Tag: a little of this and a little of that

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Every Day

A Savings Day

Before I talk about our savings today, I wanted to post a picture of our filet mignon and tossed salad dinner last night. I put ranch dressing on mine and Hubby had Italian. The filets were just seasoned with salt and pepper before Hubby grilled them. They were melt in your mouth good.

Our son who lives in the Adirondack’s in the eastern part of the state called Hubby yesterday afternoon for his birthday. We both enjoyed talking to him. It is rare that we get to see him because he works a full time job, owns a business, and is helping two different friends renovate their homes.

Today will be a savings day and I will list those as I do them during the day.

My son who lives just a little over an hour away called Hubby last night for his birthday. He told us that his family is going to the Buffalo Bills store downtown for when it opens on Sunday morning. So they will not be here for breakfast but will come later when they are done. Hubby invited them for lunch. They all eat Keto. So I made out a list of things that they will eat and was going to go to the store early this morning to get those things that I did not have. However when I was done with my list, I saw that I had a text message from him. He said his wife said we should go out for wings for lunch. So that is the plan sometime after they get done shopping. I imagine they will treat us. So I cancelled the grocery shopping trip which saves us on spending money for food and gasoline.

I did a very full load of laundry with just a couple of tablespoons of detergent. According to my appliance people that is all you need. I have been trying to get down to just one load a week to save on electricity. I have finally done it. I have an energy efficient Speed Queen washer and dryer. I use cold water to wash. Most things are hung to dry. I do dry sheets and towels in the dryer but for only 25 minutes and then hang them if they aren’t quite dry. I just replaced my dryer balls after almost 14 and a half years of use. I found a set of 6 at Walmart a month ago with a storage bag for $ 9.00. I do not use dryer sheets and haven’t for years.

I caulked all the spots that needed it on our window frames and sills. We are trying to get ready for winter. Hubby has been cutting the lawn down really low and mowing up the leaves as they come down. He has also been trimming the bushes and cutting some of the plants down. This is keeping him really busy and saves us on hiring our landscaper to clean up for the winter.

We still have no heat on. That is amazing for the end of September. I hope we can go a few more weeks without it by wearing sweatshirts and long pants. I have gotten our draft stoppers for the outside doors from our storage area so that they are ready to use.

Dinner tonight will be the leftover honey bourbon chicken, which Hubby loved, roasted potatoes, and brussel sprouts from Thursday dinner. I like to cook two meals at once. When we eat these, all leftovers in our fridge will be used up.

I love coffee as I am sure many of you do. I never buy coffee at a McDonald’s, Dunkin Donuts, Tim Horton’s or Starbucks. I always make it at home. If I want it while I am out running errands, I bring my travel mug with coffee in it. However I drink 4-5 cups a day. As you all know, coffee has gotten so high in price, especially the last two weeks in which it took a huge increase of $3.00- $5.00 for a large can. So I am cutting back to 2 cups a day. If I need something else hot, I will have tea. I have lots of tea bags. Plus I can use my teabags to make two cups of tea.

When we got Eloise, we needed to buy litter. It was so expensive that I was shocked. We seem to be going through it quickly. If you have a kitten or cat, can you tell me where you buy it the cheapest and what you buy? Also how high do you fill the litter box with clean litter when you change it? I scoop her litter box twice a day. She also really likes to cover things up and manages to get litter all over the floor when she is doing that. Do the covered boxes work better than the flat ones? Thanks to anyone who responds and helps me out. I am headed in there now to clean and wash her box. Then I will vacuum and sanitize the floor.

Popeye’s contacted me with an apology and a $15.00 coupon for my next order. I’ll take it. When things go wrong on your order, it pays to let them know.

Did you do a little something to save or not spend today?

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Every Day

Friday’s Happenings

Today is Hubby’s birthday. We are celebrating at home because mine is in a couple of weeks so we go out to dinner in about a week to celebrate both of them. This year Hubby will pick the restaurant. We take turns.

But for his celebration today, we will grill filet mignon outside. We will have that with a glass of red wine and a tossed salad. Hubby wants an apple pie for dessert. Tonight we will watch college football.

We gave up exchanging gifts for birthdays and holidays years ago. That decision was made because we buy what we need or want when we need or want it. Our wants are few.

But before we celebrate, I had a few things to get done. As soon as Great Clips opened at 9AM, I signed in online and got my haircut. The senior price for a haircut is usually $18.99 but I have a $12.99 coupon that came in our ValuPak. I keep my punch card in my wallet at all times so I always remember that. After 7 haircuts, I get 1 free. I shampooed my hair this morning so I didn’t have to pay $6.00 extra for that. I have saved so much money since I left my pricey salon. First, Hubby cut it and then I found this Great Clips close by. It sure beats paying $ 140. a month for my salon treatment. It’s even higher now. Of course back then, I was getting my hair colored and high lighted. Now my hair is white and I like it.

Next I brought back some bottles to Fast Cash to get our $.05 deposits back. It’s in the same plaza.

Then I picked up a prescription at RiteAid for Hubby.

Next I stopped at Niagara Produce because Hubby wanted one of their apple pies for for his birthday dinner. They are his very favorite. I could make him one but not as delicious as the one he wanted.

Last stop was at Popeye’s because Hubby wanted spicy fried chicken for brunch. I got 2 orders of the Signature 3 piece chicken deal that I saw on TV on Sunday. They were $5.00 each plus tax which came to $10.80. My box had a wing, a leg, and a breast. Hubby’s had a wing, a leg, and a back. I have never served any of my family a back. It was awful. I tried to give Hubby my breast since it was his birthday and I felt bad. But being the gentleman he is he would not take it and told me to eat it. I did not want to go back there and waste gasoline to do it. Instead I wrote to Popeye’s online. They say it will take 24 hours for a response.

All of my errands were run in a loop as usual to save on gasoline. BTW, I went by my cash gas station today and the gasoline is down to $3.09 gallon.

That’s it for today. I want to go spend the rest of the day with Hubby.

brate

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Every Day

Utility Bill And A Little Of This And A Little Of That

I took down the post on the U.N. because it was scaring some people. If you want to see what they are doing which involves the U.S., go to their press releases online on the U.N. site. I always check on what is going on there.

We got our utility bill yesterday. It was for $ 138.85 for 29 days. We used 536 KWH of electric and 4 CCF’s of natural gas. Last year’s bill for the same period was $116.37 for 32 days. We used 530 KWH’s of electric and 6 CCF’s of natural gas. We used less KWH’s and more CCF’s and it covered more days in last year’s bill. There was not a big difference in usage but the bill went up by $ 22.48.

It seems whatever I do to conserve, the bill just keeps rising each month. But if I don’t try to conserve more, it will go even higher. I am afraid our heat bills are going to be huge this winter. The meteorologists say the winter here is going to be much colder and snowier this year. So I will try to save every KWH and CCF I can this fall and winter. We have turned our air conditioning off. If we have a hot day, we use our ceiling fans. I am hoping to not have to put the heat on for a while. We have turned the dehumidifier off in the basement. It is no longer humid down there.

We will continue to use our smaller 11 in 1 oven instead of the big oven. I believe it does make a difference. Now that we have the wall built around our grill outside, we will continue to use it as much as we can through these upcoming seasons. If we have a lot of snow, we will have to stop using it. Falls are something we try to avoid.

We have had to find another snowplow guy because the one we thought we could use is only 16 years old. Not legal in NY. We called a company yesterday who is licensed and insured. The owner came today and told us it will be $500. for the season. He snowplows anytime we get 3 inches. We paid our other guy, who moved to Florida, $ 500. for last winter. So the price is not any higher which I am very happy about.

We had planned to make honey bourbon fried chicken, roasted potatoes using baby potatoes that are getting old, and brussel sprouts for dinner last night. However, the chicken that I put in the fridge the night before did not thaw. So we had to come up with a quick dinner. Hubby made grilled cheese sandwiches and heated up old fashioned tomato rice soup that I purchased for $ 1.00 on clearance . It was so good and brought back memories of my childhood. We will have the above chicken dinner tonight and tomorrow night. Because of having to do this, I have froze the other half of the sausage I cooked up for pizza. We will use that next week.

Brunch this morning was a small slice of ham and 2 eggs scrambled for each of us.

That’s it for today. I will be back with a new post tomorrow after I run errands.

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Every Day

A Little Of This And A Little Of That

I had a roll of sausage in the refrigerator. Yesterday, I cooked it. I put 1/2 of it in our spaghetti sauce last night. I packaged up the other 1/2 to use on top of homemade pizza later in the week. The sauce I paid $.99 for. The portions of spaghetti that I used was about $ .49. The sausage was $2.94 but we are getting two meals out of it so $ 1.47 each meal. So last night’s spaghetti dinner cost us $ 1.50 for each of us or $ 2.95 for both. . We had a big salad for brunch yesterday so that was our veggies for the day.

After doing some cleaning yesterday, I went to Top’s. They did not have much I was interested in. But we were running out of Chung’s egg rolls so I picked up 2 packages on sale for $ 4.49 each. I do not make egg rolls. I made them once and they were more work than I am willing to do. Chung’s sent me an e-mail recently informing me that Walmart is now carrying them. However, they have not hit my store yet. I assume they will be cheaper than Top’s.

I had a free coupon for Ken’s ranch dressing. I needed laundry detergent because I was on my last bottle. I had a $3.00 coupon from Purex so I ended up spending $ 6.99+ tax for it. My total with tax was $ 17.25 for everything.

Between the cost of the construction at Top’s and the high prices due to inflation, I don’t go there very often. The noise is horrendous and no one can find anything anymore. This Top’s was privately owned and the prices were always high. But they have gone higher now that it is a company store. They have been working on redoing the inside for months now and a cashier told me it will not be done until the grand opening the end of November. Ugh! Wegman’s, Walmart, and Aldi’s are looking so much better now.

I have been doing a lot of research on where I can get bulk meat and tracking the prices the past few weeks. I have found 3 new to me places. So when my freezer is empty, I will be going to them to start to restock. The quality of meat is a lot better and the prices are way lower than the grocery stores. Best part is they are under 45 minutes away from my home. So traveling to them 2-3 times a year won’t be too bad. I will be sharing who they are when I start shopping there.

Do any of you buy your meat in bulk at an unconventional store instead of a grocery store? Where do you do that?

Eloise is getting into everything while I am writing this. So it is time to go give her some attention.

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Every Day

Saving Money So That We Can Spend On The Important Things

First I want to thank you for all your good wishes about Eloise. She is a joy but very active so she is keeping us busy. This morning she did allow us to sleep until 6AM though which I am grateful for. Also Hubby’s shoulder is just about back to normal which we are thankful for. I finally saw all your comments this morning and I have responded to you all.

It took me forever to write this post this morning. Eloise is enamored with chasing the cursor. As you can see, she is learning to type. Hence the last line you can see on the page. I keep putting her down and gently telling her no. But she comes back and back. Eventually she will get it.

Besides saving for our children and grandchildren, we save so that we can spend on other things that are important to us. Eloise was one of those choices. In just one day, we spent $583. on her. The adoption fee from the rescue was $ 195. I gave them $ 200. and said keep the change. The night before we got her, we spent about $25. at Walmart for some food and litter. Then the day we got her, we spent $ 292. in two trips to Petsmart. Then we placed a chewy.com order for ordering things that Petsmart didn’t have for $ 66. We now have everything we need for her except her climbing stand which is on it’s way. We have a couple of months of kitten food, treats, and litter. I will be looking into making her cat food when she is a little older. We decided not to buy her a bed. We made one from a small box and a very soft velour throw blanket. She seems to like it but prefers to sleep on our beds.

Hubby trimmed her nails last night. We thought that would be a nightmare but it wasn’t. I just wrapped her in a towel and petted her head. She didn’t even wince when Hubby cut them. We are grateful that we didn’t have to pay to have them done.

We purchased the Breeze system for a litter box. It take pellets. She wouldn’t use it. So we got a regular litter box with clay litter which she is using. We were hoping she would use the pellet system. But it was a no go. We couldn’t return it because we had opened the pellets that came with it. However in the literature that came with it, I noticed that I can send info plus UPC and receipt and get my money back from the manufacturer if she doesn’t like it which she doesn’t. So I will be doing that. That will be a refund of $ 43.99. It pays to read the literature.

We have had a ban on plastic grocery bags in this state since well before the pandemic. We have to use reusable or buy paper from the store. I don’t know why but I saved every one of them from the store for almost a year before the ban went into effect. I just used empty tissue boxes that I stuffed with them and put them all in a huge cardboard box. They have been sitting in a corner of the basement. I knew someday they would come in handy. Now they are to scoop dirty litter into. I have no idea what I will use when they are gone. Any ideas? But for now I have a stash for a year or two.

My son and West came on Sunday and we all went out to breakfast at our favorite Greek restaurant. That was an expense we chose because I need a treat everyone once in a while rather than cook breakfast for us all the time. We were a little leery of leaving Eloise alone. We figured we might come back to a destroyed house but we didn’t. She slept while we were gone.

HSN sent me an e-mail a couple of weeks ago about a Joy Mangano Little Steamer that I purchased from them years ago. They have been ordered by the courts to pay a class action settlement to each of us who purchased it because they hid the fact that it spews hot water that could scald you. I will be looking into my options on that and submitting an application for that money.

Yesterday in the mail we got two different checks for about $ 400. dollars as a result of a class action settlement for Philips C-Pap machines that were faulty. We had two machines that were recalled so that Hubby would always have a backup in case one broke. Philips replaced those machines a while ago with brand new ones that were not defective. This money was paid to us yesterday for the damages the defective machines may have caused. We knew that the money would be coming. However we were surprised at how fast it came and how much it was. Most class action settlements pay out $1.- $20. after the lawyers get paid.

My son has a laser pointer that he is going to give us for Eloise. We were going to look into buying one. But he commented that he had one for her. Free is good! He will be back to visit in 2 weeks and will bring it for her. I think Eloise will enjoy it.

I will be reading our electric and gas meter this week and will be interested in how much that bill is. We have had our A/C off for a while now. We have only had to put it back on the past couple of days because it has gotten so hot here.

I cooked a small boneless Butterball turkey last night in the countertop oven. We had a turkey dinner last night. Hubby will cut the rest of the meat on the new slicer today. We will have turkey BLT’s tonight for dinner. The rest will be frozen for future cold cuts.

It may seem to you that we don’t spend a lot of money but we do on the things we all have to pay every day like home maintenance, taxes, gasoline, utilities, water, food, insurances, etc. However we always save so that we can pay cash for all of our purchases that are necessary and unnecessary. We do splurge on the wants that we truly want without worrying about them. Eloise is just one example. But to be honest our wants are far and few between. Hence, we save a lot of money each month so that there will be generational wealth. We started from $ 0.00 all those years ago so the generational wealth is very important to us.

Have you saved any money in the past week or so? Feel free to share those savings with us.

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Every Day

This Week’s Grocery Haul And Other Things

Early Sunday morning, I went to Top’s to get meat that was on sale for the lowest prices that I have seen in over 3 years. I purchased 2 whole chickens at $.99 a lb., 2 top round roasts and 1 eye round roast for $ 4.99 a lb.

On Sunday, I roasted the 2 chickens in my turkey pan. This pic was taken when they still had 40 minutes to go. I was just checking the temperature. When they were done, I took all the meat off of one chicken and put the carcass and skin in the crock pot and cooked it until about 7PM to make chicken broth. We had chicken sandwiches for dinner and the rest of the chicken I froze in portions. The other chicken had been chilling in the fridge. I took that one out and took all the meat off and saved a portion of it to make my homemade chicken soup. That carcass and skin went into the crock pot and simmered on low until I got up the next morning. I turned it down to warm while I went to a doctor’s check up which went well.

On my way home, I stopped at Wegman’s for a bag of avocados that looked so good. I have not had them in a while because they have been awful for weeks. It was one of Wegman’s new “Hot Deals” that cost $3.99. I also went to town hall and paid our water bill. It was $ 212. from May 30th through August 30th. I was quite shocked because it was much higher than the same period last year. We used a lot less water with our sprinkler system this year because we had so much rain. But then I realized that the crew that built the wall had used a lot of water to mix the mortar and didn’t turn the water off and on. Ugh!

When I got home I strained the broth and took the bits and pieces of meat and threw those in my broth that I was putting in mason jars. Between the two chickens, I got 7 and 1/2 quarts of bone broth. Late in the afternoon, Hubby cut up the celery and I got some carrots and corn out the freezer. Using those, some meat from the birds, some rice and about 1/2 of the broth, I made a huge pot of soup which we each had a cup for dinner. We will rotate it in between roast beef meals this week.

The broth will get used up quickly so instead of canning it, I decided to freeze it. The rest of the chicken got frozen for future meals.

Two of the beef roasts I put in the freezer. One I cooked last night for a roast beef dinner. I again used the turkey pan with a rack to roast it because it allows the air to circulate around the roast. I roasted some baby potatoes under the rack of beef on the edges of the pan. We had green beans with it.

The roast was very tough so Hubby made sure to cut it across the grain. It was made to look like a regular round roast in the packaging but when I opened it, it was long and narrow. It was edible and had flavor but I am hoping the 2 in the freezer are truly top round roasts because I don’t think this was. Do you have any clue what it could be? When I open the next one, if it looks the same, the two of them will get returned to the store. I told Hubby I will go to Niagara Produce next time they have them on sale. They are always good.

Today Hubby sliced the rest of the meat using our new meat slicer so that we have cold cuts for cold and hot roast beef sandwiches. These roasts at Top’s were not very big but it was all they had.

For entertainment this weekend, we watched our Buffalo Bills play and they won. I am so happy that football is back! They play again this Thursday night which doesn’t give them much rest and they have to travel to Miami for the game. I hope they do well.

It has been hard to get much else done around here because with Hubby’s shoulder healing, I have had to help him a a lot. But it is getting better each day and hopefully soon it will be back to normal.

That is what I have been up to. I will be back when I have something else to talk about.

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Every Day

Boar’s Head Taught Us A Huge Lesson

You all know that I have an old meat slicer that I would cut up cold cuts from meats that I would roast. I didn’t always have big boneless roasts that I could cut them from. So while we were waiting for those roasts to go on sale, we would buy cold cuts just like everyone else especially if we were having company for any length of time. Or when we would be having a large party.

Well this Boar’s Head listeria scare really made me think. If you don’t know what I am talking about, it is everywhere in the news and on the CDC and FDA site. Here is an article for you: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/bugs-mold-mildew-inspection-boars-head-plant-listeria/ .

This article disgusted and sickened me. Mold and mildew and bugs everywhere. So I told Hubby that we were never going to buy another cold cut anywhere whether it is Boar’s Head or any other brand. I was going to make all of our own cold cuts and never buy them at a store again. He agreed but he had one request. He said our meat slicer that we have used for years had served it’s purpose but he wanted to buy a commercial meat slicer that would not only do meats but slice our homemade bread. I agreed.

We picked out the one pictured above at Amazon. It was $348. plus 8% tax. Knowing how outrageously expensive cold cuts are, it will pay for itself pretty quickly. Plus I will have the peace of mind that I am not buying something that could potentially kill us.

I was pleasantly surprised when I opened our Top’s ad that starts this Sunday and saw beef Roasts on sale for $ 4.99 a lb. I have my choice of sirloin tip, top round, eye round or bottom round. I will be getting a top round since it is the most tender. We will roast it, chill it, and cut it up on the new slicer. Then I will put some in the refrigerator for next week and food saver the rest into small portions to pull out for sandwiches when we want one. Roast beef cold cuts cost between $11.99 to $18.99 at the grocery stores in my area.

It has been another busy day of errands, post office, drugstore, library, etc.

After I got home, Hubby went outside to weed some more gardens. He quickly came back inside after he took a header onto the ground. His head and, arm, and knee were bleeding.. I patched him up but he has been complaining about his left shoulder since it happened. I tried to take him to Well Now to get it looked at and possibly Xrayed but he refused. If it is not better in the morning, he is going whether he likes it or not. I am keeping an eye on him.

I hope to be back with my married life series tomorrow.

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Every Day

A Little of This and A Little of That

I will write the post on the ’80s and ’90’s tomorrow. It has been a crazy day.

Hubby had an appointment to get our car inspected and an oil change this morning at 8am. My plan was to go to Top’s because it was senior 6% discount day when he got home. Meanwhile while he was gone I took a cup of coffee out to our seating area in front to see our neighbors get on the bus since it was the first day of school. They are 2nd grade and younger. One of them was going to kindergarten and was so excited. They were all so cute.

When Hubby got home I asked him about the appointment and he said all went well. I asked him because I was curious how much the NYS inspection is now. He looked at the bill and did not see it on it. He assumed that they had just done it and that they would have told him if there was a problem. I told him to go out to the car and see if the new inspection is on the car. It wasn’t. They never did it. He went right back with the car and they apologized and took it right back in to inspect it. Moral of the story is you can’t trust anyone anymore. Go over any bill with them to make sure you get the services you requested.

After Hubby got home for the second time, I got ready and went to Top’s. I got a bunch of bananas on sale for $ .44 a lb, using a super coupon which cost me a $ 1.10, a bunch of celery for $ 2.00, and a half gallon of half and half for $ 5.99. My total after a 6% discount was $ 8.54. Every penny always counts. By the time I got there, the store was so crowded that I couldn’t wait to get home. I was in line for quite a while because they had no express line open. The self service checkouts are now cash only and I wanted to pay with cash. That will be all the shopping I do this week.

Hubby and I had a peaceful weekend watching college football, grilling outside, and just relaxing for a change. I also visited a friend who has had long Covid for 3 years now. I hadn’t seen her in a while. We had a nice chat and caught up on our lives.

I also went over our budget for August. We got our school tax bill the end of August and I paid it the same day. It was for $ 5961. This is only for our school district. Our property taxes for the county will be billed January 1, 2025 and is almost as much as the school taxes. NYS taxes are horrendous but we choose to live here to be close to our family. But this payment took a big chunk out of what we saved this month. That and a couple of large purchases that we made this month too. I will talk about one of them by the end of the week.

We grilled filet mignons, made chicken stir fry, and had chicken parm over the long weekend.

Hubby and I are about to go sit outside for a while today before we grill hamburgers with sauteed mushrooms for dinner. But I wanted to let you know that we saved $ 4354.49 this month towards our goal.

How did you do with your savings or debt payoff in August?

I will be back tomorrow with the continuation post of our life. I promise.

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Every Day

Saturday’s Lazy Day

Hubby decided late last night that he did not want potatoes, carrots, and cabbage in with the corned beef when I cooked it. He just wants reuben sandwiches. So I checked my pantry and refrigerator and I had swiss cheese slices and sauerkraut but I did not have the marble rye bread nor the ingredients to make it. So I was at the market at 7am buying this $ 5.69 loaf of bread. They had no marble rye so this was the closest I could get to it. We do have the ingredients to make Russian dressing. Hubby can’t wait to make one after the Bills preseason football game. I started the corned beef very early so it should be done by 5pm. It is cooking in beer and a little bit of water along with the spice packet that came with it.

Today will be a lazy day of watching the game and doing some reading.

During the game, I cooked up 1 pound of bacon for our family Sunday breakfast tomorrow. We haven’t seen my grandson and son in a few weeks so we are looking forward to it. When they get here in the morning, I will cook up a package of breakfast sausage, make scrambled eggs and some French toast for those who want these things. I will reheat the bacon.

For brunch today, we had roast beef sandwiches. I had pulled some roast beef slices out of the freezer the other day and they need to be used up.

We turned off the A/C last night so that we could enjoy a cool night of sleeping with the windows open. But we had to turn it back on today because the heat and muggy weather is coming back and will last all of this coming week. Just as I am posting this, the A/C has turned on for the first time today. It is 6:35pm.

We will be getting our school tax bill in a week or so. I found the 2024-2025 tax rate per thousand and have estimated the bill at $ 5981. Yikes! We will see how close I come to it.

Hubby made the reubens for our dinner when the corned beef was done and had cooled a bit. He put corned beef, sauerkraut, and swiss cheese slices on the buttered bread and then grilled them on our indoor grill. I forgot how good they are. We are looking forward to eating these as long as the corned beef lasts.

Enjoy your evening.

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Every Day

We Have Had A Wonderful 5 Days

West came to visit for 5 days. His tastes in food have changed so we chatted on Tuesday night and made out the menu for the time he would be here. Most of it we already had in our home. Here was the menu:

Wednesday dinner was hamburgers which Hubby grilled for us. I sauteed up some toppings and made corn on the cob in the microwave.

Thursday night we headed to our local Wagner’s Restaurant for fish fries. When we got there, West no longer wanted that and picked a chicken tender dinner instead. Hubby had chicken wings and a salad. I had a ribeye sandwich dinner. Starters were little neck clams. It was all good and we did not need dessert.

Friday night, we cooked shrimp sauteed in butter for West and shrimp with cocktail sauce for us. Sides varied.

On Saturday, we ordered pizzas and Parmesan twists with various dipping sauces from Domino’s. I wanted to get it from Little Caesars because we like their pizza. We don’t like the crust on Domino’s pizza but West informed us that they now have a thin crust pizza which we decided to try and it was very good. You can tell we haven’t ordered pizza from there in a very long time. West has enough of his pizza for lunch today. He is going home to eat dinner with his parents. We have 3 large slices left so we will heat it up in the air fryer for our dinner and I will make a small side salad for each of us.

One thing I found out about West is that he is a growing boy. He is over 6 ft. tall now. I forgot how much teenage boys consume.

For breakfasts he had asked for pancakes and French toast. I cooked bacon, ham, and sausage to go with it.

Yes, we spoiled him. With his sports schedule and school coming up soon, we don’t see him as often as we would like.

Pizza and restaurant food has gotten so expensive. Wagner’s was $ 130. for the three of us including tip. The Domino’s was $ 51.91 after a 20% discount. This is why we don’t eat out very often. But we don’t mind spoiling a grandchild once in a while. Needless to say we will be eating at home more often after this summer of eating out is over.

I can’t even tell you how many “Ticket to Ride” board games we have played. West won them all. We also watched the Buffalo Bills preseason game on TV. They got stomped on by the Chicago Bears. Fortunately, it doesn’t count. Josh Allen got pulled in the early 1st quarter after a run with the ball. I am sure Coach did not want him to get hurt in a preseason game. Coach played our 2nd and 3rd string people 98% of the game. They did not do well. But I believe that Coach has a much better idea on who to cut after that.

Before West came to visit, I went and picked up another medication for Hubby. This medication always had a $60. copay. However, it cost me nothing this time. Hubby must be in the donut hole. Then I ventured into Walmart. I rarely do that since I have Walmart+. I was on the hunt for a boneless ham and a boneless turkey. The turkey was more expensive than buying deli turkey so I passed. The ham was much cheaper than buying deli ham, so I got a boneless quarter for $ 4.63 a lb. Hubby will slice this up on our meat slicer when we open it and I will freeze some in portions for sandwiches. I do have a large ham in the freezer that I could have cooked. But I did not want to heat up the house with the A/C on. That ham will get cooked when I know that Fall is actually here. The next time I travel to appointments, I will stop in B.J.’s and look for a boneless turkey at a good price. I also picked up some turkey breast meat to hold us until I get to B’J.’s This was handy while West was here for lunches. For him, I also got his favorite ice cream, a dip because we have potato chips for a snack, a tomato for sandwiches and a box of Bubba burgers to restock our freezer.

West also ran some errands with me on Thursday. We went to the bank to cash in the piggy bank that I fill up for the grandchildren. Alexa and he take turns cashing it in. It was West’s turn so he was happy for get $106.50. I also got some grocery money and gave them a small rebate check to cash. I realized after I got back on the road that the teller did not give me the money for that. Rather than go back and waste gas, I decided I would just call the bank when we got home. I didn’t have to because the teller had already called and told Hubby of her error and she deposited it in our account for us. West also was patient while I stopped in Wegman’s for a boneless turkey which was not at a good price. So I did not buy it.

It has been a whirlwind of a week but I will miss him when he goes home tonight.

Thank you for being patient while we have hosted company this summer. We still have more company coming soon but after that I should be free to blog. I have lots of topics upcoming so stay tuned.