Category: Every Day

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Every Day

Monthly or Yearly Recurring Expenses

How many of you have small or large recurring monthly or yearly expenses that you just keep paying that really aren’t giving you the value you once thought they would?

I ask this because we just cancelled our gym membership. That is $48. a month back in our pocket. 

The reason is that we just were not using it enough. Hubby especially was not using it at all. His back was not allowing him to. I told him a couple of months ago that I was going to cancel it and he fought me about it and said he would use it. I kept track and he didn’t use it once. So I brought it up again, telling him that we might as well just take $48. each month and burn it. He finally agreed that I should cancel it. So I did that before he changed his mind. I told you how we will now get our exercise. It is pouring rain here today so I will walk 1 and 1/2 to 2 miles this morning on our treadmill instead of walking in the neighborhood.

There are so many of these kinds of recurring expenses that we have cancelled over the years. Magazines that were giving us no value due to the fact that they are 80% ads to buy things. What a waste! So I use the time waiting in doctor’s and/or dentist’s offices, and at the hair salon to read their magazines and any article that I really want to read. I no longer subscribe to magazines or purchase them at the grocery store. For full disclosure, Hubby gets one magazine subscription every month, The Family Handyman. He really enjoys it. But we don’t pay for it. My son buys it every year for him for one of his Christmas gifts. 

We no longer pay for a yearly warehouse club membership. I kept track the last couple of years that we had it and we were just not saving enough to warrant paying for the cost of the membership. We can get the same or better prices at Walmart or Amazon for the things we need. I buy meat, poultry and fish at rock bottom prices so those items were  not even saving money for us. People have said to me that they keep it to buy discounted gift cards. You have to buy a lot of gift cards to make up the membership fee. You can easily save that much money buying them through Raise or another gift card company. 

Last Black Friday, I purchased a deal for one year for Hulu. It costs me $.99 a month. I decided at that price to try it. We have enjoyed a few movies on there but not enough to warrant paying full price for it starting in November. So I have already marked my calendar to cancel it on a specific date so that I don’t pay the higher monthly fee.

We already have Amazon Prime. Between that and our Cable TV and borrowing movies from the library, we have plenty of movies to pick from. Amazon Prime is one yearly thing that we will pay for. We watch movies all of the time and Hubby uses the music. But the best savings for us is the shipping. I do a lot of shopping for clothing, gifts, specialty food for my diet, etc. on Amazon when they have the best price and it saves me time and gasoline. 

Matter of fact, as of today, I have placed 137 orders on Amazon Prime in the past year. If I divide the $119. annual fee by 137, each package cost me an average of  $ .87 per package for shipping. A lot of those packages were gifts which would have cost me a minimum of $11. to ship at UPS. These figures do not even take into account the movies and other benefits of Amazon Prime. So this is a recurring annual fee which gives us great value and is worth paying for. It won’t get cancelled anytime soon. 

We cancelled Netflix a number of years ago. No sense having Amazon Prime and Netflix. 

A family member cancelled their newspaper delivery a while ago. That person decided they were not getting the value that it cost. Instead he subscribed to the online version which he has enjoyed for a while. But he has since cancelled it and will get his local news from the TV stations. Hubby pays a fortune per year to get the daily newspaper. He enjoys reading it and doing the crossword puzzle every morning. For him, it has great value so it is worth it to us. 

I would love to cancel our Cable TV but Hubby loves it. I rarely watch anything on it. But it is valuable for Hubby so we pay for it. It may not be so valuable for you.

To me one of the worst ways to spend your money is to subscribe to those meal boxes. They come with all the instructions and ingredients to cook a meal. But you have to do the cooking! UGH! It is so much cheaper to shop for your own food or use pick up for it if you don’t like shopping. With the internet, you can find any recipe you want to make with instructions. If you have a night that you don’t want to cook, go out to eat or pick up a rotisserie chicken and a bagged salad. Just don’t do it all the time.

I just subscribed for 6 months to Ancestry.com so that I could get the records of our ancestors from other countries. It is a hobby that I have worked on for years and will be very enjoyable over the winter for me. So it is worth the price.

Once a year, check the prices for your automobile and homeowners insurance policies to see if you can get a better price from another company. We save about $400. dollars the last time we did this.

There are many more things that you could either cancel or cut back on the subscriptions that will save you money. So take the time this week to really think about whether you are getting good value from these things. If not cancel them and keep the money in your wallet.

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Every Day

Frugal Things This Past Week

These are the things we did frugally this past week:

1. One day last week, I was running errands for almost 4 hours. Knowing that I would not be home for lunch, I packed some turkey pepperoni, a mozzarella cheese stick, and a bottle of water. I stopped at a beautiful local park on the way to do an errand and sat and ate lunch.

2. I went to the library and took out two books to read.

3. Hubby has been craving the bacon macaroni goulash that I haven’t made since before my surgery. So I made him a big pan from scratch and he ate many meals  from it. I just fixed myself other things that were on my diet.

4. I went to the drugstore to pick up a prescription. When they checked me out, the prescription cost me $90. I was shocked. I had never paid more than $50. for it. I asked the pharmacy tech why it was so expensive. She advised me that I was in the Medicare gap. Well I knew enough to know that was not possible. I have only gotten a couple of prescriptions this year and you fall into the gap after many, many expensive prescriptions. But rather than argue, I paid for it and came home and called my prescription drug plan. They laughed when I told them what the pharmacy tech told me. The woman I spoke to said you aren’t even near the gap. She told me the reason was that the drug now had a generic and since they didn’t fill it generically, it cost me $90. for the branded drug. I asked her how much the generic would have cost me and she said $10. So I contacted the pharmacist and they said since I hadn’t opened the prescription, they would take it back and credit me. It took me two days of messages and phone calls to get the doctor to write the generic and then to the pharmacy to get it taken care of. I finally picked it up on this past Monday and they credited me the difference of $80. It was worth the aggravation to save that $80.


5. We had another stone fall off the house and Hubby said there were 3 more loose ones. So he cemented them back into place and grouted those and the ones he had done prior. So they are all fixed for winter.


6. I have been reading a new book that Hubby purchased me early as a gift for my upcoming birthday. It is eye opening. 

7. We had Hubby’s family birthday party which I made from scratch except for dessert which I purchased. He enjoyed every minute of it.

8. We enjoyed watching the Buffalo Bills win their third game. They are undefeated so far. 

9. Our garage door had gotten really dirty. So Hubby scrubbed it with Dawn liquid soap and water and it looks new.

10. I washed the SUV in the driveway again. It won’t be long before we will have to pay for car washes to get the salt off. 

11. We have had no A/C or heat on at all. Even though we just had a stretch of 80 temps, we were very comfortable in our home without the A/C. This has paid off. I just got our electric and gas bill and it was only $ 70.99, the lowest bill we have ever had in the 10 and a half years that we have owned this house. The meter charges and supply charges alone were $51.+. of that.

12. We will need to have our snow tires put on again before the end of October. So I am keeping my eyes open for a discount coupon. 

13. We cancelled our YMCA gym membership effective the end of this month. We were not using it enough to justify the $48. per month charge. Between our treadmill and recumbent bike, we can get our exercise without having to leave the house and that will be a good thing this winter.  I walked a mile and a half outside in the neighborhood this morning. It was crisp(52) and sunny!  

14. I donated another bag of clothing to Goodwill. I am slowly but surely getting rid of all clothing that no longer fits me.


15. I ran one full load of clothing and hung it to dry.


16. I only ran the dishwasher twice this past week.

What did you do frugally this past week?

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Every Day

Grocery Shopping This Past Week

I went shopping at Walmart and Top’s this past week. I only needed a few things and they are pictured.

Top’s:

2 pkgs. of shrimp – $ 7.99 each

Total was $ 15.98

Walmart:

4 Lay’s Poppables – $2.48 each – (2) $1./2 Q’s =$ 7.92

1 jar of Olives – $ 4.96

36 Eggs – $ 2.29

1 Primal Kitchen Mayo – $ 7.96

2 Canadian Bacon – $ 3.48 ea. = $ 6.96

Total was $ 30.09 but I used a $5.00 Walmart GC so final total was $ 25.09. 

We haven’t had shrimp in a while and I can have it on my diet so I bought these on sale.

The poppables were not needed but I decided to stock while I still had coupons.

The olives don’t last long around here because Hubby loves them. I will get more at the Thanksgiving sales.

I can always use eggs and this is a good price in my area for 3 dozen.

This is the only mayo that I eat on my diet. It’s expensive but so worth it. The last time I purchased this it was $ 8.49 at Amazon. Walmart is now carrying it cheaper.

I found the Canadian Bacon cheaper by almost $2.00 each at Walmart over Top’s.

Did you get any good deals this week? Please share with all of us. 

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Every Day

How I Save on Protein, etc.

Last Friday, I happened to be near Top’s while running an errand. Somehow when I looked at the weekly ad, I missed the fact that they had top round, sirloin tip, eye round and bottom round roasts on sale for $ 2.99 a lb. This is a rock bottom price in my area. So I purchased a 5 and 1/2 lb. top round roast for $15.85. The top round roast was the more tender of the roasts that they were offering at that price.

We had a lot of beef in our freezer but I had no stew beef. Buying stew beef costs $6.99 a lb. at my store. So saving $4.00 a lb. was a no brainer. I trimmed the roast and ended up with 6 ziplocs of stew beef which will feed us two meals each. It only took a few minutes to cut it up and bag it. Knowing that I will use it up over the winter, I used the less expensive ziplocs rather than the food saver bags to package it up to put in the freezer.

By the time you add veggies to your stew meat and a gravy or sauce, these bags will be the perfect size for two dinners for us. Those dinners will cost us approximately $ 1.32 a meal or $.66 for each of us.

This is just one example of how I save on the protein we eat. Besides buying at rock bottom prices, I always ask myself “How can I do this cheaper?”.  

We try to eat one or two meatless meals a week where we get our protein from a different source like eggs, cheese, greens, or beans. We are eating more eggs on my diet than beans right now though.

I learned an important lesson from an old friend who I worked with when I was first married. That friend, ended up living down the street from me while we were raising our children. Sis, you know who I am referencing.

We would go shopping at the market together sometimes. Or I would be at her house getting the milk out of her fridge to put in my coffee and I would notice that she would have about 4 dozen eggs in there all of the time. Whenever we shopped together, she would buy eggs. She would pick up meat too but never more than a package or two.

I remember wondering why she bought so many eggs. She and I had the same size families. I knew that she didn’t bake a lot. I would never have more than a dozen or so eggs in my fridge. I was going to ask her but then it occurred to me that maybe they were having financial problems. So I left well enough alone. Eggs were really cheap back then.

Finally a few years later, as I kept noticing the eggs, I finally said to her: ” Have you taken up baking or do you make eggs for breakfast every morning for your family?  I have noticed that you buy a lot of eggs.”
 
She said, “Eggs are one of the cheapest proteins that I can buy for my family. We eat eggs for dinner at least 3 nights a week. Buying meat is so expensive so we only have that 4 times a week. I will make omelets or frittatas loaded with vegetables for dinner and my family loves them. By making those I also use up all of the fresh vegetables and don’t waste them. I will also make pancakes or waffles once in a while.”

All of our kids played soccer during those years and while I was wondering those mornings what to thaw that I could quickly make for dinner when we got home, she knew she would make eggs because it was cheap and easy. 

While I didn’t cook eggs regularly for dinner, it got me thinking about cooking meatless meals that had protein besides meat. Today I do cook eggs almost every morning for breakfast. However, if you had a small budget, you can easily make eggs for dinner today and save a bundle. Eggs are still cheap compared to meat. 

My friend could pinch a penny better than anyone I have ever known. I learned a number of things from her. 

Since I am on the subject of eggs, I have to tell you what I did this morning. I cooked 9 eggs in my pressure cooker. Kay was nice enough to tell me that you could do this in a comment last week. Thanks so much Kay. 

I measured the inside of my pressure cooker and purchased a rack to hold the eggs at Amazon

Sunday morning, I put a cup and half of water in and 9 eggs on the rack. I pressure cooked them on low pressure for 8 minutes. They were so perfect and so easy! And just like Kay told me, they peel really easy. I will never go back to waiting for water to boil on the stove and doing it that way. See, I do pay attention to your comments and I do learn something from people who read here all of the time. You never stop learning!  

Here is my breakfast and the reason I did the hard boiled eggs. I couldn’t wait to take the picture until after I tried some egg; so two pieces have already been devoured. 

Always feel free to leave a comment so that we can learn from each other. 

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Every Day

Prep Time Makes Things Easy

I prepped for Hubby’s birthday dinner very early this morning. I hate having to do things last minute. 

The first thing I did was make the hamburgers from the 2 pounds of organic grass fed ground beef that I purchased at Aldi yesterday. 

Then it was on to cutting up the veggies for us to dip. Nothing fancy, just sliced cucumbers, baby carrots, celery sticks and red pepper sticks. I will make the dips about 2 hours before we eat.


Next I sliced the baby bella mushrooms so that they are ready to saute.

Then I sliced the onions that will get sauteed in butter also.  


Then I cut up the some of the fruit and put it to store in prep containers in the fridge. I have cantaloupe, strawberries and grapes. Then a half hour before I grill, I will slice the apples and peaches into my fruit salad as I am putting it together. I will also slice up some bananas to go in it. 

I have about 10 different choices of cheese in the fridge so my family can pick their favorite and they will go on the burgers last minute to melt. 

The table is set with the dishes and glassware. A new jar of dill pickles has been put out along with a bag of wavy chips. The hamburger buns and brioce buns have also been put on the table for everyone to choose what they want. 


I am getting excited because Hubby has no idea that this is a celebration for him. I hid the cake and ice cream. He never saw it.


I don’t normally post on a Saturday but it was easy to take some photos while I was doing this.


I always try to prep ahead all of our meals. These prep containers make it easy. I purchased them on 
Amazon . For those who wonder, no this is not my link that I make money off of. I am not an Amazon affiliate.


Hoping that all of you are having a terrific weekend! 

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Every Day

A Birthday Celebration

Hubby’s birthday is next week! But we are celebrating it tomorrow because my son, DIL, and West are coming to dinner. Hubby won’t see them again until a week from Sunday. 

So we are having a cookout. It is an easy menu.
I picked up the fixings at Aldi’s and Top’s today. Here is what I purchased:

Aldi’s:

2 lbs. of Organic Grass Fed 85/15 hamburger  – $ 5.29 each = $10.58

1 Wavy Chips – $ 1.19

Bananas – @ $.44 a lb. = $ 1.06

Bag of Carrots – $.89

1 Mango – $ .89


2 Peaches – @ $ 1.39 a lb. = $ 1.61

Red Grapes – $ 3.72

Belly Bella Mushrooms – $ 1.29

Strawberries – $ 2.29


2 Cucumbers – $ .49 each = $ .98

1 Sour Cream – $ .89

1 Hamburger Rolls – $ .65

1 Brioche Rolls – $ 3.69

1 Half and Half – $ 1.55

Total was $ 15.33.

Top’s is where I got dessert. I already had the Chocolate Syrup. I am just showing you what we are having. I purchased:


Vanilla Ice Cream
Carrot Cake


Total was $ 13.83. Hubby loves Top’s Bakery Carrot Cake. The cake is small but big enough for 5 people. I am not even sure that I will eat any. I have candles for it. The chocolate syrup, of course, is to put on the ice cream.

I will cook hamburgers and/or cheeseburgers on the grill and saute mushrooms and onions for them. Everyone will have their choice of buns.

Earlier in the day, I will make a fruit salad and a veggie platter. We have other veggies in the fridge that I will be using too. I will be making homemade dill dip and ranch dip for the veggies and serving chips and pickles too. I think Hubby will really enjoy it.

My birthday is in October so we will go out to eat some day in between both of our birthdays for a little celebration.

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Every Day

Time Is Money

Time is money even when you are retired. All of the things that we do whether large or small take our time but most of them save us a ton of money annually. In that way we keep our expenses low and can continue to save and keep our investments intact and actually grow them year after year.

But today I want to talk about the other aspect of retirement. Aging is a huge factor in what you spend in retirement. Medical, dental, and vision costs are large when you get to be our ages. Just the fact that the doctors and dentists want to see you more than once a year can be costly. And the lab tests all the time- UGH! According to my doctors, now that I am almost down to a perfect weight, I am in excellent health. Hubby is pretty good too even though he has back issues. 


Aging and the back issues can be very costly. Because of Hubby’s bad back, we have had to hire landscape crews from March through October almost every year of our retirement(19+ years).

In Arizona, we needed them not only because of his bad back but because our landscaping grew so rapidly out there and to do it in the heat was not pleasant. They came every other Monday during the season and I actually don’t even remember exactly what is cost. I know it was just over a couple of hundred dollars a month. 

When we moved here, we have a much larger piece of property than we had there. We have a lot of lawn and many, many gardens with landscaping that need trimming, weeding, mulching, and the occasional planting. Hubby does the mowing on his John Deere riding lawn mower which he really enjoys. He used to hire a neighbor boy to do the weed whacking because we have lots of stonework around all of our gardens that needs to be trimmed every time he mows. However, he has since gotten rid of our heavy weed whacker and purchased a more light weight one that he can manage with his back so he does it once a week. 

The same company that does our landscaping once a month, comes and does our fertilizing about 6 times a season. Then once in a while, like today, they bring  4 bushes that we order and plant them for us along with doing the monthly maintenance.

All of this comes at a price of $3383. for this season from March through October. It is not cheap.

The reason I tell you this is so that you plan to be able to pay this in retirement when and if you can no longer do it. As you age, you just can’t do as much as you used to. Hubby always did his own yard work and enjoyed it until he no longer could. 

It’s the same with pest control. That costs another  $ 562. a year. 

These are just two of the costs for your home in a year and believe me when I say they go up annually. 

People ask us when we will be ready for a condo. I don’t know if we ever will be but it is a possibility. However we would still have these costs but they would be built into the condo monthly maintenance fees. If you rent a nice place, you pay it in the rent. There is no way to get away from the high cost unless you are able to do it yourself.

For now, we love our home and all of the square footage we have. We enjoy our yards and the beauty of it. I am healthy enough to be able to maintain the inside of our home with a little help from Hubby. Even if I couldn’t, we have planned well and could hire a housekeeper to come once or twice a month.  We have no plans to move any time soon. So we trade our money for their time which is why we trade our time to save money where we can.  

I tell you all this because these expenses are real in retirement and you all need to plan for them when you are planning for your retirement years. Even if you are in relatively good health when you retire, things happen and health deteriorates. You may not be able to do your own work forever. 

 They are just two of the many expenses you will need to work into your plan to maintain your home.

So when you are doing your retirement planning, you have to get real about what it is REALLY going to cost you.    

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Every Day

Frugal things This Past Week

These are the things we have done frugally this week:

– Saved $25.00 on my Walmart grocery shop using free gift card rebate money

– Purchased spring mix, guacamole minis, croissants,  and angel food cake at reduced for quick sale prices


– My son helped Hubby bring our bench seat in from the garage to a guest bedroom. It needed to be off the floor for some garage work to be done. They cleaned the dirt off the feet before they brought it in the house. I then went through the shoes and boots and donated a few pair that we are not using. By doing the work with help from my son, we save by not having to hire movers to get all of the things out of the garage.

– We still have no A/C or heat on. I read the meters for the utility company. They were the lowest we have ever had for both electricity and natural gas. I will let you know how much the bill was next week.

– I received another $5.00 Walmart gift card from a rebate and another $5.00 rebate in the mail. 

– Hubby made French toast in the electric fry pan for our Sunday family breakfast. I made two eggs for myself. I cooked a lb. of thick cut bacon that I purchased at Aldi for $3.79. It was delicious so I know where we will be buying our bacon from now on. Hubby ate the leftover French Toast for breakfast the next day. It heats up beautifully in the air fryer.

– I had a can of crescent rolls in the fridge that needed to be used up. So I thawed some cocktail hot dogs and made pigs in a blanket for dinner one night. Hubby ate them a second night and I had salmon. The piggies without blankets are what I ate. I made  small salads for a side.  

– I made some SF banana strawberry and some SF peach jello as dessert treats.

– I watched “The First Wives Club” on Amazon Prime for entertainment this past weekend while Hubby watched a lot of football games. This movie was very enjoyable and gave me some good laughs.

– We watched our Buffalo Bills beat the NY Giants for entertainment on Sunday.

– We had two meatless meals this past week: a large tossed salad and an omelet. 

– We have been incorporating veggies and fruits into every meal(even breakfast) to use up our produce.

– We have really been enjoying our aster in one of our front gardens. It truly pays to buy flowering bushes or any kind of flowers that are perennials because they don’t have to be replaced year after year. So we have 4 more being planted in various gardens tomorrow. Our hanging baskets( these are the only annuals we plant every year.) are still in full bloom and as beautiful as when we planted them in May.

– I shampooed the SUV carpeting this week.  


– Hubby made the last container of hummingbird food this year. They will all be heading south soon.


– Only did two loads of laundry – one with towels and one with clothing. The clothing was all hung to dry.


– Only ran the dishwasher twice this week using homemade dishwasher detergent.


– Enjoyed a free telephone call with an old friend. Priceless.

– Cut chives from our garden to put on Hubby’s baked potatoes.

– Gave myself a manicure and a pedicure.

– We calculated our net worth yesterday. It is a must to always know where you stand especially when you are retired.

– I have not been sleeping well. The little bit of money that I spent to buy some Melatonin was worth it’s weight in gold. Who knew that 10 mg. would knock me out and let me get 8 hours sleep?


– Hubby took the 4 hour course in New York State that lets us get a reduced price on our liability coverage. The discount is good for three years.

– We did not eat out which I think is a huge drain of money from anyone’s budget.

– Our cellphone is paid for through the end of the year. So we are researching a cheaper plan to switch to for next year.

What did you do frugally this past week?


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Every Day

Grocery Shopping This Past Week

I went grocery shopping this past week at Walmart. I did that mainly to get snacks for Hubby. When he wants those I find a way to get them cheaply. Knowing that I had a total of $25.00 in free Walmart gift cards, Walmart was the perfect choice.

Walmart:

2 pkgs. of broccoli florets – $1.00 each
1 Lay’s Poppables – $1.98 after Q
2 Doritos – $2.00 each after Q
1 Frito’s Scoops – $ 1.98 after Q
1 pkg. corn – $1.00
2 Pizza Dough – $1.00 each
1 Orville Redenbacher popcorn – $ 4.98
1 Fiesta Cheese – $ 2.56
1 Wholly Guacamole Minis – $ 3.78(reduced for quick sale)
1 Ruffles – $ 3.48 after Q = $ 2.98
1 Spring Mix – $ 2.97(reduced for quick sale)
1 Cinnamon Cream Cheese – $ 1.57
1 M & M’s – $ 2.98
1 Seeded Rolls – $ 2.78
1 Croissants – $ 2.39(reduced for quick sale)
1 Angel Food Cake – $ 1.78 (reduced for quick sale)

Total was $ 18.86 after $ 25.00 in Walmart Gift Cards.

The Q’s were off 2 pkgs. of Lay’s and were stickies on the packages so keep your eye out for them. I have never seen so many reduced for quick sale items at my Walmart. I think I shopped right after they marked them down. Hubby is loving the angel food cake and croissants. I am loving the spring mix and the mini guacamoles on my salads. West is coming to stay for 4 days soon so we will make homemade pizzas which he loves.


Did you get any good deals this week?

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Every Day

Saving With My Large Pressure Cooker

By using my large pressure cooker, I save 70% in energy over using the stove top. It is amazing how energy efficient they are. This one is not an Instant Pot but cooks just the same. I had this one long before I ever heard of an Instant Pot. I will be using it a lot this fall and winter.

The bonus is that it is easy to cook the food in and doesn’t take much preparation time. So dinner is on the table in a matter of minutes.

Last week, I did a roast beef along with red potatoes, onions, carrots, and celery in it. The celery I added along with the roast beef. That only took 50 minutes. After taking the roast beef out, I added the onions, potatoes and carrots which only took another 10 minutes. Prior to cooking the roast beef, I was able to brown it right in the pressure cooker. Sorry, I have no pictures of the roast that but I was having a lot of trouble with my camera last week. Hubby has now fixed it. The picture at the top of this post is an old one.

On Saturday, I cooked 4 chicken breasts in Hickory Smoked SF BBQ sauce. That only took 6 minutes. I cooked up some fresh broccoli and Hubby cooked some corn. We had a delicious meal. The leftovers are pictured above. I sliced up the last two chicken breasts so that they would marinate in the sauce before I heated them up for dinner on Sunday. Hubby had his on rice and I had mine with some cauliflower rice. 

So the next time you are planning out your dinner meal, think about using your pressure cooker to save on your utility bill. If you don’t have a pressure cooker, think about what you do have that will cook your meal more energy efficient. Most small appliances are more energy efficient than your oven or stove top.

What do you cook in your pressure cooker?