Life in Tee Harbor, Alaska

Introduction

My name is Michelle and I live in Juneau, Alaska with my boyfriend, dog and cat.  We live on 5 acres "out the road" that belongs to my father - he owns a marine repair business and stores boats here.  We look out for the place in exchange for our rent.  We just bought a new manufactured home last fall to replace the travel trailer we had been living in.  The new place is still small - 800 sq. ft, but it seems so roomy compared to the 275 sq ft we had.  It is so cute with its log siding!  We now have an extra bedroom that we use for our "hobby" room.  My half is for sewing and crafts, Rod's half is for reloading.  I am still in the process of getting totally settled and finding places for everything.  It is amazing how much storage my old place had! 

Recently, I have been focusing on getting my finances in order and paying off my credit card.  I have made a budget and am following it!  We have budgeted $200 per month for groceries for years, but I normally go over.  I added up my purchases for last month and it was $495!  Ouch!  So July I have been really paying attention to what I'm spending and trying to stay within the $200 - we decided to include eating out and canning expenses within the grocery budget.  It's almost the end of July now and I have spent about $240 - which includes canning stuff - salsa, cherry pie filling, pickles.  I want to go back through and figure what was canning vs. what was food.  We haven't eaten out at all so far this month - we are planning to go to dinner at our favorite restaurant Fernando's on Saturday.  At the beginning of the month, I sat down and planned dinners for the month, trying to use things that we already had.  I found that it worked well - mostly as a guide - we ended up having more leftovers than I had planned.

Tonight I made bread.  Usually I make it on Sundays, but was busy last weekend with the pickles!  I use a recipe from Feed Your Family For $15 a Day - quick to mix up, no kneading, rises in 30 minutes and bakes in 35 minutes.  Rod likes it so much that we don't buy bread at the store anymore.  The recipe makes 3 loaves.  I might bake one or two and put the remaining dough in the freezer.  Or I use the leftover dough and make fried bread.  Tonight I shaped them into sandwich rolls and baked them.  They turned out a little too brown on the bottom - still getting used to the gas oven.

My other project tonight was a batch of yogurt.  Again, I usually do this on the weekend, but was too busy.  I read in the Tightwad Gazette that you can freeze your yogurt that you use for starter, so I did that and have enough for 5 more batches.  I also used their tip of adding 1/2 cup of powdered milk to the fresh milk to help make it thicker.  I incubate it in an electric yogurt maker that I got at a garage sale earlier this year for $1.50.  It was brand new - never even been opened.  It makes 5 cups of yogurt - perfect for my weekday breakfasts.  I mix in different stuff - failed peach butter that I call peach sauce, strawberries, homemade granola, etc. and sugar or Splenda.  I haven't tried honey as a sweetener - I'm sure it would be good.

Well - getting late.  I better get to bed so I can get to work on time!

Greetings

2:44 PM, Thursday, July 27, 2006 .. Posted by Anonymous

Michelle- How interesting to see how busy you have been. It\'s fun to see your many projects. Good luck on your budget. What a great improvement in the money department. I look forward to more entries about your busy life and many projects. Merrilee

Untitled Comment

6:07 PM, Thursday, July 27, 2006 .. Posted by Farmwife410

Great to meet you!! I would love to be able to go to Alaska, the closest I have been is when we had a layover at a airport somewhere in Alaska when we were going to Okinawa.
Rie

Welcome to HomesteadBlogger!

7:08 PM, Thursday, July 27, 2006 .. Posted by HSBFrontPorch

We're so glad that you're blogging with us. Good luck with the grocery budget. Just keep reminding yourself how much more money you're going to have by only spending what is in your grocery budget. When I got serious about our grocery budget, I had to make myself take cash so that I wouldn't overspend. I probably need to do that again! ha!
~Nancy Carter
Senior Editor of HomesteadBlogger