Month: February 2025

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Every Day

A Little Of This And A Little Of That

It has been a very busy week of appointments and errands. Our week started off with my son and West coming for breakfast on Sunday. I cooked a lb. of bacon, a lb. of sausage, and scrambled eggs(about a dozen and a half), and made French toast which took 4 more eggs. These eggs are getting expensive. I think I will start thawing the eggs in my freezer for our next big breakfast. It is still cheaper for me to cook than take everyone out to our Greek restaurant for breakfast. Then we spent a few hours playing rummy which this Grandma loves!

We ate all of our meals from our stockpile. We finished the turkey making a big pot of soup. We had a filet mignon, baked potato, and broccoli for dinner last night. Tonight we are splurging and getting take out fish fries from Chiavetta’s. We have not had them since last Lent( they started selling them again in November) so this will be a real treat. This weekend I will put a chuck roast in the crockpot and make a stew with plenty of carrots, onions, and potatoes. That will last us 3-4 days.

Two days ago I ran a lot of errands. I had to go to the Post Office with mail, to Home Depot to dispose of three Ion Recyclable batteries that were no longer charging, fill the car up with gasoline using my $.30 off a gallon, to Top’s for on sale cat litter and a half gallon of Half and Half, and to the liquor store. After that I was beat.

Yesterday, I went to Niagara Produce and purchased a chuck roast to put in the freezer. It was only $4.99 a lb. They also had a huge package of chicken tenders on sale for $2.49. That is the cheapest price I have seen in a long time. I am very low on chicken. Today after I run some more errands, I will pressure can all of it to put on my shelf.

I went back to Top’s yesterday on a 3 day sale to get an almost 9 lb. turkey breast for $ 1.29 a lb. Since I haven’t been able to find much chicken, I will substitute the turkey instead.

That was all I purchased this week so I did not spend a lot of money. After I call my eye doctor for an appointment when their office opens this morning, I will finish the errands that I didn’t finish the other day. I couldn’t get the car washed because it was raining. I will try again today. It is so dirty that it needs a good bath. I tried to bring some bottles back to Fast Cash but they weren’t open yet so I will try again today.

Other than all of these things, we have been cleaning, doing laundry, and watching our shows that we DVR so that we can watch them without commercials. Hubby also installed a new kitchen sink caddy to hold my brush, sponges, and dishcloth. My other one broke. He was having a very difficult time getting the sticky off the adhesive part that held the old one to the sink so that he could install the new one. So I gave him Goo Gone and that took care of it. I remembered that I used to use that many years ago.

Also I finally got the Federal and State taxes done and filed. I am glad to have that out of the way.

Did any of you guys save money or find some good deals this week?

I will we back this weekend with another post. I didn’t forget to tell you about the utility bill. That is coming.

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Every Day

Things We Are Doing To Save Money

Yesterday I roasted a 18.31 turkey that I got on sale at Thanksgiving. I served it with stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans, and gravy. After dinner, I cut all of the meat off of it and I will use it for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday meals. I also put all the skin and bones in the crock pot overnight. It made lots of turkey broth. The rest was frozen for future meals. This should make us 4 dinners, a huge pot of homemade turkey soup and a couple of casseroles. It should give us a total of about 15 – 16 dinners for each us. It is 16 degrees, cold and bitter out today. It’s a good day to use the big oven. I forgot to take a picture of the turkey when it was intact. But here is one while I was taking the meat off the bone.

Well, our snow plow guy was here again yesterday and today because it has been snowing for two days again now. We are so sick of this winter. I need Spring!

On Wednesday, I went to the market with a list of sale items. I was so disgusted with what was going on there that I vowed not to shop for as many months as I can. On my list was Mary Kitchen corned beef hash. This is a regular thing I buy when it is on sale because Hubby loves it with eggs for brunch sometimes. We were down to 3 cans and they had it on sale on B1G1F. My plan was to pick up 10 cans. It was well stocked but I soon knew why. Every can either was dented or rusting on the bottom. All of the dates had been stamped over. The old dates were expired but the new stamps dates were not. I grabbed the grocery manager to complain and to ask if he had any newer ones in the back. He said no. So evidently this store chain is emptying their warehouses of crap and trying to sell it and hoping that no one will notice. I don’t know if this is because food is not coming into the warehouses or just pure greed. But I will not be shopping there. Watch your cans when you buy them. I have also seen this at Walmart. Rust is compromising the cans. You can not safely eat it plus any can with a dent near a seal should not be purchased.

At the same store they had green seedless grapes on sale with a store coupon for $1.88 a lb. What a great price, so I was going to buy some for our chicken salads. However, they were of very poor quality. Always look at the stems. If they are brown and shriveling up, they are old. I passed on those too.

The last sale item that I refused to buy was a can of corn on sale with a store coupon for $ .49. The cans had not been dusted in forever. They also had the dates stamped over and rust on them.

I ended coming home with 1 box of angel hair pasta for $ .88 and 2 five pound of bags of russet potatoes that were on sale for B1G1F. My total for the potatoes was $5.49. So I didn’t spend much at the store.

Before I started shopping, I did what I usually do. I quickly ran through the store and took pictures of the prices with my cellphone of all items that I regularly buy so that I could update my price book. Almost everything has gone up by $ 1.00. I actually saw a few things that had increased by almost $ 2.00. Those are huge increases from week to week.

While I was out, I stopped at Home Depot to try to get some ice melt. They had none. Getting ice melt anyplace in the Buffalo area is not easy.

So needless to say, it was not a good shopping trip. Take note of this date of February 19, 2025. It was my last grocery shopping trip for a very long time. The only thing that will entice me to shop would be a REALLY rock bottom meat sale or sale produce that we love. Otherwise I will not be going to any grocery store. I want to see how long we can stay out of the stores and make delicious meals from what we already have. That will bolster our savings also and help us reach our goal early.

I also refuse to pay for produce that will go bad in a day or two. I got a small pickup order at Walmart the other day. I got a 2 lb. container of strawberries. I got them home and decided to wash them and cut them up and put them in a 1/2 gallon mason jar. I find they keep better that way. As I was cutting, I noticed that there was mold in all of the berries in the center. It was disgusting! I threw them all out because even the ones that looked good could have mold spores on them. Walmart is refunding my $5.32.

So no shopping for me. I refuse to pay these insane prices for inferior products. We will use up what we purchased when prices were lower.

Breakfast this morning will be a hard boiled egg and a cranberry orange muffin. Dinner will be leftover turkey and the side dishes.

I got our electric and gas bill yesterday. It was the highest bill ever since we moved here. But more on that soon.

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Every Day

What We Have Been Doing To Cut Costs So That We Can Add To Our Net Worth

About once a week now, I am using my Instant Pot Max to hard boil 12 eggs to be eaten with dinner, brunch and for snacks. Meat has gotten so expensive that eggs are cheaper to get the protein that our bodies need.

My last 60 count box of eggs cost me $ 19.26 at Walmart. That is $.321per egg. Even if the price of eggs goes up, I believe they will be cheaper than beef, pork, sausage, shrimp, fish, and chicken per meal. I buy my large hams on sale at Christmas and Easter which we slice up to always have fried ham to eat with eggs when we want some. Hubby and I eat one hard boiled egg with bacon(which has come down a bit in price here) for brunches. That meal comes in at about $1.00 for each of us. I also have a lot of eggs scrambled raw in the freezer that I can thaw when I need them along with a piece or two of breakfast sausage that I always buy on sale. As a back up in case we can’t find eggs, I have freeze dried eggs and Bob’s Red Mill egg replacer to use in baking. Hubby had raisin bran for brunch. I have not eaten yet. I will probably make a steak-umm and eat a hard boiled egg to go with it.

This afternoon I will cook a lb. of bacon in the oven to have it ready for brunches. We will also use it in our homemade Cobb salads for dinner tonight along with a sliced up egg in each. I cook my bacon on a silicone baking mat instead of “throw away” parchment paper. I save my bacon grease to cook with.

We got our Rakuten Rebate for the last quarter. It was for $23.53. That will go into our savings. Every little bit helps!

Hubby took about 1/2 of our returnable bottles to Fast Cash the other day. He got $ 4.00. That also will go into savings.

I have submitted a $7.00 digital rebate for Michelob Ultra Beer. That will also go into savings.

We will get a senior rebate deducted from our school taxes this year. After 15 years of not qualifying, we have qualified because NY raised the income limit. It had been going up a little here and a little there but it went up quite a bit for this year coming up: 2025-2026. We just found out and we are elated. We don’t know the amount yet but last’s year’s deduction was $ 950. The amount is set by the state according to what county you are in. However, they will be reassessing us again so one may wash out the other. Time will tell.

Hubby and I went out to dinner on Valentine’s Day Eve to celebrate without the crowds. We went to Applebee’s and had a wonderful dinner of rib eye steaks. I paid for our meals and the 20% tip with gift cards that we got discounted at Christmas.

We are almost out of dish liquid. I have been researching how to make homemade. Does anyone here have a recipe they use and like?

I have been trying to cook up a whole bunch of meals at once to save on energy. As you all know, our electric and natural gas bill was almost $300. last month. The company just let us know that the meter reading is due by Friday. It is the month that the meter reader is supposed to read. However he doesn’t read if he can’t get the to the meter because of all of the snow. Let me assure you that we have lots of snow. It is been snowing here almost every day the past 6 weeks. Worst winter since we moved here. It snowed a bit this morning and now the winds have whipped it up. The snowplow guy has been here a lot this winter. Three times just yesterday and he just came 5 minutes ago. Our temperatures have been frigid too. We are at our high of 17 degrees but this afternoon it is supposed to go down to 8 degrees. Ugh.

To continue talking about the utility bills, the company just notified us that they will be adding a flat rate on our bills on as a separate line item for about $10.00 a month to pay for infrastructure repairs and associated costs. I assume this bill coming will have it on it. I believe they will charge this $10.00 per month for 6 months and then they will drop it to $5.00 per month forever. This will be on every NYSEG customers bills. Because of all of this and the horrid weather, I expect my next bill will be over $300. I have to find more ways to cut. This is getting ridiculous.

I am sitting here in the dark writing this. All lights are off in the house. All shades are down except for on sunny windows. We can’t turn the heat down any further. Hubby and Eloise would freeze. Eloise spends a good part of her day laying on the heat registers in the floor.

I will continue this in the next few days.

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Every Day

Yesterday’s Doings

I ran some errands this week. As you can see this week, Top’s had medium eggs, 1 dozen for $2.99 each. There was no limit in the ad. However, when I got there, there was a limit of 2 in my store. So I got the 2 dozen. I already have 5 dozen from Walmart that we are working our way through. So I scrambled these two dozen into ice cube trays that I have and froze them for future breakfasts. You just thaw what you need and cook them up.

Then I went to Great Clips to get my haircut. I found out that my hairdresser who I have been going to for 8 months quit and no one knows if she is working at another salon. So I had to use another stylist and got the worst haircut of my life. It is awful! But it will grow in. Now I am on the hunt for another salon that is close to me.

Next I went to the pharmacy to pick up a prescription for Hubby which only cost me $1.39.

My last stop was at Panera Bread to do the senior Tuesday deal for a dozen bagels. We hadn’t bought these in a year. It was $8.96 but I used my Panera Giftcard that I have had for years.

So I didn’t spend much out of pocket this week which is fantastic.

After running around, I didn’t feel like making dinner. So Hubby made us each a toasted bagel with cream cheese and banana salad with sliced bananas, a sauce made with mayonnaise and a little milk and some chopped nuts sprinkled on top. It was enough.

Today we had a bagel and eggs for breakfast. Tonight’s dinner will be Mojito Lime pork chops and broccoli.

Did you get any good deals this week like my eggs?

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Every Day

Last Week’s Grocery Haul

I had a very large grocery haul last week. Since I have a $400. per month budget and I hadn’t spent a lot in January, I took advantage of some of the Super Bowl deals. Hubby put the groceries away before I could take pictures. My grocery receipt was very light so I couldn’t use that. So I will list what I purchased.

Hubby asked me to get some Kellogg’s raisin bran for breakfasts for him. I was thrilled when I saw that the Giant Box was on sale for $5.99 so I got 3 boxes. We were in need of some quick things. Almost everything in my freezers is fresh meat that I froze and frozen veggies. When I am too tired to cook, I don’t want to have to resort to fast food. So I purchased 3 Tony’s Meat pizzas on sale for 3/$10. , hot dog rolls for $ 1.19, sesame rolls at $ 4.99 for sandwiches, and a Yancey’s onion cheese wedge for $3.99 for a snack. Two bags of fully cooked Tyson Chicken tenderloin strips on sale for $7.99 a bag, 2 Margaritaville Coconut Shrimp for a total of $9.99, and 5 lbs. of Smithfield Bacon for total of $19.98 since they were on B2G3 free.

I got 80/20 ground beef for $3.99 a lb.. which totaled $ 26.21. I got 2 bags of Cape Cod potato chips to go with sandwiches and burgers on sale for B1G1F. They cost $ 5.29 for both. I paid $ 4.99 for a small bag of Rosina meatballs. I purchased 2.38 lbs. of green seedless grapes @ $ 2.77 lb which totaled $ 6.59. We love putting these in chicken salad which we serve on crackers. Hubby was out of Crystal Light Peach Iced Tea and they were on sale for $3.00 each so I got 5 packages. Kraft Cheese Singles were on sale B1G1F so I paid $4.99 for both. We love grilled cheese sandwiches. Green Giant Rainbow Coleslaw was on sale B1G1F so $3.49 for 2 bags.

Hubby loves the Cheez It Snap’d and they were B1G1F and cost me $4.79 for both. One box of Sunmaid raisins was $ 4.49. Lastly one jar of Hellman’s mayonnaise was $ 3.69.

I went to Top’s on Senior Citizen discount day which is 6% off. So my total after sales, coupons, discounts, etc. was $ 151.53.

I earned $ .40 off per gallon in gasoline points so I filled the car up at $2.66. per gallon.

I also cashed in 4 lottery tickets for a total of $12.00. They were Christmas gifts.

This past week has been extremely busy trying to keep up with the ice and snow. It has been awful! Hubby says we get a lot of snow but we have never as this much piled up over time since we moved here almost 15 years ago. I am very ready to move back to AZ or have it all melt soon. Many days we have not been able to get our mail because of the ice. Thank God for our snowplow guy or we would not be able to get out of the driveway.

So between cleaning the basement, working on taxes, dealing with the snow and ice, running errands, and taking care of Hubby and Eloise, I have been really exhausted.

I will be back tomorrow with another post.

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Every Day

We Had Our Christmas Celebration And West’s Birthday Celebration Yesterday

My youngest son and his family were away for two weeks over Christmas traveling in the Southwest. Then either West was sick or we were or they had football games since they are season ticket holders. We had not seen them since December 7th.

Fortunately my son from Eastern NY came out the day after Christmas and we celebrated with him. It was a wonderful visit and we were so happy to see him.

So we had our Christmas and West’s birthday celebrations yesterday. Rather than anyone cook, we went out to breakfast at our favorite Greek restaurant which we all love. The food and service was fantastic.

Then we came home here and opened money gifts, gift certificates, and emptied our stockings. West was happy with all of his candy, snacks, and money. The rest of us all had Keto snacks, liquor sample bottles(gin and vodka), and scratch off tickets. We had 4 small winners.

After relaxing for a bit, we played rummy which we love and we are very competitive. It was a lot of fun!

Last night Hubby breaded two ribeye pork chops with Italian panko and cooked them in the air fryer portion of my small oven. They were delicious. I made mashed potatoes and we had applesauce as a side.

I checked our budget numbers on Feb. 1st for January and we saved $3160. for the month. I was really happy with that since we paid a large property tax bill.

I have a busy week. I have a bill to pay today and I may start my Federal and State Income taxes. Depends on what else I have to do today like fold a load of laundry, change our sheets, and wash them.

Brunch today will be leftover dinner from last night. We only ate half of our pork chops and there are mashed potatoes and applesauce leftover. Hubby has requested spaghetti for dinner. We have not had that in a long time. I will throw in some ground beef. I always have some cooked up in portions in the freezer. I have a loaf of Italian bread in the freezer that I will pull out to defrost so that I can make garlic bread.

I am also going to hard boil a dozen eggs in my Instant Pot. They will go in salads, get eaten as snacks, and Hubby likes to make egg salad. Perhaps I will make some muffins and SF pudding.

We got a notice from our electric and gas company that they will be changing our meters to smart meters soon. That was about 6 weeks ago. We have not seen them. I am hoping they do it soon because these meters will help us keep better track of what we are using daily.

Tomorrow is our monthly Senior Citizen Discount Day at Top’s so I will be grocery shopping to get the additional 6% off on the sale items that we can use.

What are my readers up to today?