It’s snowing! This is the first snow of the year here and I’m glad to be able to stay at home and enjoy the beauty. It went from 65 degrees yesterday to 32 degrees today with wind and snow. Crazy! 

I hope everyone enjoyed the holiday season, I had a wonderful time celebrating Christmas with my family, and a quiet New Year. I’m busy now taking down the decorations and packing them away for next year. 

Eat from the pantry challenge for January: I did an inventory of my freezer and have a 19 lb. (free) turkey that I am defrosting, 4, 1 lb. packs of ground meat, 1 chicken breast, and a pack of 10 chicken drumsticks. I also have about 7 packs of a variety of frozen veggies. My plan is to stretch this out over the month, so I don’t have to purchase any meat.  

In the pantry I have numerous cans of chicken and tuna for lunches, as well as canned soups for lunches. I also have a lot of canned veggies that I like to use to make vegetable soup. I have several cans of beans and tomato products, so I’ll be making chili using these and the ground meat. I also have a LOT of pasta and pasta sauces so while I am cutting back on carbs, I will be having some pasta throughout the month. 

For breakfast I will be having my usual eggs and toast, cereal or oatmeal. 

Almost all of this food, including most of the meat, was from the food give aways from the senior center. There will not be a distribution in January due to the recent covid outbreak in Maryland. Sadly, our infection rate is way up.  They are hoping to resume the distribution in February. 

I will need to buy a few things that I am out of: eggs, milk, iced tea, bread, butter, apples, fresh spinach and ice cream bars as my occasional treat. So, this will be a modified eat from the pantry/freezer challenge with the goal of spending as little as possible by using what I have on hand. 

Goals for 2022: I didn’t really make any new ones. I want to continue to focus on being healthy, eating well, keeping my weight down and exercising every day. Financially, I just want to continue to live within my means, look for ways to continue to save, and enjoy life on a small income. My greatest joy is the freedom of retirement, even it means living very frugally.  I did want to spend more time volunteering in different ways, but covid has interrupted this goal. Hopefully after this latest wave decreases, more opportunities to volunteer will happen that I feel safe doing. 

I did receive my covid booster shot recently and was happy to not have any side effects like I did after my second vaccination dose.  

I hope everyone has a happy week!