Living on $20 per week part I

We had a few big expenses this year.  
First of all our daughter was married in May. Even though it wasn't a big fancy wedding all of the costs still add up to a big sum of money. (a little confession: I never added it up). It was lovely and we are very happy for her.
Second, our other daughter, who studies music, needs to upgrade her instrument to a professional quality one. She worked over the summer, and with her scholarship money she has most of the money, but we still need to help her out with some.  Professional instruments are really expensive.
Third, our 25th anniversary is coming up in October and we are planning to take a little trip.

    
During the month of September I decided to live on $20.00 per week to save some money and use our food storage items.  I came up with a few rules and exceptions.

1. All the bills will be paid, of course.
2. Gas money for the cars is not included in the $20 budget. 
3. Medical expenses are also not included in the budget.
4. We can use all the spare change we find around the house and in the car.
5. If someone takes us out to dinner we will take it.

It has been two weeks since we started this crazy money diet, and I am happy to report that we are doing great.  I mean, I miss having chocolate here and there, and I really feel like it is time for me to get some new shoes, but we are not starving or on a ramen diet yet. 

What I noticed is that I need to plan out carefully and ahead of time. We have eaten pretty well so far.  Homemade pasta and shrimp with butternut squash sauce. Tacos with homemade tortillas. BBQ chicken, green beans and baked sweet potatoes. Chicken stir fry. Homemade macaroni and cheese. These are just a few of our meals.

Here are some things I noticed over the last two weeks.

1. We bake more - bread, cookies, and brownies.
2. Homemade always tastes better - pasta, tortillas, pickles...
3. Ice cream is definitely a need - we paid $6 for it, but sometimes you just got to have it.
4. Busy schedules can totally ruin your plan - last Saturday we had a church meeting, and right after the meeting we went to watch a football game and didn't have time to eat dinner.  We spent $10 on chocolate milk, doughnuts, yogurt and M&Ms.  Half of our weekly allowance in one night.
5. Some busy days you can still make it work - just a few days ago I had a church activity, Mike was teaching a class, and our daughter was at work.  We all got home about 9:30 and still managed to put dinner together. All of us worked together and it was a great time. 

The next two weeks are going to be harder. We might have to try out that ramen diet... I hope not.  We have chickens to give us fresh eggs daily, and have all our other basic needs other than the meat.  We might try a vegetarian diet for a while.  Beans and rice sounds good.

Side note: We ran out of olive oil, Mike misses his soda, and our daughter has to buy her own snacks.

Looking for Sockeye Salmon at Redfish Lake

This is Redfish lake in Idaho.  It got its name from the Sockeye salmon returning from the Pacific ocean to spawn and turn bright red afterwards.  There were so many of them that the lake would turn red.  What a sight that would have been.  I know that hasn't happened for a while because of the population decline of this amazing creature, but they are still returning to this lake and I wanted to witness this incredible event.  Can you imagine seeing these fishes jumping over waterfalls to get to their spawning ground?  I did my research and I had five different areas that I could possibly see them. 

little Redfish lake

The first place to check was where the Salmon River connects to Redfish creek.  Didn't see any of them there. The second place they suggested was Fishhook creek.  According to my reading this was an excellent spot and they suggested that I have my camera ready to capture them.  So there I was standing by the creek and waiting for them.  I waited and waited some more, but no fish were in sight. 

A creek by Redfish lake

Fishhook creek

Fishhook creek

We waited by the creek for a while then decided to hike up along the creek a little bit to see if we could find a better viewing area.  The weather was great and we saw some aspen trees turning colors.

Here is my husband who goes along with my crazy ideas.

We didn't see any fish, so instead of wandering around to other suggested areas we decided to check with the visitors center and ask them where all the Sockeye salmon are.  

A very friendly visitor center employee told us that basically there are no fish to see.  She said because they are an endangered species Fish and Game captures them when they reach Redfish creek.  Then they transfer the fish to a hatchery where they will spawn.  The fish hatchery people will look after them for about two years and when the fish are ready to travel to the ocean they will transfer them to Redfish creek and release them so they can come back to Redfish creek.

As you can see in the picture below only 427 of them returned to Redfish lake this year.  The article I based my hope of seeing these amazing creatures on was written in 2014 which was a really good year.   

       

The friendly visitors center employee told us that we can see some Kokanee salmon in the area.  They are like a cousin of the Sockeye salmon.  They are smaller in size and do not travel to the ocean.  The good place to see the Kokanee salmon was right behind the visitors center.  They are not bright red yet, but their color will change as it gets closer to spawning time.

The sockeye Salmon swim 900 miles to return to the lake.  I guess it is unpredictable how many sockeye salmon would return to the lake each year.  According to Idaho Fish and Game they had a great year in 2014, but in 2015 99% of them got killed in the Columbia River due to the high water temperatures. I hope one day I will be able to see these amazing creatures returning to the lake without human's assistance and make Redfish lake red again. 

  

(photo by JB Mellquist)