Category: Every Day

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Every Day

My Sale List For The Holidays

UPDATE FROM MY READERS: From Chris: A couple of things that go on sale here that you didn’t mention but I always buy this time of the year are canned tomatoes, canned beans for chili, and sometimes canned fruit.

MY POST: When I was taking inventory of my freezers and pantry, I was making a list of those things that I need to buy at the rock bottom prices during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. So many things go on sale this time of year at their cheapest prices. I have many of these things so I will just be filling in my gaps. I don’t have a lot of freezer room right now.

Let’s start with turkeys. Right now, Aldi’s has the premium Butterball turkeys on sale for $ 1.07 a lb. As of yesterday, they had limited them to 2. I bought an 18.51 lb. one last week. We roasted it on Sunday and had a complete turkey dinner on Sunday and Monday nights. We will eat it again tonight and pack the leftovers up with the food saver to put in the freezer. All of the bones and skin have been frozen to make soup over the winter.

Other stores will be putting their turkeys on sale in the next week or so. I don’t know yet what the prices will be but they will be at their cheapest prices of the year.

B.J.’s Warehouse Club has a deal for a free turkey. Spend $ 150. from 11/1-11/14 and get a digital coupon in your online account to use for the free one from 11/16-11/27. I also heard from my sister that you can get a free turkey at Weis if you spend $200. Neither of these deals will work for me. I do not have a Weis and I doubt I will need to spend that $ 150. on anything at B.J.’s. It will be cheaper for me to just buy the turkeys on sale. I tend to buy the Butterball’s because they are meatier birds and the meat is very tender. I can’t buy any other meat for $ 1.07 a lb. Perhaps, Walmart’s will be cheaper. I do not know at this point.

I will be stocking on stuffing cubes because we make stuffing through out the year with turkey, chicken, and pork. The cream soups will be cheap. I have plenty so will not buy any this year. I also use The Tightwad Gazette’s homemade recipe when I am in a pinch. Broth’s will also go on sale. I make my own chicken and vegetable broths. I do have beef bouillon cubes to flavor broth but I will get a few beef broths if they are at a good price to make beef barley soup this winter.

Aldi usually puts their butter on sale for about $ 2.69 a lb. I stock up even though they usually limit it to six. Any time I am near an Aldi, I stop in for butter. I buy what I need for the entire year which is around 30-36 lbs. It freezes well.

The other things that will be cheap is Stove Top stuffing, fresh potatoes, pickles and olives, fresh cranberries, canned cranberry sauce, frozen pies, canned pumpkin, canned green beans, canned corn, pie fillings, French fried onions, and celery.

Also sugar, flour, baking soda, cocoa, chocolate chips, evaporated and condensed milks will be on sale.

Hams seem to go on sale here before Christmas.

If I have missed anything be sure to leave a comment and I will add it to this post.

We will probably buy one more turkey and throw it in the freezer to use later. I will be buying some of the other things but not all because I have a good supply.

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Every Day

Our Grocery Haul This Week

Earlier in the week, I went to Top’s to get a few deals and to get things that were needed for Hubby to make the corned beef reuben sandwiches.

I purchased a bag of Gala apples on sale at $ 1.28 a lb. for 4.27 lbs. for a total of $5.47 minus a $1.00 Q so they were $ 4.47. The strawberries were on B1G1Free so I paid $ 6.49 for 2 pounds. I know they are out of season but they are so good!

The 10 Hass avocados were $ 1.00 each for a total of $ 10.00. They were just perfect so I diced them and then froze them. I also got an extra $.10 off a gallon of gas with this purchase. The half and half was $5.99. It was a need because we were on our last half gallon. The reuben rye bread was also a need and cost $5.96.

The Diet Coke was a surprise for Hubby. He hasn’t had real Coke in a very long time. It was on sale as a deal for $ 10.99. Plus you got 2 bottles of Bodyarmor for free. We had never gotten the Bodyarmor before. We were not impressed with it and will not get it again even if it is free.

The sauerkraut was a need and cost $ 1.79. Tillamook sliced swiss cheese(not pictured) was a need and cost $ 4.99. The spaghetti sauce was on sale with a Super Q for $ 1.49.

I spent a total of $ 52.17 plus $ 1.20 in bottle deposits which I will get back when I return them to Fast Cash.

I will really be watching the cost of food over the next few months and all of next year. Most purchases over the holidays will be on sale items to use all of next year. More on that soon.

Did you get any good grocery deals this week?

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Every Day

A Day In The Life On Tuesday

I got up at 3AM with Eloise, who Chris would say, was having a party in my room at that time. She calms right down after I get up with her.

Then I had a couple of cups of homemade coffee so that I could wake up.

Since the house was nice and quiet, I thought I would take some time to do paperwork. I paid our Texas property tax bill that came in the mail last week. My son had sent me the receipt for the yearly bill for the domain for this blog. He had paid it so I transferred the money to him to pay him back. I also entered some deposits into our checkbook so that it is up to date.

Then I cleaned Eloise’s litter box and refilled her food and water.

After playing with her for about an hour, I cleaned the laundry room. Then I bagged up some bottles for Hubby to take to Fast Cash to get the deposits back when he goes to get his monthly haircut tomorrow. It is on his route.

Next I did some computer work checking e-mails and messages etc. While I was online, I ordered some new cordless house phones(3) and an answering machine manufactured by AT&T. They will arrive on Wednesday because I have the Amazon Prime free trial. We have had Panasonic’s for years. However they have started giving us major problems.

When the sun came up, I opened the shades on the sunny windows and followed the sun around the house putting them up and down as the sun hit windows or left windows. We were 70 degrees late afternoon today so the heat did not run. I only used one light in our kitchen and laundry room before the sun came up. All lights were off during the daylight.

Finally Hubby got up for the day. After he took his shower, I took mine. I took a navy shower and shampooed my hair which only uses about 3-4 minutes of hot water. My hair is short enough to let it dry on it’s own. I use bar soap( trying to use up the massive amount I have) in the shower and cheap shampoo. I actually like VO5. It is very thick and when it gets 1/2 empty, I add water. That works just fine. After brushing, flossing, and mouthwash, I got dressed and put on minimal makeup.

Before I went out to run some errands, I quickly cooked some Steak-umms and 2 eggs in the same pan for breakfast and ate them off of a paper plate. This gives me less dishes to wash. We have a ton of paper plates that I purchased, before Covid, when they were on sale and cheap. Hubby made his own corned beef hash from the leftover corned beef while I was out.

Before I left to run errands, I discussed dinner with Hubby. I had already had a busy day and we had a busy day ahead of us. So we decided I would pick up Popeye’s fried chicken for dinner. We don’t do fast food very often but I only have so much energy at my age. So it is justified to splurge when I am tired.

I left to run errands in a circle to save on gasoline. My first stop was to get our propane tank for our grill filled at Tractor Supply. I told the man who helped me that Hubby thought the tank was empty. The man weighed it and said it only took 4.7 pounds. I was surprised and said to him are you sure? He said yes. I told Hubby when I got home and he said the tank weighs so much more than when he put it in the car for me. He said our measuring device said it was empty. He said there has to be something wrong with their scale. So it looks like I got a deal! At the price of propane at $ 3.19 a pound, I am happy to save that money. We have a full 20 pound tank now to use over the fall and winter and it only cost us $ 15.60 with tax.

Next I went to Top’s to fill up our gas tank. Their price on gasoline was the best using my points that I earned. Their regular price was $3.19 a gallon. After getting $ .70 off per gallon using my points, I paid $ 2.49 a gallon and got 11.21 gallons for a savings of $ 7.85. The Cash Station was $ 3.01 a gallon. Using my gasoline benefit from Walmart+ of $.10 off per gallon, it would have cost me $ 3.16 a gallon. I always check these each and every time I need gasoline. It only takes a minute to check the savings on Gas Buddy!

Last stop was the chicken from Popeye’s.

When I got home, we watched NCIS and NCIS Origins that Hubby had saved from the night before. We love NCIS. We are not too sure of Origins because we have watched only 2 shows so far. Then I watched a You Tube channel.

At 5PM, which is our usual dinner time, we had an appointment with a company to give us an estimate to make and install a railing for our stairs that lead out of the breakfast room onto the patio in the backyard. The owner was here right on time. He measured and gave us a choice of an iron one or an aluminum one. The aluminum one will be matched to our trim color on the house and will be much sturdier than iron. We chose the aluminum even though the cost is $1600. because sturdier at our age is a safety feature. Hubby is having this done for me. He doesn’t need it right now but I do. The stairs are made of large patio pavers and there are 4 of them and they terrify me. Falling is something I do not want to do at my age. Hubby has been helping me down them each time. Matter of fact, when Chris and her Hubby was here they helped me too. I was grateful. It is the only thing that I am unsteady about. It will take about 6- 10 weeks to get them made and then they will install them. I am grateful every day that we saved our money for retirement so that we have the money to spend to buy things like this to keep us safe in our own home. When you are planning for retirement, keep in mind that you may need many things for your security as you age.

When the man left at 5:45pm, I threw the fried chicken in the air fryer to quickly heat it up. We were starved and I was grateful that I had purchased it. While it was cooking, I fed Eloise her portion of Fancy Feast that she gets every night. The rest of the day, she has kitten chow in her dish which she nibbles at when she gets hungry.

After dinner I ran a very full dishwasher on a quick wash cycle and then opened the dishwasher to dry them overnight.

Before I went to bed at 8PM( so that I can get up with Eloise at 3AM), I took my pills and supplements and again cleaned Eloise’s litter box.

I had thawed a pork tenderloin to cook for dinner last night originally. But when we got the chicken, we saved it to eat tonight. I think I will have Hubby grill it outside along with some veggie packets. The next day I will use up the leftovers to make stir fry.

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Every Day

Saving Money The Past Few Days

I have been deleting and unsubscribing to e-mails that are trying to sell me something. If I don’t know about a deal, I am less tempted to buy it.

We installed cameras around the outside of our home. Hubby thought he needed something extra to install the doorbell camera. We didn’t so I returned it to get a refund of $ 8.63. It was a refund from Amazon so I didn’t even have to take the item anywhere to return it. No gasoline used. Every little bit helps.

Hubby has been enjoying watching Thursday night football on Amazon Prime. This Thursday night will be his fourth and last game on there. This free trial has been very useful not only for football but for the Amazon Prime days earlier in the month.

We have been eating homemade meals at home. We have had filet mignon and tossed salad, grilled ham and cheese sandwiches, chicken breasts, and corned beef reubens. I found another on sale corned beef that I purchased after last St. Patrick’s Day so I cooked it in the crockpot on Sunday. After we watched the Buffalo Bills game, Hubby made the reubens. We ate them again last night. They were delicious. Hubby will use the rest of the meat to make corned beef hash for breakfast this morning.

Brunches have been bacon or SteakUms and eggs, cranberry orange muffins, French toast and sausage.

I prepped two pounds of strawberries into mason jars that I put in the fridge. I diced up 10 Hass avocados that I got for $1.00 each and got 100 free gasoline points too for buying them. I froze them in portions.

I stocked on canned Fancy Feast Tuscany Chicken for kittens for Eloise. I took advantage of a $20. off coupon and got free shipping at Chewy.

I did two loads of laundry using cold water. I did a load of clothes and a load of new sheet sets for our beds. I bought 2 sets of sheets at Amazon on the Prime Days for a total of $ 20.17 after a great sale and using Amazon points. We now have enough sheets for our beds so that we don’t have to launder them but once a month since we have weekly sets. I hung the clothes to dry and dried the sheets on low in the dryer using the dryer balls.

I am back on the treadmill walking to see if it helps my back.

I scanned my recent receipts into Fetch to use for Walmart gift cards.

We have closed off some rooms in our home to see if it lowers our heating bill. I am not sure it will. We’ll see. This also keeps Eloise from getting into those rooms.

Speaking of electric, we got our monthly natural gas and electric bill 2 days ago. We used 400 KWH of electricity and 15.5 therms of natural gas for 27 days. We have only had the heat on for about a week of that period. The bill was $ 128.78. I figured it would be lower than last year because we have had a warm fall and this had been the latest that I ever turned on the heat.

So I compared it to the same bill period in 2023. We used 393 KWH of electric which was only 7 KWH less than this years. We used 23 therms of natural gas which was 5 and 1/2 therms more than our current bill. The 2023 bill was $ 114.27.

So this years bill was $ 14.51 more for less usage. The bill would have been much higher if we hadn’t saved therms. Moral of the story is you can conserve all you want but the bill just keeps rising month after month. According to our news, we can look forward to more increases over the next 5 months of winter.

Our news last night spoke with one of the utility companies out here yesterday. They gave a forecast for heating months of an 11% increase each and every month for the next 5 months which equates to a natural gas average increase of $ 560 over those 5 months. The average increase for electric they said will be 1%. Time will tell.

We can’t wait to get our smart meter installed so that we can monitor this much easier. However, we are the last area in NY for that to be completed. We won’t get ours until somewhere between July 2025 and December 2025.

But I refuse to be defeated and will do what I have to to lower it this coming month. But it is an uphill battle! Today I will be buying some more snakes to put in front of outside doors to keep any drafts out.

Hubby has been doing the fall cleanup in our yard, trimming bushes, weeding, and mowing the lawn really short. If we had hired the landscapers, it would have cost us about $2500.- $3000. But they are hired for the spring cleanup which is always a huge job.

That’s about it for now. I have two more blog posts ready for this week. So see you tomorrow.

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Every Day

A Little of This and A Little of That

Here’s Eloise. She is growing bigger. She was 5 months old yesterday. It only took me 5 takes to get a picture of her standing still.

The end of the week was busy. My birthday was Friday so on Thursday night we went out to dinner at Wagner’s to celebrate both of our birthdays. Wagner’s is a family owned restaurant with good food. We decided to go on Thursday instead of Friday because Friday nights are busy because they have a fish fry special. It was an enjoyable evening.

On my actual birthday, Hubby knows that I take the day off. We had plenty of leftovers to choose from for dinner. However, you know what happens with the best laid plans. I went to my freezer about noontime to bring up a half gallon of ice cream to go with my birthday pie. The ice cream was like mush even though I had put it in there a day ago. I put it in the freezer on my fridge to try to refreeze it.

But then that left me with the question of whether my freezer was working or not. So I ended up spending 2 hours to empty my freezer into coolers, defrost it, take all the ice and water out, and dry it really well. Everything else in the freezer besides the ice cream was rock solid. Then I took inventory as I reloaded it. It needed to be defrosted anyhow. This is a small glimpse of what is in there. I finally got some Margaritaville Coconut Shrimp on Saturday when I went to get West’s vanilla ice cream. I didn’t have my raincheck but it was still on sale. So I can get those 10 when my freezer is emptier. Except for the chicken patties, that shrimp, the cheddar cheese and yeast, everything else is fish, beef, pork, sausage, turkey, chicken and other meats.

On Amazon Prime Day(I am on a free trial), Hubby ordered 3 cameras that were on sale for outside the house. My son installed them for us yesterday since I did not want Hubby on a ladder. This gives us an other layer of security. Hubby has since ordered a ring doorbell which came today. It was not on sale on Prime Day. So Hubby took some time to research and make sure that the way he wanted to install it, he could. It is already installed.

My son and West were here for breakfast. I made bacon and eggs for my son and us. I served West mashed potatoes and vanilla ice cream for breakfast which is what he wanted. He does not like eggs. He just got his invisaligns and his mouth is sore so soft foods only.

They brought me a beautiful vase and flowers for my birthday and after dinner, my son went online to the Buffalo Bills Store to get me some official gear. A sweatshirt and a winter hat are on the way. I really only wanted the hat because I fell in love with it. But my son talked me into the sweatshirt which I will wear on game days.

While I was making breakfast, I prepped the hamburger that I needed to put in a casserole that I was making for dinner.

I made a large hash brown casserole for dinner. Hubby and I each had one piece and will have another one tonight. The rest were frozen in portions to eat for brunches the next month or so.

On Saturday, these coupons came in the mail. It always pays to ask.

Today I purchased 6 lbs. of bacon for $ 2.99. This is the best price I have seen since 2020. If I had had more room, I would have gotten more since this is on my diet that I discussed with my doctor last week.

They also had Top’s ice cream for $ 2.99 which is a great price. However, we still have vanilla ice cream. Plus I want to give up ice cream except for holidays this winter.

Tonight is Buffalo Bills football and I want to give a quick call to my sister.

I hope you all had a great 5 days. Did you get any good deals this week?

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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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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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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.