Author: Precious

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Every Day

Friday’s Doings

Dinner last night was made using the above items. We have leftovers from this dinner and the shrimp fra diavolo which we will use up for dinner tonight. Waste not, want not!

I was given a $ 12.99 haircut coupon by Great Clips so I had my hair cut today and used it and gave her a generous tip. The price is usually $18. I washed my hair at home so I didn’t have to pay for a shampoo.

The Running’s Labor Day sale flyer came so I went and got 10 boxes of regular canning lids for $ 2.99 and 10 boxes of wide mouth canning lids for $ 3.99. Best price I have seen in a long time. They were $9.99 at my N.P. the other day. I also got a Mrs. Wage’s pickling and canning vinegar on sale for $ 3.49. I have more than enough tomatoes, vegetables, and fruit done for the winter. So it is time to can some sale meat to get it out of the freezer. So if you have a Running’s and can, go get yours.

I forgot to buy tomatoes at Niagara Produce the other day so I stopped at Top’s to get some so that we can make some turkey BLT’s. I picked up 2 beautiful beefsteak tomatoes at Top’s for a total of $ 4.60.

We got our electric and natural gas bill today and it was outrageous. The bill was $ 154.00 for using 619 kwh of electricity and 4 ccf’s of natural gas. We used less kwh’s per day than last year same period and the same amount of ccf’s. Last year’s bill was $ 113.05 for less usage. That is a huge increase for supply and demand.

This is what I am thawing to cook in the crock pot out on the patio tomorrow. Hubby is thrilled that I am going to cook this corned beef that I got at a great price last March. I see a couple of dinners and some sandwiches for brunches.

What are you doing to save money?

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Every Day

More Cost Cutting

We had Shrimp Fra Diavolo for dinner last night. These are the ingredients. They were all in my freezers and pantries. If you don’t have any white wine, you can substitute chicken broth for it. I have done that many times.

It turned out delicious as usual. This shrimp was getting close to being freezer burned so I needed to use it up. I think it was old when I bought it. Top’s marks over the expiration dates on all of their seafood. They have been doing that since the pandemic started. You have to ask why they are hiding the date. From now on, I will buy my shrimp elsewhere.

We had roast beef sandwiches with au jus gravy on buns for brunch today.

All meals were made with what we have at home.

I have another CD expiring soon so I am doing my research to see what the interest rates are at two different credit unions. I will put it with the one that has the highest interest rate.

Hubby mowed the lawn on Tuesday and today he is weeding some of the gardens. Turf Tec fertilized the lawn yesterday so we let the sprinkler come on today to water it in.

I am going through every item in this house and selling what we no longer use or donating it. The less we have the less we have to take care of.

That is it for today. I will be back tomorrow with more.

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Every Day

Cutting Costs

We had teriyaki noodles ($.89) and filet mignon for dinner last night. We grilled it outside at home. Filet mignon at restaurants is $35.- $ 59. Ours was cut by the butchers at Niagara Produce when I purchased a whole tenderloin almost 2 years ago. I paid $10.99 a lb. Each one is 5-6 oz. so these cost us about $ 4.13 or $ 8.26 for both for dinner tonight. It is so much cheaper to eat at home. It pays to have a food saver because food keeps a very long time in the deep freeze when you remove the air. They were delicious.

For brunch, I had a cheese omelet. Hubby had an English muffin with the homemade peach jam that I made.

Hubby is down to his last bottle of Irish Cream Skinny Syrups to put in his coffee. I looked on their site and there was no sale. So I contacted them online and they gave me a code to get 15% off my entire order. It never hurts to ask.

I have been dealing with a mess that was created by Fetch. After months of trying to get it straightened out, I finally got a person that understood and I finally have all of my points proper on my account and it is under the correct telephone number. I was actually able to scan the last two weeks of receipts and order a $10. Walmart gift certificate with some of the points that I had accumulated. Patience pays off!

Our Rakuten rebate check for $ 5.17 came in the mail yesterday. By the size of it, you can tell that I don’t shop much. But every little bit goes to savings.

I continue to get 3 magazines in the mail that I have never requested and will not purchase because they are mostly ads. But I will be glad to scan them if they keep coming.

The utility meters were read yesterday so I should be getting my electric and natural gas bill within the next few days. I am hoping that it is not as large as last month.

I needed some fresh lettuce. Niagara Produce had the 3 count of Romaine lettuce for $ 1.99. I got 1. Top’s had a Super Coupon for Daisy sour cream which I was out of. With the store coupon you paid $1.99. But I also had some $ .50 off coupons for Daisy products which Top’s doubled so I paid $ .99.

We used up most of our gasoline getting home from the Adirondacks on Monday. Since I had no gas points for Top’s, I filled up at the cash only station for $ 3.35 a gallon which is the cheapest in my area. Top’s right now is $3.55 a gallon. Both Top’s, N.P., and the gas station were on my route today.

It rained here while we were away so we have not had to water except for our hanging baskets that are under the front entry so they don’t get the benefit of the rain. Actually we have not had to water a lot so our quarterly bill should be much less than last year.

We have found a snowplow guy for the winter. He stopped by our home yesterday and we hired him. It will cost $500. for the winter which is the same amount we paid last winter. This winter is supposed to be really snowy so I believe we will get our money’s worth.

I did a load of wash yesterday to clean the clothes we used on the trip and some others that were in the laundry basket using cold water and a couple of tablespoons of detergent. Most were hung to dry.

Every year I have been buying the Passionate Penny Pincher’s yearly planner. It had been very expensive. This year I tried to check the price for 2025 and it is not ready yet. I am assuming the price is going up. I then checked She’s in Her Apron’s planner and it is $ 67.98 for the weekly and for 6 months of the daily it is $ 58.95. So I would assume you have to buy two and that would be $ 117.90. All these prices are ludicrous. I will save my money and put it into investments. I will use a notebook that I got on clearance a long time ago for $ .10. and keep a running list of everything I have to do in it. I will use my outlook calendar to track our appointments.

What have you been doing to save some money?

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Every Day

All Those Meals That I Posted Over The Weekend Were While We Were Away From Home

We went to visit my oldest son whom we had not seen since December. It is hard for him to visit us because he has a new job. That and owning a business too makes it very difficult for him.

He lives in the Adirondacks which I believe is one of the most beautiful and peaceful places in the U. S. If you are not familiar with the Adirondacks, you can learn more here: https://visitadirondacks.com/about/adirondack-park

So we drove out to see him on Friday morning. We took the Thruway to Amsterdam and then all of the back roads from there. We do this not only because it is a more scenic route but we save money on tolls by not continuing on the Thruway. We have EZ Pass so we save $ 16.04 coming and going because of that. Then by getting off in Amsterdam and back on in Amsterdam, we save $2.40.

We went straight through without stopping for food on the Thruway. We knew that our son had a nice cold cut lunch awaiting us.

I was so happy to see him. He is so happy and healthy! I was so surprised to see how much weight he has lost. He looks great! He is trimmer than he was in high school.

He had a beautiful outside hot tub put in his yard last Fall. That is what I enjoyed on Friday night. You all know the back issues that I have been dealing with. Well, my back has not hurt since I was in it and it is now Tuesday. I checked to see if our YMCA has one but they don’t. I will check some other places because I really believe this helped me. We can put one in our yard but we don’t really have the space unless we take out a tree and a garden to do it. So I am hoping there is some place we can pay and go to use one. My other son has one in his yard but he is an hour plus away. But when we visit I am sure he would let me use it. Last resort would be to have one installed.

While we were there he had the book called The Terminal List. When I asked him about it he told me has the whole series of the books signed. Then he told us the first book was on Freevee. So we binged watched it. Now I can’t wait until the second book is done and we can watch it. It is addicting. I will check our library to see if they have the books. If so I can read them while waiting for the series to be created and streamed.

The Japanese Restaurant that we ate at for dinner was https://harusaratoga.com/ . Hubby was not up to going out with us so he told us to have a nice mother and son dinner. We did and enjoyed every minute of it. We did bring Hubby home an appetizer of steamed dumplings because he needed to eat and this is what he wanted.

On Sunday, my son invited, his business partner and his girlfriend, to the cookout. My son grilled burgers, hot dogs, baked waffle fries and made a delicious pasta salad. We have really gotten to know Travis really well. He is a wonderful person and his girlfriend was lovely. We had a great time catching up.

Thank you son for all of your hospitality. We had a great time and can’t wait to see you again.

Now that we are home, it will be the usual around here. I will try to post as often as I can. We have no more company or vacations planned until next summer.

Our neighbors usually take care of watering our flowers while we are away. One of them was away and the other was having their huge party they have every year and we didn’t want to bother them. I paid a 13 year old neighborhood boy to do it and he did a great job. We will be hiring him on and off to help with some other things.

On the agenda this week is setting up an appointment with our lawyer to make some changes in our trust. Hubby has some appointments and I will most likely stay home most of the week.

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend too!

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Every Day

Meals On The Weekend

On Saturday, brunch was a huge cinnamon muffin. That was it because I knew we were going out to dinner.

We went to a Japanese restaurant for dinner and started with different appetizers. One of us had steamed dumplings and the other had broccoli in garlic sauce. Then we both had a small salad and a cup of Miso soup. We each had a Hibachi entree that had filet mignon, chicken, shrimp, veggies, rice and noodles. We brought half of our entrees home and ate them for brunch on Sunday.

Saturday night we binge watched The Terminal List. It was good.

Grilling out is on the agenda for dinner tonight: burgers and hot dogs with a side of pasta salad. Then ice cream cones for dessert.

Then hopefully we can watch the second half of Episode 1 of Terminal List.

It has been a delightfully fun and peaceful weekend. I hope yours is too.

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Every Day

Meals Today & A Little Dip

Breakfast was English muffins with some peach jam that I made this week.

Lunch was a turkey and swiss cheese sandwich with mayonaise on a sub roll.

Dinner was a chicken crockpot meal with a sauce of cream of chicken soup, beef gravy powder, a bit of water and onion soup mix. It was served on rice. So delicious!

Just before it got dark, we took a dip in the hot tub. It was such a beautiful evening for it. I am so relaxed that I believe I will sleep well tonight especially since the A/C is now turned off and we can sleep with the window open.

We are hoping that we can keep the A/C off for good now since it is getting a bit cooler out and the nights are much cooler.

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Every Day

A Little Of This And A Little Of That

Dinner last tonight were the German smoked sausages that Chris brought to me when she visited. We put horseradish mustard and onions on them. The side was going to be shells and cheese but I ended up only making the sausages because we were not very hungry. BTW, these shells and cheese are better than the brand name ones.

We had one sausage left so we will each eat a half of it with eggs for brunch today. We will be eating a peach for a snack later.

For brunch when I got home from the doctor’s, we had breakfast croissant sandwiches. They are GV and come 4 in a box. I discovered a while ago that I can’t make croissant sandwiches that are as cheap as these. It would cost me more to buy the croissants, sausage, egg, and cheese. They are delicious. It isn’t something we buy all the time but in a pinch when I have to go out first, they are easy. Hubby knows they are there so he can make one if he gets hungry.

I was going to pick up a script for Hubby but I did not feel well so I came straight home from the doctors. He went and picked it up later. There was no copay.

One load of laundry was washed in cold water with 2 tablespoons of soap and hung to dry yesterday.

Hubby did some weeding and cut the dead flowers off the roses.

Dinner tonight will be grilled steak and a tossed salad. We have Romaine that needs to be used up.

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Every Day

Second Post Today

Dinner tonight was from our freezer. I had 8 pieces of chicken strips left over in a bag in the freezer. I cooked them all in the air fryer to get rid of the bag. We decided if we didn’t eat them all we would add them to brunch. However I forgot to eat brunch this morning because I was really busy making the freezer jam. Hubby only had a small amount of a salad. So we were very hungry and ate it all. Chris, this is the broccoli that was leftover in the freezer from one of our dinners while you were here. I just heated it in the microwave and then put butter on it. Waste not, want not. Hubby made a side salad to go with his. I dipped my chicken in Bangi Bangi sauce and Hubby put hot sauce on his. We each had a piece of strawberry rhubarb pie for dessert.

I have now done 8 pint jars of peach jam. I told Hubby that he has to make them last a year because we have many other jams in the house to eat too. Last year he ate 6 smaller jars in about 2 months. He loves peach jam that much.

We have about 12 peaches left. We will eat some and slice the others for pies. They will be put in the freezer.

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Every Day

Cutting Costs The Past Five Days

It seems to me that all we have done is spend money which we have this summer. But there are many cost cutting things we have done also.

We changed the furnace filter to keep the A/C running efficiently. We do this every 4-6 weeks. We have turned the A/C up to 76 from 75 to see if it makes any difference on our bill.

I filled our car tank up with gas and saved $.20 off per gallon using Top’s points. I will have to be more efficient with watching prices on Gas Buddy since I won’t be earning points like I used to when I was shopping. I can use my Walmart+ discount at certain stations. The cash station usually has a great price when I don’t have grocery points.

I have been working on using up all of the disposable razors that I have collected over the years for free or on deep discount to shave my legs. I continue to use up all of the foundation for my face that I have hanging around. The same goes for other makeup.

We continue to use very few paper towels so that the next package I open was purchased before the pandemic. We use rags and microfiber cloths for almost every cleaning job.

I still haven’t had to buy toilet paper since before the pandemic. We have a bidet and we have really gotten our money’s worth from it.

Hubby wants me to hire a maid to come every 2 weeks to clean our house. I keep putting that idea off. As long as I can do my morning and evening routines and clean one room a day Monday through Friday, I can do it. I have had maids twice in my life and that has never worked out well. I can’t get over the fact that they don’t clean as well as I do so I end up letting them go. So until I can’t do it anymore, I will continue to do it.

Genealogy research continues to be a source of entertainment for me. I am getting good value out of the discounted price I got a few weeks ago.

I finally finished J.D. Vance’s book so Hubby is reading it. When he is done, I will pass it along to someone else to read.

We have wasted no food. When it needs to be used, we find a way or freeze it.

When I stripped the bed that West was staying in, I set aside those sheets to wash when I have more sheets to wash along with tablecloths or dish towels. I only wash full loads.

I have been watering down our thick shampoos to get more out of them. I have been doing the same with Dawn dish soap. They are much too thick. Every penny counts when you are saving for a goal.

We also cut open our toothpaste tubes to get every bit out of them. With prices going up every week, we need to make sure we use up all that we have paid for.

Hubby has continued since our spring cleanup to do all the weeding and trimming of our gardens. That is a huge amount of money we have saved instead of paying the landscape people to do it like we did for years. I am talking thousands of dollars. He is getting exercise and enjoys it.

I cleaned the dishwasher yesterday with a packet of lemon Kool-Aid. Anyone who has read my blogs since the beginning knows that I have been using that as a cleaner since well before dishwasher cleaners were a thing. It is so much cheaper than those cleaners.

I did 4 pints of peach jam this morning and I have 4 pints to go this afternoon.

What have you done to cut costs the past week or so?

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Every Day

This Will Be My Last Grocery Haul For A Very Long Time

There will be one or two exceptions. I will go if I need fresh produce. If I can substitute frozen or canned veggies for fresh I will. If there is a great price on something like the bacon above, I will get it. That exception will be mostly for rock bottom priced meat.

I had to go to the cardiologist to have an Echo test done today. On the way home I stopped at Top’s and got 4 of their 16 oz. bacon that was on sale for $ 2.99 each. I have not seen such a good price on bacon for years. I only had room for 4.

I have been trying for a couple of weeks to get peaches to make jam. No one seemed to have good ones. I stopped at another store near the doctor’s that I don’t usually go to that had peaches for $.88 a lb. The problem is they were not good peaches. So I stopped at Niagara Produce on the way home and there’s were nice and ready to make jam. They cost me $19.99 for 8 quarts of Red Haven peaches which I have used successfully for jam before. I already have enough Certo and pectin in my pantry to make all of it into jam. I will do that tomorrow. Today is busy enough.

I looked for three months for rhubarb. I could not find it anywhere. So this morning, I spotted a strawberry rhubarb pie in the bakery section of Niagara Produce. They make their own pies and they are delicious. We each had a slice after we ate brunch and it was so good. The filling was so yummy and their pie crust is incredible. The best part is Hubby was very happy because this is his favorite pie. I was happy because it is too hot to turn on my oven to bake plus I couldn’t find rhubarb.

The reason we will not be shopping is I want to use up a lot of what we already have in the house. I especially want to eat down our freezer so that we have room for quite a few turkeys this November. Remember, turkeys and hams will be at their cheapest prices during the holidays. And they will be cheaper than any other meat you can buy right now.

I will be showing you in pictures and words what we are eating from the house each day as we do it. Remember we only eat brunch and dinner and a occasional snack. I will start with dinner tonight.

Hubby will grill the pork ribeyes outside. We will put a dab of garlic herb butter on them. I will make the corn in the microwave and slice the tomato up on a plate and drizzle it with a little Italian dressing.

Are any of you trying to eat down your freezers or pantries? Join along if you would like.