Category: Every Day

It seems to me that all we have done is spend money which we have this summer. But there are many cost cutting things we have done also.

We changed the furnace filter to keep the A/C running efficiently. We do this every 4-6 weeks. We have turned the A/C up to 76 from 75 to see if it makes any difference on our bill.

I filled our car tank up with gas and saved $.20 off per gallon using Top’s points. I will have to be more efficient with watching prices on Gas Buddy since I won’t be earning points like I used to when I was shopping. I can use my Walmart+ discount at certain stations. The cash station usually has a great price when I don’t have grocery points.

I have been working on using up all of the disposable razors that I have collected over the years for free or on deep discount to shave my legs. I continue to use up all of the foundation for my face that I have hanging around. The same goes for other makeup.

We continue to use very few paper towels so that the next package I open was purchased before the pandemic. We use rags and microfiber cloths for almost every cleaning job.

I still haven’t had to buy toilet paper since before the pandemic. We have a bidet and we have really gotten our money’s worth from it.

Hubby wants me to hire a maid to come every 2 weeks to clean our house. I keep putting that idea off. As long as I can do my morning and evening routines and clean one room a day Monday through Friday, I can do it. I have had maids twice in my life and that has never worked out well. I can’t get over the fact that they don’t clean as well as I do so I end up letting them go. So until I can’t do it anymore, I will continue to do it.

Genealogy research continues to be a source of entertainment for me. I am getting good value out of the discounted price I got a few weeks ago.

I finally finished J.D. Vance’s book so Hubby is reading it. When he is done, I will pass it along to someone else to read.

We have wasted no food. When it needs to be used, we find a way or freeze it.

When I stripped the bed that West was staying in, I set aside those sheets to wash when I have more sheets to wash along with tablecloths or dish towels. I only wash full loads.

I have been watering down our thick shampoos to get more out of them. I have been doing the same with Dawn dish soap. They are much too thick. Every penny counts when you are saving for a goal.

We also cut open our toothpaste tubes to get every bit out of them. With prices going up every week, we need to make sure we use up all that we have paid for.

Hubby has continued since our spring cleanup to do all the weeding and trimming of our gardens. That is a huge amount of money we have saved instead of paying the landscape people to do it like we did for years. I am talking thousands of dollars. He is getting exercise and enjoys it.

I cleaned the dishwasher yesterday with a packet of lemon Kool-Aid. Anyone who has read my blogs since the beginning knows that I have been using that as a cleaner since well before dishwasher cleaners were a thing. It is so much cheaper than those cleaners.

I did 4 pints of peach jam this morning and I have 4 pints to go this afternoon.

What have you done to cut costs the past week or so?

The beginnings of a new recipe that we tried. I had a package of breakfast sausage that I wanted to use up. I do not like breakfast sausage so I tried it in this skillet dish to see if the other ingredients would help with the flavor. I cut the sausage up into small pieces and added a cut up onion. I then sauteed all.

Next I cut up 2 apples to stretch it and added 1/4 cup of Swerve brown sugar, 1/4 tsp. of cayenne pepper, 1 tbsp. of cinnamon, salt and pepper, and 2 cups of apple juice.

I simmered it down till it thickened a little and then added a little cornstarch and cold water to help it along. Then we served it over jasmine rice.

It was so good. The cayenne just gave it enough heat without overpowering the dish. Hubby said he would like me to leave the onions out next time. So I will try that. I also think one apple sliced up would have been enough for us. Anyhow, we ate this for two dinners and a brunch.

West and my son did not come on Sunday because West is coming out to stay with us for 5 days on Wednesday. It is his usual spend time in the summer with Grandma and Grandpa. He is now 14 and 6 feet tall. His taste for things have changed so I don’t know what I will be feeding him besides fish. He loves almost any kind of fish. So Hubby will be frying haddock for dinner one night. I also have shrimp. I will talk to him when he comes and then plan out some meals.

I still have not done a load of wash this week. I don’t have a full load yet. I finally had to run the dishwasher after 3 days. It was very full.

I have a pair of new jeans that need to be taken up. Everything is always too long for me. I have been procrastinating doing it for a couple of months. I can’t make up my mind whether to take them to the seamstress down the street or do them myself. I wonder what the going rate to have her do this would be. She has done stuff for me before and she does beautiful work. I think I will call her tomorrow and find out what she will charge.

The weatherstrip on the bottom of an outside door is coming off. Hubby will replace it when he gets to Home Depot to get a new one. With A/C on, it needs to be done very soon.

Hubby went to our local iron works company last Friday to see what they can do to make us a railing for the patio steps. They are not taking appointments right now because they have so much work. They told him to call mid September and they will schedule someone to come and measure and book an appointment. They approximated the cost to be between $1500. and $ 2000. Hubby says it is about what he thought it would be. We will be getting this done as soon as possible.

On Saturday, our sprinkler system came on because it is on a timer. An hour or so later, it started to rain so I manually turned that off as to not waste water.

I did not feel well on Sunday so we just had some canned chicken soup from our pantry. Thankfully, I feel much better today.

My plans this week are to go to Top’s on Tuesday which is 6% senior discount day to get a few things. Their loss leaders are not very good this week so I will not be spending much. I am interested in their peaches that they will have on sale for $ 1.77 a lb. That is the cheapest price I have seen here anywhere. Hubby wants me to make a lot of peach jam. I made 6 jars last year and he blew threw it in no time. So I will be making much more this year. I already have a lot of Certo, pectin, and jars in my pantry.

I am also hoping that our school district will have set their tax rate by the end of this week so that I can estimate what our school tax bill will be when it comes around September 1st. Their budget had a 3.5% tax levy increase that was voted in last spring.

Did you save any money this weekend?

This month we were only able to save $ 8100. in July for our savings goal. As you know we had a small patio and wall built in our backyard to protect our grill from the winds we get here. That took a large chunk of money. Hubby is now getting estimates to have iron railings built on the stone stairs that let us enter the patio from our breakfast room. It is hard for me to maneuver those steps because of my back and sciatica without help. The railings would allow me to do that by myself. I expect that these will not be cheap but as Hubby says if it makes it easier for me, it is well worth it. All the years we saved money for retirement, we knew that as we aged we wanted to be able to pay for the things we need to keep us active in our own home. This is one of those things now.

We also did a little bit of eating out this past month which is unusual for us. It has been so hot and a couple of times I did not want to cook. We will probably do that once when our grandson comes to stay next week. To be honest I will be happy when Fall arrives. The heat and humidity has been oppressive all summer and I am looking forward to some cooler days.

Our gas and electric bill was a whopper this month too. Even though we used 141 less KWH’s and the same natural gas than the same period last year, our bill was much higher. The supply charges were ridiculous. Last year’s bill for 141 more KHW’s was $ 147.03. This current July bill was $176.60. Even though it has been hot, our average daily use per day was down 3 KWH. We were able to turn it off for 3 days also. We have had a rate increase every year for the past 3 years also. I suspect August will be higher too because the weatherman is predicting heat and humidity for weeks in August. They are also predicting here in my area, it will be much colder and much snowier this winter. I had better find a new snowplow guy since mine moved to Florida.

Were you able to save up some money in July? What are you saving for?

We had a great time. Chris and Hubby arrived on Wednesday of last week. After we chatted for a while and got to know each other a little, I made dinner. My Hubby grilled pork rib eye steaks which we get from Rastelli’s in NJ. We slathered those with Tuscan Herb butter. For sides I roasted baby potatoes in a skillet. They were so much better than doing them on a sheet pan in the oven. I also made fried apples and steamed broccoli. I had picked up cupcakes at our neighbors bakery the day before. It has been so hot here this summer that I do not like turning on an oven.

After chatting for hours after dinner and a good night’s rest, I made eggs, bacon, fried up the roasted potatoes leftover from dinner, and served cinnamon buns, that I got at the same bakery, for breakfast. When everyone was ready we headed to https://www.discoverlockport.com/thelocks which Chris wanted to go to. We took this funny picture up top while there. We went through the discovery center and then went outside to explore the locks. While walking back from the locks to our car, we had to go into https://www.lakeeffecticecream.com/team-3 where we had a hard time picking out which ice cream we wanted to try because there was so many different flavors which were delicious. Hubby and I will be visiting this place for a treat more often.

I served Chris and her Hubby some charcuterie food for lunch. We don’t usually eat lunch.

After just relaxing for a while, we went to Russell’s for dinner that I talked about in my first post. Everyone loved their food.

The next day, I think we were going to go to a museum in downtown Buffalo. However my back was really bothering me from our day before and I knew that parking could be an issue and there would be a lot of walking. So I told the 3 of them to go and I would stay home and rest. But they all insisted on staying home with me. I really appreciated that.

So we had leftover dinners from Russell’s for breakfast. Chris made the Cincinnati chili for lunch which we did try. Then for dinner, I made chicken in wine sauce and served some of the cucumbers and tomatoes that they had brought for dinner. Of course we had to have mudslide ice cream for dessert.

After dinner, we sat out on the patio until almost 11pm just enjoying the conversation.

Chris and her Hubby left about 10:30am on Saturday. They had about a 6 hour drive home. We really appreciate the days they drove to visit us. And I am happy that we had sunny clear days while they were here.

Chris has adopted me as her big sister and I am happy to oblige. She and her Hubby are some of the nicest people you would ever want to meet. Chris and I both agree that our spent time together went too fast. We will definitely be seeing each other again soon.

But Chris, before I forget, I need to show everyone the other gift you brought. I am sorry that I forgot. When I went into the freezer today, I saw it. Thanks so much.

Since they went home, I’ve been reading, doing laundry, and running errands. We have also been trying to use up all of those tomatoes by making turkey BLT sandwiches the past two nights for dinner. Cucumbers and the baby tomatoes have been snacks.

I will be back tomorrow with my grocery haul and some other things. On August 1st, I will let you know how much money we saved in July.

They arrived on Wednesday late afternoon. The minute they came in the house, they started unloading the goodies they brought us. All of it from their state: 2 different wines, a jar of smoked jalapeno’s, a jar of cowboy candy, many tomatoes and cucumbers and a fresh jalapeno from their garden( some of which we ate with dinner on Friday night), and a bag of vidalia onions because I had mentioned that I couldn’t find them or they were rotten when I did.

I have been eating these by the handful for a quick snack.

This beautiful reusable bag and some buckeye candies many of which have already been eaten. Her Hubby brought some beers made at the breweries a couple of which Hubby has already enjoyed.

On Friday for lunch, Chris made us Cincinnati chili which we had never had before. She brought 2 cans to make it here and 2 cans for me to make two meals later. We loved it so much that I tried to see if I could get more online. I found these 6 cans on the Walmart online site and they arrived on Saturday. So now I have 8 and these should last 1 year. One can is big enough for the two of us.

Chris heated 2 cans of chili to make it for us and one can of kidney beans. Then she cut up some onion and put that and some finely shredded cheddar cheese on the table for toppings. She cooked up some spaghetti to put the chili on. You picked your choice of toppings. It was all so delicious.

There were some kidney beans left so I froze those to add to red beans and rice when I make it. Waste not, want not!

Thank you Chris for all of the goodies. I hope you enjoy the jars of my canned chicken and ground beef that I gave you guys.

I will be back to tell you more about their visit tomorrow. I have an appointment in 20 minutes so I need to end this now.

If you have ever read the comments on my blog, I am sure that you have benefited from Chris writing. This is a picture of from left to right: my Hubby, Chris’s Hubby, me and Chris. This was at https://www.russellssteaks.com/menu . This is our very favorite restaurant and Chris wanted to go there. We had wonderful filet mignons and sea bass dinners along with appetizers of jumbo crab cakes, French onion soup, and seafood sherry bisque. Add a couple of drinks and we were very full. Everything was delicious. We had a gift certificate that our son gave us for Christmas and a bonus $25. gift certificate that came with it that Chris and Hubby were able to use. These helped defray the cost because this is an expensive restaurant so the certificates helped.

If I look tired, I was. I was up early that morning after staying up chatting with Chris and her Hubby very late into the night. I can’t even begin to tell you what a great time we had. Chris and I hit it off from the time she stepped foot out of the car. My Hubby and Chris’s Hubby are both engineers. They were inseparable. The days of their visit went too quickly and we can’t wait to see them again.

This all came about because I told Hubby about Chris last autumn. She started reading my first blog in 2008 the year after I started writing it and has been reading ever since. I started out answering her comments and then we started e-mailing and now we are texting. I felt like I knew her and her husband even though we had never met. Hubby said why don’t you invite them to visit. She wanted to come this summer because it would be easier for them. I have never invited someone to my home that I hadn’t met. This turned out to be the best time ever and I knew it would be safe. They are just wonderful people.

I am tired so I will write more about their visit tomorrow. I read half of J.D. Vance’s book “Hillbilly Elegy” this afternoon and I am going to try to finish it tonight. It is so good and reminds me of my childhood.