Category: Every Day

I am up early today because I have a lot to do. It’s 4:20AM. I started thawing an 18 lb.+ turkey yesterday by soaking it in cold water in the sink. Before I went to bed last night, I put it in the refrigerator. When I got up this morning, I put it back in cold water in the sink so it can finish thawing. Then I will roast it in my convection oven for dinner. We will have mashed cauliflower and green beans with it.

Since we are not stuffing it, it will take less time to roast. The convection setting on my oven will save 25 % of the energy needed if I roasted it in the regular oven.

After dinner, I will take all of the meat off of the carcass for other meals. Some of the meat will be put into food saver bags and frozen for future meals. I will put all of the skin and bones into the crockpot to make turkey broth. That will simmer on low all night. We will eat leftovers on Monday night. Then on Tuesday, I will make a big pot of turkey soup. We will probably eat that for 3-4 nights. I paid $ .58 a lb. for this turkey before Thanksgiving. I am going o keep track of how many meals we get from it. It will be the cheapest protein we can eat.

Besides thawing the turkey yesterday, I ordered a Walmart grocery delivery. It has been cold and snowy here and I didn’t want to go out. We got a couple of bargains: a half gallon of milk- $ 1.72, 6 Great Value Naturally Hickory Smoked Bacon Thick Sliced, 24 oz. packages – $ 5.97 each or $ 3.98 a pound, a case of 12 cans of Great Value Premium Wild Caught Solid White Albacore Tuna in water, 5 oz.- $1.42 a can and a 60 count box of eggs- $ 19.98. The food total for this order was $ 81.56 including a $ 7.00 tip. Before I purchased the eggs, I contacted the store in my area that had a dozen eggs for $ 3.59 to see if they still had them and as I suspected they were all gone. You win some and you lose some. But I am glad I got them because there was a large fire at a huge commercial coup in Connecticut yesterday and I suspect that egg prices may rise because of it.

I refuse to give up bacon and eggs for the time being. They aren’t as cheap as they used to be but we only eat one egg each(about $.33 each) for brunch now and 1 strip of this thick bacon. I cook a bit more than that for Sunday breakfasts with my son and grandson because they eat more than we do plus my teenage grandson has a hollow leg. Even with the bacon it works out to cheap protein. This is the best price on thick bacon that I can find and it is delicious. It is not like Aldi’s bacon which works out to the same price but is so thin and transparent when you cook it. I find Hatfield to be just as bad. I don’t know what they are doing to Smithfield but it does not taste good to us anymore.

The tuna is cheap for Wild Caught and it is delicious. We stay stocked on that because Hubby loves it. I will be freezing some of the eggs.

I forgot to send this last night. So sorry! There will be another post later today.

We got 8 inches of snow yesterday so I did not go out today. Fortunately, our snowplow guy came last night and plowed the driveway. He is very reliable! Hubby and I are very pleased! Hubby snowblowed the sidewalk which is small and I shoveled the porch off. It is easy since I can just whisk it onto the seating area.

We finished up the portion of ham that I thawed for breakfast along with some scrambled eggs. One of the stores in my area has advertised that eggs are coming down in price to $ 3.59 a dozen. Not great but better than they have been. But I bet they will go quickly. I don’t need any right now plus I am not going out in the snow, ice, and cold to get them.

I spent my morning making a few telephone calls. One was a return that Amazon wouldn’t let me do online. So I called them and they told me not to return it. They said they can’t take this type of product back even though it was still sealed. So they said to donate it or throw it away. Since we couldn’t use it, I was happy to get an e-mail just 2 hours later from them stating that they had already processed the refund to my credit card.

I have been getting a bill every other day from a doctor’s office asking me to pay the balance which they say is a copay that I owe of $ 17.78. I don’t owe it and I let my doctor’s billing office know it. They were rude and told me they would have to investigate it. I said you will get back to me right? The rudest customer service rep. said, “No, you have to call us back. I said you guys make an error and I have to call you for the resolution. She said to me “It’s protocol.” Mind you I waited on hold when I called them for 35 minutes just to talk to them and I was not relishing having to do the same again. Two days later I get another bill telling me to pay it asap.

They rebilled an office appointment and EKG from 2019. Yup, over 3 years later! They say they didn’t charge enough for the bill so they re-billed it which they did in December 2022 and received more money from Medicare the beginning of January 2023. However, I had received no statement from Medicare or my secondary insurance on the rebilling. Bottom line is I don’t owe it because I paid the co-pay of the original bill 2 days after I received it in November of 2019 and I have a copy of the check and the next bill after I paid showing the payment. They don’t get to collect a second co-pay on the same claim. So I was curious, if my secondary insurance company had gotten the claim. I called them and they were not happy that the doctor’s office billing rep was so rude. They said they have not gotten any information on it yet from Medicare of the claim or their payment on it. So as soon as they get it, they will investigate the claim and decide whether they will pay it or not. They told me to set aside every bill from the doctor’s office because they agree I do not owe a second co-pay on a rebilled claim. They can’t charge me one and when the claim is resolved, they will let the doctor’s office know that and will send me the paperwork showing I owe nothing. I believe the billing office knows that and I’m being harassed. I am in my mid seventies and they think I will just not notice and pay it before the claim is complete! I am not that stupid. They can send me bills everyday. I will use them for scrap pads. UGH! I get so tired of incompetent billing offices. So moral of this story: Scrutinize your medical bills and know your benefits and how they work. Don’t pay what you don’t owe. I know it is a pain to get them straightened out but I am not paying them one penny that I don’t owe. To do this you need to keep good records also.

This afternoon, Hubby and I watched a favorite video that we both love. It’s called Lumnah Acres. It’s relaxing.

We finally got our last 1099 today so that I can make out our 2022 taxes. I may have to disappear for a couple of days soon to concentrate on doing them. They are very complicated this year.

Hubby found a Keto macaroni recipe that he wants to make to see if we like it. I checked the ingredients and we had them all.

Dinner tonight was lean cheeseburgers in lettuce wraps with sauteed in butter onions and dried mushrooms that I soaked and then sauteed in butter. I get my dried mushrooms at the Amish store. They have the cheapest prices on them. Snack tonight will again be strawberries with Zero sugar whipped topping.

What did you do today to save some money? We got exercise, cooked all our meals from scratch, got a refund, verified what I thought to save money on a billing, relaxed watching a free video on You tube.

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Breakfast was eggs and ham that I froze from our Christmas ham. It was a nice change from bacon.

After taking care of some bills, I ran some errands. I picked up a prescription and a Dr. Scholl’s for Hubby. Then I filled up the SUV with gasoline since we only had 68 miles of gas left. I do not like to keep the tank that low in winter. I paid $ 3.35 per gallon since I had no gas points due to not grocery shopping much this month.

My last stop was at Top’s to pick up some sale items. I purchased celery for $2.00, 2 packages of strawberries on B1G1F or $ 5.99 for both, and a top round roast on sale for $4.99 a lb. costing $ 20.36. My total for all was $ 28.35.

Hubby goes through a lot of celery for snacks. He dips it in dill dip. We both love strawberries with SF whipped topping as a dessert. The roast was a great price for my area. I will roast it for dinner one night and the rest will be sliced on the meat slicer for cold cuts. I can’t buy roast beef cold cuts here for less than $13.99 a lb. I much prefer to save money by roasting my own.

When I got home, Hubby said he felt well enough to cut my hair today. He did a really nice job. I was very pleased! He even cleaned up all the hair that was everywhere on the rug in front of the sink in the kitchen. I will be coloring my hair at home this week. I have not been coloring my hair and it has grown in about 2-3 inches and is white. I don’t like it because it washes me out. I look way too pale. Not going to the salon will save us a fortune every year. Hubby is still going to the barber every 7 weeks. The barber cuts it very short each time. The barber with tip is only $16.00.

I had to do a load of clothes this afternoon because Hubby was running out of clothes. He doesn’t have too many that fit him right now and he doesn’t want to buy much until he is down to his goal weight. So I washed them on the eco cycle in cold water and hung some of them to dry. A few were permanent press so I dried them in the dryer on a medium heat using my wool laundry balls. They only took 25 minutes to dry.

Before I made dinner, Hubby and I watched 2 of the 3 FBI’s that were on last night. We may watch the other one after dinner.

We are having taco salads using ground turkey instead of ground beef for dinner. The ground turkey is much cheaper to buy than the ground beef that I buy and tastes delicious with hot and spicy taco seasoning. We put it on romaine lettuce, chopped fresh tomatoes, sliced red onion, diced black olives, and then top the meat with Mexican shredded cheese and sour cream.

What did you do today to save money?

I wanted something easy for dinner last night. I always keep a big bag of meatballs in my freezer. So I just put them in a microwave dish with some Rao’s spaghetti sauce and nuked them for dinner. We had a salad with it. We will eat the leftovers tonight(waste not want not).

Our son and grandson came for breakfast. My son helped my Hubby with a few things around here. My son also knew that I was in a lot of pain yesterday. But I had 4 prescriptions to pick up at Rite Aid that were needed. I had planned on getting them after they left. But instead he drove Hubby to the drugstore to get them. I was very thankful!

Hubby spent a bit of time yesterday cleaning out his dresser. He has lost so much weight that many things were way to big for him. He also had a pile of white T-shirts that he hasn’t worn in a long time. I will be cutting those up into rags. He found about 10 pairs of summer shorts and many sleep pants in a bottom drawer. He will try them on today. He suspects that they were there because they were too small. I will take a second look at all of it with him today. He will keep anything that is like new and fits now. He also found about 20 ties that he no longer wears. The ties and anything else that he doesn’t want or is too big will get donated this week.

He surprised me this morning when he got up and was wearing one of his sweaters that he hadn’t worn in 30 years. He looked great!

Hubby descaled the Keurig this morning. He does not use the descale liquid that Keurig sells. He runs vinegar through our machine a few times and then runs a couple of things of water though it to get the vinegar smell and taste out. Then he puts in a new filter which we buy enough for a year at https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00X9805GO/ref=ppx_od_dt_b_asin_title_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1 Be sure to clip the $.55 off coupon if you need them.

We got our bill for fertilizing our lawn this season. We were surprised that it only went up by $25. I can’t wait to get the natural gas and electric bill tomorrow. YIKES!

I had no bagged mozzarella to sprinkle on our meatballs tonight. But I had a block of mozzarella which I buy cheaper than the shredded. So Hubby grated it using the attachment for our Kitchen Aid mixer. Doing it this way eliminates the cellulose they put in the bagged shredded cheese.

We had snow today and it is still snowing here. I am hoping it stops so that I can get out to stock on some sale items tomorrow.

Did you save some money this weekend?

Breakfast this morning was bacon and over easy eggs. I baked an entire pound in the oven. I under cook it just a bit so that I can warm it in the microwave each morning and not have it come out like a rock. It will last most of the week.

I have two black barrel type end tables. One in the great room next to the sofa and one in the bedroom next to a recliner. They are great for storage. I keep linens in the one in the bedroom and blanket type throws in the one in the great room. I noticed when I moved the one out of the bedroom that the black paper that is on it was pulling away on the cover and the barrel right where they make contact. So Hubby super glued it and it is now like new.

I did some more organizing in the pantries today.

This afternoon, we watched the Buffalo Bills vs. Miami Dolphins game. We won.

Hubby made Keto breaded haddock using pork panko rinds, almond flour, coconut flour, and an egg wash. We served it with broccoli.

I am taking it easy the rest of the night. I didn’t feel well when I woke up this morning.

Did you do anything to save a bit of money today?