Earlier in the week, I went to Top’s to get a few deals and to get things that were needed for Hubby to make the corned beef reuben sandwiches.
I purchased a bag of Gala apples on sale at $ 1.28 a lb. for 4.27 lbs. for a total of $5.47 minus a $1.00 Q so they were $ 4.47. The strawberries were on B1G1Free so I paid $ 6.49 for 2 pounds. I know they are out of season but they are so good!
The 10 Hass avocados were $ 1.00 each for a total of $ 10.00. They were just perfect so I diced them and then froze them. I also got an extra $.10 off a gallon of gas with this purchase. The half and half was $5.99. It was a need because we were on our last half gallon. The reuben rye bread was also a need and cost $5.96.
The Diet Coke was a surprise for Hubby. He hasn’t had real Coke in a very long time. It was on sale as a deal for $ 10.99. Plus you got 2 bottles of Bodyarmor for free. We had never gotten the Bodyarmor before. We were not impressed with it and will not get it again even if it is free.
The sauerkraut was a need and cost $ 1.79. Tillamook sliced swiss cheese(not pictured) was a need and cost $ 4.99. The spaghetti sauce was on sale with a Super Q for $ 1.49.
I spent a total of $ 52.17 plus $ 1.20 in bottle deposits which I will get back when I return them to Fast Cash.
I will really be watching the cost of food over the next few months and all of next year. Most purchases over the holidays will be on sale items to use all of next year. More on that soon.
Hubby and I had doctor’s appointments today. We try to schedule together when we go to the same doctor. That saves us gasoline and wear and tear on the car.
On the way home, we stopped at Niagara Produce to get a 5 lb. bag of potatoes for $ 2.79, two tomatoes @ $3.99 a lb. totaling $ 6.78 , and a 3 count package of Romaine hearts for $ 2.99. Total cost was $ 12.56.
This was all we needed in the way of produce. We have onions that should last a while, peppers, cauliflower, broccoli, brussel sprouts, corn, green beans, etc. that are frozen. We have frozen diced onions as a back up to the fresh ones. I also have other canned vegetables.
I am finding that the fresh produce from N.P. lasts much longer than what I can buy in a grocery store. So it is worth the higher price.
We will watch the Buffalo Bills vs. Miami Dolphins tonight on TV. We never order out for football games so we decided there is always a first time. I am picking up a Domino’s pizza before the game tonight. That will be a real treat especially since I don’t have to make it. I will be paying cash out of my grocery money to pay for it.
My grocery money has really accumulated since I have not been doing much shopping over the past few months. That is a good thing so that when it is turkey season, I can purchase a few of them and some other items that are the cheapest at Thanksgiving like butter.
Any of you trying to eat down your freezers so that you can have room for the Thanksgiving and Christmas deals?
Early Sunday morning, I went to Top’s to get meat that was on sale for the lowest prices that I have seen in over 3 years. I purchased 2 whole chickens at $.99 a lb., 2 top round roasts and 1 eye round roast for $ 4.99 a lb.
On Sunday, I roasted the 2 chickens in my turkey pan. This pic was taken when they still had 40 minutes to go. I was just checking the temperature. When they were done, I took all the meat off of one chicken and put the carcass and skin in the crock pot and cooked it until about 7PM to make chicken broth. We had chicken sandwiches for dinner and the rest of the chicken I froze in portions. The other chicken had been chilling in the fridge. I took that one out and took all the meat off and saved a portion of it to make my homemade chicken soup. That carcass and skin went into the crock pot and simmered on low until I got up the next morning. I turned it down to warm while I went to a doctor’s check up which went well.
On my way home, I stopped at Wegman’s for a bag of avocados that looked so good. I have not had them in a while because they have been awful for weeks. It was one of Wegman’s new “Hot Deals” that cost $3.99. I also went to town hall and paid our water bill. It was $ 212. from May 30th through August 30th. I was quite shocked because it was much higher than the same period last year. We used a lot less water with our sprinkler system this year because we had so much rain. But then I realized that the crew that built the wall had used a lot of water to mix the mortar and didn’t turn the water off and on. Ugh!
When I got home I strained the broth and took the bits and pieces of meat and threw those in my broth that I was putting in mason jars. Between the two chickens, I got 7 and 1/2 quarts of bone broth. Late in the afternoon, Hubby cut up the celery and I got some carrots and corn out the freezer. Using those, some meat from the birds, some rice and about 1/2 of the broth, I made a huge pot of soup which we each had a cup for dinner. We will rotate it in between roast beef meals this week.
The broth will get used up quickly so instead of canning it, I decided to freeze it. The rest of the chicken got frozen for future meals.
Two of the beef roasts I put in the freezer. One I cooked last night for a roast beef dinner. I again used the turkey pan with a rack to roast it because it allows the air to circulate around the roast. I roasted some baby potatoes under the rack of beef on the edges of the pan. We had green beans with it.
The roast was very tough so Hubby made sure to cut it across the grain. It was made to look like a regular round roast in the packaging but when I opened it, it was long and narrow. It was edible and had flavor but I am hoping the 2 in the freezer are truly top round roasts because I don’t think this was. Do you have any clue what it could be? When I open the next one, if it looks the same, the two of them will get returned to the store. I told Hubby I will go to Niagara Produce next time they have them on sale. They are always good.
Today Hubby sliced the rest of the meat using our new meat slicer so that we have cold cuts for cold and hot roast beef sandwiches. These roasts at Top’s were not very big but it was all they had.
For entertainment this weekend, we watched our Buffalo Bills play and they won. I am so happy that football is back! They play again this Thursday night which doesn’t give them much rest and they have to travel to Miami for the game. I hope they do well.
It has been hard to get much else done around here because with Hubby’s shoulder healing, I have had to help him a a lot. But it is getting better each day and hopefully soon it will be back to normal.
That is what I have been up to. I will be back when I have something else to talk about.
We had corned beef reuben sandwiches again last night. So tonight we will be having turkey BLT’s so that we can use up the turkey and tomatoes. Bacon was cooked on Saturday for breakfast yesterday and the BLT’s tonight.
This morning I was up and out at 7:15 a.m. for an eye doctor checkup. My eyes were the same as last year. No cataracts and no sign of any damage at all. I can continue to use my cheap reading glasses. They only put one dilation drop in each eye so I was able to stop at Top’s on the way home and get these two packages of chicken breasts for $ 2.49 a lb. Chicken seems to be scarce in our area so I am grabbing what I can when it is on sale.
These will be preserved with the food saver and put in the upstairs freezer. I have other chicken breasts frozen. Those will come out of the freezer and be thawed and canned because they are older.
I cashed out points for a $10.00 Amazon GC at Pinecone. I am signing up at some more sites to earn points.
I did one load of wash using cold water and hung it to dry. I also did one full load of dishes in the dishwasher using 1 tbsp. of dish soap. They are air drying now.
Hubby is outside watering all of the flowers that are in baskets and pots. I am continuing to go through all of our stuff and either toss it, donate it, or sell it.
Dinner last night was made using the above items. We have leftovers from this dinner and the shrimp fra diavolo which we will use up for dinner tonight. Waste not, want not!
I was given a $ 12.99 haircut coupon by Great Clips so I had my hair cut today and used it and gave her a generous tip. The price is usually $18. I washed my hair at home so I didn’t have to pay for a shampoo.
The Running’s Labor Day sale flyer came so I went and got 10 boxes of regular canning lids for $ 2.99 and 10 boxes of wide mouth canning lids for $ 3.99. Best price I have seen in a long time. They were $9.99 at my N.P. the other day. I also got a Mrs. Wage’s pickling and canning vinegar on sale for $ 3.49. I have more than enough tomatoes, vegetables, and fruit done for the winter. So it is time to can some sale meat to get it out of the freezer. So if you have a Running’s and can, go get yours.
I forgot to buy tomatoes at Niagara Produce the other day so I stopped at Top’s to get some so that we can make some turkey BLT’s. I picked up 2 beautiful beefsteak tomatoes at Top’s for a total of $ 4.60.
We got our electric and natural gas bill today and it was outrageous. The bill was $ 154.00 for using 619 kwh of electricity and 4 ccf’s of natural gas. We used less kwh’s per day than last year same period and the same amount of ccf’s. Last year’s bill was $ 113.05 for less usage. That is a huge increase for supply and demand.
This is what I am thawing to cook in the crock pot out on the patio tomorrow. Hubby is thrilled that I am going to cook this corned beef that I got at a great price last March. I see a couple of dinners and some sandwiches for brunches.
There will be one or two exceptions. I will go if I need fresh produce. If I can substitute frozen or canned veggies for fresh I will. If there is a great price on something like the bacon above, I will get it. That exception will be mostly for rock bottom priced meat.
I had to go to the cardiologist to have an Echo test done today. On the way home I stopped at Top’s and got 4 of their 16 oz. bacon that was on sale for $ 2.99 each. I have not seen such a good price on bacon for years. I only had room for 4.
I have been trying for a couple of weeks to get peaches to make jam. No one seemed to have good ones. I stopped at another store near the doctor’s that I don’t usually go to that had peaches for $.88 a lb. The problem is they were not good peaches. So I stopped at Niagara Produce on the way home and there’s were nice and ready to make jam. They cost me $19.99 for 8 quarts of Red Haven peaches which I have used successfully for jam before. I already have enough Certo and pectin in my pantry to make all of it into jam. I will do that tomorrow. Today is busy enough.
I looked for three months for rhubarb. I could not find it anywhere. So this morning, I spotted a strawberry rhubarb pie in the bakery section of Niagara Produce. They make their own pies and they are delicious. We each had a slice after we ate brunch and it was so good. The filling was so yummy and their pie crust is incredible. The best part is Hubby was very happy because this is his favorite pie. I was happy because it is too hot to turn on my oven to bake plus I couldn’t find rhubarb.
The reason we will not be shopping is I want to use up a lot of what we already have in the house. I especially want to eat down our freezer so that we have room for quite a few turkeys this November. Remember, turkeys and hams will be at their cheapest prices during the holidays. And they will be cheaper than any other meat you can buy right now.
I will be showing you in pictures and words what we are eating from the house each day as we do it. Remember we only eat brunch and dinner and a occasional snack. I will start with dinner tonight.
Hubby will grill the pork ribeyes outside. We will put a dab of garlic herb butter on them. I will make the corn in the microwave and slice the tomato up on a plate and drizzle it with a little Italian dressing.
Are any of you trying to eat down your freezers or pantries? Join along if you would like.
I decided to run out on Monday and do the errands since Hubby’s prescription was ready. I picked that up first and paid $.00 out of pocket for it.
My next stop was Top’s. The pasta was $.99 and the eggs were $1.39 using a coupon for each. I had been watching for a sale on the Johnsonville sausages. They went on sale this week for $4.00 each. So I used a $1.00 coupon on each that the company sent me and got them for $3.00 each. My total was $ 8.38.
I may place a Walmart order later this week. If I do, I will post it. I am running low on eggs and I need some other items since my grandson will be coming to stay for a few days. I have no idea what he eats these days for dinner so I will text him and find out what he wants. I know he loves just about any kind of fish so Hubby will probably fry up some haddock one night.
We have been trying to eat out of the pantry, refrigerator, and freezer. I have rib eye steaks thawed for dinner tonight. Hubby will grill them outside now that the wall and patio for the grill is done. I will make baked potatoes to go with it. I will bake extra ones to make potato salad from. If I am going to heat up the oven, I am going to fill it. I will also slice up the rest of the tomatoes and some of the cucumbers that Chris brought to go with the steak also.
I ran a few errands this morning one of which was stopping at Top’s. They had a few good deals that I wanted to take advantage of.
We like these Knorr sides especially when we have had a busy day. They were 8 for $ 10.00 which is only $.80 each. When you bought 8, you got the rotisserie chicken for free. I checked the price at Walmart for the Knorr sides and they were $ 1.12 each and no chicken. This was one of the biggest chickens that I have ever seen at my Top’s. I was surprised because they are usually very small. We will be having some of this for dinner since I have had a very tiring day. If I have to go out for any other reason this week, I may do this deal again.
I purchased 4 Cabot cheeses for $10.00 and 2 Crowley cottage cheese for $3.00 each. This deal also gave me 200 free gasoline points or $ .20 off a gallon.
The blueberries were $ 1.99 using a Super coupon. Tillamook Ice Cream was on sale for B1G1F. I bought 4 at a cost of $15.98 for all. This will be our stash for when the grandchildren visit this summer.
It was Senior 6% off Discount Day which gave me $ 2.73 off my order. My order total was $ 42.82.
I have another cost cutting post that I am working on for tomorrow. For the first time ever I am going to tell you what goal I am working on and how much I have left to save to reach it. It is a hefty amount but we can do it! Because of this, you will be seeing many cost cutting posts.
I went to Top’s this week using a 3 day sale coupon. I got Italian bread that was on sale for $ 2.00 and then used a $ 2.00 off Monopoly Q to get it free. I got Porterhouse steaks on sale for $10.99 a lb. and used a $ 2.00 off Monopoly Q for a total cost of $ 42.07. There were 3 steaks in the package totaling 4.01 lbs. The shrimp was pricey but I needed it for a dinner I am making in a few weeks. It was on sale for $ 12.99 and I used a digital coupon for $ .40 off so it cost me $ 12.59. The total for all was $54.66 minus a 3 day sale Q of $5.00 off a $50. purchase for a total of $49.66.
The mayonnaise you just see in the corner of the picture was not bought on this trip. I just took it from my storage to put in the fridge when Hubby empties the jar that has just a little bit in it.
Then I went to Dollar Tree to get 6 qts. of shelf stable milk. We seem to be going through a lot of it between baking, making scrambled eggs, and making puddings for snacks and desserts. Some does get used for cereal once in a while too. These were $ 1.25 each totaling $ 7.50. I really like the whole milk but they had none. The 2% is just fine for what I need it for.
We continue to cut as many costs as we can around here. I started washing my own windows on the inside and one door on both sides and cleaning the blinds in the breakfast room. I have to be really careful because the windows are very tall so I have to climb on a ladder. I am using glass cleaner and microfiber cloths. I did not want to pay to hire someone to do it because it is so expensive. Hubby will pressure wash the outsides when I am done. I will take the screens out and clean them also. In the same room, I cleaned all of the walls and the door. We have a cathedral ceiling in there so that was not easy either. I could not reach our ceiling fan even on a small ladder. So Hubby cleaned that light and all of the fan blades. Onto another room tomorrow.
Hubby has been trimming bushes and weeding. We hired the landscape company to do the spring cleanup and some plantings. But Hubby is hoping to keep up with the maintenance throughout the year. That will save us a fortune. If it gets to be too much, then we will just hire them again.
Our cherries will be ripe in about 2 weeks. We will pick what we can reach and leave the ones at the top for the birds. They love them.
I did our net worth statement yesterday because I do it a few times a year. We are getting very close to our goals.We are so happy about that.
Besides the things we do every day like cook from home, do wash in cold water, cook outside on the grill or in the small oven, etc., that is about it for this week.
It was errand day. Besides picking up a prescription at the drugstore. I stopped at Aldi, Walmart, and Top’s.
For months I had been trying to get this orange sauce at Aldi’s. They were out of stock. I used my last bottle which was not a good thing because Hubby really likes orange chicken. Last night my sister told me that it was back in stock at her store downstate. I was so happy to find it today and picked up 3 bottles at $ 2.19 each. When the hams were on sale for $ 1.49 a lb. for Easter, I did not get one. We were kind of sick of ham from having a large one in January. I was hoping that either Aldi or Walmart would reduce them for quick sale. Neither had. So I decided to get one at the $1.49 sale price at Aldi’s today. This one cost me $12.05. It is the best price we have had in this area. I will keep checking to see if they reduce them. If they do, I will get 2 more. Hubby loves ham sandwiches, ham salad, ham on salads, fried ham with eggs for breakfast, etc. Buying chunks of ham or sliced ham when we want it, is very expensive. So I have instead spent the $ 1.49 a lb. and this afternoon I cut it up into meal size portions and froze most of it. I have slices, chunks, and dices ready to use when we need it. I spent $ 18.62 for all at Aldi’s.
Also pictured is a bag of Tyson chicken strips that I purchased at Walmart for $ 8.77. I have been wanting a KFC chicken bowl. But I did not want to spend the $ 5.99 for it at KFC. So instead I purchased the bag of the strips which will make about 8 bowls for about $ 1.10 each. I just add some homemade mashed potatoes( about 1 potato with shelf stable milk and some butter( $ .65), canned corn( a tsp. of corn $ .04), and chicken gravy ($.33). Hubby does not like them. The total cost for the bowl was $ 3.12. It had been years since I had one and it was so delicious.
When I went in to get the chicken strips, the employees at Walmart were just reducing the price of all of the Easter candy down by 50%. I got enough for us, West, and Alexa for an entire year. The candy came out of our gift budget. The $ 8.77 for the chicken strips came out of our grocery budget.
My last stop was at Top’s where I purchased:
2 Steak-Umm’s that were BOGOF = $ 5.79 for both( I love these with eggs and I had finished our last box over a week ago.)
