Frugal Things We Have Done Over The Past Week Or So

It has been a rough week health wise in our home so I needed to do other things besides blog. Rachel, I am sorry that I was so late responding to your comment. I know you all understand. But between appointments and tests, we did manage to save some money by being frugal this week.

I was a bit late getting my Christmas cards written. I had a box of cards leftover from another year. But I ended up being about 10 cards short. I was going to pick up a box at Dollar Tree but then I remembered that I night have some in a Christmas box in the basement. I found them and I think I have enough for next year also.

I mailed those cards yesterday using forever stamps that I purchased two years ago. BTW, stamps are going up January 22, 2023 from $. 60 to $ .63 for a first class letter. You might want to consider buying some forever stamps before that date if you need them. I will be getting a 100 count roll. These increases have me thinking that the best way to do Christmas cards in coming years is to buy postcards. The stamps for those will rise next month too from $.44 to $.48. But they are a lot cheaper to mail than a first class stamp.

Hubby made a big crock pot full of his homemade Texas chili that his Dad taught him how to make when he was a teenager. It is all meat! He used 85/15 organic ground beef that I purchased a while ago on sale at Aldi. He used 2.5 pounds. It turned out so delicious. We rarely eat rice but you have to when you have chili. Tonight will be our third night eating it. Then we will freeze up the rest of it in meal portions. It can be used again when we are craving chili, to put on hot dogs, or over baked potatoes, etc.

We continue to think about how we can cook our food cheaper. For example, the meat and onions were cooked up in the electric fry pan then it simmered in the crock pot with all the rest of the ingredients for about 6 hours on low. Leftovers have been heated up in the microwave. The rice was cooked in a small rice cooker that uses very little electricity.

We continue to lower our heat at night to 64. I have the cloth snakes in front of the doors to keep any leaks of air outside. We haven’t had much sunshine except for one day, so the energy saving shades have been kept down.

Hubby decorated our front windows with wreaths with LED lights and we put the candles that are also LED in the windowsills. I had gotten C and D batteries for these months ago when I found a sale. We also considered buying 12 more candles to do all of the rest of the windows but after looking at how high the prices were on them, we said no. The ones we wanted were $38. for 4. Yikes! He and I decorated our little tree which we made a few years back from our large tree. I am allergic to real trees so we have used artificial ones for years.

Hubby also made some coleslaw which he loads up with apple and pecans. It made a nice lunch for many days.

Yesterday, I went out to run errands. I ran them in a 10 mile circle. I had to go to the liquor store for Christmas stuff. Then I went to Top’s to get a spiral sliced ham for $ 1.49 a pound. It was the same price as Aldi’s. Except if I hadn’t scanned the ad so quickly, I would have realized that I had to buy $30. worth of other groceries besides the ham. So when I got to the register, the ham rang up at almost $64. I was $17. short so I asked the front end manager if he would run back to the meat department and get me an on sale($4.99 a lb.) sirloin tip roast to get me that additional $17. He kindly agreed to get it. It took him a very long time but that is because when he couldn’t find a pre-wrapped for that price, he had the butcher shop cut one up fresh for me that was just a little over the $17. I was very grateful. But next time, I will pay better attention. However, that roast will get cooked until it is perfectly medium rare to slice for sandwiches. At $4.99 a lb., they are cheap cold cuts. I have a meat slicer that I bought back in the early 1970’s to use to save on food. Here we are again with prices out of control just like back then so it is getting used a lot.

My last errand was to pick up Hubby’s insulin and his needles. The insulin is not cheap. That was a $ 60. co-pay. But our insurance covered the cost of all of the needles. I find that the alcohol preps are the cheapest at Walmart so that is where I buy them. I was happy to get home because it was so cold outside.

Hubby and I watched the Buffalo Bills game again on Sunday and we watched Yellowstone for our entertainment. We get Paramount Plus for free with our Walmart+.

What have you been doing to save a bit of money? Feel free to share with us in the comments.