I hope you all had a great holiday. For those of you with kids home on spring break, enjoy them. They grow up too fast.
While I am sipping on my coffee this morning which I needed desperately after waking up at 4:30am, I am planning out my week. I am going nowhere today so that I can do a number of things around here.
My chest freezer needs to be defrosted. So after my breakfast of eggs over easy and a slice of turkey with a slice of cheese melted on it, I will tackle it. I need to set up some ice chests to put the food in while it is out of the freezer. Then I will set up a table next to it for the overflow. I get the freezer defrosted so quickly that it never has a chance to thaw.
I use my blow dryer and a plastic scraper to melt the ice off. I put the big chunks in a bucket to empty when I am done. When all the ice is out, I dry the freezer really well using some old bath towels. I do all of this when it is unplugged. When I am done, I always remember to turn the freezer back on. Then I put all of the food back: oldest on top. I am hoping I have no freezer burn. I usually don’t. I will take inventory while I am returning each item to the freezer.
While I am doing this, I will pull out all of the frozen bananas. They are everywhere in every freezer. I plan on making some muffins later today using all of them. I will keep some out for breakfasts and snacks this week and freeze the rest for future meals.
We had a wonderful Easter dinner of leg of lamb with a great sauce that I have been making for years, roasted potatoes, broccoli, mashed cauliflower, corn on the cob, and olives for my son who loves them. We topped it all off with Keto peanut butter ice cream for those who wanted it and Tillamook waffle cone ice cream for those who didn’t.
My son and his wife gave me a beautiful plant of mini daffodils. Daffodils are one of my favorite flowers. Hubby has already researched how to plant them in our yard the end of May. They also offered to bring wine for dinner. They brought two bottles: one sweet and one dry. Only the dry got opened. So we have part of that bottle and the other bottle left. I am not crazy about dry wine but will finish it up in my recipes.
Dinner tonight will be all the leftovers from dinner last night. I think we will have enough for another night after that.
What are your plans for today? Feel free to share.
After a week of snow, I was finally able to run a lot of errands yesterday. I left the house at 8:15am to go to Top’s. Pictured is what I purchased.
The pizza I always keep on hand so that I am not tempted to order one from take out was $ 3.99 with a Super Coupon. I have been having trouble lately trying to get distilled water. It is usually out of stock. But they had it so I got 2 gallons which will last a couple of months. They were $1.49 each. The Steak-umm’s were still on sale so I purchased a larger package at $ 8.99. They had a Bison deal which included sour creams(got 3) and dips(got 2). They were on sale for 5 for $10.00 and I got 100 gasoline points too. We were out of sour cream and we have some potato chips from the holidays to finish so I got the 2 French onion dips. I got a package of American cheese which we use for our grilled cheese sandwiches for $ 2.09. My total for all was $ 28.05. Last week I earned a coupon to get 100 gas points with my shopping this week so I ended up with 200 gas points toward my next gasoline purchase.
I also went to Aldi’s and Walmart. I got distracted when I got home and forgot to take pictures of those items before I put them away. But I will tell you what I got and what I spent. At Aldi’s I purchased two of the three packs(4 lbs. each) of 85/15 organic ground beef that we love. It was on sale for $ 17.96 a three pack. I was getting low in my freezer so I stocked up. I also bought some fresh whole mushrooms for $ 1.29. My total came to $37.21.
At Walmart, I got 2 bags of Indiana Popcorn Fudge Drizzle. I had two free coupons from the manufacturer. The bags would have cost me $ 2.98 each.
My last stop was the drugstore for 2 prescriptions that cost me $20.00 OOP.
Yesterday for brunch we had leftovers. For dinner, we ate shrimp cocktails with salads.
Today, I will make eggs and bacon for breakfast. Hubby is going to make his homemade meat chili in the crockpot after he browns 2 of the packages of ground beef that I purchased yesterday and sautes up about 2 lbs. of onions. We will have that tonight over our choice of rice or cauliflower rice. Most likely it will last well into the weekend.
I have been doing some baking this week. I made an apple pie for desserts. I also have some cranberries thawed that I purchased on the Thanksgiving sales for $.99 a bag. I will be making cranberry orange muffins.
For entertainment yesterday, Hubby and I watched NCIS Sydney. Then I called one of my best friends, whom I have known for 46 years. She is very special to me. I wanted to call her because it was her 90th birthday! She is sharp as a tack. So we spent about a half hour catching up on what she had been doing since we last talked and catching up on how all of our children and grandchildren were. It was the highlight of my day.
I got my estimated bill yesterday for my electricity and natural gas for the past 32 days. The bill was $ 259.13. It was $28.03 lower than the same period last year. We had higher usage than last year because it has been so cold. So the supply and demand charges being cheaper must have been the difference. I will find out how accurate this estimated bill is when I get the next one when the meters will actually be read.
That is it for now. Have you saved any money this week shopping sales?
Last week I ordered three sets of LED lights. One of the cupboards that I have a lot of trouble seeing into is under my kitchen sink. So I had Hubby install two strips of them on the right and left hand walls of the cupboard. . These lights work on motion sensors so when I am not in the cupboard they are off. I keep cleaners for the kitchen, dishwasher pods, Brillo pads, and sponges in this cupboard. Behind the wastebasket that holds my recyclables, until I take them out to the garbage can in the garage, are a few jars that I reuse to get rid of grease. Never allow grease to go down your sink unless you want to have to call a plumber. When the jar gets full, I place it in my garbage and start a new one. Anyhow this lighting allows me to easily get out what I need.
I had one set of lights left so Hubby hung that in one of my kitchen pantries. Today I ordered some more for the other pantry and two other closets- one that holds coats and one that holds all of my cleaners and vacuums.
I got a lot done today since I arose at 4:30am. When I have my coffee now, I just quickly check my e-mail, Facebook messages, and blog comments. Then I had to make some changes to our budget since I had forgotten about the bill that came yesterday for our lawn fertilization this year. By paying it today, we saved 3% off the bill. So I had to add those figures to our landscape budget and I have made some other small changes too. The posts have been updated.
Next it was time to read a couple of verses of Matthew in my Bible. I do this every morning while finishing my coffee.
Next I made my grocery lists for this week. I only need a few things at Top’s and Aldi’s. I most likely will not get out until the end of the week. It snowed here again today and will tomorrow and we may have some freezing rain into Wednesday.
After making brunch which was pizza, I did up all the dishes, cleaned my quartz countertops and kitchen stove top. Then I ran the dishwasher.
Next I threw a load of wash into the dryer that mainly consisted of a terry robe, bathroom and kitchen towels, and a tablecloth, then folded them and put them away.
Then I cleaned our two bathrooms.
I did some organizing of a dresser in our bedroom and then organized our Master Bathroom vanity. I also organized my desk area. After the mail came, we paid two bills.
Hubby and I sat and watched a You Tube video. Then it was time for me to reheat the homemade chicken soup for dinner that I made yesterday. It always tastes so much better the second day. I used 2 pint jars of chicken and broth that I canned 2 years ago. I took the rest of the meat off the carcass from the rotisserie chicken I bought last week, added rice, fresh carrots and celery. Then I seasoned it all. This gave us two dinners and will give us a lunch tomorrow.
We have company coming in about 15 minutes so I have to close.
We did not go out anywhere yesterday. It is too cold and too snowy. Roads are not in the greatest condition either. The news is saying they are very icy. Since they are predicting another major storm today and tomorrow, we will stay safe and warm in our home. Staying home saves on gasoline and also saves on natural gas because are not opening doors to go outside which lets warm air escape.
For a few days now, I have been using darker and richer coffee in our reusable cups in the Keurig. This allows me to use less coffee by only filling the cup 1/2 way instead of full. I also am using 1 squirt of Skinny Syrup instead of 2. I can’t really tell much difference between the 2 and the 1. I use the half and half sparingly too. Just enough to make my coffee taste good. Not only is the half and half expensive but it is in short supply here right now. I try to stay stocked up with 3 half gallons but that is not easy with the shortages.
Yesterday for brunch, Hubby finished the rest of the ham and noodle casserole. I ate some other leftovers… a bit of this and a bit of that. The remainder of the ham I have frozen in portions for future use. Today, we had egg, sausage, and cheese McMuffins. We are being mindful of using up what is in our pantry, refrigerator, and freezer. But we also are eating all of our leftovers. Waste not want not. I am buying as little as possible this month so I can use up some of what we have here which saves me money on gasoline also.
I have not been grocery shopping at all this week and I don’t think I will get out. Knowing the forecast, last Sunday I went on the Walmart site to place a grocery order. The first day I could get a delivery was tomorrow. I think most everyone was scheduling orders because of our forecast. Well, we got another 5 inches of snow yesterday which brought our totals since Saturday up to 20 inches. Then it started snowing again today and we got 6 more inches. So we are at 2 ft. 2 inches so far. Walmart cancelled my order for tomorrow because of the snow. We have more snow coming tomorrow and a lot more on Friday. God Bless my snowplow guy, Nick. He has been here plowing my driveway three days straight. And I don’t think he is done with more coming. We don’t have it as bad as the south towns. Orchard Park which is where the Buffalo Bills Stadium has been getting nailed since the game on Monday was played. They have had a total of 18 inches since the storms started on last Saturday. Less than us but they have to shovel the stadium out again for a game on Sunday. And they are predicted to get another 14-18 inches more before things calm down on Saturday so they will be hustling to get the stadium cleared again.
Dinner last night was peachy pork chops and olive oil and garlic rice. I cooked up 4 small pork chops so that I would have 2 pork chops for dinner tonight. I will dice them to make stir fried rice for dinner. I will add the pork, sauteed onions, diced carrots, and an egg to the rice along with some soy sauce. Hubby cooks up the rice for me in our small rice cooker. It turns out perfectly and gives us just enough for 2 meals.
It was very dark when I got up this morning at 4:30 am. So I had to use lights in the kitchen. If I hadn’t, I wouldn’t have been able to start writing this post for you. It is now 7:17am and it is still dark. The sun should come up at 7:43 am. We will see if we get sun or the storm rolling in. They predicted the storm starting during the night but it hasn’t started yet. 99% of the schools in the area are closed today and tomorrow.
Our utility company sent me an e-mail to read our electric and gas meters. It is our turn to read it this month but they only gave me today and tomorrow to read it. It was like a blizzard out there today so I am hoping it won’t be as bad tomorrow and I can read it in the morning and submit it. I managed to make to to the mailbox today. We had no mail delivery since last Saturday. All I got was a rebate check for $22.99.
We are doing everything that we can to try to keep these utility bills down but it is a never ending battle. Since most of the country has been in a deep freeze for a week or more, the demand is up so the cost will be up. But we are still only using a light when it is dreary in the room we are in. I am mindful of how I cook to save energy. I still save warm up water when the shower is getting hot to reuse to clean the house or flush toilets, I am still taking navy showers. I close the bathroom door for a while before we take showers so that the room gets really warm. In the winter we only take showers every other day. Our skin gets so dry if we take them every day. The heat is programmed on our thermostat. When I got up this morning, it was 64 in here which is what it is from 10:00 pm at night to 7:00 am in the morning when it goes up to 68. At 9am, it will go up to 70. I just layer when I get up in the morning until the heat comes up. Hubby is always cold and he layers when it is 70 in here. I have to keep him comfortable. We have plenty of blankets on the beds so that we are very comfortable at night.
We watched NCIS Sydney again this afternoon that Hubby had taped. I am liking it a lot. I did some reading, cooked dinner, and ran a very full dishwasher afterward. I don’t run the dishwasher ever until I can’t fit another dish in it.
I watched a couple of You Tube videos too. I am going to share one. The you tuber is in Brittany, France. She and her husband are retirees from Great Britain. They have about 2721 euros net to live on monthly after taxes etc. are taken out of their money. That equates to about $2916. a month U.S. or about $ 34,992. net per year. It would be considered low income here. But any income earner can learn from this video. She shows her budget every month and has many other videos that you might find interesting. I like watching her once in a while to see how other people in other countries budget and live. Here you go:
We had a very quiet weekend, 15 inches of snow, and frigid temperatures. Needless to say we didn’t go anywhere.
On Saturday, I cooked the ham that I purchased on sale in December. We had pineapple, brussel sprouts, and mashed potatoes with it. On Sunday, I made a ham, noodle, and cheese casserole and served the rest of the pineapple and brussel sprouts with it.
On Sunday morning I fried up mashed potato cakes with those leftovers, scrambled eggs, and fried up some ham.
Saturday night, Hubby took most of the ham off the bone. We left some on to make bean soup. I also made some dices for the soup. That was all frozen until sometime in the future when we want soup.
The rest of the ham was sliced for sandwiches and breakfasts and diced for ham salad and casseroles. Most of it has been frozen.
Our Buffalo Bills playoff game was moved from Sunday to this afternoon because the snow and winds were very dangerous yesterday. We had gusts up to 65 miles per hour. It snowed most of the day and the wind blew it everywhere. I was glad that they changed the game day because I was really worried about my son and daughter-in-law making their way there. Right now, they are making their way to the stadium and hoping to get a parking spot. It is still snowing at the stadium right now but it is supposed to ease up. Just shoveling the roads for people to get there, the stadium, and the parking lots is a huge issue. It will be really, really cold there. But that won’t stop the fans from showing up.
We watched a movie “Let It Go” on Saturday. Then there were other playoff games on. Yesterday was another lazy day and Hubby watched more football and basketball. I did wash a large load of clothes in cold water and hung most of them to dry. Then I read my book.
Later I started looking in my pantries and freezer to see what we could find to eat during the game today. I dug deep in the freezer and found these yummy appetizers that are pictured above. We will air fry them in our 11 in one oven. I also have some ranch dressing and carrots and celery sticks to add for some nutrition. It will all be a nice treat during halftime and will be our dinner.
Not much else going on here now. I am off to read and then watch the game later.
Purchased a rib eye roast for $ 9.99 a lb. which is one of the cheapest prices I have seen in a long time. Aldi’s had tenderloins on sale for $7.99 a lb. but they did not have any. The cashier told me that they were gone right after the doors opened this morning. They only had a few. I did not feel like making another trip this week to see if they get them in. The rib eye will be for the holidays and the ham we will be used over the winter. Both pieces of meat will get stretched as far as I can stretch them after the holiday making soups and casseroles from leftovers.
Purchased bra hooks and eye replacements to mend 3 bras. The bras are otherwise in good shape. I did not want to spend $40. each to replace them. The hooks and eyes only cost me $ 6.70+ tax because I used $ 6.00 in gift cards to help pay for them.
Hubby told me he needed underpants. Instead of going out to buy them at outrageous prices at J.C.Penney’s, I grabbed a package that I had put in our stash of underwear for him that I purchased there before the prices started to go up. I paid $19.99 for 6 pair. The same pack right now costs $34.00. It always pays to buy ahead especially with inflation.
Mended a sweater.
Hemmed two pairs of jeans.
We have made easy dinner meals: soup and an English Muffin with butter, Parmesan coated chicken with macaroni and cheese( 2 meals), cheeseburgers and French fries and a pizza.
We did treat ourselves to take out lunch from Panera Bread on a day that I was running a slew of errands. We each got a Pick Two and I paid with one of the gift cards that I purchased 4 years ago. I now have only $ 8.96 left on those cards. So I decided to purchase 1 $ 50. Panera gift card at Top’s with a Christmas bonus point that gave me $ 10. off of it. That will probably last us a year or more. I mainly use it for the bagel deal on Tuesdays when Hubby has a craving for them.
My son and grandson came for breakfast and we played rummy for a couple of hours afterward which is cheap entertain. I love rummy!
I ended up buying one more Christmas gift which I got on sale for 37% off.
I am changing over to Mint Mobile for our cellphone. I got a deal for $15. per month for the next three months and then 3 months free. Then I will revert to the $15. a month plan for the future. I was paying my son $ 596. a year for our phone on this account so this will save us a lot of money. We really only use the cellphone for emergencies and calling or texting family.
Hubby and I have both used our dental plan recently which pays for our cleanings and X rays. We also brought home a big bag of dental goodies. It is always nice to get these items free.
I uploaded my receipts to Fetch which gave me 1500 points for a Rite Aid receipt plus other points from grocery trips.
I am working on our 2024 budget which I will be sharing with you in future posts.
I made and baked a cherry pie. Those cherries from the tree in our yard that we froze taste so good in autumn and winter.
I have only done 1 load of wash this week using homemade detergent in cold water and hanging it to dry.
The Medicare hospital bill that they denied has been taken care of. The woman there told me they made a mistake and the correction had been made. She sent me copies of all of the paperwork. That saved me thousands of dollars.
I delivered 3 Christmas cards to my neighbors after the mail came today. I usually mail them but most of them haven’t since we lived here. They just put it in the mailbox. So this year I decided to save the $ 1.98 and just put them in their mailboxes.. BTW, get your stamps soon because they are going up to $ .68 each from $ .66 each on January 21, 2024. I will be getting a roll of 100. We seem to be able to make them last for 2 years or more.
My son and DIL are not going to have their usual Christmas fondue on Christmas Day. They are going to have it the weekend after New Year’s. So they will be coming out the weekend before Christmas so that we can all exchange gifts. So I picked up a whole bunch of meats, cheeses, and beef jerky to make a charcuterie board for us all to munch on. I will add black olives, stuffed olives, and nuts along with some pork rinds for crunch. The meats and cheeses are on sale this week at Aldi’s for great prices.
We continue to keep our heat at 64 at night and 71 during the day. When there is a sunny day, I open the shades and blinds when the sun is on them and close them when it is not.
That is it for now. As I stated I will be posting about our 2024 budget by the end of the week. It is going to be very tight because we are saving money for something that is very important to us in 2024. One post will then turn into many.
Please feel free to leave a comment and share with all of us what you have been doing to be frugal.
I cooked a pound of bacon in the microwave three times this week instead of using my gas stove top.
For a breakfast I toasted an English muffin in the toaster oven. I used some of the above bacon on it. Then I cooked my egg(45 seconds) and melted my slice of cheese in the microwave. No gas stove top was needed to make this.
I washed 3 full loads of wash using cold water and the ECO cycle. I had a lot of sheets and all the bedding from the dogs sleeping with my son. I was really busy after my son left yesterday vacuuming all the furniture, carpeting, and the hardwood and tile floors. Those dogs shed like crazy. But I love my son and the dogs coming to see us.
Showers this week were short 3 minute ones.
We made tacos from scratch for Sunday night’s dinner. Lots of toppings: lettuce, tomatoes, onions, black olives, cheese, and sour cream.
We ate all of our leftovers or froze them.
Stocked some of the Thanksgiving deals while the prices were rock bottom.
Received a $17.24 rebate in the mail
Hubby made fried rice from leftover chicken, celery, carrots, rice, an egg, sesame oil, and soy sauce to go with pot stickers for a fabulous Chinese meal while my son was here. We ate the leftovers last night and froze some fried rice that was left. We will start on the turkey leftovers tonight.
Hubby made a huge pot of party mix for the holidays. This has been a family tradition for all of our marriage and for Hubby when he was a kid. The cereals and pretzel sticks were all purchased on sale at Top’s. The nuts were purchased at the warehouse club using an e-coupon. We brought some to my grandson on Thanksgiving. My son and DIL are Keto so they won’t eat it. My other son received some to snack on if he got hungry on the ride home.
I returned an expensive item I ordered from Walmart to the store for a refund. It wasn’t what I expected I was getting and it was dirty like it had been a return.
All of my Christmas gifts are purchased and wrapped. I purchased a gift card for one gift using a reward point from Top’s. I paid $ 40. for a $50. one.
I plan on using the 2 fresh yams that we brought home from our son’s for a sheet pan meal next week.
I baked two loaves of pumpkin bread in the toaster oven, one for breakfasts this coming week and one is in the freezer for Christmas.
We will be eating leftovers and from our freezer this coming week.
I spent some time making a menu plan for 2024. Yes, I am planning out the entire year.
These are the things we did to save a little money this week.
I finally uploaded a pile of receipts to Fetch. I usually use the rebates for Walmart or Amazon gift cards.
Philips who makes Hubby’s C Pap machine had a recall a while ago. They replaced Hubby’s current machine with a brand new one. However, we had a second back up machine which they said they would send later. It finally arrived last week. Hubby took the old machine to Fed Ex to send back to them. It was postage paid. Philips really stepped up on this recall. We always keep a back up in case one machine breaks.
Hubby replaced the bad outlet in the kitchen.
I did one load of wash in cold water and hung most of it to dry.
I ordered a $100. cash back rebate using reward points from our credit card. They will apply it to next month’s bill.
At a doctor’s appointment, he gave me a new medicine to try. He gave me enough samples to get me through a month. If it works well for me, he will then give me a prescription to fill. I always ask for samples when I go. They usually have a ton of them in this office.
I made a meal using homemade chicken broth this week. When I don’t have broth, I use bouillon cubes and water. Meals this week were homemade chicken soup for brunch. Bacon macaroni goulash was made for dinner for 2 meals( only used 1/2 lb. of diced bacon) and turkey tenderloin for 2 meals. Leftovers were used from the freezer for others: used up frozen homemade lasagna and some French Fries.
Hubby took bottles back to Fast Cash and got $5.90 in deposits returned to us. He had to leave 2 bags of bottles here at the house because he had no more room in the car. I will take those back tomorrow when I run errands.
I placed a Walmart delivery order this weekend and used a $10. gift card earned from Fetch to help defray the cost of a handheld calculator. Mine bit the dust!
Hubby gave me the best haircut he has ever given me this week. I just love it! I love saving all that salon money I used to spend even more.
I received a $5.00 liquor rebate in the mail.
I have been needing to go to B.J.’s to get some bulk items that are cheaper right now than other stores. It is in another town so I waited until I had other errands and appointments to run there. In the meantime, their sale flyer came. They had a deal that if you spend $150. on certain days you can redeem a coupon for a free Butterball turkey valued at $25. or under. My bulk items came to $ 178. so I will be getting a free turkey. Free turkeys are rare these days! I also clipped a number of e-coupons to my B.J.’s card and saved $ 12.50.
Hubby has finished all of the yard work finally for the year. He cut down all of the irises yesterday. We still had a few heavier things that needed to be put away. My son helped with that when he and West came to visit on Sunday. I made a nice breakfast of French toast and sausage for Hubby and West. My son had scrambled eggs and sausage. Since I am not a huge fan of sausage, I ate some eggs and Fage yogurt. My grandson is taller than Hubby now. He is only 14 and I suspect he is going to be well over 6 ft.
We watched The Kansas City vs. Miami Dolphins football game on Sunday with a Free Trial on Fubo. Then we watched the Buffalo Bills vs. Cincinnati Bengals game in the evening on local TV. Those games were our entertainment this weekend.
Not a frugal thing but our snowplow guy came yesterday to collect our check for the winter and mark our driveway so that he knows where things are. He went up in price this year by $100. but he is still cheaper than most. He does a great job and is very reliable. We are very grateful to have him.
I made my grocery list for this coming week, butter at $ 2.49(limit 6) and organic 80/20 ground beef for $4.99 at Aldi’s. B1G1F shrimp and Tim Horton’s coffee are on sale at Top’s. They have the decaf on again so I will get some for Hubby. And I think that will be all this week.
I called my baby sister last Monday night and will call her again tonight. It is so nice to have free long distance calling. I remember the days when we paid for that.
Hubby and I have made a decision to switch our cellphone service to Mint Mobile. They are going to be offering a Black Friday deal so we will probably switch with that. We have one cellphone but will need another. So it will be two lines instead of the one we have but it will be about $ 26. a month cheaper than we pay now and on the same network.
I have a # of errands to run today. So dinner will be coconut shrimp that is frozen. We are trying to eat down the freezer to be able to fit more turkeys in it. If I can find decent romaine lettuce, we will have a salad with it. Lettuce has been a real issue here. It is already going bad no matter what store I try to get it in. I could find none worth spending the money on last week so fingers crossed for this week.
What did you do to save some money this past week?
These are the things we have done frugally this past week:
Made a return to Walmart of a dented can from a grocery delivery
We had a small hole in the basement wall where the new A/C unit stuff comes in from outside. The A/C guys filled it on the outside but I could see daylight from the hole on the inside. Hubby went down to the basement and filled it with plumbers putty. I don’t want that freezing cold air this winter coming into my house.
The winter fertilizer has been put on the lawn so the lawn should winter the weather well.
When Hubby put the new motor in the furnace he noticed that one of the screw holes was stripped. He has been researching how to fix that and he will be doing it tomorrow.
We have a magnetic closer on our mailbox and the postman knocks if off once in a while. Hubby repaired it again.
We had a freeze here so Hubby and I trimmed bushes that need to be trimmed in the Fall and threw out most of our annual flowers. We put our hanging baskets in the garage to store them.
We ate every meal at home this week. With the prices today that saves a boatload of money. I made beef stew, shrimp fra diavolo, a night of odds and ends from the refrigerator, and Chef’s salad. I even had some beef stew leftover to freeze for another meal.
We invested in another large CD.
All our patio furniture has been put away in the shed.
I waited until our gasoline tank on the car was almost empty. I filled it using $.80 off a gallon from Tops Rewards.
We took the screen door off of our back door and put the storm door on.
Hubby went up to our tire place to get the regular tires changed over to the snow tires so that the car is ready for the snow we are supposed to get next week. However, there is now a manufacturer’s rule( because of liability issues) that the tire places can’t put snows or even regular tires back on the car if they are over 10 years old. So he had to purchase 4 brand new snow tires which cost us $ 750. Since we will have to purchase 4 new regular tires when the snows come off in the spring, Hubby left all 8 tires with them. So that was an expense that we weren’t thinking about. Fortunately, we save for major expenses. FYI, our SUV was 10 years old last April and had all the original tires. We only have 46,000 miles on the SUV. The man who we always deal with said he was sorry about that. Then he joked with Hubby and said no one keeps their car 10 years. Hubby says I have always kept my cars for a long long time. We have always taken very good care of our cars doing the maintenance when it needs to be done and keeping them very clean. This 2013 car we have now has never had to be repaired. It has had minor body work done when a lady hit it in a parking lot at the aquarium. Otherwise it has just gone into the dealer for recalls.
Talking about recalls, Hyundai sent us one yesterday to have the entire underside seal coated. They are doing them because they are rusting out. Since they want to do that free for this 10 year old car, Hubby got an appointment to have it done.
I have been taking 3 minute showers this week.
We have not used lights in the daytime
We have had a warm spell so we saved on heating for about 3 days.
I found a bunch of printed grocery lists that are over 20 years. I will be using them up for my lists the next few weeks.
I picked up some Halloween cookies that my friend, Jessica, made custom for me at her bakery. I will be giving them to the 4 little kids that live on either side of me for Halloween. I will take them over this weekend for their parents to give them on Halloween. We are not doing Halloween trick or treating because of our age. The schools out here have Covid again. We just can’t take the chance of getting it from someone we answer the door to.
I did one load of wash using cold water and hung most of it to dry. The dishwasher was run twice this week.
That was it for this week. Feel free to share with us what you did to save money this week in the comments.
All grocery lists have been based mostly on sale items
My laptop is unplugged when not in use
Made meatball casserole with a salad on the side; made 4 lunch and dinner meals
Took 3 minute showers to see if they took less than navy showers
Folded towels right away when dryer goes off; towels are one thing that I usually always use the dryer for
Our heat had been on for a while; we are carefully keeping it a little lower than last year and down to 64 during the night
I froze about a dozen eggs for future meals
We received our gas and electric bill for the past month yesterday. We used 393 KWH of electric which was 3 more than same period last year. We used 23 ccf’s of gas. Last year we used 41 ccf’s. This year was much warmer. The average temperature was 60 degrees vs. 53 degrees last year. Our total bill was $ 114.27. Last year’s bill was $ 143.79. Besides it being warmer, I really tried to not use the stove top and oven which is gas. Small appliances were used 95% of the time. It would be nice to see all of our bills go down this year. However we are facing a rate increase starting with next month’s bill.
I cleaned our refrigerator and made sure that nothing would spoil. I sliced up the fresh peppers that I purchased recently and froze them for winter stir fries. I found extra bags of cheese in my deli drawer even though I already had one open. I froze those also. They thaw overnight in the fridge when I need them. I consolidated the two open jars of wing sauce into one.
We continue to eat down our chest freezer and can the meat that we can. I scanned the sales that are starting tomorrow. Ground beef will be $ 2.99 a lb. and chuck roasts will be $ 5.49 a lb. I will be canning some of those. Since it is getting colder here, I will put a chuck roast with some vegetables in the crock pot next week.
My son and grandson took us out to breakfast to our favorite Greek restaurant to celebrate our birthdays which we recently had. It was delicious and a nice change from cooking breakfast.
Hubby filled the cracks at the edge of the driveway with blacktop filler. Fortunately, we had 24 hours of dry weather after that. It has been raining ever since.
I want to thank so many of you who prayed for me for the lung CT scan that I had last Tuesday. I was diagnosed on a regular CT scan last year with Pulmonary Fibrosis. My mother died of this disease so I knew all too well what I was in for. It is terminal. My primary doctor recommended a lung doctor that he said he and his family would go to if any of them had an issue. I went to him immediately. He looked at the CT scan which the doctor at the hospital said showed some honeycombing in my right lung. He told me that he would follow me and send me for this specialized scan at one year. After a number of tests and 3 month appointments this past year, my doctor sent me for this scan which scans the lungs in segments so they can really look at them well. I found out the results late yesterday.
I do not have pulmonary fibrosis. The area that the doctor a year ago said was pulmonary fibrosis was a small amount of scarring in the right lobe. It could have been caused by pneumonia, bronchitis or even an injury. I did have a skiing accident that broke a number of ribs many years ago. Who knows? But I was so relieved that it is not pulmonary fibrosis. Hubby and I celebrated with a drink last night. So again thanks so much for all of your prayers. God was listening.
Please feel free to add your frugal things in comments. Those comments lately have been so helpful to so many people including me!
