Author: Precious

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Every Day

Eating Up What We Already Have

It’s time to eat up what we already have in our home. Most of our food was purchased in the past few years. Many, many have long expiration dates. To be truthful, they are mostly sell by dates and can be eaten for years after those dates. Always check your cans for dents especially ones on the seams. Do your due diligence by doing a smell and taste test. If it tastes or smells off throw it out. Also when you open a can, if the food spurts at you, throw it out. That is a sign of bacteria. In all of my years, I have never poisoned anyone.

I am a canner and I alternate my jars by date also. After putting in all that work, I do not want to waste my jars of food. I also check my lids every once in a while to make sure they are still sealed. I do not keep rings on my jars of food so that I can do this.

We have had to throw very little out in our home. I check can seams and for dents when I am buying items. If they have any of those things, I do not purchase them. My Walmart delivery orders have had cans that are dented. I get a refund from Walmart and pitch those cans.

We rotate our food whether it is in the pantry or freezer. Oldest cans go to the front of the shelf. Newer ones get put behind those. Oldest meat is always kept on the top of the freezer and the newest put underneath. I have a chest freezer. It is a pain to do this but it is necessary to not waste your food. One exception, the turkey I just bought is on top so that I can easily take it out to cook at Thanksgiving time. Any other turkeys that I purchase will get put on the bottom of the freezer.

As you all know, food prices continue to rise. Yes, a few have come down in price recently but most have risen. Until the Fed cuts interest rates more than just a 1/4 %, inflation will be with us. They should have been cutting for months. But I can’t control them. I can only control what we are doing in our household. So we are going to eat up over the next 6 months what we have stored.. The reason is prices. They are too high right now so we will eat the food that we stored when the prices were reasonable. We store food for emergencies and so that we can get through winter without shopping very often. But the biggest reason was the food inflation that I knew was coming when Covid hit. My stockpile was built a little at a time to protect our money. It’s food insurance. While most people are out shopping at these inflated prices, we are eating food that was so much cheaper.

I will be buying the foods that go on sale for rock bottom prices for Thanksgiving but only those that I am very low on. I will buy a couple of cans or packages of meat when I am low on those items. But other than those, I will not be doing a lot of grocery shopping. I will shop from my stockpile. You will not see a lot of grocery hauls. What you will see is what we are eating and how I am using things up.

We have a lot of fresh things in our refrigerator now so we will work on using those up too. Only when I am out of fresh produce or other items that I deem absolutely necessary will I buy those items again and always on sale.

Tonight, we will be making a sheet pan meal using the above pictured food from my freezer. I will be making us a small tossed salad also. It should make us a few meals.

Are you cooking from your pantries now that prices are so high?

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Every Day

Cooking from the Stockpile

You all know that I don’t like to waste anything especially food. On Friday, I brought up a week’s worth of meals from the freezer and pantry. I also have been using up the refrigerator items.

For dinner on Friday night, we used up leftover filet mignon from our birthday celebration on Thursday night at Russell’s Steak and Chops.

Hubby had garlic and butter mashed potatoes left over too. He ate those with the leftover filet and I had a bag with just a few crispy crowns in the freezer. I ate those. No, we did not have a vegetable. It would have been too much food for us.

On Saturday night, I used up a bag of chopped cooked chicken that had been in the freezer for at least a month. I made a Chicken Stuffing Casserole that gave us each a dinner and a lunch for each of us yesterday. The cooked chicken got mixed into a can of cream of chicken soup. I put that in the bottom of a sprayed round casserole dish. Then I made a stuffing mix in my microwave. I spread it over the chicken mixture. I baked it in my small oven at 400 for 30 minutes. I cooked a bag of frozen broccoli and we had a delicious dinner.

Last night I made pork teriyaki stir fry. Hubby has gotten really fussy about his food. Many things he can no longer taste. So I made 2 different pans of stir fry. Enough for 2 meals and a lunch. Mine which is pictured in the bowl above was pork, leftover broccoli, and a small amount of stir fry veggies that were leftover in a bag in the freezer. Hubby’s pictured in the pan above, was onions, frozen peppers, frozen water chestnuts leftover from another meal, pork, and 3 pieces of pineapple slices left from a can that I froze. Both were cooked in teriyaki stir fry sauce and served on rice cooked in our rice cooker. I had 4 small pork loin chops that I cut into small pieces for these meals. Hubby no longer likes pork loin chops but if I cut them into small pieces, he will eat them. Waste not, want not! Tonight we will have the leftover stir fry and rice.

We still had a little bit of broccoli left, so I made an omelet with that and cheese for my brunch this morning. Yum! Hubby had two apple cider donuts.

FYI,

I just noticed that Walmart now has the Butterball turkeys posted online. They are $ .97 a lb. You had better believe as I empty my freezer, I will be getting some of these.

Are you cooking from what you already have at home? More on this tomorrow.

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Every Day

A Little of This and a Little of That

I actually went into Walmart a few days ago for a few things and to look and see if they had anything new. Look what I found:

They had their Shady Brook turkeys on sale for $.84 a lb. I was afraid they were year old stock but the expiration date was 06/02/2027. So they are this year’s. I don’t know what the prices will be at just before Thanksgiving but now I have a turkey in case the prices are much higher. I paid $12.60 for a 15lb. turkey. I will pay more for Butterballs unless they are above my price point. So I will wait and see what they end up costing. I am hoping to get at least 3-4 turkeys this year to replace chicken because that price has gone so high.

While I was there a did a little shopping to bulk up our stockpile. I won’t put prices because if you are interested in a certain product you can look it up on your Walmart site.

I was down to my last dishwasher gel and laundry detergent. So I got an extra of each. I happened on boxes on a display in a center aisle by the cleaning products. They were loaded with spoons and turners. It didn’t take me long to realize that these are just like the Pioneer Woman’s. But I got these for $1.00 each.

I needed to stock on some sodas with so much company coming this month and next. I was looking for this Zero Sugar A&W Root Beer when I spotted the A&W Zero Sugar Ice Cream Sundae. I had to get it to see if it tasted like the ice cream sodas that I use to get at A&W when I was a teenager. Sure enough it does. The Celsius was a treat for us. They were not cheap. $ 2.28 for each 12 oz. can. Walmart did not have 4 packs at the store and was out of stock online. I have since researched where to get them cheaper. Amazon has a case of 12 on sale for $ 17.76. I purchased 2 cases so that I could get free shipping. I refuse to pay for Amazon Prime. I haven’t had it for 5 years now. I earned a $10.00 Amazon GC with points from Pinecone and also used $ 2.03 in rewards to bring my price down to $ 23.49 for the two cases. I also got a box of Great Value 80 count 13 gallon kitchen garbage bags because I just opened my last one. We use a lot of paper plates to cut down on dishes when we have a lot of company or when I am not feeling well. I bought a package of 100 count 10 and 1/16 inch Dixie plates. Hubby loves bagels and cream cheese for brunch so I picked him up a 6 pack. For me I got a package of Mission Low Carb Tortilla wraps.

Not pictured was 2 half gallons of half and half and two 4 packs of Two Good Yogurts.

This probably is our last big shop for 2025 except for Thanksgiving rock bottom priced items. Bu more on that tomorrow.

Did you get any turkeys yet or any other good deals?

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Things We Have Done To Cut Costs The Last Half Of September

We had our winter tune up for our furnace. The company quoted us $69. when we booked the appointment. When the service man finished the tune up, he said that would be $79. Hubby mentioned that we were quoted $ 69. He kept the e-mail that quoted us the $ 69. The serviceman called the office and they said to charge us the $69. If we hadn’t saved that e-mail, we would have had to pay the $ 79. We kept that $10.00 in our wallet. The serviceman asked if he could put a Buffalo Bills sign in our yard. The company is a sponsor of the Bills. We said yes. It is a nice sign and we are happy he put it there.

I refilled the waters and snacks that I keep in the car so I am not tempted to get takeout if I get hungry when I am out running errands.

I mailed in rebates totaling $ 18.00.

I got all those free things that you saw in my post from Walmart and manufacturers at the Grand Opening.

I scanned the rest of the month’s receipts into Fetch.

Hubby’s keyboard died. He purchased one that was marked down from $99.99 to $ 22.99. I clipped an additional $5.00 coupon. So we paid $ 17.99 and shipping was free.

I signed up for ShopKick using a friend’s code so that she would get a bonus. I don’t know if I will do it or not yet. It sounds like a lot of work.

I sewed on the buttons on my winter coat so they wouldn’t come loose while it is out being dry cleaned.

I continue to can on sale chicken to put on my shelves. Soup season is coming.

We do not have our furnace on yet. It had been pretty warm here for this time of year. The warmth will last at least through Sunday.

I was worried about 2 of the heart tests that my cardiologist ordered me to have done in August. I wasn’t sure what they would cost after insurance. We were thinking it would be about $200. The bill came today and it was $48. That was a nice surprise.

I used credit card points to get $100. cash back credited to my card on next month’s bill.

That was all. What have you been doing to cut costs?

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Every Day

I Am Frustrated With The Electric and Gas Increases, Are You?

You all know that I like to keep on top of our utility bills. Two years ago my utility company increased our rates. We are coming up on the third year of that increase. Bills just keep going up along with the demand and supply charges. We have seen hikes on average of 23.7% on our electric delivery demand and supply charges and 33.5% on our gas demand and supply charges. Now the company is asking the regulatory agency for another rate increase for residential electric and gas customers that would add an additional $ 30. to our monthly bills. If that gets approved, it will add another $360. a year. The demand keeps going up because of the high heat we had all summer and because so many chip companies have moved into NYS.

Fortunately, it has been cool enough for no A/C the past few of weeks and it is not cold enough to put on the heat. I hope this keeps up for a few more weeks. Usually by now we have the heat on here.

I just got our utility bill around the 19th of the month. It was for 30 days and it was a total of $ 131. 22 for both electric and natural gas. We used 405 kwh’s which is very low for us. We used 4 ccf’s of natural gas which was only for heating water for dishes, cooking in a skillet once in a while on our stovetop, and taking showers.

Last year’s bill for 29 days for the same period was $ 138.85 using 536 kwh’s of electric and 4 ccf’s of natural gas.

It was shocking that this year’s bill was less than last year’s. I attribute that to being aware of what we are using and trying to cut where we can.

I doubt that these increases will ever end. But I continue to try to cut what we can. I have done many, many, things to keep our bills down which I have written about but it seems like a never ending battle.

I will write about anything that we are doing to keep our bill down as I do them. I will add them to our cutting costs list. Feel free to list in comments what you are doing now that it is autumn and winter will be here soon.

The prediction for winter cold and snow this year is horrendous. We are predicted to have anywhere from 9 ft. to 15 ft. of snow depending on where you live in the Buffalo area. I can already see the dollar bills flying out of our wallet. At least we have our snowplow guy all lined up to deal with these snow storms.

We have been caulking around windows again and we are actually thinking about putting some kind of plastic up on a number of windows that leak. Has anyone done that? What have you used?

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Every Day

Run If You Are Near to the Walmart in Lockport and a Small Grocery Haul

I had to drive there to get something for Hubby today. They have spent weeks remodeling the store. The way they have it reorganized now is fantastic. Finding things was so much easier.

Anyhow when I got there I realized it was their Grand Opening. On the north side of the building all the way over to the storage place, they had booths set up by Walmart and many vendors. They were all giving out free things. My table shows everything I was given. My favorites were all of the energy drinks and the coupons especially the Essentials water free one and the $1.00 and $.75 of Nestles chocolate chips coupons. I was also thrilled with the sunglasses since ones I keep in my car to drive with broke recently.

We don’t have a dog so that will be given to my son along with that coupon. Now all I have to find is someone who wants the Fairlife cow for their little one.

While I was in Walmart, I saw a rollback on evaporated milk for $1.00 a can and on condensed milk for $ 1.78 a can. We use the evaporated milk for many different things and the condensed milk for fudge when family comes for Thanksgiving. I had some of each but I was not passing up these great prices.

Then I stopped at Top’s on the way home and got 4 lbs. of butter for $3.39 each. It is not the best price I have ever gotten but it is the best right now. I am hoping that Aldi’s has a better deal for Thanksgiving. I am almost out but needed some to last me until the deals come out.

Did you get any good deals this week?

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Every Day

For the Newbies and to Remind My Oldies

I have picked up some new readers over the past few days. Most of you know me and know why I take the time to do these posts so often.

For those who don’t, I started blogging in 2006 when we lived in Arizona. Back then my blog was “Frugal Makes Cents” via Google. I had that for a number of years until I had someone trolling me. When it got dangerous, I ended that blog. When we moved here, I started this one. I now own this one. Google doesn’t. It is safe and secure thanks to my oldest son keeping it that way. He is also an admin here.

I started it to try to help people who were struggling financially. I saw so many young and older people struggling to own a home or keep a home(especially during the 2008 housing crisis) and get rid of credit card debt, etc.

Everyone knew that you could cut your large expenses like insurances and cable TV. But there were only so many large expenses. We still compare our insurance policies every year and try to cut other large expenses.

But many people thought that cutting the little expenses didn’t help. What I have tried to show them is that the little expenses really add up over a year’s time. Since our current crisis of rampant inflation, cutting all expenses has become more important than ever.

One of the largest expenses we have these days is buying groceries. It seems like every week the prices go up. For years, I have cut my grocery costs by buying food at loss leader prices especially meat. Then we make our meals from those items. When I met some Mormons in Arizona, they taught me about stockpiling. They usually keep 1-2 year’s worth of groceries. I always bought an extra item every week but not to the extent I do now. Stockpiling has saved us so much money over the last 5 years. When people are paying top dollar today for items, I paid much less money for mine in my stockpile. Being a canner, I know that most items do not expire by the sell by date. Even the government will tell you that on their websites. So we alternate what we use. The oldest products are in the front of my shelves with the newest in the back. I rotate every thing. I also try to buy items at rock bottom prices by using a price book. That way I know when something is at a rock bottom price. With Thanksgiving and Christmas sales coming up, I am getting excited because this is time of the year when so many things are on sale at those prices. I stock on many things that will never be cheaper. We love turkey so I buy as many as I can get in the freezer.. If I run out of freezer space, I will cook the turkey and then can it. We love chicken but you can replace chicken in almost every recipe with turkey.

Our utility bills have skyrocketed and I see no end in site for those costs to come down instead of up. Between the utilities replacing infrastructure and all the chip companies popping up, costs will continue to rise. It’s all a function of supply and demand. So we need to do what we can to cut our usage as much as we can.

We have now been retired over 24 years. Inflation has really done a job on our retirement funds since 2001. I see so many elderly living in poverty on just Social Security these days. So I do this blog for them too or anyone who needs help. If we didn’t continue to save every month. we would be in a much worse position. But we have saved and invested over those years so that we are fine. Our medical costs have skyrocketed as we age and we need to hire help to do a lot of things around here so that we can maintain and stay in the home we love. Those costs are very expensive.

Some of my posts may seem a little harsh but I do those to wake people up who need it. It is never aimed at any one person.

The bottom line is that I do these posts to help people. If I can help just one person, I have done my job.

I hope you are all having a money saving day today!

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Every Day

My List for Thanksgiving Food Sales

Last year I kept a list of all of the things I saw go on sale in my area at rock bottom prices. For the past few days, I have been looking for that list. I searched everywhere. I finally found it about lunchtime today.

This is a list of everything I saw but not what I purchased. Last year there were a # of things that I already had stockpiled, the same as this year. I will put an asterisk after each item that I am already stockpiled on this year; hence I will not be looking for those.

  1. Turkeys- I will buy 3-4.
  2. Ground Sausage rolls- I will buy as many as I need for the turkeys, I buy this because I add this to my stuffing. If it is at a great price, I will buy more because we use it in many recipes.
  3. Hams -If they don’t go on sale for Thanksgiving, they will for Christmas.
  4. Mini Hot Dogs – I use these for appetizers in different recipes.
  5. Chicken and Beef Broths and Stocks*
  6. Cream Soups*
  7. Butter- I need this at a good price because I only have a few left. I stock for a year which is usually 28 -32 lbs.
  8. Cream cheese
  9. Block cheeses – we use these for appetizers also.
  10. Egg Nog
  11. Turkey Gravy – I make my own but I always stock a few packets in case mine needs help.
  12. Stuffing Cubes
  13. Stove Top Stuffing – I use these all year to put in some of my recipes.*
  14. Baking Supplies – I will stock on the ones I need.
  15. Dinner Rolls
  16. Pillsbury Crescent Rolls – I use these for the mini hot dogs.
  17. Canned Pumpkin*
  18. Canned Pineapple-to use with hams.*
  19. Pie Crusts- I buy a few of these to use throughout the year. I freeze them until I need them.
  20. Frozen Pies – if they are cheaper than making them.
  21. Cranberry Sauce*
  22. Fresh Cranberries- I throw about 6 in my freezer every year to make cranberry orange bread and/or muffins.
  23. Pie Filling Canned – for quick desserts throughout the year.
  24. Apples – to make my own apple pies.
  25. Spice Cake Mixes – for many of my desserts all year.
  26. Evaporated Milk*
  27. Condensed Milk – to make fudge.*
  28. Cupcake liners*
  29. Corned Bread Mixes – to make corned bread stuffing and corn bread to go with some of our Mexican recipes.*
  30. Pickles – I buy enough to last all year.
  31. Olives – I buy enough for all year.
  32. Onions – I buy in bulk at Niagara Produce to last the winter.
  33. Turnips – Just a couple.
  34. Parsnips
  35. Frozen Broccoli – I buy 12 so that we can have one a month.
  36. Potatoes
  37. Sweet Potatoes or Canned Yams
  38. Green Beans*
  39. Corn*
  40. Celery
  41. French’s Crispy Onions
  42. Chex Mixes – to make party mix.*
  43. Mixed Nuts- also for party mix.*
  44. Walnuts*
  45. Sliced Almonds*
  46. Pecans – I freeze all of my nuts so they don’t go rancid.*
  47. Whipped Cream – for desserts.
  48. Sparkling Cider
  49. Sodas- especially holiday flavors.

If I missed anything, please leave it in the comments and I will add it to this list.

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Every Day

Update on My Health

Last Friday I became independent again! I am now driving. My cardiologist took that restriction off on Thursday after he reviewed all of my heart tests. I wore a heart monitor from August 18th until September 18th. He was worried that the connectivity of the left side of my heart was not working properly. The monitor did not show any evidence of high grade connectivity disease or any significant pauses. This was great news! I will be going back to him in October to get all the results including the ones from my Echo and my Nuclear stress test. Hopefully those results will be good news too.

For you guys this means that I will be back blogging in the next couple of days. Because I had to take it easy with the heart monitor, I was limited on what I could do like driving. Hubby had to take me everywhere for appointments and errands. We did very few errands because he hates doing them. Eloise was so sad that she couldn’t curl up on my chest when I was at the computer. I had to keep putting her down and she was not happy about that. It had become a routine when I would have my coffee in the morning. I was afraid she would push a button on the monitor and they wouldn’t get clear results. I also had to be very careful that I didn’t damage it. Before we could even have it put on at the cardiologist’s office and go home, I had to sign that if it got damaged, I would have to pay $2500. That was not something I wanted to do. So it was returned both clean and in perfect condition.

So Eloise is back to our routine and purrs the entire time. We are both very happy to be back to normal. Hubby is delighted!

My house is not as clean as I like it and I have many projects to work on in the next few weeks. We will be having family for Thanksgiving this year so I want to get this house back in order. So I will post all that I will be doing as I do it, especially getting my stockpile back in order. I have many bags sitting in that pantry on the floor that need to be organized on shelves. I will be making a list of the items that will go on sale for Thanksgiving that I need to stockpile for the next year. I am praying that butter goes on sale at a great price. I have never been so low on butter.

So I will be back very soon. Sooner than you might think.

I want to thank everyone who prayed for me. You are so appreciated!

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Every Day

September Things We Have Done To Save Some $’s

Since I feel pretty good today, I am going to post the first half of September’s savings today.

One day it started to rain unexpectedly. I turned our sprinkler system off. We do not want to pay for water when we can get it free. Yesterday, our sprinkler service came and blew out the lines for the winter. No more sprinkling so our water bill should go back down to around $57. per quarter. This past quarter with all the watering, our bill was $ 285. I had Hubby stop at the town drop box one day so that we could pay it. that saved us a $ .78 stamp.

We did 2 deal grocery shops the beginning of the month. One to buy a little over 6 pounds of boneless skinless chicken for $ 2.29 a pound. The following week they had ground beef(80/20) on sale at Top’s using a Super Coupon for $ 3.99 a pound. We bought 6 pounds.

We finally qualified for the Enhanced Star Rebate on our school taxes. It was a savings of $1080.49.

Hubby wanted a check register insert for our checkbook. Ours was falling apart. He found a 5 pack on Walmart. With tax it was $9.67 but I used $3.00 in Walmart cashback to get it for $ 6.67.

We were down to our last book of checks so Hubby ordered more. We get them from our bank for free because of one of the savings plans we have.

I received a $5.00 liquor rebate in the mail.

I sent in a $3.00 wine rebate. I won’t send any rebate in under $3.00 because of the postage.

Hubby needed to fill his two 5 gallon gas cans and our car. He saved $ 7.21 because we had enough for $.40 off per gallon with Top’s points.

Hubby made a big crockpot full of chili. We ate it on rice for two nights and had some to freeze. Another day I cooked a corned beef that had been in the freezer since last March. We ate reuben sandwiches for many days and then I froze the rest of the corned beef and the rye bread to save to have another sandwich in the next month or so. He has also made cheeseburgers, chicken sandwiches, and BLT’s recently. I think tonight we will have ribeye pork chops and broccoli. I am having him mainly cook out of the freezer and I try to think of things that are easy for him.

I scanned most of our receipts into Fetch. I still have to scan in the receipt from our lunch at “The Ship”. This restaurant is a keeper. They have Monday specials where all of the entrees are marked down. I saved $ 4.00 off my steak sandwich which was so delicious. Hubby saved $3.00 off his chicken wrap. We will probably go there once a month for lunch. I also have a coupon for a free basket of fries which we will use next time. Their fries are the best we have ever had. Really crispy on the outside and soft in the middle. Our waitress told us they make their own.

My son, Sean, helped Hubby trim a tree that shades the patio. It needed it badly. With Hubby’s direction he took a lot of branches off. They piled them up by the bottom of the driveway. The town does brush pickup for free this week. Last year, we paid for a tree service to do some other trees. It was expensive so my son saved us some money.

My son stopped at Niagara Produce on his way here and got me a package of hamburger buns which we badly needed. I tried to get them on a delivery order from Walmart but they were out of stock. He would not let me pay him the $ 2.49 they cost either.

My son also fixed my Bosch dishwasher in about 15 minutes. A button fell out of the the control panel over a year ago. I was able to keep the other buttons in place. They are the ones you push for what cycle you want. Hubby kept putting it off. I finally asked my son and he did it. It wasn’t easy because you had to take off the entire front of the dishwasher to get at the panel. But he got it done and still got home in time to watch the Buffalo Bills game which was an away game.

We have watched both Buffalo Bills games which is our free entertainment. We have also been watching Tony and Ziva on Paramount+ which we get free with our Walmart+. We do an episode a day.

Well that is it for now. I will post the last half of the month on September 30th.

I hope you are all having fun trying to save as much money as possible. Please share with all of us what you have been doing.