Category: Every Day

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Every Day

Our Celebrations and Vacation in the Adirondacks

On Friday morning we left on a 5 hour trip across our state to my son’s home in the Adirondacks. This was to celebrate my Granddaughter’s Sweet 16 Birthday and to celebrate Father’s Day for Hubby and my son.

For all of you who remember my granddaughter’s birth, when I first started blogging and how excited we were, yes she is 16 now and old enough to get her license. The time has flown and now she is a wonderful, smart, young woman. We love spending time with her and especially enjoyed celebrating this birthday.

I asked her a while ago where she would like to have her birthday dinner. At first she chose Red Robin. But then she changed her mind and wanted to go to Denny’s. So off we went that evening to Denny’s. We have not been in a Denny’s in years and they have sure changed. The food was delicious and the service was fantastic. We have one near our home and we don’t go there but we will consider it in the future. The bill including tip was $100. which I didn’t think was too bad for the 4 of us. She loved it and that is what was most important.

On Saturday night, we all went to Texas Roadhouse to celebrate Father’s Day. Hubby had never been to one. Even though it was very crowded the wait was not too long. My son used the app so we were able to wait in the car instead of in the crowded front of the restaurant. When they called us to come in to wait, we were bumped up to the front of the line and were seated pretty quickly.

Our steaks were so tender and so was the seasoned shrimp. My granddaughter was happy with her chicken tender dinner. With drinks, tax, and tip, dinner came to $177. for the 4 of us. However I had $150. worth of gift cards that I purchased for $120. last December on a deal at Top’s grocery store. So my OOP was only $27. But the true savings was $30. after purchasing the cards. Hubby loved the food and service which was excellent. He wants to go again. So the next time we visit my son, we will do that. I am hoping that Top’s will have that deal again this Christmas and I will accumulate some more gift cards.

After two dinners out, we were tired of eating out. So we celebrated my granddaughter’s birthday on Sunday with presents, dinner grilled outside and her ice cream cake that my son had made at a local ice cream place in the area. Then we had a fire in the fire pit in my son’s yard that evening which was very enjoyable.

We took my granddaughter back to her Mom’s on Monday about noontime so that she could spend some birthday time with her. So all in all she had a wonderful birthday celebration and we loved it all.

On the way back to my son’s home, he took us on a tour of Clifton Park which is where we lived for over 3 decades and where we raised our boys. It was a wonderful place to raise them. It actually made a list a couple of years ago as the 2nd best place to raise a family in the country.

I had been in Clifton Park about 14 years ago so I knew how much the area had grown. But Hubby had not been there in over 25 years. He could not believe how much construction both residential and business had occurred there since we moved to the desert. The traffic is so congested. There is so much more shopping than when we were there. But we both quickly decided that we would not want to move back there. It is so much more peaceful and quiet in the Adirondacks. Beauty is all around you.

Tuesday morning, we headed back to our little town in western NY. The thruway did not have much traffic so it was a nice ride. We hated leaving my son and granddaughter but we were happy to be safely home.

We spent a bit of money this weekend but it was worth every penny. This is one of the reasons that we are so frugal. So that we can do things like this which are very important to us. We did save a bit of money on the trip though. I packed our lunch for the trip out and we ate in the parking lot of a rest area. We also brought coffee, water, and snacks with us. I also made two loaves of homemade pumpkin bread to bring to my son. My son wanted to make us breakfast before we went home. But we were so stuffed from all of the food this weekend, we declined. Since we left early, we knew that we would be home by 1pm and could eat here if we needed to. However, we were not hungry and never ate until dinner when we made shrimp cocktails.

Today our new landscape company is coming to do all of the yard work, put in a new garden with bushes and a tree in the backyard. weed and mulch all of the gardens. I have a telephone call to make to find out about putting in something new here in our home. I will talk about that some time later when it is occurring. I also need to run some errands. Our terrific neighbor who lives next door watered all of the our flowers and hanging baskets so they wouldn’t die while we were gone. So I need to pick up some craft beer as a thank you. We also have a short grocery list.

Oh BTW, I forgot to tell you. I went grocery shopping with my son to both a Hannaford and a Market 32 while we were there. My mouth dropped open when I saw the very large reduced priced meat sections in both stores. It was a shopper’s dream! I have never seen anything like it. Market 32 which is Price Chopper merged with the Top’s corporation a while ago. I don’t understand why we don’t have sections like that in our Top’s stores. But I can tell you that the next time I go to visit my son, I am bringing 2 large coolers so that I can get meat.

I hope you all had wonderful Father’s Day celebrations! TTYL!

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Every Day

Frugal Things Every Day and Some Bad Luck Lately

The locks on our screens in our windows are breaking after 13+ years. They were flimsy to begin with. I ordered some from the company who made the screens. Hubby replaced the one that had broken and another one broke when he was putting the screen back in. It’s a good thing that I ordered many because I think we are going to need to replace them all especially since I will be washing windows and screens this fall and many more will probably break. I have not washed windows in a couple of years because they are building homes behind us and the dirt just flies so it is useless to wash them until they are done. However we just found out that they are building a model home behind us soon. The surveyors were here yesterday staking the lot out. So finally I will be able to wash them this fall. I love clean windows and it has really bugged me that they are so dirty. I wash the insides and the tracks. Hubby does the outside with a squeegee and a homemade soap solution.

I don’t know if I told you but we had to fire our landscapers. We have hired a new company and they will be coming next week to do all that the other landscape company did plus put a new garden and a large Japanese maple tree in for us. Then they will put all new mulch down. Meanwhile Hubby trimmed some of the bushes in our front garden. They needed it. He has had more and more energy as he loses weight. So he says he can do more out in the yard. I believe he is actually enjoying it. I plan on doing the weeding once the landscapers have done it and put the mulch down. If I do one garden a day and keep it up with it, I think I can manage it. If not this company will come back anytime we need them.

Last week Hubby tried to turn the sprinkler system on and it is broken so that company will be coming out the end of next week to repair that and adjust our sprinkler heads which is what we called them for to begin with. Now they have to repair the system too. Our lawn has never looked so bad because of the lack of water.

It seems like everything has been breaking lately: The screen clips, the A/C had to be replaced, now the sprinkler system. I dropped the first cup from our set of dishes that we bought years ago and it smashed into pieces. Fortunately I purchased back then 4 extra place settings that I put in storage so I have a replacement cup. My ring size adjuster broke yesterday. So I had to replace that. My wedding band is too big for me now since I lost weight so the adjuster keeps me from losing it.

Also the electronic part of our dishwasher that displays the count down time is giving us fits. Sometimes it works and other time it doesn’t so I may have to have that repaired.

Now I am not complaining. I just want you to realize that things don’t stop breaking when you are working or in retirement. So account for all of those things when you are planning. Don’t forget that besides appliances and other little things, roofs need to be replaced, painting needs to be done etc. and save cash for that next car.

Now to the things that we have been doing to save some money to replace all that we have been spending. It will take a while but little and big things add up.

I filled up our SUV with gasoline purchased at $ .20 off a gallon. I did this while I was out running errands in a circle to save on that gasoline.

We used the air fryer, toaster oven, Instant Pot, and grill for meals. I don’t use my big oven. This all saves us money on our utility bills. We have done no eating out. All meals have been made at home. It is so much cheaper than paying for restaurant or take out meals.

Lights have been kept off in the daylight. We used the air fryer, toaster oven, Instant Pot, and grill for meals. I don’t use my big oven. This saves us money on our utility bills. We continue to reuse warm up water from our showers, from washing vegetables, and from boiling anything.

I made our homemade delicious pumpkin bread for two gifts that we needed.

I mended a curtain. I also mended a pull in a sweater. I cut up some old clothes and made rags.

I washed two loads of clothes in cold water and dried them on the Eco cycle in our dryer. I had no time those days to hang them. When I use the dryer, I have been saving the lint in toilet paper tubes that I had been collecting for a while to use as fire starters in our outdoor fireplace. We also have a collection of Walmart delivery paper bags that we can use. Since we no longer get a print newspaper, these things are a good replacement.

We have been getting free Peacock for almost a year through our cable provider. That will be up soon. So we are debating whether we will pay for it or not. Hubby loves all the sports on it. That may make it worth it.

Our lower price that the cable provider gave us last year when they screwed up and cut off our phone service and then we had to switch to Spectrum from Time Warner is about up also. That is due to go up $20. a month. I will be calling them to see if they will lower that.

My doctor gave me a new drug but only gave me a 30 day prescription to see if the drug would work for me. I can get 90 day scripts for a whole lot cheaper per pill. I called him and asked him to send a 90 instead of getting the 30 day refill since the drug is working well. He sent it.

Hubby needed to purchase a trimmer to trim our bushes. Since we had a service here and in AZ, we didn’t have one. He found a deal on a Ryobi trimmer for $99. and got 2 batteries and the charger for free. Those would have cost us $99. more. Hubby has many Ryobi tools so these batteries are interchangeable in all of those.

Hubby cut some more white and pink peonies from our garden. I put them in the beautiful lilac glass vase that my son sent me flowers in for Mother’s day.

I will be doing no grocery shopping this week. We are cooking meals from our pantry, freezer and refrigerator.

What have you been doing to save a little money?

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Every Day

Grocery Shopping This Week

We have had so much smoke in the air for at least a week from the fires in Canada. Alerts have been issued for seniors. So I found my cloth mask from Covid and used that to be able to run the errands this week. We have been indoors most of the week.

First shop was at Aldi’s. I was so happy to see the organic ground beef that we love on sale again at the same price as before the inflation hit. Since I had gotten ground beef on sale at Top’s recently I only got 2 of the 3 packs. They cost $ 17.96 for each 3 pack. I also purchased a cantaloupe on sale for $1.99 and an Avocado Oil for $6.79. I needed the oil because I am on my last bottle. Total cost of all was $ 44.70.

Next I went to Top’s on 6% off Senior Discount Day. I purchased a half gallon of Half and Half for $ 6.99. That is the cheapest price in my area. The coffee was $7.49 after Q. The vidalia onions @ $ 1.48 a lb. were $3.32. Onions are hard to find in our area that aren’t rotted especially bagged ones. So when I can buy them separate, I do to make sure they are good and will last a while.

The 2 Prego were on B1G1F so cost $3.69 for both. The peanut butter was $ 2.29 after Q. The Knorr noodles were $ .99 after Q.

We love cheese in this house for snacks. So I purchased 2 Cracker Barrel for $ 3.00 each. Lastly, I got 2 packages of raw shrimp on B1G1F for a total of $ 13.99 for both. After my 6% discount I paid $42.07 OOP.

There were not a lot of good sales but I grabbed the things that were on sale that were really needed to put in my pantry. Hubby loves onions in everything and I was down to my last couple of onions. The sauce and noodles will make a quick meal when we have been really busy that day. That way we avoid take out. I always have meatballs cooked in my fridge so those with sauce and mozzarella cheese heated in the microwave and a quick salad make a fast meal. Another quick meal is adding a half lb. of cooked ground beef from the freezer to the Knorr noodles.

Hubby loves peanut butter so I always make sure to have that. Lastly the shrimp has been so expensive so $7.00 for a bag saves me a couple of dollars each. We have 3 favorite recipes that we use it for.

I forgot to take a picture of my Niagara Produce order before I used the food saver for the meat for the freezer. But here it is anyhow.

I purchased 2 rib eye steaks at $15.99 a lb. totaling $ 39.18 and a 3 pack of Romaine lettuce for $ 1.99. My total OOP was $ 41.17.

We love steaks on the grill. So I have been trying to buy a couple a week lately. They are every expensive but they are about to go way higher up in price soon. My butcher let me in on that. So if I buy them now, it will save me from paying a lot more in the future.

Did you get any good deals this week?

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Every Day

Using Up Leftovers To Clean Out The Fridge

It was a smoky and dreary day outside here yesterday. So I decided to see how I could use up some leftovers to make homemade chicken soup for at least 2 dinner meals.

I knew that I had some leftover chicken from earlier in the week. So I decided to pull out some of my canned chicken to go in the pot with it. I ended up only needing one of my jars. I had forgotten how much chicken there is in a pint.

Then I pulled some leftover spaghetti out of the fridge which I cut up into pieces. I also had a bag of leftover corn and carrots in the freezer from the last time I made chicken soup. I grabbed another can of carrots but I ended up not having to use that either. I cut up some fresh celery and sauteed it before I put it in the pot. All of the other ingredients were cooked so it was just a matter of heating everything up. Lastly, I added about 3/4’s of the chicken broth that was open in the fridge.

This soup tasted so delicious that Hubby could not stop raving about it and he will happily eat more soup tonight. I had forgotten how delicious home canned chicken is. Store bought canned chicken doesn’t even come close to tasting as good. The next time I find a chicken breast sale I will buy some to can to replace what I have been using up.

We each had a nice soup bowl full and here are the leftovers for tonight.

This was so much fun knowing that I was using up what would give us 2 more meals. I just might do it again this week.

Tomorrow I will post my grocery shopping trips from this week.

Do you use up your leftovers? Do you make soup?

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Every Day

A Little of This and A Little of That

Hubby and I planted our geraniums this morning. They look nice on the patio. We went out at 6 am this morning to do it while it was still 68 degrees outside instead of the 90 that they predicted for later. The air quality today was terrible. I did some weeding on the patio since we were out there. Those pesky things like to grow between the pavers.

We ran out of ink for our ink jet printer. We have a black laser printer that we use for most things. However the ink jet which prints in color, Hubby uses once in a while. So the best deals for us that I found were at Amazon and Walmart. I needed a 6 pack of assorted colors. We use the remanufactured ones instead of the name brand. They are much cheaper and work just as well as the name brand that we would purchase.

At Amazon, they were $ 24.99 minus a 15% off coupon plus I would get 9% back from Rakuten which would bring the cost down to $19.34. I do have $6.00 in gift cards to help pay for them. If I use those gift cards, my OOP would be $13.34. I also had to buy a $.99 item, that we use all of the time, to get the free shipping.

At Walmart, the same 6 pack would be $21.39 minus 3% back from Rakuten for a total of $ 20.65. I do have a $25.00 gift card so my OOP would be $.00.

But I ordered them at Amazon since the cost was cheaper. I will save my Walmart gift cards for a delivery order.

Today was a cleaning day so one room got done, dishes were kept cleaned up and I did a load of wash in cold water. Most of it was hung to dry. I like to dry my towels in the dryer. As usual, lights were kept off during daylight hours.

We made hamburgers for dinner tonight. I cut up some fresh mushrooms and sauteed them and topped it all with swiss cheese for mine and Hubby sauteed some vidalia onion for his. I love a good mushroom swissburger! We had strawberries and whipped cream on the dessert cakes.

I hope you all had a great day!

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Every Day

Grocery Shopping This Week

I went to Top’s to get these items and some T Bone steaks that were on sale. The steaks were not very good looking and they were sliced extremely thin. Hubby does not like grilling steaks like that so I didn’t get any.

The chicken breasts were on sale for $2.29 a lb. Since we have a lot of chicken I only picked up one package. The bread was FREE with a Monopoly ticket. We don’t eat a lot of bread but we have been craving French toast. The Diet Coke was $ .69 with a Monopoly ticket. I also had won a $10.00 Top’s gift card in the Monopoly game. So my total bill OOP came to $ 2.08 including a nickel deposit on the Coke.

The only other store I went to was Niagara Produce. Hubby has been wanting some red geraniums to put in our big tomato pots on the patio since we aren’t planting tomatoes this year. I have been searching for decent ones for 2 weeks now. The ones I had found were only 6 inches tall and I wanted the bigger ones. NP had them today. I got 12 plants for $39.99 plus tax. Have any of you found flower and veggie plant prices outrageous this year? When I got our hanging baskets in a prior post, they were $29.99 plus tax each. UGH! I told him today, no more flowers. They take care and watering that I do not want to do. I looked at the veggie plants and they also were outrageously priced.

There I also purchased 2 packages of strawberries for $ 1.99 each, a 3 pack of Romaine lettuce for $1.99, white mushrooms for $ 2.79, a cucumber for $.99, and 2 packages of dessert shells for $1.99 each to use with the strawberries and some whipped cream. My total came to $13.73.

I was very happy with both grocery shops. I am choosing to save as much of our grocery budget as possible these days. We have had some huge expenses since the first of the year and I would like to replenish some of that money by being careful with every penny.

Did you get any good deals at the market this week?

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Every Day

Frugal Things That We Have Been Doing

We did not have to replace the furnace when the new central A/C was installed on Friday. When they installed the new coil in the furnace, the firebox was in perfect condition so it did not need to be replaced. That saved us an additional $ 6,000. They were going to install a new thermostat but Hubby looked at the literature that came with it first. The one we had was a much better one. Many more programmable settings on ours. However since the new one came with the A/C, we have kept it in case ours dies at some point. It also came with a filter that we didn’t use since Hubby had just changed the filter recently. We just added it to our pile of filters.

When I was opening windows this weekend because the weather was so beautiful, I noticed that one of our screen’s clips had broken off. That makes it hard to keep the screen on. It has 4 but now we were down to 3. I asked Hubby if he thought we could get a replacement part. He went to the website of the company who made the screens to see if he could get them. He could and he was able to also get the rod that he needs to install them. So since we have a lot of windows in this house with screens, we purchased 20 of each of those items. Since they are made of plastic, the sun and weather are doing a job on them. So we will be prepared if any more break. The items plus shipping cost us under $17.00. That is a cheap fix.

Hubby was going to grill filet mignon one night for us again. We wanted baked potatoes with them. No one around here has the big baking potatoes. So I had to settle for smaller baking potatoes. Instead of heating up the house with the oven, I cooked them in the air fryer. Same temperature and time as my convection oven. But I baked 4 of them instead of 2. That way I can make a potato salad for a side later in the week.

I cooked fresh mushrooms for the fillets. I sliced them very thin so that they would only take a few minutes to saute on the stove. I didn’t want to use much gas. I do this with most sauteed onions and veggies too.

The potatoes were so dirty so I filled up a bowl with cold water and soaked and then scrubbed them to clean them. I used the cleaning water to water our hanging baskets on our porch. With our sprinkler system up and running now for the season, I will save water any way I can. I reuse shower warm up water and any other water that I can for more than one thing. Since our rates went up in the past year, it is important to save as much as we can on water.

They tested our A/C when they installed it. We have not had to turn it on yet. It was 78 here yesterday and was completely comfortable in whatever room we were in just using the ceiling fans. It will be be 84 today and 86 tomorrow, so we will see how long we can keep it off. We have all the windows closed in the house today and all curtains down on the sunny windows and the house has stayed at a comfortable 72. If the temperature goes up in here and becomes uncomfortable for us, we will turn it on. But I am trying to keep it off as long as we can to save on the electric bill.

Hubby is putting a second coat of the chemicals on the bent grass this afternoon. This should get rid of all of the rest of it and then he can use the Sun Joe to get it up, add top soil, and reseed. The landscape company wanted way too much money to do this for us. We are saving hundreds by doing it ourselves.

We have a lot of appointments this week so I do not know when I will get my grocery shopping done. Fortunately, I only have a few Memorial Day sale items to get to restock us at two different stores.

Hubby cooked chicken piccata the other night for dinner. We had all the ingredients except the capers. I was not about to make a special trip to the market to get them. So he made it without them and we just sprinkled a little salt on each of our plates. It was delicious. What is pictured fed the two of us.

How have you saved money the past couple of days?

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Every Day

My First Memorial Day Grocery Shop

They had a few sales this week at Top’s for Memorial Day. However, I have seen the flyer that starts next Sunday and the sales are better. So I just picked up a few things yesterday that were good sale prices.

The Hellmann’s was $ 4.99. I was getting low on this. The Maxwell House coffee was on B1G1F so they ended up costing $7.49 for 2. The Triscuits were $ 1.59 after sale and coupon.

The 80/20 ground beef was on sale for $ 2.99 a lb. with the Super Coupon. So it ended up costing me $ 18.51 for 6.19 lbs. This will give us 12 meals which should be all we need for the summer. I portioned it out into 12 packages of about 1/2 lb. each. We only use it for hamburgers and taco salad.

The package of Sahlen’s Hot Dogs has 3 lbs. Those cost $ 10.99. We don’t eat a lot of hot dogs so they will last 6 months.

Lastly, the Oscar Mayer bacon was on sale B1G1F so it cost me $10.59 for the two packages.

My total for this week’s grocery shop was $ 54.16. We have been doing a lot of eating out of our freezers the past few weeks.

Did you get any good Memorial Day sales this week? Please share with all of us.

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Every Day

A Little Of This And A Little Of That

I still have not gone grocery shopping. I am hoping to do that today. Our week that wasn’t too busy has turned into a very busy week.

The company who we hired came out on Monday to check out our A/C. We have a leak. We had the man give us an estimate of what it would cost to find the leak. It was $1400. plus about $160. for the freon after they fix the leak. So $1560. + tax to fix it. Since our central A/C is 13 years old, we asked him what it would cost to replace the unit. The repairman gave us an estimate range but he said he would have to have a sales person come out to give us that. He came out about dinner time. That estimate was $6,000. + tax after giving us a cash discount. Plus there is a Federal Tax credit of about $1400. for 2023. Since this unit is almost at the end of it’s life, Hubby and I discussed what to do. The unit we have is a 13 seer. The manufacturers’ no longer make them. They have a few in stock but that was it. That sent up a red flag to us that if we replaced it with a 13 seer that they have in stock, how long would they continue to make the parts to repair them.

Since Hubby is an engineer, he discussed the seers of the units with the guy. Hubby determined that we would go with a 16 seer because it also qualifies for the Federal tax credit for 2023. It will be much more efficient than the one we have especially since the one we have Hubby had noted had slowed down last year. It took a lot longer to get the temperature where we wanted it. The price they quoted us was for the 16 seer. With utility prices up, an efficient unit is important to us. It will save us money in the long run and will be a selling point if we decide to ever sell our home.

It was important to me to ask the guy when they could install it. It is getting hotter here and we do not do well with humidity. They had one opening on Friday. I was relieved because we were thinking it could take weeks. So we have contracted for the new unit.

We are well aware that when they replace the coil in the furnace, they may find that the box is cracked. If that is the case, we will have to replace the furnace. That would be about another $6,000. plus tax. I believe there is a Federal Tax credit for the furnace if it needs to be replaced also. Hubby will be in the basement with the installers when they put the new coil in so he will know if it is cracked or not. We are praying that is isn’t. But if it is, we will do what we have to do.

I am often asked why we continue to be frugal. This is why. Things break and have to be replaced or repaired. If we had not saved our entire lives, we would be left having to finance these things and we hate debt! Debt brings stress and we wanted a carefree, stress free life in retirement. So if you are planning your retirement, account for repairs and replacements for your house and to replace your car when need be. The cheapest way to do that is by paying cash. You can usually get a cash discount if you ask and by not financing, you are saving all of that interest.

I also wanted to let you know that we got our electric and gas bill yesterday. Last year’s bill was $145.93. This year we used 11 less kilowatt hours in electricity and 1 therm more of natural gas due to the furnace being on longer due to how cold it has been here this spring. Hopefully it is now off permanently.

This years bill was $129. 24. A lot less but the bill was for 4 days less than the same 2022 bill. We have also been doing everything we can to keep our usage down.

Now I am off to the grocery store.

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Frugal Things We Have Done The Past Week

While we are waiting for the landscape crew to come and do their monthly stuff, Hubby has been doing the spring cleanup around here a little at a time. We do the April cleanup and save about $600. on that. The landscape crew will come starting in a week or so and weed, trim bushes, plant whatever we need, and mulch all the gardens. They will do this every month until November.

When my son and Hubby installed the bidet, they had to remove the shelving unit that was over and around the toilet because it would not work with the bidet. Hubby found a beautiful cabinet that was on sale with a shelf underneath that has three baskets and installed it up over the toilet. That gives us enough storage room. I had my son put the old shelving unit in the basement. It only had three shelves but it has rungs going all the way to the bottom so I can add some wood to add two more shelves. It will also make the unit more stable. This will give me room to store some cleaning products. I am also going to use an old dresser to store plastic wrap, baggies, aluminum foil, parchment paper, etc. Always use what you already have.

Hubby cut my hair again. He does a much better job than the Super Cuts people and is almost as good as my expensive hairdresser. I have let my white hair grow in and we both like it. So I am done with coloring and highlighting. All of this saves me $140. plus every 4-6 weeks. I think it would have been even more because she was about to raise her rates. This is a huge savings annually for us.

Meals this week were all made at home from scratch. We had taco salads, beef stew, chicken legs, shrimp fra diavolo, and ranch chicken in our instant pot one night. It only took 12 minutes and I have determined that the Instant Pot uses the least amount of energy around here. The meat was so tender too. Last night, Hubby sauteed hotdogs with onions in butter and I made a tossed salad.

Both of our very old Roku devices were giving us trouble. One of them was purchased in AZ 16 years ago. So Hubby found the Roku 4K Streaming Sticks online at a good price and installed them when they came. What a difference they make! We no longer have Amazon Prime. I got rid of that over 3 years ago. But this purchase was over the $25. you have to spend so we got free shipping.

Hubby writes things down on a dry erase board on the side of refrigerator when he empties a food or cleaning item. I noticed yesterday that he wanted me to buy dish washing liquid because he had emptied a Dawn refill. It was so nice to go to the pantry and grab a new bottle instead of shopping for one. I bought a case of them before the prices went up after Covid began. They cost about double now.

Hubby got the hummingbird feeders put up for the season and made homemade sugar water with some red food coloring for them. It only took a day for the birds to come. So we are enjoying watching them every day.

I read my electric and natural gas meter last week so the bill should be coming today or tomorrow. We used just a little more of each than we did last year. However it has been very cold here this spring so we have had the heat on more. I will post about it when I get it. Since our utility company had a rate increase May 1st, I am not expecting it to be cheap.

Today, Hubby will be busy dealing with the pest control people. They come every three months and take care of spraying bees nests and all of the areas where they like to build, spraying around the perimeter of the house to keep bugs out of the house, etc. If we don’t have that done, we end up with spiders in the basement. I HATE spiders. So this is worth every penny we pay.

The A/C guy is also coming for our checkup to make sure the A/C is in good working order for the summer. We have a coupon to get that done for $ 69. I only plan on using it when it is hot and humid outside. But I want to make sure that is is running efficiently when we do use it.

I am hoping to get some groceries today. There are some good buys on meat and condiments for Memorial Day. If I don’t get out today, I will do it tomorrow.

Other than that, we did the usual: washed clothes in cold water and hung them to dry, kept lights off in the daytime, only ran the dishwasher when it is really full, and cooked our food in the cheapest appliance that could get the job done.

What did you do this past week to save money?