Author: American Dreamer

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Every Day

This Week’s Grocery Haul, Etc.

This is my one grocery haul this week. It was done at Aldi’s. We had no pork in the house so I picked up this package of pork chops for $5.94. We needed eggs so I got 2 dozen.

We needed some fresh grated parmesan cheese.  We use it to top a lot of Italian dishes. I also picked up some more baking potatoes.

We have many boxes of spaghetti and pasta but had no penne rigate which is Hubby’s favorite. The pumpkin spice bread and muffin mixes were on sale and are a quick Sunday breakfast item when we get sick of eggs.


We were on our last container of sour cream so I got one. I always have to have avocados. They are a huge part of my Keto diet to get some good fats.

Hubby loves fried onions but he has never tried the Aldi brand. They are the cheapest so I wanted him to try them to see if he likes them. 

The rice, soap, parmesan crisps and macadamia nuts will all go into our stockpile. 


My total for this shop was $56.65. Here is the receipt if it will help you with your price book.


I am still organizing and cleaning in the kitchen. I picked the kitchen first because it is huge and is the hardest room to organize. I have the one pantry pretty much done now. I also have my coffee station done and a couple of other cupboards. I have so much more to do. It is slow going because I still have errands to run, appointments to go to, laundry, cooking, and all the other things it takes to run a home. 


My son and West came this weekend to show us his new car and to have breakfast and celebrate my “39th” birthday. After breakfast, we each had a piece of the Keto peanut butter pie that Hubby made me. I added the chocolate which isn’t Keto but what the heck, it was my birthday. 


Then for dinner, Hubby made us lamb chops and some cauliflower for me which is what I requested. All in all, I had a wonderful day.

It is time for me to go out and make sure that our landscape crew does what we want in the yard. They just arrived. It is their last visit for the year so things need to be cut back etc. 

Did you do any great grocery deal shopping this week?  

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Every Day

Frugal Things The Past Week or So

 These are the frugal things that we have done around our household recently.

I have been cooking all of our meals from our stockpile. There has been no restaurant or take out food.

We got our one month gas and electric bill and it was about the same amount as this time last year which was $ 95. We did our best to keep it low since we used a lot of A/C and the dehumidifier was constantly running in the basement. I was happy with this since there had been a rate increase this year. 

We had our sprinkler system blown out by the company that installed it. This keeps the water in the system from freezing which causes costly repairs in the spring. A bit of prevention is usually cheaper in the long run. I am also happy knowing that our huge water bills for the summer will start going down. 

We now have our heat on but we have it set 2 degrees lower than last year. We also have it set to go down to 62 while we are sleeping.

Our entertainment has been Netflix which we are enjoying at the moment with a free month. Since we just got Netflix after a many year hiatus with them, are there any must see shows or movies that you have enjoyed?  We are also watching Amazon Prime shows. Of course it is football season too which is always enjoyed in our home.

Hubby got a huge crossword puzzle book for his birthday which he is enjoying immensely. He also got a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle of Niagara Falls. We are both working on that.

As you all know, I have been reorganizing our home to make things easier for both of us. I have been using as many containers as I can that we already own. I have had to buy a few but I have tried to get the best price I can on them. I finally bit the bullet and ordered a can riser shelf for my pantry. I love it because I can see what I have with a quick glance. I had two wire contraptions that let me store cans that rolled down one after the other. Since there are only two of us, I didn’t use enough product to be able to always see what I had. I grew to hate them more and more. So they are now gone and I am very happy with the new riser. 

I continue to wash clothes with cold water in our HE washer and hang most of them to dry.

Hubby saw a beautiful winter coat that he wanted me to buy for myself. I had to remind him that I found a beautiful black coat at the end of last winter that I had kept even though it didn’t fit me for a few years. I will be using it for many years since it has hardly been worn.

I continue to work out on the treadmill and recumbent bike for my exercise.

I have purchased very few groceries the past few weeks. This is so that I can save our grocery money to stock up on the Thanksgiving sales. More on that in another post. 

I have been rereading some of the books that we already own and enjoying them again. This lets me avoid going into the library.

I did not renew my ancestry.com. It is expensive and I am just not interested in working on it over the winter.

Hubby will be making me a nice birthday dinner this weekend. He is going to grill some grass fed lamb chops(which I love), make some baked potatoes with sour cream, and roast some broccoli. He is also making me a Keto peanut butter pie that we can share with my son and grandson when they come this weekend. I just love it when Hubby cooks.

When my son comes this weekend, he is going to help Hubby put all of our patio furniture into the shed for the winter. The winds are getting brutal again and I am not up to chasing chairs and furniture all over our and our neighbor’s yards. It is October and time to prepare for winter. It won’t be long before it is snowing here. We really appreciate all of the help our son gives us.

That is it for now. I have to get back to my cleaning and organizing.

What have you done frugally the past couple of weeks?

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Every Day

This Week’s Grocery Haul and More

 

I only needed a few things this week. I realized that tomorrow is senior discount day at Top’s after I was on my way there. However, I needed one of the items that I picked up at Aldi’s for dinner tonight. Since I only needed 2 items at Top’s and found 2 more, I decided it was not worth the time nor few cents that I would save to make a second trip tomorrow. 

At Top’s I purchased 2 of the Bistro Favorites Ham that Hubby absolutely loves. I had 2 – $ .60/1 coupons that doubled. On my way to get the deli meat, I always check for the Crystal Light Peach. They have not had it in stock since March. Today they had a bunch so I picked up two. I recently found it at Walmart and purchased Hubby a case. I expect it to disappear quickly if we have another wave of this virus. My total at Top’s was $ 10.65. 

This is what I purchased at Aldi’s. I desperately needed the Romaine lettuce. I was out. 

My birthday is coming up so Hubby asked me what dessert I would want for that. My very favorite dessert is peanut butter pie. So he researched online and found a wonderful Keto peanut butter pie recipe that he is going to make me. The only ingredient that I needed was heavy whipping cream. The rest of the ingredients we have.

Every time I go I try to pick up the cranberry sauce, some 90 second rice, and the macadamia nuts for my stockpile. The macadamia nuts I am stockpiling in my freezer. The season is too short for them and I ran out this past year. 

The coffee was on sale and I can’t have enough coffee. My total for Aldi was $ 19.70.

So I am just spending $ 30.35 this week. I have been saving up grocery money the past few weeks for Thanksgiving sale shopping and some household items that I want. 

Hubby and I had a quiet weekend. There was lots of football on TV and our Buffalo Bills won their 4th straight game. I love this team and want them to do well. 

I spent Saturday working on another project. My largest pantry in the kitchen was a disaster. Every time I would come home from grocery shopping and I was tired, I would just throw everything in there. I would tell myself that I would sort it out later. Well, later never came.

I took 3 large bags of food out of there to go in my stockpile. I found duplicates of things I didn’t realize that I had so I kept buying them. This is what happens when things get out of control. It was so bad!

Just looking at the mess gave me major anxiety. I kept putting it off and putting it off. Saturday morning, I decided to get “a shovel” and dig it out. I took everything out and pulled those three bags of stuff to go in the big stockpile.

It is not totally completed. I had to order some things that I need to finish it up. But I will give you peeks and then when I am done, I will show you the finished product. 

This is a peek of my baking shelf and my breakfast shelf. I need more containers for some of these things. I may have some in the house or I may have to order them. I have to look in my storage. We have a lot of baking things because I am Keto and Hubby is not. 

This is the rack on my door which holds our sides that aren’t canned or frozen and some beans and other things in canning jars that we use.


These are our two dinner shelves along with some extra products to restock with and some paper towels.

I had two rolling racks for our cans. I hated them from the day we purchased them back in AZ. I only keep a few of each canned goods that we use a lot in our kitchen so things had to be stocked on those racks behind each other. I could not see what I had. So I bit the bullet and purchased a tiered can rack which is on it’s way here.

Not only am I doing our Fall cleaning but I am reorganizing everything so that we can find things easier. We are both getting older and I don’t want to have to hire help. Hubby has lots of help to do things in the yard. But I am still able to fully function around the house. As I age, I want to make sure that I can still do that. Hence lots of time spent getting things weeded out and made easier for the both of us. So this is why I have so many days lately not blogging. This all needs to be done and can not be put off. So please bear with me.

Are you getting any good deals this week? Or are you organizing or Fall cleaning too?

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Every Day

I Finally Finished Cleaning and Organizing The Refrigerator


Finally I am done with the refrigerator. With our schedule last week, this week, and next week, things are getting done a little at a time. I long for the days when I could clean my two story house in one day. But I move a bit slower than I used to.

As you can tell, we have a problem. My Hubby is the condiment king. He never met a condiment that he didn’t like.


It is a work in progress. I have vowed to buy condiments in smaller containers. He has vowed to eat up what is in there before he opens another jar that isn’t mayonnaise, ketchup, or mustard. 

The beverages of iced tea, milk, and creamers are just above the mayo, etc. I also keep the heavy whipping cream and 1 crescent roll tube in there because of their size. 


And above those I keep my butter and yeast.


The other door holds our garlic, some Chinese sauces, horseradish and steak sauce. 


It also holds some dressing, lime juice and taco sauce. Because our ice maker is in this door, the shelves are very narrow so it doesn’t hold things that are not slim.



Next in the main compartment of the refrigerator, I have 2 dozen plus 2 eggs right now along with some cooked bacon in the baggie up by the eggs.

Across from it, I keep leftovers and my lettuce keeper.

Under the eggs are more condiments including my avocado mayo, BBQ sauces and honey mustard sauce.

To the left of those, is an empty shelf which is where I keep Hubby’s prescription medications. I removed them briefly to take this picture to protect his privacy.


Next shelf down are dairy products on the left including a bit of Cool Whip. Next bin holds some jams and the parmesan cheese. Next bin is all of our salad dressings.  The last one is applesauce, maple syrup,  SF syrup and some lemon juice. The bin behind the one in the front holds some coconut and almond whipped cream that we use on ice cream and in coffee. It also holds the chocolate syrup that I make ice cream sundaes with for my grandchildren.  


On the left is our fruit bin which is full of apples right now.


On the right is our vegetable bin which has celery, carrots, green peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes and avocados at the moment. I clean all of my veggies when I bring them home from the store and prep for whatever I will be using them for.

Last is our pull out deli drawer. As you can see it is very full of cheese and meats.

I am hoping to pare down the number of condiments that we are using. I barely have enough room to store leftovers and forget thawing a turkey in here right now.

Besides buying a commercial refrigerator, this was the largest refrigerator that we could find that would fit our space. I thought it was huge until Hubby’s condiments started filling it up.

Do any of you struggle to keep your refrigerator organization under control? At least it is easier to clean since I started using refrigerator bins a couple of years ago. It is much easier to clean a spill in a bin instead of taking the inside of the refrigerator apart to get the sticky gunk off.

Well, I am off to do some more Fall cleaning. Let me know how you handle you refrigerator organization. It just drives me crazy.

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Every Day

This Week’s Grocery Haul Plus

I just came home from getting a haircut so I decided to do this week’s grocery haul. I have been trying to efficiently do what needs to be done because we have been very busy and will be very busy for the next two weeks.


My shopping this week was at Aldi’s for some things I will need in the next few months.

The almonds were needed for a recipe this week. I found something new which is this 90 second cauliflower rice. That will be handy in the next week or so. I got some more 90 second rice for Hubby too. The mushrooms are to replace the ones I used. I use them in my omelets once in a while. Hubby likes the dried cranberries in his chicken salads.

I desperately needed dairy. Hence the creamer, 2 dozen eggs that were already in the fridge when I took the picture, sour cream and vanilla yogurt.

The applesauce, parmesan cheese, bread crumbs, and cornstarch are staples in my kitchen pantry. The picnic pack of condiments were marked down so those were a good purchase.


The baking powder, baking soda, vanilla extract, and cornstarch were needed staples especially for baking for the holidays. The cookies were a treat for Hubby. The cranberry sauce is to go with a small turkey that I will be cooking soon. I opened a new plastic wrap up yesterday so this is to replace it. Lastly the macadamia nuts are for my treat.


This is my receipt. I spent $ 57.70.


Hubby’s birthday was this past weekend so we celebrated with my son and West with a nice breakfast  along with a birthday cake that I made. I planned a nice dinner of filet mignon and baked potatoes for his dinner. We were going to have broccoli with it but Hubby said don’t bother because it was already enough food. So we counted the chives as our vegetable spice. He loved it and so did I. We grilled 4 filet mignons and made 4 potatoes in the air fryer so we had the same dinner last night. Bonus!



Also, look what I recently found. They only had one but you can bet, I grabbed them. My stores have not had them in two months or more. 

I will try my best to push out a couple of more posts this week but don’t panic if you don’t see any. We are well. This is always an extremely busy time of year for us plus we are trying to fit in some extra appointments that we hadn’t planned on. 

I hope you all have a great day and a good week.

Did you get any or are planning on purchasing any good deals this week? If so, please share with all of us.  

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Every Day

Frugal Things This Past Week

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

All meals were made at home. No takeout or restaurant food was consumed. We enjoyed Cobb salad, lamb chops, Chef’s salad, turkey club BLT’s, tacos and soup.

We only spent $ 62.92 on food at the grocery store.

We washed the John Deere lawnmower to get most of the grass and dirt off from the spring and summer.

I received $ 11.00 in rebates in the mail.

I took cans and bottles back to Fast Cash and got $3.20 in deposits.

We had to turn on the heat because the temperature has dropped into the 40’s at night here. But we have it set low enough that it barely runs during the daytime.

I cut chives from our garden to put in a couple of omelets and on potatoes.

We watched the Bills game and a couple of Prime movies for entertainment. 

I washed some windows on the inside. With winter coming it is senseless to wash them outside in the Fall.

I purchased a couple of gifts that were on sale for Christmas.

We have decided our protection is important so we will not give candy out on Halloween. This breaks our hearts because we have done trick or treating for the kids the entire time we have been married. But since we are in the high risk group, we have decided it is not worth the risk. That said, I purchased two big bags of organic animal crackers that I will take to my two neighbors for their little ones to share. 

I am reorganizing my refrigerator so that it will be easier to not waste food. I am spring cleaning it while I am doing it. This is a slow process because I pulled my back out a couple of days ago. I have been spending most of my time on the heating pad. When I just can’t lay down any more(which is very hard for me), I do a shelf or door bin. I will show it all to you when I am finished. 

Hubby washed all the dirt and grime off the front door to get that done for the winter. So many things need to be done and they are getting done but slowly. We need to speed it up because the month of October is predicted to be way colder this year than normal. 

I decided we will no longer eat microwave popcorn that you buy in the grocery store. Not only is it expensive compared to popping your own but the list of ingredients is not very healthy. So I have set up a popcorn area of my pantry with kernels, paper bags to use in the microwave, coconut oil, and an assortment of shake on flavorings. The flavorings probably aren’t healthy but are a lot better than the list of ingredients on what we have been using.

Well it is time to go and marinate a whole bunch of chicken breasts in some Italian dressing. Hubby will grill some for our dinner tonight and some that I can cut up and put in the freezer for some future quick meals. 

What have you done frugally this past week? Are you doing trick or treating this year at your home?

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Every Day

Grocery Haul for this Week


The grocery ads were pretty sad this week as far as sale items go. So I made a trip to Aldi’s for some needed and not so needed things.

We needed some fresh mushrooms, yogurt, and the peppers for some meals this week. Whatever peppers we don’t use, I will slice and freeze for stir fries and pizza. It has been a long time since I had purchased spinach. I love it in my omelets and along with romaine in salads. I was almost out of the cream cheeses and use them in snacks on my diet. Hubby loves strawberry cream cheese on the bagels that I picked up for him. We always need creamer. The Skinny Pop is my guilty pleasure. The oats, applesauce and hand soap are stockpile items. The soap was so cheap. 

The triple candle was an impulse item. It is sugar cookie. I gave up burning candles when my grandchildren were born and went to the battery operated candles. But when I saw this and the price, I wanted it. My grandchildren are old enough now not to go near it. Hubby and I burned it almost all day yesterday. The entire house smelled wonderful.


Hubby loves rice. Since I rarely eat rice, I picked up these easy microwaveable rices. He is happy with them and it saves me time when I am pressed for it. That does not say that I won’t make rice. These are just handy once in a while.

The bread was needed for turkey BLT’s last night. I froze the rest of it. The Hawaiian rolls are needed for sliders this week. I am even going to have one. The rolls are small. The mashed potatoes are easy and a stockpile item. The macadamia’s are for my stockpile of them. It is a low carb nut that I can have once in a while. 


Here is my receipt for $ 56.96. The candle gets included in my grocery budget because it is a small household item that I purchased at a grocery store. Small little household items like this usually are included in my grocery budget. I will be picking up 2 Scotties tissues at Dollar Tree today. There was a coupon in the inserts for them yesterday. I have to go pick up a prescription at the drug store too.

Hubby and I took the weekend off and except for my grocery shopping we were just lazy. We watched the Bills game which we won. So that is two in a row. We spent some time in the yard just enjoying the cool weather. However, we did have to turn the heat on in the house. We have had cold nights and Hubby can’t take the cold. The house had gotten down to 64. We enjoyed grilled lamb chops and BLT’s for dinners.

I hope you all had a great weekend.  

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Every Day

A Little of This and A Little of That

 Yesterday was such a tiring day! I have to keep reminding myself that I am “not as young as I used to be”. I have a birthday coming up soon and I will be “very old”.  Time flies when you are having a great time!

My day started at 6AM yesterday. I was out the door at 9:10AM and didn’t get home until about 2:30PM. I had to drive to another town and get routine medical tests done at two different medical places. Then I had to go to another place for blood work.

By the time I got done with all of that, I still had to go to the bank for the next few months grocery money, spending money, and to cash some checks. I had plans to do some shopping while I was down there but it was too crowded, traffic was crazy, and I was beat. 

However, on the way home, I did stop at my produce store and got some much needed romaine lettuce and a couple of tomatoes. The romaine was local and had just been brought to the store. The head was huge but wet and dirty.

So as tired as I was when I got home, I washed every bit of it, put it all through the salad spinner and laid it on clean kitchen towels to dry. I had 4 huge towels worth. After a few hours, I turned the leaves all over to let the other side dry.

Now it resides in our lettuce keeper, so that I can make some delicious salads.

The very large head of romaine was only $1.49 lb. Since my son and his family have only one car at the moment, he has not been out here since he picked up West. He usually brings us tomatoes. So I was out and in need. These beautiful ones pictured at the top were only also only $ 1.49 a lb.

Then I had to read our meters and submit the readings to the power company so that they don’t send us an estimated bill which I hate. It looks like we should have a rather low bill this month. That would be nice for a change.

Then it was time to make dinner. I had thawed some turkey cutlets because this is what I made:

https://kalynskitchen.com/turkey-cutlets-with-dijon-sauce/

I made enough for two nights so that I won’t have to do anything but heat it up tonight.

It tasted so good but I was so tired. Hubby did the dishes and I went to bed and slept until 6AM this morning.

I have to learn to pace myself a little bit. But that is very hard for me. I am a multi tasker and I love to just keep doing and moving. Many people over the years have told me that I outpace most of the younger people that they know. So for me to have to slow down just annoys me to no end. It’s not going to happen!

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Every Day

How Much Is My Grocery Budget?

 


Curious minds want to know! How much is your grocery budget? What does that have to cover?

I have gotten a few people over the past few months asking me these questions. So it is time to explain how we do it in our household. Our food budget is the  3rd largest line in our overall budget with school and property taxes being the largest and medical being the 2nd largest.

Hubby and I agreed upon a grocery budget of $500. per month effective January of 2020. There is just the two of us. Once in while we have company for dinner but that has only been family this year. Our son and grandson eat Sunday morning breakfast with us many times during the year. Our family in Albany visits a few times during the year. We also get take out and go out to dinner in a normal year a few times. It has not been very often this year and has been infrequent takeout.

So at the end of December when our entire budget was set in motion for 2020, $6,000., which is the yearly amount, was put into our grocery account. Then when Covid19 happened and prices started to rise, we put an additional $1200.(1/2 of our stimulus deposit amount) into that account. So essentially, I had $7200. for groceries for all of 2020.   

That $ 7200. has to cover all food including eating out and any takeout. The other items that it has to cover is household items like cleaners and soaps, personal care items like shampoo, deodorants, shaving cream, razors, toothpaste, floss and mouthwash, etc. It also needs to cover any medical items like bandaids, neosporin, and OTC medicines. Prescriptions drugs is a different budget. 

The large stockups I do are included. For example, my stockpiling for winter has to be within this budget and any stocking that I do at Thanksgiving and Christmas sales also has to be within this budget. 

So far it is working this year. But I have to admit, prices have risen and if I didn’t have full freezers and pantries to begin the year with, I think we might have had to raise the budget.

If you have noticed, I have not spent a lot on groceries the past few months. That is because I am keeping money in the account to be able to buy the rock bottom priced items that we see at Thanksgiving sales.

But since Hubby and I are starting to make our 2021 overall budget, I am really thinking that we need to raise the grocery budget. By how much, I have not determined yet. I did some research online and have seen figures of $ 593. per month up to $700. for the two of us. 

At this point, I don’t know what we will be comfortable with. That is still a work in progress. It will also depend on how much meat prices rise by the end of the year and how much the food shortages in China and Australia affect our prices here. 

I hope I have answered your questions. Now, since curious minds want to know, how much is your food budget this year? Are you going to raise it for 2021? How many people are you feeding and do you include household, personal care, and OTC medical items?

Please leave a comment and share the answers with us. I am curious and I am sure other people are too.

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Every Day

Frugal Things The Past 10 Days or So

These are the things we have done frugally in our home recently.

We received another $ 13.00 in two rebates. They are always worth the few minutes it takes to fill them out and send them in.

My Amazon order came and it was leaking. I had ordered 4 bottles of 32 ounce hand sanitizer. One bottle had the cap off when it arrived. What a mess it was in the box. Half of one bottle had leaked all over the other three and the box. I cleaned it up and contacted Amazon. I got the best customer service ever from them. They told me to either keep, throw out, or donate the order. They credited me for the entire order. So I now have free sanitizer. I believe that Amazon is very leary of the new Walmart Plus so they have really upped their game on their customer service. You can see how much is gone in the bottle on the right.

That roast beef that you saw me cook yesterday has a story behind it. It was dated in 2018. Somehow it got away from me in the dungeon of my chest freezer. Except for turkeys, I rarely keep meat that long. I was wondering if I should toss it or cook it. So I gave it the test. I thawed it, checked to see if it looked okay, and smelled it. It passed those tests, so I cooked it. Then I quickly tasted a small piece when Hubby cut it. It was as good as if it was a new piece of meat. It was delicious and we have another two meals we can get out of it. I am so glad that I didn’t toss it which was my original thought. Waste not want not is my motto.

I washed 3 loads of clothing and towels. I washed the towels in my HE washer using warm water and dried them them using my wool balls which allows me use less time in the dryer. I washed the clothing loads in cold water and hung them to dry.


I redeemed a free to me $10.00 giftcard at Walmart.

My free Better Homes and Gardens magazine came in the mail. I am glad it was free because I skimmed it for about 4 minutes and there was nothing I was interested in.

The pest control company came and got us all set for the winter months. I hate bugs of any kind and the spiders are trying to come inside now that it is cold. 

I washed the car in the driveway. Soon I will be going to the car wash so I want to do as many as I can in the driveway before it gets too cold. I actually have enough reward tickets from getting the car washed last winter, that my first one will be free when I go.


We have been watching You Tube and movies on Amazon Prime for entertainment along with watching football.


I have been cooking all of our meals at home using the best energy saving appliance for the job. 

Lastly, but not money saving, I had to take a picture of the aster bush that I did prior in a post. It is in full bloom now and so beautiful!

What have you been doing frugally?