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Every Day

A Buffalo Fish Fry

When we moved to the Buffalo area, I had no idea that fish fries were such a big item. However during Lent, almost every restaurant and take out place has fish fries on Ash Wednesday and on Fridays. 

The first time we ordered one, I was in shock at how big the portions were for one individual person. Hubby and I would order 2 dinners and would each get a fish fry, 2 sides, a roll and butter, lemon wedges and tartar sauce. It soon became evident that it was way too much food. So we quit ordering the 2 fish dinners and just get 2 fish fries. And that is why we only eat a fish fry on the days we get them. It is plenty of food, almost too much. We have at times saved some for the next day. They reheat well. 

We just finished our fish and it was so delicious!

Are your fish fries in your area this big?

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Every Day

Frugal Things The Past Couple of Weeks

It’s been a frugal couple of weeks in our household. These are the things we have been doing frugally:

– Spent very little of our grocery budget the past couple of weeks.

– We have been eating out of our freezers so that we will have room for our $ .79 a lb. boneless skinless chicken breasts from Zaycon the end of this month.

– I am back to hanging the laundry in the basement now that I feel better.

– The Buffalo News delivered us the Sunday, February 25th edition on March 4th. I called and they brought us a March 4th edition. I asked that they bring a full newspaper since it was only the white pages that were February 25th. They did so I ended up with two sets of all 4 inserts for that Sunday. So I didn’t have to buy an extra paper. Evidently we were not the only people who got the week before edition. I can only wonder how that happened.

– I received a $ 6.00 rebate in the mail.

– We did change our car and auto insurance to a new company and ended up saving almost $200. Since there is no cancellation fee at the old company, we are expecting a pro-rated refund from them shortly. It will be nice to have our auto and homeowners insurance due the same day every year.


– With the exception of going to the grocery store and hair salon, we have pretty much stuck to home. This has saved us gasoline. I do need to get gas soon since I haven’t filled the car up since January. I will be using my $ .60 off per gallon discount at Top’s.

– We have been decluttering the house and setting aside what we no longer need for the community garage sale.

– We have not been out to a restaurant in a very long time. We will get take out tonight though. We do this on most Friday’s during Lent.

– Hubby has been saving a $50.00 Home Depot gift card that he received as a gift to help buy a new mailbox once the ground is unfrozen enough to put it in. Then we can take out the ugly post that the town put in. I have a $ 5.00 off coupon that will help defray the total cost also.

– We have been eating up every leftover in this house. Right now we only have some enough for lunch for one person which is the apple chicken sausage skillet that I made last night. 


– I need to redo the closet in our largest guest bedroom. Lots of West’s outgrown toys need to be given away to our neighbor’s little boys. Then I will set the closet up with necessary things for guests like spare sheets, blankets, pillows, etc. I needed some containers to do this and I found them in the right colors at Dollar Tree. So cost was only $5.00 for 5 of them. As you can see it is a hot mess of games, toys, Hot wheel tracks, blankets, and out of season clothes.

– After a number of telephone conversations, I finally got a medical bill corrected to my benefit.

– I cleaned up a big spill in the kitchen with reusable rags.

– I have been listening to You Tube videos while organizing. That is how I learn something new every day. 


– I continue to use my laundry eggs in my HE to wash the clothes. When I do use the dryer I am using my dryer balls.

– I have been taking naps when I need them so that my mind is fresh to do everything as frugally as possible.

– We have been making full use of our Netflix membership by watching 4 movies a month. We just watched “Our Souls at Night.” We never go to the movies or rent elsewhere. Between Netflix, Amazon Prime, and You Tube, we have plenty to watch.


– I made a homemade chicken casserole for my sick neighbor.


– I’ve been collecting vegetable scraps and peelings. I made a pan of vegetable stock with them. I froze flat in meal size portions.


– I made a few loaves of banana bread with really ripe bananas. I froze them for our Sunday family breakfasts.

Have you done anything frugal lately? Please feel free to share in comments.

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Every Day

Monday’s Shopping

Tomorrow is Senior Citizen 6% discount day at Top’s but it is supposed to be nasty weather. So I decided to go today instead. 

Bananas were on sale for $. 49 a lb. The mushrooms were $1.34 and were needed for dinner tonight. Hubby is grilling a 1 and 1/2 inch thick NY strip steak( from my freezer) that we are going to share. I love sauteed mushrooms on my steak. I will be baking some potatoes and making a salad.

The Rana Fettucine($2.)and the Bob’s Red Mill Unbleached All Purpose flour($1.99) were on sale but after MQ and store Q they were free. The milk was $ .99 with store Q. The yogurt, the 16 oz. Muuna Cottage cheese, the Sure deodorant and the sun dried tomatoes were  free after MQ and store Q’s.

The bacon bits and Very Berry Cheerios were full price. Those were a miscalculation on my part. I had no idea we were out so I couldn’t wait for a sale. But when they go on sale again, I will stock.


The ice cream($ 5.99) was on B1G1F sale. The Lean Cuisine was on sale for $2.00. My total OOP was $ 18.16. I may make one more trip this week to get some more of the free items if I have time. I have a $75.00 per week budget for groceries so I have $ 56.84 left for the rest of the week.

Did you get any good deals this week? Please share with us.

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Every Day

Organized Spices

My spice cabinet has been a mess forever. The bottles were all different sizes and shapes and it did not look very neat. Actually it drove me crazy especially when Hubby wouldn’t put them back where they belonged. So I spent some time and money this week organizing the spices, hopefully, for the last time.

I purchased square spice jars here. They came with  a few labels but most of the ones I needed were not with the jars. So I purchased a large label collection
here. It has blank labels and labels that I could use in my pantry also. It is an awesome collection!

I also purchased an expandable spice shelf for the first shelf here.  I already owned the other spice shelf on the second shelf. 

I just emptied my old spice jars into the new ones. I attached the proper label each time I did one. Large spice jars that didn’t get emptied are now in quick access storage so that I can lay my hands on them easily when I need to refill.

What I like about the way I arranged them is that I can see each and every label and they are in alphabetical order. Hubby has promised to let me get out the spices when he uses them. That way this will stay organized.

The ideal for my spices would have been a drawer with special shelf inserts made for the spices. However I do not have a large drawer near my stove which is where I use the spices so this was the next best alternative. I am extremely happy with how it turned out.

I hope you all are having a great weekend! 

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Every Day

Lamb Roast

As most of you know, Hubby and I have been married more than 50 years now. One of the first recipes that I cooked for us was a lamb roast. Hubby has absolutely loved it ever since. So I surprised him and roasted it today for dinner.

My SIL gave me “The Children’s Hospital of Buffalo Cookbook” for my bridal shower gift in spring of 1967. I knew nothing about Buffalo at that time so it is amusing to me that I now live near Buffalo. It was the first cookbook I got and I have used it all these years. It fell apart but I still use the recipes that I learned to love and that taught me to cook. I had no idea how to cook or bake when I said “I do”.

So today’s dinner recipe is in that book for Lamb Pot Roast. However from the first time I cooked it, I roasted it in the oven and tweaked the recipe a little bit to accommodate that. Here are the ingredients:

1 leg of lamb
Oil
2 tsps. salt
1 tsp. of oregano
1/2 tsp of pepper
1 minced garlic clove
1 can of beef consomme
1 small can of tomato sauce

I brush the lamb with some oil. Then I sprinkle it with the salt, oregano, and pepper. I mix the rest of the ingredients in a bowl and pour just enough to wet the roast on it. Then I pour the rest of the sauce into the pan. I roasted it at 325 degrees for about 2 hours. I baste the roast every 25 minutes or so. This roast was a small one- about 3 lbs. and only had a small bone. It cooked to medium. You can thicken the gravy but it was thick enough for us tonight. I always put some little potatoes in for Hubby. He loves them with the sauce spooned on them. We both love the sauce spooned on a slice of lamb. It was so delicious and tender tonight.

The pics show the roast resting for a few minutes after I took it out of the pan. The other pic is of the pan with the potatoes and sauce still in it.

Did you cook a favorite for dinner tonight?
  

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Every Day

I Am Loving Walmart

Today I went to Super Walmart to do my weekly  grocery shopping. I only got the few things that we  really needed. I am pretty well stocked on just about everything else.

Because my regular supermarket, Top’s is so expensive except when items are on sale, I have decided to shop more and more at Super Walmart and Aldi’s.

This week I only needed the above items and I was so surprised at the prices which I have put on my lowest price list that I am updating with current prices. This is what I purchased:

– 1 Mylanta – $ 6.97

– Romaine Hearts(bag of 3) – $ 2.28

– 1 Cucumber – $ .54 

– 1- 2lb. bag of Wild Caught Salmon – $ 7.52

– 2.33 lbs. of Bananas – $ 1.03

–  1 Equate Nasal Spray – $ 1.88

My total OOP was $ 20.22. That leaves $ 54.78 left for the rest of the week.


I was so happy to find this frozen salmon there. I have been paying a whole lot more for it elsewhere. I like these portions for lunch or dinner and sometimes with breakfast. They had the cheapest price I have found for the romaine lettuce and cucumber. 

I also purchased the above pictured 4 packs of dish towels to replace some of the ones that are worn out. They have improved these towels so that they are thicker and more absorbent. They cost $ 4.97 for each pack for a total out of our Other Budget of $ 10.74 including tax. We use brown to dry our hands in the kitchen and green to dry dishes and pots and pans. 

I know some people hate Walmart but we all have our likes and dislikes. Right now it is working for me. 

Do you shop at Super Walmart for any food? What is your favorite item that you always buy there? Mine has great produce. When Aldi’s produce is looking a little old, I always know that SW will have good looking produce. I also know that I can get produce reasonably priced at Niagara Produce but today I wanted one stop shopping.  

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Every Day

Are Warehouse Clubs Worth The Money You Pay For Membership?

This is a question that I have been wrestling with for a long time. I wasn’t going to renew my membership a year ago and then I did. 

My membership is due to be renewed tomorrow. I have decided to not renew it. After keeping track of the mostly basic items that I bought like olive oil, rice, floss, liquid soap refills, etc., I have determined that I didn’t have enough savings to even equal the $55. membership fee I paid for the year.

There are so many good options for getting rock bottom prices in other stores and on Amazon that I don’t need the warehouse club anymore.
 
I can get meat cheaper through Zaycon Fresh, bulk sale buying from Niagara Produce, grocery store sales, and my local meat market.

Produce is cheaper at Aldi’s and Niagara Produce and I don’t have to buy it in such large quantities.

My Super Walmart carries a lot of bulk items at great prices. Krusteaz pancake mix is one that I buy there all the time in a huge bag. It stays nice and fresh for us because I transfer it to an airtight container.  

Best Buy and Amazon give B.J.’s a run for their money on electronics. B.J.’s would be great for tires but they do not offer the off size ones that we need.

They offer a very limited supply of vitamins. But we get ours either at Walmart or Puritan Pride.

Shampoo and conditioner is cheap at Walmart or with a coupon at a drugstore sale. My latest stockpile of those was built for free at drugstores. The same goes for deodorant and toothpaste. 
 
It used to be the best price for Hubby’s razor blade refills. But now so many places have refills like Daylogic at Rite Aid that fit Hubby’s Mach 3 razor. Dorco and other online shopping places beat those prices too.

They do carry discounted gift cards but there are many places on line where you can get discounted ones.  


I will miss my discounted stamps but I only save pennies on them and we use them rarely anymore.


They have a good book selection but my library is free.


Except for socks, I don’t buy clothing there. Socks I can buy cheap at Walmart or Target.


I finally realized that I don’t need the warehouse stores anymore.

How about you? Are you still shopping at the warehouse store? Are you actually saving money above what you pay for your membership. If you are not sure, track it.        

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Every Day

From Scratch

An easy stir fry for dinner tonight that I cooked from scratch. Peppers, onions, pineapple and chicken in a stir fry sauce served over rice that Hubby cooked in the pressure cooker. This was delicious.

Breakfast was a strawberry, blueberry, banana and almond milk smoothie. Lunch was a tossed salad with lettuce, cucumber, tomato, carrot and vinegar and olive oil.

What did you have for dinner?

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Every Day

Frugal Things That We Have Been Doing

We have been really busy around here doing a myriad of frugal things. 

I have been doing our Federal and State Income Taxes. We have to file 7 forms this year because our taxes are so very complicated. I was thinking that I would either take them to a tax accountant or get Turbo Tax. But since I have done them for 50 years, I decided that I can do them and save the money that I would spend on the tax software or accountant. I have been working on them all day so that is why I haven’t had time to write until now. I am taking my time and hope to finish them by Sunday.

Hubby has been working with the insurance agency to lower our homeowner’s and car insurances. He brought the draft of the new policies home for me to look at. I like what I see, so we will sign them and he will take them to the agency in the morning and pay for them. This will save us about $180. a year.

I deposited 3 rebate checks into our savings account.

I returned two items that were defective when we purchased them. I got replacements that were perfect.

I returned toothbrush heads that Hubby purchased at Amazon that were the wrong ones. I sent them back and they are crediting us for the full amount.

I found the right toothbrush heads online at Walmart and ordered them for free pickup at my store. I picked them up while running other errands near there. 

I only grocery shopped once this week so I have not spent my full grocery budget. I am accumulating grocery money because the chicken order from Zaycon Fresh will be due next month and I want to make sure that I have enough grocery money to pay it.

By only running errands once per week, I am saving on gasoline.  Gasoline prices have really increased here over the past month or two.

Hubby has been having trouble with the Green Mountain Decaf Breakfast Blend K-cups that we purchase through Amazon. They only make a half cup even when you put the coffee pot on the large cup setting. It has happened before and with two different coffee pots. It’s like the water won’t go through the cup. When you open it to remove the cup, you get scalded. He was telling my son about it and my granddaughter said to him that he should write the company about the cups. So he found the Keurig website and tried to send them his complaint but it wouldn’t let him. So he called them. He got a customer service rep who was of no help. So he got a supervisor who understood his complaint. She asked him how many K-cups he had. He told her 5 boxes of 12 and about 6 from the 6th box of 12. She asked him if Fed Ex could pick them up so that they could get them back and have them tested. He said sure. She said she would replace the 6 boxes. She shipped it overnight so he wouldn’t be without coffee for long. The K-cups arrived today and she sent him 6 boxes of 24 cups each. Wow! We weren’t expecting to get double the amount that we purchased. He will try the new cups and see if they work the same as the Amazon ones. If not, then I would say the problem may be the Amazon ones. We’ll see.  But anyway, it pays to tell the company when you have a problem. We have had no problem with any other brand of K cup.

We have been doing the usual to save on electricity and natural gas. We don’t let water run in sinks while we brush our teeth or do dishes or pots and pans. We use our dishwasher on the energy saving cycle. I use the express wash cycle on the HE washer. I use 6 balls in the dryer so that the clothes dry faster when I use the dryer. It has been hard for me to hang laundry while I have my broken toe. We take navy showers.

I used a $ 100. Amazon giftcard that was given to us for our last subscribe and save order that arrived. It had the coffee in it that I spoke about above.


We ordered pizza and wings when our family was here last weekend. I paid with a Domino’s gift card.

We have been eating most of our meals cooked from scratch here at home. This week we have been finishing up leftovers from last weekend. I did make taco meat one night- two pounds of it. I froze 1/2 of it after it was cooked for future meals. 

I made homemade pumpkin bread to go with our breakfast on Monday. I made two loaves and sent a loaf home with my son. My DIL and granddaughter love pumpkin bread.

My Hubby paid a fortune for a hearing aid about 3 years ago. It has been back to the manufacturer at least 7 times with problems that they never seemed to be able to fix. It went out of warranty just before the 6th time. Hubby contacted corporate and told them that they should make the repairs free to us because they has never been able to repair it correctly during the warranty period. They said to have the place where he purchased it ship it back and they would look at it again. They sent it back and said it was fixed. Within a couple of days, there was so much static and it wouldn’t go away. So they said send it back. The woman who has been shipping it back each time called him a week or so ago and said that the company is sending him a brand new upgraded hearing aid with a full warranty and that she would call him when it came in. She called today and scheduled an appointment for him to come in and have it set to his hearing. If he hadn’t stuck with it and complained to corporate, we would be out buying a new hearing aid.


What have you done frugally lately?

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Every Day

Many Happenings

We had a wonderful weekend with our children and grandchildren. My granddaughter is so tall and such a wonderful young lady. Her parents have raised her to be so polite and considerate. I just love chatting with her. I hated to see her go home yesterday.

I cooked 7 meals over the weekend and we ordered pizza and wings for carryout for the 8th meal. I would have loved to have taken my family out to dinner but I am leery of crowds and people hacking and coughing in restaurants with so much flu around. I was taking a chance getting the carryout. But I told my family that next time they come, we will take them out to dinner.

Shortly after they left yesterday, I was racing around the house stripping beds, gathering towels to wash and just some general picking up. I was racing down the hallway and I slammed my baby toe into the board that our railing is set in. I broke my toe. You ought to see it today. So many different colors and so sore. I knew I wanted to do errands today but it was too painful to put my sneakers on. So I put on my loafers which were a little easier on the toe. But now I am resting it and writing to you.

I went to CVS, Aldi’s, Walmart and Top’s this morning.  At CVS, I purchased cashews, M&M’s, and 2 boxes of Puffs. After using $8.00 in ECB’s that were expiring tomorrow and a 25% off regular priced product coupon, I paid $ 2.39 including tax. Hubby had been wanting cashews for a long time but they are so expensive that I kept waiting until I could get them on sale. Needless to say he is very happy today.

Next door to CVS is an Aldi’s so I stopped in and bought potato chips, a 3 pack of peppers, tartar sauce, 1/2 and 1/2, a 3lb. bag of mandarins and 2 bags of semi-sweet morsels. My total was $ 14.03.

Next I went to the pick up counter at Walmart. Hubby had ordered 3 brush refills for his Waterpik toothbrush. They come out of the $100. Other budget this week.

Last, I went to Top’s where I purchased celery, 2 Philadelphia cream cheese, 2 lbs. of bacon, 4 yogurt, 2 baking mixes, and 2 fresh mozzarella balls. My total was $ 26.35 after sales and coupons.

So far this week, I have spent $ 42.77 of my $ 75.00 budget. I doubt that I will shop any more this week. My toe does not like it. 


We got our gas and electric bill today and it was $ 238.60 for one month. Yikes! It is amazing what cold weather will do to a bill. We keep our heat at 71 because Hubby is always cold. Because of this our heating bills have been very high this winter. I am just happy that we have saved and invested over the years so that we can afford them. 

Since I will most likely be home bound the rest of the week, I will just do some cleaning and organizing around here. I am also working on a lowest price list for all of the foods that I buy. As I am building my stockpile again, I am marking the prices I pay and that way I can see what the lowest prices are that I purchase things at. If I have enough for three months or more in my stockpile, I won’t even look for more until the last month of my stockpile and then I will look for the lowest price on that item.

My toilet paper stockpile was getting low so I ordered this at Amazon. It is 80 rolls. This is thin toilet paper which is what most people who have septic tanks use. It works out to about $ .008 a square foot which is a stock up price. We use it on the recommendation of our Roto-Router man who unclogged the elbow in the sewer pipe out near the road for us when it got clogged. Roto Router is expensive so I will take his advice and try to avoid another clog. It is still on sale if anyone needs it.


On that note, I am off to cut up veggies for our taco  meat salads that we will have for dinner tonight.