Author: Precious

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Every Day

More Changes to How We Use Power in Our Home

The PSC who regulates our electric and gas company has passed this 3 year rate plan through just in time for the height of the heating season. The media is saying the average residential customer’s bill will go up by $200. this winter. We are a regular residential customer. There is no time of use here. However we are not an average customer. We always are above average no matter how hard I try to conserve.

Notice the increase in therm prices which is our natural gas. If you use under 50 therms, the increase will be 2.298 cents per therm. However if you use over that, those therms will increase by 3.754 cents per therm. They are even increasing our gas and electric meter charges( which is a set charge just for having their meter on your house) by $ 2.00 a month for each. With the winters here, no one will be under 50 therms. I read my meters yesterday and submitted them for our November bill and we are over the 50 therms already and it hasn’t even been that cold.

The company says they needed the rate increases because of their increases and to recover revenue shortfalls for the period May 1, 2023 to November 1, 2023. Is that company mismanagement or just the fact that people cut the amount of power they used from May to November? It seems like we can’t win but I will continue to try.

An average electric customer will have their bill go up by $9.94 per month. Again we are not average no matter how hard we try.

So we need to make some drastic changes starting with not using our gas stove unless we cook a large turkey or a number of turkey breasts at once. I will only bake bread in my bread maker. When I do roast turkeys, the entire oven will be used to do other things with them. I will not use the gas cook top if I can use a small electric appliance like my air fryer, crock pot, instant pot, electric fry pan, toaster oven, or microwave, etc.

I am trying to change my sleep patterns. I usually go to bed by 8 PM unless we have a night football game or we are out somewhere. Most of the time, I get up at 4AM. That has to stop so that I can only be up during daylight hours. I would have to use a light in the kitchen until sunrise which would be about 3 hours after I get up. Last night I went to bed at 10 PM and slept until 7AM this morning. I will continue to use this sleep pattern. It was still a little dark when I got up but I only turned on the light on the stove which was enough to get my coffee until it turned light outside. Then I opened the curtains on the sunny side of the house. Hubby does not go to bed until 11PM and sleeps to 9 or 10AM so he is always getting up in the daylight.

My other idea is to use our emergency lantern in the kitchen if it is still dark for a little bit. It will light the entire room and uses rechargeable batteries that I already have. We also have a lot of regular batteries in case of a power outage.

At night we only keep one LED light on in the room we are in. We do keep outside lights on for security reasons but they are all LED’s.

We have to decide to only use one outside door all winter. Since the garage stays warmer than the outside, I think we will use that door that comes into the house. Our garage door opener uses electricity but that is minimal compared to the cost of heat. The front door lets all the cold and wind in. We will only use that if company comes. We will try to keep our going out to a minimum over this winter. The front door and breakfast room door will have cloth snakes in front of the bottoms to keep drafts out.

We keep our heat at 70 during the daytime because Hubby is always cold. I am going to talk to him about pushing it down a degree or two. Our heat is set to go down at 9PM each night to 64. At 7AM, it comes back up to 68 and at 9AM, it goes to 70. Perhaps he would be willing to go down to 69 and then 68 to see if his body adjusts to it. But even with the heat at 70, he is wearing a jacket so I don’t know if that would work for him. We are warm enough at night because we have flannel sheets and two blankets on our beds.

I want to be more conscious about how much hot water we use also. We do have a tankless hot water heater but it is run by natural gas. So if I can use cold water instead of hot, I will. We already use cold to wash clothes and for cleaning. But there must be more things I can do that would use cold. Any ideas?

I need another cup of coffee so I will end this here. I plan on talking more on this topic this week so stay tuned.

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Every Day

The Last Couple of Days

We had a wonderful day yesterday with Alexa. It was just a quiet peaceful day at home chatting with her and doing some You Tube Quizzes. Last night we had an easy dinner of fried chicken sandwiches and shells and cheese. Alexa got packed to go home today and then we watched women’s college volleyball.

This morning, we had a quick granola breakfast and then headed to Syracuse at 9am to meet Alexa’s mother. They left to go to the Capital Region and we headed back to Buffalo. We were running out of gasoline so we stopped at the Flying J truck stop and filled up the car. We paid $3.599 per gallon. That is the cheapest price in our area.

We were starving and I considered stopping for fast food for just 1 minute. But I held fast to cooking at home and made us grilled cheese sandwiches when we got home about 1:10pm.

After throwing a load of sheets in the washer, I was exhausted. We have been busy and on the go since November 9th. I decided to take a quick nap that turned into a 3 and 1/2 hour one.

When I got up, Hubby was about to finish his chicken salad that he made for lunch yesterday. I just grabbed a small chicken pot pie from the freezer.

After canceling two tests scheduled for this Wednesday because of snow coming , here I am writing to you. I will sleep well tonight hopefully. Tomorrow will be a a catch up and football day. Then I have a busy week getting ready for my son and his two large dogs to arrive for Thanksgiving.

The house will get dusted and vacuumed and be given a lick and a promise. Those dogs shed a lot so no heavy cleaning till after they go home.

I am hoping to get all of the Christmas gifts ready to go back with my son when he leaves so that I don’t have to ship anything.

I will be back with another post this week. I hope you are all doing well with your plans for Thanksgiving.

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Every Day

A Great Deal, Etc.

Yesterday, Alexa and I went to Aldi’s to get some of the on sale butter for $ 2.49 each. Aldi’s always has the best price around Thanksgiving. I still had quite a bit in my freezer. So we each got the limit of 6 which gave me 12 lbs. to add to what I had for a total of 27 for this next year. That should be enough. Since we were there we each picked up 6 turkey and brown gravy packets for $ .29 each.

Other than shopping, we spent the rest of the day at home. We played some quizzes from many years back on You Tube again. It is lots of fun and would make great party games.

Dinner again was KFC chicken that we reheated in the air fryer. Last night we watched a women’s volley ball game.

Today when Alexa gets up, Hubby is going to make homemade apple cinnamon waffles. He is going to teach Alexa how to do it and put them in the waffle maker. If she likes them, we will send her a waffle maker after she goes home. Other than that the only thing on our agenda today is making hamburgers and French fries for dinner. It is supposed to be a warm day so we may take a walk.

I hope you all have a great day!

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Every Day

A Little of This and a Little of That

On Monday, my granddaughter and I went and picked up my free Butterball turkey. You could get a free one up to $25. But of course they did not have one that big. All of their turkeys were between 16 and 17 lbs. We got the largest one we could find which was 16.90 lbs. I was happy with that. It is now in the freezer to cook sometime this winter.

We also picked up a box of their pumpkin muffins which my granddaughter loves and some Indiana Popcorn with the chocolate drizzle(oh so good) that we shared for the Buffalo Bills game last night. I used some reward points that I had so I paid only $ 3.32 for all.

Then we went to the bank so that my granddaughter could make a deposit. It was the first time she did it alone and she did it without a hitch even after all of the questions they threw at her.

We came home and had a delicious bowl of chicken tortellini soup for lunch per her request. Then we spent the afternoon just enjoying her company. For dinner I made two meals worth of homemade meatballs. I froze one meal’s worth for the future. She loves spaghetti and meatballs so she was very happy!

Then we watched the Bills game which we lost in the last few seconds of the game due to a penalty. We had 12 men on the field instead of 11. Really, really dumb! Today the offensive coach got fired! He should have been let go a long time ago!

Today, Alexa helped me do some organizing in my pantry. There were heavy things that needed to be moved and she was happy to do it for me. She also marked many items with the expiration date where I could see it. All in all we spent about 2 hours doing this but now it is finally done. I am very thankful for her help.

As a treat for dinner, we got KFC chicken to bring home. I think we have enough for 2 more meals. I used a coupon that let us get a 16 piece meal for $ 34.99. Yes, I always spoil my grandchildren.

We have been enjoying ” Guess That Song” on You Tube for the past hour and a half. They are playing it while I finish this to get it posted. Hubby knows so many of them but Alexa knows so many more. She is even really good with the songs from the 1960’s and 1970’s!

That’s it for today!

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Every Day

A Wonderful Four Day Trip

We went to the Adirondacks on a 4 day trip to celebrate my eldest son’s 50th birthday. We returned yesterday afternoon and brought my granddaughter home with us so stay for the rest of the week.

When we traveled last week, there was barely any traffic on the Thruway which is unusual so it made the 5 hour trip very pleasant. Unfortunately most of the beautiful leaves were already down but there were some to admire.

Of course, we packed a lunch of ham and cheese sandwiches and water in case we got hungry. Hubby ate very little breakfast and I ate none before we left. So we did ended up stopping at a rest area and ate it in the parking lot in the car.

I had gassed the car up before we left, so we did not have to do it on the thruway. Usually the prices are about the same on this toll road but I didn’t see that this weekend. They were much higher than we pay. It was the same way on the trip back. So I will fill up at our cash station before my granddaughter and I run some necessary errands in the next town today.

Our planned celebration for my son did not go the way it should have so I was so sorry for him. We had planned on taking the 4 of us and 3 of his best friends to Texas Roadhouse for dinner. We were concerned because there were seven of us and it was a Friday night, that it would be a nightmare of a long wait to get a table. However, they sat us relatively quickly. One of his friends didn’t make it which was unfortunate. But she is a paramedic and got stuck at work.

To try to keep this as short as possible, I will tell you that when our dinner was served my son’s dinner was not what he ordered. His steak was supposed to have sauteed onions on it. It came out with mushrooms on it which he hates. They took it back and said a new one would be right up. I felt bad because it was his birthday and we all had our food but he didn’t. When they brought a new one, it had mushrooms on it again. We sent it back. When he got it back it had most of the mushrooms gone but there were still some. My son decided to not make any more fuss and just eat around them. We are pretty sure that all they did was scrape all of the mushrooms off but they missed some plus at this point the steak was cold. When a manager came over to see how our dinner was, my husband who rarely gets upset told him it was a disaster. The manager was very condescending. My husband asked for the head of the restaurant. After they sent another manager( who I think are a dime a dozen), they finally sent the head. At this point hardly anyone was eating. My son’s dinner was less than half gone. My granddaughter was upset and ate very little of hers. The rest of us left quite a bit on our plates. None of our family were the least bit interested in eating.

The manager came finally and ended up taking my son’s and granddaughter’s meals and drinks off of the bill. That in no way compensated for the way this evening had gone which should have been fun. I felt so bad for my son and my granddaughter. We had the best of intentions and the restaurant ruined it. So I paid the $177.+ bill for 4 of us and we left. The friends left and the 4 of us went back to the house to have his ice cream birthday cake. We had a good time at home watching Private Ryan. I should have cooked a fabulous meal at his home and everyone would have been happy!

I will be writing Corporate to let them know about this disaster and that we will never step foot in one of their restaurants again. They, I am sure will not care but it will make me feel better. The service was terrible and the food was mediocre at best. You have all heard me say that we don’t like chain restaurants. However, we went there the last time we visited my son and we all loved it. That is why I chose them. My son and his business partner eat there a lot and I don’t think they have had a prior problem. But they will not eat there again after this either. I am totally done with any chain restaurants.

We had a wonderful time with our family while we were there otherwise. It is so peaceful, beautiful, and quiet where my son lives. When he and I quickly took a trip to Stewart’s for hamburger buns, he took me to a relatively new built area that is very close to his home. I was showing him which homes we would consider buying if they went up for sale. He has been looking for us for a while but nothing has popped up that we would like. Fingers crossed!

I have some good news for you too! My granddaughter who is 16 has graduated from high school. We are so very proud of her! She will be starting her new office job soon while she figures out what she wants to do with the rest of her life, whether she wants to go to college or work. She is young and will take her time trying to make the right choice. Most 17 and 18 year old graduates don’t know what they want to do.

When we got home yesterday afternoon, I quickly made us all grilled cheese sandwiches. Then Alexa was interested in me making homemade chicken tortellini soup for dinner. So I grabbed 3 pint jars of chicken stock and a quart of homemade chicken stock that I had pressure canned, added fresh celery and carrots, the tortellini and seasoned all. She loved it so much that she wants it for dinner again tonight. That will be easy after our day out! This evening we will watch the Buffalo Bills game.

We will be enjoying our granddaughter this week so I may not be blogging much. But if I have time in the morning when she is sleeping in, I will jump on. I hear her getting up now, so I need to get ready for our day out.

You guys have a wonderful week!

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Every Day

Frugal Things This Past Week

These are the things we did to save a little money this week.

I finally uploaded a pile of receipts to Fetch. I usually use the rebates for Walmart or Amazon gift cards.

Philips who makes Hubby’s C Pap machine had a recall a while ago. They replaced Hubby’s current machine with a brand new one. However, we had a second back up machine which they said they would send later. It finally arrived last week. Hubby took the old machine to Fed Ex to send back to them. It was postage paid. Philips really stepped up on this recall. We always keep a back up in case one machine breaks.

Hubby replaced the bad outlet in the kitchen.

I did one load of wash in cold water and hung most of it to dry.

I ordered a $100. cash back rebate using reward points from our credit card. They will apply it to next month’s bill.

At a doctor’s appointment, he gave me a new medicine to try. He gave me enough samples to get me through a month. If it works well for me, he will then give me a prescription to fill. I always ask for samples when I go. They usually have a ton of them in this office.

I made a meal using homemade chicken broth this week. When I don’t have broth, I use bouillon cubes and water. Meals this week were homemade chicken soup for brunch. Bacon macaroni goulash was made for dinner for 2 meals( only used 1/2 lb. of diced bacon) and turkey tenderloin for 2 meals. Leftovers were used from the freezer for others: used up frozen homemade lasagna and some French Fries.

Hubby took bottles back to Fast Cash and got $5.90 in deposits returned to us. He had to leave 2 bags of bottles here at the house because he had no more room in the car. I will take those back tomorrow when I run errands.

I placed a Walmart delivery order this weekend and used a $10. gift card earned from Fetch to help defray the cost of a handheld calculator. Mine bit the dust!

Hubby gave me the best haircut he has ever given me this week. I just love it! I love saving all that salon money I used to spend even more.

I received a $5.00 liquor rebate in the mail.

I have been needing to go to B.J.’s to get some bulk items that are cheaper right now than other stores. It is in another town so I waited until I had other errands and appointments to run there. In the meantime, their sale flyer came. They had a deal that if you spend $150. on certain days you can redeem a coupon for a free Butterball turkey valued at $25. or under. My bulk items came to $ 178. so I will be getting a free turkey. Free turkeys are rare these days! I also clipped a number of e-coupons to my B.J.’s card and saved $ 12.50.

Hubby has finished all of the yard work finally for the year. He cut down all of the irises yesterday. We still had a few heavier things that needed to be put away. My son helped with that when he and West came to visit on Sunday. I made a nice breakfast of French toast and sausage for Hubby and West. My son had scrambled eggs and sausage. Since I am not a huge fan of sausage, I ate some eggs and Fage yogurt. My grandson is taller than Hubby now. He is only 14 and I suspect he is going to be well over 6 ft.

We watched The Kansas City vs. Miami Dolphins football game on Sunday with a Free Trial on Fubo. Then we watched the Buffalo Bills vs. Cincinnati Bengals game in the evening on local TV. Those games were our entertainment this weekend.

Not a frugal thing but our snowplow guy came yesterday to collect our check for the winter and mark our driveway so that he knows where things are. He went up in price this year by $100. but he is still cheaper than most. He does a great job and is very reliable. We are very grateful to have him.

I made my grocery list for this coming week, butter at $ 2.49(limit 6) and organic 80/20 ground beef for $4.99 at Aldi’s. B1G1F shrimp and Tim Horton’s coffee are on sale at Top’s. They have the decaf on again so I will get some for Hubby. And I think that will be all this week.

I called my baby sister last Monday night and will call her again tonight. It is so nice to have free long distance calling. I remember the days when we paid for that.

Hubby and I have made a decision to switch our cellphone service to Mint Mobile. They are going to be offering a Black Friday deal so we will probably switch with that. We have one cellphone but will need another. So it will be two lines instead of the one we have but it will be about $ 26. a month cheaper than we pay now and on the same network.

I have a # of errands to run today. So dinner will be coconut shrimp that is frozen. We are trying to eat down the freezer to be able to fit more turkeys in it. If I can find decent romaine lettuce, we will have a salad with it. Lettuce has been a real issue here. It is already going bad no matter what store I try to get it in. I could find none worth spending the money on last week so fingers crossed for this week.

What did you do to save some money this past week?

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Every Day

The Foods I Am Not Buying Anymore

Food prices have gotten so high that there are many things that I am either not buying anymore or cutting back on the amount that we do buy. By posting about these, I hope it will help other people who may be struggling to buy food.

I no longer buy salmon. With all the regulations that the government has put on fishing, the price has escalated way too high. I refuse to pay it. We do have a few cans of salmon for patties but we have no frozen. If I can get haddock at a decent price we will buy that but it is rare that I do. For fish we are using canned tuna and clams. I find this Great Value Tuna that is pictured one of the best. When I purchased it, it was $ 1.58 each last March. It has only gone up to $ 1.67 which is still a great deal. Occasionally, I will buy shrimp but only if it is on sale and I can get at least two meals out of it for the two of us.

We mostly buy ground beef and chicken, but I will get a roast if they are on sale and I will cut it up into beef chunks for stew meat. Then I make it stretch using lots of vegetables. I will get an occasional chuck roast to make pot roast. But I also stretch that with lots of veggies and potatoes. I usually buy my organic 80% lean ground beef when Aldi’s has it on sale which is rare these days. I have purchased some regular ground beef on sale at Top’s to can but I won’t be doing that anymore after getting bad meat there. I can still smell how rancid it was! If I run out of ground beef, I will use ground turkey. It is much cheaper. We do have some in the freezer and occasionally I will use it to make taco salad. We buy more chicken legs, thighs and whole chickens these days rather than breasts. I will buy breasts when they are under $3.00 a lb.

I don’t buy cold cuts. I cut my own from a boneless on sale ham or a regular ham that I have cooked. I am hoping to get some of these on sale during the holidays at a good price. I also do the same with turkey either a breast or tenderloin. Now that turkeys are on sale, I will be getting a few. It is the cheapest meat you can get right now. Walmart and Aldi’s have Butterball Premium turkeys on sale for $1.28 and $ 1.27 a lb. Walmart also has Shady Brook and Honeysuckle White on sale for $ .98 a lb. The prices for store brand have not come out here yet. But after buying a store brand last year that had hardly any meat on the breasts, I am not doing that again. I will stick to the name brands. They are worth the little bit of extra money.

We do have some prepared foods in our pantry but I am trying to get away from those. We will use up what we have but buy no more. It is always cheaper to buy the ingredients and cook from scratch especially if you stick to basic foods.

I am still buying bacon if I can catch a sale or a good price at B.J.’s. I will be shopping there today after my doctor’s appointment. I plan on getting a few badly needed items so that I can get a free Butterball turkey. My membership expires next month and I will not be renewing it. I can do just as well for most things at the grocery stores.

I am not buying any more soda. It is wasted money. I told Hubby how high it has gotten. He has agreed to ration what we have until it is gone. He is happy with iced tea or flavored waters using the SF powders from the grocery store. I haven’t drunk soda in a very long time. I mostly drink coffee, tea, or water with a lemon or lime. Coffee is expensive but I just buy the cheaper brands when they go on sale.

I am no longer buying snacks. The prices are ridiculous and most of the snack foods are broken in the bags. They are either using pieces that they never did before for more profit or the stock boys are throwing them. We can make popcorn using our popper or do it in the microwave. I buy the popcorn at the Amish store in bulk. We eat carrot and celery sticks with homemade veggie dip or apple slices with peanut butter. For a sweet treat, I make homemade pumpkin muffins or breads, donuts, or an occasional cookie, brownies, cobbler or fruit crisp. We are having company soon for a week so I did break down and buy a Party Size bag of Lay’s potato chips on sale for $ 3.99 to go with some meals and as a treat for my granddaughter. Many times I just make SF puddings and jellos and those suffice for something sweet. When I make my own desserts I can substitute monk fruit for sugar.

We are making our own bread and rolls. We don’t eat a lot of bread so this is not a problem. When I make breads, I slice them and freeze them so that we can pull out one at a time when we want it. Otherwise, it would go bad. I do the same for rolls.

We are not buying any more steaks because the prices are horrid. We still have some filet mignon in the freezer but we will be buying no more for now.

We are using up our condiments and I will be making them as I need them. I have made Italian and Ranch salad dressings and will be trying others as we run out of them in our pantry. We make out own cocktail sauce for shrimp and our own tartar sauce.

I only buy cereal when it is on sale and that is a rare purchase. Hubby likes granola so I make it. I do buy some wheat and rice Chex and Cheerios during the holidays to make our party mix.

Nuts have gotten really expensive so we are rationing what we have. I keep pecans and walnuts in the freezer for salads and cookies. Usually, I pick up 3 lb. of mixed nuts to put in our party mix. This year I found a very large can at B.J.’s which will do my entire batch. So I saved a number of dollars on that.

We never buy take out pizza or frozen pizza anymore. It is so much cheaper to use Naan bread from Aldi’s to make our own.

We no longer purchase chicken, turkey or beef broth. I make and can my own. When I don’t have any on the shelf, I use bouillon cubes or powder because it is cheaper and takes up less room on the shelf.

We only buy Tillamook ice cream when it is on a great sale. It is also a rare purchase for holidays or when we have the grandchildren here.

When I buy fruit or vegetables, I price out the fresh, frozen, and canned and buy whatever is the best deal at the time. I do freeze/and or can some of each when they are in season.

There are many more things that we no longer buy but that is for another day. I have a hectic day today or should I say it has been a very hectic week.

But I do want to add that we do not buy fast food. McDonald’s just announced that they are raising their prices again. Their Big Mac meal will be as high as $18. Just ridiculous! We have not gotten take out at McDonald’s for years…at least 8-9. The last time it was because West wanted some. There isn’t any fast food that I can’t make a lot cheaper whether it is burgers, chicken, subs, pizza, or Chinese food.

We only go to restaurants for celebrations. It is way too expensive otherwise. Don’t waste your money when you could be buying a lot of ingredients for the same amount you would buy at a restaurant. I have never understood how people could go out once a week or even twice a week. We would much rather invest those savings or stock our pantry.

Please feel free to leave a comment and share with us what you are no longer buying.

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Every Day

Frugal Things This Past Week

These are the things we have done frugally this past week:

  • Made a return to Walmart of a dented can from a grocery delivery
  • We had a small hole in the basement wall where the new A/C unit stuff comes in from outside. The A/C guys filled it on the outside but I could see daylight from the hole on the inside. Hubby went down to the basement and filled it with plumbers putty. I don’t want that freezing cold air this winter coming into my house.
  • The winter fertilizer has been put on the lawn so the lawn should winter the weather well.
  • When Hubby put the new motor in the furnace he noticed that one of the screw holes was stripped. He has been researching how to fix that and he will be doing it tomorrow.
  • We have a magnetic closer on our mailbox and the postman knocks if off once in a while. Hubby repaired it again.
  • We had a freeze here so Hubby and I trimmed bushes that need to be trimmed in the Fall and threw out most of our annual flowers. We put our hanging baskets in the garage to store them.
  • We ate every meal at home this week. With the prices today that saves a boatload of money. I made beef stew, shrimp fra diavolo, a night of odds and ends from the refrigerator, and Chef’s salad. I even had some beef stew leftover to freeze for another meal.
  • We invested in another large CD.
  • All our patio furniture has been put away in the shed.
  • I waited until our gasoline tank on the car was almost empty. I filled it using $.80 off a gallon from Tops Rewards.
  • We took the screen door off of our back door and put the storm door on.
  • Hubby went up to our tire place to get the regular tires changed over to the snow tires so that the car is ready for the snow we are supposed to get next week. However, there is now a manufacturer’s rule( because of liability issues) that the tire places can’t put snows or even regular tires back on the car if they are over 10 years old. So he had to purchase 4 brand new snow tires which cost us $ 750. Since we will have to purchase 4 new regular tires when the snows come off in the spring, Hubby left all 8 tires with them. So that was an expense that we weren’t thinking about. Fortunately, we save for major expenses. FYI, our SUV was 10 years old last April and had all the original tires. We only have 46,000 miles on the SUV. The man who we always deal with said he was sorry about that. Then he joked with Hubby and said no one keeps their car 10 years. Hubby says I have always kept my cars for a long long time. We have always taken very good care of our cars doing the maintenance when it needs to be done and keeping them very clean. This 2013 car we have now has never had to be repaired. It has had minor body work done when a lady hit it in a parking lot at the aquarium. Otherwise it has just gone into the dealer for recalls.
  • Talking about recalls, Hyundai sent us one yesterday to have the entire underside seal coated. They are doing them because they are rusting out. Since they want to do that free for this 10 year old car, Hubby got an appointment to have it done.
  • I have been taking 3 minute showers this week.
  • We have not used lights in the daytime
  • We have had a warm spell so we saved on heating for about 3 days.
  • I found a bunch of printed grocery lists that are over 20 years. I will be using them up for my lists the next few weeks.
  • I picked up some Halloween cookies that my friend, Jessica, made custom for me at her bakery. I will be giving them to the 4 little kids that live on either side of me for Halloween. I will take them over this weekend for their parents to give them on Halloween. We are not doing Halloween trick or treating because of our age. The schools out here have Covid again. We just can’t take the chance of getting it from someone we answer the door to.
  • I did one load of wash using cold water and hung most of it to dry. The dishwasher was run twice this week.

That was it for this week. Feel free to share with us what you did to save money this week in the comments.

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Every Day

The Best Laid Plans……

Ever have one of those days where the best laid plans seem to go off track? I am sure that everyone has had a day like that.

On Monday, I told you that I was planning on canning the meat I purchased on Tuesday. So I got up bright and early that day. The first thing I did was put the chuck roast along with fresh potatoes, carrots, celery, and beef broth in the crock pot. I turned it on so that we would have a nice dinner after my day of canning.

I washed all of my jars to can the ground beef and got my accessories and vinegar ready. I put half of the ground beef in a huge fry pan to cook it. As I was standing over it, I got the strong smell of vinegar. I then smelled the meat that was not in the pan and got the same vinegar smell. I knew immediately that Top’s had sold me bad meat. I checked the date on the label and it was the same day I was cooking it. I had not checked that at the store because one of the meat ladies was putting it all out and handed me a package because she was in my way. I assumed it was all fresh for the sale. That was a mistake on my part! Never again will I not check the date.

I called Top’s and they told me to throw the meat out and bring my receipt and their label from the package. They said they would refund my money. So after taking the time to throw all the meat out and put it in the garbage can in the garage, I went up to the store. A woman refunded by money. I had paid $ 18.90 and she said to me I will give you $ 19.00 like she was doing me a big favor. I spent more than that in gasoline and time to correct their mistake. I was tempted to say something but I let it go. I decided I would not go back and buy another package. At that moment I did not trust what Top’s was doing with their meat. The meat was totally brown when I opened it except that the outside part was red. Are they selling old meat, putting a new date on it, and just putting pink slime on the outside? I don’t know but I was not taking any risk again.

My sister had mentioned to me that Aldi’s had chicken on sale for $2.49 a lb. They had no tenderloins so they put their chicken breasts at the same price. I got 2 large packages.

I came home and cut all the chicken up to can it. As I was getting ready to do so, I noticed that there was no heat radiating from the crock pot. I felt the side and it was ice cold. I unplugged it and plugged it back into another outlet. Sure enough it heated up. Hubby has to replace the other outlet. But there was now no way that this stew was going to be ready to eat for dinner. UGH! So when it was finished by 8pm that night, I put it in a stock pot and cooled it down before I put it in the fridge. We ate odds and ends from the fridge that evening. Last night I heated the stew up and it was delicious. We will eat it again tonight.

I canned 4 quart jars of chicken. They held the entire 2 packages of chicken. I decided not to can the pork so I froze it for Hubby to grill it outside over the weekend. I was just too tired after the chicken was done.

The next morning I noticed all of the can lids were popped. However I always take the rings off and then lift the jars by their lid to make sure they sealed. The very last one I lifted did not seal. I had to throw that jar of chicken out. I was so disappointed but it is the first time in 2 years that I have not had a jar seal. So I count myself fortunate. I have no idea why it didn’t seal. I did everything right. No cracks in the jar or lid and I wiped the rim with vinegar. Oh well!

My week is getting better and better, yet very busy. I have been helping Hubby cut and trim a lot of our flowering bushes to get them ready for the winter. We also threw out our hanging baskets of flowers. We kept the actual baskets though so that we can reuse them next year. I am going to try to grow impatience to put in them next spring. I got some seeds to do that. Those two baskets were $39.99 each this spring at Niagara Produce. If I can grow them myself, it will save us a lot of money. But anyhow we did so much work that with grass clippings and all of the stuff from the gardens we put out the equivalent of 6 barrels of those and garbage.

I will post our weekly Frugal Things post sometime this weekend.

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Every Day

Meat Shopping This Week

All I am buying this week is meat. Top’s deals today were good. At Top’s I got 2.84 lbs. of all natural boneless pork ribs for $ 4.49 a lb. Chuck roasts were at a good price so I got a package of 2 big ones that weighed 5.12 lbs. for $ 5.49 a lb. The ground beef was 6.52 lbs. at $2.99 a lb. Last was 2 packages of Tyson Chicken patties on sale for $5.57 for each package.

Walmart is selling the chicken patties for $ 6.96. So I got a good deal and that is why I purchased 2. We love to make a sandwich with the Chick Fil A sauce. My granddaughter is coming soon to visit and she will like these. They make such an easy meal in our air fryer.

I used the food saver to put one of the chuck roasts in the freezer. The other one I will use tomorrow to make a beef stew in the crock pot. That too will be an easy meal since I will be pressure canning most of the pork ribs and all of the ground beef. I cut up some of the pork to make fajitas for dinner tonight. I thawed a bunch of chicken breasts that were in my freezer to can also. Little by little I am canning up meat from my freezer.

I am trying to make room for turkeys. This year I am going to pressure can a turkey for the first time. BTW, I noticed that Walmart has the Butterball Premium turkeys for $ 1.28 a lb. I will check everyone else’s sale prices when they are advertised but I think the Butterball’s won’t be any lower than this price which is a good price for these times.

Anyone seeing turkey prices in your area yet?