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Every Day

Friday’s Happenings

Today is Hubby’s birthday. We are celebrating at home because mine is in a couple of weeks so we go out to dinner in about a week to celebrate both of them. This year Hubby will pick the restaurant. We take turns.

But for his celebration today, we will grill filet mignon outside. We will have that with a glass of red wine and a tossed salad. Hubby wants an apple pie for dessert. Tonight we will watch college football.

We gave up exchanging gifts for birthdays and holidays years ago. That decision was made because we buy what we need or want when we need or want it. Our wants are few.

But before we celebrate, I had a few things to get done. As soon as Great Clips opened at 9AM, I signed in online and got my haircut. The senior price for a haircut is usually $18.99 but I have a $12.99 coupon that came in our ValuPak. I keep my punch card in my wallet at all times so I always remember that. After 7 haircuts, I get 1 free. I shampooed my hair this morning so I didn’t have to pay $6.00 extra for that. I have saved so much money since I left my pricey salon. First, Hubby cut it and then I found this Great Clips close by. It sure beats paying $ 140. a month for my salon treatment. It’s even higher now. Of course back then, I was getting my hair colored and high lighted. Now my hair is white and I like it.

Next I brought back some bottles to Fast Cash to get our $.05 deposits back. It’s in the same plaza.

Then I picked up a prescription at RiteAid for Hubby.

Next I stopped at Niagara Produce because Hubby wanted one of their apple pies for for his birthday dinner. They are his very favorite. I could make him one but not as delicious as the one he wanted.

Last stop was at Popeye’s because Hubby wanted spicy fried chicken for brunch. I got 2 orders of the Signature 3 piece chicken deal that I saw on TV on Sunday. They were $5.00 each plus tax which came to $10.80. My box had a wing, a leg, and a breast. Hubby’s had a wing, a leg, and a back. I have never served any of my family a back. It was awful. I tried to give Hubby my breast since it was his birthday and I felt bad. But being the gentleman he is he would not take it and told me to eat it. I did not want to go back there and waste gasoline to do it. Instead I wrote to Popeye’s online. They say it will take 24 hours for a response.

All of my errands were run in a loop as usual to save on gasoline. BTW, I went by my cash gas station today and the gasoline is down to $3.09 gallon.

That’s it for today. I want to go spend the rest of the day with Hubby.

brate

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Every Day

Utility Bill And A Little Of This And A Little Of That

I took down the post on the U.N. because it was scaring some people. If you want to see what they are doing which involves the U.S., go to their press releases online on the U.N. site. I always check on what is going on there.

We got our utility bill yesterday. It was for $ 138.85 for 29 days. We used 536 KWH of electric and 4 CCF’s of natural gas. Last year’s bill for the same period was $116.37 for 32 days. We used 530 KWH’s of electric and 6 CCF’s of natural gas. We used less KWH’s and more CCF’s and it covered more days in last year’s bill. There was not a big difference in usage but the bill went up by $ 22.48.

It seems whatever I do to conserve, the bill just keeps rising each month. But if I don’t try to conserve more, it will go even higher. I am afraid our heat bills are going to be huge this winter. The meteorologists say the winter here is going to be much colder and snowier this year. So I will try to save every KWH and CCF I can this fall and winter. We have turned our air conditioning off. If we have a hot day, we use our ceiling fans. I am hoping to not have to put the heat on for a while. We have turned the dehumidifier off in the basement. It is no longer humid down there.

We will continue to use our smaller 11 in 1 oven instead of the big oven. I believe it does make a difference. Now that we have the wall built around our grill outside, we will continue to use it as much as we can through these upcoming seasons. If we have a lot of snow, we will have to stop using it. Falls are something we try to avoid.

We have had to find another snowplow guy because the one we thought we could use is only 16 years old. Not legal in NY. We called a company yesterday who is licensed and insured. The owner came today and told us it will be $500. for the season. He snowplows anytime we get 3 inches. We paid our other guy, who moved to Florida, $ 500. for last winter. So the price is not any higher which I am very happy about.

We had planned to make honey bourbon fried chicken, roasted potatoes using baby potatoes that are getting old, and brussel sprouts for dinner last night. However, the chicken that I put in the fridge the night before did not thaw. So we had to come up with a quick dinner. Hubby made grilled cheese sandwiches and heated up old fashioned tomato rice soup that I purchased for $ 1.00 on clearance . It was so good and brought back memories of my childhood. We will have the above chicken dinner tonight and tomorrow night. Because of having to do this, I have froze the other half of the sausage I cooked up for pizza. We will use that next week.

Brunch this morning was a small slice of ham and 2 eggs scrambled for each of us.

That’s it for today. I will be back with a new post tomorrow after I run errands.

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Every Day

A Little Of This And A Little Of That

I had a roll of sausage in the refrigerator. Yesterday, I cooked it. I put 1/2 of it in our spaghetti sauce last night. I packaged up the other 1/2 to use on top of homemade pizza later in the week. The sauce I paid $.99 for. The portions of spaghetti that I used was about $ .49. The sausage was $2.94 but we are getting two meals out of it so $ 1.47 each meal. So last night’s spaghetti dinner cost us $ 1.50 for each of us or $ 2.95 for both. . We had a big salad for brunch yesterday so that was our veggies for the day.

After doing some cleaning yesterday, I went to Top’s. They did not have much I was interested in. But we were running out of Chung’s egg rolls so I picked up 2 packages on sale for $ 4.49 each. I do not make egg rolls. I made them once and they were more work than I am willing to do. Chung’s sent me an e-mail recently informing me that Walmart is now carrying them. However, they have not hit my store yet. I assume they will be cheaper than Top’s.

I had a free coupon for Ken’s ranch dressing. I needed laundry detergent because I was on my last bottle. I had a $3.00 coupon from Purex so I ended up spending $ 6.99+ tax for it. My total with tax was $ 17.25 for everything.

Between the cost of the construction at Top’s and the high prices due to inflation, I don’t go there very often. The noise is horrendous and no one can find anything anymore. This Top’s was privately owned and the prices were always high. But they have gone higher now that it is a company store. They have been working on redoing the inside for months now and a cashier told me it will not be done until the grand opening the end of November. Ugh! Wegman’s, Walmart, and Aldi’s are looking so much better now.

I have been doing a lot of research on where I can get bulk meat and tracking the prices the past few weeks. I have found 3 new to me places. So when my freezer is empty, I will be going to them to start to restock. The quality of meat is a lot better and the prices are way lower than the grocery stores. Best part is they are under 45 minutes away from my home. So traveling to them 2-3 times a year won’t be too bad. I will be sharing who they are when I start shopping there.

Do any of you buy your meat in bulk at an unconventional store instead of a grocery store? Where do you do that?

Eloise is getting into everything while I am writing this. So it is time to go give her some attention.

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Every Day

More Things I Am No Longer Buying

We are making all of our quick breads from scratch. I have plenty of blueberries, bananas, and cranberries in the freezer. I have plenty of canned pumpkin in the pantry.

We no longer buy canned beans. I buy dry beans. You can soak them overnight and then cook them. If you have an instant pot you can quickly cook them up.

I am looking at every sauce I have and seeing if I can find a recipe to substitute for them.

I no longer buy chicken broth. I can or freeze my own that I make from chicken carcasses. I use beef bouillon cubes or beef soup base to make my beef barley soup.

We no longer buy ready to eat cereal. We make our own granola. We also eat oatmeal with berries from the freezer. I am going to research and see if I can make yogurt from my shelf stable milk.

We no longer buy seasoning mixes. I have plenty of spices that I can make them from.

We do not buy shredded cheese anymore. I have a grater attachment for our Kitchen Aid mixer. So we buy blocks of cheese and grate our own.

We no longer buy cold cuts because of the listeria risk. We roast and slice our own.

I have some canned soup on the shelf. However, most of the time, I make my own from scratch. We will use up the canned soup and then make all of our soups from scratch.

I no longer buy jams and jellies since I started making my own peach and strawberry which are Hubby’s favorites. I can control the amount of sugar in them also.

We make our own cranberry sauce from fresh cranberries. I buy them at a rock bottom price around Thanksgiving and freeze them.

Smhuh left some comments on my last post. She suggested cutting back on the olive oil you have by using your bacon grease to saute veggies. This is something that I do often. We cook so much bacon that I always save the grease. I put it in the refrigerator to keep it from going rancid and use it for lots of things. She substitutes applesauce in baking for oil and flax seed for eggs. She also mentioned All Recipes to find salad dressing recipes. Thank you for sharing with us.

I hope some of these suggestions will help you save some money.

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Every Day

Things I Am No Longer Buying

So many food items are getting ridiculously expensive. Every time I go in a grocery store, I bring my price book and go up and down the aisles updating the prices. I have also kept track of a lot of prices since 2021 by saving my receipts. Those items have gone up an average of 60% in 4 years. I will tell you that I am in the Buffalo market area. Buffalo, N.Y. is the second largest city in New York state so the prices are high here. Now is the time to no longer buy certain things until the prices come down. If we all did this, they would have to lower them.

This week I went into Top’s. I saw a 50.7 ounce bottle of Bertolli olive oil for $ 37.49. I have a large bottle at home that I paid $17.00+ for a while back. I opened it recently and it is not rancid. So this should last us a while. But if I run out I am not spending that price or more to get a new bottle. I will look for a decent price on avocado oil or cold press coconut oil. Italy has had bad olive crops for two years now which has caused the price to rise along with inflation.

I bought my last loaf of bread a week or so ago. From now on I am making all of our breads. I can make tasty specialty loaves for dollars less than it cost at the store. I have a bread maker and I have a Dutch oven so it’s crazy to buy bread. I also found a recipe for tortillas that I am going to try. I will let you know how they turn out.

We no longer buy refrigerated milk because we can’t use it up before it goes bad. I buy shelf stable milk at Dollar Tree for $ 1.25. I only use it in puddings, baked goods, casseroles, etc. We do not drink milk. I also no longer buy cream. When it went up to $ 6.00+, I quit getting it. We use half and half in our coffee which I can get a half gallon for $ 5.99.

I only buy butter once a year at Aldi’s at Thanksgiving. it cost $ 2.69 a lb. last year. We use about 32 lbs. a year. I rarely run out.

I am still buying eggs but not for much longer if the price keeps going up. When they were at a decent price, I purchased 5 dozen and froze them for scrambled eggs. We will use them sparingly. I also have egg powder if they run out.

For a while I was buying bottled water in case of an emergency. I have quit doing that since I started to save Hubby’s Sam’s Club Diet Cola 2 liter bottles. I just wash them out really well, let them dry, and then fill them from our faucet.

We purchased our last tomatoes this week. The price has gotten prohibitive. So we will have our last BLT’s this week coming up until next tomato season. I have canned tomatoes for soups and casseroles.

With the exception of lettuce, celery, potatoes or onions, we will only buy what is in season or frozen vegetables.

We are making our own salad dressings as we use up what we have. I do have a free salad dressing coupon so I will get that one.

As meat prices are rising again, I am being very selective because we are eating out of the freezer so that nothing goes bad. I did buy some chicken and 3 roast beefs recently on sale at great prices.

We have some craft beers that Chris and Hubby brought from their state and we have a few cans of Yuengling left. When they are gone, we will buy no more.

I have not had salmon in about 9 months. We have a small amount of haddock in the freezer. I will not buy any fish until the prices come down. We do like shrimp and I will buy it once in a while on sale.

I am hoping to make Eloise’s cat food when she gets older. Right now she is eating Friskie’s Kitten Food in the yellow bag. I found a recipe using rice, veggies, and chicken. There are a lot of cat recipes online.

We are making our own spaghetti sauce now from tomatoes we froze and tomatoes we canned when we had a garden.

We are making our own cakes and brownies from mixes I have or making them from scratch. We are making our own donuts, fruit crisps, and frostings.

That’s it for today. There will be more in the future. I need to work in my pantry now while Eloise is asleep.

What things are you no longer buying because the price is exorbitant?

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Every Day

What We Have Been Doing To Save More Money

We are looking at our everyday expenses with a fine tooth comb. One item that we have changed lately is how we buy gasoline. I got very used to spending my points at Top’s to buy gas. When I was doing a lot of shopping, they really added up. Now that I have cut way back on grocery purchases, I am not earning that many points. I was filling up the last couple of months at $ 3.55 a gallon. Then I noticed that my High Quality Station was $ 3.19 a gallon. This is a cash only station so that is where I have been filling up lately. They seem to be much cheaper than everyone else in my area. Plus they are just around the corner. I go by them almost anytime that I go out. Matter of fact, the next time I go out I will fill up there. We have been trying to get the gas tank down as low as possible to fill up at that price.

I can get a discount on gasoline with my Walmart+ also but the stations they use are farther away from me and are more expensive per gallon. I also can get a discount at B.J.’s Warehouse Club but I go there rarely. But if my tank is low and the price is lower than my cash station, I would fill up while shopping there.

There are also a number of apps that you can use to save on gas like Gas Buddy and Upside. Upside does not have many stations in my area. But I will be researching Gas Buddy next week. Right now, I have too much on my plate.

I know that some people are close enough to state lines to be able to fill up in a state that is cheaper on both gasoline and the state taxes. If you travel that direction for any reason, fill up while you are there. Here the closest state is PA. It is 2 hours from me. Their gasoline is higher than I am paying here.

We also run our errands in a loop and have for over 50 years. We try to do everything in one to two days a week. We strive for one but that isn’t always possible with medical and dental appointments.

Hubby takes the car to a local garage for oil changes, fluids, filters and brakes when needed and he puts air in the tires. That helps us get better gas mileage.

I wash our car at home in the nice weather. In the cold and snowy weather, I go to a car wash that gives us one reward ticket every time we go there. When we have 5 tickets we redeem them for a free car wash. I have two right now. But before the winter is over, we will get a free wash. It is a bonus that it is right near my grocery stores.

I clean and vacuum our car myself. Since I do it every couple of weeks, it stays nice and clean. Whenever I use the car, I take any grocery lists or other things that may have accumulated during my trip out of the car and dispose of them immediately. Clutter drives me nuts!

We have always checked prices for car insurance every year. Most insurance companies raise your rate every year. And it is not a little increase even if you have had no accidents or tickets. The last time this happened to us, we went to an insurance agency to see if they could find us a better deal. I knew they handled many insurance companies because years ago I worked for an agency. They found us a company headquartered here in NY. They raise our insurance every year but it is a fraction of what other companies have raised it. We are very happy with them.

Here in NY, we can get a 10% discount on our car insurance by taking an online driver safety course. The discount is good for 3 years and you can renew it every three years. The cost of the online course is much less than the discount you get over those 3 years.

We drive the speed limit and don’t gun the car from a stop.

We buy new cars but we keep them for years. The one we have now is almost 12 years old. We pay cash when we buy one. If we ever need another one, we will have our children find us a couple year old car. Since the cars depreciate, they always buy their’s a couple of years old. I trust their judgement.

That is all I can think of right now. If you have any other way that you save on gasoline and insurance or any other way you save on your car, please feel free to leave a suggestion.

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Every Day

Saving Money So That We Can Spend On The Important Things

First I want to thank you for all your good wishes about Eloise. She is a joy but very active so she is keeping us busy. This morning she did allow us to sleep until 6AM though which I am grateful for. Also Hubby’s shoulder is just about back to normal which we are thankful for. I finally saw all your comments this morning and I have responded to you all.

It took me forever to write this post this morning. Eloise is enamored with chasing the cursor. As you can see, she is learning to type. Hence the last line you can see on the page. I keep putting her down and gently telling her no. But she comes back and back. Eventually she will get it.

Besides saving for our children and grandchildren, we save so that we can spend on other things that are important to us. Eloise was one of those choices. In just one day, we spent $583. on her. The adoption fee from the rescue was $ 195. I gave them $ 200. and said keep the change. The night before we got her, we spent about $25. at Walmart for some food and litter. Then the day we got her, we spent $ 292. in two trips to Petsmart. Then we placed a chewy.com order for ordering things that Petsmart didn’t have for $ 66. We now have everything we need for her except her climbing stand which is on it’s way. We have a couple of months of kitten food, treats, and litter. I will be looking into making her cat food when she is a little older. We decided not to buy her a bed. We made one from a small box and a very soft velour throw blanket. She seems to like it but prefers to sleep on our beds.

Hubby trimmed her nails last night. We thought that would be a nightmare but it wasn’t. I just wrapped her in a towel and petted her head. She didn’t even wince when Hubby cut them. We are grateful that we didn’t have to pay to have them done.

We purchased the Breeze system for a litter box. It take pellets. She wouldn’t use it. So we got a regular litter box with clay litter which she is using. We were hoping she would use the pellet system. But it was a no go. We couldn’t return it because we had opened the pellets that came with it. However in the literature that came with it, I noticed that I can send info plus UPC and receipt and get my money back from the manufacturer if she doesn’t like it which she doesn’t. So I will be doing that. That will be a refund of $ 43.99. It pays to read the literature.

We have had a ban on plastic grocery bags in this state since well before the pandemic. We have to use reusable or buy paper from the store. I don’t know why but I saved every one of them from the store for almost a year before the ban went into effect. I just used empty tissue boxes that I stuffed with them and put them all in a huge cardboard box. They have been sitting in a corner of the basement. I knew someday they would come in handy. Now they are to scoop dirty litter into. I have no idea what I will use when they are gone. Any ideas? But for now I have a stash for a year or two.

My son and West came on Sunday and we all went out to breakfast at our favorite Greek restaurant. That was an expense we chose because I need a treat everyone once in a while rather than cook breakfast for us all the time. We were a little leery of leaving Eloise alone. We figured we might come back to a destroyed house but we didn’t. She slept while we were gone.

HSN sent me an e-mail a couple of weeks ago about a Joy Mangano Little Steamer that I purchased from them years ago. They have been ordered by the courts to pay a class action settlement to each of us who purchased it because they hid the fact that it spews hot water that could scald you. I will be looking into my options on that and submitting an application for that money.

Yesterday in the mail we got two different checks for about $ 400. dollars as a result of a class action settlement for Philips C-Pap machines that were faulty. We had two machines that were recalled so that Hubby would always have a backup in case one broke. Philips replaced those machines a while ago with brand new ones that were not defective. This money was paid to us yesterday for the damages the defective machines may have caused. We knew that the money would be coming. However we were surprised at how fast it came and how much it was. Most class action settlements pay out $1.- $20. after the lawyers get paid.

My son has a laser pointer that he is going to give us for Eloise. We were going to look into buying one. But he commented that he had one for her. Free is good! He will be back to visit in 2 weeks and will bring it for her. I think Eloise will enjoy it.

I will be reading our electric and gas meter this week and will be interested in how much that bill is. We have had our A/C off for a while now. We have only had to put it back on the past couple of days because it has gotten so hot here.

I cooked a small boneless Butterball turkey last night in the countertop oven. We had a turkey dinner last night. Hubby will cut the rest of the meat on the new slicer today. We will have turkey BLT’s tonight for dinner. The rest will be frozen for future cold cuts.

It may seem to you that we don’t spend a lot of money but we do on the things we all have to pay every day like home maintenance, taxes, gasoline, utilities, water, food, insurances, etc. However we always save so that we can pay cash for all of our purchases that are necessary and unnecessary. We do splurge on the wants that we truly want without worrying about them. Eloise is just one example. But to be honest our wants are far and few between. Hence, we save a lot of money each month so that there will be generational wealth. We started from $ 0.00 all those years ago so the generational wealth is very important to us.

Have you saved any money in the past week or so? Feel free to share those savings with us.

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Every Day

Let Me Introduce

This is 4 month old Eloise. She has already taken to Hubby. We adopted her from a rescue about an hour and 15 minutes ago. Right now while I type this she is sound asleep on his chest. I love her name so Hubby said let’s keep it then.

We have decided we don’t need to exercise any more because we chase her all over the house. She darts so fast.

She is fully vaccinated, has all shots that she should at this age, is spade, and is chipped. She will be be an indoor cat but I am glad she is chipped in case she darts out the door.

It was a busy day because I had a Walmart delivery at 9:30am with canned wet food and some litter. As soon as the things were in the house, I shot up to Petsmart and got a litter box, a scratching post, some toys, a feeding station, and a pet carrier. I forgot a bed and a thing for her to climb on. We will make a bed out of a box with a soft towel. I will get the thing to climb on shipped to me.

Then we went to the rescue and fell in love with her. We are happy that we got there when we did because another couple came in specifically for her right after us. I mean within minutes! Eloise was meant for us!

She went right to the scratching post and knew how to use it which made me happy when we got home. We have a law in New York that you can’t have a cat declawed.

We will be busy over the weekend getting her acclimated to her new home and us. You all have a great weekend!

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Every Day

We Did Another Small Grocery Haul Today

Hubby and I had doctor’s appointments today. We try to schedule together when we go to the same doctor. That saves us gasoline and wear and tear on the car.

On the way home, we stopped at Niagara Produce to get a 5 lb. bag of potatoes for $ 2.79, two tomatoes @ $3.99 a lb. totaling $ 6.78 , and a 3 count package of Romaine hearts for $ 2.99. Total cost was $ 12.56.

This was all we needed in the way of produce. We have onions that should last a while, peppers, cauliflower, broccoli, brussel sprouts, corn, green beans, etc. that are frozen. We have frozen diced onions as a back up to the fresh ones. I also have other canned vegetables.

I am finding that the fresh produce from N.P. lasts much longer than what I can buy in a grocery store. So it is worth the higher price.

We will watch the Buffalo Bills vs. Miami Dolphins tonight on TV. We never order out for football games so we decided there is always a first time. I am picking up a Domino’s pizza before the game tonight. That will be a real treat especially since I don’t have to make it. I will be paying cash out of my grocery money to pay for it.

My grocery money has really accumulated since I have not been doing much shopping over the past few months. That is a good thing so that when it is turkey season, I can purchase a few of them and some other items that are the cheapest at Thanksgiving like butter.

Any of you trying to eat down your freezers so that you can have room for the Thanksgiving and Christmas deals?

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Every Day

This Week’s Grocery Haul And Other Things

Early Sunday morning, I went to Top’s to get meat that was on sale for the lowest prices that I have seen in over 3 years. I purchased 2 whole chickens at $.99 a lb., 2 top round roasts and 1 eye round roast for $ 4.99 a lb.

On Sunday, I roasted the 2 chickens in my turkey pan. This pic was taken when they still had 40 minutes to go. I was just checking the temperature. When they were done, I took all the meat off of one chicken and put the carcass and skin in the crock pot and cooked it until about 7PM to make chicken broth. We had chicken sandwiches for dinner and the rest of the chicken I froze in portions. The other chicken had been chilling in the fridge. I took that one out and took all the meat off and saved a portion of it to make my homemade chicken soup. That carcass and skin went into the crock pot and simmered on low until I got up the next morning. I turned it down to warm while I went to a doctor’s check up which went well.

On my way home, I stopped at Wegman’s for a bag of avocados that looked so good. I have not had them in a while because they have been awful for weeks. It was one of Wegman’s new “Hot Deals” that cost $3.99. I also went to town hall and paid our water bill. It was $ 212. from May 30th through August 30th. I was quite shocked because it was much higher than the same period last year. We used a lot less water with our sprinkler system this year because we had so much rain. But then I realized that the crew that built the wall had used a lot of water to mix the mortar and didn’t turn the water off and on. Ugh!

When I got home I strained the broth and took the bits and pieces of meat and threw those in my broth that I was putting in mason jars. Between the two chickens, I got 7 and 1/2 quarts of bone broth. Late in the afternoon, Hubby cut up the celery and I got some carrots and corn out the freezer. Using those, some meat from the birds, some rice and about 1/2 of the broth, I made a huge pot of soup which we each had a cup for dinner. We will rotate it in between roast beef meals this week.

The broth will get used up quickly so instead of canning it, I decided to freeze it. The rest of the chicken got frozen for future meals.

Two of the beef roasts I put in the freezer. One I cooked last night for a roast beef dinner. I again used the turkey pan with a rack to roast it because it allows the air to circulate around the roast. I roasted some baby potatoes under the rack of beef on the edges of the pan. We had green beans with it.

The roast was very tough so Hubby made sure to cut it across the grain. It was made to look like a regular round roast in the packaging but when I opened it, it was long and narrow. It was edible and had flavor but I am hoping the 2 in the freezer are truly top round roasts because I don’t think this was. Do you have any clue what it could be? When I open the next one, if it looks the same, the two of them will get returned to the store. I told Hubby I will go to Niagara Produce next time they have them on sale. They are always good.

Today Hubby sliced the rest of the meat using our new meat slicer so that we have cold cuts for cold and hot roast beef sandwiches. These roasts at Top’s were not very big but it was all they had.

For entertainment this weekend, we watched our Buffalo Bills play and they won. I am so happy that football is back! They play again this Thursday night which doesn’t give them much rest and they have to travel to Miami for the game. I hope they do well.

It has been hard to get much else done around here because with Hubby’s shoulder healing, I have had to help him a a lot. But it is getting better each day and hopefully soon it will be back to normal.

That is what I have been up to. I will be back when I have something else to talk about.