Category: Every Day

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Every Day

Updates on Our Two Families

I quickly heard from one of our couples this morning. Their lives have become hectic with Noreen working her part time job so she hasn’t been able to e-mail me as often. The following is what she told me this morning.

She and Bruce have paid $5300. on their $21,000. debt since the end of September. They have been able to do this with her part time job paycheck and cutting every expense that they can since the last time we spoke. They expect to continue doing that until the credit card bill is paid and then they will reevaluate where they are at. They are making one exception. They are going to use $300. this month of her paycheck to purchase Christmas gifts for their son and some nieces and nephews. Any extra will be used for some special food items for Christmas.

They have not spent anything for clothing or eating out. They have cancelled all entertainment and hobbies except for Netflix. They decided that gave them enough things to watch.

Through careful planning, they have cut their monthly grocery bill down to $100. They had a small stockpile and they have been eating some of that which is helping their grocery budget.

Noreen says that Bruce has always gotten a Christmas bonus from his company. So if that happens this year, they will apply it to their debt to pay it down faster. They also expect that they may get a Tax refund in early 2019, so that will be put on the debt also.

I have to say that I am impressed that they have stayed the course. They are doing really well and are still very motivated to get all of their debt paid in full. They have done what needs to be done to get themselves on secure footing again. So many people start working on it and then give up. Some people continue to use their credit cards for every bump in the road and that gets them no where….just farther in debt. But not Bruce and Noreen. They have not used a credit card since they started this journey.

I have not heard from the Joneses. I have e-mailed and e-mailed and get no response. I am wondering if they have given up. I hope not because they were doing very well! If I ever hear from them again, I will let you know.

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Every Day

2019 Goal: Clearance Shopping

I love when I see something on clearance that we can use. But I really don’t have a trained eye for it. It is not something that I go in to a store and look for. But that is changing.

In 2019, I will be scanning for clearance whenever I go into a store no matter what kind of store it is: grocery, department, hardware, etc. Matter of fact, I started looking this morning. I needed to stop at Walmart to buy onions. We use a lot of onions and I was down to just one which made me nervous. So I went in and planned to scan their produce, bread cart, grocery clearance, dairy, and any place that I saw the yellow clearance balloons.

The only clearance that I found that I knew we would use is in the picture above. I was thrilled to find the snow peas on clearance. Both packages were in good shape so I got them and put one in the produce drawer to use in stir fry this week. The other I froze  until we need it. Snow peas are one of my favorite vegetables and this was the best price I have ever seen. It doesn’t take much to make my day, but this did it.

I have used this breading before to make coconut shrimp and we really liked it. So when I saw this package, I grabbed it. I just wish they had had more.

I purchased these
items using my Walmart Savings Catcher money. I think they call it
Walmart Payday Money now. Paying nothing out of pocket always makes me
happy. 

They had lots of other clearance on the bakery cart and a bit of other grocery clearance. But nothing I needed. My goal of baking all bread unless I can get a loaf for less stopped me from buying bread. Their clearance prices are too high and I don’t need the calories from the pies, cookies, cakes and donuts they had reduced. I didn’t check meat because I rarely buy their meat unless it is a brand name.  

Walmart had lots of clothing on clearance for everyone but we don’t need clothing. If you do, I would check your Walmart.

I will learn to do clearance and hopefully do it well. I refuse to buy things that we don’t need, even if it is a good clearance price. I hate clutter and I don’t want to to become a hoarder of things that we will never use. I might as well burn our money if I do that.

Do any of you clearance shop? Are you good at it? Are there any tips that you could share with all of us about certain stores?  Please let us know in the comments. 

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Every Day

2019 Goal: Less Sweets and Junk Food

In our quest to eat healthier, we are not going to buy any sweets. If we crave something sweet, I will make it. Homemade cakes, cookies, brownies, donuts, pies, crisps, quick breads and baked apples will be the kind of sweet we will have. Parfaits made with homemade yogurt and granola will also be on the menu. Anything that I can make with Splenda, I will. 

Hubby and I like fruits, such as cuties, oranges, apples, grapes, bananas, pineapple, pears and peaches. They are sweet enough to satisfy our sweet cravings.

We do make SF puddings and jellos too. We usually eat them with SF Cool Whip.

I love ice cream but we eat too much of it. So in 2019, I will only buy it when we have company or for a special occasion like a birthday or anniversary. 

Junk food is getting cut back. Once a month I will buy a bag of potato chips and/or tortilla chips. We like potato chips with sandwiches and we love tortilla chips in certain recipes like tortilla soup or as a lunch with salsa. Popcorn and nuts are on the approved list. We can easily make our own Chex mix and that lasts a long, long time. 

Not only will this plan be healthier but it will cost us a lot less money. Junk food per lb. is really expensive! I could buy a lot of meats for the price of junk food. 

Can we survive this restrictive plan? Time will tell but we are going to give it our all.   

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Every Day

2019 Goal: Save for Christmas

Every year I have good intentions to save up all “extras” for Christmas gifts. I did pretty well in 2018 but I know when I get busy I miss things.

So in 2019 I will be more focused. I plan on saving all bottle return money in a jar. In New York, we have a $.05 deposit on all returnable cans of soda and beer, and water bottles. I don’t buy bottled water now but Hubby does drink Diet Coke and we have the occasional beer bottle. I have two bags here that need to be taken back so they will go in the 2019 Christmas Fund.

We already save all of our change in a container for the grandchildren which we love doing. So that idea is out!

But I can save every survey and rebate check that I get. That would include rebates from Ibotta and Fetch. I will also save rebates from Saving Star,  Checkout51, Ebates, and from searching through Bing. I already have a rebate check sitting here waiting to be cashed. Since our Christmas shopping is all done and paid for, I will start my 2019 savings with that check and the bottle returns.

I do a fair amount of grocery and wine and liquor rebates during the year. So they will be saved for Christmas 2019.  

We get cash rewards from using our credit cards. I can save that money and use it for Christmas presents. Since we charge almost everything on our best rewards card and pay it in full every month, that money adds up very quickly. I just cashed in for $100. so I will save that.

I can’t think of any more right now but if I do later, I will add them to my list.  I would love to hear your ideas for saving money for Christmas 2019. Please leave any suggestions in the comments. 

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Every Day

2019 Goal: Reuse All Plastic Bags

I have been faithfully returning all of the plastic bags that I get when I shop to the recycling bin in the supermarket. I do this with all of the ones that are not recyclable.

However, I have decided to save them to replace some of the garbage bags that we have to buy. I have started putting meat scraps, bones, and the wrappers from meat in these bags and double wrapping them and throwing them directly in the garbage can in the garage. This keeps my wastebasket in the kitchen from smelling and lets me use just one bag or less a week. I use the garbage disposal for other peelings or scraps after I make stock with them. 

Those tall kitchen garbage bags cost a lot of money to buy just to throw away. So the fewer I use, the less money I spend in a year on them. I usually buy quality ones in bulk at Walmart or from Amazon. If Walmart or anywhere else has a better price after coupon, then of course I would buy them there.


Without all of the scraps, bones and wrappers in them along with no recyclable items, it is pretty easy to get along with one or a half a bag a week. We use grocery store bags for wastebaskets in other rooms. 

I will be using grocery store bags to wrap leftovers too. I also wash and dry our ziplocs that have not had poultry or meat in them and reuse them over and over again.  I try to buy as few ziplocs in a year as possible. Last January, I purchased a lot of zippered bags with Christmas writing on them on clearance at Office Max for $.23 a box. I am still using them.

As I told you in my prior post, I have been saving all of the bread bags to reuse for my homemade breads.


Sometimes we get large bags from department stores. Those fit nicely in our kitchen wastebasket. The veterans also send a bag for donations. When I don’t have any donations, I use them for the kitchen wastebasket also.


I have started saving the produce bags from the market for leftovers. I reuse many of the cereal bags that are in the boxes for food use too.

Just look around you, there are many plastic bags that you can use over and over again. When they no longer work, take them to your local supermarket for recycling. Don’t let them end up in your landfill.

Do you reuse plastic bags? What do you use them for?

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Every Day

2019 Goal: Bread

I have wanted forever to make my own bread. I have a bread maker but I rarely use it. That is going to change. Hubby is starting to learn how to make bread and I am going to also.

Yes, I will use my bread maker for a lot of what we need. But I am going to make all of our rolls: hamburger, hot dog, submarine, dinner rolls, biscuits, and any other roll that we want to eat. I will make English muffin bread in place of buying English muffins.

We have a Kitchen Aid stand mixer with a dough hook so we can make our own dough and bake bread in the oven. I want to try all different kinds of recipes this year.

We already make our own quick breads and muffins. I have even made doughnuts. The only bread that I will buy are bagels at Panera Bread. That is because I am still trying to spend all of the gift cards that I purchased at a discount a couple of years ago. So I use those on Tuesdays when we need bagels and get a bakers dozen for $ 6.99. It takes us a long time to eat a dozen, so we freeze most of them and just take out two when we are craving one.

I will still purchase wraps because I don’t want to attempt them this year and they are cheap to buy. 

Knowing that this was going to be a goal for 2019, I have been saving bread wrappers and twist ties to use for my own homemade. I also have some bread bags from buying bagels that will give me a head start. When I freeze bread, I like to double wrap it to keep it from freezer burning.

I have stockpiled some all purpose flour and bread flour at rock bottom prices. I say some because I don’t want to keep too much on hand at once. I want it to be fresh when I use it. I have a stockpile of yeast in the freezer.

Will making our own bread save us money? I don’t know. I am sure it will save us some. I will keep track of what I am spending to make it and what it would cost me at the market.  But I am more interested in eating our bread without all of the preservatives. Have you noticed lately that loaves of bread from the grocery store last for many, many weeks before they go moldy? Then you look at the ingredients and you see all of the preservatives listed. My homemade bread will need to be frozen and used as we need it because it won’t have those preservatives. But that is a good thing. 

I do have two loaves of bread and 2 packages of English muffins in the freezer now so they will be used up. I don’t ever want to waste anything. 

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Every Day

Our 2019 Goals

We have always had goals we want to reach each year. While we have been pretty good at raising our net worth every year even though we are retired, we have smaller goals that we want to concentrate on in 2019 that will help us raise our net worth but also let us concentrate on things we have always wanted to learn. 

In some cases, they are things that we want to make habits in our household. Many will be learning to make things from scratch that will not only save us dollars but be healthier for us. 

These goals will not only touch on our food saving but every other item that we pay money for. We are hoping it will be the best money saving and learning year yet. Even though we are in our seventies, we have a thirst for knowledge. We always have and we are not about to stop now!

So I hope you will join us on our journey in 2019 and that you can learn something new too. I hope that we can learn from all of you also. Knowledge is power when it is shared back and forth!

Even though it is not 2019 yet, I will start touching on these goals this week. My Christmas shopping is done and wrapped, our taxes have been looked at so that we are properly prepared for the end of the year, our goals have been written out for 2019, our stockpile for the winter is in the house, and we have more time to do so in the next few weeks.  

Have you set your goals for next year yet?

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Every Day

Waste Not, Want Not

We are using up the leftovers from Thanksgiving. Every dab of everything will get used. I have never understood why people don’t use leftovers. I have known so many of them who just throw them out. They might as well just burn their money and not waste their time cooking them. Remember every penny always counts. They all add up!


This morning, Hubby made potato pancakes from all of the mashed potatoes we had. He put cheddar cheese in them and I have to tell you they were delicious. I love them with a dab of sour cream and Hubby loves ketchup.

We have leftover cranberry sauce. It will be used with Little Smokies and some chili sauce for dinner tomorrow night. Any leftovers will be lunch on Tuesday.

There is a little sausage stuffing smothered in gravy which will be lunch for us tomorrow. 

And today I made homemade turkey and rice soup for dinner. All the leftover turkey went in it. When I cut up celery for the stuffing. I diced enough for the soup too. I also sliced up carrots and used the leftover corn from Thanksgiving. The last of the gravy was thrown in along with the broth. Leftovers will be frozen for future soup meals.

Get creative with your leftovers and save those dollars! They will increase your net worth a lot during a year’s time.  

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Every Day

I Wish You A Happy Thanksgiving

We wish you a very Happy Thanksgiving tomorrow! We want you to be grateful for your families and your family’s health. Those are the most important things in life. We are grateful for ours. I also want you to know that I am grateful for every one of my readers throughout all of these years. You give me inspiration with your comments and I hope I inspire you with a little advice. 

We have been going to appointments this week and preparing for company. My son, DIL, and granddaughter will be arriving around noontime today. We are so looking forward to spending time with them this holiday. We haven’t seen them since the summer. My granddaughter was taller than me last summer and I can’t wait to see if she has grown some more. I can’t wait to hear all about her new school.

I will be back posting on Monday after my company leaves and I get caught up around here. Enjoy your turkey dinners and your Black Friday shopping. My very best to all of you!

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Every Day

A Little of This and a LIttle of That

I decided to do some baking for Thanksgiving today.
I baked two loaves of pumpkin bread and two loaves of banana bread. They are all from scratch.  After they cooled, I double wrapped them in aluminum foil and froze them. They will be part of our breakfasts while my family is here for the Thanksgiving holiday. So I will pull them from the freezer the night before I need them. 

So what do you do for dinner when you have been baking?  I was tired but didn’t want to spend the money to go out. So I grabbed some cooked chicken that I put in the freezer from the 2nd roasting chicken that I cooked  a bit ago. I diced it and added it to a Zatarain’s Red Beans and Rice mix that was in my basement stockpile. Hubby tossed a bagged coleslaw mix with diced apples, raisins and walnut pieces and added his own sauce. It was about 5 -10 minutes hands on time and it was delicious.


I wrote our two couples who I have been helping this past week because I hadn’t heard from them. They are both busy especially because they will be traveling for Thanksgiving. So they are going to write to me after they get back. When they update me, I will update you. 


I am happy that I have all of my Christmas shopping done and wrapped. I am almost ready for Thanksgiving. I just have some pies to make and bake either Tuesday or Wednesday. Tom turkey has been defrosting in the refrigerator since this morning. This is one of my favorite holidays especially when family is coming to visit. I miss my granddaughter so much and can’t wait to see her!

While I have been shopping, wrapping and baking for the holidays, we have been thinking about our goals for 2019.  We have been brainstorming for months. There are a lot of small things that we want to do to let us save some serious money next year. Have you thought about your goals for the New Year? It’s not too early to do so.