Day 9

Almost one third over already? That gets a woo hoo! from me. This Frugal Feb has yet to be smooth and reflective, I feel like we haven't found our frugal mojo. This week has been one of complaining, making exceptions, feeling put out and inflexible, and even forgetting entirely that it's our no-spend month. I guess some years are like this.

Grocery-wise, we are doing well. I picked up an entire quarter-pound of bulk cumin powder at the Davis Food Co-op for just over $3. We've bought milk, bread, bulk water, fresh veggies and some various things we'd run out of, for a grand total of only $42.18. I made a great vegetable soup last night mostly with stuff we had on hand, including the last of the turkey stock I made from our Thanksgiving turkey and a frozen cube of our garden basil, and thought I'd post some of my recipes this year, since "but what do you eat?" is one of the recurring questions people ask. This soup is one of our favorites, there's nothing magically frugal about this particular recipe, but soup in general is fairly inexpensive and a good healthful belly-filler, plus this one is really tasty. This recipe makes about 8 servings.

Veggie Soup (serves about 8)

1 onion
2 carrots
2 celery stalks
2 T olive oil
6 cups broth, stock, water, or a combination
15 oz can crushed or diced tomatoes
1 or 2 cans chick peas, drained
1 cup tiny pasta
2 cups cubed butternut squash
Spices/seasonings you like (I used fresh-frozen basil)
several handfuls fresh spinach
salt and pepper to taste

Dice onion, carrot and celery and saute in olive oil until soft. Add broth, tomatoes, chick peas, pasta and squash. Bring to a boil, then simmer covered for about 15 minutes - longer is OK but watch that the pasta doesn't get mushy. Add spinach and cook 5 minutes more. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve with a grating of fresh parmesan and some fresh bread.

So, now on to the complaining and the exceptions and all that. We are going to a social event next weekend, and I didn't manage to make sure all 5 of us would be properly outfitted for the occasion before February hit. If I had my frugal mojo on, I could beg, borrow and perhaps sew clothing made from the curtains ala Maria Von Trapp. But that ain't gonna happen. So we've had to do some shopping. Hubby forgot about no-spend month and invited a friend out for a beer. Both our big kids have been invited to birthday parties of people we haven't known long enough to explain our odd social experiment while we hand them homemade cookies. Trying to take my own advice and focus on the successes.

The good: The girl had a bunch of friends over for "late start Wednesday" breakfast and we had plenty of home made scones and lemonade for all. We ran out of eggs and our dear neighbor traded us 2 eggs for 5 lemons. I used CVS bucks for the first time in forever instead of letting them expire, thereby getting a loaf of bread for .99. Bread, from CVS? Why not. Happy Frugal February.