Frugal Things Every Day

The last few days have been spent in our home. No grocery shopping, no eating out. I have exercised every day for 20 minutes. But after watching the 60 Minutes program about 90 year olds and their habits, I don’t think that is enough. I used to do 30 minutes but these 90 year olds on average are doing 45 minutes so I think I should step up my game.

My days have been spent making phone calls that needed to get done, correcting my credit unions errors, looking for another bank and investments to put our money in instead of my current credit union. The errors they have made since their last cutover are just totally unacceptable. Even Hubby who has the patience of a saint is fed up with them!

We also have started doing something different with our meals. We are trying to use up every food item( leftovers) that is already cooked in our freezer and baking it as a casserole or one pan meal.

Yesterday, I took some cooked turkey breast out of the freezer, defrosted it and diced it. Then I sauteed some diced celery, diced fresh carrot, diced onion, and diced potato in some butter. I made 2 cups of turkey gravy using packets and added it. When it thickened, I added the diced turkey. I greased a round glass pan and poured everything into it. Then I placed a ready made pie crust that was in the fridge that needed to be used up quickly on the top and cut slits in it. I baked it in the oven at 375 for 25 minutes. Hubby told me it was the best pot pie that he had ever eaten. As you can see in the picture, we ate the leftovers tonight.

Tonight, I will take leftover pork tenderloin from the freezer to defrost. Tomorrow, I will dice it and do a stir fry using some peppers that I froze last summer when they were cheap. I will add onions and pineapple for Hubby. I will make a more Keto friendly stir fry for me.

Then the next night, we will take out spaghetti and spaghetti sauce and meatballs left from when my son and granddaughter were here and make a bake out of it. Then I will thaw a ham bone and soak some beans to make soup.

I know I have more meals in the freezer, so we will continue this until all of the cooked foods are gone.

While doing this, I will also be using up fruits and veggies that are in our fridge so they don’t go bad. They will be incorporated into the dinner meals or used for brunch or breakfast.

I am always remembering, waste not want not.

What have you done frugally lately?

I really do not like playing catch up these couple of days but I had some really busy days. It also didn’t help that on Tuesday night I didn’t sleep a wink.

Tuesday was my big errand day. First I went to town hall to pay my property taxes. I was happy to get that done. Next I went to the drug store to pick up two prescriptions for Hubby. I was disappointed that they didn’t have a third one ready which necessitated another trip. I searched for marked down Christmas cards because I haven’t been able to find them. No luck so I believe I will make cards next year.

Then I went to Aldi’s, Dollar Tree, and lastly Top’s. At Aldi’s I picked up just 1 package of their on sale chicken breasts for $ 1.69 a lb. You could get 4 but I only bought 1 because that is all I had freezer room for.

We use a lot of garlic powder and crushed red pepper so at $ .95 each, they are the cheapest price in town. Then I purchased one creamer which we go through very quickly because I drink a lot of coffee during the day. The last purchase was frozen California medley on sale for $ .79. My total at Aldi was $ 12.96.

Next I stopped at Dollar Tree to pick up 1 package of pepper stir fry and the Northern beans to make ham and bean soup soon. We were out of the stir fry veggies and Hubby loves to use some of these in his egg omelet wrap every morning. I am convinced that Bird’s Eye makes these for Dollar Tree. For $1.00 no one can touch that price in my area. So I always buy these there. The last time I went to DT, they were totally out of Scotties tissue. I was happy to find they had restocked and picked up 4 boxes. My total here was $ 6.32.

My last stop was at Top’s to pick up 2 packages of the Carb Balance wraps. I know they are dirty Keto but this is my 1 exception when I am on my eating plan. They are so expensive. Has anyone found then cheaper? I paid $ 9.38 after my 6% Senior Discount. For Christmas I received a few scratch off Lotto tickets. I won a total of $ 8.00 so I stopped at customer service and cashed them in. That $ 8.00 will get put into our savings to eventually combine with other dollars and be invested. I never buy these scratch offs so it was fun for a change.

Today and the past two days I will and have done my exercising. I have been doing 30 minutes on the treadmill each day. I have also done my regular chores, washed floors, vacuumed, dusted. and cleaned out the fridge.

Yesterday, I drove back to the drug store to get that last prescription. We also made a huge investment in a bond fund. We rebalanced our investments in December and now we are buying more. I also washed the walls in one bedroom yesterday.

Today, I need to make an appointment with our lawyer and contact a doctor. My regular chores and exercising will get done. If all the little things get done and I have time I will wash another bedroom’s walls.

We have been eating Keto the last couple of days and will be making shrimp and a salad today.

My BIL is having a heart procedure at noon today. If you are one that prays, I would appreciate a little prayer for him.

What have you been doing the past couple of days to stay frugal? How is your exercising going?

This was my Walmart delivery this morning. I am only buying necessities. The grapes are to use in chicken salad this weekend. The romaine and mandarin oranges are to make salads. I am very low on green veggies so I purchased some broccoli, spinach and a broccoli and cauliflower mix.

The Hellman’s was to replace the last one that Hubby opened. We only had 6 eggs left and this box of 5 dozen was the cheapest in my town. They were only $ 5.63. The pizza is to have on hand to prevent us from getting take out if I need a night off. It was only $ 3.87 which is a lot cheaper than take out.

The crackers and popcorn were requested by Hubby for his snacks. The minute rice is handy when Hubby wants rice. I rarely eat it. This will make it easy to make. My entire bill was $ 49.84 including a $7.00 tip.

Amazon delivered my spin mop and bucket today so that I can start washing our walls soon. This is going to be a huge money saver.

I did my usual chores today and cleaned my second kitchen pantry. It didn’t take long because I keep it pretty neat. I also did my 30 minutes of exercising.

This afternoon I made a couple of business calls that needed to be done. I spent about 40 minutes waiting on hold. They seemed to be swamped after the holidays. Then I took a badly needed nap.

Hubby cooked enough chicken legs in the air fryer for our dinner and brunch tomorrow. I made some Buffalo wing sauce.

Tomorrow is my errand day so I need to get to bed early. I like to run errands during senior hours very early in the morning.

I hope you are doing well with your no spend month and that you have your exercise routine working for you.

We watched our Buffalo Bills beat the Miami Dolphins today. It was their last game of regular play. We took our division and we are #2 in the conference. So we are in the playoffs. We have a terrific team this year. This win made my day!

Besides that it was a quiet day of chores, exercising, and cleaning my snack and liquor pantry in the kitchen. The pantries are on my chore list in my planner for this week. I will clean the other one in the kitchen tomorrow. It’s much neater than it was. Hubby sometimes does not put things back where he gets them from. So I have to neaten it up once in a while.

I did no laundry today nor did we go out of the house. No money was spent online either.

This morning I baked a package of bacon in the oven. Hubby and I had bacon, egg, and cheese sandwiches for brunch using the low carbohydrate wraps.

I did run the dishwasher tonight with a full load. We do this every 2-3 days. I am always looking to save energy.

We just had dinner which is pictured above. We made taco bowls which we ate with tortilla chips.

So did you save any money today? Did you exercise?

I did not leave the house again today. However, our property tax bill for the year arrived in the mail. It was not a shock because I knew it was coming and I knew how much it was going to be. This is an essential bill so I will pay it this week on my errand day. It went up $156.+ from last year but our assessment was increased $20,000. and prices went up for the services it covers.

I placed a Walmart Plus delivery which will come on Monday. That is when it will be billed so I will let you know what I spent when that happens. We only needed a small amount of foods. I have been trying to order Advil Cold and Sinus and no one seems to have it in stock. I am running out.

While Hubby and I were watching football last night, we discussed the wall washing that I want done. A number of people who belong to a group that I am in, told me that they wash their walls with an O’Cedar spin mop. They assured me that there are no drips because the bucket really wrings the mop almost dry. I decided it would be a lot cheaper to buy the mop and spin bucket than to hire someone to do this. I also have a recipe for a homemade cleaner that I can put in the water and it is supposed to clean the walls really well. So I ordered one from Amazon. It was $ 32.38 with tax. We both consider it a necessity. Hubby will be able to help me with the high stuff and I am pretty steady climbing on my Little Giant step stool and ladder. The hardest walls will be the ones that go up to the Cathedral ceilings. But I think we can manage them. If this works, we will save a fortune over having them professionally cleaned.

I had the majority of my cleaning done before I exercised today on the bike and treadmill. After I took my navy shower, I dusted all of the baseboards in the house. Then I prepped our salads that will be the side to our pulled pork leftovers for dinner tonight.

Breakfast this morning was an easy over egg and 1/2 a guacamole. We are running out of eggs but Walmart had a great price for 60 of them so they were part of my order. We eat a lot of eggs in this house plus I cooked a lot of scrambled eggs and ham when we had company.

I also managed to do a very large load of laundry. Some of it was hung and the rest was dried in the dryer using our wool balls. I dried it all at once. I ended up using 20 less minutes of dryer heat instead of doing two loads to dry it.

So this was all of our necessary spending. How are you guys doing with your no spend month if you are doing it? Are you exercising?

Welcome to 2021! Have you set your goals and budget for the year yet? They are both a part of the No Spend Month and all of 2021 for us.

We have our budget set for the year and we will be sticking to it. I already told you that we will be spending only $300. a month for food. That amount will also cover health( over the counter meds) and beauty aids, cleaning, and paper products. Wine, liquor and beer will be a separate amount. We buy very little of these. They are usually only purchased when we are entertaining company.

We have a few projects this year that we will be paying cash for so we will be setting aside money to replace the money we will be spending. We will either have rooms in our home repainted or have the walls professionally washed. When I was younger, I used to wash the walls in every room every spring. But we will hire this out. We will be replacing carpet in our master bedroom. It has rolled which happens a lot in our part of the country. So unless they can re-stretch it to my satisfaction, it will get replaced.

The largest project will be having the entire back lot line of our yard landscaped with large trees and bushes in the spring. We will be hiring a design and landscape company to do this. This will be our most costly project of the year. But it needs to be done.

Today, we are not leaving our home. So no money spent by going out shopping. No shopping will be done online either.

I am heating up Jack Daniels BBQ pulled pork for sandwiches for our New Year’s dinner. Simple but tasty. This will give us about another meal for tomorrow night. We will have a small side salad to use up some produce. Everything I am cooking came out of our pantries, freezers, and fridge. I am really concentrating on what is in our fridge this week. Whenever we have company, we end up with a lot of leftovers that we need to use. Some of them I froze to make ham casserole, bean soup, slices for sandwiches and breakfasts.

When I first got up this morning, I got on the treadmill and did my exercising. Then I rode my recumbent bike while watching a You Tube video. After I took my shower, I did my morning chores. They are checked off in my planner. Most of the ones on the right side of the page are evening chores. I don’t do laundry every day. All of the sheets on all 3 beds were washed yesterday. None of them take very long when you keep up with them every day.

The Christmas stockings were put away. Then I made breakfast consisting of eggs, bacon and avocado. So when I publish this blog post, I can relax for most of the day with Hubby. There will be some good football games on today.

What are your goals for 2021? Are you sticking to your no spend today?

It’s that time of year again! Time for new beginnings for a year full of hope!

I will be doing a No Spend month along with an Exercise Every Day month starting January 1st. We are all different, so we each have to set our own rules.

But after the holiday season and an excess of spending, it is time to slow down and track every penny in our budgets. It is also time to rev up the exercise after all of the rich foods consumed the last couple of months.

These are the things we will be doing this month for our NO SPEND month. We have already set our budget for the year so that we know how much we have to spend in each category. We will be tracking every penny so that we know what we are spending and where.

We each have items in our budget that have to be paid such as taxes, housing costs, food, utility costs, healthcare, telephone costs, insurances, transportation costs, etc.

However, some of the costs such as food, utilities, gasoline, etc. we can reduce the cost. For example, I have been spending $500. per month on groceries. I will be reducing that amount to $300. a month this year. I believe it is doable since we have a stockpile to work from. If the total for the month comes in under that $300. I will roll that money into the next month. I realize prices are rising and have been rising for months now. But we can do things differently, like make bread, cook from our pantries, cook as much from scratch as possible, waste no food, shop at the cheapest market, and eat the proper portions of food at meals.

We can reduce our electric and natural gas bills by being conscious of how much we are using and using less where we can. Hubby and I rarely use lighting during the daytime unless it is a very dark, dreary day. We cook using the appliance that uses the least amount of energy. We fill our washing machine when we do a load. We use cold water most of the time. We keep our heat at 62 from 11PM to 7AM. During the daytime, we keep it at 68. It doesn’t hurt that it has been a warmer winter so far. Our December bill was $27. less than the December bill last year. It was how warm it has been along with all the other ways we reduce it. We did well because there was also a rate increase.

We save on our water bills by never letting the water just run in the sink. Fill that sink up 1/3 to a 1/2 of the way to wash dishes and especially pots and pans. Only fill your pots and pans with the amount of water you need to cook that item. Don’t overfill them because that takes excess energy too. We take Navy showers. We don’t let the water run while brushing our teeth.

We researched cellphone plans and determined that we are already paying less for what we have. The cellphone carrier we researched was Spectrum. What they don’t tell you until you ask is that you have to switch to their Spectrum cable in order to get the cheap service. We have a grandfathered plan which is much cheaper so we are keeping that. Eventually they will put everyone on the Spectrum plan but then I have the option of cancelling cable. But maybe you can find a cheaper plan for how you use yours.

We can control our gasoline costs by staying home. When we do fill up, I use gasoline points to defray the cost. I had $ .90 off a gallon last week.

We will be using up the weird food items in the house. You know the ones you thought you would use, but they linger on the shelf.

West’s birthday is this month so we will be buying him a gift but that is a necessity.

I have a number of things in this house that need to be sold so I will be doing that. If they don’t sell, we will donate them.

We will not be eating out, doing takeout, or buying fast food.

We will mend our clothes when necessary. New clothes will not be in the budget this month.

We have Netflix now for the winter entertainment. When winter is over, we will cancel it.

I will be journaling every day what we are doing in January. If you are doing a No Spend month, feel free to tell us what you are doing everyday in the comments. This way we help each other.

As far as exercising every day, I ride my recumbent bike and fast walk on the treadmill. If you don’t have exercise items, there are many You Tube videos that you can watch and exercise right along with them. You can also run or take a walk outside. You don’t need to spend money on a gym. If you are not used to exercising every day, it is a good time to start so that you have a healthier 2021. I try to do mine first thing in the morning and it sets the tone for my entire day. I feel better and it gives me a ton of energy.

My son and granddaughter are arriving today so I will be back on the 1st. Enjoy your New Year’s Eve and stay safe.