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Every Day

More Money Saving Days

Let’s get you caught up since last Sunday on what we have done to save a few dollars and a few that we spent too. First, I want to mention to you that I forgot something on my last money saving post. I used a $15. off coupon that I earned at BJ’s to buy a big container of cashews for Hubby. It was $17.99 so I only paid $ 2.99 OOP.

Sunday:

We had hamburgers and FF’s for dinner and eggs and sausage for brunch. They were all cooked from our stockpile. I cut up some carrots and froze them before they went bad. They will be used in soups ot stews or just cooked up as a side.

We had a lot of celery too. Celery does freeze but when it gets used in casseroles, stews or soups, it tends to disintegrate. So we use it up spread with peanut butter as a snack.

We ate a lot of salads with our meals to use up romaine lettuce before it went bad.

Hubby and I watched the golf tournament on TV. I was disappointed that during overtime, Scottie Scheffler did not win. I just love watching him. Hubby has been watching our Buffalo Sabres in the ice hockey tournament.

Monday:

We finished the leftover spaghetti for dinner and made the rest of the bread into garlic bread to go with it. Breakfast was granola and oatmeal.

I started washing some outsides of windows. I had already done all of the insides. They will get done slowly but surely. Some I will have to have Hubby do because they are too high up for me. At one time, I thought about hiring someone to do them. That was a few years ago and they wanted about $ 600. I can’t imagine what they want now. So we will do them.

Tuesday:

I made eggs and bacon for breakfast. I always cook the entire pound and we use it for many meals. Dinner was chicken patties on buns with Chick Fila Sauce. We weren’t real hungry so we just added dill pickle slices as a side.

I spent some time straightening up the basement pantry. My grandson had taken some bags downstairs that had been lingering at the top of our stairs. So I needed to work on getting those on the shelves.

I did a load of wash and hung it to dry. I used cold water as usual.

Hubby again watched the Buffalo Sabres game. We also watched The FBI that we had DVRed.

Wednesday:

I had eggs and salmon for brunch and Hubby had granola again. For dinner, I used up the rest of our discounted Subway gift card that I purchased at Amazon. It got me a sub and Hubby a wrap. I was just too tired to cook.

I again worked in the pantry in our basement.

I am again back on our treadmill to get some exercise. I love it but some days my back is so bad I just can’t stay on it long.

Hubby mowed the lawn.

Thursday:

Breakfast was eggs and bacon. As I mentioned to you last week, we went out with our new neighbors for dinner to the Big Ditch brewery. I had a double mushroom swiss smash burger with fries and 2 beers. Hubby had a double bacon cheese smash burger with fries nd one beer. It was happy hour so the beers were only $4.00 each. We did bring home 2 desserts. The entire bill just for us was $90. with tax and tip. We always tip 20%. This was expensive but it was so worth it to enjoy our new friends. They are such a pleasure to spend time with. We have decided to go out once a month for dinner with them. We save in other areas so that we can enjoy this pleasure. We know restaurants that they don’t and vice versa. Perhaps next time they will pick a restaurant that they like and we will experience a new one.

Hubby again watched the Buffalo Sabres game which we won. We are now 1 game ahead of the Boston Bruins.

Friday:

Breakfast was apple fritters. For dinner, Hubby cooked strip steaks on the outside grill. We had them with tater tots which he loves. We brought home some French fries from the restaurant that Hubby couldn’t eat. I warmed them up to add to my dinner. We again had a small salad with it.

I went out when Hubby got up and picked up a prescription for him. Usually our co-pay is $60. for this script. Yesterday, it was $.00. The cashier said insurance paid it because it looks like he has hit the gap because this medicine is majorly expensive. So it should be $.00 for the rest of the year. It was the most expensive co-pay that we have. So here is $ 60. we can put towards the loss of our school tax deduction.

When I got home, I took a long nap. I was so exhausted.

Later we watched the finale of Matlock. Wht a surprise that ending was! Now I can’t wait for it to come back in 2027.

Our ads for next week came in the mail today. Two things popped out at me for next Wednesday at Aldi’s. They have avacados on sale for $.49 each and grape tomatoes for $ 1.49. The ad doesn’t start until next Wednesday.

The Top’s ad which starts on Sunday has a Zero Powerade for $ .29 when you add the doorbuster coupon to your card. I like to keep these for when we do not feel well. They also have Top’s 8 oz. chunk cheese for $ 1.88 with the super coupon, limit 1 and 1 lb. of Jimmy Dean bacon for $ 4.99 with the super coupon, limit 1. In produce, they have vidalia onions for $1.28 a lb. They are our favorite onions. Tomatoes on the vine are $1.88 a lb. I may get some of those because tomato prices are skyrocketing. We like them for BLT’s. That is really all that interested me. They have on SALE four 80/20 ground beef burgers for $8.99. It will be a cold day in h*** that I will pay that price for ground beef on SALE. Remember that Memorial Day is coming and I am hoping to catch a sale at a good price for ground beef. I also am lacking in my mayonaise storage so I am hoping condiments will be on sale too. I only have two jars and that will not last with salads this summer. I could also use a good sale on ketchup.

We watched NCIS Sydney for our entertainment.

Today:

Hubby and I had 1/2 of our strip steaks left from last night. We will make eggs and garlic butter steak slices to go with our eggs for brunch. I will also have an avocado.

I have already cooked up Italian sausages to use in our meals. I got them discounted at 50% off recently. I did two bags worth. One will go in the freezer for a future meal and one will go on our pizza that we will make for dinner tonight. I will use Aldi’s naan bread for the crust. Then add leftover sauce from the spaghetti, spices, the sausage and mozzarella cheese. Following the directions on the back of the bread, it only takes 9 minutes in the oven. Since it is only 42 outside and it has been raining all night and still is, I don’t mind heating the house up with the oven. It is so chilly today. Because of this I may fill my oven today with some breads and brownies to freeze for later this season when it is hot out.

If the sun ever comes out, I will open the blinds and shades. For now I only have 2 window shades up because Eloise likes to sit in them and look outside. Hence, I have 2 lights on until that happens so that Hubby and I can see. It is so dreary and dark outside.

Sports will most likely be the only thing we will watch on TV today. I may do some reading. I will definitely go back to the pantry in the basement to do some work.

Tomorrow:

I plan on ribeye pork chops done on our outside grill for dinner. Our son and grandson will be coming for breakfast. We haven’t decided if I will cook or if we will go out for breakfast. They both do so much for us and spend so much gas to get here and back to their home. They live an hour and 1/2 away so we like to treat them once in a while. They do this 3 hour round trip quite often and gasoline is so expensive right now. They haven’t been here in a few weeks and we have not taken them to Kalamatta’s in a while. Hubby will ask my son to put the snow tires up on the ceiling rack now that our tires have been changed over. He will also ask him to help get our furniture and large umbrella out of the shed. Then we will be set for spring and summer. We will enjoy their company for most of the day.

I have no idea what else we will do except watch the Buffalo Sabres game.

How did you save some dollars this week?

Categories
Every Day

Do You Feel Like You Are Being Robbed?

With the prices going up day after day, do you feel like someone is always reaching into your wallet and taking the dollars systematically away from you? I am not a conspiracy theorist but something crazy has to be going on.

I feel like we are being pickpocketed. You have to take more and more money to the grocery store these days. The dollars are just slipping away. Every week it seems like these companies are raising prices, shrinking the amounts in their packages and even shorting us on the pounds and ounces that are in our meat packages and in our bagged produce. People have to weigh their purchases now to make sure that they are getting what they are paying for. I sometimes feel like I am at war but I am not sure with who. Is it the grocery store, the middleman, the rancher or the farmer, the state regulators or the elite globalists? I really do not believe it is the rancher or the farmer. They are being screwed too. Feed and ferilizer prices are astronomical! I am so glad that we paid for our yearly ferilization of the lawn last February for this whole year and got a 3% discount. The price went up year over year but only by $15. If you are paying on a monthly basis now, the price just keeps going up. I have talked about what we are doing: eating our stockpile that we have had for a couple of years purchased at lower prices, eating the proper portions of food, not wasting food, and only buying when things are on loss leader. I did pick up our two large packages of chicken breasts with our raincheck this week($2.19 a lb.) while I was out picking up prescriptions. I will elaborate on this topic in a future post.

But today, I want to concentrate on our electric and natural gas bill. We got our April 21 bill yesterday. I expected it would go down quite a bit because we have had some warmer days this past month. Just when you think spring is here, you get a couple of small snow storms and you realize winter hasn’t left yet. That being said, we are on the warmer side with a few cold ones mixed in. I will remind you that my last bill was $300.+. Yesterday’s bill was $ 296.77. So for the warmer days, we saved about $3.00. Our usage was just a smidgen more than last year yet the bill was $71.54 higher. Yes, I do know that the higher oil prices helped with that.

Hubby went and got the figures for our bills year over year. From April of 2024 to April of 2025, we spent $ 2,000. From April of 2025 to the current bill from April 2026, we have spent $3,000. That is a $1,000. increase. Our average kwh’s or electric and gas therms have remained about the same so the smart meters that were installed in our neighborhood has nothing to do with this.

When you question this, we are told that the AI centers that are being built and our stupid Governor Hochul and her green agenda is causing this. Perhaps that is the case. I do know that supply and demand does play a big factor. But a $1,000. increase for the same supply and demand is ridiculous over a year period. Our company that supplies our gas and electricity is in Spain. I would love to know how and why the Democrats allowed that to happen.

There isn’t much I can do about it except to vote for Bruce Blakeman in November and hope he wins. He says he will get rid of this nonsense. Anyone would be better than Hochul.

Politics aside, we have to do something to lower our bill more than $3.00 in a month’s period. So I am concentrating right now on what we can do for the spring and summer.

We will be cooking as much as we can on our outside grill. We have a full tank of propane that we got for $ 4.+ last year. I don’t think their weight scales were accurate. The guy insisted they were right, so I got a bargain.

If and when we use the stovetop, we will fit the pan to the burner and cover them. We will use our crockpot and instant pot if they are needed outdoors or in the garage.

We will also be eating a lot of salads and other cold dishes.

I will be doing a bunch of baking using the full oven so that I can stock the freezer with those goods for the seasons ahead while it is still colder here. We have a couple of cold days ahead. Then the oven will not be used until October.

We still have our heat on because the nights are cold but we should be able to turn that off in May.

We will only use the A/C if the humidity is high. Otherwise, it will remain off. We can open windows and/or use our ceiling fans. We grew up without A/C and we can do it again.

We will be having the A/C checked by the company we use so that if we do need it, it will be in perfect operating order. Hubby has found a coupon that we can use so we will only pay $79. for this. There is another company putting a coupon out there to get it done for $39. However, we have heard they always find something wrong that they can charge you for which will be more than the difference in the coupons. So no thank you to that. We have used our people for years and they have never screwed us.

We already use cold water to wash our clothes and will continue that. My detergent plus a scoop of oxiclean gets all stains out. We will hang as many clothes as we can. We have a drying rack and we use shower rods to hang shirts, etc. Dryer usage will be minimal.

I continue to take navy showers and use the warm up water to either flush a toilet or water some outside flowers.

I have written about other ways we can save on electricity and natural gas in prior posts.

If I have misspelled anything or made any mistakes, please excuse me. Eloise got me up at 3AM again and I am really tired. I only got 3 hours and 16 minutes of sleep. When Hubby gets up, I will be going back to bed.

If you guys can give me and everyone else some tips on how to save on these things, please comment so that we can save as much as we can. We can all help each other in this community.

Categories
Every Day

My Money Saving Days

Thursday:

We are again eating only from our stockpile of food here at home. We do have a night out for dinner next week with friends but the rest of the week I will be cooking at home.

We started this morning with coffee that I purchased back before the prices went up a few years ago. Then I cooked an egg and sausage McMuffin using 1 egg, an English muffin with butter, and two small sausages. Since our natural gas is cheaper to use to cook than electricity, I opted to cook the egg quickly in a small frypan. The sausages were already cooked but frozen so it was just a matter of putting them in the microwave for 40 seconds. Hubby opted to have a small apple fritter for breakfast.

We only eat 2 meals a day so dinner was grilled strip steaks, baked potatoes, and a salad. We had romaine lettuce that needed to be used up so we will probably have salads the rest of the week. We had planned on grilling outside but the rains came. So we did them inside using the air fryer setting on our countertop oven. We plan on using our outside propane grill to do most of our cooking this season when it is dry outside.

The Top’s flyer that came in the mail yesterday got thrown out without reading it since I will only be using the raincheck for the BS chicken breasts. I didn’t even bother to look at the Aldi ad that started yesterday. I do have to pick up some scripts that will be ready for Hubby next week so I will swing into Top’s and get that chicken. Walmart and Top’s are only one block apart so I will not be using up much gasoline.

I forgot about sheets that have been in the dryer since last weekend. Fortunately they were dry and I don’t care that they are a little wrinkled. So I folded them and put them away.

Eloise did not wake me up until after 4 am this morning. I was grateful. I fed her from her stockpile of food purchased a while ago on sale. Once it was light out about 6:15am, I opened all of the shades and blinds to let the sun in. It is supposed to rain later so I will use the sun while I can. Lights were turned off after the sun rose except for one lamp that Hubby only used while he did his newspaper crossword puzzles. Lights will stay off until dark.

Now it is time to go out and clean/detail our SUV. It is so dirty so this is going to take me a while. But since I will be not be spending $ 200. to get it done, I don’t mind doing it at all.

I called Spectrum to try to get the bill reduced. The only way I could do that was to go to a lower TV plan. They sent me everything that was included in that plan. So Hubby compared it to what we have now and he was not willing to give up what he already has. To keep him happy since he watches much more TV than I do, we are keeping what we have right now.

Friday:

Eloise again slept until 4am. I am liking this change.

I noticed when I fed her this morning that we are getting low on her delectables, dry food, and her cat litter. Chewy is offering a $30. e-gift card when you spend $100. You have to make sure that what you are ordering is in the deal. It doesn’t expire until the 19th. I was able to buy her delectables in bulk and get 2 of the cat litter using the discounted autoship prices and get the giftcard. That will allow me to buy her dry cat food which was not part of the deal uing the $30. gift card. Pet supplies are so expensive now that working these offers saves a lot of money.

While I was doing this deal, it reminded me to mention something to all of you. Amazon is no longer giving free shipping to anyone unless you have Amazon Prime no matter how much you spend. I refuse to pay $139. per year for that. I can get most items cheaper elsewhere or on Walmart with my + membership.

Brunch this morning for us was homemade egg McMuffins and coffee.

Last night when I baked the potatoes for dinner, I baked an extra 3 so that I could make potato salad for tonight. That has been done. We will have it with it with fish fillets for me and chicken tenders for Hubby. We are trying to use up small amounts from the freezer.

I emptied a thick large bag of toilet paper today. I have saved the bag to empty our wastebaskets into it until it full. The thickness of this bag satisfies my garbage company’s requirements.

I gave Eloise a dry shampoo bath. She does not like bathing in the tub. Since she is the cleanest cat we have ever had, this will suffice. She licks herself clean about 6 times a day. The dry shampoo also has aloe in it which is good for her skin and coat and won’t harm her when she licks.

Hubby and I watched 3 DVRed shows from this past week tonight for entertainment. Then I went to bed early so that I could get up early. Hubby watched football.

Saturday:

Again I was able to sleep to 4am before Eloise meowed at our door.

Breakfast this morning will be cereal. Oatmeal for me and granola for Hubby using shelf stable milk. We will have spaghetti with sauce and meatballs and homemade garlic toast on the side for dinner.

I need to do a load of laundry in cold water and then hang it to dry.

Having noticed that we had a spike in electricity a week ago, I started writing down when things are being used around here and at what time. We normally use from .53 to .81 kwh’s according to our hourly stats using our smart meter. At 8am one morning, we had a spike to 4.9 kwh’s. I found out what it was a couple of days later. I had turned on the flourescent light above my computer desk so I could see to do some work. I realized it when a couple of days later, I had turned the light on again. When the stats showed up online, I again had that spike. Needless to say I will not be using that light again. I will use our overhead lights in the kitchen because they use much lower kwh’s.

Today will be a reading day for me. I want to find some recipes using what we have in our stockpile. I also continue to read frugal books again before I donate them to the library.

I hope you are all having a money saving weekend. Please share with us so that we can learn from you.

Categories
Every Day

A Little of This and a Little of That

Since gasoline is so expensive, I bundled errands yesterday. First stop was at Top’s for some loss leaders. They had Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts on sale for $ 2.19 a lb. But they were totally out. The new sale ad just went into effect the day before. I find this quite aggravating. The butcher told me that they would get a truck in last night. Since I am not about to waste gasoline and make another trip chasing this sale, I got a raincheck for 2 large packages. The raincheck is good for about 6 weeks. I will use it next time I need something at or near Top’s.

For those of you who have freezer space, Market in the Square is having a chicken sale if you buy 40 lbs. Info:

𝐏𝐫𝐞-𝐎𝐫𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝟒𝟎 𝐥𝐛. 𝐁𝐨𝐱:

(MUST order online before Tues. 4/14 at noon)

40lb of Chicken Breasts: $79

40lb of Chicken Leg Quarters: $39

40lb of Whole Chicken Wings: $59

40lb of Chicken Drumsticks: $35

Plus… No sales tax! 💰

* Pickup: Fri 4/17 – Sun 4/19 from 8am-4pm

* Available from both West Seneca & North Tonawanda Meat Departments

This is a great deal. The chicken breasts work out to $ 1.795 per lb. I don’t have the freezer space. If I did, I would be all over this sale.

I did pick up 3 chicken broths and 2 beef broths at $1.49 each when you buy 5. This was a really good deal for here. I can my own chicken broth but sometimes I am out so these fill in when that happens. I never have enough beef bones to make beef broth. Bananas were on sale with a super coupon for $ .39 a lb. Limit 5 pounds. Each week during the Moolahville game that Top’s is running they have a coupon for a deep discount. So I picked up this package of hamburger buns for $ .49. If you shop Top’s, make sure to add this coupon to your digital wallet attached to your bonus card. That is all I got. We still have lots of stockpile items to work our way through.

Then I went to Walmart to pick up some special toothpaste that the dentist recommended for Hubby. It was cheaper for a 2 pack at $ 12.47 than one tube for $7.49. I also picked up his 3 prescriptions. They shocked me when they told me the bill was $ 3706. I told the cashier that I didn’t think they applied our insurance. Sure enough they hadn’t so they fixed their error and the total came to $78.+ before they added the toothpaste on.

We got a disappointing letter in the mail yesterday from NYS. They informed us that we did not qualify for the Enhanced Star Rebate(must be over 65 and own and live in your home) for our school taxes in September. Each year they up the cut off income amount. Unfortunately, we made much more income for the 2024 year than they based it on. They go 2 years back so 2026 taxes are based on 2004 income tax year. I was so happy when we qualified last September. We had not qualified in years. But looking at our income on our 2025 taxes which they will base the 2027 cut off on, I don’t think we will qualify again for 2027. I know we should be happy that we make more and more income each year. But this reduction was quite a bit of money last year. It saved us $ 1080.49 last year. Every year we will be chasing it so I don’t think we will qualify again. Our investments keep our income high. I will make that money up by doing some more cutting back.

I have decided to clean the inside of our SUV myself this year. It is pretty muddy and dirty from the winter. I got a $ 200. quote from the company who did my carpet cleaning and it is a good price. However with the disappointing letter on the school taxes, I will save that $200. by doing it myself.

On a different subject, we had our new neighbors over for dinner on Saturday night this past weekend. We had a terrific time and enjoyed their company very much. I made the best chicken in wine sauce that I have made in a long time. We added a caesar salad and broccoli for sides. For dessert, I stuffed cara mia oranges with orange sherbert and spooned fresh strawberries in a bit of juice over the top. I just cut off the tops(about 1/4 to 1/3 down) off the oranges and cut out the insides and save them to go with breakfasts. Then fill the shells. Put them in the freezer until you are ready to serve them. This dessert is so refreshing and easy and the combination is so yummy. You can also add a pinch of coconut on top of the strawberries if you like that.

Have you saved any money recently by getting a great deal? Please feel free to share with us.

Categories
Every Day

Just a Bit of Cutting Costs

We had a nice Easter dinner with our son and grandson. Everyone else was sick so they stayed home. We have been eating those leftovers and finally finished them today.

I needed to buy some bourbon and Chardonnay for company that we are having to dinner on Saturday night. We have a new liquor store that opened a couple of months ago near me. Their prices are lower than the one I have been going to since we moved here. So this is where we will go from now on. They also built a beverage center next to the liquor store. I love one stop shopping. So I was able to get a 12 pack of Yeungling for Hubby. He likes to have a beer once in a while after he mows the lawn. I came home and submitted a rebate online for $6.00 for the beer.

While I was running errands, I stopped at Top’s gas station to fill up my tank that was getting pretty empty. The price at the pump was $ 4.20. I got $ .60 off a gallon using points. So I only paid $ 3.60 a gallon. That was high enough. Yikes!

We hired a carpet cleaning service to clean our great room and master bedroom wall to wall carpeting. Both off white carpets. They also cleaned all the carpeting on our stairs going to the basement and the landing at the bottom and our great room sofa and matching chair. Hubby has been cleaning all of these for the past 16 years with our Bissell Shampooer. His back does not like that work anymore. Hence the need to hire someone. They did a fabulous job. All of these look new with the exception that she could not get a spot of newsprint off the sofa arm. Hubby’s hands left that after reading the newspaper at home in prior years. However because she couldn’t get it out, she took $70. off our bill. That was a bonus we were not expecting. We would hire her again.

This morning, Hubby had an appointment at Dunn Tire which has been purchased recently by Discount Tire. We have been going to Dunn for 16 years and always had great service. We needed to have the snow tires taken off and the regular tires put back on. His appointment was at 10am. Hubby called me to say they still hadn’t taken the car in to do it. That was at 11am. He wanted to let me know so that I didn’t worry. But he was also quite pissed and he let them know it. Evidently the service there has gone downhill since they were purchased. So he got the telephone number of corporate and had every intention of calling them to complain when he got home. Believe me, I have been married to Hubby for almost 60 years and I don’t remember him ever being this pissed. When they finally finished the car at 11:30am, they let him know it was ready. He went to pay at the register and he was told there was no charge. The manager evidently made that decision. The cost to do this was $100.+ tax which would have been another $8.00. However, Hubby had a 50% off coupon with him. so it would have only cost us $50. and $ 4.00 in tax. Hubby still is going to file a complaint with corporate. They should know of the lousy service at this location. But he will let them know what the manager did for him. Hubby said none of the people who serviced us for 16 years there are employed there anymore. They probably hired cheaper labor and the customer service just isn’t there.

We had our heat turned off for most of the day because it was 54 outside and the sun was shining. I had all of the window coverings open. It was just beautiful. I have now turned it back on because it will be cold tonight. We had snow yesterday. This time of year the weather is a mixed bag. Hopefully we will be able to turn the heat off by the end of May.

I did a load of laundry today in cold water and dried it in the dryer using the tennis balls which caused it to dry faster than it would have.

Hubby did the first mowing of our lawn today. He was enjoying doing it on his rider and soaking up the sunshine.

We have been cooking and eating all of our meals at home. The prime rib just got finshed up today. I will be happy to make a Chef’s salad for dinner tomorrow night.

That’s it for now. Have you saved or not spent any money this week?

Categories
Every Day

A Little of This and a Little of That

This past week has been busy. I am getting ready for all of my family to come for Easter dinner. Those ribeye roasts that I purchased will be the main course. I think I will roast both of them in my turkey roaster since there will be so many of us. I have planned mashed potatoes, cauliflower rice, broccoli, corn, and gravy for sides. I will also have fresh strawberries with whipped cream for dessert. I have to keep the Keto people happy. We have not been together in a long time so I am so looking forward to a great time. My son who lives across the state in the Adirondacks is coming tomorrow night. I haven’t seen him since Thanksgiving .So we will enjoy having him here for a few days. I am hoping to fly out to see him this summer. I just have to drive an hour+ to get to an airport that has a direct flight. Or maybe I can hitch a ride with my son when they go to visit his wife’s parents in NH. He can drop me a few miles away where my son can pick me up.

We are also having new friends for dinner next weekend. We can’t wait. It has been a long winter and we are all starting to be able to get out in the nice weather and meet people.

Just yesterday, Hubby’s sister let me know that she is flying out to visit us in August. She lives in Houston. Hubby is very excited about that. We haven’t seen her in two years. So this wlll be a busy spring and summer.

I haven’t seen my baby sister in a long time(7 or 8 years) . Her Hubby isn’t well enough to come and visit. My sister does not drive except to go to medical appointments. I told her she could take the bus and we would pick her up here in Buffalo. I even offered to pay for her bus tickets. She finally told me that she is not coming because she is afraid to leave her Hubby home alone. Neither Hubby not I want to drive such a long trip anymore. So I will just have to take the bus and surprise her one day this year.

Well enough about family.

We have done a few things to save money this week. I went to the bank this week and got our cash that we use for various things. I deposited two checks into a different account than the one I take the cash from.

We have been eating easy things this past week while I get everything ready for the weekend. We have had homemade pizza, roast beef sandwiches, soup, salads, etc. I am actually using paper plates from my stockpile to have less dishes to wash.

I am still washing laundry in cold water and hanging most of it to dry. We are mindful of how much electric and natural gas we are using.

I can’t believe that it is April already. Our landscaping people will be here this month to do our spring clean up. We also have a few bushes to remove that have gotten too big. We will have them replace them with somethiing else. Our sprinkler system people will be here to open our system and make sure that everything is running smoothly for the spring and summer. I have hired an ECO friendly carpet cleaning service to come next week. They will clean carpeting and my fabric furniture. ECO is important to me because of Eloise. All of that will cost a ton of money but that is why we saved for years so that we can easily afford to do these things. Hubby has always cleaned our carpets with our own machine. I have decided it is too much for him any longer so that is why I hired this company.

We had a good March. We did not spend all of our grocery money but we did spend more than we did in January and February. That is because I stocked so much beef on loss leader sales and some other loss leaders. We did have extra income this month of $ 1128.75. Not as much as other months this year but we didn’t spend as much as in the past two months either. So we continue to build our net worth.

That’s it for today. I have last minute cleaning to do since my family starts arriving tomorrow.

I hope you all have a nice Easter.

Categories
Every Day

Our New Grocery Plan

So sorry this is so late today. I fell asleep for hours today after going shopping at Aldi’s. Eloise is still getting me up between 2am & 3am. After a while I have to catch up because I am so exhausted.

I went to Aldi’s today to get 2(limit) of their ribeye roasts at $8.99 a lb. I purchased them for $123.17. I also bought some naan( $3.55) to make 2 pizzas. One roast will be used for Easter in case I can’t find a leg of lamb. They had spiral sliced hams on sale for $1.49 a lb. I am going to wait until after Easter to see if they get marked down at Aldi’s or Walmart. We still have ham slices in the freezer from Christmas.

If you have noticed we are eating down our pantries and now buying only loss leaders. Yes, we have processed food to go through but I refuse to throw it out and waste the money I paid for it. We have eaten processed foods our entire life and it hasn’t killed us yet. But after all of the information that has come out about the chemicals in most of the food supply in our country, we will be buying very little of it anymore.

So we are basically buying from the perimeter of the stores which house produce, fish, meat, and dairy, etc. Now that Top’s is marking a lot of these things down that are soon to expire, I am finding some great deals.

We will can most of our vegetables and fruits in season this spring, summer, and fall. Otherwise, I will buy frozen that has only one ingredient.

We will buy baking supplies because we bake desserts, muffins, and breads regularly. I buy them in bulk. We also make pancakes and waffle with them. We only buy 100% Pure Maple Syrup to put on them which is in season in NY right now. We have a diabetic in the family but I have deemed that the SF crap is far worse than the maple syrup because of all the petroleum products in it.

We also buy flour, sugar, rice, dry beans, pasta, oatmeal, etc. in bulk when the price is right. We have an Amish store near us. I can make my own pasta because I have a machine. When my pasta is gone, I will make it again.

That’s our plan, buy ingredients and cook from scratch. Prepare some of the foods to put in our freezer to make easy meals. I freeze onions, potatoes, and carrots immediately so they don’t go bad. We also freeze berries when they are in season. With prices as high as they are, I refuse to waste food.

Tomorrow, I will make some banana bread for a new neighbor using up 3 bananas that are in our freezer. We have bananas that are getting really ripe so Hubby will make a banana salad to go with dinner tomorrow night.

Making it simple will be a theme also. Hubby is doing some of the cooking because after almost 59 years, it is his turn.

Categories
Every Day

A Large Grocery Haul At Top’s

There were finally some good deals at Top’s yesterday. But it was a struggle to do all I had to do there. They open at 6:00am. However, the bottle return room does not open until 7:00am. So I went up when it got light here because I don’t drive in the dark. That was about 7:10am. The bottle return room has 3 machines. One needed to be emptied so it was not working. Another took glass only and I had no glass. The last one which was working but it was being used. I waited. Finally, I went into the store to go to customer service to get my $ 1.49 overcharge back from the reduced price produce that I purchased last week. Guess what? They weren’t open yet. They don’t open until 8:00am. So I went and did my shopping and then went there last. NY Strip steaks were on sale so I went to get them. They only had 1 package of 4 in the case. So I spied both the store manager and butcher shop manager having a chit chat in the aisle behind me. I went over and asked if someone could get me another package. More waiting while they cut them up! UGH! My day was not starting well. Top’s needs to get it’s act together. Either you are open or you are not open. Three different times is ridiculous and a waste of my energy. When you have to plan these things out, it is ludicrous! I like to go early so that I have less contact with sick people.

Flour was on sale for $ 2.29 for a 5 lb. bag. Since we are making our own bread products, I have been stocking up when I see a great deal! The 2 lbs. of carrots was $2.49 and I used a digital coupon for $.50 making them $1.99. I got a 3 lb. bag of seedless mandarins $ 4.99 minus a $ 2.00 digital coupon = $ 2.99.

Large eggs were on sale for $. 99. I paid that price for 2 of them. However, I had a blockbuster coupon for 1 dozen eggs from a new game that Top’s has. It has replaced the Monopoly game that they used to have. So I paid $ .49 for the third dozen.

I found this package of reduced price Italian sausage for $ 2.54 instead of $3.91. It expires today but I quickly froze it yesterday.

Sour cream was on sale for 2/$5.00. We were low so I purchased 2. The butter was on sale for the lowest price that I have seen here in almost 3 years. I got 8 lbs. for $ 2.50 each. They also gave me a coupon for $ .50 off one so I got all 8 for $ 19.50. They have been added to my stash in the freezer. I got another package of reduced for quick sale Italian sausage for $ 2.45. The 2 lb. container of fresh strawberries was $ 6.99 minus $ 1.00 digital coupon = $ 5.99. They have been cleaned and cut up for dessert and snacks this week.

The NY strip steaks were on sale for $ 11.99 a lb. so I paid $73.14 for them. I ended up with 8 steaks which I have repackaged into food saver bags. We grill 2 when we want them and it gives us a dinner and a brunch. We will be using leftover macaroni bacon goulash for dinner again tonight. But we will grill 2 steaks tomorrow night so that we can see if they are tender or not. You never know! If they are tender, I will be going back to buy a few more packages. I have a lot of money in my grocery budget leftover from the lst couple of months because I have been trying to eat from our pantry as much as possible and buying mostly loss leaders that we needed. That way we can afford beef when it is on loss leader. My total for everything today was $ 117.15 after they deducted my $ 2.35 bottle return slip.

I have shopped loss leaders for almost 59 years. I am really concentrating hard on them now. Prices are just too darn high to buy anything at full price. We eat what we have stocked at the best prices. We live in NY and food prices are high because we live in the Buffalo area. Buffalo is the second largest city in NY after NYC. Food is not cheap here. But you plan and work with what you know to be a good deal for you.

Perhaps you can guess what my topic will be tomorrow after this post today. See you then.

Did you get any great deals this week?

Categories
Every Day

A Little of This and a Little of That

I will be eating the last reuben sandwich for brunch today. They have been so delicious. We did take a break for Friday and got two fish fries at Chiavetta’s for dinner. They now give a 3% discount for cash but you have to ask for it.

I think I will make bacon macaroni goulash for dinner tonight. We will eat the leftovers tomorrow night. We have not made this in a very long time. So when I get done here, I will grab a lb. of bacon and a baguette to make garlic bread from the basement freezer and a box of macaroni from that pantry. We have fresh onions and some Rao’s spaghetti sauce in my kitchen pantry. I will prep the bacon and cut up the onions so I can cook faster at dinner time. I will dice up a half pound of the bacon. That will be enough for two meals. The other half pound will get eaten with eggs for brunches this week.

I was surprised when I got my February-March gas and electric bill yesterday. It was for 29 days and was billed on March 19th. I was expecting a $400. bill. However it was $ 300.58. We used 503 kwhs of electric and 5 therms of natural gas. Last year’s bill for the same period was $270.84 for 490 kwhs and 4 therms of gas. So this bill was $ 29.74 higher. Not as much of an increase year over year as my prior bills. But still too darn high. Hopefully we will eventually get some nice weather again. It has been cold and dreary.

Well the light that came on in the car may have been a warning that our battery was low. Hubby went to go to his haircut appointment one morning this week and the car was dead in our garage. He tried to jump it and it wouldn’t work. So he called AAA to get it towed. Hillman’s which is our repair shop sent their truck out to us after they got notified by AAA. The tow is 100% covered by AAA with the plan we have. The guy tried to jump it and he got nothing either. So he towed it. We told them to let us know what was wrong and to put a new battery in also because this one was old. We knew we would probably not hear from them until the next day because most of their guys were training on a new machine the day it was towed. Turned out that the battery was dead, no juice at all. Hubby was picked up by their courtesy ride van midday the day after and was home in just a few minutes. The cost of the labor and the battery was $224. Hubby has always put new batteries in all of our cars himself which saves the labor charges. But this time was the first we had a computer on a car so we really didn’t know what was going on with that light. We do now for next time. However that said, this is only the second battery in 13 years and we have never had a repair except for recalls. We just make sure the maintence is always done on it. We only have 54,000. miles on the car so it is good for a very long time. I am just glad that I didn’t get stuck out on a road somewhere. I was going to run 10 errands that day but only did 6 or 7 when my brain said go home. The rest can be done later. Someone was definitely watching over me.

When we got the car back, I made a quick trip to Top’s for a couple of things and picked up Hubby’s script that was ready at Walmart. At Top’s I found an organic coleslaw mix that was $4.99 reduced since it was expiring that day for $2.50. When I got home, I looked at my receipt and they charged me $3.99 instead of $2.50. So tomorrow when I shop for the week, I will get my $1.49 overcharge back. I just need to take the label to customer service. Hubby will make up his waldorf coleslaw salad with it today. I also so got a bunch of bananas for $.44 a lb. totaling $ 1.04. So once I get my money back I will have spent $ 3.54.

All the laundry got caught up yesterday and the sheets were all washed and the beds made up with new ones. I hung most of the laundry but did use the dryer for some especially the sheets.

So my plan today besides making dinner is to spruce up my basement pantry and make sure everything is in the front of the shelves that needs to get used first. Then I may watch the Buffalo Sabres Ice Hockey game and some March Madness games with Hubby.

What have you been doing to keep costs down?

Categories
Every Day

A Little Of This And A Little of That

It has been a very busy week. I got pretty much all of my organizing done this past week. I just need to tidy up the basement pantry a bit. So much clutter went out of this house. It will be so much easier to keep things neat and tidy.

The weather had gotten a bit warmer but now overnight we have about 4 inches of snow and it is still snowing. Hopefully it will melt soon. I am so over snow. My plans today were to go to Aldi’s and Top’s but because of the snow, I will not be going. I will wait until the roads are clear, possibly tommorow or Thursday.

There has been no shopping since mid week last week. When I went out with the car, a red light momentarily went on and off that I had never seen before. Hubby checked the car when I got home and the manual said the parking brake was engaged. He saw the same light go on and off when he started the car. We had never seen this light in 16 years. So Hubby took it to our favorite auto repair people yesterday. They took the parking brake on and off a few times and said there was nothing wrong and didn’t charge us. So we will trust them. Why we have never seen that light in 16 years is now a mystery.

While I was out last week, I took the car into the car wash and had the works done which included the undercarriage wash. I needed to get the road salt off everything. It was so dirty and I was not expecting more snow so that is one of the reasons, I will not go out in the car until it is gone again. Yesterday when it was 67 outside, I spent some time cleaning up the inside of the car. I now have 4 carwash slips that they give you when you buy a wash. When you get 5, then you get a free wash.

I cooked a turkey last week. We got 3 meals out of it and then had 2 nights of homemade turkey soup. I also have 6 containers of soup portions that I put in the freezer for future meals.

I plan today to cook a corned beef in the crockpot since it is St. Patrick’s Day. We will have it with boiled cabbage tonight. Then we will eat reubens the rest of the week until it is gone. When I was out this past week, I planned on getting another corned beef to keep in the freezer for future reubens but alas Aldi’s had sold out of the cheaper ones. The prices elsewhere were ridiculous so I did not get one. However if I see any clearanced after today, I will get one or two more. Now I will be on the hunt for a good deal on a leg of lamb for Easter.

We did use up all of the rest of the Applebee’s Giftcards last week for appetizers. Those gave us a few meals. Now I need to work on the Panera ones. Amazon had a deal last week for a Subway $50. giftcard for $ 42.50. So I ordered one. We do get subs there once in a while using coupons so it was a no brainer when I can save another $ 7.50.

Yesterday’s mail brought another class action suit check against Rite Aid. It was for $39.73 so that was a nice surprise. I need to go to another town and deposit a bunch of checks at the bank and stop at B.J.’s for a few things so perhaps next week I will do that.

I am expecting my electric and gas bill in a couple of days. With the warmer weather, I was thinking that it might be cheaper than last month. But then oil went up way over $100. a barrel because of the war so I think it will be more expensive. Oil affects those prices. So I will not be surprised if it is over $400. for a month. I will let you know when I get it.

That is it for now. How are you saving a few dollars these days?