2024 Day 2: Saving Intentionally

Brrr! It was 28 degrees when I got up at 6:15am. I quickly grabbed my coffee to start my day. I am leaving the curtains and shades closed again today unless the sun is shining and I don’t think that will be a possibility.

After checking my planner, I took my navy shower and got dressed for the day. I decided to go out and run my errands and took a second cup of coffee with me in my travel cup. I like to go out early to avoid the crowds.

My first stop was at Top’s gas station since I only had 49 miles in the tank. The gasoline price on the pump was $3.499 per gallon. I had $ .90 off per gallon using reward points. So I paid $2.599 per gallon for a total of $36.00.

My next stop was in the Top’s grocery store. I went to the pharmacy and got 2 bottles of fish oil and 2 bottles of Vitamin D3 on sale for B1G1F. I also had a digital coupon for $ 1.00 off one of the fish oils and I got $ 2.99 off because it is 6% off Senior Discount Day. So my total was $ 45.79. Vitamins are expensive. I try to buy them on the January sales.

Then I got my groceries. I got 1 package of Sugardale thick sliced bacon using a Super Coupon for $ 3.99. On sale I got 1 package of Top’s soft tortillas for $ 2.00. Then I went looking for the vine tomatoes that were on sale for $ 1.99 a lb. and the new Kinder single bar that was Free with a digital coupon. I could not find either. I ran into the store manager and asked him why things were not stocked when they knew it was senior discount day. There were boxes all over the aisles. He asked what I was looking for and I told him. He found out that the Kinder bars had not come in. Then we went to produce for the tomatoes.There was no vine tomatoes just like I told him. He said to me that they had sent grape tomatoes instead of vine tomatoes. I thanked him and said I will go to Walmart and look for a tomato since I need it for BLT’s for dinner tonight. He asked why I would do that since they had nice slicing tomatoes. I told him they were $ 2.79 a lb. and I was not paying that price. So he took the one tomato that I wanted and repriced it to $ 1.99 a lb. That is the label you see on it. My total at Top’s for these groceries was $ 6.59 after the 6% discount of $ .55.

The reason I did two separate orders at Top’s is because the groceries come out of our grocery budget and the vitamins and supplements come our of our OTC pharmacy budget. I forgot to give you that amount in my budget. I will update that sometime today or tomorrow.

Also in the Top’s picture is a bag of frozen pepper stir fry that I always purchase at Dollar Tree for $ 1.25. It is cheaper there than any other store in my area.

I stopped at Aldi’s to get their on sale Bagel Skinny’s for $ 2.49. These cost me between $4. and $ 6. at my other stores. Hubby loves these for breakfast with my homemade peach jam. He was almost out of them.

I also stopped at Walgreen’s and found these Christmas cards on sale at 50% off. I had none left this year. So I ended up with 56 nice cards for a total of $ 13.98 + $ 1.12 in sales tax.

At Walmart I picked up things that were on sale at Top’s but cheaper here than the sale prices at Top’s. I got 6 packages of taco Seasoning for $ .57 each. One jar of salsa for $ 1.77, 1 loaf of bread for $ 1.32, and 2 packages of extra sharp cheddar cheese for $ 2.00 each. My total was $10.51. The cheese is cheaper by a penny each at Aldi but we do not like their bar cheese. It tastes like there is a coating on each surface and it is disgusting. We needed the bread because we are having BLT’s for dinner and making a loaf of bread was not on my schedule today.

You will also see in this picture that I picked up a 100 stamp roll of Forever stamps at the Post Office. Stamps today are still $ .66 each. On January 21st they go up to $ .68 each. Today, I paid $ 66.00.

All of this took me over 2 and 3/4 hours even though I organized my route driving. The stores were much more crowded than I thought they would be and the post office was jammed. So it was a lot of waiting in line.

When I got home, Hubby was up. I made us each a sausage, egg, and cheese McMuffin for brunch.

Oops, I also forgot to tell you that my property tax bill had come so I went to Town Hall and paid that too. It was about $ 60. less than last year’s even though our assessment went up by $30,000. I was very happy with that. It was just a few dollars under $ 4,800. I will update that category too when I get to it.

Well, the rest of the day, we will watch TV, eat dinner, and I will read a little bit more in The Tightwad Gazette.

What did you do to save money today?