Nutty Guys is where I buy my nuts and dried fruits to make our trail mix. They are best product that I have ever tried. Right now if you go to Groupon and sign up and then go to the Philadelphia site, you will find the deal on the right hand sidebar. You get $25. worth of product for $ 10. which is a 60% discount. This company is in Utah and I have ordered from them many times at full price. So I was thrilled to see this deal again.
Yesterday, I forgot to pick up the hamburg rolls for our cookout today. So I had to go out to get them on sale for $ 1.29 and I picked up a YoCrunch NF Greek Yogurt Parfait using a Free Catalina Coupon. The $ 1.29 would have been put on my free giftcard but in my haste I forgot to use it.
On the way to Top's I stopped at Dollar General and purchased 4 Spic and Span Antibacterial Sprays that were a $ 1.00 each and I had $ 1./2 IP coupons. I also picked up a 3 pack of Ivory Bar Soap for $1.25 minus a $ 1.00 manufacturer's coupon. So I paid $ 2.67 OOP including tax.
I hope everyone is enjoying their Memorial Day picnics. We are having a wonderful day especially since I came back from shopping to find 2 videos that Michelle sent of Alexa. Alexa knows her nursery rhymes and was reciting them for us and blowing us kisses! I SO miss her! We will see you soon Alexa.
We were running out of toilet paper and I have not been able to find a great deal lately. Free toilet paper is non-existent in WNY. So I rolled some UPs and stocked on Scott, which I feel is the best value in toilet paper out there, on sale at Rite Aid today. This is what I purchased:
3- 20 ct. Scott TP- on sale for $12.97 each = $ 38.91 - Used (3) $ 1./1 Mfrs. Cpns = $ 35.91 - Used $ 1.00 Wellness VV Cpn = $ 34.91- Used $ 3/15. Survey Cpn = $ 31.91 - Used $ 14.00 in UP Rewards =
$ 17.91 + 3.03 in tax = $ 20.94 and I received a $ 10. UP Reward for buying $ 30. worth
Then I purchased 1 more 20 pack with the $ 10.00 UP Reward and a $ 1./1 Mfrs. Cpn so I paid $ 3.01 OOP.
Eighty rolls of toilet paper will last a long time in this household so unless I find it really cheap, I won't be buying it for a very long time.
Next stop was at Walgreens where I purchased 8 Act II Popcorn at $ .25 each and 1 Icy Hot Naturals for $ .99 using a $ 1.00 off mfrs. cpn. making it Free and I received a $ .99 Catalina Good on my next shopping order. So I paid $ 2.00 OOP. Buttered popcorn is one of my treats once a month.
Next on my route was Aldi's where I had something very interesting happen to me. More on that in a minute. I purchased 2 Fit and Active 32. oz. Plain Yogurts at $1.29 each, 4 Salsa's at $ .99 each, 1 Fresh Blueberries at $ 1.69 and 1 Fresh Strawberries at $ 1.89 for a grand total OOP of $ 10.12.
While I was waiting in line to check out, an older man and woman got in line behind me. Out of the corner of my eye, I see the woman pointing to the bottom of my jeans and nudging her husband. He looks and shakes his head. And then I hear the woman whisper to him " Poor dear! She must be very needy." I felt like turning around to them and saying, " Yes I am. Could you help me out?" If they only knew! What I believe prompted the comment from the woman was that the bottom of one jean cuff is a tiny bit frayed and they are getting pretty loose because of the bit of weight that I have lost. DH hasn't brought up the summer clothes yet so I am still in jeans. But moral of this story: Don't judge people. You probably don't know what your talking about. Anyhow this woman made my day. I had DH hysterically laughing when I relayed this story.
Next I stopped at Walmart where I picked up 5 Boxes of Nexcare for Free after coupons. No tax either.
Last stop was Top's where I purchased:
2 Packages of Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts on sale for $ 1.99 a lb. Total for 8.25 lbs. was $ 16.42
1 Package of Ground Round on sale for $ 2.88 a lb. Total for 3.37 lbs. was $ 9.71.
1 Tropicana Orange Juice - $ 2.79
3 International Delight Creamers on sale 3 for $ 5.00 - Used 3- $ .55/1 IP Cpns Doubled = $ 1.70 for 3 or about $ .566 a piece.
Total was $ 30.62. But I had a Tops Giftcard that I paid with which was a gift from my sister and BIL, so nothing OOP! Thanks Pat and Dick!
Pictured above is lunch. We love clams which are a splurge but so much cheaper when you make them at home.
I have meaty spareribs thawed for dinner tonight that we were planning on barbecuing outside. However it looks like it may pour rain, so I may have to just put them in the pressure cooker.
Please feel free to leave a comment and share with us any great deals that you got today.
We always try to use up all leftovers by incorporating them into new dishes. When I cook chicken or any other meat for lunch or dinner, I try to cook more than I need to freeze for future meals.
So for lunch today, I made homemade chicken soup using frozen diced chicken that I cooked when I made the chicken salad in the beginning of the week. I added frozen homemade chicken stock, diced celery and leftover carrots from our dinner out at Luigi's the other evening and brown rice. Just before I went to use the treadmill, I brought it to a boil. When I was finished with my exercize, our lunch was ready.
For dinner, I added more of the diced chicken to lots of salad veggies. These big salads were all we needed to satisfy us tonight. I still have chicken left and most likely will finish it by using it in a chicken salad tomorrow for lunch.
DH and I are on healthy eating plans that include lots of chicken and fish. So we are always looking for new ways to use them so we don't get bored.
It is important to me that we use up all of the leftovers. The thought of throwing food out when it is so expensive these days makes me cringe.
Since I talked about cheap beverages yesterday, I picked up these organic lemonades today at Top's for Free. They were on sale for $ 1.50 each so I used (4) $ .75/1 IP Cpns doubled to $ 1.50 each which made them free. Penny told me that she likes to buy organic when she can afford it. These are very affordable. Keep an eye out Penny for deals like this at your store. DH and I don't drink this but purchased them since they were free as an example. My family can use them.
Top's was on my way home from Ace Hardware where I picked up the 2 Cutters Deepwoods Aerosols. They are on sale this weekend only for$ 4.99 each and I had (2) $ 2.00 off Facebook coupons here, so with tax I paid $ 6.78. However, they are part of the Ace Mail In Rebates that runs from May 25 - May 30, 2011. You can print the form here . I paid $ 6.78 but will get $ 8.00 back for the two cans. The limit is 2. Being that both Penny and I live in the Northeast and we have had nothing but rain this spring, we have tons of mosquitos. This aerosol is a necessity if you want to enjoy the great outdoors. What better way to do it than for free!
Also, in case no one saw the comments, Amiyrah from 4Hats and Frugal left a recipe for homemade lemonade. She uses 1 part store brand lemon juice, 1 part sugar or you could substitute sucralose like I do, to 6 parts water. She says she gets 3-4 gallons of lemonade out of a bottle. This is another cheap alternative to soda.
Amiyrah, also, buys a 1/2 gallon of apple juice when it goes on sale for $ .99. She pours it into a gallon jug and adds 4 cups of hot tea and then chills it in the refrigerator. She says using the hot tea brings out the flavor of the juice and stretches the amount.
Thanks Amiyrah! Always feel free to leave recipes in the comments especially when they will save us all money.
I told Penny that the first thing she has to do is get rid of the negative I can't attitude and decide that she CAN pay off the debt and save for a home. She and her family live in Massachusetts. She told me that she can buy a home in her area for around $250,000. - $ 300,000. At 20% down, she would need to save $ 50,000. to $60,000. for a down payment plus her closing costs. Since we don't know what they will be, I think $10,000. for those is reasonable. If she is lucky when she negotiates to buy her home, she can get the seller to pay part of those.
Let's address the debt first. I asked what interest rate was she paying on the credit card debt. She informed me that it is 15.9%. Next I asked her how much realistically she could pay off on the debt each month? She told me $1,100. So I went to a debt calculator and plugged in the numbers. That told me that she would be debt free in 1 year and 3 months.
After she pays off the debt, she will need to save $60,000. to $ 70,000. for her home including the closing costs. If she can continue to save that $ 1100. a month for the downpayment at a savings rate of 3%, it will take her about 53 months or 4 years and 4 months to save the $60,000 or 61 months or 5 years and 1 month to save the $70,000.
So she is looking at a total of either 5 years and 7 months or 6 years and 4 months to pay off the debt and buy her dream home based on those debt payoff and savings rates.
However if she were to be really frugal and watch every penny that is being spent and cut back, she could do this a lot sooner. By doing that, she can pay off the debt sooner and accelerate her savings rate. So that is what I am going to try to help her with. The only way that I can show her how to do that is to try to teach her how to get her expenses down. She has to make up her mind that paying the debt off and saving for the downpayment is the most important goal she has. It won't be easy, so she has to be patient and stick to her plan. If she stays negative and doesn't start for a few months, she will be sabotaging herself. So she has to start now and she has to have a positive attitude. She has assured me that she is 100% vested in this, so here we go.
Penny has a grocery budget of $100. a week. With only three people to feed, I believe that she could cut this amount in half. She says they spend $ 10.50 of that budget every week on soda for just her and her DH. That is over 10% of her budget on colored water that has no nutritional value. Matter of fact studies have shown that diet soda isn't good for your bones and sugared soda causes cavities.
We had this same issue in our home not too long ago and I no longer buy it unless we are having company and only if I can find a deal. We drink a lot of cold water. It is cheap and serves the purpose of quenching our thirst.
When we do want something besides water, I make sun iced tea with 6 store brand teabags and a gallon of water. I add a little lemon and a little sucralose to sweeten it. This costs just pennies. DH loves Snapple and I have been known to buy it when it is on sale with a coupon. However, then I realized that I could make my own. If we want peach "Snapple", I add some of the juice from canned peaches( light syrup) or I puree some fresh peach pieces and add that. I also make raspberry with a few pureed raspberries. Just use your imagination and you can make all kinds of flavors.
I only use lemon Kool Aid for cleaning my dishwasher. But if Penny's family likes Kool Aid, she could buy that cheaply with coupons and add sucralose in place of the sugar which would be healthier.
If Penny would switch to one of these cheaper alternatives, she could cut that $ 10.50 a week down to just a couple of dollars a week or to nothing if she switches to water. Then that extra money could be added to her monthly debt pay off and then to her savings.
Until tomorrow...........
Please feel free to share your ideas in the comments so that we can all help Penny reach her goal.
My sister and BIL have been visiting for a few days. It's been hectic so I made a quick and easy breakfast this morning before they left on their 4 hour trip to go home. I also wanted something that would satisfy them until they got there. So I made a huge fruit salad with strawberries, blueberries and cantaloupe. And I served toasted bagels with a choice of smart balance spread, NF cream cheese or strawberry bagel butter. The leftovers are pictured.
We had such a great time and it was so good to see them. But their visit was short so I hope they will come again. They arrived about 12:30PM on Tuesday. I made a delicious chicken waldorf salad for lunch that day. The recipe is here:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/chicken-waldorf-salad-recipe/index.html
I had cooked all of the chicken breasts the night before and actually doubled the amount of chicken that I baked. I diced up the extra 3 chicken breasts and put them in the freezer for other quick meals. We had lots of salad left over from lunch so I gave it to my son and DIL for their lunches the next day.
On Tuesday evening, my son, DIL, and West came after work and we all had a cookout. DH grilled filet mignons. I did baked potatoes with NF sour cream and chives from our herb garden. I also cooked fresh broccoli. For dessert, we had cantaloupe wedges with sliced strawberries and a scoop of strawberry sorbet. It was all so delicious. We spent the evening just chatting and catching up on each others lives and children and grandchildren in front of a fire in our new fireplace.
Yesterday, we were all going shopping at the Niagara Falls Outlets for the day. But last minute, the men opted out. So my sister and I went. We went to Ollies also since it was close by so that I could stock up on books for my grandchildren. I also purchased a really nice new bed for my cat. Then we were off to the outlets. My sister loved Kirkland's. They were having a great sale so my sister was happy to pick up a few things. I had made a return at Marshalls and used the store credit to get a $ 67. Ellen Tracy nightgown for $ 16.99+tax. I love the feel of luxurious material when I sleep so I love this nightgown. I try to get what I like but at rock bottom prices. There is no way I would have ever paid $ 67. for this. I picked up a piece of clothing for DH at Ralph Loren and 2 $ 5.00 tees at Eddie Bauer for me. I also exchanged a pair of sneakers that were too small for West and got him a larger pair. That was the extent of my shopping at the outlets so I did well.
After spending the rest of the day chatting, we went out to dinner at Luigi's last night. It was very enjoyable and then we went home to watch some TV.
Today, I am trying to make sure that all of the leftovers are taken care of in the fridge so as to not waste anything. We have two leftover grilled filet mignons so I plan on making stir fry for dinner tonight .The leftover veggies will get thrown in that also. I have a bag of littleneck clams that will probably get steamed tomorrow night. We have leftovers from Luigi's which will be eaten for lunches today and tomorrow. All of the fruit salad will be used for breakfasts. Hopefully nothing will get wasted.
I am off to strip the guest room bed and wash sheets and towels. Tomorrow I plan on getting back to the money saving challenge blogging. One of my readers has challenged me to teach her how she can possibly save money for a down payment on a home that her family would like to buy in a few years. She feels that they can't do it. She is aware that she probably will need 20% down. They have had some financial difficulty over the past few years so have a few outstanding bills to pay off also.
Since this can fit into saving money on the challenge and since I am interested in replacing all of the money we used to purchase this home, I have agreed to blog about it and see what we can do to help her. But I told her that she has to be willing to really cut expenses and save their money instead of letting it dribble out on little expenses here and there. She has also promised me that she will be committed to paying off her debt. In this age of rising prices, she will have to really watch every penny to reach her goal. So stay tuned..............
This morning I saw this blog post and decided that you should all read it. Here it is:
http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2011/05/20/the-danger-of-the-rich-act/
I have had friends throughout my life who have done the rich act. They have ended up in dire circumstances just because they felt they had to behave this way to impress their friends and relatives. So they lived a lie and hurt no one but themselves. They put alot of their purchased items, travel, and meals on their credit cards and are still paying off the massive debt that they racked up. Some of them have gotten to retirement and are living on a shoestring wondering if they will have enough money to survive until they die. They are now paying for the mistakes of their younger years when they felt they had to one up the Joneses. Remember what I have always said, "Most of the Joneses are not rich! They just spend like they are. But in reality, a lot of them can't even cover their everyday expenses without going into debt."
The $100,000. salary that Trent mentions is not rich especially if you continue to act rich. Spend below your means and save a good portion of that $ 100,000, every year so that you will be debt free and set for your retirement years.
I firmly believe that it is not how much you make but how much of that amount you keep for yourself and your family. I have had friends who made $100,000 a year and they have no savings! And I have had friends who made $ 30,000. - $ 40,000. per year who retired as millionaires. They set aside a portion of that income into investments from the time they were in their twenties and now are reaping those rewards. Did they really miss that 10 or 20% that they set aside during their lifetimes? I doubt it. They all had rich wonderful lives and their families lacked for nothing.
Thanks Trent for such a wonderful blog post. I hope many people heed your advice and live the life they want and not a life meant to impress "The Joneses". The "Joneses" should never be more important to you than your own family and your own family's goals.
Please feel free as usual to leave a comment and share your opinion with all of us.
Living in the Northeast, I am getting very tired of the constant rain. So after the siding guy restored the siding on my house in the area where the stairs for the patio were put in, left today, I went out!
I needed to do something but I wanted to do something that only cost pennies. So I went to Top's.
This is what I purchased:
2 International Delight Breve Creme Creamers - $ 2.19 each - Used 2 Free Mfrs. Cpns( Thanks to Laura for one of them.) = Free
2 Suave Professionals Dry Shampoos - $ 2.99 each - Used 2 Free Mfrs. Cpns( won these) = Free
2 Fancy Feast Medleys - $ .80 each - Used a Recylebank Cpn good for Two Free Cans = Free
1 Carefree = $ .99 - Used $ .50/1 Mfrs. Cpn Dbled = Free
All I paid was tax!
And just getting out that little bit did a world of good for my mood!
I thought I would let you know about my upcoming week and what I plan to do on the Money Saving Challenge.
Yesterday, I babysat my grandson for a few hours and did a little grocery shopping. The main items that I picked up at Top's were 2 Jennie O Turkey Breasts at $ 1.25 a lb. Since they were on sale B1G1F, I was very lucky to find two that were priced exactly the same. They went in my stockpile in the basement freezer. I also picked up 4 - 12 packs of Diet Coke for $ 10.00 minus a $ 1.25 Mfrs Cpn so that brought the price down to $ 8.75 and I filled out a $ 2.00 Beer Rebate from Coors for the soda which brought the cost down to $ 6.75. I love that so many of the beer rebates in New York do not require you to buy beer. The soda was added to my company stockpile. The $ 1.25 off 4 coupon was in The Buffalo News yesterday and again today. So be sure you don't miss them!
This week DH and I have a lot of personal business to take care of. So we will be quite busy with that and some Doctor appointments. As you all know, I have had many Dr's. appointments over the past 6 weeks or so. I have done all of the required tests that my cardiologist has insisted on and should get the results on Friday at my appointment. Then next week, my sister and BIL are coming for a visit. I have only seen my sister once, for Sue's funeral, in the past year and 10 months. So I am looking forward to a great time of eating, shopping, and catching up with their lives.
Barring any bad results from all of my tests, I hope to be able to get back to the Money Saving Challenge after my sister returns home. So many of you have told me that you really like those posts. So to keep myself accountable, I will return to them. In this economy with prices going up so rapidly and inflation on the horizon, it has become a necessity to track every penny and save every one that I can. That will be my goal for the rest of 2011. Everyone needs a hedge against inflation and since we don't really generate any income, we need to be ever vigilant. I hope you will all join in with me on those posts again.
So with such a busy week, I needed to plan out my menu. This is what we will be having:
Monday: Beef Stew in the crockpot.
Tuesday: Leftover Beef Stew
Wednesday: Chef Salads with Foodsavered Turkey slices
Thursday: Chicken Hot Dogs and Beans
Friday: Salmon, Broccoli and Green Beans
Saturday: Whole Wheat Spaghetti with homemade meatless sauce
Sunday: Veggie Chicken Nuggets and tossed salad
I needed an easy menu for a busy week and this does it.
So, keep your fingers crossed for good test results! Hopefully, I will be back on a regular basis soon. Thanks to all of you for your patience.
For those of you in the Buffalo area, the Jennie -O turkey breasts are on sale this week starting tommorow at Top's Supermarkets. They are on sale at $ 2.49 lb. but they are B1G1F. That makes them about $ 1.25 a lb. It is not as great a price as I got last May at $ .99 a lb; however with food prices having risen because of corn, gasoline, and our worthless dollar, this is probably about the best price you will find today. I know that I will be picking up a few for my freezer.
Even though it is now hot weather, I can cook them in my Nesco roaster or crockpot out on my patio and keep the heat out of the house. If you don't have a patio, cook them in the garage or on your porch or steps.
I use this meat in place of chicken in many recipes. I cook a couple up and cut the meat into stew size chunks to have handy in the freezer for those. I also will cook one or two and slice them up for sandwich meat. I have some slices in the freezer that I foodsavered a couple of weeks ago. Other times, we just have a roast turkey dinner, leftovers, and homemade soup for the week.
This meat is so versatile, so healthy and so cheap this week. So stock while you can. You won't see them on sale again at such a great price until this time next year.
Now that blogger is back up, I decided I would show you what we have been up to this week. Our fireplace kit arrived on Thursday. It was in pieces on a huge pallet. DH was determined to get it all put together that day. So he used the cart that goes on our riding lawn mower to move all of them back to the patio and he spent about 3 hours building it.
I can't wait to get some wood and have a fire. I can actually cook in it also. It has a grate shelf that fits into one of three slots inside the firebox. I am sure that one of these days we will have wood fired pizza.
Yesterday, I was out shopping from 9:30AM until 3:45PM with just a quick return home in between to eat lunch. I think I have all of the errands run for a week or so. Since I am trying to conserve on gasoline, I sure hope so.
My last trip was to Top's to pick up Coke at $ 1.00 a bottle to replenish my company supply, 2 Silk Pure Almond Unsweetened which after coupon were $ 1.00 each ( for West ) and 2 large family packs of boneless chicken at $ 1.99 a lb. That was all I needed there this week that was at a decent price. Chicken is quickly becoming the only really affordable meat. I still have some in my son's freezer but I stockpiled more since the price will rise again. I also had a return of batteries to make to them. You see when I shopped last week, they had Egglands Best eggs on sale for $ 2.00 a dozen. I wanted 4 dozen and I had $ 1./2 Mfrs. Cpns and 2 Tops Doublers which made them a $ 1.00 a dozen. However, on Monday the store had already been stripped of eggs. I had spent more than enough to use the doublers on the eggs, so I was annoyed that they didn't have any. When I went back on Friday to see if they had the eggs, I was able to get 4 dozen. However the cashier told me I couldn't use the Doublers since I didn't have a $ 15. order. UGH! I explained to her that I had spent more than plenty on the prior Monday and that it wasn't my fault that they did not have a sale item one day after the ad. She wouldn't budge. So I grabbed an expensive pack of batteries that I didn't need to be able to get the eggs. I didn't have time to go to customer service that day to argue the issue. But yesterday, I did and explained the situation and returned the batteries and was refunded the $ 11.+ with no problem.
I also filled the car up at Top's with gasoline at $ .30 off a gallon, so I paid $ 3.759. Our gasoline has only come down $ .02 a gallon in the past two weeks. So whatever media was projecting that it will drop $ .50 a gallon by Memorial Day, I think they may be dead wrong. It would be nice, but we will see.
Since I needed watering cans, cat litter, another rug for my kitchen, bubbles for when West and Alexa visit, car wash soap and some other odds and ends, I was in Walmart for a while. Then it was off to Home Depot to make a return and to buy grass seed. Henry Services came back yesterday morning to bring in soil and grade the area of the yard that they destroyed with their equipment. So we had to seed. Grass seed has sure gotten expensive since we were in New York over 10 years ago. I paid $ 39. for a 7 cu. ft. bag of Kentucky Bluegrass and DH used it all. I also had to pick up Powerwash 3 in 1 general purpose wash so that we have it for our pressure washer to do siding, windows, etc.
Next stop was Rite Aid to pick up a prescription that they couldn't fully fill last Friday. Then it was on to Fast Cash with my bottle returns. I sure love how I am in and out of there with my money in about 2 minutes.
Radio Shack was on the list since we couldn't get the sprinkler system to turn on. DH finally figured out that we had a blown fuse we think as a result of the high wind storm that knocked our power out a few weeks ago. Fortunately, the store had the one I needed so I stocked on 4 of them just in case it happens again. That saved me a distant trip to the sprinkler system company.
Then it was on to Faery's where I could spend hours just browsing. They are a greenhouse, flower market, etc. There I picked up another 2 flats of flowers ( dahlias, grasses, spikey plants and lemon licorice plants) for DH to plant. The poor guy has been planting for 4 days since I have purchased plants and an azalea bush over the past few days. I also needed another large bag of potting soil.
I was so glad to get home and just sit outside and enjoy a glass of wine. The day was very tiring for me. I hope to not have to do that again for at least a week or two.
When I did get home though, DH was upset because his computer had crashed. Fortunately everything on it was backed up on a another hard drive. We believe the computer is toast. So DH will be ordering a new one in the next few days after he speaks with our sons about what he should get. One son is a network manager and the other is a software engineer so they should be able to give us some good advice.
And lastly the mail brought $ 6.99 in rebate checks and a nice envelope of creamer coupons that a reader couldn't use. Thanks Laura! I really appreciate your generosity.
I have had a wonderful day thanks to my sons and DIL's. They both called early to wish me a great day. I received beautiful flowers from all of them! I love flowers and they all know it. So I get to enjoy them over the next few days.
Most importantly, I got to hear the story of how Alexa helped my son pick out a beautiful charm for her Mom's bracelet. And how she actually kept the secret for a day. That is so hard for a 3 year old. I just wish we all could have been together but I know how hard that is when you are across the state and Alexa has school in the morning.
And I got a very cool card from West. He can't sign his name yet so he signed it with his handprint. I loved it.
Katie, Sean and West just left. They helped us christen the patio with a cookout. It was a beautiful day and we had a great time. As you can see in the pictures, West just loved being outdoors playing with his Toodle Ball that his cousin, Alexa gave him and the other smaller balls. He also figured out pretty quickly how to climb on and off the patio.
Katie made a lovely brunch for me last year on Mother's Day, so I decided it was our turn to spoil her today. DH did most of the cooking and Sean and Katie brought the most wonderful dark chocolate fondue for dessert. We had bananas, strawberries and bacon to dip. It was so delicious. We also found out that West loves filet mignon. It's a favorite in our family, so I am happy that he does.
Thank you to my sons and my DIL's for making this a wonderful day that I will cherish always.
To all of you wonderful women out there who are Mom's, I truly hope that you have a relaxing and wonderful Mother's Day. Every Mother's Day, I think of my Mom and how much I miss her. But it also brings back all of the beautiful memories that I have of her. So if you are spending time with your Mom today, truly cherish it.
I want to wish a special Mother's Day to all of the Mom's in my family: Michelle, Katie, Marilyn, and Pat. Enjoy the one day of the year that is truly your's and when the men in your life will wait on your every whim. You deserve it!
DH will be grilling filet mignons and potato packets outdoors for us, Katie, Sean and West. It is going to be a beautiful day so we will christen our new patio by enjoying a glass of wine and our meal.
I have never been the luckiest person in the world. But over the past few months, I have won a number of things. Yesterday, I received my $ 15.00 giftcard that I won from Huggies Enjoy the Ride Rewards. I am thinking I may use it at Home Goods.
Along with that came a number of my free magazine subscriptions that I will enjoy while sitting outside tomorrow being waited on. And I also got the Vocalpoint coffee cup with the Breve creamer coupons which I forgot to put in the picture.
It was a very good day!
Kathy asked me to post a picture of our front yard sitting area. Please ignore the few weeds in the stone area. That is tomorrow's job for me.
We enjoy sitting here late afternoon just before dinner or early evening. So many of our neighbors stop to chat. It is our down time after a long day.
One of the main reasons we put this area in is we knew when we built the house that we couldn't put a patio in our backyard for a year to make sure the dirt had settled. So we needed a place to sit outside. DH designed this and had the landscape company put it in. It turned out to be one of the best things we did and we will keep it even though the patio is now a reality.
My little grandaughter is so sweet and I am so very proud of her. Look what she says her favorite activity is to do with her Mommy! For those of you not familiar with Eastern New York, Price Chopper is a supermarket chain there. She is definitely in the right family. To actually enjoy it at her age is amazing. She brought this beautiful card home to her Mommy today from pre-school today along with the wonderful bookmark below:
Her Mommy was thrilled! I love you Alexa! Grandma and Grandpa will see you very soon!
I can't believe that it is after 6PM already. Started my morning by going to the dentist for a build up under a crown and a filling. In the past week, I have spent $ 1480. at my dentist. We don't have dental insurance so it is all out of pocket. I am at the point in my age where old fillings need to be replaced plus I had a root canal and a filling done last week. I still have three old fillings to be replaced but I told the dentist that I am on vacation until July. I am so tired of running to the dentist and to specialist Doctors. I have two more Doctors appointments this month and then hopefully I won't have to go back for a while. I am also hoping for good results on a while bunch of tests that have been done over the past 6 weeks. Fingers crossed! But dental expenses and medical expenses are one of the big items that you must take into account when you are saving for retirement because those expenses only seem to escalate.
Since I am always trying to save on gasoline, I stopped at Niagara Produce on the way home. They have a wonderful selection of herbs and flowers right now at very good prices. We spent the afternoon planting flowers and some of the herbs. Some of the flowers( large salmon colored impatiens) are in the picture above. I bought an entire flat so they are in different gardens in our front yard. I also did some weeding of the gardens.
I also picked up multiples of Italian oregano, coriander, chives, parsley and sweet basil. We got some of them planted in pots and will do the rest tommorow. They will all be on the patio where they are handy outside of my morning room to pick them when I need to. I still need to buy more flowers for other gardens.
Finally DH and I flopped with a cold drink in our sitting area in the front yard. Except for making dinner, I was done for the day. Dinner was chicken and veggies.
This picture below is one of the trees that we had the landscapers put in last June or July. It is a pear tree and it is starting to blossom. I think it is gorgeous.
DH and I are very happy with all of the trees, flowers, bulbs, bushes, and landscaping that we have had put in over the past year. Now the patio is finished. It's been a very hectic year and a very expensive one. Our cast fireplace has been ordered and they are making it as I write this. We should have it within 3 weeks. The last item on our agenda for the backyard is an Amish made shed with one or two sets of double doors. Then we will be done for a while. The best part of all that we have done in a year is that we paid cash. If we had not planned well for retirement, that would not have been possible. People have said to us, you are so lucky. It wasn't luck, it was hard work, frugality and good planning. Anyone can live well in retirement if you do the same!
I just heard on WGRZ that if you are a AAA member, you can save $ .03 a gallon on gasoline at any Noco gas station. Here are the details:
http://www.wgrz.com/news/article/120507/37/Gas-Discount-Coming-to-Local-AAA-Members
I turned one of the packages above into this:
Yup, that is nice ground round. The other package I put in the freezer for either stew or hamburgs in the future. My meat grinder attachment that goes on my Kitchen Aid Mixer made quick work of grinding it.
I wanted to grill these outside but it was really cold outside last night, so we grilled them inside instead:
These were really large burgers. I made a whole one( below) for DH and I had a 1/2 of one. That is all we ate for dinner. The other two and 1/2 got put in the freezer to crumble up in spaghetti sauce sometime in the future.
Dinner was delicious, cheap and pretty much fat free.
The patio is finished all except the pad for the grill off the edge of the patio. DH had the contractor lay a small pad but leave us stone to make it larger. DH wants to determine which way he wants to have the grill face before he finishes it. The contractor also has to wait until it dries out here to bring in topsoil and fix the areas that they damaged with their heavy equipment. We have had many inches of rain over the past week so it is too wet right now. Once that is done, DH will seed it. In about 60-90 days, the contractor will come back and seal it for us. We are also waiting for the siding guy to come fix the siding that had to come down.
Now I can clean up our table and chairs ( to the left) and my son, Sean tonight will help DH carry the glass tabletop that is in our garage out to our table. Also our table umbrella needs to get put out.
The seating area( to the right), where the glider, chairs and side table are, will face our fireplace. We ordered a cast fireplace from a place in Missouri and that should arrive in the next couple of weeks.
We still have to put our chaise lounge out that matches our table and chair set. But a little at a time things will get done. I have my pots all ready for herbs next to our steps on either side. Hopefully this weekend they will get planted.
Lastly, let there be light. I realized that when DH finished putting the outlet in for the table lamps that I didn't take a night picture so that you could see them lit, so here you go:
Everytime I pick up a Sunday ad, I notice the rise in meat prices. I have done two posts on how I save on meat. So here they are if you need to refresh your memory:
http://frugalmakescents.blogspot.com/search/label/meat
Keep in mind that these were written a few years ago when I still lived in Arizona. So many of the prices are no longer relevant but alot of the content is. We also eat a little different these days because of restricted diets. But you will glean some useful information from the posts. I am now back in New York and have a basement so I have a freezer down there now and can buy in bulk at rock bottom prices.
Here are a few more ways to save:
Remember that turkeys are at rock bottom price at Thanksgiving and the turkey breasts usually go to rock bottom during the month of May. Hams and lamb go on sale at Easter and corned beef around St. Patrick's Day. Those are the times of the year to stockpile for the rest of the year. Hot dogs will be cheap for Memorial Day and July 4th.
Lean pork bellies, used for bacon, have gone up 64% over the past year because of high corn prices. We never ate a lot of bacon because of the fat anyhow, so switching to turkey bacon which is cheaper was a no brainer for us. If we were still eating pork bacon, I would buy bacon ends in a bulk box because they will be a lot cheaper.
If you eat a lot of beef and have the freezer space, you might want to price out in your area what it would cost you for a whole or 1/2 of a cow. It will be cheaper on average per lb. than buying from a supermarket.
Try to stick to unprocessed meats. Make your own chicken nuggets from $ 1.99 a lb. chicken breasts. The same goes for boneless wings which we enjoy by making our own chicken tenders from the breast meat and then adding hot sauce and a little butter. Anytime you buy processed chicken nuggets or wings, it will cost you more per pound.
Do the math like I did in my blog post yesterday with the top round which I will grind into ground round at a bargain price.
We eat ground round or sirloin once in while but I usually find that ground turkey is easily substituted in meatballs, spaghetti sauce, meatloaf and for turkey burgers. Most of the time I can find it cheaper than beef. The secret to using ground turkey is you need to add lots of flavor to it with worcestershire sauce and spices.
Substitute chicken thighs in casseroles instead of using boneless breasts. I can usually find them on sale for under $ 1.00 a lb. If you find a great buy on chicken breasts with the bone, debone and skin them yourself.
Buy family packs and rewrap them into the size package that you need for a meal. The family packs are usually cheaper per lb. than the smaller packages.
How do you save on the high cost of meat? Feel free to leave a comment and share your tips with all of us.
I haven't been shopping much due to lack of time and the fact that I have a very good stockpile in my freezers. However there were a few things I picked up at Tops today. The two banana breads on the right of the picture, I did not buy at the store. I had a medical procedure this morning and while I was gone, DH decided the 5 bananas we had were overripe. So he made these two loaves of banana bread. One I will freeze and the other we will eat this week for breakfasts.
Here is the Top's shop:
1 Uncle Ben's Ready Rice - $ 2.39 - Used Free Mfrs. Cpn = Free
2 -20 oz. Diet Coke - $ 1.59 each - Used (2) Free Mfrs. Cpns. = Free
3 - International Delight Creamers - 3 for $ 5.00 - Used $ .55/1 IP Cpns Dbled = $ 1.70 for all 3 or about $ .57 each
2- Lean Cuisines - $ 2.00 each - Used $ 1./2 Catalina Cpn + Tops $ Doubler Cpns = $ 2.00 or $ 1.00 each
1 - Hellmans Canola Oil Mayonaise - $ 3.99 - Used $ 3.00 Catalina Cpn good on my next shopping order = $ .99
2 Top Round Boneless Roasts - on sale for B1G1F = $ 10.66 for 3.56 lbs of meat or about $ 2.99 a lb.
Total OOP including bottle deposits was $ 15.45.
Analysis:
The soda will go in my stash for company. The rice will get used on a hectic day as a side dish. The creamers I will freeze to keep my stockpile up and not have to ever pay full price for them. The Lean Cuisines will get used when we have a busy day. We just used our last tsp. of mayo.
I was totally out of ground round. The 80% lean ground chuck was on sale this week for $ 2.29 a lb. but that is too fatty for us. I usually buy ground sirloin or ground round which this week was $ 4.99 a lb. So in keeping with trying to spend as little as possible in this bad economy on food, I will grind my own and only pay $ 2.99 a lb.
We had our delayed Easter dinner late this afternoon. The reason Easter was delayed is because my son, DIL, and West spent Easter and this past week at Disney World in Orlando. They had a great time and so did West. They tell me he loved the Teacup ride.
So I cooked my lamb dinner today. Sorry, with all the excitement of having them here, I forgot to take a picture of the lamb. It was 8 lbs. and delicious. I cooked it using my favorite recipe which follows:
1 7-8lb. Leg of Lamb
Canola Oil
Salt and Pepper
Oregano
Minced Garlic
Beef Consomme
Tomato Sauce
Put the lamb in a large roaster. Brush it with the canola oil. Then sprinkle about 1 tsp. salt, 1/2 tsp. of pepper and 2 tsps. of oregano on the lamb. Put peeled baby potatoes around the roast in the pan. Then mix together a can of beef consomme( I use Campbells which you find with the soups), about 1 tsp. of minced garlic and 2- 8 oz. cans of tomato sauce. Pour it over the potatoes in the pan. Roast covered at 350 for about 2 and 1/2 hours. Baste the roast with the sauce 1/2 way through. Serve the lamb and potatoes and I put the sauce in a gravy boat to serve over them. Sometimes I double the sauce. I did this time because I knew we would have leftovers. We also had corn and broccoli spears.
Of course, I took a picture of West happily at play after dinner.
Our patio is finished all except for the steps off of one end and the pad for our grill. They also have to repair the areas of our lawn that the heavy equipment disturbed. Then DH will seed it. In about 60-90 days they will come back and seal the patio and steps. Hopefully it will be done within the next two days weather permitting. I am getting excited to get our furniture on it and use it.
Of course I had to take some pictures of West happily at play after dinner.
