Month: August 2025

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Every Day

Cutting Costs

These are the things we have been doing to cut costs the past couple of weeks.

I have been using AI to find coupons for groceries and coupon codes for other purchases. That has worked out well getting me a Tillamook ice cream coupon for $3.00. I also got one in my e-mail. I ended up buying 2 containers on BOGO for $ 5.49 after coupon. I will use up the other coupon soon.

I also picked up some loss leaders: a big pack of BS chicken breasts for $2.29 a lb. using a Super Coupon. It was limit 1 but I will be going by the store again and will quickly run in and get another one. I got some corn on the cob for $.44 an ear to cut and bag up to put in the freezer for future meals.

While I was at Top’s, I filled the car up with gasoline using my gasoline points for $ .30 off a gallon. Gas has gone way up here. It was $ 3.159 a gallon before the $ .30 off so every little bit helps.

I picked up 1 script for a 90 day supply at a cost of $ 2.19 and another script for a 90 day supply for free after insurance. Walmart Pharmacy has great prices.

I renewed a CD at the highest interest rate. I have another one coming due just before the Fed meeting in Sept. That I will also renew at a high rate. But I expect that the Fed will lower interest rates right after that.

My cable company is giving us 4 different streaming services for free. They are included in the price we are already paying. They are Disney+, HBO Max, Paramount+, and Peacock. I already have Paramount+ through Walmart+ but I activated the other 3.

I will be making my pasta salad to take to a party on Saturday. It is delicious and refreshing in this heat. I am praying that the heat breaks for that day. The party is usually outside.

I found a small gift I needed marked down from $ 18.99 to $10.00 and got free shipping.

I ordered some food and some cat litter using a $30.00 gift card from Chewy. I had to pay about $20. more to get free shipping. That is not a problem because I always buy everything for Eloise there.

This will be my last post for over a month. I have a medical emergency that has to be taken care of today and next Monday. I hope to be back by mid-September.

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Every Day

Organizing and Decluttering

This kitchen pantry is where things are kept that are the oldest in my stockpile so they get used first. As you can see when I am not feeling good, things get all disorganized. So I spent a bit of time the past couple of days getting it back in order. Since it was garbage day yesterday, I threw out some really old flour and a bag of potatoes that got delivered with my Walmart order. I opened them and found almost all of them were rotten. Walmart is crediting me the $ 4.74. But that left me without potatoes again. So after our doctor’s appointments yesterday, Hubby took me to Top’s where I picked up a 5 lb. bag of potatoes on sale for $ 2.99, some green grapes for $1.88 a lb. to make chicken salad, and 3 salad kits for a total of $9.00.

What a mess! Eloise was happy to help me. 🙂

This is much better since it is neat and organized. Hubby can find what he needs.

The basket on the bottom shelf holds all of my seasoning packets. The overflow is in the extra white egg container from my old refrigerator. I put them in alphabetical order so that I can pull out what I need quickly. The basket on the floor holds all of our salad fixings except the produce. The red 5 gallon buckets hold flour, sugar, and rice.

This basket holds Eloise who climbed in to it when I set it down there. She has gotten so big that she can barely fit. I tried to take it away from her later in the day and she was having no part of that. She has 2 $50. beds in two different rooms and she sleeps in this! She also steals my disposable grocery bags. She cuddles up in them to take a nap too.

I hope I have motivated you to clean and organize your pantries. If so get moving!

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Every Day

Junk Food Tuesday

We have not bought a lot of junk food the past few months so our pantry is almost void of any of it. So when I asked Hubby what he wanted to add to the grocery delivery order from Walmart, many junk food items went on the list. The ice cream was my idea so that I can use up the last of the cones before Fall hits. The rest he came up with as you will see in all of these pictures. I am not going to give you individual prices because anyone can look up the prices on Walmart.com I will give you my total at the end of this post.

I got two Half & Half because I was on my last half gallon. Since they are dated way out, I am comfortable when I have three. I had not purchased the Premier Protein in a long time so I got 4 for me. Some days I just like to get more protein. I got 2 packages of BBQ Corn Chips and some Twizzlers for Hubby. We like to make Mc Muffin breakfast sandwiches. The turkey is for Club sandwiches for a dinner. We were out of both the provolone and pepper jack cheese slices that we like on hamburgers and sandwiches.

You know what they say about the best laid plans. I was going to go to Top’s today because it is senior discount day. I chose not to because I have not felt well the past two days. My neuropathy is back with a vengeance. Thank the Lord, my doctor gives me meds to keep on the shelf. Hopefully. I can get off of them in a few days when the inflammation goes down.

We needed food. My Top’s list only had 4 items on it. The most important one was a Caesar salad kit to use with the leftover chicken that we grilled two nights ago. So I placed the Walmart order instead, got other things I had on that list, and hoped they would have the kit. They did. So I did not place a delivery order from Top’s. The other three items we could go without. There will be other sales and other senior discount days so it was no big deal to miss it.

We got one Caesar salad kit, a 5 lb. bag of russet potatoes for baked potatoes and roasted potatoes, 2 packages of broccoli florets and a package of brussels sprouts.

Hubby now has two packages of chocolate chunk cookies and some turnovers. I do not bake in the summer. I also picked up a 60 count package of eggs. It is nice to see the price down from the high. I had 7 eggs left. Too low for comfort especially since my son and West are back from their two week vacation- one week on a cruise in the Caribbean and one week at a resort in the Dominican Republic. We will go through about a dozen eggs this Sunday.

I also got 2 cartons of ice cream and a pot pie and quick lunch items for when I don’t feel like cooking. Lastly, you see the bottom half of a cherry limeade clear water bottle, I buy this by the case, so I got 12. This is my guilty pleasure.

I have Walmart + so no delivery charge. My total was $ 118.81 plus tip.

Did you do any grocery shopping this week?

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Every Day

Lots of Leftovers To Use Up

We have so many cheeses and ham for sandwiches leftover from Chris’s visit. I diced up some of both to make an omelet for breakfast yesterday. I added an avocado to my plate and I was a very happy lady.

This morning I pulled out most of what was leftover to see where to begin this weekend. I don’t want anything to spoil. Waste not, want not.

We had turkey club sandwiches the night they left. That used up all the turkey and some bread. But now I have about 3/4 of a very large beefsteak tomato to use. That will probably go into a tossed salad tonight since the lettuce will only last a day or so. I also have a loaf of bread to use up that is not pictured here. It will be used for grilled ham and cheese sandwiches for a lunch and then the ham will be gone. I also see French toast and 3 cinnamon raisin English muffins in our future for breakfast. I froze two blueberry pancakes and four sausages that were leftover from a breakfast while they were here. Hubby will enjoy them one morning.

The stale French bread leftover from making the onion soup will get cubed, baked, and made into bread crumbs. I will do that when I get up tomorrow morning when it will be cooler. The gruyere cheese could be used on a salad or Hubby could make some more soup. I don’t have a clue how to use it otherwise. Any ideas?

The pepperoni will top a homemade pizza for dinner tomorrow.

The bananas will be used in a banana salad to go with grilled ribeye pork chops and the tossed salad for dinner tonight. Some will be leftover so I will freeze them to make banana bread this Fall.

Hubby grilled the chuck eye steaks for dinner last night. They didn’t even come close to being almost as good as ribeye steaks. Hubby does not like tough meat. So I will continue to buy ribeye steaks and filet mignon going forward. He would not even finish the piece he had so he gave it to me. I served it along side two eggs over easy for breakfast this morning.

Fortunately I love omelets and cheese on crackers for snacks so that is where the rest of all those wonderful cheeses will get used. The avocados will get eaten with more eggs.

Lastly, this will not last more than two nights for dinner. It is chilled and I can’t wait to open it. It was a gift from Chris and Her Hubby. I will think of you guys while I sip it. Thank you!

There is very little grocery shopping to do this coming week except for a few sale items at Top’s. That will happen on Tuesday since it is senior citizen discount day(6% off). Bottles need to get returned for deposits too.

I used up a lot of eggs this week, so I will stop at Walmart and get a 60 count box and two half and half for my coffee since I am on my last carton. I also need to pick up a prescription.

I was hoping today to work in my pantry but other things like three loads of laundry and some cleaning needed to be done. So the pantry will get done tomorrow.

Check your refrigerator! You may have leftovers that need to get used up.

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Every Day

Gas and Electric Bills

We got our one month gas and electric bill for mid June to mid July. It was for 33 days. We used 774 kwh’s and 3 therms of natural gas. The kwh’s were mostly A/C because it has been hotter than heck here. The therms were only hot water. We have an on demand water heater. The bill was $214.22.

Last year’s bill was 786 kwh’s and 3 therms of natural gas for the same month but it was only for 29 days. The bill was for $ 176.60.

So this year’s bill was $ 37.62 higher for a little less usage.

I believe that our bills will just keep going up. Our company has asked for a rate increase to recoup the money to upgrade infrastructure. I believe they will get it but not as much as they have asked for. Our infrastructure is in bad shape. It is old. I think everyone in the country will be seeing higher bills because of it. Now that I can finally see what my appliances are costing me in real time, I can keep better track of it. It took them long enough to show us.

We tracked our year over year bills. The past twelve month’s bills totaled $2603.64. The year before it, the twelve month’s bills totaled $2197.89. So in one year, our utility bills have increased by $ 405.75. That is quite a chunk of money!

So we will do whatever we can to try to keep our usage low because there is really nothing else we can do about it.

What are you doing to keep your usage down?