Tag: a little of this and a little of that

I did a small haul at Top’s this morning. I got 11 lbs. of butter for $ 2.89 each which is the lowest price I have seen in my area. I counted the butter I already had in my freezer and refrigerator which was 21 lbs. that I have purchased over the past 6 months. Since I use about 32 lbs. a year, I am now set until next Thanksgiving. The pasta was on sale for $.88 each which also is a rock bottom price for me. So 12 boxes are now in my pantry.

Then I went to Walmart to pick up a prescription for Hubby that was $.00 copay. We went through a lot of eggs while my son and his dog were visiting. When we made scrambled eggs and bacon or sausage for us, the dog got some too. I had exactly 1 egg left in my fridge after breakfast yesterday. So I picked up this 5 dozen box for $ 9.52 which is the cheapest price right now in my area. BTW, his dog loved the chicken, sweet potato, and rice dinners that I made for him to have each night. Plus he got one to take home.

While I was out, I filled the SUV up with gasoline using $.20 off a gallon from points. So I paid $ 2.90 a gallon.

I had not seen my son in 11 months. He has taken off so much weight and looks wonderful. I really miss him now that he has gone home. We had a wonderful dinner out at The Big Ditch Brewery on Wednesday evening. Then a nice quiet turkey day on Thursday. I cooked the Butterball and it was so tender. It was accompanied by sausage stuffing, broccoli, fresh mashed potatoes, gravy, and cranberry sauce. Dessert was apple pie with vanilla ice cream. We had three dinner meals from the leftovers. Then I made turkey soup yesterday using the broth I made from the turkey skin and bones overnight in the crockpot. We had it again tonight and will have it again tomorrow night. Any that is still left we will freeze for another meal.

Hubby and I set our food budget for 2026. We will budget $600. a month for this month and each month in 2026. Will we spend it all? Probably not while we eat what we have in the house. But it will then be there when we have to restock the meat in our freezer. We also use our grocery money when we eat out.

I will talk to you more about that tomorrow. Sorry this is so late today but we have been really, really busy.

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving.

What are you going to budget for all food (groceries and take out or restaurants) each month next year?

We woke up this morning to a winter wonderland. Not a lot of snow but enough for the snowplows to be out cleaning the roads. It is really pretty out but extremely windy.

The only ones who are up this morning are me, Hotch(my family’s dog) and Eloise. So I have time before I make breakfast to make my sausage stuffing. Hotch has taken over Eloise’s bed in the kitchen but she has another one. I didn’t think he would fit in it because he is big dog. But he curls up nicely in there.

But I wanted to tell you about out latest electric bill and gas that came on November 19th. It was for 29 days. The total was $ 230.26. Electric was $117.86. The natural gas was $ 111.45 and the rest was miscellaneous fees and state taxes. We used 475 KWH’s and 3 therms of natural gas. The average daily temperature was 42 degrees.

Last year’s bill for the same month was for 30 days and was $ 178.83. The electric was $ 94.75 the rest was the gas and taxes. We used 446 KWH and 2 therms so less than this year. The average daily temperature was 53 degrees.

You can see that this year’s total usage was a little more than last year but not by much. It has been cold here though. This years bill was $ 51.43 more than last year’s bill. That is quite a jump! I expect that this will be story of this year’s bills all winter. I am not looking forward to those increases as I am sure you are not. No matter what I do in the winter, short of freezing to death, it doesn’t help.

I will be using the gas oven to cook the turkey today. But I will be using the convection function which does lower the time it has to cook. I couldn’t fit all of the stuffing in the turkey so I will be baking some in the oven along with the turkey if I can fit it.

My turkey is only 14.4 lbs. today. It will probably give us at least 2 meals and perhaps a sandwich for my company to eat on the way home. I will get a better idea when I take all the meat off it after dinner tonight. I will put the bones and skin in the crockpot overnight to make broth.

We wish you all a wonderful Thanksgiving! Talk to you on Monday.

These are the things we have been doing to save a few dollars here and there.

We got another $10. rebate in the mail. That will get deposited in the bank soon.

We have been eating from our pantry and freezers. Our fridge is quite stuffed right now. So I will be taking inventory of it so that none of the produce goes to waste. We have a lot of romaine lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, etc. So we will be adding salads to our meat entree each night instead of a canned or frozen veggie.

Dinners have been strip steak, meatloaf, chicken skillet dinner, and pizza. We have a lot of shrink wrapped organic ground beef that is older so we are trying to use that up. I may have Hubby make a big pot of chili this weekend. Tonight we will have leftover meatloaf. Hubby loves it as a sandwich. Me not so much. But if I warm it up, I can tolerate it.

Today, I need to go to Walmart to pick up some prescriptions that are ready. All of the scripts should be $0. co-pay. I may stop at Aldi’s for a few things while I am out.

I needed Christmas cards for this year so I got them at Walmart. Sometimes I just have to spend money but I am very careful to get things on sale if at all possible. The cards were really nice and only cost $ 6.67 for 18. So I got two packs. They will do the 25 people I have to send them to this year and some leftover for next year. I will pick up some more after Christmas when they are dirt cheap. Fortunately, I stocked on Forever stamps before they went up in price.

I also purchased a new woman’s rechargeable razor to shave my legs. I have been using an old one of Hubby’s for at least 20 years replacing the blades when need be. It just doesn’t work anymore. So I had been watching prices to get a great deal. I found one at Walmart marked down from $30. to $16. It works great!

The last thing we purchased was also from Walmart. It is a 32 inch Reacher Grabber with a Light. It was marked down from $50. to $10. Hubby had been looking for one for me to get things off the top shelves of my kitchen cupboards. My upper cupboards are very tall and being that I am only 5’5″, I can’t reach them without getting out a step ladder which is very annoying and dangerous.

So we saved $ 54. on just two of these purchases by watching prices for a while so that we knew when a deal was really a deal. We spent $39.34 on all of these items but it was money well spent only on needed items.

We continue to try to save money towards our goal which I talked about in a prior post. We should reach our goal within the next 6 months. We are getting really excited about it.

You know that we always do the best we can to try to save a few dollars on our gas and electric bill. We continue to do all the things including turning the heat down to 64 at night until 8am in the morning. We have lots of blankets so we are very comfortable. But Eloise always seems cold when she gets me up early morning. She has two warm soft beds to sleep in which she does but her back always seems cold. I gave her a blue velvety blanket the other night. I drape it over a chair and she loves it. She crawls under it and sleeps and does not seem cold when she wakes up. I am glad that I found a solution that does not involve turning up the heat at night.

I neglected to tell you about my October electric and gas bill. We used just 425 KWH over 33 days. It cost us $ 115.41. They say we used an average of 13 KWH per day. We used 21 ccf’s of natural gas over those 33 days. They convert that to therms for billing purposes. Our gas bill was $ 48.48. Our total bill for October was $ 164.84 including fees, taxes and surcharges.

Last years October bill was a total of $ 128.98 including fees, taxes and surcharges for 27 days. We used 400 KWH of electricity and 19 ccfs of natural gas. The electric bill was $ 88.36 and the gas bill was $39.67. So year over year this October bill has gone up $ 35.86. Granted they made this billing period 6 days longer. But it is still outrageous! No matter what we do to conserve, the bill just keeps going up and up. We are paying for all of the chip plants that the billionaires need for A1. I see no end to these increases in sight!

Are your electric and natural gas bills rising no matter how much you conserve?

I actually went into Walmart a few days ago for a few things and to look and see if they had anything new. Look what I found:

They had their Shady Brook turkeys on sale for $.84 a lb. I was afraid they were year old stock but the expiration date was 06/02/2027. So they are this year’s. I don’t know what the prices will be at just before Thanksgiving but now I have a turkey in case the prices are much higher. I paid $12.60 for a 15lb. turkey. I will pay more for Butterballs unless they are above my price point. So I will wait and see what they end up costing. I am hoping to get at least 3-4 turkeys this year to replace chicken because that price has gone so high.

While I was there a did a little shopping to bulk up our stockpile. I won’t put prices because if you are interested in a certain product you can look it up on your Walmart site.

I was down to my last dishwasher gel and laundry detergent. So I got an extra of each. I happened on boxes on a display in a center aisle by the cleaning products. They were loaded with spoons and turners. It didn’t take me long to realize that these are just like the Pioneer Woman’s. But I got these for $1.00 each.

I needed to stock on some sodas with so much company coming this month and next. I was looking for this Zero Sugar A&W Root Beer when I spotted the A&W Zero Sugar Ice Cream Sundae. I had to get it to see if it tasted like the ice cream sodas that I use to get at A&W when I was a teenager. Sure enough it does. The Celsius was a treat for us. They were not cheap. $ 2.28 for each 12 oz. can. Walmart did not have 4 packs at the store and was out of stock online. I have since researched where to get them cheaper. Amazon has a case of 12 on sale for $ 17.76. I purchased 2 cases so that I could get free shipping. I refuse to pay for Amazon Prime. I haven’t had it for 5 years now. I earned a $10.00 Amazon GC with points from Pinecone and also used $ 2.03 in rewards to bring my price down to $ 23.49 for the two cases. I also got a box of Great Value 80 count 13 gallon kitchen garbage bags because I just opened my last one. We use a lot of paper plates to cut down on dishes when we have a lot of company or when I am not feeling well. I bought a package of 100 count 10 and 1/16 inch Dixie plates. Hubby loves bagels and cream cheese for brunch so I picked him up a 6 pack. For me I got a package of Mission Low Carb Tortilla wraps.

Not pictured was 2 half gallons of half and half and two 4 packs of Two Good Yogurts.

This probably is our last big shop for 2025 except for Thanksgiving rock bottom priced items. Bu more on that tomorrow.

Did you get any turkeys yet or any other good deals?

I have picked up some new readers over the past few days. Most of you know me and know why I take the time to do these posts so often.

For those who don’t, I started blogging in 2006 when we lived in Arizona. Back then my blog was “Frugal Makes Cents” via Google. I had that for a number of years until I had someone trolling me. When it got dangerous, I ended that blog. When we moved here, I started this one. I now own this one. Google doesn’t. It is safe and secure thanks to my oldest son keeping it that way. He is also an admin here.

I started it to try to help people who were struggling financially. I saw so many young and older people struggling to own a home or keep a home(especially during the 2008 housing crisis) and get rid of credit card debt, etc.

Everyone knew that you could cut your large expenses like insurances and cable TV. But there were only so many large expenses. We still compare our insurance policies every year and try to cut other large expenses.

But many people thought that cutting the little expenses didn’t help. What I have tried to show them is that the little expenses really add up over a year’s time. Since our current crisis of rampant inflation, cutting all expenses has become more important than ever.

One of the largest expenses we have these days is buying groceries. It seems like every week the prices go up. For years, I have cut my grocery costs by buying food at loss leader prices especially meat. Then we make our meals from those items. When I met some Mormons in Arizona, they taught me about stockpiling. They usually keep 1-2 year’s worth of groceries. I always bought an extra item every week but not to the extent I do now. Stockpiling has saved us so much money over the last 5 years. When people are paying top dollar today for items, I paid much less money for mine in my stockpile. Being a canner, I know that most items do not expire by the sell by date. Even the government will tell you that on their websites. So we alternate what we use. The oldest products are in the front of my shelves with the newest in the back. I rotate every thing. I also try to buy items at rock bottom prices by using a price book. That way I know when something is at a rock bottom price. With Thanksgiving and Christmas sales coming up, I am getting excited because this is time of the year when so many things are on sale at those prices. I stock on many things that will never be cheaper. We love turkey so I buy as many as I can get in the freezer.. If I run out of freezer space, I will cook the turkey and then can it. We love chicken but you can replace chicken in almost every recipe with turkey.

Our utility bills have skyrocketed and I see no end in site for those costs to come down instead of up. Between the utilities replacing infrastructure and all the chip companies popping up, costs will continue to rise. It’s all a function of supply and demand. So we need to do what we can to cut our usage as much as we can.

We have now been retired over 24 years. Inflation has really done a job on our retirement funds since 2001. I see so many elderly living in poverty on just Social Security these days. So I do this blog for them too or anyone who needs help. If we didn’t continue to save every month. we would be in a much worse position. But we have saved and invested over those years so that we are fine. Our medical costs have skyrocketed as we age and we need to hire help to do a lot of things around here so that we can maintain and stay in the home we love. Those costs are very expensive.

Some of my posts may seem a little harsh but I do those to wake people up who need it. It is never aimed at any one person.

The bottom line is that I do these posts to help people. If I can help just one person, I have done my job.

I hope you are all having a money saving day today!

Last Friday I became independent again! I am now driving. My cardiologist took that restriction off on Thursday after he reviewed all of my heart tests. I wore a heart monitor from August 18th until September 18th. He was worried that the connectivity of the left side of my heart was not working properly. The monitor did not show any evidence of high grade connectivity disease or any significant pauses. This was great news! I will be going back to him in October to get all the results including the ones from my Echo and my Nuclear stress test. Hopefully those results will be good news too.

For you guys this means that I will be back blogging in the next couple of days. Because I had to take it easy with the heart monitor, I was limited on what I could do like driving. Hubby had to take me everywhere for appointments and errands. We did very few errands because he hates doing them. Eloise was so sad that she couldn’t curl up on my chest when I was at the computer. I had to keep putting her down and she was not happy about that. It had become a routine when I would have my coffee in the morning. I was afraid she would push a button on the monitor and they wouldn’t get clear results. I also had to be very careful that I didn’t damage it. Before we could even have it put on at the cardiologist’s office and go home, I had to sign that if it got damaged, I would have to pay $2500. That was not something I wanted to do. So it was returned both clean and in perfect condition.

So Eloise is back to our routine and purrs the entire time. We are both very happy to be back to normal. Hubby is delighted!

My house is not as clean as I like it and I have many projects to work on in the next few weeks. We will be having family for Thanksgiving this year so I want to get this house back in order. So I will post all that I will be doing as I do it, especially getting my stockpile back in order. I have many bags sitting in that pantry on the floor that need to be organized on shelves. I will be making a list of the items that will go on sale for Thanksgiving that I need to stockpile for the next year. I am praying that butter goes on sale at a great price. I have never been so low on butter.

So I will be back very soon. Sooner than you might think.

I want to thank everyone who prayed for me. You are so appreciated!

I have missed all of you. We are spending our days running to doctor appointments for me. I am still being tested and it is getting very old and very annoying. I can’t drive per doctor’s orders for my safety and others. So anytime I have to go anywhere, Hubby takes me. He has been wonderful and never complains except when I ask him to take me to the grocery store to get the loss leaders I need each week. I usually run all the errands in this family so he is not used to it. Plus he has always hated grocery shopping. But he has stepped up and takes me when needed. I try to get in and out quickly. If I am going to be more than 20 minutes, he waits in the car. Otherwise he comes in with me and bags all the groceries at the checkout. So I try to only get the real loss leaders to get in and out quickly.

He also has been doing most of the cooking which is giving me a break. Today he is going to make a large pot of chili using up about 2 lbs. of organic ground beef that I purchased months ago at Aldi’s on a sale. It has gotten colder here and I have been craving it. I can almost smell it cooking all day while I write this. We will eat this for a few days and then save some to use on hot dogs so that we can get those out of the freezer for the winter. The last couple of days we have had bacon cheeseburgers and pork chops with Hubby’s Waldorf coleslaw that he makes. So yummy!

I have been puttering still trying to declutter around here. I take a nap almost every afternoon because I tire easily. So things are getting done a little at a time.

I am looking forward to watching Tony and Ziva on Paramount Plus today. It has been a long wait. My Buffalo Bills play on Sunday so we are excited for football season.

Keeping a list of the things we are doing around here this month to save a few bucks is my #1 priority. I will end the month giving you that list. Hubby and I have also been discussing our budget for next year. I have been making a list of Thanksgiving items I hope to purchase when they go on sale. We are trying to eat out of our freezer to empty it a bit to make room for turkeys. Hopefully they will be a good price this year.

We are loving the cooler weather so we try to get outside each day even if it is only sitting in the yard. I told Hubby I am sick of being at home. So to get me out, we are going to a new local restaurant near us that opened a few weeks ago for lunch one day next week. They have some great prices on specials.

Eloise is getting so big. She has her first vet appointment next week for her annual checkup and has three shots to get. Hopefully, the vet bill won’t be too expensive.

I take my last testing device to my doctor in two weeks and then get the results the beginning of October. Then hopefully I can get back to normal activities. Time will tell. I am really stir crazy because you all know how active I usually am. I want my life back. If any of you pray, I could really use a few prayers. Thank you.

Precious