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Every Day

Ways That Being Too Frugal Can Cost You In The Long Run

Are there times that you should not be frugal? Could being too frugal cost you in the long run? It sure can and here are my thoughts on that. 

One of the first things I learned after I got married was not to buy the cheapest appliances. If you buy the cheapest, they most likely will not last you as long as getting one that is priced in the middle. The middle priced ones are usually better quality, more energy efficient, and reliable lasting us many, many years. I have always stuck to this way of buying our washing machines, dryers, stoves, microwaves, dishwashers, refrigerators, freezers, humidifiers, and dehumidifiers and some of them have lasted us over 25 years.

The only time I would consider buying the cheapest appliance would be if Consumer Reports or another reporting company rated it highly. But, in my experience, that rarely happens. 

The only time I will buy one used is if I am buying it from a relative and know the history of how it was used and for how long it had been used. For example, I purchased my washer and dryer from my son and daughter-in-law. I will have it 10 years in a few months. They had it for, I believe, 5 years. A couple of those years it was stored and not in use. 

We have done the same with automobiles. We have never purchased the cheapest model. We saw too many friends who did that and ended up spending much more on maintenance and repairs than we did with our cars. 

I have never purchased the cheapest luggage, wallets, or purses. I find that luggage that is middle priced lasts us for years. I always buy a real leather purse because they also last me for 15-20 years or longer when I take the time to clean and maintain them.

We also don’t buy cheap furniture. It falls apart in a few years. If you are going to watch a lot of TV or read sitting on a sofa or chair, you want it to last a long time so quality is important.

We have never skimped on a mattress set. Comfort is important to us. A cheap bed set would make us miserable. Right now, we have a sleep number bed. Sure it was expensive when we purchased it. However it has lasted us almost 19 years. If a part wears out, you can replace just that part. We have had to replace one part in all these years. It has been worth every dime we spent. We will have it many more years.

I buy us high quality, high thread count, Egyptian cotton sheets. We love our sleep and it you have ever slept on cheap sheets, you will understand why I choose the sheets I do.

We have never purchased cheap paint. We buy quality and always pay attention to what Consumer Reports says. Because of this, we have to paint less often or pay someone to do it less often. Better paint also washes easier when you get a mark on it or when you are washing it during your spring or fall cleaning. 

Please feel free to leave a comment and share your experiences on this topic. 

We don’t buy cheap shoes. I did that as a teenager and I remember how uncomfortable they were and the blisters they gave me. We buy good quality shoes and sneakers. Our feet are important to us.

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Every Day

Frugal Things We Did This Past Week

These are the things we did frugally this past week:

– We still have not turned on any A/C or heat. The weather has been flip flopping. Some days it is warm and others it is cool. But so far we have lived without both of these things.

– I picked up my free Pop- arazzi Nail Polish at CVS with my free coupon they sent for my birthday month. 

– I went to the bank for our cash for October. I ran 4 errands while I was in that town.

– I picked up the free vanilla cinnamon bun at Panera for Hubby.

– Found a 50% off code for our tire changeover place and scheduled our appointment.

– I returned my two library books that I read but did not pick up anymore because I don’t have the time to read them in the next two weeks. If I get some time, I will read one on my Kindle.

– I received a B1G1F  birthday coupon from Bar S Franks. 

– We have been making really simple meals like shrimp cocktails, Chef’s salads and bacon and eggs for dinner. Tonight though I will be making a Hoisin Pork Tenderloin.  

– I redeemed points on Bing for another $ 5.00 Walmart gift card.  

– I baked two loaves of banana bread using really ripe bananas that were frozen. One loaf will be used for our Sunday breakfast. 

– I washed just one load of clothes this week using cold water and then hung them to dry.

– I received a birthday coupon for a free dessert from one of our local restaurants. Not sure I will use it. But if we go there, I will get it for Hubby.

– I have been using up things in the fridge including condiments and sauces, Our condiments are out of control again. I use all recipe’s ingredient search for this.

– Picked the last of our chives for this year. 

– We got our free to us flu shots. 

– On days that the weather permits, I have been continuing my 1-2 mile walks in our neighborhood. We have 5 ponds that I walk by and I am always looking for ducks or geese which are frequently there. 

– I filled the car up using gas points to defray the cost.

– I have been using up toiletries from our hotel stay and my hospital stay earlier in the year.  

– Shopped Tops on Senior Discount day to get a 6% discount.

What have you done frugally this past week?

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Every Day

Grocery Shopping This Past Week

I shopped at Aldi’s this past week. These are the items we purchased: 

2 – 1lb. pkgs. of Organic Grass Fed Ground Beef – $5.29 ea.

Hard Salami – $ 2.59

Artisan Jerky – $ 3.99

Turkey Pepperoni – $ 2.19

Goat Cheese – $ 1.99

2 Neufchatel Cheese – $ .79 ea.

1 Irish Butter – $ 2.49

2 Half and Half Creamers – $ 1.55 ea.

Pictured also is the vanilla cinnamon bun that I picked up at Panera Bread that was a free item on my card. Hubby was thrilled. He loves them.


2 Dill Pickle Sandwich Slices – $ .89 ea.

2 bags of Avocados – $ 4.99 ea.

2.41 lbs. of Seedless Green Grapes – $ 2.14

1 Sauerkraut – $ 1.69

1 Grape Jelly – $ 1.29

2 Bags of Macadamia Nuts – $ 8.99 ea.

2 Bags of Pork Rinds – $ .99 ea.

1 Bag of Pistachios – $ 5.99

2 Fudge Mint Cookies – $ 1.48 ea.

4 Caramel Coconut Fudge Cookies – $ 1.36 ea.

1 Romaine Hearts – $ 2.19

Total was $ 81.93. The nuts and pork rinds are my snacks for the next few weeks. The other snacks are for Hubby and visitors. I was very happy to see the Macadamia Nuts back in our Aldi’s. An employee told me that they are seasonal. With the exception of the grape jelly, the rest of the items are things that we work into our daily meals. 

When I left the store I picked up next week’s flyer( starts October 6th) and saw that the organic grass fed ground beef will be on sale next week for $ 4.49 a lb. You must buy a large package of 4lbs. to get that price. I will be all over that since we use a lot of it.  

Did you get any good grocery deals this week?

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Every Day

How I Save On Gasoline

Gasoline is a commodity that the majority of us have to buy over and over again. It can add up to quite a huge bill over a month’s time. We usually only fill up our tank once a month unless we are traveling now that we are retired. 

But I know that a lot of you travel to work each day and that can get costly. I remember how costly it was when we had two cars and we were working and traveling to two different businesses for work. I also remember feeding our sons’ gas tanks on their cars so that they could drive to the private school that they attended that was almost 25 miles from our home. So gasoline costs can be significant.

There are a few things that we do to save on gasoline costs. They are:

1. We always pay with our 2% gasoline rewards credit card so that we get cash back.


2. We get gasoline points for grocery shopping at Top’s that give us money off per gallon at Top’s gasoline stations.  I have gotten my gasoline free a few times. The amount depends on how many points you have accumulated.  Many supermarkets have a program like this. When we lived in Arizona, there was a program(can’t remember what store it was that offered at) that allowed us get discounted gasoline at certain gasoline stations.

3. Many gasoline companies give you a discount if you use their branded credit card.

4. Before I leave the house I map out my trip. That usually entails deciding where I am going and how to drive it to use as little gas as possible. 

5. I use this fuel calculator to figure out what my route will cost me.

5 I will do as many errands in a week that I can all on one trip.

5. The other day I realized that the front driver side tire was getting soft. It wasn’t soft enough to get a warning on the car dash but it was getting there. So I took the few minutes to fill the tire up with air. Driving on soft tires doesn’t give you your best gasoline mileage. Keeping those tires filled properly will save you cash.

6. Do your tune ups that will keep your car running smoothly and thereby save you on gas costs.

7. If your car doesn’t need premium gasoline, use the regular. Most cars do not need premium gasoline. Check your car manual or ask your dealership. If you don’t need it, it is a waste of money to buy it. 

8. Always check Gas Buddy to see who has the cheapest gasoline in the area. Then if you have points to use on gasoline you can figure out if they are worth using or if you would be better off getting your gasoline at a different gas station. 

9. Some gas stations let you save a $.05 or so off a gallon if you sign up and let them take the gas money automatically out of your checking account. Unfortunately, the one near me sold and the new company does not have this benefit.
 
10. I have a gas station down the road from me that is cash only. They are usually cheaper than everyone else. In other words, you get a cash discount. 

11. When shopping for a car, you can save by buying a fuel efficient car to begin with.

12. If you can easily walk somewhere rather than driving, so it. 


13. If you have public transportation available, use it.

14. Car pool if possible to work. Hubby did this and saved a lot of money over the years that he did it.

15. Don’t be an aggressive driver. When starting up from a start, keep your RPM’s under 2 until you get up to speed. Jack rabbit starts waste gasoline. 

16. Don’t drive miles out of your way to save a few cents on gasoline. It will cost you more to go there than the few cents you will save.


17. On a cold morning, don’t warm up your car more than 30 seconds. Modern cars do not need a long warm up period like the cars of the “old days”.

18. During the warmer days of the year, buy your gasoline in the early morning or in the late evening. Gas is more dense when it is cooler outside so you get more of it when you pump. When the temperature warms up, you get less of it when you pump.


19. Turn your car off if you are going to be stopping for a few minutes. I can’t tell you how many peoples cars I see running at the grocery store or drugstore when they have run into shop for a few minutes. Idling costs money.

20. Keep your windows up as much as possible. They create drag which uses more gasoline. 

21. In the summer, park your car in the shade which will keep it cooler and keep you from turning on the A/C as much. A/C uses gasoline. In the hotter states, like Arizona, use a sunshade for your window when the car is parked. It won’t take as long to cool down your car with the A/C.


22. If you have cruise control, use it especially when driving on high speed highways. It will save you gasoline.


I am sure there are many more ways to save on gasoline. If you would like to add your $.02, please feel free to leave a comment.

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Every Day

Squirreling Away the “Nuts” for the Winter

As you have seen in recent prior posts, I have been stockpiling for this winter. I hate cold and snow and I have no intention of leaving the house except for medical or dental appointments once the snow starts falling.

Recently I have stockpiled toilet paper, beef, chicken, ground beef, steaks, shrimp, ground chicken, ground turkey, canned potatoes, canned vegetables, canned tomatoes, snacks, apples, frozen vegetables, liquid hand soap, and tall kitchen garbage bags. They have all been incorporated in to the stockpile that I already had.

This morning I took inventory of our tissues. We only had 12 boxes so I went to Dollar Tree and got 18 more boxes. Thirty boxes should be enough to get us through cold season. I checked and we have plenty of cold medicines. While I was at Dollar Tree, I picked up the greeting cards for the family birthdays coming up. I know I bought a bunch of blank cards but I buy specialty cards for immediate family members. I also was out of mailing labels and Dollar Tree has the very best price so I picked up a pack. Those will be used for any Christmas gifts that need to be mailed.

I spent some time this morning checking my inventories in the basement. I determined that we have plenty of pasta for Hubby and for when West stays with us. He loves his grandma’s homemade spaghetti and meatballs. Those bins and boxes on the second from the top shelves hold plenty.


I have plenty of tea, coffee, sugar free coffee syrups, and drink mixes. 


Hubby’s cereal supply is plentiful.


The paper towel supply is perfect. We don’t use too many paper towels. We mostly use them for draining food. 


We have lots of paper napkins.


We have plenty Crystal Light, G2 drinks in case anyone needs hydration with electrolytes, tomato sauces and tomatoes to make sauce, refried beans, canned mushrooms, boullion, gravy mixes, tabasco sauces and other sauces, bread crumbs, jam, peanut butter(many more in the kitchen pantries), powders for smoothies, evaporated milk,and avocado oil sprays.

I have determined that I need more pickles and olives, olive and avocado oils, dishwasher detergent, liquid dish soap,canned tuna, and canned white meat chicken. So I will be looking for rock bottom prices on those. This is not all of my stockpile but I will show you more at some other time.

Everything that you see here, I have more at the ready in my pantries in the kitchen. All of my freezers are pretty full. Matter of fact we are eating out of them to make room for turkeys and hams.   

I am off to spend more of my day with the birthday boy named Hubby.

Are you stocking up for the winter? What are you stocking on?  If anyone hears of a good deal on dishwasher detergent at a nationwide store, I would love a heads up!

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Every Day

Monthly or Yearly Recurring Expenses

How many of you have small or large recurring monthly or yearly expenses that you just keep paying that really aren’t giving you the value you once thought they would?

I ask this because we just cancelled our gym membership. That is $48. a month back in our pocket. 

The reason is that we just were not using it enough. Hubby especially was not using it at all. His back was not allowing him to. I told him a couple of months ago that I was going to cancel it and he fought me about it and said he would use it. I kept track and he didn’t use it once. So I brought it up again, telling him that we might as well just take $48. each month and burn it. He finally agreed that I should cancel it. So I did that before he changed his mind. I told you how we will now get our exercise. It is pouring rain here today so I will walk 1 and 1/2 to 2 miles this morning on our treadmill instead of walking in the neighborhood.

There are so many of these kinds of recurring expenses that we have cancelled over the years. Magazines that were giving us no value due to the fact that they are 80% ads to buy things. What a waste! So I use the time waiting in doctor’s and/or dentist’s offices, and at the hair salon to read their magazines and any article that I really want to read. I no longer subscribe to magazines or purchase them at the grocery store. For full disclosure, Hubby gets one magazine subscription every month, The Family Handyman. He really enjoys it. But we don’t pay for it. My son buys it every year for him for one of his Christmas gifts. 

We no longer pay for a yearly warehouse club membership. I kept track the last couple of years that we had it and we were just not saving enough to warrant paying for the cost of the membership. We can get the same or better prices at Walmart or Amazon for the things we need. I buy meat, poultry and fish at rock bottom prices so those items were  not even saving money for us. People have said to me that they keep it to buy discounted gift cards. You have to buy a lot of gift cards to make up the membership fee. You can easily save that much money buying them through Raise or another gift card company. 

Last Black Friday, I purchased a deal for one year for Hulu. It costs me $.99 a month. I decided at that price to try it. We have enjoyed a few movies on there but not enough to warrant paying full price for it starting in November. So I have already marked my calendar to cancel it on a specific date so that I don’t pay the higher monthly fee.

We already have Amazon Prime. Between that and our Cable TV and borrowing movies from the library, we have plenty of movies to pick from. Amazon Prime is one yearly thing that we will pay for. We watch movies all of the time and Hubby uses the music. But the best savings for us is the shipping. I do a lot of shopping for clothing, gifts, specialty food for my diet, etc. on Amazon when they have the best price and it saves me time and gasoline. 

Matter of fact, as of today, I have placed 137 orders on Amazon Prime in the past year. If I divide the $119. annual fee by 137, each package cost me an average of  $ .87 per package for shipping. A lot of those packages were gifts which would have cost me a minimum of $11. to ship at UPS. These figures do not even take into account the movies and other benefits of Amazon Prime. So this is a recurring annual fee which gives us great value and is worth paying for. It won’t get cancelled anytime soon. 

We cancelled Netflix a number of years ago. No sense having Amazon Prime and Netflix. 

A family member cancelled their newspaper delivery a while ago. That person decided they were not getting the value that it cost. Instead he subscribed to the online version which he has enjoyed for a while. But he has since cancelled it and will get his local news from the TV stations. Hubby pays a fortune per year to get the daily newspaper. He enjoys reading it and doing the crossword puzzle every morning. For him, it has great value so it is worth it to us. 

I would love to cancel our Cable TV but Hubby loves it. I rarely watch anything on it. But it is valuable for Hubby so we pay for it. It may not be so valuable for you.

To me one of the worst ways to spend your money is to subscribe to those meal boxes. They come with all the instructions and ingredients to cook a meal. But you have to do the cooking! UGH! It is so much cheaper to shop for your own food or use pick up for it if you don’t like shopping. With the internet, you can find any recipe you want to make with instructions. If you have a night that you don’t want to cook, go out to eat or pick up a rotisserie chicken and a bagged salad. Just don’t do it all the time.

I just subscribed for 6 months to Ancestry.com so that I could get the records of our ancestors from other countries. It is a hobby that I have worked on for years and will be very enjoyable over the winter for me. So it is worth the price.

Once a year, check the prices for your automobile and homeowners insurance policies to see if you can get a better price from another company. We save about $400. dollars the last time we did this.

There are many more things that you could either cancel or cut back on the subscriptions that will save you money. So take the time this week to really think about whether you are getting good value from these things. If not cancel them and keep the money in your wallet.

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Every Day

Frugal Things This Past Week

These are the things we did frugally this past week:

1. One day last week, I was running errands for almost 4 hours. Knowing that I would not be home for lunch, I packed some turkey pepperoni, a mozzarella cheese stick, and a bottle of water. I stopped at a beautiful local park on the way to do an errand and sat and ate lunch.

2. I went to the library and took out two books to read.

3. Hubby has been craving the bacon macaroni goulash that I haven’t made since before my surgery. So I made him a big pan from scratch and he ate many meals  from it. I just fixed myself other things that were on my diet.

4. I went to the drugstore to pick up a prescription. When they checked me out, the prescription cost me $90. I was shocked. I had never paid more than $50. for it. I asked the pharmacy tech why it was so expensive. She advised me that I was in the Medicare gap. Well I knew enough to know that was not possible. I have only gotten a couple of prescriptions this year and you fall into the gap after many, many expensive prescriptions. But rather than argue, I paid for it and came home and called my prescription drug plan. They laughed when I told them what the pharmacy tech told me. The woman I spoke to said you aren’t even near the gap. She told me the reason was that the drug now had a generic and since they didn’t fill it generically, it cost me $90. for the branded drug. I asked her how much the generic would have cost me and she said $10. So I contacted the pharmacist and they said since I hadn’t opened the prescription, they would take it back and credit me. It took me two days of messages and phone calls to get the doctor to write the generic and then to the pharmacy to get it taken care of. I finally picked it up on this past Monday and they credited me the difference of $80. It was worth the aggravation to save that $80.


5. We had another stone fall off the house and Hubby said there were 3 more loose ones. So he cemented them back into place and grouted those and the ones he had done prior. So they are all fixed for winter.


6. I have been reading a new book that Hubby purchased me early as a gift for my upcoming birthday. It is eye opening. 

7. We had Hubby’s family birthday party which I made from scratch except for dessert which I purchased. He enjoyed every minute of it.

8. We enjoyed watching the Buffalo Bills win their third game. They are undefeated so far. 

9. Our garage door had gotten really dirty. So Hubby scrubbed it with Dawn liquid soap and water and it looks new.

10. I washed the SUV in the driveway again. It won’t be long before we will have to pay for car washes to get the salt off. 

11. We have had no A/C or heat on at all. Even though we just had a stretch of 80 temps, we were very comfortable in our home without the A/C. This has paid off. I just got our electric and gas bill and it was only $ 70.99, the lowest bill we have ever had in the 10 and a half years that we have owned this house. The meter charges and supply charges alone were $51.+. of that.

12. We will need to have our snow tires put on again before the end of October. So I am keeping my eyes open for a discount coupon. 

13. We cancelled our YMCA gym membership effective the end of this month. We were not using it enough to justify the $48. per month charge. Between our treadmill and recumbent bike, we can get our exercise without having to leave the house and that will be a good thing this winter.  I walked a mile and a half outside in the neighborhood this morning. It was crisp(52) and sunny!  

14. I donated another bag of clothing to Goodwill. I am slowly but surely getting rid of all clothing that no longer fits me.


15. I ran one full load of clothing and hung it to dry.


16. I only ran the dishwasher twice this past week.

What did you do frugally this past week?

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Every Day

Grocery Shopping This Past Week

I went shopping at Walmart and Top’s this past week. I only needed a few things and they are pictured.

Top’s:

2 pkgs. of shrimp – $ 7.99 each

Total was $ 15.98

Walmart:

4 Lay’s Poppables – $2.48 each – (2) $1./2 Q’s =$ 7.92

1 jar of Olives – $ 4.96

36 Eggs – $ 2.29

1 Primal Kitchen Mayo – $ 7.96

2 Canadian Bacon – $ 3.48 ea. = $ 6.96

Total was $ 30.09 but I used a $5.00 Walmart GC so final total was $ 25.09. 

We haven’t had shrimp in a while and I can have it on my diet so I bought these on sale.

The poppables were not needed but I decided to stock while I still had coupons.

The olives don’t last long around here because Hubby loves them. I will get more at the Thanksgiving sales.

I can always use eggs and this is a good price in my area for 3 dozen.

This is the only mayo that I eat on my diet. It’s expensive but so worth it. The last time I purchased this it was $ 8.49 at Amazon. Walmart is now carrying it cheaper.

I found the Canadian Bacon cheaper by almost $2.00 each at Walmart over Top’s.

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

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Every Day

How I Save on Protein, etc.

Last Friday, I happened to be near Top’s while running an errand. Somehow when I looked at the weekly ad, I missed the fact that they had top round, sirloin tip, eye round and bottom round roasts on sale for $ 2.99 a lb. This is a rock bottom price in my area. So I purchased a 5 and 1/2 lb. top round roast for $15.85. The top round roast was the more tender of the roasts that they were offering at that price.

We had a lot of beef in our freezer but I had no stew beef. Buying stew beef costs $6.99 a lb. at my store. So saving $4.00 a lb. was a no brainer. I trimmed the roast and ended up with 6 ziplocs of stew beef which will feed us two meals each. It only took a few minutes to cut it up and bag it. Knowing that I will use it up over the winter, I used the less expensive ziplocs rather than the food saver bags to package it up to put in the freezer.

By the time you add veggies to your stew meat and a gravy or sauce, these bags will be the perfect size for two dinners for us. Those dinners will cost us approximately $ 1.32 a meal or $.66 for each of us.

This is just one example of how I save on the protein we eat. Besides buying at rock bottom prices, I always ask myself “How can I do this cheaper?”.  

We try to eat one or two meatless meals a week where we get our protein from a different source like eggs, cheese, greens, or beans. We are eating more eggs on my diet than beans right now though.

I learned an important lesson from an old friend who I worked with when I was first married. That friend, ended up living down the street from me while we were raising our children. Sis, you know who I am referencing.

We would go shopping at the market together sometimes. Or I would be at her house getting the milk out of her fridge to put in my coffee and I would notice that she would have about 4 dozen eggs in there all of the time. Whenever we shopped together, she would buy eggs. She would pick up meat too but never more than a package or two.

I remember wondering why she bought so many eggs. She and I had the same size families. I knew that she didn’t bake a lot. I would never have more than a dozen or so eggs in my fridge. I was going to ask her but then it occurred to me that maybe they were having financial problems. So I left well enough alone. Eggs were really cheap back then.

Finally a few years later, as I kept noticing the eggs, I finally said to her: ” Have you taken up baking or do you make eggs for breakfast every morning for your family?  I have noticed that you buy a lot of eggs.”
 
She said, “Eggs are one of the cheapest proteins that I can buy for my family. We eat eggs for dinner at least 3 nights a week. Buying meat is so expensive so we only have that 4 times a week. I will make omelets or frittatas loaded with vegetables for dinner and my family loves them. By making those I also use up all of the fresh vegetables and don’t waste them. I will also make pancakes or waffles once in a while.”

All of our kids played soccer during those years and while I was wondering those mornings what to thaw that I could quickly make for dinner when we got home, she knew she would make eggs because it was cheap and easy. 

While I didn’t cook eggs regularly for dinner, it got me thinking about cooking meatless meals that had protein besides meat. Today I do cook eggs almost every morning for breakfast. However, if you had a small budget, you can easily make eggs for dinner today and save a bundle. Eggs are still cheap compared to meat. 

My friend could pinch a penny better than anyone I have ever known. I learned a number of things from her. 

Since I am on the subject of eggs, I have to tell you what I did this morning. I cooked 9 eggs in my pressure cooker. Kay was nice enough to tell me that you could do this in a comment last week. Thanks so much Kay. 

I measured the inside of my pressure cooker and purchased a rack to hold the eggs at Amazon

Sunday morning, I put a cup and half of water in and 9 eggs on the rack. I pressure cooked them on low pressure for 8 minutes. They were so perfect and so easy! And just like Kay told me, they peel really easy. I will never go back to waiting for water to boil on the stove and doing it that way. See, I do pay attention to your comments and I do learn something from people who read here all of the time. You never stop learning!  

Here is my breakfast and the reason I did the hard boiled eggs. I couldn’t wait to take the picture until after I tried some egg; so two pieces have already been devoured. 

Always feel free to leave a comment so that we can learn from each other. 

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Every Day

Prep Time Makes Things Easy

I prepped for Hubby’s birthday dinner very early this morning. I hate having to do things last minute. 

The first thing I did was make the hamburgers from the 2 pounds of organic grass fed ground beef that I purchased at Aldi yesterday. 

Then it was on to cutting up the veggies for us to dip. Nothing fancy, just sliced cucumbers, baby carrots, celery sticks and red pepper sticks. I will make the dips about 2 hours before we eat.


Next I sliced the baby bella mushrooms so that they are ready to saute.

Then I sliced the onions that will get sauteed in butter also.  


Then I cut up the some of the fruit and put it to store in prep containers in the fridge. I have cantaloupe, strawberries and grapes. Then a half hour before I grill, I will slice the apples and peaches into my fruit salad as I am putting it together. I will also slice up some bananas to go in it. 

I have about 10 different choices of cheese in the fridge so my family can pick their favorite and they will go on the burgers last minute to melt. 

The table is set with the dishes and glassware. A new jar of dill pickles has been put out along with a bag of wavy chips. The hamburger buns and brioce buns have also been put on the table for everyone to choose what they want. 


I am getting excited because Hubby has no idea that this is a celebration for him. I hid the cake and ice cream. He never saw it.


I don’t normally post on a Saturday but it was easy to take some photos while I was doing this.


I always try to prep ahead all of our meals. These prep containers make it easy. I purchased them on 
Amazon . For those who wonder, no this is not my link that I make money off of. I am not an Amazon affiliate.


Hoping that all of you are having a terrific weekend!