Category: Every Day

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Every Day

What We Ate and Grocery Shopping This Past Week

These are the groceries that we purchased the past week.

Top’s:

4 ears of Corn on the Cob- 4 for $1.00
Broccoli Crowns – $ .88 lb. = $1.02


Total OOP was $2.02.

Aldi’s:

24 cans of Whole Potatoes – $ .49 each = $ 11.76
1 Pkg. of Romaine Hearts – $ 2.19
1 Pkg of 3 Colored Peppers – $2.99
Organic Bananas – $ .59 lb. = $1.24
1 Mustard – $ .55


Total OOP was $18.73.


We are eating from our pantries, fridge and freezers. I am starting to stock on items I believe will go up in price over the next year and getting a few things to fill in the gaps to stock us for the winter since I hate the snow and cold. 

Last week we ate bagels(Hubby), eggs, Canadian bacon, regular bacon and ham for breakfasts.

Dinners were:

Turkey with mashed cauliflower, stuffing, and brussel sprouts – 2 dinners

Chicken with SF BBQ sauce and side salads – 2 dinners

Taco Salads – 1 dinner

Choice of Salmon or Haddock and broccoli – 1 dinner

Dinner at the Party – 1 dinner 


I hope to take more pics of what we eat this coming week. It has been hectic here.


Did you cook anything special this past week? Did you get any good grocery deals?

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Every Day

A Little of This and A Little Of That

We had the worst weather this weekend. About the time I left for the hair salon on Saturday morning, the skies opened up and the thunder and lightning was bad. Fortunately, we always keep an umbrella in the car. After I left the hairdresser, I had to run another errand but I was very happy to get home. It was hard to see to drive the rain was so heavy.

I was standing in the kitchen, when a bolt of lightning hit in the woods right behind us. It scared me so badly. More on that later.

I appreciate all of the feedback on my hair dilemma. I did go and this was the result. I even wore a shirt that was 4 sizes too big for me(for occasions like this, for cleaning the house or working in the yard)  so that I could get it off easily to change into my party clothes without messing up my hair. 

It had been 6 weeks since I had been to the salon. My hairdresser on that appointment did something different. I have blonde highlights on the sides and the front. She decided to color my roots the same shade. What a difference that has made!  After these 6 weeks, I did not have to have the roots done. She said there was no gray. She told me I could easily go another 4-6 weeks because it will blend as my hair grows. So since roots and highlights were fine, she only had to shampoo and cut it. She only charged me $30. I added a $6. tip and I was on my way. I was thrilled.

When I got home, I gave myself a manicure. No nail salon for me. 

We had an annual picnic party to go to at a good friend’s home. I went over an hour early to help her shred all of the smoked pork bellies and slice the smoked beef briskets and get them into the large chafing containers. Hubby arrived at the starting time of the party. We had such a good time with friends and neighbors. There was good conversation, good food, and drink. I behaved myself and stuck to my diet food, although I did have just one draft beer.  We look forward to this get together every year. Fortunately, the rain stopped and the sun came out about an hour before the party began.

At the party, a neighbor told us that many other neighbors had problems with things blowing out about the time of the lightning strikes. A number of neighbors lost power for a bit. One neighbor had many of their shingles blown off which is what we experienced in a wind storm last spring.

I made a mental note to check my freezer in the basement when we got home to make sure it was running.  When Hubby came to the party, he didn’t arm the house alarm because we were right across the street and could see the house. When we got home, we realized that there was a fault message on the alarm panel. It was one that we had never seen before. So we have our alarm people coming to find the problem today. This may have occurred during the storm. We again had bad storms early yesterday morning and again last night. It has gotten so hot here- upper 80’s that I expect that we will get more this week. I had to put the A/C back on a couple of days ago.


Yesterday was a quiet day at home. We stayed home all day. My family did not come to breakfast because my DIL took West to NYC on Thursday to do some sightseeing and for a Ninja competition on Saturday.


Hubby was happy to watch some preseason football. I looked over all the food ads for this week. There were really no good buys except broccoli crowns for $.88 a lb. and Amaize sweet corn that is 4 for a $1.00. I may or may not get some this week. Hubby loves the corn, so I may blanch some to put in the freezer. I did notice that beef prices are rising. Steaks were up about $ 2.00 a lb. and ground beef that is usually $1.99 a lb. is now $ 2.29 a lb. on sale. Time will tell if Aldi’s raises the price of the 100% grass fed ground beef that I always buy.

For dinner last night I roasted a turkey breast that I purchased at Top’s for $.88 a lb a few weeks ago. It was the worst turkey breast that we have ever had. It is so tough that we could barely chew it. I am going to see if it is more tender cold. If not, I am considering calling the meat department to see if I can get my money back. I don’t know if they will want the turkey back even though it is roasted or not. I will call and find out what to do.

Well, I am off to start my day. I have a lot of cleaning to do. I hope you all have a good one. 

Have any of you returned meat like this? Did they give you your money back? Did you bring the meat back cooked?    

 

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Every Day

Bare Bones: A Dilemma

I have a dilemma tomorrow. Those of you who have read here know that I get my hair cut, colored, and highlighted at what some would think is a high end salon. It really is only a few dollars more than the cheaper salons in my area. Part of my dilemma is that I love my hairdresser because she does a fantastic job. I also enjoy chatting with her because she reminds me of a young me. She is very frugal and has her head on straight when it comes to money.

I definitely need a cut tomorrow and my roots done. But I believe that the highlights are good for another 4-6 weeks. So it will cost much less than normal.

However this is definitely not bare bones. I do pay cash for this each time I go out of my monthly spending money. But it nags at me that there must be a better way.

I am not good at coloring my hair. I make a mess and I miss parts of my head so the gray shows. But I am considering doing it myself and trying to do a better job. I have blonde highlights put in but I have so many that my hair is almost all blond.

So I am thinking that buying hair color in a light shade that kind of matches the highlights would work. I know that I can get some good deals on hair color using coupons. I have also seen hair color on clearance at my local drugstores. But then again I wonder if it really wouldn’t look as good as the highlights do. 

I would then only have to pay for a haircut. Hubby used to cut my hair for me and he did as good a job as most hairdressers. But ever since he developed back issues, he does not want to do it because the standing for any length of time puts him in major pain. There is no way that I would even attempt to cut my own hair. 

So help me with this dilemma that has been eating at me for a very long time. Do you go to the salon or do your own hair? Is the salon worth the price? What do you think? Is it a luxury that is worth paying for? It is so expensive that it nags at me that I should be spending that money on something else or investing it.  

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Every Day

Savings With My Kitchen Aid

One of my very favorite appliances is my Kitchen Aid Mixer. I purchased it refurbished for about $150. many years ago when we lived in Arizona.

I use it so often that I keep it out on our counter. Both Hubby and I use it a lot when we are baking cakes, cookies, muffins, etc. I use it to make homemade frosting, whip heavy cream, or make mashed potatoes.

Over the years, I have purchased some attachments when I saw a great sale on them. I have the food grinder which I use for grinding meat or poultry that I purchase at rock bottom prices. 99% of the time those prices on the larger piece of meat I grind are less than I can buy the ground meat. Over the years, I have ground beef roasts, steaks, chicken, and turkey breasts. Pork chops or roasts make ground pork or sausages. I have also used it to grind nuts and make bread crumbs. I have made pickle relish by grinding pickles. I have ground dried fruits to make cookies. This versatility has saved me a fortune on purchasing these items prepared. 

I have also purchased attachments that slice and shred. Because of this, I have not had to purchase a food processor. I can easily shred my own cheese when I find a chunk cheap. I can shred all kinds of vegetables and fruits. I have also shredded cooked chicken with them. I have made coleslaw. It does a great job making pesto. Making applesauce is easy.

The best thing is that it does not take much electricity to use it. The second best thing is because  I purchased it so cheap that I have gotten my money back many times over the years.

If you own a Kitchen Aid, please share with us what you use yours for.

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Every Day

Frugal Things We Did This Past Week

These are the frugal things we have done the past week.

I already told you about Hubby’s purchase of shelving for the garage. It is all up now except for the bottom shelf which will get put up after they do our garage floor.

My son brought his jack so that Hubby and he could jack up the shed. In the meantime, Hubby was cleaning the garage and he found his jack in a cabinet. They worked on this last Sunday.

My son took my origami shelving unit down into the basement from the garage. I had him place it where I wanted it. I haven’t decided what I will use the shelves for. I think I will be rearranging things down there and then making decisions. I plan on spending an hour a day this week doing that.

I washed a load of clothing once last week using cold water to wash and rinse. I hung everything to dry.

I washed a load of towels along with some guest room sheets. They were dried in my dryer using the wool balls which cuts down the dryer time by 20-30 minutes.

Our A/C has been off most of the past week. It has been cooler and a lot less humid. We have been enjoying the fresh air blowing in through the windows. We have had some nice gentle winds those days. 

For entertainment, we enjoyed watching the Buffalo Bills pre-season football game. We played board games with West. 

I have been doing a lot of walking around our neighborhood. I want to slowly work my way up to 8 miles a day. I have been invited to go to Disney World for their 50th Anniversary in 2021. Now that I am getting healthier, I want to see if I can walk the parks down there and not have to maneuver a scooter. My family walks about 8 miles in a park each day when they go. So by working on this now, I will know whether I can do it or not. If I can, the bonus is that I will not have to rent a scooter for a week.

I am getting low on quart size storage bags. They are wearing thin from being washed again and again. I got a great deal on Amazon . It works out to $.05 a bag which is a terrific deal. Better yet I paid for them using reward points. These are storage bags only not freezer bags.

I got my Rakuten rebate of $ 17.03. I got a mail in rebate of $6.00.

My liquid hand soap order that I told you about in a prior post arrived yesterday. That was about 2-4 weeks earlier than they said it would. I always worry about liquid things leaking in shipment. This was packed so well that it never would have leaked. This 4 gallons will last us a long, long time.

A friend, who started blogging way back when I did, mentioned that she uses fold over blank cards for gifts.  I am getting low on my blank cards that I sometimes use, so I searched on Amazon for these blank cards . They were $24.50+ tax for 100. They do not come with envelopes but due to a bulk purchase 16 years ago when we lived in Arizona, I already have envelopes that will fit them. I am always looking for a cheaper way to do things. This purchase will cut my card using price to less than half of what I normally pay. I can use them for gifts or even just when I need a card to mail. I have many ways that I can dress them up including my stamps and ink pads. 


I bought some more bagels at Panera Bread yesterday for Hubby. They are cheaper for 13 on Tuesdays…just $6.99.  I bagged them up in portions and put them in the freezer. He can just pull one out the night before he wants one. I paid for them with a gift card. 

Hubby made some more homemade cinnamon cream cheese spread for his bagels.


Hubby and I had our teeth cleaned. Two cleanings, flouride treatments, and exams twice a year, for each of us are covered in full by our discount dental plan. Hubby also had some work done and we got a discount of 20% on that.

I repaired a pair of shorts for Hubby.

Knowing that we were going to be out a good part of the day on dental cleaning and errand day, I put 2 nights worth of chicken in the crock pot to cook on low. All I had to do for dinner later was steam some broccoli and make Hubby some rice.

What are the frugal things you have done this past week? Please share with all of us. 

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Every Day

What We Ate and Grocery Shopping

I am being honest when I say that I didn’t take a lot of pictures of what we ate last week. I had a very busy week so this just didn’t happen.

We had our usual meat and eggs for breakfast and no lunches. We had two nights of homemade spaghetti and meatballs. Mine was on homemade zoodles. We had two nights of Cheesy Bacon Ranch Chicken and asparagus which is pictured above. We had one night of pizza while my grandson was here. Being totally honest, I actually ate a piece of pizza. That being said, I was sick the entire next day. It seems the pizza did not agree with me. My body does not seem to like carbohydrate laden food anymore. So I will not be doing that again. The other two nights we had Chef’s salads. I continue on my weight loss journey. 

I went to the grocery store twice this past week. At Top’s, I purchased: 

3 dozen eggs – $ .59 each or $ 1.77
1 All Purpose Flour – -$ 2.99
1 Baking Powder – $ 2.69

Total OOP was $ 7.45

At Aldi’s, I purchased:

Red Seedless Grapes – $ .89 a lb. – $ 2.52
1 Heavy Whipping Cream – $ 1.55
1 Whipped Cream Cheese – $ 1.49
1 Feta Cheese – $ 2.99
1 Irish Butter – $2.49
1 Queso Fresco Cheese – $ 2.49
1 bag of Avocados – $4.99
1 frozen Asian Blend Vegetables – $ 1.69
1 frozen Brussel Sprouts – $ 1.09

Total OOP was $ 21.30.  


I know that I could have purchased the flour and baking soda cheaper at Aldi’s. But I didn’t because I do not like their baking ingredients. They have a funny taste.

When I can get eggs this cheap, I stock. They had a limit of three but if I go near Top’s again, I will get three more. We use a lot of eggs for breakfasts.

I am trying the Irish Butter which Aldi’s now has under their own label. It is exactly the ingredients of the name brand. It is made with milk from grass fed cows. If we like it, I am hoping they have it on sale near Thanksgiving and I will stock up. We still have a lot of pounds of butter that we purchased last Thanksgiving.

I don’t know how much longer I will buy avocados now that they are no longer in season. They are expensive. But I needed them for something this week and I love them. So we will see. 

Did you make a new recipe this week that you loved? Would you share it with us. Did you get any deals at the grocery store this past week?

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Every Day

Attitude

Attitude is everything! Only you have the power to change your attitude. No one can do it for you!

If you are in debt, only you can get you out of debt. Only you can decide that you want to be debt free. Only you can decide that you don’t want the burden of stress hanging around your neck weighing you down. 

If you want to save money for your future for just about any goal that you might have, only you can decide to do that. No one can force you and no one can do it for you!

I can give you every frugal tip to get out of debt but if you aren’t going to do the hard work involved, then you will fail. Hard work you say, yes hard work. Things don’t come easy for some people and then harder for others. It’s all about your attitude.

Just take a look around you. How many times have you seen people buy something because they say they deserve it? Everyone does deserve everything but not if they can’t pay cash for it. Change your attitude.

If you are in debt to anyone, you can’t afford to buy something that will put you more into debt. The burden you are carrying will get worse and your family’s future is at risk. Debt doesn’t go away all by itself. It takes hard work to get rid of it.


So change your attitude! Don’t just read about frugality. Take the time to put it into action. Do the hard work to get out of debt or save for your future.

One of the reasons, Hubby and I have no debt is we made it a goal not to. We did the hard work to pay off mortgages on our first two homes early. We paid the cash for our last two. Was that easy? No! We gave up a lot of things that people buy every day to do that. Things like coffee out every morning. Things like buying lunch when we worked. Hundreds of little things that helped us along the way to get where we are today.

Did we ever feel deprived? Absolutely not. We still had our coffee every morning;it was just made at home. We brought our leftovers or a sandwich to work for lunch. Did these little changes help us get to the freedom of being debt free? Yes but not by themselves. It was everything cumulatively. All of the things we did and do now get us to our goals. It isn’t done by accident or by just thinking about it. We put it all into action.


We knew we could do anything that we set our minds to. We wrote down our goals and we strived toward them every day. We knew how important they were for us and for our family. We were a busy family with jobs, kids playing many sports, and all of the other things that happen in every day life. But we took the time to work on our goals. We had the right attitude. We knew it would all pay off in the long run and you know what happened? We were right!

We didn’t say we can’t do that because we have no time. We didn’t say that is too hard. We didn’t say, let’s charge it because we want it. We had a plan to get where we are today. We said we know we can do it. We will do the hard work to get it done! So change your attitude and change your life.

You all know I have been around many, many decades. I have never met or seen a person who couldn’t do it. They just won’t do the work to get there. Why? They always seem to have an excuse as to why they can’t reach their goals. Excuses don’t get you anywhere. They keep you from getting where you need to be.

So get rid of the excuses and start doing what needs to be done to make things better. Get off your butts and put your plan into action. I know that you can do it and you do to! Change your attitude!

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Every Day

Muffins for Breakfast and My Italian Breadmaker Recipe

Someone asked me yesterday for my Italian breadmaker recipe. I make a 1 and 1/2 lb. loaf. It is an Italian herb bread.

Ingredients:

1 cup + 1 Tbsp. water

2 Tbsp. oil

2 Tbsp. sugar

1 + 1/2 tsp. salt

2 Tbsp. dry milk

3 cups bread flour

2 tsp. Italian seasoning

2 tsp. active dry yeast

I bake mine on the French cycle. Follow the directions for your bread machine. I never took a picture because I didn’t see my reader’s question until after we ate and there was barely any left.

At 5:00 am this morning, I was baking muffins. I have a 24 count muffin pan that just fits in my oven.
I baked 12 homemade chocolate chip for West and 12 cranberry orange muffins for Hubby. The cranberry orange were from a mix that I wanted to use up.

When I went to make the chocolate chip ones, I realized my baking powder was expired. So I substituted 1 tsp. cream of tartar and 1/2 tsp. of baking soda in my recipe. Here is the chocolate chip muffin recipe: 

Chocolate Chip Muffins 


These got a little brown but West said they were delicious. I usually use my muffin tin for just one kind. But they each wanted different kinds. So I had to take the chocolate ones out to cool first and do the cranberry a few minutes longer.

What they don’t eat today and tomorrow will get frozen for another breakfast. 

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Every Day

Bare Bones: Make Every Penny Count

Remember to make every penny count! Those pennies become dollars. When you are living on a bare bones budget, it is important to scrutinize every expense. Don’t just look at it once, do it twice, or even three times to make sure that you are getting value for those pennies and dollars you are spending.

If your income has been drastically reduced, pay the basics to keep yourself afloat. Here is a video by Dave Ramsey who gives great advice on what to pay if your income has been reduced or you have been laid off from your job: Dave Ramsey


He has many more You Tube videos out there that you can google if you want to learn more.

My goal is to live Bare Bones so I can pay some large bills the rest of the year without touching savings and investments.


So I will show you what we are doing in a day to help with that goal. I need bread for Hubby and West this weekend. It was not on my grocery list this week because I can pay $1.00 to $4.00 for a loaf or I can pay about $.35 to $.50 to make a loaf. Bread is baking in the bread maker as I write this. 

It is daylight as I write this so no lights are turned on in this house.

Our A/C is now off because the temps have cooled off a bit. We are hoping to be able to keep it off until Tuesday. If I had a loss of income, I would turn it off and use a fan in the room or rooms we are in.

Here was my grocery list this week. As you can see, I crossed many, many things off. I have produce that needs to be used up so no produce purchased. The Tostito chips are to use with salsa we already have for a snack or lunch. We will need mayonnaise soon and Hubby will only eat Hellman’s. The mayo is necessary to make sandwiches. The ice cream is because West will be here this weekend and I promised him I would get his favorite kind which is cookies and cream. I purchased it at Walmart because it is a whole lot cheaper there than Top’s. These two stores are 1 block apart.  I shopped on Tuesday to take advantage of the 6% off senior discount at Top’s.

Hubby is installing wire shelves on the wall in the garage to house items that are on the floor and in a cabinet that we will sell to get them off the floor. He did a pick up order from Lowe’s and paid for $200. of the order with gift cards that I purchased almost two years ago at a discount. I got cash back for this order from Rakuten.

He is putting in enough shelves to house my very large appliances. I keep them on a roll around rack in the garage. Now I can use that rack in the basement for my stockpile. 

We had homemade cold cuts to use for dinner last night. I cooked a ham that I purchased at $.89 a lb. last Thanksgiving and we sliced it up on our meat slicer so that we could have ham sandwiches over the next few months. The homemade bread will be used for Hubby’s and mine will be in a lettuce wrap. 


When I drive I am still starting up from a light or stop sign under 2 x 1000 rpms to save on gasoline. No jack rabbit starts which eat gasoline. 

I washed our SUV in the driveway. I vacuumed it out with the handheld vacuum. I washed the windows with homemade “windex”. I rarely use the car wash unless it is the middle of winter. 


I have planned out our menu for this weekend while West is staying with us. He requested my homemade spaghetti and meatballs so I will take a precooked bag of it out of our freezer to thaw for dinner tonight. The bread I am baking today will be used to make parmesan garlic bread and sandwiches. I will keep it fresh in a reused bread bag.

Breakfasts will be homemade muffins, cereal and fruit, or scrambled eggs and bacon. Tomorrow night, I will use some frozen pizza which is in my freezer. His lunches will be cold cut sandwiches with cut up carrot sticks or PB&J which he loves. I also have some Annie’s mac and cheese if he prefers that. Snacks will be fruit or some of the ice cream. 

Entertainment this weekend will be walks, tablet time, playing some Pokemon Monopoly, etc. He also loves watching sports with his Grandpa.

 We did no impulse buying. The shelving was a planned purchase.

I managed to slice open a finger while I was helping with the shelving. It took a long time to stop bleeding but now it has a bandage on it and I didn’t have to go to Urgent Care. That was not the way I wanted to start my Friday. 


I hope you all have a safe and fun weekend.

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Every Day

Ten Things We No Longer Purchase

Here are ten things that we do not purchase anymore which save us money:

– 81 mg. aspirin – Our doctor is no longer recommending one aspirin a day for me due to the newest studies that have come out. Unless you have had a heart attack, the doctors are no longer recommending it. 

– Multivitamins – Most studies show that they do nothing for us so they are a waste of money. 

– Dryer sheets – We use our dryer balls when we use our dryer.

– Antibacterial Wipes – Spray cleaners do the job much cheaper.

– Juices or Juice Drinks – Most juices are nothing but pure sugar. The only exception to this rule is I buy V8 juice which is part of my diet.

– A Warehouse Club Membership – I can get equal or better deals at Walmart, Aldi’s, Save A Lot, and Amazon. 

-DVD’s or Books – The library has so many that I don’t need to buy them. We also get free ones that we put on our Kindles.  

– Packaging Boxes or Envelopes – We reuse the ones that we get with shipped items. 

– Individual Magazines – I read them in my doctor’s waiting room or at the hair salon.

– Disposable Razors – We buy refills for razors cheap online from Dorco.They will be for sale on Amazon soon.

Are there things that you used to buy that you no longer deem necessary to purchase? Please share with us.

Also I have a question? Do any of you have a Go Pro? Which model and do you find they are worth the money?