Hi, every one. This coming week is going to be a use it up week for us. My husband is trying a new diet that means he is severely restricting his calories and not eating our normal food. So, I have decided to use this opportunity to use up some food we already have rather than buying a bunch of stuff. We will be at home for the holiday, but that's just fine, because I am not much for socializing.

1) I made a large pot of chili with roast beef, great northern beans, canned tomatoes, chili seasoning, garlic, serrano peppers, sea salt, and black pepper. There's no real recipe here. I think this should give me about 6 dinner meals. I already had the roast beef, beans, tomatoes, seasonings, garlic, serrano peppers, sea salt, and black pepper, so this meal is an almost free meal.

2) Chicken and garbanzo bean salad. I used 3 cans of albacore tuna, 1 can of garbanzo beans, mayo, 1 can of olives, 1 clove of garlic, oregano, cilantro, sea salt, and black pepper. There is no real recipe here. I just made it up. I put 3 cans of drained tuna into a mixing bowl, then added mashed up garbanzo beans, 3 heaping tablespoons of mayo, 1 can of sliced olives, 1 clove of garlic, and sprinkles of cilantro, oregano, sea salt, and black pepper. This should make 3 lunches for me. I already had the garlic, oregano, olives, cilantro, mayo, sea salt, and black pepper.

3) Caron's Kicking Quinoa Salad. I have not made it yet, but I will put 1 can of drained albacore tuna, some cut up celery, mayo, sea salt, black pepper, and quinoa into a bowl. I will add lemon juice and probably an onion. It will probably make 1 lunch meal for me. I already had the celery, mayo, sea salt, black pepper, lemon juice, and onion.

I will get paid "early" on Wednesday this week because Thursday and Friday are holidays, but I plan on making my own lunches and dinners anyway and diverting the savings to the credit card with the biggest balance. I will mail payments for bills on Wednesday. I also need to set aside some money for a trip I have to make to a nearby city later this month. I will also set aside funds for the car account, house account, and trees account. The money that normally get automatically deposited to my regular savings, I will divert to the credit card also. I want to get it paid down as soon as possible.