Month: November 2018

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Every Day

More Energy Saved

As if you couldn’t tell, I am in energy saving mode this season. With the heat in our home set at 70 during the day and 65 during the night, it is going to be an expensive fall, winter, and spring. Especially since it is predicted that energy bills will be 5% higher.  Since I can’t set the heat down because Hubby is always cold, I am finding other ways to try to keep our utility bill reasonable.

One of the ways I do this is to bake a lot of items at once in our oven. Another way is to roast more than one poultry item at a time. I did that yesterday. 

I thawed 2 frozen chickens(that I purchased at our rock bottom price of $.79 a lb.) both about 7 1/4 lbs. and roasted them at the same time in my turkey roasting pan. 

When they were done, we took one and used it for dinner last night. We will be eating leftovers for the weekend and beyond. Tonight will be all the leftovers from our chicken dinner last night. Tomorrow will be hot chicken sandwiches. These two chickens made a delicious gravy and a lot of it. 

I removed all of the meat from the other chicken after our dinner and used the food saver to package it up for the freezer. Then I used my large crock pot to make broth using the bones and skin from the carcasses. That cooked overnight. Some will be used for soup on Monday and some was frozen in a jar for soup when we eat the second chicken. I sliced some of the meat up and diced some of it. The little bits and pieces will get thrown in soup. The diced will be for casseroles, skillet dishes, and the soup. The sliced will be for sandwiches.

Not only did cooking two at a time save us energy, it also saved me time and less dishes to wash than if I cooked twice. Big pans aren’t my favorite thing to scrub.

So the next time you go to turn your oven on, think about what you can put in there for more than one meal and make it do double or triple duty and save energy at the same time. 

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Every Day

Sometimes You Just Have To Ask

A couple of days ago I purchased two turkeys at the supermarkets. I spent about $58. on the turkeys and other items for my winter stockpile. Things like cream soups, stove top dressing, eggs, spaghetti sauce, crescent rolls, English muffins, shredded cheeses, provolone cheese slices, Dole Mandarin oranges, taco seasoning, wet wipes, and ranch dressing were all on sale and after coupons they were dirt cheap.  There are a few other items I need over the next few weeks for Thanksgiving and for my winter stockpile. When I get those I will be pretty well prepped which should get us through to spring and beyond. Things like cranberry sauce, fresh potatoes and onions, frozen veggies, soda for Hubby, etc.


I use the cream soups in crock pot dishes and the stove top for a quick side with chicken breasts. I had already purchased stuffing mix in bulk at B.J.’s to go with turkeys that I buy this season. The sauce is used for a base in homemade sauce. I buy it when it is cheaper to do so than tomato sauce. Crescent rolls are to use with all of the little smokies I purchased a week or so ago. We love them as a wrapper on the smokies and then baked. They are a nice snack during the holidays. The English muffins and eggs are for family breakfasts. The wet wipes were $ .25 each after coupons so I use them to clean especially our sinks in the bathrooms. The rest was to fill in the stockpile. 

After buying a turkey at one store, I started seeing  pictures of coupons everywhere online for a free turkey when you spend $50. and a bunch of $5.00 off coupons for other items.  People were checking in on whether they got those coupons in the mail or not. Most people were complaining that they did not. Most of the people who got them stated that they had not shopped at this particular store in a number of weeks.  So let me see if I have this right. If you don’t shop with us, we reward you!

I know that it is just a marketing campaign to draw shoppers in over the holidays. But I was a bit frosted since I spend the majority of my grocery money at this supermarket and plenty of it annually. 

So I sent an e-mail off to their corporate headquarters and was very nice about it but stated my case. I let them know that I felt very slighted because I am a good customer who spends a lot of money in their market. Since the coupons said Christmas Bonus on them, I asked where my bonus was for being a good customer. I happened to mention to them that they sent me coupons 2 weeks ago for cat and dog food and I don’t own a cat or a dog. I might have even mentioned that perhaps I could spend the next 6 months shopping at another supermarket and then maybe they would send me some coupons. 

Well a manager got back to me yesterday and informed me that they are mailing the coupons that I complained about to me. She did state that the coupons were sent out randomly though. I doubt that. Why would you tick off your customers by sending them out randomly? Are you hoping people  won’t tell other people about them? In this day and age with the internet, everyone is going to find out about it. I suspect that they really were sent out to people who hadn’t shopped there in a while. Well, whatever the reason, I am looking forward to the coupons. I will wait for them to do my next stockpile trip and then get a third turkey. It never hurts to ask when you feel something isn’t right.  

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Every Day

Saved A Bit Of Energy Yesterday

Right now I am in getting prepared for Thanksgiving mode. Shopping for our dinner, finishing up Christmas gifts, and getting the house ready to receive my family is what is what I am working on.

Yesterday, I cleaned the kitchen. The reason I picked the kitchen was because it is the room I hate cleaning the most. Usually I clean it last. But this time I reversed things. It’s easy to keep it clean on a day to day basis. However the grease and grime from all of the cooking builds up so quickly. 

So I scrubbed the stove top and the outside of the stove.

Every year about this time, I run the self cleaning function to clean my oven. I hate using that function because it takes 6 hours at very high heat. It majorly increases my electric bill when I do it. 

Knowing that we use small appliances a lot to save on energy, I assessed whether the oven needed to be cleaned using the self cleaning function. The oven really was not that dirty. So I proceeded to wipe out the entire oven with dish soap and water. It cleaned up very well with a little elbow grease. I was ecstatic that I saved all of that electricity. 

My stove top is now immaculate. That is not a stain that you see in the front of it. It is the overhead light with a reflection. All in all the oven and the stove top are in great shape for being almost 9 years old. 

While I was at it I cleaned the toaster oven. 

Next I did the microwave. To do that I just put a cup of vinegar and water into it and set it for 3 minutes. When I take it out the inside wipes out easily. 

Lastly I cleaned the outside of the dishwasher. The inside had been cleaned a week or so ago. 

Everything else (like the refrigerator) is kept clean on a daily basis. Hubby will clean and polish the hardwood floors in a week or so.

It feels good to know that the kitchen is super clean and that I saved 6 hours of electricity while doing it. 

I have started my Christmas shopping but I have a lot more to do. 

Today is senior citizen discount day at Top’s so I plan on doing some shopping for the food I need for our Thanksgiving dinner and other meals while my family is here. I might as well get it at a 6% discount.

Lastly, don’t forget to vote today. It is one of the most important things you can do. 

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Every Day

Best Turkey Prices

Our turkey prices are slowly coming out in the Buffalo area. 

Here are the cheapest prices that I have found so far here:

Aldi’s – Butterball 10-22 lbs. – $ .87 lb. Limit 2


Save-A-Lot – Honeysuckle – $.49lb. -Spend $25. min.

Price Rite – Store Brand – $ .39lb. Limit 1
Price Rite – Butterball – $.79 lb. Limit 1 


Target – Market Pantry- $ .79 lb. Limit 4
Target – Butterball – $ .99 lb. Limit 4


Walmart – Butterball – $ .98 lb.

Top’s – Store Brand – $ .48 lb. 
Top’s – Jennie O – $ 48 lb. Spend $25. min.         


I will add to these as I find more. Still waiting on the prices for Wegman’s store brands.


If any of you would like to add your prices in comments, feel free to leave your area- store and prices. It might help someone else who doesn’t get the ads. 

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Every Day

A Little of This and a Little of That

For any of you who do not live in the northeast, I posted the above picture. I wanted to post a picture before the leaves started falling and while they were much redder but you know what they say about the best laid plans. But the maple in our backyard is still pretty even though the frost we have had and the wind and rain have knocked a lot of leaves off it. Here in the Buffalo area, it seems that the pretty colors are far and few in between. Most of the trees turn yellow and then lose their leaves. In the Adirondacks where I used to live, there were trees like this with reds, pinks, and oranges everywhere and the beauty just surrounded us. I was hoping to go back east this fall but that just didn’t happen. So this picture will have to do. 

And every morning I wake up to the noise of trucks backing up and bulldozers working behind us. You can see a road parallel to my home. The builder is now selling 38 homes to be built for this new section.

Above is pictured the candy that I purchased on discount yesterday. The sales were not as good as other years. Rite Aid was the most disappointing. They marked all of their candy up and then took 50% off. For example: All of the fun size bags that you could buy for $2.- 2.50 before Halloween now will cost you $4.59 at the cheapest. I left empty handed.

Walmart had the 3 bags of chocolates. They are now in my freezer for cookies. They had hardly any candy left. They had tons of decorations if you needed those. I was so thrilled to see these Tootsie Pops in Big Lots. Hubby loves a pop once in a while as a treat. His favorite are the chocolate ones. When I saw these limited edition bags of all chocolate pops,  I stocked on 6 bags for him. The candy corn is for me. The Dum – Dum pops will be used for treats for the grandchildren. Lastly the caramels will be used for desserts for the holidays. They were purchased at Dollar General.

I will still be on the lookout for cakes and cookie dough that are Halloween themed. I just haven’t been in a grocery store since last last week. I may go later today. 


I am noticing after looking at the Top’s flyer and  other flyers online, that tomorrow the Thanksgiving sales are starting. I am seeing stuffing, chicken broth, cream soups, cranberry sauce, etc. What is nice at Top’s next week is that they are doing dollar doubler coupons too.  I have noticed that a few stores have Butterball turkeys at $ .89 a lb. That is $.10 – .20 cheaper per lb. than last year. I can’t wait to see what the store turkey prices will be. I will buy a Butterball for our Thanksgiving dinner and perhaps 3 store ones. This year I may cook 2 of the extras the week after Thanksgiving, food saver the meat, and freeze it. I will also make the gravy and freeze it. All of that will make future meals. I will simmer all of the bones and skin from Thanksgiving and the 2 extra turkeys to make lots of stock. That will also get frozen. Much of the frozen turkey will be used in place of chicken in recipes. I can’t buy chicken that cheap. The 4th turkey will be frozen for another holiday during the year. By cooking the turkeys and freezing the meat, it will leave me freezer space for rock bottom priced hams. Both turkey meat and ham get sliced on my food slicer and used for sandwiches for months. I can’t buy deli meat that cheap. 

Are any of you planning on buying more than one turkey this year? I am curious. Please feel free to let me know in the comments below.        

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Every Day

Put Away Those Credit Cards

The biggest shopping season of the year is here. I read a post on Facebook yesterday where a woman stated that the average amount spent per person on Christmas was $1,000. She said she heard it on the Today show. Now I don’t watch the Today show or any other morning show so I don’t know if that was said.

However if it was, I find that hard to believe even if if you added up all Christmas costs- gifts, Christmas cards, decorations, and the holiday meal- that the average American would spend $1,000. per person.

I suppose if you are traveling for the holiday and add in those costs that you might spend $1,000. per person.

Anyhow, I find that number shocking. I buy for 6 people at Christmas plus a few small gifts for the mailman, newspaper woman, and my UPS man. 

I mail out about 30 Christmas cards at the most. We don’t buy any new decorations because we have plenty from other years. Even if we purchased a few new ones each year, they would be purchased at 50- 75% off from the prior year.

I don’t cook the Christmas meal but I will be cooking the traditional Thanksgiving meal for my family this year. So even if I include those costs, I don’t think I would spend $1,000. per person. 

According to what this woman said, I would be spending $6,000. for my sons, DIL’s and grandchildren. Hubby and I do not exchange gifts. We buy whatever we need when we need it all year long. But we would be included in the other costs so that would up it to $8,000. There is no way!

Now I have been known to be wrong more than once in my life. So I have a little notebook that I am going to track every penny we spend on Thanksgiving and Christmas this year and see what we spend and what our average per person comes out to. That way, instead of guessing, I will know what the true costs were. I would love if some of you would do the same so that you know exactly what you are spending. Sometime after Christmas I will give you my results and I would love to hear about yours.

I know it is a busy time of year and this gives you one more thing to do. But doing this may benefit you in the long run. You may find out that you are doing just fine on those costs or you may find out that you spending way too much. Some of you may find out that you are running your credit cards up and having to pay interest for months on all of those purchases. Track your costs on your computer or a plain old piece of paper or a little notebook that you carry with you.  

Now let’s get to the title of this post: Put Away Those Credit Cards. If you pay your credit card bills in full every month when they are due, feel free to use your credit cards. If you can afford to pay cash for your Christmas expenses and can afford $1,000. and want to, feel free.

However if you are planning on using your credit cards to pay for Christmas and plan on paying it off over time next year, thing twice about doing that. You may be getting some great sale prices over the season, especially on Good Friday, but those purchases will cost you so much more when you add up the interest you pay. It will also cost you a lot of stress. Is it worth it? I say no, it’s not! You are spending future money that you haven’t earned yet. That is a never a good plan.

I am sure that many of you have purchased on sale  gifts throughout the year and have set them aside. If you did, congrats to you! That is the smart way to Christmas shop. Many of you may have made gifts for your families. Congrats to you! I wish I was so handy.

But one thing that I have made through the years for our families is gift baskets. They can be as expensive as you want or as inexpensive as you want. They are easy and everyone loves gift baskets. As an example one year, I made ice cream baskets: spoons, sundae glasses that I bought at Dollar Tree, gift certificates for an ice cream store, different sprinkles and toppings, etc. Another year, I gave a basket of holiday socks that I purchased at 90% off after each holiday all year long. Another year, I gave a basket of holiday paper napkins and plates that I purchased the same way. There are so many ideas that will keep your costs low. I buy my baskets at garage sales when I see them for less than a $1.00. You shrink wrap them with bags from the dollar store and put on a nice bow. You have a nice gift that is really pretty, inexpensive, and most people would love.

So if you are planning on running up your credit cards, think twice about that. Instead make an inexpensive family gift basket that won’t end up keeping you up at night wondering how you are going to pay for Christmas.

I believe that over the years, Christmas spending has gotten out of control. People are spending way too much money on gifts for people they don’t even want to exchange with. Don’t do that. Let those people know that you will not be exchanging gifts anymore. Spend your money the way you want to not the way others expect you to. Many of those people don’t want to exchange gifts either but are afraid to say anything. So have the courage to stop the cycle. Take control!

Well, I will stop now lest you think that I am Scrooge. But I wanted to make you think a little about what you are spending for the holidays and how you are spending it. Then start 2019 with your Christmas expenses paid for.