Tag: frugal things we do

Categories
Every Day

Things We Are Doing To Save Money

Yesterday I roasted a 18.31 turkey that I got on sale at Thanksgiving. I served it with stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans, and gravy. After dinner, I cut all of the meat off of it and I will use it for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday meals. I also put all the skin and bones in the crock pot overnight. It made lots of turkey broth. The rest was frozen for future meals. This should make us 4 dinners, a huge pot of homemade turkey soup and a couple of casseroles. It should give us a total of about 15 – 16 dinners for each us. It is 16 degrees, cold and bitter out today. It’s a good day to use the big oven. I forgot to take a picture of the turkey when it was intact. But here is one while I was taking the meat off the bone.

Well, our snow plow guy was here again yesterday and today because it has been snowing for two days again now. We are so sick of this winter. I need Spring!

On Wednesday, I went to the market with a list of sale items. I was so disgusted with what was going on there that I vowed not to shop for as many months as I can. On my list was Mary Kitchen corned beef hash. This is a regular thing I buy when it is on sale because Hubby loves it with eggs for brunch sometimes. We were down to 3 cans and they had it on sale on B1G1F. My plan was to pick up 10 cans. It was well stocked but I soon knew why. Every can either was dented or rusting on the bottom. All of the dates had been stamped over. The old dates were expired but the new stamps dates were not. I grabbed the grocery manager to complain and to ask if he had any newer ones in the back. He said no. So evidently this store chain is emptying their warehouses of crap and trying to sell it and hoping that no one will notice. I don’t know if this is because food is not coming into the warehouses or just pure greed. But I will not be shopping there. Watch your cans when you buy them. I have also seen this at Walmart. Rust is compromising the cans. You can not safely eat it plus any can with a dent near a seal should not be purchased.

At the same store they had green seedless grapes on sale with a store coupon for $1.88 a lb. What a great price, so I was going to buy some for our chicken salads. However, they were of very poor quality. Always look at the stems. If they are brown and shriveling up, they are old. I passed on those too.

The last sale item that I refused to buy was a can of corn on sale with a store coupon for $ .49. The cans had not been dusted in forever. They also had the dates stamped over and rust on them.

I ended coming home with 1 box of angel hair pasta for $ .88 and 2 five pound of bags of russet potatoes that were on sale for B1G1F. My total for the potatoes was $5.49. So I didn’t spend much at the store.

Before I started shopping, I did what I usually do. I quickly ran through the store and took pictures of the prices with my cellphone of all items that I regularly buy so that I could update my price book. Almost everything has gone up by $ 1.00. I actually saw a few things that had increased by almost $ 2.00. Those are huge increases from week to week.

While I was out, I stopped at Home Depot to try to get some ice melt. They had none. Getting ice melt anyplace in the Buffalo area is not easy.

So needless to say, it was not a good shopping trip. Take note of this date of February 19, 2025. It was my last grocery shopping trip for a very long time. The only thing that will entice me to shop would be a REALLY rock bottom meat sale or sale produce that we love. Otherwise I will not be going to any grocery store. I want to see how long we can stay out of the stores and make delicious meals from what we already have. That will bolster our savings also and help us reach our goal early.

I also refuse to pay for produce that will go bad in a day or two. I got a small pickup order at Walmart the other day. I got a 2 lb. container of strawberries. I got them home and decided to wash them and cut them up and put them in a 1/2 gallon mason jar. I find they keep better that way. As I was cutting, I noticed that there was mold in all of the berries in the center. It was disgusting! I threw them all out because even the ones that looked good could have mold spores on them. Walmart is refunding my $5.32.

So no shopping for me. I refuse to pay these insane prices for inferior products. We will use up what we purchased when prices were lower.

Breakfast this morning will be a hard boiled egg and a cranberry orange muffin. Dinner will be leftover turkey and the side dishes.

I got our electric and gas bill yesterday. It was the highest bill ever since we moved here. But more on that soon.

Categories
Every Day

Grocery Haul, etc.

I finally got to go grocery shopping yesterday at Top’s. Chicken is hard to find around here. Not only is it scarce but it does not look good, kind of gray in color and the price keeps going up. Top’s had some on sale for $.99 a lb.- leg quarters, legs, and thighs on the bone. They did not look good.

However they did have large rotisserie chickens on sale for $ 6.99 each with a limit of 2. I can buy them at B.J.’s for $ 4.99 each. However, it was not worth the gasoline to go down there. It is 30 minutes away and I had no other reason to go down. I can’t buy a whole chicken for this price let alone roast it. So this was a savings of both time and money. I can’t buy a large raw whole chicken for under $8.00 even at Walmart.

We had some of it on a huge salad for brunch yesterday. Then I made stuffing and gravy to go with it for dinner.

Today I cut all of the chicken off and used my food saver to package it in 2 cup portions for other meals like soup or casseroles. They are now in the freezer. The total cost for the chickens was $ 13.98.

They had chuck roasts on sale for $ 5.99 a lb. I purchased 2 large ones for a total of $ 41.15. They will make 2 stews and 2 beef barley soups. My last purchase was this Red Baron pizza that was $ 3.99 with a Super Coupon. This is for dinner tonight.

My budget for the month of January was $400. I spent a total of $ 145.93. So way under budget which I was thrilled with.

We will continue to eat out of our stockpiles here and spend as little as possible in February also. I do want to stock a year’s worth of corned beefs when they go on sale for St. Patrick’s day. We love reuben sandwiches. Meanwhile our freezers are going down so that I can stock on sale beef when I see it. Most of that beef will go on the bottom of the freezer. I believe that beef will skyrocket soon to where it is unaffordable. Once I have enough of that and chicken, I will stop buying meat.

Otherwise, I am buying as little as possible. The prices will not come down until people stop buying so much food. It is the inflation but also supply and demand. If the demand is down the prices will come down. So I will do my part to control it here at my home.

While I was out yesterday, I went to the drugstore and picked up one of Hubby’s prescriptions. I also went to Ace Hardware to pick up the battery operated shovel that I showed you in a prior post. Hubby ordered it online and they let us know it had been shipped to our store. He is outside right now trying it out on our walk. I just have to learn how to use it.

With the errands all done for the week. I will not be going out again this week except to get our mail.

Have any of you saved money on groceries this week? Have you gotten a good meat deal?

Categories
Every Day

Sunday’s Doings

After rising early, I made us a breakfast of SteakUmm’s and 3 eggs each. I love this easy breakfast. Fortunately, I have a 60 count box of eggs in our refrigerator. It has gone up twice in price since I purchased them. So we are using them sparingly.

On Saturday night, I put the stainless steel racks from both of our ovens in one of our bathtubs, filled it up with hot water, and threw 4 Cascade Platinum Dishwasher Pods in the water to soak overnight. I took this picture this morning and you can see how dirty the water has gotten. It took all of the grease off them and most of the brown baked on stuff. I had to use a Scrub Daddy pad to get it all off but it was relatively easy. So the racks are like new.

One of our favorite charities is Tunnels To Towers. We give them large checks about twice a year. We don’t do the $11.00 a month thing but give much more in our checks we send. I finally braved the cold and snow to go out to our mailbox to get our last few days mail. We got these beautiful birthday cards from them. On the right is the cards and the matching envelopes are on the left. It is always nice to get a surprise from them.

When I came back in, our sweet Eloise was asleep on top of her favorite leather chair. I just had to share this pic with you to show you how big she has gotten. She is 8 and 1/2 months old now.

We had a quick dinner before the game last night. One of our favorites is shrimp cocktails. Later in the evening we had some monterey jack cheese on crackers.

One of the ways we save money is to always buy on sale. The shrimp was on sale a while ago for $6.99 a lb. We used the whole lb. between the two of us.

We finally got all of the forms that we need to file our Federal and State income taxes. I am afraid by just eyeballing it that we will owe this year. I will be very surprised if we get a refund. So I am in no hurry to do them right away.

I did two loads of laundry in warm water to try to catch everything up around here. I did use my dryer with our wool balls to cut down on the time needed to run it.

This morning I ran a lot of errands that needed to be done. More on that tomorrow.

Has anyone saved any money this past week or so?

Categories
Every Day

A Busy Day

This morning Eloise let me sleep until 6PM. That was fantastic. Since I went to bed early, I got 9 hours sleep which I badly needed. So I immediately started a load of wash using cold water and hung it to dry. Then I did a second load of sheets and blankets. Those were dried in the drier.

For lunch I made turkey melts and we had SF chocolate pudding for dessert.

I did not go out today because it is in the teens. But I do have a Walmart delivery coming tonight. I needed some produce, etc. so I placed a small order. I will take a picture and show you tomorrow.

My back is really bothering me today but whenever I grocery shop or have a grocery delivery I clean the refrigerator and take stock of what I need. I had to take little rests in between and sit a bit. But I worked through the pain and got it all done.

I empty it of all the stuff and then take all the drawers and shelves out and clean them very well with soap and water. Then I scrub all the walls of the fridge before I put them back.

It’s pretty full right now mostly with condiments. But we are working at eating them all up. They are on the second shelf on the left. On the top shelf on the left is the eggs that were left when I got my 60 count box the other day. You can see the box behind the ones in the front. The box always fits perfectly up there. To the right of them is a container with 2 hard boiled eggs left that I cooked the other day. We use them for salads and snacks.

On the top shelf on the right is butter that I got on sale stacked all the way to the back of the fridge. Eloise’s dinner is in the container and then jellies and jams..

Back behind our medicines are 2 boxes of ready made pie crusts that I purchased over the holidays on sale. I will be using them to make pot pies.

Third shelf on the left is a container with sour creams, dips, cream cheese spreads, and cottage cheese.

Next to that is our leftovers which right now consists of red beans and rice with hot smoked sausage and some cooked mushrooms. Behind that is an overflow sour cream and a jar of applesauce.

On the third shelf on the right is bacon thawing in a pan for us to have BLT’s tomorrow night. I will cook all the bacon and we will use some for brunches too. On the other pan are 3 half and half’s, a quart of milk, and a cold cream for coffee. Behind all of those items are a diet cranberry juice and 2 Ready Whip Zeroes. I keep meats and milks on these pans because I do not like having to clean my shelves of drips and leaks. It’s much easier to clean the pans.

The fruit drawer on the left is just a few apples. The veggie drawer on the right has a package of romaine lettuce, 5 lbs. of carrots, and 1/2 of a huge onion.

The drawer underneath those drawers is my cheese and meat drawer. It has various shredded cheeses, blocks of cheese for snacks, sliced cheeses for sandwiches, and a few packages of pepperoni.

We will be using the mozzarella cheese, mushrooms, and pepperoni to make a pizza on naan bread for dinner. We season it with a lots of Italian spices.

We have all the bedrooms, bathrooms, and office doors closed to keep Eloise out of mischief. When my son left I meant to close the heat registers in all of the rooms except the bathrooms and our bedroom. So I remembered today and we will see if it saves us anything on our heat bill. With the temperatures so cold this past week and this week, I think we may see a $300.+ bill this month for the first time ever. Ugh.

That’s it for today. I need to go collect all of the garbage so I can put it outside tonight.

I hope you are all having a great day. Be back tomorrow.

Categories
Every Day

Over The Weekend

We had a nice big salad and grilled a strip steak outside. The salad had romaine, onions, tomatoes and sliced eggs. I had cooked 9 eggs in the instant pot the day before. Hubby made egg salad one day and I had some as snacks. The last one was sliced for our salad.

On Saturday for brunch, Hubby sauteed the leftover steak with some garlic and added English muffins with my homemade peach jam.

Hubby grilled pork ribeye steaks and I served them with cinnamon apples another night.

My son sent a message saying they were coming for breakfast on Saturday instead of Sunday. I didn’t see his message until 9:30pm on Friday night. I set the table for the morning. When I got up with Eloise at 5:30am, I decided to make scrambled eggs, fried ham and French toast to go with it. When they arrived at 9am, I was able to cook those up and add fresh avocado slices for anyone who wanted them. Water, coffee, and diet cranberry juice were offered as beverages. After some good conversation we played a game of rummy. I so love playing that so they play with us almost every time they visit.

Navy showers were on the agenda very early Saturday morning. Then I threw a full load of wash in the washing machine. I used cold water, 1/4 cup of liquid detergent and added a little Oxy to that load. Before our son and grandson came, I was able to hang all of it to dry. I will see if I can wait a full week before having to do another load.

I made a batch of brownies for snacks and they should last all next week. I baked them in my counter top 11 in 1 oven to save on energy. While they were baking, I scanned all of my Fetch receipts to earn points for Walmart gift cards.

All of this food was in my refrigerator, freezers, and pantries. I did not have to run out to any stores to get it. Having a stockpile saves a fortune on gasoline.

Hubby spent some time washing one section of the garage floor where he had bagged up some wet grass. One of the bags leaked and it was a mess. He used some cleaner that we had on hand and washed it all off. It was easy because our garage floor is epoxied. He also emptied some more pots that had flowers in them to get ready for winter. He is almost done. Then he mowed the lawn. We hope we will do the last grass cutting until spring soon. When he was done with that I helped him put our storm door on and put the screen door away.

While my son was here, he helped Hubby put all the patio furniture into our shed. He also brought our snowblower around to the garage from the shed. Hubby bought a large rubber mat to park it on to protect the garage floor. We have a snow plow guy for the winter but he only does the driveway. So the snowblower is needed for the sidewalk and porch. The last thing Hubby had to do is put the grill cover on. But we won’t do that until the first snow is predicted. We are hoping that we can use it over the winter to save on our utility bill.

I spent some time making a list of errands that I need to get done this week. One of them is to get a leash for Eloise. I don’t know what size to buy her because she is growing like a weed. So I will go to the pet store to try to figure it out. If the one I get doesn’t fit her, I can return it and get a larger one. I will measure her to see if that helps determine her size. I also need a haircut and will do those errands on Tuesday before I go to our Top’s Grand Opening. They are having some fantastic sale prices!

For dinner last night, I needed something easy(I was exhausted) for after the Buffalo Bills game. We won and that was entertaining. So we made homemade Chik Fil A chicken patty sandwiches. We added some pickle spears and chips. Then had a brownie for dessert. After dinner, I ran the dishwasher and am hoping that I won’t have to do that again for at least 3 days.

Did you cook something from your pantry this weekend?

P.S.: There is a VERY important post before this one.

Categories
Every Day

Sunday and Monday Happenings

I had to purchase Hubby’s alcohol prep pads. He only had about 5 days left. Amazon carries the ones he uses. When I went to order them, they offered me a 30 day free trial of Prime. I took them up on their offer so that I didn’t have to get $35. worth of items and I got one day shipping. Hubby will enjoy Thursday night football on Prime for at least the next 4 Thursdays. And I will see if there are any movies I would like to watch. I have every intention of cancelling at 30 days.

We met my son, daughter in law, and West, at Duff’s yesterday for lunch in another town. We ate no breakfast so that we could enjoy Duff’s wings. Buffalo wings were invented out here at the Anchor Bar. So many tourists go there to try them. However, I and thousands of other people out here who do the yearly survey on who has the best wings, pick Duff’s. Their wings are amazing. Duff’s has won the survey for a number of years in a row. We had a few beers and soda for Hubby and West with out meal. Plus West wanted large fries and huge breast meat fried tenders. There was so much food that Hubby and I had enough for our dinner last night. I decided to pay for all of us. It was the largest lunch bill I have ever paid but considering that we got 7 meals out of and a great time, it was worth it. Since I did not pay out much grocery money this month, I just took it from that budget.

We all gathered at our home afterward so that my daughter in law could meet Eloise. She loved her and West got all of her toys out from under the furniture for us. Then we all played a 500 point game of Rummy. It was a fun afternoon.

I have been trying to run the dishwasher every three days instead of every two. Sometimes that works and sometimes it doesn’t. I am thinking all the time on how I can cut down on the number of dishes we use. For example, I ask myself if I can use a small plate instead of a large one. Can I mix all dry and wet ingredients in one bowl instead of two? Everything I am questioning. I want to get the electric bill down as low as I can this month.

Hubby had planned on cooking pork rib eye steaks on the grill for dinner. But since we had leftover wings last night, he will grill them tonight and I will make a tossed salad(trying to use up the romaine lettuce), and serve applesauce.

Our Buffalo Bills played the Baltimore Ravens in Baltimore last night and we got stomped. The Ravens are a big and rough team. I just prayed none of our players got hurt. One did though. Hopefully, he will recover quickly.

Hubby got up with Eloise this morning at 4:30AM. He let me sleep in for a change. I didn’t get up until 9:30AM. It felt good for a change. But I woke up not feeling well so I have taken it easy today. I have done some paperwork to get ready for our savings report tomorrow. Plus I paid our credit card bill that we got in the mail on Saturday.

I realize today that we have another CD expiring in the next 10 days so I will take care of renewing that tomorrow. The bank never sent me a notice about it. Ugh. I will take care of that when I call them.

I have lots of posts for this week starting with the savings one tomorrow. See you then. I hope you are having a great day!

Categories
Every Day

A Savings Day

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Categories
Every Day

Back To The 1960’s And 1970’s

When I was growing up, I had a very happy life. My mother left my father when I was 3 just before my sister was born. We had no money and my grandparents took us in. My mother got a good job, her college B.A. in accounting, and I lived with my grandparents until I married.

My grandfather didn’t make much money as a shirt cutter. But he owned his home( his father was a builder), a 2 story home with two flats. Relatives always lived downstairs. Most of the money my mom made was handed over to my grandmother for rent, food, and daycare. My mom was allowed to keep enough for transportation(2 buses each way) to get to her job, food for her lunches, money so that we could all go to the lake for the summer, high school tuition( everyone in the family had graduated from this private school because it was tradition), and just a bit of spending money. My sister and I wore hand me downs from my older cousin. I got my first bike when I was 12. It was a hand me down from that same cousin. I never felt poor but I knew money was tight for the things they wanted for themselves and us. My grandmother could make a penny stretch on food like no one else that I have ever known. Every meal was portion controlled. Rarely were there snacks or soda.

This way of life got me very interested in financial things in junior high and high school. I used to take library books out of the library that today would be considered frugality books. I learned about finances in college while I studied for my accounting degree. It was the first time I ever heard about a checking account. I just soaked up everything I could learn. The two biggest things I learned was to never spend more money than you earn and to use credit the proper way. It was okay to get a mortgage for your first home but to furnish it with credit cards was a bad idea.

When I married my Hubby, he came from a different background. He lived in a very nice suburban neighborhood that was considered one of the best places to live. But as I found out over the first years of our marriage, they weren’t rich either. They did pay their home off quickly so they owned it. That was a lessen that Hubby and I loved. We paid ours off early and the last two, we paid cash.

So when we married, it was the 1960’s. Hubby owned a car with a car payment and was paying off a small student loan. I did not work the first 6-8 months of our marriage. We found an attic apartment for $ 80. a month including heat and electric. We had a cheap phone bill because Hubby worked for the telephone company. I brought not $1.00 to our marriage because I worked long hours to go to college and every penny paid my way through those 2 years. Those years before I worked, I read every thing I could find in newspapers and books on finance and frugality.. My mother in law gave me a few cookbooks from the WWII era and I made almost every recipe from them. I had exactly $25. a month grocery money. We had no more in the budget because we had to pay all the bills and we were saving for two things that were very important to us: For Hubby to get his B.A. degree in Engineering and to save for a house. Living in that hot apartment made us want to get out of it quickly. So we squeezed every penny we could and made that grocery budget work. We saved money religiously every month for our two goals. I got a job at the telephone company too but not where Hubby worked. I bussed it. I had no driver’s license. Hubby went to school nights and we saved my income and what was what left in his for a down payment for a new home.

We purchased our newly constructed home in the suburbs 1 year and 10 months after we married. We had saved enough money so that we could purchase with cash a bed, a refrigerator, a sofa, and 6 unfinished chairs to use with the used table that Hubby’s mother gave us. I had used green stamps( does anyone remember them?) to get a card table and 4 chairs so we would have a place to sit in the kitchen and eat. His mother also gave us an old dresser. Hubby purchased a door that had been damaged and made and stained 2 end tables out of it to go on either end of the sofa. They were so sturdy that we used them for 32 years. We sold them when we moved to Arizona. I wish I still had them.

We furnished the house as we saved cash to do so. We never ran out and used credit. I worked and got a ride with the man next door who actually was my boss back and forth to work.

I quit my job due to a miscarriage just before Hubby was hit by a car while walking from the parking lot near his work. He had serious damage done to his knee and was in the hospital for weeks and home recovering for weeks. He had switched jobs and hadn’t worked long enough to get full pay for long so we lived on 1/2 pay for a long time. We made it through without borrowing a dime from anyone. But it was a big wake up call. We had some money saved besides money for furniture. But we used almost all of it up while Hubby was out of work.

That wake up call was our journey towards financial independence. We set up an annual budget that paid us first every paycheck. That has been a line item in our budget to this day. We never wanted to wonder again how we were going to make ends meet! We had always been frugal but we turned it way up after that. We still had money set aside for entertainment and things to make life enjoyable every month. We have never felt like we were giving anything up.

Fast forward one year and my first son was born. Fast forward 2 more years and my 2nd son was born. Now we had 4 people in our family so we had to up the grocery budget. It went up to $80. per month. But it included all food, OTC meds, cleaning products, all soap products, cat food, and and personal care products. I only purchased Pampers to use when we went out somewhere. I washed diapers and hung them to dry for years. That saved us a fortune. Up until just before my first son was born, I went to the laundromat every week. But we had saved and set aside money for a washer and dryer. It was our first scratch and dent appliances and with babies I was so grateful for them.

As our money grew, we found places to invest it so that we could make more money. We continued to save every month and it just kept growing. The best part was all of the passive income we made every month.

Yes, we had emergencies come up but we always had the money to pay for them and we still do.

This is getting long and I need to prep our chicken parmesan that we are having for dinner, so I will continue to write more tomorrow. This is a blog post that I decided I was going to do way back when I started blogging in 2007. Now is the time!

Categories
Every Day

How We Save In The Kitchen

There are many ways to save in the kitchen. One of them I am sure you know like not wasting food. We never throw out food. It is too expensive to feed our garbage can. Eat your leftovers at another meal or three. It is not going to kill you to eat the same food 2-3 nights in a row.

I go through my fridge, especially the produce drawers, every other day or so. It only takes a few minutes. Any produce that is getting old is used up that night or the next or it is frozen. Peppers I will slice and freeze for fajitas. Carrots I will slice or make carrot spears and freeze. The sliced ones go into soups and stews. The carrot spears get sauteed in butter and used as a side. Onions get sliced or diced and used in casseroles or omelets. I have frozen tomatoes many times and used them in casseroles, soups, gumbo, or in spaghetti sauce. I just freeze them whole in a food saver bag. Celery does not freeze well. That I will use to make a side and stuff it with cream cheese and diced olive. My Hubby loves this. My mom used to make it every holiday.

I put my leftovers together on a certain shelf so that we always know where they are. Right now, I have French toast and sausage that Hubby will reheat for a brunch. There is also a small container of corned beef hash that will get used within a day or two.

We have 1/2 of a bag of the tiny potatoes that should get used soon. So I will cut them in half and put them in a skillet, cover them with a little water and bring them to a boil. Then I cook them on medium for 10 minutes and drain them. Next I add a bit of oil to the same skillet, heat it and then put the potatoes back in cut side down and saute them until they are roasted and brown. We love these. We will have them with chicken tonight and if there are leftovers we will eat them with our eggs the next brunch.

But there are other ways to save in the kitchen one of which I have told you. I use lemon Koolaid to clean my dishwasher. I never buy the expensive special cleaners. I am still using the bag of them that I purchased years ago when they were $.10 each.

I clean my garbage disposal with baking soda and vinegar. First I put about 3/4 cup of the soda in and then put vinegar in. It will foam way up into your sink. Then just let it sit for a few minutes and then run the disposal. It cleans it and gets rid of any funky smells. I have a black plug that keeps things from falling into the disposal like utensils. I put that in the top rack of the dishwasher whenever I run it.

I never use the self cleaning cycle on my oven anymore. If I cook a pizza or something at 400 degrees or more, I will wipe it out when it has cooled down a bit. If there is something I can’t get off, I put a small bowl of ammonia on one of the racks and let it sit overnight with the door closed. In the morning, everything wipes out. The self cleaning cycle takes a lot of energy that I prefer to save.

Also I use Scrub Mommies in my sink to do pots and pans and dishes that I do not put in the dishwasher. That sponge goes into the top rack of my dishwasher when it needs to.

When I am washing the dishes or pans in the sink, I fill the 2 sinks about a 1/4 of the way. One has soap added for cleaning and the other has water only for rinsing. Don’t let your water run down the drain while you do that. You can waste gallons of water. I try to do that all of the time. I am not perfect so I get distracted sometimes just like everyone.

When I am done with the sinks, I spray them with an all purpose cleaner and rinse and then wipe them dry with the dish towel that I used that day. I change my 2 dish towels every day. I have one color of towels for dishes and a different color one to dry our hands. That way we don’t get them mixed up.

We use our 11 in 1 countertop stove for almost everything. We also use our instant pot, crock pot, and microwave for meals that we don’t put in that oven. We do grill outside now a lot and plan on using that right through the winter unless we are buried in snow.

Catch your water in the kitchen in a big pot or bowl while you are waiting for it to warm up. You can use that water to clean with, water plants, or to boil pasta, etc. Don’t just let it run down the drain. When you do use your stove top, cover your pots and pans. Things will cook faster.

We use a small hand vacuum that is always charging in my kitchen to clean up any crumbs on the counter or that fall on the floor every night to keep things clean. It saves us from lugging the larger vacuum so often. Once a week it gets a full vacuum to clean the floor. This keeps it clean enough that Hubby only has to clean and polish it once a month.

We have 2 ceiling lights in the kitchen. We also have a hanging 3 bulb light over the sink area and recessed lighting in the ceilings over all the counters. We only turn on the lights where we need them for the task we are doing. When it is daylight, we rarely turn them on unless it is dark and stormy outside. All of the bulbs are LED’S.

I know where everything is in my refrigerator so that I can quickly get whatever I need and close the door. We don’t want to let all that cold air into the room.

I keep my two pantries in my kitchen stocked with what I usually use so that I don’t have to run to other areas of the house to retrieve things. I put my meat that I will use for the next two weeks in my refrigerator freezer so that it is handy. It also prevents me from having to open the chest freezer as often. We also have small lights in our pantries so that I can see what we have. They are also LED’S.

Lastly, we use our garbage disposal for food scraps off our plates with the exception of potato skins, any kind of bone, fruit rinds, and egg shells. These things will ruin your disposal. All other waste goes in our kitchen 30 gallon container. I push those items down so they compact. This way we do not have to use as many plastic garbage bags which are very expensive. I used to use the brand names but I switched a while ago to the Great Value 30 gallon ones. They look and are as thick as the brand name ones.

I think that is about it for saving in the kitchen. If you have other ways that you save in the kitchen, please share them with all of us via the comments.

Categories
Every Day

Cost Cutting on Friday

I took all of the chicken that was left off of our first chicken and did the same with the whole second chicken. I made homemade chicken soup for dinner and it will probably last for 3-4 meals.

I forgot to tell you yesterday that on one of my Top’s shops this past week, they did not give me the 200 gas points I earned. So when I went on Thursday I went to customer service with my receipt and they gave me the additional $.20 off per gallon. That brought me up to $ .40 off per gallon and after shopping that day I was up to $ .50 a a gallon. So I will be getting gas soon. Watch your receipts closely. They make mistakes sometimes. $.20 off per gallon is valuable today.

One load of laundry was done using cold water and about 3 tbsp. of laundry detergent. I never follow the directions on the detergent bottle or box. A repairman told me years ago to use only 2-3 tbsp. He said you do not need more than that because the agitation does most of the cleaning. I hung that load to dry.

I cleaned a bedroom today. I didn’t get the windows done so that will be on my agenda tomorrow.

Breakfast this morning was bacon and eggs again. I ate the scrambled egg that was leftover the other day. Waste not, want not! I also sent an e-mail to Top’s customer service letting them know that the quality of their bacon is tasteless and it is like chewing rubber. Their bacon has always been delicious. I don’t know what has happened to it. I will not be buying it again.

I also contacted Walmart. I have never gotten my Florastor order. They kept saying it was delayed. I really needed it as quickly as they told me it would be here. I am only taking 1/2 a dose of what I should be taking trying to make it last. They told me it is lost(probably stolen). Well, why should I have to contact you? Shouldn’t you have let me know me know and refunded my money? They issued the refund for $ 53.77 which will take 10 days. UGH. Now I am back to square one and will have to see where else I can find it.

My arthritis has been bad especially when it rains and we have had a lot of that. I tried Advil, Tylenol, and aspirin and nothing worked. My son suggested I try Aleve. He has some medical background and said many people say they get relief from it. I did and it works. I am hoping it continues to work.

I used my credit card reward points to get $100. cashback in the form of a credit on my next credit card bill.

I hope you all had a good cost cutting day.