Category Archives: Saving Money

5 Things Friday

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  1.  Kendall had the stomach bug last Sunday. Today Zach has a stomach bug. This thing is awful.  I am praying that it only last 24 hours so Zach and I both can enjoy Lily’s performances on Saturday and Sunday.                                                                                         Now for more positive news!
  2. I found several packs of tomato and green pepper seeds in my seed box a couple of weeks ago. I decided to use some of the containers I have been saving along with dirt that we had left to try and see if I could grow any plants from seed.  I planted 2 packs of both.  Currently, we have about 75% germination rate for the green peppers and about 25% for the tomatoes which were planted almost 2 weeks later!   The goal would be to be able to transfer these to the garden in mid April and at least half survive. If I can get even 25% to survive that will decrease my out of pocket for the garden!
  3. Gas prices have seemed to level out and have returned to just under $4 a galloon for us.  This week we have focused on having the Tahoe sit as much as possible and using the Equinox which get a minimum of 10 miles per galloon better gas mileage. It has worked so far as we have put 2 additional tanks in the Equinox this week.
  4. I stopped by the store on my way home from work today in order to purchase a couple of items that we needed because of the stomach bug.  I spent $49 which included TIde pods, 2 containers of deodorant, 4 6-packs of soda, a bag of chips and 8 packages of sausage patties. I found the sausage patties on sale for $2.39 for a package of 8 patties.
  5. Our electric bill came in this week and it is over $100 less than last month!! I am so thankful!  The next bill is typically the lowest of the year due to not needing heat or a/c for several days at a time!

 

Saving On Saturday

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This weekend I have saved money in two areas food and gas!

We knew when we purchased the Tahoe that it was not fuel efficient, but we also knew it was what we wanted to fit all the needs we had.  With the significant increase in prices, some folks are talking about how they are reducing trips and changing habits to save on their fuel bill.  I can honestly say that although we are seeing a bigger saving, we have not changed how we drive. First of all, we live at least 5 minutes from the closest gas station and Dollar General. At least 10 minutes from the closest store or restaurant, so not driving is just not an option. What we do is to combine trips whenever possible for example, Matt had to attend a parent meeting uptown for Lily yesterday, so I asked him to stop by the store to grab some drinks that were on sale.  We also combined a trip to Costco with filling up our tank to save money as well. The other thing is that we try to use the Equinox as much as possible. I have not left the house this weekend, so the Tahoe has been sitting in the driveway with me while the Equinox is running all the errands.  By doing this we are able to fill the Equinox about the same number of times as the Tahoe for $20 or more less.  Every little bit helps and adds up.

Food is our 3rd largest expense.  Our goal this year is to use up as much of the food in our freezers prior to the summer so that we can restock it.  We currently have a stand up freezer and a chest freezer in our building. Both were completely full at the end of 2021.  This week we have been able to use and move 50% of the items in the chest freezer. Our goal is to purchase a whole cow this summer and we will need every bit of room in this freezer in order to do so.  My plan is once we get the freezer emptied to turn it off and defrost and clean it, then I will begin the hunt for a cow to fill it back up! Another area of savings is that we have not eaten out this week.  We did enjoy Chick A Filet on Friday but we used money that was earned by selling a car box. This was a win win situation for us!  We have several other items listed to sale on Facebook market place as well so hopefully we can continue to clean out and repurpose the funds.  We also have been working really hard in order to use up and not waste left-overs. I decided on Saturday to use the left-over turkey we had from last week to make a Turkey Dorito casserole.  I used this recipe  subbing turkey for the chicken. It was a hit. I also make a turkey noddle casserole that we will eat on Wednesday for dinner.  We added a box of stuffing, sauteed zucchini from the freezer, air fried some corn and that was our dinner.  Matt and I made bagels on Friday night which turned out awesome!  Again it is all the small things that count!

 

5 Things Friday

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  1. North Carolina weather in March…last Sunday 80 and this Sunday expected low of 18*
  2. The greenhouse is currently empty. We have moved all the plants outside, one of the reasons is that it was getting over 100* during the day in the greenhouse and that would cause most of the colder plants I had planted to bolt.  We have been enjoying both lettuce and spinach. The best part is walking by the lettuce and picking some to eat.  We have started both tomatoes and green peppers inside. It is easier to start inside for the first few weeks.  They will be moved outside about 4 weeks prior to plants to continue to grow in the greenhouse and for protection against our final freeze that usually occurs sometime in April.  We also turned off the heater to save a bit on electricity.
  3. This week for the first time in history, we paid over $4 a gallon for gas. $4.11 to be exact. But the knowledge that it took 16 years for gas to go from $3 a gallon to $4 should bring us all comfort.
  4. We are doing excellent on the grocery budget for the year. We have currently spent $2.82 for groceries this month.  For the sake of transparency, we did make a trip to Costco yesterday and used our credit card earnings to purchase sugar, dog food and some other items that we were out of.
  5. Our busy season is starting. Lily’s play is next week, Zach is managing the middle school baseball team while enjoying playing his last year at the booster club. I am now working 2.5 nights a week in Guam. And best of all our Disney countdown is shrinking!

Saving on Saturday

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  • The weather has finally turned nice on a weekend. So today we hung 6 loads of bedding on the line to dry. Which saved us over 8 hours of drying time plus they all smell so good!
  • Last weekend, we inventoried our freezers and listed 50 plus meals we could use. During this process, I realized we had 2 whole turkeys. We decided to cook one tomorrow and will have a great lunch with friends that has no out of pocket cost for us!
  • We rotated all of the cold weather plants out of the greenhouse. The temperature is not supposed to drop below freezing for the next 10 days and during the day the greenhouse reaches over 100 degree so in order to extend the growing life of these plants we have moved them outside.  In the process we discussed some spinach, lettuce and swiss chard that we can incorporate into our salads this week. We also turned off the heater which should save some electricity as well.
  • Matt was able to remove the sliding glass door and locate the defective piece. We were able to order the piece for $90 on Ebay. A fair estimate is that this saved us around $500 in the cost of a repair.
  • We took a clothing inventory and realized that new shorts are needed for most of the kids. I was able to order 14 pair of shorts at Old Navy for a total of $91.  I used my credit card rewards ($17), old navy super cash ($20) and combine with the current sale to really save.
  • I took both our vehicles to a local automatic carwash that is $5 for “the works” this is a huge savings for both time and money!

Thursday Thoughts

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  •  I was able to see our electric bill for the month of February on the app this week. $301.49.  This is definitely the highest bill in recent memory, but I am also thinking all time high as well. It is also $40 over what I budget each month to cover the electricity.
  • I made a trip to the grocery store to mainly pick up salad supplies and fruits for the kids to use for lunches next week.  I also grab to loaves of French bread at $1.00 each. My plan is to make a batch of French toast on Saturday with adding some in the freezer for quick breakfast. Total spent 21.47 which brings our monthly grocery total to $127 before Amazon. I will add in Amazon at the end of the month when it is billed.  I will need to stop at Aldi or Food Lion to pick up eggs tomorrow as we are down to 18 eggs and with plans for French toast those will be gone quickly!
  • We ended up ordering Zach an electric toothbrush this week, which was totally unplanned, but the hope is that he will use this regularly!
  • I found a single steak in our black freezer and had put on the menu to make steak fried rice today. It turned out AMAZING!   We had enough for all 6 of us (Mom provided desert) both Zach and Matt have already been back for seconds, and we still have one serving left for leftovers.
  • I have a list on the side of the whiteboard of items that I want to put on the menu in the next week or so in order for us to continue to eat out of our freezer.  I am trying to use at least one item a week that is not a preferred items in order to make things go easier.
  • I decided to go ahead and put some eggs in the insta pot so I could use those on salads next week.   I ended up making egg salad for Zach as he wants to take it for lunch tomorrow. I may have to have an egg salad sandwich for breakfast.
  • When we first went into COVID lockdown, I was able to purchase air filters for ninety-seven cent each. I purchased six or seven case. We usually change at least 2 a month. Sadly, we only have 6 filters left. I am not at all hopeful to find this type of deal again.
  • After months of turning down extra work in Guam, I have agreed to take on four more schools.  I am hopefully to maintain only working 2 nights a week, but this will be a significant boast in income that should allow us to continue to live comfortably the remainder of the year and cover some unexpected medical expenses as well as tax payment that is needed.

Random Thursday Thoughts

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One of the hardest things about having kids with food allergies/intolerance is that it is so hard to figure out if it is something my child ate or is this a virus. For example, last Friday, Zach was miserable, said he just did not feel good. He ended up sleeping a lot. We talked about what he had been eating at school and could not figure out what it could be.  Come to find out it was a virus that both Matt and I dealt with this week.

As our efforts to save money and reduce our expenses continue, I have been closely monitoring our daily energy use. My discovery is that the dryer and heat are the two biggest users.  The heat is simply one of the few things that I can’t do anything more about. We currently have the temperature set at 69 during the day and 67 at night. But recently with the temperatures remaining so low for multiple days, I have agreed to raise the temperature to 70 for part of the day. This is after making sure we all are in sweats and socks, but I am simply not able to stand being so cold. The dryer is the one thing that I usually manage to keep use steady and to a minimum. I don’t usually wash our sheets or allow anyone else to wash sheets unless they can be dried outside. We have developed a routine for washing one load of laundry a day and mostly using the dryer at night.  Unfortunately, again this was not the case this past weekend nor this week after we are sick. We ended up having 10 loads of clothes on Saturday and another 4 loads yesterday.  As I check the usage, we have been over 100 Kilowatts a day for 7 of the last 10 days and 12 of the last 15 days. Needless to say, I am not looking forward to the bill that I will receive soon for the past month.

Sunday will be our anticipated “Junk Food Sunday” The kids have all picked out their favorite snack.  The thing they are most excited for is that we are going to go to Food Lion on Saturday, and each will be allowed to pick out one favorite fruit or veggie in addition to their already chosen snack.

We have not been out to eat for 2 weeks due to the generosity of friends and a scheduled meal at church this Sunday. This will definitely help in the expense department.  The girls both have to contribute to the meal, but we have all the ingredients at home so that make things much easier.

We are actually on track with our grocery spending for the second month in a row. Matt made a small trip to Costco, but I am making sure to keep a good tab on what we are using.

We are starting to see some shortages in our grocery stores like Costco did not have any kielbasa but otherwise we really have everything we need to create good meals. I am currently using the grocery budget to replace items we use or special treat items.

Finally I am looking forward to a weekend with the weather on Saturday about 60.  That too is short lived as another cold front pushes us back to 40 on Sunday and Monday.

Monday Menu Post

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We have not been out to eat in an entire week!  This is possible with the generosity of friends who share party leftovers on Sunday.  This weeks’ menu plan looks a little bit more balance than last week.  I did spend some time in our refrigerator and freezers this weekend to get a better idea of what we have for food.  I am anticipating the next couple of weeks being much easier now that I have a better idea of what we have and also the kids all get to enjoy our junk food Sunday.  The even better news is that I only need to purchase a couple of items for junk food Sunday so it will definitely not be a budget buster!

Breakfast– Saturday- Artisan bread eggs and cheddar bay sausage balls.  Sunday-MY mom treated with bagels which we have not had in several weeks! .  Monday-Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday -choice of breakfast muffins, eggs, , sausage, oatmeal, cereal or grits or breakfast burritos. I am trying to talk Matt into making a batch of waffles to freeze but so far no luck!
Lunch- – Saturday- Pizza and cheese bread- treat from oldest daughter. Sunday- Party leftovers with friends.    Monday- Friday Leftovers, and rice or pasta. The kids are actually starting to think ahead and take some hot meals for lunch.
Dinner- – Saturday- Anniversary party food.  Sunday-Mexican Street corn soup. Monday-Copycat PF Chang lettuce wraps, vegetable fried rice and egg rolls.  Tuesday-Baked Ziti and copycat bread sticks Wednesday- Crockpot cube steak, mashed potatoes, cole slaw and air fryer corn.  Thursday-Fish sticks and French fries with fruit..  Friday- pulled pork and baked beans. possible peach pie.

Here’s to meal planning being much easier!

Saving on Saturday- More Food Talk

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This week we are continuing to focus on food and eliminate food waste as well as using the items we have in the pantry and freezers.  I am using today (Saturday) to focus on making some convivence items that simply need to be heated in order to serve. First up was an Artisian Cinnamon and Raisin bread. This used up 3 small boxes of raisin and was a huge hit. The downside to this bread is the 20 hours it takes to make. I will save this one as a weekend treat when we are out of bread again!

We took 5 pounds of raw ground beef from the freezer to turn into Taco meat. Matt fried up the meat and we added some tomatoes, tomato sauce, water and taco seasoning to the crockpot. It cooked on low for 2 hours and then on warm overnight. This morning I was able to turn off the crockpot and let cool down. I packaged a total of 8 meals – 2 one-pound packs and 6 -meat for 12 taco packs.  These are stashed away in the freezer for the upcoming spring busy season.

Matt found the last remaining pound of Italian sausage which I turned into 2 baked spaghettis. This meal actually used up all the provolone cheese and ricotta cheese from the freezers as well.

Additional time was spend moving items and looking through the freezers as well.  I have finally been able to relocate all the cans from under my desk to the pantry shelves.  From the freezers, our last gallon of milk along with several cartons of chocolate milk and containers of apple juice have been moved into the refrigerator so that we can begin to use up these surplus items as well.  I suggested that we may want to try and clean out completely our chest freezer and defrost in order to keep it working properly in the future; This appears to be a task that may take longer than my anticipated time frame as we can now close that freezer easily without weighting the top down, but it is nowhere near empty, and the stand-up freezer remains busting at the seams.

After attending our friend’s anniversary party, we were invited to help eat up the leftovers for our meal after church on Sunday. This is a huge money saver as Sunday lunches continue to be our treat meal out most weeks!

 

Freezer and Pantry Food

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Recently I have been spending/ wasting a considerable amount of time watching Youtube videos of grocery hauls, pantries and freezers along with the traditional January- Eat out of the  Pantry challenge.    It actually has brought several things to light for me and I decided that I would share a couple of those things with you.

First a couple of facts that I know I have said but wanted to make sure these are obvious when I am reading this 3-5 years from now.
1. Matt lost his job in November 2021. This was a sudden and unexpected change.
2.  We had budgeted $650 a month of groceries in 2021. We overspent this budget 3 months of the year but stayed under budget in November.  We were over budget in December due to some stocking up.
3. I set our grocery budget for January until June at $200 a month or $50 a year.
4. Once Matt returns to steady full-time employment, I plan to use the difference of $450 a month to save in order to purchase a cow this summer and re-stock our meat.
5. If Matt’s unemployment would end prior to him having a full-time job, I am planning to then switch my grocery shopping to only things that we are completely out of and NEED!

After reviewing that list, I can make the following statements:

1. We could likely exist on $25 a week if we needed to by only purchasing things we are completely out of.
2. I am keeping a rolling grocery list of items that we are currently low on. I am restocking to the level that I normally would. For example, we have 2 cans of corn left, I will be purchasing 8 cans on one of my next few trips. I really could get by with purchasing 2 more but instead, I want to keep a doable level for me. This will allow me to switch to number 5 above for several months in not longer if the need arises.
3.  I am continuing to purchase items I know we will use in the next couple of months when I see them on sale. For example, 2 Liter Diet Cokes are on sale this week. I will be purchasing my normal amount of 20 bottle plus an additional 10 bottles of regular Coke for the kids. I also plan to purchase 10 non-caffeinate soda to restock as well.
4. In order to use the items that we have in the freezer, I have to meal plan. And I am also trying to add one meatless meal a week and at least one meal a week to use items that we have in the freezer but normally would not choose like chicken legs or meatloaf muffins.
5. We are in a very blessed position that allows us to wait on God’s timing for Matt’s new job. Currently you would not be able to tell from our lifestyle that we are basically a one income family at this point.
6. I need to remember that we need to keep the budget at $200 a month including Amazon in order to enjoy things like our planned trips without it becoming a financial strain or hardship.
7. I am not the only person in the world who has enough food for 6 months to a year on hand!

Saving on Saturday including More Recipes!

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I have spent the entire day inside… yeap that makes it a good day!  We have spent a lot of extra time today working on food prep and on making some new and different things to try out!

We started this morning or actually last night working on “burrito bowls” that Matt and Zach could eat for an easy lunch. We actually used a bag of black beans from the pantry to make the re-fried beans, rice from the pantry and made taco meat from already cooked ground beef. Zach had one for lunch that he actually shared with Matt. Both agree that it is a definite repeat.  We made 8 original bowls, but Zach thinks he would be fine with just half of one!

We tried “Keto Pickles”

May be an image of ‎food, indoor and ‎text that says '‎متزد‎'‎‎

These did not turn out what they looked like here and actually Matt thought they were also too salty.  We will not be repeating this.

I saw these cucumbers on Facebook today

They were an all-around hit!  Cucumbers with cream cheese, bacon and Everything bagel seasoning!

And finally, the crockpot in the back is full of this deliciousness which we all enjoyed for dinner!

bowl of cheesy sausage potato soupCheesy Sausage Potatoes   

A couple of changes or things we did differently- I used breakfast sausage, frozen hashbrowns (small strips) canned corn, diced tomatoes, beef broth and left off the cilantro. I am so thankful that we were able to freeze a container of this to use for a future meal. The thing that made this soup even better was the homemade bread that looks perfect

The plan is to end the night by backing some 3 ingredient bagels for tomorrow morning.  No spending at all because everything was from the pantry or freezer!