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Every Day

This Will Be My Last Grocery Haul For A Very Long Time

There will be one or two exceptions. I will go if I need fresh produce. If I can substitute frozen or canned veggies for fresh I will. If there is a great price on something like the bacon above, I will get it. That exception will be mostly for rock bottom priced meat.

I had to go to the cardiologist to have an Echo test done today. On the way home I stopped at Top’s and got 4 of their 16 oz. bacon that was on sale for $ 2.99 each. I have not seen such a good price on bacon for years. I only had room for 4.

I have been trying for a couple of weeks to get peaches to make jam. No one seemed to have good ones. I stopped at another store near the doctor’s that I don’t usually go to that had peaches for $.88 a lb. The problem is they were not good peaches. So I stopped at Niagara Produce on the way home and there’s were nice and ready to make jam. They cost me $19.99 for 8 quarts of Red Haven peaches which I have used successfully for jam before. I already have enough Certo and pectin in my pantry to make all of it into jam. I will do that tomorrow. Today is busy enough.

I looked for three months for rhubarb. I could not find it anywhere. So this morning, I spotted a strawberry rhubarb pie in the bakery section of Niagara Produce. They make their own pies and they are delicious. We each had a slice after we ate brunch and it was so good. The filling was so yummy and their pie crust is incredible. The best part is Hubby was very happy because this is his favorite pie. I was happy because it is too hot to turn on my oven to bake plus I couldn’t find rhubarb.

The reason we will not be shopping is I want to use up a lot of what we already have in the house. I especially want to eat down our freezer so that we have room for quite a few turkeys this November. Remember, turkeys and hams will be at their cheapest prices during the holidays. And they will be cheaper than any other meat you can buy right now.

I will be showing you in pictures and words what we are eating from the house each day as we do it. Remember we only eat brunch and dinner and a occasional snack. I will start with dinner tonight.

Hubby will grill the pork ribeyes outside. We will put a dab of garlic herb butter on them. I will make the corn in the microwave and slice the tomato up on a plate and drizzle it with a little Italian dressing.

Are any of you trying to eat down your freezers or pantries? Join along if you would like.

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Every Day

We Have Had A Wonderful 5 Days

West came to visit for 5 days. His tastes in food have changed so we chatted on Tuesday night and made out the menu for the time he would be here. Most of it we already had in our home. Here was the menu:

Wednesday dinner was hamburgers which Hubby grilled for us. I sauteed up some toppings and made corn on the cob in the microwave.

Thursday night we headed to our local Wagner’s Restaurant for fish fries. When we got there, West no longer wanted that and picked a chicken tender dinner instead. Hubby had chicken wings and a salad. I had a ribeye sandwich dinner. Starters were little neck clams. It was all good and we did not need dessert.

Friday night, we cooked shrimp sauteed in butter for West and shrimp with cocktail sauce for us. Sides varied.

On Saturday, we ordered pizzas and Parmesan twists with various dipping sauces from Domino’s. I wanted to get it from Little Caesars because we like their pizza. We don’t like the crust on Domino’s pizza but West informed us that they now have a thin crust pizza which we decided to try and it was very good. You can tell we haven’t ordered pizza from there in a very long time. West has enough of his pizza for lunch today. He is going home to eat dinner with his parents. We have 3 large slices left so we will heat it up in the air fryer for our dinner and I will make a small side salad for each of us.

One thing I found out about West is that he is a growing boy. He is over 6 ft. tall now. I forgot how much teenage boys consume.

For breakfasts he had asked for pancakes and French toast. I cooked bacon, ham, and sausage to go with it.

Yes, we spoiled him. With his sports schedule and school coming up soon, we don’t see him as often as we would like.

Pizza and restaurant food has gotten so expensive. Wagner’s was $ 130. for the three of us including tip. The Domino’s was $ 51.91 after a 20% discount. This is why we don’t eat out very often. But we don’t mind spoiling a grandchild once in a while. Needless to say we will be eating at home more often after this summer of eating out is over.

I can’t even tell you how many “Ticket to Ride” board games we have played. West won them all. We also watched the Buffalo Bills preseason game on TV. They got stomped on by the Chicago Bears. Fortunately, it doesn’t count. Josh Allen got pulled in the early 1st quarter after a run with the ball. I am sure Coach did not want him to get hurt in a preseason game. Coach played our 2nd and 3rd string people 98% of the game. They did not do well. But I believe that Coach has a much better idea on who to cut after that.

Before West came to visit, I went and picked up another medication for Hubby. This medication always had a $60. copay. However, it cost me nothing this time. Hubby must be in the donut hole. Then I ventured into Walmart. I rarely do that since I have Walmart+. I was on the hunt for a boneless ham and a boneless turkey. The turkey was more expensive than buying deli turkey so I passed. The ham was much cheaper than buying deli ham, so I got a boneless quarter for $ 4.63 a lb. Hubby will slice this up on our meat slicer when we open it and I will freeze some in portions for sandwiches. I do have a large ham in the freezer that I could have cooked. But I did not want to heat up the house with the A/C on. That ham will get cooked when I know that Fall is actually here. The next time I travel to appointments, I will stop in B.J.’s and look for a boneless turkey at a good price. I also picked up some turkey breast meat to hold us until I get to B’J.’s This was handy while West was here for lunches. For him, I also got his favorite ice cream, a dip because we have potato chips for a snack, a tomato for sandwiches and a box of Bubba burgers to restock our freezer.

West also ran some errands with me on Thursday. We went to the bank to cash in the piggy bank that I fill up for the grandchildren. Alexa and he take turns cashing it in. It was West’s turn so he was happy for get $106.50. I also got some grocery money and gave them a small rebate check to cash. I realized after I got back on the road that the teller did not give me the money for that. Rather than go back and waste gas, I decided I would just call the bank when we got home. I didn’t have to because the teller had already called and told Hubby of her error and she deposited it in our account for us. West also was patient while I stopped in Wegman’s for a boneless turkey which was not at a good price. So I did not buy it.

It has been a whirlwind of a week but I will miss him when he goes home tonight.

Thank you for being patient while we have hosted company this summer. We still have more company coming soon but after that I should be free to blog. I have lots of topics upcoming so stay tuned.

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Every Day

Cost Cutting This Past Weekend

The beginnings of a new recipe that we tried. I had a package of breakfast sausage that I wanted to use up. I do not like breakfast sausage so I tried it in this skillet dish to see if the other ingredients would help with the flavor. I cut the sausage up into small pieces and added a cut up onion. I then sauteed all.

Next I cut up 2 apples to stretch it and added 1/4 cup of Swerve brown sugar, 1/4 tsp. of cayenne pepper, 1 tbsp. of cinnamon, salt and pepper, and 2 cups of apple juice.

I simmered it down till it thickened a little and then added a little cornstarch and cold water to help it along. Then we served it over jasmine rice.

It was so good. The cayenne just gave it enough heat without overpowering the dish. Hubby said he would like me to leave the onions out next time. So I will try that. I also think one apple sliced up would have been enough for us. Anyhow, we ate this for two dinners and a brunch.

West and my son did not come on Sunday because West is coming out to stay with us for 5 days on Wednesday. It is his usual spend time in the summer with Grandma and Grandpa. He is now 14 and 6 feet tall. His taste for things have changed so I don’t know what I will be feeding him besides fish. He loves almost any kind of fish. So Hubby will be frying haddock for dinner one night. I also have shrimp. I will talk to him when he comes and then plan out some meals.

I still have not done a load of wash this week. I don’t have a full load yet. I finally had to run the dishwasher after 3 days. It was very full.

I have a pair of new jeans that need to be taken up. Everything is always too long for me. I have been procrastinating doing it for a couple of months. I can’t make up my mind whether to take them to the seamstress down the street or do them myself. I wonder what the going rate to have her do this would be. She has done stuff for me before and she does beautiful work. I think I will call her tomorrow and find out what she will charge.

The weatherstrip on the bottom of an outside door is coming off. Hubby will replace it when he gets to Home Depot to get a new one. With A/C on, it needs to be done very soon.

Hubby went to our local iron works company last Friday to see what they can do to make us a railing for the patio steps. They are not taking appointments right now because they have so much work. They told him to call mid September and they will schedule someone to come and measure and book an appointment. They approximated the cost to be between $1500. and $ 2000. Hubby says it is about what he thought it would be. We will be getting this done as soon as possible.

On Saturday, our sprinkler system came on because it is on a timer. An hour or so later, it started to rain so I manually turned that off as to not waste water.

I did not feel well on Sunday so we just had some canned chicken soup from our pantry. Thankfully, I feel much better today.

My plans this week are to go to Top’s on Tuesday which is 6% senior discount day to get a few things. Their loss leaders are not very good this week so I will not be spending much. I am interested in their peaches that they will have on sale for $ 1.77 a lb. That is the cheapest price I have seen here anywhere. Hubby wants me to make a lot of peach jam. I made 6 jars last year and he blew threw it in no time. So I will be making much more this year. I already have a lot of Certo, pectin, and jars in my pantry.

I am also hoping that our school district will have set their tax rate by the end of this week so that I can estimate what our school tax bill will be when it comes around September 1st. Their budget had a 3.5% tax levy increase that was voted in last spring.

Did you save any money this weekend?

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Every Day

Cutting Costs Yesterday

I got a good deal on 2 lbs. of strawberries this week at NP. So I washed them, drained them, dried them, and cut them up. They will last about 10 days for us. Since I started putting some of my fruits in mason jars with a paper towel on the bottom, they last a lot longer in the fridge than they used to. This was so that Hubby and I can have strawberries with zero sugar whipped cream for a snack or for a dessert. Sometimes, I will just have a small bowl for brunch.

We were very mindful of natural gas and electric charges since I got that large bill and it reminded me about how expensive they are. When I got up in the morning, it was daylight. So the first thing I did was open the shades and blinds on the non-sun windows. That gave me plenty of light in the house. I just did that all day while following the sun around the house. I never turned on a light until the sun set. One light was on in the room it was needed until bedtime. There were no showers yesterday. I waited until the garbage people had emptied both the garbage and recyclable cans before I used the garage door opener to put them away and get the mail at the same time. No sense using electricity to do it more than once. We knew we were not going out anywhere. My laptop was off and unplugged when I was not using it. I did no laundry yesterday because I am waiting for a full load. I did not run the dishwasher either for the same reason.

Brunch was a yogurt with a little granola sprinkled on top. Hubby had peanut butter and jelly on crackers and apple juice because his sugar was low.

Dinner was grilled cheeseburgers topped with sauteed onions and tomato slices. We also had a side of sliced cucumbers. I am trying not to waste any food in the fridge especially the food that Chris and her Hubby so kindly brought us. I still have a couple of cucumbers left for snacking and one tomato. If it doesn’t get used for dinner tonight, I will puree it in my Vitamix and put it in the freezer to add to my spaghetti sauce the next time I make it. That will most likely be next week when West comes for his summer stay. We’ll see. Bottom line is that I don’t waste food.

I got an e-mail from my library telling me my 2 year library card was expiring and that I needed to go there and renew it within 10 days. I like to keep it up to date so that I can read the online books. I did not want the card to expire nor did I want to go out in the excessive heat to renew it. They have no way for you to renew online. So I called them and the librarian renewed it for me. It saved me from the heat and I used no gasoline to do it. It never hurts to ask. All they can say is no and usually they don’t.

Hubby did some paperwork last night and I watched “She’s in Her Apron” on you tube last night. She was going live at 7:30pm. I can’t believe I watched the whole thing until 11:44pm. Hubby came to bed and could not believe that I was still awake. It was a good question and answer vlog and when her friend showed up and became part of the vlog, it got very comical. It was like being at a girl’s night out. Many people were complaining in the comments about how long it was lasting. There is a way to fix that. Just turn it off.

Did you cut any costs yesterday?

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Every Day

Our Savings For Our Goal In July 2024

This month we were only able to save $ 8100. in July for our savings goal. As you know we had a small patio and wall built in our backyard to protect our grill from the winds we get here. That took a large chunk of money. Hubby is now getting estimates to have iron railings built on the stone stairs that let us enter the patio from our breakfast room. It is hard for me to maneuver those steps because of my back and sciatica without help. The railings would allow me to do that by myself. I expect that these will not be cheap but as Hubby says if it makes it easier for me, it is well worth it. All the years we saved money for retirement, we knew that as we aged we wanted to be able to pay for the things we need to keep us active in our own home. This is one of those things now.

We also did a little bit of eating out this past month which is unusual for us. It has been so hot and a couple of times I did not want to cook. We will probably do that once when our grandson comes to stay next week. To be honest I will be happy when Fall arrives. The heat and humidity has been oppressive all summer and I am looking forward to some cooler days.

Our gas and electric bill was a whopper this month too. Even though we used 141 less KWH’s and the same natural gas than the same period last year, our bill was much higher. The supply charges were ridiculous. Last year’s bill for 141 more KHW’s was $ 147.03. This current July bill was $176.60. Even though it has been hot, our average daily use per day was down 3 KWH. We were able to turn it off for 3 days also. We have had a rate increase every year for the past 3 years also. I suspect August will be higher too because the weatherman is predicting heat and humidity for weeks in August. They are also predicting here in my area, it will be much colder and much snowier this winter. I had better find a new snowplow guy since mine moved to Florida.

Were you able to save up some money in July? What are you saving for?

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Every Day

Monday’s Grocery Haul

I decided to run out on Monday and do the errands since Hubby’s prescription was ready. I picked that up first and paid $.00 out of pocket for it.

My next stop was Top’s. The pasta was $.99 and the eggs were $1.39 using a coupon for each. I had been watching for a sale on the Johnsonville sausages. They went on sale this week for $4.00 each. So I used a $1.00 coupon on each that the company sent me and got them for $3.00 each. My total was $ 8.38.

I may place a Walmart order later this week. If I do, I will post it. I am running low on eggs and I need some other items since my grandson will be coming to stay for a few days. I have no idea what he eats these days for dinner so I will text him and find out what he wants. I know he loves just about any kind of fish so Hubby will probably fry up some haddock one night.

We have been trying to eat out of the pantry, refrigerator, and freezer. I have rib eye steaks thawed for dinner tonight. Hubby will grill them outside now that the wall and patio for the grill is done. I will make baked potatoes to go with it. I will bake extra ones to make potato salad from. If I am going to heat up the oven, I am going to fill it. I will also slice up the rest of the tomatoes and some of the cucumbers that Chris brought to go with the steak also.

Did you get any good grocery deals this week?

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Every Day

Chris’s Visit, Etc.

We had a great time. Chris and Hubby arrived on Wednesday of last week. After we chatted for a while and got to know each other a little, I made dinner. My Hubby grilled pork rib eye steaks which we get from Rastelli’s in NJ. We slathered those with Tuscan Herb butter. For sides I roasted baby potatoes in a skillet. They were so much better than doing them on a sheet pan in the oven. I also made fried apples and steamed broccoli. I had picked up cupcakes at our neighbors bakery the day before. It has been so hot here this summer that I do not like turning on an oven.

After chatting for hours after dinner and a good night’s rest, I made eggs, bacon, fried up the roasted potatoes leftover from dinner, and served cinnamon buns, that I got at the same bakery, for breakfast. When everyone was ready we headed to https://www.discoverlockport.com/thelocks which Chris wanted to go to. We took this funny picture up top while there. We went through the discovery center and then went outside to explore the locks. While walking back from the locks to our car, we had to go into https://www.lakeeffecticecream.com/team-3 where we had a hard time picking out which ice cream we wanted to try because there was so many different flavors which were delicious. Hubby and I will be visiting this place for a treat more often.

I served Chris and her Hubby some charcuterie food for lunch. We don’t usually eat lunch.

After just relaxing for a while, we went to Russell’s for dinner that I talked about in my first post. Everyone loved their food.

The next day, I think we were going to go to a museum in downtown Buffalo. However my back was really bothering me from our day before and I knew that parking could be an issue and there would be a lot of walking. So I told the 3 of them to go and I would stay home and rest. But they all insisted on staying home with me. I really appreciated that.

So we had leftover dinners from Russell’s for breakfast. Chris made the Cincinnati chili for lunch which we did try. Then for dinner, I made chicken in wine sauce and served some of the cucumbers and tomatoes that they had brought for dinner. Of course we had to have mudslide ice cream for dessert.

After dinner, we sat out on the patio until almost 11pm just enjoying the conversation.

Chris and her Hubby left about 10:30am on Saturday. They had about a 6 hour drive home. We really appreciate the days they drove to visit us. And I am happy that we had sunny clear days while they were here.

Chris has adopted me as her big sister and I am happy to oblige. She and her Hubby are some of the nicest people you would ever want to meet. Chris and I both agree that our spent time together went too fast. We will definitely be seeing each other again soon.

But Chris, before I forget, I need to show everyone the other gift you brought. I am sorry that I forgot. When I went into the freezer today, I saw it. Thanks so much.

Since they went home, I’ve been reading, doing laundry, and running errands. We have also been trying to use up all of those tomatoes by making turkey BLT sandwiches the past two nights for dinner. Cucumbers and the baby tomatoes have been snacks.

I will be back tomorrow with my grocery haul and some other things. On August 1st, I will let you know how much money we saved in July.

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Every Day

Chris And Her Hubby Did Not Come Empty Handed

They arrived on Wednesday late afternoon. The minute they came in the house, they started unloading the goodies they brought us. All of it from their state: 2 different wines, a jar of smoked jalapeno’s, a jar of cowboy candy, many tomatoes and cucumbers and a fresh jalapeno from their garden( some of which we ate with dinner on Friday night), and a bag of vidalia onions because I had mentioned that I couldn’t find them or they were rotten when I did.

I have been eating these by the handful for a quick snack.

This beautiful reusable bag and some buckeye candies many of which have already been eaten. Her Hubby brought some beers made at the breweries a couple of which Hubby has already enjoyed.

On Friday for lunch, Chris made us Cincinnati chili which we had never had before. She brought 2 cans to make it here and 2 cans for me to make two meals later. We loved it so much that I tried to see if I could get more online. I found these 6 cans on the Walmart online site and they arrived on Saturday. So now I have 8 and these should last 1 year. One can is big enough for the two of us.

Chris heated 2 cans of chili to make it for us and one can of kidney beans. Then she cut up some onion and put that and some finely shredded cheddar cheese on the table for toppings. She cooked up some spaghetti to put the chili on. You picked your choice of toppings. It was all so delicious.

There were some kidney beans left so I froze those to add to red beans and rice when I make it. Waste not, want not!

Thank you Chris for all of the goodies. I hope you enjoy the jars of my canned chicken and ground beef that I gave you guys.

I will be back to tell you more about their visit tomorrow. I have an appointment in 20 minutes so I need to end this now.

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Every Day

Our New Best Friends Came To Visit

If you have ever read the comments on my blog, I am sure that you have benefited from Chris writing. This is a picture of from left to right: my Hubby, Chris’s Hubby, me and Chris. This was at https://www.russellssteaks.com/menu . This is our very favorite restaurant and Chris wanted to go there. We had wonderful filet mignons and sea bass dinners along with appetizers of jumbo crab cakes, French onion soup, and seafood sherry bisque. Add a couple of drinks and we were very full. Everything was delicious. We had a gift certificate that our son gave us for Christmas and a bonus $25. gift certificate that came with it that Chris and Hubby were able to use. These helped defray the cost because this is an expensive restaurant so the certificates helped.

If I look tired, I was. I was up early that morning after staying up chatting with Chris and her Hubby very late into the night. I can’t even begin to tell you what a great time we had. Chris and I hit it off from the time she stepped foot out of the car. My Hubby and Chris’s Hubby are both engineers. They were inseparable. The days of their visit went too quickly and we can’t wait to see them again.

This all came about because I told Hubby about Chris last autumn. She started reading my first blog in 2008 the year after I started writing it and has been reading ever since. I started out answering her comments and then we started e-mailing and now we are texting. I felt like I knew her and her husband even though we had never met. Hubby said why don’t you invite them to visit. She wanted to come this summer because it would be easier for them. I have never invited someone to my home that I hadn’t met. This turned out to be the best time ever and I knew it would be safe. They are just wonderful people.

I am tired so I will write more about their visit tomorrow. I read half of J.D. Vance’s book “Hillbilly Elegy” this afternoon and I am going to try to finish it tonight. It is so good and reminds me of my childhood.

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Every Day

This Is What We Have Been Doing

We ate most of our food last winter. Some is still left from then but it wasn’t much. So I have been restocking for this coming winter. I usually concentrate my canning on meats, tomatoes and fruits. Most of the rest is purchased.

One of the items that seems to be in short supply this past year is potatoes. We don’t eat many of them but we keep some in our long term storage like hash browns, canned, and some other potato dishes.

We also like to supplement our own canned tomato products with store products because we use a lot.

I have been shopping to fill in the gaps. It’s hard work. Then you have to bring it home and put the new in the back rows. First in is first out.

Hubby has had a construction crew here for 4 days building a wall to protect our grill from the wind and a patio that replaces the old small patio. Hubby picked the pattern and the colors. It looks fantastic. We have already lost one grill to the wind and the one we have now has been blown over once. This project was supposed to be done the beginning of July but the boss got sick. So it is not done yet because the very last capstone was cracked in half and had to be reordered. It should be in sometime next week.

You can easily see that the short wall is where the black capstone that was broken belongs. The patio and wall abuts our very large patio. Hubby picked the colors and stone to complement it.

As you can see they did a job on our lawn where the stones were cut and laying. However, they left us with topsoil and seed to fix it. They fixed the edges and seeded around the patio.

I also wanted to let you know that we have a lot of company coming in July and August. So bear with me and I will be here when I can. I hope you are all enjoying your summer as much as we are.