Category: Every Day

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Every Day

Is It Stress or Procrastination?

It has been so stressful the past 6 weeks. I keep putting off things that need to be done……like writing here. I keep telling myself that I will do it tomorrow but it doesn’t get done. Perfection is not my strong suit! It is so easy to procrastinate.

So what have I been doing? Besides taking care of Hubby, Eloise, the house, and my wound in my back, I don’t have much time for anything else. At least that is what I have been telling myself. I am tired all of the time.

But yesterday, I said to myself enough is enough. Things need to get done around here. I am planning Hubby’s birthday celebration the end of this month and so much needs to get done. Besides cleaning my home which has been neglected the past few weeks, I had ordering to do. Yes, you heard that right. My family and Hubby convinced me to order out as much as I can for his celebration. It’s still work but not as much. I am very thankful that we have saved so that we can let other people help with things when needed.

Yesterday, I went to our favorite bakery, which is owned by one of my neighbors, and ordered Hubby’s birthday cake. It will be exactly what he wanted. Next week when I have time to go to the town south of us, I will order cold cut platters. I am going to see if I can order the rolls I need from their bakery ahead also. I was planning on having hot food catered in by a restaurant but it’s Hubby’s party and this is what he wanted. I have been shopping for the other needs for the party when I see a loss leader sale. I got some soda 12 packs on a B2G2 free sale a week or so ago. Yesterday I got Ruffles potato chips on a B2G2 free sale. We have plenty of pickles, mayonaise, and mustard in our pantry. We have plenty of beer, liquor, and wine along with mixers.

I will be making a potato and macaroni salad most likely the day before. I do not like to buy them out because a lot of them come out of a can. So I will make my own. Really good friends are coming from another state to stay with us for 3 days. Perhaps she can help me make them unless I get them done before they arrive. My neighbor will be making a chaccutterie board to munch on in the afternoon since we will not be having dinner until 5-6. I am grateful for their help.

We also have family member from out of town coming to stay with us. I am so excited because I have not seen this person in 10 months. My son and his family(who live close) will be here too. So we will have a houseful of company from Saturday to Tuesday and we will enjoy every minute of it. Meals will be an issue but we can do some eating out or ordering in or eat leftovers if we have any.

Since the Buffalo Bills will be playing that afternoon at 1pm we will be starting this party early and enjoying the game too. I originally was going to have people arrive at 2pm but then I realized there was a game and most everyone here will want to see it. So the party will be in full swing by 1pm.

Besides cleaning the house, we have another project that Hubby is going to work on. I have 6 chairs at my dining room table. Two of the seat covers are stained. Both done by family but accidents happen. I have been putting off getting them recovered. So I had Hubby take one of the seat covers off the other night. I went to the Fabric Warehouse yesterday. I found the same heavy material in the same weave that we had. But it is just a little tiny bit lighter in color but will match other colors in the room. It will be perfect! I needed 2 and 1/4 yards to do them. Hubby will make a pattern and lay them out on the material before he cuts it. No room for mistakes. I paid about $ 70. for this material. But having them professionally done would have cost us a lot more. He will do a great job because he has done it before in one of our other homes.

Besides all of this I have a special birthday card to order along with paper plates, cups, candles, forks and knives. I told everyone no stuff for his birthday. We have enough stuff that we are slowly getting rid of. If someone really insists on giving a gift, Home Depot, Amazon, or Walmart gift cards are the way to go but they are not a necessity.

Hubby and I are combining our birthday gifts to each other since my birthday is two weeks after his. Sometime between his birthday and mine we will be ordering new furniture for our great room. Our leather chairs have seen better days and are worn through from constantly using them for 25 years. I hate to see them go because they are so comfortable but hopefully we can find something just as good.

I have done very little grocery shopping except for things for the party. We still are eating from our stockpile. I am neatening it up a bit because I will have someone shopping from it soon. We have been trying to eat up as much as we can from the refrigerator too so that I have room for party stuff. We did order a pizza from a restaurant that we had never gotten it from. It turned out to not be that good. We just can’t find good takeout pizza near us. So I will continue to make our pizzas. This morning I will be saute a pound of bacon to use for BLT’s for dinner tonight and to go with eggs for brunches. I will take a pork loin out of the freezer and thaw it in the fridge. That will be our meal in the crockpot for tomorrow since we have a Bills game to watch.

I brought our annual school tax payment to the school and have already gotten our paid receipt. That amount went up because we did not qualify for the enhanced rebate for seniors due to making too much money. I guess that is a good problem to have. We have only qualified for it twice in 16 years.

I have a $10. rebate that came in the mail so that will get deposited when I get to the bank soon. I also earned another $10. gift card for Walmart. I have been using those for my prescription refills.

I will be having my surgery at the hospital soon. When that is done and over with my life should be a little less stressful.

Here is hoping that I will be back to doing my frugal posts soon.

I hope you are all healthy and happy. I miss writing for you.

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Every Day

The Utility Bill, etc.

Monday:

It was that day of the month again yesterday when the electric and natural gas bill hit our inbox. I was surprised that it was only $ 175.04 especially with the A/C on this past month.The bill was for 29 days in which we used 606 KWH and 2 therms of natural gas.This time of the year the gas is only used for range top cooking and to heat our hot water.

Last year’s bill for the same exact period was $ 188.59. We used 665 KWH and 3 therms of natural gas.

Year over year it went down by $ 13.55. I am not complaining since we haven’t had a reduction in our bill in a couple of years. As you all know this is one bill that usually keeps going up. I could tell you that it was something that we did to reduce it but the truth is it was not as hot as last year during this period.

However, it is almost September and heating season is coming faster than I would like. It is time to start thinking about what we can do to lower those heating bills. We had a new furnace put in a month or so before winter ended. It is a little bit more efficient than the original one. So this heating season will give us a better idea of what that will do to lower our usage if anything. We have a couple of leaky windows that we should do something about. And as usual, we need to caulk the windows that need it. We also need to check the weather stripping around our doors and the sweeps at the bottom of them. And I don’t want to forget to make sure we have enough furnace filters to get us through the winter. I believe the cost of those will go up again next month so I am ordering mine now before that happens. We have good insulation in the house and in the attic. So I don’t think that adding to that will do anything.

As usual, I will find the cloth snakes that I use at the bottom of the outside doors and for the bedroom doors that we don’t use in the winter. Most people don’t visit us during this season because our winters here are cold and snowy.

Hubby will get the car ready for winter.

I finally was able to get my hair done at the salon. It needed it badly since I had cancelled my appointment when Hubby was in the hospital.

On the way to my appt. I stopped and did some shopping at Top’s. They had Ronzoni pastas on sale for $1.00 each. I purchased 10 so that I could get the 100 extra gas points. Those will last 12-18 months. That will be the only shopping this week. On the way home, I picked up Hubby’s prescription.

Since one of the pastas was elbow macaroni, I made my grandmother’s bacon macaroni goulash for dinner last night. We hadn’t had it since last winter. I made a double batch which we will eat tonight.

Tuesday:

This morning I paid some bills and did some other paperwork. I am going to cook a couple of batches of white rice in my instant pot and bag them up for the freezer in the portions that we use for a meal. Prepping ahead makes it so much easier at mealtime. I was getting so lazy using the 90 second packets. I will not be buying them again. They are so much more expensive than using the 20 lb. bags of rice.

My project for the Fall and Winter( as my stockpile dwindles) is going to be making many things that I now buy from scratch. Seasoning packets come to mind along with homemade bread, salad dressings, etc.

Most of the meals I make in the next month are going to be based on using up the things in my refrigerator. I need to make space because we will have lots of company the end of September to celebrate a birthday. So the space is needed for foods I will need.

As soon as I throw a load of wash in, I will spend the day working on my pantries.

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Every Day

Grocery Hauls, etc.

I went to Aldi’s and got broccoli florets($1.15), a 4 pack of greek yogurt($2.65), and the small Naan flatbreads($4.99) for a total of $8.75 after rounding. I wanted the large Naan flatbread but they were out of stock. These will do for our pizzas for now.

Next I went to Walmart to pick up Hubby’s prescriptions for $ 0 co-pays. I was down to about 7 eggs so I needed the 60 count to get through the next couple of weeks. They were $ 8.12. They only had one zero sugar creamer that I like which was the pumpkin spice for $ 3.94. I also got 1 heavy whipping cream for $ 4.74 and 1 half and half for $ 2.56. My total was $ 19.36.

Last stop was Top’s where I purchased the Coffeemate creamer for $ 4.69, the bag of Vidalia onions for $ 6.49, and the white cheddar cheese for $1.88 for a grand total of $ 13.06.

So my groceries came to a total of $ 41.17.

However I did spend $60.00 more on groceries at Top’s. I struck up a conversation with a young woman who had her 3 year old little boy shopping with her. I came upon them in the store when I heard the little boy ask his mom if he could have some real cheese sticks. She nicely told him they could not afford those today. The little boy accepted that with no tantrum. I said to her things are so expensive now. I had noticed that most things were up $1.50 since I shopped Top’s 5 weeks ago. She said she has a family of 7. I can’t even imagine how much she spends for groceries for that size of a family. She is a stay at home mom and her husband works. I imagine that daycare for 5 children is too expensive for her to work. She told me they do not get food stamps. She said they were on Obamacare but the premium for the new year is going to be in the thousands so they will go without it and just pay as needed. I noticed besides some healthier cereal and milk she had a few other healthy items. Not much for such a large family but it could have been a fill in the gap shop. So I got in line behind her to pay for her groceries. The little boy asked his mom if she would take him for a ride in the cart. She said to the cashier to ring her items up and she would be back in about 2 minutes. I quickly handed the cashier a $100. bill and told her it was to pay for the young woman’s groceries. I did not want the woman to know I was paying. Too late because she came back quickly and saw me hand the cashier the $100. She told me I did not have to do that. I told her I know but I want to and I can afford it. She was so grateful. I remember when my boys were little and how hard it was to make ends meet while I was a stay at home mom.

It has been such a hard few weeks between my open wound and Hubby’s heart attack. The Lord has been good to us through it all. So it made my heart feel good to help this family out.

I think I told you yesterday that Chewy was going to replace my chunky Delectables for free. The package arrived a few minutes ago and they sent 2 boxes instead of 1. They are such a great company! I am very glad I found them when I got Eloise.

We continue to make most meals with what we have in our pantries.

I appreciate the couple of people who gave me ideas on what to take to the cookout tomorrow. I ended up being very busy today so I made chocolate fudge brownies with a bag of butterscotch chips thrown in. I may or may not frost them in the morning. There will be lots of desserts there so I only made one pan.

I did get my gas and electric bill today. But that is for another post.

Hubby is taping our preseason Buffalo Bills game because we will be at the cookout for most of the game and I don’t want to miss it.

I hope you all have a great weekend.

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Every Day

Saving a Little Bit Here and There

As I have said many times before, there are only so many big things that you can save on. Then you go to the little things that really add up in a year’s time.

When I got Hubby home from the hospital, both of our toilets were running. Not wanting to waste water, I researched where I could get flappers for the back of the tanks. I had 3 options to get them quickly. One was to go to Home Depot using precious gasoline. The second was to see how quickly I could get them from Walmart. I do have Walmart + delivery but I would have to order $35 of product that I didn’t need. But I do get free shipping on most everything that is not a food product. The third was Amazon whose price was the same as Walmart. Walmart and Amazon had them cheaper than Home Depot and I could get same day free shipping. However ordering from Amazon meant they wouldn’t arrive until later that evening. I go to bed early so that would not work. I ordered them from Walmart and had them early afternoon within 3 hours. Hubby ended up installing just one because the second toilet flapper just didn’t seal properly on the other. Hubby fixed that and it has been working ever since. So we now have a spare which is a good thing for when that flapper fails. Plus things will never be cheaper than they are today. As you all know things just keep going up and up in price.

I drove Hubby to his doctor’s appointment yesterday. Changes were made in medications but he has no restrictions. So he will be able to mow the lawn on our rider today. Our neighbor mowed it last Friday but it is already getting very long again. The same neighbor offered to mow it again this week. But Hubby needs to get out in the fresh air and do what he loves to do. We are very grateful for what all of our neighbors do for us!

I needed a quick dinner last night. I was so tired after taking Hubby to the doctor yesterday. Eloise has again been getting me up at 3AM every morning. Not wanting to get fast food, I again cooked from our freezer. Hubby was agreeable to a hamburger with no bun smothered in sauteed onions. He wanted some fruit cocktail with it so that is what we had for a side.

Today, we will have eggs and salmon for brunch. Dinner will be chicken tenders and a tossed salad.

I need to get a few things at the markets plus pick up Hubby’s prescriptions today. I will post tommorow about those trips.

I hope you all have a great day!

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Every Day

Tuesday: A Little of This and a Little of That

Hubby is doing well. I went to the surgeon yesterday and he says my wound has to drain another 6 weeks. So I guess I have to order more large bandages.

So I need to post again to keep my mind off things.

Yesterday, our landscape crew came and did all of the weeding and trimming. Last Friday, my next door neighbor mowed our lawn. Hubby will find out this week what his restrictions are. We have a riding lawn mower so we are hoping he will be able to do that. If not, our snowplow guy mows. So we will contact him and find out if he can do ours for the rest of the season.

I tell you all of this because if we had not saved money over the years we would not be able to hire these people. We prepared for these things. So when you are saving for retirement, make sure you do the same. You don’t know what the future holds.

I am going to make some calls that need to be done today. Then I will spend the day in my pantry. I am writing down every meal on my shelves which will give me a plan to work from. We are still mostly eating from our pantry.

Yesterday on the way home from my doctor, I stopped at B.J,’s. I wanted organic romaine lettuce that can hopefully be trusted. Hubby was craving a chicken caesar salad. So I also picked up 2 rotisserie chickens because they are so cheap and I don’t have to buy chickens and roast them. That would cost me a lot more in price plus a higher utility bill. I stripped all the meat off and put some in the fridge and the rest into the freezer for future meals. As usual, I put all of the skin and bones in the crockpot and made chicken bone broth. It made a 1/2 gallon. I froze that until I need it.

We will have sausage and eggs for brunch today. If Hubby wants we will have another chicken caesar salad for dinner tonight. If not, we will eat some chicken slices with a vegetable.

I purchased a little over $ 75.00 in food at B.J.’s including other produce, meat, some potstickers, etc. Then I was able to use a $10. off coupon that they sent me. After that and some clipped digital coupons, I did well. My membership expires soon and I am not renewing it. Their shelves are 1/2 empty. Besides I have been tracking prices and Walmart beats their prices most of the time. Our new Costco will open soon and I will be buying a membership there. I have missed Costco since we left Arizona.

I have not really shopped Top’s in over 5 weeks now except for one small purchase that I did once. Their sale ads are disappointing so I just throw them away. Besides, I am doing 99% of our shopping in my pantry. If I get time this week, I need to go to Aldi’s for naan bread but that is our only need now. I use it to make our pizzas. Are any of you just shopping from your stockpile?

We have a couple of cookouts to go to that are coming up soon. We are going because Hubby enjoys the people. We will probably not stay long but I do need to bring a dish. Chris gave me some great ideas on what would be easy. Anyone else care to share with me what they would make and bring? I get tired of the same ideas.

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Every Day

Older Age is Getting The Best of Us

Sorry that I have been missing in action again. But my husband had a heart attack last Sunday night about midnight. I have been rather busy since then. He came home from the hospital after a few days but we have not seen his cardiologist yet. So we don’t know what he can do or not do. He is feeling so much better. I am so thankful to all of the people that prayed for his recovery.

I am thankful to my son for getting me to the hospital in the night. I don’t drive at night anymore. We stayed all through the night until 11am the next day. Then we came home for some much needed sleep. But I couldn’t sleep so I went back to the hospital.

I am thankful for my new neighbor who knew how tired I was and without even being asked offered to drive me to the hospital the next day. I accepted because I was so tired. After we visited him for about 4-5 hours, she took me to eat and then home. I had not been eating and I was so hungry. She also cleaned my wound in my back and rebandaged it. She is such a great friend.

Lastly, I am thankful to my next door neighbors who without being asked offered to drive me to the hospital, feed Eloise, look for packages that I had coming, and mow our lawn that really needed it. He did that today and he did a terrific job.

I have my hands full right now. I also have my minor surgery on Monday that hopefully will take care of this wound once and for all.

So I do not know when I will be back blogging until we each see our medical doctors this week. I am hoping by the end of the week.

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Every Day

A Little of This and A Little of That: Weekend Edition

These are the ingredients for our homemade chicken soup that I made yesterday. I made a pan that was equal to about 3 quart jars. We ate 1 quart with crackers on the side last night. We will eat another quart tonight. The 3rd quart is in the freezer for another meal. I did not have any homemade chicken broth left so I pulled a carton of chicken stock from my shelves. I use about a tablespoon of the better than bouillon to flavor the stock because it is not strong enough for us. I used about 1 cup of rice, 1/2 can of corn, and just 1 and 1/2 quarts of my pressure cooked chicken and juice canned in 2023 from my stockpile. I thought I would need another jar but I didn’t. There was more than plenty in what I did use. I diced up the carrots and celery. The other 1/2 of the canned corn I froze in a baggie for the next time I make soup. I was craving chicken soup since I haven’t felt well. I don’t normally make soup in the summer but it only took aboit 30 minutes to cook. Here is our meal from last night:

I had to pick up a prescription for myself at Walmart. It was $10. for 90 pills. I used a $10. giftcard that I got from Fetch to pay for it.

I made out a $10. rebate form for liquor that we bought to stock up for company this month and next. I will mail it tomorrow.

Energy is lacking these days with this infection. It is slowly getting better but I haven’t gotten a lot done this weekend. I did clean our master bedroom and replaced an LED bulb that wasn’t bright enough for me to read in there.

Our gas tank is just about empty. I only have $ .10 off per gallon in Top’s gas points. The price there is $ 4.25 a gallon. My cash station is $ 3.99. It’s a no brainer to fill up at the cash station tomorrow morning.

Tonight I will be making out a very small Top’s list. They do have a super coupon for a large package of BS chicken breasts for $2.18 a lb. with a limit of 1.

Tomorrow, I will go to Top’s and then to Niagara Produce. I need some fresh peaches and Sure Jell to make Hubby’s peach freezer jam for the next year. He is just finishing up the last jar I made last year. Peaches and Sure Jell are very expensive this year but this low sugar jam I make he really likes. So he is definitely worth it.

What have you been doing this weekend to save a bit of money?

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Every Day

A Little of This and a Little of That

I am hoping for good money saving days again this week. It has started off well. I just received confirmation of a $200. cash rebate that will be applied to my next bill from credit card rewards. I also was able to get $ 1.50 cash back on my Walmart household and medical order yesterday. Every little bit helps.

I needed toilet bowl cleaner. I purchased 4 from Amazon and after a subscribe and save coupon and some reward points, I paid $2.20 including tax for all 4. I do not pay much for stuff that goes down the toilet.

Last night we had an easy dinner. I had ham and turkey slices in the freezer. So we had sandwiches. Hubby used some of the meats that I got at the meat market last week along with the ham, provolone cheese and tomato slices on his. We are only buying locally grown produce. I made a turkey, cheese and tomato sandwich. We had a handful of chips and some pickle slices. I had no sesame rolls but did have hamburger buns so that is what we used. We have not done this in a while and it tasted so good. Bonus: no heating up the kitchen.

I will take the time today to food saver some of the pepperoni, salami, and prosciutto and put it in the freezer. We do not want it to be wasted.

Hubby has turned off the A/C. It is cooler here now: low 80’s and high 70’s. So we will see how long we can keep the A/C off. We are also saving on water this summer. We have had so much rain that we have only had to use the sprinkler system about 6 times all summer.

Well the A/C didn’t stay off for long. The day after we turned it off it got hot and very humid again. So on it went.

Hubby has been the best caregiver. He continues to wash my wound with warm water and hydrogen peroxide using a soft gauze pad twice a day. The wound is still oozing infection but it is becoming less and less. I keep praying that it goes away soon. His sister is coming to visit for 5 days in less than 2 weeks. I am really not up to it so unless Hubby cleans the house it won’t get done. I really don’t care. For a change I will put myself first!

I did have a burst of energy yesterday for the first time in a long time. So I did two loads of wash that had been piling up. I hung them in the house to dry and then they got folded and put away before I went to bed last night. As usual I used cold water to wash them. I also picked up two rooms of the house. Today I am going to have Hubby change the sheets on our beds so that I can wash those. They will go in the dryer. Right now, having clean sheets is so comforting to me.

Brunch was eggs and some turkey on the side for me. Hubby ate that last serving of sweet and sour pork. We had a pepperoni pizza in the freezer so we had that for dinner one night. I added more pepperoni to it. They never put enough on. I used up some of the local lettuce that I had to make a salad to go with it. Hubby wanted dessert so I gave him a chocolate chip cookie.

Tonight I am cooking up Bubba Burgers. We will have them on hamburg rolls with cheese, sauteed onions, and a tomato slice. I will also use the air fryer to cook some crispy crowns. Every bit of food I mention here has come from my stockpile.

What have you been doing to save some money this week?

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Every Day

Savings on Groceries

So many people are having a hard time affording groceries in this economy. So I have decided to show how I am cutting costs every day by eating what we have in our home. Even if you don’t have a well stocked pantry, I would bet that you can make some meals with what you all ready have on hand. You paid for these items and if you don’t use them it is wasted money.

How many of us have purchased a food item that we have never used before and then just let it linger in our fridges, freezer, or pantry? You see it everytime you open those doors. But you ignore it. I know I have.

Today, I want you to go get one of those items. Then go to https://www.allrecipes.com/ . Plug that ingredient into the search bar and get a recipe to use it up. You don’t have to choose a complicated recipe. Choose a recipe with just a few ingredients that you already have in your home. Or make up your own recipe from your years of experience cooking.

Stay out of the grocery store or at least make a small list of necessities and only buy those. Sure those chips, soda, snacks and sweets are so tempting but they are empty calories that cost a fortune. I started keeping track a year ago of how much of those items were costing us every week. I was shocked to find that it was 25-30% of our grocery budget. I would rather use that money for real food like meat, veggies, and fruits. Do I never buy those treats now? No, once in a while, I will buy a bag of chips or tortilla chips. But that is about it. I did buy chocolates last week but they will keep a long time. The dark chocolate orange ones have been saved to put in cookies. Hubby is savoring the chocolate covered raisins. Do we buy chocolate all the time? Absoutely not! I have a stash of baking chips so if we need something sweet, I can make homemade cookies, cupcakes, or muffins with them. We also eat a lot of SF pudding or jello. It is cheap and satisfies our sweet tooths. Our favorite snack is popcorn. We have a popcorn popper so we buy kernels and pop them. They are cheaper than microwave popcorn. If you don’t have a popper, you can do it in a fry pan or pot. That is how my grandmother and mother made it.

This is the fourth week in a row that I have not shopped Top’s. The sales have been dismal so the ads get thrown out. I only try to buy when things are on a great sale. It is also one the most expensive stores in my area. So I try not to buy regular priced items there. My Walmart and Aldi’s are way cheaper.

I have had some items shipped to me using my Walmart + but they were not food. Because of my back issue, we are going through a lot of large bandages and hydrogen peroxide. The bandages have to be changed twice a day. I also have to take probiotics with my antibiotics so I ordered Florastor. The antibiotics were not working that they ordered me from the hospital. I saw my doctor yesterday and he ordered me a high dose one three times a day for 10 days. If that doesn’t work, I will need to go in the hospital to get them through an IV. I am praying they work. Sorry I didn’t mean to get off topic.

I did do a meat shop at Pelicano’s Market a week ago today when I went there with my friend. But the majority of the items were on sale. I did my research before I went and made a list from their store ad of the meats that I was low on. I kept mostly to the list. I did buy a 5 lb. bag of white meat chicken patties to try theirs on my friend’s recommendation. We like these for quick meals. We just pop them in the air fryer and then make a sandwich with them. I also used them to make a quick chicken parmigiana one day last week. It was so good.

All of the meals I talk about today came from our stockpile which is how we are and have been eating. A few days ago, I thawed the pork you see pictured above. It was 1.2 lbs. and said it was 5 servings. I bought 2 of them a while ago on a B1G1F sale at Top’s. I paid $ 9.99 for both or about $5.00 each. I purchased the brussel sprouts at Walmart for $ 1.16. They were 4 servings. The fried apples were purchased almost 2 years ago for $.59 at Aldi’s. There are 3 servings.

I roasted the pork, microwaved the brussel sprouts, and heated the apple slices. I am showing my plate but I forgot to take the picture until I had started eating. So add 1 brussel sprout and one apple piece to my plate. These were the proper portions. Yes, we are rationing our portions so that we don’t overeat and to make our stockpile last as long as possible.

Each brunch I have been eating three eggs($ .25 for all 3) and a serving of brussel sprouts. Hubby makes his own breakfast of either than omelet, sauteed corned beef hash, a bowl of cereal, or my homemade peach jam on toast, an English muffin or a bagel.

The day after I made this, I turned the pork into sweet and sour pork. Recipe is here: https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/86402/sweet-and-sour-pork/ . I tweaked the recipe a bit though to use what we had. I used less oil because I only cooked 1 carrot and about 1 pepper. Hubby isn’t crazy about carrots but I love them. We hate green peppers so I thawed an orange one from the freezer. It was pretty orange looking when it was done between the carrot and the pepper but you go with what you have on hand. I diced all of the pork. Since the meat was cooked, I put the soy sauce with cornstarch together but didn’t throw it into the pan until last minute. The meat was so tender so I did not want to overcook it. I threw the sweet and sour sauce in. I thought I had brought up a can of pineapple chunks but it was a can of slices. No problem because I just took three slices and chunked them up. The other slices have been frozen for other meals. I saved the pineapple juice in the fridge in a canning jar. I will use it in quick bread or muffins. Waste not, want not! Hubby was going to make some rice in the rice cooker but I have these microwaveable rices to use up first.

This was so delicious and we had enough for dinner last night and a brunch for one of us this week. So we got 5 servings out of that pork like they said we would. That cost us $ 1.00 per serving. The apples will be used up tonight along with the last serving of brussel sprouts. The sprouts are giving us 4 servings so $ .29 each serving. The apples will give us 3 servings after they get used tonight. Our first dinner for 2 people cost us $2.00 for the pork, $.29 for the brussel sprouts and about $ .20 for the apples. So a total of $ 2.49 or $ 1.25 each. You can’t beat that for a meal with meat.

The second meal cost a bit more but we got 2 servings from it with a serving leftover for one of us for brunch. It will get eaten. We do not waste food.

Our brunches are cheap! Eggs are cheap now people. Take advantage of that. Serve breakfast for dinner once a week. Hard boil some eggs to eat for a snack or to make egg salad.

We will continue to eat from our stockpile. I will only buy necessities when needed at rock bottom price. Don’t run out to the store to get an ingredient at full price. Wait to use that recipe with that ingredient until you see a good sale for it. I will show you what I purchase when I do it. I have no plans to go our to the market this week. I will be placing an order to get more bandages, some shampoo, deodorant for Hubby, etc. today. But that all comes out of our medical and our personal care budget.

Food is just way too expensive to just give our dollars over to these corporations without a plan. Think before you buy. USE UP THAT FOOD IN YOUR HOME!

Sorry this is so long but there is a lot I wanted to pack into it. I hope it has helped someone. I know a few people who can use the advice.

Categories
Every Day

I Apologize: Here is The Post About My Day on Tuesday

I had every intention of writing this on Thursday. However, I ended up in the hospital getting emergency surgery to remove an infection in my back. I have to go back tomorrow to get the drain removed. That can’t come fast enough for me. It is still oozing blood so when I am not laying down, I am in old clothes that I can just throw out when they get messed up. I am sitting here pretty uncomfortable while typing this. Fortunately Eloise seems to know that I don’t feel well. So instead of sitting on my lap, she is sleeping next to my feet.

Anyhow let’s talk about Tuesday. It was the best “girl’s” day out with my new friend and neighbor. I had not had a girl’s day out in over 26 years except with family. She knows other towns in our area that I do not and she took me on quite an excursion.

We started out from here at 9am. After Hubby got my Yeti cooler and grocery bags in her car, I grabbed my umbrella and we were on our way. First she took me to see the house she lived in before moving here. The neighborhood was very nice and reminded me of the one we lived in for 24 years when we raised our boys.

Next we went to Olympia Greek Restaurant in North Tonawanda for a nice breakfast. Their portions were huge so I could eat less than half. I had a steak omelet, home fries, and toast. It was very good! I would go back there again.

After leaving there we went to https://pellicanosmarketplace.com/ . That is why I needed the cooler. I got pastrami, pepperoni, and salami so that Hubby could make himself an Italian salad for dinner that night. I froze about half of the meats because every once in while that is what he wants for dinner. I also picked up a large package of ground beef so that Hubby can make a big pot of chili when it cools off in September. I purchased a couple of beefsteak tomatoes, a few packages of their made on site Italian sausage patties and a 5 lb. bag of breaded white meat chicken patties on my friends recommendation. Her Hubby uses these to make chicken parm. So I tried his recipe for dinner the next night. It was so delicious and so easy. Hubby loved it. I will have to go back there and bring Hubby because he would like a lot the things that they have including the olives. My last purchase was a bag of ice to throw in the cooler along with the food.

Then we went to thehttps://www.facebook.com/people/Tattered-Tulip/100064759474267/ . It was huge and had such beautiful home decor. Not wanting to bring anything into my home that wasn’t a necessity, I just purchased four beautiful dish towels in my color scheme to replace some that were old and frayed.

Next we went to https://www.platterschocolates.com/ . After walking around the home decor store for a long time, my back was killing me and I needed to sit down. So we got ice cream and sat for a while in Platter’s. Then we went and looked at all of the chocolates and of course I brought home 4 boxes of them.

Our last stop before we went home was here: https://arrowheadspringvineyards.com/ . We enjoyed a glass of wine and purchased some bottles of wine to bring home.

The best part of the day was chatting with my new friend. We seem to like the same things and we get along so well. She is so sweet. She had as good a time as I did because she wants to do another “girl’s day” out this month. I am game! I am getting to know her and different areas around me that I have never been to. It is such fun! So a huge thanks to her for taking me!

Was the day frugal? Nope! But it was worth every penny!