Hi Everyone!
How was your week last week??? Mine was extra extra busy! Our daughter was invited to be a substitute violist with the local high school orchestra. To start with, they do not have enough violists in their orchestra, only having three high school students and one retired gentleman who plays with them. Then, the situation was that their lead violist--one of the high school students--was going to be away on a mission trip helping out with the recent hurricane victims in Florida. This in itself would be alright--but the problem was that the orchestra had a performance this past weekend at a church close by in Georgia. So my daughter was asked if there was any way that she could fill in for the missing student, and play with the orchestra even though she is not a student at that school. She was happy for the opportunity to both help out, as well as the opportunity to play with an orchestra, so she said "Yes!" Then we arranged our homeschool schedule so that she could go and join them for two practices last week, so she would have had at least a LITTLE experience playing the songs that they were going to be performing--though one of the music pieces was still handed to her that morning at the church they were playing at. Good time for improving your sight-reading skills! :) The high school actually had four practices last week, but we have our own schedule and my daughter had previous commitments during two of the high school practice times. But God blessed, and when the orchestra played at the church, I thought they sounded very very nice, and I could tell the church members were very happy to have this music addition to their church program that day. My daughter greatly enjoyed doing it, and I was SO thankful that I had already purchased her a full length black dress at a local thrift shop for .75 cents, as this was exactly what she needed to wear to match what the high school orchestra players were going to be wearing. Sure, her dress was a slightly different style, but overall a full length black dress is a full length black dress! Besides that--she was a volunteer! The high school teacher was so thankful for the extra viola player that he said he would take her wearing anything! We teased her that she could wear a bright pink dress, and then would REALLY stand out amongst all the orchestra players wearing black! Being a teenager herself, however, she did not see my husband's and my humor in this pink dress suggestion, and declared that she would much rather blend in with everyone else! ;)
This invitation for her to play has given me a heads up that it would probably not be a bad idea to add in a few other black clothes to her wardrobe, as black is a traditional color for musicians to wear when preforming. It is not a color that my daughter chooses to wear for her every day clothes, but I think I will keep my eyes open for a few more clothing pieces, especially since she is a hard size to find. I would like to get her a black cardigan that she could wear over her short sleeve black dress. I saw one girl in the orchestra who was wearing a soft cardigan over her orchestra dress, and I thought this was a smart idea, especially for winter time coming up. Then I would also like to find her a pair of nice black dress pants, as well as a silky type of black blouse. Then with those things, I think she could "fit in" with most music attires of groups that she may be invited to play with. If I keep my eyes open ahead of time, I have a better chance of finding items at a good price. She has already been approached by a second music teacher at a different school in this area, and asked if she can help out with music on two different dates this Christmas season, so her name is getting "out there" in the pool of names of student players in this area, and it seems that EVERYONE is short on viola players!
Besides being prepared ahead of time with my daughter's black dress, other things I did this past week to save my family money included ordering some food in bulk through a food co-op for some items that I like to purchase in bulk. Things that I like to order this way include my rolled oats--I order them in 50 lb. bags, and the price is around $30 some dollars. I also order my quick oats this way. You do not need to order 50 pounds--they sell lots of things in smaller packages, like one or five pound bags. But the larger containers do tend to cost a bit less when you divide it out to price per pound of food. And we use a LOT of oats, since I make all our own granola, and I also use it for regular oatmeal, for my oatmeal bread, etc. And since I have a basement for bulk food storage, it works for me! I simply store my bulk oats in several buckets with lids that I purchased from Walmart, and I have never had any problems with the food going bad. I also order things like shelf stable silken tofu, steel cut oats, 7 grain cereal, bulgar wheat, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, nutritional yeast, etc. And this time, I ordered a large box of dried dates for the first time. My nuts and seeds I do store in my extra freezer, as they will go bad after a while if you are not using them up fast enough. Since I have an extra freezer, I just store them in the freezer. The co-op I am ordering with makes stopes all over the U.S. If you have never tried ordering through Azure Standard, you might enjoy looking at their web site and seeing if they have any drops in your location. If they do, and you want to try them out, I would love it if you would use my referral link! It won't cost you anything extra at all, but if a new customer makes a $100 order and uses my referral link, Azure will give me a credit of $25! Here is the link to the web site:
Azure Standard
And you will need to type in my Share code, which is: SusanMenzmer1. If you order using my share code--thank you! I appreciate it greatly!
Another way I saved money last week was by stocking up on small half size notebook paper when I found it for a good price. I like doing my Bible Study notes in those small, half size binders. They are just a good size for me, and the half size makes it close to the same size as my Bible, and it just fits together well for when I am carrying both to church, storing on my book shelf, etc. Anyway, of course, with the half size binders, you need to use the half size binder paper. I "can" simply cut my computer printer paper in half and three hole it to fit, and I do this sometimes, but mostly I am keeping hand written notes and I REALLY like having the faint lines on my paper all printed out for me, and so I like to buy the packages of filler paper to fit the binder. Well, I guess the half size binders are not so popular as they used to be, because I have had an increasingly hard time in finding the paper packs to fit them. I used to be able to get the paper at our college book store, but they no longer carry that size. Then I used to be able to find them at Walmart, but my Walmart stopped carrying them as well. So now I am pretty much forced to purchase them from an office supply store like Office Depot or Staples, and the Staples price is $4.00 for each pack and the Office Depot price is even more! And I have not found a good price on Amazon either. Anyway, so I pretty much give in and simply try to get some every now and then when I have a coupon for Staples, to help take a bit off of the price. I use around one pack of paper each month, at the rate that I take notes on my Bible studies, so I have decided that my Bible studies are worth it to me. BUT--I happened to be passing a shelf section in my Walmart last week and they had some extra things out for holiday season, and I could not believe it but they had the packs of half size binder paper! I figured they would probably not be any cheaper than the paper was at Staples, and I am not out currently as the last time I had a Staples coupon I stocked up a little bit, but I thought just in case I would go and price check one of the Walmart paper packets. Well, I was very surprised when it rang up at $1.88!!!! The price scanner also indicated that it was a "holiday pack." Well, I did not see anything holiday-ish about this paper pack, but that DID tell me that it probably isn't going to be carried all the time, but is just there for now. So you know what they say--"Make hay while the sun shines!" Yes--I went back to the shelf and bought every single package of the half size binder paper that they had! Which was only 12 packages, so I viewed it as a good investment in my next year's worth of Bible study notes! At that price, it saved me a little more than half the cost I would have had to pay if purchasing from an office supply store. And the paper isn't going to spoil while it waits for me to get around to using it!
Step 1: Wash and scrub your baking potatoes good. Leaving the skin on keeps the fiber in, as most of the fiber in a potato is located in the skin. Cut out if there are any bad spots or eyes growing, then cut your potato in half length-wise and then slice into large French fry lengths. These are like the large wedge fries you find at theme parks, not the skinny fries from fast food places.
Step 2: Lay your French Fries out in a single layer on a baking sheet. You will need to either spray your baking sheet with some type of non-stick cooking spray, or use a non-stick mat under them. I have a non-stick mat, so that is what I use.
Step 3: Give a very light spray with non-stick cooking spray, and then immediately sprinkle with a little salt. Don't go overboard on the salt--too much is not good for you, but even adding some salt on the surface of these will still be much less salt than what is on the commercially made fries! You can also sprinkle with other spices as well. Sometimes I sprinkle with a little cumin, or with some garam masala, which is an Indian spice blend. Really, your imagination is the limit here!
Step 4: Bake in a preheated oven at 400 degrees F, for around 20-30 minutes, until the French Fries are starting to brown on top.
Step 5: Flip your French Fries, and continue to bake another 20 minutes or so.
I hope you like this recipe for baked French Fries as much as we do! They are so much healthier than the fries that take a bath in oil and grease, but besides that they are just plain yummy!
Do you have any home made recipes that you make instead of purchasing a food at a fast food restaurant? Share something you did or made to help save money for your family this week--I would love to hear what you have to share!
~Susan
1 comment:
I love Azure Standard. There are certain things I order from there, but I only place a few orders per year anymore, as I can now get a lot of those items I used to get from a store in the town where I now live. I did order the past 2 months, though, as it had been a while. One thing I got was the 10 lb box of Tinkyada brown rice fettuccine. It is very reasonable that way and I'm glad they got it back in stock. Nothing gluten-free is cheap, though, but it beats the price of buying one little package at a time.
My husband loves the "Woodsman" soap from there. It's goat milk soap so doesn't irritate his skin, and smells like a forest.
I've never used 50 pounds of oats, but I have friends who do! I cannot even imagine how much 50 pounds of certified gluten-free oats would cost. If I ever wanted to know--Azure's the place to find out:)
Another thing that is deterring me from ordering often is the fact that we are not as large of a family as we once were--hence, we eat less and I run out of things less frequently. I probably will always buy in bulk, though, to some extent, no matter how small the family gets.
I'm glad your daughter got to use her musical skills. She will get better and better as she has chances to work with others.
Have a great week!
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