Month: September 2023

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Every Day

Frugal Things This Week

These are the things that we have done to save some money this week.

Since so many dairy products are in very short supply or non-existent at our markets, I decided it was worth the money to buy these. We eat a lot of Mexican food so sour cream is a necessity. I also use heavy cream in my coffee. Then there is cream cheese which is used for so many things. They will also save us a bit of money over buying these foods. Prices keep going up!

The induction motor for our furnace came yesterday. It has the gasket and everything else we need to install it. We paid $ 214.+ tax and got free shipping. The heating company wanted $701. + tax. Hubby will be installing it tomorrow.

These are the leftovers from the lasagna that I made for Hubby’s birthday. We ate it the last two nights and it is now in the freezer in containers.They are Bento containers for the freezer so I can add a veggie and some garlic bread to each before I heat it all up. We will probably pull them out on our busy days over the next 6 weeks or so. I also made his carrot cake. He was delighted. Celebrating at home saved us so much money!

I had been planning on buying a new makeup bag. The one on the top is the old one that I keep in my vanity. However, it is permanently stained and the inside liner is falling apart. Since I don’t wear as much makeup as I used to, this smaller bag is perfect to contain it all. I was going to order a new one yesterday. But then I remembered that I had some bags in my makeup bin that holds extras. Those extras are contained in bags. So I pulled the bin out and found the new one. It was holding spare lipsticks. Swapping the lipsticks out to the old bag and the makeup to the new was perfect. I don’t know what makeup bags cost today but every little savings helps.

Hubby has been working in his gardens getting them ready for winter. His grass that he planted on the sides of the driveway is all coming up. He has been watering it everyday by hand since our sprinkler system has already had the lines blown out.

We need deli meat so I pulled a turkey tenderloin from the freezer to thaw. I will be roasting it for dinner tonight. Then tomorrow I will cut it up on my meat slicer to use for deli meat. I paid $ 5.99 for this tenderloin many months ago. It is 1 and 1/2 lbs. Buying that much deli meat would have cost about $14.50. Plus mine will taste so much better. We have a tomato and some already cooked bacon to use up. So BLT’s sounds good for dinners this weekend while we watch football.

I cooked a dozen eggs in the instant pot for easy breakfasts and snacks.

I did one load of sheets using the Eco cycle of my washing machine this week. I am trying to save as much energy as possible since our heat is now on. It’s getting very cold at night.

That’s about it! I hope you all have a great weekend! Feel free to share what you did to save money this week in the comments.

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Every Day

Shopping from my Pantry and Freezer

When I was rummaging around in my freezer, I found a very large package of cocktail hotdogs. I have been trying to use up what I have in the house. I made some for West for a recent Sunday brunch and he loved them. So I took this last package from the freezer to thaw last Friday. Then my son called me that evening and told me that West was sick so they would not be coming for Sunday brunch.

Knowing that I had some crescent rolls in the refrigerator, I decided to use them up. So these were dinner last night. We had a huge salad for brunch so no veggies were necessary. We had enough left over for a few lunches this week. I did refreeze about 20 of them to make for West when they come again. However, I have no more crescent rolls and I refuse to pay the price they are asking for them. So I found a copycat recipe online to make the dough and then wrap the hotdogs. It looks very easy. Here is the recipe if anyone is interested: https://bakingamoment.com/homemade-crescent-rolls/ .

After dinner, I decided to thaw a large sirloin tip roast. My plan was to make a beef stew in the crock pot today and eat on it the rest of the week. But this morning I remembered that it is Hubby’s birthday tomorrow. So that was not going to work and the roast is back in the freezer. I promised Hubby that I would make a big pan of lasagna for his birthday dinner.

The last time that I actually went to a grocery store I was shocked at so many of the prices. For example, we wanted A1 sauce and we had none. Walmart was out of stock on it and one of my other grocery stores wanted $ 9.08 for a small bottle. Needless to say it is still on the store shelf.

When I got home, I looked up a recipe for the A1 steak sauce and found a copycat recipe which is here: https://www.everydaymaven.com/paleo-steak-sauce-homemade-a1/ . I have every ingredient except the orange. But I have orange extract that I can substitute. This week I will make some and it will be much cheaper and healthier than the original.

So many people across this country have stocked up on food in case of an emergency. Well, I think these outrageous prices are the emergency. There are so many things that I can make rather than pay exorbitant prices at the grocery store. I would bet that most of us have the ingredients in our pantries to do just that. Think about using up some of your food before it goes bad. I know it is more work but I believe that in this economy, it is well worth the savings and the time.

Tonight Hubby and I will be making a Chef’s salad for dinner. We have plenty of lettuce, tomatoes, guacamole, red onion, black olives, hard boiled eggs, real bacon bits, and ham, chicken, and cheese to use up. Throw in some croutons and our choice of salad dressing and we have a yummy meal with no leftovers. So we will be ready to eat that lasagna tomorrow night!

We got our electric and gas bill today. It was $ 116.37. More on that in our frugal post the end of the week.

How are you lowering your grocery bills? Are up shopping in your own pantry and freezers?

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Every Day

Frugal Things We Did This Past Week

We had our sprinkler system lines blown out by the company we use. This saves us money by preventing frozen lines over the winter which can be very costly to repair. I am also happy that our water bills will go down because we won’t be watering the lawn now. Our last 3 month bill was about $200.

Hubby moved the sprinkler system lines under the new garden. They were in the way of two rose of sharon bushes that are going in there. Now the landscape company can dig there and we don’t have to worry about them cutting the lines. It would have cost us many dollars to have the sprinkler company do this.

The heating company we use came and informed us that the induction motor in our furnace is very noisy and is probably on it’s way out. They want $ 701.+ taxes to replace it. We don’t want it to die this winter but we also don’t want to pay that price for it. Hubby did some research and found he can purchase the motor for about $200.+ tax. My son has installed a few of them so we can get any advice on doing it from him. Plus Hubby is an engineer and he says he can install it in about 20-30 minutes.

The only money I spent on groceries was $35. on fresh produce and dairy at Walmart and the cost of the chicken that I wrote about earlier to can. I canned 24 jars of meat this week.

I repaired a curtain in one of the guest rooms. It was coming apart where it hangs on the rod. They don’t make things the way they used to.

I had Walmart deliver me 6 cases of canning jars. I will need them over the winter. I am glad that I did because I heard yesterday that they are going up in price.

I only did 2 loads of laundry this week. One of clothing and one of sheets and towels. I used the Eco wash and cold water. I used the wool balls in the dryer to cut down on the time necessary.

We ate all meals at home last week. Hubby’s birthday is this coming week. I asked him if he would like to go out to dinner. He told me he likes my food so much better than eating out. He wants ground meat and hot Italian sausage lasagna and I have all the ingredients already. I will make a roasting pan full. We will cut the leftovers into portions and freeze them. I will probably also make him a carrot cake which is his favorite.

I cooked a dozen eggs in the instant pot so that we had easy breakfasts. Using it once to eat them all week saves energy. We continue to cook bacon in the microwave container. So much less mess and the container goes right into the dishwasher for easy cleaning. But first I save that bacon grease to cook with.

We continue to caulk around our windows to get them ready for winter.

I cleaned the garbage disposal. I don’t buy any special product to do this. I put some baking soda down that side of the sink followed by a little vinegar. I just let it sit while it oozes up. Then I run the disposal with just a little water for a few seconds. It works great! I do it once a week. I hate odors.

Hubby planted grass on the sides of the driveway and he has faithfully hand watered it every day for a few minutes. He continues to maintain the gardens each week.

Spectrum is our cable company. They and Disney were in a dispute over money for the Disney owned channels. Disney pulled their channels from Spectrum for 11 days. They said they were not going to credit customer’s accounts. However, they had a change of heart and they have credited everyone who was missing those channels. I don’t know what the credit is yet because we have not seen our bill. But anything is better than nothing.

Hubby replaced the drum in our Brother printer. This is the second time that he has done it. It sure beats buying a new one.

For those of you who don’t know, Hubby had a heart attack last October. Since then he has a lost a lot of weight. Taking over weeding the gardens and maintaining the bushes and flowers has given him lots of exercise. He told me a couple of days ago that he hasn’t felt this good in years. So I will have to get him on the treadmill this winter for his exercise.

Well, that was it for last week. What did you do frugally?

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Every Day

I Have So Many Things On My Mind

Things that I want to share! So let’s just chat.

Money is a huge thing on my mind the past couple of years. I am sure it is on most of yours too. But lately it has really been on my mind. As I watch our money being depleted because of inflation, I am asking myself all of the time how do I save money doing this or that.

Being retired for 22+ years and knowing that we have lived a good middle income life, times these days are disheartening. In the past 3+ years, all of us have seen prices rising on groceries, gasoline, energy bills, clothing, health insurance, auto and homeowner’s insurances, water rates, garbage collection, etc. Just about everything has rapidly increased. The past few months things have really been on the rise.

Don’t let anyone tell you that inflation is decreasing. Because it is not and will not be anytime soon. The Feds have already said that they will be raising interest rates into 2024.

I believe that the stock market has been held up by the Treasury Bonds(and we all know what our government is worth) and many large companies and the huge profits they have earned during the past year or two. However, people are running out of money to spend so they are not buying as much as they were. People are losing their jobs as companies tighten their belts. Many small businesses which have always been the backbone of our country are now gone. Many more will follow.

Yet with all of this and so many people barely able to buy their food, our government continues to spend money like water. It’s time to turn off the tap! The amount of money that they have spent in just the past few months is ridiculous. They continue to spend our taxpaying money in Ukraine. The amount of money they have given them could help many Americans. What a novel idea to spend money on your own citizens.

The other thing that has bothered me of late is the junk that they are putting in our food and cleaning products. Does anyone really know what GMO means or what it is? I know what the initials stand for but not what they are actually putting in it to engineer it. Cleaning products are full of toxic chemicals.

There are two You Tubers who I have been following for years who are trying to help us with that. One is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Zdj5KpgOeo&t=23s . He is starting a grass roots movement to switch our consumer spending back to family owned made in America non toxic products. You can find more information on his webpage: https://switchaway.com/index.php. The other one is: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=poplar+preparedness . He will be working on a website that will show you the American companies where you can buy safe food. That one is just in the beginning stages. He has a Zoom meeting planned soon to discuss that and he wants to hire some of those people who are subscribers to his channel to help work on this project. He will be paying them.

They both want us to buy safe American made products and switch our spending away from these large companies(you know who they are) to help small businesses in our country. I am very interested in this myself. But not enough to work on Poplar Preparedness’s project. I have enough work to do around here. But I will be watching all of this unfold.

The last thing that I want to discuss is food inflation. We all know that food prices are a result of supply and demand. All of the shortages that we have had the past few years is also raising the prices. I hear the media every day tell us how many illegal immigrants are entering our country ( 2000- 4000) most days. But right now there is a huge caravan of Venezuela men traveling to the border. Biden has agreed to let them come in. I have heard a number of 147,000. But then today I heard he is willing to take half a million and give them work visas. I never hear the media mention what that is doing to our food supply, non food supply, and our medicines. All of these trespassers have to eat, have personal care products, medicines, cleaning products, etc. Our government for the most part is paying for that for them. Yes, I know that some of them most likely have jobs. However, the majority do not. Bottom line: They are causing shortages and the prices to go up too. They are also clogging our ER’s. But no one talks about that.

There I have told you what has been on my mind. Now what has been on yours? Feel free to comment.

Also because money is leaving our pockets so rapidly, I will be starting up my weekly posts on What I Did To Save Money very soon.

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Every Day

Yes,You Can Do It!

While I am canning my chicken and doing laundry, I have time to write to you.

So many people have said to me that they wished they knew how to can. Well, I want you to know that I only started canning 3 years ago. And my first time was a real flop. So I quit rather than waste time and food. But I spent the next 2 years learning from two wonderful ladies on you tube. I thoroughly read the Ball canning book and researched every bit of information that I could from reliable sources. Those ladies who follow the rules and give you just a wealth of information are: https://www.youtube.com/@RoseRedHomestead and https://www.youtube.com/@appalachiashomesteadwithpatara .

In the meantime, I was stocking cases of jars. Last year I purchased an Instant Pot Max. However, it only processed 4 pint jars at a time and you needed to constantly be there to watch what was going on. That drove me nuts! I like to be busy not babysitting a machine. But I use my Instant Pot a lot for cooking so it does get used.

I researched to see if there was a better machine. That is how I found my Presto Precise Digital Canner. It is the only one that the USDA has approved for safety. Believe me, I am all about safety. I know it is expensive. It cost me over $300. plus tax. However I saved the money weeks in advance from unspent grocery money. But I have used it so much these past few weeks. It has minimal things that you have to do to use it. It pretty much prompts you for every thing that you have to do by beeping. I can be in another room and I will hear it.

I am loving it and it is saving us a fortune on meat which will pay it off quickly. Have you priced the canned meat on the grocery shelves? Ground beef in a 14.5 oz. can would cost me $ 6.45 a lb. I have been canning fresh for $2.99 lb. Chicken has cost me $ 1.99 – $ 2.99 a lb. but in the 14.5 oz. can, it would be $ 4.90 a lb. Pork would cost me $ 7.45 a lb. if I bought it by the case for 14.5 oz. cans. I can usually buy pork to can for $ 2.49 a lb. Meat is very cost effective to can and is easy to raw pack can. I have purchased Keystone meats back when they were a whole lot cheaper than they are today. Even at those prices, I am still saving money. Since canned meat prices keep going up, I knew that I had to find a cheaper way.

If this very old lady can do it, you can too. I have not had one jar that didn’t seal since I started using my Presto.

I was going to talk about a lot of other things today but time is escaping and I still have another load in the canner. I also have a lot of clean laundry to put away.

So look for my post tomorrow, titled “I Have So Many Things On My Mind” that I want to share.

Do any of you can?

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Every Day

A Little of This and a Little of That

It has been crazy around here but I finally found time to go get this deal at Top’s. I got 17.57 lbs. of chicken breasts for $ 34.96. That was $ 1.99 a lb. and there was a limit of 3 packages. I haven’t seen that price around here in a couple of years. They had plenty so if I have to go anywhere else this week, I will stop and get 3 more.

This week our sprinkler company came and blew out the lines for the winter. Our heating people just came to service the furnace for the winter to make sure that everything is working well. Hubby is keeping him busy while I blog.

In the meantime, I have been organizing pantries. I started cleaning out my chest freezer and then realized that those bins wouldn’t fit because there was too much meat in the freezer. So we are eating out of it every night so that we can get it down to where the bins will work.

Also I canned up a whole bunch of chicken from the freezer the end of last week and put it on the shelf. The chicken I got today I will cut up tonight and can it in the morning.

In case you guys haven’t gotten the word, now there is a shortage of resin. It is used in making Ziploc bags and other food grade bags. So if you are in need, I would grab some now before they disappear and the price skyrockets. This info came from within the largest manufacturing plant of those bags in the U.S. Notice how the media isn’t even mentioning it.

Hubby has been moving our underground sprinkler system in the new garden in the backyard. I helped where I could. The hosing was right where we are having the landscape company move two rose of sharon bushes. They have gotten too big for the gardens they are in. We didn’t want to have a repeat of when the first garden was put in. They cut the sprinkler hose. Now these are safe and out of the way.

Tonight we are having leftover fish that we cooked up last night. Hubby had breaded haddock and I had salmon. We will reheat the leftovers in the air fryer.

Did you get a any good deals this week?

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Every Day

Grocery Shop At Home

Grocery prices are so high that I don’t even want to shop anymore unless I see a remarkable sale. There is one coming this Sunday that I will not miss. Rarely can I say that these days.

Hubby and I were discussing the prices the other day. He has agreed to eat 99% of the time from our pantries, refrigerator, and freezer. Do we go out to eat regularly? Nope. Do we constantly buy fast food? Nope. Once in a rare while, we will get KFC chicken or an Arby’s roast beef and I always use coupons. We do that if we have had a very busy day. In Lent, we will get fish fries from Chiavetta’s. But that is it! It is so much cheaper and healthier to eat our own cooking.

We make all of our pizza using naan bread. We make our own Chinese food. I can’t even remember the last time that we ordered Chinese food. I think it was before Covid. On a rare occasion (maybe twice a year), we will get a sweet at the bakery owned by one of my neighbors. I haven’t even gotten bagels at Panera Bread in a very long time and I still have lots of gift cards. Maybe I will stop and get some next Tuesday for Hubby. He really likes them.

So we are going to eat up what we have here. We may end up having some weird sides when they get low. But we will make the best of it knowing that we are not spending our money and making these large corporations any richer than they already are. We are all getting poorer while they made billions off of us last year and the year before. And it continues and will continue into next year.

Will we ever buy? Yes, of course. Two times come to mind. Fresh produce and dairy products, etc. don’t keep for long. We need eggs, butter, sour cream, cream cheese, cheeses, and cream all of the time. But I will try to buy those only when they are on sale or cheap at Walmart or Aldi’s. I have enough butter to last me until the Thanksgiving sales. While I am thinking about Thanksgiving, I will be buying turkeys and other on sale stuff that is the cheapest during that holiday. I will not pass up a great sale especially on meat. Even though it is harder these days to track prices because they rise so often, I am still doing it. I need to know when I am getting a great deal!

Hubby is the only one eating bread so I will be baking it and freezing it. I can also make him muffins, quick breads, donuts, hamburger and hot dog rolls. He makes pancakes and waffles sometimes for our family Sunday breakfasts. West loves his apple cinnamon waffles.

We are able to make our own salad dressings and sauces when we run out of what we have.

While we are not shopping, I will be putting aside the budgeted money that we are not spending to refill the larders. Things will be expensive to replace but I will carefully watch for sales and cook most everything from just basic foods.

Once my canning jars come today, we should be set for the winter. I hate snow and ice so I will be staying home as much as possible.

The rest of my bins for the freezer came yesterday. So I moved a lot of the vegetables, fruits, shredded cheeses, tortilla wraps, yeast, jam, nuts, etc. to my upstairs freezer. All my meat got moved to the chest freezer.

I plan on sorting all of the meats and fish into the bins today. The things that I want to can today and tomorrow will go in the refrigerator Then I will quickly defrost my chest freezer using my hairdryer and plastic ice scraper. I will show you the results in a later post.

BTW, that piece of meat that I thawed the other day was two filet mignon’s that the butcher had cut and wrapped two together. I found another package just like it yesterday when I was going through my freezer. So Hubby grilled then the other night for dinner. It was a nice surprise.

Are you eating from your pantries and freezers?

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Every Day

Getting Ready for Winter, Etc.

Three of my six bins for the freezer arrived yesterday. They say the rest are arriving today.

This is only part of what I canned on Monday. I cooked up the large pack of ground beef and was able to fill 11 jars. Then I cut up the top round roast and was able to fill 3 more jars. Since my canner does 7 pints at a time, this gave me two full loads. They both process at 75 minutes so it was perfect. I had never done stew beef before so I thought I had filled up the jars but after processing, there was room left in them. So next time, I know to fill them with more meat. I have already put away the other 6 jars but I need to put these in the basement. I am running out of room upstairs.

Yesterday morning, I went up to Home Depot to get 5 more bags of lawn soil. Hubby has been filling in around the edges of the new driveway that was put in last fall with the soil and planting grass. He had already purchased 10 bags but it wasn’t enough. Those bags are heavy. I was lucky to find a young employee who did all the lifting, rung me up, and put them in the car. Hubby finished it yesterday and he had just put the last bit of seed down, when it rained. So we didn’t have to water. That made me happy since we just paid our 3 month $200. water bill.

After bringing the soil home and Hubby unloaded it, I went back to Walmart. I had not been in a Walmart in a long time. I always get delivery. But I am running out of some of the sizes of my canning jars and their site showed they had them. They had not one. But I needed other things that were on my winter list so I did a bit of shopping. I was shocked to see how barely stocked the shelves were. I have never seen a store this low on stock. That Panama Canal slowdown of the ships is really hurting the store inventories. If you need things for the winter, I would suggest getting them sooner rather than later. I don’t know how long supplies will last.

Fortunately, our 240 pounds of water softener salt arrived. We also have enough furnace filters and humidifier pads to get us through the winter. If you are stocking for the winter, they are just a couple of things that you should look at.

I picked up some OTC necessary medicines that we needed, some warm clothing, a bit of food, and warm socks. $178. later I walked out of the store with just 4 bags. Things are getting more expensive. I won’t bore you with the list of items. When I got home, I ordered many cases of pint jars which they are shipping from the warehouse. I don’t want to be short of them while I am doing the freezer.

Hubby and I went through our home over the weekend and made a list of all of the items that we believe will not last us the winter. When I talk about winter, I mean 6 months. We get a lot of snow and cold here and the forecast for the winter here is not good. It looks like it will arrive early and last later than normal. Lots of snow and below average temperatures are coming. I told him that I am not going out of the house this winter to run errands or for anything else. I have actually rescheduled all of my appointments until late spring. When we need fresh produce, dairy or anything else, we have Walmart Delivery and Instacart. So we can get delivery of almost everything. Our drug store will deliver our prescriptions.

Later in the day, a man from the Tree Service we called came to look at our pear tree and our other trees. The pear tree is loosing it’s leaves early and didn’t look good. The man told Hubby it probably was related to the weather this year. No fungus found. He told Hubby to get some Neem (which we already have) and just spray it in the early spring. He says it will come back and be just fine. He is coming back to trim our birch tree and maple tree. He said our cherry tree is just perfect. Our purple plum is on it’s way out. But he said they only last about 15 years anyhow. It is almost 14 years old now. So we will have to think about what we are going to replace it with.

For dinner last night, Hubby grilled the chicken that I purchased last weekend. He used my homemade BBQ sauce. It was so delicious. It is a recipe that carried down over the years from our ancestors. He grilled 4 breasts so there are two left for dinner tonight.

Since our dinner is ready for tonight and I quickly picked up the house, threw a load of laundry in, did the dishes, and cleaned the bathrooms this morning, I can start working on pulling food out of the freezers that I want to can. When it thaws, I will start the canner. Then I can defrost the chest freezer and organize it. This will definitely take me a few days.

Are you stocking up on necessities for the winter?

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Every Day

A Small Meat Haul and What I Plan To Do With It

Since the Buffalo Bills weren’t playing until tonight, I decided to get some of the sale meat items at Top’s yesterday. Figuring that most people would be home watching football, I went once the games started. Oh Boy was I ever wrong. I think every women in my little town had the same idea. It was packed. So I got in and out as quickly as I could.

I snagged a big pack of 80% lean ground beef at $ 2.99 a lb. I will be cooking it and canning it this morning.

Finally, they had split chicken breasts in my store and they were on sale for $ 2.19 a lb. My store has not had them for a couple of years. I am going to ask Hubby to grill them tonight using up the quart of homemade BBQ sauce that I made when my sister- in- law was here . That will give us at least two meals. But they are huge so maybe the meat will give us a couple of brunch meals too.

I also purchased a top round roast for $ 4.99 a lb. This will get cut up for stew and either canned or frozen for a couple of meals. I make my stews in the crockpot so it tenderizes the meat. I can’t buy stew meat for this price.

I decided to start thawing the mystery meat I showed you. I will let you know what it is when it thaws.

Excitement was in the air when I got up and sat down with my coffee this morning. I opened my e-mail to find that my bins to do the freezer are coming tomorrow. I can’t wait. So I may get a head start on organizing it a bit today. At least I can pull out all the rest of the meat that I am going to can up and get it thawing in the refrigerator.

Any veggies, fruits, and cheese that are in the chest freezer will go into the refrigerator freezer. I don’t have too much of that because we eat a lot of fresh. Any meat that is in the that freezer will either get canned or go down to the chest freezer.

It is looking like I will be pretty busy this week. But I can’t wait to see the finished project.

Today, we have 240 lbs. of pellet salt for our water softener being delivered via Fed Ex. I expect that the driver is not going to be a happy camper. I will have to be especially nice to him. They are coming in 40 lb. bags each with a separate tracking number. This is what will get us through the winter. We can’t get them at the store because they are too heavy for us. If we can just get them in the garage, my son and grandson can take them down to the water softener for us the next time they come out.

What are you guys up to today?

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Every Day

A Big Mistake and Changing The Way We Use Our Freezer

Does anyone know what this is? When I was getting something out of my freezer yesterday, I spotted this. It was wrapped in butcher’s paper and this was inside. I made the mistake of not marking what was in it. I don’t even remember buying it at the butcher shop. It looks like it could be ground beef. I guess we will find out when I thaw it. If it is, I will can it.

My chest freezer is out of control! I can’t find anything without unloading many things. I have tried so many ways over the years to keep it neat and sorted and eventually they just frustrate me. I was using reusable bags for a while and that was working but then they started falling apart. The handles would fall off or the bag would rip as I was removing it from the freezer.

I could buy an upright but they are expensive and I don’t want to spend the money on one. Our money is being saved for another goal. So Hubby and I decided to make the chest freezer easier to navigate.

I measured the freezer yesterday and set out to find a way to organize it. We have these on order from The Container Store:

https://www.containerstore.com/s/blue-6-gal.-stackable-recycle-bin-with-white-handle/d?q=stack%20and%20carry%20bins&productId=10032152

I purchased 6 of them. Only 5 will fit in the freezer because it has a built in shelf over the motor. The sixth one I am going to use to carry things from the freezer to my kitchen. I have had this freezer for 13+ years. I always thought it was 7.2 cu. ft. However, when I pulled the information on the freezer out of our file yesterday, I realized that it is actually 8.8 cu. ft.

Realizing that the containers will take up space, I am canning more of my beef and chicken. I have been doing this for a while to get as much meat shelf stable as possible in case of a power outage.

We have also been eating out of the freezer for months. It is still grilling season, so we have been enjoying steak and barbecued chicken using homemade BBQ sauce.

When these bins come, I will rearrange everything. I like to keep my fruits, vegetables, and cheese in the upstairs freezer. The meat goes into the deep freezer. But that has gotten out of control lately too. So there is a lot of organizing to get done.

How do you guys keep your freezers organized? Any tips you would be willing to share?