Category: Every Day

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Every Day

A Little Of This And A Little Of That

It has been a crazy few days. We have been getting our home ready for winter. We finally had to turn our heat on 3 days ago. The nights started getting chilly. Hubby got up one morning to take his shower and he said it was too cold. So the heat went on for the fall and winter. This morning it was 38 when I got up at 4AM with Eloise who doesn’t like to sleep at night. Since we turn the heat down to 64 at night, I quickly turned it up to 70. It was just too cold in here for me.

On Sunday morning, I went up to Top’s to get on sale fresh salmon for $ 7.99 a lb. and the ad also showed the Margaritaville shrimp on sale for B1G1 again this week. The Margaritaville they did not have. The fish guy told me they should be in later in the week. He said they are out of stock. They only had 3 small packages of the salmon( I took 2 packages which had a total of 3 pieces.) and this was the first day of the ad. I asked it they had more and he said no. He told me maybe later in the week. I guess Top’s sales ads are useless this week. There was nothing else that interested me. So I have to go out later and will stop by there to see if they have any of the things I wanted. If not, I am going to get rain checks.

Anyhow, I had not had salmon in over a year because the price was way too high. So I had one piece baked with 2 eggs for brunch yesterday. It tasted so good!

I defrosted a large ham over the weekend that I purchased at 1/2 off after Christmas last year. Then Hubby cut it all up for me. We have lots of slices and chunks to use up. These three food saver bags that you are looking at are separated into 4 meals each. So you are looking at 12 meals that I froze for the future. We have been eating off of a large amount of slices that Hubby put in the refrigerator. We have had ham and cheese sandwiches and navy bean soup. We have had 3 meals for dinner and 1 meal for brunch so far.

I made the soup with the ham bone, 5 cans of navy beans, extra ham pieces, mustard seed and other spices. I usually make it from dry beans that I soak overnight but I had the canned beans needed to be used up and it also made it easy for me on a day that we would be out. On Monday, I quickly threw it all in the crock pot so that it would be ready when we came home. It was delicious. We have already eaten about 1/8 of another jar. We have this one left to finish this week or to freeze if need be.

On Monday morning, Hubby did a lot of cutting back bushes, trimming hedges and pulling annual flowers to get ready for the winter. I worked for a while in my pantry to see what gaps needed to be filled in the next few weeks to stock for winter. Then we had mid afternoon annual checkups which took an hour and a half. My primary is fantastic. He explained to me some heart issues that my heart doctor had not. He really went into detail and showed me how to check my pulse. He told me it might be a good time to buy a watch that does this for me. So I am looking into that.

On Tuesday, my back was so painful. I couldn’t take it easy because we went to get our senior flu shots and to pick up Hubby’s prescriptions. I am glad we had a ham meal that we could quickly put together for dinner.

Today my back is better so I will run a few errands. Since I will be at Top’s, I am then going to stop at Dollar General to check their $ deals, next will be the liquor store to get the cheapest vodka I can find. I am almost out of vanilla to bake with. Since I have vanilla beans, I will make a whole bottle.

Last stop will be across the street from the liquor store at Big Lots to see what kind of deals they are running.

The rest of the day I am going to take it easy and just gather the garbage cans within our home to take out to the garbage in the garage which gets put out tonight.

I hope you all have a great day.

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Every Day

Spending and Saving

Yesterday, I went out and ran some errands again. I ran into Top’s to pick up another can of Folger’s coffee on sale just like I did the day before. But this one I got cheaper. The can was $ 8.49 with the super coupon but I found a $2.50 manufacturer’s coupon. So this coffee can was only $ 5.99. Since it was on my errand route, it was well worth stopping in for.

I stopped at our Town Hall to contract for a second garbage can. We have gone almost a year with just one and it has been difficult especially when Hubby has to bag yard clippings and grass that he has mowed. I was barely able to fit two kitchen bags worth of garbage in it this week. I still have two styrofoam boxes that need to be bagged up and put in the can this coming week. When you can’t fit in the garbage, it’s time to pay for another can.So I paid for another garbage can which they will deliver to me on Monday. Cost for the can was $65.00 and then I paid $ 12.51 for the private company to empty it for the rest of year. Usually our garbage service is paid as a separate line on our property tax bill in January which is how we paid for the can and service for 2024. When you get another can during the year, you just pay at the town hall. This coming January both of our garage cans, recyclable can, and service will be billed for the entire year on our property tax bill. BTW, we are talking about cans that the trucks pick up with the lifting mechanism.

I received the $43.99 refund in the mail today for the Breeze cat system that Eloise wouldn’t use. That and 3 other checks that need to be deposited will be taken to the bank next week.

We had a 3 lb. package of Sahlen’s hot dogs that needed to be used up. I took 4 out yesterday for our dinner and put four in the fridge for brunches. The rest were frozen into 2 meal portions. We want to use them up because we normally don’t eat hot dogs in the winter. We had Bubba burgers for dinner the night before last. However, Hubby is craving them again. So he is grilling them again tonight for our dinner. We will top them with romaine, tomato slices, cheese and some leftover cooked bacon. We will add some Mt. Olive pickles on the side and we will be good.

Yesterday the tree service that we hired took 2 trees out for us. When we moved here, we had 4 birch trees put in a garden behind our master bedroom suite. They grew like weeds. Two of them needed to come out for a couple of reasons. They had branches that were hitting our roof when we had wind and the trees were leaning toward our home. We had the tree service cut up the tree trunks so we could use them next year in our fireplace. First they have to dry out. Total cost for that and branch cleanup was $600. We are very happy to have it done since winter is on it’s way and I couldn’t sleep when those branches would hit the house.

Last night Hubby watched the Atlanta Falcons vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers on our Free Trial of Amazon Prime.

We don’t have much on for the weekend except the Buffalo Bills vs. Houston football game. Since Hubby’s sister lives in Houston, this is a family rivalry game. My son and West will not be coming this weekend.

So I think I will heat up the large ham that we got last Christmas. We will have a couple of dinners and then Hubby will slice some for cold cuts on the meat slicer and I will dice the rest and food saver it for soups and casseroles this fall and winter.

I hope you all have a great weekend.

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Every Day

Longshoreman Strike is Suspended

They came to an agreement last night which gave them a 62 % tentative wage increase. So the strike has been suspended until January 15, 2025 when they will bargain on the other benefits. The timing of all of this is very curious.

But I am happy that the people affected by the hurricane hopefully will be able to get what they need to build back. That was my biggest worry.

I will be back later with another post.

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Every Day

Grocery Haul, Etc.

I went to Top’s yesterday to get some loss leader items. Three of them that were in the sale flyer on Sunday were out of stock. I asked if they had any in the back. They said no. I was not surprised because when I got to the market, there were no empty parking spaces. I rode around for a minute or so and somebody pulled out and I grabbed that spot. When I got inside it was packed. It was 6% senior discount day but it has never been this packed. Looking at people’s carts, they were overflowing. Many holes on the shelves were beginning to develop.

The Margaritaville shrimp were on sale and Hubby had asked me to get 4 of the coconut shrimp. They had none. Since all the Margaritaville were on sale for B1G1F, I decided to try the Buffalo Shrimp ones but I only got 2 in case Hubby doesn’t like them. They were $5.00 for both.

Celery was $ 1.28 with a Super Coupon. The pork tenderloins were B1G1F so they cost $ 5.00 for both. The cooked frozen shrimp was on B1G1F so $ 7.00 for both. The SteakUms were also on sale for B1G1F and cost $ 5.79 for both. The Folgers coffee was on sale for $ 8.49.

When you bought 7 cans of diced tomatoes, you paid $ .77 each for a total of $ 5.39. I got 8 cans of Dole mandarin oranges for $ 2.39 each or $ 19.12 total because Hubby does not like the Top’s brand at all which were on sale. He had just opened the last can we had. These are a treat for him once in a while instead of junk food so they were worth the cost.

The last thing I want to run out of is litter for Eloise so I purchased some more. I don’t need to use multi-cat litter but this is lightweight and easy for me to lift and carry. So we will see if she likes it. It was on sale for $ 15.29 and I had a $2.00 off manufacturer’s coupon for a total of $13.29+ tax.

I already have 16 lbs. of kitten chow for her. If I run out, I will make food for her. I don’t like to buy too much kitten chow ahead because it goes rancid.

So I spent a total of $ 67.20 after the 6% discount plus tax. The oranges were the only thing not on sale and they were the last 8 cans on the shelf. I also earned $ .10 off per gallon of gasoline.

Hubby cooked cheeseburgers on the grill last night and we just put toppings on them like fresh tomato, lettuce, and crispy onions.

For brunch we split a 10 piece chicken nugget from McDonald’s that cost $4.99+ tax. I was starving while I was out shopping. Plus I had to go there to try to get the Halloween coupon booklets. They were all out of them. UGH!

Next time that I am running errands and it is almost 1PM, I will eat before I go or pack a sandwich. I hate spending money on fast food.

What I noticed now that this Top’s is a company store and not private is that they don’t mark the B1G1F items up really high. They are using the regular prices. I was not buying these items while the store was private because the owner was gouging us. These today were a great deal!

I have to go pick up some prescriptions that Rite Aid filled last night for us. With the longshoreman strike, scripts are going to be in short supply even worse than they have been. So if you have any due for refill, get them while you can.

Did you get any good deals this week?

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Every Day

September Savings

We were only able to save $ 4127.46 this month. It was a month of spending on some fast food and three restaurant meals for us and family.

We also had higher bills for our utilities: electric, natural gas and a water bill we paid for the entire summer. Our medical bills were higher than they have been all year due to the fact that we try to group our appointments and tests over the spring, summer, and fall. We don’t do winter appointments if we can avoid them. We have two dentist appointments between today and the first week in November. They are very expensive especially since we lost our dental plan. We also have 2 doctor appointments this month. Most of Hubby’s prescriptions have been zero except for one $60. one. Mine are usually $60. each even though I don’t take many drugs. They add up.

We also had maintenance bills for the furnace. This month we have a tree being taken out and the sprinkler lines being blown out. They will be hefty bills. Life is expensive when you have a home and property.

It seems like costs are going up everyday. Now that the longshoremen are on strike along the entire east coast and west to Houston, costs are going to get even worse. Inflation will be horrible in a few weeks if they don’t go back to work. They were offered a 50% raise in pay amongst other things and they didn’t take it. I think most people would love to get a 50% raise. Biden says he is not going to interfere which is ridiculous. He can but he won’t.

If they are out for any length of time, people will starve. Food banks are already not doing well so they are not going to be much help. I just pray that people have stocked up knowing this was coming. If not do it now. It will take a week or so for the prices to go up unless the grocery stores raised then overnight to gouge us. Soon you will see shortages like you have never seen before. It only takes 3 days to strip a grocery store. Economists are saying it will take months to get the supply chain back to normal especially if they are out for a long period of time.

I will be keeping my eye on prices and you should too. I plan on buying nothing except what I need on sale. They can’t so anything about this week’s sale ads that are already printed and out. Get the sales now!

Take care of your needs and your families. I am praying that this strike does not last long.

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Every Day

Sunday and Monday Happenings

I had to purchase Hubby’s alcohol prep pads. He only had about 5 days left. Amazon carries the ones he uses. When I went to order them, they offered me a 30 day free trial of Prime. I took them up on their offer so that I didn’t have to get $35. worth of items and I got one day shipping. Hubby will enjoy Thursday night football on Prime for at least the next 4 Thursdays. And I will see if there are any movies I would like to watch. I have every intention of cancelling at 30 days.

We met my son, daughter in law, and West, at Duff’s yesterday for lunch in another town. We ate no breakfast so that we could enjoy Duff’s wings. Buffalo wings were invented out here at the Anchor Bar. So many tourists go there to try them. However, I and thousands of other people out here who do the yearly survey on who has the best wings, pick Duff’s. Their wings are amazing. Duff’s has won the survey for a number of years in a row. We had a few beers and soda for Hubby and West with out meal. Plus West wanted large fries and huge breast meat fried tenders. There was so much food that Hubby and I had enough for our dinner last night. I decided to pay for all of us. It was the largest lunch bill I have ever paid but considering that we got 7 meals out of and a great time, it was worth it. Since I did not pay out much grocery money this month, I just took it from that budget.

We all gathered at our home afterward so that my daughter in law could meet Eloise. She loved her and West got all of her toys out from under the furniture for us. Then we all played a 500 point game of Rummy. It was a fun afternoon.

I have been trying to run the dishwasher every three days instead of every two. Sometimes that works and sometimes it doesn’t. I am thinking all the time on how I can cut down on the number of dishes we use. For example, I ask myself if I can use a small plate instead of a large one. Can I mix all dry and wet ingredients in one bowl instead of two? Everything I am questioning. I want to get the electric bill down as low as I can this month.

Hubby had planned on cooking pork rib eye steaks on the grill for dinner. But since we had leftover wings last night, he will grill them tonight and I will make a tossed salad(trying to use up the romaine lettuce), and serve applesauce.

Our Buffalo Bills played the Baltimore Ravens in Baltimore last night and we got stomped. The Ravens are a big and rough team. I just prayed none of our players got hurt. One did though. Hopefully, he will recover quickly.

Hubby got up with Eloise this morning at 4:30AM. He let me sleep in for a change. I didn’t get up until 9:30AM. It felt good for a change. But I woke up not feeling well so I have taken it easy today. I have done some paperwork to get ready for our savings report tomorrow. Plus I paid our credit card bill that we got in the mail on Saturday.

I realize today that we have another CD expiring in the next 10 days so I will take care of renewing that tomorrow. The bank never sent me a notice about it. Ugh. I will take care of that when I call them.

I have lots of posts for this week starting with the savings one tomorrow. See you then. I hope you are having a great day!

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Every Day

A Savings Day

Before I talk about our savings today, I wanted to post a picture of our filet mignon and tossed salad dinner last night. I put ranch dressing on mine and Hubby had Italian. The filets were just seasoned with salt and pepper before Hubby grilled them. They were melt in your mouth good.

Our son who lives in the Adirondack’s in the eastern part of the state called Hubby yesterday afternoon for his birthday. We both enjoyed talking to him. It is rare that we get to see him because he works a full time job, owns a business, and is helping two different friends renovate their homes.

Today will be a savings day and I will list those as I do them during the day.

My son who lives just a little over an hour away called Hubby last night for his birthday. He told us that his family is going to the Buffalo Bills store downtown for when it opens on Sunday morning. So they will not be here for breakfast but will come later when they are done. Hubby invited them for lunch. They all eat Keto. So I made out a list of things that they will eat and was going to go to the store early this morning to get those things that I did not have. However when I was done with my list, I saw that I had a text message from him. He said his wife said we should go out for wings for lunch. So that is the plan sometime after they get done shopping. I imagine they will treat us. So I cancelled the grocery shopping trip which saves us on spending money for food and gasoline.

I did a very full load of laundry with just a couple of tablespoons of detergent. According to my appliance people that is all you need. I have been trying to get down to just one load a week to save on electricity. I have finally done it. I have an energy efficient Speed Queen washer and dryer. I use cold water to wash. Most things are hung to dry. I do dry sheets and towels in the dryer but for only 25 minutes and then hang them if they aren’t quite dry. I just replaced my dryer balls after almost 14 and a half years of use. I found a set of 6 at Walmart a month ago with a storage bag for $ 9.00. I do not use dryer sheets and haven’t for years.

I caulked all the spots that needed it on our window frames and sills. We are trying to get ready for winter. Hubby has been cutting the lawn down really low and mowing up the leaves as they come down. He has also been trimming the bushes and cutting some of the plants down. This is keeping him really busy and saves us on hiring our landscaper to clean up for the winter.

We still have no heat on. That is amazing for the end of September. I hope we can go a few more weeks without it by wearing sweatshirts and long pants. I have gotten our draft stoppers for the outside doors from our storage area so that they are ready to use.

Dinner tonight will be the leftover honey bourbon chicken, which Hubby loved, roasted potatoes, and brussel sprouts from Thursday dinner. I like to cook two meals at once. When we eat these, all leftovers in our fridge will be used up.

I love coffee as I am sure many of you do. I never buy coffee at a McDonald’s, Dunkin Donuts, Tim Horton’s or Starbucks. I always make it at home. If I want it while I am out running errands, I bring my travel mug with coffee in it. However I drink 4-5 cups a day. As you all know, coffee has gotten so high in price, especially the last two weeks in which it took a huge increase of $3.00- $5.00 for a large can. So I am cutting back to 2 cups a day. If I need something else hot, I will have tea. I have lots of tea bags. Plus I can use my teabags to make two cups of tea.

When we got Eloise, we needed to buy litter. It was so expensive that I was shocked. We seem to be going through it quickly. If you have a kitten or cat, can you tell me where you buy it the cheapest and what you buy? Also how high do you fill the litter box with clean litter when you change it? I scoop her litter box twice a day. She also really likes to cover things up and manages to get litter all over the floor when she is doing that. Do the covered boxes work better than the flat ones? Thanks to anyone who responds and helps me out. I am headed in there now to clean and wash her box. Then I will vacuum and sanitize the floor.

Popeye’s contacted me with an apology and a $15.00 coupon for my next order. I’ll take it. When things go wrong on your order, it pays to let them know.

Did you do a little something to save or not spend today?

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Every Day

Friday’s Happenings

Today is Hubby’s birthday. We are celebrating at home because mine is in a couple of weeks so we go out to dinner in about a week to celebrate both of them. This year Hubby will pick the restaurant. We take turns.

But for his celebration today, we will grill filet mignon outside. We will have that with a glass of red wine and a tossed salad. Hubby wants an apple pie for dessert. Tonight we will watch college football.

We gave up exchanging gifts for birthdays and holidays years ago. That decision was made because we buy what we need or want when we need or want it. Our wants are few.

But before we celebrate, I had a few things to get done. As soon as Great Clips opened at 9AM, I signed in online and got my haircut. The senior price for a haircut is usually $18.99 but I have a $12.99 coupon that came in our ValuPak. I keep my punch card in my wallet at all times so I always remember that. After 7 haircuts, I get 1 free. I shampooed my hair this morning so I didn’t have to pay $6.00 extra for that. I have saved so much money since I left my pricey salon. First, Hubby cut it and then I found this Great Clips close by. It sure beats paying $ 140. a month for my salon treatment. It’s even higher now. Of course back then, I was getting my hair colored and high lighted. Now my hair is white and I like it.

Next I brought back some bottles to Fast Cash to get our $.05 deposits back. It’s in the same plaza.

Then I picked up a prescription at RiteAid for Hubby.

Next I stopped at Niagara Produce because Hubby wanted one of their apple pies for for his birthday dinner. They are his very favorite. I could make him one but not as delicious as the one he wanted.

Last stop was at Popeye’s because Hubby wanted spicy fried chicken for brunch. I got 2 orders of the Signature 3 piece chicken deal that I saw on TV on Sunday. They were $5.00 each plus tax which came to $10.80. My box had a wing, a leg, and a breast. Hubby’s had a wing, a leg, and a back. I have never served any of my family a back. It was awful. I tried to give Hubby my breast since it was his birthday and I felt bad. But being the gentleman he is he would not take it and told me to eat it. I did not want to go back there and waste gasoline to do it. Instead I wrote to Popeye’s online. They say it will take 24 hours for a response.

All of my errands were run in a loop as usual to save on gasoline. BTW, I went by my cash gas station today and the gasoline is down to $3.09 gallon.

That’s it for today. I want to go spend the rest of the day with Hubby.

brate

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Every Day

Utility Bill And A Little Of This And A Little Of That

I took down the post on the U.N. because it was scaring some people. If you want to see what they are doing which involves the U.S., go to their press releases online on the U.N. site. I always check on what is going on there.

We got our utility bill yesterday. It was for $ 138.85 for 29 days. We used 536 KWH of electric and 4 CCF’s of natural gas. Last year’s bill for the same period was $116.37 for 32 days. We used 530 KWH’s of electric and 6 CCF’s of natural gas. We used less KWH’s and more CCF’s and it covered more days in last year’s bill. There was not a big difference in usage but the bill went up by $ 22.48.

It seems whatever I do to conserve, the bill just keeps rising each month. But if I don’t try to conserve more, it will go even higher. I am afraid our heat bills are going to be huge this winter. The meteorologists say the winter here is going to be much colder and snowier this year. So I will try to save every KWH and CCF I can this fall and winter. We have turned our air conditioning off. If we have a hot day, we use our ceiling fans. I am hoping to not have to put the heat on for a while. We have turned the dehumidifier off in the basement. It is no longer humid down there.

We will continue to use our smaller 11 in 1 oven instead of the big oven. I believe it does make a difference. Now that we have the wall built around our grill outside, we will continue to use it as much as we can through these upcoming seasons. If we have a lot of snow, we will have to stop using it. Falls are something we try to avoid.

We have had to find another snowplow guy because the one we thought we could use is only 16 years old. Not legal in NY. We called a company yesterday who is licensed and insured. The owner came today and told us it will be $500. for the season. He snowplows anytime we get 3 inches. We paid our other guy, who moved to Florida, $ 500. for last winter. So the price is not any higher which I am very happy about.

We had planned to make honey bourbon fried chicken, roasted potatoes using baby potatoes that are getting old, and brussel sprouts for dinner last night. However, the chicken that I put in the fridge the night before did not thaw. So we had to come up with a quick dinner. Hubby made grilled cheese sandwiches and heated up old fashioned tomato rice soup that I purchased for $ 1.00 on clearance . It was so good and brought back memories of my childhood. We will have the above chicken dinner tonight and tomorrow night. Because of having to do this, I have froze the other half of the sausage I cooked up for pizza. We will use that next week.

Brunch this morning was a small slice of ham and 2 eggs scrambled for each of us.

That’s it for today. I will be back with a new post tomorrow after I run errands.

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Every Day

A Little Of This And A Little Of That

I had a roll of sausage in the refrigerator. Yesterday, I cooked it. I put 1/2 of it in our spaghetti sauce last night. I packaged up the other 1/2 to use on top of homemade pizza later in the week. The sauce I paid $.99 for. The portions of spaghetti that I used was about $ .49. The sausage was $2.94 but we are getting two meals out of it so $ 1.47 each meal. So last night’s spaghetti dinner cost us $ 1.50 for each of us or $ 2.95 for both. . We had a big salad for brunch yesterday so that was our veggies for the day.

After doing some cleaning yesterday, I went to Top’s. They did not have much I was interested in. But we were running out of Chung’s egg rolls so I picked up 2 packages on sale for $ 4.49 each. I do not make egg rolls. I made them once and they were more work than I am willing to do. Chung’s sent me an e-mail recently informing me that Walmart is now carrying them. However, they have not hit my store yet. I assume they will be cheaper than Top’s.

I had a free coupon for Ken’s ranch dressing. I needed laundry detergent because I was on my last bottle. I had a $3.00 coupon from Purex so I ended up spending $ 6.99+ tax for it. My total with tax was $ 17.25 for everything.

Between the cost of the construction at Top’s and the high prices due to inflation, I don’t go there very often. The noise is horrendous and no one can find anything anymore. This Top’s was privately owned and the prices were always high. But they have gone higher now that it is a company store. They have been working on redoing the inside for months now and a cashier told me it will not be done until the grand opening the end of November. Ugh! Wegman’s, Walmart, and Aldi’s are looking so much better now.

I have been doing a lot of research on where I can get bulk meat and tracking the prices the past few weeks. I have found 3 new to me places. So when my freezer is empty, I will be going to them to start to restock. The quality of meat is a lot better and the prices are way lower than the grocery stores. Best part is they are under 45 minutes away from my home. So traveling to them 2-3 times a year won’t be too bad. I will be sharing who they are when I start shopping there.

Do any of you buy your meat in bulk at an unconventional store instead of a grocery store? Where do you do that?

Eloise is getting into everything while I am writing this. So it is time to go give her some attention.