Month: October 2025

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Every Day

Our Grocery Shopping for Last Week

I apologize for not getting back to all of you last week. I just caught up on your comments on my last post. I have been really busy getting ready for company. My son owns his business in the Adirondacks with another person.. His name is Travis and his partner is Codie. Whenever he comes out this way, he comes by to see us. That is happening tomorrow. We are so looking forward to their visit. As Hubby says, they are family!

I have also been busy helping Hubby with some things for the holidays. Plus, I am getting ready for my second son’s 50th birthday which is in November. After his celebration that night, we are having West stay with us for 3 days to give my son and his wife some time off. We are looking forward to having West since he has not stayed overnight here in a couple of years. He is so busy with sports and other teen things. Then my other son is coming here to spend Thanksgiving with us. So I have been preparing for his visit.

Well, that is enough of the excuses.

I went and did some shopping last week at Aldi’s. I had not been shopping there very often. But I knew that they had good bread prices. I stocked up on hamburger buns( $1.39) which we also use for chicken fila type sandwiches that I make. We make pizza on their artisan flatbread($3.99). It only takes 9 minutes to bake and is delicious. Hamburgers were on our menu last week and the chicken sandwiches we are having tonight. The brioche buns($3.85) we use for chicken salad sandwiches and egg sandwiches. I made egg, sausage, and cheese McMuffins for us on the English muffins($1.59) to have for a few breakfasts last week and this week. I know how to make hamburger buns and bread. But I need to learn how to make the other items. When the holidays are over, I will work on that. All breads are so much cheaper to make than to buy. My total for these and the pecans($3.49) and 3 pack of peppers that you see in the picture below totaled $ 16.70.

Next stop was at Walmart, where I found 2 marked down salads. The green goddess ranch salad kit was $1.54 and made a nice lunch for me one day last week. The Southwest salad kit($2.63) is still good and we will have it with ribeye pork chops on Thursday night. I was surprised to find them. I usually don’t see many markdowns in Walmart. I got 1 frozen Birds Eye corn and 1 green beans for $ 1.00 each. My total was $ 6.71.

My last stop was Top’s where I used a Super Coupon to get the 2 liter Coke for $ .59. The Top’s chicken stock was $ 1.99 and the Crystal Light which is Hubby’s favorite peach tea was on sale for 2/$5.00. My total for Top’s was $7.63 plus tax and a $.05 deposit on the soda bottle.

$31.12 was not a bad shopping week. All meals were eaten from our stockpile last week.

I almost had a catastrophe last week. The chest freezer door got left open for a couple of hours. The only thing that defrosted and I lost was a piece of haddock. Fish especially when it is on top thaws quickly. The rest of the food was just fine. We will be checking it twice from now on to make sure it is closed.

How was your shopping week?

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Our Grocery Shopping Series For 2026

Hubby and I have spent a lot of time discussing what to do about the rising cost of groceries now and for 2026. It seems like every time I go to the store or get a grocery delivery, the prices have spiked week over week or another item has become a victim of shrinkflation. I have my price points for each food I buy because I keep a price book. I will not pay more than I think the item is worth to us. Because of this, we have stopped buying certain things. Many others in 2026 will be on the chopping block. Soda comes to mind after the holidays. The price for it is ridiculous. I will not pay $7.00 to $8.64 for a 12 pack. If it goes on sale for example at Dollar General under $5.00, I might if we are having company. But that will be rare. Chips and other snacks are outrageous unless you buy them at Aldi’s. We are eating a lot of popcorn these days which is healthier and cheaper anyhow. I make it in my microwave popper.

You know, I rarely buy anything that is not on sale. I look for those rock bottom sale prices when the flyers come out. That is when I stock up. I also do a lot of comparison research because it is easy today with all of the online shopping sites. It is work but with the prices rising so fast, it is worth it. For example, I always check the online prices of the specials at Niagara Produce. They put an ad out every week or 10 days.

The eggs and white and russet potatoes are a great price. I don’t need eggs for about 4 weeks so I will skip getting those. I will be picking up the russet potatoes because I have none. The squashes are priced right at $.99 a lb. I will get one or two of the largest ones. Hubby does not like squash so these will be for me. I may cut up and freeze one. The best prices on those two items are now because they are in season. The carrots I can get almost anywhere for this price. I also have many fresh carrots, frozen, and canned right now. I will pass on those. I will be getting none of the meat this time. I am trying to eat down my freezer, not fill it up. I usually do not buy cold cuts. They are way too expensive. In a pinch, when I have company, I will buy some on sale just to have a quick meal.

You also know that I shop at Top’s, B.J.’s, Walmart and occasionally Aldi. All except B.J’s are within 3-4 miles of my home. B.J.’s is about 15 minutes away. But I think we are missing out on other rock bottom prices by limiting ourselves to just those stores. When I go to B.J.’s or for a doctor’s appointment, I have other stores close by. They are Wegman’s, other Top’s markets that do price markdowns(mine rarely does), Dash’s, and Price Rite.

In another direction, about 25 minutes away we have Ollie’s, Sam’s Club( I may join this), and Traders Joe’s. I shopped at Trader Joe’s in AZ when we lived there. They are expensive but you can find some deals on sale once in a while. If I am close, I will stop in to check.

So I will be adding these stores to my shopping when it is convenient. I will not make a trip just to pick up one or two items. I need to be going for another errand or appointment so as to not waste gasoline. Our Niagara Falls outlets are very close to some of these grocery stores.

When we need to stock on meat again, I will be frequenting this butcher shop. They have weekly specials.


I have much more that I am going to be doing to cut our costs and they will all be in this series which I will continue until it is done.

I understood the inflation after Covid and why the prices went up. But the pandemic has been gone for at least 2 almost 3 years. Our gasoline prices are going down a bit so why is food going up due to transportation? When I realize that Walmart’s gross profit for 2024 was almost $ 158 billion dollars with a fiscal revenue of $ 658 billion, I have to believe that we are being gouged. It is not only Walmart, it is other grocery stores and restaurants also.

Have you eaten at a restaurant or fast food joint recently? The food quality has gone down and the prices just keep rising. No wonder I have people on here wondering if the prices are going to go down. My answer, in the 1970’s we went through this and it took 10 years for the prices to go down. And they never went down to where they originally were. So those days are gone. Until the Fed does what they should be doing with interest rates, inflation will not go down. I am seeing some prices go down like eggs but not much else.

Since we can’t control the Feds and evidently President Trump can’t either, we need to watch out for ourselves and our families. We all need to write our Congress members and let them know how bad prices are and we believe we are being gouged day in and day out. They seem to have no clue. They should be looking into the pricing of our food and keeping these supermarkets in check.

Then make your plan to cut your costs for groceries. We will talk more about this tomorrow.

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Cutting Costs The Best We Can

We are doing the best we can around here to cut costs and save some money.

I had planned on getting our Birthday and Christmas cash out of the bank this week so that we would be prepared to give it to family as a gift. We have 2 birthdays coming up in November besides Christmas in December. However, I was able to take $400. less out than I had planned on. NYS sent out rebate checks and we got one. The checks are taxable so people will lose a portion of it to those. I bought the birthday cards at $ Tree instead of paying an outrageous amount for them elsewhere.

We have been eating from our stockpile. We have had cheeseburgers, chicken parmesan, steak, and chicken patty sandwiches. I had not made chicken parm in over a year and Hubby loves it. So I made enough for 2 nights.

I got a $3.00 rebate in the mail.

The cans and bottles had piled up in our garage while I was dealing with my heart issues. I finally returned them. The deposit for each is $.05 each. But our local Consumers Beverage put out a coupon to get $.06 per bottle if you spent $ 10. in their store. I was down to just 1 bottle of Michelob Ultra Beer and this is what my family drinks when they visit so I bought a 24 pack. They have the best price here. Then I submitted for a $7.00 rebate online. I also got back $ 19.98 in bottle deposits.

I took a 2 ounce bottle and made wound care spray that we needed. You just mix 1 oz. of hydrogen peroxide and 1 oz. of water. It works great.

We needed drain cleaner and I do not like the toxicity nor the price of the store bought ones. So I made a solution to unclog one of our bathroom sinks. It is 3 oz. of Dawn dishwasher soap, 1 tbsp. of salt, and 4 oz. of vinegar. Let it sit in the drain for a few hours then rinse down with hot water.

Pictured above are two cases of canned fried apples with cinnamon that I purchased at Aldi’s. They have the cheapest price in my area. They were $ 1.99 a can. I bought a case last year around Thanksgiving(don’t see them any other time of year) and I am down to one can. Hubby really loves these so he asked me to get 2 cases this year. We love them as a side when we have our ribeye pork chops. We now have enough pork chops in the freezer to eat them and the apples twice a month for the next year. The apples best buy date was April 2028.

You all know how frustrated I am with our electric and natural gas bills. Now that we have the smart meter, the company gives us information on what we are using but it is always two days old. So on the advice of a friend, I am keeping a dated spreadsheet of when I turn on an appliance, take a shower, etc. Then I can go back and see what is causing the highest spikes in our power.

In the evenings now, I am reading myself to sleep instead of watching TV. I have so many books in the house that I want to reread and then donate. It is a slow process because I am so tired at night since I usually am the one who gets up early with Eloise.

We are making no impulse purchases. They are all intentional and we research the best prices. Hubby has needed a nice desk chair for a couple of years now. The one he has, he says is not comfortable. I like his chair so I am stealing it for my desk. Finally, I found exactly everything he wanted in a chair at Walmart the other day. It has been difficult because he is fussy about what he wants. Not only is it perfect for him but it was on sale for $ 80.00 off. We paid $ 89.99+tax. Here it is: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Coolhut-Big-and-Tall-Office-Chair-500LBS-Wide-Seat-Ergonomic-Computer-Desk-Chair-High-Back-Executive-Leather-Chair/5250574665

I had cash back from a couple of food purchases so that took the price down a few dollars less. It is coming in a couple of days and he is happy.

I have been setting aside $40. a month for produce purchases.

I scanned my recent receipts into Fetch. I just ordered a $10.00 Chewy gift card which will help defray her food costs. I have finally switched her over to dry cat food. She has been eating dry kitten food so that I could use a big bag up. My friend, Chris, who is a reader told me to mix the last bit of food with the new food. I did. At first, she turned her nose up at it. But I figured if she got hungry enough she would eat it. She is and is now loving it.

How have you people been cutting your costs?

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Eating Up What We Already Have

It’s time to eat up what we already have in our home. Most of our food was purchased in the past few years. Many, many have long expiration dates. To be truthful, they are mostly sell by dates and can be eaten for years after those dates. Always check your cans for dents especially ones on the seams. Do your due diligence by doing a smell and taste test. If it tastes or smells off throw it out. Also when you open a can, if the food spurts at you, throw it out. That is a sign of bacteria. In all of my years, I have never poisoned anyone.

I am a canner and I alternate my jars by date also. After putting in all that work, I do not want to waste my jars of food. I also check my lids every once in a while to make sure they are still sealed. I do not keep rings on my jars of food so that I can do this.

We have had to throw very little out in our home. I check can seams and for dents when I am buying items. If they have any of those things, I do not purchase them. My Walmart delivery orders have had cans that are dented. I get a refund from Walmart and pitch those cans.

We rotate our food whether it is in the pantry or freezer. Oldest cans go to the front of the shelf. Newer ones get put behind those. Oldest meat is always kept on the top of the freezer and the newest put underneath. I have a chest freezer. It is a pain to do this but it is necessary to not waste your food. One exception, the turkey I just bought is on top so that I can easily take it out to cook at Thanksgiving time. Any other turkeys that I purchase will get put on the bottom of the freezer.

As you all know, food prices continue to rise. Yes, a few have come down in price recently but most have risen. Until the Fed cuts interest rates more than just a 1/4 %, inflation will be with us. They should have been cutting for months. But I can’t control them. I can only control what we are doing in our household. So we are going to eat up over the next 6 months what we have stored.. The reason is prices. They are too high right now so we will eat the food that we stored when the prices were reasonable. We store food for emergencies and so that we can get through winter without shopping very often. But the biggest reason was the food inflation that I knew was coming when Covid hit. My stockpile was built a little at a time to protect our money. It’s food insurance. While most people are out shopping at these inflated prices, we are eating food that was so much cheaper.

I will be buying the foods that go on sale for rock bottom prices for Thanksgiving but only those that I am very low on. I will buy a couple of cans or packages of meat when I am low on those items. But other than those, I will not be doing a lot of grocery shopping. I will shop from my stockpile. You will not see a lot of grocery hauls. What you will see is what we are eating and how I am using things up.

We have a lot of fresh things in our refrigerator now so we will work on using those up too. Only when I am out of fresh produce or other items that I deem absolutely necessary will I buy those items again and always on sale.

Tonight, we will be making a sheet pan meal using the above pictured food from my freezer. I will be making us a small tossed salad also. It should make us a few meals.

Are you cooking from your pantries now that prices are so high?

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Cooking from the Stockpile

You all know that I don’t like to waste anything especially food. On Friday, I brought up a week’s worth of meals from the freezer and pantry. I also have been using up the refrigerator items.

For dinner on Friday night, we used up leftover filet mignon from our birthday celebration on Thursday night at Russell’s Steak and Chops.

Hubby had garlic and butter mashed potatoes left over too. He ate those with the leftover filet and I had a bag with just a few crispy crowns in the freezer. I ate those. No, we did not have a vegetable. It would have been too much food for us.

On Saturday night, I used up a bag of chopped cooked chicken that had been in the freezer for at least a month. I made a Chicken Stuffing Casserole that gave us each a dinner and a lunch for each of us yesterday. The cooked chicken got mixed into a can of cream of chicken soup. I put that in the bottom of a sprayed round casserole dish. Then I made a stuffing mix in my microwave. I spread it over the chicken mixture. I baked it in my small oven at 400 for 30 minutes. I cooked a bag of frozen broccoli and we had a delicious dinner.

Last night I made pork teriyaki stir fry. Hubby has gotten really fussy about his food. Many things he can no longer taste. So I made 2 different pans of stir fry. Enough for 2 meals and a lunch. Mine which is pictured in the bowl above was pork, leftover broccoli, and a small amount of stir fry veggies that were leftover in a bag in the freezer. Hubby’s pictured in the pan above, was onions, frozen peppers, frozen water chestnuts leftover from another meal, pork, and 3 pieces of pineapple slices left from a can that I froze. Both were cooked in teriyaki stir fry sauce and served on rice cooked in our rice cooker. I had 4 small pork loin chops that I cut into small pieces for these meals. Hubby no longer likes pork loin chops but if I cut them into small pieces, he will eat them. Waste not, want not! Tonight we will have the leftover stir fry and rice.

We still had a little bit of broccoli left, so I made an omelet with that and cheese for my brunch this morning. Yum! Hubby had two apple cider donuts.

FYI,

I just noticed that Walmart now has the Butterball turkeys posted online. They are $ .97 a lb. You had better believe as I empty my freezer, I will be getting some of these.

Are you cooking from what you already have at home? More on this tomorrow.

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A Little of This and a Little of That

I actually went into Walmart a few days ago for a few things and to look and see if they had anything new. Look what I found:

They had their Shady Brook turkeys on sale for $.84 a lb. I was afraid they were year old stock but the expiration date was 06/02/2027. So they are this year’s. I don’t know what the prices will be at just before Thanksgiving but now I have a turkey in case the prices are much higher. I paid $12.60 for a 15lb. turkey. I will pay more for Butterballs unless they are above my price point. So I will wait and see what they end up costing. I am hoping to get at least 3-4 turkeys this year to replace chicken because that price has gone so high.

While I was there a did a little shopping to bulk up our stockpile. I won’t put prices because if you are interested in a certain product you can look it up on your Walmart site.

I was down to my last dishwasher gel and laundry detergent. So I got an extra of each. I happened on boxes on a display in a center aisle by the cleaning products. They were loaded with spoons and turners. It didn’t take me long to realize that these are just like the Pioneer Woman’s. But I got these for $1.00 each.

I needed to stock on some sodas with so much company coming this month and next. I was looking for this Zero Sugar A&W Root Beer when I spotted the A&W Zero Sugar Ice Cream Sundae. I had to get it to see if it tasted like the ice cream sodas that I use to get at A&W when I was a teenager. Sure enough it does. The Celsius was a treat for us. They were not cheap. $ 2.28 for each 12 oz. can. Walmart did not have 4 packs at the store and was out of stock online. I have since researched where to get them cheaper. Amazon has a case of 12 on sale for $ 17.76. I purchased 2 cases so that I could get free shipping. I refuse to pay for Amazon Prime. I haven’t had it for 5 years now. I earned a $10.00 Amazon GC with points from Pinecone and also used $ 2.03 in rewards to bring my price down to $ 23.49 for the two cases. I also got a box of Great Value 80 count 13 gallon kitchen garbage bags because I just opened my last one. We use a lot of paper plates to cut down on dishes when we have a lot of company or when I am not feeling well. I bought a package of 100 count 10 and 1/16 inch Dixie plates. Hubby loves bagels and cream cheese for brunch so I picked him up a 6 pack. For me I got a package of Mission Low Carb Tortilla wraps.

Not pictured was 2 half gallons of half and half and two 4 packs of Two Good Yogurts.

This probably is our last big shop for 2025 except for Thanksgiving rock bottom priced items. Bu more on that tomorrow.

Did you get any turkeys yet or any other good deals?

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Things We Have Done To Cut Costs The Last Half Of September

We had our winter tune up for our furnace. The company quoted us $69. when we booked the appointment. When the service man finished the tune up, he said that would be $79. Hubby mentioned that we were quoted $ 69. He kept the e-mail that quoted us the $ 69. The serviceman called the office and they said to charge us the $69. If we hadn’t saved that e-mail, we would have had to pay the $ 79. We kept that $10.00 in our wallet. The serviceman asked if he could put a Buffalo Bills sign in our yard. The company is a sponsor of the Bills. We said yes. It is a nice sign and we are happy he put it there.

I refilled the waters and snacks that I keep in the car so I am not tempted to get takeout if I get hungry when I am out running errands.

I mailed in rebates totaling $ 18.00.

I got all those free things that you saw in my post from Walmart and manufacturers at the Grand Opening.

I scanned the rest of the month’s receipts into Fetch.

Hubby’s keyboard died. He purchased one that was marked down from $99.99 to $ 22.99. I clipped an additional $5.00 coupon. So we paid $ 17.99 and shipping was free.

I signed up for ShopKick using a friend’s code so that she would get a bonus. I don’t know if I will do it or not yet. It sounds like a lot of work.

I sewed on the buttons on my winter coat so they wouldn’t come loose while it is out being dry cleaned.

I continue to can on sale chicken to put on my shelves. Soup season is coming.

We do not have our furnace on yet. It had been pretty warm here for this time of year. The warmth will last at least through Sunday.

I was worried about 2 of the heart tests that my cardiologist ordered me to have done in August. I wasn’t sure what they would cost after insurance. We were thinking it would be about $200. The bill came today and it was $48. That was a nice surprise.

I used credit card points to get $100. cash back credited to my card on next month’s bill.

That was all. What have you been doing to cut costs?