So I have been pairing back what I buy at the grocery store and using supercook.com to use what I have in my pantry.  I have found that I have a pretty well stocked pantry actually.  Using supercook.com, I have been able to keep a running tally or inventory of what is in my house and get hundreds of recipes.  It has meant that I had to try some new dishes.  Some were good and some not my favorite, but it all got eaten.

Another thing is that my chickens are laying now and so I get roughly four eggs per day.  Some days I even get five, one from each hen.  I have a grand total of five laying hens and seven roosters, which means it is time to add some to the stew pot.  I was thinking of taking the roosters and making chicken soup to can.  It would be an adventure as I have not pressure canned in some time.  I'm talking decades here ladies and gents.  I imagine though, it wouldn't take much.  Some chicken, carrots, salt, and water.  Follow some directions and wa la, the base for chicken noodle soup.  Just store some egg noodles seperate and my kids could have home made chicken noodle soup.  With seven roosters needing to be dealt with, I imagine I would have enough for an entire canner load.  Perhaps even two canner loads.  

I also have a dear friend that gives me twenty four to thirty six eggs each week or two.  She has chickens laying a dozen a day.  My children and I eat them rather quickly.  I could pickle some of those and put them in the fridge for later use as well.  Well, at least if we can't get them all ate.  Pickled eggs make fantastic snacks that keep for months in the fridge.  They also make great egg salad.

As far as gasoline, my son has to be driven to therapy twice a week.  It's twenty two miles each way.  It costs roughly twenty dollars each time too as we have a truck.  That is our only vehicle.  So I make sure to do any shopping that needs done on those two weekly outings.  My husband and I both work form home over the internet, so we are thankful we do not need to drive daily for work.  

We paid off enough of our credit card to put a few bills on it automatically.  This will reduce our over drafts annually.  We spent 1500 on over drafts last year I believe.  I would much rather put them on a credit card and pay it off monthly.  So far we have two bills on there automatically.  I pay a little extra every week to make room for more bills.  Bills that can not be put on the credit card include, the truck payment and the credit card.  

We are planning a large than usual garden.  We already planted garlic and onions.  Unfortunately, the snow halted our progress.  If you are interested in gardening, feel free to read about it at https://hinterlandliving.wordpress.com/