Category: Every Day

I tried to get a 60 count box of eggs from Walmart last week. I was getting really low on eggs. We go through a lot of them since we eat them for breakfasts, on salads, and for snacks. When my grandson and son come for a Sunday breakfast, we can go through a dozen easily.

I also tried to get a number of Clear American flavored waters, and some Coke for company. My granddaughter is coming to visit in a couple of weeks. They did not have many of the waters and none of the cola I had wanted.

We have done many delivery orders in the almost 3 years that I have had Walmart +. Never have I had so many items out of stock. I received 7 out of the 21 I ordered. I was shocked especially when they did not have the eggs.

Since I had to go out yesterday, I decided I would actually go into Walmart about 8 AM to see what was going on in my store. I immediately went to check out the eggs. They got a truck last night but they only had 3 of the 60 count eggs. I grabbed one and then went to the waters. There were only 3 of the flavor that my granddaughter loves. I purchased 2.

I wandered around the store and saw a lot of items out of stock especially canned items. The dairy isles were sparse also. They are no longer carrying the Perdue twin pack of chicken that I was getting for $ 1.14 a lb. They had single Perdue chickens but they were very small and $ 1.32 a lb. I passed on those because there was much more bone than meat. The prices were up again on a lot of items that I usually get there.

The reason I tell you this is that if you have not stocked on a few months of food, now is the time to do it. Things in the stores are not looking good.

You all know, I am sure about the war between Israel and Hamas. Oil prices are going up and I believe they will sky rocket. If it goes up to $200.- $ 300. a barrel, gas will cost us a fortune. The middle eastern countries are already raising the price of a barrel of oil. This all reminds me of 1973 when I would take our car and go sit with my infant son in gasoline lines to fill it up. The prices were always going up per gallon and there were shortages everywhere. Hubby carpooled to work. So on the day that the car was home, I would go search out gas. I can’t tell you how many times I would wait in line for over an hour and finally end up a few cars away when they would put up a sign that said they were out of gas. You could pass by a number of gas stations in our town and finally find a station that had some. It was so frustrating. Unless this war ends soon, we are headed in that direction.

Inflation, which is ongoing, is raising the price of food. However if gasoline prices keep going up that will also affect the price of your food. That is why I am telling you that if you do not have extra food in your home get it now. I know prices are high right now but this war could raise them so much higher. Even if you can only get a couple of cans of basic vegetables, fruits, meat, or fish a week, do it and start building a stockpile. Can you imagine going to the store and not being able to get what you need because there are so many shortages? I can. I don’t believe that there will be no food but I do believe that food will become unaffordable for most people.

So if you have not prepared for you and your family, start now. Nothing is more important than food.

As I sit here this morning working on blog posts, I am hearing the furnace running and wondering what those bills will cost this year. We got down to 34 yesterday outside here recently. We are seeing more and more 30’s and 40’s. at night. I am thankful that we changed the air filter to get ready.

Last week on our TV news channel, National Grid said their customers would see about a 20% drop this coming winter in their heating bills for people who heat with natural gas. Wow! That was a surprise! There are two utility companies in our western NY area. National Grid is one and NYSEG is the other.

We have NYSEG. I kept waiting to hear the same information from our company. They finally said that they expected heating costs to go down by 18%.

Yesterday, we got this surprise. The PSC( the NYS agency which regulates our utility companies) approved a rate increase for NYSEG: https://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/ny-news/2023/10/13/nyseg-rge-electric-gas-utility-rate-hikes-approved-what-it-means/71152431007/ .Our governor is saying that the company was asking for double this amount so she is happy with the increase. Huh?

So this rate increase takes effect in November. Interesting timing!

Plus with two wars now escalating, I believe we will see everything go up especially if the U.S. gets involved. This is the first time in all of my years that I believe that war will be coming to our country. I pray not but all the signs are there. With the middle east at war, we will most likely see oil prices escalate which will send the heating bills much higher. So I think we are in for really high bills this winter if you heat with natural gas, oil, or propane. We need to drill and open the pipelines here. But I won’t hold my breath for that to happen!

These are the things that we have done or are doing to keep our heat bill down:

• Lowered our thermostat to 64 at night
• Caulked windows where it needed it
• Replaced weather stripping at the bottom of doors where needed
• Get window kits and a door kit to help keep the cold out
• Stocked on filters for the winter and will change them once a month
• Reversed our ceiling fans to go clockwise for the winter
• Put two warm blankets on every bed in the house so that 64 is comfortable at night
• Keep warm throws or blankets where you sit during the day
• Put cloth snakes at the bottom of outside doors
• Stocked up on warm sweaters to wear in the house
• We will be opening our oven after we roast anything to let the heat seep into the kitchen
• We only open window shades and blinds on the sunny windows. We close them when the sun is off of them.
• No air vents are blocked
• We cleaned the air vents and cold air returns
• We keep our gas tankless hot water heater at 120 degrees
• Only use your oven or range top if absolutely necessary. Use other small appliances when you can
• Insulate the hot water pipes in the basement
• Close all heating vents in the basement
• If you need some new insulation do it. It will save you a lot of money on your heat bill

I hope my list will give you some ideas to get ready. If I have missed something, feel free to add to it in the comments.

I did a very small grocery haul at Top’s while I was out running errands on Tuesday. My main reason for going was that they had a lot of meat on sale at B1G1F. After checking the prices they were charging for the first one, they were not good deals. This store has a history of jacking the price up really high on the first one.

I purchased 4 boxes of tissues for $5.00, 2 bags of mini peppers on B1G1F for $ 4.69 for both, 1 caramel dip for $ 4.69 after a $ 1.00 coupon, 2 whipped cream cheese for $ 2.50 each, 4 mashed potatoes for $ 1.25 each, 2 Ready Rice for $ 2.50 each, 2 Tim Horton’s coffee for $ 5.99 for each, 1 Crystal Light peach iced tea for $ 3.39 and the spaghetti sauce for $ 1.49. My total after the 6% off Senior Discount and tax was $ 39.46.

With winter coming I was low on tissues. I needed the peppers to put in Bang Bang shrimp. My granddaughter may be coming to visit soon so I picked up the caramel dip to use with apples as a snack for her. Hubby uses the cream cheese to make different flavored ones to put on his bagel thins. The mashed potatoes and rice are a stockpile item for when I need a side in a hurry. With prices on coffee so high, I always pick some up when there is a good sale. What really surprised me was that the decaf was on sale too. That rarely happens.

Hubby drinks this iced tea so I always keep it in stock. It keeps him from drinking soda. The spaghetti sauce had a Super Coupon. I doctor jarred sauces when I don’t make my own. Everything I bought was on sale except for the caramel dip and the iced tea.

I have been buying the Bangi Bangi Shrimp sauce at Aldi’s. I found a recipe to make it: https://littlesunnykitchen.com/bang-bang-sauce/ . This recipe has just 5 ingredients and it looks easy and delicious. So from now on it will be homemade.

It’s been another busy week of organizing, going to 2 appointments, caulking to get ready for the winter, and cleaning the garage for the same reason. But we have been enjoying the last couple of days of sunshine although it has been in the high 80’s so we had to turn our A/C back on. But after today, it looks like we have a cold front coming in.

Tomorrow I will post my grocery delivery haul from Walmart.

Did you get any good buys this week?

After my post last week on how I saved money on not having to spend money on a new makeup bag, someone told me that I probably could have purchased one at Dollar Tree for only $ 1.25. The insinuation was that it was just a small amount of money. If she had read all of my blog posts over the years, she would have understood that small amounts of money really add up. That is the point of much of what I write.

We all know that we can save lots more money on the big things. The example in the same post was the $500. we saved by purchasing and installing our induction motor on the furnace. But just how many big things in a year can you save money on? Hopefully, the big things don’t come along a lot in your life.

We prepare for the basic things every day by saving our money so that we don’t have to worry about how to pay our school and property taxes, our insurances when they come due, pay for repairs on a vehicle or buy a new or used one, pay any medical or dental bills or the insurances on them. But those are just the basic things that everyone has to pay for. But other things happen so you have to be prepared for all of it.

We save small amounts of money almost every day of the year so that we are always prepared for the big things to happen. Because they eventually will. There are so many small things that add up especially in your lifetime. I can attest to the fact that if we had not saved on the large and the small things, we would not be as comfortably retired as we are. We would not be able to help other people who need help in our community. So many people in our community need help especially the elderly. I watch for those people whenever I am in a store or pharmacy. I have paid for people’s prescriptions that they can’t afford and most recently a man who was in his 80’s grocery bill. I don’t need thanks for any of that. I am just making a point.

So how do I save on the little things every day? I take the time to think about every little thing every day. I check prices and keep a price book for groceries which is not easy in this period of inflation. I often check online to see who has the cheapest price. If I need something beyond food, I find the best price, put it in my cart and let it sit for a couple of days. Then I go back and order it if it is really needed. So many times I end up just deleting it because it really wasn’t a necessity.

I take immaculate care of our home and possessions so that things last for years. We don’t let little things go, we take care of them. Just yesterday I was caulking windows.

When I do a load of wash, I do it in the best way possible using the proper cycle, a small amount of laundry detergent, the proper water level for the clothes that are in it and most loads are done in cold water. If I use the dryer, I hang the clothes immediately when they are dry so that I don’t have to run the dryer again to get the wrinkles out. I hang many clothes to dry to save on electricity.

I use my dishwasher for everything but pots and pans which I do by hand. I don’t let the water run while I am washing them.. I put a small amount of soapy water in one sink and a small amount of clean water in the other sink. Just enough to wash them. I use white vinegar in my dishwasher dispenser instead of buying Jet Dry.

I take navy showers and save the warm up water to use for something else during the day.

I always cook using the cheapest appliance that I can energy wise. Utilities are so expensive.

When running errands which I will be doing today, I take the route that uses the least amount of gasoline. I calculate the cost online.

We don’t let the water just run while brushing our teeth. We only turn it on to rinse. You don’t even have to wet your brush before you put the toothpaste on.

We rarely waste food. I keep good control of our produce. What I can’t use when it is starting to get old, I freeze for soups or smoothies.

Every time that I get groceries, I make a list. I always check my pantries and refrigerator to see what I need. I stick to that list unless I see a sale that wasn’t advertised that is too good to pass up. I always look for reduced price meats. After I make the list, I go over it before I go to the store to make sure that there is nothing on it that I can make cheaper from scratch. Many times I cross off items before I leave the house. Then at the store, I check the rising prices on each item and if I deem the price too high now, I won’t buy it. Instead I will make a substitute or we will just go without it. The last time I went to Top’s I crossed off half of the items that were on it.

I buy most of our gasoline at the cheapest station which is usually the cash station that is always on my route. I will get gasoline at Top’s when the gas points I have make their gas cheaper than the cash station. That rarely happens. We maintain our car which is almost 11 years old and it has never had to be repaired. We put air in tires to keep them where they should be according to the manufacturer’s manual. We do oil changes on schedule along with other fluids being checked. We wash the car and clean the inside regularly.

Basically everything that I do or touch everyday, I think how can I do this better and/or cheaper.

I could go on and on but I don’t have the time today. Anyone who doesn’t know how to save on the little things, go back and read my blog from the beginning. There are so many tips in each post. I don’t monetize my blog because the whole purpose of it is to teach and help family and friends. So it does not matter to me if you go back and read it. Just a suggestion if you are struggling in this economy.

Now I am off to go to our bank to invest in a very large CD for the third time in 6 months. Without saving money on the little things every day, this would not be possible. Then off to Top’s. So look for a grocery haul from both them and Walmart this week.

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