How We Will Save Money in 2023 (Part 3)

Happy New Year’s Eve to you all! Hubby is happily watching the Premier League soccer on TV. I have all of my work done for today and dinner will be easy. So I decided to do another blog post.

Remember the other day I told you I got 3 large packages of boneless, skinless chicken breasts from Top’s delivered to my home. I used my food saver to get all of those in the freezer. Well, I was feeling up to going out yesterday afternoon, so I went to Top’s to get 2 more large packages of the chicken breasts. Today is the last day to get the $1.99 lb. price if anyone has a Top’s near them.

I only got two packages because we already have a lot of chicken. Today, I trimmed them, cut them up the way I wanted to use them, and froze them in freezer Ziploc bags because they will get used up soon. We have 8 meals of breasts(I cut them lengthwise). We have 4 meals of chicken chunks that we use for casseroles, stir fry, or chicken fried rice. Lastly, we have 4 meals of chicken strips. We use those for fajitas or for Keto coated chicken strips(almond flour, crushed pork rinds, etc.) that we do in the air fryer. They are so good! The chicken weighed 9.61 lbs. at $ 1.99 a lb. for a total of $ 19.12. We have 16 meals ready to cook for the two of us. So each meat portion for the two of us cost about $ 1.20. Really cheap!

No matter what meat I buy, I cut them up the way I want to use them when I am freezing them. That saves me a lot of time when I am ready to cook. I am usually tired by dinnertime so this is easier.

This meat was a loss leader and that is the only way I will buy meat in 2023 unless I see a good price on a reduced for quick sale package. If I see a great price on meat, I will stock up depending on how much space is in the freezer or if I am up to canning it.

Yesterday while I was out I ran the errands in a circle. I filled the SUV up with gasoline. The price was $ 3.499 a gallon but I had enough points to get $ .70 off a gallon so I paid $2.799. I also picked up one of my prescriptions that was ready. Speaking of prescriptions, I am hearing that health premiums are going up in January. Has anyone gotten notice that theirs’ is going up? We know what the new Medicare premium is for both of our medical but we have not heard a thing on our secondary insurance.

Another thing we will be doing in 2023 is repurposing items. For example, my son mentioned that he had put a hole in his shirt. He was going to put it in my garbage. I told him no that I would cut it up for rags. I have an almost full washing machine, so the shirt will be thrown in and washed with our clothes. Then I will cut it up later today and put it in the bag that I use for rags. We use very few paper towels(I only use them for draining bacon) in a year because we have rags.

We have to bag our garbage for the garbageman to pick up. Garbage bags are very expensive. I do use them but I use everything else that I can also. The things we reuse are Amazon soft packaging, any bag that holds a food item that is large. For example, we buy granola that Hubby loves in bulk from an Amish company in Ohio. They double bag the granola when they ship it. The outer bags are very large and very thick so they get reused to bag garbage. I stuff any bag including the purchased garbage bags because that way I can buy less of them. Clothing and blankets sometimes come in thick bags so we save them. Any thick and large bag will get saved for reuse.

I also reuse glass jars that purchased products come in. I use them for bacon grease, to put food in the fridge or freezer, to hold beans, rice, popcorn, etc. We buy nuts in those big plastic containers. When they are empty, I use them for dry food storage.

We will use reusable items in our home as much as possible. Cloth napkins and microfiber cloths are a staple here. I also use a dust mop that I can wash the head and dusting tools that I use over and over again. We also use reusable batteries in everything that we can. I have reusable cloth sponges that I can wash in the washing machine. I cut up mail that is junk for scrap paper. They usually only have writing on one side. I save envelopes that come in the mail to put my coupons in for a shopping trip. We have a rug shampooer so we have never had to hire someone to do the wall to wall carpeting which is an off white in the living areas. It looks as new as it did 13 years ago. We dry dishes with reusable dish cloths. I buy one color for dishes and one color to dry hands. They get thrown in the washing machine every night and new ones get put out.

We do as much cooking from scratch as we can. It is cheaper than buying products that are made for you. We will be doing a lot of this in 2023. We will make our own pizzas, sauces, many condiments, soups, Keto ice cream, etc. I will show those things with recipes as we do them during the year.

As we use up cleaning products, we will make our own. We make our own laundry detergent and dishwasher detergent now and will continue to do that. I replaced jet dry with vinegar.

I am getting tired again so I will have to stop. Starting tomorrow, I will be posting every day with the things we are doing that day to save money so that we can continue to add to our investments and bank accounts.

I hope you will join me in the comments and tell us what you are doing. Remember, the less money you have to spend on things the better. This is going to be a very expensive year between food, gasoline, and utility costs. I think even more expensive than they are now. By sharing we all learn from you.