Tag: cutting costs

Categories
Every Day

Cutting Costs

In case you haven’t seen it, Aldi’s, Target, and Walmart say they are lowering food prices on certain items because people can no longer afford this inflation, have no savings, and their credit cards are maxed out.

I quickly scanned the Walmart site this morning and did not see much of a change in prices except for junk food which is not nutritious food. The White House asked these grocery stores to do it and they are taking credit for it. Gee another move for votes. Am I surprised? Don’t be fooled people. If this administration gets back in the White House for 2025, things will get worse than you have ever seen before. Our country as we loved it and have known it will be gone. It is almost there now. I hate to get into politics here but people were fooled in the last election and need to wake up to what is going on.

Also it is Walmart who made the statement about people not having any money and their credit cards being maxed out because of inflation. The White House is pointing fingers at these stores saying inflation is all their fault so please lower your prices. What a joke! The inflation is being caused by all the money printing by our government. And then they give it to foreign countries and the illegals. We, the taxpayers, are footing the bill. Ridiculous! I have been voting for almost 59 years and watching government all of this time. They are not there for us but just to enrich themselves. This has been going on since the 1960’s. People are just waking up to this finally.

Don’t be fooled by these grocery stores’ statements that they are doing this for us. They are doing it for themselves. They have lost customers to cheaper stores like Dollar Tree, Dollar General, and grocery outlet stores. They are lowering prices to get their customer base back into their stores.

Now I am not saying that we should not take advantage of these reduced prices. But make sure that they are something you really need and really are the lowest price in your area. Here is a list of the reduced prices for the summer at Aldi’s:

https://corporate.aldi.us/fileadmin/fm-dam/newsroom/Press_Releases/aldi-doubles-down-on-summer-savings-to-put-100-million-back-into-customers-wallets-press-release.pdf

It would be nice if Walmart and Target would put out a list for all of us.

Those of you, who Walmart says have spent their savings and maxed out their credit cards, should be going to food banks until you get back on on your feet. Tough times is what they are there for.

That said here is what I did today to cut costs. First, I froze or used up whatever I could in the produce drawer. I hate wasting food.

Breakfast this morning was hard boiled eggs and the last of the ham. Dinner will be grilled strip steaks, purchased on a loss leader sale of $10.99 a lb. and a tossed salad. For those of you who don’t know, we only eat two meals a day.

Hubby has been faithfully taking care of our gardens. 100% of the flowers planted in the ground are perennials. I love them because they bloom year after year. This is our youngest peony. I just love the color. The only annuals we do every year are in the pots on our patio and the hanging baskets. This peony will be gone in a few days. By then our huge white peonies will bloom. Right now this peony, our two lilac bushes, our lilies of the valley, and our Siberian irises are in full bloom. Hubby had flowers, flowering trees and bushes planted that bloom different seasons of the year.

Hubby had a doctor’s appointment today. We had a postage paid package that needed to be taken to Fed Ex. They have a drop off in Office Max which was on his route home. The traffic was quite heavy on our main road here today with everyone heading to Lake Ontario for the long weekend. So Hubby avoided the main road. With gasoline prices so high, he did not want to waste gas idling in traffic.

While he is out, I straightened up one of our pantries in our kitchen and make sure that the oldest items will get eaten first. First in, first out and that is how we roll.

I am sending out a $5.00 liquor rebate. I also got a $ 18.40 rebate check in the mail today. That will get deposited in savings.

We got our mid April to mid May electric and natural gas bill today. I was very disappointed because it was $ 155.94 for 30 days. Last year’s bill for the same period was only 28 days and totaled $ 129.24. That is a $ 26.70 increase year over year. So I compared both bills which showed this bill was for 2 more days. Also we had an increase on our meter charge of $2.00. There were also rates increases that kicked in and the supply and demand charges were up significantly. Our natural gas therms were down by 1 therm. There is not much that can be done about any of it.

However, I can do whatever I can this month to make sure that my bill is down significantly next month. I did one load of laundry today using 2 tbsp. of liquid laundry detergent in cold water and hung a lot of it to dry. Towels I put in the dryer on medium heat.

Lights are off when it is daylight. We cook either in our countertop oven or grill outside. Laptop is off and unplugged when I am not using it. I do not let water run down the sink. I fill it a bit and then wash my dishes. I have a lot of paper plates that I purchased long before the prices went up. So in this season, I am using them to avoid washing dishes whenever I can.

It is time to relax with a book for the evening.

What have you done to cut costs today?

Categories
Every Day

Are You Drowning In Debt?

The economy has been tough these past few years. Do you feel like you are drowning in debt? Maybe you are. The amount of credit card debt in this country is growing rapidly. It reached $1.13 trillion dollars by the end of 2023. The mortgage debt is $12.25 trillion dollars. Home home equity loan debt is $360 billion dollars. Auto loans are $1.61 trillion dollars. Student loan debt I have no idea because the President seems to be forgiving “his select groups of people” who have student loan debt even though the Supreme Court said he couldn’t. Someone has to pay for that and it is the taxpayers who most likely paid their own student loans themselves or for their children. Isn’t buying votes wonderful? Okay, I will get back on track now.

If you have credit card debt, there is only one way to solve that problem and that is to pay if off. You borrowed it, you pay it off. Over my lifetime, I have heard people make so many excuses about why they have credit card debt. They use their cards for what they consider emergencies. It starts with one emergency and then balloons from there into many emergencies. First, the pipes get clogged and they use their credit card to pay the plumber, then the furnace goes and they put that on the credit card, then they have a dental emergency, or an auto repair emergency, etc. After that everything is an emergency, even food. The worst part is when they are paying the minimum payments every month. They get farther and farther behind with the interest payments they are making. Some of those interest rates are in the high 20’s. Yikes! You are making your credit card companies rich and you poor!

What are you going to do if you lose your job? What are you going to do if you have a reduction in income? There is nothing worse than losing your income. One day you are chugging along and then you are out of a job. Have you prepared for that?

The worst excuse I have heard over the years is “I deserve” a vacation or to go out to restaurants to eat quite frequently, or to go to the latest movies, or to buy new furniture or carpeting or the latest decor, etc. No one deserves anything that they can’t pay for. If you are living above your income, just STOP! You are doing so much damage to your future that it just breaks my heart thinking about it.

I have known people who have lost their homes. I have known people who have never owned their homes for many decades because of credit card debt. Every time they run up their credit cards and can’t pay them off, they redo their mortgage taking the equity out of their home or take a 2nd mortgage on their home in the form of a HELOC(Home Equity Loan). That is the dumbest thing you can ever do. Credit card debt is unsecured debt. By using your home to pay it off, you put your home at risk because your home is secured debt. You don’t pay, they will take your home.

So let’s start being responsible for all of that spending that was of your own making. You have sabotaged yourself and your family. You have no one to blame but yourself. I am tired of hearing poor me because I just don’t have the money to buy “fill in the blank”.

The first thing you do is start a real emergency fund so that you have the money when a true emergency comes up. If you have recently depleted your emergency fund, you have to work to replace it. With all the large and small things you can cut, you can do it even if you just build it with $25. a week. Then do not touch it unless it is a life or death emergency.

Start putting more than the minimum payment on your credit card bills. How do I do that Precious when there is no extra money? You cut all costs that are not a necessity. Next you look at the frivolous spending you do on a daily basis.

You don’t need to buy a cup of coffee out; make it at home and take it with you. You can cook ALL of your meals from scratch so much cheaper than paying for restaurant meals or takeout. You can catch the new movie a few months later on a free or cheap streaming channel for pennies on the dollars you would have paid for tickets and the expensive concession items. There are so many things that are free that you can do for entertainment. Just check your local area. Take up a free hobby like learning how to save money by watching you tube or taking a book out of the library to read.

If you are an impulse purchaser, do grocery or department store pickups. That way you aren’t just browsing in the store seeing all the goodies that you can put in your cart. If you buy on Amazon or Walmart online, put your necessary item in your cart but don’t check out for a few days. If you still deem it necessary in 3-5 days, then purchase it. I do this all the time. 90% of my items aren’t really necessities so I remove them from my cart. If it is a want and you can afford it then get what you want.

This is totally not targeted at any one person. Many people are very responsible with their money. If this post makes you mad, then you probably needed the advice. I will be trying to help anyone who needs to hear this in future posts.

.

Categories
Every Day

My Weekly Grocery Haul And The Worst Thing I Have Ever Eaten

I apologize for the blurry picture again today. I will figure out this new camera when I have time.

Hubby is feeling a lot better today. He is just not 100% yet. I think it is definitely my homemade chicken soup that is curing him. We will be having that for dinner again tonight.

Since Top’s is only 3 miles away, he told me to go to the market. He said he would call me if he needed me. I went early and it was not crowded so I wasn’t gone long.

I got 3.05 lbs of Hot Italian Sausage which was on loss leader sale for $3.99 a lb. for the cost of $ 12.17. We had no shrimp so I splurged on a bag of Colossal Shrimp on sale for $11.99 and the 10 Knorr sides on sale for $1.00 each. They were a long term stockpile item. I earned $.20 off a gallon of gas in points for the Knorr deal. I got a 30 count package of bandaids and the Post Cocoa cereal cup for free with 2 Monopoly coupons. West will enjoy that. I purchased a bottle of Ken’s Steakhouse Sweet Vidalia Onion salad dressing on sale for $3.00 and used a $1.00 off coupon that they sent me in the mail for a cost of $2.00.

I have not bought a Hot Pockets since my kids were in school many, many years ago. It was $ .99 with a Monopoly coupon. I will never buy one again. I had one for lunch and it was awful. The dough was flavorless and the pizza fillings inside were like mush. This has to be the worst thing I have ever eaten. I choked down the one I was eating and debated on throwing out the other one in the package. But Hubby said he will try it later in the week. I think his opinion will be the same. It was a total waste of $ .99. The Hot Pockets back in the 1980’s were much better than this one. I think they have either changed ingredients for their profit or can’t get the ingredients. Yuck!

Lastly, I got 2 boxes of SteakUmms on sale for $ 3.99 each for a total of $7.98. I love these with my eggs for brunch. They have new pork ones out too. I have asked the company for coupons.

My total today for this weekly shop was $ 45.13.

Did you get any good grocery deals this week?

Categories
Every Day

Saving Money A Little At A Time

I hear so many people today saying I can’t save money. So many of them think that they have to save a large amount of money on one item to make it worth it. They are so wrong. There are usually only a few things that you can save a lot of money on but there are hundreds that you can save a little bit on. Those little things add up to huge amounts of money over a year’s time. We are a testament to having saved on the little things and the big things over our years of marriage. We would not be where we are today without having done that. Retired and comfortable for almost 23 years.

But enough about us. I want to tell you about someone who made his first loaf of bread from scratch yesterday. I don’t know if he thought about how much money he could save over a year’s time but I do know he will save a lot. He made it because it was healthier. You all know how much a nice loaf of bread like this would be in a grocery store or bakery. I think I could make this for under $2.00 a loaf. Especially if you buy your ingredients in bulk like I do. I buy 25 lbs of flour and 25 lbs. of sugar in bulk and store them in food grade buckets. Olive oil and yeast is purchased in bulk at a warehouse store. Most clubs like B.J.’s and Sam’s Club sell yeast in a 2 lb package that you can keep in the freezer. You just spoon out what you need when you need it. I always let mine warm up for a bit before I use it. If you prefer to buy honey instead of sugar buy it at an Amish store or warehouse club in a large container. It never goes bad. I always buy butter when it is on sale for $ 2.69 at Aldi’s around Thanksgiving and Easter. It freezes well.

I wish I could be with him to taste this beautiful loaf of bread. But since I can’t, I will just have to make it myself. He substituted honey for the sugar and olive oil for the butter to make it healthier. Now he has plenty of bread for his work lunches this week.

Here is the recipe:https://baranbakery.com/sandwich-bread/

My son who lives in the Adirondacks made this. I think he did great for his first loaf. I hope I do as well when I make it.

I want to thank him for allowing me to share this with all of you.

Do any of you make homemade bread to save on the cost of store bought? Do you have a special recipe that you could share?

Categories
Every Day

What We Have Done To Save Money The Past Couple Of Weeks

  • Made almost all of our meals from scratch using food we already had in our home.
  • Made lemon bars, carrots and celery sticks to dip in homemade onion or veggie dips, banana muffins, jello and pudding for snacks. We no longer buy junk food. I don’t know what the corporations have done to it but it does not taste the same as a few years ago and it is very expensive.
  • I have been doing only two loads of wash a week done in cold water with 2 tbsp. of detergent for each load and hanging most of it to dry.
  • Instead of changing our tablecloth in the breakfast room every day, I have been using place mats on the cloth. They keep the tablecloth cleaner and I just throw the mats in with the regular wash.
  • I am washing our windows a few at a time using homemade cleaner. Hubby will be doing the outsides soon as this rainy weather breaks using the pressure washer. They have not been done in a couple of years because of all the building of homes behind us. Those are now done so I feel it is safe to wash them now and we won’t get blowing dirt to make them dirty again. I thought about hiring a company to do them but did not want to pay the $850. they wanted to do them.
  • We have not heard from our landscaper about a spring clean up of our property so Hubby has done it himself a little at a time. Hubby will contact the landscaper for mulch to be put down and a new garden put in around the shed in May. We did pay in full getting a discount for fertilization of our lawn this season. They usually start the end of April so they should be coming soon.
  • New York State is providing funding to our electric and gas company to give a one time credit of $ 9.52 on our electric bill and $ 15.66 on our natural gas bill as an effort to address energy affordability due to inflation. It is in the state budget which has not been passed yet, so who knows when that will show up. It will show up sometime down the road under the miscellaneous section where all the fees and surcharges are. It’s not much but as I always say, every little bit helps.
  • We put a metal rack out with our garbage last week and the garbage company did not take it. So I put it back out last night hoping they would take it today. Within an hour of me putting it out last night, a man took it. I am happy that it is gone and I didn’t have to use my gasoline to donate it.
  • I have only used my big oven once recently. Otherwise we use the countertop 11 in one oven for everything.
  • I continue to take navy showers which saves on our water bill.
  • Our son and DIL gave us a daffodil plant for Easter. Hubby will be planting it in our garden soon.
  • Our lawn got so long that Hubby has been mowing it for two weeks now. It looks great really early this year. I believe it is because we had a warm winter and lots of rain the past couple of weeks. Our flowering trees are all in bloom which always makes me happy. Our cherry tree is blooming and setting cherries. We should have lots of cherries this year earlier than normal.
  • We have been using up all of our produce and eating all of our leftovers so as to not waste anything. Food is way too expensive to throw out. We have been eating beef stew, made using homemade beef broth, for the past two nights. We will eat it again tonight and then it should be gone. All made from scratch using a sirloin tip roast that I got on sale many months ago for $ 4.99 a lb. I cut it up into stew beef. I refuse to pay $7- $8. for stew meat. I added fresh potatoes, carrots, onions, and celery and then made gravy towards the end of it cooking.
  • Be aware that the post office is talking about raising the price of a first class stamp again to $ .73 on July 14th after just raising it to $.68 earlier this year. I am so glad that I bought a 100 count roll of forever stamps at $ .66 before the last increase.
  • Some of our winter coats can be washed at home and I will do that. But a couple have to be dry cleaned. So I am keeping my eye out for a discount coupon.
  • My chives are in full bloom so we have been using them on baked potatoes with sour cream.
  • It seems like gasoline is rising almost every day due to the mess in the middle east. So I filled up our gas tank today getting $ .20 off per gallon with my Top’s gas points. After the points I paid $ 3.20 per gallon.
  • Hubby got 4 new all season tires put on our car yesterday. We had to buy new ones due to the fact that our car is 11 years old. The snow tires we bought at the beginning of the winter will be stored on the ceiling in the garage. The tires were $1,000. We have odd sized tires that have to be preordered. The rubber that tires are made from has really gone up. But these tires should now last until we no longer have the car. We paid cash with money we had saved for this purpose.
  • I picked up my prescriptions at my Rite Aid pharmacy for the very last time. They are closing my store in a week or so. Hubby and I have to decide who we are going to use now. We still have 2 Rite Aids in our area but I hate the customer service at one of the stores. The other is much farther away from me. We are considering two other chains and two grocery store pharmacies.

What have you been doing to save a bit of money lately?

Categories
Every Day

This Past Weekend

Saturday and Sunday I cooked from what we had in the house. Saturday night I made mandarin orange chicken using orange sauce, mandarin oranges, and chicken over rice. I added a vegetarian egg roll which was delicious.

Last night we had cheeseburgers with sauteed onions and sliced tomato.We had a bag of French fries in the freezer that had just a few in it so we split them. An hour or so after dinner, we had some pistachio pudding that I made in the morning. I like to have SF puddings and jello’s in the refrigerator for a snack or dessert. Tonight we will have leftover hamburgers with some lettuce, onions and tomato.

For breakfasts, we had egg, ham, and cheese McMuffins. I made a couple extra for today’s breakfast. After breakfast today, I will cook up a pound of bacon to use with eggs the rest of the week. I am also going to hard boil some eggs in the instant pot for breakfasts and for Hubby to make some egg salad.

Hubby and I watched a lot of March Madness this weekend. I multi-tasked doing some sewing repairs while I was watching. I also did a bit of work in the basement. And two loads of wash got done and one was hung. The other was towels which I dry in our dryer. We went nowhere which saved on gasoline.

We also got our 32 day utility bill. It was $ 208.81 Last year’s bill was $256.09 for the same period. We used 406 KWH and 110 ccf’s of gas. I have to believe that it was down because of the conservation we do and the warmer winter.

My plans this week are to get ready to have our family for Easter. I will be doing some cleaning and making our menu.

What are you doing to save money this week?

Categories
Every Day

Meat Stock Up, Etc.

Niagara Produce had extra large eggs on sale for $ 1.99 a dozen. Since I only had 2 dozen left in the refrigerator, I drove down there to get 2 dozen.

I figured while I was there, I would look for marked down meat. They had none. However they have a chalkboard in the butcher shop where they post all of their meat specials. I had looked at the ad before I went and determined that I needed none of the meat that was on sale. But when I checked the board, they had whole tenderloins on sale for $ 13.99 a lb. This deal had not been in the ad. That is a fantastic price for this area. So I had the butcher cut a whole one up into 1 and 1/2 inch filet mignon steaks. I also told him that I wanted the trimmings. The trimmings sometimes are very meaty and that meat I will use in a casserole or stew. Other times when they are not so meaty, I use them to make beef broth. The bag of trimmings are in the top left hand corner of the picture. The rest are the filets. I used my food saver to prepare them for the freezer. Hubby and I have been on the hunt for steaks for a few weeks. I am also keeping in mind that steaks will most likely go on sale around Memorial Day. However, I doubt that these tenderloins will get cheaper. But if they do, I will buy more.

These are Hubby and my favorite steaks to grill outside so I am happy to have a stash of them right now. It has been quite a while since we have had a filet. The total cost of the meat was $ 84.22. That is a hefty price for meat but I have been saving up my grocery budget money that I have not used for a number of months now. So when I can find a good sale, I have the money set aside to purchase some. We have other meats but not a lot of beef.

I have continued to work in the basement cleaning and pitching or donating anything that we no longer want. I am only able to work for a couple of hours a day before my back and hip bother me. So it is getting done slow but sure.

We had a thunderstorm come through here the other night. The wind was the worst that I have ever heard. Our power went out for a few minutes and then came back on. The next morning while I was in the basement, I heard a whirring sound when the sump pump was trying to come on. I asked Hubby to go down to the basement and check it. He agreed that the pump motor was not working. We were not panicking because we have a back up but you don’t want to use that for long. Hubby said he would think about what else could be wrong with it. So after pondering it for a while, he decided to check the breaker. The breaker had not gone off. But he turned it off and back on anyhow. Then he took the pump plug from the original outlet and plugged it into the external outlet that he and my son had installed a couple of years ago. The pump turned on. So Hubby then unplugged it and put it back in the original outlet and the pump turned on. Problem solved. The power surge did something to it but now it seems to be working. We are checking it every day. I am so glad that we didn’t call our plumbing guy. That would have cost a few hundred dollars.

Lastly, talking about money: We are doing everything that we can possibly do to save money around here. Our everyday expenses have gone up like yours have. Food, clothing, outside property care, medical, homeowner, and car insurances, gasoline, gas and electric bills, etc. have taken quite a hike the last couple of years. As long as the Fed keeps hiking interest rates and the government keeps spending money they do not have, we will see massive increases in everything. We went through this with President Carter and President Obama but this is the worst I have ever seen. So get prepared.

I will be showing every little thing and big thing that we are doing to save money. The problem is that there are only so many big things and so many little things. But it all adds up!

I now feel well enough to blog more frequently. What are you doing to save money in these recession times?

Categories
Every Day

Aldi’s Grocery Haul

Since I always stock up on butter at Aldi’s during the Thanksgiving sales, I went and got the limit of 6 lbs. today. It was $ 2.49 a lb. It was $1.97 last year but inflation has taken it’s toll. Considering that butter is $ 5.69 in other stores in my area, this was a great deal. We use about 30 lbs. of butter a year because I cook with it. I had 15 left in my freezer and fridge. So I have 9 more lbs. to purchase and will do that over the next couple of weeks.

We were also out of the turkey tenderloins and Hubby really loves them so I purchased one at $ 6.49. He loves his coleslaw and we had none so I got this one at $ 1.69. He likes it cut finer than this but he will cut it finer himself.

They had no heavy whipping cream and the three stores that I have been in the last couple of weeks have had none either. Since I had 2 Half and Half in the fridge and I will now be using it, I picked up one more at $ 2.65. We both love the clear flavored waters so I picked up 5 more at $ .69 each plus bottle deposit. We have quite a stockpile of them.

Broccoli is my favorite veggie and we will be having it at Thanksgiving so I picked up one more at $ .95.

I picked up some French style green beans at the 2019 price of $ .49 each and some Cream of Chicken soup at that price also. They will go in my long term stockpile. My total for this Aldi’s haul was $ 35.60!

I have never seen my Aldi’s so crowded even on the day before Thanksgiving or Christmas week. There were only 4 carts left outside when I went into the store. Many, many people were stocking on all of those 2019 prices. They were buying cases of things. If they need them, it is a great time to do that.

When I went by my Super Walmart on the way home, there were hardly any cars there. Probably because Aldi has these 2019 prices on Thanksgiving items and Walmart just reduced them to last year’s price. With prices rising so fast, people want the best prices they can get.

I was worried that the butter would be depleted by the time I got to Aldi’s. I had an appointment at 9am this morning to get the snow tires put on the SUV. So I didn’t get to Aldi’s until 11am. They still had about 24 lbs. in the refrigerated case. That made my day! I haven’t paid full price for butter in years.

Speaking of the snow tires, we get this done every fall and then have them taken off in the spring. I paid $ 81.29 to get that done today. I assume it will be the same in the spring or maybe a little higher. I discussed with Hubby when I got home why we have never purchased wheels to have the snow tires mounted on. Then we wouldn’t have to pay this price twice a year. He or one of my sons could easily put them on. I told him that I think we should check out buying 4 wheels for the extra set of tires. I realize it would be an outlay up front but it will save us about $ 162.+ a year or even more as the price goes up every time we have it done.

We will be having leftover stew for the fourth dinner this week. Then it will be gone. Use up your leftovers, don’t throw them out!

Did anyone save on any Thanksgiving items this week? Come share with us and tell us what store you got them at.

Categories
Every Day

Frugal Things This Weekend and Today

Since I like to cook 12-16 ounces of bacon at a time, I decided to fry a 12 ounce package in my electric fry pan on Saturday. My pan is large so I can put all the strips in at once. My natural gas to cook on the stove is much more expensive to use. So we now have bacon for a few days. I made eggs for me this morning and Hubby had some of his homemade Keto pancakes that I had put in the freezer.

I have been rearranging things in my freezer so that I can get another turkey or two in my freezer. I have been taking things out of the packaging and using my food saver to repackage them. As of Saturday I still didn’t have all of the prices for my area yet. But whatever the prices are, it will be the cheapest meat we can buy.

I was going to go to Top’s on Saturday to get the cheap celery with a Super Coupon. I was hemming and hawing about spending the gas even though I had to also fill the car up. So I looked up Walmart’s reduced price for the celery as part of their reduction for Thanksgiving and found it was $ .98. Top’s with the coupon was $ 1.29. I will go on Monday to Top’s, Aldi’s, and Walmart. They are all a block apart. Top’s has Rao’s spaghetti sauce for $ 5.29 after an e-coupon and cream cheese for $ 1.39 after a Super Coupon. I will tank up my car while I am there too since I have $ .20 off a gallon there that makes it the cheapest place to buy gas. I have a small list for Aldi’s and a little bigger list for Walmart. This way I can get all my shopping done and tank up the car in one trip.

Hubby and I have been using up the shampoo, lotion, toothpaste, and mouthwash that he brought home from the hospital.

My son and grandson came for breakfast on Sunday. We had sausage, bacon, and eggs that I pulled out of the freezer. The eggs made perfect scrambled eggs so I know that I can freeze whole eggs with no issues.

My son helped Hubby put the grill in the shed for the winter, put the cover on our huge patio umbrella for the winter, put the snow tires in the back of the SUV so that I can get them put on the car this week, and move the snowblower from the shed to the garage in case I need it to do the sidewalk this winter. My other son will tune it up and get it ready for the winter when he comes for Thanksgiving.

On Sunday, I put two sirloin steaks(I had no stew meat) in the crockpot along with a whole bunch of fresh veggies. I used a little bit of low sodium beef broth thickened with xanthan gum. It was delicious and it made enough for the next two nights or more.

I have always wondered but never did the research to find out which of the lights in my kitchen take the most energy. I have 5 indoor LED recessed flood lights in the ceiling over my counters. I also have two ceiling lights in the center of the kitchen that take 3- 5W LED bulbs each. So that is 6 bulbs when they are on. My research told me that at night when we are using lights now that it is daylight saving time, it is cheaper to turn on the flood lights than the 5W ceiling lights. So that is what we will always do.

I ran a full load of dishes and air dried them. I did one load of wash in cold water and hung it to dry.

Today is Monday. I was up and out early to run errands. I filled the car up with gasoline. I used my $ .20 off per gallon points so I paid $ 3.599 a gallon.

Then I went in to Top’s to grocery shop. I thought I was prepared but I missed the fine print in the ad that advertised the $ .58 price on their store brand turkeys. You had to spend $30. without the turkey included in that to get that price. I only had a couple of other things on my list. So I got the cream cheese for $ 1.39 with the super coupon, the Rao’s spaghetti sauce for $ 5.29 after sale and e-coupon, and a SF cool whip for $ 2.79. Then I looked around the store to see what I might need that was on sale. They had the Bounty 4 double rolls on sale for $ 8.49. I had an e-coupon for $1.00 off on one. Since I was down to just one paper towel roll at home, I picked up 3 packages. The turkey was 18.87 lbs. at $ .58 a lb for a total of $ 10.94. Next time I will read the fine print in the ad online. UGH! I will not be doing that again.

But anyhow, I got my second turkey. I might be able to buy another one on sale somewhere when I take one out to defrost for Thanksgiving. That is if there are any left in the stores. At these prices, it is the cheapest meat you can buy. I like to cook one every couple of months over the winter. Then I food saver the meat and use it in place of chicken. I always make bone broth from the carcasses and skin and can it. That way I don’t have to buy it. So if you have the freezer space, think about getting a few turkeys for cheap protein.

Hubby is out mowing the lawn on his rider. He said the doctor said he could try it and if it bothered him to stop doing it. I have been watching him while I type this because he is making me very nervous. But to far so good.

We are going to catch up on the shows on the DVR from last night when he comes in.

Dinner will be leftover stew. The rest of the day, I will be working in the basement going through boxes and only keeping what we really need.

Did you do anything in the last three days to save money?

Categories
Every Day

Wednesday’s Saving Money

Yesterday, even before breakfast, we went to our appointments at Rite Aid to get our flu shots that are covered by Medicare. I also made our bed and cleaned the bathroom sinks, kitchen sink, and all the counters before we went out. We used some cleaners from our stockpile.

Then we came home and I made us cheddar cheese, diced orange pepper, and onion omelets. Hubby had sausage with it and I had ham again. I have been trying to use up the ham in the fridge before it goes bad.

Then it was time to wash and prepare our produce in the fridge so that I can just pull it out when I need something. Things are stacked in no particular order. It has been driving me crazy!

This chaos is what I am talking about. One produce drawer was so stuffed that I had to pull things out to find other things. The other drawer wasn’t much better.

So I pulled everything out and washed the crisper drawers.

We don’t use much fruit so I have delegated both crisper drawers as vegetable drawers. The strawberries need to be used up today so we will eat them tonight as a dessert with SF whipped cream. The blueberries I froze to use for pancakes and muffins.

Then I spent some time cleaning and cutting up everything else. You are seeing the crisper drawers before I put covers on each item before I put them back in the refrigerator. All of this is ready for salads except the avocados which I can’t do ahead of time. They are easy enough to add to a salad last minute or to have with my breakfast eggs. Hubby is eating salad with almost every dinner. So this makes it easy to put together. We also like to use peppers in eggs, salads and stir fries.

This is the other finished drawer.

The bagged salad will get eaten pretty quickly. It is my favorite. The onions get used in a multitude of dishes. The rest of the bag of onions is in the pantry. Hubby likes celery stuffed with peanut butter for a snack so this celery won’t last long. The carrots are cut smaller when needed for dill dip. I also use them in soups and stews. The two cucumbers which you can just see over the top of the bagged salad will get used quickly because I like them for a snack. I never cut them up ahead of time because they get slimy.

Doing all this preparation lets me just grab what I need when I am putting meals together. It’s all washed and pretty much prepped. This way of doing things allows me to quickly determine what I need at the grocery store. Celery and tomatoes have already been put on my next grocery list.

BTW, all of the containers you see in my crisper drawers were bought years ago. I always use what I can find at home first before I buy anything.

My landscape company came out and put our winter fertilizer down on the lawn. I expect we will see our landscape crew soon to cut bushes back, trim trees, and weed. That will also be their last time this year. These things were all paid for last spring.

Hubby made coleslaw using the angel hair coleslaw that I purchased this week. It had no carrots in it so he grated some himself and made homemade dressing. We had that with the other half of the steak that we grilled last night. Hubby cut the rest of the steak up in thin slices and sauteed it with butter and garlic. It was a delicious dinner. He seems to be feeling better because he is enjoying cooking again.

What did you do to save money today?