Tag: a little of this and a little of that

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A Little of This and a Little of That

These are a few of the things that we have been doing to save some money recently:

Hubby took the SUV to get the snow tires put on since we may have some snow coming the end of this week. He went to the garage that was giving 50% off for the changeover.

Hubby went and visited the dentist that he is planning on going to now that our dentist has retired from the practice he sold to. It is only 3.9 miles each way from our home. The old dentist was 10.1 miles each way. That will save us on gasoline. We will pay $ 103. less for a cleaning and exam than we paid at the old one. Hubby has made his appointment for this month. I will not be switching until my denture warranty is up which will be the end of February. Then I will go to the new practice also.

We have been eating up all the leftovers from having company: homemade chili, homemade garlic bread, waldorf coleslaw, ham and cheese sandwiches, and tonight we will make a salad with leftover meat and cheeses.

I purposely made too much rice to put the chili on so that I would have baggies of rice ready to go in the freezer. We ate one baggie when we ate the chili leftovers but we still have 4 more frozen for other meals. They heat up so nicely in the microwave. This is a huge savings of money when you make your own instead of buying those 90 second rice packets. Each of my packets cost about $ .30 vs. $ 2.48 at the market.

Our landscaper called to see if we wanted a Fall cleanup. Hubby said no and has been doing it himself a little at a time. He now has most of the weeds done and the trimming of the bushes done that needed it. That saved us anywhere from $700.- $1700. He just has some rose bushes to cut back and he will be done.

Hubby also mows our lawn himself with the riding lawnmower. This time of year our trees have been dropping leaves. Hubby mulched them most of the time but recently he bagged them with the mower. That is not easy for him but they are almost all down so he should have one more mowing and be done for the year.

Our snowplow guy finally came and put driveway marker stakes up to get ready for this snow plowing season. We were getting concerned that he forgot us and we were thinking about marking it ourselves. They are $ 5.47 each and he did 4 so that saved us some money that we were about to spend.

My son put our snowblower in the garage for us just in case for some reason the snowplow guy can’t get here. The snowplow guy does not do the sidewalk so if we get a lot of snow we can use it. We need to keep that and the porch cleared for deliveries. I checked our ice melt supply and we have enough that it should get us through the winter.

We have decided not to close off the 2 extra bedrooms this winter. After doing some research about cold air returns, we have decided that our furnace won’t work as hard by keeping them open. We had cold air returns put in these 2 rooms when the new furnace was installed last spring. So we will try it this year to see if it makes a difference in our bills. I will keep the blinds, drapes, and energy saving shades closed in those 2 rooms unless the sun is shining into them.

I have a girl’s day out coming up soon with my friend. We will be doing some shopping but I really need nothing so I doubt that I will spend much money except for lunch and perhaps a bottle of wine at the winery.

I have been researching the deals and making my list to go to Top’s this week. There are lots of loss leaders that I will be getting soon to get stocked for a year. I am waiting to go until the day I can get double gasoline points.

That is about it for now. What have you been doing to save some money?

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Every Day

A Little of This and a Little of That

Before I forget, today will be my last post until Tuesday. Hubby’s sister is arriving tomorrow from Houston for a visit. So I will be busy until next Tuesday.

I have planned out our dinner menu’s for the time she is here. I will be making chicken parmesan tomorrow night with a side salad. Friday night will be hamburgers and FF’s. Saturday night we will have our friends joining us for dinner too. That will be a very enjoyable evening. Hubby is going to make his chili which will be served on rice and his coleslaw salad as a side. Dessert will be orange sherbert to cool down the heat from the chili. Sunday will be any leftovers from the other meals because you know I do not waste food. So they will get eaten or frozen. On Monday she leaves before dinner. So it will be something easy for just us. I like to get bedding washed and put back on the bed right after company leaves. All the towels and any cleaning that needs to be done will get done that evening so that I wake up to a clean house on Tuesday.

Yesterday, I shopped at Walmart after I took a return to Dollar General. For any of you that don’t know, they take returns for Fed Ex. It was a postage paid return so it didn’t cost us a dime.

At Walmart, I purchased a Butterball turkey at $.97 a lb. for a total of $14.92. If you are planning on getting one there, I would do it quickly. Our store had loads a week ago but they are dwindling fast. I also picked up some sausage for $ 6.94 for breakfasts and some chicken patties for $5.96 which Hubby and I love for quick sandwiches. Lastly, I got a 1/2 gallon of 1/2 and 1/2 for $ 4.98 and a 12 pack of Zero Sugar Fanta for $8.92. Every time I buy that it kills me because the price is so high. But Hubby always starts his day with one can. He calls it his juice. He let me know before I went that he had just opened his last can. I keep looking for a sale so I can stock at a better price. So my total was $ 42.43. I didn’t count the bottle deposits because I get my money back when I return them. Sorry, there was no picture because I quickly got all the meat in the freezer so we could run out to vote.

Talking about the voting, two things come to mind. If it didn’t go your way, don’t be upset because it didn’t go your way. Instead put your time and energy into making your individual finances better. Do all the frugal things everyday! They all add up! Secondly, be happy you don’t have any more political calls or ads to deal with!!!

I am going to put my energy into doing a load of wash today and hanging it to dry and changing our bedding. It is getting very close to the end of the year so we will be going over our finances and planning for the New Year. Then if I have any time left, I will do some more work in our basement. There are a lot of things down there that we no longer use. I will find them and decide if I should sell them or donate them.

BTW, have you noticed my new logo on the left hand side of my blog posts? My son, who is my admin, made that for me the other day. I was thrilled.

I hope you all have a great week. I will be back here next Tuesday.

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Every Day

A Little of This and a Little of That

Yesterday I went to the salon to have my roots done and a haircut. I usually go every 4 weeks to have either roots or highlights and a cut done. However I made my next appointment for 6 weeks to see how that works out. If that works out it would save me about 4 trips a year. I need to lower this monthly bill. She is doing a different cut for me and I am loving it! Two more cuts should have my hair just about perfect. I have a few layers that need to grow out.

I planned on getting a flu shot but the Top’s pharmacy had a long wait. I think I will make an appointment which will be quicker. Hubby got his at a doctor’s appointment this week. None of my doctors are giving them. It is covered by Medicare so there will be no cost to me except the amount I pay to have Medicare. I picked up a loaf of bakery rye bread on sale for $2.99 and provolone cheese slices on sale for $1.88 each while I was there. Limit 2. That is it for the loss leader sales this week at Top’s.

We had corned beef reubens for dinner. Hubby made them and they were so good. I have talked him into making them again tonight.

Hubby got up in the middle of the night last night with Eloise which let me sleep a few hours longer. As soon as the heat came up in the house at 7:00 am, I took my navy shower. I am sure after all this time you know what that is. With natural gas and water prices so high and continuing to go up, it is one of the best ways to save on those things.

Hubby informed me yesterday that he hates our 11 in 1 oven. That was a surprise! I hate the fact that the drip tray does not clean up well because it is aluminum. Otherwise I have no issues. He hates that it takes up so much space on the kitchen counter. He also isn’t enamored with how it toasts. The only thing he does love about it is that it cooks steaks beautifully. So If I can find an airfryer 9 in 1 or 6 in 1 that works as well or better with a smaller footprint, we will buy it as an early Christmas gift. I have been researching them but I am too cheap to pay $39. a year for Consumer Reports to see which one they say is the best.

We also need a dishwasher but we know exactly which one we want. I am waiting to see the Black Friday sales for that or if there are none, we will wait until February when they have most of them on sale. It is unbelievable how expensive the Bosch’s are now. The one we want is around $1500. We have loved our Bosch because it is quiet and cleans beautifully. It has served us well for 16 and 1/2 years. The panel with the controls is broken and it is very expensive to replace if you can actually find the part. I can still use it by hitting the back of the panel to turn the controls on but I never know when that will stop working. If it does, I will wash dishes by hand until we get a good sale price. I really don’t want to put a lot of repair money into this older machine. We have the money in our appliance fund for a new one. By saving ahead, there is no real stress when something breaks.

Talk about not working. The power went out yesterday for a few minutes. It was so dark in here because the sun hadn’t come up yet. I found our bright portable lantern and turned it on. The power came back pretty quickly. I hate it when they have these glitches because you have to reset all of the clocks. It also turned on both my washer and dryer. I took the lantern downstairs with me in case the power went out again. I had to check that both of my freezers were working. Fortunately they were. The cashier at Top’s told me it was a result of someone hitting a pole behind their store at 6am. The power company must have switched the power over to a different circuit to get it back on that quickly. I am grateful that they have that capability.

I needed to check for 9V batteries. I really did not think I had enough to change them out in our smoke detectors. But I have double what I need so I do not have to buy them again for a while.

Today, I am going to make up the Halloween baggies with the candy I bought a few weeks ago for the children of my next door neighbors. I will get those over to the parents sometime next week. We do not give out Halloween candy anymore at the door. With all the diseases kids pick up in school today, we don’t need to catch anything at our ages. So we don’t take the chance.

The laundry basket is calling me too so I will do one load. Then I am going to spend the rest of the day cleaning my house. If I have any time left after that, I will go through our medicines and pitch anything that is expired.

I hope you all have a great weekend. We will miss watching our Buffalo Bills because it is a bye week for them.

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Winter, Bills, and Savings

Yesterday we got our $200. check from Governor Hochul to help pay our electric bills over the winter. Yup, it says that wording on it. Every person who filed taxes got some amount of a check depending on whether you were married or not and you qualified with your income. It makes no sense to me. A single person most likely didn’t qualify because their income was too high. They still have to heat their homes just like the rest of us. We got $100. for each of us. You think it is a bribe because she is up for election and she has been the one to raise all our bills because of her green energy program? Would she do that? Perhaps it was really based on how many votes were in the household. Just saying!

I got our electric and gas bill today for the past 29 days. It was $ 168.79. We used 410 kwh’s of electric and 32 ccf’s of natural gas. Not too bad considering we had company so extra showers were being taken. Out heat has pretty much been on the entire billing month too. Last year’s bill was $164.84 for 425 kwh’s and a little less ccf’s. So this bill was only $ 3.95 more. I suppose I could pay it with the $ 200. check. But we budget for such expenses so we already have the money to pay it. Since we have another check to deposit at the bank for $21.98, I will just deposit the $200. one also into our savings accounts.

This is going to be a savings winter. We will be concentrating hard on doing that. Not only do we want to keep our electric and gas bill down but we want to save every penny we can. It is the best time of the year for us to do that because we stay inside more often. We also don’t have landscaping and fertilizer bills nor do we have sprinkler system maintenance bills or high water bills which cost quite a bit of money for the spring and summer. We have already paid our snow plow guy for the winter. With the price of gasoline, I expected that that bill would go up quite a bit. But he only raised it by $25. for the entire season. $ 525. for the winter plowing is a bargain especially here on the Buffalo area. Plus he does a great job even coming back multiple times during the day when it is snowing all day.

We have a few birthdays coming up and Christmas which will cost for gifts but that money has already been set aside.

We are pretty well stocked for meals for the winter. About the only meat I will buy for dinners are turkeys, whole chickens, and any beef that I deem a rock bottom price. BTW, I saw Butterball turkeys for $ .97 a lb. and Shadybrook turkeys for $ .84 a lb. on sale here at Walmart. So I will get a couple once I know what other store prices are. I don’t expect the beef prices to go down very often. I will also buy bacon and sausage on loss leader when I need it to cook for most of our Sunday breakfasts here with family. Kalamata’s will have to be a special treat and will not happen often. It costs us about $100. including tip for breakfast now for the 4 of us.

Not this coming weekend but the following weekend, our son will get the snow tires down from the ceiling so that Hubby can get them changed over at the garage we use. He will also help us put away the patio furniture. I am also hoping he will have time to change out all of our smoke alarm batteries too before he goes home to watch the Buffalo Bills game. He does so much for us and we are grateful.

BTW, I think I just had my last dental appointment at the expensive dentist. My denture is still under warranty until the end of February. My next appointment won’t be until April. I will start with the new dentist then. Hubby will be starting next month. However, I told them on this last appt. no X-rays or fluoride. Those things will be covered under the new plan at the new dentist. They would have cost me over $200. last week. The new dentist is close to my home so there will be a big gasoline savings too.

That’s it for today. Organizing work is calling my name. I will do that after I make eggs on toast for breakfast.

How are you going to save this winter?

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Grocery Haul, etc.

After a dentist appointment last week, I went to BJ’s because it was right down the street. I purchased 2 more rotisserie chickens for $ 4.99 each and 4 lbs. of butter for $9.59 which worked out to about $ 2.40 a lb. That is the cheapest price I have seen in my area in a couple of years.

I also picked up a 32 oz. block of cheddar cheese for $ 7.79 which is about $ 1.95 for 8 oz. That is a rock bottom price here for good cheese. I shrink wrapped half of it and that is in my refrigerator for snacks. The other half has been shredded and put in the freezer to top casseroles or for tacos. I mix in just a tiny bit of cornstarch before I freeze it to keep the shreds from sticking together. This is healther than the cellulose they put in shredded cheese that you buy at the grocery store.

As you can see on my receipt, I also purchased 10 lbs. of 90% lean ground beef for $ 32.90. They had a limit of 2- 10 lb. packages of ground beef on this 42% off sale. I had already purchased one of the 80/20 the week before I got this. So I have reached my limit. I put the beef in the fridge before I took this picture to keep it cold until I could shrink wrap it. I made a small meatloaf with some of it on Wednesday. That lasted us two days. I now have about 26 lbs. of ground beef in my freezer and that should be enough to get us to the Memorial Day sales.

When Hubby had his birthday party, our friends gave him these balloons tied to 6 large cans of his favorite beer. That was a few days before the end of September. I took this picture 3 days ago and look how long they have lasted. I enjoyed them on my birthday 2 weeks later. It is Sunday October 18th and they are still inflated. I am wondering just how long these will last. In case you were wondering where they were purchased, it was Dollar Tree for $1.25 each. The next time I need to get birthday balloons, I will definitely purchase them there.

I did 3 large loads of laundry this week. I pre-treated any stains on our clothing with Dawn dish liquid. It takes all of the stains out and it is cheaper than buying those stain products that are made for the laundry. Those are expensive and most of them don’t work. Our electric blankets have been put on our beds for the winter. So all of the other blankets needed to be washed and stored away. All of the clothing was hung to dry but I did use my dryer with my wool balls to dry the blankets and our towels.

Winter will be here before we know it so we are getting ready. Snakes for the bottoms of doors of the rooms that we will not use over the winter have been taken from storage and put out. Coats and gloves have been brought upstairs to our coat closet. Winter clothes have been put in our closets and lighter weight clothing has been put in a closet we don’t use. Our boots are in the bench in the garage. The seat lifts up and we have lots of storage in it. We are keeping the heat lower by a few degrees than we have done before. That is because Hubby now has a lot of sweaters and sweatshirts to wear in the house. I am happy because not only should our heat usage be lowet but I won’t have to wear shorts in the house all winter while the heat is on. I was always sweating.

We will be getting our monthly electric and natural gas bill this week so I will again be reminded of how expensive these bills have gotten. UGH! I will report on it when I get it.

So I am off to get some work done in the house before the Buffalo Bills game. I hope you all have a great day!

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Every Day

A Little of This and A Little of That

On the way home from getting my stitches out on Monday, I stopped at B.J.’s. They are having a 42% off Birthday Celebration sale. I had no Bubba Burgers left so I picked up the 12 count box for $ 31.49. These are Hubby’s favorites. Since they are $ 19.99 elsewhere for a 6 count box, this was a great deal. Of course, I had to pick up a rotisserie chicken for $ 4.99. We had chicken sandwiches for lunch and then I picked all of the meat off and ended up with 2 bags worth for other meals. The carcass is in the freezer with others waiting until I have time to make broth next week.

The 43.5 ounce coffee was $ 15.89 after a $ 2.40 digital coupon. But the best deal of the day was the 80/20 ground beef. I only had about 3 – 1 lb. packages of ground beef left in my freezer. It ended up costing me about $ 2.71 a lb. for 10 lbs. after the 42% birthday discount. It cost me $ 27.09 total. I bought one but I am having second thoughts. I will pick up another 10 lb. roll next week when I have to travel down that way. There is a limit of 2. Twenty pounds should last me until summer when we see sales again. I food savered it up into 1 lb. packages. I don’t think I have seen a price this low in a couple of years.

On Tuesday, I finally had the time to roast my turkey. Hubby and I had a nice turkey dinner that night. Last night I ate some leftovers and Hubby ate a Chef’s salad using some of the turkey. After dinner I picked the carcass clean. We have enough meat left for 3 more meals and some to make soup. So the carcass will cook tonight in the crockpot to make the broth.

Earlier this week, the $ 90. deposits from the government to help with Medicare costs hit our bank account. That was sure quick. So any seniors who are expecting that money, check your account for the deposits.

When we had company staying here for Hubby’s birthday weekend, we kept our bedroom door open so that Eloise could sleep in with us and still get to her food and her litter box. I was concerned that she would keep us awake all night. Nope she didn’t but she did still get me up a little after 3. Then the next night, she didn’t get me up until 5:45am. This seems to work and I am getting more sleep than I have in over 2 years. Some nights it is longer and others shorter. She sleeps on the foot of one of our beds and seems to be content with that even though she has her own comfortable bed in our room. This is working and proved to me just how sleep deprived I was. I was always so tired. Now I have energy and can get many things done each day again.

I am so looking forward to later today. A very good friend is treating me to lunch to celebrate my birthday early. We are going to a town I loved when Hubby took me there years ago. We will also do some shopping.

I hope you all have a great day!

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Thanksgiving Sales and My Turkeys I Purchased Last Year

Last year I purchased 5 turkeys during the Thanksgiving sales. I purchased 2 Butterballs at $ .99 a lb., a Honeysuckle White at $ .48 a lb., and 1 Shady Brook at $84. a lb. and 1 at $ .55 a lb. I cooked 1 for Thanksgiving and 1 in January. I went down to the freezer a couple of days ago and pulled out the Honeysuckle White to thaw. I will cook that tomorrow. It is 13 lbs. They were all cheap prices. The $ .55 a lb. Shady Brook was a markdown at Walmart 2 days before Christmas. If I had had the freezer space, I would have purchased more. But alas, I didn’t. Another turkey will get cooked for Thanksgiving. That leaves one to cook sometime in January- March.

I purchased so many because I was sure the prices would go up for this Thanksgiving season and I know you can freeze them for 2 years. It looks like I may be right on the prices. Chris told me that her Kroger has them on sale for $ 1.24 a lb. That is not too bad of an increase. However our Top’s is advertising them on sale this week(says many brands) for $ 1.99 a lb. That is a huge increase! I am hoping that they will do a deal before Thanksgiving where if you spend $ 25. or $ 35. you get a turkey cheap. But I am not counting on it. It will be interesting to see what Wegman’s. Walmart, B.J.’s, and Aldi have them priced at over the next weeks. I think this is very early for Kroger and Top’s to advertise a sale on turkeys. It’s 4 weeks before Halloween. UGH!

However, I can tell you that I will not pay $ 1.99 a lb. for a turkey. Yes, I know it is cheaper than most meats. But I can buy 3 lb. rotisserie chickens at B.J.’s for $ 4.99 that are already cooked. I can also buy uncooked whole chickens for $ 1.64 a lb. So if the turkeys are high priced this year, I will purchase those two chicken items during the year. They will both give me gallons of broth too. I will also be watching Walmart for turkey markdowns just before Christmas.

So was buying 5 last year too many? I think not!

I will be cooking the turkey that I am thawing for a couple of dinners, to cut up the meat on my food slicer and freeze for sandwiches, and to make turkey soup some of which I will freeze in single portions.

Are you seeing turkey prices already where you live? What are they charging?

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Every Day

Heat is on and the Utility Bill is here

We turned the heat on in the evening two days ago. Our home was too cold. The next day we got the last bill with A/C usage on it.

The bill was for 33 days and was $ 153.47. We used 545 kwh and 4.1 therms of natural gas(only for hot water for showers, using the dishwasher, doing any pots and pans in the sink, and minimal stovetop usage).

Last year’s bill for the same time period was only for 30 days. It was $131.22. We used 405 kwh and 4.1 therms.

The difference was 3 more days this year and it was a lot wamer than last year so we ran the A/C more days.

Now with the heat on the bills will really escalate. It is supposed to be warmer this weekend so perhaps I can turn it off. We will see what weather each day brings.

Here is the prediction for what it will cost to heat your home this fall and winter:

National projections

  • NEADA: Average U.S. household heating bill projected at $1,030, up 8.7% from last year; electricity +9%, natural gas +5.8%, propane +8.7%, heating oil +31.3% NEADA.ORGNEADA.ORG.

And for we who live in the northeast and in New York:

New York is in the cold-climate Northeast, where absolute heating bills are among the highest in the U.S. due to high heating degree days and higher rates. 

seenra.com. NEADA notes Northeast households face the sharpest oil price increases, and electricity costs are also rising. 

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. But I want everyone to know so that you can plan ahead for these increases.

Our first company arrives tomorrow. Then the next day we will have more arrive. Hubby is going to be so surprised at who is coming. So I will be busy and I will be back on Wednesday after all of our company has left.

Today is my hair salon appointment and then I have 8 errands to run. I hope I have enough energy to get it all done. I am getting so excited!

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Every Day

A Little of This and a Little of That

Yesterday was surgery day. We had never been to this hospital before. We reserached and took the least mileage route to save on gasoline. We left at 6:30 in the morning. It made us appreciate the fact that we are retired because the rush hour traffic on the 3 highways we took was awful. I couldn’t imagine driving that every day. I was pretty numbed up until bedtime last night. So I got a lot of work for the party done when we got home. Today I am hurting but Tylenol is helping with that. I get my stiches out in a few weeks. Our annual checkups are in the same building that morning so I scheduled the surgeon’s appointment for right after those. That will save us some gasoline too.

They sent me home with one special waterproof bandage and a gauze pad to change it tomorrow morning. I was grateful for that because I need to change it daily. I ordered the same ones at Walmart this morning and they were very expensive.

I thought I would have my electricity and natural gas bill by now but for some reason they seem to be delayed. So maybe next post I will have it.

I cleaned our Keurig coffee maker and the parts that come off and all of the reuseable cups with hydrogen peroxide. The manufacturer sells special cleaner for this but it is between $15. and $16. a bottle. The hydrogen peroxide is only $1.00 a bottle and I think it does a much better job. Make sure you run clean water through a couple of times after you clean it. I always stock about 4 bottles of the hydrogen peroxide because I use it to clean so many things.

It is a bit chilly here this morning at 47 degrees. The house has gone down to 65. Instead of turning on the heat, we have the shades and blinds open on the sunny side of the house. I checked the weather the end of the week and it is supposed to go back to the 70’s. If not, we will turn the heat on so our guests don’t freeze.

We needed something easy to make last night for dinner. I had purchased Margaritaville Calypso Coconut Shrimp when they had it on sale for B1G1F. So I paid about $5.00 each. Instead of ordering out, we ate that instead.

I told you I thought there was something wrong with the brakes on the car. Hubby took it for the inspection last week. They passed inspection which really surprised me. But they gave him a paper that shows there is a recall of the braking system that just came out on Sept. 17th. Supposedly we are awaiting a letter with information on how to take it to the dealer for the recall. Hopefully they will have the website updated soon where you can put your VIN # in and check to see if your car is affected. But if we are included they will pay for the fix. Our inspection was only $21.

My annual check up for my eyes was done last week. Fortunately, my eyes are good and I still only need reading glasses that I can buy over the counter.

Hubby wants me to make lentil soup. I had no lentils so I ordered a 20 lb. bag and it fit perfectly in a 10 gallon bucket that I already owned. We will use a lot of them this winter.

Breakfast today was eggs over easy and sausage. Dinner will be hot dogs and some kind of veggie. I only have a few hot dogs left from the summer so we are going to use them up.

I have to look over my menu for the party and make a list of all the things that I still need to buy. That shopping will be done on the way home from my hairdresser later this week.

That is it for today! I hope you all are having a great day.

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Every Day

Working on Cutting Our Expenses

You all know that our dentist was expensive. We have spent a fortune especially on my denture expenses. Well our dentist sold his practice to a group that is actually owned by a private equity firm. He stayed for a while and then left abruptly a couple of months ago. The group actually started setting the prices about 6 months ago. Their priority seems to be making as much money as they can. They kept my old dentist’s prices as a starting point when they took over. Since then they have raised their prices twice. Hubby had an appointment recently for a cleaning and Xrays. He did not like the new hygenist. She was slow and he did not feel she was as good as we have had. The bill was outrageous.

I have been on the hunt for a new dental practice closer to home. I found one that will work for us thanks to my neighbors recommendations. I called them and asked a ton of questions. The receptionist was very helpful. The practice has more than one dentist so if we have a problem there is always someone to fill in if our dentist is on vacation. One of my questions was about my denture which is still under warranty until the end of February. I found out that warranties are not transferable between dentists. So I have an appointment for a cleaning coming up in October which I will keep with the old practice. My next one won’t be until March. So I will transfer my records on March 1st to the new practice. Hubby has an appointment in November so he is deciding if he will transfer then or wait for me and then we will both transfer.

Anyhow, the new dental practice has their own insurance plan for people who don’t have dental insurance. The plan is $400. for the first year and renewal each year is $350. It includes:

2 Cleanings (prophylaxis)
3 Exams including 1 emergency exam
4 Bitewing X-Rays
1 Panoramic X-Ray
1 Oral Cancer Screening
2 Fluoride Treatments
15% off all additional treatment needs
(Crowns, Bridges, Sealants, Fillings, Veneers,
Dentures, Root Canals, Implants and more.)

We will save more than 1/2 the cost of these procedures. It sounds good. However they have other insurances that they take. So I will be researching them this Fall. We will enroll in the best one for each of us. Bottom line is that we will save a lot of money. Their prices are much cheaper to begin with than the practice we are with now.

I had to go to our bank a few days ago with some legal paperwork. I pass B.J,’s Warehouse Club on the way home. I stopped in and picked up 2 rotisserie chickens at $4.99 each. One of the ones I got was huge compared to the others. When I got home, I took all of the meat off of that one and put the carcass in a large plastic bag in the freezer. When I have more time, I will make chicken stock. The other one I put in the crockpot on warm and we had chicken sandwiches for dinner. After dinner, I did the same with that chicken as the other one. All of the meat was portioned into 2 cups in each freezer bag. One bag I kept out in the fridge and that we have been eating. We made chicken Caesar salads for dinner last night. So we will be eating a casserole, salads, or sandwiches all weekend. I have lots of work to finish up before my surgery so I will be busy.

While I was out, I went to the catering department at Wegman’s and ordered all of the food for Hubby’s party with the exception of two salads that I will make. The cake has been ordered at the bakery. All of the paper products that we will be using have been purchased. I have some other odds and ends that need to get shopped for. That will get done this coming week! I am almost done.

I have saved a ton of money by shopping our pantry for loss leader meals for most of the past few months. That money was earmarked to pay for Hubby’s party and to replace our food that we are eating up when we see a great deal. That way I didn’t have to take money out of our investments for the party.

Our first company who will be staying with us will arrive this Friday afternoon. The second wave will come in on Saturday afternoon. Everyone else is local. I can’t wait. Hubby is going to have such a great time with family and good friends. I haven’t even thought about all the other meals that I will have to make. But I can whip them up quickly from our stockpile.

Our water bill came the beginning of September. It is for a 3 month period. This bill usually runs about $300. because it is summer and we water the lawn. However, this year we have had a lot of rain. Hence we only watered about 6 times. The bill was for $124. so that saved us quite a bit of money. Aqua Systems came and blew our lines out this week so there will be no more watering this season. Our bill will go back down to the normal of about $58. each time it comes now.

We will have a electric and gas bill coming on Monday. I will let you know about that when we get it. The government let us know that because of all the oil and inflation problems, this heating season the bills are going to increase about 31%+. Hence we will try to keep the heat off this year later than when we usually turn it on.

That’s it for today! I hope you all have a great weekend.