Thrift

 After a very warm Halloween, things cooled down last night. Tim spent November 1st deer hunting (no luck), but was thrilled beyond belief that he'd "put six turkeys to bed", which means that he'd watched six turkeys roost in an old hemlock at nightfall. They will stay there all night, quiet and protected from the things that roam in the dark. They will come down at first light. All that Tim needed to do was to get up early enough to be waiting when they 'unroosted' (for lack of a better word). So he was up and gone at the crack of dawn. 

Yesterday was my adventure in the thrift store. Man, that was a pleasant hour. I rarely get time to do that, and I don't know why, really. It just seems like I've always got something that needs to get done getting in the way of something that I'd like to get done. 

Another thing is the car situation. We still have only one car. My car is fixed and ready to be inspected, but to get the salvage title changed to a regular title that allows the car to be driven, we will need to pay sales tax on it, which galls Tim. We paid sales tax when we bought it several years back. We bought it from the insurance company for $400, but we are required to pay sales tax on the blue book value of the car. In effect, we pay sales tax twice on the same car. Plus the enhanced inspection. Plus the tags and title transfer. 

We just paid our final installment on the property and school taxes, which we've been paying monthly since September. Now that this is done, we can turn our attention to getting my car through the required hoops to be put back on the road. 

Always something. 

Anyways, in addition to thrift shopping yesterday, I made a stop at Aldi's. They had small two pound-ish sliced hams. They were a bit pricey but I got a small one for $8.41. The nice thing about those little hams is that you can do so very much with them. Right now, I have a pot of potatoes simmering away with that ham, some celery and some onion. Once the potatoes are tender, I'll make a cheese sauce using cheddar and half and half to add to the soup. Cream of Potato is one of Tim's favorite soups and he's looking forward to supper. 

I still have 2/3s of the ham left. I froze 1/3, and I put the other third into the fridge. It will be a nice pairing for grilled ham and cheese to go with some home made tomato soup using stewed tomatoes from this summer. It's also a good way to use up the rest of that half and half. 

Even after that, I'll have enough ham left over to make a nice ham and cheese omelet at some point. And still there is a third of that ham waiting in the freezer to be used. 

When you break it all down like that, that $8. ham makes 5 or 6 good meals, which justifies the expense. Venison provides most of our meat for most of our year, but this year, we ran out (although I did find 3 more packages of hamburger that I did not realize that I had.) So we've been going to a grocery store that offers 5 packages of meat for $24.99. We buy mostly pork, chicken, italian sausage, and steaks, but those five packages of meat can be divided into Tim and Debby sized portions and tossed in the freezer. They will last us nearly two weeks. 

People complain about grocery prices. We don't see it that way. We choose where we will shop, and we shop carefully and mindfully. We are lucky to live in an area where farmers sell their produce and eggs at roadside stands. Next year, hopefully, I will once again have a garden to tend, and just maybe we'll have a wild turkey for Sunday dinner tomorrow.