Month: September 2020

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Every Day

Please Buy More


I told Hubby this morning that my Top’s gasoline points are expiring so I needed to go fill up the car. He asked if there wasn’t some way that I could buy more of the sausage meat that he loves and fit it in the freezer. After giving it some thought, I decided to food saver some meat that was in boxes and that would give me some room.

So off I went to the gas station to fill up at $.30 off a gallon. Then I went just up the street to Aldi’s hoping that they would still have the sausage.  I purchased 5 more rolls at $ 1.49 each.

We only have 1 more shredded cheddar cheese in the freezer so I decided to pick up a package and I planned a meal for the next couple of days that I needed cream cheese to make.  

 


When I got home, I threw everything in the fridge. Then I got out my food saver and started repackaging the boxes in the top drawer of my kitchen freezer. By doing that, I was able to fit the sausage rolls in.   


A while ago, I purchased chicken breasts with the bone on sale. At the time, I deboned them all and threw the bones in the freezer. I have two big bags of them and they have plenty of meat still left on them. Since it is starting to be soup season, I decided to make some bone broth. So I put one bag of them in the crockpot. I will be simmering them all afternoon and evening. Then I will take the bones out and add the meat to the broth and freeze the broth for the next time I make soup. 

 


Here the broth is cooking which I will strain when it is done and then add the meat. 


It is all strained and the meat has been put in it.

I have now put the other bag of bones into the crockpot and I will simmer it all night. In the morning after I take the meat off, I will freeze that broth. I will have soup broth for two big pots all set to add my veggies and rice or noodles to when we feel like soup for a meal.  I love prepping things ahead for meals. It saves a lot of time when I don’t really feel like cooking and prevents me from getting take out.

 

I made this recipe for dinner tonight: 

Chicken Bacon Ranch Casserole

 

Hubby hated it. He said there was not enough sauce. I thought it was okay but not the best recipe I have tried. Perhaps someone out there has a better recipe. 

We are awaiting the start of  the NFL football game. Hubby has been waiting for football season for a long time now. He is excited.

I hope you all have a great evening.

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Every Day

A Busy Couple of Days

The asters have started to bloom in the gardens. We have three of them in different gardens and they are gorgeous this year. The landscape crew(3 people) were here yesterday so we were busy supervising and letting them know what we wanted done. It was the second to last time they come for the year. They have come every month since April.

The autumn sedum is also in full bloom. I love the color.

Today the fertilizing people came and did the lawn. They will do the winter fertilizer in about 6 weeks and then the extra bug application that we have put on once a year. Hubby fortunately had mowed just before they came. We will turn the sprinkler system on in the morning to wash the fertilizer in.

I put all of the stockpile that I have purchased the last couple of weeks on the shelves rotating the newest to the back.  

Every day I continue to exercise on the treadmill. Many days I just don’t feel like it but I push myself to do it anyhow.  

But today, I worked in my master bedroom closet. I changed out the summer clothes and put the fall and winter front and center. I also organized my bins on the two shelves. These bins hold spare shampoo, razors, extra medications, etc. I go through once or twice a year and get rid of anything that has expired. I then added the new medicines  that I purchased for this winter. 

I am tired from all of the work the last few days but I want to keep moving along with my fall cleaning. Are any of you doing your fall cleaning?

Tonight, I have my Wednesday telephone call with my sister and we catch up on the two families. I look forward to that every week.    

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Every Day

Dollar Tree Stockpile Haul

It has been a busy day here. We got a lot done yesterday. Today, I did my last large stockpile haul at Dollar Tree. There are some things that I always get there and others that I just found by browsing the entire store today. My receipt is above. Hopefully, you can read it. It is very light print. Click on it and make it full screen and you can see it much better. The total was $ 53.50 and it was a very full cart.

I filled in some of our gaps today. I was there a very long time just browsing to make sure I missed nothing. 

I have already tried a box of the shelf stable milk. I don’t stockpile anything that we haven’t tried and liked. We loved it. We mainly use it for cereal and in recipes. We don’t drink it. So I purchased 5 more today. I am actually considering only buying this from now on to use in our home. I hate having to throw milk out and these are small enough that we can get through them before they expire.


The loofah is for me in the shower. I threw my old one out. The cutlery will round out what I already have. The ropes are in case I need more clothesline. The can openers are in case we have no power.

I got 3 Spic and Span antibacterial cleaners and 2 refills for them. I have used this liquid plumber to unclog drains for many years. The Palmolive Oxy is great for washing greasy pans and it also takes grease out of clothes. Just put a little on the stain at night and then throw it in the washer in the morning. 


I got some Arm and Hammer baking soda and some
carpet cleaner.

Everything in these two pictures are on the receipt. The only thing missing from the picture is a birthday card that I picked up for Hubby. His birthday is the end of the month.

I got a couple of toilet bowl cleaners which until now I had not been able to find in stock. I also picked up 2 superglue. 

We also got two very tall candles in case we need light. We also have a spray bottle that I am using at the moment of Awesome so I picked up a refill. It is an all purpose cleaner.

Medicines that I purchased were hydrocortisone cream, anti fungal foot cream just in case we need it, and Vitamin C. I will explain what the vaseline is for after I post the next picture. I also got 2 packages of Plackers. I love using them.

Since we are on our last roll of packaging tape, I picked up a roll. 

The creole seasoning and croutons are needed for recipes in the next two weeks. We love these baked beans. The corn bread mix and cookie mixes are for long term storage. The swiss rolls are a nostalgic walk down memory lane.

The stir fry blend and pepper stir fry blend are delicious, healthy and cheap. They help me make Chinese for very easily.

The Scotties, brownie mix, and mashed potatoes are all for our stockpile. The envelopes were to replenish our office. Lastly, we use the cotton balls with a little vaseline as fire starters for our outside fireplace. 

Do you buy anything for your stockpiles from Dollar Tree?   

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Every Day

Two Good Deals This Morning

I scoured the ads in our newspaper this morning. I had some produce that we needed on my list and that was it. 

However when I looked at the Aldi’s ad, I saw that they had the rolls of sausage for $ 1.49. This is less than half of the cost of my Top’s market price. Hubby loves me to slice them and cook them for breakfast. I had none left in our freezers. I also use them to make sausage stuffing for Thanksgiving. Since, I have two turkeys in my freezer, I froze two to go with those. Then I froze 2 for breakfasts and put one in the fridge.

I decided to get my produce at Top’s because they had cucumbers for $ .39 each which is a great price here. I bought three and some other produce that totaled a little over $20. 

The front of our newspaper this morning had a Free coupon for a 3 lb. bag of New York apples when you spent $20. Free is a fantastic deal.

Did you find any good deals this morning?

I will not be posting tomorrow because of the holiday. Hubby and I want to get a few things done around here and have a cookout for dinner. I hope you all have a nice holiday too. 

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Every Day

It Was Time For A Replacement

Many, many years ago when we first moved to Arizona, Hubby purchased a battery organizer. I have always hated it. It was on the wall in my pantry in AZ and is now on my wall in a pantry here where it is not easy to use or to test the batteries. The tester is built into the organizer. It’s very awkward to use. It also does not hold many batteries so I was spending a lot of time filling it up.

So I figured after almost 20 years, it was time to replace it. I spent some time looking at all the ones that you can buy online. I found this one:

Battery Organizer 

It came yesterday and I love it. The battery tester slides out into your hand. I was able to test all of the batteries that I loaded into it in just a matter of a few minutes. I love that it has quite a bit of room for each size battery. It also holds the 2032 batteries that we use in quite a few things in our home.

It has a hinged cover on it to keep the inside clean. I am so happy that the old one will be coming off the pantry wall.

This one can be hung too but I am not going to. I want to be able to pull it out and take it to wherever I am changing the battery. I want to be able to have enough light to see what I am doing. So it will sit on a kitchen cupboard shelf always at the ready. The price was right too. It doesn’t take much to make this girl happy.


I hope you are all enjoying your Labor Day weekend.

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Every Day

Frugal Things The Past Two Weeks

These are the things we have done frugally the past two weeks:

– We paid our school taxes from our sinking funds account for them. It is always nice when that large bill comes to know that the money has been set aside for those each month for the past 12 months. Even though we were reassessed again, the taxes only went up by $ 102. 

– Since I had to go to a bank to pay them, I stopped at the town hall and paid our quarterly water and sewer bill. It was on the route and saved me using a stamp. 

– I also stopped along my route at Top’s and picked up on sale Hellman’s mayo using a $1./1 Q and a raincheck. This was out of stock the other day. 

– I purchased two pair of denim shorts on clearance for $ 9.00 each. That was a whole lot better price than the $27. each that they were before they went on clearance.

– I am cooking mostly from scratch again since West went home. We did not buy take out this week. I am cooking two meals at a time when I can.

– I signed up for Tasty Rewards last week and look what I got in the mail this past Monday. I already used the 3 $1.00 ones on sale Poppables this week. 

– I wrote another company and they are sending me some coupons for a product that we use all the time. It never hurts to ask. 

– We received $ 9.28 in rebates in the mail.  

– I did two loads of wash this week using cold water, minimal detergent and the laundry sanitizer. One was hung to dry. The other consisted of sheets and towels and was dried in my dryer using the dryer balls. 

– Hubby maintains our hardwood floors for us and we have a lot of them. He uses Bona cleaner and a mop with a reusable head to do it. That saves us a lot of money by not hiring outside help to do them. They look magnificent even though they are over 10 years old.

– I continue to organize and maintain our pantries.

– Hubby and I sat down yesterday and went through our container of OTC medicines. I need to get 5 more for the fall and winter just in case they are needed. I will be researching sales and prices for them.  

So what did you do frugally this past couple of weeks? Feel free to comment and tell us all about it.

Have a safe Labor Day weekend!   

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Every Day

Filling In The Gaps

I have spent a great deal of time this past couple of days working on filling in the gaps in my stockpile for the fall and winter. I looked at my inventory list and saw what needed to be purchased. I still will be picking items up here and there every week and especially around Thanksgiving.

Aldi was my first stop because the Wednesday specials go fast at my market and I wanted 1 large package of the chicken breasts on sale for $ 1.69 a lb. I had not seen that price in about 4 months. These get cut in half from end to end and we eat one of them for a meal. The chicken breasts are so big today that sometimes I cut them into thirds. I am using two of the breasts cut in half to make dinner tonight which is Keto Enchilada Chicken Casserole. That will give us two dinners. I do not like shredded chicken so I cut mine into chunks.

The rest were cut and put in food saver bags in the freezer for future meals.

The Cup of Noodles Hubby loves. I much prefer to buy these rather than those wrapped packages of ramen because these keep much longer. But I had not found them in stock until this week. I am always picking up whole potatoes especially when we used some up while West was visiting. 


The brown gravy mixes were only $ .30 each which is a great price for here. I use them in many recipes so it is nice to add to my stash. The rices are easy to fix for Hubby and much cheaper than the regular market price.


I replaced the mushrooms that I had used over the past 2 months. The pork rinds are a Keto snack for me. The avocado oils, applesauce,and salt are for the stockpile.


One of my readers mentioned to me that she was going to get some things for her holiday meals so I took her advice. I like to have packets of turkey gravy on hand to bolster the flavor of my homemade turkey gravy. So I picked a few packets up at Walmart. I also like to make homemade fudge at Christmas. I had every thing I needed but the sweetened condensed milk. So I picked up two cans at Aldi.

This is my receipt from Aldi’s.  

Then at Walmart, besides getting the turkey gravy, I got  Skinny Pop, mounds and apple juice for Hubby, a whole bunch of muffins mixes for our stockpile storage. I have the instant milk and water to make these if need be.


I also got some spare lighters for candles and our outdoor fireplace which we can cook in.


The crispy onions and bread crumbs all went into my basement stockpile. All of the medicines went into our medicine storage for the winter. There are still a couple of medicines that I need to buy but Walmart’s prices were outrageous. I paid $ 16.97 for 1 bottle of Pepcid Complete. I am going to wait to see if the rest of the medicines I need go on sale in the next few weeks at the drugstores. 


I always pick up hand soap when they have it. They have always limited it here to 1. The rest of the items will go in my long term stockpile.


I got some fajita mixes, tortilla wraps that we were out of, 60 eggs because they were much cheaper than buying them by the dozen or 18 count. Dried cranberries go in chicken salad. The frosting is for Hubby’s birthday cake this month. The cornstarch was needed. I am almost out. Lastly the M&M peanuts are Hubby’s favorite and the peanut butter M&M’s are West’s favorite treat when he comes on Sundays.

Here is my Walmart receipt. 


Are any of you filling in your gaps in your stockpiles?

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Every Day

My Stock Up Haul

I did a small stock up haul at Top’s yesterday since it was 6% off senior discount day. I also had a $ 4.00 off my next shopping order Q.

I was out of this sausage and I like to have something that I can quickly heat up with my eggs in the mornings. They finally had it on sale for $1.00 each so I got 6. The grey poupon mustard was on sale for $2.00 and Hubby loves it. So I got another one for my long term stockpile.

The Zatarain’s sides were on sale for $1.00 each so I got 5 for my stockpile. The salad dressings were on sale for $ 1.77. I got one for $ .77 with a $1.00 Q and 2 for $1.27 each with a $1./2 Q.These are also for my long term stockpile.


The Poppables were on sale for $ 1.99 when you bought in multiples of 3. I had a $1.00 Q for each one so I paid $.99 each.

My total for yesterday after the senior discount was $ 14.12. 

Did you get any good deals recently?

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Every Day

Waste Not Want Not

It’s time to look and see what we can use up in the refrigerator. I kind of lost track of what is in there while West was here. 

After saving so much money with the low spend grocery month of August, I do not want to waste any food.

So I am perusing my vegetable drawers(I took all of these pictures yesterday morning). This is what I saw: 

2 eggplants

1 container of diced onions 


1 celery

cherry tomatoes and 1/2 cucumber in the cryovac bag


3 heads of romaine lettuce

1 bag of carrots

1 whole cucumber

1 tomato

Next, I looked in the deli drawer. This is what I found:

3 Land O Frost 100% Natural Peppered Roast Beef

1 pkg. of All Natural Honey Deli Ham

1 pkg. of  Hard Salami

1 pkg. of Prosciutto

3 large Pepperoni Sticks + part of another one


Turkey Snack Sticks

Bags of Colby Jack, Cheddar, Mexican and Mozzarella
Shredded cheeses

Mozzarella, Swiss, Colby Jack, and Provolone Sliced Cheeses 


A Few American Cheese Slices

Parmesan Cheese that I grate

Yancey’s Buffalo Wing Cheese

A Few Monterey Jack Cheese cubes


Then I looked at what leftovers needed to be used up.


Cooked Bacon Strips

Container of Black Olives


Hard Boiled Eggs


Part of a Jar of Ragu spaghetti sauce

Lamb in sauce on top of Rice

Half a jar of Unsweetened Applesauce 


I said to myself, these ALL have to be used up in the days ahead so that nothing goes to waste.


The eggs and bacon will go quickly for brunches. 


The applesauce will be served as a side with meals.

Hubby and I will eat the leftover lamb dish and/or the leftover taco meat from our dinner last night. There is a small amount of each left so they should all be gone after dinner. 


The spaghetti sauce will be used for Hot Italian sausage sandwiches this week. Some of the mozzarella cheese will get used up on those too.


I am not too concerned about the cheeses and deli meats. They have a far out expiration date and will definitely get used for lunches, dinners, and snacks before they expire. The pepperoni keeps forever especially the ones that are not open.


The turkey sticks will get eaten by me when the hunger hits. I then eat one to hold me until the next meal.


The prosciutto will get put in our antipasto salads one night this week for dinner.


We will most likely use up the American cheese in grilled cheese sandwiches for a lunch or brunch. I will not be buying that kind of cheese again when it is gone. It tastes like plastic. I would much rather use the other cheese slices for grilled sandwiches.


I will be sauteing the eggplants for side dishes today. I love them just sliced and cooked in a little butter. I can make a meal out of a few slices. 


Some of the tomatoes, onions, and romaine were put in our taco salads for dinner last night. I also used up the small container of black olives in those. 


I use the celery and carrots for snacks to dip in semi-homemade ranch dressing.  I use the packets. I also use them diced up in stews, soups, and other dishes. They last longer than most vegetables in the fridge.


The cucumbers are sliced for salads and just as a side with a sprinkle of salt. 


A little tip for you. All of our deli meats were purchased in July. When I see a sale, I get them and freeze them. Then when Hubby needs one I thaw it. The roast beef is the exception. It keeps a very long time in the deli drawer because they are sealed well. Once they are open, Hubby does not let them hang around long.  

So it was worth the little bit of time I took to see what we needed to use up this week. I absolutely hate throwing out food that has gone bad. I might as well just throw the money away.  

If I see something that I can freeze before we can use it, I do. For example, on Sunday, I sliced up some strawberries that had been sitting in the fruit drawer. Then I froze them. They will get used in smoothies.

Are you staying on top of your leftovers? I can’t say that I do 100% of the time. But I sure try. Sometimes something gets shoved to the back of the shelf and I miss it until it is too late.