I realized that I was running out of Eloise’s kitten food today. I needed a 14 lb. bag of her Purina Healthy Development Kitten Chow. So I did some research and realized that I could get it for $18.59 minus $2.00 in rewards money at Petsmart for $ 16.59. This was the cheapest that I could get it here.
While I was out, I stopped at the Top’s gasoline station and filled our SUV up. I had $ .40 off per gallon with my gas reward points. So I paid $2.66 per gallon. I needed gas and my area seems to up the price of gasoline the weekend before Thanksgiving. So I wanted to fill up before that happened.
I had the beef stew and Hubby had the beef barley soup that I made earlier in the week for dinner. We had 1 portion of beef stew and 3 portions of soup leftover. So we froze them in those portions for future meals.
Chris reminded me today that I posted my taco seasoning recipe a long time ago. For those who would like it, here it is:
This cream of chicken soup recipe that I make is from The Tightwad Gazette book. I will be making some tonight.
2 cups of dry milk
1 and 1/4 cups of cornstarch
1/4 cup chicken bouillon powder
2 Tbsp. dried onion flakes
1/2 tsp. pepper
1 tsp. thyme
1 tsp. basil
The thyme and basil are optional but I always use them. Mix all together and put in an airtight jar.
To use add 1/3 cup of mix to 1 and 1/4 cups of water. It replaces one can.
I was very conscious of electric usage today. It has been rainy and dreary all day so we used just one light in whatever room we were in. We heated our dinners up in the microwave. Hubby made French toast for breakfast using one pan on the stove burner. We had pure maple syrup and SF syrup to top it. We did no laundry and ran no dishwasher today.
Did you do anything to cut your costs today? Please share.
As usual I have been up early with Eloise. She never seems to want to sleep past 3-4AM. After I fed her and we played for a while, I planned out a couple of days.
I made my coffee. Then I put a sirloin tip roast in the crock pot to make beef stew. I threw in fresh carrots and onions. After the beef had cooked about 3 hours, I took the roast out and cut in up into stew beef and put it back in the pot. The potatoes I threw in later in the day because I do not like them mushy. When Hubby got up, he asked what was in the crock pot. I told him and he asked if I would be mad if he asked me to take 1/2 of the beef and make beef barley soup. I said I would be happy to do that. After the beef chunks were tender, I put 1/2 of them into the soup pot. So I ended up making both beef stew and beef barley soup. I put both dinners in jars after we ate and it will be dinner for the rest of the week. If we get sick of it, I will put whatever is left over in the freezer. We will just reheat what we want to eat each night. I’m happy about that since I won’t have to make another meal for a long time.
Before I could make the soup, I needed to go to Top’s to get celery, I did not know that Hubby had used it all up. So I got 2 packages of it because it was on B1G1F so that 2 cost me $ 2.99. I also swung into Aldi’s and got 6 more pounds of butter. I usually buy 30-36 pounds of butter to last a year. But this year I am not going to buy as much because the price is so high and I still have some left from last year. We have decided that we will only use butter to spread on food like steaks, vegetables, English muffins, etc. We have enough oils to cook with including vegetable or canola for baking, olive oil and avocado to saute food. We always have cold pressed coconut oil and ghee also. Plus I save bacon grease to cook eggs and potatoes.
Last stop was the drugstore to pick up a prescription for Hubby. Cost was $.00.
I did end up doing a load of laundry using cold water and minimal liquid detergent. Then I hung it to dry. If I can continue to just do laundry once a week, I will be thrilled.
Hubby and I took some time to watch The Equalizer that was on the night before. That was my entertainment for the day. However, Hubby did watch the football game and I called my sister for our weekly chat.
Hubby went outside and removed the solar lights from the gardens to store them for the winter. He finished some odds and ends out there so we are now officially ready for winter.
So have you guys been stocking up on cheap turkeys? I have purchased one this year and got a free one, one of which we ate a couple of weeks ago and froze the leftovers. The other is in the freezer for future meals. I would have loved to buy more at such cheap prices but alas I just don’t have the freezer space. I only have a small chest freezer plus the freezer drawers in the fridge.
An acquaintance of mine who lives on only Social Security wanted to stock on turkeys this season and she had the space. The first one she purchased was $ 1.07 a lb. at Aldi’s. Her husband did not want her to buy it because he felt the price was too high. He was sure she could get it cheaper. She convinced him and she bought it. It was a Butterball Premium and well worth the price. Then she bought $ 150. in needed items to be able to do the free turkey deal at B.J.’s. You could get up to a 20 lb. turkey this week. However when she went to get it yesterday she could only find a 17 pounder. This happened to me last year and that is why I did not do this deal. She wanted to get more turkeys but her husband was adamant that she did not. He didn’t seem to understand the concept that you will not ever get poultry or meat cheaper than this. If you can get meat at these prices why pay more in the future especially when you are low income. Now I know some people don’t like turkey but he does. She knows that she can use the turkey in any recipe that calls for chicken. Why pay $ 3.49 a lb. or more for chicken? I use turkey in place of chicken in many of our recipes.
I just don’t understand his reasoning. I told her I would buy more if I had the room. So yesterday she went to Walmart and found a Shady Brook Farms one on sale for $ .88 lb. She had to sneak it in the house and the freezer. She told me and I was excited for her. Hubby has never forbidden me from buying something hence we have no secrets from each other. But if he did forbid me, I would be sneaking them in the house too. I will save money anytime I have the freezer space rather than pay more or full price later. I could understand his reasoning if they just didn’t have the money but they travel to timeshares a couple of times a year and eat out a lot. So a few cheap turkeys is not going to break them.
Yesterday I went to Top’s very early in the morning to pick up my free turkey. I prefer Butterball turkeys but a free one is just as good. This was a little over 19 lbs. This picture was taken in the large bottom freezer drawer of my refrigerator. I had already lifted it too many times yesterday. It will stay there until I cook it sometime in the future.
I earned this turkey last week when I spent $100. on needed items for now and the holidays. It gave me a $10.00 off coupon to buy up to a 20 lb. turkey. The turkey was marked at $8.79 so the additional $ 1.21 was taken off the rest of my order. I also spent about $35. to pick up some on sale items. This was necessary to get the free turkey and to use a $5.00 off Super Coupon on the rest of my order. I had a Free coupon(saved $ 3.99) for a gallon of milk so I got that. I also had two different coupons to get 100 extra gas points so I now have $ .40 off per gallon of gasoline.
I now have 3 points to be able to get 3- $ 50. giftcards for $ 40. each. They only have certain gift cards on this Christmas deal. I will either get Lowes, IHop, or Chili’s cards this year. I haven’t decided yet. The card choices are not my favorites this year but those are ones I would use. I still have the Panera cards that I got last year. This gift card deal is our gift to ourselves for Christmas each year. It helps to defray the cost of eating out or getting things we need for our home like filters for the furnace, any repair items we may need etc.
I also stopped at Aldi’s to pick up 6 lbs. of butter for $3.49 each. That is the best price I can find in my area.
Over the weekend, we made eggs, bacon and had avocados for brunches. Yesterday, I tried a new recipe for dinner: https://www.plainchicken.com/french-onion-chicken-noodle-casserole/ . Hubby hated it. I liked it but it would not be my favorite. It made a lot and because I don’t waste food I portioned it our into quart size freezer bags. I will take one out every once in a while for my brunch until it is gone. On Saturday night, I baked some little smokies wrapped in crescent dough and we dipped them in mustard.
I had to read the meters to submit to my utility company. We used 33 kwh’s less than last year for electric and 15 ccfs less of natural gas. The bill should come within the next couple of days so we will see what it costs. I expect even though we used less the bill will be higher. I am hoping it is lower.
The last time I did a load of laundry it was a week ago yesterday. It has now been 8 days. I may have to do one today or tomorrow. It depends on how much underwear we have still clean. I am trying to cut back on how many loads we do a month.
I have been straightening up our pantry. I believe we have enough food for the winter.
Hubby made a trip to Home Depot looking for some locking clips for Eloise’s cage for when we need to use it. The ones that came with it are a pain to unlock and lock. He did not find any. So we are going to use velcro strips. While he was out he also stopped at Fast Cash to return bottles to get $5.50 back in deposits.
Our snow plow man that we hired came and marked our driveway for the winter. So we are now set for the first storm. This man is very reliable. He has been mowing some neighbors lawns for years and snowplowing eight driveways in here. We are happy that we found him.
Our free entertainment this weekend was watching our Buffalo Bills beat the Kansas City Chiefs yesterday 30-21. The Chiefs had not lost a game this year until now. We loved it.
As I sit her posting for you, I am hearing so many geese flying south. This has been a daily event for a week now. It is a stark reminder of what is coming. Ugh!
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?
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.
We had corned beef reuben sandwiches again last night. So tonight we will be having turkey BLT’s so that we can use up the turkey and tomatoes. Bacon was cooked on Saturday for breakfast yesterday and the BLT’s tonight.
This morning I was up and out at 7:15 a.m. for an eye doctor checkup. My eyes were the same as last year. No cataracts and no sign of any damage at all. I can continue to use my cheap reading glasses. They only put one dilation drop in each eye so I was able to stop at Top’s on the way home and get these two packages of chicken breasts for $ 2.49 a lb. Chicken seems to be scarce in our area so I am grabbing what I can when it is on sale.
These will be preserved with the food saver and put in the upstairs freezer. I have other chicken breasts frozen. Those will come out of the freezer and be thawed and canned because they are older.
I cashed out points for a $10.00 Amazon GC at Pinecone. I am signing up at some more sites to earn points.
I did one load of wash using cold water and hung it to dry. I also did one full load of dishes in the dishwasher using 1 tbsp. of dish soap. They are air drying now.
Hubby is outside watering all of the flowers that are in baskets and pots. I am continuing to go through all of our stuff and either toss it, donate it, or sell it.
Dinner last night was made using the above items. We have leftovers from this dinner and the shrimp fra diavolo which we will use up for dinner tonight. Waste not, want not!
I was given a $ 12.99 haircut coupon by Great Clips so I had my hair cut today and used it and gave her a generous tip. The price is usually $18. I washed my hair at home so I didn’t have to pay for a shampoo.
The Running’s Labor Day sale flyer came so I went and got 10 boxes of regular canning lids for $ 2.99 and 10 boxes of wide mouth canning lids for $ 3.99. Best price I have seen in a long time. They were $9.99 at my N.P. the other day. I also got a Mrs. Wage’s pickling and canning vinegar on sale for $ 3.49. I have more than enough tomatoes, vegetables, and fruit done for the winter. So it is time to can some sale meat to get it out of the freezer. So if you have a Running’s and can, go get yours.
I forgot to buy tomatoes at Niagara Produce the other day so I stopped at Top’s to get some so that we can make some turkey BLT’s. I picked up 2 beautiful beefsteak tomatoes at Top’s for a total of $ 4.60.
We got our electric and natural gas bill today and it was outrageous. The bill was $ 154.00 for using 619 kwh of electricity and 4 ccf’s of natural gas. We used less kwh’s per day than last year same period and the same amount of ccf’s. Last year’s bill was $ 113.05 for less usage. That is a huge increase for supply and demand.
This is what I am thawing to cook in the crock pot out on the patio tomorrow. Hubby is thrilled that I am going to cook this corned beef that I got at a great price last March. I see a couple of dinners and some sandwiches for brunches.
We had Shrimp Fra Diavolo for dinner last night. These are the ingredients. They were all in my freezers and pantries. If you don’t have any white wine, you can substitute chicken broth for it. I have done that many times.
It turned out delicious as usual. This shrimp was getting close to being freezer burned so I needed to use it up. I think it was old when I bought it. Top’s marks over the expiration dates on all of their seafood. They have been doing that since the pandemic started. You have to ask why they are hiding the date. From now on, I will buy my shrimp elsewhere.
We had roast beef sandwiches with au jus gravy on buns for brunch today.
All meals were made with what we have at home.
I have another CD expiring soon so I am doing my research to see what the interest rates are at two different credit unions. I will put it with the one that has the highest interest rate.
Hubby mowed the lawn on Tuesday and today he is weeding some of the gardens. Turf Tec fertilized the lawn yesterday so we let the sprinkler come on today to water it in.
I am going through every item in this house and selling what we no longer use or donating it. The less we have the less we have to take care of.
That is it for today. I will be back tomorrow with more.
We went to visit my oldest son whom we had not seen since December. It is hard for him to visit us because he has a new job. That and owning a business too makes it very difficult for him.
He lives in the Adirondacks which I believe is one of the most beautiful and peaceful places in the U. S. If you are not familiar with the Adirondacks, you can learn more here: https://visitadirondacks.com/about/adirondack-park
So we drove out to see him on Friday morning. We took the Thruway to Amsterdam and then all of the back roads from there. We do this not only because it is a more scenic route but we save money on tolls by not continuing on the Thruway. We have EZ Pass so we save $ 16.04 coming and going because of that. Then by getting off in Amsterdam and back on in Amsterdam, we save $2.40.
We went straight through without stopping for food on the Thruway. We knew that our son had a nice cold cut lunch awaiting us.
I was so happy to see him. He is so happy and healthy! I was so surprised to see how much weight he has lost. He looks great! He is trimmer than he was in high school.
He had a beautiful outside hot tub put in his yard last Fall. That is what I enjoyed on Friday night. You all know the back issues that I have been dealing with. Well, my back has not hurt since I was in it and it is now Tuesday. I checked to see if our YMCA has one but they don’t. I will check some other places because I really believe this helped me. We can put one in our yard but we don’t really have the space unless we take out a tree and a garden to do it. So I am hoping there is some place we can pay and go to use one. My other son has one in his yard but he is an hour plus away. But when we visit I am sure he would let me use it. Last resort would be to have one installed.
While we were there he had the book called The Terminal List. When I asked him about it he told me has the whole series of the books signed. Then he told us the first book was on Freevee. So we binged watched it. Now I can’t wait until the second book is done and we can watch it. It is addicting. I will check our library to see if they have the books. If so I can read them while waiting for the series to be created and streamed.
The Japanese Restaurant that we ate at for dinner was https://harusaratoga.com/ . Hubby was not up to going out with us so he told us to have a nice mother and son dinner. We did and enjoyed every minute of it. We did bring Hubby home an appetizer of steamed dumplings because he needed to eat and this is what he wanted.
On Sunday, my son invited, his business partner and his girlfriend, to the cookout. My son grilled burgers, hot dogs, baked waffle fries and made a delicious pasta salad. We have really gotten to know Travis really well. He is a wonderful person and his girlfriend was lovely. We had a great time catching up.
Thank you son for all of your hospitality. We had a great time and can’t wait to see you again.
Now that we are home, it will be the usual around here. I will try to post as often as I can. We have no more company or vacations planned until next summer.
Our neighbors usually take care of watering our flowers while we are away. One of them was away and the other was having their huge party they have every year and we didn’t want to bother them. I paid a 13 year old neighborhood boy to do it and he did a great job. We will be hiring him on and off to help with some other things.
On the agenda this week is setting up an appointment with our lawyer to make some changes in our trust. Hubby has some appointments and I will most likely stay home most of the week.
I got a good deal on 2 lbs. of strawberries this week at NP. So I washed them, drained them, dried them, and cut them up. They will last about 10 days for us. Since I started putting some of my fruits in mason jars with a paper towel on the bottom, they last a lot longer in the fridge than they used to. This was so that Hubby and I can have strawberries with zero sugar whipped cream for a snack or for a dessert. Sometimes, I will just have a small bowl for brunch.
We were very mindful of natural gas and electric charges since I got that large bill and it reminded me about how expensive they are. When I got up in the morning, it was daylight. So the first thing I did was open the shades and blinds on the non-sun windows. That gave me plenty of light in the house. I just did that all day while following the sun around the house. I never turned on a light until the sun set. One light was on in the room it was needed until bedtime. There were no showers yesterday. I waited until the garbage people had emptied both the garbage and recyclable cans before I used the garage door opener to put them away and get the mail at the same time. No sense using electricity to do it more than once. We knew we were not going out anywhere. My laptop was off and unplugged when I was not using it. I did no laundry yesterday because I am waiting for a full load. I did not run the dishwasher either for the same reason.
Brunch was a yogurt with a little granola sprinkled on top. Hubby had peanut butter and jelly on crackers and apple juice because his sugar was low.
Dinner was grilled cheeseburgers topped with sauteed onions and tomato slices. We also had a side of sliced cucumbers. I am trying not to waste any food in the fridge especially the food that Chris and her Hubby so kindly brought us. I still have a couple of cucumbers left for snacking and one tomato. If it doesn’t get used for dinner tonight, I will puree it in my Vitamix and put it in the freezer to add to my spaghetti sauce the next time I make it. That will most likely be next week when West comes for his summer stay. We’ll see. Bottom line is that I don’t waste food.
I got an e-mail from my library telling me my 2 year library card was expiring and that I needed to go there and renew it within 10 days. I like to keep it up to date so that I can read the online books. I did not want the card to expire nor did I want to go out in the excessive heat to renew it. They have no way for you to renew online. So I called them and the librarian renewed it for me. It saved me from the heat and I used no gasoline to do it. It never hurts to ask. All they can say is no and usually they don’t.
Hubby did some paperwork last night and I watched “She’s in Her Apron” on you tube last night. She was going live at 7:30pm. I can’t believe I watched the whole thing until 11:44pm. Hubby came to bed and could not believe that I was still awake. It was a good question and answer vlog and when her friend showed up and became part of the vlog, it got very comical. It was like being at a girl’s night out. Many people were complaining in the comments about how long it was lasting. There is a way to fix that. Just turn it off.
