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Every Day

Our Easy Busy Day Dinner

We woke up to 40 temperatures today. It is getting cold fast considering we were 70 yesterday and 80’s the day before. 

Hubby and I were craving soup. So this is my fallback soup that is easy. It basically a dump tortilla soup. 

Usually, I use leftover chicken from a rotisserie chicken or one I have roasted. However, I had no cooked chicken in the freezer. So I quickly cooked up 2 small chicken breasts.

Then I proceeded to put all of the ingredients I needed to make it in my dinner prep tray and stored it away in the fridge until an hour before dinner. 

Then I mixed it all in my big pot and simmered it for about 45 minutes so the flavors could meld together. 

At dinnertime, I served this tortilla soup with broken tortilla chips and shredded cheddar cheese on top. It is so yummy and the heat of the soup melts the cheese. 

With our gym schedule, I like easy more and more.

Yesterday was my “39 again” birthday. I had a wonderful laid back day doing whatever I wanted. Last night Hubby took me out to dinner where I enjoyed my favorite rib eye steak sandwich and French fries with gravy. The French fries with gravy have been a very favorite of mine since I was a teen.

I was happy to receive these beautiful flowers from my son, DIL and granddaughter. But my very favorite thing was a card that my granddaughter decorated and she wrote to me ” I wish you a very long life!” That brought a big smile to my face.
   
Today, I helped Hubby push our great big John Deere riding lawn mower back into the shed. It wouldn’t start when Hubby tried to mow. So we have made a call for service and they will come and pick it up on Tuesday and then repair it and bring it back to us. Hopefully it won’t take too long since our lawn is long now. UGH!

Anybody have a favorite homemade soup recipes that you would be willing to share in comments? I make chicken or turkey rice, ham and bean, and this tortilla soup all the time. I could use some new and easy ones for the winter.

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Every Day

Simple Ways We Save Money Every Day

There are so many simple things that we do every day to save money that many people new to frugality may not realize. I became aware of this when a friend came over to see my stockpile. I showed her why I buy powdered lemonade in bulk. She asked me why I didn’t tell her about that a long time ago. I have been doing these things for so long that they are second nature to me now. But it was an aha moment that made me realize that not everyone knows about these things.

So I have been compiling a list for all of you. Here they are:

– Almost all of our meals are eaten at home. It’s healthier and cheaper than fast food or eating out in a restaurant.

– We drive as little as possible. When we do drive, we do a lot of errands at one time. Now that we are going to the YMCA, we run many of them afterwards. We run them in a circle to be as fuel efficient as possible.

– I take Navy showers. Wet down, soap up and rinse off. I turn the shower off while soaping up. This saves on water and natural gas to heat the water. When we are at our swim classes at the YMCA, we shower there.

– Most of our laundry is hung to dry. I use EcoEggs to wash our clothes instead of detergent.

– Last night I cleaned our dishwasher using powdered lemonade. It is so much cheaper than the dishwasher cleaner you can buy. They both have citric acid. I have been using it for years and it does a great job.

– I use vinegar instead of Jet Dry as a rinse agent in my dishwasher.

– I cover my pots on my stove to keep the heat in so that our food cooks faster. I use a burner that is perfect for the size of the pot.

– I turn off the oven 5 minutes before things are done.  Afterwards, I leave the oven door open to let the heat out into the room.

– We rarely buy bottled water. We drink filtered tap water.

– I don’t drink soda. Hubby does but he has been drinking more and more homemade iced tea lately than soda.

– We have given up most snacks except for popcorn, tortilla chips, and potato chips. Both kinds of chips are used in meals.

– I buy 99% of Hubby’s clothes from LL Bean. I wait for sales and use coupon codes when possible. The clothes are classic and wear like iron. They last a long, long time.

– We wear casual clothes 99% of the time. Lots of T shirts, shorts and jeans. I buy mine on sale with coupons from either Kohl’s or J.C. Penneys. If we are doing something in the yard or washing the car, we wear old stained clothes. I do the same to clean.

– I haven’t purchased floss in years. Between the samples the dentist gives us and a stockpile of Reach that I got for free after coupons, we are set for years. The dentist also gives us toothpaste, toothbrushes and mouthwash. 

– We use every free sample that we get. Right now I am using travel size shampoos from our last Disney World trip to take to the gym with me for when I shower. 

– We never wear shoes in the house. Our white carpeting looks new and it is almost 9 years old. We shampoo it ourselves rather than hire a company to do it.

– I clean my toilets with cheap Equate dental tablets and a brush. Put it in and let it dissolve and wash the dirt way. Right now I am using all natural toilet cleaner that I got for free. 


– I use a pump bottle in the shower to dispense shampoo. It prevents me from pouring too much.


– We purchase our razors and blades from Dorco online. They are cheap, work as well as name brands like Gillette and the blades last so much longer. I also like the fact that any blade fits any razor head.

– We don’t let the water run while washing pots and pans or dishes in the sink. I fill the sink a little ways on one side with soapy water and then the same with rinse water on the other side.

– I use cold water to wash clothes unless I have an exceptionally dirty load. That rarely happens though.

– We check the furnace filters once a month to see if they need changing. On the advice of my furnace people, I use the cheapest furnace filters from Home Depot or Lowe’s. They advised that the more expensive ones block air flow.

– Anything involving money, we take care of right away. We don’t procrastinate. For example, we got a survey from our school district yesterday. They gave us a code to take it online. They want to charge us $ 35.90 more in our school taxes next September so that they can give a discount to a certain class of people. I jumped online very quickly to vote no. They wanted to know why I voted no. I advised we pay a fortune now with no kids going to school there. I also told them we are senior citizens on a fixed income and we don’t get a discount. I don’t understand why the school is pushing this discount. They had us vote on the same issue a few years back and it was voted down handily. Now instead of a vote, they want you to go online and vote. How many people will throw that stuff out from the school and not look at it? You can bet the class of people it involves will all vote yes. I am going to be furious if this goes through but we only get one vote.

– We keep our home clean and organized. That is the best way I know to take care of/and find our things so that we don’t have to replace them. 

– We wash our own car in the driveway except for winter time. We go to the car wash then.

– We use our outdoor fireplace in the Fall and Spring. We collected leftover wood from when they were building homes in here. We are still using it. Now they will be building again soon so I will be collecting it again. 

– I keep an online inventory of our stockpile and freezer contents so that I always know what we have and can make meals from those items. 

– I also have updated my price book so that I know where to buy items at their cheapest.

– And the biggest thing we do everyday is track our income and expenses. You can’t save money unless you know where your money is going. Do this for just three months and I think you will be shocked at what your expenses are.

That is enough for today. I will post more another time.

What are the simple things that you do to save money every day? 

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Every Day

Why Do We Save So Much Money?

So many people have asked us why we save so much money especially since we retired. There are many reasons. Inflation is one of them. We don’t ever want to worry about going without as our money depreciates. If we need a new furnace, car, roof repair, appliance, etc., we want to never have to worry about paying for it.

If our car dies tomorrow, we want to be able to walk into the dealership the same day and plunk down the cash for a new one. The same with anything else that needs replacing. 

If we need dental work, we want to know that we can afford it. We want to be able to pay our medical insurance and bills.

We have moved twice since we retired. We want to be able to move again to a condo or townhouse when the time is right. Right now, we pay someone to maintain our outside property. So we will buy something where everything is done for us for monthly maintenance fees. When we get tired of the big house and want to downsize to a condo, we want to have the cash to do that. 

We want to be able to give nice gifts to our children and our grandchildren. We definitely want to leave them a nice inheritance.

We wanted to do things like join the YMCA to be able to use the machines and go to the Aqua Fit classes. We did that even though the cost was more than I was told. When the old Y closed in the city, the new YMCA in our town costs us $48. per month instead of the $37. I was quoted when I called the old place. We are loving it but I have to admit it takes a lot of time out of our week. However we are doing it to get fit and we are worth it.  


When I went to Dick’s for a new gym bag and swim shoes this week, I didn’t have to worry about where the money would come from to pay for them.

If we want to go out to dinner or a night out on the town like last night, we know that we have the money to afford it.

You see when we first got married, we saved for a nice life for our family just like you do.  But we also saved for the future because we knew that life is short and the future and retirement would happen rapidly. It did in a flash. 

I am always amazed at people who say that they are going to spend all of their money before they die. How do they know when they will die? No one does.

So if they spend all of their money by the time they are 80 and live to 100, what do they do? Live in poverty? That is not my idea of living a good life.

So I think I have answered that question that I get asked over and over again.

The moral here is that you should save and save. Not only for the things you want now but for the future. You can live a good life while married, while raising your families, and then when you are retired. It’s all in the planning. If you fail to plan, your retirement either won’t happen or you will run out of money before you run out of life. 


With that said, I am trying to juggle life this past week and this one. We had so many appointments last week and we do this and then tried to fit in days at the Y that something had to suffer and this blog was it. Hopefully as I get better at doing it all, things will get better.

How do you do it all?    


   

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Every Day

September’s Grocery Challenge Results

Now that September is over, so is the Grocery Challenge. I will let you know how I did for the month and you can add your results in the comments.

I had a total of $106. to spend for the month; $25.00 per week and about $6. for the last 2 days. Most of what I purchased I put in my posts with a few exceptions of things we needed that didn’t make it into a post.

I spent including tax a total of $ 37.48 for the entire month. So I guess I did pretty well. We mainly ate from our stockpile which served us well. The extra $ 68.52 will be used for the October budget. That will be all the less money I have to take out in cash for the month.


So please feel free to add in comments your results for the month of September.


It is another really busy week here. We started working out at the YMCA yesterday. It felt so good and I enjoyed it immensely. Hubby is too. I didn’t know how he would make out because of his bad back but they have a lot of machines that work well  with back issues. We are also enjoying fitness classes. So that is eating up some time every day.


Today, I had another dental appointment. They are making me an entire new permanent denture. The first one was awful and didn’t fit. The dentist has made me a custom tray for the mold. They are making the metal base of the denture this week and I go back to make sure that fits. Then it goes back for them to make a wax mold and I go back to see if that fits. Then finally the permanent denture. I have been at this since May 1st. I told the dentist that I feel like part of the family now since I see them so much. Actually I can’t wait for it all to be over with.

After our appointments, I dropped Hubby at home and went on to Top’s. It is 6% Senior Discount day. I only picked up things that we have run out of that we use all of the time. My total bill was $32.12.

I am doing laundry now and soon it will be time to make dinner. I hope you all have a great evening.
  

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Every Day

Our Frugal Saturday

We have been extremely busy today. Hubby hired a company to fix our stone front on the house. Three of the ledge stones had fallen off. They wanted $800. to do the job. We said okay. That was back in May. They said they would do it when they got time. They have never come or called us. With winter upon us, Hubby decided to fix it himself. He did a lot of research this week to learn how to do it. This afternoon he has been working on it. He is an engineer so he built a contraption to hold the stones against the house while they dry in place. It is ingenious and seems to be working well.

This morning I cut up all of the leftover lasagna from Hubby’s birthday dinner. I used the food saver to package in up in 2 portion meals and put them in the freezer for future dinners. Two nights in a row was enough. It’s very rich. 

Then I made my next two weeks of menu plans. I like having to do this every two weeks instead of one. Sorry about the shadows on the first week.

Next I made my prep tray for dinner tonight. I do this every morning for meals that need prepping. That way when it is time to cook all I have to do is pull the tray out of the fridge. We are having chicken stir fry with onions, red, orange, and yellow peppers, and pineapple chunks. We will use a little of the stir fry sauce. Hubby will make rice to put on it in the rice cooker.  


After that I made a little homemade blueberry and banana ice cream and it is freezing in the freezer as I write this.


Then it was time to bring all of the items for our next two weeks of dinner meals up from the chest freezer. They all reside now in the first drawer of my fridge freezer. I also keep my yeast here for making bread.


On the left side of that drawer, I keep our breakfast items like chopped onions for our omelets and hash browns, sausage, bacon, orange juice to make cranberry orange muffins, and blueberries for muffins, smoothies, and pancakes. I also have two toaster waffles left from when my granddaughter was here. West will eat them next time he is here to visit for a weekend. 

Now I am about to go watch football with Hubby before I make dinner. 

How is your Saturday going? 


 

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Every Day

Is Everyone Trying To Take Your Money?

As I was sitting here this morning, drinking my Irish Cream coffee with Irish Cream whipped topping (Thanks Sis!), I opened my e-mail. I had no less than 36 e-mails from companies trying to tell me about the latest great sale and how I could spend my money this morning. It’s exasperating!

Every company that you have ever done business with in the past 20 years thinks they can take up your time by sending e-mails and trying to sell you something. Some even give you a coupon to entice you even more. I am getting e-mails from companies that I haven’t done business with since we lived in AZ, almost a decade ago.

My time is valuable! I need it to do the frugal things around here that allow us to up our net worth not lower it by buying stuff. I need my time to write this blog and help a lot of other people. I don’t have time for all of these companies who want to part me from my money. But they don’t make it easy to get rid of them. Delete doesn’t do it. So I painstakingly took the time this morning to unsubscribe from each of those companies. 

Oh, you say, but I might miss out on a sale. Believe me, there will always be another sale. If I need to buy something, I know how to find a coupon code. 

You get the same thing on Facebook, ad after ad. Open the newspaper and all of the ads are there on Sunday. If I need something, I can look through them and follow the sales that way.

No wonder so many people are in debt today. They are bombarded with information on how to save money by buying the companies’ products. Don’t miss this sale, it is the best ever! Grab our coupon code and save some money! These tactics are everywhere.

The only way to save YOUR money is to put it in the bank and not touch it. These tactics aren’t saving you money; they are making you spend money. 

Bah humbug you say!  Yes, I know that Christmas is coming. Hopefully most of you purchased gifts throughout the year and are done. But if you didn’t, do yourself a favor and make a list of what you want to buy for whom and how much you want to spend that is within your budget. Then look for a sale at specific stores or peruse your Sunday ads when you have the time. 

I can’t even stomach TV commercials; hence I don’t watch much TV unless it is on You Tube or Amazon Prime who have limited commercials. So much of an hour show is taken up by everyone wanting to sell you something. At the rate commercials are going, it won’t be long before there is more commercial time than show time.  

Don’t let these advertisers take up your time! Life is too short. Make up your own mind on what you need to buy not what they want you to buy. The advertisers aren’t trying to save you money. They are trying to part you from your money!

Also keep track of what you are putting on credit cards this upcoming holiday season. Don’t spend more than you can pay off when the bill rolls around each month! That way you will start off the New Year with much less debt and stress! 

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Every Day

Homemade Laundry Detergent

You all know that I use the EcoEgg for my laundry. That said, I need some laundry detergent to soak hand washables that I feel are too delicate to go in the washer. I also need something that I can soak stains in.

There are tons of homemade laundry detergent recipes online but this is the one that I find works the best for us. So I make up a small batch and keep it in a reused container. 

Here is the recipe:

1 bar of Soap grated(I use any soap that I have.) 
1 cup of Washing Soda
1/2 cup of OxiClean
1/2 cup of Borax

The worst part of this is grating the soap. I use a box grater. Once that is done, it is just a matter of  throwing it all together and mixing it well. I use 1-2 tablespoons of this soap mixed in a bucket of hot water to soak or wash items. 

Since I am out of purchased regular laundry soap, I needed to make a couple of batches to soak 4 items with stains. I will soak them overnight. Rinse then well and then wash with the EcoEgg. This detergent has never let me down.

Do you make your own laundry soap? Do you have a recipe you like?

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Every Day

Update On Our Two Couples

I finally heard from our last couple who I am mentoring last night. So it is time for an update.

The Jones have done very well since we first talked a few months ago. They have cut their grocery bill by $50. a month by using their leftovers which they used to throw out. Mrs. Jones cut the bill down to just $ 30. this month by trying the grocery challenge. She is using up items that have been lingering on her pantry shelves. She has also been making a price book so that she knows the cheapest place to buy items. She and her Hubby have been eating healthy by keeping meals simple. That is a savings of $ 170. in just the past three months. She told me that they added that to the fund for her high risk pregnancy. 

She and Mr. Jones decided they will use cloth diapers. She has been able to get a few dozen by buying them at garage sales. She said she was very excited when she found a brand new package of 10 that someone had never used at one of them for $2.00. Her family is throwing her a baby shower where she hopes to get a start on stocking disposables. They are going to ask people to bring a box to enter into a raffle for a gift basket. She has registered her list of wanted baby items at a site she is using.  

They have not gone out to eat in 7 weeks. She said she is enjoying cooking at home. However Hubby is getting the bug to go. So they compromised. They are going to go out for dessert at a special place in town that they both love. She convinced him that it would be cheaper than spending a lot of money on dinner and they would enjoy it just as much. The leftover money from their budget will go to the pregnancy fund also. 

They cut their clothing budget by $25. a month. She borrowed maternity clothes from a friend. They are also looking at cutting their entertainment budget in the next month or two.

Hubby did some research on cutting their car insurance. But he found out that they already have the cheapest policy that they can get. He will look at it again next year. 

I am amazed at how well they have done over the past couple of months. It’s not easy to cut when you are used to spending a set amount of money. But they are doing well and I am cheering them on to continue. 

Bruce and Noreen are doing very well also. Noreen found a part time job -20 hours a week. She is making about $300. a week after taxes, Social Security and Medicare are taken out. She just started last week and got her first paycheck last Friday. She is going to be paying all of her paycheck toward debt. So that will be about $1350.+ a month. Congratulations to her for quickly finding a job.


Remember that their budget was $ 8539. more per year than they were bringing in in income.  Her yearly income of $16,200. more than makes up for this deficit.


But they also have been cutting expenses. I told them they needed to cut everything except the basics in order to get rid of this debt. They discussed it and decided to cut another $688. per month out of their budget. They have reduced their monthly costs by cutting groceries by $50. a month, no restaurant or takeout which was $150., clothing by $75. leaving just $25. to spend when their son needs something.
They also cut their entertainment and misc. by $200.,
their household by $50., no travel which gives them another $120., and their home phone which gives them $43. more for debt payment. They did not want to cut their Cable TV or internet because they both use the internet and the son likes to watch some shows on TV. I told them to look for a cheaper option to give their son a choice of shows like Netflix. They are working to reduce their utility bills.  I will be working on this with them this month. Their plan is to dump every penny extra they have next month on their debt.


I have been teaching them how to cut their food bills all month. Next month we will touch on a lot of subjects that will teach them how to lower their costs not just for now but how to be frugal in the long run so that they can spend their money on the things that are more important to them.

If you have a any comments or suggestions for any of the families for this next month on what they can do, please feel free to leave a comment. They read the comments every couple of days. I gave them a  Big Congratulations! They are starting to get the “frugality bug”!

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Every Day

A Little Of This and Little Of That

My family came for a breakfast of homemade banana bread, scrambled eggs, and sausage yesterday. They stayed to watch our Buffalo Bills game so I made BLT’s for everyone. It was the first time that I felt up to cooking. The Bills won so it was a good day all the way around.

Nori came to visit too. Poor dog got spade last weekend so she has to wear this collar to prevent her from scratching at her stitches. She is not happy about it. West and she were good enough to pose for a picture to share with you. 

After breakfast I went to the store to do the weekly shopping. I was only interested in some meat that was on sale for $ 2.99 a lb. Since I have limited freezer space I only bought two sirloin tip roasts. One will be used today for beef stew. The other will be ground like I showed you here: Saving on Meat . I was happy when I got those steaks for $3.99 a lb. but I am thrilled to get these roasts at $2.99.  The one roast I will cut up and throw in the crock pot with red potatoes, onions, carrots, celery and some beef stock, which I will thicken an hour before the stew is done. That should feed us a number of meals this week. I may or may not pick up another one for the freezer on my way home from the dentist this week.

Besides not feeling well this past week and dealing with my dental issues, our cellphone bit the dust for sure this time. UGH! My son did some research for us and found a Samsung J7 cellphone that we could buy from Sprint for $312.48 including tax. Then we would just have Sprint transfer my number and activate it. I hated paying this for a phone but all the others were hundreds more. So when I got home from the market, my son and Hubby went to the Sprint store to do this. However there were two people in line ahead of them. They waited and waited for their turn. Guess what?  The two people bought the last two of this phone that the store had. They came home very disappointed. I was not looking forward to being without a phone again. 

So while they watched the game, I called another Sprint store in another town to see if they had one. Sure enough, so I made the hour trip to get it. My son activated it by calling Sprint when I got home with it. It’s his account so they wouldn’t do it for me. It’s activated, updated and all of our apps and our calendar is now on it. And I will sigh relief when I go out in the car again with it. My worst nightmare was getting stuck somewhere with a broken down car and no phone to call anyone. 

It has turned cold here finally. But we are doing okay for now without the heat on. I hate to turn it on so early. So Hubby has been bundling up in layers. He gets cold easily. A sweater does it for me.
I put an extra blanket on our bed and that has made the nights comfortable.
 
We just got our electric and gas bill and it was $ 108. since we had A/C on for so long. Most bills this summer were $20.-30. more than that. So I would like a low bill for at least a month before the heat goes on for the next 7-8 months. 

Today, I am planning on catching up things around here. I will clean the laundry room and possibly make a small container of homemade laundry detergent that I use on hand washables. The ecoegg does not work well on those. If so I will post my recipe. 

I also have some e-mails from the two couples to catch up and write back to them. I am hoping to do an update on how they are doing tomorrow. 

Are you getting any good grocery deals this week?

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Every Day

What I Have Been Doing The Past Few Days

Well for one thing, I have been missing in action. I cannot believe that it is Thursday and I haven’t posted most of the week.

First, I haven’t felt well all week and made a Doctor’s appointment that I couldn’t get until the first week in October. UGH!


Second, I spent a good part of the day at the dentist  who fit me in between patients yesterday. My permanent denture which I got last Thursday is just awful. It doesn’t fit well. Every time I try to eat something, I bite my cheek. The entire gum on the left side is sore and blistered from rubbing. I resorted to drinking smoothies for all meals over the weekend. The dentist has sent it back to the lab which in this area means dropping it off to them. He told me his office would call me when it was ready for me. I got a call this morning saying the dentist needs to see me next week for an hour. The receptionist said she had no idea why because the dentist didn’t say. Either it will be ready or he is taking new molds and we are starting from scratch. We’ll see.

Tuesday, I spent running errands to the market( purchased strawberries and cantaloupes), to Fast Cash with the bottle deposits, to UPS to ship a package, and to the drugstore to pick up a prescription. I also caught up laundry which had been piling up around here.

We also spent some time getting rid of a nest that bumble bees had built in the ground near our front door. Those things are awful.

The landscape crew was here yesterday so that entailed telling them what we wanted done and keeping en eye on them. 

One day I spent a lot of time on the phone between QVC and my bank trying to straighten out an error with an easy pay charge. It is all straightened out now but I am very aggravated with the bank who screwed up with a key error. I get so tired of fixing other people’s mistakes. You just can’t rely on good service anymore. If I get good service from someone, I let the company know because it is non-existent today. 

Other than those things I have spent every other minute laying in bed either sleeping or reading the above book by Andrew Mellen. It’s very interesting. Most of his ideas are very similar to how I organize but I am picking up some new tips.

Poor Hubby is on his own for meals. So we have resorted to buying a rotisserie chicken that he has been making sandwiches from. I am hoping tonight to feed him a hot meal such as spaghetti since it is quick and easy to make. We will see how I feel before dinner. I have been eating cottage cheese and tomatoes. It is the only thing that tastes good to me. 


Do these sound like excuses? Yes, but I just can’t function when my brain is telling me how bad I feel and won’t let me write a great article that will benefit you.

So hopefully in the next few days, I will be back with one. I am off to lay down.