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:
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:
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.
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.
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.
After a week of snow, I was finally able to run a lot of errands yesterday. I left the house at 8:15am to go to Top’s. Pictured is what I purchased.
The pizza I always keep on hand so that I am not tempted to order one from take out was $ 3.99 with a Super Coupon. I have been having trouble lately trying to get distilled water. It is usually out of stock. But they had it so I got 2 gallons which will last a couple of months. They were $1.49 each. The Steak-umm’s were still on sale so I purchased a larger package at $ 8.99. They had a Bison deal which included sour creams(got 3) and dips(got 2). They were on sale for 5 for $10.00 and I got 100 gasoline points too. We were out of sour cream and we have some potato chips from the holidays to finish so I got the 2 French onion dips. I got a package of American cheese which we use for our grilled cheese sandwiches for $ 2.09. My total for all was $ 28.05. Last week I earned a coupon to get 100 gas points with my shopping this week so I ended up with 200 gas points toward my next gasoline purchase.
I also went to Aldi’s and Walmart. I got distracted when I got home and forgot to take pictures of those items before I put them away. But I will tell you what I got and what I spent. At Aldi’s I purchased two of the three packs(4 lbs. each) of 85/15 organic ground beef that we love. It was on sale for $ 17.96 a three pack. I was getting low in my freezer so I stocked up. I also bought some fresh whole mushrooms for $ 1.29. My total came to $37.21.
At Walmart, I got 2 bags of Indiana Popcorn Fudge Drizzle. I had two free coupons from the manufacturer. The bags would have cost me $ 2.98 each.
My last stop was the drugstore for 2 prescriptions that cost me $20.00 OOP.
Yesterday for brunch we had leftovers. For dinner, we ate shrimp cocktails with salads.
Today, I will make eggs and bacon for breakfast. Hubby is going to make his homemade meat chili in the crockpot after he browns 2 of the packages of ground beef that I purchased yesterday and sautes up about 2 lbs. of onions. We will have that tonight over our choice of rice or cauliflower rice. Most likely it will last well into the weekend.
I have been doing some baking this week. I made an apple pie for desserts. I also have some cranberries thawed that I purchased on the Thanksgiving sales for $.99 a bag. I will be making cranberry orange muffins.
For entertainment yesterday, Hubby and I watched NCIS Sydney. Then I called one of my best friends, whom I have known for 46 years. She is very special to me. I wanted to call her because it was her 90th birthday! She is sharp as a tack. So we spent about a half hour catching up on what she had been doing since we last talked and catching up on how all of our children and grandchildren were. It was the highlight of my day.
I got my estimated bill yesterday for my electricity and natural gas for the past 32 days. The bill was $ 259.13. It was $28.03 lower than the same period last year. We had higher usage than last year because it has been so cold. So the supply and demand charges being cheaper must have been the difference. I will find out how accurate this estimated bill is when I get the next one when the meters will actually be read.
That is it for now. Have you saved any money this week shopping sales?
Last week I ordered three sets of LED lights. One of the cupboards that I have a lot of trouble seeing into is under my kitchen sink. So I had Hubby install two strips of them on the right and left hand walls of the cupboard. . These lights work on motion sensors so when I am not in the cupboard they are off. I keep cleaners for the kitchen, dishwasher pods, Brillo pads, and sponges in this cupboard. Behind the wastebasket that holds my recyclables, until I take them out to the garbage can in the garage, are a few jars that I reuse to get rid of grease. Never allow grease to go down your sink unless you want to have to call a plumber. When the jar gets full, I place it in my garbage and start a new one. Anyhow this lighting allows me to easily get out what I need.
I had one set of lights left so Hubby hung that in one of my kitchen pantries. Today I ordered some more for the other pantry and two other closets- one that holds coats and one that holds all of my cleaners and vacuums.
I got a lot done today since I arose at 4:30am. When I have my coffee now, I just quickly check my e-mail, Facebook messages, and blog comments. Then I had to make some changes to our budget since I had forgotten about the bill that came yesterday for our lawn fertilization this year. By paying it today, we saved 3% off the bill. So I had to add those figures to our landscape budget and I have made some other small changes too. The posts have been updated.
Next it was time to read a couple of verses of Matthew in my Bible. I do this every morning while finishing my coffee.
Next I made my grocery lists for this week. I only need a few things at Top’s and Aldi’s. I most likely will not get out until the end of the week. It snowed here again today and will tomorrow and we may have some freezing rain into Wednesday.
After making brunch which was pizza, I did up all the dishes, cleaned my quartz countertops and kitchen stove top. Then I ran the dishwasher.
Next I threw a load of wash into the dryer that mainly consisted of a terry robe, bathroom and kitchen towels, and a tablecloth, then folded them and put them away.
Then I cleaned our two bathrooms.
I did some organizing of a dresser in our bedroom and then organized our Master Bathroom vanity. I also organized my desk area. After the mail came, we paid two bills.
Hubby and I sat and watched a You Tube video. Then it was time for me to reheat the homemade chicken soup for dinner that I made yesterday. It always tastes so much better the second day. I used 2 pint jars of chicken and broth that I canned 2 years ago. I took the rest of the meat off the carcass from the rotisserie chicken I bought last week, added rice, fresh carrots and celery. Then I seasoned it all. This gave us two dinners and will give us a lunch tomorrow.
We have company coming in about 15 minutes so I have to close.
We did not go out anywhere yesterday. It is too cold and too snowy. Roads are not in the greatest condition either. The news is saying they are very icy. Since they are predicting another major storm today and tomorrow, we will stay safe and warm in our home. Staying home saves on gasoline and also saves on natural gas because are not opening doors to go outside which lets warm air escape.
For a few days now, I have been using darker and richer coffee in our reusable cups in the Keurig. This allows me to use less coffee by only filling the cup 1/2 way instead of full. I also am using 1 squirt of Skinny Syrup instead of 2. I can’t really tell much difference between the 2 and the 1. I use the half and half sparingly too. Just enough to make my coffee taste good. Not only is the half and half expensive but it is in short supply here right now. I try to stay stocked up with 3 half gallons but that is not easy with the shortages.
Yesterday for brunch, Hubby finished the rest of the ham and noodle casserole. I ate some other leftovers… a bit of this and a bit of that. The remainder of the ham I have frozen in portions for future use. Today, we had egg, sausage, and cheese McMuffins. We are being mindful of using up what is in our pantry, refrigerator, and freezer. But we also are eating all of our leftovers. Waste not want not. I am buying as little as possible this month so I can use up some of what we have here which saves me money on gasoline also.
I have not been grocery shopping at all this week and I don’t think I will get out. Knowing the forecast, last Sunday I went on the Walmart site to place a grocery order. The first day I could get a delivery was tomorrow. I think most everyone was scheduling orders because of our forecast. Well, we got another 5 inches of snow yesterday which brought our totals since Saturday up to 20 inches. Then it started snowing again today and we got 6 more inches. So we are at 2 ft. 2 inches so far. Walmart cancelled my order for tomorrow because of the snow. We have more snow coming tomorrow and a lot more on Friday. God Bless my snowplow guy, Nick. He has been here plowing my driveway three days straight. And I don’t think he is done with more coming. We don’t have it as bad as the south towns. Orchard Park which is where the Buffalo Bills Stadium has been getting nailed since the game on Monday was played. They have had a total of 18 inches since the storms started on last Saturday. Less than us but they have to shovel the stadium out again for a game on Sunday. And they are predicted to get another 14-18 inches more before things calm down on Saturday so they will be hustling to get the stadium cleared again.
Dinner last night was peachy pork chops and olive oil and garlic rice. I cooked up 4 small pork chops so that I would have 2 pork chops for dinner tonight. I will dice them to make stir fried rice for dinner. I will add the pork, sauteed onions, diced carrots, and an egg to the rice along with some soy sauce. Hubby cooks up the rice for me in our small rice cooker. It turns out perfectly and gives us just enough for 2 meals.
It was very dark when I got up this morning at 4:30 am. So I had to use lights in the kitchen. If I hadn’t, I wouldn’t have been able to start writing this post for you. It is now 7:17am and it is still dark. The sun should come up at 7:43 am. We will see if we get sun or the storm rolling in. They predicted the storm starting during the night but it hasn’t started yet. 99% of the schools in the area are closed today and tomorrow.
Our utility company sent me an e-mail to read our electric and gas meters. It is our turn to read it this month but they only gave me today and tomorrow to read it. It was like a blizzard out there today so I am hoping it won’t be as bad tomorrow and I can read it in the morning and submit it. I managed to make to to the mailbox today. We had no mail delivery since last Saturday. All I got was a rebate check for $22.99.
We are doing everything that we can to try to keep these utility bills down but it is a never ending battle. Since most of the country has been in a deep freeze for a week or more, the demand is up so the cost will be up. But we are still only using a light when it is dreary in the room we are in. I am mindful of how I cook to save energy. I still save warm up water when the shower is getting hot to reuse to clean the house or flush toilets, I am still taking navy showers. I close the bathroom door for a while before we take showers so that the room gets really warm. In the winter we only take showers every other day. Our skin gets so dry if we take them every day. The heat is programmed on our thermostat. When I got up this morning, it was 64 in here which is what it is from 10:00 pm at night to 7:00 am in the morning when it goes up to 68. At 9am, it will go up to 70. I just layer when I get up in the morning until the heat comes up. Hubby is always cold and he layers when it is 70 in here. I have to keep him comfortable. We have plenty of blankets on the beds so that we are very comfortable at night.
We watched NCIS Sydney again this afternoon that Hubby had taped. I am liking it a lot. I did some reading, cooked dinner, and ran a very full dishwasher afterward. I don’t run the dishwasher ever until I can’t fit another dish in it.
I watched a couple of You Tube videos too. I am going to share one. The you tuber is in Brittany, France. She and her husband are retirees from Great Britain. They have about 2721 euros net to live on monthly after taxes etc. are taken out of their money. That equates to about $2916. a month U.S. or about $ 34,992. net per year. It would be considered low income here. But any income earner can learn from this video. She shows her budget every month and has many other videos that you might find interesting. I like watching her once in a while to see how other people in other countries budget and live. Here you go:
We had a very quiet weekend, 15 inches of snow, and frigid temperatures. Needless to say we didn’t go anywhere.
On Saturday, I cooked the ham that I purchased on sale in December. We had pineapple, brussel sprouts, and mashed potatoes with it. On Sunday, I made a ham, noodle, and cheese casserole and served the rest of the pineapple and brussel sprouts with it.
On Sunday morning I fried up mashed potato cakes with those leftovers, scrambled eggs, and fried up some ham.
Saturday night, Hubby took most of the ham off the bone. We left some on to make bean soup. I also made some dices for the soup. That was all frozen until sometime in the future when we want soup.
The rest of the ham was sliced for sandwiches and breakfasts and diced for ham salad and casseroles. Most of it has been frozen.
Our Buffalo Bills playoff game was moved from Sunday to this afternoon because the snow and winds were very dangerous yesterday. We had gusts up to 65 miles per hour. It snowed most of the day and the wind blew it everywhere. I was glad that they changed the game day because I was really worried about my son and daughter-in-law making their way there. Right now, they are making their way to the stadium and hoping to get a parking spot. It is still snowing at the stadium right now but it is supposed to ease up. Just shoveling the roads for people to get there, the stadium, and the parking lots is a huge issue. It will be really, really cold there. But that won’t stop the fans from showing up.
We watched a movie “Let It Go” on Saturday. Then there were other playoff games on. Yesterday was another lazy day and Hubby watched more football and basketball. I did wash a large load of clothes in cold water and hung most of them to dry. Then I read my book.
Later I started looking in my pantries and freezer to see what we could find to eat during the game today. I dug deep in the freezer and found these yummy appetizers that are pictured above. We will air fry them in our 11 in one oven. I also have some ranch dressing and carrots and celery sticks to add for some nutrition. It will all be a nice treat during halftime and will be our dinner.
Not much else going on here now. I am off to read and then watch the game later.
I want to let you know that most of the things that I showed you that were leftovers in my recent post have been eaten or frozen.
So here is a new group of leftovers plus 2 other ingredients that I made into a couple of different meals this week.
I had leftover hot Italian sausage in the spaghetti sauce from the other night. I cut it up and used 1/2 of it on pizza along with some mushrooms also. Hubby likes the sausage. I love mushrooms. I also used an 8 oz. can of tomato sauce from my storage on the pizza because I find leftover spaghetti sauce too much on pizza. I make pizza on the artisan bread that I purchased at Aldi. Just add mozzarella cheese and seasonings and it is delicious.
Last night I heated the leftover spaghetti sauce after I took the rest of the sausage out and cut it up for another pizza which I will make soon. I added the sauce that was left in the jar too to the pan. Some of the mushrooms and the spaghetti were microwaved to heat them through.
Meanwhile I air fried two pieces of chicken after preparing them with the Shake and Bake. I added some mozzarella cheese at the end. So we had chicken parmesian on the leftover spaghetti and I added some mushrooms to mine.
All I have left is the sausage, some mushrooms, the tomato sauce for pizza. The leftover spaghetti sauce was frozen for our next spaghetti meal. We also have two pieces of chicken breast to use tonight. I haven’t decided yet how I will fix that. Depending on the weather, we may grill it and add BBQ sauce.
We did have a lot of Italian meals this week but we haven’t had them in a long time and we were craving them. Rather than waste leftovers, neither one of us care if we eat the same things made into new meals over and over again.
I had to run to the drugstore for a prescription yesterday so I stopped for a loaf of bread. That cost me $ 2.99 so now my grocery budget that is left for the month is $ 346.71.
Our lawn is so dry that we scheduled the sprinkler system to run every other day. But if I get up in the morning and it has rained overnight, I turn it off until the next day that it is scheduled for. I believe our water bill the end of this month will be much less than last year’s. Our system broke this year and we had to wait 6 weeks for them to come out to repair it. That is how booked up they were.
We only eat two meals a day and have been doing this for a very long time now. That is saving us money but honestly we didn’t do it to save money. We just aren’t hungry in the morning. Coffee is enough.
We continue to drive our 10 year old SUV. We take immaculate care of it and make sure to take it to the garage for necessities like inspections and oil changes. It only has 47,000 miles on it and has never had a repair. The only time it has been to the dealer is for recalls. Maintaining things that you own pays off in the long run. My son has done some brakes for us.
Hubby is cutting my hair again tomorrow. Finally all the color from my salon appointments will be gone. My white hair I like and so does Hubby so I will not be coloring it again.
I ran the dishwasher really full. I am using the auto wash setting which I find uses less water and electricity.
That is it for today. What have you done recently to save some money?
We had the spaghetti with Hot Italian Sausage last night. It was so good. Since we have sauce and sausage leftover, I will make a pizza tonight using that and the Artisan flatbread I purchased today. I will also add some mushrooms for me.
I ran errands today to Top’s and Aldi’s. At Aldi’s I purchased three of the Artisan bread. Each package makes 2 pizzas for us. Since this is our favorite pizza crust and it is often out of stock, I put one package in the fridge and the other two in the freezer. Six crusts will last about 6 months for us. My total cost for this at Aldi’s was $ 10.77.
Last stop was Top’s where I purchased 5 Shake and Bake. When you bought 5 you paid $ 2.99 each. I love using these for a quick meal in the air fryer for pork or chicken. Especially in the winter when we are not grilling outside. The cucumber was $ 1.00. The celery and carrots were on B1G1F and ended up costing me $ 3.49 for both. The half and half was $ 5.99 for a half gallon. I stock this ahead in my fridge because it has far out expiration dates. We use it in our coffee and for any milk that we need. We used to buy milk for pudding, cereal, etc. but it always went bad before we could use it up. So I quit buying milk and we use half and half instead for everything. It works well for us. Out total for Top’s was $ 25.43. My total for today is $36.20. I also purchased a 60 ct. box of eggs at Walmart this week for $ 5.18. So my total for the week is $ 41.38.
I started with $ 391.08 in my grocery budget less the $ 41.38 leaves $349.70 left for the rest of the month.
I am off to do some cleaning. I hope you all have a great day!
Did you get any bargains at the grocery store this week?
I had every intention of writing to you about our special day last Saturday. However our celebration turned into the entire weekend.
On Saturday and Sunday, we celebrated our 56th wedding anniversary. Because we went out to dinner with friends last week, we decided to cook at home on both days. We had the same dinner each night which included a drink before dinner. Then Hubby grilled filet mignon each night for each of us. I baked a dozen potatoes in the air fryer so as to not heat up the house with the oven. We each ate one and one ear of corn on the cob each night. Dessert was cherry ices. With the exception of our son and grandson coming for breakfast on Sunday, we had a quiet weekend just enjoying each other’s company. We spent a bit of time outside in our yard because it was so beautiful outside.
On Sunday, I made scrambled eggs, French toast, many sausages and a pound of bacon. Our grandson is now a teenager and he can sure pack the food away. After breakfast, we played rummy.
It was a wonderful weekend full of good food purchased on sale, good conversation, and no cleaning.
On Monday morning, I made scrambled eggs and sliced up the leftover filet mignon and heated it through with some garlic and butter. We had leftover cold cut sandwiches and potato salad for dinner. Hubby made it from the leftover baked potatoes.
On Tuesday night, we had potato salad and grilled ham and cheese sandwiches. Breakfast was easy over eggs and leftover sausage and bacon from the weekend.
Breakfast this morning was a big slice of cantaloupe. Tonight I will be making spaghetti with Hot Italian sausage and sauce. We have not had spaghetti in quite a while and we are craving it.
I will be grocery shopping tomorrow for just a few things we need.
It turned into a bigger project than he thought though. The hinge is installed on the cupboard but it does not line up with the original holes. So Hubby will fix it as soon as he can get the stuff he needs to do it.
He also has been doing a great job keeping up with the weed whacking and dead heading the flowers. I have been pulling weeds as I see them.
Our lawn is lush and green again after having the sprinkler system repaired. Now it gets water every other day that it doesn’t rain.
I have done two loads of laundry this week using cold water. Some of the clothes were hung to dry and others were done in the dryer.
We should be getting our prompt from the utility company to read our meters in a few days. I can’t wait to see what difference the new efficient A/C does for our bill looking at the same period last year and accounting for the high heat we have had this time including some 90+ days.
