Category: Every Day

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Every Day

Starting My Day With a Bonus Post

As I sit here enjoying my first coffee of the day, I am going through my e-mails. I have a number of ones that are going to save me money. Really?

Arby’s wants to give me $5.00 off a $20.00 purchase if I use it by tomorrow. 

I have a number of e-mails about % off from Kohl’s.

Twenty % off everything at Vera Bradley through tomorrow. 


Up to 80% off at Ann Taylor.

Forty % off one item at CVS.

QVC has reminded me that I have a $10. credit on my account. I might use that eventually if I need something from them because it does not expire. However, I am finding that most of the time what you see that you need from them, you can find cheaper elsewhere. So if I use it, I will have to determine if it is cheaper elsewhere or with the $10. off at QVC.  

Applebee’s will give me $10. off a $30. order if I use it by the 16th. I am pondering using that next week if Hubby wants Applebee’s. Hubby is picky and may not want something from them on our take out night. There is also a possibility if we do get take out from them, that we might split an appetizer or something that costs less than $20.

The list goes on and on. This is a daily occurrence. So many e-mails that try to pick our pockets.


They have one big thing in common! If you don’t really need something, you are spending money needlessly. 


Sure I could save $5.00 at Arby’s but I have to spend $15.00 of our money to do it. If I haven’t planned to go to Arby’s, why would I throw $15. away. 


If I truly need something from Kohls, Vera Bradley, Ann Taylor, and CVS, then I could save some money. But I don’t, so they all got deleted. Sure I could buy something from them to save those percentages because I want to. But then you are not saving money, you are needlessly spending money. 

Every time you get an e-mail like this, you should ask yourself, can I use it for a need that we have? Will it really save me money or can I get it cheaper somewhere else? Am I using it because I want to? If that is the case, if you have the cash and can afford it, go for it. If you have to charge it and can’t pay the bill in full, then you should not be buying your wants.


Just a little coffee time chat to remind myself and all of you that we don’t have to part with our money just because there is a deal out there. That most of the time you are needlessly spending money instead of saving money.


I will be back with a post after dinner tonight for the Low Spend Grocery Challenge.

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Every Day

August 7: Low Spend Grocery Month Challenge

I woke up at 4:30am and could not get back to sleep so I got up. I guess my body was telling me that 7 and 1/2 hours was enough sleep. I love early mornings because I get a lot done including my exercise.

Before enjoying my bullet proof coffee, I took the ground turkey out of the freezer to thaw.

Breakfast was another Keto wrap with bacon and eggs for me. Hubby had a turkey and bacon sandwich.

I took a return back to the store today and ran one other errand for Hubby while I was out.

Hubby is spending a lot of time outdoors today cutting the heads off dead flowers. The landscape service does this but Hubby was looking for something to do outdoors because it is the perfect day.

Here is our next week’s menu plan:

Sat. Air fried chicken drumsticks with Frank’s sauce

Sun.To Be Determined ?

Mon. Hot Italian sausage sandwiches & a veggie

Tues. Take out? Possibly Applebee’s?

Wed. Fish sticks or Salmon with  side salad

Thurs. Grilled filet mignon, FF’s, & a veggie

Fri. Leftovers  

This is how I like my summer menu’s – simple and easy. Notice how the fish sticks keep showing up. I really want Hubby to eat them and give me some space in the freezer.


We love our air fryer and we especially like doing drumsticks or wings in it. I usually make a sauce of Frank’s red hot sauce and butter. I just heat it on the stove and meld the flavors all together. But I think on Saturday, we will try one of the new Frank’s sauces that I purchased this week.

Hubby will likely eat his sausage in a bun. I will probably smother mine with peppers and onions and eat it bunless.  


We have not done takeout in a long time. A night off from cooking sounds good to me. I will just pick it up curbside.


I love it when Hubby grills filet mignon. He grills it just exactly as I like it (medium) and it is always superb.


I have left room for two leftover nights this week. If there are no leftovers, I will decide what we will have and let you know on that day’s post.

Dinner tonight was different than on the menu. Hubby wanted a taco wrap. So I cooked ground turkey with taco seasoning and a little bit of chili powder. Then we had our choice of lettuce, onions, a cut up tomato from my son’s garden, black olives,  shredded cheddar cheese, taco meat, and sour cream. I had a little of everything. This was delicious especially in my Keto wrap which is pictured here before I wrapped it.


Being Friday night, Hubby will be hunting for sports on TV, probably golf. I am going to read. 


I hope you all have a good evening. 

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Every Day

August 6: Low Spend Grocery Month Challenge

It is another beautiful day here, sunny and 71. Hubby was out watering all of the flowers in baskets and pots.

While he was doing that, I cooked up a package of uncured bacon that I found in one of my freezers in the refrigerator. I don’t usually buy uncured. I think I had purchased it sometime before the virus came. At that time my sister and family were coming in April. My BIL can’t have regular bacon. That trip was cancelled because of the virus. Until we have a vaccine, we will not reschedule their visit so that we can keep all of us safe.

After the bacon was cooked and drained, it was calling to me. So I made a bacon and scrambled egg wrap using a Keto wrap. It tasted so good that I may do that again this week for brunch. My original plan was to have a broccoli omelet but I finished the broccoli yesterday. 

Now I am off to the treadmill to get in my daily exercise. I don’t really feel like doing it today but I must.

Neither Hubby nor I were very hungry at dinnertime. It got up to 77 here today and it just felt hot. I think that is why we weren’t really hungry. So Hubby decided he was going to eat a little bit of spaghetti and meatballs that were leftover. I cooked a piece of salmon that fell apart while I was cooking it. That is all I ate. Menu plans don’t always get eaten as originally planned in this house. To keep food waste at just about none, we move things around. 

It was a good productive day though. I cleaned our master bedroom from top to bottom. I even tidied up and cleaned out all of the drawers in our dressers and nightstands.

I hope you all had a good day!    

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Every Day

August 5: Low Spend Grocery Month Challenge

It is a gorgeous day, sunny, and the air is crisp. It is 61 as I start to write this at 8am. The high will be 75! I love days like this. I will get a lot done.

I did the weekly shopping yesterday. Besides going to Target for the almost free chicken, I went to Aldi’s and Top’s. 

This is what I purchased at Aldi’s. Romaine lettuce because we are finishing our last head of iceberg. I use heaving whipping cream in my coffee and I used my last bit yesterday morning. Hubby was almost out of provolone cheese for his sandwiches. It was on sale for $ 1.49 each which is a fantastic price.


Do you remember the great deal I got a while ago on
salmon? Well, I always look for salmon that is expiring now. However, I have never found it again and we had none left. So this week’s ad showed salmon portions on sale for $ 6.99 a lb. I decided I needed salmon. I found the portion ones and then quickly looked at the whole ones. I bought a whole one because they were $ 6.75 a lb. You can bet that the night that I have fish sticks on my menu Hubby will be eating those and I will eat some salmon. That is how much I hate fish sticks. I am lucky that he does not like salmon.

So I spent a total of $ 24.09 at Aldi’s on needed products. 

This is what I purchased at Top’s. I decided to do the bacon deal since we needed it badly. It was on sale for B2G3F. They charged me $ 9.99 each for the ones I had to buy so a total of $ 19.98 for 5 lbs. or about $4.00 a lb. The Hellman’s mayo was a Top’s coupon item so I got that for $ 2.99. The new Frank’s Red Hot Thick sauce items were a request from Hubby. He saw a commercial on TV and could not wait to try them. Since he loves wings in the air fryer so much in football season, I stocked up. They were on sale for $3.00 each. So before my senior discount, my total came to $ 31.97. My  senior discount was 6% or $ 1.92 so my total OOP was $30.05. I can’t find my receipt so it’s a good thing I remember prices. I don’t know whether the cashier didn’t give me one or I dropped it when I thought I was shoving it into my purse.

So the total for this week’s shopping OOP came to $ 54.79 including the Target total of $ .65. I have $ 195.21 left for the rest of the month.

I did not eat any breakfast or brunch today. I am just not hungry. Hubby had a ham sandwich.

I just finished packaging up the salmon and chicken with my food saver. I put one piece of salmon in the fridge for dinner tomorrow night. The rest of the fish and all of the chicken went into my freezers. I added them to my inventory list.


Tonight will be our leftovers for dinner night. I pulled everything out to see what we have. Hubby has opted to have the linguine with sauce and meatballs. I will have the chicken and some broccoli. Any leftover broccoli with be put in my eggs in the morning. The roasted potatoes with be warmed through in the air fryer and eaten with eggs for breakfast tomorrow. We always use up our leftovers. I don’t like throwing money in the garbage.

We are going to spend some time sitting outside today. Hubby is going to run an errand and I am going to pick up the garage. It’s not bad but just needs a little organizing.

I hope you all are having a terrific day!

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Every Day

August 4: Low Spend Grocery Month Challenge

We had a very busy day of appointments and grocery shopping. We were up and out very early this morning to make the trip to the next town to see our doctors. We spent a bit of the morning there. I am happy to report that since my hernia surgery a year and 8 months ago, I have managed with my diet to stay off of 4 prescription pills that I had been taking daily for years. The doctor was so happy with my blood work. I had been released to my primary from my specialist 8 months ago. They said keep up the good work. We don’t want to see you again for a year. You can bet I am not going back on any of those pills. It is amazing what you can accomplish when you don’t eat sugar or carbs 99.9% of the time. It is also amazing how good I feel for an “old lady”.

Before I went out, I cooked up some eggs with cheese for breakfast.

 

Since we were in the town that Target is in, Hubby said he would take me there to use the $10. gift certificate so that I don’t have to keep track of it anymore. I went in planning on buying some meat with it. They had beautiful looking boneless chicken breasts for $ 1.99 a lb. So I purchased this large package. 

As you can see, after the gift certificate, I paid $ .65 out of pocket. So that left me $ 249.35 in my grocery budget for this month.

Tomorrow, I will food saver this and a large piece of salmon that I also purchased today. Then I will try to fit it all in the freezers. I will include my other grocery shopping trip in my post tommorow. I am just too worn out today. 

Tonight, I cooked linguine with spaghetti sauce and meatballs for Hubby. I put mine on riced garlic and herb cauliflower. Mine is pictured.  

Neither one of us wanted garlic bread so I didn’t make it.

I hope you have a wonderful evening. I am off to go sit outside with Hubby. It is the coolest weather we have had in over a month. We have our windows open airing out the house. It feels so good!  

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Every Day

Frugal Things The Past Week Or So

These are the things we have done frugally the past week or so:

– Washed laundry in cold water using sanitizer and hung clothes to dry

– Picked up library books curbside

– Made pancakes for all of us when my grandson and son came on Sunday from the Keto mix that has been sitting on a pantry shelf

– My son bought a large lot of furniture and a 75 inch big screen TV from a local business for a really good price. The TV was in a conference room so didn’t have much wear. The furniture included a number of desk chairs. He gave us a new office chair(new to us)which we needed badly.

– My son also brought us homemade dill pickles, 2 cucumbers, 2 tomatoes, and an eggplant.

– I deposited two checks into one of our savings accounts

– Found a new lab that is covered under our plan. It is close to home(less than 2 miles) so it saves me driving an extra 12 miles each way to the lab we were going to

– I got really tired of onions going bad before we could use them up. I remembered how I used to keep them from going bad when I was newly married. I have reverted back to that method. This is how I used the cheap nylons I got in my subscribe and save order. Back in 1960’s, I wore nylons to work every day. So I would just use an old pair with runs to put my onions in. I would cut the one at the bottom off to get an onion. Today, I don’t wear nylons. So rather than keep buying nylons, I just untie the knot(that is on the hook they hang on) at the top and take an onion out when I need it. I can easily add onions too. I have them hanging on a hook in a kitchen pantry. I never had an onion go bad using this method. 

– The end of July I received two orders of chunky soups from Target. The first order, which came on a Saturday, was for 14 cans and was a box that was too big for it with no bubble wrap or packing material in the box. When I opened it, the cans were all jumbled up inside. There were two cans that had dents but they were very small and the cans were usable, so I didn’t complain. The next day my order of 10 cans arrived. The box was 1/2 open and one can was missing and 4 cans were badly dented(not usable) . Again it was packed with no wrapping material in a box that was too big to hold the cans. At this point I was not a happy camper with Target. So I called their customer service and got a rep who was very well trained. He apologized and arranged to have 5 more cans shipped to me. He also was letting the warehouse know about the lack of packing and the condition my orders arrived in. I also told him about the condition of the 2 cans from the day before but that I could use those. Not only did he have the 5 cans shipped to me but he sent me a $10. gift card that I can use at the store or add to my account for my next order. I was a satisfied customer when I hung up. My 5 cans have shipped and should arrive tomorrow. So we will see how they are packed. I am planning to use that $10. gift certificate in the store on either marked down meat or on sale items that I can use. 


– Hubby replaced the flapper on the guest bathroom toilet. That was a cheap repair.


– All meals have been made at home.


What have you done frugally in the past week or so?


I will be back with a low spend post later today.

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Every Day

August 3: Low Spend Grocery Month Challenge

I stayed home again today. So no money was spent.

We didn’t eat today until after 12 noon so we had salads for lunch. I had just a simple salad of lettuce, cucumber, bacon, avocado, black olives and a couple of small pieces of monterey jack cheese. Hubby added chicken leftover from last night’s dinner to his. 

So for dinner tonight we had our planned Chef’s salad even though we had salad for lunch. It was lettuce, veggies, onions, cheese and ham. Here is a picture of Hubby’s before he put his salad dressing on it. He also eats some green olives on the side. They were delicious. We love salads so much that we could eat them all week long. 


It’s been a very busy day for us so I am going to bed early.

See you tomorrow.

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Every Day

August 2: Low Spend Grocery Month Challenge

My son and grandson came to visit today. We were happy to see them. Family is about the only company we can have these days. West is getting so tall.

I made Keto chocolate chip pancakes for West and blueberry ones for the rest of us. I served them with their choice of SF syrup or pure maple syrup. I also cooked up some sausage patties. I had a half a bottle of apple juice to use up so that was our drink. We were having so much fun chatting that I forgot to take a picture of our cooked breakfast.

My son brought us two huge cucumbers, an eggplant and 2 tomatoes from his garden. The tomatoes are not quite ripe(everything is late this year because we had winter until the end of May) but I will put them on my windowsill and they will ripen.


He also made us some homemade dill pickles. He knows how much we love them.

After they went home, I scanned the grocery ads this week for the cheap deals. I am still debating on the bacon at Top’s. They also have Chef Boy ar Dee products for $1.00 a can. I could use more for my stockpile. Since I get the 6% discount on Tuesday, I may buy some more. They also have Manwich for the same price if anyone needs it. We don’t eat it. They have mayo with a Top’s super coupon for $ 2.99. That is a stock up price here. I may add 1 jar to the stockpile depending on the best buy date. 

Aldi has salmon for a decent price so I may buy some of that this week since we have none left. They also have boneless chicken breasts for $ 1.89 a lb. but we need no chicken. I do need provolone cheese so if I can get that for $ 1.49, I will. I was going to buy  fresh produce for salads but since my son brought me plenty, I don’t need it. If anyone has eggs at a decent price, I will pick up a dozen or two.

I made shake n bake chicken, some roasted potatoes, and broccoli for dinner. 



Here is my plate. It was very delicious. I don’t normally eat carbs(except for pizza once or twice a month) but decided that I could have just a few pieces of potato.


Lastly, my son purchased a huge lot of of office furniture and a 75 inch big screen TV for a great price from a company who was going out of business. The TV was really what he was after. Most of this was in great shape. Hubby’s office chair is falling apart. So my son brought us one of the chairs. Hubby is going to try it out to see if it is comfortable for him. If not, I want it.  My son, grandson and DIL also each kept new desks and chairs. The rest of the things he is selling and will most likely recoup his money. Yes, both of my sons know how to work a deal! 

Hubby and I so enjoyed watching the space shuttle undock and the landing for a few hours today. We saw the first one many years ago and have watched them all since. To us each one is just as exciting as the first one. Now we are watching golf.

I hope you all are having a great day!
 

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Every Day

August 1: Low Spend Grocery Month Challenge

I didn’t even leave our home today. No grocery or any other shopping. I did look at one of my grocery shopping ads for tomorrow. They have badly needed bacon on sale. It is B2G3 free. They usually up the prices of the two you have to buy to $9.99 each which means the 5 would be about $4.00 each. However, I can get a 6% senior discount on Tuesday so it would cost me $ 3.76 each. I still think I can get bacon at Aldi’s for about $ 3.49 each if the price hasn’t gone up. The problem is the last time I was there, they had no bacon. So I will have to think on this some more and check Aldi’s stock and price first before I go to the other market. They also have 80/20 ground beef in large packages at Top’s for $ 2.99 a pound for anyone who needs it. We hate their ground beef which is why I buy the grass fed from Aldi’s when it is on sale. 

For brunch this morning, I had a couple of pieces of bacon and some scrambled eggs with monterey jack cheese in them. I cooked a pound of bacon in the oven yesterday. We used some of it for breakfast yesterday and on salads for dinner last night. 

Hubby was still sleeping. I am the early riser. Him not so much. So I took my breakfast out on the patio and ate it. It is such a beautiful day. It is sunny and the coolest it has been in a month. I stayed out there after I ate and did some reading.

Hubby made himself a pastrami sandwich about noontime. 

These are the things that I will be making dinner with tonight. I had to thaw the dough and the pepperoni since they were in the freezer. I will adding a lot of spices.

Here it is all made. Hubby loves pepperoni on his pizza. I don’t like it cooked. So I have just the two cheeses on my side of the pizza.

Fifteen minutes later it came out of the oven. Hubby started cutting it before I could get the picture. It was so delicious and we have some leftovers for a lunch or a snack. We each had a small side salad with the pizza.


We are now watching NASA. I hope you all have a good evening.

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Every Day

Our Menu Plan for the First Week of the Low Spend Grocery Month Challenge

We will be starting our low spend month challenge tomorrow. As you can see, I have my $250. ready to go for shopping this month. It is 1/2 of what I normally spend. For those who are new and don’t know, there is just Hubby and I in this household. Our children left and married a very long time ago and have their own families.

So to get ready for our low spend month, I looked at my inventory and menu planned yesterday for the next week.

We only eat two meals a day. We have breakfast, lunch, or brunch late morning. Then we have dinner between 5PM and 6PM. 

Most of the time we each fix our first meal ourselves. Sometimes we want the same thing and one of us cooks. Dinners, we both take turns cooking. 

We usually pick from this list for our first meal of the day:

Sandwiches: Chicken, tuna, BLT’s, or cold cuts 
                   Soup
                   Leftovers from dinner
                   Hamburgers or cheeseburgers
                   Hot Dogs
                   Eggs
                   Pancakes or Waffles
                   French Toast
                   Salad
      


Here is our dinner plan starting tomorrow:

Sat. Homemade Pizza, salad
Sun. Shake n Bake Chicken,broccoli
Mon. Chef’s Salad
Tues. Spaghetti and Meatballs, garlic toast
Wedn. Leftovers
Thurs. Fish sticks, brussel sprouts 
Fri. Taco Salad made with ground turkey 

We rarely have dessert. Once in a while I will make SF jello or pudding or we have a little ice cream.

We drink iced tea or water with our meals. Sometimes if it is a special dinner like steak or lamb chops, we will have a glass of wine.

In the summer, I try to make simple meals. I cook them the cheapest way I can to save on my utility bill. For example, sometimes I cook pizza in the toaster oven if is a frozen circular one. My homemade one is rectangular and goes in the oven. The shake n bake chicken will get cooked in the air fryer. 

I have a bag of leftover broccoli in the freezer that I want to get rid of so that will be cooked in the microwave. The same for the brussel sprouts.


I make my own garlic toast out of leftover hamburger buns and bake that in the toaster oven. 

The spaghetti sauce and meatballs will be cooked in the microwave. The spaghetti is leftover from another meal and is in the freezer. It will be warmed up quickly in a skillet. I cook cauliflower rice for me in the microwave. 

I will tell you a secret. I hate fish sticks. Hubby loves them. They are leftover from the week that I was in the eastern part of the state. So I will eat them this week because I want to get rid of them. Yuck! 


We always have leftovers hanging around so we always have a leftover night or two.


I cook the taco meat on the brown cycle in my pressure cooker and season it too. 


We have everything that we need for this week’s meal plan in the fridge, freezer and pantry. So if I shop this week it will only be to pick up an exceptionally priced item that I can incorporate into a future meal plan. I may need produce also for the next week. So I don’t plan on spending much of that $250. next week.