Tag: a little of this and a little of that

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Every Day

A Little of This and a Little of That

I could not believe my eyes when I looked at the clock this morning when Eloise got me up. It was 5:30AM. I got 8 hours of sleep last night. Today has been productive because I am well rested. I hope this continues.

While drinking my coffee this morning, I got a lot of paperwork done. They were all things that I had been procrastinating about. They are all done now.

Amazon delivered me a package at 7:45AM. this morning. I ordered it last night. There is a warehouse which is not too far from me. Hubby said he needed to replace a solar light in our back garden that was broken. He had me order a 4 pack because evidently you need more lights in the garden. They do light up part of our backyard. I used $ 15.70 in rewards so that helped to defray the cost.

I put some laundry away that I had hung to dry. I picked up the things that I needed to make homemade laundry detergent yesterday when I picked up a prescription for Hubby. I will be making an Amish recipe that they have been making for years. It is safe for my HE washer. Here is the recipe: Stop Buying Laundry Detergent — The Amish $0 Recipe That Lasts a Full Year

With the laundry detergent prices so high, this will be a great money saver. I will be mixing some up and putting it in one of my canning jars. I ignore the $0 recipe on the video. Of course, it will cost you the ingredients but it should last for a very long time.

I vacummed the hallway and laundry room which is where Eloise mostly tracks her litter. Then I cleaned a spare bedroom.

Then it was time for brunch. I cooked up some fresh broccoli, 3 pieces of Canadian bacon, and 3 eggs over easy. I ate all of this. It may seem to be a lot of food for some people but it keeps me satiated so that I don’t eat anything again until dinner. It is carnivore with a little broccoli added that makes it Keto.

Hubby cooked his food. He had canned corned beef which he loves. He ate half of it and will eat the leftovers tomorrow. We rarely eat the same breakfast.

The rest of the day I worked in my food pantry.

Has anyone here ever cooked these? Hopefully you can read the directions. I purchased these a couple of years ago when I was stockpiling. I got them for so cheap that I bought 15 boxes. That was mistake #1. I should have bought one and tried it first. But the price was so good, I was afraid they would be gone fast. I cooked one a year or so ago and it was awful. I followed the directions perfectly and the potatoes did not get soft. Do you have any thoughts on what I can do to make them softer? Should I soak the potatoes first? The potatoes are dehydrated. I hate to throw them out because I don’t like waste. They are in mylar so they should still be okay to eat. But if I can’t figure out how to make them taste better, I will have to toss them. Lesson learned!

It is time to go make dinner. I am roasting a housin marinated pork tenderloin. I will have broccoli for a side and Hubby will have a salad.

Hubby got some pictures of the two baby foxes in our yard today. As soon as he gets them online, I will show you them.

I hope you all have a very nice evening.

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Every Day

A Little of This and A Little of That

I went to Niagara Produce this week to get 4 dozen eggs to fill up my 5 dozen container in the refrigerator. They were still on sale for $.99 each. I also purchased fresh broccoli crowns( $1.49 a lb.) for $ 1.59 to cook as a side for a couple of dinners this week. I always check for marked down meat. While I was looking, I saw this package of on sale cheese and parsley Italian sausage. It was $3.99 a lb. so it cost $ 7.14. This will give us two homemade meals: a pasta one and a pizza one. My total was $ 12.69.

Then I went to Aldi’s to get sliced mushrooms for $ 1.29 for burgers this week and peppers($2.55) to make fajitas last night for dinner. I also got the flour tortillas for $ 1.95 for the fajitas. The organic ketchup was $2.15. The cantaloupe was $ 2.49 and the brioche buns were $3.99. I picked up 2 more butter at $2.89 lb. to add to my freezer stash. The frozen California Medley vegetables were $ 1.15. My total was $21.65.

I stopped at Panera Bread and purchased the dozen bagels Tuesday deal for $9.99 using my Panera giftcard that I purchased 3 to 4 years ago on the Top’s deal at Christmas. They give you 13 bagels so I got 7 asiago cheese and 6 cinnamon crunch. I froze most of them for future meals.

Top’s was my second to last stop. We rarely buy cereal but we do use Rice Chex in our party mix so I picked up 2 boxes on sale for $3.00 a box. The Kraft salad dressings were on sale for $ 3.00 each. We eat a lot of salads in the spring and summer so I am now stockpiled on dressings. The Skinny Pop was a treat for me. It cost $ 3.50. I got 2 Peter Pan peanut butter on sale B1G1F so it was $3.69 for 2 of them. We love this for a snack with celery. The Smithfield pork tenderloins were on B1G1F for $ 9.99 for both. We will cook these on the grill for a couple of meals this summer. The leftovers will get used in pork fried rice. The grapes were on sale for $1.88 a lb. so I paid $ 3.42 for $ 1.82 lbs. They will be used in chicken salad and for snacking. The bread was on sale for $ 2.99. I use this for French toast for my grandson and Hubby on Sundays when we are all together for breakfast. The cheddar cheese block was $ 1.88. My total for all was $ 37.47 minus my 6% senior discount of $ 2.25. So OOP was $35.22.

My last stop was at Consumer Beverage where I returned bottles for $6.00 which I used to defray the cost of a 24 pack of Yuengling Lager that cost $22.99 plus bottle deposits of $1.20 – $6.00 plus $ 1.84 in tax totaled $20.03. I am also submitting an $ 8.00 rebate. This is Hubby’s treat after he is done mowing the lawn.

We needed food so I finally had to go shopping. The only way I could get through it was to use a lidocaine patch. But I was totally exhausted when I got home.

I submitted a $6.00 rebate for 3 bottles of Kendall Jackson wine.

We have not turned on the A/C yet even though we have had a couple of 80+ days. Our home has high ceilings so we stay pretty cool in here. We also have ceiling fans in 2 bedrooms, a portable fan in the 3rd bedroom, and ceiling fans in the breakfast room, which is where we eat all of our meals, the great room, and the office. We have only had to use select fans a couple of days.

Our landscaper replaced the tree that died since he planted it last fall. It was under a year warranty. It is a nice red maple and is a bit bigger than the one that died. I pray that this one survives.

In the month of May, we had $ 1078.83 in extra income and rebates.

What have you been doing to save a few dollars?

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Every Day

A Little of This and A Little of That To Save a Bit of Money

We have had so much rain since we had the sprinkler system opened for the season that we have not had to water the lawn even once. This is a huge savings if this keeps up every few days. We have forecasts of rain for this entire holiday weekend. We don’t mind since we have no plans to go anywhere or do anything outside.

Last year we spent $40. a piece for two hanging baskets for our front porch. Yesterday I found two beautiful ones at Niagara Produce that were very full for $ 24.99 each. I had made up my mind that I would not spend $40. each this year so I was happy to find these.

While I was at N.P., I picked up 2 dozen extra large eggs at $.99 a dozen. They had very few left which leaves me wondering if this deal is going away. I also got two on sale strip steaks($10.99) a lb.

I had to go to the bank first and then I went to B.J.’s where I bought a package of strip steaks($30.41 for 3), Canadian bacon($9.99), a large package of 85/15 ground beef($26.87) 6 beefsteak tomatoes($6.99), a roasted chicken($4.99), and 4 port wine cheese($4.99 each) that Hubby loves. The strip steaks were more money a lb. here but they looked so much better than N.P.’s.

Wegman’s parking lot was full so I did not go there. I had planned on getting gasoline but every station must have pushed their prices up because of this holiday weekend. I will see if they come down this week and then fill up.

Our cherry tree has fruit ripening but they aren’t very big this year. I am hoping to pick them before the birds eat them all like they did last year.

Hubby cleaned and serviced our riding lawn mower including sharpening the blades. It is too expensive to have the John Deere place do it. I also had him pick up extra oil for the lawnmower because finding it is becoming an issue.

I have stopped buying oil sprays for baking. I am saving my butter wrappers to use instead to grease the baking pans.

Hubby wants meatloaf tonight. I had a container with a few onions in it so I threw them in and added bread crumbs, spices, an egg, and a small can of tomato sauce. It is topped with 5 slices of bacon. It is in the oven now. He will have tater tots with it. I am going to have a few slices of tomato with mine. This meatloaf should make us 2 meals and perhaps a lunch for him.

Today I scanned all of my recent receipts into Fetch. I am saving for giftcards to use for Christmas presents.

I made out a Kendall-Jackson rebate form for $8.00 for wine I purchased as a gift and to have on hand for company .

My pain patches for my back when it acts up so that I can get through my day were in low supply. I have always purchased them from Walmart. Someone told me that they were cheaper at Amazon. I checked prices both places. Walmart had the best price if you bought in bulk. I ordered 120 patches for $28.00. That is dirt cheap! They will get used because Hubby uses them sometimes too.

I am researching Mystery Shopping for my area. I used to do a lot of shops for a large company when I lived in Arizona. I am going to try to get into doing it again here.

I just threw a load of wash in. I put our brushes in a produce bag that I use for this purpose only. I tie it up nice and tight so the hair does not get into my machine. The washing machine does a great job of cleaning them and I can clean the hair out of the bag afterward.

Dinner is almost ready so it is time to eat.

I hope you are all having a great holiday weekend.

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Every Day

A Little of This and a Little of That

Sorry that this is a day late. We had the new furnace installed yesterday and they didn’t leave until late. I had about enough time to heat up a can of soup for dinner and then make my Monday night call to my sister. When I hung up with her, I went to bed.

They have all the rest of the add on work that I talked about to do today. They wanted to get the furnace in and up and running because it is cold here. They did not want us to be without heat. My old furnace was so noisy. This one you can’t even hear turn on. It is so quiet and much more efficient. It will be interesting to see if it makes a difference in my heat bill. They made sure that both the heat and A/C were running well when they were done.

Hubby can keep an eye on them and Eloise today. I have a hair appointment and I need to get a package of new furnace filters on the way home. This furnace takes bigger filters than our other one did.

I may or may not stop at Top’s. I think my list only has three items and I am going to take a look to see if I really need them or can substitute some things that I already have in my stockpile. Recently I had finally spent enough money at Top’s to earn a $10.00 gift card from the game they are running. So I will use that to pay the next time I do go.

I will be stopping at Panera Bread to pick up the Tuesday dozen bagel deal with my gift cards that I purchased many years ago. Panera and Home Depot are in the same plaza so no extra gasoline.

Last week I did my shopping at Niagara Produce. I just got 2 dozen extra large eggs because they were on sale again for $. 99 a dozen. The sale was finished last Friday but the new ad has the same price again. So I will get more next time I go there. We go through a lot of eggs for brunches and snacks. So I just keep filling up my 5 dozen box and rotate the eggs.

I have also been doing a lot of baking so that I can fill up the oven when I do turn it on. Baking takes a lot of eggs. I have been filling up my freezer with the baked goods so that when it finally gets warm here, I won’t have to turn the oven on. We will be set for the summer.

Meals have all been at home for the past 10 days or so with the exception of when my son took me and hubby out to breakfast for Mother’s Day. I have done soup out a can and homemade turkey soup that I had frozen in portions. I marinated two large pork tenderloins. One I froze with the hoisin sauce recipe that I used to marinate them. The other I cooked this weekend and we ate 2 meals from it. We had enough left that I was going to freeze a portion and make pork fried rice out of the rest of it. However Hubby has not been feeling well lately so I am lucky if I can get him to eat soup. So I froze the rest in 2 portions for 2 future meals. I also made pasta salad and we had that 2 nights and for 1 brunch. I made shake and bake chicken breasts and mac and cheese as a side for 2 meals. I also had broccoli which I could eat every day but Hubby doesn’t like it. So we have salads more often. Breakfasts have been muffin melts or eggs with bacon, sausage, or steak umms. We also have eaten some homemade pumpkin or banana bread with those meals.

I am faithfully writing down when I turn my appliances on. I just put them in my planner for each day. I put what appliance and the time that I turn it on and it turns off. This will give me a better idea of how many kwh hours I am using with each one. It is a lot easier than using the handheld kwh meter to do it. Our smart meter stats on the electric and natural gas company site are two days delayed. This way I can just look at my planner when each day gets updated and see what I am actually using per appliance and what is causing big spikes in the kwh’s. I am really trying to lower our bill.

I am still washing my laundry with cold water and hanging most everything to dry. I only run the dishwasher when it is really full which is about every three days.

Well that is it for now. What have you been doing to save a few $$$’s?

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Every Day

Back To The 1970’s

I keep hearing how the baby boomers had it so much easier than now. It is just not true. We had a very high period of inflation that lasted into the 1980’s. Inflation peaked in 1980 at 14.6% and mortgages were at 16%. We had a neighbor who moved in that we became very good friends with. When she told me their home interest rate was at 16%, I was shocked. Ours at the time was 8 and 1/2% because we had had our home built in 1978 and that was high enough. The mortgage rates just kept rising. Inflation reared it’s ugly head during the Carter administration because of high unemployment, rising oil prices, and government spending. It lasted just over 10 years from the 1970’s through 1980. Sound familiar?

Our salary in 1970 was around $11,500. We were a one income family. I was a stay at home mom to two sons who were born in the early 1970’s. It was cheaper to stay at home rather than pay a babysitter. My mom worked and Hubby’s mom was older so there was no one to help. You were on your own. Hubby was offered a different job in 1971 which he took that paid a bit more.

But we survived. It was not any easier than it is now. After taxes, social security, health insurance, etc., it was a small amount that you had to live on each month.

When we were a couple, I had $25. a week to buy food when we were first married. I squeezed every penny. When the boys were born, we upped that to $ 80. every two weeks. It stayed at that amount for years until they were teenagers. I shopped once every payday which was every other week. That included food, diapers, personal care, and household products. We had one of the first “warehouse clubs” called GEX at that time. I would go there and buy the needed items that were on sale. Then I would fill in with fresh produce in season at the farmer market stands. When produce wasn’t in season, I would meticulouly research what was cheaper: fresh, frozen, or canned. Meat was purchased on loss leader at the grocery store when we could afford it. I remember trying TVP(textured vegetable protein) plant based that mimicked ground beef because we could not afford regular ground beef. It was the worst tasting food ever. I only used a 1/4 to a 1/2 lb. at that time in a casserole. To finish up the lb. I had to doctor it up with sauces to make it edible. We never purchased it again. I have never purchased plant based meat today and never will.

I portion controlled all of our food and we never wasted a scrap. I would look over the food ads for the sales and cut any coupons that I could use. I shopped with a list and didn’t buy anthing that wasn’t on it. We would have a sweet dessert about once a month and we rarely purchased junk food. We ate a lot of spaghetti back then because it was cheap. I would sprinkle some ground beef into the sauce. Many meals were meatless. Peanut butter and jelly or eggs for lunch along with some fresh fruit. We ate lots of homemade soup, stews, and chili for dinners. You could stretch the meat in those things.

We had a small garden with strawberries and vegetables when we lived in our first home. Then we planted and enjoyed blueberries in our next one.

I washed cloth diapers for two babies and hung them to dry on our outdoor clothes line.The only Pampers I would use was when we would go out visiting at someone’s home. I got a box at GEX for $.99 for 12 and they would last us a few months. I used my washer to clean all of our clothes but I hung them to dry outside. I did not use the dryer. We were an all electric house until they lifted the ban on installing natural gas. Our electric bills back then in the winter in the late 1970’s were $600 or over for 2 months.

Gasoline was very expensive and we had shortages for a very long time. Hubby and a friend carpooled to work to save on it. They would alternate weeks. Work was 30 minutes away. On the week that our car stayed home, I would only go out to get needed groceries, take a child to the doctor, and sit in line to fill up the car. Many, many times I would sit in line for an hour and they would run out of gas before it was my turn. Then you would have to keep trying to find a station that had some gas again. I did this with the babies with me. It was so much worse than it is today. We did not go anywhere else with the car until they were old enough for nursery school and we carpooled that with 5 other families.

We cut down on Christmas gifts when they were babies. Only necessities were purchased and perhaps a stuffed animal or small rattle or toy. Many of those years we did not exchange gifts with anyone outside of our own little family.

We bought absolutely nothing that wasn’t a necessity back then. When the boys were born, baby showers gave us many items. I was offered many hand me downs and I took full advantage of those. Then I passed all of their clothes down to my cousin when she had a boy. I had a sewing machine at that time and made some of their clothes too.

Necessities were not wants. They were you can’t go without these items.

The difference I see today is all the tech stuff that costs a lot of money. Many children when they grow up want everything their parents had and more right away. They aren’t willing to save for it and then buy it. They charge these items and then get into a cycle of debt that many never get out of. We, baby boomers, always saved for the things we needed. Then we bought them.

The other difference I see from the 1970’s to now is that we always made savings a priority. Each and every paycheck had a portion set aside for emergencies. The savings rate today is abysmal.

Perhaps the way to survive everything going up today is to go back and live the way we did from the 1970’s through the early 1980’s. It’s your choice.

An example: We need some furniture. We have the money to buy it but I refuse to pay the prices today. Will it come down in price? Eventually, it will but not to the prices it was in 2020. Experience has shown me that.

I will say that we did have one advantage. We had TV’s but they weren’t on all day. There were commercials but not many and there were only a few shows a day. Every night, the TV stations signed off at midnight. Today, you are bombarded with commericials on TV, on You Tube, on Facebook. They are everywhere. I hate them so I ignore them. We DVR our shows so that we can fast forward through them.

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Every Day

A Little of This and a Little of That

I did just a bit of shopping this week for things that we really needed. I went to Dollar Tree and got 6 shelf stable whole milk and 2 shelf stable chocolate milk for $ 1.25 each. I know this milk has chemicals to preserve it but I don’t feel the pasteurization of regular milk is that great for it either. It tastes just like fresh when chilled. It also keeps a long, long time.

Next I went to Top’s and got tomatoes on the vine for $1.88 lb. One we have already cut into for hamburgers we had one night this week. But there are 4 whole ones left. I spent $ 2.97 for them. FYI: Tomatoes are going to be in short supply this season. 80-90% come from California and they have drought and a lack of water. The ones you are able to get will be very expensive. I have plenty of canned tomatoes of all kinds purchased when they were cheaper. If you don’t and use them, you should stock them now before the prices go higher than they are. If you can grow tomatoes, do it. If I see them at a good price at a farmer’s market or at Niagara Produce, I will buy just to eat fresh for BLT’s. Otherwise, we will go without fresh.

I had to go to Walmart to pick up 2 prescriptions for me. While I was there I browsed the grocery and household sections. I was absolutely shocked at how understocked they were. Their pasta section has shrunk down to one very tiny section. It should be gone by now. Their produce sections looked awful. Half of the shelves in some aisles were empty and fronted. Their candy aisle that usually is one full set of shelves on one side of the aisle had hardly anything. Their vegetable, fruit and canned meat and fish aisles weren’t much better. I have never seen it this bad. Either it is because the Strait of Hormuz is closed, people are worried about shortages, or worried that prices will skyrocket this month and are stocking up. The only things I purchased were in the household goods aisle. I got 2 boxes of 80 kitchen garbage bags for $11.22 each and 2 boxes of 30 gallon 40 ct. black garbage bags for $ 8.97 each. I hated to spend the money but this is one household good I can’t go without and I was down to my last box of each. Our garbage service will not empty your barrel unless everything is bagged. I may pick up a few more this month.

My last stop was Niagara Produce to pick up 2 dozen xtra large eggs for $.99 each. They have already been put in my 5 dozen box in the order that they expire. They also had the 3 count bag of romaine lettuce for $ 3.99.

I did stop at Top’s to get a lb. of Jimmy Dean bacon for $ 4.99 but they had none. So I got a raincheck.

I had a dental appointment earlier in the week and that is when I got all of the groceries. Six months ago when I got a cleaning, it cost me $ 276. This week it was up to $ 293. We have no dental insurance. At least the hygienist gave me a great goodie bag. It had 4 tubes of toothpaste, a toothbrush which I use for household cleaning( we have electric toothbrushes), 2 floss, etc. It has all been added to my stockpile.

While I write this, my dishwasher is running on the quick cycle and it is really full. I will open it to let the dishes air dry. We have been using really cheap paper plates when we can so we don’t have to run it as often. It should make a difference in our bill at least a little bit.

This week I only ran one load of wash and hung most of it to dry.

Our sprinkler system company came to open it up for the season and make sure everything was in good working order and all of the sprinkler heads were adjusted to hit the areas they should. We have no idea what the bill will be because they mail it. It will be interesting to see how much it has gone up.

Today is the deadline that NYS says the counties and towns must post the proposed assessments online that our next school and property taxes are based on. I have been very worried about that because each year they have been majorly raising it. Since we have lost our senior deduction for the school taxes in September, I did not want to see the assessment raised too. I was so happy to see that my assessment was not raised from what it was last year. That gives us a needed break at least for a year.

Besides hamburgers this week, we have had cheeseburger skillet dish with sausage that I had cooked up and put in the freezer, Chinese food, and ham sandwiches. Our breakfasts have been eggs and sausage, cereal with fruit, and English muffins with homemade peach jam.

Now that it is May 1st and I have all of my figures for April, we had extra income in the amount of $ 2644. 25. April was a good month.

How have you guys saved a few bucks this week?

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Every Day

My Money Saving Days

Thursday:

We are again eating only from our stockpile of food here at home. We do have a night out for dinner next week with friends but the rest of the week I will be cooking at home.

We started this morning with coffee that I purchased back before the prices went up a few years ago. Then I cooked an egg and sausage McMuffin using 1 egg, an English muffin with butter, and two small sausages. Since our natural gas is cheaper to use to cook than electricity, I opted to cook the egg quickly in a small frypan. The sausages were already cooked but frozen so it was just a matter of putting them in the microwave for 40 seconds. Hubby opted to have a small apple fritter for breakfast.

We only eat 2 meals a day so dinner was grilled strip steaks, baked potatoes, and a salad. We had romaine lettuce that needed to be used up so we will probably have salads the rest of the week. We had planned on grilling outside but the rains came. So we did them inside using the air fryer setting on our countertop oven. We plan on using our outside propane grill to do most of our cooking this season when it is dry outside.

The Top’s flyer that came in the mail yesterday got thrown out without reading it since I will only be using the raincheck for the BS chicken breasts. I didn’t even bother to look at the Aldi ad that started yesterday. I do have to pick up some scripts that will be ready for Hubby next week so I will swing into Top’s and get that chicken. Walmart and Top’s are only one block apart so I will not be using up much gasoline.

I forgot about sheets that have been in the dryer since last weekend. Fortunately they were dry and I don’t care that they are a little wrinkled. So I folded them and put them away.

Eloise did not wake me up until after 4 am this morning. I was grateful. I fed her from her stockpile of food purchased a while ago on sale. Once it was light out about 6:15am, I opened all of the shades and blinds to let the sun in. It is supposed to rain later so I will use the sun while I can. Lights were turned off after the sun rose except for one lamp that Hubby only used while he did his newspaper crossword puzzles. Lights will stay off until dark.

Now it is time to go out and clean/detail our SUV. It is so dirty so this is going to take me a while. But since I will be not be spending $ 200. to get it done, I don’t mind doing it at all.

I called Spectrum to try to get the bill reduced. The only way I could do that was to go to a lower TV plan. They sent me everything that was included in that plan. So Hubby compared it to what we have now and he was not willing to give up what he already has. To keep him happy since he watches much more TV than I do, we are keeping what we have right now.

Friday:

Eloise again slept until 4am. I am liking this change.

I noticed when I fed her this morning that we are getting low on her delectables, dry food, and her cat litter. Chewy is offering a $30. e-gift card when you spend $100. You have to make sure that what you are ordering is in the deal. It doesn’t expire until the 19th. I was able to buy her delectables in bulk and get 2 of the cat litter using the discounted autoship prices and get the giftcard. That will allow me to buy her dry cat food which was not part of the deal uing the $30. gift card. Pet supplies are so expensive now that working these offers saves a lot of money.

While I was doing this deal, it reminded me to mention something to all of you. Amazon is no longer giving free shipping to anyone unless you have Amazon Prime no matter how much you spend. I refuse to pay $139. per year for that. I can get most items cheaper elsewhere or on Walmart with my + membership.

Brunch this morning for us was homemade egg McMuffins and coffee.

Last night when I baked the potatoes for dinner, I baked an extra 3 so that I could make potato salad for tonight. That has been done. We will have it with it with fish fillets for me and chicken tenders for Hubby. We are trying to use up small amounts from the freezer.

I emptied a thick large bag of toilet paper today. I have saved the bag to empty our wastebaskets into it until it full. The thickness of this bag satisfies my garbage company’s requirements.

I gave Eloise a dry shampoo bath. She does not like bathing in the tub. Since she is the cleanest cat we have ever had, this will suffice. She licks herself clean about 6 times a day. The dry shampoo also has aloe in it which is good for her skin and coat and won’t harm her when she licks.

Hubby and I watched 3 DVRed shows from this past week tonight for entertainment. Then I went to bed early so that I could get up early. Hubby watched football.

Saturday:

Again I was able to sleep to 4am before Eloise meowed at our door.

Breakfast this morning will be cereal. Oatmeal for me and granola for Hubby using shelf stable milk. We will have spaghetti with sauce and meatballs and homemade garlic toast on the side for dinner.

I need to do a load of laundry in cold water and then hang it to dry.

Having noticed that we had a spike in electricity a week ago, I started writing down when things are being used around here and at what time. We normally use from .53 to .81 kwh’s according to our hourly stats using our smart meter. At 8am one morning, we had a spike to 4.9 kwh’s. I found out what it was a couple of days later. I had turned on the flourescent light above my computer desk so I could see to do some work. I realized it when a couple of days later, I had turned the light on again. When the stats showed up online, I again had that spike. Needless to say I will not be using that light again. I will use our overhead lights in the kitchen because they use much lower kwh’s.

Today will be a reading day for me. I want to find some recipes using what we have in our stockpile. I also continue to read frugal books again before I donate them to the library.

I hope you are all having a money saving weekend. Please share with us so that we can learn from you.

Categories
Every Day

A Little of This and a Little of That

Since gasoline is so expensive, I bundled errands yesterday. First stop was at Top’s for some loss leaders. They had Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts on sale for $ 2.19 a lb. But they were totally out. The new sale ad just went into effect the day before. I find this quite aggravating. The butcher told me that they would get a truck in last night. Since I am not about to waste gasoline and make another trip chasing this sale, I got a raincheck for 2 large packages. The raincheck is good for about 6 weeks. I will use it next time I need something at or near Top’s.

For those of you who have freezer space, Market in the Square is having a chicken sale if you buy 40 lbs. Info:

𝐏𝐫𝐞-𝐎𝐫𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝟒𝟎 𝐥𝐛. 𝐁𝐨𝐱:

(MUST order online before Tues. 4/14 at noon)

40lb of Chicken Breasts: $79

40lb of Chicken Leg Quarters: $39

40lb of Whole Chicken Wings: $59

40lb of Chicken Drumsticks: $35

Plus… No sales tax! 💰

* Pickup: Fri 4/17 – Sun 4/19 from 8am-4pm

* Available from both West Seneca & North Tonawanda Meat Departments

This is a great deal. The chicken breasts work out to $ 1.795 per lb. I don’t have the freezer space. If I did, I would be all over this sale.

I did pick up 3 chicken broths and 2 beef broths at $1.49 each when you buy 5. This was a really good deal for here. I can my own chicken broth but sometimes I am out so these fill in when that happens. I never have enough beef bones to make beef broth. Bananas were on sale with a super coupon for $ .39 a lb. Limit 5 pounds. Each week during the Moolahville game that Top’s is running they have a coupon for a deep discount. So I picked up this package of hamburger buns for $ .49. If you shop Top’s, make sure to add this coupon to your digital wallet attached to your bonus card. That is all I got. We still have lots of stockpile items to work our way through.

Then I went to Walmart to pick up some special toothpaste that the dentist recommended for Hubby. It was cheaper for a 2 pack at $ 12.47 than one tube for $7.49. I also picked up his 3 prescriptions. They shocked me when they told me the bill was $ 3706. I told the cashier that I didn’t think they applied our insurance. Sure enough they hadn’t so they fixed their error and the total came to $78.+ before they added the toothpaste on.

We got a disappointing letter in the mail yesterday from NYS. They informed us that we did not qualify for the Enhanced Star Rebate(must be over 65 and own and live in your home) for our school taxes in September. Each year they up the cut off income amount. Unfortunately, we made much more income for the 2024 year than they based it on. They go 2 years back so 2026 taxes are based on 2004 income tax year. I was so happy when we qualified last September. We had not qualified in years. But looking at our income on our 2025 taxes which they will base the 2027 cut off on, I don’t think we will qualify again for 2027. I know we should be happy that we make more and more income each year. But this reduction was quite a bit of money last year. It saved us $ 1080.49 last year. Every year we will be chasing it so I don’t think we will qualify again. Our investments keep our income high. I will make that money up by doing some more cutting back.

I have decided to clean the inside of our SUV myself this year. It is pretty muddy and dirty from the winter. I got a $ 200. quote from the company who did my carpet cleaning and it is a good price. However with the disappointing letter on the school taxes, I will save that $200. by doing it myself.

On a different subject, we had our new neighbors over for dinner on Saturday night this past weekend. We had a terrific time and enjoyed their company very much. I made the best chicken in wine sauce that I have made in a long time. We added a caesar salad and broccoli for sides. For dessert, I stuffed cara mia oranges with orange sherbert and spooned fresh strawberries in a bit of juice over the top. I just cut off the tops(about 1/4 to 1/3 down) off the oranges and cut out the insides and save them to go with breakfasts. Then fill the shells. Put them in the freezer until you are ready to serve them. This dessert is so refreshing and easy and the combination is so yummy. You can also add a pinch of coconut on top of the strawberries if you like that.

Have you saved any money recently by getting a great deal? Please feel free to share with us.

Categories
Every Day

Just a Bit of Cutting Costs

We had a nice Easter dinner with our son and grandson. Everyone else was sick so they stayed home. We have been eating those leftovers and finally finished them today.

I needed to buy some bourbon and Chardonnay for company that we are having to dinner on Saturday night. We have a new liquor store that opened a couple of months ago near me. Their prices are lower than the one I have been going to since we moved here. So this is where we will go from now on. They also built a beverage center next to the liquor store. I love one stop shopping. So I was able to get a 12 pack of Yeungling for Hubby. He likes to have a beer once in a while after he mows the lawn. I came home and submitted a rebate online for $6.00 for the beer.

While I was running errands, I stopped at Top’s gas station to fill up my tank that was getting pretty empty. The price at the pump was $ 4.20. I got $ .60 off a gallon using points. So I only paid $ 3.60 a gallon. That was high enough. Yikes!

We hired a carpet cleaning service to clean our great room and master bedroom wall to wall carpeting. Both off white carpets. They also cleaned all the carpeting on our stairs going to the basement and the landing at the bottom and our great room sofa and matching chair. Hubby has been cleaning all of these for the past 16 years with our Bissell Shampooer. His back does not like that work anymore. Hence the need to hire someone. They did a fabulous job. All of these look new with the exception that she could not get a spot of newsprint off the sofa arm. Hubby’s hands left that after reading the newspaper at home in prior years. However because she couldn’t get it out, she took $70. off our bill. That was a bonus we were not expecting. We would hire her again.

This morning, Hubby had an appointment at Dunn Tire which has been purchased recently by Discount Tire. We have been going to Dunn for 16 years and always had great service. We needed to have the snow tires taken off and the regular tires put back on. His appointment was at 10am. Hubby called me to say they still hadn’t taken the car in to do it. That was at 11am. He wanted to let me know so that I didn’t worry. But he was also quite pissed and he let them know it. Evidently the service there has gone downhill since they were purchased. So he got the telephone number of corporate and had every intention of calling them to complain when he got home. Believe me, I have been married to Hubby for almost 60 years and I don’t remember him ever being this pissed. When they finally finished the car at 11:30am, they let him know it was ready. He went to pay at the register and he was told there was no charge. The manager evidently made that decision. The cost to do this was $100.+ tax which would have been another $8.00. However, Hubby had a 50% off coupon with him. so it would have only cost us $50. and $ 4.00 in tax. Hubby still is going to file a complaint with corporate. They should know of the lousy service at this location. But he will let them know what the manager did for him. Hubby said none of the people who serviced us for 16 years there are employed there anymore. They probably hired cheaper labor and the customer service just isn’t there.

We had our heat turned off for most of the day because it was 54 outside and the sun was shining. I had all of the window coverings open. It was just beautiful. I have now turned it back on because it will be cold tonight. We had snow yesterday. This time of year the weather is a mixed bag. Hopefully we will be able to turn the heat off by the end of May.

I did a load of laundry today in cold water and dried it in the dryer using the tennis balls which caused it to dry faster than it would have.

Hubby did the first mowing of our lawn today. He was enjoying doing it on his rider and soaking up the sunshine.

We have been cooking and eating all of our meals at home. The prime rib just got finshed up today. I will be happy to make a Chef’s salad for dinner tomorrow night.

That’s it for now. Have you saved or not spent any money this week?

Categories
Every Day

A Little of This and a Little of That

This past week has been busy. I am getting ready for all of my family to come for Easter dinner. Those ribeye roasts that I purchased will be the main course. I think I will roast both of them in my turkey roaster since there will be so many of us. I have planned mashed potatoes, cauliflower rice, broccoli, corn, and gravy for sides. I will also have fresh strawberries with whipped cream for dessert. I have to keep the Keto people happy. We have not been together in a long time so I am so looking forward to a great time. My son who lives across the state in the Adirondacks is coming tomorrow night. I haven’t seen him since Thanksgiving .So we will enjoy having him here for a few days. I am hoping to fly out to see him this summer. I just have to drive an hour+ to get to an airport that has a direct flight. Or maybe I can hitch a ride with my son when they go to visit his wife’s parents in NH. He can drop me a few miles away where my son can pick me up.

We are also having new friends for dinner next weekend. We can’t wait. It has been a long winter and we are all starting to be able to get out in the nice weather and meet people.

Just yesterday, Hubby’s sister let me know that she is flying out to visit us in August. She lives in Houston. Hubby is very excited about that. We haven’t seen her in two years. So this wlll be a busy spring and summer.

I haven’t seen my baby sister in a long time(7 or 8 years) . Her Hubby isn’t well enough to come and visit. My sister does not drive except to go to medical appointments. I told her she could take the bus and we would pick her up here in Buffalo. I even offered to pay for her bus tickets. She finally told me that she is not coming because she is afraid to leave her Hubby home alone. Neither Hubby not I want to drive such a long trip anymore. So I will just have to take the bus and surprise her one day this year.

Well enough about family.

We have done a few things to save money this week. I went to the bank this week and got our cash that we use for various things. I deposited two checks into a different account than the one I take the cash from.

We have been eating easy things this past week while I get everything ready for the weekend. We have had homemade pizza, roast beef sandwiches, soup, salads, etc. I am actually using paper plates from my stockpile to have less dishes to wash.

I am still washing laundry in cold water and hanging most of it to dry. We are mindful of how much electric and natural gas we are using.

I can’t believe that it is April already. Our landscaping people will be here this month to do our spring clean up. We also have a few bushes to remove that have gotten too big. We will have them replace them with somethiing else. Our sprinkler system people will be here to open our system and make sure that everything is running smoothly for the spring and summer. I have hired an ECO friendly carpet cleaning service to come next week. They will clean carpeting and my fabric furniture. ECO is important to me because of Eloise. All of that will cost a ton of money but that is why we saved for years so that we can easily afford to do these things. Hubby has always cleaned our carpets with our own machine. I have decided it is too much for him any longer so that is why I hired this company.

We had a good March. We did not spend all of our grocery money but we did spend more than we did in January and February. That is because I stocked so much beef on loss leader sales and some other loss leaders. We did have extra income this month of $ 1128.75. Not as much as other months this year but we didn’t spend as much as in the past two months either. So we continue to build our net worth.

That’s it for today. I have last minute cleaning to do since my family starts arriving tomorrow.

I hope you all have a nice Easter.