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Every Day

A Little of This and a Little of That

For any of you who do not live in the northeast, I posted the above picture. I wanted to post a picture before the leaves started falling and while they were much redder but you know what they say about the best laid plans. But the maple in our backyard is still pretty even though the frost we have had and the wind and rain have knocked a lot of leaves off it. Here in the Buffalo area, it seems that the pretty colors are far and few in between. Most of the trees turn yellow and then lose their leaves. In the Adirondacks where I used to live, there were trees like this with reds, pinks, and oranges everywhere and the beauty just surrounded us. I was hoping to go back east this fall but that just didn’t happen. So this picture will have to do. 

And every morning I wake up to the noise of trucks backing up and bulldozers working behind us. You can see a road parallel to my home. The builder is now selling 38 homes to be built for this new section.

Above is pictured the candy that I purchased on discount yesterday. The sales were not as good as other years. Rite Aid was the most disappointing. They marked all of their candy up and then took 50% off. For example: All of the fun size bags that you could buy for $2.- 2.50 before Halloween now will cost you $4.59 at the cheapest. I left empty handed.

Walmart had the 3 bags of chocolates. They are now in my freezer for cookies. They had hardly any candy left. They had tons of decorations if you needed those. I was so thrilled to see these Tootsie Pops in Big Lots. Hubby loves a pop once in a while as a treat. His favorite are the chocolate ones. When I saw these limited edition bags of all chocolate pops,  I stocked on 6 bags for him. The candy corn is for me. The Dum – Dum pops will be used for treats for the grandchildren. Lastly the caramels will be used for desserts for the holidays. They were purchased at Dollar General.

I will still be on the lookout for cakes and cookie dough that are Halloween themed. I just haven’t been in a grocery store since last last week. I may go later today. 


I am noticing after looking at the Top’s flyer and  other flyers online, that tomorrow the Thanksgiving sales are starting. I am seeing stuffing, chicken broth, cream soups, cranberry sauce, etc. What is nice at Top’s next week is that they are doing dollar doubler coupons too.  I have noticed that a few stores have Butterball turkeys at $ .89 a lb. That is $.10 – .20 cheaper per lb. than last year. I can’t wait to see what the store turkey prices will be. I will buy a Butterball for our Thanksgiving dinner and perhaps 3 store ones. This year I may cook 2 of the extras the week after Thanksgiving, food saver the meat, and freeze it. I will also make the gravy and freeze it. All of that will make future meals. I will simmer all of the bones and skin from Thanksgiving and the 2 extra turkeys to make lots of stock. That will also get frozen. Much of the frozen turkey will be used in place of chicken in recipes. I can’t buy chicken that cheap. The 4th turkey will be frozen for another holiday during the year. By cooking the turkeys and freezing the meat, it will leave me freezer space for rock bottom priced hams. Both turkey meat and ham get sliced on my food slicer and used for sandwiches for months. I can’t buy deli meat that cheap. 

Are any of you planning on buying more than one turkey this year? I am curious. Please feel free to let me know in the comments below.        

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Every Day

Put Away Those Credit Cards

The biggest shopping season of the year is here. I read a post on Facebook yesterday where a woman stated that the average amount spent per person on Christmas was $1,000. She said she heard it on the Today show. Now I don’t watch the Today show or any other morning show so I don’t know if that was said.

However if it was, I find that hard to believe even if if you added up all Christmas costs- gifts, Christmas cards, decorations, and the holiday meal- that the average American would spend $1,000. per person.

I suppose if you are traveling for the holiday and add in those costs that you might spend $1,000. per person.

Anyhow, I find that number shocking. I buy for 6 people at Christmas plus a few small gifts for the mailman, newspaper woman, and my UPS man. 

I mail out about 30 Christmas cards at the most. We don’t buy any new decorations because we have plenty from other years. Even if we purchased a few new ones each year, they would be purchased at 50- 75% off from the prior year.

I don’t cook the Christmas meal but I will be cooking the traditional Thanksgiving meal for my family this year. So even if I include those costs, I don’t think I would spend $1,000. per person. 

According to what this woman said, I would be spending $6,000. for my sons, DIL’s and grandchildren. Hubby and I do not exchange gifts. We buy whatever we need when we need it all year long. But we would be included in the other costs so that would up it to $8,000. There is no way!

Now I have been known to be wrong more than once in my life. So I have a little notebook that I am going to track every penny we spend on Thanksgiving and Christmas this year and see what we spend and what our average per person comes out to. That way, instead of guessing, I will know what the true costs were. I would love if some of you would do the same so that you know exactly what you are spending. Sometime after Christmas I will give you my results and I would love to hear about yours.

I know it is a busy time of year and this gives you one more thing to do. But doing this may benefit you in the long run. You may find out that you are doing just fine on those costs or you may find out that you spending way too much. Some of you may find out that you are running your credit cards up and having to pay interest for months on all of those purchases. Track your costs on your computer or a plain old piece of paper or a little notebook that you carry with you.  

Now let’s get to the title of this post: Put Away Those Credit Cards. If you pay your credit card bills in full every month when they are due, feel free to use your credit cards. If you can afford to pay cash for your Christmas expenses and can afford $1,000. and want to, feel free.

However if you are planning on using your credit cards to pay for Christmas and plan on paying it off over time next year, thing twice about doing that. You may be getting some great sale prices over the season, especially on Good Friday, but those purchases will cost you so much more when you add up the interest you pay. It will also cost you a lot of stress. Is it worth it? I say no, it’s not! You are spending future money that you haven’t earned yet. That is a never a good plan.

I am sure that many of you have purchased on sale  gifts throughout the year and have set them aside. If you did, congrats to you! That is the smart way to Christmas shop. Many of you may have made gifts for your families. Congrats to you! I wish I was so handy.

But one thing that I have made through the years for our families is gift baskets. They can be as expensive as you want or as inexpensive as you want. They are easy and everyone loves gift baskets. As an example one year, I made ice cream baskets: spoons, sundae glasses that I bought at Dollar Tree, gift certificates for an ice cream store, different sprinkles and toppings, etc. Another year, I gave a basket of holiday socks that I purchased at 90% off after each holiday all year long. Another year, I gave a basket of holiday paper napkins and plates that I purchased the same way. There are so many ideas that will keep your costs low. I buy my baskets at garage sales when I see them for less than a $1.00. You shrink wrap them with bags from the dollar store and put on a nice bow. You have a nice gift that is really pretty, inexpensive, and most people would love.

So if you are planning on running up your credit cards, think twice about that. Instead make an inexpensive family gift basket that won’t end up keeping you up at night wondering how you are going to pay for Christmas.

I believe that over the years, Christmas spending has gotten out of control. People are spending way too much money on gifts for people they don’t even want to exchange with. Don’t do that. Let those people know that you will not be exchanging gifts anymore. Spend your money the way you want to not the way others expect you to. Many of those people don’t want to exchange gifts either but are afraid to say anything. So have the courage to stop the cycle. Take control!

Well, I will stop now lest you think that I am Scrooge. But I wanted to make you think a little about what you are spending for the holidays and how you are spending it. Then start 2019 with your Christmas expenses paid for.

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Every Day

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween to all! I hope your children have a safe fun day. I always loved Halloween when I had children of my own. I loved decorating, sewing costumes, enjoyed all of the children’s costumes who came to my door, etc. I still do. I especially love the really little ones who come with their parents. I have purchased the little boxes of animal crackers as a treat for the little ones ( 2 year olds) on my street who will be coming this year. I think it is better than giving them candy.

But my favorite part of Halloween is the day after when many stores put their Halloween candy on sale at 50% or more. Our candy supply has dwindled since Valentine’s Day and Easter. It is time to replenish it. I put the discounted candy in my freezer to use for cakes and cookies and other desserts during the year. I buy mostly chocolates, M&M’s and Reese’s pieces. Then I buy other candies to have here for my grandchildren when they visit as a treat.

I know some people who wait to buy the candy at deep discount like 75 to 90% off. But I find that most of the candy in this area is wiped out at 50%. I can also usually get what I want if I go early in the morning. I have a really early dentist appointment tomorrow so I will be shopping right afterwards.

But candy is not the only thing that gets discounted. Many people purchase costumes for their children for next year. This is a smart thing to do if you don’t sew their costumes.

At the market and Walmart, I will be looking for discounted Halloween cake mixes, cookies, frostings, pumpkin cupcake paper wrappers, paper napkins, etc. I look at things that are Halloween themed. I will be pulling any coupons that I can use today.


If you have a graduate this coming June and are having a party, look for discounted black paper plates, cups, and napkins. etc.

Over the years I have used ECB’s at CVS, coupons at AC Moore, Rite Aid, Top’s, Dollar General, Ollie’s, and Big Lots to get the discounted candy, etc. Michael’s and Pier 1 are great places to get discounted decorations.

I have known people who buy pumpkins cheap to bake and freeze in portions. 

Just think outside of the box for things that you can use during the year at a discount. I know I like to save money on some of these things and I am sure most of you readers like to also.

What are some of the things that you have purchased at a great price after Halloween?  Please feel free to share in comments.

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Every Day

A Bread Recipe From Gayle

Gayle Binkley was nice enough to share her favorite bread recipe in the comments. But I wanted to make sure that everyone sees it. It looks so easy. I can’t wait to try it.

One-Day Sourdough Bread

1-1/2 cups bread flour
2 Tbsp. instant potatoes
2 Tbsp. sugar
1 pkg. yeast
1-1/2 cups lukewarm water
4-1/2 cups bread flour
1/3 cups sugar
1/2 cup oil
2 Tsp. salt
enough lukewarm water to make a fairly stiff dough

In a large mixing bowl, mix the first 5 ingredients well and let it sit 1-1/2 hours or until doubled in size. Add remaining ingredients. Turn out on floured board. Knead 5 minutes. Put back in bowl that has been oiled. Cover and let sit for 1 hour or until doubled. Remove and make into 3 loaves. Brush top with oil. Cover. Let rise until doubled. Bake at 325 until done (about 20-25 minutes). Remove from pans. Butter top while hot.


Thanks so much Gayle for taking the time to share this with me and everyone else.

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Every Day

Frugal Things That We Have Been Doing

These are the frugal things that we have been doing:

– I mended a cable knit sweater that had developed a hole. It is over 25 years old and I love it. I purchased it two sizes too big back then so I could wear it over a top or blouse and have it be roomy and long. It has served me well. You can’t even see where I repaired it.

– Hubby took the car to the tire store to get the snow tires put on for the winter. I gave him a 50% off coupon so he only had to pay $32. 36 including tax.


– Hubby asked me to buy athletic socks for him because he was running out. I always buy them all the same sock in bulk so that when he develops a hole in one and throws it away, they still all match. I purchased him 10 pair for $18.99. 

– I received $13.91 in rebate and other checks. I will deposit them in savings the next time I go to the bank. 

– Our favorite BBQ place started frying up huge fish fries again last Friday. They do this from now until Good Friday. So we treated ourselves for dinner. We hate their sides so we just order the fish which saves us $3.00 off our order. While I am picking up the fish, Hubby does French fries to go with it in our air fryer. The fish fries were so big this time that Hubby and I could have easily split one. So next time we will only buy one.  

– Hubby made homemade Ciabatta bread and tomato soup. I made a huge beef stew. Those meals we have been eating most of the week.

– When I picked up bread flour for Hubby this week, I also picked up 3 packs of TicTacs for free after coupons. They will be a gift.

– I am keeping my eyes open for a great sale on casual shoes for me. The ones I purchased from Naturalizer were way too big so I returned them. They were my size but I think it was the design. This cost me money so I am looking for a local sale on them. 

– Hubby will be making egg, onion, ham and peppers with cheese, salsa or taco sauce in wraps for our Sunday breakfast this weekend. My grandson will not eat them. So I will make him scrambled eggs, sausage, and toast made with our Ciabatta bread. Hubby’s wraps are so good that I wanted him to make them for our son to try. 

– I made another bottle of homemade cleaner to clean our eye glasses. 

– I learned quite a while ago how to make my morning oatmeal with my Keurig which saves me time and money. So I have made up small snack size Ziplocs of oatmeal and dried fruit that I got free after coupons. I just pour it into a cup, have the Keurig run hot water into it and let it set for a minute or so.


– I had not been able to find tomato sauce at a decent price since my BJ’s quit carrying it in the #10 cans. So I had been using Hunt’s spaghetti sauce for my base which was expensive. My neighbor who knew I was looking for it went to Sam’s Club last week and picked me up 10- #10 cans for $2.98 each. I was delighted and promptly paid her. I use it as the base to make homemade spaghetti sauce. I made her some homemade banana bread for her family to thank her.  


-Hubby was very happy to get his riding lawn mower back from the shop that repaired it. It was gone more than a week and the lawn was getting very long. I am happy that including pickup and drop off the repair the bill only came to $ 97. 

– Hubby made absolutely delicious garlic bread for dinner last night. He used some of the homemade Ciabatta bread. 


– I picked up 4 more James Patterson books at our library. They will be enjoyable evening reading instead of watching You Tube. I am just finishing reading a book that I downloaded for free to my Kindle. So these books will be my next reading.

– While I was driving, the warning lights came on in our car. I researched them in our car manual. It was the tire pressure. I filled the tires up to 33 psi which is where they needed to be. The warning lights went off. 

– The last thing that needs to be done for winter here is to clean the garage. That will be done with Hubby’s help in the next few days. 

Please feel free to leave a comment and share with us what you have been doing frugally.



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Every Day

Hubby’s Homemade Dinnner

After all the years I have cooked, I love it when Hubby decides he is going to cook a meal. He loves making me breakfast and once in a while he makes dinner. Last night was one of those nights. He asked me to look at his recipes the day before and make sure we had everything he needed. We needed bread flour because I was low. So I picked up 5 pounds on the way home from the dentist yesterday.

He made homemade tomato soup which he has been making for years. It is so good and so much better than tomato soup in a can. The pic above shows when it just started to cook. He simmered it for a while and just before we ate, he added leftover elbow macaroni from a prior meal this week. It was so delicious. After dinner, he bagged some up and froze it for future meals. The rest will be our lunches for the next couple of days.

Here is the soup after it cooked and the macaroni was added. The only changes that Hubby makes to the recipe is to add Italian seasoning spice and leave out the leeks which he does not like. 

Hubby decided that he would make homemade Ciabatta Bread to go with it. He made it by hand. He made two separate loaves on two different sheet pans. Here is one of them while it was rising. The recipe told him to lightly flour them. He did but we couldn’t figure out why. All it did was make the loaf a little flour-y. But it easily wiped off so that we could eat it. Perhaps you experienced bread makers can tell us why it said to do that.

Here is one of the loaves after it was baked and cooling. He just wiped off the flour on the outside before we ate it. He also added some rosemary to the top of the loaf before he baked it. This recipe is definitely a keeper. We loved this as you can see with our soup. 

The bread was still warm and with butter it was scrumptious. It was a very enjoyable meal made for under $1.00 per serving. We will definitely be making this once a month all winter.

Hubby was thrilled with the way his bread turned out. We ate about half a loaf so we have a loaf and a half left. I save my bread bags and twist ties for when I make bread in my bread maker. At first I thought we would freeze one loaf but on second thought I was sure that we eat it this weekend. I bet it will make great toast for our family breakfast on Sunday. 

Here is the recipe for the Ciabatta Bread . And here is the recipe for the Tomato Soup . 

I had so many doctor and dentist appointments this week that I have only had time to post twice. So I will be doing our frugal things list that I haven’t done in a while tomorrow.

Do any of you have great homemade bread recipes that you use? Would you share them with Hubby?

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Every Day

It Pays To Always Comparison Shop

Taking the time to comparison shop always pays off even on the smaller items. We all know to comparison shop on the large items like cars, homes, major appliances, home repairs, insurances, etc.

But just how many large items do you buy in a year’s time? Most likely not that many. The smaller things can sink a budget since we buy so many that they add up over a year’s time. You see it in your yearly grocery shopping. If you just throw whatever you want into your cart at the grocery store without any preparation, you can spend thousands more than necessary. But if you take the time to meal plan, keep a price book, keep an inventory of your stockpile,  cut coupons, and keep an eye on sales and rock bottom prices, you spend hundreds of dollars less per year. The same is true when we purchase HBA items, over the counter meds, and cleaning products, etc.

We always take the time to comparison shop on everything we buy. So last week when our salt and pepper grinders (pictured above) bit the dust on almost the same day, we started the search for some new ones. Sure we could have just used cheap salt and pepper shakers like I have near my stove or grinders filled with salt and pepper from the store which I would have had to buy over and over again. But Hubby is very particular and likes grinders and I don’t like buying things over and over again so I asked him to do a search for his favorite. Then I did the comparison shopping online.

He sent this link of blue grinders at HSN and this link at QVC. Those told me that these Kalorik gravity grinders were the ones he wanted. As you can see the HSN set was $38.24 plus $ 5.50 for shipping and the QVC set was $ 37.99 plus $ 5.50 for shipping. Then of course we would have 8% sales tax to pay but we would pay that no matter where we purchased them. I also hated the blue color which would not have looked well in my breakfast/dining room. But I figured I could look for other colors. HSN only had the blue but QVC had gold and red also for the same prices. I decided I liked the gold. 

I ruled out HSN because
they did not have the gold color. If I went through my Ebates account
and purchased at QVC, I would get 1% back or $ .38 which would bring the
price down to $ 37.61 plus $ 5.50 shipping.     

I checked Walmart.com and they were $ 32.79 and free shipping or pick up. Then I checked Amazon and the gold that I wanted was $ 7.00 less than their red and blue. The gold was $ 27.39. I have a Prime membership so 2 day shipping was free for us. 

So I ordered at Amazon which was $ 15.72 less than QVC with shipping and $ 5.40 less than Walmart. I had a $5.00 Amazon gift certificate and $ 8.66 in reward points sitting in my Amazon account which I used. So my final price out of pocket was $ 13.73 plus tax.

Making these comparisons only took a few minutes and it was worth getting the cheapest price at Amazon and saving $ 5.40 over Walmart’s price. Using my reward rebate money and the free gift certificate saved me another $ 13.66 out of pocket. It was a win- win all the way!


Do I compare and do the math on every purchase? You bet I do. It is so worth it and it adds up to big bucks in a year’s time.

Changing the subject, I hope you all had a great weekend. We did. Instead of my family coming for breakfast yesterday, they came for lunch and to watch the Bills football game which was very disappointing. But spending time with family is just the best.

Knowing that West was here, I baked some brownies for dessert. He loved them and ate quite a few.

My son helped us put all of the patio furniture and the grill in our shed. We have had some major wind the past few days which caused things to blow around. Hubby also brought the snowblower from the shed to the garage so that it is at the ready to use when need be. 

My son carried a box( 11 bottles of 750ml) of Jordan’s Irish Cream SF syrup downstairs to my basement pantry for me. I buy it in bulk to get free shipping and this time I also got a free bottle.  We love this syrup in our coffee. I think we are now set for the winter. He also brought 3- 40 lb. bags of salt pellets down to our water softener and filled it up.

I made a quick trip to Top’s. I never had a chance to take a picture but I can tell you that it was a great stock up trip. I purchased 18 eggs, 1 pkg. of Dixie Plates(great for holiday desserts), 8 boxes of General Mills cereal, 3 boxes of Scottie Tissues, 4 boxes of Nature Valley Granola bars, 4 bags of Luden SF Cough Drops, 1 box of Idaho Steakhouse Potatoes(free Catalina), 1 gallon of milk, 3 Wholly Guacamole(1 Free Coupon), 2 Suave Body Wash, 2 lbs. of yellow onions, 1 bunch of celery, 1 bag of baby carrots, 2 pkgs. of Thomas English muffins, 3 Tic Tacs, and 1- 8 ct. Arnold Sesame Rolls all for $ 39.84 after coupons. I got a $2.00 off my next shopping trip Catalina coupon from buying the cereal. That will probably be the only shopping I do this week.

I filled up the car with gasoline. Gas cost $ 2.979 at our gas station. Since I didn’t do much shopping over the past month, I had only earned $.10 off a gallon. But every little bit helps.

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Every Day

The Wind Is Howling

I have been listening to the wind howling for hours. It is gusting at 45-55 miles per hour.  We have skipped autumn this year. Two weeks ago we were in the ’80’s and now it is winter. They even predicted some snow on the weather forecast last night. I am hoping they are wrong.

Our heat has been on since the day after our last 80’s day. I think that has been about 2 weeks. We were reviewing the past years electric and gas bills today and we have had a significant increase in the cost. Hubby says the yearly amount has jumped from October 2017 to October 2018 by $250. Most of the increase is a result of how hot our summer was which cost so much more in air conditioning. We are just under $2000. for that year time period. I realize rates have gone up also and now they are telling us that here in western NY, we can expect our winter heating costs to go up about 5% more. 

So all of this has me thinking about how you and I can save on our heating costs this winter. I am going to try to hold them down where I can.

We have a programmable thermostat. Hubby has it set for the heat to go down to 65 at night and then back up to 71 in the morning. Hubby gets cold easily so we can’t lower it anymore. This makes it easy because it does it automatically. If you don’t have one, you should get one. You can get one for $ 40. – $ 50. on Amazon.com.

This morning I will dig out our cloth snakes to put up against our outside doors and the basement doors to keep the heat in the house.

Our back door is not as tight as it should be so we will be purchasing a storm door this week and have it installed. That will keep the drafts out and off my back while I am eating at the table. 

Hubby changed the furnace filter when he turned the heat on. We will do this monthly.

I have the small heater that plugs in ready for company for one of the guest rooms. Because the windows in that room are almost floor to ceiling, it gets colder than the other rooms. We only run it about once or twice a year for a few days.

We are already keeping most of the shades and blinds closed day and night. The only ones we open are the ones where the sun is brightly shining in. We have shades that have a heat layer inside- like a honeycomb. The shades in the living areas let the light shine in. The room darkening ones in the bedrooms do not let the light in. But in the winter, we rarely open those. It is cheaper to use one LED bulb. 

Extra blankets have been put on the beds so that we can be warm at night when the temperature in the house goes down.

All of the baseboard cracks have been resealed and the house has been caulked outside.

We have our supplies ready to make hot chocolate.  Our supply of coffee and tea is stocked for the winter. If we catch a chill even when it is 71 in the house, the hot beverages usually warm us up.

I love to bake in this colder weather. So when I have time, I bake quick breads, muffins, donuts, cakes, pies, etc. I turn the oven off a few minutes before they are done. Then when I take my baked goods out of the oven, I leave the door open to let the hot air into the house. I always try to load my oven when I bake or roast meat and then I freeze some of it for the future. 

We try to only use our garage door when we go in and out. Less cold air comes into the house that way. The wind doesn’t come into the house. We also stay home more in the winter so there is less opening and closing of doors. 

We have our supply of sweaters and sweatshirts at the ready. And all of our throws are near the sofas and chairs in the great room. 

We also continue to do whatever we can in the house to use less electricity and natural gas whether that is hot water, lighting, using the dryer less or not at all, running full loads of laundry and or dishes. We continue to use as many small appliances to cook as we can instead of the stove top or oven. If we can fit something to roast or bake for dinner into the toaster oven, we do.

What do you do to save on your winter heating bills?

         

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Every Day

The Best Laid Plans

I had planned on grocery shopping either Sunday or yesterday but you know what they say about the best laid plans. Hubby ended up in the hospital those two days. He scared the living daylights out of both of us. But he is home now and fine.

So today I got to go to the dentist for an appointment that I rescheduled from yesterday to today.  Then I was able to go grocery shopping. I purchased more than usual but that is okay since I didn’t spend much last month.

My first stop was Aldi’s where I purchased the above. I hadn’t planned on going there but decided to check prices against my Top’s list. Well I purchased more than I had planned to this week but I am stocking for winter.

This is my Aldi’s receipt. The sour cream was needed for dinner tonight. It was such a good price compared to Top’s so I got two. One for now and one for later. The chicken broth was $1.29 which is about $.70 cheaper than Top’s. I use ground coffee in my refillable cup for my Keurig. I was down to my last can and saw this large can priced at $4.89 so I thought I would try it to see if it is any good. They have the best price on the northern beans and soon I will be making ham and bean soup.  

They had Honeycrisp apples on sale for $ 1.99 a bag and they are a favorite. The frozen  veggies were great prices compared to Top’s and I am stockpiling for the winter. I only had one egg left in the house so I needed them badly. Aldi’s large eggs are small so I only bought one then paid a little more for a dozen at Top’s. We needed basil and the granola bars because I am almost out. I like stove top stuffing as a quick side when we have poultry or even pork and I had none left. We also are on our last bottle of tartar sauce and soy sauce.

So the total at Aldi’s was $ 24.82. 

The next and last stop was Top’s. I needed bacon and ham slices for Sunday breakfasts and I stock up when they have a good sale. The bacon was B2G3F. Then I bought 2 on sale ham slices. I used a coupon for get a $1.00 off any Smithfield breakfast item when you buy 1 bacon. I meant to get another flyer at the front door and use 2 coupons but I forgot so I lost a $1.00 there. I have so much on my mind right now that I am not surprised. They also had really nice chuck roasts on sale for $3.99 and that is a great price in our area. So I went to the butcher shop and picked two nice ones and had them individually wrap them for me. I would have bought more but I  am trying to make space for turkeys when they go on sale.

Hubby was out of his crunchy peanut butter and his quick meal meatballs. He loves these Rosina in a meatball sandwich for lunch. When I make spaghetti and meatballs I usually make my own. The meatballs were on sale for B1G1F and I had 2 coupons for $1.00/1 so I got 4 bags. Strawberries were on Super Coupon for $ 1.99. I bought the large eggs on Super Coupon for $ 1.29. Also the pasta sauce which I use for a base for homemade was on Super Coupon for $ .99. This week is chock full of appointments and we want to get up to the gym a few days so I picked up 4 Smart Ones for quick lunches. With Hubby in the hospital I did not have time to prepare lunches ahead for the week. We will fill in the other days with leftovers. 

Here is my receipt for Top’s. As you can see the total was $67.00. So I spent a total of $ 91.82 this week.

I roasted a whole chicken over the weekend so we have a lot leftover that hasn’t gotten eaten because of Hubby’s hospitalization. So tonight I am going to make a big pan of cheesy chicken enchiladas. They should serve us for two or more meals. 


I am out of here to try to catch up all the things that got neglected the last few days.


If you are buying any great deals at the grocery store feel free to leave a comment about them.
 

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Every Day

What If You Lost Your Income?

A company that has been in business for years in a town in our area announced today that they will be starting factory shutdown next week and will cease operations. They say they will only need 10 employees of the 150-175 they currently have for the shutdown. That is a lot of employees who will be out of a job next week. Even though the economy is good and workers looking for employment are in short supply, these workers will most likely find it hard to make the wages that they currently make. Finding that new job may force them to move.

So what should you do if you lose your job or even part of your income that you have counted on. I can only tell you what I would do if I was in those circumstances.

Before you lost your job or part of your income, I would hope that you have plenty of money saved in case of this emergency. But many people don’t due to many different circumstances. Or if you knew far in advance that you were losing part of your income, you would have had time to save every dollar you could. 

First, I would apply for unemployment. Then I would update my resume. Next I would start searching and applying for as many jobs as I could. Any and all adult household members should be looking for jobs if they are unemployed. Even stay at home Mom’s or Dad’s can find a part time job on weekends or evenings.  

Then, I would cancel as many recurring expenses as I could. Cable TV, extra cellphones, or a home phone would get cancelled. Cancel all magazine subscriptions or any other subscription services that you have such as the newspaper. Then stop the gym memberships or any other memberships that you pay for. You can no longer afford these luxuries. 

Next I would try to lower other expenses like homeowner’s and car insurance by researching who is cheapest but still has an A or B+ rating.

Check to see where the food pantries are. Can you get food stamps? If you have worked almost 10 months in a job, you probably won’t qualify this year but perhaps in January you will. 

Figure out how you can maintain health insurance for you and your family. That is important. When family members were without a job many years ago they used COBRA to keep their health insurance for a couple of months till they found another job. COBRA is not cheap but it is important to not go without it. One injury or illness could wipe you out.

Stop all spending immediately except for necessities. Necessities to me would be food, mortgage payment or rent, house or car insurance, internet service so you can apply for jobs,  transportation or paying for gasoline to drive  to job interviews and the market, utility bills for gas and electric, water and sewer, medical co pays and insurance. You also need just one cellphone or home phone so that you can be reached by companies looking to interview you. Any spares need to be cancelled. The rest are all luxuries.

You shouldn’t spend any money on clothing, entertainment, meals out or anything else. Christmas may have to be celebrated with just a family meal and no gifts. We did this one year when Hubby was hit by a car while walking from the parking lot to his office only 5 weeks after he started a new job. He had no sick time at that point and so we went without pay for a few weeks until he was cleared after surgery to go back to work. We had only had our new home a year so we didn’t really have much savings at that point. We just told everyone that we couldn’t afford to buy gifts that Christmas. We just had a small family gathering with a cheap turkey.

Every expense that isn’t a necessity must be cut! I can’t say that enough. Until you have another job, you spend not one dollar unless it is really necessary.

If your situation is such that you are permanently losing income, then you have to find a way to replace that income and pay your bills. If you have to downsize your home or find and apartment to live in, it is the choice you will have to make. If you have to find a part time job or a way to make up that income, then that is what you have to do.  

Even the amounts you spend on the necessities such as food can be cut with proper planning or couponing.

It isn’t going to be easy but you know that when you get a job it will get better and you won’t always have to be so thrifty.

Feel free to add in comments any other advice that you feel is important in this situation.