Tag: saving money

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This is a Very Difficult Economy for Many

So many people are trying to stretch their money to make ends meet. It is not only the minimum wage earners. I am seeing so many people who make six figures a year having the same issues. It is especially hard for people who are single and only have one income or seniors who are living on a fixed income. Prices just keep going up and eventually the money does not stretch any more.

Many have tried to get better jobs and have sent out hundreds of job applications with no response to any of them. Others have taken on a part time job along with their full time jobs. Many can’t even find part time jobs in their areas. Companies just aren’t hiring because their expenses have gone up also. This time of year you could always pick up a part time Christmas job. Not any more! The companies are trying to stay afloat too by downsizing their budgets.

People have not gotten raises for years now. If they have, they have been minimal and don’t even come close to keeping up with inflation. I know seniors have gone quite a few years over the past 15-20 without a raise. The January raises they do get do not keep up with inflation. Everytime you get that raise, your medicare cost goes up too. So if that is your only source of income in retirement, you are having a very rough time right now.

So what is important to pay when you are in any of these situations that I have mentioned. Your first priority is your mortgage or rent. You need a roof over your head or you will be homeless and living in your car. Food is your second priority. If you can’t afford it, go to the food banks. Hundreds of thousands of people are doing that right now. Many have incomes over $ 100,000. a year. Most food banks are not income based. You may not get food that is your favorite but it will sustain you.

If you still have money for food, buy the cheapest. Beef is out unless you can get it reduced for quick sale. Pork, turkey(this month) and chicken are your best buys when they are on sale. Buy whole chickens and break them down yourselves instead of buying chicken breasts. I can get a whole chicken for $ 1.64 a lb. and get a lot of soup stock from it too. Beans, eggs, and peanut butter are great sources of protein. Eating breakfast for dinner a couple of times a week will save you money. Toast and eggs make a great meal. Make a soup with leftovers. Never waste food. The food you throw away is the most expensive food you have purchased.

Health insurance is always a priority especially if you are over 50. One broken bone or operation will break you for good.

Your next priority should be life saving medications. Look for coupons online to save on these. Many manufacturers of drugs will give you coupons for your prescriptions. Most pharmacies will take these coupons along with your insurance. Look into Good RX or many other savings cards to see if it is cheaper than your insurance.

I would say heat if you are in a cold climate is your next priority. You do not want to freeze to death. Some states can’t shut off your power from November 1 to April 15. These are the dates here in New York. If you have a medical condition that requires power, they can’t shut you off. I am not saying “don’t pay your power bill” because eventually you will have to catch up. But if money is really tight one month, keep those dates in mind. If you are going to be late paying it, make sure you call them and make arrangements to pay.

Do whatever you have to do to keep the power bill low. No one needs more than one light on at night in the room they are in. Use a battery powered one if you have one. Or bring a solar light in that has soaked up the sun each night. If you have a choice between cooking with electricity or natural gas, the gas is cheaper. Use your outside grill if you have a full tank of propane, even in the winter.

Next priority is your car insurance and car payment. Those need to be paid no matter what. You need your car for work and to get groceries, etc. You don’t need to be paying delivery charges and tips to have food delivered.

Gasoline is your next priority. Buy it at the cheapest station which is usually B.J.’s or another warehouse club if you already have a membership. You can find your cheapest station by checking Gas Buddy.

Most importantly on all of your bills: Pay them yourselves. Do not let anyone take the money directly from your checking account unless it is absolutely necessary. If your checking account balance goes below zero, your will get a NSF charge when those bills hit. Then you will start a cycle that will never end. So shut off any direct payment that you can ASAP! Go! Do it now!

I know you won’t want to hear it but you know I am going to say it anyhow. Here are the things you do not need to be buying until you dig yourself out of this hole:

Do not buy fast food or eat out in a restaurant. No coffee while you are out and about unless you make it yourself and bring it. No costly entertainment like movies or streaming services. No cable tv. Get a Roku and watch You Tube or free streaming services. Do not buy junk food at the grocery store: no snacks, beer, liquor, or soda. Bake cookies, muffns or quick breads from scratch. Eat cheese and crackers. Hard boiled eggs are a great snack. No clothing or shoes unless yours are so worn out that you can’t wear them. I mean threadbare!

Your first priority when you dig yourself out of the hole you are in is to build an emergency fund and some savings so that you never end up like this again.

I really hope this helps someone. Please add anything that I haven’t thought of in the comments so that you can help these people too!

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Every Day

An Exhausting and Busy Day Yesterday

I was out of here early for my medical tests and a doctor’s appointment yesterday. Everything is good.

While I was in this town, I went to the bank to deposit 2 checks and get a little cash for the winter. I do not drive in the winter if I can avoid it. I now have almost all of my next appointments scheduled for the end of April.

I also have Hubby’s sister coming to visit us from Houston soon. So I had to go to one liquor store to replenish what was needed. I had not gone to this shopping plaza in over 2 years. I noticed when I pulled in that Paula’s Donuts was there. I did not know they had moved. So of course, I had to go in and get a couple of apple fritters. I will not be going again. They are delicious but not good for us.

My next stop was at Niagara Produce. They had the extra large eggs on sale again for $ .99 a dozen. I got two to fill up my 60 count box in the refrigerator. They will go fast with company here and I will be cooking breakfast for my son this weekend.

I got home about 11am. I was craving a cup of coffee and needed some food. I could have neither before my tests. So after eating a donut and having two cups of coffee, I went back out to run some errands north of me.

My round brush broke so I went to Sally’s Beauty Supply to replace it. Then I filled up our gas tank. Next I went to Top’s and just picked up some loss leaders.

It’s a good day when you save more than you spend. We were out of English Muffins and Hubby loves one for breakfast with my homemade sugar free peach jam. They were on B1G1F. I also had a super coupon to get a jar of Ragu Kettle Sauce for $ 1.77. With the price of tomatoes here, I can’t make homemade sauce for that price. I also purchased a large pack of boneless skinless chicken breasts at $ 1.88 a lb. They have been packaged up and frozen.

My last stop was another liquor store that had the wine I needed for $ 7.00 cheaper than the liquor store I went to this morning. When you are buying 4 bottles, that is a savings of $ 28.00 so it was worth the extra trip.

Shopping for 2 gifts that I need in November was also completed.

Finally I got home about 4pm. We ate dinner and then I called my sister.

I got a whole lot done but I fell asleep the minute my head hit the pillow last night. I was exhausted!

I still have to get my flu shot but I am going to have to schedule it. Walking in is a long, long wait.

Hubby also will have a total of 3 returns that Abbott Labs wants. We have gotten one replacement and 2 others are on the way. Until we have them and all the paid for boxes to send the others back, I will not go out to Fed Ex. So I will try to do that and schedule my flu shot for the same day.

I am happy that I have almost everything that we need to get through the winter. I still will shop for a turkey or two on a good deal and some other good Thankgiving deals as I see them. I will also get some baking items and some hams as I see them go on sale.

I almost forgot to tell you that I ordered 4 boxes of turkey stuffing mix from Amazon for $ .75 each. I believe that this deal is still available. They arrived yesterday. They will come in handy to go with the extra turkeys I have or to stuff pork chops or chicken breasts.

Please feel free to share any deals and at what stores to help others anytime.

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Every Day

Winter, Bills, and Savings

Yesterday we got our $200. check from Governor Hochul to help pay our electric bills over the winter. Yup, it says that wording on it. Every person who filed taxes got some amount of a check depending on whether you were married or not and you qualified with your income. It makes no sense to me. A single person most likely didn’t qualify because their income was too high. They still have to heat their homes just like the rest of us. We got $100. for each of us. You think it is a bribe because she is up for election and she has been the one to raise all our bills because of her green energy program? Would she do that? Perhaps it was really based on how many votes were in the household. Just saying!

I got our electric and gas bill today for the past 29 days. It was $ 168.79. We used 410 kwh’s of electric and 32 ccf’s of natural gas. Not too bad considering we had company so extra showers were being taken. Out heat has pretty much been on the entire billing month too. Last year’s bill was $164.84 for 425 kwh’s and a little less ccf’s. So this bill was only $ 3.95 more. I suppose I could pay it with the $ 200. check. But we budget for such expenses so we already have the money to pay it. Since we have another check to deposit at the bank for $21.98, I will just deposit the $200. one also into our savings accounts.

This is going to be a savings winter. We will be concentrating hard on doing that. Not only do we want to keep our electric and gas bill down but we want to save every penny we can. It is the best time of the year for us to do that because we stay inside more often. We also don’t have landscaping and fertilizer bills nor do we have sprinkler system maintenance bills or high water bills which cost quite a bit of money for the spring and summer. We have already paid our snow plow guy for the winter. With the price of gasoline, I expected that that bill would go up quite a bit. But he only raised it by $25. for the entire season. $ 525. for the winter plowing is a bargain especially here on the Buffalo area. Plus he does a great job even coming back multiple times during the day when it is snowing all day.

We have a few birthdays coming up and Christmas which will cost for gifts but that money has already been set aside.

We are pretty well stocked for meals for the winter. About the only meat I will buy for dinners are turkeys, whole chickens, and any beef that I deem a rock bottom price. BTW, I saw Butterball turkeys for $ .97 a lb. and Shadybrook turkeys for $ .84 a lb. on sale here at Walmart. So I will get a couple once I know what other store prices are. I don’t expect the beef prices to go down very often. I will also buy bacon and sausage on loss leader when I need it to cook for most of our Sunday breakfasts here with family. Kalamata’s will have to be a special treat and will not happen often. It costs us about $100. including tip for breakfast now for the 4 of us.

Not this coming weekend but the following weekend, our son will get the snow tires down from the ceiling so that Hubby can get them changed over at the garage we use. He will also help us put away the patio furniture. I am also hoping he will have time to change out all of our smoke alarm batteries too before he goes home to watch the Buffalo Bills game. He does so much for us and we are grateful.

BTW, I think I just had my last dental appointment at the expensive dentist. My denture is still under warranty until the end of February. My next appointment won’t be until April. I will start with the new dentist then. Hubby will be starting next month. However, I told them on this last appt. no X-rays or fluoride. Those things will be covered under the new plan at the new dentist. They would have cost me over $200. last week. The new dentist is close to my home so there will be a big gasoline savings too.

That’s it for today. Organizing work is calling my name. I will do that after I make eggs on toast for breakfast.

How are you going to save this winter?

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Every Day

Are You Prepared To Ration?

With the food prices going up beause of diesel costs, I firmly believe you should stockpile some food asap. I think it will be a very costly Fall and Winter and that prices will explode. It is a good time to can or freeze some produce if you can find farms that are selling the last of their crops at great prices. You can get potatoes, squash, and onions cheap in the fall that should get you through most of the winter.

We have been rationing our food for a while now. Make sure you have the proper portions when you make meals. How many of you never look at how many portions are in those cans or freezer packages that you open up for meals? Do you know what a proper portion of meat is? We do. It is 6 ounces. But we usually eat about 8 ounces because we only eat 2 meals a day. We need to get our protein in. We have lots of dried beans that will give you as much protein as meat and it is the cheaper option. With homemade soup season coming, we will use lots of beans in them. Hubby has decided to eat lentils too which is something he has never eaten before. They will make a great soup along with beef stock and whatever else you want to add. There are many charts on the internet that will show you what proper portions are of different foods.

In this season of high prices, rationing will help you save money while also keeping you healthy. It will also help you waste nothing. Have you ever kept track of what food in your fridge rots and then gets put in the trash? Look every week at what needs to be used up or can be frozen so that it doesn’t end up there!

Pork is not our favorite meat. I used to be able to roast a pork loin and have it turn out really tender. The pork I have gotten over the past few years at the supermarkets has been tough and very chewy. Hubby refused to eat it. So for about 3 years, I ordered ribeye pork chops from Rastelli’s Meat Market in New Jersey. They were tender and delicious but the price finally went up to where I refused to pay what they wanted. I think I have 6 of them left in the freezer. They will get used up over a two month period.

However, I did have this pork loin in my freezer for years along with some center cut pork chops. But I just kept ignoring them. On Saturday, I decided to find a way to cook the pork loin and make it tender. I wanted to use it up and never buy one again. So I found this recipe online:

https://foodess.com/slow-cooker-pork-loin/#wprm-recipe-container-35997

It has a lot of ingredients which I don’t like but I had everything for it. I decided to try it. Yesterday morning I put it in the crockpot. Two thirds of the pork loin is pictured above. I forgot to take a picture before we ate. This recipe is excellent. It turned out melt in your mouth tender after cooking for 8 hours on low. We wanted the sauce to not only spoon over the meat on our plate but to put on some mashed potatoes also. So I doubled the chicken broth and soy sauce. When the pork was done, the sauce needed to be thickened a bit. So I used a little bit of brown gravy mix to do that. When I cut up my really large vidalia onion, I made thick slices which did not disappear after cooking so long. They were delicious and served as our vegetable in the sauce. Hubby and I loved it. It was the perfect meal after watching our Buffalo Bills win. The best part was that it is no longer being ignored in my freezer.

We have enough leftover to make 2-3 more meals. Tonight we will have this for dinner again warmed up in the sauce over rice. I will probably cook some broccoli to have with it. Perhaps the next night I will make pork tacos and the last night some pork fried rice. Add some easy meals the rest of the week like grilled cheese sandwiches, chicken patties on buns, or breakfast for dinner and we will eat well. We had leftover mashed potatoes last night and I made potato pancakes for breakfast along with some sausage. Waste not, want not!

I will keep my eye out for another pork loin on a rock bottom sale to put in the freezer and use down the road. In the meantime. we will use the same recipe to cook the center cut pork chops in about 2 months.

Over the weekend, Hubby recovered the 6 dining room chairs. It was not easy because it was so hard to get the old seat covers off. There were so many staples holding them on. But he persisted even though he worked up a good blister on one hand. They look so fantastic. So all it cost us was the price of the fabric. The lady who owns the Fabric Warehouse told me that there is a man who lives about 35-40 minutes away from us who would recover them for $25. a chair. You would have to bring the chairs to him along with the fabric though. So Hubby saved a lot of gasoline and $150. by doing them himself. I am very grateful.

I needed to do a load of laundry while we watched the football game. I do not use dryer sheets ever nor do I use fabric softener. Instead I use vinegar in place of the fabric softener. It is cheap and does a great job of softening and getting the extra soap out of our clothes. I only use 1/3- 1/2 of the soap that the manufacturer wants me to but it still leaves residue. I wash 99% of our clothes in cold water. I hang most of our clothes. But I do dry the towels and sheets in the dryer. So I use my wool balls to help them dry faster.

I had to go to an early Doctor’s appointment this morning. When I started our car this morning, the brake warning light came on. Every time I turned the car off and on while I was out the same light came on. I told Hubby when he got out of the hospital that the brakes seemed bad. He told me they were fine. He checked it out and saw the warning light too but now he is trying to tell me that it always comes on when you start the car. I told him I drive the car and he rarely drives it. I have never see that warning light before. I told him I refuse to drive the car until he gets them checked. Well he made an appointment for Thursday to have the yearly inspection and the brakes are part of that. So now I have to rearrange my plans this week and perhaps push ordering platters and rolls off until the day after my surgery. I will call Wegman’s today and see if I can order everything over the phone or not.

When I got home from the doctor’s, I changed out of my good clothes and rehung them in my closet. They were not dirty from the hour or so that I was in them. This is how I save on laundry loads which saves money over a year’s time. I do not wash clothes that are not dirty and don’t smell. I have older clothes that I wear around the house especially to clean.

I got a great deal on some pillows yesterday. They were delivered this morning. Our pillows in the house are getting old and flat so they were a necessity.

I have the dishwasher running with a full load. I use the Eco cycle. It does not heat to dry the dishes. I open the door and let the dishes air dry. I also wanted to tell you that the best dishwasher gel that I have found is Great Value. It cleans really well and leaves no film. I also use vinegar for the rinse instead of Jet Dry.

Well sorry to drone on and on. But my brain works overtime most of the time. I hadn’t planned on posting today but I had to drain my brain. So look for more as we do them to cut costs around here.

Feel free to leave a comment and share with all of us anything you are doing to cut costs in this bad economy. BTW, the stock market is in the red today. I figured this would happen today because of the pipeline porblem in Saudi Arabia.

I am off to clean two rooms now!

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Every Day

Saving a Few Dollars Here and There

Princess Eloise was telling me that she would rather I played with her than write this post. She got her way and then I got mine.

I needed to buy new reading glasses that were the next strength. After a bit of research I found what I needed at Walmart online. I purchased 4 pairs that were $16.99. I had $10.75 in Walmart cash from prior delivery orders. I used that to pay which ended up costing me $7.60 out of pocket including taxes. I considered this a great deal at $1.90 per pair. They are much nicer than what the dollar stores carry.

Hubby broke his glasses when he fell. They were usable but scratched. I took him yesterday for a prescheduled opthamologist appointment. There is an optometrist in the same building. So we headed there with his prescription after the first appointment. Hubby picked out frames and the optometrist measured and ordered his glasses. They will be ready around July 13th. We do not have insurance for glasses. So the optometrist gave him a discount of 20% which saved us $150. We will pay $600. when they are ready.

We have a bunch of paper plates that I stockpiled in case of a power outage. I opened one package when this heat hit so that we don’t need to run the dishwasher and heat up the house with the A/C on. It may not save much electricity but every little bit helps the bill.

As I write this, the A/C is constantly running. UGH! We have had highs of 91 the past two days. We have heat warnings in effect through 8PM on Friday. Our heat index values have been 105- 109 each afternoon. It is so humid and ugly outside. I keep pushing off going out uneccessarily. But I will have to go to the markets today or tomorrow. I need to get a watermelon and many other fresh fruits to make a fruit bowl that I am taking to a July 4th party.

I entered the past 10 days of receipts into Fetch. I had enough points in that account to order a $10.00 Walmart gift card to use for future groceries.

I had enough points in my XBOX account to order a $10.00 Amazon gift card.

Top’s offered me a $5.00/$50.00 grocery coupon for updating my profile on their site. I did and that coupon has been clipped to my card to help defray the cost of the groceries I need there this week.

Since it has been so hot, I am trying to come up with cool recipes we can eat. We ate all of the macaroni and chicken salad over the past couple of days for brunch and dinners. I think tonight may be shrimp cocktails or Caesar salad wraps with shrimp. Another night may be egg salad from eggs that I cooked in the Instant Pot. They only take 4 minutes. If I am really lazy, we can always have PB&J sandwiches to get our protein. We already have all the ingredients for all of these.

What have you been doing to save some $$$$ ?

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Every Day

A Little of This and a Little of That

While I drink my second cup of homemade cinnnamon roll coffee, it is time to chat with you.

It has been a fun week. We went with our neighbors to the Hilltop Restaurant on Tuesday for dinner. It is a nice place with good food. We had never been there before. Our waitress was phenominal. She was so attentive but not overbearing. We had a great time.

Last week, our neighbors had us over to dinner again. They smoked burgers which were delicious. We now need to have them here. My back isn’t quite up to it yet. We will invite them soon.

Our other meals this week have been chicken salad and chicken on a Caesar salad. I was trying to use up cooked chicken that was in the freezer. Hubby grilled strips steak outside last night. I mixed up a salad from a kit to go with them. We always have some steak leftover so this morning, I heated up some slices with butter and garlic. I ate 3 eggs over easy with it. Hubby wasn’t hungry but later he ate a steak sandwich. He will eat his leftover Cuban sandwich for dinner from our dinner out. I will either have a cheeseburger or a cup of soup. We are trying really hard to make sure all of the leftovers get eaten. Waste not want not.

The only grocery shopping this week was at Niagara Produce. I bought 1 dozen extra large eggs for $ .99 and 6 tomatoes on the vine at $1.99 a lb.

I do have a coupon for $3.00 off Bubba Burgers at B.J.’s. I have a doctor’s appointment next week and I can stop there on the way home. But that will be it unless I see a great deal on beef. Fingers crossed. We have decided that except for beef or an absolute necessity, we are not buying food.

I washed and hung a load of laundry yesterday. My electric and gas bill will be here on June 20th. The company sent us an e-mail to let us know that we had a huge spike in electricity usage. We laughed because of course we did. We turned our A/C on for a about 5 days. The night that they sent the e-mail, we turned it off again. It has been cool again with hardly any humidity except when it rains. If we keep the windows closed the humidity inside is not bad. Do you think they will send an e-mail to let me know my usage is down? I doubt it!

Eloise has been letting me sleep past 5AM almost every morning now. This morning when I got up at 5:30AM(slept 9 hours and 38 minutes) she was wedged against our door. We evidently had a bad storm last night with lots of wind and rain. She was terrified. I couldn’t get her to move from that spot even though I was going to feed her. She finally ate and then sat in my or Hubby’s lap for 2 hours. The sun is out right now but we may get more rain later. But I haven’t been this rested in 2 years. The past week I am able to get some things done because I have the energy.

While Hubby is watching the World Cup soccer games today, I am going to go through the rest of my rooms and get rid of anything that we don’t want, haven’t used, or needs to be thrown out. Anything that is still good will be donated. I also need to update my pantry inventory. It has gotten away from me while my back is acting up. The only way I can do anything is by using a back pain patch and downing some Advil.

I ordered 2 boxes of 72 Delectables from Chewy for Eloise. She was on her last box. I had a $30. gift card that they gave me on a prior deal. So that helped with the cost.

We have a lot of company coming this summer and in the fall. So I will be doing the dressers and closets in those guest rooms first. I will take some pictures of the before and after so that you can see what I am doing. I will either add to this post today or start a new one tommorow.

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Every Day

A Little of This and A Little of That

I went to Niagara Produce this week to get 4 dozen eggs to fill up my 5 dozen container in the refrigerator. They were still on sale for $.99 each. I also purchased fresh broccoli crowns( $1.49 a lb.) for $ 1.59 to cook as a side for a couple of dinners this week. I always check for marked down meat. While I was looking, I saw this package of on sale cheese and parsley Italian sausage. It was $3.99 a lb. so it cost $ 7.14. This will give us two homemade meals: a pasta one and a pizza one. My total was $ 12.69.

Then I went to Aldi’s to get sliced mushrooms for $ 1.29 for burgers this week and peppers($2.55) to make fajitas last night for dinner. I also got the flour tortillas for $ 1.95 for the fajitas. The organic ketchup was $2.15. The cantaloupe was $ 2.49 and the brioche buns were $3.99. I picked up 2 more butter at $2.89 lb. to add to my freezer stash. The frozen California Medley vegetables were $ 1.15. My total was $21.65.

I stopped at Panera Bread and purchased the dozen bagels Tuesday deal for $9.99 using my Panera giftcard that I purchased 3 to 4 years ago on the Top’s deal at Christmas. They give you 13 bagels so I got 7 asiago cheese and 6 cinnamon crunch. I froze most of them for future meals.

Top’s was my second to last stop. We rarely buy cereal but we do use Rice Chex in our party mix so I picked up 2 boxes on sale for $3.00 a box. The Kraft salad dressings were on sale for $ 3.00 each. We eat a lot of salads in the spring and summer so I am now stockpiled on dressings. The Skinny Pop was a treat for me. It cost $ 3.50. I got 2 Peter Pan peanut butter on sale B1G1F so it was $3.69 for 2 of them. We love this for a snack with celery. The Smithfield pork tenderloins were on B1G1F for $ 9.99 for both. We will cook these on the grill for a couple of meals this summer. The leftovers will get used in pork fried rice. The grapes were on sale for $1.88 a lb. so I paid $ 3.42 for $ 1.82 lbs. They will be used in chicken salad and for snacking. The bread was on sale for $ 2.99. I use this for French toast for my grandson and Hubby on Sundays when we are all together for breakfast. The cheddar cheese block was $ 1.88. My total for all was $ 37.47 minus my 6% senior discount of $ 2.25. So OOP was $35.22.

My last stop was at Consumer Beverage where I returned bottles for $6.00 which I used to defray the cost of a 24 pack of Yuengling Lager that cost $22.99 plus bottle deposits of $1.20 – $6.00 plus $ 1.84 in tax totaled $20.03. I am also submitting an $ 8.00 rebate. This is Hubby’s treat after he is done mowing the lawn.

We needed food so I finally had to go shopping. The only way I could get through it was to use a lidocaine patch. But I was totally exhausted when I got home.

I submitted a $6.00 rebate for 3 bottles of Kendall Jackson wine.

We have not turned on the A/C yet even though we have had a couple of 80+ days. Our home has high ceilings so we stay pretty cool in here. We also have ceiling fans in 2 bedrooms, a portable fan in the 3rd bedroom, and ceiling fans in the breakfast room, which is where we eat all of our meals, the great room, and the office. We have only had to use select fans a couple of days.

Our landscaper replaced the tree that died since he planted it last fall. It was under a year warranty. It is a nice red maple and is a bit bigger than the one that died. I pray that this one survives.

What have you been doing to save a few dollars?

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Every Day

Eating Through Our Food

First let me say, it is not easy to stay out of the grocery store for a month. I am so used to looking at the ads and just buying the loss leaders. But I am 14 days in and we are doing it! It helps to throw the ads out without reading them. By the end of the month, that will be $600. saved to use for meat stock ups in the future. So I feel good about it. However, I do not think that we will continue this in February since it is frozen food month among other sales. So just giving you a heads up.

We have been trying to use up our produce first. We have been eating a lot of salads. Last night I made 2 different stir fries that will feed us again tonight. I do this because Hubby is adverse to most vegetables and mushrooms. I love them all. I cooked Hubby’s with chicken, onions, and red and orange peppers, and stir fry sauce. Mine had mushrooms, edamame, broccoli, red peppers and onions with the same sauce. We served it on Jasmine rice. I hate Jasmine rice but we are trying to use it up and I will not buy it again.

Any produce that will go bad soon is being used up first. I do food saver (take the air out) a lot of my produce in mason jars so that it lasts longer than it normally would. So things like lettuce, peppers, tomatoes, broccoli, grapes, etc. go bad first and get used first. Sweet potatoes, russet potatoes, cabbage, onions, celery, mandarins, carrots, and apples last longer and get used last. Onions, carrots, and potatoes can be frozen. I cut up potatoes and parboil them and then freeze them. I dice or slice onions and carrots and freeze those before they go bad. The potatoes can then be used in soups, fried, or mashed. They make for quick meals. I use the carrots and onions in many recipes. I have frozen celery but I quickly realized it would disintegrate in soups so I quit doing that. I just chop it up fresh.

When the fresh stuff is gone, we will use the frozen veggies, then the canned ones.

We try to eat the meat or fish in our freezer first. We do eat it almost every night. I sprinkle in some canned meat every once in a while. I can a lot of beef, pork, turkey, and chicken. We also like canned chicken from the grocery store so we have a bit in storage. The chicken I can gets used in casseroles, soups or just by itself on our plates. It all depends on how much time I have that day.

Eggs get used almost every day. We love eggs, some kind of meat, and avocado for brunch. I am out of fresh avocadoes right now but I do have some in chunks in the freezer that I am using up. I serve bagels with cream cheese or just yogurt once in a while as an alternative. We do have some oatmeal which we put diced apples or blueberries in. I also do hard boiled eggs in my instant pot every week for snacks.

I used to drink about 4-5 cups a day of coffee but now I only drink 2. Hubby has given up coffee. So it will take me longer to go through our stockpile.

Ground meat and fish do not last as long in the freezer as do steaks and roasts so that gets used up regularly. I have very little fish right now. I am looking for a good source of wild caught salmon when my freezer gets down. I love salmon and make it for me when I make haddock for Hubby. Sometimes, I bake it to go with my eggs for brunch. I think I have found a great source: https://wildforsalmon.com/ . Has anyone here ordered from them? If so I would love to hear about it.

I also want you to know that I am trying to get photos back working but I just don’t seem to be able to do it. So I have to wait until my son comes out again which won’t be for at least 2-3 weeks to see if he can fix it for me. Meanwhile I will still try each day.

How are you using your food up? What is your plan?

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Every Day

How We Will Save Money In 2026 (Part 6)

I know we all like a snack once in a while. But those bags of chips, Poppables, Cheetos, etc. cost a fortune now. $ 5.96 for quite a while for some of our favorites. They have come down to $5.00 now but I still won’t buy them for something that unhealthy. We still have a few in our pantry that we bought for company that we will use up this month. We have decided except for popcorn kernels, tortilla chips and salsa, nuts, and pretzels to make our party mix, we will not be buying them.

We have an electric popcorn popper and a microwave one. They both work really well. If you don’t have those, you can use a skillet or pan to pop yours on the stovetop. That is the way our parents and grandparents did it.

I purchased enough ingredients this year on sale to make two large canning kettles of Chex mix. Hubby made one yesterday. This will last us about 6-8 weeks. We use rice Chex, wheat Chex, Cheerio’s, pretzels, and 3 cans of mixed nuts in ours. Then he makes the sauce and bakes it stirring it at various times while it is cooking at 250 degrees. When you buy everything on sale, it costs less per serving than buying the equivalent bags of snacks.

We not only use tortilla chips with salsa but we use them to dip in our taco bowls and soups, and for other Mexican meals.

We have a variety of nuts in our freezer including pecans, walnuts, and cashews.

We also make our own dill dip and onion dip for eating celery, cucumbers, and carrots. If we are craving a chip to dip, we can make our own from sliced potatoes using our oven with the air fryer function.

I also consider ice cream, brownies, quick breads, cakes, pies, cookies, fudge, etc. to be snacks or desserts. When we are craving something sweet, we will make our own. I have some mixes on our shelves to use up first. We try to eat all of these things sparingly.

Our very favorite sweets are strawberries or SF pudding with zero whipped cream. We thaw our frozen strawberries during the winter or use the fresh in season. Pudding and fresh and canned fruit are a year round treat.

Our plan is to use up what we have and then get back to making things ourselves. It is so much cheaper to do it yourself and healthier too. I am really tired of making the big corporations rich.

Do you make your own snacks? Willing to share them with us?

Categories
Every Day

September Things We Have Done To Save Some $’s

Since I feel pretty good today, I am going to post the first half of September’s savings today.

One day it started to rain unexpectedly. I turned our sprinkler system off. We do not want to pay for water when we can get it free. Yesterday, our sprinkler service came and blew out the lines for the winter. No more sprinkling so our water bill should go back down to around $57. per quarter. This past quarter with all the watering, our bill was $ 285. I had Hubby stop at the town drop box one day so that we could pay it. that saved us a $ .78 stamp.

We did 2 deal grocery shops the beginning of the month. One to buy a little over 6 pounds of boneless skinless chicken for $ 2.29 a pound. The following week they had ground beef(80/20) on sale at Top’s using a Super Coupon for $ 3.99 a pound. We bought 6 pounds.

We finally qualified for the Enhanced Star Rebate on our school taxes. It was a savings of $1080.49.

Hubby wanted a check register insert for our checkbook. Ours was falling apart. He found a 5 pack on Walmart. With tax it was $9.67 but I used $3.00 in Walmart cashback to get it for $ 6.67.

We were down to our last book of checks so Hubby ordered more. We get them from our bank for free because of one of the savings plans we have.

I received a $5.00 liquor rebate in the mail.

I sent in a $3.00 wine rebate. I won’t send any rebate in under $3.00 because of the postage.

Hubby needed to fill his two 5 gallon gas cans and our car. He saved $ 7.21 because we had enough for $.40 off per gallon with Top’s points.

Hubby made a big crockpot full of chili. We ate it on rice for two nights and had some to freeze. Another day I cooked a corned beef that had been in the freezer since last March. We ate reuben sandwiches for many days and then I froze the rest of the corned beef and the rye bread to save to have another sandwich in the next month or so. He has also made cheeseburgers, chicken sandwiches, and BLT’s recently. I think tonight we will have ribeye pork chops and broccoli. I am having him mainly cook out of the freezer and I try to think of things that are easy for him.

I scanned most of our receipts into Fetch. I still have to scan in the receipt from our lunch at “The Ship”. This restaurant is a keeper. They have Monday specials where all of the entrees are marked down. I saved $ 4.00 off my steak sandwich which was so delicious. Hubby saved $3.00 off his chicken wrap. We will probably go there once a month for lunch. I also have a coupon for a free basket of fries which we will use next time. Their fries are the best we have ever had. Really crispy on the outside and soft in the middle. Our waitress told us they make their own.

My son, Sean, helped Hubby trim a tree that shades the patio. It needed it badly. With Hubby’s direction he took a lot of branches off. They piled them up by the bottom of the driveway. The town does brush pickup for free this week. Last year, we paid for a tree service to do some other trees. It was expensive so my son saved us some money.

My son stopped at Niagara Produce on his way here and got me a package of hamburger buns which we badly needed. I tried to get them on a delivery order from Walmart but they were out of stock. He would not let me pay him the $ 2.49 they cost either.

My son also fixed my Bosch dishwasher in about 15 minutes. A button fell out of the the control panel over a year ago. I was able to keep the other buttons in place. They are the ones you push for what cycle you want. Hubby kept putting it off. I finally asked my son and he did it. It wasn’t easy because you had to take off the entire front of the dishwasher to get at the panel. But he got it done and still got home in time to watch the Buffalo Bills game which was an away game.

We have watched both Buffalo Bills games which is our free entertainment. We have also been watching Tony and Ziva on Paramount+ which we get free with our Walmart+. We do an episode a day.

Well that is it for now. I will post the last half of the month on September 30th.

I hope you are all having fun trying to save as much money as possible. Please share with all of us what you have been doing.