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May 2nd: Stockpile to Table, etc.

Yesterday for breakfast we had 2 eggs over easy and an avocado. The avocado was a little overripe but delicious. And you all know that I do not waste food. 

Lunch was a big bowl of popcorn that we shared.

Dinner was fish fillets with our choice of tartar sauce or cocktail sauce and the best chipotle corn ever. It had corn, black beans, jalapenos and red peppers.  Hubby’s plate is pictured.  

All of a sudden, Hubby is really enjoying cooking in the air fryer. It sat for the longest time and he didn’t use it. Now he has me pulling things out of the freezer that have been in there forever so that he can use it. I have to admit that the food that is breaded comes out very crispy.  

We had snow over the weekend and it was 80 here yesterday. Hubby and were finally able to sit outside for a while. It was beautiful.

Besides that, Hubby had DVRed some shows that we both watch and which I hadn’t seen. So we binge watched NCIS and Bull yesterday.

The woman that we deal with at the landscape company came yesterday and we discussed getting 10 more bushes. We picked out some that are really colorful when they flower and many of them  will flower almost all summer and fall.

I cleaned for a little while yesterday and then just took the rest of the day off. I was very happy that our heat did not run all day or last night. It is raining here today so I don’t want to turn the heat off yet. If we get more than one or two days of warm temps, then it will be time to turn off the heat – hopefully until fall.

I have not been to the market all week and don’t intend on going until at least Monday and maybe not even then. We’ll see.  

I hope you all have a wonderfully productive day. I know I am and it is only 11:06AM here so lots of day left.  

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Every Day

Being Prepared

Sometimes bad news just hits you when you least expect it. This was not one of these times. I had an inkling that this was going to be an expensive dentist visit. However, I was hoping I was wrong. But a full set of X-rays that is more like a cat scan proved that I was right. As you can see by the treatment plan above, it will be expensive. 

I woke up a few days ago with an aching tooth and gum. I knew it was one of the ones supporting my bridge. For those who don’t know, a few years back I paid  thousands of dollars for this bridge. I have spent many thousands since every time something went wrong. I never ever wanted to have a partial denture. So Hubby has been more than willing to pay for all of this.

However yesterday, things changed. The root canal supporting this tooth has gone south and the tooth is cracked under the gum. Hence my bridge is moving.

So wanting to know every thing that could be done, I spent 2 hours at the dentist’s office discussing my options. Option number one: Pull 4 teeth(those that support the bridge) and replace them with 4 implants and have a new bridge made. Approximate total cost: $25,000.

Option number two: The one pictured. Have 4 teeth extracted and get a partial denture. This involves a temporary partial while my mouth and gums heal. Then a permanent partial will replace the temporary. This could take up to 4 months. Approximate total cost: $ 4808. 

As much as I have never wanted a partial denture, I told my dentist after we discussed everything that I was not willing to spend $25,000. on option one. I informed him that I am up there in age and I do not want to put thousands more into my mouth. I told him I would pay $25,000. for a car in cash but not that amount into my mouth. He still tried to convince me but I stood my ground. And as you can see, I got a quote for the partial denture work in writing. 

I allowed the dentist to take the molds yesterday so that the temporary can be made at the lab. Then I told him that I would go home and discuss everything with Hubby and give them a call with our decision so that he could send the molds out to the lab and let them know to make the temporary partial. 

I drove home and sat down with Hubby to give him the options. I told him option one first. He sat patiently and listened. Then I showed him option number two. Instead of offering his opinion, he said to me what do you want to do. I told him I am going to get the partial because I don’t want to spend another $25,000. on my teeth. I told him that we had spent enough with the bridge and fixing every thing that went wrong.  I told him that I am tired of running to the dentist all of the time and putting that money out.  I told him that I wish I had decided on the partial denture way back when. After listening, he said, “Are you sure? We have the money for the implants and bridge if you want to go that route.” I told him thank you but I just don’t feel at my age that I want to put $25,000. into my teeth. So I called the dentist and let them know to send the molds to the lab for the partial. 

I know it will take some getting used to. I know nothing about dentures or how to take care of it. I do know that the dentures of today are not like the old metal ones. Technology has done a lot for dentures. So hopefully, I will get used to it.


I tell you all of this, not to bore you, but to tell you this is my real life. The moral of this story is that you always have to be prepared for things that happen that will be costly. I have seen people in our town walking around with no teeth. I never wanted to be in that position. But I can understand how that could happen if you haven’t saved for retirement knowing that you will have no dental insurance. Although dental insurance would not pay much on this bill anyhow. So when you saving for your retirement, be sure to assess what you might need for dental as you get older.


So as much as the cost of this pains me, I know that we can pay cash for it. Do I hate putting even the $ 4808. out for this? Yes but I am happy that we planned ahead and we can do it.

If anyone has had an experience with their own dentures or a parents, I would like to ask a question. Do I need to buy something to soak the denture in? How about to clean it? I forgot to ask the dentist yesterday. I am sure that he will tell me all that when I go in two weeks for the 4 extractions and to get my temporary partial. But being that I like to be prepared, I would like to research the cost of those products and accumulate some coupons. So if anyone knows, please leave a comment.

Changing the subject, here are our meals from yesterday:

Breakfast: Hubby made omelets with diced ham, red peppers, onion, and shredded cheese.

Lunch: None because I was at the dentist. Hubby had a turkey wrap.

Dinner: 6 inch subs from Subway. I did not feel like cooking after my draining day. We had three Free coupons for 6 inch subs. I used one coupon to pay because that is all they allow at one time. I paid $5.09 including tax from our entertainment budget for the other.  The two that are left will get used for other meals.   


Today is another day! Let’s hope it is a good one for each and every one of you!

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Every Day

A Little Of This and A Little Of That – May 1

Here is what we ate yesterday:

Breakfast: 2 eggs and 2 strips of bacon with 1/2 an avocado on the side

Lunch: Leftover fajita casserole

Dinner:  Coconut Shrimp cooked in the air fryer dipped in orange sweet and sour sauce. Washed down with a glass of Chardonnay.

Hubby and I were not that hungry last night so we just had the wine and shrimp- no vegetables, rice or potatoes. I had to cut a few pieces(which is all I ate) of shrimp into tiny pieces in order to be able to eat it. Read on and you will find out why.

Yesterday was a pretty unproductive day for me. I woke up with a toothache and called my dentist to find out that he was out of town. They offered me to see the dentist on call but I decided to wait to see my dentist this afternoon. With my bridge involved, mine knows all the history. 

So I spent the day trying to get rid of the pain with Tylenol. It didn’t get rid of it altogether but it took the edge off. This morning it is aching so I can’t wait until I can go to my appointment. I am hoping that it won’t be an expensive trip but most likely it will be. UGH! I knew things were going too smoothly here. 

So cleaning the garage and car will have to wait until tomorrow. I just don’t have the stamina to even work on it this morning.

I hope you all have a wonderful, productive, and money saving day.    

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Every Day

Stockpile to Table – Month of May

My stockpile has gotten huge again so it is time to eat from it. I never want the food to expire and have to be thrown away. Wasting food is not an option in my household.

You have all heard the terms pantry challenge or eating from the stockpile. The newest one I have seen in the blogsphere is stockpile to table and I like it. 

So I discussed doing this with Hubby and we set our  rules for this May Challenge. You all know that I budget $ 75.00 per week for groceries for the two of us. This includes food, cleaning products, OTC medicines and HBA. Since I have a stockpile, there are many weeks that I only spend some of it and save the rest for big meat and seafood expenditures.

However for May’s Challenge, we are setting aside only $15.00 per week for groceries. I have so much food that we need to use up so for the two of us that $15.00 will cover milk, produce or the occasional grocery item that we can’t go without. So a total of $75.00 will be set aside this 5 week month.  

We are starting with this week which includes yesterday and today.  I did no shopping either day so I didn’t run out and shop to stock up on milk and produce. We have some avocados, lettuce, tomatoes, celery, onions and carrots on hand. We also have some apples and grapes.

In the refrigerator, we have 64 oz. of almond milk that I purchased last week. I love almond milk on my oatmeal or other cereals. We also have 1/2 of a container(64 oz.) of skim milk that Hubby uses for his cereal and to make SF puddings.

Our pantries and freezers are again well stocked. It is amazing how fast you can stock your supplies when the store has good deals that are free or almost free with couponing and the use of the couponing apps like Ibotta, Checkout 51, etc. 

While we are eating down our stockpile, I will still be picking up any free items that we can use especially HBA and cleaning items. Those items can be kept without too much worry about spoilage. 


This is a good month for us to do this challenge since we will be busy with spring cleaning and outside things. We have had a very long winter (snow on Saturday night) so things outside are still very wet. Hubby and I were walking around our property last week seeing how much damage was done over the winter. You really needed boots because you just sunk into the ground because it is so soggy and wet. Hopefully, things will dry up so that our landscaping company can come do our spring cleanup soon.

I can’t wait until it is warm enough to clean the garage of dirt and salt that has accumulated this winter. Plus our SUV needs a good cleaning inside and outside. Our basement can use some sprucing up too. I don’t clean as quickly as I used to since I tire easily. So I will break these projects up into manageable chunks.

Before someone asks, I will be saving the other $300.00 that I would normally spend this month for something special that we are saving for.

I will post everything that we make to eat all month long. To get you caught up, we had sausage, eggs, home fries, English muffins, and coffee for our large Sunday breakfast yesterday. Hubby snacked on some of the party mix that I made a while ago instead of having lunch. I ate no lunch or snack. For dinner we had a skillet fajita casserole which was chicken, rice, pepper strips, onions and fajita seasoning. We eat nothing after dinner.  

I will be trying to keep our meals simple so that we can get our projects done this month. I will try to remember to take some pictures. 

If anyone would like to join in on this challenge, feel free to tell us what you make to eat each and every day in comments.    

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Every Day

Amazon Prime?

It is nice to get back in the swing of things. We had a wonderful visit from our friend and caught up on everyone’s family. It was good to see her. But now it is time to get back to blogging.

How many of you were shocked to hear that Amazon Prime is raising it’s annual membership by 25%? I know I was. 

Prices go up all of the time but 25%? Are they kidding us. Especially since their profits have been huge. It seems on the surface to be pure greed.

One of the reasons they are doing this I am sure has to do with Toys R Us going out of business. Amazon is a huge supplier of toys, games, and books. Toys R Us was their biggest competition and now they have put them out of business. How many other businesses carry a huge supply of toys? Walmart has some and so does Target but a very small selection compared to Toys R Us. Now Amazon doesn’t really have competition in that market. Competition keeps prices down. How long will it be before they raise the prices on these items now that they have no competition?   


They also got a lot of pressure from their shareholders because of barely breaking even or even losing money sometimes on prime shipping.

My membership renews the end of June, one of the first ones to do so. But I am not sure that we will renew. Here in New York, we are charged sales tax on our membership. So that $20. costs 8% more in sales tax. Our membership of $ 119. will really cost us $ 128.52.

Hubby and I had a long discussion about this increase last night. Hubby brought up a good point. He asked me ” How many of the packages you sent in the past year needed to be at their destination in 2 days? Could they have easily taken 5 to 10 and not affected anything?  I am thinking long and hard on this these questions.

Since Amazon ships for free if you have an order of $35.00 or more, could we think ahead on buying birthday gifts, home supplies and OTC meds, etc. and make our orders $35.00?  

Could we use free to store shipping at other local stores like Walmart and Home Depot, etc. and save that way? On packages that have to be shipped for a birthday, are we willing to pay a little bit in shipping to get them there?

As my grandchildren get older, gift cards become the things that they want so that they can buy what they want. This could be a solution.

I have a Kindle but the books that are free have become almost non existent. Because of this some friends are now buying books off of Amazon. I could wait longer to receive these books if I can’t find them at the library or it’s book sale next weekend. I do like the feel of a book in my hand. My Kindle rarely gets used except when I travel. I know this has little to do with Amazon Prime but it is another example of how they try to hook you and then raise the prices.

Yes, my Amazon Prime membership includes other things like movies and music, but we rarely use these. Even though we no longer have Netflix, I haven’t watched one movie in ages on Amazon Prime. I am just not a TV watcher and Hubby just likes his sports. So are these extras that I didn’t ask for when I first joined really worth it to us? Not really! 

The other pet peeve that I have with them is that at least 15 packages that I got through Amazon Prime this year were late by 1-3 days. It got very annoying! It made me question what I was really paying for.  

The other thing that I am thinking about is how long will it be before Amazon puts all stores out of business and we have no real competition. That is a very scary thought! No competition means they can charge whatever they want. 


So as I ponder what I will do come June when it is renewal time, I am going to seriously look at my options including all of the ones I mentioned. I am also going to look at shopping locally and helping to keep some these long time stores in business.

I would love to know what any of my readers who are Amazon Prime members are going to do and what alternatives you see. Please leave your thoughts on this in comments.

Also I have a new challenge that I will post about on Monday that I am going to be doing for the month of May.    




  

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Every Day

A Little of This and A Little of That

Because of bad weather we had no company last weekend, not even my son and grandson. So I spent some time baking. I like to bake enough to fill up my oven to save on energy.

So I baked two loaves of pumpkin bread and two loaves of cranberry orange bread from scratch. Remember that  large container of OJ that I purchased recently. I used some of that for the cranberry orange bread. This week I also got 12 oz. containers of orange juice. We no longer drink OJ so I have frozen the OJ in 1/2 cup portions for my future baking projects.

We have lots of frozen cranberries that I purchased the Thanksgiving before last. I also have many pecans frozen for breads.

Pictured above is one loaf of cranberry that I almost forgot to take a picture of for you before I froze it. The other loaf Hubby had already started eating before I realized I hadn’t taken a picture. He demolished it by the next morning.  

 Pictured above is my favorite pumpkin bread. One loaf went into the freezer to serve to company this week. Yes, I am having company arriving on Thursday. And we are very excited that she is coming.

When Hubby and I were young, our very best friends had three children. We got together on almost a daily basis. Our kids all got along together and Darla and Jim and Hubby and I spent so many enjoyable years together that I still remember vividly especially going out almost every weekend and almost always spending Saturday mornings together. We loved them like they were our brother and sister. The same is true for their children. Tragedy struck when Jim was 41. He died suddenly of a brain aneurysm. We were so devastated and we did our best to comfort Darla. As a few years went on, Darla and the kids remained our closest friends. One spring break vacation Darla took the two younger kids to California to visit their grandparents. We took her oldest daughter to the airport so that she could fly back to college in Boston.  We got a telephone call from a good priest friend of ours one morning informing us that Darla had died suddenly in California. She also died of some kind of brain abnormality. We were in shock. Darla was flown back to her hometown for burial and we did our best to get everything ready at her home for her family coming in. Their oldest daughter, Allison went back to college afterward. Their youngest daughter who was 8 and their son who was about 13 went to live with Darla’s sister and her family in Colorado. We kept in touch over the years with Allison who is happily married and has a son in college now. The last time I saw her was about 10 years ago. I was delighted when she told me that she was coming to visit us this week. Hubby and I are so looking forward to spending time with her. Hubby hasn’t seen her in 20 years. So I will be absent from this blog getting ready for her arrival and to spend wonderful time and memories with her.  We are also looking forward to catching up with her and hearing about her brother and sister’s families.

So I will post when I have time. But if I am absent, I know you will all understand.  

The other night, I sauteed some onions and Montreal steak sausage in butter for dinner. Meanwhile, Hubby cooked some French Fries in our air fryer.

Hubby loves using the air fryer to crisp frozen items. I find it useless for from scratch recipes. They never seem to turn out well. If I had known that we would not have purchased one. 

We have West this weekend so that his parents can enjoy celebrating Katie’s birthday. So I am planning on making hamburgers and French fries tonight rather than feeding him high caloric McDonald’s ones. We are supposed to finally get some sun and weather in the 50’s so perhaps he and I can get outside for a walk.

I made him a special treat for a snack that he can munch on while he is here. I saw a video on You Tube where a woman who has a large family made snack mix in a black garbage bag. Well, we didn’t need that much so I made some in this large kettle today. I am hoping that he will enjoy helping me put it in gallon size bags tonight. I will leave some out for him and freeze the rest for the future. It will freeze nicely and not take long to thaw when I need it. I think I will call it “Everything But The Kitchen Sink Mix”. 

As always feel free to leave a comment.

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Every Day

Monday’s Grocery Shopping Trip

I am sharing with you a small grocery shopping trip that I did on Monday. 

One of the most important things I went to get was a whole NY strip loin that was on sale for $ 6.99 a lb. With grilling season on the horizon(if it ever stops snowing here), we needed steaks. We had none left from last Summer and Fall. This price is a $ 1.00 more than last year’s price but beef prices do tend to fluctuate. I think it is probably the best price we will find here right now. I only bought one so that I can see what they put it on sale for later in the season. Plus I need room for the bacon that is coming from 
Zaycon Fresh next month.

I had the head butcher go back into the freezer and pick me out the best one. He is always willing to do this for me. He then cut it into 1 and 1/2 inch steaks which is how thick we like them. One steak is enough for the both of us at a meal. I ended up with 11 steaks.  

This is what I purchased:

Whole NY Strip Loin at $ 6.99 per lb.= $ 76.61( ignore the price on the wrapper- it rang up properly)

8 TicTac Gum – $ 1.00 – Used 4 insert coupons for $ .50 ea. that doubled and 4 printable coupons for $ .50 that doubled= All 8 were free.

2 Tropicana OJ on sale for $1.00 each minus $ 1./2 MQ that doubled = $ .50 each

1- 2 ltr. Pepsi – $ .29 with Monopoly token

2 Truvia Sweeteners – on sale for $ 1.99 each minus $2./1 Printable Q’s = made $.02

I also used a $ 2.00 OYNO Catalina so my OOP was $ 75.89 plus tax. Yes, this is over my $75.00 a week grocery budget but I don’t spend the entire amount every week and have accumulated quite a bit of money since the beginning of the year so it’s all good. One of the reasons that I don’t spend it all each week is so I can buy at the rock bottom prices on meat, chicken, and seafood when I see them. 


The first thing that I did when I got home was have Hubby food saver each individual steak. Then I put them in the downstairs freezer. I can’t wait until it stops snowing here and warms up so we can grill one.


Last night for dinner, I sauteed Montreal steak sausage with some Vidalia onions. Hubby cooked our French Fries in the air fryer. They were so crisp and yummy. 

Today I have my hair salon appointment so I already have a pot roast in the crockpot on low with assorted veggies that I chopped up. After my appointment, I want to stop at BonTon if they are still open and see if they have any of the jeans I wear. They fit me just the way I like them. With BonTon closing, I don’t know where I can find them. So I am going to stock on smaller sizes since I am dieting.

Have any of you gotten any good grocery prices this week on items that you stocked on? Please feel free to share with us in comments.

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Every Day

My Gasoline Challenge

Being retired we don’t spend money on gasoline to go to work every day. However we do a fair amount of driving on trips, running errands, going out to restaurants, going to doctor and dentist appointments, etc.  Because of this, I like to save money on the price of gasoline especially now that gas is so expensive.

This morning while I was pumping gasoline the price was $2.759. While I was doing this, the attendant came out and changed the price to $ 2.779, a $ .02 increase. Of course I was concerned that I was paying the higher price but the attendant said no that I was paying the $ 2.759. Unbeknowst to him, that was not what I was going to pay.

I had been earning gasoline points when I bought groceries over a period of time. I only bought things  within the gas deals that were free with coupons and that could go into my long term food storage. Things like Tic Tac gum, canned pineapple, canned diced tomatoes, Body Armour drinks, etc. I can’t remember all of the things from prior weeks. But they were things that we buy and use. We also earn points for 10 coupons being used in a transaction.


So this morning, I needed to fill the car up. I was down to very little gas and I have an appointment tomorrow and three next week.


So off I went with my key card with my gasoline points attached and filled up my car. This should give us 4-6 weeks of gasoline. By then gas point earning should start again and I plan on doing this again. It would be nice to never pay for gasoline again. But I know that might not happen. We will see.

The picture at the top is my fuel receipt minus my member # and the address of the gas station which I blocked out. Click on the picture to make it bigger. Sorry it is so messy. I didn’t realize that Hubby made a mess making his breakfast while I was out. I am cleaning that up now. As you can see I paid $ .00!

This picture is of the gasoline pump when I was done pumping. I couldn’t understand why they were charging me $.02. since I had more than enough gasoline points to cover this purchase. I went to the attendant and he told me, you owe nothing and here is your receipt. Evidently their gas pumps aren’t capable of showing the $ .00 price; hence it shows .01, .02 or .03 depending on how much you pump. 


I was so excited that I was able to do this. I will definitely be working to do this again when they offer these gas deals if they are for products we can use for our storage. 


Do any of you have gasoline deals? Please feel free to leave a comment and share with all of us.

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Every Day

One Hundred Frugal Things We Do ( continued)

I have some time today to finish the hundred things. Here they are: 

68. We use newspapers, pine cones from our own pines, and scrap wood from the contractors building homes to have nice fires in our outdoor fireplace.

69. The few veggies we grow in containers on the patio we start from seed.

70. I make my own window cleaner which I have just done. We will be doing windows here soon.

71. We make our own lens cleaner for our glasses.

72. If it is free after coupon and it is a product that we need and can stockpile, I will get it.

73. I buy security envelopes, some cosmetics, organizing bins, foil pans, and greeting cards exclusively at the Dollar Tree.

74. We pay cash for everything including our homes, automobiles, furniture, and any other large item we need. 

75. If we charge anything, we pay it in full when the bill is due.

76. We don’t like signing up for clubs or things that we have to pay for month after month. We just cancelled our Netflix because it wasn’t cost efficient.

77. I meal plan from my stockpile which saves us a lot of money each month.


78. I baked a ham for Easter dinner. Because my son was coming for a few days, I did not have time to make my usual bean soup. So I froze the ham bone along with some ham. I will make the soup later this week. That will give us at least 5 meals.


79. Prescriptions are very costly. So I have managed to become healthy enough to get off 4 drugs and I just had one cut in half. I will be happy when I can get off of them all. 


80. I wanted a treat while I was out running errands the other day. Instead of using cash to purchase something, I used a Free Coupon for an ice cream cone at Anderson’s.

81. I made red beans and rice from our stockpiled rice and dry beans for dinner one night. I just soaked the beans overnight before I cooked them. This is a very cheap meal and is delicious.

82. I browsed Goodwill while I was out the other day. I saw nothing that we needed. I do this every month or so.

83. I went to Aldi’s to get my produce and was I ever in for a surprise. Aldi’s is empty and they are jack hammering the entire parking lot. I have written Aldi’s to find out what is going on. Why did they leave? The next Aldi’s is miles and miles from me. So I purchased some lettuce and a cucumber from Super Walmart.


84. We have tried a few Pinterest sheet pan meals. Hubby loves them.


85. I have been putting together different spring outfits. This affirmed my decision to not buy any new clothes this season.

86. As soon as the heat can go off, I will change the air filter and get it ready for A/C season. While the heat or A/C is on, we change the filters when they need it. This saves energy.


87. I really want a solar oven. We get a lot of sunny days in this area. So this would be very cost effective. I am researching the best one and then will look for the best price.


88. I always get rainchecks when something is on sale and out of stock. That also gives me time to find more coupons.

89. I always run my errands in a circle to save on gas.

90. We rarely buy clothing that needs to be dry cleaned. Dry cleaning adds to the cost of the item.


91. I have already started planning our Christmas gifts. This gives us time to find items on sale.


92. I reuse plastic bags, ziplocs, brown paper bags, glass jars and 2 liter bottles. I store water in the 2 liter bottles. Even though I am not returning them for the bottle deposit of $.05, I am saving by not buying water.  


93. I buy clearanced meat when I can find it. Our stores do not mark down very often. 

94. We use every last bit out of toothpaste tubes, ketchup bottles, mustard bottles, lotions bottle etc. 


95. I save our soap bar scraps and boil them down to make liquid soap.

96. I save day old bread and all end crusts for bread crumbs.  


97. I save bits and pieces of leftover veggies, rice, pasta, and meat in a bag in my freezer to make soup.


98. We are experimenting with making our coffee using a resuable K-cup in our Keurig. I have been trying different grinds and amounts. I am fine tuning so that we know how to get that perfect cup. This will save us a fortune in K cups. 

99. I send for free samples whenever I see an offer online. 

100. Lastly, I am always looking at ways to make things cheaper and to save a little money here and there. Never stop learning!

Please feel free to let us know if you do any of these things or any others that you could share in comments. 

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Every Day

A Little of This and a Little of That

My son was visiting for 3 days. He had business in this area and stayed with us. We did go out to dinner one night but ate in the rest of the time. I enjoyed getting up in the morning to make him a nice hearty breakfast. We had lots of fun, laughter, and just generally a good time catching up on things.

Yesterday, my other son and grandson came for our usual Sunday breakfast. He brought a dozen donuts from Tim Horton’s which we all enjoyed immensely. I couldn’t even remember the last time I enjoyed a donut. We also got subs for lunch. This Mama was too tired to cook.

So today it is back to the usual money saving here. It is 8AM as I write this today. I already have a loaf of homemade banana bread in the oven. I had three very ripe bananas that needed to be used up.

I have made my grocery list for the week and plan on shopping later today. There are not a lot of things or deals that I need this week.  

Just a moment ago I cancelled Netflix. We weren’t watching it enough to pay the $ 10.99 per month. Some months we wouldn’t watch it at all. Plus I do not like some of their programming. So that is $131.88 annually that we will keep in our investments. We have Amazon Prime so there is plenty of movies, etc. to watch. Have you checked your viewing on Netflix to see if you are really getting your money’s worth?


I went and did my grocery shopping at Top’s and this is what I purchased this week: 


1/2 gal. milk – $ 2.39- Top’s Super Q which took off $.79= $1.60.  I bought the wrong milk. It would have been $ .88 if I had gotten Top’s milk. The cashier forced the coupon. It won’t be the first or last time mistake I make. It is not worth my gas to go back.


4 Arm and Hammer Baking Soda – $.99 ea. – $.50/2 MQ = $1.96 for all 4 or $ .49 each (Tip: Baking soda never expires.)

1- 128 oz. Tops Vinegar – $ 2.99 (clean with this and use it instead of Jet Dry in my dishwasher)

1 – 64 ct.  Pampers Wipes – $ 1.99 – $.50/1 MQ = $.99 (cheap cleaning wipes)

4- Bella Sun Luci Sun Dried Tomatoes – $ 1.49 each-
$1./1 MQ’s = $ .49 ea. or $ 1.96 for all. (We put these in our salads.)

1 – McCain Craft Beer Battered French Fries – $ 1.88 and I will get back $ 1.00 from Checkout 51.

2- Body Armour Drinks – $1.00 – $ .50/1 MQ’s = Both Free

1 – 59oz. Tropicana OJ – $ 1.49 with T Rex Monopoly ticket. (We don’t drink OJ so I will be making many, many loaves of cranberry orange bread this week.)


My total OOP was $ 12.95 including tax. I am getting $1.00 rebate from Checkout 51. My budget is $75.00 for the week so that leaves me $ 62.05 for the rest of the week.

We only have a little produce left in our fridge: grapes, apples, tangerines, some lettuce, carrots and peppers. So I will be going to the produce market soon to stock up. 

Besides all of this, I am washing 3 loads of clothes, sheets and towels etc. I am using the dryer since there are so many! 

BTW, I promised to tell you about the chicken that I purchased at Zaycon Fresh . I made stir fry with it the other night and the chicken is melt in your mouth like butter. It is so tender. I will be purchasing my boneless chicken breasts from them from now on. I am very happy! Yes, this is my referral link. I do not monetize my blog so anyone who is signing up new I would appreciate if you would consider using this referral link. No pressure meant! 


Feel free to leave a comment if you have saved any money this week.


I will be back soon to finish the 100 Frugal Things List.