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Every Day

One Hundred Frugal Things We Do

We had company for the Easter weekend which kept us very busy. We had an Easter Egg Hunt for my grandson. We had to do it indoors because it was very cold and the lawn is pretty muddy this time of year. He enjoyed every minute of the searching. We enjoyed watching him.

Because I have been so busy, I have not had time to post. Our next company comes on this Thursday and will leave on Saturday. It’s a busy time for us this month with two more weeks of company visiting after that.

So today’s post will give you some things to ponder on if I am not on here regularly. 

These are the many things Hubby and I do frugally:

1. Cooked most of our Easter dinner from scratch at home. It was a ham which Hubby sliced for us. I made a 9X13 pan of the best picnic potatoes that we have ever had. We had pineapple slices that baked on the ham while it warmed through. I also cooked corn and baked rolls. The only thing that was not from scratch was the Carvel Ice Cream Bunny that I purchased on sale with a $ 4.00 off Click to Card Q.

2. I cooked the bacon for the potatoes in the morning while we were making breakfast. It called for half a pound. Everything is better with bacon.  

3. Within the past couple of weeks, I roasted a small turkey which gave us seven yummy meals. 

4. I placed another order with Zaycon Fresh for 36 lbs. of premium hickory smoked bacon. With a coupon code I paid $2.99 a lb. I rarely find bacon below that price except the Smithfield we bought last week which Hubby does not like. And this is Premium bacon.  So my sister in law is splitting the order with me. She can’t pick up orders in her area during the work day so I will do the pick up and just give it to my son the following Sunday. We eat bacon a lot especially for most of the Sunday breakfasts that I cook for my family. It will cost each of us $ 53.82. My cost will come out of my $ 75.00 per week grocery budget.

5. I stayed away from the 50% off Easter candy sale yesterday. I still have plenty for baking and the little ones left from Valentine’s Day.

6. My son helped Hubby put in the new wooden post that our new mailbox goes over. So we didn’t have to hire someone. Hubby put the mailbox together and installed it yesterday. He also put the new metallic numbers on it. A $50. giftcard helped defray the cost of all. 


7. We got our refund check from our old insurance company. We had renewed with another company and consolidated both the homeowner’s and auto insurance so we got 8 months premium back. It is a large check that I will deposit this week along with some other checks so that they earn us money.

8. We invested thousands of dollars today. It is definitely a buy time.

9. I am drinking up odd K-cups that came in a variety pack that no one was crazy about. But rather than waste them, I am using them. 

10. We sent a gift to my granddaughter that she will get this week. I  saved 33% off with a sale.

11. I cut up all of my old frayed dish towels into rags and put them in the rag bag in the garage.

12. I put two books on hold at the library for me. I also marked my calendar for their big book bag sale.


13. We are now using every ounce of our toothpaste. I have a key type thing that helps us get the product all the way to the top of the tube. Then I cut the tube to get the last remnants out. There is usually about 4 brushings worth left.

14. Not only have heat bills been high this winter because of supply and demand and the cold but we got notice that our company is raising the rates. So we will be very careful with our energy usage from now on. 

15. We paid for the fertilizing of our lawn for the entire year upfront. This gave us a 5% discount.

16. Hubby didn’t seem too keen on washing the outside of our 21 windows. I do the inside.  So I got some estimates from window washer people. When Hubby saw that they wanted $300. he changed his tune. We will be washing them a room at a time.

17. We shredded all of the paper from our files from last year that we didn’t need to keep.

18. My sister and I call each other almost every week. We take turns using our free long distance.

19. I grocery shopped on Monday. The Flips and Ehrmann’s Grand dessert were free after coupons. The turkey breast was $.99 a lb. with Top’s Super Coupon. The grapes were $ 1.48 a lb. and the tortilla wraps were $ 2.49. I don’t need anything else this week.  


20. Hubby found a great price on a router that he has been researching. Meanwhile we have used our old one that has been on it’s last leg for more than a year. My  wireless computer is always going down. It’s a real pain.


21. When I go to the bank, I will go to CVS to use my ECB’s and run some other errands down that way. This saves me on gasoline.


22. I am saving my gasoline points to use when I get very low on gasoline. So far I have accumulated enough points to get off $ 1.30 per gallon. I hope to have more by the time I need the gasoline.

23. I cleaned the inside of my dishwasher using $ .05 per pack lemonade Koolaid that I purchased years ago. First I took the arm and all the other removable parts off and cleaned them.

24. Hubby cleaned and polished the top of my gas range. We only use the degreaser pictured above. It works so well with a minimum of effort. Hubby sprays it on and them lets it sit 20 minutes. Then everything wipes clean. A little bit goes a long way.

25. I am researching a birthday gift for my DIL that will keep me within budget. We spend the same amount on every adult person in our family. 

26. I ordered a year’s worth of vitamins for us from Puritan Pride. I find they have the best sale prices.

27. We ate Hamburger Helper Taco one night for dinner. It was AWFUL!  I never buy this stuff except when it is free after coupon. I won’t even be doing that again.

28. I mailed in a $ 5.00 Beer Rebate.

29. I fixed a broken zipper on my favorite fleece jacket. 

30. We loved watching “Roseanne” last week. I used to watch it way back when she was on before. Hubby and I are looking forward to the show at 8PM EST tonight. It makes me laugh!! Everyone needs to laugh in this day and age. I watch very little network TV but this a show worth watching.

31. I froze some celery and carrots that were getting old to make future soup.

32. I still take my navy showers.

33. Every penny that we spend is scrutinized and tracked. If you watch your pennies, your dollars will grow.

34. We rarely buy anything unless it is food, clothing that is a necessity, or gifts.

My fingers are getting tired, so I will continue this topic the next time I post.

Meanwhile what do you do that is frugal? Join the conversation by leaving a comment.        

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Every Day

Tuesday’s Shopping

I did my grocery shopping for this week yesterday. Here is what I purchased with my regular grocery shopping money:

– 6 Heinz Ketchup – $3.00 ea. = $18.00 minus B1G1F Q’s = $ 9.00 for all. I know I could get it cheaper at CVS last week. I did get 2 there but it was not worth my time or gasoline to go back for more. It is many miles to drive to it. This ketchup stockpile will last over a year.

– 1 Hellman’s Mayo- $ 2.49 with Tops Q minus $.50/1 MQ that doubled = $ 1.49

– 1 gallon of Milk – $ 1.59 with Top’s Q

– 4 Dixie paper plates (48 ct.) -$ 2.50 ea. = $10.00 minus $ .75/1 MQ doubled = $1.00 ea. or total of $4.00. I use these when we have company only for lunches and snacks.

– 3 Softsoap Body Wash – $ 2.99 ea. minus $.75/1 MQ = $ 1.49 ea.


– 1 Softsoap Hand Soap – $1.99 minus $ $.75/1 doubled = $ .49

– 1 dozen eggs – $ .79

– 5 lbs. of Smithfield bacon – on B2G3F sale = $ 17.98 for all 5 minus (2) $1.00/1 MQ’s = $15.98 for all or $ 3.20 each

Total was $38.53 including tax.

Since Easter is this Sunday and we are having family for dinner, I needed to buy a bottle of wine, a 6 pack of beer, and a Bunny Carvel Ice Cream cake. Holiday feasts do not come out of my regular grocery budget. We have a holiday budget for those special days. As you all have seen, I do not spend any extra for family meals or company most days during the year. But holidays are special and I like to splurge. 

My grandson asked me last weekend if we were having an Easter egg hunt. I told him of course we would. He is very excited! So I spent some money at the market and Rite Aid also for candy. I already had Easter eggs that I can fill from prior years and something that I can use for a basket for him to collect his eggs. Now if the weather would just cooperate. The money that was spent on these items also came out of our Holiday budget as did the Cheryl’s cookies that I sent to my granddaughter for Easter. 

We have a lot of company coming over the next 4 weeks. So if I don’t post on a certain day, it’s because we are very busy. I will do my best to post when I have something that I feel will help you.    
 
 

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Every Day

So Many Things Going On

It’s been a busy week and it seems to be getting busier. Yesterday, I went and picked up my Zaycon Fresh chicken order. I was so impressed at how organized they were.

I went down about 1/2 hour early because my pickup was at 5:00PM which is the middle of rush hour here and it was a 40 mile+ round trip. Before I left I set up the food saver and bags, cutting board, and all the bowls that we would need.

When I got there, I found that they were all set up early. I pulled up to the tractor trailer truck and gave a man my name. They put the 40 lbs. of chicken in my trunk and I was on my way home. I had put a large blanket on the carpet in my trunk in case anything leaked but it wasn’t necessary. The chicken was packed in a heavy duty cardboard box and inside was a huge heavy plastic bag. Inside that were 4 bags each with 10 lbs. of chicken. I kept this box because it has a nice cover, was very clean inside, and will work perfectly for storage in our basement. 

On the way home, I stopped and picked up Subway subs so that we could eat sometime before or after we got all of the chicken prepared. Being it was dinnertime, we were hungry.

Hubby put all of the chicken on a tray in the refrigerator and then we ate. Then I started draining a bag of chicken. It was my job to trim the chicken and then Hubby food savered it all. It only took us about an hour and a half to get it all done and in the freezer. Lastly, I sanitized the kitchen and all of the utensils we used. 


As you can see in the picture at the beginning of this post, it fit beautifully in the freezer with lots of room leftover. This morning I will get it into a larger bag so that I can easily find it when I need it. We need to use up the 14 lbs. that we already had first though.

I have to thank my DIL for helping me out by telling me how my son did up all of their chicken last week. Her tips really helped us. She also said they ate some last week and it was good.

I would be remiss if I didn’t tell you how big the chicken breasts are. They are huge. Hubby decided to only put one in a bag after doing a few with two. They are more than big enough for a meal for two of us. I had very little trimming to do. No more than when I buy it at the market. I think this chicken should last us at least 6 months, if not more. 

The chicken cost me $ .79 a lb. with the use of a coupon code. I don’t think I have paid that price in at least 40 years. Our on sale price here is $2.00 a lb. The total was $ 31.60 and was taken out of my grocery budget of $ 75.00 a week. You can see from prior posts that I don’t use all of my grocery budget each week so that I can save for big orders like this. I have 20 lbs. wild Argentine red shrimp coming in July. 

With the chicken and shrimp orders and hopefully getting a great price on ground beef and steaks, we should be set for the entire spring, summer and fall. Of course, I always have to pick up bacon and sausage because of our Sunday family breakfasts.


Once we have eaten some of the chicken, I will let you know how we like it. If it is good, we will continue to purchase our chicken this way if the price is right.

The other day I cooked the last turkey in our freezer that we purchased at a rock bottom price last Thanksgiving. I don’t like heating up my house once it starts getting warm outside which should be soon. That is when the grilling begins. We have been enjoying all of the leftovers and I will make turkey soup today. I usually put rice in it but Hubby has requested noodles this time. 


Today will also be grocery shopping day. I will post my trip tomorrow. I don’t need that much.

Have any of you purchased chicken from Zaycon Fresh? Have you purchased any other meat or seafood item from them? I would love to hear of your experiences.

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Every Day

My Tiny Shop This Week

I had a lot of errands to run today in a place that is 26 miles round trip from me. So I did two stops to pick up food while I was out.

At CVS, I picked up 2 Heinz Ketchup for $ 2.50 each and used a B1G1F tearpad coupon. I paid $ 2.50 and got a $1.00 ECB. Great deal!

I am unfamiliar with the area that I have to pick up my Zaycon Fresh chicken. So while I was down that way, I did a dry run and found it. On the way I passed Federal Meats, a great deli and meat market. I had a B1G1F coupon for buy one pound of sausage and get one free(Entertainment Book). I purchased their homemade Hot Italian Sausage which the butcher wrapped in 2 packages for my freezer. It ended up being $ 5.99 for one pound. The butchers gave me the entire 2.17 pounds for that price.   

There will be no more grocery shopping this week. I will be concentrating on more organizing in my home.

Have you gotten any great deals this week?

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Every Day

Monday’s Doings

Well, it has been a sunny Monday and I have been working on a couple of large projects today. One was paperwork that just exasperating. It is almost finished but I can’t go any further until the end of next week.


Then I took a new inventory of all of my freezers and made sure that I have room for the 40 lbs. of chicken that will be coming from Zaycon Fresh very soon. My  basement freezer had some ice in it but Hubby helped me take all of the food out. Then he used a plastic scraper like a wide putty knife to take all of the ice off the walls. I dried the walls and the bottom and we put everything back.


Take a look at the pictures. I think I have enough room for 40 pounds of chicken. What do you think? I am picking up the chicken very late in the day so it will be a big task that night to get it all prepared for the freezer. We have 2 Food Savers so Hubby will help me get it packaged up. I have made sure that I have enough food saver bags.


All of this took up most of my day. It is now almost 4:00PM.


Here is a small peek at the Excel inventory that I am keeping on my computer. Copying it didn’t turn out as neat as I wanted it to but you get the idea. I don’t have the patience right now to try to fix it. The first # after location is on hand. I also have a used column and remaining column. When an item goes to zero it highlights in pink so that I am aware that I need that item.  I have all of my freezers inventoried and some of my pantry but not all. I will finish that soon. I hope you are all having a good Monday too.
































































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Every Day

Do You Have a Stockpile?

UPDATE:  I fixed the link that was incorrect.

If you don’t, you should think about building one.
I am reading more and more articles like this one that I saw today: Russian Hack.

I am not one to get really worried about much after my 70+ years. However that said, this hacking thing especially of the power grid is happening too frequently for me. I was thinking about getting my stockpile down to 3 months worth of food. But this coming out today has changed my mind. We all need to stockpile in case the grid does go down.

A couple of years ago when the ” Doomsday Preppers” show was talking about this, the media was acting like they were nuts. It doesn’t look so nutty to me now.

I also have noticed lately that a lot of celebrities and Silicon Valley bigwigs have been purchasing “second  mansion homes” in New Zealand. An awful lot of people who work for the big companies like Google have jumped ship and bought property on either an island or in the middle of nowhere. You have to wonder why. Do they know something that we don’t?

The fact that this latest one and many others haven’t compromised the grid doesn’t mean that the hackers don’t have the means to do it. It would be foolish to believe that Russia is the only country that has the means to do this in this cyber world that we live in. I believe that China, Iran and N. Korea could all do it.

Our power grid is very old and very fragile. It wouldn’t take much to take it down if someone wanted to do it.

So I will be slowly building my stockpile over the next few months keeping my $ 75. a week grocery budget.

Obviously, if the power grid goes down freezer food would spoil unless you have a generator and the fuel to keep it running for a very long time.

So I will concentrate my efforts on shelf stable food and water. We have a lot of water stored at the moment but not as much as we would need if the entire grid went down. They say you should have at least 1 gallon per person per day for cooking, drinking and hygiene. I will talk more about this as I stockpile.  

So do you have a stockpile or are you thinking about it? 

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Every Day

Grocery Shopping This Week

I managed to get out and grocery shop yesterday even though we got a lot of snow during the night. The plows did a good job on the roads.

I went to Top’s to pick up some of their deals. As you know we have been eating Keto for a while. However, eating bacon and eggs for breakfast almost every morning has gotten really expensive. So we are going to be having a small bowl of cereal for breakfast(yes breaking our Keto diet) every morning during the week. We will save the bacon, sausage, or ham and eggs for the weekends.

So I purchased 10 boxes of Special K in 2 different transactions. When you purchased in batches of 5, you got an instant $5.00 off. I also used $3.00 off 5 manufacturers coupons making each 5 a total of $ 4.45. So I spent $ 8.90 on cereal or $ .89 a box.

I picked up two packages of Smithfield breakfast sausage for our family breakfasts on Sunday. They were $3.00 each but I had two $.75/1 coupons that doubled making them $ 1.50 each. 

The spaghetti sauce was free after $.50 doubled coupons.  The 5 bags of Mama Rosie’s cavatelli and ricotta were on B2G3F sale. I had a $1./2 MQ so total for all was $ 4.98.

And lastly the Annie’s Mac and Cheese were $ 1.99 each minus $.50/1 MQ’s so $ .99 each. My grandson loves these so they are handy for lunches when he is here. I also had a $1.00 off Monopoly Q good on my next purchase.

My total OOP was $ 17.86. I had already spent $ 4.03 on a newspaper and a box of Tylenol earlier this week. So I have spent $ 21.89 for the week and will not be buying any more until next week. 

I planned on picking up the Top’s Pi deal for the chicken pot pie but they were out.


The last few weeks I have not really spent much on groceries because I am so stockpiled. But that is a good thing because I am been spending the lowest prices in my area to do that. Instead of buying what we need for just a week, I make our meals from the stockpile. Then I look for the best deals on the foods that we eat during the week and add them to our stockpile. It works well for us and saves us a lot of money.  

Did you get any great buys in your grocery shopping this week? Feel free to share with us in comments. 

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Every Day

Under The Weather Does Not Stop Me

I woke up this morning with a pounding headache. Tylenol does not take it away. But I am trying not to let it interfere with what I need to do today. 

So I am taking it easy and not doing any heavy work just little odds and ends around here.

This morning I baked some homemade blueberry muffins. I had about a cup of blueberries in the fridge left from doing some smoothies.

I was going to sew a button on Hubby’s shirt that came loose but Hubby did it before I had a chance. I love a man who can make his own repairs. 

I am getting a small grocery list together for tomorrow. Top’s is running PI deals. They have a white meat chicken pie that we have been wanting to try but not at full price. With coupon, they are $ 3.14 tomorrow. I also have some deals that I want to pick up.

The beef barley soup that Hubby and I made yesterday turned out to be the best we have ever made. So that will be dinner again tonight.

I am also working on a project that organizes all of my usage books for my kitchen appliances. Instead of stacking them in a drawer and having to go through the stack to find what I need, they will be organized so that I can lay my finger on anything quickly. I am hoping to get it done today. I will post a picture if I do. 

My order of 80 rolls of toilet paper for $ 40.14 arrived today. Down in the stockpile it goes. These are large rolls.

Well, I finished my project. All of the kitchen appliance usage booklets have been put in this Pendaflex File. Inside it has a folder for every letter of the alphabet. Everything is filed alphabetically according to what it is. For example: My Kitchen Aid mixer info is filed under M for Mixers. My Rice Cooker is under R for Rice. Now I will be able to easily pull the booklet when I use an appliance. 

I didn’t get as much done as I wanted today because of my throbbing headache. But at least the day wasn’t totally wasted.

Did you have a productive day?    

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Every Day

How Is Your Sunday Going?

Mine is wonderful! It is a beautiful cold, sunny day. I was up at the crack of dawn this morning enjoying my coffee and then going out to run errands while everyone else was sleeping. Seriously there was no one on the roads. 

I stopped at Top’s to fill my gasoline tank up using my $ .60 per gallon discount paying $ 2.08 a gallon. I ran into the market just to get a Buffalo News so that I would have an extra set of inserts.

Then it was off to Rite Aid to pick up a prescription and a 100 ct. bottle of Tylenol on sale for $ 9.03 and  I used my $ 8.00 RA Bonus Cash that was loaded to my card to defray the cost to $ 1.03. 

So I spent $ 4.03 including the newspaper out of my  $ 75.00 grocery money so far this week.

Last stop was at Burger King to purchase 2 Sausage, Egg and Cheese Croissan’wiches and 2 Hash Browns. I had a BK gift card in my wallet that I thought only had a couple of dollars on it. It paid for breakfast and still has $ 9.77 for next time. That made me happy!

After breakfast I had to quickly get my beef eye round roast into the crock pot along with some onion, beef broth, and an au jus packet. I will be cooking that all day to have sliced beef on a weck for dinner. I have made this recipe before and Hubby loves it. It is not very appetizing looking right now so I will take a picture after it cooks.

Then I checked my e-mail and did some computer work, one of which is this blog, while also watching the soccer on TV. 

So far so good. Now it is time to re-organize the stuff under my kitchen sink. I want less under there and more in my stockpile. I just need the essentials. So I am off to do that.

Here is the results from my organizing under my sink. Nice and neat and simplified. All I have to do is put the recycle bucket back on the left hand side in front of my grease jar. Right now it is soaking.


The rest of the afternoon was spent watching a few You Tube videos.

Dinner turned out to be delicious. Here is one of the beef on a weck that we had. 

The au jus that you see on the roll was so scrumptious. I have a crock pot full because I cooked the eye round roast in it. Eye round is a tough meat so it needs cooking in the crock pot to tenderize it. It was melt in our mouth good.  

The au jus is so good that I am going to use it for the base of a crock pot beef barley soup for tomorrow night’s dinner. Hubby and I will team up tomorrow morning to make that from scratch.


I am tired tonight. I feel like I am in a fog. Perhaps the daylight saving time is affecting me. So I am off to bed early.


Did you all have a good day?

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Every Day

What I Did To Avoid Going Out In The Car

UPDATE: The fajita seasoning was delicious and very similar to the packet mixes. So this recipe is a keeper and now I will go fill up my spice bottle. I did leave the sugar out of it though and I added about 1/2 cup of water to make a sauce. I also used low sodium bouillon powder instead of the cube.

I have been working very hard on a project all day. Before I started I took some chicken out to thaw for dinner. Hubby wants chicken fajitas. When I searched in my pantries, I could not find any Fajita Seasoning Mixes.


I did not feel like leaving my project to go out to the market. So I just googled a recipe and made some. I knew those extra glass spice jars would come in handy. I only made what the recipe called for which did not fill up the spice jar. But that is a good thing since we haven’t used it yet. If we like it then I will make more to fill the jar.

It was so easy and the recipe is Fajita Seasoning Mix.
Here’s hoping that it is delicious! And if we like it, it only took pennies to make. 

Do you have a fajita seasoning mix recipe that you would be willing to share?