Category: Every Day

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Every Day

Preparing For Food Bargains

It’s the time of year to start thinking about getting needed items at rock bottom prices. There are three holidays coming up that I always shop. I will list them and the things that I get dirt cheap.

Halloween and the days After Halloween:

Candy Reduced to 50 – 90% off – Walmart usually has the best supply. But I do check any other markets or drugstores that I happen to be in. I use this candy for Christmas and next Halloween if it has a long expiration date. I will use chocolate candy to bake Thanksgiving and Christmas treats. 

Halloween Branded Cake Mixes – I have gotten these as cheap as $ .39 a box. When they go that low, I buy a lot to use all year for birthdays., etc.

Halloween Branded Frostings – When these go on clearance, I get a many as I can. You don’t have to use the Halloween sprinkles that come with them in the frosting. They can be saved for next year’s Halloween cupcakes.

Halloween Branded Cookies – I use these for treats for the grandchildren.

Before and Up to Thanksgiving:

Whole Turkeys – This the cheapest time of year to buy them. I have gotten them as low as Free with purchases and $.47 a lb. when I have purchased them.

Cream Soups- They are cheap because of the green bean casseroles that everyone makes.

Stuffing Mixes – I buy as many as are needed to go with the number of turkeys I purchase.

Cranberries – If I can get  bags between $ 1.00 and $1.69, I stock on these to make sauce and to make muffins all year.

Olives – Hubby loves olives and they are very cheap this time of year.

Chicken Broth – I usually pick up about 4 as spares when they go on sale. I like to make my own when I cook the turkeys.

Sugar, Flour and Other Baking items – These are at their lowest prices now and before Christmas.

Ham’s – They go rock bottom and stay there for Christmas. I will pay anywhere from $.79 a lb to $1.19 a lb.

Potatoes – They are about $.40 a lb. Even if they go higher they will be at the cheapest price all year.

Frozen Veggies – They usually go on sale for under $1.00 a bag or box, especially green beans.

Before and after Christmas:

Candy – the same as Halloween above. I use these for Valentines Day and St. Patrick’s Day by separating the colors. I freeze chocolate candy and use it to bake cookies all year long. 


Hams – the same as Thanksgiving.


Pork Roasts – I can usually get them for under
$ 1.49 a lb.

Eggs – They are usually cheap to use in making desserts.

Flour Sugar and Other Baking Items – the same as at Thanksgiving.

Chocolate Chips – If they go rock bottom (under $1.00), I will buy some to replenish my supply.

This is not a final list. I am sure that there are many things that I have missed. So if you can add to this list, please feel free to leave a comment so that we can all add them to our lists.  

I wish you all a safe and fun weekend.   
 

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Every Day

Getting Ready For Winter

Winter is coming whether we like it or not. In a few short months it will be here. 

As I was walking toward my front door yesterday, I saw that sunlight was coming from under the door and leaving a spot of sun on our entryway rug. It made me realize that we have a leak under the door. So I asked Hubby to check it out and get it fixed soon. It looks like we need a new sweep put on the door. That is not something I want to let go with the heat going to be turned on soon. A lot of $$$$’s could leak out all winter. UGH!

Before he goes to the hardware store for the sweep, he will check our other two outside doors to make sure that they are airtight.

It will also be time soon to put our storm windows down instead of the screens. So that has also been put on my to do list.

If you haven’t stocked up on furnace filters, it is a  good time to do it….before you need them. I just purchased 12 of the cheapest filters I could at Home Depot on the recommendation of our heating expert. They were $.98 each. They get changed on the first of every month in our home.

Hubby is always cold in the house when cold weather hits. I didn’t understand it because we keep our heat at 70-72. But let me tell you, I understand it now. Since I have lost so much weight, I am always cold. So the both of us plan on bundling up this year inside the house. I have very few long sleeve shirts that fit me. So every week when I go to the market, I hit up Goodwill and look for them. So far I haven’t found any that I like that will fit me. But I will keep looking. 

In the meantime, I have sweaters and sweatshirts that I will wear. They are 4 sizes too big but will work when no one sees me. If I have to, I will put on my too big coat in the house. Hubby wears a coat and fingerless gloves  most of the winter in the house.

I refuse to put the heat up higher than 72 so we will just have to layer and go with it.  

I just washed all of our extra blankets that have been off the beds all summer. They will get put on soon too to keep us warm before the heats goes on. When the heat goes on, Hubby sets the night time temperature to 65. When he does that, I put the electric blanket on our bed.

Hubby just caulked windows last Fall but he will check and make sure that it does not have to be done this Fall. 

All of our energy saving shades are in good shape and fit tightly so none of them need to be replaced.

We will use our garage door to enter and exit our home because it is more protected than the other doors. That will help keep as little cold air out of our home as possible. 

Hubby has scheduled the appointment to have our sprinkler system blow out. After the company does that, he will turn the outside water faucets off in the basement and drain the outside faucets so they don’t freeze during the winter.  

I am sure you have all noticed that I have been stockpiling for the winter. I will be doing one more  large stockpiling shop just before Thanksgiving when turkeys and hams go on sale really cheap.  I will stock on turkeys, hams, stuffing, butter, sugar and flour. Perhaps a few other things too. 

We have enough other meat to get us through the winter. Matter of fact, I am cooking my first sirloin roast of the Fall in the pressure cooker today along with some veggies and some potatoes for Hubby. It just seems like a Fall day today plus I have a ton of errands to run so cooking quickly in the pressure cooker will work well.

The reason that I stockpile is so that I don’t have to go out too many times over the winter to get food. I do not like driving in the snow and ice. And I don’t like the cold. This way I can also stock up at rock bottom prices too. 


When and if I need fresh stuff or dairy, I now have Top’s, Wegman’s and Super Walmart’s pickup or delivery available to me which I will use. If we get a stretch of really bad weather, I will place an order. If I know that it is going to be a good winter day, I may do pickup. It will all depend on the weather. 


If I am going to pay for delivery, I will wait until I have a large list to make the delivery charges worth it. There is really nothing that we can’t go without until that happens. We have plenty of food.

What are you doing to get ready for winter? Please feel free to leave a comment and share with all of us. 

      

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Every Day

Never Forget 9/11

Tribute in Light memorial, on September 11th, in New York City 

I remember that horrible day 18 years ago. We had just moved into our Arizona home 10 days before after a long trip from NY. It was very early in the morning when our phone rang. Knowing that it couldn’t be anything good at that hour, we answered our phone.

It was my son who lived in Arizona calling to tell us to turn on our TV. We were in total shock listening and watching the news that day. I still remember it vividly.

We should never forget the people who died in those towers and the airplanes that went down in NYC that day, the people on the flight that went down in Shanksville, PA, the people on the flight and on the ground that went down in the Pentagon, and the firefighters, the first responders, and police officers who went to help and lost their lives also. 

And we should never take anything for granted. Life can end in an instant. So always remember to hold your family close and kiss and hug them good bye every time you leave or they leave your home.

My usual frugal things post is below this one.  

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Every Day

Frugal Things This Past Week

These are the things that we have done frugally this past week:

– I used a $5.00 off coupon to get Hubby’s and my winter coats dry cleaned.

– I received a $3.00 rebate in the mail.

– I cashed in my Ibotta rebates for a $10.00 Walmart gift card.


-I received a $5.00 Walmart gift card from Bing.


– I washed two loads of clothing and towels in cold water in the HE using the crystal eggs to wash;Hung the clothing to dry and used the dryer with the wool balls for the towels to cut down on the drying time needed.

– Grocery shopping was done for just needed items this week. I did no stockpiling there.

– We have been grilling our meat outside to use up the propane. We don’t like storing it over the winter. 

– I washed some windows on the outsides using a bucket of water, vinegar, a little dishwasher soap and our squeegee.

– Hubby trimmed the rose bushes and transplanted a bush to a front yard garden.

– I renewed my library card and took out one book to read.

– Hubby continues to get everything off the garage floor to get ready for the work that is going to be done on it in mid-October.

– I stocked up on toilet paper and garbage bags at great prices from Amazon.     

– Entertainment this week: We had company for dinner last Tuesday evening. We had family watch the Bills game with us on Sunday. My son bought us an early take out dinner that afternoon. 

– The A/C has stayed off and we have not turned on the heat even though it has gotten cold a few nights. 

– I soaked the apples I purchased in a solution of 1 Tbsp. of baking soda and 6 cups of water for about 15 minutes, rinsed them well, and dried them. Studies have shown that this removes most of the pesticides. I don’t purchase rinse to do this.

– I filled up two 2 ltr. bottles(from Hubby’s Diet Coke) with tap water to add to my water stockpile. 


– I returned a bag of cans and bottles to Fast Cash and got $2.60 in deposit returns. 

– Picked up a 90 day prescription that had no co-pay. 


– I am continuing to save plastic grocery store bags to stockpile for my wastebasket disposal. It won’t be long before our state’s ban goes into effect.


– With the colder weather kicking in my arthritis is starting to bother me, so I soaked in the bathtub in epsom salts which always makes me feel better. I added epsom salts to my errand list because I am getting low. 

– We will use the leftover turkey taco meat for taco salads again tonight. We love these and don’t mind eating them two nights in a row. Waste not, want not! 


What have you done frugally this past week? Please share so that we can all teach each other.

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Every Day

Grocery Shopping This Past Week and Good Family News

There was no stockpiling on this trip because nothing that I needed to add to my winter supplies was on sale at my rock bottom price.

I went to Aldi’s and Top’s and this is what I purchased:

Aldi’s:

Large Eggs – $ 1.09
1/2 gallon of milk – $ 1.19
Bacon – $ 3.79 
Loaf of bread – $ . 85
Sour Cream – $.89
Romaine Hearts – $ 2.19
Winter Blend Cauliflower & Broccoli – $ 1.09
1 Cantaloupe – $ 1.49

Total was $ 12.58.

Top’s:

4.60 Lbs. of Apples @ $ .49 lb. = $ 2.25 
18 oz. of Lean Ground Turkey – $ 2.99 – Free with Coupon
1 Uncle Ben’s Ready Rice – $ 1.49 after store cpn
16 oz. Planter’s Cocktail Peanuts – $ 3.79
2 Cucumbers – $.99 each = $ 1.98

Total was $ 9.51.

Eggs are higher than they have been and will probably go higher the colder it gets here. Hubby was almost out of milk for cereal. We always need bacon.

Tonight we are having taco salads using the romaine, ground turkey and sour cream. The veggies will get used this week. I eat a lot of veggies for dinners and lunches. 

Hubby loves melon for breakfast. I will be making homemade applesauce from the apples. We needed the cucumbers for salads. And last, Hubby wanted to make banana salad and he had no peanuts.

Now for the good family news: My oldest son graduated from a 2 year community college after high school. He was all set to attend a 4 year college out of state but changed his mind 3 weeks prior to starting. A few years after getting his 2 year degree, he married and then they had my granddaughter. During that time he started going back to college nights to get his B.S. degree. It has taken him almost 18 years in 3 different states, with several moves, starting and stopping, but he never lost sight of his goal. He now has all of his credits and all course work completed and is getting his B.S. diploma. Needless to say we are very proud of him. He did it the hard way just like his Dad! I have to give my daughter in law some credit for this too. It isn’t easy to raise a child while your Hubby is working and going to school nights. I remember all too well. Thank you DIL for always being there for your family.

Did any of you get any good deals at the supermarket this past week?    

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Every Day

A Little of This and a Little of That

We had a quiet weekend except for yesterday. My son and grandson came to watch the Bills game with us. My son treated us to a take out lunch from Ales and Sandviches. 

Since he picked it up at halftime, we did not have to make dinner. A little snack sufficed. A day without much cooking is wonderful. I didn’t think the Bills would win because they were not looking good in the first half. However they came back to win which made me very happy. 

The rest of the weekend, Hubby watched other football games while I worked on our family trees. I have not belonged to Ancestry. com for years. I decided on Saturday to sign up for a 14 day free trial and then subscribe for 6 months. I am happy I did because there is a wealth of information there now. I am finding pictures and lots of information that I previously did not have. It is fun. 

This morning I made my to do list for this week:

– Blog every day through Friday

– Quickly pick up and clean a room a day. This takes me no more than 15-20 minutes a day and keeps my house looking good.

– Grocery shop at Top’s and Aldi’s

– Fold the towels that I washed yesterday

– Wash a load of clothes and hang them


– Take my old winter clothes that no longer fit me to Goodwill

– Exercise at the gym and at home

– Work on the family trees

– Go to my hair salon appointment

– Pick up a prescription at the drugstore

– Work on cleaning the storage areas of the basement. Toss anything that we aren’t using. 

– Grill dinners outside as much as possible before Hubby stores the grill for the winter

– Looking forward to my weekly chat with my sister. She has been away for two weeks so we need to catch up. 

I think that is enough for this week to keep me busy.
What is on your to do list this week?  

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Every Day

In My Quest To Buy In Bulk

You have probably noticed that I have been buying a lot of things in bulk lately. That has always been the case with meat and poultry. However, I have been trying to bulk buy things that we use all of the time.
 
One of reasons is so that I can place a large order and not have to think about buying that item again for a very long time. Most of the time I can mail order it for free and get the best price which means I don’t have to put much effort into shopping for it nor do I have to cart it home. I always make sure that it is the cheapest price for the item I want also. If I am going to buy in bulk and store it all I want to make sure that I am saving a ton of money on each item.

As you have seen on my blog recently, I bought liquid soap for a great price. That purchase should last us a couple of years.

I also ordered 80 rolls of toilet paper this past week. They should last us well over a year.

But one of the best purchases that I made came yesterday. We were down to just 3 tall kitchen garbage bags left. As you all know I hate purchasing these bags because of the fact that I have no choice but to bag my garbage in this town and these bags are expensive. So I looked for a better price.

I found these garbage bags at Amazon . There are one thousand black 13 gallon – 16 gallon tall kitchen garbage bags. After subscribe and save and a coupon code on my first order, I ended up paying a little over $.04 a bag. I have already cancelled the subscribe and save order telling them I have too many that will last for years. They are thinner than the normal Glad that I buy but a lot cheaper and I figure they will last us about 9 years. My tall kitchen garbage can is stainless and black so the color is perfect.

They will work for us because I recycle or reuse  everything that I can and we have a garbage disposal. So it’s just odds and ends that get thrown out that go in the kitchen garbage container. They do not come with twist ties or string ties. But I save every twist tie from other things so I have lots. If I didn’t have them I would buy these anyhow because you can easily make a knot in the top of the bag.

As I start to run out of other things, I will definitely be looking at buying more in bulk for those too. And I will definitely share those purchases with you.


Are there household items that you buy in bulk to save money and time? Please share with all of us.

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Every Day

It’s Been A Rough Day

Sorry this is so late but I have had a rough day. Besides a medical appointment this morning, I went to Dash’s for the shop I am about to show you. 

I was doing fine until I hit another car backing out of a parking space at Dash’s supermarket. I was pretty shook up and happy that no one was hurt including me. It was just a little fender bender. I haven’t had an accident since my 20’s. So it has been about 50 years. 

I managed to get most of the info the insurance company needed. I forgot the license plate of the car I hit. I was pretty shook up but I drove the 15 miles home. I called my insurance company and advised them.

Then after Hubby teasing me and calling me “Crash”,
I went back out driving to do another errand. I needed to go or I was afraid I wouldn’t get in the car again. And I do 90% of the driving. So now I am calmer and I can tell you about my grocery shop.

This is what I got at Dash’s:

1 Wavy Lay’s – $ 4.49

2 French Onion Dip @ $1.50 each

5 lbs. of Red Potatoes – $2.99

2 tomatoes on sale for $.99 a lb. = $ 1.48

1 piece of Fresh Haddock – $4.00

2 very thick cut boneless NY Strip Steaks – $27.04

Total OOP was $ 43.00.

The chips and dip are for Hubby’s football games this week. Hubby wanted some potatoes to make potato salad. The tomatoes are needed for BLT’s tomorrow night. Tonight, I am baking salmon for me and haddock for Hubby. I will add either a salad or some frozen veggies. Hubby loved the steak I got there last week. He said it was the best we had in years. So I got two more to put in the freezer. I will wrap them separately for two more steak dinners for us.

To end my day, when I came home from running the last errand, Hubby told me that we got some great family news that we had been waiting for. That made my day after everything else. 

I hope you are all having a better day than I did this morning.

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Every Day

My AHA Moment

Someone once asked me, “When did you realize that credit card debt was not a good thing? When was your AHA moment?”

I didn’t even have to think about the answer. I remembered. But let me give you a little history first.

I grew up in a flat in a home in the city that my grandparents owned. It had two flats – one upstairs and one downstairs. I lived upstairs with my mother, sister, grandmother and grandfather. 

My sister and I shared a bedroom. My mom had her dresser in this bedroom. Bedrooms were small back then and you just put things where they fit.

I knew my mom kept her clothing in that dresser. However, I would see my mom put paper in one of the drawers every once in a while. I never thought much of it until I was in junior high school. More and more I would notice her put papers in that drawer. At this point I was getting very curious.

So one day when I was home sick from school and my Grandma had fallen asleep in her chair which she did a lot, I opened that drawer and took some of the papers out. They were bills for loans in my mom’s name. At that time, I did not know they were credit card bills because I did not know what a credit card was.  I saw that they were for certain items because the items were spelled out on the bill. After looking at a few months of them, I realized that my mom had paid for these items by taking out a loan. I also noticed that she did not pay the amount owed off when she got them. She would make a payment every month but never paid the bill off in full. Each month she would owe more and more money because there would be an interest charge on the bill that the bank would add into the balance. 

The things that she would buy were just normal basic things like clothing and shoes. I remember wondering why she didn’t have enough money to pay for those things. She worked for the telephone company and had a good job. But I never questioned her for one reason. I didn’t think that she would be happy that I had snooped in her dresser. I did not want to get punished. 

That was my AHA moment. I learned very quickly that when you borrow money and you don’t pay it off when you get the bill, you pay the bank more and more. Looking at a lot of bills that went back months showed me just how much the bank had charged her. It was a lot of money.  I remember thinking to myself that I never wanted to borrow money from a bank and end up owing much more than I had borrowed.

I always had an interest in money and how it worked after that. I read any book about money that I could find in the library. I went to college for a business degree with a major in accounting. Those college courses is what made me finally realize that what my mom had borrowed on was a credit card. Those courses confirmed my belief that I was better off making money from the banks not owing them money. 

My mom never found out that I had snooped because I never told her. However, she was well aware after I got married to Hubby and we had our children that we did well with money and she told me how proud she was of that fact. She told me she was happy that we never had to worry about money because we handled it well. She knew that Hubby and I both thought the same on money and how we handled it.

So I wish my mom was here today and that I could tell her the story that I have just told you. I would tell her that she is the reason that we never really owed credit card debt. Sure we had credit cards. We got them back when we were saving for a home and needed to build our credit so that we could buy a new home about a year and a half after we married. I think we actually did not pay the bill in full no more than 3 times in our lifetime. It was usually when Hubby’s college tuition would come due back when we first married and we would need to divide it into two payments or for books. But it was always for something for Hubby’s career that would eventually make us more money. And we never owed the bill for any length of time. As quickly as we could pay it off we did. 

Sure we borrowed money for mortgages on our first two homes but we paid them both off early. We paid cash for our last two homes. We had car loans but we always paid them off early using 0% interest loans. The last three or four cars we have owned we purchased with cash.

But finding Mom’s bills and marrying a Hubby who was financially savvy and thought the way I did is the reason we are debt free. Am I happy that I snooped? You bet! Otherwise we would never have started on the debt free journey. You see no one in the families back when I grew up discussed money. That was a big mistake. Kids should be taught about money so they know how bad debt is. They should be taught how saving a little or a lot every year lets you eventually live a wonderful retirement.

I think the biggest lesson you can teach your children is to spend less than they make.

I miss my mom and the chats we would have almost daily. So pick up that phone today and talk with your mom before she isn’t around to talk to.

I am curious! When was your AHA moment?

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Every Day

Frugal Things We Did This Past Week

I made 2 loaves of French bread from scratch. I did not use the bread maker. It was all done by my hands. They turned out well. I have frozen one loaf for the future and we using one when we have company for dinner tonight. Hubby wanted it to put the gruyere cheese on in his French onion soup that he makes.

Hubby is also making homemade chicken piccata with linguine or homemade zoodles and a tossed salad. We will have SF chocolate pudding with SF Cool Whip for dessert.

We are serving Moscato with dinner. And there is plenty of liquor and beer choices for the evening. Our newspaper this weekend had a $5.00 off coupon for a liquor store in the next town. I had to go for my yearly mammogram and the radiology place is very close to this liquor store. So I stopped there and bought some libations to fill in the gaps in our bar.

I received $ 6.00 in rebates.

I got a $10.00 gift card for Walmart from Ibotta. That will get used the next time I go there for groceries. 


Speaking of Walmart, they finally have grocery pickup and delivery at my store. This will come in very handy this winter. I have a $10. off coupon code for my first order. Do any of you use these services at Walmart? If so how do you like it?

Hubby needed printer paper. I thought I had some in a box in the basement. Sure enough, I found an entire case that I got a while ago at Office Depot on a deal. So we won’t need paper for a few years.

I did just one load of wash using cold water and hung it to dry. 

We have kept the A/C off and I am hoping that we are done with it for this year. 

My son and grandson came on Sunday for breakfast. I made scrambled eggs, sausage, and cut up a cantaloupe. They ended up staying through lunch so I served snacks – tortilla chips with cheese dip, cookies, and my grandson wanted some Cheez-Its (his very favorite snack). 

I have gone down another size in clothing so my jeans are getting quite baggy. But I am going to continue to wear them until I go down another size.  I have a good belt that will keep them in place. I would like to wear them as much as I can this winter. I don’t plan on going out much because I hate the cold and the snow. Also most of my tops are short sleeved. I will make due with the few new long sleeved ones and just wear a sweater with the short ones. 

We only have about 12 boxes of kleenex in our inventory. I decided unless I see it for close to free, I will not buy any. Hubby and I will use our handkerchiefs. 

Hubby wanted a pair of jeans from LL Bean. I used Rakuten to get 2% back, a 20% off code, and a gift card purchased from Raise at a discount. I had to pay no additional cash out of pocket.

And last, we were getting low on toilet paper. Eighty rolls that I ordered from Amazon arrived on Sunday.

If it seems like I am doing a lot of shopping lately, I am. It is just our normal stock up before the winter.

Today, I went and paid our huge school tax bill of $4648. I was not happy when that arrived. Our assessment this spring went up another $33,000. It had just gone up 2 years ago by $20,000. If they raise us again, I plan on contesting it. So today was not a frugal day. However, I was able to pay it from our checking account and did not have to pull it from an investment. So that part made me happy! 

Please feel free to share what you did frugally last week. We all learn from each other.