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Frugal Things March 31

These are the things frugal and not that we did today:

– With the guidelines to stay home another month because of the coronavirus, I figure the grocery stores will get stripped again this weekend. So I decided to place a large pickup order. Because the Instacart people walked out in various places, I was not able to place a pickup or delivery order at my local chain grocery store. That just leaves us with Super Walmart pickup. I had not been able to get a slot for a Walmart pickup for the last 2 and 1/2 weeks. So I tried a few times yesterday and was finally able to get one. This morning I picked up an order of things like fresh produce, dairy, a boneless ham, some bread products for Hubby, and some other things. No one seems to have flour and I am very low. I would rather bake bread but was happy to be able to get some bread. I think we now have enough for the month of April. If I forgot something, my neighbor will pick it up for me. I don’t mind them getting a little something when I need it but I don’t want them to have to shop for a large order for me especially when stores have limits. 


– I unbagged everything in the garage, wiped the items down with disinfectant, and brought them into the house to sit on our game table for a few days before I put them away. Only exception was the frozen items that needed to go in the freezer. Then I disinfected the car(steering wheel and signals, gear shifter, door handles, etc) and disinfected the doorknob that I used to come in the house and threw the box that I had the pickup guy put everything in into the recyclable bin. My hands were washed really well a number of times and the counters in the kitchen were sprayed and I let them dry. I will do the same to the table when I move the items into pantries. I know how infectious this disease is and I am very, very careful. 
  
– Hubby wanted deli meats and Walmart had none available except the ones you have sliced at the deli. I did not want to get those for many reasons. So I bought a boneless ham that we sliced on our meat slicer. Some was put in the fridge and the rest in packages in the freezer to use a package at a time. It isn’t the variety that he would have liked but he does love ham. 

– I spring cleaned a guest bedroom today. I even did the windows on the inside. I was happy to get all of the dust off the ceiling fan.

– Hubby and I had dentist appointments scheduled for the beginning of April which weren’t going to happen. The office manager called and rescheduled us for mid May. Let’s hope that we will be able to do that. Our dental plan was for just one year and is up in June so we need to get this done. Time will tell.

– When I was spring cleaning I found the above. Do you remember the Slob Sisters? I think I got this back in the 80’s. It’s a cleaning and organizing system. It’s very old school! I think I will listen to the tapes starting tomorrow while I am on the treadmill. I am not sure that we even own a VCR anymore. Then I will either sell it or give it away. 

– Meals today were our choice of coffee cake, eggs, and/or bacon for breakfast. We ate no lunch. Hubby will be grilling filet mignons in the air fryer oven. I bought a whole filet at the end of the summer for either $ 5.99 or $6.99 a lb. We sliced it up so that we would have a number of meals. If you have never done a nice steak in the air fryer, you are missing out. They are delicious. Hubby will have a salad with his and I will have brussel sprouts left from dinner last night.

– I got my exercise on the bike for 30 minutes.

– The sun is finally coming out after a few days of rain. I am hoping it stays out for a few days. It’s so much nicer spring cleaning with the sun shining. 


– Hubby watched some “Manifest” shows. He also loves the show ” Home Town” which he has been binge watching. I think he is enjoying the scenery of the city of Laurel, Mississippi. That is where his father was born. 


After I got done cleaning, I took a much needed nap.


That is it for today. What did you do today which was frugal or not? Please feel free to tell us in the comments.

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Every Day

Frugal Things March 30

These are the things we have done frugally today:

– Since I am an early riser, I made this first thing this morning for our snacks this week. It is sugar free raspberry jello which is easy. This is 2 packages and it will last us quite a few days. We put sugar free Cool Whip on it or not depending on our mood.

– I wanted to show you how we froze the chili last night. I have a stack of these reusable freezer to microwave covered bowls that I put leftovers in. It may be meat like the chili or leftovers that make a meal for one of us. The chili bowls have enough for a meal for two of us. So this will be two meals worth of chili. If we have a little meat, potatoes, rice, or steamed veggies leftover then I will make a frozen type dinner. When I have a few of them, we will pull two out for dinner depending on what each of us wants to eat that night. We waste nothing in this household. If you wonder what you can freeze for a meal, take a look in the freezer cases when you shop. If they can freeze it, you can freeze it.

– I had forgotten to enter my grocery delivery order on Fetch so I did that before it was too late. 

– We had no cooked bacon so I cooked a package in the oven. We don’t buy cooked bacon because it is so easy to do it yourself. We under cook it all because we put it in the fridge to heat up for breakfasts. That way when we heat it in the microwave each morning we can each cook it to the crispiness we like without overcooking it. I use foil instead of parchment paper because it keeps the pan cleaner and when the grease congeals, I can just roll up the foil and throw it out. Then the pan easily cleans up with some soap and water. 

– Our mail today brought us a nice package of coupons from Frito Lay. Last week Hubby opened a package of Poppables and they looked very dark and tasted awful. I called Frito Lay to ask what it was and they said they were burnt. They apologized and sent two Free coupons for any product and 2 coupons for $ 1.00 off a product. 

– I did both the treadmill and the bike today for 30 minutes each. I am so glad that we quit the YMCA because it is so convenient to do this at home. It has saved us $48. a month.

– I washed two loads of laundry today using laundry sanitizer in the wash and the dryer balls in the dryer.

– Dinner tonight was hot dogs with Hubby’s homemade chili. Hubby likes his on buns with some melted cheese on top. I like mine bunless with some brussel sprouts on the side. 

– Entertainment tonight will be a movie on showtime.

That’s it for frugality today. Please share with us what you did frugally today.

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Every Day

Frugal Doings March 29

The things we have done frugally today:

– Hubby made a huge crock pot of chili on Saturday which is why we needed the onions that our neighbor got us when they shopped. I have not eaten rice in over 13 months. Hubby made a pot of it in the pressure cooker and I decided I would have some. I just put a thin layer under my chili. It really did not taste that good to me. So last night I had and will tonight have riced cauliflower under it. Yummy! We will freeze most of the leftovers for future meals after dinner tonight. I will leave a small container of chili in the fridge to put on hot dogs one night. I had had a can of chili on my grocery delivery order but it was out of stock. Hubby’s chili on the hot dogs will be so delicious. 

– Hubby was craving something sweet so I made a cinnamon coffee cake today. He was so happy to have some for breakfast with his coffee. I had 1/2 an avocado and some scrambled eggs.

-I washed a load of towels in hot water using laundry sanitizer. This is something I have been doing every day. At the end of each day, I collect them from all of the bathrooms and the kitchen.

– I cleaned all of our kitchen counters, cabinet knobs,  bathrooms, light switches, door handles, alarm panels, door locks, computer keyboards and telephones with disinfectant. I do this daily.

– Since I have so much time on my hands these days, I have been using some of it to update my price book so that when this crisis is over I have accurate prices to know when something is a good deal or not. I have been doing this by using our ads every Sunday. This price book fits nicely in my handbag, so when I shop I always have it with me.

– Hubby has been binge watching movies, mainly the Species series. These kind of movies give me nightmares so I don’t watch them. I have been doing some reading and watching some You Tube videos. 

– We have not used the SUV in about 2 weeks. So we still have almost a full tank. Staying home is a huge savings in gasoline and not spending except for food is too. 

– Our town assessor has been busy though reassessing us all again. This time they only raised us $ 17,000. However they have raised us $ 67,500. since 2015. So this year we are considering fighting the new assessment. I may be calling some realtors to come out and give us the price that we could sell this house for so that I have some comparisons. 

– I have been doing my daily exercising in the house because it is so important to stay as fit as I can during this virus outbreak. Here I am fast walking on my treadmill on my way to those 30 minutes. I have to learn to take a video instead of a photo so that it isn’t blurry. We have also been taking all of our daily vitamins and supplements. 

– I finally sat down mid afternoon with Hubby and watched the movie “Total Recall”. Spectrum who is our cable provider gave it’s customers free Showtime and Epix for a month during this virus. We are taking full advantage of it.

– It is in the 60’s here today so as soon as we eat dinner, we are going to sit out in the yard for a bit.

I hope you all are having a nice frugal day. What did you do frugally today? I would love to know. 

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Every Day

With So Much Stress Going On In The World Right Now, I Just Could Not Leave My Readers In Limbo

I will continue posting and we will see how the comments go. If you enjoy this blog feel free to read it. If not instead of leaving a nasty comment, go somewhere else. I have always had a community of readers whose welfare was my main goal. The others I could care less about.

That said, I hope you are all staying safe and healthy. Hubby and I have self quarantined for a couple of weeks now. It is so strange staying indoors except for going out in the yard for a few minutes each day that the weather permits.

Because we have a bit of food in the house, we see no need to go to the grocery store. I have gotten grocery delivery once to get some milk and fresh produce. I forgot onions but my wonderful young neighbors picked them up for me when they did their weekly shopping. They have told me they will be happy when they shop to get what we need. What a blessing! Other items we needed I got in an order from Target.

Being in the risk group for the coronavirus, we have been very careful not to go out around people. We stocked up on about 3 months worth of prescriptions so that we don’t have to go out for them.

Hubby and I had a trip planned to visit my granddaughter, son, and DIL in eastern NY two weeks ago but we cancelled. It broke my heart to have to do that but we could not take any chances of having to use public restrooms on the thruway. We did Skype with them today and we keep in touch online. I can’t wait until this virus is gone so that we can be with them. We so miss them.


My other son and his family are staying at home. They don’t want to take the chance of carrying the virus to us. I am thankful for that. My son does call and check on us almost every day. My grandson now has his own You Tube Channel so we can see him that way. They also plan on Skyping soon. I can’t wait until we can see them again.

It is a blessing that both of my sons and their wives are working from home. I pray for all of you who have been laid off from your jobs. It is a very tough time for so many.


I will be posting every day the frugal things that we  are doing. Not much else going on around here these days.


Please feel free to comment and let me know how it is going for you. Are you still working or working from home? Are you staying home every day? What are you doing for food? Using delivery or pickup? Are you supporting your local restaurants by ordering food for take out? Please stay healthy and safe.    

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Every Day

I’ve Been Really Busy

These past few days I have been very busy trying to take inventory and fill in the gaps in the pantry. So that is what I have been up to. I had a few appointments and then didn’t get out much later in the week because of the snowstorm.

I spent a total of $172.00 on all of this but it is all things that will eventually get used up. So it will never be a waste of money. It is just a matter of spending money now rather than later. This was all done after my regular grocery shopping had been done last week.

Preparation is key! The inventory took a long time but I wanted it to be very accurate.

Other than this project, there is really nothing new or that moves me to write.

Many of our stores’ shelves have been stripped of certain items. The only thing I could not get was tall kitchen garbage bags so I ordered them online.  

Are you guys stocking your supplies?