Frugal Things Every Day

I did well not shopping this week. However, I heard yesterday that Walmart had their corned beefs on sale for 50% off which brought them down to $ 2.78 a lb. Hubby and I so enjoyed the corned beef we had this week. When I told Hubby about the sale, he asked me to go get two. So I did this afternoon. They did not have very many left.

Since Top’s is just a block away, I stopped there on the way home to pick up my Free Rosina Italian meatballs with the coupon that the company sent. They normally are $ 9.99. I looked last week and since the coupon was only good up to $ 8.99, I did not get them. Today I looked at the ad to see what I missed this week and I saw that they were on sale for $ 6.99. So they are now in my freezer. The corned beefs for now are in my refrigerator because they don’t expire until April 19th and May 1st. As I free up freezer space, they will go in the freezer.

For breakfast’s the last two days, we have had scrambled eggs with breakfast sausage.

Last night we finished up a bag of potstickers that were in the freezer for dinner. I was too tired to do anything else after working in the basement most of the day. Today I shopped for the things above and worked in the basement for 2 and 1/2 hours. So I was craving strip steaks for dinner. Hubby grilled them indoors while I cleaned up some mushrooms and cooked them in butter to go on the steak. I steamed up some corn to go with it.

I am hoping to get the basement done sometime this weekend. Then Hubby has a major project to do down there. My next project is to clean the garage. I am trying to get a head start so all of this is done when the good weather hits.

So instead of saving grocery money this week, I spent $ 17.71.

This was our dinner last night and will be tonight. I put a 3.75 lb. round corned beef in my slow cooker along with 2 cans of Yuengling lager. Then I threw in the spice packet that came with the corned beef. The beer tenderizes the beef while it slow cooks. I cooked this a total of 8 hours on low. You couldn’t taste the beer when it was done. I would have preferred Guinness but I already had a case of the Yuengling lager which I use in recipes and Hubby drinks when he wants a beer. So I used what we had.

When the corned beef had 2 hours to go, I threw in 1/2 of a whole cabbage. I wanted to use fresh potatoes but they were too soft to use. They seem to go bad quickly these days. Not wanting to go to the market, I made mashed potatoes from flakes. It was all delicious.

Our brunch yesterday was homemade turkey soup that I had in the freezer.

This morning we went out to breakfast with our son and grandson at our favorite Greek restaurant. Three of us had eggs or an omelet, home fries, toast, and our choice of steak, bacon, sausage or ham. West had 4 of the largest pancakes with maple syrup that I have ever seen with lots of sausage. My son is Keto and since he does not eat starches, he gave his toast to Hubby and I brought his big plate of home fries home to have as a side for dinner tomorrow or breakfasts this week. Breakfast was so expensive. The cost for the food was $ 74. and a $15.00 tip for a total of $89.00. It had really gone up in price since we ate there a few months ago. But it was all delicious and a nice break for me from cooking. The cost was paid out of our cash envelope for Eating Out.

When Hubby got up this morning, he went to print the crossword from his online newspaper subscription on his desktop computer to find it was dead. When we got back from breakfast, my son confirmed that it was truly dead. So he helped Hubby decide what he will order from Dell tomorrow. We are hoping that we can pay extra to get it overnight when it is built. Hubby needs it to monitor some healthcare issues. In the meantime, he can download the software on mine and use it.

I hope all of you are having a nice St. Patrick’s Day. Are you doing anything special today?

This is the way I meal plan 100% of the time now. Off and on through the years, I have tried to just make a menu of things that we want to eat for the week. I have almost always found that it costs me much more money.

A reason for that is when I have to buy what I don’t have in the house at full price instead of purchasing it on sale it ups my grocery bill. By reverse meal planning, I can buy grocery items when they are on sale at loss leader prices. Then I decide in advance what we will eat from our pantries, refrigerator, and freezer that week. At the same time, I keep an eye on the sale ads to see if there is anything I can use at rock bottom loss leaders in my area. Some weeks there are and some weeks there are none.

We are not fortune enough to live in an area that marks down prices on items that will expire the next day or so. They are far and few in between. For example, when I went into Walmart yesterday to pick up the popcorn that I had a free coupon for, I took the time to look for reduced price food items. The few bakery items they had were two days out of expiration which I would not buy. There was no marked down produce. Most of their on sale produce had seen it’s better days. Then I looked at the meat. They had a few beef steaks and roasts marked down for quick sale. But I don’t consider a markdown of $ .37 to $ .57 enough to make me buy an expensive steak or roast that was going out of date. Lastly, I went to the clearance shelf to see what they had. There were only two items and none of them were food.

At Top’s the last time I was there, they had a couple of meat items marked down. But their markdowns were as lousy as Walmart’s. At Aldi’s yesterday, they had no markdowns.

When I am going to a doctor’s appointment, I try to stop at Niagara Produce when they have sale items I need. I always look for the reduced price meat while I am there. I have found it just 5 times in a year and it is never more than one or two items.

The lack of reduced price items is why I purchase items on rock bottom loss leader. I certainly do miss Fry’s in AZ. It was a Kroger store and the markdowns were plentiful. But I do what you can with the stores that I have.

So starting today, I will be eating from our pantries, refrigerator, and freezer exclusively. I know that most of that food was purchased on sale a while ago when prices were lower. Meanwhile I will keep an eye on the ads but will not buy anything unless it is a price that says to me you need to buy this in bulk. For me to do that. it would have to be a very great price.

Tonight we are eating leftovers that are lingering in the fridge. I hate food waste. I have some fresh asparagus that needs to be cooked. I will do that this afternoon and eat a bit each time with my eggs for breakfast in the coming days.

Tomorrow, I will be cooking a corned beef, cabbage, and potato dinner. That will be leftovers for 3-4 days including the corned beef sandwiches that Hubby loves. I have also thawed a meal of homemade chicken soup for brunch today and tomorrow.

I am hoping to put my menu up every day with pictures when I can.

I also want to correct Hubby’s figures on how much our utility bills have decreased year over year. I finally had time to look at it. From 4/16/22 through 3/16/23, our bills totaled $ 2236.34. From 4/16/23 through 3/16/24, our bills totaled $ 2002.51. So we have saved $ 233.83 over last years bills. I don’t know where Hubby got that figure he told me but I will forgive him and correct my prior post.

Do any of you reverse meal plan?

I am finally peaceful because I got some important financial things done this morning. Between those types of things and my recent doctor and test appointments, I have been very stressed out the past couple of months. I don’t have another appointment until May and then one in August. My time is finally mine, Hubby’s, and my sons and their families. What a relief I feel. I should be around here more often too.

This afternoon I cooked up some bacon to make Turkey BLT’s for dinner. That will make them easy to put together.

The middle of last week, I contacted a few companies whose products I buy and whose products I was getting low on. I didn’t know if they would send me some coupons but it was worth a try since paper coupons are rare these days. These all came in the mail today. I am loving all of them especially the free one. The $.50 ones will double at my Top’s. All of them do not expire until the end of December so I will be saving them to combine with a sale. Score!

Some other things that I have done in the last few days are:

I scanned 2 weeks worth of receipts into Fetch.

Instead of paying $ 25. including tip for 2 fish fry dinners at Chiavetta’s last Friday for dinner, I baked some coconut shrimp I found in the bottom of my freezer.

The only waste I had was a slice of a tomato that got buried in the crisper drawer.

I am using up food in the freezer and pantries for the next few weeks so I am only buying sale items that we need or reduced priced deals. Matter of fact I will be going out to shop for my corned beef and cabbage and going to the drugstore for a prescription after I post this. I will also bring a bag of bottles to Fast Cash. My menu’s with the exception of the corned beef and cabbage will be made from what I already have in the house.

I almost forgot to talk about February’s budget. I spent $ 490. of my $534. food budget last month. The remainder will be saved to stock on good deals when I see them. Also we only spent $ 24.92 on fish fries for take out on one Friday dinner. Our gas and electric bill was $ 235.66. We saved $233.83 this past year compared to last year’s bills. That has to be the warm winter we have had and keeping the heat so low from 10PM to 9AM.

What have you guys been doing to save money?