A few readers have asked me what it cost to have my own website on Word Press. There was a cost of $20. for the conversion tool to import my blog from Blogger to Word Press.
I also needed to purchase my domain name. I really wanted the same name that I have been blogging under for a few years and I was lucky that it was available. That cost was $27.97 for two years.
Lastly, I told my son, my IT guy, that I wanted a SSL certificate. You can see the lock in your browser when you are on my blog. The license cost me $ 15.76 for 2 years.
So it cost a total of $ 63.73. It was worth it to me! Blogger just went to a new format and there are so many glitches and they don’t seem to care. I did not consider Blogger to be safe anymore.
Also there are so many more things that you can do with Word Press. I am not limited like I was on Blogger. I am learning something new every day. I will also be playing with the colors until I find one I really like. It takes a bit to learn something new but they have a great tutorial that really helps.
So those bloggers who are considering going to Word Press those were my costs. I consider them my entertainment for the next two years or more. Cheap entertainment at that. So far I am really liking Word Press.
These are the frugal things that I am doing around our home these past few weeks.
This is the turkey that I purchased for $.48 a lb. this week. I put it in the oven before I ran some errands this morning. I did not stuff it because we are not eating it tonight. When it comes out of the oven, I will let it cool and put it in the refrigerator overnight. That will make it easier to slice and dice. Then I will food saver the meat up into portions for our future meals. I will also make gravy to freeze for future meals.
I will cook down the bones and skin in my crockpot to make chicken bone broth. Mine always tastes better than the ones you can buy in the store.
I have finished all of my Christmas shopping. I picked up the last gift that I needed today.
Yesterday I shipped two large Christmas packages. I wanted to get that done before the rush of packages after Thanksgiving. I used my AAA card to get a 5% discount on the ground shipping. That saved me $1.41. Not much but it all adds up!
I have finally finished my last grocery trip until the Spring. When we need fresh things, I will order it and have it delivered from Walmart. It snowed here two days this week. And even though it has all melted, I know the big one is coming.
I am working on writing my Christmas cards. I purchased them last year after Christmas on discount. I will be using Forever stamps from way before the last stamp increase.
I have watched about 5 episodes of “Little House on the Prairie”. It is full of commercials which is driving me crazy but I am handling it.
I made my last trip to the bank until after the New Year and maybe well into the year. I like doing this once every few months instead of monthly because it saves me a lot of gasoline.
We are opening the shades and blinds when the sun is out to help with the heating. At night they are all closed up.
I had been having a hard time finding tissues. I finally found Scotties today and even though they were expensive, I purchased the last four that I think we will need for the winter.
A couple of the buttons on my good winter coat were loose so I sewed them on tighter before I lost them.
I washed all of our lighter weight coats in warm water and soap before we put them in storage for the winter.
Our boots are all ready to go in the seating bench in the garage which is where we take them on and off if we go out. The brush and scraper are in the car for the winter and the snow tires are on.
Two of our bedrooms have been closed up for the winter and the snakes are ready to be put in front of the bottom of the doors. I will do that tomorrow.
I went to B.J.’s and got bacon, guacamole, Skinny Pop, cans of corned beef, powdered ranch dressing, and Hubby’s favorite Caesar dressing because the prices on these items are cheaper there. I did it on the same trip to the bank.
I scanned all of my recent grocery receipts into Fetch to get reward GC’s.
And as usual, we are careful about how much energy we use in the house.
I continue to work out on my treadmill and recumbent bike here in our home.
That is it for now. What have you guys done frugally the past few weeks? Feel free to share with all of us in the comments.
I now have 4 turkeys. One was left over from last year. I have gotten three this month. Yesterday I went to Top’s and picked up this 16 lb. one for $.48 a lb. I wasn’t going to get another one but Hubby thought it was too good a price to pass up. So it is now thawing in our refrigerator. It will be roasted on Thursday. Then all of the meat will be sliced or cubed and I will vacuum seal the packages in meal size portions and put them in the freezer. It takes up less room than a whole turkey. This turkey will be used in place of chicken. Buying under $1.00 a lb. turkey is a no brainer when chicken costs $ 1.99 and up a lb.
I purchased English muffins yesterday when I got the turkey. They were on sale for B1G2F. I have not made egg McMuffins in 21 months. So this morning, it was our breakfast of choice. I cooked up 2 sausages for each of us.
Then I cooked the eggs. But you know what they say about the best laid plans. When everything was ready, Hubby came and put his together and melted his cheese.
I started to put mine in the microwave to melt my cheese and got distracted. My egg flew off and hit the floor. What a mess! So I just had sausage with cheese on the muffin. So a few months from now, I will try again.
After cleaning up the egg mess, taking my shower, making our bed, and exercising, I decided to do all of the breakfast dishes, clean the stove top, clean the sinks, and clean and polish the counters. These are things that I do everyday in the morning. These are the three products that I use. I love Weiman products. I use the gas range cleaner, the stone cleaner and polisher, and the stainless steel cleaner when I do the fridge and dishwasher.
The stovetop is clean now.
Remember when you clean this to take it apart. A lot of gook gets trapped under the black part and if you don’t clean it, it will smell. I put the plug for the garbage disposal and my sponge in the dishwasher each time I run it. Since the virus came, I have been running the dishwasher only on the sanitizer cycle.
Now my sinks are nice and shiny., The vinegar gel does a great job. Notice the black line at the top of the right hand sink and where the stone meets behind the faucet. Hubby recaulked everything a couple of months ago and he forgot to get waterproof caulk so food is discoloring the caulk. It is driving me crazy so he is going to remove all of the caulk, get the waterproof one, and redo it.
Also I purchased this holder for my scrubber and sponge recently. I hate it because it gets in the way when we wash pots and pans. I want these two items handy but I don’t want them in the way. I refuse to have them just sit up near the faucet. Have any of you found a product or solution to this problem that works well for you?
I polished and cleaned the counters and my small appliances this morning.
Before I moved into the dining room, I threw a load of laundry into the washer. I also lit the candle on the kitchen breakfast bar. It smells so good. It is sugar cookie.
The dining room was my room to clean today. It is now all done. Then I tidied up the great room, the guest rooms and cleaned my bathroom sinks and toilets. It feels good when my house is neat and clean.
Hubby wanted some popcorn for lunch while he watched some boxing that he had recorded. So I obliged and made him a bowl and took a tiny bit for me to eat while I watched an episode of “Little House on the Prairie”. I only watched a couple of these shows when they first aired in 1974. Now that the series is on Amazon Prime, I am going to watch all of them. So I have been viewing a few a day.
After watching my show, I decided to bake some chocolate chip cookies. Hubby loves them and we have not had a sweet around here in a long time. We like big cookies. So one a day is plenty. The second pan just went in the oven. Hubby says they are delicious.
For dinner last night, I roasted two turkey tenderloins. We had 1/2 of one sliced up with turkey stuffing and homemade gravy. I also had some green beans.
We used the other 1/2 to slice up and have it with the leftover gravy and stuffing along with some cut up fresh tomatoes for dinner tonight. The other 1/2 of the cooked turkey tenderloin will be used to slice up on Chef’s salads tomorrow night. Then the last 1/2 will be used for club sandwiches on Wednesday for dinner. Four meals from two tenderloins that cost $6.99 is a great deal.
After doing all of the dishes and running the dishwasher, I wiped up the counters, wiped down my sinks again, put new kitchen towels out, and vacuumed the kitchen floor. I don’t have any meals to prep because of all the leftovers we have for the next couple of nights.
Tonight I will watch some You Tube shows and another episode of “Little House on the Prairie” while I fold the load of laundry that I did today. Hubby always watches Monday Night Football and will also watch the spaceship dock tonight at the space station.
I am never too old to learn something new. This change gives me more control of what and how I do things on here than when I was on blogger. There is a learning curve for me but I am up to the challenge. I have already learned how to get this post up. So give me a few days and I will be back up to speed. I am looking forward to making this blog so much better in the coming weeks and months.
