Have you ever opened your freezer door and something falls out on your foot? Well I sure have. My refrigerator freezer doesn't have a shelf, it never came with one. Wow I can't believe how much of a mess it gets. I try to freeze most things flat so they will stack but that isn't always the case. The small rack and the black food container only helps so much as you can see. I ended up pulling turkey, turkey stock and the last of the ham leftover from Christmas and pressure canned them so now they are shelf stable. It still needs to be organized but has so much more room. Can you relate?
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With the exception of dairy products we have been eating what we already have in our pantry, cupboards, freezer and refrigerator over this past month. I haven't done much shopping since the beginning of January. I recently quit 1 of my 4 part time jobs so my income has decreased so I'm looking for additional ways to save money. I consider myself a extremely thrifty person but figure I can always learn new ways to save.
I'm the type of person that likes to make as much of my food from scratch whenever possible and none of our food goes to waste. What we don't eat goes to our chickens & ducks. Over this past month we have ate a few of the same meals that hubby & I both like. I feel that if I would have started at the beginning of the month by looking in all cabinets and the freezer I could have came up a monthly meal plan instead of just winging it like I did. Some days I opened the pantry and just stood there looking and thinking what am I going to make for dinner. That's hard sometimes when nothing in there sounds appealing. I ended up making several soups, scalloped potatoes & ham, chili, spaghetti, other hearty and filling meals. Having salad or vegetables and bread helps to round out most meals. Luckily I had canned potatoes, beans and some meats that I home canned and used to make a quick meal on days I worked. My biggest take away from eating this way is that I need to plan and prepare ahead of time. You can eat healthy, hearty food and save money doing it. Now I need to replenish my pantry and freezer but that will take some time but hopefully I be able to find some good sales. Would I do this again? Absolutely!! My printer is on the fritz so I went to my local library a few days ago to print off a couple papers I needed. While there I looked around to see what movies they have. I decided on to check out dvd's to watch instead of regular tv-limited to 4 channels. This weekend the weather was cold and snowy so I have been watching seasons of tv shows. It sure is a nice change and no commercials. I definitely have under utilized my local library and missed out on activities there as well. Be sure to check out your local library who knows what kind of fun things you'll find. I know I sure will and it's free.
Lemon Sugar Scrub was one of the items I made for Christmas Gifts in 2017. Luckily there was extra left over for me to have some to use too. I absolutely love this scrub! It only has four ingredients so it's easy to make. I use it every other time I shower, it leaves my face soft and smooth. Normally I don't use anything other than Dove soap because of my sensitive, combination skin but this works for me. Yes it makes my face red from using the scrub but that redness goes away. Bonus for making this scrub- I already had all four ingredients. Ingredients- organic coconut oil, white sugar, Young Living Lemon Essential Oil and yellow food coloring. You can add more of the essential oil and food coloring to your liking. Since this was my first time making it I didn't want to go to strong. I will definitely make this again and keep using it. Gotta love homemade!
We all have those dreaded monthly expenses but why pay more than you need too. Don't be afraid of contacting the companies you pay every month and ask if your bills can be reduced. Shopping around for the best deal on car insurance cell phone(s), credit cards, etc. can save you money too.
I get a discount on my cell phone plan through 1 of the companies I work for. A few days ago I switched to a different plan and saved almost $40 in addition to the normal discount. That may not seem like a lot for some of you but to me that will almost pay my car insurance for the month. My car insurance renewed in October and I was paying way to much for the year of my car so I started getting quotes from other companies. I was able to save over $1000.00 in a year. That is an incredible amount of savings!! Plus the policy is for 12 months not 6 like the previous company. I got the new insurance before cancelling the other policy so there was no lapse in coverage, then I called the other insurance company cancelled my policy and got a REFUND of money I had paid last month. We got rid of our internet almost a year ago so we don't have that expense anymore. I upped the data on my cell phone and use it as hot spot for my computer. It cost less doing it that way and it's faster speed then the old internet. The internet in my area (rural) is so SLOW I don't miss that. Free TV is what we watch or movies we own. We got rid of satellite too. That was a little harder to adjust but we have now. Electric, water and propane all are priorities over paid TV. Depending on your income you can get a discount on your electricity-at least here in Arizona you can through APS-Arizona Public Service. Saving money is always in the forefront of my mind and thrifty living is huge part of who I am. I know that we will always have some type of monthly expense but I refuse to pay more than I should so I continually look for ways to reduce our monthly expenses. Don't be afraid to ask for a discount, you may be surprised how much money you can save too. We like having a cat she is funny, sometimes moody and complete bed hog. The part that's not fun about having an indoor cat- is cleaning out the litter box. I've tried a few different brands and kinds of cat litter from clay to clumping. The higher the price doesn't necessarily mean it's going to work better than a cheaper store brand. We were running low on cat litter so when I stopped at Family Dollar I decided to try their brand of clumping cat litter. The price was good too is was $4.50 +tax for a 10 lb jug. It's about 1/3 of the price of the cat litter I was buying. It works like it's supposed too so I'm sold, I'll keep buying it. Our cat doesn't seem to care what is in her box, she just wants it keep clean. I grateful she's not picky either. Yes we do enjoy having a cat (especially when we can't smell the box...ha ha).
Thanksgiving was enjoyable and I was blessed to spend time with my family. Today however I'm enjoying spending time at home. Yes I will always have chores to do but today is more relaxing than normal. I got all the dirty dishes done before I went to bed and I dealt with the little leftovers we had so I'm already ahead of the game. Ha ha. I'm am not a black Friday shopper because I don't like crowds or fighting over those deals. So you won't see out & about today...I'm spending today at home.
I don't know about you but I like to have fresh vegetables in the Winter. I always start lettuce & spinach to have fresh salad greens throughout the winter. I cut some of the leaves and let them grow back. This year I also started radishes and carrots but so far only radishes have sprouted. Another tray will be started soon but I haven't decided what else to grow. The temp dipped down below 30 I'll be bringing the pans inside to put in a sunny window. You can do this too it's easy and good for you.
Not the ideal way to spend a Saturday but I hoping that next year my gardens will produce more than the last couple of years. I was disappointed in the garden results needless to say. I live in a rural area there is always neighbors with animals that produce more manure than they know what to do with....that's why I was able to get a truck load of horse manure that was pretty broke down already. It took me almost 3 1/2 hours to unload it (mostly by myself). I unloaded 7 wheel barrows then got smart and moved the truck closer to where I wanted the manure to go and tossed it over the fence and that help cut the time tremendously. I topped off all my raised bed gardens and the last amount went into my compost area. This is an inexpensive way to fertilize my garden and I'm truly grateful to have great neighbors like I do. Don't be afraid to ask your neighbors for compost items-manure, used straw, wood chips, etc. I wouldn't have thought about getting a truck load of manure until a neighbor read my WANTED sign out by my driveway. I was happy! I know that sounds funny I guess I'm easily entertained. Ha ha! I will post more on the results in the spring. I'm hoping for lots of moisture this Winter whether it's rain or snow. See why I said what a way to spend a Saturday...ha ha ha.
This was a quick trip after doing some merchandising work but even tho it was quick I was able to save $50.00 or 55% in this trip. I finally picked up the turkey for Thanksgiving- 18+ lb frozen turkey for $11.60, 6 boxes of stove top stuffing $6.00, Best Foods Mayo $2.99, 4 cans Swanson broth $2.00 and more for a total of $40.21. Now I was happy with that total. I didn't use any paper coupons but I did load digital coupons to my Safeway card.
After I got home I was get cash back from 2 apps on my phone. The first was Checkout51 where I earned $1.25 cash back. Best Foods mayo $1.00 Turkey-$0.25 The second was from Savingstar where I earned $1.00 cash back on Best Foods Mayo. So the mayo ended up costing my $0.99. If I would have printed a coupon (no longer available) from coupons.com it would have brought the price down even more on the Best Foods Mayo. Don't be like me and miss out on savings click on the link below and save on your broth. There are many other coupons available like Reynolds Foil, Campbell's Condensed Soup, Mezettas Olives, Ziploc Bags and more. |
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AuthorHello I'm Michele & I'm the matriarch of the Leverone Family Farm. I'm a wife, a mother of 2 grown/married sons and have 4 adorable grand kids. Thrifty for more than 30 years. I love gardening, cooking and saving money. Archives
November 2021
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