Tag: what we eat

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Every Day

Cost Cutting on Friday

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I hope you all had a good cost cutting day.

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Every Day

Cutting Costs On Thursday

This morning we went to our doctor’s appointments. We always try to go together for a couple of reasons. Hubby is very deaf in one ear and his hearing aid does not do much for him anymore. I am his ears for what the doctor is saying. We pay this doctor our copay of $50.00 when we go because his bill is spot on and we never owe anything after our 2 insurances other than this copay we give him when we go. This saves us from having to mail a check using a stamp and envelope to pay him. It also saves us on gasoline. We do this with four different doctors.

After dropping Hubby at home, I did some more grocery shopping. I am trying to beef up our pantry. I try to replace what we have used recently. I did this at Dollar Tree this morning. Everything you see here was $ 1.25 each.

I got Ranch Dressing, black beans, chili, 2 mandarin oranges, raspberry preserves, soup, BBQ sauce, 3 frostings, and a can of hot dog chili sauce. The hot dog sauce was the only exception to what I needed in my pantry. I bought one can to try it. My sister has asked me if I had ever tried it. I had not. So I will try it and let her know what I think. This store has some good prices on name brand items. My total for all was $ 15.00.

I also went to Aldi’s to get a few items. They have the best price in my area on romaine lettuce($2.89) which we were out of. I also got egglife wraps for $ 4.99, broccoli for $ 1.09, flatbread for $ 3.99, hot dog buns for $1.29, and 4 sauces at $ 2.19 each. Aldi’s usually has the best looking romaine. When I went to Top’s next, the romaine was horrid looking and $ 3.99. My total for Aldi’s was $ 23.01.

My last stop was Top’s where I did the rotisserie deal again. It was $10. for the 8 Knorr sides and the chicken was free. I also got more blueberries for $ 1.99. Total was $11.99.

With the exception that I am on the hunt for a good price on local strawberries, I am pretty much done shopping for this month. My doctor told us that the u pick place is open but we can’t pick them anymore. I am hoping that NP has them next week. I want to make some jam.

Sorry about the last picture. When I was out today it was 76, full sun after raining and 67% humidity. It was so MUGGY! I came home, took pics, put everything away and took a nap. I was beat!

Matter of fact we were going to order out and get a pizza at Domino’s since any pizza is 50% off through 06/09/2024. I have plenty of money in my grocery budget that I can use. I hated to spend the money but I have been so beat. When I went to order, it said that you could not come into the lobby of the store, order online or use, the drive thru. They were temporarily closed. I called and the woman who answered did not even know why they were closed. So much for offering a deal and then not being open for it.

I had not thawed anything for dinner and it was almost dinner time. So I pulled 4 egg rolls out of the freezer which I could air fry right away. We each ate 2 and dipped them in sweet and sour sauce. They were delicious. I have a strawberry rhubarb pie which we had for dessert. In the end I saved the price of the pizza which I have no idea what that would have cost because their website was down.

I am still really tired so going to bed very soon. It’s 7:15pm.

I will be posting this on Friday.

Did any of you do anything to save money on Thursday?

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Cutting Costs on Wednesday

A couple of years ago, I got a deal on this foundation that I use most of the time. I got 6 bottles for $ 3.00 each. This is my last one and there is very little left in the top of the bottle. Both Amazon and Walmart have it for $14.78. I do have Amazon reward points that I can use to bring it down to $13.45. However, I would have to spend more than this to get free shipping since I do not subscribe to Prime.

I have decided to not pay that price because I have all of these. They are not my favorites but I am not going to waste them. Some of the colors are a little off but I will mix them if need be. Some are perfect for winter when my skin is lighter than in the summer. When they are all gone, I will look for a deal again.

Hubby had a button come off his shorts. Looking around the house, he found it and sewed it back on. That saved us from having to buy a button. Small things do add up.

We were craving egg, bacon, and cheese breakfast sandwiches for brunch. So I decided to make homemade ones. I have not made English muffins recently nor did we have croissants. However, we had sesame buns that Hubby likes for his sandwiches. They are getting old but still very soft. So I cooked up the bacon, made eggs, and a cheddar cheese slice. Then I am putting them in the microwave to melt the cheese a little. They were delicious and satisfied our craving.

Waste not want not. There was a small piece of cooked egg left so I put that in a sandwich baggie in the fridge. It will end up in another breakfast sandwich or in stir fried rice.

A couple of years ago I found many packages of Christmas sandwich baggies on sale for 90% off. I bought lots and have been reaching for these when I need one for over 2 years.

We had strip steaks last night seasoned with Montreal steak seasoning. I was just letting the steaks rest while I cooked the broccoli.

Last night for entertainment, I continued to read “The Tightwad Gazette”.

Did you do anything to save today?

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It Was A Busy End Of The Week And Weekend

Hubby and I pulled the container of ham out of the freezer to try to use it up over the weekend. On Friday night he made fried ham and eggs for me and ham salad for himself for dinner. I had not had breakfast for dinner in a very long time.

This was the container of ham. We had used it for a couple of meals before I took this picture. The ham was purchased for $.99 a lb. at Aldi’s after Easter. It was already cooked so I just had to remove the ham from the bone. I have one more ham in the freezer that I will use later in the year.

I saved the bone too with a bit of meat on it to make homemade bean soup.

Then I soaked the beans in water overnight on Saturday. On Sunday I drained and rinsed the beans. I put the ham bone and beans in the crockpot along with some spices and water to cover all and cooked it all day. It was not quite done for dinner so I let it cook for another 3 hours.

When the soup was done, I took the rest of the ham off the bone and added it to the soup. I let it cool and then put it in two half gallon mason jars so that I could store it in the fridge.

We have had breakfasts with this ham, grilled ham and cheese sandwiches twice for dinner, and now tonight we will have soup. I think over the next couple of days that we will finish one jar of the soup. The other one I am going to freeze and eat the next time we have rainy days. I will freeze it in reusable individual soup containers that I use to freeze soup.

I can’t buy cold cuts for $.99 a lb. so all of this was a great bargain. I wanted to get some hams around Christmas but I did not have the freezer space. Finally after Easter I did. I also bought two corned beefs around St. Patrick’s Day. I am always happy to find hams and corned beef cheap because they are two of Hubby’s favorite meats. He could eat them for a week for every meal and be very happy.

Meat is so darn expensive these days that I am very happy when I can get it under $2.00 a lb. Hams at Easter and Christmas for $.99 a lb. Butterball turkeys at Thanksgiving for $.99 a lb. or generic for cheaper is the way to reduce your meat bill. You should be able to pick up cheap ground beef, hot dogs, and sausages this week for Memorial Day. I will be making sure that I have enough for the summer. I know I have enough of all except for hot dogs. I will be picking up a 3 lb. bag this week of Sahlen’s hot dogs for $10.99. They are made here in Buffalo and they are delicious.

The only other items I will buy this week are some corn on the cob at $ .39 an ear and some strawberries on BOGO. In another month we should have great local strawberries.

Hubby is at the dentist for his cleaning and check up. When he gets home, I will make some hash browns and fried ham for brunch.

Speaking of the dentist, I am furious with the staff. I had to cancel an appointment for Hubby a bit ago and I mentioned that our Dental Plan was due to be paid today for the next year and that Frank would pay it when he came in today. Then when I had my appointment a week or so ago, I mentioned that again to his receptionist and bookkeeper. Every year the premium goes up so I called the office last week to find out how much it would be. I was told that the dentist is not offering a plan for 2024. I was shocked and asked her why she didn’t mention that fact when I was in for my appointment. She said it was a recent decision. I said how recent and she said two weeks ago. I told her I asked each time and my appointment had been after they made the decision. What was the big secret? Crickets!

My dentist is to expensive that I don’t think I will be going back there. Hubby is there now and we will see how he feels about it. The only thing I ever have done is X-rays and cleanings for my bottom teeth because I have an upper denture.

When I went to have my medical tests done last week, I saw a sign at a local college that they are doing cleanings and X-rays for free. They must have a dental school there. I am going to try to get an appointment for October which is when I have to go again. This would save me $ 305. for the cleaning and about $200. for the X-rays.

Tomorrow or Wednesday I will do a post about how I am sick and tired of making everyone else rich except us. It will be interesting because I am going to make some big changes.

How are you saving on meat?

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Every Day

I Did Not Do Much Today Because……………………..

So sorry that this is not perfect. I have been taking care of Hubby today who is not feeling well. He woke me up at 1:30am this morning saying he did not feel well. I tried to get symptoms from him but all he wanted to do was go back to sleep. I couldn’t because I was very worried. So I have been up since then. He fell back to sleep and seemed to sleep well.

He got up at 8:30 because he had a late morning dentist appointment. He still did not feel well. He told me some of his symptoms which could have been many things. I gave him a Covid test. He was negative. But I called the dentist and rescheduled his appointment. It could be a stomach bug or something else. I offered to call the doctor or take him to the emergency room but he declined.

So I did the next best thing which is spend the entire day right by his side. I also made him some homemade chicken soup for dinner using a jar of homemade canned chicken and some homemade chicken broth, diced celery, and diced carrots, and added rice. It is the only thing he has eaten today and he ate a bowl full telling me how delicious it was. I made enough for a few days. The pot had just started to boil when I snapped this picture.

Today, my shipment of butter arrived from Amazon. The picture is above. With dairy being a supply chain issue, I wanted to make sure that we had some on the shelf. They were $ 9.48 a can but we like it and it will be on the shelf if the power goes out. So my order was $37.92.

Lastly, Hubby made some hummingbird food this weekend so we could fill up our 3 feeders. It costs him about a $ .25 for this gallon of it vs. $ 8.74 to buy the same size at the store. Every penny counts!

I hope you all had a great day!

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Every Day

Grocery Hauls Today

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.)

1 Top’s large eggs= Free Instant Win Monopoly coupon( -$ 2.99)

1 Bag of Lay’s chips =$ 1.99 with Monopoly coupon

1 Bag of Top’s cough drops=Free Instant Win Monopoly coupon – ($1.59)

1 Bison Dip on sale for $ 2.49. I needed this for one of our recipes.

It was senior discount day so I got $ .62 off. My total spent at Top’s was $9.65.

For dinner tonight we had all of the leftovers again from our Easter leg of lamb dinner. There is just enough left for Hubby for brunch tomorrow.

Have you found any grocery deals this week?

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My Plans Today

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.

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Dollar Tree and Family Dollar

There are so many Dollar Trees and Family Dollar stores closing across the U.S. I don’t know how many of you shop either place but I bet you have used them for some products at one time or another. Here is just one of the articles in the news:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/dollar-tree-family-dollar-closing-list-locations-where-are-they/

You can find many more if you just google for information.

I panicked the other day when someone posted online that our Dollar Tree was one of the ones closing and that it was already permanently closed. However I knew that there was one in the next town south of us. I decided to check it out myself and not take someone else’s word for it. I had a return to drop off at our local Fed Ex place. Dollar Tree is in the same plaza.

I was relieved when I got there to find that it was not only open but jammed with people. So I picked up a few of the items that I regularly buy there. The lines were long but I was patient and chatted with the cashier whose line I usually go to. I asked her if that store was closing. She told me no that it is one of the highest earning stores in the U.S. However she did tell me that the prices would be going up soon to a maximum of $ 7.00. Here is just one of those articles:

https://www.kiplinger.com/personal-finance/shopping/dollar-tree-increases-max-price-in-stores

Since prices will be going up soon, it would behoove people to stock up on some of the things that they regularly buy there to get a small stockpile of those items.

These are some of the things that I buy there almost all of the time: Scotties tissues, greeting cards, thank you cards, and blank cards, security envelopes, organizing baskets, deodorant, makeup, combs, Q-Tips, gift bags and wrapping paper, plastic forks, spoons, and knives, shelf stable milk, pasta, bags of frozen peppers and onions to make quick omelets, White Rain and VO5 shampoo and conditioner, Plackers, first aid gauze and tape, peroxide, isopropyl alcohol, sticky notes, blank notebooks, pencils, candy for the grandchildren, and reading glasses. Just recently I found out that they carry John Morrell smoked sausage. We used to have that in our grocery stores in Arizona and it was a good brand. So I bought a package to try it. It was just as good as I remember. So we now have a few packages on hand. I use it in red beans and rice but there are many other ways to use it.

If there are things that you buy there on a regular basis that I have not listed, would you please take the time to leave a comment and let us all know.

I will be taking a small amount of money from our savings to pick up a few of these things before the prices go up.

As a side note, we are having family for dinner on Easter Sunday. I will be cooking a leg of lamb that I bought on sale in January. We have a favorite recipe from the 1960’s that we use and love.

I want to wish all of you a Happy Easter. Enjoy your celebration.

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Every Day

This Past Weekend

Saturday and Sunday I cooked from what we had in the house. Saturday night I made mandarin orange chicken using orange sauce, mandarin oranges, and chicken over rice. I added a vegetarian egg roll which was delicious.

Last night we had cheeseburgers with sauteed onions and sliced tomato.We had a bag of French fries in the freezer that had just a few in it so we split them. An hour or so after dinner, we had some pistachio pudding that I made in the morning. I like to have SF puddings and jello’s in the refrigerator for a snack or dessert. Tonight we will have leftover hamburgers with some lettuce, onions and tomato.

For breakfasts, we had egg, ham, and cheese McMuffins. I made a couple extra for today’s breakfast. After breakfast today, I will cook up a pound of bacon to use with eggs the rest of the week. I am also going to hard boil some eggs in the instant pot for breakfasts and for Hubby to make some egg salad.

Hubby and I watched a lot of March Madness this weekend. I multi-tasked doing some sewing repairs while I was watching. I also did a bit of work in the basement. And two loads of wash got done and one was hung. The other was towels which I dry in our dryer. We went nowhere which saved on gasoline.

We also got our 32 day utility bill. It was $ 208.81 Last year’s bill was $256.09 for the same period. We used 406 KWH and 110 ccf’s of gas. I have to believe that it was down because of the conservation we do and the warmer winter.

My plans this week are to get ready to have our family for Easter. I will be doing some cleaning and making our menu.

What are you doing to save money this week?

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Every Day

A Grocery Haul and Take Out

Keeping with our February plan to buy beef, I went to Niagara Produce yesterday. I purchased a cheap pound of bacon also though for $ 2.99. I have never bought this brand before. But because of the price, it is worth a try to see if it is any good. If it is, I will buy more. If not, we will crisp it up and use it in omelets or on salads. Branded bacon in our area is very expensive and most of it is not very good for the price. We use a lot of bacon but may have to substitute pork sausage for bacon in the future.

They also had whole beef tenderloins on sale for $ 12.99 a lb. I had them cut a whole one into ten 1 and 1/2 inch filet mignons. I also asked for the trimmings because I make beef broth from them. That is the bag you see on the bottom right of the package. I have another bag of them in the freezer so soon I will use both of them to make broth. The tenderloin cost $ 95.61. I used the food saver to preserve them and put them in the freezer for grilling season. So my total for all was $98.61.

Then I made a trip to Aldi’s. Our stockpile of tissues was down to 2 boxes. I was going to go to Dollar Tree to get them for $ 1.25 each. But my sister told me that Aldi’s had Scotties with the same count in a box for $ 1.09. So I picked up 10 boxes. The total with tax was $ 11.77 and comes out of our household budget. So that tip saved me $ 1.60. Every little bit adds up!

Since yesterday was Ash Wednesday and Valentine’s Day, we decided to get take out from Chiavetta’s. Hubby and I love these fish fries because they are haddock and are huge flakes fried to perfection. They come with French fries. This is only one of them. We purchase two of them and use it for two meals. It is so easy to heat up the leftovers in the air fryer part of our new oven. These cost us $ 25.92 plus a $2.00 tip. They were worth every penny. I can’t purchase the fish and potatoes for this price in my area let alone cook them. They must get a good bulk price.

We spent an hour in the basement getting rid of more things that we don’t want. We also have a large pile to sell on Facebook Marketplace or in June when the community garage sale takes place. Soon we will not have room to clean things out because it will be mowing season and we will need the room for bagged grass clippings.

Then we enjoyed watching the FBI’s that Hubby had saved from the last few days.

Between shopping and running another errand and working in the basement, I was beat and went to bed early.

Have you done anything recently to save money?