Beans and rice aren't terrible but you do need sour cream

First, let's look at something pretty, 'kay? I am SO excited. The picture is from 2020. Notice the first part of the picture is apples! (I know, lots of spots, but we do not use pesticides, so you have to learn that things won't be perfect and that you WILL have to share with the universe if you choose to not poison your food). 

Last year, the hard freezes at the end of April killed all the blooms on our apple, pear, and cherry trees. I cried, quite literally. I mean, real tears of frustration and disappointment. But this year is different! We are loaded up with blooms! Hurray! The other two sections of the picture are coming soon, as well, fresh beans and tomatoes. I hope to repeat 2020s bounty since the weather has been more cooperative. 

So, inflation sucks. Am I right? I've gone to war with it, it's a quiet and personal fight, but it's a fight nonetheless. When you have rescues and the bills that go with them, you learn that the sacrifice is on the humans to do without and to adjust to situations like extreme inflation. So, we are literally and figuratively back to the "beans and rice" era of our life. That's okay. Add some salt, pepper, and sour cream, and it's delicious. The beans and rice are the literal part. 

Figuratively, it means eyeing what is in my shopping cart and doing some simple math to make sure that I don't go over a budget of $5 dollars a day for food for two people, three meals a day. If you do the math, that's .83 cents per person a day. You could actually go much cheaper, but I have been sticking to this for the most part.

You'd be surprised what you can get for less than $35 a week if you choose a bit differently. I think we get in a food rut and believe that some of the food that we buy is made up of necessities. If you evaluate - TRULY evaluate - what you are buying, you'll probably find that if you change your meal plans a bit, if you're willing to give up meat several times a week (we do not eat pork, chicken, or beef), if you navigate every single price and weight on every item, you can eat incredibly cheaply, even during high inflation. 

We recently ate for four days on slightly less than $20, and that included all meals, not just supper. For two people, that comes out to $1.66 cents a day combined, not each. So the goal is to repeat that as often as possible. Keep in mind that's just food, not the other items that may be needed some weeks such as laundry detergent, paper towels, etc. In the summer, the garden rounds out a lot of those weekly food bills. The big bonus is that my dad is the one who often cooks the garden food, so not only does the garden save us money, it also comes served up already cooked many days! 

Three observations about frugality:

    1. Frugality in and of itself can feel like a full-time job. It's a matter of constantly monitoring expenses not just in your bank account but in every store that you enter (regular store or online store) and every single price. It can be time consuming, but once you get in the habit, it gets easier. 

    2. Frugality should be a way of life, even in the best of times for anyone who is not independently wealthy or, at the least, extremely well off. If you practice frugality all the time, then situations like high inflation are just points in time that will pass with much more ease because you're already used to pinching pennies.

    3. Frugality requires a lack of influence. By that, I simply mean that you cannot allow yourself to be susceptible to consumerism. You cannot allow yourself to envy your neighbor, who buys whatever they want and seems to always be flush with cash. You cannot allow yourself to believe that happiness is dependent on "stuff," so the more stuff you buy, the happier you think you will be. On the flip side, it's important to find support in your frugal efforts. A whole family has to be on board or the person trying to be frugal just comes across as a cheapskate and "wound tight." In some cases, this may be true, but often (and in my case), that person is just fighting to make sure there is money in the bank for emergencies and to sleep better at night.

One final note is that we have numerous rescues. Some months, the medical bills are extremely high. We also try to help out with other rescue expenses to help alleviate some of those costs for the rescue organizations who are footing the larger part of vet and care bills through their non-profit. Believe me when I say that there are months when the money goes out the door quickly if one of our rescues is extremely ill or needs a specialist or a stray comes along unexpectedly, so you have to bear additional expenses that month. This is where the practice of frugality pays off. No matter what your passion - rescue work, travel, sports - frugality can help you maintain some of those passions so that life is not sheer drudgery. 

My goal is to always help ease suffering in the animal kingdom. I'm glad for the "beans and rice" era. It's self-imposed, and let's face it - I round it out with goodies from our local, favorite bakery. I also try to have aging parents over throughout the summer for Sunday lunch a couple of times a month. I'm glad to up the spending on ingredients to spend time with them. We won't have them forever, time is fleeting. I'm not about to give that up.

Wherever you are with this inflation stuff, bear in mind how hard it can be to earn a dollar, then ask yourself how quickly are you sending that dollar out the door? If you can possibly do so, send it to your bank account instead. I'm not naïve. I know that there are people who live paycheck to paycheck with nothing left over, quite literally, even after practicing frugality and living a small and economical life. My heart goes out to them. In the end, sometimes it just becomes a matter of getting through another week. I always suggest that people re-visit their budget to find, quite literally, even just a few dollars they might could save that month. Usually, you can find something to cut.

Love to you on this Friday Eve. At 5 p.m., we can start sort of partying, then tomorrow, we can just jump right on board the "it's the weekend" train! Our weather looks beautiful. Time to play outside, right?! 

I think we are finally squared away, please, Lord . . . .

It's been a while since I've been in this space. We've had the unexpected with a sick baby who had to have multiple trips to the University of Tennessee animal hospital over the course of the past few months. Turns out that she has a rare condition, one they've never come across in their books until now. We are so grateful that it was treatable and that the treatment seems to have worked. Hoping we had our last trip last week and that we are able to manage her issues completely locally now and are squared away with a future plan for any additional issues.

In the meantime, spring finally showed up! I'm back to documenting things again. On our last trip with our baby, we headed over to Baxter Gardens in the Knoxville area and spent over an hour touring a gorgeous, private garden that is open to the public once a year in the month of April. Below is a picture of just one area of this spectacular acreage. As you can see, we had a gorgeous, crisp (in the upper 40s), sunny day. I'm so glad we went! It was peaceful and calming, and it was the place where I received the news via phone call that our baby was not going to need surgery for her condition after all! You can imagine how that endeared the place to me, I'm sure.

Meanwhile, at home, our own azalea bushes have finally begun popping out! We have one area outside one of our bedroom windows where there are several azalea bushes in varying colors of pink. I've done that one purpose. It's on the side of the house with the first light of the day. Those pink variations glow like nobody's business on a sunny morning. So glad I had the foresight to go with the pink color scheme. It's just fantastic! The first picture shows the dark pink azaleas, the second picture shows the light pink azaleas.

Finally, allow me to share our mountain view. I never get tired of it, and pictures do it very little justice. It doesn't help that I'm no photographer, but at least it gives you an idea of my daily visual blessing. It just never grows old. When you see this in person, the mountains appear much closer. Not sure why in pictures they seem so far away, but I can guarantee you it's most likely my lack photography skills.

We have been warm these last couple of days and have spent a lot of time outside. It feels so good, and I'm thrilled to finally start complaining about being too warm instead of complaining about being too cold, ha ha. Soon, the tomato sandwiches with Duke's mayo will be a staple of our environment, and the garden will get fully planted on Mother's Day weekend in two weeks. Hard to believe that it has rolled around already. Time really does fly.

I know that a lot of people are struggling on many levels right now. Things are still somewhat topsy-turvy, but I think part of that is because we are kept stirred up with so much information. The bombardment of news is ridiculous. What a mess we became when 24-hour news arrived on the scene. It's not healthy. Turn off the news, go do something different. Stop letting them get you stirred up, stop listening to the sensationalism.

If you are living your life to the best of your ability, taking care of the acre of life that God gave you, picking and fighting the right battles rather than just lumping and dumping yourself in with everything, then you will find a much sweeter balance. Constant outrage will kill you sooner than later. It truly harms no one but yourself, and the people raged against often just sit back and enjoy that show while you exhaust yourself. 

I learned long ago to stick to my beliefs, vote how God guides me, and not rise to the constant baits set before me. I simply walk away, and it is so freeing. It doesn't allow anyone to impose their opinions and beliefs on me, or to try to persuade my already-decided mind. In addition, turning off all of those ridiculous news channels helps their ratings drop and will, perhaps, one day, force most of them to close up shop. Not likely, but I can at least do my part to try to make that happen. Always, always, always think for yourself.

The sun will be up soon, and I plan to enjoy every minute of today. Full sun, 83 for the high, low humidity - what a doozy of a day! Heading to the local library book sale later with my sweet love, and we may just have to do the old Sonic summer drink. I know summer isn't for four more weeks, but I think it's okay to enjoy an Ocean Water a little bit early!

Love to you on this gorgeous day in upper Northeast Tennessee! Time for a Bojangles biscuit with honey and vegan bacon to start out the day. I truly hope your day and your weather are beautiful!