on things.  The other Hippy expects the cast iron at any time.  They both know this.  And I supposadly Hate men according to some folks out there.  They haven't seen squat out of my temper yet at all.  I tend to blow gaskets on stupidity more than ignorance anyway.  When I have the budget down to at least 80 dollars a month on the power bill and seeing the 105 dollar bill guess what I blow up knowing what I do all day.  Pluss I have been picking up and getting things out of the way for Friday and the big meal that I have to cook also while I am at it all.  So now I can say I have went over to the cheap side of life.  That is what I get for being alone for 5 days a week at least here.  Also I am finding ways to eat cheap also.  So for the ones who say I don't pull from the freezer then you better recheck your statement on things in life.  Anyway at least for the most part it was a cheap day and I did save about 2 dollars today thru it all.  I went to the res and out to Walmart once again.  Pluss I have 57 points on the card for Smokin Joes and I hopeto have more soon. 

Well another day today

I did get alot done yesterday and need to get alot more done today.  Yesterday was just another Monday busy as normal and still trying to get stuff done.  Today will be wierd becuase I have to scrub anyway and that is ok by me.  My place will be picked up by the time Friday comes and I am hopeing that I won't have a flour bomb go off once again this year.  With the made from scratch pies and breads around here.  I am hopeing to find a pie crust made from butter instead of the shortning.  I will find the recipie for that also.  That is another thing added to my list.  So lets see what I can find for the holidays this year since I did crack my grandmothers bird stuffing for Thanksgiveing.  The drool diden't stop since then from my place.  I was asked if I was gonna make it again here.  Well at least it will be a good year this year again.  No fights at all once again.  I kindda miss that around here in a sick way.  Nice and calm holiday what is that around here of course.  With me cooking and cleaning all day of course.  Well this meal will be under 30 dollars once again for Friday and I will have leftovers as normal for the week around here.  I can say that I have fed my household off of 20 dollars a week for a good while.  And still had meat around here off of the 20 dollars a week.  That was with the kids in the can also.  When you dont get paid to babysit children and they get dumped at your place then you know I had to go way cheap around here.  When I could sit here and plan a meal out with hardly anything in the place and make meals thru the month and go with it all the kids remembered what I had done.  It all stopped for the most part when I had the first knee surgery up here.  Now I don't babysit at all.  Becuase over the past 5 years have been totally just nuts here and I never knew if and when I would get a child dumped on me from the court system from PA or here in NY state.  Now the children who I thought were gonna get dumped on me never made it to my place thank goodness.  I had alot to teach them and they all passed it up.  To bad on thier parts now and I will pass the recipies that I have to a child who will be thankfull for it.  Now I have noticed alot lately that some folks have a 200 dollar grocery bill every week.  I am lucky if it is 50 dollars a week in my place.  So now I will be clipping more coupons and shopping at the cheaper stores for food and other things.  The funny thing is that a friend of mine admitted that he likes Aldi food.  I started laughing becuase I have shopped there for years and he liked what I baked and cooked for the place here.  Ok folks I am off to find the one recipie for the pie crust so have fun and play hard today.

Wishing that he van was out of my grasp

At this point in time I wish that the van was out in Collins.  I have so much to do and I really cant get out of the can untill next week at least.  I am doing most of the back up work alone once again since the Hippy won't help at all.  At 5 pm today when he walked in saying oh you pulled the bird.  Well the fight was almost on right then and there with me since I did ask for help.  Well at least I won't have to cook for the next week after I get done is one way to look at it all now.  I really don't ask for much around here at all just a little bit of help is all.  I know I know quit complaining right.  Or as some would put it I am way to sensitive for some things and work thru the pain.  If I go down guess what things don't get done around here at all.  So I keep going eather way even if I throw out the back I have no choice in the matter never did.  I do what I can and I know I push at times.  Then I know I can sit down and go thru coupons and other things around the can.  Also I know I can walk to places and that always makes me feel abit better nomatter what I do.  Anyway now that I am saveing some money this week and I will take it eather way.  Pluss Olliver likes it when I start singing to myself.  It is one of my excapes that I have here of being alone.  That and being as cheap as I can 5 days a week around here.  I do what I can. 

What a day so far

I must admit that I was working my toush off for most of the day and need to do more around here yet.  By Friday I will be beat into a pulp eather way.  I did get the food proccesor that I ordered today also.  It works like a charm here.  What it is is that folks don't understand the safety issues with the appliance at all.  It is so much easier to hook up the T-Fal stuff than it is the Kitchenaid Food Processor.  Now to get things really done around here I have had a good start for today and need alot more done of course.  I did get the turkey pulled today also while I was at everything.  The one that almost knocked out someone this year instead of my foot.  All I could do was laugh and go from there on the turkey and a friend who was helping me at the time.  Well I pulled a bigger bird this time and leftovers will go home with who is comeing over and some will go back in the freezer after it is cooked.  Along with the stuffing when a friend gets back to the states in January.  Then the guy will get the dinner also.  I will do this for some folks that I really really like.  Now it is the matter of getting alot of the prep work done again for Friday and go from there.  I will be cooking all I need is someone ther to keep me company for this time and the boys can go play in the yard.  Or in the shed eather way.  Ok folks have fun and play harder.

Dinner is done once again

Dinner is once again done for tonight.  And now to sneek in the goodies from Santa again this year.  At least they are ok out in the van.  Well if you seen the toy box for the dog you would understand why I don't want anymore for her.  Another thing that I like about PetCo is that I can take in the dog to the store and she will stay right with me.  Untill she hears the fish tanks going and mom lets see the fishies.  They had a cat out by the doors for adoption last year and the cat wanted nothing to do with the dogs walking in.  Annie looked at the cat like ok you're a kitty and.  The kid at the front door about had a fit.  All I could say was that she had a cat at home.  For the cat and dog they curl up togeather and sleep.  Olliver is just plain out nuts and bites the cat.  So I have a somewhat managery here and all are fun eather way.  Since Ann is part border collie she heards the cat to the front room in the mornings.  She does her job eather way.  I won't complain at all around here.  With the pets I buy food once a month most times and go from there.  If that at times.  That is the nice thing about here that people don't realize.  Pluss who needs bird seed for outside when there are leftovers from Olliver.  I change his bowl every couple of days and it goes into a bucket for outside in the feeder.  Then everyone is happy.  Yes everything pulls double duty around here.  That is what folks hollars about more than anything else here in my place.  I look at things and ask myself ok what all can it do and can it pull double or triple duty for me at all times.  Like with the Convection Oven that I have.  If the oven goes out then I have something else to cook with also around here.  There's always the Kitchenaid stand mixer also.  Sometimes that pulls more weight than I do around here between the attachments then other things.  And it makes pretty good ice cream also out the maker.  I even made sorbet out of it.  Someone told me I was nuts for getting that attachmet for it when I ordered it.  Well it is better than getting ice cream all the time and paying the high price for junk.  I at least I know what goes into the stuff if I make it here myself.  That is the best part about it all.  That is why I don't mind makeing things from scratch around here.  It is better than the box stuff and When you make things from scratch you know what goes into it all.  At first I had trouble with it all becuase ittook longer to make something at first.  Once you get use to cooking and bakeing from scratch it gets easier I promise.  Now bread takes the longest for me to get done.  And people hover around the oven asking when it is all done.  I make 2 loves at a time becuase one gets ate warm out of the oven when I start makeing it.  Now with me I had a hard time at first only becuase it was so new to me.  Then once I got my mind set on getting it done then I was ok with it all.  I still have flour bombs go off after all these years in my kitchen.  I make all the pie crusts myself for the most part still.  Sometimes I get the already made stuff but not often.  This year I will be doing something differant to the crust it self.  I want to help out a friend and if she likes it then I will go from there.  And I will try it for an oatmeal pie this time around.  I always make a homemade cake for a good friend of mine for the holidays becuase I know she can eat it without to much trouble.  I noticed that once I got the hang of doing things from scratch around here things went smoother and the food got alot better also.  Ok folks have fun and play hard.

Adopting more around here

Well today I was shopping for Santa here for the feather and fur balls around here.  There were ferrets up for adoption also.  The sales folks were funny on asking if I delt with ferrets before.  I said yes and these ones couldent get into the walls this time thanks to extra blocking in the bathroom.  Gas water heaters and on the outside wall that needed to have air.  So now they will call me if there are more that they need help with.  Ferrets are easy to take care of if you have had a 2 year old in the house then that is about what a ferret acts like.  They fall asleep in the most unlikely places at all times.  Anyway now to sit back and wait on a call.  Pluss I got to figure out what to make for dinner tonight.  I don't have a clue at all at this point.  Since it is to late to make bread for dinner tonight maybe pasta tonight.  I still have the jar sauce left here.  As I say shop around for the best deals out there and you can always spice up the jar sauce anytime of day.  Normally I make the sauce and I have ran out of it.  Also I want to cook light for this week anyway becuase by Friday I will be cooking a huge meal once again.  It isen't that bad once you start into it as always.  Just get alot of the prep work done the day before and things go pretty smooth the next day.  I say this becuase stuff is too hot to stick in the bird at 5 am.  Pluss with the pies they are better the second day of course.  I can say that you can make a huge dinner for cheap and I have done it around here.  The one year I spent 30 dollars for a holiday dinner and had meals for a good week between lunch and dinner.  It drove the Hippies sister nuts around here.  Well the spoiled brat dident help that none.  When I had turkey everything almost and was makeing more from the left overs.  I wasen't going out to pick something up for the girl niether at that point.  Eat what's here or starve till morning becuase that is what I had in the can at the time.  I am still like that today.  Ok folks have fun and play hard.

Somewhat on the run today

The hippy wants to go see a stove out near us here.  It is worth a shot eather way.  I will not put the wood burner here in the can at all.  Even though I would love to.  Anyway while I am going to be out may as well go to the bank and then get the Sunday paper while I am at it all today.  So it works out today for the best at least.  Pluss I will pick up the rest of the table tomarrow morning or after the Hippy leaves to go back on the road.  Then the true test comes out for the week of pulling, cooking, and cleaning of course.  I will stay home for the week of course becuase there is so much to do on my part.  I have already started the long list to reminde me of what to do this week.  This is why if the days before the holidays make the list so you know you get things done.  What I do is write things down then check them off when I get something done.  The Hippy thought he was gonna be funny with me lastnight and asked what I did last week while he was gone.  He almost got baged and taged all in one swoop.  I am still paying for the 2nd dive in the dumpster that we all did.  Well it is a good way to save money in one way and in another it made me purge a few things out of the cabnets.  Blankets always come in handy in my place also.  I have a pile of blankets in my room and in the liveing area also.  Some folks do not like that I do what I do here.  I will be the first to admit alot of it.  Also they woulden't be caught in an off brand store niether.  Some can afford places like Loyd and Taylers also.  I refuse to pay a grand for a pair of jeans that will fall apart in 6 months.  That is just me.  I stick pretty much to the discount stores and to the 2nd hand stores for the closet or jeans.  Some times I have to laugh about what I do to be cheap around here in the can.  Now when I got the Kitchenaid stand mixer I was out on a Black Friday and got it for a steal.  Of course some are gonna hollar about it in how I pulled that one off all togeather.  And I did look for the rebates and coupons for it before I left the can also.  With the chat room that I was in at the time diden't like that I could get things at rock bottom prices for my place.  Well with the hunting that I did and the buy one get one free deals pluss I could get lunch out that was maybe $1.50 after everything was said and done also while I was at it.  I figured let them all hollar about it.  That is what money does to some folks.  Now I was taught form an early age go the cheap way on many of things for the household.  What some folks diden't realize is that yes I do work for a liveing and I do streach out the dollar to the fullest around here.  With some folks they dident know what to do to start cooking from scratch niether for thier place or diden't know how to cook at all.  Here I was cooking from scratch and there were a couple in the room that figured I diden't do everything that I said that I did.  Well since they are not here then they just don't know.  Now one person pretty much threatened me that If I diden't stop talking about a couple of people then I would have to deal with her.  Go and try as far as that goes in my eyes.  I look at it as if you want to stick up for an idiot go for it also.  No skin off of my nose also.  I refuse to run scared from anyone also.  When some think it is sick when I started somewhat dumpster diveing once more and broke off from the one chat room then I became the worst that ever walked becuase now I am hardly ever on the computer and turn the thing off to save on the power bill also.  Part of the reason of why I stoped the one chat room is becuase I noticed that it was full of moterators and it was the same folks day in and day out and that gets mighty boring after awhile of throwing other people out that does not fit into someones criteria of what folks should be.  So I asked to be banned out of the room becuase I just diden't wanna deal with the ignorance of a couple of "Rich" folks in the room.  After all said and done most of the people who were on the so called ban list are able to go back into the room after awhile.  I will not put up with the ignorance of a couple of people and what was said to me when I wasen't and diden't talk with someone that was already put on the ban list.  I let the person know what was said about them is all I did. 

Today the paper

Well today is a good day for the Sunday paper.  I have to run up to the bank anyway so may as well.  I will save up some of the coupons so I can get that much more off of the grocery bill and the Walmart bill.  Now if you read the coupon very carefully then match them up with the sales you can save alot of money.   Some places double the coupons up to .99.  Then you get an extra coupon sometimes to triple the coupon for a dollar.  When I was hot and heavy into it all I could save over 100 dollars for the trip to the regular grocery store.  Since the chains up here do not take the printed coupons any more then I have to get the paper or go to Walmart for the printed coupons that I have.  A friend of mine was just taken a back after he seen what I did with 30 dollars worth of coupons while he went shopping with me.  The cashier was laughing about it all when I streached out the bill.  I will start this out again to where I have coupons for everything once again.  It takes some organizeing of them all and well worth the trouble to do so.  When I can go in and use at least 30 dollars of the coupons at Walmart you know that I have done alot.  That is without the double coupons there even.  I remember one time I was at Mc Donnalds working still and I had to go shopping for groceries everything was bare here.  So I gathered up all the coupons and the sales ad for that week and went.  I ended up with over 100 dollars worth of coupons for that trip and the groans from the others behind me said it all untill they realized in how much came off of my grocery bill that day.  After all said and done I owed the cashier 50 dollars for a packed Honda trunk and back seat.  It was a well worth trip that go around also with the kitchen in the truck.  There are ways to save other than the coupons also.  Now for my household I do use coupons pluss get the store brands on many things.  It depends on the price at the time and the sales.  Sometimes it is cheaper to go with the sales and coupons than it is for the store brands.  It also depends on what is best for a household also.  I know some who will not get the namebrands at all in the stores.  That is where Aldi kicks in on alot of the food and cleaners.  While I was on food stamps I would split the stamps up from Aldi to who ever had the best sales for that month at the time.  The social worker asked if she could take a copy of the one grocery bill for training of the others.  And to show people it could be done for what I did.  That is when I really started with the cutting things in half also around here.  Like the dish soap, laundery deturgant, dryer sheets and a few other things.  The nice thing is that I haven't stoped doing alot of it over the years.  When I started alot of it I wanted to make everything go further than what it was suppose to in my household/can.  The Hippies sister coulden't understand why I was doing what I was doing around my place at all.  There was one fight to were the gloves came off between myself and the Hippy.  We hardly had any food nor milk in the household at all.  Well in my travles I noticed that some bread was going out behind one of the major grocery chains that day.  Well I knew I had to wait to go to the store the next day when the check cleared the bank.  The Manager at the time came out and noticed what I was doing and asked if I could wait for about a half hour.  I dang near cried when the guy filled up the Honda for me with groceries.  I will always remamber this becuase there was a huge fight at my place becuase the Hippy thought I spent way to much.  And I still had the cash on me that I went with.  And no recipts to back up anything.  So you never know what will happen when you are flat broke at the time.  I still donate when I can to everyplace.  Pluss still I pinch and scrape around here to make things work for my place.  Just like when I got the new washer back in about March and May.  It cost an arm and a leg but well worth it in the long run.  I have saved on the water bill pluss saved on more laundery deturgant also.  Since the washer has an extended spin cycle on it, it has been saveing me on the dryer costs also with the eletric.  That is when the 20 extra dollars was worth it.  Anyway I am still saveing cans when I go out on my walks for my wood burnning kitchen stove and since I have extra time for it I am thankfull.  I have my eye on acouple of them from some catalogs.  So now to start really picking up the cans, bottles, and a few other things.  Ok folks have fun and play even harder today.

More laundery than I thought

Well I had more laundery than I thought I did here in the can.  And the Hippy got the 2 boxes out of the kitchen also while I was at it all.  I still have comferters yet to do and they can wait for awhile.  Not that my place is a total disaster area at all.  When there is laundery and things blocking the kitchen I just can't stand it becuase my place is small.  So it is an every day chore to keep up with everything.  I will say that I don't do house work everyday also.  It depends on how I feel.  With the laundery I try to get it done once a week for the most part.  Some weeks are worse than others becuase I have to do more loads during the week of course.  Other than that I try not to as much as possible.  It has got wierd around here though.  I know that I have way to much for the can here.  I do stay home for the most part except when I have to restock the place.  I don't mind cooking and cleaning for the most part at all.  What I really want to do is let it pile up for a couple of months at least around here.  I won't do that at all becuase I like the place clean for the most part now. 

The Hippy has the car and I'm out of luck

The Hippy took the van to do some running so that leaves me home without a van again.  So I have been catching up with the housework that I needed to do anyway around here.  I am on the 3rd load of laundery which I still have used to much soap in as normal.  That is the differance between the old and new deturgant from Aldi.  I am suprized that I don't have suds all over the place at this point  today.  What I do not get is whay bother with something that already works well to begin with and water it all down.  Now I have to get blankies ready for a good friend of mine.  I'm so excited now.  If the person doesen't gain weight walking thru the door he is in trouble.  This should be good around here from the 19th of next month on.  All I can say is both of us teaching each other on how to cook this should be good.  The poor guy will get the Italian and I will get the other.  Since some liked my chili off the stove top here.  I cheat in some ways in others I don't.  Well what can I say an extra 3-5 loads extra a week of laundery and I can go with that now.  Now to just get mattreses for the spare room and it will be all good here.  Pluss the spare room cleaned out.  I have at least 4 weeks to do this.  So I have time to get things settled around here with the time that I have.  Ok folks have fun and play hard.

Looks like a bomb still went off

Now I realize my kitchen is still small here in the can.  When I can start tripping over things in the kitchen becuase I havent moved anything hardly at all.  And was waiting on the Hippy to help just enough to get the boxes of stuff out of the kitchen and put someplace else diden't happen niether for this morning.  So I guess I am stuck doing it all for this week once again.  Between the cooking and the cleaning for this week I do not know where to start at all around the can.  Part of my problem is that I need a clean kitchen to start dinner for the weekend and big huge meals.  What is it with men sometimes on when they see you start in on something and say well I was about ready to do that.  Well I have been trying to get really cheap in the kitchen anyway and some folks do not help me on that part at all.  I just don't like it when someone else starts cleaning anyway in the kitchen for me.  So I do alot on my own anyway but, to have some help would be nice every so often.  Pluss I caught the one of the cooking shows on planet green.  How to utilize a small kitchen and save water and power.  I always have some kind of stock in the kitchen anyway and it helps to cook more than you can even think about.  I can say that I have done the double duty in my kitchen for so long that it doesen't even bother me anymore on how I cook.  This is why I still like my rice cooker and a few other appliances for my kitchen.  The poor rice cooker has done tripple duty since I have got it.  Between the rice and heating leftovers also and both combined it works great.  Now since I am alone for 5 days a week I eat alot of soups and rice in the winter time.  And now with the sandwich maker I can have soup and sandwiches without a problem also.  With the sandwich maker I can cook chicken chop it up and a few other stuff with it and I have a hot sandwich in no time flat.  That is the fun part going after the left overs in my place.  You never know what combination that you can come up with for anything.  Well I grew up on leftovers anyway and some folks haven't.  With the leftovers in my house it saves me from cooking all week while I am at it.  That is why some folks hollar at me is becuase I do think ahead most times.  Like I care of what they think of me not pulling form both freezers during the week anyway.  As long as I cook for the Hippy who cares what I eat during the week.  Now alot of times all I do is cook enough rice for a meal and reheat the leftovers in the rice cooker.  And 20 min later I have a full meal without a problem.  Not alot of folks like leftovers and shame on them at this point in time.  With groceries being high as they are may as well eat leftovers if there is any left from dinner.  Now I know sauce is better the next day instead of the first day that it was on the table.  In my place I will cook the sauce and freeze alot of it for the coming weeks and months.  Just like chili also it works for my place.  There are alot of leftover ideas.  And new ways to make the leftovers the next night that the other have wont have a clue unless they all look in the fridge.  Now the Hippy that is here with me he just dosen't care what I do with the leftovers at all.  There are times when we both say geez not chicken again.  Ok folks have fun and play hard today housework is calling me again.

Well sitting around and ploting

I am sitting here and ploting on what to do first today.  I have a ton of laundery once again.  So lets see how far I get once again today.  At least it is the laundery bomb instead of the dish bomb today.  Pluss to have the Food Network on also inbetween loads of laundery.  Once Paula Dean comes on Olliver goes very quiet.  It is just wild he hollars and carries on untill the bird gets to watch his Paula.  So since his Paula Dean is on Olliver is quiet already and is watching her.  Anyway I have started the first load of laundery and still looking around to see what next I can do.  I can't just throw my hands up yet today.  It is to early for that just yet.  I have been working on my list starting on Monday on what needs to be done around here.  Pluss one more box in the kitchen will not hurt me at all.  The first year that I was up here I thought that the MailMan and the UPS guy was gonna get all of us girls.  I had 5 huge boxes that smelled and were so heavy that the poor guys were gonna strain themselves.  It was fun that year eather way.  Now I have a house full that will be over for the most part thruout the day for the holiday.  With everything going on I will break out the prep work all week once again around here so all I have to do is get it togeather and bake the rest of the dinner that day.  Alot of things will get done this week of course.  And it never fails at all with me.  After almost 18 years I started all the prep work about 10 years ago to make it easier on myself.  Then this way I had more time to fight with the out-laws that came over.  This year is differant again becuase really none of the out laws are going to be here at all.  So it will be easy on me at least.  And I don't have to butter the dang bird at all like the Hippies sister wanted me to year after year.  That was just plain nuts and I refused to do it also.  Well after a number of years I would get the bird in the oven before everyone woke up around here.  Then the one year I messed everyone up by haveing a lamb for the holidays.  So someone grabbed the butter out of the fridge and I grabed the leg out of the fridge and said fine go head and ruin a good leg there.  Well the fight was on and I laughed.  What else could I do for that year.  After that the Hippies sister left the bird alone also.  Well this time around I am not sure on wheather the 20 lb bird or the brest.  I will figure it out here shortly anyway.  I just can't wait untill Friday comes along once again.  Ok folks have fun and play harder.

Still shakeing my head

Well after the past week I am still shakeing my head over the dishes.  And the Hippy wants to do this again tomarrow I wanna know what he took.  I am still sore from this week.  I am shrinking once again with oh not again attatude.  Also I will not be going out tonight at all.  I could not remember if it was this week or next week for the band.  A night of danceing I could have handled that tonight.  Oh well at least I know that I am home safe.  I am still getting my list of get my toush in gear for next week.   And I will not be calling for the electrition and his wife to come over at all this time.  I figure play it safe around here at least and invite the folks that I know will come over without a problem.  At least I won't be cut down at the ankles again.  I like this now.  There will be no complaints on the cooking niether.  One of the best parts of the whole day.  The day before I will have the flour bomb going off as normal here in the kitchen force of habbit around here. 

Ok I will admit

Well my mother got her pressant for the holidays already.  I can only emagine on what she called me.  It got cold around here lastnight also.  I hiked up the heat another degree and it still dident help out at all.  I can only emagin what it is in the old wearhouses that I use to work in now.  And I had 3 space heaters going at once.  I feel sorry for the poor guys and gals who work out in the cold weather now.  Anyway today I made a trip for the last minute items that I needed.  Well the Hippy came in early and met him at the truck so he went with me.  So now that the shopping is done for almost everyone except one person.  Since he was with me today.  I think the dollar store will be in order this week.  The fun part about the dollar store is you never know what you may find for several folks.  I can really go in and look around and see what is who in there.  Pluss you can get household items also in the dollar stores.  Like coffee pots and hot plates.  I use a hot plate only if the gas is turned off.  Since my gas hasen't been turned off but, only once to fix a pipe leading into the can and I had an eletric stove right then.  Now if that happends I can still cook with the convection oven.  I have a burner on top that I can use with the oven part going also.  That is the fun part about this place.  I have space heaters and a few other tricks up my sleeve if something happends here.  I refuse to get a wood burner anything for the can.  Well I have seen trailers go up in 7 min and burn to a shell.  So I am very carefull with everything here.  Now before the furnace got turned totally on this year I had the oil heater going and a blower heater going and I had it up to 80 here in 2 rooms within about 45 min.  That is with the hall way and front room blocked off.  The only thing is that the power bill went up to about 110 that month for about 2 weeks worth of the space heaters.  That was running them for about 10 hours a day also.  SO if some folks haven't got the gas turned on up here in NY State I can only imagin what thier power bill looks like at this point with it being under 32 outside.  It is like haveing the heat go out in January around here.  Ok have fun and play harder.

Well still waiting

I am waiting for the appliance that I ordered on Saturday.  Alot of folks don't know about the safty features on the food proccessors that they all have.  I say about 20 years ago the government made manufactures put a safty feature on as of if the lid is not propperly in place on the bowl then it will not turn on.  It has saved my household more times than not.  While I was babysitting several kids over the years I had the one that I have plugged in and was doing BBQ sauce in it.  So I took off the lid and had my fingers in it when one of the kids desided to turn it on.  It dident come on becuase the lid was off.  And the child got even madder at me becuase they wanted to see what would happen.  Right after that I stoped sitting for those children that day.  All thier mother could say was sorry.  I was overly mad after that point in time.  Still to this day thier mother can't stand when I walk into thier place that all 4 children listen to me better than they do her.  Part of the problem is I take no mercy for the one who messed up and that has helped.  Thier father is the same way.  So anyway today is one of them days of makeing lists for next week so I can start cooking once again and all the children that I had in and out of the house miss all the cooking.  Now for this week I diden't call the electritions house to see if they wanted to come over for the holidays at all.  Not after what they did to me for the last one.  I would rather eat alone again.  Not giveing the phone call by that Monday just frosted me totally to say that they were not coming over at all.  I had to call the day before and find out that way.  Thank goodness there was another person here to help me eat a 20 lb bird that I had pulled.  So now I will not call them to come over at all anymore.  I have came to the point of you can only slap me with words for so long before I drop that person on the curb and really speak my mind weather they like it or not.  That is why more than likely that the electrition and his wife haven't been over niether since he got home.  Pluss after I have gone even cheaper around here niether one of them like it.  I have lost some folks who I thought were friends over the fact that I had to start streaching out everything around here.  And watching every dollar coming in and out of the can.  Not only that I have realized also with some folks if you are broke they will be your friend and once everyone starts working again that the same folks don't want nothing to do with you after that becuase my budget doesen't change after I start back to work outside of the can.  It is also pretty bad when a truck driver makes more money than an electrition does.  I will keep my cheap and frugal ways for my place and still spend under my budget time and time again.  December and January are always bad months around here anyway.  That will never go away.  So I try to keep a full stock on what I need for the place anyway then it is cheaper all the way around.  It has also helped me in the long run with winters around here.  Ok now to start makeing my list of things to do for next week and a few other things for the can.  Have fun and play even harder.

The kitchen is almost put back togeather

I got all of the dishes done finally by 3pm today.  My hands are very chaped by this point in time.  The cold weather does not help niether.  Most of the dishes that I got for free are put away also.  Thanks to my desk at least.  Other than that it has been a long day.  I left everything off today untill 4 pm this afternoon.  It was very nice.  Tomarrow starts the madness once again with the laundery.  Never fails around here.  I can really say that today was a fairly cheap day here.  I stayed home for the most part.  Well with it being snowy out and slick I will not go far from home at all.  It is 17 outside and it is cold.  Everything is blocked up and it seems warmer in here already.  That was another thing I did today was hang more blankets up in the can.  Keeping heat in is a good thing around here.  All I can really do is sit here tonight and do nothing else in the can only becuase I did way to much in the past 3 days of course.  One good thing about the dive that I did was I got something for a little one for the hollidays.  Well by Monday I get to pull another bird out of the deep freezer again.  This is just plain out nuts here.  I get to cook a full meal again with the pies and the cake.  Well the nice thing is I will start the day before as normal. 

Found more dishes

Well there were more dishes yesterday that got washed.  I will get everything done I'm hopeing today.  Even though I need more room in the cabnets.  So yesterday it seems like I diden't get anywhere in the kitchen and I know I did becuase, there's less dishes on the table.  I want to be done with it all like now and I know it will be done by this afternoon.  Then I can work on other things around here after this.  It is so nice to have a set of dishes that match here in the can.  Well I got to thinking yesterday that to bad my suppossad niece diden't come here to live.  I am moveing up in the world now with being cheap and new dishes for free.  I know alot of folks who live in trailers and not all of us are bad.  Some of us are just cheaper than others is all.  And how the Lot Rent is going up I will take that back in January.  So now I will plug along here and be as cheap as I can here untill I find a place that I like around here.  What gets to me is that folks will ask me how I do it all.  With one income comeing in.  A very tight budget and no "Real Extras" around here.  I will save for the extras like small appliances as always.  I noticed when I wait for the small appliances the item will go on sale by the time I have enough for it.  Just like I wanted a sandwich maker for the hollidays and I got one for free the other day.  All I have to do is clean it up a bit and it looks brand new.  Pluss I have cut out going out to eat once a week also.  Now I am lucky if I go out maybe once a month to a place.  I cook from scratch most times around here and it is cheaper than going out once a week and alot better food also.  Well now alot of the times I do not keep the frozen dinners in the can at all.  I have a few from when I was working the 10 hr days.  Frozen or quicky dinners are left overs to me.  Or a can of soup also.  I ended up with a couple of the drop and dent cans of soup for this week for eather lunch or dinner.  It works for me here without the Hippy here during the weekdays.  Now haveing the Hippy here Monday and Tuesday was wierd.  It thru me off of what I do around here all day.  I have a rutine that I fallow and don't like it when it gets messed up.  The Hippy know I was going nuts over it all.  Oh well at least things got done around here and it is still a mess all over the place in the kitchen.  Got a better look in the daylight and it's not good.  I wanted to be done by tomarrow with everything so I can start pulling next week for another big dinner.  This is always scarry when I start cooking for the hollidays.  The flour bomb goes off at least once while I am bakeing of course.  So the dishes will be kept up next week for sure so I have extra counter space.  I may just move the microwave to the other counter and the convection to the other counter.  I will have help this weekend at least I hope.  Ok folks have fun and play even harder today.

Well I just came up with alot

I came up with what I had missed all this time.  Ok besides I fell out of dumpster diveing and finally hit the one supermarket for the bargin rack.  I came up with a cut back and it finally just tourches everyone practicly that comes over besides the ones that are in the same boat as I am.  Streaching out everything untill we are just sick of it all.  I have came to the fact of why most of us do streach out everything includeing the dollar.  I had some help from a great dispatcher this morning.  So Thanks to the person who slaped me up side the head at 8 am.  Well I was kinda down lastnight over the whole auction deal and a few other things and the guy made me realize that wait just a second here.  I am better off than some folks are and I can sit back and be cheap and get cheaper without a problem.  Even with the dumpster diveing that I did and purgeing of the cabnets around here.  I will more than likely donate what I got out of the space and feel even better around here also.  The stimulas package that the Idiot Presadent sent out did no good for us all over.  Along with the extintion of the unenjoyment (unemployment).  What it is, is that folks need to go cheap then start hollering about it all.  The ones who get the Loans out there are the ones who cant pay thier bills on time and let the Gas Bill get to over 4 Grand.  No gas no heat for most places around here in NY State anyway becuase it's cheaper than the power.  Now with that being said the Hippy coulden't get a personal loan what so ever.  But could get a 2500 dollar Master Card.  Go figure on that one.  There have been times where I coulden't fill the Van's tank to save myself becuase the both of us have been that broke.  Pluss I rememmbered that it is December and that the both of us will be broke untill Febuary of next year.  Welcome to the National Truckers club of things.  I work out of the can mainly and go from there.  Now there are times of the year where I have to go get other employment out of the can.  That is when things are really slow and I need to get out for awhile.  The cold weather really doesen't bother me to much since I did work in a cold wearhouse at one point in time.  When we brought our own space heaters into work with us all.  Now if folks can get that then I woulden't hollar as much.  Compaired to some folks I am cheap and do squeek after a point in time.  Ok folks have fun and play even harder.

Let the fun begin today

For today cleaning and walking on the ultra cheap around here.  It won't be as bad as everyone thinks it will be.  It just takes time to get use to and try new things around here.  Like dumpster diveing it takes some getting use to again.  I will be cleaning up the sandwich maker and seeing if it works.  Ok I got my pressant a bit early and that is ok.  Hot sandwiches for the appliance free.  Now normally I will tell you to get the appliances on sale and pay very little for them if you can.  You still can't beat up free at all.  Not many know this about me in when I first got up here to NY.  I went curb hopping and dumster diveing for alot of things for the can.  Now if somethings looked to raty or just plain out diden't smell right it dident come back with me.  Here in the park we all have traided stuff at one point or another.  Fans for the cans never got picked up only becuase they are just done by the time they are put to the curb/end of the driveways.  We all still laugh about it today.  Pluss alot of us went out to places to get other things also for the places.  The Hippy was impressed with me lastnight with what I ended up getting done.  I still have boxes in the kitchen at this point and will be going thru them today and start rearangeing the kitchen once again.  So a very cheap day coming up.  Alot of stuff will just go away today.  I will find the stuff that I want out a good home eather way around here.  So I will be sitting down and ploting and planning on what I will be doing and writeing things down.  Along with cheap things to try once again for the place to get all the bills down and streaching the other dollars here.  Now normally since I am alone for about 5 days a week it makes it a bit easier on me to figure out what I can do.  It drives the Hippy nuts when I start adding cheaper ways.  Ok folks have fun and play even harder.

Never said I was right

Well the 2nd diveing was even better last night.  Over a grand on Pfaltzgraff stuff.  Alot of everything.  Wish I could have got a house today and I diden't at all.  Oh well at least I can still dream and collect the nickels for a place when I get one.  Then folks wander why I get free stuff in the mail and a few other things.  All I can do is laugh at this point becuase I have so many dishes to do that my head is spinning again.  Pluss I get to wing out the dishes that I have now.  So anyway today had fell apart from the get go this morning.  At this point I will get as many dishes done tonight as I can and run with it.  Also very little dish soap goes in with this go around at least.  Well just think Mom was always right when she said that good things come to those who wait.  And it is holding up that in for the waiting.  I live in 700 feet of a can is all I can say and 1000 square feet is good to me.  More room at least for my part.  So I will wait and see what happends.  I got to go into a house today and it was smaller than the can I have.  It would be hard to work out to say the least.  I will keep the tricks of alot of what I do for storage to say the least.  Between the storage bins and roll carts around here and a few other things.  You get creative on things and start laughing at some folks when they ask how did you do that.  Between the sewing machine and a glue gun I can be a hand full.  Pluss if you find a spot for things go for it.  If you can hide it even better.  Just like with my desk the drawers hold the extra kleenexes.  Then with the extra stock is well hid everywhere in plain sight.  That is the fun part about my place.  So after all this yes I will be trying to go ultra cheap once again around here.  I have really started dumpter diveing once again.  I will be doing more of that this year.  Along with a ton of new things.  Since I am alone most of the time I can do alot more without someone here.  Alot of it is the cleaning aspect around here and cuting back as much as possible.  Alot of the dollar stores and Aldi for the main things around here.  Oh well lets see what I can do around here.  Have fun and play even harder.

Haven't started yet

Well not much is going to get done here today with the auction going on.  And that is ok by me after last night with more dumpster diveing.  I lifted way to much.  Oh well at least I can sit down all day practicly at the auction.  With yesterday at least I can say that I will not be slideing that easy untill I get the van unloaded.  So it's a good thing.  Anyway another cheap day here in the can of course.  And most of us are takeing coffee with us.  After the first 2 go arounds with the auctions I can say that I have done this before.  Doing this today I am hopeing to get a place cheap enough to get out of the can.  New set of neighbors at least and hopefully they don't need shock collers like most of the children around here in the park.  Alot of the bills will go down if I get a house.  Insurance will go up.  It will be well worth getting out of the park eather way.  So lets see where it goes to this morning.  One good find lastnight was another part to the Kitchenaid mixer.  A 60 dollar part for free.  Now I will say this free is always good weather it is samples in the mail to dumster diveing.  Ok so it takes a bit of time and hunting for stuff.  It is well worth the trouble most times.  Just like the dishes from a couple of days ago.  Like I really need more dishes around here I may find a home for the set that I do have here. 

More rain

Well it has started raining out again.  It is no worse than dumpster diveing in this weather of course.  500 dollars if not more in Phalsgraff dish ware and Marbrole bags.  That was yesterdays find.  The rain has arived again here in the Western NY area and I just dont like it.  Well the one bag of the 8 is still outside in the rain.  The next 3 are in the washer as always.  May as well do the cheap way of things.  I ended up over at the dumster again tonight and lets see what I ended up with.  That will be for tomarrow eather way.  Now for me being totally cheap I will take that up a notch of course.  Now I will take that into the ultra cheap range as of the past 24 hrs of course.  And that goes with the coupon also for what I bought.  I did talk with my Mother today and told her she would be getting something from the UPS guys.  She said OOOOOO my favorite brownies.  All I could do was laugh.  The UPS guys and gals are great with older folks.  They will bring in the package for the elderly.  So that is why I love the Buster Brown Folks.  Even with myself the people will shove a box in the door for me during the day time.  Now for the one that I have ordered.  The food processor will be here with all of the attachments soon enough.  My Mother even said I was way to practical for what I get for the household.  I will let everyone know how I like it after I use most of the attachments after I get it.  It better come with a maid is all I can say in how much I paid for it.  It was still under 200 dollars for everything.  So now I have a juicer also while I am it all.  Along with a blinder.  Ok folks have fun and play hard.

Today is worse than yesterday

Well I looked around this morning and seen the damage that I have to clean up once again.  I don't know how it has been done in the kitchen once again.  Pluss with the dumster diveing yesterday just made more dishes for me to wash of course.  Some how some way I will get thru it all today.  What is nice is I can do alot of it on the cheap and without lights going.  I will get the power bill down once again for the place.  Pluss with useing less dish soap it helps out on streaching that out around here.  The first time I used the Green Works products I had so many suds that it hurt.  I haven't tried the laundery deturgant yet.  It doesen't mean that I do not have a bottle of it.  That is the nice thing of being stocked up and useing less of everything.  Becuase when weather hits or you can't afford to go out and get something it is already there in the place.  Alot of times before I go out for a major shopping trip to the grocery stores I will throw open everything and make a list from there of what is needed.  Or as I run out of something I will write it down in what is needed.  It keeps the cost down of that bill.  Now for some of it when it is on sale and you can afford it go for it so down the road when it is not on sale then you already have the item.  Also it helps to have a deep freezer for when turkeys or whole chickens are at below 80 cents a pound.  In my place I have to watch in what I cook of course.  When the Hippy is here I have to cut out all fish and no peppers also.  The peppers I can't have at all.  What gets to me still is that some just don't care in  how they shop at all.  It's full price for them at all times nomatter in how broke they are.  So I have cut and slashed the bills down to where some folks don't come over anymore also.  Becuase I won't just get up and jump on what they want me to do around here.  I looked at one person along with another friend and asked now how am I suppose to pay the bills and get what you want me to get for my place to make you happy.  This is why some folks get thier utilities shut off at all times of the year.  There are some bills that I have to pay on time becuase if I don't gee being evicted and the car woulden't be legal here in NY State to drive.  Yes I do have a cell phone.  It has saved me more times than not around here when the power goes out.  With the cable phone when the power goes then the house phone goes also.  I have noticed over the years around here I have always had heat and the power turned on also.  I know a couple of people that have had thier gas just totally shut off even in the winter time.  I just shook my head on it all.  And the person that has done this time and time again can't say that he doesen't make good money and that he can pay his bills.  I guess that the toys that he buys are more important than the bills to be paied.  Ok folks have fun and play even harder. 

Good thing on saveing money

Well I have learned over the years to start saveing money for what you want.  I have found out with myself When I start saveing for something then by the time I am done I do not want the item that I thought I wanted in the first place.  And I find something else to get after that.  One thing I have always wanted was a wood burning kitchen stove.  I diden't get much with the Ex-Husband at all.  After almost 18 years I finally got my Kitchenaid mixer.  And I saved, pinched,and cliped for the mixer.  Well with the auction block I had done the same thing also except I diden't start in with the cans except a few months ago.  The cans are for the wood burner.  It has been somewhat slow for now for the nickels and it will start picking up in the summer time.  Tourists who knew.  Pluss the kids also throw the cans on the ground around here.  I even had cans handed to me at the grocery store also.  I'll take the cans without a problem here.  At this point even though it is at 14 dollars it is still a good start for the wood burner.  Pluss the wood burner would be an extra heat source also.  Anyway now to start streaching out around here the power bill was mostly taxes again.  I know it was becuase of the dryer going and a few other things.  Ok folks more tomarrow and have fun and play harder tonight.

I haven't got to the whole thing

I got to alot of the blankets they are in the washer now.  This is bad when folks wont pay the storage unit fee every month.  I almost let mine go with good reasons.  I dident wanna put up with an Ungreatfull Brat anymore.  So I am more than happy I kept the unit now.  Free sheets to blankies and dishes also.  Well after all of this I hope I can get a house on the auction block for dirt cheap now.  There has been so much that it is bad around here.  With the government running bussnisses out along with people gee I wander why they can't pay thier bills here in the state of NY.  With my place I have ran below the budget for so long that people are surprized when I order something on line around here.  I have done this for so many years that it doesen't even affect me anymore.  I have to laugh sometimes around here becuase I have seen alot of folks go broke.  Then they ask in how I do everything.  After they get into trouble in thier own place.  Some don't want to listen to what I have to say.  Or don't want to hear what went wrong.  I have cut around here to what seems to be squat to some folks.  I don't even get the unnessasary stuff that most get.  Like extra shot guns.  I asked someone if they could eat the shotgun that he had just bought.  Well it's ok if you go hunting and get something or 2 every year.  I do not go hunting all year at all.  I could care less.  As I sit here I am not knocking the hunters out there at all.  I am sure that most do catch something everytime they go out.  Anyway now to check on the washer again.  Blankets of course.  I will not complain at all since they were free.  That is only part of what I got out of the dumpster today that was still good.  Oh well have fun and play even harder.

Doing some shopping today

The funny thing is I had coupons all over the place today.  So I got my Mothers gift today of course.  The Hippy was laughing at me becuase of the coupons and codes that I used.  Now normally I am very cheap when it comes to things like that.  I normally shop http://www.hsn.com/ anyway for most of my on line shopping.  It works well for me becuase I can have stuff shipped down to Illinois and not worry about it.  Anyway today is one of them wierd days now.  I have to get alot done and then some today once again.  And I am hopeing that Monday will be somewhat calmer of a day this week at least.  Well At least with everything going on this weekend I must say that it is not so bad after all around here.  Also whith what I did order for the can I can do almost everything with this thing and I will let you know in how it works out for the true test the hollidays.  I will still be useing the Kitchenaid stand mixer of course for alot of it.  Then there is still alot of cooking yet to do for this year that is left.  So I will be trying out a new pie crust for the hollidays this time around.  Now with me cooking from scratch it will be nice to have the extra space for another appliance.  With everything going on for the next couple of days I have to plot and plan for everything once again.  What gets to me is that I have stocked up the can here in and only need that lonely can of cream of mushroom soup.  Otherwise I have everything ready to get started with the prep work for the week of.  After this year I will be going much cheaper around my place.  I have already started with it as of the past couple of weeks.  Today was the coupon codes for part of the shopping that I did.  During the week here I will be cutting back even though that the Hippy will be here untill at least Tuesday night.  It will be somewhat crazy at first and that is ok.  And I did pick up a nickel yesterday while I was out.  The Hippy was laughing about it.  Yes I am still spotting cans and bottles out in yards.  It is a good way to save money also.  Also what I am doing is cutting on the power bill also this up coming year.  This should get good in no time flat around here.  It wont hurt some of us at all others not so sure about here.  At least I do try to get things done around here that are cheap in nature.  Well with looking at the auction block for houses here I have to be even cheaper here.  I knew it was gonna happen sooner or later.  I just figured it would be at least spring time before anything could be done.  I just do not like moveing in the winter time at all.  It won't be the first time of doing this since myself and the Hippy got his sisters stuff out of PA in Febuary.  And several moves at a company that shut the doors also and which winter did we make the move.  Most of the stuff we have here at the can and the storage locker I can move by the van myself.  That is the bad part about haveing all the totes that are here for storage here at the place.  Or it may be a good thing at this point in time.  I know the seats and everything can be brought out of the van also.  I have done it before with the van.  Pack as hard as I can with the van and go with it.  It was really bad with no heat in the van and fully loaded on the 219 here in NY and PA thru the mountains and the forest also.  I diden't slide one bit during the bad parts.  So another plot and plan for that stuff.  Alot of the just plain out junk can just go from my place.  I will admit to it now.  Pluss I will have to check the spare room/pantery to see what can go also and to see if the boxes are empty.  I remember the day that I moved in here to the can.  I coulden't believe that with it being that nasty dirty with a child being here also.  I got so much dirt and grime out that it was not good.  When I switched over to the phantom vac it was even worse.  I diden't have a dog and was still picking up dog hair.  I had the weassel at the time.  Oh well now I know start cleaning before I even bother to move into another place.  And it isen't like I do not have enough cleaners at this point.  This time it is like I have everything and then some unlike when I was restarting almost 15 years ago.  May 28th to be technical.  I still can't still stand where I am and came to grips with it and seeing that I can walk everyplace almost it's got alot better.  The art of dumpster diveing has never failed me yet also.  Dishes and blankets never hurt anyone along with bags.  They all wash up eather way that I look at it.  And since I do have the new washer it won't hurt niether for the bills.  It has been a long day already here.  It will get longer also here shortly.  The nice thing is that today will be the off day and I do have help around here.  Ok folks I have to get on the move and will let you know what was found in the dumster when I get it uncovered.  Have fun and play even harder.

Alot of folks wander why about me.

I will admit some folks wander why about me.  I shop at the odd ball places and nail people who need to wake up and smell the coffee at times.  When some have walked in my shoes in the first year or so when I first moved up here.  When I can say I did struggle I have.  Diveing into dumpsters and getting food that way and the bargin racks.  Now some folks have had money for awhile and have forgot what it was like when they first started out or had the silver/gold spoon in thier mouths when they were born.  When some of us have had to work and continue to do so under cruddy conditions at all times.  Some of us do not get paid for what we do.  Like the house wives who never get a break from thier jobs at home.  What gets to me is that some of us if we get out for a couple of hours and just go we are ok if we window shop some place.  Becuase we are cheap enough with 6 to 8 months down the road we can get something for the place we are at.  So some need to walk in my shoes for about 6 months or so see how it all feels. 

Searching for the recipies still

Now I am always looking for recipies that are on the cheap.  The Hippy at my place is gonna say what the flip is this again.  Now some of the recipies that I have are hand writen of course.  Alot of them are in my head.  I always add extra garlic in some of the things that I have in my head.  SOme I had to crack on my own without the help from anyone.  As I told my Grandmother I finally cracked her stuffing recipie that she always makes for the hollidays.  Straight out of the box and a few other things that go into it and bam I got it this year.  And 15 years later for it.  Ok it sometimes takes me a bit (15yrs later) to get it into the brain that I have.  I had to laugh about it all this year.  Now I can pass this to my children when I start haveing them.  So now also I have been trying to get the recipies that are easy and cheaper than snot.  I will get the cheaper ones wheather folks want me to or not.  As long as I have food in my place that is good and fast along with the cheapness wraped into one.  And the cook wear that I have does help out also.  Since they took the Ultrex pots and pans off the HSN all over the place and other places I have to find other pans and pots to use.  Well with the teflon I have to watch it with the bird here.  I have tried a Green Pan from Joy Mangono and Todd English I love it.  It wont bother the bird if I tourch bacon in it.  You can tell when someone who has worked in the food service for way to long when the only way they can eat bacon dang near burnt at all times.  I can really laugh becuase I told my Aunt to tourch the bacon for me while I was there.  Even the baby loved it.  Bad habbits on my part and I barely shared it.  At my Aunts house she will tell you I dident flip out I shoved her out of the kitchen for the party.  When it was all over with she looked at me and asked about my feet.  I said they were alright untill I laid down that night.  I was in tears when I had charly horses in my arches of my feet.  When I got home I diden't want to cook to save my own toush.  I let the Hippy cook for a couple of days untill I could get my bearings back.  After what happened with him down in Punxey Pa the one year Scratch my back for a change.  Poor man was lost for a week after he came back to my place.  When I can fill a regular Buggy at the store down there for 33 dollars for the sales that went on.  Guess what I did it all.  I diden't even use coupons that day.  So cooking on the cheap is what I do around here.  For some folks it is hard to cook on a budget.  They have to have the most expencive things in thier kitchens.  Then try to put out a meal for the place.  WIth myself I can have soup all week long and go from there.  I do not pull from the freezers hardly at all for with me just here.  And why should I cook a big meal with left overs when there is just me here.  Now with that being said I save on the gas bill along with the eletric bill also.  All I really do is heat up the tea kettle for the soup packets that I use.  It gets funny around here the dog looks at me like soup again mom.  And it leads me into the heat problem around the cold areas of the snow belts.  Now with heat I have gas for the most part for the furnace here at the can so far.  Unless I have the oven going of course.  Still it is bad here when it gets below the 20 degree mark here.  I can tell you I have worked in the worst conditions at all times.  When 3 space heaters make the room 40 degrees and it is below zero out side you know that there is a problem.  Where the room was maybe 20 X 20 and the 3 space heaters had a problem it is cold out.  I stuck frozen dinners in the other part of the office that I had and it kept frozen also and the tea was cold after 5 min in the microwave after 2 min in the room also.  I can laugh now about it but, at the time it wasen't at all.  The poor Racoons that hit my room were fighting over the heaters along with the rest of us there it was totally cold.  I had kits in the room also.  Momma and Daddy knew I wouldent bother the babe's that they had becuase we were in the same boat.  I had kits in my lap and at my feet also trying to keep warm.  They all knew I had to move every so often for the work I did.  I ran as many computers as I could also to put heat into the room.  Even that diden't work at times in the office.  Pluss we all brought in our own T.P. also.  Between the heat and other things that some of us did in the Companey that went belly up NY State should take notice on what to do.  THat is what the Empire Zone gets you also.  What was a water bill along with several other things.  When some of us had a 4' drift of snow in the other half of the office that we had.  When the EPA walked in I told them if I ain't glowing by now get out of here.  A nuke is buried not even a 10th of a mile from where I live at.  They checked my room and it was all clear.  They asked how I kept warm in the winter and I laughed and said a burn barrel.  Now to see all of the Rottin Polititions make it where I worked at they couldent survive week after week on what I brought home at the time.  At 7.25 an hour most folks can't make it at all.  Now set a huge tight budget off of that and see how far you can get at the grocery stores.  And that is for Everything.  Pluss pay bills off of what is being brought in.  That is why Aldi and Save A Lot and I are best of friends.  Along with the dollar stores also.  Now when the Hippies sister would come up and stay with me she would get mad at me becuase I cooked full meals that were hot at all times.  Who wants a cold flipping sandwich after being cold all day.  So I cooked and then some just to warm some of us up.  We would hover around the oven for heat.  Pluss with the both of us working at the same place I could do a load of laundery a day also.  SO extra heat in the can.  Well with 3 pluss layers a day the laundery adds up quick.  When I was on tear down I found out to get a wall of Power Supplies on my desk with one space heater worked well.  I was warmer than the other 2 on tear down and they had a frog shoved up the toush also.  THe frog is a turbo heater with karoseen.  If I could get a roof on the wall of power supplies on my desk I would have done it.  Pluss the sales of power supplies for computers went thru the roof also from my desk.  It was kinda funny untill I had to tear the wall down and rebuild it.  There are ways to save money and keep warm also.  Ok folks have fun and play hard.