Category: Every Day

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Every Day

Saving When Using Your Stove and Oven

Today, I want to give you some tips on saving energy when using your stove top and oven.

I have a gas stove but these tips will save you energy even if you have an electric stove.

When using your stove top, choose pans that fit the burners. You don’t want to put a small pan on a large burner or a large pan on a small burner and waste all that extra energy.

Get in the habit of using covers when you cook. Your food will cook faster especially if you are heating anything with water in it. If you are cooking something like spaghetti or hard boiled eggs, only use as much water as is necessary to cover these things. Filling the pot when unnecessary will waste  energy.

Don’t use your stove top to heat just water. Use your microwave; it uses a lot less energy.

Use the proper heat setting. Most things cook just fine on medium heat. 

Keep your stove top clean. When you allow food to blacken and burn on, it reduces the efficiency of the burner.

Buy good quality pans. A warped pan can reduce the energy by 50%. A flat pan uses all of the energy.

Plan ahead and defrost all of your food that is going into a pan or the oven. It will take less time to cook. Choose easy meals that don’t take a lot of cook time. 

Get in the habit of turning off your stove top burner a few minutes before your food is done. The burner heat will finish cooking your food. Do the same when baking or roasting in your oven.

When you cook, prepare extra food for another meal. Heat that 2nd meal up in the microwave, not on the stove top. When cooking pasta, make extra to keep in the fridge. Use it to make a pasta salad or another dish that can easily be cooked in the microwave. Be sure to coat it with olive oil so that you can easily dish out what you need to use. 

When using your oven, bake or roast more than one item. Do not use foil on your racks, so that you can stagger your pans and get good airflow. I have done four things at a time in my oven many times.

I only use my oven for roasting when I am doing a large piece of meat like a turkey or the 10 lb. ham I heated up last night for a few dinners this week. I also roast large chickens or legs of lamb that won’t fit in the toaster oven. Small pieces of meat like chops or chicken thighs or breasts bake very well in my toaster oven. Cook your steaks outside on the grill. That tastes the best! I have even done them out there in the middle of a snowstorm.

Keep your oven clean by wiping it out after it has cooled down. This will allow you to not use the self clean so often. The self clean feature is an energy hog. A clean oven is also an efficient oven.


If you have a convection oven like I do, use it. It saves 25% of the cook time which saves a lot of energy.


Preheat your oven when it is necessary, after you have your dish made. Don’t preheat it and then let it sit while you are preparing your food.


Using glass and Pyrex pans in your oven lets you use a lower temperature to cook.


While you are using the oven don’t peek. Every time you peek, you lose about 25 degrees of temperature.

And finally, the best way to save the energy of your stove top and oven, is to ask yourself this question when you are about to cook something. Can I cook it cheaper in the toaster oven, microwave, air fryer, pressure cooker, crock pot, electric skillet or any other energy saving small appliance that you might own?

How do you save energy when using your stove top or oven? 

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Every Day

Frugal Things This Past Week

These are the things we have done to save money the past week.

I grocery shopped on 6% Senior Discount Day at Top’s. I got a $3.49 bag of carrots for free with a Monopoly coupon.


I took back a bag of Hubby’s soda cans and got a $2.00 deposit refund.

I found the same jeans that I love on Amazon for $10.00 less than I had purchased them at J. C. Penney’s.  I now have 4 pair and I think that will do me for now. I earned points on our credit card and got a rebate on Rakuten(formerly Ebates).

I received a $6.00 rebate in the mail.

We have a dead tree in the garden in the front yard. It is a good size but not too big to handle. Hubby and my son are going to dig it out and let the town take it on brush day. I loved this flowering tree but Hubby thinks the harsh winter and wind killed it. Rather than have another expensive tree killed, we are going to replace it with a huge peony bush that we have in a backyard garden.

Our garage that maintains the car wants $750. to put new back and front brakes on our car. My other son has said he will help put in new ones with Hubby. That will save us quite a bit of money.

I booked a 2 night stay for a trip that we are taking later in the summer. I used Priceline and got a great rate. I also used a $5.00 off coupon that Priceline gave me for signing up. I went through Rakuten and will get $ 5.15 back after we travel.  I also got reward points on my credit card.


We did not eat out at a restaurant or get fast food this past week. All food was made and eaten in our kitchen.


I did some hand wash and hung it to dry.


We have not spent much grocery money the past few weeks. So I took money for a birthday gift out of it and it also saved me a trip to the bank. My gift purchase was made using a 15% senior discount, $5. in Kohl’s cash, a $5. coupon and a 20% off coupon. I love stacking these.


It has been so cold here that we have had to use the heat again a couple of mornings just to take the chill off. But we have not had to use the A/C on the warm days.

I took back a couple of library books and got 3 more.

Only turned on the oven once to roast a chicken. Most meals were either cold or done in my electric fry pan. 


I picked up an application for our dental office discount. We will fill it out and return with the lump payment a week or so before our next appointment. We have determined that it will save us money especially on major work which will be 20% off.

Our state is changing the way they give the Star Rebate on school taxes. Our town sent us a newsletter explaining the changes. You now have two options, one of which will probably save us some money, I stopped at the town to get more info. Anytime we can save a little more money, we are in. We will be applying for the new way when it becomes necessary.

So what have you done to save money this past week?

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Every Day

A Quick Question

I know I already did my normal Tuesday post today but I have a quick question. I want to know what you think.

Remember Zaycon and how so many of us got burnt by them? Well all of a sudden a group called Farm Fresh LLC has popped up everywhere. I see it on facebook, in ads, etc. Now they are e-mailing me at an address that I don’t give out for most things. They actually called me by name. All I can think is they are Zaycon under a different name and have moved to a different state and that is why they have my info. I can find no website for them nor anything about who they are.

They sell fresh fruit, fresh meat and fresh seafood. You pay in advance and they tell you when they will deliver but no info for a week.


After Zaycon, I am very leery to ever order any food but locally again.


My concern is that these are some of the people who worked for Zaycon just doing it again. What do you think? Does anyone know who these people are? Have any of you gotten e-mails to buy from them and if you have did you order through Zaycon?

Here is the address they show they are at:

Fresh Farms
2601 S. Minnesota Ave, Suite 105-184
Sioux Falls, SD 57105

Please let me know what you think by leaving a comment.

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Every Day

What We Ate and The Grocery Shopping

Here is our grocery shopping from the past week. We needed SF jello desperately. It is my one sweet treat that I have for a snack once in a while. So I stocked up while it was on sale. The SF cool whip is for the jello. Hubby does not like it with out it.

Tomatoes, a red onion, a cucumber, and romaine were needed for our salads. The roasting veggie mix I have never purchased before so we will see if we like it. The broccoli florets I love roasted with a little olive oil and garlic powder.

Hubby requested the sausage. He loves to put it in his omelet with sauteed onion. 

The Canadian bacon is for my breakfasts. Hubby likes regular bacon which I already have.  

I love Laughing Cow Cheese. I eat a wedge with 5 turkey pepperoni for lunch once in a while.

All of this came to a total of $ 46.79. 

This past week’s meals consisted of salmon and roasted brussel sprouts for two dinners. This is my plate. Right after I took the picture, I cut the salmon in half and saved that half to warm up for the next night.

One night we had taco salads.  

Two nights we had chicken. The first night I roasted it and the second night we had sandwiches. Hubby had his on a roll and I had a lettuce wrap. With the roast chicken, I made Hubby some stuffing, gravy and corn. I had mashed cauliflower. 

The other two nights we had Chef’s salads.

Brunch, lunches, or breakfasts consist of sandwiches, egg omelets, and egg salad on crackers for Hubby. Mine consisted of small salads, scrambled eggs or a hard boiled egg and some Canadian bacon. Some days we only eat two meals and some we eat three. It depends on how hungry we are and our schedule. 

My snacks have consisted of SF jello, pepperoni and cheese, sliced cucumbers, popcorn( once a week), cucumbers dipped in hummus, and sliced peppers.

I am finding my diet so easy and simple. Most days it takes very little hands on in the kitchen and I am loving that. I have now lost 36 pounds. That and new clothes is my incentive to keep going.

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Every Day

I Was a “Busy Beaver” Today

I was up before the crack of dawn today. So after showering and eating some protein for breakfast, I checked my to do list for the day. Besides writing to you, I had a lot to get done.

I spent last Friday and part of the weekend trying all of my clothes on and making piles of way too big(three sizes too big) clothing. I have done summer clothing. I took it all to Goodwill today. It will help someone else. Now I need to carve out some time to do the same with my winter clothes. Hubby took a look at the few new things I have left to wear and said it is not enough. So I ordered some more from Amazon.

Prior to going there, I did my grocery shopping. I just had a small list but more about that tomorrow. I love shopping when hardly anybody is in the store yet. It’s so quiet and relaxing and I can get in and out fast by following my list.

After I was done with the clothing, the sun had finally come out. So I decided to wash our SUV out in the driveway. That led to giving the inside a really good cleaning.

Besides cooking dinner tonight, I think I will watch some You Tube channels and prepare my to do list for tomorrow. All in all it is turning out to be a very productive day.

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Every Day

Meals Don’t Have To Be Expensive or Time Consuming

This is what we had for dinner last night. Pictured is my taco salad. I did not put tortilla chips on mine but Hubby did.

My salad was a bed of romaine lettuce, a few cut up cucumbers, a tiny bit of red onion, a bit of cut up tomato, and a couple of black olives diced fine. Then I added 3 oz. of taco meat that I cooked in a skillet. Finely, I added just a little bit of Mexican cheese which ended up melting on the warm taco meat. It was so delicious! This is a salad that we have often because we love it.

While I cooked the meat with the taco seasoning, Hubby made the salads. It didn’t take us more than 10- 12 minutes to make this dinner.

I paid $1.69 for the pound of ground beef and we used 6 oz. of it. We have leftovers for lunch tomorrow. It cost us just $.32 each for the meat. I made taco seasoning from scratch so that was just maybe $ .10. Now the cost is up to $ .74. I estimated the cost of the little bit of romaine to be $.33, the bit of cucumber in mine(Hubby doesn’t like cucumber in his Mexican salad; I do.) to cost $ .10, a bit of red onion to be about $.05, the few black olives to be about $.08 and the tiny bit of Mexican cheese at about $ .20. Hubby’s tortilla chips were about $.15. So the total for all of this was $ 1.65 or $.825 each.

Ten to twelve minutes to make and well under $2.00 for dinner. We drink water with our meals. Think of this meal the next time you are rushed and don’t know what to make for dinner. Quick and easy and you don’t have to run out to a restaurant instead. That is how you save money to pay off debt, fund your retirement, or save for something that is important to you. 


As I have gotten older, I realize that meals don’t have to be complicated or cost a lot of money. This dinner was more delicious than a fast food drive through pick up. Actually it was better than some meals that we have had out in restaurants. 


As I have been on my diet, I am realizing that we eat way too much food in our diets. So we are watching our portions which we did to some extent prior to my diet. But now we are serious about it!


The bonus here too is that making simpler meals like this cost less money than a lot of meals that people make. That will cut your grocery bills.


Do you have any simple meals that aren’t expensive that you would like to share?

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Every Day

Water Savings

Water is expensive. We get a quarterly bill for water and sewer. The sewer charge is based on how much water goes down the drain. So we do whatever we can to save on water.

You all know that I take Navy showers. I also use a bucket to catch the water while it is warming up. I use that water to wash floors, water plants outside, hand wash laundry and any other way I can think of not to waste it. We have a tankless water heater so it takes while to get hot in the bathrooms or even in the kitchen.

When I boil spaghetti or rinse beans on the stove, I use that water inside or outside too.

We don’t just let the water run down the drain while washing dishes either. We do plastic ware and pots and pans by hand so we fill the sink just enough to wash them and same for rinsing them. When we run the dishwasher, we use the quick cycle unless we have really dirty dishes which usually does not happen because we scrape or rinse them.

When we are heating up water for spaghetti or noodles, we use as little water as possible to cover them and boil them.

We had water saving toilets put in when we had this house built. If you don’t have those, fill a 1 liter bottle with water and put it in your toilet tank. It will displace a liter each time and over time you will save a significant amount of water by really doing nothing. Be sure to put it in the part of the tank where it will not interfere with the workings of the toilet. Test your toilet for leaks at least once a year. If you have a leak, get it fixed. If the flapper in your toilet tank doesn’t close properly, replace it. Test by putting some drops of food coloring in your tank. If it ends up in the bowl and you haven’t flushed, you have a leak.

Use low flow faucets and shower heads. They make a big impact on your daily activities.

We always wash a full load in the dishwasher and washing machine. We match the water level to the load in the washing machine if it isn’t a full load.

We have a refrigerator that dispenses filtered water so no waste there. If you don’t, just keep a pitcher of water in the fridge so that you don’t have to let the water run from your faucet every time you need a drink. 

Always turn the water all the way off when you are not using it. Little drips add up to big dollars. If you have a leak, have it repaired immediately.

Don’t water your lawn unless it is parched and you haven’t had any rain in a few days. Water in the morning so the sun doesn’t evaporate it while it is running.  If you have a sprinkler system like we do, adjust the heads to make sure they are watering your lawn and not the road, driveway, or the neighbors’ yards. 

Rinse foods like produce in a pan of water. Then use the water to water plants. Don’t use running water.

Hubby and I use the same glass all day long which cuts back on how many glasses need to be washed. 


Don’t thaw food under running water. Thaw the food in your refrigerator.


If you accidentally drop an ice cube, don’t throw it in the sink. Use it to water some greenery. 


We turn off the water while brushing our teeth and turn it back on to rinse.


Have Hubby plug the sink and put a little water in it to shave. 

Drop your Kleenex in the trash instead of flushing it. 

Monitor your water bills for unusually high use. That is a sign that you have a leak somewhere.

Please feel free to leave a comment and share with us what you do to save water. 

 

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Every Day

Frugal Things This Past Week

These are the things we have done frugally this past week.

I cleaned out the refrigerator as I always do before I grocery shop. I do this so that I can incorporate anything that needs to be used up into meals for the week. While doing this, I realized that the limes were getting older. So I washed them and sliced them up, put them in freezer bags, and froze them. I do this with limes and lemons. Then when I need just a few slices for a dish I am making, I just pull them out of the bag. We like the limes on Mexican food and the lemons on fish. I also use them in my ice water that I drink throughout the day.

It was time to make seasoned salt again. I have been using Tawra’s recipe for a long time. It has saved me a lot of money. It uses the ingredients above. 

I put it in a container that matches my other spice containers. All I have to do now is find my labels. Here is the recipe. Up until now I had been using a recyled container. 

I started wrapping my granddaughter’s birthday gifts. It is hard for me to believe she will be 12 soon. I can still vividly see her in the hospital when she was born. Once in a while, I need something at Dollar Tree. When I go there, I always pick up a tube or two of wrapping paper. So all I had to do was go to the bedroom closet where I keep my paper in a wastebasket and grab the birthday paper. That saves me from having to run to the store when I need paper for something. At the beginning of each year, I buy all of the greeting cards I need that year. So I have the card too. 

We got a nice surprise this past week too. It seems that back in 2016, we overpaid our co-pays for prescription drugs at the drugstore. We got a letter from our prescription drug plan refunding us $14.19. That will be going directly to savings. 

We ate all of our meals at home last week. I used the toaster oven and air fryer for some and only used the oven once for the large chicken and veggie sheet pan meal. Now that the heat is off, I am trying to reduce the utility bills as much as I can. We just got our monthly bill which was high for this time of the year.  


We only used the car twice this past week. Once for grocery shopping and some errands and once for Hubby to get a haircut at his barber. 


I cashed in more Fetch points for another $10. Walmart gift card. I love Fetch. 


I had $15. in Kohl’s cash that needed to be used by yesterday. I was not going to be able to use it. So I gave it to my DIL and she got my granddaughter some clothes for the summer using that and some coupons. Priceless! When you know you can’t use something, give it to someone who can so it doesn’t get wasted.

I got an invite to Amazon’s Early Review program and earned a $3.00 gift card for doing a review.

We have had so much rain here that we have not had to turn on the sprinkler system yet. That saves on the cost of water. 

On the few hot days that we have had, we have not turned on the A/C. 


I keep the lights off except at night. We use the daylight to our advantage.


We have a new Goodwill about 3 miles from us near Top’s. When I go to Top’s, I stop in and see if they have anything I need. So far they haven’t but I will continue to look when I am in the area.


Well that is all for the past week. Please feel free to share how you have saved with all of us by leaving a comment. 

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Every Day

What We Ate and Grocery Shopping and Some Miscellaneous

This past week’s grocery shopping trip was small again. I went to both Top’s and Super Walmart. They are less than a tenth of a mile apart. Pictured is all that I purchased. Eggs are cheap right now so I purchased 2 dozen at $.89 each. I already had 2 and 1/2 dozen in the fridge. The cucumbers were on sale 4 for $5.00. I only needed 3. The hot dog buns were $.87. The 3 lb. package of Sahlen’s hot dogs were on sale for $7.99 with a Top’s coupon. The sea salt refills were $3.83 each. The Sugar Free popsicles were on sale for $2.99. They are a treat for me once in a while. I needed to stock on the sugar Free BBQ sauces. We love these and they go quickly at my Walmart. So the 4 bottles were $ 3.26 each. The 2 Tic Tacs were free after doubled coupon. My total grocery shopping cost me $ 38.08 .

I ate the same breakfast every day this past week with the exception of our family Sunday breakfast. We had regular bacon for that. It was my usual Canadian Bacon and one egg each morning. I skipped lunch every day so that I could fast a little longer between meals. Hubby had either a ham or turkey sandwich every day for lunch. He is a late riser so he does not eat breakfast.

For 3 dinners, I roasted a big pan of chicken thighs and roasted broccoli and cauliflower along side of them. I just coated everything with a drizzle of olive oil and garlic salt. For 2 nights we ate one hot with the veggies. I warmed 2 of them up quickly in our air fryer the second night as to not overcook them. 

The third night, I took the meat off each thigh and put it on salad. I eat mine with a spritz of olive oil and lemon juice and top with some feta cheese. Hubby likes Caesar dressing.

For 2 nights we each ate 2 hot dogs. Hubby had his on rolls. Those hot dogs aren’t really on my diet but I was craving some. So I decided to eat them without rolls. I served tomatoes and cucumbers for a side.

One night I made Apricot Pork Chops in our toaster oven. I followed this Recipe but substituted the pork for chicken. I also used both sugar free BBQ sauce and sugar free apricot preserves. This was so delicious! I made corn on the cob for Hubby and I had brussel sprouts. 

For Memorial Day, we grilled NY strip steak for dinner. After I took the picture I realized that I forgot to put the sauteed mushrooms on top. I also made Caesar salad for Hubby and some apple, cheddar, and walnut salad for me. We had a very nice peaceful day and I hope you did too. 

When I am not fasting, I eat sliced cucumbers, pepper strips, turkey pepperoni and soft cheese for snacks. This way I get extra veggies and protein. Once a week, I eat a snack bag of popcorn with no butter.

My diet may sound boring to some of you but it works for me. It is mainly meat and veggies. I keep my portion of meat to about 3-4 oz. Hubby and I share things like steak. I have now lost 34 pounds so the diet is working. When I get down to the weight that I want to be, I will never go up again. If I gain a couple of lbs. I will go back on the diet for a couple of days.

I have to share with you my clothes shopping adventures. My clothes were hanging off of me so I had to finally break down and buy some. I had lost three sizes. I could only find one pair of jeans that fit me properly and two tops that I liked. So I ordered two more online along with three more tops.  I purchased some new underwear but also special ordered two more bras. Well, the bras are going to be another 2 weeks or so before they come in. But I am managing with 3. The online clothing was ordered on May 18th and I still haven’t seen it. I got an e-mail informing me that it was stuck in Texas due to the tornadoes and weather across the country. I had no update until this morning and it looks like the order hit my town early this morning. I have no idea as to when I will see that package. It could be today or tomorrow or later. I am hoping for today. I am also hoping not to have to buy anything else until I get down to my proper weight. Then I will buy an entire new wardrobe at the outlets.

It has been a problem working with only 1 pair of jeans and 2 tops that fit. I only wear them in public and hang them up the minute I get home. When I am at home, I resort back to my really baggy clothing. UGH! 

Please feel free to leave a comment or ask a question which I will try to answer in a timely manner.

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Every Day

I Was Just Thinking………………

I was just thinking how nice it is to have no debt. Sure we use our credit cards so that we can earn rewards points and cash back. But those credit card balances get paid in full every month. It is so nice to be stress free and not have to worry about money.

What brought this to mind this weekend is that a friend was telling me how they will always be in debt and never get it paid off. She told me that we are very lucky to have no debt. Comments like that get my dander up.


Luck had nothing to do with it. It was a lot of hard work to get where we are today. It was years of careful spending and not spending beyond our means. We didn’t buy a lot of stuff that “The Jones” thought was necessary to buy all of the time.

We were careful with our money because we knew we wanted to retire earlier than 65. My Hubby’s parents died at young ages and never really got to enjoy a retirement. Hubby wanted a few years in retirement. We will be retired 18 years in August. Amazing how quickly that has flown by.

You too can have a good retirement if you plan properly and pay off your mortgage, pay off your credit card debt, and pay cash for your cars.

Many seniors are living pretty well in retirement on just social security because they paid off all of their debt before they retired. I can’t stress that enough. 

After you pay off that debt, plan for emergencies instead of charging things. Things will break and have to be repaired. Cars don’t last forever. Homes need repairs and taxes are always an expense as long as you own a home.

I don’t think that people think about the real cost of credit card debt. They go out to dinner and spend $50. and put that and another $10. for the tip on their card. Then they don’t pay it in full when the bill comes due. They repeat it over and over again whether it be dinner out or clothing, or anything else that they want. They are paying exorbitant interest rates. They don’t thing about the true cost of that dinner that they didn’t pay in full or all of the other things they charge. That dinner didn’t really cost them $60. It costs them the interest on it until they actually pay it off. That can take months if you are only paying minimum payments. That dinner ends up costing them a small fortune.

Mortgage interest rates are a lot cheaper so that is the last thing you should pay off. Pay the credit cards and the car loan and when those are done, pay extra every month on the principal of your mortgage loan. It is truly amazing how many thousands of dollars in interest you can save by paying it off years early.

When you have the car loan paid off, start saving that same payment in an investment vehicle so that when you need a car again, you have the cash.

All of this is not rocket science people. It is pretty straight forward. Do you have to sacrifice? Yes, if you truly want to get rid of your debt! But a lot of people I believe do not want to do the hard work to get rid of it. They don’t want to cut expenses or make more income to do it.  

I have actually had people tell me that they deserve to go out to dinner a few times a week, go to the movies or concerts or whatever else they pay to do, because they worked hard. No one deserves anything that they can’t pay cash for. If you are spending your paychecks before you get them, you are headed for trouble in the long run. And some day it will catch up with you.

This may sound harsh to you but sometimes people need a reminder about how they are ruining their lives.

Since I have been blogging(over 12 years) I have had many people write me to say they just paid off their homes and it was the last debt they had. They cannot believe how freeing it is to own everything and not owe the bank. We had one reader who has become a good friend pay off hers recently. I was so proud of her and her husband and so happy for them.


There is another reader who has paid off “a ton of debt” and is now working on paying off their home. I love watching her progress. They will get there sooner than they think.


We are coming up on the month of June. By the end of that month, half the year will be gone. How many of you made resolutions to pay off your debt and haven’t been actively working on it? It is never to late to start. Start right away. Cut those expenses and put the money you save on your debt each month.


I would love for all of you to be debt free. That is one of the reasons that I have blogged for over 12 years. If I can help just one person, all of the time that I have spent blogging is worth it.