Category: Every Day

Today I cancelled Peacock TV. That will be a $ 5.99 savings every month. I also cancelled Hulu which will save us $ .99 a month We were paying these every month but I found that we weren’t watching them. Hubby was the one watching Peacock for sports but I noticed that he had not watched it in months. We still have Paramount + which we get free with Walmart +. I asked Hubby about cancelling Walmart + but he said we should hang onto it because we really may need deliveries over the winter and he loves Paramount+. I am willing for now but will save up any items that are the least expensive until we have enough to order or pickup. Time will tell how we are using it. After the winter, I may cancel or not. To be honest, we watch more You Tube than anything because it is free and we can learn from it.

On Tuesday I had to go pick up a prescription for Hubby. The cost for that was $ 4.95 for 90 days of pills. He stayed home to deal with the company who checks our A/C every year so that we maintain our warranty. I did not expect a problem since this was new A/C that was installed a year ago. There was no problem and the A/C is quite efficient. Pest control was also coming. I hate bugs especially bees and spiders. They only come every 3 months or if we call them with a problem.

While I was out, I decided to stop at Top’s, Dollar Tree, and Aldi’s just for a few things that we needed. We love one egg roll whenever I make homemade Chinese food. Someone told me that Aldi’s egg rolls are delicious and cheap. I have been paying $ 4.69 for Chung’s(4 in a box) at Top’s. This Chung’s today was free with a coupon that the manufacturer sent me. The other box from Aldi’s cost $ 2.95 for 5 egg rolls. We will see if they taste any good. They are a bit smaller than Chung’s. I think the reason that I had never seen them at Aldi’s before is they are near the pizzas.

The same girl told me that they eat Aldi’s General Tso’s chicken with them. Hubby loves that. So he asked me to pick one up. It cost $ 7.15. The next time he wants it, I will try making it from scratch. The breakfast sausage was only $ 1.99. I needed this for our Sunday breakfasts.

Next I stopped at Dollar Tree. I grabbed 3 of the John Morrell smoked sausage. They were $ 1.25 minus a $ 1.00 mfrs. coupon for each. Final cost was $ .25 each. They can be sliced up just like hot dogs and used in almost any dish.

The last stop was for half and half at Top’s which was $ 5.99. It is $5.64 at Walmart but I decided not to make that extra stop there and because Walmart’s goes bad a lot quicker than the Top’s one. We don’t go through it that quickly. I also got Hubby some Decaf coffee for $ 5.69. Total for all of this shopping was $ 24.52.

Top’s last week gave me a coupon to turn in for 100 free gasoline points this week. So I got those added to my card.

Hubby has one watering can which we keep in the backyard to water flowers. We thought we needed another one out front to water the hanging baskets. But we decided to use 2 – 2 liter empty bottles instead. One bottle of water for each basket is perfect. Use up what we have is our motto.

I take Florastor to help with gut issues. It is very expensive. I take 2 a day and buy the 100 count capsules. So it lasts just 50 days. I googled it this morning and ordered 1 bottle at the best price I could find which was $53.77 at Walmart. It is shipping free. The last time I ordered it was $62.06 so I saved $ 8.29 this time.

As you can see the stitched seam has come out on the top of this drape in the grandchildren’s guest room. I do not have a sewing machine anymore so I will stitch this by hand this afternoon. I have no idea what a seamstress would charge me.

I will be using up all of the rest of these toxic cleaners in my stockpile. Then I will use natural homemade cleaners for pennies on the dollar. I will be glad when they are all gone.

Tonight for dinner we will be having Chef’s salads. Lots of lettuce, tomato, onion, black olives, celery, and turkey with our choice of dressing. I will put a dozen eggs in the instant pot today so we will have a hard boiled eggs on it too. The rest of the eggs will be for breakfasts and snacks the next few days.

We had blight on our pear tree this year. A tree guy told Hubby to spray it with this a solution of vinegar and water after the flowers were gone. Hubby did this on Monday. We will see if the blight comes back next year.

Have you cut any costs so far this week?

These past 3 and 1/2 years have been hard for everyone. We are no exception. Prices are insane and I don’t see them getting any better anytime soon. I think that this inflation will continue into next year. It will be difficult even for a new President to turn things around. So many things have been regulated which has caused inflation that it will take any new President quite a while to unravel. So many Executive orders which should never have happened.

Let me give you a little history lesson. We went through something similar back in the 1970’s with Jimmy Carter as President. But what turned it around was the Central Banks raised interest rates up to where they needed to be to calm inflation. Then inflation came down. Jimmy Carter was considered the worst President ever until now.

The Central Banks and the administration today are playing games with us. They are telling us inflation is coming down and it is not. They are manipulating it. If you follow the inflation rate that they report every month, you will see that the next month or so they change it. The same thing is happening month after month with the unemployment rate. We are told that everything is just fine when it is not. So many things are being manipulated. They are lying to us.

Another bank is reportedly going bankrupt in the next few months. An executive of that bank was overheard telling his wife that so many people and businesses will lose all their money. Then he laughed and told his wife not to worry that he has a golden parachute. This is what the elites thing of us. They don’t care two cents about any of us. I don’t care whether they are bankers, elite government officials, or large box stores, etc. They don’t care. All they care about is their own profits.

I have always believed in capitalism. It works really well when it is not manipulated. No one wants to live under socialism or communism. Most Americans have seen how that works.

Most Americans like to shop at Amazon and Walmart. I do when they have the lowest price in my area. But they have become too big. We have antitrust laws in this nation but for the past twenty years the government has not gone after them. They just let Walmart build anywhere they wanted and did not file antitrust suits against them. This is part of the problem. They have put a lot of small businesses out of business over the years. They pay their employees less than other grocery stores. That ruins the towns they have come into by hurting the local community.

Unless Walmart has the best price, I will not be buying anything there going forward. Yes, they have expenses for transportation, maintaining their stores, taxes, the products and to pay their employees. I have no problem with those expenses. Most grocery stores make a 1-2% profit. I do not have a problem with them making money. However, Walmart’s prices have skyrocketed over the past few years and when I see them make a gross profit for the year ending 4/30/2024 of 7.6 % year over year, I have to wonder if we are being ripped off. Their prices seem to go up at least once a week. Have other stores increased their prices? Yes but it does not seem as often as Walmart.

So while the elites get richer, we all get poorer!

I have decided to use my money to bolster my small family owned business called Niagara Produce. I will buy their specials on meat, dairy, and produce. That will be the first market I shop at every week or two. I will buy loss leaders at other stores when they have the best prices. But anything that is not at the best price will not be purchased at Walmart.

If you want to see how inflation has affected you look no further than this calculator:

https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/

Let me tell you how it has affected us since we retired in 2001. The same money that we had then has lost 77.1% of it’s buying power. Don’t feel sorry for us. I only tell you this to explain one of the reasons that we save every penny we can to keep up with that inflation. Anyone who is planning on retiring soon, remember to take inflation into account. Prices are always going up so we do what we have to stay ahead of inflation.

Remember when you use this calculator that food and gasoline are not included in these inflation numbers. A friend told me that she has tracked food prices since 2021 and they have gone up on average 60%. We all know that gasoline prices have doubled since that year.

So it is time for me to take control of our own economy and do everything that I can to control those dollars from slipping away in my wallet.

I will be looking at every thing that we spend even the little things. It all adds up. I know there are streaming services that we pay for so I will be getting rid of those soon. I haven’t paid for Amazon Prime in years. I just save up my items until I have spent enough to get free shipping. Walmart + may become history. Anytime I have a need to spend money, I will see if I can make a substitution for something I already have. We will ask questions like “Can we fix it ourselves?” or “Can we do without it?” I will let you know when we do things like that.

So stay tuned and see how we do this.