Month: October 2023

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Every Day

Frugal Things This Past Week

These are the things we have done frugally this past week:

  • Made a return to Walmart of a dented can from a grocery delivery
  • We had a small hole in the basement wall where the new A/C unit stuff comes in from outside. The A/C guys filled it on the outside but I could see daylight from the hole on the inside. Hubby went down to the basement and filled it with plumbers putty. I don’t want that freezing cold air this winter coming into my house.
  • The winter fertilizer has been put on the lawn so the lawn should winter the weather well.
  • When Hubby put the new motor in the furnace he noticed that one of the screw holes was stripped. He has been researching how to fix that and he will be doing it tomorrow.
  • We have a magnetic closer on our mailbox and the postman knocks if off once in a while. Hubby repaired it again.
  • We had a freeze here so Hubby and I trimmed bushes that need to be trimmed in the Fall and threw out most of our annual flowers. We put our hanging baskets in the garage to store them.
  • We ate every meal at home this week. With the prices today that saves a boatload of money. I made beef stew, shrimp fra diavolo, a night of odds and ends from the refrigerator, and Chef’s salad. I even had some beef stew leftover to freeze for another meal.
  • We invested in another large CD.
  • All our patio furniture has been put away in the shed.
  • I waited until our gasoline tank on the car was almost empty. I filled it using $.80 off a gallon from Tops Rewards.
  • We took the screen door off of our back door and put the storm door on.
  • Hubby went up to our tire place to get the regular tires changed over to the snow tires so that the car is ready for the snow we are supposed to get next week. However, there is now a manufacturer’s rule( because of liability issues) that the tire places can’t put snows or even regular tires back on the car if they are over 10 years old. So he had to purchase 4 brand new snow tires which cost us $ 750. Since we will have to purchase 4 new regular tires when the snows come off in the spring, Hubby left all 8 tires with them. So that was an expense that we weren’t thinking about. Fortunately, we save for major expenses. FYI, our SUV was 10 years old last April and had all the original tires. We only have 46,000 miles on the SUV. The man who we always deal with said he was sorry about that. Then he joked with Hubby and said no one keeps their car 10 years. Hubby says I have always kept my cars for a long long time. We have always taken very good care of our cars doing the maintenance when it needs to be done and keeping them very clean. This 2013 car we have now has never had to be repaired. It has had minor body work done when a lady hit it in a parking lot at the aquarium. Otherwise it has just gone into the dealer for recalls.
  • Talking about recalls, Hyundai sent us one yesterday to have the entire underside seal coated. They are doing them because they are rusting out. Since they want to do that free for this 10 year old car, Hubby got an appointment to have it done.
  • I have been taking 3 minute showers this week.
  • We have not used lights in the daytime
  • We have had a warm spell so we saved on heating for about 3 days.
  • I found a bunch of printed grocery lists that are over 20 years. I will be using them up for my lists the next few weeks.
  • I picked up some Halloween cookies that my friend, Jessica, made custom for me at her bakery. I will be giving them to the 4 little kids that live on either side of me for Halloween. I will take them over this weekend for their parents to give them on Halloween. We are not doing Halloween trick or treating because of our age. The schools out here have Covid again. We just can’t take the chance of getting it from someone we answer the door to.
  • I did one load of wash using cold water and hung most of it to dry. The dishwasher was run twice this week.

That was it for this week. Feel free to share with us what you did to save money this week in the comments.

Categories
Every Day

The Best Laid Plans……

Ever have one of those days where the best laid plans seem to go off track? I am sure that everyone has had a day like that.

On Monday, I told you that I was planning on canning the meat I purchased on Tuesday. So I got up bright and early that day. The first thing I did was put the chuck roast along with fresh potatoes, carrots, celery, and beef broth in the crock pot. I turned it on so that we would have a nice dinner after my day of canning.

I washed all of my jars to can the ground beef and got my accessories and vinegar ready. I put half of the ground beef in a huge fry pan to cook it. As I was standing over it, I got the strong smell of vinegar. I then smelled the meat that was not in the pan and got the same vinegar smell. I knew immediately that Top’s had sold me bad meat. I checked the date on the label and it was the same day I was cooking it. I had not checked that at the store because one of the meat ladies was putting it all out and handed me a package because she was in my way. I assumed it was all fresh for the sale. That was a mistake on my part! Never again will I not check the date.

I called Top’s and they told me to throw the meat out and bring my receipt and their label from the package. They said they would refund my money. So after taking the time to throw all the meat out and put it in the garbage can in the garage, I went up to the store. A woman refunded by money. I had paid $ 18.90 and she said to me I will give you $ 19.00 like she was doing me a big favor. I spent more than that in gasoline and time to correct their mistake. I was tempted to say something but I let it go. I decided I would not go back and buy another package. At that moment I did not trust what Top’s was doing with their meat. The meat was totally brown when I opened it except that the outside part was red. Are they selling old meat, putting a new date on it, and just putting pink slime on the outside? I don’t know but I was not taking any risk again.

My sister had mentioned to me that Aldi’s had chicken on sale for $2.49 a lb. They had no tenderloins so they put their chicken breasts at the same price. I got 2 large packages.

I came home and cut all the chicken up to can it. As I was getting ready to do so, I noticed that there was no heat radiating from the crock pot. I felt the side and it was ice cold. I unplugged it and plugged it back into another outlet. Sure enough it heated up. Hubby has to replace the other outlet. But there was now no way that this stew was going to be ready to eat for dinner. UGH! So when it was finished by 8pm that night, I put it in a stock pot and cooled it down before I put it in the fridge. We ate odds and ends from the fridge that evening. Last night I heated the stew up and it was delicious. We will eat it again tonight.

I canned 4 quart jars of chicken. They held the entire 2 packages of chicken. I decided not to can the pork so I froze it for Hubby to grill it outside over the weekend. I was just too tired after the chicken was done.

The next morning I noticed all of the can lids were popped. However I always take the rings off and then lift the jars by their lid to make sure they sealed. The very last one I lifted did not seal. I had to throw that jar of chicken out. I was so disappointed but it is the first time in 2 years that I have not had a jar seal. So I count myself fortunate. I have no idea why it didn’t seal. I did everything right. No cracks in the jar or lid and I wiped the rim with vinegar. Oh well!

My week is getting better and better, yet very busy. I have been helping Hubby cut and trim a lot of our flowering bushes to get them ready for the winter. We also threw out our hanging baskets of flowers. We kept the actual baskets though so that we can reuse them next year. I am going to try to grow impatience to put in them next spring. I got some seeds to do that. Those two baskets were $39.99 each this spring at Niagara Produce. If I can grow them myself, it will save us a lot of money. But anyhow we did so much work that with grass clippings and all of the stuff from the gardens we put out the equivalent of 6 barrels of those and garbage.

I will post our weekly Frugal Things post sometime this weekend.

Categories
Every Day

Meat Shopping This Week

All I am buying this week is meat. Top’s deals today were good. At Top’s I got 2.84 lbs. of all natural boneless pork ribs for $ 4.49 a lb. Chuck roasts were at a good price so I got a package of 2 big ones that weighed 5.12 lbs. for $ 5.49 a lb. The ground beef was 6.52 lbs. at $2.99 a lb. Last was 2 packages of Tyson Chicken patties on sale for $5.57 for each package.

Walmart is selling the chicken patties for $ 6.96. So I got a good deal and that is why I purchased 2. We love to make a sandwich with the Chick Fil A sauce. My granddaughter is coming soon to visit and she will like these. They make such an easy meal in our air fryer.

I used the food saver to put one of the chuck roasts in the freezer. The other one I will use tomorrow to make a beef stew in the crock pot. That too will be an easy meal since I will be pressure canning most of the pork ribs and all of the ground beef. I cut up some of the pork to make fajitas for dinner tonight. I thawed a bunch of chicken breasts that were in my freezer to can also. Little by little I am canning up meat from my freezer.

I am trying to make room for turkeys. This year I am going to pressure can a turkey for the first time. BTW, I noticed that Walmart has the Butterball Premium turkeys for $ 1.28 a lb. I will check everyone else’s sale prices when they are advertised but I think the Butterball’s won’t be any lower than this price which is a good price for these times.

Anyone seeing turkey prices in your area yet?

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Every Day

Frugal Things We Have Done Recently, Etc.

These are the things we have done recently:

  • All lights have been off during daylight hours
  • All grocery lists have been based mostly on sale items
  • My laptop is unplugged when not in use
  • Made meatball casserole with a salad on the side; made 4 lunch and dinner meals
  • Took 3 minute showers to see if they took less than navy showers
  • Folded towels right away when dryer goes off; towels are one thing that I usually always use the dryer for
  • Our heat had been on for a while; we are carefully keeping it a little lower than last year and down to 64 during the night
  • I froze about a dozen eggs for future meals
  • We received our gas and electric bill for the past month yesterday. We used 393 KWH of electric which was 3 more than same period last year. We used 23 ccf’s of gas. Last year we used 41 ccf’s. This year was much warmer. The average temperature was 60 degrees vs. 53 degrees last year. Our total bill was $ 114.27. Last year’s bill was $ 143.79. Besides it being warmer, I really tried to not use the stove top and oven which is gas. Small appliances were used 95% of the time. It would be nice to see all of our bills go down this year. However we are facing a rate increase starting with next month’s bill.
  • I cleaned our refrigerator and made sure that nothing would spoil. I sliced up the fresh peppers that I purchased recently and froze them for winter stir fries. I found extra bags of cheese in my deli drawer even though I already had one open. I froze those also. They thaw overnight in the fridge when I need them. I consolidated the two open jars of wing sauce into one.
  • We continue to eat down our chest freezer and can the meat that we can. I scanned the sales that are starting tomorrow. Ground beef will be $ 2.99 a lb. and chuck roasts will be $ 5.49 a lb. I will be canning some of those. Since it is getting colder here, I will put a chuck roast with some vegetables in the crock pot next week.
  • My son and grandson took us out to breakfast to our favorite Greek restaurant to celebrate our birthdays which we recently had. It was delicious and a nice change from cooking breakfast.
  • Hubby filled the cracks at the edge of the driveway with blacktop filler. Fortunately, we had 24 hours of dry weather after that. It has been raining ever since.

I want to thank so many of you who prayed for me for the lung CT scan that I had last Tuesday. I was diagnosed on a regular CT scan last year with Pulmonary Fibrosis. My mother died of this disease so I knew all too well what I was in for. It is terminal. My primary doctor recommended a lung doctor that he said he and his family would go to if any of them had an issue. I went to him immediately. He looked at the CT scan which the doctor at the hospital said showed some honeycombing in my right lung. He told me that he would follow me and send me for this specialized scan at one year. After a number of tests and 3 month appointments this past year, my doctor sent me for this scan which scans the lungs in segments so they can really look at them well. I found out the results late yesterday.

I do not have pulmonary fibrosis. The area that the doctor a year ago said was pulmonary fibrosis was a small amount of scarring in the right lobe. It could have been caused by pneumonia, bronchitis or even an injury. I did have a skiing accident that broke a number of ribs many years ago. Who knows? But I was so relieved that it is not pulmonary fibrosis. Hubby and I celebrated with a drink last night. So again thanks so much for all of your prayers. God was listening.

Please feel free to add your frugal things in comments. Those comments lately have been so helpful to so many people including me!

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Every Day

Do It Now Before It Is Too Late

I tried to get a 60 count box of eggs from Walmart last week. I was getting really low on eggs. We go through a lot of them since we eat them for breakfasts, on salads, and for snacks. When my grandson and son come for a Sunday breakfast, we can go through a dozen easily.

I also tried to get a number of Clear American flavored waters, and some Coke for company. My granddaughter is coming to visit in a couple of weeks. They did not have many of the waters and none of the cola I had wanted.

We have done many delivery orders in the almost 3 years that I have had Walmart +. Never have I had so many items out of stock. I received 7 out of the 21 I ordered. I was shocked especially when they did not have the eggs.

Since I had to go out yesterday, I decided I would actually go into Walmart about 8 AM to see what was going on in my store. I immediately went to check out the eggs. They got a truck last night but they only had 3 of the 60 count eggs. I grabbed one and then went to the waters. There were only 3 of the flavor that my granddaughter loves. I purchased 2.

I wandered around the store and saw a lot of items out of stock especially canned items. The dairy isles were sparse also. They are no longer carrying the Perdue twin pack of chicken that I was getting for $ 1.14 a lb. They had single Perdue chickens but they were very small and $ 1.32 a lb. I passed on those because there was much more bone than meat. The prices were up again on a lot of items that I usually get there.

The reason I tell you this is that if you have not stocked on a few months of food, now is the time to do it. Things in the stores are not looking good.

You all know, I am sure about the war between Israel and Hamas. Oil prices are going up and I believe they will sky rocket. If it goes up to $200.- $ 300. a barrel, gas will cost us a fortune. The middle eastern countries are already raising the price of a barrel of oil. This all reminds me of 1973 when I would take our car and go sit with my infant son in gasoline lines to fill it up. The prices were always going up per gallon and there were shortages everywhere. Hubby carpooled to work. So on the day that the car was home, I would go search out gas. I can’t tell you how many times I would wait in line for over an hour and finally end up a few cars away when they would put up a sign that said they were out of gas. You could pass by a number of gas stations in our town and finally find a station that had some. It was so frustrating. Unless this war ends soon, we are headed in that direction.

Inflation, which is ongoing, is raising the price of food. However if gasoline prices keep going up that will also affect the price of your food. That is why I am telling you that if you do not have extra food in your home get it now. I know prices are high right now but this war could raise them so much higher. Even if you can only get a couple of cans of basic vegetables, fruits, meat, or fish a week, do it and start building a stockpile. Can you imagine going to the store and not being able to get what you need because there are so many shortages? I can. I don’t believe that there will be no food but I do believe that food will become unaffordable for most people.

So if you have not prepared for you and your family, start now. Nothing is more important than food.

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Every Day

My Heat Has Been Running A Lot Today. Are You Ready for The Winter?

As I sit here this morning working on blog posts, I am hearing the furnace running and wondering what those bills will cost this year. We got down to 34 yesterday outside here recently. We are seeing more and more 30’s and 40’s. at night. I am thankful that we changed the air filter to get ready.

Last week on our TV news channel, National Grid said their customers would see about a 20% drop this coming winter in their heating bills for people who heat with natural gas. Wow! That was a surprise! There are two utility companies in our western NY area. National Grid is one and NYSEG is the other.

We have NYSEG. I kept waiting to hear the same information from our company. They finally said that they expected heating costs to go down by 18%.

Yesterday, we got this surprise. The PSC( the NYS agency which regulates our utility companies) approved a rate increase for NYSEG: https://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/ny-news/2023/10/13/nyseg-rge-electric-gas-utility-rate-hikes-approved-what-it-means/71152431007/ .Our governor is saying that the company was asking for double this amount so she is happy with the increase. Huh?

So this rate increase takes effect in November. Interesting timing!

Plus with two wars now escalating, I believe we will see everything go up especially if the U.S. gets involved. This is the first time in all of my years that I believe that war will be coming to our country. I pray not but all the signs are there. With the middle east at war, we will most likely see oil prices escalate which will send the heating bills much higher. So I think we are in for really high bills this winter if you heat with natural gas, oil, or propane. We need to drill and open the pipelines here. But I won’t hold my breath for that to happen!

These are the things that we have done or are doing to keep our heat bill down:

  • Lowered our thermostat to 64 at night
  • Caulked windows where it needed it
  • Replaced weather stripping at the bottom of doors where needed
  • Get window kits and a door kit to help keep the cold out
  • Stocked on filters for the winter and will change them once a month
  • Reversed our ceiling fans to go clockwise for the winter
  • Put two warm blankets on every bed in the house so that 64 is comfortable at night
  • Keep warm throws or blankets where you sit during the day
  • Put cloth snakes at the bottom of outside doors
  • Stocked up on warm sweaters to wear in the house
  • We will be opening our oven after we roast anything to let the heat seep into the kitchen
  • We only open window shades and blinds on the sunny windows. We close them when the sun is off of them.
  • No air vents are blocked
  • We cleaned the air vents and cold air returns
  • We keep our gas tankless hot water heater at 120 degrees
  • Only use your oven or range top if absolutely necessary. Use other small appliances when you can
  • Insulate the hot water pipes in the basement
  • Close all heating vents in the basement
  • If you need some new insulation do it. It will save you a lot of money on your heat bill

I hope my list will give you some ideas to get ready. If I have missed something, feel free to add to it in the comments.

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Every Day

Small Grocery Haul

I only needed a couple of items this week. Fortunately, both stores were next to each other.

Do you guys have a Running’s? I don’t shop there a lot but they have a great sale once in a while. They had these Mt. Olive pickles for $ 4.49 each. I got the last 64 oz. bread and butter pickles they had. It is perfect for the holidays. I also bought the 80 oz. dill spears because Hubby and I love them with a sandwich or just for a snack. My total there was $ 8.98.

At Top’s, I purchased a head of local cabbage for $ .79 a lb. I paid $ 2.66 for it. Hubby can’t wait to make his Waldorf coleslaw. The celery was $2.29. We use it it for snacks, soup, stew, and diced in chicken or ham salad.

The can of corn was on sale with a Super Coupon for $ .49. We use these in our homemade soups such as chicken, turkey, and taco.

The white thing you see is 2 whole haddock fish. It was on sale for $ 10.99 a lb. I paid $ 13.41 for both. Haddock is Hubby’s favorite. I am a salmon girl and I am looking for a good sale.

Lastly the sweet pepper bags were on sale for B1G1F. I paid $ 6.49 for both. My total at Top’s was $ 25.34.

I was noticing in Top’s just how much the prices have gone up in a just a week. I again saw items that I usually buy that I would not buy at the prices they are asking. UGH!

Did you get any good deals this week?

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Every Day

What I Haven’t Told You Over The Past Year

So many of you have wondered why I disappear so often and don’t post for days. Well I am going to come clean today.

First getting old is a pain in the rump! If it isn’t one ache or pain, it is another. I had another birthday this week and I will soon be 80! To get there is a few years but time flies.

Last Fall, I ended up in the hospital with severe sciatica. I could not walk for 4 days. That pain comes and goes and right now it is giving me a very hard time. I found out at my Dr.’s appointment yesterday that it may have caused another issue. I need to go to physical therapy so I will be setting those appointments up today.

But that isn’t the worse part. Just a year ago I was diagnosed with a terminal lung disease in the ER of one of our hospitals. This lung disease took my mother’s life. I immediately found a great lung doctor. He looked at the cat scan and has been following me. So I have a lot of appointments there too. He does not believe that I have this disease. But now that it is a year later, he has ordered and gotten approved a specialized cat scan that should tell us for sure. I am having that done next week and following up with him a couple of weeks later. This doctor is good and in high demand so appointments are a wait.

So if any of you pray, please pray that my CT scan does not show that the area involved has spread. I am having it done on next Tuesday. Thanks for your prayers.

Meanwhile, I post when I am up to it and when I actually have anything of value to say. I have to go to pick up some prescriptions today(pain patches are a big help when going out) so I will stop at the market and let you know what I got later.

Categories
Every Day

Frugal Things This Past Week

These are the things we did to save a little money this week:

  • Spectrum sent us a copy of a bill to show us that they credited us for the 11 days that we were without ESPN and some other channels because of the dispute. They gave us a credit of $6.00. Since they didn’t take our monthly payment out of our bank account until Sept. 17th, they wanted to let us know that the credit came off of that payment. That’s $ .54 a day. Could they spare it for leaving us without NFL football? Since our cable bill is $ 80.97 + taxes, fees, and other charges monthly, it doesn’t seem like much. However as I have said before the little amounts of money add up.
  • I mailed in $ 15.00 worth of liquor rebates. I had stocked up for the winter.
  • Big Lots sent me a $10.00 off coupon with no minimum purchase because I hadn’t shopped there in a while. I used it to buy needed dish towels to replace some old worn ones. I cut up the old ones for rags.
  • The landscapers moved two rose of sharon bushes to our new garden. We had paid for this the last time they were here. They didn’t do it then because the bushes were still blooming.
  • We ate all our meals cooked at home using the most efficient small appliances.
  • Hubby exercised by walking and taking care of our gardens.
  • I exercised on the recumbent bike and did a lot of errands just walking around some stores.
  • We got our senior flu shots. These are paid for by Medicare that we paid into for years while we both worked.
  • We got 4 free Covid tests from the government. If you haven’t signed up for the ones they just sent to USPS to deliver, you can sign up at www.covid.gov/tests .
  • I did 2 loads of laundry this week on Eco setting in cold water. I dried one load in the dryer and hung one load.
  • We turned our heat off a few days ago but then had to run the A/C for a day and a half because it was so hot. Now it is turning cold and winter will be here soon enough. We will see how long we can go without the heat this week.
  • Hubby found about a hundred wasps trying to build a nest in our patio umbrella. He killed them with some wasp spray. I hate any kind of stinging insects. Thank God he didn’t get stung.
  • We have turned off our water faucets that have the turn offs in the basement for the winter.
  • We took out another large CD this week at the bank.

That is it for last week. Did you do any frugal things that saved some money last week? Please feel free to share with all of us.

Categories
Every Day

Walmart Grocery Delivery

I had this Walmart grocery haul delivered a couple of days ago:

  • Frozen Sliced Mushrooms $ 2.74
  • Pepper Jack Cheese Slices $ 2.22
  • Turkey Burgers, 2 lbs. $ 10.72
  • French Style Green Beans $ .64 a can
  • Pitted Olives $ 1.94 a can
  • SF Cool Whip $ 1.98
  • SF Ice Breakers $ 2.82 each
  • Equate Stomach Relief $ 4.38
  • Carb Balance Wraps $ 4.88
  • Tyson Chicken Patties $ 6.22

Total for all was $51.22 including a $6.00 tip for the delivery driver.

I love buying the frozen mushrooms. That way I can just take a handful out when I need them and not worry about the fresh ones going bad before I can use them. They taste so much better than the canned ones.

The pepper jack and the French style green beans are some of Hubby’s favorites. It is hard to get him to eat veggies so any that he will eat, I will buy.

The chicken patties are for quick lunches once in a while. I make a knock off Chic Fil A with these, some tomato and lettuce, and Chic Fil A sauce. The GV chicken dipping sauce is exactly the same as the Chic Fil A sauce and a lot cheaper. I also make them with grilled chicken breasts( which is the restaurant version) when I have them already cooked. The Chic Fil A is a long drive to get to. I loved when I was in AZ that I could go to one within a mile. I miss that. But I do save money by making our own.

The wraps and turkey burgers are always in my freezer because we love them. We use a lot of black olives in salads and Mexican dishes. The Cool whip is for SF jellos and puddings for desserts.

Hubby asked for the SF Ice Breakers. I am always stocking medicines that we might need because they have been so short in the stores. So when I can get them, I do.

Just a small haul this week but things that were on my list that were cheaper than Top’s.