Month: June 2022

We had enough credit card reward points that I was able to get $200. cashback yesterday.

Hubby has been saving the backs of printer paper and 8 X 11 papers that come in the mail. He uses them to print the crossword puzzles each morning from our online Buffalo News subscription. He loves doing them while drinking his coffee.

We had two red and yellow peppers that needed to be used up. I washed and sliced them and froze them to use in fajitas.

Hubby wanted to make a Waldorf coleslaw for lunches. I shredded regular carrots instead of buying them already shredded. Every little bit saves!

We got our gas and electric bill. It was $87.39. Last year’s for the same period was $98.39. So it was exactly $11.00 less. This year’s billing period was 4 days more than last year’s. Our KWH usage was 392 which is 45 less than last year. Our CCF gas usage was 5 which is 5 less than last year. However this year’s bill rates have increased quite a bit and we are still under last year’s bill. I have very carefully watched everything that we use. It is paying off! That said, we had to put our A/C on last night because it was so hot. Today and the next 4 days are supposed to be brutal. We are supposed to be 100 today. It is extremely humid outside. I still carefully watch the sun and put shades and blinds down on the windows with the sun on them.

Hubby and I were going to run a bunch of errands today that have been piling up. We decided it is not a good day to go out in the heat! One of the errands was to shop at Walmart. So I placed a delivery order which will be here in less than an hour. With the Teamster’s Union talking trucker’s strike here on the East Coast and Canada’s railroads(where we get a lot of food from and ingredients to make things) are on strike, I am not sure how much longer food will be on the shelves. Our truck drivers have a lot of issues with diesel shortages and obtaining DEF which adds to the problems. So I ordered some things that I really need.

I changed my dinner plans for tonight. I don’t want to use the stove top to make the shrimp dish so we will have state fair sausages cooked in the air fryer. It is too hot and humid to cook outside. Plus they are telling us severe thunderstorms later today. I really hope we keep our power. It is way to hot to be without it.

I will not be doing laundry or running the dishwasher today either. I do not want to heat up this house that we are air conditioning.

What have you done yesterday and today to save money?

We went to the Adirondacks to my son’s home to visit with he and Alexa, my granddaughter. We cherish every minute with them. We had not seen them since the end of December. It is getting harder and harder for Hubby and I to drive there. It is very difficult for my son to come visit us. He holds a full time job and owns a business. All of that takes up a lot of his time. He is so busy that I really don’t know how he juggles it all.

We had a wonderful week and spent a lot of time with them because my son took the week off from his full time job. We did a lot of eating out which I had budgeted for as part of our vacation budget . We celebrated Alexa’s 15th birthday. She picked a nice restaurant called The Wishing Well for dinner one night. Her Dad had this custom birthday ice cream cake made for her with her 2 choices of ice cream, cookie dough bites, oreo bits, chocolate crumbles, etc. It was the best ice cream cake that I have ever eaten.

We did save some money on the drive by exiting the Toll Thruway at Amsterdam and taking the back roads north into the Adirondacks instead of exiting in Albany. We also drove straight through the entire 4 and 1/2 hours and didn’t stop for a fast food lunch. My son had cold cuts, cheese, rolls and specialty bread ready and waiting for us. Coming back home we did not stop to eat either. I made us a light lunch when we got home.

My son has become quite the great host. We feel so welcomed when we are at his home. We all watched movies in the evenings. Anything we needed he had. It was a very stress free time for all of us which I really appreciate when we are away from home. We just enjoyed each others company immensely. We also enjoyed a fire in his firepit one evening. It is so peaceful and quiet where he lives.

I love spending time with Alexa. She is so mature now and such a delight to chat with. And of course there were lots of hugs. It is hard to believe that 15 years have passed since she was born. I also started blogging that year. Time just flies!

Now that we are home, I need to catch up on mail, laundry, cleaning, some organizing, my garden, etc.

So I should be back in a day or two with a saving money post. I hope your families all had a nice Father’s Day.

Top’s had a sale on chicken breasts this week for $ 2.49 a lb. I was only able to get one package on Sunday even though the limit was three. My plan had been to can it. So I went back yesterday morning and they had none. I asked one of the people to check the back for me to see if they had any. He said he would but that they didn’t get any on Tuesday either. He came back and said they did not get any in and he didn’t know if they would get anymore in on another day. So I was not about to wait.

I went to Walmart which is just a block away to see if they had any chicken. They had plenty at $ 2.99 a lb. I grabbed 3 packages and was happy to pay the price since I had my canning equipment laid out all over my kitchen.

I put two breasts in the freezer because Hubby wants to make chicken pineapple kabobs to cook on the grill later this week. Then I proceeded to cut most of the rest of it into chunks. I did the cold raw pack method and canned 12 pint jars. My Instant Pot Max only does 4 jars at a time so I was canning most of the morning and afternoon. After I had filled all of the jars, I had 3 and 1/2 breasts left(not enough for another batch) so I froze them for other meals.

They turned out perfectly and all of them sealed. After washing the outsides of all of my jars and dating them, I put them in my storage. They will be so handy for casseroles, stir fries, soups, etc.

Canned chicken has risen so high in price that I am not buying it. The amount of chicken that they are putting in the cans now has been reduced. I opened a 12.5 oz. can to make chicken salad sandwiches for brunch this week and there was more liquid than chicken in it. So it is no longer worth buying for the price they are asking.

When I can catch another sale under $ 2.99 for chicken I will buy some more to can. But I don’t know when we will have those prices again. UGH! Since I have all my jars that I purchased the last two years and all of the equipment I need to can, it is much cheaper for me to do chicken that way. Plus, I don’t have to rely on my freezer if I do it this way.