Tag: a little of this and a little of that

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Every Day

Many Happenings

We had a wonderful weekend with our children and grandchildren. My granddaughter is so tall and such a wonderful young lady. Her parents have raised her to be so polite and considerate. I just love chatting with her. I hated to see her go home yesterday.

I cooked 7 meals over the weekend and we ordered pizza and wings for carryout for the 8th meal. I would have loved to have taken my family out to dinner but I am leery of crowds and people hacking and coughing in restaurants with so much flu around. I was taking a chance getting the carryout. But I told my family that next time they come, we will take them out to dinner.

Shortly after they left yesterday, I was racing around the house stripping beds, gathering towels to wash and just some general picking up. I was racing down the hallway and I slammed my baby toe into the board that our railing is set in. I broke my toe. You ought to see it today. So many different colors and so sore. I knew I wanted to do errands today but it was too painful to put my sneakers on. So I put on my loafers which were a little easier on the toe. But now I am resting it and writing to you.

I went to CVS, Aldi’s, Walmart and Top’s this morning.  At CVS, I purchased cashews, M&M’s, and 2 boxes of Puffs. After using $8.00 in ECB’s that were expiring tomorrow and a 25% off regular priced product coupon, I paid $ 2.39 including tax. Hubby had been wanting cashews for a long time but they are so expensive that I kept waiting until I could get them on sale. Needless to say he is very happy today.

Next door to CVS is an Aldi’s so I stopped in and bought potato chips, a 3 pack of peppers, tartar sauce, 1/2 and 1/2, a 3lb. bag of mandarins and 2 bags of semi-sweet morsels. My total was $ 14.03.

Next I went to the pick up counter at Walmart. Hubby had ordered 3 brush refills for his Waterpik toothbrush. They come out of the $100. Other budget this week.

Last, I went to Top’s where I purchased celery, 2 Philadelphia cream cheese, 2 lbs. of bacon, 4 yogurt, 2 baking mixes, and 2 fresh mozzarella balls. My total was $ 26.35 after sales and coupons.

So far this week, I have spent $ 42.77 of my $ 75.00 budget. I doubt that I will shop any more this week. My toe does not like it. 


We got our gas and electric bill today and it was $ 238.60 for one month. Yikes! It is amazing what cold weather will do to a bill. We keep our heat at 71 because Hubby is always cold. Because of this our heating bills have been very high this winter. I am just happy that we have saved and invested over the years so that we can afford them. 

Since I will most likely be home bound the rest of the week, I will just do some cleaning and organizing around here. I am also working on a lowest price list for all of the foods that I buy. As I am building my stockpile again, I am marking the prices I pay and that way I can see what the lowest prices are that I purchase things at. If I have enough for three months or more in my stockpile, I won’t even look for more until the last month of my stockpile and then I will look for the lowest price on that item.

My toilet paper stockpile was getting low so I ordered this at Amazon. It is 80 rolls. This is thin toilet paper which is what most people who have septic tanks use. It works out to about $ .008 a square foot which is a stock up price. We use it on the recommendation of our Roto-Router man who unclogged the elbow in the sewer pipe out near the road for us when it got clogged. Roto Router is expensive so I will take his advice and try to avoid another clog. It is still on sale if anyone needs it.


On that note, I am off to cut up veggies for our taco  meat salads that we will have for dinner tonight.
  

 

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Every Day

Does She Ever Spend Any Money?

After all these years that I have blogged, you all pretty much know that we don’t normally spend a lot of money on anything but necessities. Sure we spend a fortune every month on cable, Netflix, and a home telephone which I could probably cancel if Hubby didn’t like sports so much. But he does so we keep it. But that is okay because it makes him happy. We eat out once in a while but not to the excess that a lot of people we know do. We don’t go to the movies and other expensive venues like casinos, etc. Have you ever wondered why we save so much money every month and don’t treat ourselves with those aforementioned things? 

Well, the answer is so very simple. We save our money for things that are important to us. We save to be able to treat our grandchildren and kids once in a while. But most importantly we save so that we can treat ourselves once in a while like this trip to Disney World for me. Hubby was invited but turned it down. He doesn’t like to travel. He missed out on a great time.

While he was home, I was in the parks every day except Saturday. That was because I started getting sick on Friday and spent the day in bed on Saturday so I missed the dessert party and fireworks at the castle. But my family went and loved it. Fortunately, I didn’t get sick at the beginning of the week. We arrived in Orlando about 8:30am on Sunday the 7th. After checking into the DVC resort at Boardwalk, we went for a walk on the Boardwalk where we stopped for a Quick breakfast at the Broadway Bakery. The snack on the plane didn’t kill our hunger. We were at the airport at 4am so hadn’t eaten. The bakery has such wonderful pastries, sticky buns and breakfast platters. We walked around for a while after and then went to the ESPN Club on the Boardwalk to get appetizers and beer and watch the Buffalo Bills vs. Jaguars football game. Even though our Bills didn’t win, it was fun to be there. The Club was filled with Buffalo Bills fans who had traveled down. Our plane was actually filled with fans. Most of whom flew down and rented a car to drive to Jacksonville. But there were plenty of us who ended up at the Club. It was a fun afternoon of beer and appetizers. Alas we had to leave early though because we had a reservation for dinner at Paddlefish at Disney Springs.

We did all of the parks using our hopper passes, some more than once. My favorite is Epcot where my son and I spent a morning and afternoon eating and drinking our way through the countries. Yes, I put on three pounds while we vacationed but I am right back on my Keto diet today.

We ate every lunch and dinner in the parks. We went to Ample Hills Creamery, Be Our Guest (for lunch), Earl of Sandwich(lunch), Ghirardelli Ice Cream Shop(dessert), Victoria and Alberts Dinner Queen Victoria Room, Hoop De Doo Musical Review at Wildnerness Park, Landscape of Flavors, Paddlefish at Disney Springs, Sci- Fi Dine in Theater Restaurant and Yak and Yeti’s for lunch one day. I know there were many more than I can’t think of right now. But it is expensive eating in the parks for lunch and dinner and sometimes breakfast(which I think we did twice).

I took my son and DIL out on separate evenings late night for drinks and appetizers at the ESPN Club and the Big River Grill & Brewing Company. The rest of the nights they went out late night to extra hours- 9PM to midnight for DVC members only at Magic Kingdom and I babysat.

However they treated me to a wonderful Christmas present. My gift was dinner in the Queen Victoria Room at Victoria and Alberts at the Grand Floridian. What a treat I was in for. There was a strict dress up code which we abided by. We had a 10 course dinner(menu pictured)  with wine pairings with each course. MY DIL and I both received a long stem red rose all prepared for travel just before we left. We all went home with a box of specially picked chocolates from the best in the world. They sent us home with our menu that also had our welcome by name engraved on the back. The dinner took 4 hours and we enjoyed and savored every minute of it. We had waiters and wine sommeliers for every course who explained everything we were eating and drinking. The Chef came out during the meal to see how we liked everything. The head of the restaurant did the same. The service was the best we have ever had. The food was like nothing I will ever see again. It was just superb. There are only 4 tables in the Queen Victoria Room and we got so much attention. There was a wonderful fire burning in the fireplace. The elegance in the room was wonderful. We felt like royalty for the evening.

If you decide to go there it is a very romantic place if you don’t have your Mom in tow. But the kids wanted to really treat me. But bring your bank roll with you because dinner and the wine pairings will run you $ 340. to $365. per person plus tax and gratuity.(They didn’t tell me;the information is out on the web.)  It was not a cheap evening for them between this and a 5 hour babysitter for their son who couldn’t go. No children allowed. Plus we took a car service door to door and back. It was a magical evening for me and I was very thankful to my children for this. It was a beautiful night that I will always remember. 

Since my son owns timeshares at Disney, I did not have to pay for a room. We had a 2 bedroom at Boardwalk. But I did have to pay for my airline tickets and 7 day hopper pass both of which were not cheap. If I remember correctly that came to about $900. I paid for my son’s car long term rental at the airport which was $65.25. Hubby was going to drive us but was unable to so it was the least I could do. I spent $ 175. for the scooter for the week. I spent another $1300. in cash for meals( I treated my family a few times), Florida newspapers for coupon inserts that were too good to pass up, a treat for my grandson for the plane, and a Mickey Mouse key chain because mine broke. The key chain was the only souvenir I bought. I did buy a birthday gift for my grandson since his birthday is this week. But that was it. I only had a carry on with me and it was so full that I could barely zip it so I couldn’t buy anything else.

But anyway as you can see I spent about $2500. for this trip and it was probably higher because I didn’t write down every dollar I spent. And that was without paying for a room. Disney is very expensive.

Anyhow we had a blast! It was cold and rainy a few days we were there but we didn’t let that bother us. We went to all the parks and even spent an afternoon in the pool and jacuzzi.

So now you see how and why I make beautiful memories with my family and that I am not frugal all of the time. I just prioritize how we spend our money and what we save it for.

I am happy to be back even though I have a bad cold or the flu. I will not let that stop me though since I have errands to run the next few days along with two appointments this week and lots of mail and laundry to catch up on. I will be posting now that the trip is over. 

I also have to order Hubby’s favorite zero calorie coffee syrup that he ran out of while I was away. Plus his boots fell apart while he was out snow blowing. I love my LL Bean boots so I will order him a men’s pair from there. I have a 25% off coupon code and a $10. GC. 

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Every Day

A Busy Day

It is so cold here that almost everyone in my neighborhood is hibernating. The temperature when I went out early this morning was  12 degrees. It is now 20. But it feels much colder than that with winds blowing 30-40 miles an hour. The blowing snow was a hazard when I was out driving. 

I had to go out to pick up Hubby’s medicine which cost  $ 3.68.  It had been sitting in the drugstore since last Friday when it was ordered. I was lucky to get out of my driveway because Hubby has been sick so the snow has been piling up since Thursday. So I drove a little over 7 miles to go to the drugstore and back. We had not used any gasoline yesterday.

I had planned on going to the market but after looking at the ads, I decided there was nothing that I really needed today.

So I came home and did some organizing after lunch. Lunch everyday is usually a salad with whatever veggies we have in the fridge at the moment. Today it was spring greens, onions and peppers with a little lite Italian dressing. 

I was tired of my coupons inserts, binder, and ads being either in the closet in the master bedroom suite (where they were stored) or on the kitchen counter where I would cut what I needed from the inserts. My computer is on my kitchen desk and I needed a place for them that I could quickly grab it all and make my grocery list and cut my coupons. So I emptied the two cupboards to the right of my desk. They have built in pull outs. That is where they are stored now. I can pull out what I need without even getting up from my chair.  In the basket, I have this week’s ads, my coupon inserts in a pile filed by date so that I can quickly find the one I need at the moment, and my coupon binder and envelopes that I put this week’s grocery coupons in. My planner with my menu and grocery list is always on the counter to the right of my computer. This will work beautifully for me. BTW, my inserts and coupons are all up to date. All the expired were tossed last Saturday.

I also keep my Entertainment Book and planner stickers in this pull out so they are handy for me. 

In the cupboard next to it in the pullout, I keep the scissors I need to cut coupons and other office related supplies that I use.  

While I was working in this area, I decided to clean out my desk drawer. So now everything is clean, neat and ready to be used efficiently. 

We have all of the energy efficient shades closed up tightly and the snakes on the bottom of the doors where they are needed. It has been very cold the last 10 days and is going to continue into next week. The weather service is saying that we will not get above 0 Thursday through Saturday. The next electric and gas bill will be horrendous but we have done all we can do. We have to stay warm.

Since I have everything I need for my trip, I doubt that I will go out again until I go to the airport this weekend for my Disney trip. I can’t wait to feel the warmth of the Florida sun on my face. So we will not be using much gas and most days will be spend free.

I pulled a package of ground chuck out of the freezer to thaw last night. Hubby and I will be having a tossed salad and a hamburger with cheese and carmelized onions for dinner. We rarely eat beef anymore but I was craving a hamburger and we have to use up what we have in the freezer.


Tonight Hubby and I will watch a movie on Netflix together. We just haven’t decided which one yet.

I hope you all are having a good and frugal day. Tomorrow I will be back with a frugal things post covering the last week or so. 

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Every Day

Inexpensive Turkey Soup and Other Topics

Turkey is one of the least expensive meats you can buy especially around Thanksgiving. I have one extra turkey in the freezer and I am keeping my eye on prices to see if any grocery clearances them. If I go by a grocery store, I stop and run in to see what they are doing with them. I suspect that Aldi will discount them but probably not until after Christmas.

That said, I paid $.99 a lb. for our Butterball 22 lb. turkey this year. It is our favorite brand and the breasts were huge. I have never gotten so much white meat off of a turkey. We got eight individual dinners and seven individual lunches out of the turkey and other leftovers. I also made eight quarts of turkey broth. I made a huge stockpot of turkey soup with some of it(pictured). The rest is in the freezer to use throughout the year. The soup has already fed Hubby and I two dinners and will probably feed us two more. We are definitely getting our money’s worth. Are any of you making soup?

I wanted to let you know that I finished my physical therapy today and I will be doing therapy at home using exercises they trained me to do. I have some of my answers but not all. I had 3 more tests yesterday and today. I am feeling much better but not 100% yet. 

We have started to think about income and expenses for 2018. We are setting the budget for the items that are not set in stone. You know the ones that fluctuate from month to month like groceries, entertainment, restaurant food, etc.

Our budget for food has changed because of the food that we are eating. We are on the Keto diet which consists of meat, chicken, fish, and lots of dark green veggies like kale, swiss chard, spinach, broccoli, etc. We try to buy organic produce when it is important. We are finishing the meat in the freezer and only buying grass fed when we make a purchase. We buy organic eggs from chickens that have been grass fed. We are using butter, olive oil, coconut oil and avocado oil to cook with and for salad dressings. We eat cheese and other fats like bacon. This isn’t everything that we consume but most of it. We started this diet about 7 weeks ago and I have lost 15 lbs. and Hubby has lost 10. We never snack between meals. Of course we cheated a bit over Thanksgiving because we hosted company. When the soup is gone, we will be eating all Keto again. It is an easy diet and we are never hungry because of the fats. 

So when we get done setting the budget I will let you know the budget amounts for food, personal care, HBA etc. which will all be included in the total amount. Then I will let you know what the other categories are for things not set in stone every month.

I realize that you are probably all busy shopping and getting ready for Christmas. But this month you should be setting your budget for 2018. The other thing that is important is to estimate your taxes for 2017 and decide if you should do some tax harvesting of stocks to lower your taxes for the year.
We are working on both. 

Talk with you again soon.

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Every Day

I Hope You All Had a Happy Thanksgiving and The Future of This Blog

I hope all of you had a nice day yesterday and that you are enjoying family and friends. We had a wonderful one celebrated here with family. We are still enjoying their company.

So while my son is doing his college homework and my granddaughter is busy writing stories, I thought I would update you on what is going on here and the future of this blog. 

I have been dealing with a medical issue that is taking up a lot of my time between tests, appointments and lots of research. For example this week coming I am tied up 2 days with three tests and other days in physical therapy. I am not enjoying any of it but it is all necessary. I hope to have answers soon and then know what I am dealing with. It has been a long process.

With that said, now the issue of this blog. Since I started this one my health made it almost impossible to think about anything but it. So I couldn’t put the kind of time in that I wanted to. As one long time reader said to me “I liked your other blogs better!” She was very blunt but so right!  My heart just was not in it.

So I will be keeping this blog but it will be about all frugal things and more like my old blogs. I plan on starting off 2018 with my plans for the New Year which I will publish sometime in December. My plans and budget will be about those things that are not monthly bills set in stone but those that I can work on and reduce. It will be a journey of saving and reducing spending. We have lofty goals for next year which will require reducing what goes out of our bank accounts. Of course 2018 will start off with my Disney trip which is in no way frugal. However airline tickets, my hopper pass, and scooter have long ago been paid for. The only expense will be food, drink and any gifts that I may buy. However, I have been saving all year to have money towards those items and have accumulated $1000. So none of my Disney expenses will come out of our 2018 income. 

So I am looking forward to getting back to blogging soon. And I hope you all will come along for the ride.  

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Every Day

The End To A Very Crazy Busy Week

I know that a lot of you can’t wait every week for TGIF!  When you are retired and have a crazy busy week, you can’t wait for it to be over with and start a new week on Sunday.

I had so much anxiety this week because we had so many things to do or oversee. I don’t do well on a time schedule. I like setting and controlling my own day.

We started the week out going to a birthday party which was a lot of fun. Then the next morning I spent hours at the dentist getting some major work done.  As you all know, I hate going to the dentist. UGH! For some reason, I had an earache when I came home so I went to bed to rest.

Hubby went for a haircut the next day. Lately when Hubby goes to the barber, it is jammed packed. So he was gone a very long time waiting his turn. I was getting worried which again gave me anxiety. 

I got a surprise the same day. My son, DIL, and my grandchild in the Eastern part of the
state had this beautiful bouquet of flowers and a box of chocolates
delivered by the local florist. This picture was taken today so it is 5 days old but doesn’t look too much different than the day it was delivered except for the  some of the missing lilies that bit the dust. Of course, I am enjoying the chocolates – one a day.

Later that day, I got a long distance telephone call from my sister and my anxiety disappeared for a while.

Realizing that Christmas is coming and Thanksgiving is only a few weeks away, I spent most of Wednesday out Christmas shopping. I like to have my gifts purchased early and then wrap them to go home with some of our family on Thanksgiving. I was exhausted when I got home but managed to cook a nice dinner as I had all week.

On Thursday we had workmen here all day that we kept an eye on. The landscape company that takes care of our yard all spring, summer and fall were here for their last appointment this year. They did their usual weeding and weed whacking but also cut down all of the perennial flowers, trimmed all of the bushes and trees cleaned up the beds and anything else we wanted done. The yards are now ready for winter. Then around dinnertime the company came who blows out the lines on our sprinkler system. So that took about an hour and is all done for the winter.

On Friday, we had to take the SUV to the tire place to have the snow tires put on for the winter. We went a little early this year because they gave us a 50% off coupon. Hence it only cost $30. instead of $ 60. for the changeover. Every dollar counts!

It was a long week and I was beat. And Hubby knew it so he asked me to thaw 2 lbs. of ground chuck. He said he would make dinner tonight. He made this delicious pot of chili that you see at the top of my blog. He also made a pot of rice in the new cooker that came this week. His chili is so yummy. It’s all meat. We will have it again the next couple of days and then freeze any that is left to put on hot dogs or use for a baked potato bar. 

I was very happy to eat this bowl of chili on rice for dinner. I even said don’t bother with a veggie tonight. He had enough to do and he gave me the day off so I definitely was happy eating just the chili and rice. 

I wanted to let you know that I have barely done any grocery shopping. I think I have picked up just 6 things that we needed since I purchased the 11 stock up onion soup mix. We are still eating down our freezers and pantries. The inventories that I did has really helped me with the menu planning.

Anyhow, I am so glad that this week is over with. I am looking forward to a new week tomorrow. You all know that my son and grandson come to breakfast every Sunday morning. Ninety percent of the time I cook a very large breakfast for us. I decided to give myself some grace tomorrow morning. So I purchased this assortment of muffins, donuts and coffee cake for our breakfast. I am frugal most of the time but because of that I can splurge on a luxury when I need to. It isn’t the healthiest but my grandson will be delighted and I will enjoy not having to cook.

Here’s to a great week for all of you too!

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Every Day

A Little Of This and A Little of That( Breakfast, New Cooker, and Planner)

We had a celebration in our home yesterday. For dinner, we got KFC take out. We both love fried chicken from there. But since it is pretty unhealthy, we only purchase it 2-3 times a year. With the 8 piece meal we got some biscuits. Since we watch how many carbs we eat in a meal, we did not eat them yesterday. But not wanting to waste them, we used two to make egg, bacon and cheese biscuits for breakfast this morning. Waste not want not!

Over the weekend, Hubby saw on QVC this green 
Cooker .  As you can see in the picture, we already had a smaller yellow one. We use our yellow one all of the time to make rice, quinoa, etc. But it holds very little. I love to make rice on Sunday and then use it a few times a week. So for $19.96, we couldn’t pass up this 5 cup one. Also the new one is big enough to cook meals in it for just the two of us. Using small appliances saves a lot of energy money. So with autumn upon us, this larger one will get used a whole lot now and throughout the winter.  Hubby is making chili in the crock pot tomorrow. So I will make a big batch of rice in the new one and we will just use it through the rest of the weekend. 

My favorite planner is Amy Knapp’s .  I waited too late last fall to order it and they were sold out. So I had to purchase a different planner which did not work well for me. So I was getting Amy’s early this year to make sure that I got one. I actually ordered two- one as a gift. You can’t beat this price for a great planner.

It has a pocket in the front that holds all of my paperwork to run errands or that I need to make calls each week.

I love the weekly pages with the to do lists, grocery shopping lists, and a place for my menus. Both the grocery lists and menus are perforated and can be torn out. I am a very visual person so I need to do lists.

Then there are note pages. I use these to write down my morning and evening routines and my zones. Then they are always handy for me to look at. 


There are also phone number and e-mail reference pages. There are a number of pages to list info for babysitters, children’s friends names and addresses, etc. Those I wouldn’t use but people with children would love them.


And lastly, there are two pages of stickers. Some I can use and others that I can’t, so I will share those with the gift one. I did also buy two sets of stickers that I can use for my planner. I am a very visual person so I enjoy using them in my planner. I plan each week on Sunday for the following. 

So tonight I will be happy to get everything up to date in this planner and throw out the one I am using. I am not waiting until January 1st.

Dinner tonight will be leftovers from KFC. Yummy!

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Every Day

It’s Apple Picking Time

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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