Tag: frugality

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Every Day

Cheaper Cold Cuts

I had not shopped all week until today. We keep a dry erase board on the side of our fridge and Hubby had added the following to it:

Head and Shoulders Shampoo
Szechuan Sauce
8 oz. container of whipped cream cheese(Hubby loves adding cinnamon & brown sugar to make his own spread for bagels)

Since it was a nice day, I planned an efficient trip to the drug store to pick up a prescription, to Walmart, and to Top’s. Top’s carries the sauce and Walmart doesn’t. However the sauce and cream cheese are cheaper at Walmart. Tops and Walmart are almost next door to each other so the cost of gas isn’t an issue.

Just before I went to go out the door, I asked Hubby if there was anything else he wanted. He said turkey and ham cold cuts. My heart sank because cold cuts are $ 6.99 – $ 10.99 in my area on sale. And sometimes the better brands are even more. Hubby also has a habit of wanting them and then only eating them for lunch a day or two and then ignoring them and they go to waste. So I have not been buying them.

I usually cut our own from a ham or turkey that I cook. But it has been so hot since May that we have not used our oven.

Many times I purchase a chub of ham, turkey ham, or turkey and slice it on our slicer that you see pictured. I can usually get that chub for a few dollars less per pound than what is sells for at the deli. If you don’t have a slicer, you can take it to the deli and they most likely will slice it for you. Before I had my slicer not one market ever turned me down.

So I decided that I would get a chub of turkey and of ham. Knowing what the deli prices were at Top’s for them and for the chubs, I went to Walmart first where I was surprised at what they have. They had a few different brands to pick from. Both stores carry Smithfield ham but Walmart’s price was $1.27 cheaper per pound at $ 3.72 than Top’s price. The Kentucky Legend Oven Roasted Turkey Brand was $ 5.22 a lb. Top’s does not carry turkey chubs. We have had the Kentucky brand before and it is delicious.

Can you look at the picture of the chubs and see something that even surprised me? They are already sliced! So I had to buy them to show those of you who don’t have electric slicers.


Right now the cheapest turkey is $6.99 at my deli and the ham is $ 6.99. Since I purchased 2.57 lbs. of ham and 1.78lbs. of turkey, I saved $ 11.55 by not purchasing it at the deli. 

Obviously Hubby and I could not eat all of this at once. So the ham is good in the shrink wrap until October 21st  and the turkey until October 13th. 

So I put a third of the turkey in my fridge and we will work on eating that. Then I used my food saver to package up 2/3’s of it into two different packages to freeze. Once we open the ham we will do the same thing but put it into more food saver packages for the freezer. Whenever we need cold cuts, I will take a frozen package out and put a paper towel under the meat to soak up the liquid as it thaws. Then I will replace it with a new dry paper towel. This will keep bacteria at bay while we eat it.

We also use these cold cuts to put in Chef’s salads  which we love. And the ham can be diced to put in ham and cheese omelets for breakfast.

For lunch today we had turkey and lettuce sandwiches on croissants that I picked up on the marked down rack at Walmart for $ 1.99 for 4 large ones. I haven’t figured out how to make nice buttery croissants yet. But I will!

No matter what you purchase at the grocery store, think hard about how you can do it cheaper. Better to keep your money in your pocket than give it to a business. Businesses watch their bottom line like a hawk and you should be too.

I will be back with another post tomorrow.

Categories
Every Day

Analysis of My Grocery Shop and Some Price Checking

I have had company for the past few weeks and now have a little break before more comes. Since I have fed so many people, I needed to get some items that we were out of.

I don’t know about where you live but prices are rapidly changing around here. So I am now price checking again whenever I shop so that I know where the lowest prices are. 

So this morning was one of those trips. I went to Aldi’s and Top’s. 

At Aldi’s I got Clancy BBQ chips(1.79), Clancy Pretzels($1.49), and  Whole Salted Cashews($12.99). These are all snacks that Hubby likes and they will have to last him until the end of August because I am buying no more junk food until September. I purchased the Family Size Wavy Lays Potato Chips for me and to go with sandwiches. They were on sale with store coupon for $ 1.99. The cashews were the cheapest I have found anywhere even at Amazon. They are only $.43 an ounce vs. $ .51 at Amazon.

The hot dog buns($.75) were a great deal at Aldi’s this week. We have sale Sahlen’s hot dogs to use up so I will put these in my freezer until we cook the dogs.

The produce looked fresh at Aldi’s so I picked up celery($1.29), baby carrots($.89) and strawberries($1.29). I also got 2 ears of corn at Top’s for $.30 an ear. I cut up the celery into sticks and use it not only for cooking but for dipping into homemade dill dip for snacks. I use the baby carrots for the same purpose. Hubby loves it and I am trying to get him to stop snacking on so much junk. The corn will be used for dinner tomorrow night. The strawberries are used for smoothies and strawberry shortcake.

I also purchased at Aldi’s the olives($1.19),the Tikka Masala sauce($1.99), and the Cocktail sauce($.95). I have a recipe to make the Tikka Masala sauce. But before I buy all the ingredients to do that, I wanted to make sure that we like it. The olives are a staple in our home and the cocktail sauce will be used for shrimp cocktails one night for dinner. We have a 1/2 lb. of colossal shrimp left from one of our company dinners. When I serve this, we just have a small side salad with it.

At Top’s I also purchased 4 – 12 packs of Diet Coke(not pictured) for Hubby. It was on sale B2G2F and I needed it along with other things to get to the $20. purchase in order to be able to use the store coupons. I got a dozen large eggs($.99) with store coupon, 1 sour cream($1.49), 1 gallon of whole milk( $1.59) with store cpn., 1 plain yogurt($ 2.49), 8 Hunt’s Pasta Sauces(only 4 pictured- $ .88 each wyb 8), garlic salt($1.25), and 1 Crest Pro-Health toothpaste($.99 after mfr. cpn).

I stockpile cheap eggs for 6 weeks since I make a big family breakfast almost every Sunday. The sour cream is to make my dill dip. The whole milk and plain yogurt(starter) are for making my homemade yogurt. The pasta sauce I use as the base for my homemade spaghetti sauce which I doctor adding lots of other things. It is cheaper than buying tomato sauce here. I made a big pot last week when my granddaughter was visiting. It is pictured above and is loaded with 2 lbs. of homemade meatballs. We are getting low on stockpiled toothpaste so I picked this one up cheap. 

I believe all of the prices at each place were the cheapest except the plain yogurt. That might have been cheaper at Aldi’s. I forgot to price check it.

The next time, I will check these prices at our Super Walmart. 

When I shop I try to conserve on gasoline since it is so expensive here. Right now I have a discount of $.60 off a gallon but I still have 107 miles in the tank. After we do some appointments this week and next the car will be pretty much empty and I will fill up with the discount.

I am lucky that I have Top’s, Aldi’s and Super Walmart all within 4 miles of my home. So if I shop in a circle it doesn’t cost me too many dollars for gasoline.


While I have been enjoying my summer, I have been brainstorming blog post ideas for the Fall. A couple of my readers have kept in touch with me and have given me a great idea that I can expand on. So I will be back then for sure. But I will also pop in when time permits. I hope you are all having a wonderful summer!  

Categories
Every Day

A Busy Day

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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