Thriving In My Thrifty Week–November 10, 2018

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These are only part of the jars we emptied this week.  It’s that time of year when we start using lots of the home-canned products.  I still buy groceries.  It would be hard to imagine what my grocery bill would be without my food storage. I’m glad to have it and am committed to using it.

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Turkey-Vegetable soup is one of the things I made.  I used frozen chunks of turkey, frozen green beans, canned carrots, broth and tomatoes, an onion, potatoes  and the rest of a sad stalk of celery.  I seasoned it with Italian seasoning and salt and pepper.  Simple, but good.

We also used home-canned taco sauce, salsa, jam, various fruits, canned green beans, frozen beef, and some French bread I had gotten for free and frozen a while back. (For Patsy).  Not long ago, I made spaghetti using my home-canned pasta sauce.

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Some of the family went to a great party at my friend’s house.  The girls helped little Danait frost pre-purchased cookies with icing and toppings, we feasted on Eritrean food, potluck items, root beer floats, and visited with lots of interesting people.  We were celebrating Harnet’s recent citizenship and her new apartment.  It was really fun.  Although many of us didn’t know each other, or had only met once or twice, it was a very eclectic, interesting crowd.  She has a lot of very nice friends.

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Danait loved decorating cookies, all the while wearing the purple mittens I got her at the Dollar Store.  My niece, Alissa, and I found the cookie kit on the clearance rack at Fred Meyers, and it was worth every penny of the greatly reduced price.  It kept Danait busy until her little friends arrived at the party, and then boy did they have fun!  Bless those big girls for helping look after them.  At one point, I guess the group of children were smuggling bowls of candy into the bedroom, and eating it all, and my big girls, who were kind of looking out for the kids, finally shut down that smuggling ring when they brought the 3rd bowlful into the room:). Kids!  After all, it was a party:), but still…..

I also got several other items on the “Whoo-hoo” rack.  The best deal was boxes of steel-cut oat packets.  They were $1.59 and there was a $1.50 rebate from Ibotta on each box.  I bought the 5 allowed, bringing the cost to 9c for each box.  There are 5 packets in each box, so that’s less than 2c each.

I spent over the $50 I wanted to spend, and got my first turkey for  47c/lb.  I plan to do that at least one more time, maybe 2 times.  It depends on what I can use to fill the gaps in the pantry–if there are good enough deals of things that I need to spend that much.  I’ll look at the sales.  Right now, celery and bread are all that are on my list, but I know it will grow. It always does:). Because I want at least one extra turkey for the freezer, I’d rather go more than once and get them for 47c/lb than spend the $150 all at once to get a free turkey.

We are not finding the low ham prices I got last year.  I’ll keep looking.  If I find them, I’ll buy several.  Last year, I got some for 99c/lb and some for $1.29/lb.  The are quite a bit higher so far this year.

The strangest thing we did to save money this week was get a security system.  We were offered a deal from X-finity/Comcast if we bundled our internet, t.v., with an added security system the monthly payment would be lower than what we were paying for what we had already.  So, we did.  We are signed up for a 2-year contract, and there is a penalty if we don’t keep it that long.  However, we were told that all we had to do was keep 1 X-finity product, if we need to cancel for some reason and we would not have to pay the penalty. We have no plans to move, or stop having internet, at this time, although we have discussed stopping the tv service if we ever need to, so that was nice to know.  And, for now, we have it all for a lower price than we would have paid if we left things the way they were.  We did not add any “extras” but just stuck with the basic package that they were offering for free, plus a discount.  So, should any burgers want to steal my home-canned tuna, they’d better watch out!  They won’t get away with it:). We are secure!  (Now, I just have to learn how to use it, but it looks pretty simple and can be done from my phone)

This was a week of doctor’s appointments for me–using parts of 3 days.  Mine were all routine, including the dentist, but it is good that I’m caught up for now.  Rob got his appointments done, finishing up one set of physical therapy.  Again, we were very thankful that we have insurance!

How did your week go?

 

24 thoughts on “Thriving In My Thrifty Week–November 10, 2018”

  1. Oh, this bothers me. After tasting your home canned tuna, we had discussed driving 2,000 miles, breaking into your house and stealing all of the jars. Now we are worried about the security system.
    Jeannie@GetMeToTheCountry

    1. All right, Jeannie…it doesn’t have to be this way! If you drive 2000 miles for tuna, I’ll make you a deal…I’ll cook you dinner and give you a jar of tuna. Much easier on the door locks and things:)

  2. Check with your insurance agent and see if you qualify for a discount on your homeowner’s policy now that you have the security system.
    Glad to hear Rob is having physical therapy. It helps!

    1. We will surely do that!

      As for Rob and p.t., they have already said there is nothing they can do for the hip, but they can work on strengthening his core and other muscles that weakened as he favored it more and more. So, he did the maximum visits (6) the insurance would cover, for that reason. His hip was actually worse after p.t. for the most part, so that’s why he’s glad to be done! He was given exercises to do on his own in the pool and he does those because they are strengthening ones, and help, but don’t aggravate the hip. Once he let them know what was going on, they were super helpful to try to give him the most help, with the least pain! Something else to be thankful for.

  3. We have our South American neighbor who lived from age 7 until 35 in NY City for security system. One time he knew we were gone to the lake and when we got back I was going in the back door when he yelled at me from his driveway because he didn’t realize we were home. Whenever we are going out of town my husband sends him a text and he replies, ‘Okay, Mr. Bill. Me and the Colombian mafia are watching your house.’ He is a hoot and the best neighbor we have ever had.

    I used up quite a few bits and ends of food and produce and kept it out of the trash. I had a big zucchini that had been hanging out here for 3 weeks and it had gotten a bit soft so now we have two lovely loaves of zucchini bread in the freezer. I made a big meatloaf and used half ground turkey that was $1 a pound to reduce the use of the more expensive beef. We spent $61 at the grocery store and for a gallon of sausage gravy from the Amish restaurant near the lake house. I will get back $5.30 for ibotta and I used $28 in coupons or what my kids call Mom’s funny money. Hey $28 is $28! I finished October with $110 of grocery money leftover.

    We had our fall tune ups done on our heat pumps. That has saved us quite a lot in utility bills since we started regular maintenance and kept one from burning up the compressor because they were able to catch that a part was going bad before it happened.

    We made pizza at home instead of ordering Dominoes. Lidl had 12 oz shredded mozzarella for 85 cents a few weeks ago so the pizza was really inexpensive with dough made in the bread machine. A few weeks ago I salt preserved all the basil left growing and it has been delicious on our pizza. For a while we had gotten in a bad habit of going out and picking up pizzas.

    We had a breakfast and a lunch out but only spent $9 total with coupons.

    I read a free Kindle book that I downloaded from Vickie’s Kitchen and Garden’s daily free book posts.

    I turned on the LED candles to come on at 5 every evening and stay on til bedtime. One set of batteries lasts all winter and they make our living room so cozy.

    Have a good week!

    1. You did great with your shopping this week! And, making pizza always tastes great. (Except for a disaster I had last week which I haven’t mentioned yet, where I tried an experiment with cauliflower and gluten-free flour and made a crust–I won’t be posting that recipe. We couldn’t even finish it!). But, usually, pizza is one of our favorites. I’m glad yours turned out!

      Those candles should be nice and cozy:)

  4. Turkeys are on sale for 39¢ a pound with a $25 purchase. Limit 2. I will get 2 this week. I asked my sister if she goes shopping this week to get me 2 also. She is single and wouldn’t cook a whole turkey. I am hoping they have the same offer for next week so I can really stock up.

  5. I had a good laugh over Jeannie’s comment about not breaking into your house now to steal your tuna with the security system. I bet your home canned tuna is awesome and maybe worth the risk! Lol. Your soup looks very tasty too! I made vegetable soup today and shared some with a sick friend. It’s beginning to be the yucky, rainy, misty, cold fall weather here, preparing us for winter. They are calling for snow tomorrow. Of course here if the weather man ever says snow, everybody runs and buys up all the milk and bread. Then we might get three snowflakes! We are easily traumatized here by thoughts of snow. Haha. Have a great week! …Vicky in Ky

    1. Vicky, the canned tuna is the best tasting in the world – nothing like storebought cardboard tuna fish. Becky sent two jars and I hid the second one so Reese (my third son) can try it this week. He is home visiting and it is the first time we have seen him in six months. He will get a very special meal this evening. I can’t think of anything better to feed him.
      Jeannie

  6. Those girls really know how to decorate cookies!

    I made some soup, today, myself – chicken and vegetable! Glad you were able to get the turkey on sale.

    1. It helped that the cookies were pre-made in a kit that we got on the clearance rack–that way they could just concentrate on the frosting and sprinkles–the fun part!

  7. The Soup looks so good!. I purchased a turkey at Winn Dixie for 49 cents a lb (if you purchased $30 worth of groceries) so not as good a price as other folks, but still ok I guess.

    1. Better than here. We have to get $50 to get the 47c turkey, not including the turkey. Still, I remind myself…What other meat can I even touch for 47c/lb? :). So, I’m gathering turkeys. I got smaller ones for later–I can have Rob bbq or cook in oven, then boil bones and can broth again. Later:). Much, much later. Love that freezer!

      You know, that soup was really good. I think the colder weather really put me in a mood for it. I’ve had it several times this week. My mother even thought so when I fed it to her. I told her it was because I made it just the way my mother did, so no wonder she liked it! We had a good laugh.

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