Before I talk about today, I have to tell you that I changed my mind about what I was cooking for dinner last night. I had forgotten that I had thawed a large chicken breast 2 days before. It needed to be used. So I butterflied it and made orange chicken. We had tossed salads as a side.
I did not go out anywhere today. I am trying to only go out once a week to run errands. The only exception would be if we had doctor appointments. I am hearing that gasoline prices are going up again. So I want to make sure that the discounted tank of gas that I got yesterday lasts as long as possible.
Breakfast this morning were bagels with jam/cream cheese with our morning coffee. There was no lunch. I did have an afternoon snack of a couple of Tillamook sausage sticks. Dinner tonight was the BLT’s that I had planned for last night. They tasted so good in the middle of winter. Hubby made some SF lime jello after dinner so we can have a sweet treat later.
More cleaning was on the agenda today and Hubby vacuumed more rooms in the house. There seems to be dog hair hiding everywhere. But I think we have finally have gotten it all taken care of.
I read more in the money book I started. I also watched a couple of You Tube videos today but fell asleep in the middle of them. So I had a wonderful afternoon nap that I must have needed.
So I spent no money today. However, I probably will next week. Some of the best deals especially on meat are in January every year. I got our ads for next week in my mail today. There are some great deals at Top’s next week that I will be taking full advantage of.
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.
Happy New Year to all of you! May you be Blessed all year long. I decided not to waste this first day of January just resting. So these are the things I have done today:
We have only had just one light on today. It is dark, dreary, and cold. When I got up this morning it was 22 degrees and as I write this it only 30. I think the cold front is here. We also got about 2 inches of snow overnight. So I kept the blinds and shades down all day to try to keep the warmth in the house.
I did some cleaning today. Last year, I purchased three inexpensive house dresses to wear in the house when I clean. They are comfortable and silky and feel so good that it helps me get the chores done. By wearing these I am not getting my good clothes dirty and they will last much longer.
This morning I washed the sheets from two guest bedrooms in cold water, a small amount of detergent that I buy cheaply at Walmart, and dried them in the dryer using the wool balls. While I was folding the laundry, I left the dryer door open to let the hot air come out into the room. Every little bit helps.
I finished getting my 2024 Planner ready for this year. Then I did my Net Worth statement today in my Money Planner. I always do it on January 1st and then compare it to the last day of the year. So next comparison will be December 31, 2024. I also made sure that my budget is all set in this planner. I put a small notebook in my purse so that I can write down each purchase in the car when I am out running errands. This way I can track every dollar when I get home and keep the budget updated. I have a lot of errands to run tomorrow.
One of my goals this year is to read one money book a month. I found the Tightwad Complete Gazette in my cabinet that I keep all of my books in. Hopefully I can read it in 31 days. If not I will finish it in February. I plan on reading books all year that I already own. I will not be buying any new ones. If I need to read something fictional, I will go to the library or online to read it.
Washing my hands today with bar soap after cleaning. We have bar soap at every sink and I use it in the shower. Hubby still has some Old Spice Liquid Bath soap that he is using up. Bar soap is so much cheaper than buying the liquid stuff which has gotten very expensive.
For breakfast this morning, I sauteed some onions and put them in our eggs. Then I added some cheese. I cooked 3 slices of bacon for each of us in my microwave using the bacon tray.
This afternoon we each had a Keto snack from our stockings that our son gave us for Christmas. We won’t run out of these Keto snacks for months.
I asked Hubby this morning if he wanted me to cook an elaborate dinner for New Year’s today. His response was “We have leftovers from a couple of meals in the refrigerator. Let’s eat them.” I had enough of two leftovers. So I let him pick what he wanted to eat. We had leftover taco meat so he made a taco bowl. I ate leftover tuna noodle casserole. We toasted to the New Year with a glass of red wine. No food goes to waste around here!
Entertainment for Hubby today was watching college football games. I watched a couple of You Tube videos in the little bit of spare time I had. Tonight we will watch the Alabama vs. Michigan college football. We will watch with no light. The TV is enough light for us.
I washed a few dishes in the sink that I don’t put in the dishwasher. I filled one sink up with a few inches of water to wash and the other sink with a little warm water to rinse. We try not to waste water around here.
We have certain things in the budget that are every day bills that we can’t really cut. We pay for cable TV, internet, and a home phone that we have deemed necessary for the moment. Hubby wants the cable TV because he enjoys it. Some things are entertainment for him that many people could go without. The bill runs about $ 192. a month but does include our internet and home telephone so I guess it is really not too bad. Since I believe they will have a rate increase this year, we are budgeting $ 215. per month. We have no other choice for internet here. The home telephone we use for our alarm system. I will be trying to negotiate a better price again with a telephone call next week.
We have to pay property taxes and school taxes every year. They are hefty. But that is the cost of being a homeowner. Our property tax bill for 2024 was just under $4900. Since our school taxes for September 2023 were just under $6000, we have budgeted $ 12000. for 2024. We based that on the fact that they keep reassessing us every year. We have no mortgage so we just go to town hall and pay them.
Healthcare is another thing that we can’t go without. Medicare is going up this year from $ 164.90 to $ 174.70 month for each of us which is an increase of $ 235.20 for the year. The total for that Medicare for 2024 is $4192.28 for the both of us. But our Medicare Advantage plan is going up $ 137. a month for 2024 which is an increase of $ 1644. a year. That really shocked us. That is a lot of extra money that we have to budget. The total for the Medicare Advantage plan for 2024 is $5040.
We spent $ 1306. for drug co-pays in 2023, so we are budgeting $ 1600. for 2024 or about $ 134. a month.
We spent $ 858. in medical co-pays for doctors, tests, etc. in 2023. Fortunately neither one of us was in the hospital this year. So this was a cheaper year. We will budget $ 1000. for 2024 for this.
So our total medical that we are budgeting for 2024 is $ 11,832.28 or about $ 987. per month. You know I often wonder what happened to all of that money that we paid into Medicare all those years we worked. If you could see what they actually pay doctors, hospitals and labs, it is almost nothing. And many times we have to fight to get them to pay it. So did that money that we paid in and that people are paying in each year, get spent on something else or is it paying for the people who administer the plan? It seems a shame in this country that the elderly, especially those living on social security, have to pay this. I don’t know how they do it.
Then there are dental bills. We paid $ 1242. for our dental insurance in 2023. That covers 2 cleanings and exams for each of us. It does not cover fluoride or varnish. It covers X-rays once a year. Then everything else we get 20% off. I go every 6 months and Hubby goes 4 times a year so he has to pay for 2 of the cleanings. They cost about $180. each. Plus we budget about $ 1500. for tooth repairs. His fees go up every January. Also the plan goes up just a bit every year. So we have budgeted $ 2950. for 2024. So for 2024 we are budgeting a total $ 14,782. for medical and dental just to stay healthy.
We also pay for pest control. We have voles in the area that can destroy our lawn so they are treated every 3 months along with treatment for all other things like spiders(which I hate), bees and taking down hives, and all other bugs. We just got notice of the third increase in less than 2 years starting in January. They haven’t told us what the increase will be however. This week when I am making calls, I will call and find out. There are only 2 good pest control companies in the area and we used the other one first and they were terrible. So we have to stick with this one. Right now we are paying $185.18 every 3 months or $ 740.72 a year. I would almost bet that it will go up $ 30.+ every 3 months. So we are budgeting $ 220. every 3 months for 2024 or $ 880. for the year. I will know next week so we will see how close we come to that.
We pay the town for water and sewer quarterly. We paid a little less in 2023 because we didn’t have to use the sprinkler system a lot because we had a lot of rain. But it usually runs about $ 341. per year. Since they have a rate increase, we are budgeting $ 360. for 2024. We can try to conserve as much as we can on this one.
Our garbage and recyclable bill comes on our January property tax bill which I should get soon. Since we have a new garbage can that we have to pay for and the prices have gone up, it will be higher than last year. We may also have to purchase another can and pay an additional $50. per year for that can. I will update this when I get the bill.
We pay Guardian monthly to monitor our alarm system. That is $ 44.27 a month or $ 531.24 a year. We will budget $ 575.00 for 2024 or 47.92 a month.
Snow plowing cost us $500. for this winter. It went up $ 100. So we will budget $600. to pay in the Fall of 2024 in case of another increase. We have had a very warm winter and have had no snow so far this winter for him to plow. However, the cold front is starting to come in and I am sure there will be plenty soon. It is a good insurance policy.
We donate 10% of the money that we have to spend every year. That goes to our volunteer fire department which we also pay for through our property taxes, the Tunnel to Towers organization, etc., and various people who we see during the year who need help to buy their groceries or drugs. I will keep this amount private.
We have property in Texas that we own with 2 other people so we pay one third of the taxes for 2 city lots. Those were $ 74.94 this year. So we have budgeted $ 100. for 2024.
We paid $395. in 2023 for maintenance of our sprinkler system so we have budgeted $ 425. for 2024.
We have set aside $ 5,000. for gifts for family birthdays. anniversaries, and holidays for 2024. This amount changes depending on things like family graduations, baby gifts for neighbors, etc.
Our Auto and Homeowner’s insurance gets paid yearly in March. 2023 it was $ 1831. Since I am hearing from almost everybody that it is going up by 20-40%, we will budget on the 25% side which will be about $ 2289. or $ 190.75 per month. We will get our bill sometime next month and then we will know for sure. I will update this post with info when I have it.
Hubby gets the Buffalo News online. It costs us $ 29.99 a month or $359.88 a year. It goes up often so we will budget $ 395.88 for 2024.
We have other subscriptions. I purchased Hulu on the Black Friday deal for $ .99 a month. We will pay for the year and then cancel. So that is budgeted at $12.00 for 2024 for now.
We also pay for our WordPress subscription for this blog every other year. It runs about $100. for 2 years. It is due this Fall. So we have budgeted $120. in case of an increase.
We have Paramount + which we get free through our Walmart+. We pay $106. per year including tax for free shipping and delivery services. We pay for tips of about $100. per year. So our total for that is about $ 206. I will budget that amount for 2024.
We also pay $ 5.99 a month for Peacock. We are keeping track of how often we use this, If not much we will cancel it. But for now we will budget $ 80. for the year.
Hubby pays about $20. a year for Quicken. We will up that to $ 25. for this year.
I did not renew our Instacart and B.J.’s subscription for 2024 and I have no plans to.
We have budgeted for 4 new tires to purchase when our snow tires come off. That will cost us around $ 800. We also have $200. budgeted for oil changes this coming year. Plus we have budgeted another $1500. for repairs and $92. for our AAA membership. So a total of $2592. for 2024 or about $ 216. a month. Then we have to add on our inspection and registration of the car which is $ 37. a year for inspection and $ 81.50 for a 2 year registration. So that brings the total for all up to $ 2669.75 or $ 223. a month.
We have purchased our cars for many, many years with cash. Our car right now is a 2013. However, cars do eventually wear out. So for the past 10 years, we have budgeted $ 4,000. a year for a new car. We will continue to do that until we have to buy one. So we have again budgeted $ 334. a month for 2024.
The gasoline budget is one that we can control. We spent a little under $50. a month in 2023 or $ 600. a year. We have budgeted $700. for 2024. We don’t know if the prices will go down or up. I am betting up because of inflation and everything else that is going on here and overseas right now.
We spent about $ 400. in 2023 on beer, wine, and liquor. We have cut that back to $200. for 2024.
We will also budget about $8,000. to do one last garden outside and pay for the spring cleanup in the spring. I am hoping it will be much less than this or we will have to get estimates from a few companies. So we have budgeted $ 667. a month. Plus we just got the bill for fertilizing the lawn, so I have added another 450. per year for that. So a total of $8450. for all in 2024.
We hope not to have to buy any clothing this year. But just in case one of us needs some item or shoes, we will budget $ 35. a month or $ 420. for 2024.
We also have a miscellaneous category that covers stamps, cards, wrapping paper, shipping costs, printer paper, envelopes, occasional supplements, etc. We budgeted $ 1,200 a year for that for 2024.
We travel to visit family during the year. Those visits include many tanks of gasoline, Thruway tolls, gifts, out to dinner expenses, etc. We have budgeted $3500. this year for those.
Lastly, we have budgeted $ 6,000. in 2024 for home maintenance. This also includes cleaning products. This helps build up this account so that when we need furniture, appliances, or to replace our furnace or air conditioning which we did this year or to replace our roof or any other repairs. We have to hire some painters this year for inside and I know that we will hire a carpet company do some tiling for us and to shampoo all the carpeting and furniture in the house. It is time to get it professionally done. So this is $500. a month.
This may seem like a lot of money to you for two retired people. But I don’t expect that anyone would have the same expenses as us. It is to just show you what we are doing this year and how important it is to have a budget so that you know where every dollar goes. Without knowing where every dollar was going all these years, we would not be able to afford our retirement. Budgeting is what got us here. It keeps you in control and shows you over the years where the unnecessary spending is. We have been retired almost a quarter of a century and have only gotten increases at 62 because we started collecting social security. Many years since we got no increases in social security and the rest of the years except 2023 were dismal. Plus except for 2023, the primary medicare has increased every year. We have Hubby’s small pension but that has only increased $2000. over the last 22 and 1/4 years. You can imagine what all of this money purchased in 2001 and how it hardly purchased much in 2023 especially with the high prices on almost every thing. If you look at an inflation calculator, it will show you that if you purchased a $1.00 item in 2001, it now costs $ 1.73 in 2023. That is a cumulative rate of inflation of 73.5%. I also believe we will be in a world of hurt in 2024. Fortunately we saved a lot of money over the years by investing and saving. I took our money out of stocks and bonds about year ago. I guess I timed it right because they made $ 0.00 over the past year. All of it is now in high interest rate CD’s. But now you understand why we watch every dollar. If we want to continue to save, we have to.
People believe that they don’t have to budget when they reach retirement. It is more important than ever that you continue to budget and track every dollar. Otherwise you will end up broke. Everyone has to save to beat inflation over the years.
We will be taking the rest of today, New Year’s Eve, and New Year’s Day off. We are exhausted from the last few weeks of company. Time to do nothing for a few days. So I will wish each of you a very Blessed New Year. Stay safe.
It’s time now for me to go frost the cinnamon rolls for brunch.
This is an area that we struggle with. Some years we rarely get take out food. Others we get it about 6 times a year. If we do get take out it is usually submarine sandwiches or wraps, Panera Take Two, fish fries, Arby’s, or KFC. These take out purchases occur when I am either sick or just plain worn out. Most meals are cooked in our home. It is so much cheaper to cook at home and tastier too.
I can make up this recipe ahead, freeze the chicken, and then quickly reheat it when I know that I am not up to cooking.
The fish fries this year have not been as good as other years and they have gotten much costlier. So now that it looks like I can get haddock at around $9. a lb. , I will make our own. Hubby has a great homemade recipe that he uses when we have haddock.
The rest we will get take out for.
Restaurants we only go to a couple of times a year and for the most part it is Russell’s which is one of the best steakhouses in our area. It is very costly but we love the food. It is the best prime meat that I have ever tasted and the service is top notch. It is worth every dollar that we pay. Once in a while, we take family with us. We have some gift certificates that were given to us by our son and DIL for Christmas so that will help defray the cost this year. We always go there for our anniversary. Their menu is here:
Sometimes, we go to a small family owned restaurant in town but that is usually it. We are not big on chain restaurants.
We have decided to set our eating away from home budget at $750. this year.
If you want to save money this year to build an emergency fund or some other goal, this is an area that most people could easily cut. Even with inflation so high, restaurant parking lots seem to always be full. Many would be shocked at what they spend in this category if they tracked every dollar.
Besides the big goal that we are saving for in 2024, I have another one that I have always wanted to do. Since I do most of our shopping whether it be online or at a physical store, grocery store, drug store, restaurant, or take out, etc., I am never going to pay full price for anything in 2024.
If I can’t buy it on sale, on clearance, with a coupon, or a gift card that I already have or is free to me, points that I have earned for gasoline, or on Amazon, etc., I will not buy it.
Exceptions would be a car repair or maintenance or a home repair or maintenance. We also have a home garden to finish up. The landscape company will do our spring clean up which is too much for us to do. I doubt that we will get a deal on that. Prescriptions, dental or healthcare is excluded also. Basic everyday bills that we pay are also excluded. But that doesn’t mean that we won’t try to negotiate them.
This totally goes along with my goal to spend as little as possible in 2024. I would like this year to be our best savings year ever. It will be hard since so many things have gone up in price and things like healthcare are going up January 1st. It seems like everything is going up. Soon my car and homeowners policy will show up in our mailbox and I expect that will really increase. And I am sure that the town will up our assessment again. But we are going to try our very best!
I hope you all have Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year. With so much strife in the world today, I think we should remember that this is Jesus’s birthday. Take some time to pray for peace for the world.
For those of you with young children, I hope that it is as magical as I remember it all those years ago.
Enjoy your families and good food today also.
We have company until Saturday. But I will pop in with some short posts on our 2024 budget this week.
When we lived in Arizona, my youngest son sent us a cellphone so that he could keep in touch with us. He had a 1 hour and 15 minute commute back and forth to work. He would call us on his commute every day and we would have a nice chat.
When we moved here he offered us a cellphone on his plan and we would be able to text him, call him and use the internet also. He only charged us $ 596. per year which we would pay in advance to him for a year. To be honest, the phone gets more texting use than anything. Hubby has been looking at cheaper plans the past couple of years. We looked at adding a cellphone via Spectrum but heard not so good reviews about their service. So we stayed on his plan.
The other problem was that he lives in a different area code than us so our phone number had that area code.
A couple of weeks ago we switched to Mint Mobile. They had a deal where if you purchased 3 months worth of service at $ 15.00 per month, they would give you 3 months free if you chose automatic renewal which we did. Their service seems to be as good as T Mobile was. So this year, our cellphone service will cost us $ 172.59 including taxes, surcharges, and fees. That is a huge savings of $ 423.41 for the year. Since we owned our own cellphone we did not have to buy one. And the bonus is that we have a cellphone number within our area code. So we have budgeted $200. for the year just in case of a rate increase or jump in taxes or fees.
Any small or large cut that you can make to your budget for the coming year will make a huge difference in how much money you can actually keep in your wallet to save or invest. If you don’t have an emergency fund use that extra savings to build one. The one thing I know for sure is there will always be an emergency when you least expect it. Be prepared!
I will be back posting a bit on our budget for 2024 next week when I get a chance. We have company coming today to exchange gifts and enjoy a charcuterie board that I am making for lunch. Tonight we will be watching the Buffalo Bills game. So I had better get moving!
We all have spent a fortune on food the past couple of years. Inflation has caused some items to go up over 60-70%. We have dealt with fresh food that goes bad a few days after we purchase it. We have dealt with a slew of recalls that they tell you to just throw away. That sure is money down the drain. I personally have not thrown a slew of recalls away. That food is too expensive to just throw it away. Take it back to the store or call the manufacturer and insist that they replace it free of charge. Keep an eye on the recall list here: https://www.fda.gov/safety/recalls-market-withdrawals-safety-alerts . There are many posted almost every day.
I have dealt with rotten meat and gotten my money back at the store. Don’t let the manufacturer’s of all of these things just pocket your money. I know it takes your time, but do what you have to do to protect your hard earned dollars.
Bottom line is that prices are so high now that I will do whatever needs to be done to not overspend my food budget again. It has been hard to stay below what you think or want to spend. I have gone over it many, many times. I am sure a lot of you have too.
So I have set a monthly budget of $ 534. a month for the two of us in 2024 and that will include any extra meals that we make during the year for our sons’ families or when we have company. This is how we came up with that figure. We went here: https://fns-prod.azureedge.us/sites/default/files/resource-files/Cost_Of_Food_Thrifty_Food_Plan_October_2023.pdf and looked at the thrifty plan for our ages. That gave us a total of $ 502. per month for us. Then we added $ 32. more per month as a little buffer for inflation. Hence the $ 534. per month.
We chose the thrifty plan because these government plans are extremely high. Also we do have some food left in our pantry and freezer that we will be using up in 2024.
We also tend not to waste any food. It is too expensive to not use it and just let it rot. We always use up or freeze leftovers for future meals. Twice a week, I check my refrigerator to see what needs to be used up before it goes bad. Then I make a plan to have those on 1-2 leftover days for brunch or dinner. If I have a lot of lettuce that needs to be used up, I will make tacos, taco salads or serve a side salad with a meal. Every veggie that needs to be used up will go into those salads. This year I am also going to make sure that I am not buying too many fresh vegetables and fruits at one time when I shop. I know how much we use, so one to two weeks worth when I shop is what I will buy.
We eat a lot of eggs so I buy the 60 count box from Walmart. The prices have started escalating again because of the bird flu again so I have been buying and freezing eggs to get ahead of the price increases. I just put one egg in each part of an ice cube tray, freeze them, and put them in a Ziploc bag. That way I can pull out one or two to thaw each time I need them. I try to use them up within 4 months for freshness but you can keep them and they will last a year.
I am not renewing my Instacart which expires this month. I found I didn’t use it enough to make it worth it. B.J.’s is expiring the end of this month too. I will make one more trip there before it does. I only need a couple of things. Then I will wait for 6 months or so (after the winter) and use a coupon to get a membership for $ 20. or $ 25. again. The one delivery service that I use a lot is Walmart+ especially in the winter. It just renewed the beginning of this month. I don’t like driving in snow and ice. In my area, Walmart is the cheapest for most things unless they are on sale at the more expensive grocery stores. They even beat Aldi’s on a lot of items. So I check Walmart online whenever I am planning to buy an item at Aldi’s to check the prices. I do not include my memberships or the driver’s tips in in my food budget. We budget those in a category called the Cost of Food Delivery.
I am also planning on using some sources for food that are farther away from where I live. But they will only be used when things are at rock bottom prices and I have other errands in that direction. I have to make my expenditure of gas worth it.
I could write a lot more but you will see the things I do during the year to save with posts that I put up.
We have been working on our 2024 budget plan for a few weeks now. With inflation as high as it is, we have three main categories that are our largest expenditures: Food, Utilities, and Cable TV and Streaming Services. Today, we are going to talk about utilities and how we are planning on lowering them.
This purchase in the picture is our latest attempt to do that. You all know that I have accumulated a lot of small appliances over the years. They are always more energy efficient than using the natural gas stove top and oven. This new oven will replace a number of other small appliances especially my toaster oven, air fryer oven, and rotisserie. So besides saving energy, it frees up my cluttered counter space. And as we are trying to live a simpler life, this will definitely benefit us. Sometimes, you just have to spend money to save money.
It air fries because it is a convection oven so things cook faster. It broils and bakes. I cooked our homemade pizza for dinner last night in the air fryer rack which you see in the top of the oven part. It not only got done quicker than in the regular oven or toaster oven but the crust was nice and crispy. It will also do a 16 inch frozen convenience pizza. What really amazed me is that it took only 1/2 the time to preheat than my large oven does. I know that makes sense but when we were weighing the pros and cons for buying this, I didn’t think about that.
I could get a small piece of meat or a small casserole in my toaster oven but I could not cook a large roast or small turkey or whole chicken in it. I can get two chickens at a time done in it and cook up to a 15 lb. ham. A 12 x 15 casserole dish will fit in it. Eleven of the cooking functions are preset to make it easy for me: air fry, slow cook, bake, toast, broil, roast, warm, turbo convection, wings, pizza, and grill. This will replace my indoor grill also.
We have looked at this appliance for over 6 months now. It was not a hasty purchase. When I was looking at it back then, it cost more than I paid for it when I ordered it. Plus the only color I could find at that price was red. Not in my kitchen because I have mostly stainless steel appliances. So when Hubby saw it was on sale for less than when we looked before and they had the stainless steel, we pulled the trigger and ordered it. And I know I will not regret this purchase.
I believe I will never have to turn on the big oven again except for a very large turkey. I also think we are going to save much more money in the long run than we spent to buy this which was $ 219.98 + tax. Hubby and I don’t exchange gifts for Christmas because we buy what we need when we need it. But we are calling this our early Christmas gift. The best part is Hubby unboxed it and washed all of the pans and trays and the inside and outside of the oven. That was a bonus for me! So it is now in full use.
I am not going to show you all the ways again that we try to save on our natural gas and electric bill because I have done that many times on here. Just search the tags for saving on utilities or natural gas or electric.
Bottom line, we will do our very best to save on our energy bills even though we have had a rate increase and an increase of $ 2.00 each for our electric meter and gas meter. Winter bills are very high here because we live in a very cold and snowy climate.
We spent $ 2145.60 in 2023 for our natural gas and electric bill . We are allotting $ 2250.00 in our budget for 2024 but hoping to spend less than that with all of the things we do to decrease it. That works out to $ 187.50 per month.
There will be a number of posts over the next 16 days showing you what we are doing with our 2024 budget. They will all be titled 2024 Budget Plan.
