Author: Precious

One way that we have discussed to save money on groceries in 2026 is to start the year off with a month without the grocery store. If we do it, it will depend on how depleted our stockpile looks the end of December. Looking at the inventory now, I am 90% sure that we will do it. We will see how the month of January goes and if it goes well, we may carry it into February.

The idea is to use up what we have so that it does not go bad and to save our grocery money those months. Wasting food is a NO NO in this home.

Here are some ideas on how we are going to survive when our fresh items in the refrigerator are gone:

Milk: We use both shelf stable and powdered. Our back up also includes evaporated milk that can be diluted with 1/2 water.

Half and Half: We will use jarred creamer like Coffemate or use Nestle Crema.

Fresh Veggies: We have multi colored peppers, onions, carrots, and blanched potatoes in the freezer. I prepared all of these myself. I also have a supply of potatoes in my garage that should last through the winter. We have plenty of veggies that are frozen, freeze dried, and canned.

Fruit: We have frozen mixed berries, peaches, cranberries, strawberries, blueberries, tart pie cherries, and pineapple. We have canned apples, pears, peaches, cranberry sauce, pineapple, and pumpkin. We have many pie fillings on the shelf.

Dairy: We have plenty of butter, cream cheese, and shredded cheeses in the freezer. I also have canned butter. We have butter powder, powdered cream, and powdered sour cream.

Jams and Jellies: We have some homemade peach jam in the freezer. We have many different kinds on the shelf.

Eggs: We always have 6-7 dozen in the fridge. But if they run out, we have many dozen frozen. I also have powdered eggs.

If we run out of meat in the freezer, we have canned ground beef, BS chicken breasts, pork shreds and chunks, turkey, beef chunks, corned beef and hams. Many of them I canned and many are store bought.

If we run out of fish and seafood in the freezer, we have canned tuna fish, salmon, and shrimp.

The pictures are just of things that you might use that you are not aware that you can purchase. Sorry about the blurry one.

We are having homemade beef barley soup for dinner tonight. We had a tomahawk steak left in the freezer that Hubby did not like. So I cut it up into beef chunks for the soup. I added diced celery, cut up onions, and cut up carrots. That is what you see here in the picture. Then I added the beef broth. Two hours before we eat, I will add pearled barley to the pot. This is one of Hubby’s favorite soups. He keeps asking me when it will be done. We will eat it with crackers and butter.

Important Information: Yesterday, the Trump administration took the tariffs off of coffee, beef, and tropical fruits coming into the U.S. from South America. This is great for all of us. This means those prices should go down within the next few weeks. How much remains to be seen. The prices still rise because of the inflation and gouging. I did stock a lot of coffee before the prices went up as I am sure many of you did. After all, we can’t go without our coffee. Bananas should go down in price. But the beef is what I am most excited about. It will go down a bit but not much because it was high before the tariffs. Plus we have a shortage right here in America. But it should be cheaper than it has been! Hallelujah!

Any one want to join me on the January Challenge: A Month Without The Grocery Store?

I hope(know) I am preaching to the choir. The more I read about the economy right now, I am realizing how much debt people have in the U.S. As of the 3rd quarter of 2025, the average household debt is $105,056. Mortgages dominate the household debt. Average credit card debt is next at $ 6523. Then there are car loans which many people have defaulted on. These cars are being repossessed as fast as they can find them.

People are using their credit cards to buy food and then don’t pay the bill. They just charge and charge and charge. A lot of snap recipients were complaining about not getting their EBT cards refilled but they were going to the hair salon, nail salon and dining out. Does this make any sense to you? It certainly doesn’t to me.

All you have to do is spend 20 minutes on You Tube or Tic Toc and you will see that people are just wasting money, not paying their debts, and saying they don’t care. You can also see that people could not pay their rent and got evicted or didn’t pay their mortgage and lost their homes. They are living in their cars. Sadly, some of them are seniors who didn’t save for retirement and thought they could live on Social Security alone. Social Security was never meant to be 100% of your income in retirement. Then there are those who did save for retirement but squandered their money on things they can’t even remember now. Within a few years, they were relying on SS.

There have always been people who have spent their income faster than they brought it home. They live paycheck to paycheck. They live on borrowed money. They take out home equity loans on their homes to pay off their credit card debt and then charge the cards back up. They keep buying new cars every couple of years and are upside down on the loan of the car they trade in. They just keep digging the hole bigger and bigger. They have no emergency funds. No money in savings. And they wonder why they are always broke.

But I honestly don’t think it has ever been as bad as it is now with the exception of interest rates. Back in the 1970’s in the Carter administration, it got so bad that mortgages had interest rates from 12.5% to 16% by the end of the decade. One of my best friends had a mortgage rate of 16%. UGH! Inflation was so bad that it took a decade for those rates to come down but of course, they never came back down to what they were.

Food was expensive and gasoline prices skyrocketed. There were shortages of gas and I used to drive around with my baby in the car to try to fill up the car for Hubby. He carpooled with another person so on the days the other one drove, I would look to fill up the car for Hubby. When you found a gas station that actually had some gasoline, you could wait in line for hours. Many times I would just get 2-3 cars from the pumps and the station would run out of gas. It was so very frustrating. But we all survived.

That was the first time I purchased TVP ground beef because the price was a lot lower than ground beef. Let me tell you, it tasted terrible and you had to doctor it with a sauce to make it tolerable. It probably was worse than the plant based beef today. I had to cut where I could. In those days we had 2 kids and it was a struggle to feed them healthy food on a tight budget. But we made it work. I washed diapers and hung them to dry so that I didn’t have to waste money on Pampers which were $.99 for a box of 12 if I remember correctly. That freed up money to buy more food.

You can blame what you are going through now on the Clinton Administration. They agreed to a Global Economy. You are seeing now in real time how that has worked out. It was the worst thing that has ever happened. Taking manufacturing out of the hands of America and handing it over to China and other countries was a very bad idea. We are paying for that now.

President Trump can try to get prices down but I don’t know how with a Global Economy. He is trying to bring manufacturers back to our country but that will be a long process. Fed Chairman Powell is bucking him every step of the way also. Perhaps when he leaves next year, things will get better. I know no one wants to hear it but there really isn’t much that Trump can do except give out tariff checks to the people. But then again, if the Supreme Court says he can’t charge other countries tariffs, he will have to pay it all back. It actually looks like they are leaning that way. There will be no money for rebate checks. So don’t count on it. I don’t understand why other countries can charge us tariffs but we can’t charge them. It doesn’t make sense to me and I graduated from college with an accounting degree.

Now President Trump could go after the large grocery stores that I believe are gouging us. Of course that would be hard to prove. The prices just keep going up and up. I know it is supply and demand but I am seeing a lot of people who are refusing to buy anything except necessary food. The demand has to be down the past few months but the prices sure aren’t. I also believe that this Christmas buying season will be a dud. People have no money and their credit cards are maxed out. I know that I have bought less and less. If it isn’t a necessity, it doesn’t get purchased.

There is something really wrong when the top 10% of earners in this country make more money combined than the other 90%.

The biggest thing you can do right now is what I have always said. Pay off your debt if you have any. With your debt paid off you will be in a better position to ride out this storm that is coming. I just know that there are some people who come here who need to hear this.

That said I think things are just going to keep going up in price. It is my belief that the radical leftist elitists don’t want us to have any money. They want the power to control us. Hence, we will see prices continue to rise on food and anything else we need. You have seen your utility bills rise a lot whether it be gas and electric or water. Our garbage prices have gone up. Our car and homeowner’s insurances have taken a steep increase. I know my property taxes have increased immensely over the past 4 years. They are becoming more and more unaffordable. Our telephone, cable TV, and internet package has gone up about $50. just in the past couple of years. Our private health insurance has gone up as a result of Obamacare. Everything is on the rise!

So pay off that debt and start building your savings. You are going to need that money sooner rather than later. Save money every way you can!

What really scares me is that I believe and have for a long time that we will turn into Venezuela. They were one of the richest countries in the world and now they are one of the poorest. First it was inflation then they were on a roller coaster all the way up to hyper inflation. Now people can’t afford to eat. The people are fed up but this is what happens when a country turns Communist. Beware people it is starting here with the latest election of Mamdani as Mayor of NYC and now another communist Mayor in Seattle.

I hope I am wrong but after living almost 80 years, I have seen a lot and learned a lot and I don’t like what I see at all.

According to the USDA on the thrifty plan for August(latest data), I should be paying $ 517.10 on groceries for the two of us. We are not spending anywhere near that while we are eating from the pantries so my grocery money is building up. That way when my freezers are empty except for turkeys, I can do a big shop for meat as I see rock bottom prices. I will keep my eyes wide open when that happens. The Camillo Sloan Market that I talked about in a prior post will be where I will get most of my meat. Their prices for prime meat are less than any other place where I can buy it. My stock of beef is really down so that will be the first thing I buy.

The thing I like the best about this market besides their prices is the fact that they are family owned. I don’t know about you but I am tired of lining the pockets of places like Walmart whose profits are just soaring year after year. I truly believe that we are being gouged. Last week as I took a walk through both Walmart and Top’s, many, many prices were up $.75 to $1.00 from the week before. Walmart and my Top’s tries to tell us it is because of the tariffs. 80% of Walmart’s food products are American made. So we are being lied to. I would expect that Top’s percentage is probably even higher.

On Sunday while I was listening to the football game, I cleaned out the two freezer drawers in my refrigerator. They seem to get messy very easily. I found a package of strip steaks that I bought on sale last July that only cost me $12.76 for both of them. I was thrilled to thaw them and have them for dinner Monday night. I made baked potatoes with butter, sour cream and bacon bits and broccoli to go with them. It has been snowing here since Sunday so there was no grilling them outside but Hubby grilled them inside. They were delicious. There were leftovers for a steak sandwich yesterday. It just felt good to eat such a bargain when strip steaks are so high in price in my area now.

I did get to Aldi’s the other day. I got celery for $.95, 2 packages of brown gravy mix for $ .29 each, and 2 bags of cranberries for $ .99 each. They had no potatoes and their onions had gone up to $ 1.65 instead of $ .99. My fault that I didn’t get there on time. But I really appreciate Belinda letting me know. I also had to pick up a prescription at Walmart so I got 4 more of the heavy cream on rollback.

So I went to my family owned, Niagara Produce, and got a 5 lb. bag of russet potatoes for $1.99 and a 10 lb. bag of onions for $ 3.99. This is another store that I will frequent in 2026. Some of the onions I will be dicing up and freezing in portions. The rest we will use up within a couple of weeks. We will use the potatoes for baking and mashed. It won’t take long to use them up.

It has been snowing here since Sunday. We have a lot for our area so early in the season. But that does put a damper on my shopping. I did brave the snow to go to the dentist on Monday. But I am not braving it today to go to my hair salon. However, Hubby says he will drop me off there and come back to get me when I am done. It is only a couple of miles away.

Let’s go back to the USDA food plans. For the low cost plan, groceries for the two of us should cost $ 548.60. For the moderate plan, it should cost $674.50. For the liberal plan, it would be $ 817.30. We are trying to set our budget for 2026. The liberal plan seems extremely high. I don’t think we will spend that. I could use some help here. Does the government plans really mean anything? Don’t forget these plans are for August 2025 so they do not take into account the prices that have gone up month after month. UGH! What do you guys spend per person per month for food now that prices are so high? Would you mind sharing the amount per month and the number of people that you feed? Meanwhile Hubby and I will look at what we have spent over the past two years and try to figure this out. One thing is for sure, with all the price hikes, it won’t be the $200. per month that we used to spend. Thanks in advance for your help.

Last night we used up some chicken that I had frozen from a B.J.’s rotisserie chicken that I purchased for $ 4.98 a couple of months ago. I made gravy and put the chicken dices into the gravy to heat it up. I served it on rice and added some broccoli as a side dish. Hubby actually went back for seconds which he rarely does. He said it tasted so good. It’s an easy way to make a quick tasty dinner from leftovers. Those 3 pound rotisserie chickens from there or Sam’s Club are a great deal. I can not buy a raw chicken and roast it for the same price. And in case you haven’t seen how I keep them hot when I come home from the store, I just put them in my crockpot on WARM and throw the juice from the container over the top of it. It will stay warm and very moist till you eat. Many times I will buy 2 of them and cut the meat up into pieces and freeze it in dices, food saver it into portions, and put it into the freezer. Then I put the carcasses and skin back into the crockpot, cover with water and cook it all day or overnight to make chicken broth. I either pressure can it to put on my shelf or freeze it in a couple of jars if I am going to use it up within a few months. Why buy chicken broth in a carton or can when this is so much tastier and free.

We love ice cream. Who doesn’t? But because of diet restrictions, we can’t eat a lot of it. For years I made homemade peanut butter keto ice cream. It was delicious and low carb. However, then the price of heavy cream skyrocketed. I refused to pay the price they wanted for it. I had to go pick up scripts for Hubby the other day and I quickly went back to dairy to check out the price on it and eggs at Walmart. To my surprise, the 16 oz. heavy whipping cream(GV) was on rollback for $ 2.96 and dated the beginning of December. I grabbed 4 of them and I will make ice cream soon.

The recipe I use is: 1 and 3/4 cups of heavy whipping cream, 2/3 cup of allulose SF sweetener, 6 Tbsps. of Jif No Sugar Added peanut butter, 1 tsp. of vanilla extract, and a pinch of salt. I put it all in a wide mouth quart mason jar and have Hubby shake it until everything is well combined. Then we freeze it overnight. It is so delicious!

We also love pizza. When we lived in AZ, we used to joke about how no one in AZ could make good NY pizza. Our first search when we moved back here was to look for a good pizza parlor. We stumbled on one when we would go north to check on our home being built. One of the owners made the best NY pizza and we would stop and get lunch on our travel. It was well priced too. Well, due to illness in their family, they had to sell the restaurant. The new people that own it, make the worst pizza ever in my estimation. That started our search for another place. Domino’s is up the street from us but their pizza is awful. The last time we had pizza from Pizza Hut we were very disappointed. We have tried every pizza place in our area. They all disappointed and the price for takeout pizza has gotten ridiculous anyhow. So we tried to keep frozen pizza in our freezer. We have not found one that Hubby likes.

When my children were growing up, I always made homemade pizza. I actually have made it for over 55 years using a crust recipe that I had. But as we have aged our taste buds are different and we no longer like that crust. So we buy a package of two Naan bread from Aldi that gives us two pizzas. It used to be $2.99 but has risen to $ 3.49. It makes a great pizza crust. We use our own spaghetti sauce or even an 8 ounce can of tomato sauce which we spice up with Italian seasonings and powered garlic. I am just a mozzarella cheese lover but Hubby likes pepperoni, green olive, and mozzarella cheese pizza. So I make the pizza half and half. I am willing to try making a homemade crust again if anyone has one that they love. Just leave it in the comments if you want to share it. Otherwise the cost of using the Naan is very reasonable and sure beats the cost of buying any pizza out today.

To sum up, we will not being buying pizza or ice cream. We will make our own. Halo top and other low carb ice creams are very expensive and don’t taste very good.

We buy fresh fruit in season, frozen or canned fruit when it is not in season. I freeze strawberries in June and blueberries and peaches in August when they are in season at the lowest prices here. We have a cherry tree in our yard that gives us pie cherries. I freeze them. This year the birds ate them when they were not quite ripe yet. They must have been very hungry. Hopefully that will not happen again. But I do have 2 gallons in my freezer from 2024 which are perfectly good. I make both peach and strawberry jam. This time of year when apples are in season, I buy them between $ .99 to $ 1.49 a lb. I will pay a little more if Hubby wants a delicious or Honeycrisp apple. But not a lot more. I keep a produce drawer in my freezer just for apples. They keep for months. We use them in Waldorf Coleslaw Salad, in oatmeal, and mainly as a snack. Our preferred snacks these days are apples, a bowl of strawberries with SF whipped cream, bananas, a handful of blueberries, SF pudding, popcorn or party mix.

I went to Top’s the other day just for the loss leaders. I got that loaf of Wonder bread that I talked about prior for $ .99, bananas for $ .47 a lb., butter for $ 2.99 and a dozen eggs for $ 1.49 a lb. The eggs and bread coupon were e-mailed to me by Top’s.

I never got to Aldi’s because I was exhausted after waiting in line for 45 minutes for Hubby’s scripts. I will be going there today.

I hope you all have great day!

We will continue to only buy what we need at loss leader prices. If you keep a price book you will always know when a sale price is really a great sale price. For example, in my area, the lowest sale price for chicken breasts is usually between $ 1.79 and $ 1.99 a pound. I can get it for $ 1.49 a pound in bulk at a meat market or bulk food meat market like Camillo’s or GFS. But that is rare and I don’t have the space right now for bulk chicken. We still have about 20 pounds in our freezers. However you will not find me buying them at $2.99 or $ 3.49 a pound on sale any more. And I will never pay $5.-$7. a pound when they are not on sale.

I use this kind of thinking on almost everything I buy. I don’t buy at full price. If you know that chicken goes on sale at rock bottom prices twice a year, then that is when you stock up for what you will need for a 6 month period. If your budget is low and you are barely making it each month, take $5.00 to $10.00 a month and set it aside to accumulate for a rock bottom purchase. Hubby and I do not eat a whole chicken breast. You only need 4 ounces for a meal. So I will slice a chicken breast lengthwise in half and we will each eat a half. Sometimes the breasts are huge so we will cut one into 4 portions and eat just one portion at a meal for each of us.

Onions are on sale right now at Aldi’s for $ .99 for 3 lbs. Thanks for that tip Belinda. I will get 2 bags and peel and slice them, put them in food saver bags and freeze them in meal size portions. They are ready whenever I need them and the onions don’t go bad in the pantry. Being only 2 people we do not go through onions or potatoes quickly. Hence I have found ways to make them last. I hate food waste.

She also told me that fresh cranberries are on sale at Aldi’s for $ .99. So I will get a few bags to bake with during the next year.

Last year when celery was on sale at Thanksgiving, I made a mistake. I tell you this so that you don’t make the same mistake. I bought a bunch of celery for about $.69 a bag. We use a lot of celery in soups, stews and other dishes. I diced up the celery into small chunks and froze it. When I would put it in my soups and stews, it would disintegrate. This year if I see a good price, I will only buy 2-3 heads that will keep in the fridge.

We have a bit of store bought bread and rolls in the house right now. I keep it in the freezer because we don’t normally go through it quickly. However, I need more than I have to make French toast for family this weekend. Top’s has a super coupon to get a loaf of white or Italian bread for $ .99 this week. Since it is senior discount day today, I will buy that loaf for $ .93. I am too busy this week to make bread. However next week, I will start making all of my breads, rolls, English muffins and tortillas. I know that I can make them cheaper than buying them. I will track what I spend when I do it and let you know the cost.

We use a lot of tomato products. I have stockpiled quite a few when they go on sale. Most I bought for around $ .50 – $.79 in the last few years. We paid even less for tomato paste. I also have many jars of tomatoes that I canned that we grew in pots in previous years. Hubby makes homemade tomato soup using them. I make spaghetti sauce with them and use them in a variety of soups and other dishes. I will not have to buy any this coming year.

When peppers were in season June though August, I bought enough to slice up and freeze until they are at rock bottom again next summer. I put them on a sheet pan and freeze them and then put them in a food saver bags. I just pull out what I need when I make stir fry or fajitas.

I no longer buy fresh milk. I buy quarts of shelf stable milk at Dollar Tree for $1.25. Hubby and I would not go through a quart of fresh milk before it went bad. Once I open one off the shelf and put it in the refrigerator, it keeps quite a while. For those of you worried about the preservatives not being good for me, don’t worry. I am headed towards 80 and have eaten many my whole life. I am still here. 🙂 I always have the option of adding water to canned condensed milk too. I buy that kind of canned milk this time of year when it is on sale. I have plenty right now.

We have some canned soups in our stockpile. We will use them up and then only make our homemade soups in batches that we can freeze. They are much cheaper and taste so much better.

I need to finish this for today. We have to go vote and get back here for our landscape crew to show up. Hubby needs to tell them what to do. We always have them do plantings and the spring clean up every year. Hubby usually cleans up the gardens in the fall. But it is now too much for him and I have everything else to do. So we reached out to them about 8 days ago and they are coming today to do it. It will be another costly bill but necessary. We are so glad that we saved all our lives to be able to afford to hire people when need be.

I also have some grocery shopping to do. I will be back with a post tomorrow.

We will do everything we can to save on groceries during 2026. Prices are astronomical and I think they will go higher. Can anyone afford beef anymore? Ugh. None of us have to wait until 2026 to get started. I have been doing the best I can with the time and energy I have the past few months. But I will be going hardcore from now on.

So Hubby and I have been having many conversations on how we will save money on what we use. To start we will discuss the Thanksgiving deals that I mentioned in a recent post. We now have purchased two turkeys, a Butterball at $ .97 a lb. and a Shadybrook at $ .84. a lb. Both of them I bought at Walmart. If I have room, I would like to buy one more Butterball. If I don’t have the room, I will get one and roast it, strip all the meat off, and food saver it into portions to freeze. That will take up less room than a whole turkey. I also am a canner, so I could can the meat which could stay on my shelf for 2-3 years. I can get a free Butterball at B.J.’s if I spend $150. in one trip this week and redeem the coupon the following week. I did this deal last year but I will pass this year. I do not have enough items on my running list to spend that much money there. Spending on things I don’t need just to get that turkey would be a waste. Plus I like to give as little money as possible to the big corporate world these days. We are having family for Thanksgiving so one Butterball will get roasted. The other one I have will get roasted over the winter in 2026. The same with more that I might buy. You will never get cheaper meat than this. I use turkey in place of chicken many times during the year. This year that is really important because chicken prices have sky rocketed. BTW, turkeys will keep 2-3 years in your freezer. If you cook them up and portion them out into food saver bags the meat will last a year. My food saver was the best purchase I have ever made. Buy it on Black Friday sales when they have the cheapest prices of the year.

I will not be buying any more turkey broth or chicken broth because I make my own from the bones and skin. It is so easy to just put all those things in your crockpot and cook it overnight. Then I can it. You can also freeze it. It is the cheapest you will find it in the store all year at Thanksgiving. If beef bone broth goes on sale, I will buy some. I only use it to make beef barley soup. I do not have many beef bones during the year to make my own.

We like to have stove top stuffing on hand to use as a side or to stuff chicken breasts or pork chops. We also need some to stuff the turkeys when we cook them later in the year. I always add sausage to stuffing so we try to buy the rolls when they go on sale and freeze them. I have 16 boxes of stuffing in the pantry. They are dry goods that do not go bad and they will last us 1 year.

Pickles and olives should be going on sale so I will check and see how many I have and fill in what I need for a year.

Cranberries both canned and fresh should also be at rock bottom prices. I have plenty of canned but only 2 bags of fresh in the freezer. So if see a good price I will get more fresh. I use them for cranberry orange muffins and bread over a year’s time.

Canned green beans and corn are on sale right now for $.50 a can. I always make sure I buy enough to fill in my gaps for the next year. I did that a week or so ago so we are stocked. We also have frozen corn that I took off the fresh ears in August.

This the time of year that butter is the cheapest. I have not seen it go on sale anywhere yet. There is a super coupon for Cabot at Top’s this week for $2.99 limit one. I will pick that one up. We will see what Aldi’s has in their ad this week. Otherwise, Sam’s Club has the best price per lb. when you buy a package of 4 lbs.

I have all the things to make gravy when I cook the turkeys. I need some fresh potatoes. They are on sale now for $1.99 a lb. for a 5 lb. bag. I will get 10 lbs. and store them in the garage in a cooler with a blanket around it. They will keep a few months.

Pie crusts go on sale but I will be making all of my own. Canned pie filling goes on sale so I will see what I need to fill in my gaps. I use these for crisps too during the year.

I am the only one who likes sweet potatoes so I have a few cans to get me through the next year. That is about all that I would stock up on except baking goods and I have all of them. I also have enough Chex mixes to make party mix.

When hams go on sale for Christmas, I may get a couple if the price is right. Hubby likes to slice them on our meat slicer for sandwiches. I like chunks for casseroles and thicker slices to fry up to have with my eggs in the morning.

We spend a fortune on drinks in this house. We have a lot of soda right now. But when it is gone, it will become a treat not an every day thing. I gave up Diet Coke and other sodas 2-3 years ago. They are so sweet that I can’t stomach them. I do like cherry limeade and a 1/2 shot of gin when I have a drink before dinner. I will no longer buy either when the gin is gone. Hubby loves Southern Comfort but he is giving that up too. Hubby is hooked on soda and peach iced tea but he can drink less of it. We are going to start drinking more water which we can flavor ourselves with lemon or lime. All of these drinks are so expensive that they are not worth it.

We are continuing to eat out of our freezers, refrigerator, and pantries. Most of the canned food was purchased right after the pandemic started. The meat is around a year old in the freezers. The refrigerator is mostly condiments, dairy, fruit and vegetables and cheese. If I had my way the condiments would be history. I hate most of them except for mayonnaise.

That is it for today. I will continue this post tomorrow. I need to get some beds stripped and wash the sheets, one room cleaned, and check the prices of my Top’s list for tomorrow to make sure the sale items are not cheaper elsewhere.

What are you saving on right now? Have you gotten any turkeys at a great price?

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

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

Well, that is enough of the excuses.

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

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

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

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

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

How was your shopping week?