Purging...extreme

Wow, time goes so quickly. I had no idea it had been so long since I had last posted!

Well, circumstances led us to do some extreme purging - mainly in the kitchen. Our fridge died just before we went away and we had to throw out everything in the fridge/freezer! Talk about major purging. It was almost heart-breaking to throw out all the meat I had just purchased, in bulk, and separated into meal-sized portions. It was a garbage bag that weight 50+lbs easily. And about $150 in meat alone!

So it has been 3 weeks since it stopped working and they finally got it fixed. However, they thought they had fixed it twice before, so we are waiting a few more days before we start using it - just to make sure the temperature is holding steady (before it would freeze then defrost, then freeze again). So we have been living out of a cooler until a couple of days ago when we borrowed a bar fridge. Let me tell you - living out of a cooler is only fun when you are camping! It gets expensive pretty fast (buying ice every other day, only being able to buy a day or two worth of food/meat etc). I cannot wait to get back to using my fridge.

Although it sucked, there were some silver linings: when we bought the fridge we also bought the 5 year extended warrantly (which runs out in November). In addition, this major purging means we can get really organized with our menu planning. I have planned a month-worth of dinners. Now I am just working on the shopping list for it. We are hoping to be able to cut our grocery budget down to $75/week, or $300/month and minimize the number of shopping trips we do. Many of the meals I have planned use the same ingredients as other recipes, so we will be able to buy in bulk - saving time and money. I will post on it in more detail when we actually get to it (hopefully next week).

And keep checking for some upcoming possible changes....life is good, and the future is wide open for possibilities (and no, I am not pregnant).