Author: Precious

Since we had that bad blizzard on Christmas weekend and a State of Emergency in our counties, we could not go out on the roads to get to my son’s in Rochester. Plus it was too dangerous for any of us to go out. My DIL’s parents and her brother were supposed to be there too. But no one could get there. So we all spent Christmas Day alone. My son knowing how disappointed we all were said he would have Christmas there today.

So at 9am this morning, we drove to my son’s and DIL’s home. We just got home about 5pm. We had a wonderful time with them, West, her parents and her brother.

We all exchanged Christmas gifts and we were all very happy with what we received. They even kept the tree up!

Katie and Sean did their traditional fondue dinner. I love fondue and you have to love that it takes hours to cook and we had such good company to chat with. She had 3 pots- one with oil for the colossal shrimp, sea scallops, marinated tenderloins, plain tenderloins, chicken, and mushrooms. She made many different Keto dipping sauces for the meat and seafood. One pot with cheese fondue for broccoli, asparagus, and 2 different Keto breads she baked- plain and banana. Then for dessert she had chocolate fondue for bacon, Keto brownies, Keto cake, strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, and blueberries. It was all scrumptious! I told Hubby we should have fondue more often for dinner. We own a fondue pot. It’s easy and fun.

So excuse me that we did no money saving today! It was a long day and I need to rest. I will be back tomorrow with a new post.

We had bacon and eggs for breakfast.

I have been trying to find out why an insurance claim for the Hospital ER back in July 2022 was denied. I got a denial of claim letter on Oct. 25, 2022. I called the insurance company on that day and was told by a representative that it was because they needed more information from the hospital. She told me to sit tight and I would hear soon. Well, I had gotten nothing as of yesterday. So I called the hospital and asked if it had been paid by my secondary insurance. She said no that they had sent two denials. She said Medicare paid their portion but my secondary was denying it. I asked how much was left of the bill. She said $190. I knew there would be a deductible that I would have to pay for the ER but not that high. So at 8am this morning, I called the insurance company to ask what the hospital had to do to get this paid. I also told the woman I talked with that I am very frustrated with this. Everybody is passing the buck and I am left in the middle. She said hold on while I look at the claim. After doing so, she told me that it should never have been denied. If Medicare pays, they pay. She said the computer is stupid and she really meant it. I also told her so is the girl who I talked to on October 25th who should have realized that it should have been paid. The woman I talked to today is reprocessing it and making sure it goes through this time. She says I should get the benefit statement in the mail within 20-25 days. She is also calling the billing office at the hospital today and advising them that it was denied in error. They will get their money within 20-25 days. Then they can bill me the co-pay. Moral of this story: Never give up even though it is very frustrating. You just need to get to the right person. The $190 was not coming out of my pocket. We pay for the best secondary plan every month so I was not giving up. I will follow up in 20-25 days and make sure that I get the statement and that the hospital is paid.

I spent some time organizing my food storage today. It had gotten out of hand with Hubby’s hospitalization and then mine. I will spend a little time each day until it is the way I want it..

We are also starting to take some items off of dressers and end tables in our bedroom to get ready for the carpet work to be done on Tuesday. We also have to remove the bed on Sunday. That should be easy because it is a sleep number bed and comes apart in pieces. That will go out with the garbage next week. We are paying the people who are doing the carpet work extra money to move 3 dressers, a recliner and 2 end tables out of their way. They are too heavy for us to do it.

I spent some time reading a book on my Kindle.

Just before dinner, I helped Hubby mount our big screen TV in the bedroom on the wall.

For dinner tonight, we will have porterhouse steak cooked in the air fryer. Hubby does all kinds of steaks perfectly in there in the winter. I will also make some salads to go with it.

We will catch up on Yellowstone some more today too.

Did you save any money today?

Today is the day the garbage and recyclables gets picked up. I had saved a few boxes to use around here and decided I had too many. So I broke down every one that we didn’t need and they are now out of the house.

All garbage was collected from all of the wastebaskets and our can in the kitchen. I had a very full bag but there was some that I couldn’t fit in. So I grabbed the thick plastic bag that they gave me at the hospital to bring my things home in to get rid of the rest. I even went down in the basement and emptied the wastebaskets near the work bench and a garbage can that we keep to put trash in. The old filter that I had changed for the furnace even fit in there. It was then full and I closed it with a saved twist tie. This saved me from using another trash bag. They have gotten so expensive that I am always thinking out of the box on how to save one. I hate spending money on things that we just throw away!

Today, I decided to cook up a lb. of bacon in the electric fry pan. We had homemade egg McMuffins with the bacon, eggs, and cheddar cheese for brunch. The leftover bacon will get used for meals over the next few days. I would never go get McDonald’s ones. Mine are better and I save the time and gasoline of going to get them. Not only that but I am hearing that their prices have skyrocketed.

I am now using bar soap in the kitchen to wash hands. As the last of the liquid soap containers empty in the bathrooms, I will be switching to bar soap there also.

This morning I previewed the Top’s ad that starts on Sunday. They have some good deals on chicken, pork tenderloins, 4 packs of soup, salsa, and ground beef. I need none of these things so I will not be shopping there next week. If anyone here shops Top’s and is interested in seeing this ad, it is https://www.couponsforyourfamily.com/tops-ad-scan-tops-weekly-ad-preview/

Hubby all of a sudden this morning asked me if we had any sheets for the new beds since they are being delivered next week. I told him that I had ordered two sets for each and they had just arrived on our porch. We still need blankets so I searched for them today and ordered 4 for the 2 beds. I got cotton thermal blankets. These prices have really gone up. I paid $45.00 a piece for Twin XL ones. But I had the $100. gift card to go toward them. Plus I will get Amazon points for the purchases. They arrive Tuesday just in time.

Instead of waiting for my son to come, Hubby and I managed to get the 4 wreath and candles boxes into the basement and up on the shelves.

I paid the property tax bill today. I also paid my son for my portion of the cellphone for all of 2023.

I tried not to overdue it today. So no nap was needed. Hubby and I watched recorded programs from this week both this afternoon and a couple tonight.

Dinner was the leftover chicken cordon bleu casserole. We have more in the fridge for lunches.

That’s it for today. I am off to bed.

Did you save any money today?

I will be taking it a bit easier today. I overdid it yesterday and I am hurting quite a bit more today. I took a nap and watched some You Tube this afternoon.

Hubby had some granola for breakfast before he went to a doctor’s appointment. While he was out, he stopped and picked up 2 prescriptions for us. They were on his route. I had an egg and some avocado for breakfast.

I had a Walmart delivery this morning. I am happy to tell you that they had eggs. They weren’t cheap but at least they weren’t out of stock.

I purchased 2-18 count brown eggs for $ 7.14 each. They were cheaper than the white eggs. We were needing shrimp for a recipe and it was on clearance for $ 5.72. The bacon was 24oz. and was $ 5.97. We were down to our last Half and Half so I got 3 for $ 2.78 each. The lime juice was $ .96. I got 2 chili powder, 2 garlic powder, and 2 garlic salt for $ 1.00 each. The total was $ 45.27 including the tip. These are basics in our house that we needed. Then I also filled in my gaps with the spices.

After my nap, I made dinner. I made https://www.ketofocus.com/recipes/chicken-cordon-bleu-casserole/

This was so delicious that we added it to our cookbook. For some reason the butter rose to the top. Perhaps we didn’t stir it in long enough. But it didn’t matter, anything with butter makes it taste better. She says in her recipe that this serves 6. But we believe it will serve us for 4 meals.

Hubby is doing what he can around here for me. He took apart the part of the Dyson vacuum that holds the dirt and cleaned it really well with soap and water a few minutes ago. He will leave it overnight to dry. He had already cleaned the roller when he put the new end cap on.This vacuum looks new and it is about 19 years old. The better we can maintain what we own, the less money we will need to spend on replacements.

That’s it for today. It’s all the energy I had to get things done. I have to learn to slow down a little but it is not easy because I have done so much every day all my life.

What did you do to save a bit of money today?

Breakfast this morning was an egg and an avocado before I went to a doctor appointment.

While I was out I decided to do many errands along my route so as to save as much gasoline as possible. I went to the hospital that I was recently in to pick up copies of my X-rays and CT scans to bring to my neurosurgeon next week. I stopped at the President’s office while I was at the hospital to deliver a letter about the wonderful care that I got from 2 nurses and 2 PCA’s. I also asked her to deliver the Thank You notes and $25. grocery store gift cards that I purchased for each of them to them. I had planned on giving them to the CEO but I was told his office is downtown Buffalo. I am not up to making that trip right now.

I stopped at our town hall to take the application that my doctor signed this morning for a disability parking permit. I never thought I would see the day I would need one but this back and nerve problem has changed that.

I picked up my $100. replacement gift card.

The last errand was to Top’s to grocery shop some of the loss leaders. It was Senior Discount Day so I got 6% off all of it. This is what I got at Top’s: 2 Porterhouse Steaks on B1G1 sale- $ 21.05 for both of them, 1 lb. bacon -$3.99 with Super Coupon, 5lb. of potatoes – $ 2.48 with Super Coupon, 3 large cantaloupe – 3/$10., 2 Monterey Jack Cheese – $ 5.98 for both, and 2 Shredded Swiss Cheese – $ 4.69 for both with a Super Coupon. Total after the 6% senior discount was $ 45.30.

We have been craving a steak but didn’t want to pay full price for one. This was the deal I had been hoping for. These will make a total of 4 meals for us. Whenever I can get bacon for $ 3.99, I buy it. The cheeses were the only things I was missing for a recipe I am making tomorrow night. You can’t have steak without a potato. These will be kept in a basket in my cool basement so they last the winter. These are the same cantaloupes that we were eating earlier this week. Hubby wanted some more. So I obliged.

We are having an eat what you want dinner. Hubby is fixing fish sticks and coleslaw. I am eating homemade fried chicken that was in our freezer. I will have a salad with it. The fish and chicken will get heated up in the air fryer. This meal will be easy because I overdid it today. I am very tired and going to bed after I talk to my sister on our weekly chat.

Did you save any money today?

Fed Ex picked up the blanket that I am returning to Walmart(free shipping) so that I will get my refund.

Hubby ordered an end cap at 15% off for our Dyson vacuum cleaner to repair it. It came today and he fixed it.

I got my property tax bill today and it was just under $4900. It increased by $753. in a year because of the increase in assessment. Between this bill and the school tax bill of $6111. last September, we are paying $11, 011 in taxes for a year which is a huge amount. Fortunately, I can pay it this week because we budget for our taxes all year so the money is set aside. I will have to up our 2023 budget to $12,500. for these taxes or about $ 1042. a month.

I ordered 2 sets of sheets for each of our new adjustable beds. Two of the sets were on clearance marked down from $30. to $ 14.80 each. I had reward points of a $1.00 at Walmart that I put toward that purchase. I went through Rakuten to get a 3% rebate. The other 2 sets I purchased at Amazon. They are cooling sheets that Hubby wanted to try. They were $ 30. each which I paid with an Amazon gift card. I will earn Amazon reward points for this purchase. I will also earn reward points by using my credit card for the Walmart purchase. These were necessities since we have no Twin XL sheets. Next I will have to look for a good deal on blankets.

We had leftover scrambled eggs and ham. I put cheese on them and quickly heated them in the microwave. Then I put them in a low carb wrap with sour cream and salsa, just like yesterday. It was a yummy breakfast!

Dinner will be bean soup which was absolutely delicious last night. I froze the leftover soup for a couple of other meals.

Entertainment tonight will be the Buffalo Bills vs. Bengals game. Go Bills! I never used to watch football but this year I have truly taken a liking to it. I even watched most of the college bowl games with Hubby this past week. Some of them were truly exciting!

I cleaned the garbage disposal drain today. I hate it when it starts to smell. I put baking soda down it and let it sit for a while. Then I add vinegar and run it for a minute or so. I also took the drain filter and the spray arm in the bottom of the dishwasher out and cleaned all of that up with soapy water. Maintaining appliances saves you money in the long run.

Lights have been off most of the day even though it is dreary here.

We caught up on Yellowstone today on the Paramount Network which is free for us.

I purchased a $100. gift card this Christmas. When I opened the strip on it, part of the gift card code was missing. I called the company who the card was for and they told me to take it to where I bought it for a replacement. The manager of the store said it is a 3rd party vendor card and they couldn’t do anything about it. But he took the card and said he would look into it. He called me today and told me that someone had activated the card and spent all of the money on it. I don’t know how they did this when there was a bad code and no one had scratched off what they needed to activate it. This gift card came sealed in cardboard. Unless it was done by someone at the company who put the $100. on it when it was activated through the store’s register where I bought it. I believe the manager knows more about how this happened than he was telling me. But they are going to make good on it. They have a new card to give to me. Luckily, I am not out $100. I will never buy a gift card again. In this economy, there are way too many people stealing. UGH!

Did you save any money today?

Happy New Year to All!

My son, when he visited, noticed that the guest bathroom toilet was slowly leaking. We rarely use that toilet so we did not know that. I am so glad that he pointed it out to us. Hubby got new flappers and fixed that one and has a spare for ours in case that starts leaking. A small leak could cost us dearly on our water bill. Make your own repairs when possible. A plumber would have cost us a fortune if we needed to call him. Hubby has made many household repairs. If he isn’t sure how to do something, he can usually find a video on You Tube showing him how. He also put new felt pads on the chair legs in the house. The ones that we had were starting to fall off. We have hardwood floors that we do not want to ruin. He picked all of these things up when we went to the mattress store. The Value Home Center is right next store.

I soaked dry Great Northern Beans in cold water overnight. They are much cheaper than buying canned ready to use beans. I rinsed them by spooning them into a strainer with a slotted spoon. I was not going to waste the water that they soaked in. It was too dirty to use for the soup liquid. So it will get used to flush a toilet. I never waste water.

The beans are now in the crockpot with the ham bone. Later when I pull the bone out, I will take all the meat off and throw it back in the pot. If I think the soup needs more meat, I will add more ham. Then I will add all of my spices. We will have delicious bean soup for dinner tonight and the next few nights. It’s cheap, nutritious, and filling.

Now that the rain has washed all of the snow and ice off of our property, Hubby was able to go outside and put our huge patio umbrella back up. It is anchored with a base that is filled with sand. Never in a million years did we think the windstorm and blizzard we had would knock it over, but it did. Nothing was damaged luckily. He also had to find the chairs that had blown off the patio into our yard and put them back at the table. They were not damaged either. I guess we were lucky. The neighbor behind us had his vinyl fence blow down for the third time since it was installed this year. He also had roof damage. Yikes.

I spent some time today going through a box of Christmas tree ornaments. I set aside some for both of my sons that we don’t use because we have a much smaller tree than we used to. One of my sons does not have many so I am sure he can use some of them. What they don’t want I will donate to Goodwill. We took our tree down and now that box has only the ornaments that we use on our tree. We also took the four wreathes and the four candles out of our windows and packed them into their boxes. When my son comes for Sunday breakfast the next time, he will put them in their spots in storage for me. They are too bulky for me to carry and Hubby isn’t able to do it.

I did one load of clothes in cold water using my homemade laundry detergent in my washing machine. I had emptied the container that I keep my laundry detergent in(gal. ice cream tub) and then forgot about it. So I made a double batch. I only use 2 Tbsp. per load and it gets our clothes so clean. The recipe I use is here: https://theprudenthomemaker.com/laundry-soap/

I hung some of the items on the shower rod on hangers and others on the rack to dry. The second load was full of towels. They got dried in the dryer with the wool balls to cut down on the time that was needed to dry them.

This morning, I spent some time putting all of our appointments in my new planner. I also filled out everything that I need to do in January so that I can stay very organized this year.

For breakfast, I planned on finishing the cantaloupe but Hubby ate it for a snack last night. So I made low carbohydrate wraps with scrambled eggs and diced ham and a little cheese on top. I served them with a dab of sour cream and some salsa. The price of eggs is ridiculous. I am seeing them from $ 7.14 a dozen for brown eggs to almost $ 9.00 a dozen for white large eggs. I have only 10 eggs left so I either need to get some soon or start using the ones I froze and hope that the price comes down before they are gone.

I filled out paperwork for my neurology appointment and put it in a folder to bring to him along with my records from my hospitalization. The doctors around here are very particular. I must have the paperwork filled out when I walk in the door. I have another doctor where I must be there 15 minutes early. If you are not, they cancel your appointment. I have never had to wait for my appointment. They are always on time and I think this is why. These are two really good specialists so I make sure to follow their rules.

I paid the credit card bill in full that I used for Christmas gifts, etc. We never pay interest on credit cards. They are paid in full every month. I also paid two doctor bills that came in the mail. We had no mail delivery from the Friday before Christmas until this past Friday because of the blizzard we had. So we got a lot of mail all at once on Friday. I was hoping to get my property tax bill but it hasn’t come yet. It is due in January and I am a little anxious about the amount since our assessment went up by $140,000.

I looked at the Top’s ad online and made my grocery list for this week. Aldi’s had nothing that I wanted. I also looked at the Price Rite ad. They have some really good deals so I am debating going there this week. I do have a doctor’s appointment nearby.

We now have both guest rooms closed up with the heat registers off and cloth snakes in front of the doors to keep the cold out of the rest of the house. We will see if that helps with the heat bill. I changed the filter in the furnace. It runs more efficiently with a clean filter.

Dinner is over. So Hubby and I will watch Sunday night football.

What did you do today to save some money?

Happy New Year’s Eve to you all! Hubby is happily watching the Premier League soccer on TV. I have all of my work done for today and dinner will be easy. So I decided to do another blog post.

Remember the other day I told you I got 3 large packages of boneless, skinless chicken breasts from Top’s delivered to my home. I used my food saver to get all of those in the freezer. Well, I was feeling up to going out yesterday afternoon, so I went to Top’s to get 2 more large packages of the chicken breasts. Today is the last day to get the $1.99 lb. price if anyone has a Top’s near them.

I only got two packages because we already have a lot of chicken. Today, I trimmed them, cut them up the way I wanted to use them, and froze them in freezer Ziploc bags because they will get used up soon. We have 8 meals of breasts(I cut them lengthwise). We have 4 meals of chicken chunks that we use for casseroles, stir fry, or chicken fried rice. Lastly, we have 4 meals of chicken strips. We use those for fajitas or for Keto coated chicken strips(almond flour, crushed pork rinds, etc.) that we do in the air fryer. They are so good! The chicken weighed 9.61 lbs. at $ 1.99 a lb. for a total of $ 19.12. We have 16 meals ready to cook for the two of us. So each meat portion for the two of us cost about $ 1.20. Really cheap!

No matter what meat I buy, I cut them up the way I want to use them when I am freezing them. That saves me a lot of time when I am ready to cook. I am usually tired by dinnertime so this is easier.

This meat was a loss leader and that is the only way I will buy meat in 2023 unless I see a good price on a reduced for quick sale package. If I see a great price on meat, I will stock up depending on how much space is in the freezer or if I am up to canning it.

Yesterday while I was out I ran the errands in a circle. I filled the SUV up with gasoline. The price was $ 3.499 a gallon but I had enough points to get $ .70 off a gallon so I paid $2.799. I also picked up one of my prescriptions that was ready. Speaking of prescriptions, I am hearing that health premiums are going up in January. Has anyone gotten notice that theirs’ is going up? We know what the new Medicare premium is for both of our medical but we have not heard a thing on our secondary insurance.

Another thing we will be doing in 2023 is repurposing items. For example, my son mentioned that he had put a hole in his shirt. He was going to put it in my garbage. I told him no that I would cut it up for rags. I have an almost full washing machine, so the shirt will be thrown in and washed with our clothes. Then I will cut it up later today and put it in the bag that I use for rags. We use very few paper towels(I only use them for draining bacon) in a year because we have rags.

We have to bag our garbage for the garbageman to pick up. Garbage bags are very expensive. I do use them but I use everything else that I can also. The things we reuse are Amazon soft packaging, any bag that holds a food item that is large. For example, we buy granola that Hubby loves in bulk from an Amish company in Ohio. They double bag the granola when they ship it. The outer bags are very large and very thick so they get reused to bag garbage. I stuff any bag including the purchased garbage bags because that way I can buy less of them. Clothing and blankets sometimes come in thick bags so we save them. Any thick and large bag will get saved for reuse.

I also reuse glass jars that purchased products come in. I use them for bacon grease, to put food in the fridge or freezer, to hold beans, rice, popcorn, etc. We buy nuts in those big plastic containers. When they are empty, I use them for dry food storage.

We will use reusable items in our home as much as possible. Cloth napkins and microfiber cloths are a staple here. I also use a dust mop that I can wash the head and dusting tools that I use over and over again. We also use reusable batteries in everything that we can. I have reusable cloth sponges that I can wash in the washing machine. I cut up mail that is junk for scrap paper. They usually only have writing on one side. I save envelopes that come in the mail to put my coupons in for a shopping trip. We have a rug shampooer so we have never had to hire someone to do the wall to wall carpeting which is an off white in the living areas. It looks as new as it did 13 years ago. We dry dishes with reusable dish cloths. I buy one color for dishes and one color to dry hands. They get thrown in the washing machine every night and new ones get put out.

We do as much cooking from scratch as we can. It is cheaper than buying products that are made for you. We will be doing a lot of this in 2023. We will make our own pizzas, sauces, many condiments, soups, Keto ice cream, etc. I will show those things with recipes as we do them during the year.

As we use up cleaning products, we will make our own. We make our own laundry detergent and dishwasher detergent now and will continue to do that. I replaced jet dry with vinegar.

I am getting tired again so I will have to stop. Starting tomorrow, I will be posting every day with the things we are doing that day to save money so that we can continue to add to our investments and bank accounts.

I hope you will join me in the comments and tell us what you are doing. Remember, the less money you have to spend on things the better. This is going to be a very expensive year between food, gasoline, and utility costs. I think even more expensive than they are now. By sharing we all learn from you.