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Every Day

It’s Apple Picking Time

Hubby and I went to a local farm which has apple orchards. We are always willing to try new apples.  This time it was Macouns. They are slightly tart. We love them. They are in the front of my fruit drawer. The back has delicious apples that we got a couple of weeks ago. I love apple everything so Fall is a favorite season for us.

One of the reasons that we are frugal 90% of the time is so that we can afford some luxuries that we enjoy. So we spent some money at the farm to pick up two favorite syrups and some strawberry – rhubarb jam. This morning I made pancakes and we used the syrups as toppings. Yummy! 

A trip to the library for me to pick up a couple of books to read. Do you know that I never read the Little House books when I was young? Nope I didn’t. So I figured it was about time to do it. You can never be too old to do the things you always wanted to do. So I plan on reading all of those books and I am starting with this one. 

While I was out, I stopped at Super Walmart and picked up 11 packages of the Onion Soup Mix that they have on sale for a dollar. It was a great price for our area and I use it for cooking and for onion dip.  I already had one on the shelf so 12 of them will last us a year or more.

Hubby was disappointed in the last jar of Mt. Olive pickle relish that he opened. There was so much fluid in the jar that he had to strain it to be able to eat it. Doing this he found out that there was less than 1/2 jar of actual pickle relish. He complained to the company and they sent this coupon that arrived today. There is no way that he will buy another pickle relish from them. However, I suggested that he get a jar of pickles and make his own pickle relish. So he is going to do that.

Also in the mail today were three Enlightened coupons which I will use at Super Walmart the next time I go.

I have a beef stew in the crockpot for dinner. It holds a beef chuck roast that I cut up into chunks, chunks of potatoes, some baby carrots and some pearl onions. I still have to make the gravy. My kitchen smells delicious!


I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. We have a birthday party for the 1 year old next door that we are looking forward to.

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Every Day

Strawberry KitKats et al

I had a crazy busy day yesterday. I started the morning going to an annual doctor’s appointment which is 16 miles away. So after the appointment on my way home, I did some shopping in a town that I don’t get to very often.

I stopped at CVS to use the $3.00 in ECB’s that they gave me for my birthday.  I picked up some needed foundation and then I saw the candy pictured above on clearance. I purchased two bags to put in my Halloween stash for $ 1.25  each. I will use these bags after I give out the candy I already had. If there are any of these left, I will save them for Christmas or Valentine’s Day. My family loves Kit Kats. 

Then I stopped at Home Goods. We use the Jordan’s SF Skinny Syrups in our coffee and Hubby finished his favorite. My sister told me that Home Goods has the big bottles for $3.99. That is $2.00 cheaper than buying them online at Jordan’s. They had one of the flavors he wanted but not all. But they did have the ones I like. I will keep checking back there anytime I am down there for new flavors. The cashier told me they change them often. BTW, the peach in my coffee is my very favorite. It is so good!

When I got home, I finally had some time this afternoon to finish my basement freezer inventory. When I was done, I sat down and made a list by category. For example, beef, chicken, pork, turkey, lamb, vegetables, fruit, baked goods, etc. have their own Master List. That way I can menu plan from those master lists. It is such a relief to know exactly what I have. I am not buying any beef, chicken, ham, sausage, bacon, etc. for a very long time. The same goes for fruits and vegetables.


As I was doing the inventory, I found this bag with 1/2 lb. of cooked ground turkey. Hubby was going to finish the Spicy Szechuan chicken that was leftover for his dinner tonight. It did not set well with my stomach the first day we ate it.

So I grabbed a packaged cheese pasta that I bought at Aldi’s for my stockpile. I cooked it up and added the turkey last minute. I also made a tossed salad to go with it. There is enough pasta for lunch tomorrow. I want to make sure that all of the cooked meats in my freezers get used up first.

I hope you all had a great frugal day. 

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Every Day

Frugal Things: Tracking Your Inventory and Others

It’s so important to use your stockpile and rotate it as you replenish it. That way things get used before they expire. Mine had gotten out of hand. So I spent a couple of hours today taking inventory of my two freezer drawers in my French door refrigerator. Here is one of the inventory sheets. I emptied everything out of those drawers and then cleaned them well. When I put the items back, I tried to put like things together so that they would be easy to find because I hate wasting electricity leaving the drawers open longer than I should. 

Tomorrow I will inventory my basement freezer. Then I will inventory pantries and the refrigerator. You can’t use up food and make menus if you don’t know what you have. It does take time and I hate starting from scratch doing it but I have been bad at times with not adding something when I buy it. Other times I forget to cross off what I have taken out and used. So I am starting with a new inventory and I have vowed to make it a habit to always add and subtract on my inventory sheets.

I like to make breads when I have time. Certain rolls and breads I can buy cheaper than making them. These sub rolls are an example. We use these for submarine sandwiches or for Philly steak ones. I purchased these at Walmart. I always check their day old bakery items to see if they have something we can use at a discount. These were expiring within a day or so when I bought them for $ 1.22. I saved $.66 off the regular price. I immediately put them into packages of two and froze them.

We had company for an early supper one warm afternoon.  I made a large bowl of pasta salad which I chilled most of the day. It is large shells, cheddar cheese, black olives, diced tomato, and Italian dressing. I added pepperoni to this salad just before I served it. I don’t like it when the pepperoni slices soak up too much of the dressing when it sits in the fridge. We had garlic bread, spumoni ice cream and a glass of wine with the salad. It was a tasty and inexpensive supper.      

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Every Day

Frugal Things In Our Home

Here are five frugal things that we have done recently:

1. Using liquid hand soap is so much more expensive than using bar soap. The bottle of hand soap pictured above cost me $ 1.19 on sale. The bar of soap below cost me about $.25 after a sale and coupon.

We use the bar soap at both of our sinks in our master bathroom. A bar lasts each of us a little over 2 months. We use liquid hand soap in our guest bathroom and at the kitchen sink. I buy huge refill bottles of it at either Super Walmart or our warehouse club where it is so much cheaper than anywhere else. I refill empty soap bottles with the soap and water. The one in the guest bathroom lasts a long, long time because we rarely have company except for family once a week and a few times a year for an extended period. The one at the kitchen sink gets a lot of use so I refill a foaming bottle there to save us money. 

2. I borrowed two relatively recent Danielle Steel books from our local library which I proceeded to read over a two day period in my spare time. I now have 4 recent books on hold at the library so I will return these and pick those up next week. I no longer buy books unless we need them for gifts. We either borrow them from the library or read free ones on our kindles.

3. Changing up the way we do seasonal clothing storage has caused me to need some more hangers. I have always stored my seasonal clothing in the basement. Right now fall clothes are starting to be worn and summer ones would be boxed up and put down there. However the boxes are getting too much for me to carry and I hate to rely on my son bringing them up and down for me. So I am going to do what Hubby does with his. He stores both seasons in our master closet. I have decided that we have the closet space for me to do the same. That way in January when I need summer clothes for a Florida trip, they will be right where I need them to pack. This will also save me from washing them extra times before the seasonal changeover. All of our hangers are Joy Mangano from HSN. I only needed 20 so I went to Walmart and purchased the ones above. They are not the same color but will co-ordinate. I bought two packages of 10 that cost me $ 10.54 for all including tax. A 24 pack at HSN would have cost me $21.59 including tax. The Walmart ones are as sturdy and unslippable as Joy’s. 

4. My recent fresh pineapple purchase with a store coupon was $.99 which is a super price for this area.

5. Tap water with ice is our every day drink. Other than that it is just one cup of coffee a day. We have given up soda and juice. We never were milk drinkers. Sometimes we make iced tea. 

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Every Day

Introduction

My Hubby and I have been frugal for many decades. When we retired early many years ago, we decided to continue our frugality. By doing that we are assured that no matter how many years we live in retirement, we will not run out of money for the things that are important to us. We live in the Northeast in a heavily taxed state so prices that you may see may be cheaper or more expensive for you depending on where you live.  

Those things that are most important to us are family, our home, transportation, food, medical, insurances, taxes, clothing, personal care, etc. and even a few luxuries.

I will be documenting the frugal things that we do during the week and sharing them with you. Some will be familiar others may not. Hopefully you can learn some new things to apply in your own daily lives.

So feel free to join us as we start our journey this week through frugality. 

Liz