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Every Day

Frugal Things This Week

These are the things that we are doing frugally this week:

– Cashed 2 rebate checks at the bank totaling $ 12.21.

– Withdrew $500. in cash for certain expenses during the month of December. Cash is the easiest for me for groceries, gasoline, etc. to keep within a budget.

– Hubby wanted antipasto for dinner last night. We love to order this out in a restaurant and share it. But I had the fixings so I made it. It costs a lot less to make it than eating out and we could stay home in our nice warm house. We put our Italian dressing on after we put what we want in our bowls in case there are leftovers. We don’t like soggy leftovers. We had lettuce, red onion, prosciutto, salami, pepperoni, black and green olives, provolone cheese, and pepperoncini. It was delicious and there was some leftover for lunch today.

– I received a box of freebies from Samplesource. We use Bona products for our hard wood floors so I was happy with the hardwood floor Bona. I have never used the other one but we have tile on our bathroom floors so I will be trying it out this week.

– I wrote to Turkey Hill to let them know how much my grandchildren love their ice cream. They sent me these coupons and I was so delighted. We have double coupons up to $.99 here at both Top’s and Wegman’s  so all of the $.50 and $.75 ones will double. The eggnog will come in handy for Thanksgiving if I can find it.



– I purchased 2 more turkeys. One at Top’s for $.48 a lb. and one at Wegman’s for $ .48 a lb. I am all over cheap poultry. I will be purchasing one more soon.



– Remember back in August when our A/C went out. Well I thought Hubby had purchased the switch we needed to fix it but he hadn’t. He said he needed to take the bad switch out and look for a part # on it. So he waited until yesterday and did that now that we are using heat and not A/C. He found the part # and we found the part on Amazon for $ 8.49. It is a good thing he didn’t order the one he was looking at back in August. It was the wrong one! I used a free to me Amazon gift card to pay for it. When it arrives later this week, Hubby will install it. The company who wanted to install it was going to charge us $239. for the part and labor. We said no thanks! What a rip off that would have been! 

– I brought a bag of cans and bottles to Fast Cash to get the deposits back. I received $ 1.25. 

– Hubby made homemade teriyaki salad dressing. 

– We had West stay with us for the weekend. We stayed in all weekend because it was so cold. No eating out. One night I made grilled chicken breasts and he loved dipping it in SF honey mustard sauce. But he said the best part of the meal was the ice cream sundae I made him for dessert. He had vanilla bean ice cream with chocolate syrup, whipped cream, maraschino cherries, and pastel sprinkles. It was definitely cheaper than buying one.



– I picked up 12lbs. of butter this week for $1.99 a lb. I got 6 yesterday when I shopped at Aldi’s. Then today on the way home from the bank I stopped at an Aldi’s for 6 more. Aldi’s has a limit of 6 each trip. I use 30-32 lbs. of butter a year so I always buy it when it is at a rock bottom price this time of year. It freezes really well. I will be getting more.

That is all we have done since last Friday when I posted our frugal things. Have you done any frugal things in the past 4-5 days? Please share so we can all learn from you.

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Every Day

Zero Waste Meal Planning

This is something that I have gotten very passionate about. I try to never waste one morsel of food. Can I do it all of the time? Sometimes, something gets away from me but not recently.  

Every night after dinner, I decide what we will eat the next day. It all comes from my stockpile of food that we have in the house. That is how I plan. I pull our menu from ingredients on hand. I rarely plan a menu and then go and buy those ingredients. The way I do it let’s us eat at rock bottom prices because I buy meat and other ingredients in bulk when they are at their lowest prices. Now that I have my Butterball turkey for Thanksgiving, my concentration will be on Shady Brook & Top’s turkeys this month because I will never get meat cheaper than $.48 a lb.

I start my meal planning by looking at what food we have in the fridge because that is the most perishable food. Produce can get overripe if you don’t keep track of it. I want to make sure that our produce $’s are not being wasted. For dinner, West requested grilled chicken that he could dip in honey mustard sauce. That is a staple that I keep for him in our fridge. He also wanted French Fries which will come from our freezer stash. I will make a salad using a leftover half a bag of lettuce, cucumbers, an orange pepper, some onion, and homemade teriyaki dressing that Hubby made for our teriyaki chicken salads last night. I will put some grapes that have the stems removed and have been washed in a bowl for anyone who would like fruit.  

Milk can go bad especially since we are not big milk drinkers. Now that Hubby is on my diet, I won’t be buying as much milk because he no longer eats cereal. However, when I see that milk is getting old, we make SF puddings to use it up. I have also thought about freezing it in smaller portions and just pulling out a little when we need it for something. 

For breakfast, I pulled leftover apple cinnamon waffles(first picture) that Hubby made from the freezer. I made scrambled eggs, some bacon(pulled from the freezer), and sausage. West, who is the only one who ate waffles(he demolished most of them), used pure maple syrup from our fridge on them. 

While I was pulling those things, I spotted the open jar of sauerkraut. I love eating a little of this just plain with my lunch.

I was thawing some shaved beef from the freezer and decided that it was not enough for those who might want lunch. So in this picture, you will see that I thawed another baggie of shaved beef to give me enough for West and I. Hubby doesn’t want lunch today. 

After the chicken is thawed for dinner, I will cut it in half lengthwise to make thinner cutlets which lets me portion control easier. After the three of us eat, there will probably be a little leftover to put on a salad in the next couple of days.

Tonight, I will go through this process all over again to make the meals for tomorrow. I always try to incorporate produce and leftovers into our meals first. Then I pull things from the freezer.

A recent article said that Americans throw out 40% of the food they buy. YIKES!  I can’t even imagine doing that. I would not want to throw my money away like that. Instead of spending the time to shop and throw it away, you might as well just burn it. That is essentially what you are doing.

This method keeps your food bills down and gives you extra money to spend on something else or to save for something you want or need. 

Do you menu plan from your ingredients? 

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Every Day

Frugal Things This Past Week

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

– I filled the gasoline tank on the SUV using points to get $.20 off per gallon.


– I washed two load of clothes and towels in the HE washer using minimal detergent. I dried the towels in the dryer using our wool balls (less drying time). I hung the clothing to dry. Only one piece of clothing needed to be ironed.

– I cooked all meals at home. We had homemade pizza, 3 nights of chuck roast with gravy( potatoes for Hubby and broccoli for me), SF BBQ Chicken with and Italian tossed salad, Teriyaki Chicken with Green Beans, and Taco salads.

– Hubby snow blowed 11.5 inches of snow. This is one job that we don’t have to hire someone to do.

– My sister called and we spent some quality time catching up on things. That was priceless.

– Hubby’s sister called and caught things up with him. That also was priceless.

– All of our Christmas shopping is done and wrapped and paid for with cash. 

– I told you that I was looking for a new tablet. I had been checking the Black Friday deals. However, I found one on the best deal ever. I ordered a Samsung Tablet which not only had a great price of $201.99 but I got a Free $50.00 gift card for ordering it. That $50.00 will be used in the future for something we need. 


– I baked some brownies because West is coming to visit.

– I quickly vacuumed the car since we had salty and sandy boots in it this week. I like to keep the car as new as possible.


– I was able to get off another drug which will save us $40. a year.

– I got 4 free books on Amazon Prime sent to my Kindle.

– I have been using the recumbent bike and the treadmill(which we managed to fix ourselves) to get my exercise this week. It is too cold and icy to walk outside. 

– I watched some You Tube shows while exercising. I love learning new things. 

– We not only watch food portion sizes but we watch household goods portion sizes. By that I mean, we don’t use any more shampoo than we need to wash our hair. We have found that a quarter size bit of shampoo is perfect for washing our hair. Using more would be a waste. We use just the right amount of dish liquid for the size of the job we are doing. We are mindful of these things and others like toothpaste, lotion, moisturizer, etc.

– We have been working on a 750 piece jigsaw puzzle for entertainment.

– I have been planning our meals out of our fridge and freezers. We had ZERO waste this week. Throwing food out is a huge money waster. 

That is it for this week. Comment and share what you did frugally this week. We would love to know.    

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Every Day

My Day on Tuesday

We woke up to 10.7 inches of snow yesterday morning. But it continued to snow. We ended up with 11.5 inches. Here is a quick picture I took through a screen on our breakfast room window.

Hubby started his day off snow blowing the driveway because we had our yearly cardiologist appointments at 8:40 am. Our cardiology office had moved and is quite a distance from us now- about a 28 mile round trip. The traffic was horrid. It took us 25 minutes to go a half mile after we turned out of our subdivision. It took us an hour to get to the doctor’s office. It was the doctor’s first day in the new office so it was a learning curve for him with the new computer system. He said we were his first patients. We never got home until 11:15am. We both had good appointments and don’t have to go back for a year. The doctor was thrilled with my 50 lb. weight loss and took me off a medication which really made my day.

We did make a quick stop at CVS in another town on the way home. I was happy to get four large cans of the Abound Mixed nuts(no peanuts) for our Thanksgiving and Christmas party mix. They had the best price on these mixed nuts. They were $ 8.99 each for over a pound can.

We had not eaten breakfast before we left so we were both starving. I made us bacon, eggs, and some avocado for lunch. Hubby is now on my diet. I am giving away anything that he can’t eat. 


After doing the dishes, I went outside and shoveled the front porch which Hubby can’t do with the snowblower. It is bitter cold out and getting colder. Winter came in with a vengeance. 


In the afternoon, I did some cleaning, got the mail, and did some reading.


After getting a burst of energy, I organized my greeting cards. I used to keep them in file folders in a large file box. It was bulky, heavy, and I had to dig way down in to find anything. It just wasn’t working. 

So I purchased a greeting card box and organized it. 

It is going to be much easier to use. Everything is in there and there is room to expand. I am delighted with it. Little projects make me happy! So I will be doing a lot of them over the winter. 


Last night we watched some shows on TV which is something I have not done in months. Then it was early to bed since we got up so early. 


I hope you all had a good Tuesday.

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Every Day

Thanksgiving Menu Planning

We thought we were going to be alone on Thanksgiving until my DIL in the Albany area asked me about it. She usually takes turns alternating between her sister and us for Thanksgiving. It was her turn to go to her sister’s. But because we were going to be all alone, they decided to spend Thanksgiving with us. I am truly grateful that she, my son, and granddaughter are going to come for a few days and spend it with us. We spent a few Thanksgivings alone and it just wasn’t the same.

So I want to make it wonderful for them but simple.
As I get older, it is hard to do all that work without a plan which includes doing many things in advance. 

So I made up my menu a few weeks ago and I have been slowly picking up things as I see them going on sale. 

Our menu is:

Turkey – Done
Gravy- Done
Mashed Potatoes – Done
Sausage Herb Stuffing – Done
Niblet Corn – Done
Broccoli Spears – Done
Pickles and Olives – Done
Pumpkin Pie – Done
Apple Pie – Done
Vanilla Bean Ice Cream- Done
Chocolate Milk
Ice Water – Done
Moscato Wine
Rum and Coke – Done
Beer – Done
Coffee with Flavored Syrups and Creamer – Done

As I bought the necessary items on sale, I marked them off of the list above. I purchased my almost 20 lb. turkey last Friday at Aldi’s for $ .87 a lb. 

I have everything I need in my stockpile to make the gravy and mashed potatoes. I purchased the herb seasoned stuffing cubes last week. I have plenty of butter, chicken stock, onions, celery, spices, and sausage to make the stuffing.

The broccoli and corn are in the chest freezer. The pickles and olives are in the pantry.

I purchased my pie crusts for both of the pies. I hate making my own and this is a time saver for me. I do have the apples, butter, sugars, and spices to make the apple pie. The cans of pumpkin, evaporated milk, sugar, eggs, and spices to make the pumpkin pie are all in the stockpile. The vanilla bean ice cream is to go with the pies. But it is also to make an ice cream sundae if my granddaughter desires one. I have chocolate syrup, whipped topping for the sundae and the pies, maraschino cherries, nuts, and sprinkles.

So I need to pick up the Moscato wine and milk for dinner and I am done purchasing everything. I have the beer and rum and Coke for drinks. 

I was going to have cranberry sauce but quickly figured out that no one liked it but me and I don’t eat anything that has sugar anymore. I was going to put rolls on the menu but decided that the stuffing, mashed potatoes, corn, and pies were more than enough carbs.   

I promised Alexa that I would make more cinnamon swirl bread(I brought some out on our trip and she loved it.), chocolate chip muffins and cookies for when they come too. Those things will all be made a week or so before they come and I will freeze them until we need them.

The pies will be made and baked the day before Thanksgiving. The rest I can handle on Thanksgiving day.  

I have a copy of the menu list above and will use it to mark what times I need to start things that day and cross them off the list as I do them. 

It is looking like the lowest price for turkeys in our area is going to be $ .48 a lb. at Wegman’s.  Top’s will price match that price. So I will decide whether to price match 2 at Top’s or spend $.87 a lb. for 2 more Butterball at Aldi’s. Once I have the 20 lb. one out of my freezer and in my fridge, I will make a decision and pick up at least two more turkeys. We continue to eat out of our freezer so that I have the room. I may even pick up a third one, roast it, and food saver the meat. I will never get such a low price on meat until next Thanksgiving.

In other news, with the exception of cash flowing three gift envelopes, all of my Christmas shopping is done and wrapped. I will go to the bank and get the cash for those gifts right after Thanksgiving for our family in Rochester. I took all of the gifts but one to Albany with me for that family. Alexa’s last gift arrived a few days ago, is wrapped, and ready to go home with them after Thanksgiving.  

Soon we will be hunkering down for the winter. It has been snowing all day here and we are supposed to get more tonight. The slower days of winter especially after the holidays will give me more time to blog. I will be taking some time off the blog while my family is here. I am so looking forward to that.

Starting in December, I will start telling you about our goals for 2020 and the direction the blog will take next year. I have tons of ideas.

In the meantime, I would love to know what the lowest price for turkeys are in your area. Feel free to leave a comment and share them.     

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Every Day

Preparing For Thanksgiving

Being that it is a cold and dreary Saturday, I decided it was time for my refrigerator deep clean. I wipe out the fridge the day before I go grocery shopping each week. However twice a year, I give it a really good deep clean. Since Thanksgiving will be here in a few weeks, I decided it was time.

On the left side of the beverages, I keep any leftovers that we need to eat, meal prep, and our lettuce keeper. Those three containers that are stacked are our pork chops, diced potatoes and steamed broccoli leftovers from dinner last night that we will eat tonight. I love these containers for leftovers and for meal prep. They hold a lot and stack easily.

I take everything out so that it is empty. I use microfiber cloths and Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day to clean the entire inside. I take all of the shelves and bins out to clean in my sink with it. I like this cleaner because it has vinegar which gets rid of any smells that linger.

I am so happy that it is all done and ready to receive the things we need for Thanksgiving.

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Every Day

Frugal Things This Past Week

These are the things we did frugally this past week:

– Saved money on tolls on our trip by using our EZ pass.

– Purchased Halloween candy at 50% off. It is the next year’s supply: for Hubby, the grandchildren and baking.


– Baked cinnamon bread to take to our family in the Albany area


– Took all of the Christmas gifts except for one to our family to save on postage


– Returned an item of clothing that was defective. The company paid the return postage.

– I have been looking for a good buy on reusable produce bags. I finally found one at 40% off at Amazon. The set had 9 of different sizes. Our state has banned plastic bags as of early next year. However some of the stores are going to begin the ban at the end of this year so I wanted to be ready.


– My tablet is extremely old and is not being updated so many apps I can’t use. So I will be on the lookout for a good deal. Hopefully, there will be one on Black Friday.

– I picked up a nice size frosting bucket from the bakery at Top’s free for the asking. I use these for  storing dry goods in the basement. It saves me from buying more of the large ones. 

– I received a $3.00 rebate.  


– I purchased a $ 60. jacket at Kohl’s for under $15. using Kohl’s cash that was given to me for a mistake they made and a coupon.


– I saw that Aldi’s has Butterball turkeys for $.87 a lb. This will be my buy price for Thanksgiving unless I see something better in the future. We love Butterballs.


– I washed two loads of clothes in the HE washer using cold water. I hung them to dry.


– Hubby turned the heat down to 60 while we were away.

– I got a cut, shampoo, and blow dry at the hairdresser. No color or highlights this time. That saved me many $$$’s. 

– We have been very careful about using up food in the fridge so as to have zero waste.


– I cooked a dozen eggs in the pressure cooker to use for breakfasts and sliced up on salads.

– Some of the apples in our fridge needed to be used up so I made homemade apple sauce with stevia to sweeten it.


–  I watched “Hamburger Hill” on amazon prime videos.

– We just finished our last regular size tube of toothpaste so I am using up some of the many, many travel size tubes that the dentist has given us.

What did you do frugally this week?

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Every Day

Grocery Shopping This Past Week

I needed to go grocery shopping yesterday not only because we needed a couple of things but because it was Senior Discount Day (6% off). This is what I purchased at Top’s:

4 jars of Ragu Spaghetti Sauce – $ .75 each after Q’s = $ 3.00

4 Kummelweck rolls – $ .75 each = $ 3.00

1 Bag of Ruffles – $ 1.99 after Q

1/2 lb of Virginia Baked Ham – $ 3.36

1/2 lb. of Charlie The Butcher Roast Beef – $ 6.59- comes with free au jus


5 pkgs. of Jimmy Dean Bacon – $ 17.98 after B2G3F 


4 pkgs. of Taco Seasoning – Free after Q’s


1 Celery – $ .88 after Q


24 ct. Large Eggs – $ 1.99

1 Land of Lakes Cream Cheese – $ .99 after Q

1 Box of Microwave Popcorn – $ 2.99 


Total was $ 39.93 after 6% discount.


This is the cheapest spaghetti sauce that I have seen in a long time. When I don’t have time to make homemade for West, it will come in handy.
 
The rolls were for beef on a weck sandwiches for dinner last night. And yes, I ate a roll- the 2nd one that I have eaten in 8 months. This is my very favorite sandwich and since my blood work numbers were so beautiful yesterday, I celebrated. But it will probably be another 4 – 5 months before I eat any bread again.


The chips and celery were purchased for Thanksgiving. Hubby wanted the cold cuts for his lunches. We use a lot of bacon for Sunday family breakfasts. Eggs were a great price and I was down to 2 dozen. I use a lot of cream cheese. Hubby wanted the popcorn for snacks.


I have a busy day so I need to hard boil a dozen eggs for my breakfasts. Then I will go out to the Post Office to make a return and to Kohl’s to use up some Kohl’s cash. We have a snowstorm coming tomorrow so I want to get these things done. 

Did you get any good deals this past week?

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Been on Vacation

We went to the Albany area(4 and 1/2 hour trip each way) early Friday morning to visit our son, daughter-in-law, and granddaughter, Alexa. We had not seen them since Alexa came to visit in August. We wanted to get one more trip in before the snows come and we are stuck inside for the winter.

It was a wonderful visit. Alexa is now 5’8’inches tall and I have to look up at her to talk to her. Some of you probably remember her when I posted her birth announcement all those years ago. The years have flown. She is a beautiful young lady now and I enjoy spending time just chatting with her.
 
Before we left I tanked up the SUV using gasoline points that I earned buying groceries. On the way out we saved on tolls by using our EZ Pass which gives us a discount. 

We drove straight through without stopping for lunch relying on the snacks that I had packed. We did the same coming home. 

On Friday evening, we took everyone out to dinner at a diner that Alexa wanted to go to in another town. We had great food and a wonderful time and I only spent $58.01 and a $12.00 tip.

On Saturday, my daughter-in-law took me shopping at Walmart for marked down Halloween candy. We found some at 50% but others that I picked up that were in the Halloween section were not marked. I got to the register and was told that only a few were marked 50% off. I told them to keep the majority of it and just got the few that rang up at 50% off. However, a manager was near by and she told the cashier to give me the rest at 50% off. So I spent $84.66 on candy but saved double that. I left about 40% of it with my family and brought the rest home to dole out over the year to West and family. I also was thrilled to find really large bags of Almond Joys which are never discounted, so I bought all they had which was 8 bags. Hubby uses those little bars in the middle of the night if he has a low sugar. They will last us for a few years. Some of what I purchased is pictured above.

We also went to Price Chopper( wow is that store expensive) and picked up some strip steaks and burgers for dinner. My son grilled and it was everyone’s choice what they wanted. It tasted so good.

We spent a quiet day on Sunday and had pizza, antipasto and wings for dinner. 

We came home yesterday. We got unpacked and I caught up some laundry. I still have more today. I also need to go grocery shopping since it is Senior Discount Day at Top’s. I made some fish in the air fryer and some frozen veggies so that we didn’t have to pick up fast food for dinner.

First thing this morning, Hubby and I went to the lab, in another town, for blood work for an upcoming appointment. On the way home, we stopped and voted.

I have pulled some shaved beef out of the freezer to make for dinner. It will be easy.

Aqua Systems is coming to blow the lines on our sprinkler system at 1PM. When that is done, I will get the groceries.


Then, I plan on taking a nap. I am beat from our trip. I will be back to posting tommorrow.
 

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Every Day

Grocery Shopping This Past Week

This past week I shopped at Aldi’s. My weeks run from last Wednesday through Tuesday of this week.

This is what I purchased:

4 Avocados – $ .69 each = $ 2.76

Organic Smoked Turkey – $ 4.49

2 Cream Cheese – $ .79 each = $ 1.58

2 Heavy Whipping Cream – $ 1.55 each = $ 3.10

2 Half and Half – $ 1.55 each = $ 3.10

2 doz. Large Eggs – $ .89 each = $ 1.78

1 Sunflower Kernels – $ 1.59

2 Macadamia Nuts – $ 8.99 each = $ 17.98

1 Roasted Pistachios – $ 3.59

1 Trail Mix – $5.49

1 Heavy Duty Aluminum Foil – $ 2.29

1 Pkg. of Romaine Hearts – $ 2.39

1 Pkg. of Food Saver Rolls – $ 9.99

Total was $ 61.11 including tax.

My supply of nuts and sunflower kernels was almost gone so I stocked for a while. The trail mix is one of Hubby’s snacks. I have at least 1/2 an avocado a day. Sometimes more if I have a salad for dinner and want some cubed up on it. 

I love smoked turkey spread with cream cheese, rolled  up and cut into slices. YUM! The whipping cream is for my coffee and the half and half for Hubby’s coffee.

I now after this shop have 4 dozen eggs in the fridge. We eat a lot of eggs.  We also go through a lot romaine and lettuce in salads.


The aluminum foil is to use for my Thanksgiving turkey. 


The bonus this week was the deal on the Food Saver rolls. These were a great price and fit my Food Saver.


Did you get any good deals this past week? Please share with us.