Momtwo's Journal

It is such a rainy day that I stayed home today. I managed to do a couple loads of laundry and hang them to dry in the bathtub.

I also felt like cleaning a bathroom so that is done.

And it is definitely a comfort food day so I have made a homemade lasagna with hot sausage, ground beef and I even threw in some pepperoni! This ought to give DH and I a couple of meals! The pepperoni and sauce were bought for pennies after doubled coupons. The mozzarella cheese and meats were Free after winetags and coupons. The Barilla lasagna was bought for Free also with a coupon. And I paid $1.00 for a container of cottage cheese. A nice satisfying and frugal meal!

I am going to make chocolate waffles for DH for breakfast. Then give him his heart wineglass to use at dinner along with his card.

We will have a nice dinner at home since I would never venture out with the crowds on V Day for dinner. Debating on what I will make!

Actually DH and I had an early V Day dinner last night at PF Changs!

I slept in and then spent most of my day working on the family genealogy which I use for Christmas gifts for Brothers and sisters each year. I gave everyone notebooks last year and this year will give them all new info I find.

Since I cooked a turkey last Friday, DH and I had hot turkey sandwiches for dinner and a little later will watch Law and Order.

Hope everyone had a great day!

I went to the grocery store and only bought the things on my list- a large tub of margarine that was on sale and 2 of the 2.5lb. bags of chicken tenderloins that are on sale(last day of sale) for 1.69lb. We had some of these on Sunday and they were so moist that I just had to go back and get a couple more bags.

I just got my monthly eletric bill. We used 930KWH and the bill was $ 74.10. Last year- same period, we used 1040KWH and the bill was $ 70.99!

So I conserved 110KWH and it cost more. I hate rate increases!
Geesh!

DH is going to do the cooking. He saw a recipe by Rachel Ray on Food Network last week for Buffalo Salad and is going to make it.
It is like having a boneless chicken hot wing salad.

I found out today that my cellphone company would give me a $5.00 credit if I would sign up for automatic payments. So I did.
Not only will I save the $5.00 but I will save an envelope and stamp every month also!

We had a quiet Saturday. I only went to the market to return a steak we bought there last week that was inedible. DH grilled it for dinner last night and it was inedible and it was sirloin. They gave me my money back. I picked up a few things we needed and some stamps so I could send the mail out.

Just did a load of wash in cold water today and hung it to dry.
We had sandwiches for dinner. Easy and we had some cold cuts to use up!

Well, I am trying to get the ink out of my dryer. I took a bunch of old towels and wet them and I am now running them in the dryer to see if the ink will come off on them. Perhaps if it doesn't, the ink won't come off on any future clothes either. At least I can hope! UGH!

DH did the laundry and he forgot to take an indelible ink pen out of his shirt pocket. I have ink all over my good dress clothes and the inside of the dryer. I will have to research tomorrow how to get the ink off the drum of the dryer and see if there is any way to get the ink out of these clothes. UGH! I do not relish the fact of having to replace about $600. worth of clothes NOR do I look forward to cleaning the dryer.

Yesterday I made a double batch of Beef En Daube in the crockpot. We served it over rice! I froze the second portion for a night when I just don't feel like cooking. It will save us from running out for fastfood!

Tonight we made chef salads and they were so good that we may do the same tomorrow night!

I wish I could say it has been a frugal month so far, but it has not. I have been tracking my spending since January 1st. I have spent 74. more in the first 3 days of February than in all of January.

It just goes to show that monthly spending can be so different. I did pretty good in January except for grocery shopping which I am working on.

Now in February the property taxes were due, car insurance and car registration which is expensive here in AZ. Fortunately I plan for these bills so that it is not a shock when they show up!

It is sunny again today and I was able to turn the heat off after having it on for a couple of days. It supposed to be in the 70's the rest of the week.

This morning, we had our coffee and homemade banana bread for breakfast.

I think today I am gonna check all the grocery ads for the week before they expire today and see what I can buy for FREE with doubled coupons. I have errands to run to the PO and bank and the markets are close.

I also am going to start all the planning for company that will be arriving in a couple of weeks. Don't want to have to break the bank like I did for all the company at Christmas.

Dinner tonight is simple for my busy day- hot dogs and BBQ Baked Beans.

I have been tracking all monies spent in January. It really opened my eyes to what I was spending on food. There are only 2 of us and we spent:

Food At Restaurants: $ 108.63
Grocery Store: $ 265.42
TOTAL FOOD: $ 374.05

I was hoping to only spend $260. total! Guess I didn't do very well. So my challenge for February is to get these totals down.

-Homemade Chocolate Raspberry Coffee and a Banana for Breakfast

-I showered yesterday and since my skin is so dry and itchy from the winter, I washed my hair in the kitchen sink with a dab of shampoo. I only use conditioner every other day or my hair gets oily. No shower today-every other day is enough with my dry skin.

- I grilled T-bone steaks (bought at my pricebook rockbottom price of $3.97lb.) outside for dinner (saves electricity rather than use the kitchen broiler) - propane is cheaper than electric. We had both corn and garlic mashed potatoes bought Free after double coupons. I lit a candle for dinner saving on overhead lighting (making it romantic) and serve chilled White Zinfandel(purchased for $ 8.99 for 5 liters- lasts a long, long time and I love Franzia) in my best wine glasses! Dessert was Harry and David Cookies that were a gift.

- Washed one full load of darks in cold water using just one Tide Tablet (1/2 the recommended amount) which I purchased for Free with doubled coupons almost 3 years ago. I haven't bought laundry detergent in almost 3 years and still have a stash. I just hung them to dry on the drying racks in the bathtub.

- Made a big pot of homemade soup for dinner tomorrow using 3 freezer containers of homemade chicken broth and leftovers(beef, chicken, spaghetti(cut into pieces) and sauce, veggies, gravies) that I have accumulated in the freezer. I added a few more veggies and Mexican spices. It is delicious! DH says I make the best homemade soup! Most people throw out their leftovers- what a waste! This will make one meal if not two out of a little bit of this and a little bit of that which would have been pitched everynight! I used to do this when I worked too and take the soup in a microweavable container everyday for my lunch. My co-workers used to rave about the smell and how good my soup looked. If they only knew! :-)

- I opened all the shades on the windows where the sun is streaming in to help the heat- heat the house.

- I baked homemade banana bread from 3 overripe bananas that I got Free at Bashas on sale and with their store coupon a week or so ago. While the oven was hot I made full use of it. I also baked 12 homemade blueberry muffins ( from frozen blueberries that I got for .50 a pint last year) and a pan of homemade cornbread. They all baked together at 400 degrees! When the muffins and cornbread came out at 20 minutes I turned the oven down to 300 to finish baking the bread. I consider this a great way to save on electricity! I froze the bread and 8 of the muffins for future breakfasts. We will have 4 muffins for breakfast tomorrow and the cornbread with the soup tomorrow night and possibly the next night!

- I turned my computer off when not using it to save on electricity!

- I read a great article in a Newsletter that came last week. It was about saving money by grinding your own beef. I could save about $1.00- $ 1.50 a lb. by buying beef on sale and grinding it myself. This way I can control the amount of fat in it and it will be much healthier. I buy 96% or more lean ground sirloin when I buy it and I can never find it for under $3.99 a lb.
I can buy sirloin steaks cheaper than that on sale and save. So I am debating. I already substitute ground turkey for a lot of my ground beef recipes because it is healthier. But then again there is nothing like a juicy hamburger on a bun. So I am gonna spend some time researching this week as to whether it would be cost effective of me to buy the meat grinding attachment for my Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer. I need a good price and then I have to figure how much ground beef I use in a month and see if buying the grinder would be worth it!

-Snacks at lunchtime today was FF saltines and cheese. Healthy and filling!

- I washed my kitchen floor with Clorox Quick Mop that I made my own solution to refill the canister. Much cheaper than buying their refills!

- I clipped 4 flyers of coupons. Yup-turns out I had 4- one was a Fry's full of Kraft Coupons. I only clipped about 30 out of the 4 flyers! The coupons were lousy. I no longer clip any that are for 2 or more product purchases. If they aren't on one product, I don't want them! I also will not clip any convenience food coupon that won't give me the product for free or pennies. It is cheaper to make homemade otherwise.

- I spent some time reading back newsletters for ideas and to refresh my memory.

- I also pulled some recipes from my recipe box that we used to have all the time 30 years ago but that I haven't made in years. I am gonna work on making them over the next few weeks, especially tuna potpie! I have lots of tuna to use up! We get tired of tuna sandwiches, tuna on crackers and seafood casserole. I need some new tuna recipes!

I am gonna finish my day watching Law and Order and Crossing Jordan- 2 of my very favorite shows!

Yesterday I ran DH around while he did some errands. We also purchased a new rosebush with the rest of our Home Depot GC and planted it.

We also met my DIL for dinner at Damons. Between a GC we got for Christmas and a $10. off coupon, we all had a very nice dinner, dessert and drinks for just a 20% tip out of pocket for the waiter.

Today, I have done two loads of wash in cold water and hung them to dry. I also went and did the weekly grocery shopping at Bashas and Safeway. Boy those $1.00 deals go quickly when there are .50/1 doubled coupons. I made out well though. At Safeway, I spent about $20. and saved $32.06 which was 62% of my bill. At Bashas I spent $25.12 but saved 32.40 so a little less saving there.

Dinner tonight is gonna be cheap! My DIL hates salad and it came free with her dinner. So she had them box it for me to take home. It is a good size and I am gonna add lettuce and carrots, sliced chicken and cheese to it for Chef Salads for the two of us.
The lettuce was cheap last week- $ .49 a head, the carrots were free today with a winetag, the sliced chicken was frozen which I thawed. It is left over from Christmas; same for the LO'L cheese!

I am going to go work on some cross-stitch now.

Good Morning!

I just finished my oatmeal for breakfast. I put a load of laundry in to wash in cold water. I will habg it before I go to my appt. later.

While I am out I am gonna go to BBB, Target and perhaps a couple of other places. I have another appt. down the same way 3 hours and 15 minutes later. I may have to come home in between even though it seems like a waste of gasoline. I do also have to fill up the gas tank while I am out. I heard last night on TV that the gasoline prices are headed up again! Yuck!

Since I am so busy today, I took some ground beef out to thaw and will figure out what to do with it later.

Well, I am off to continue my day.

I am planning on picking up a bunch of Free Trial Size products tomorrow at Target. Most of the trial sizes that they carry are about $ .99 each. I have lots of $1.00 off coupons for them that say " Good on any size" and do not exclude trial size.
So read your coupons and use them economically! Free is good!

Some of the tips we use to save money when we eat out:

- Use the coupons from an Entertainment Book(lots of B1G1F)
- Split an entree
- Eat your dessert and drink your beer and liquor at home- these really run up a high tab.
- Drink water if you can; even soft drinks are way overpriced!
-Go to the early bird specials(usualy before 4pm)
-Eat lunch or breakfast out instead of dinner. It's much cheaper!
-Go to all you can eat buffets.
- Take advantage of dining coupons in your local paper.
-Go to restaurants that serve large portions and bring some home for another meal.
-Get Family Meal Deals like 5 for $5.00 at Arbys, etc.

Well, today was beautiful again- warm and sunny!

I decided to check my budget figures for the month since there are only 8 days left and see if I have to cut back for the rest of the month.
Well I am over budget on groceries, medical and entertainment. The medical can't be helped because of DH and I getting sick.
I am $41.00 over budget on groceries so will cool it the rest of the month. My entertainment budget included airplane tickets so I can't get too upset over that. Guess I am not doing too bad.

I cut and filed todays coupons and looked at The Target flyer since I will be going there tomorrow between Dr's appts. I have a $20.00 GC from Christmas.

Dinner tonight was homemade Chicken Lo Mein. Yummy!

Most of the day, DH and I have been watching football!

Well I am off to finish watching the game!

Is anyone else having this problem?

Some of my black slacks were starting to look a little grayish or white. So late this afternoon, I dyed them in the washing machine with dye. They look brand new! Since they were in good shape except for the fading, I figured it was worth a try!

I have been really busy this evening. I did my baking for the week. When I heat up the big oven, I like to do a few things at a time. I baked apple muffins, banana bread, chocolate chips cookies and a dozen cupcakes. Some of them I froze!

At the same time I made a loaf of herb bread in the breadmaker.

I love doing this marathon and getting it all done at once. Especially since I am saving energy at the same time.

First thing this morning I watched Farenheit 911 and then I returned the 4 movies to Blockbuster. It is such a beautiful day that everyone is out and about. Traffic was horrendous!

I came home and cooked my black beans for my black beans, sausage and rice dinner tonight. I love this meal. It is filling and healthy since I use turkey sausage.

It is another almost 80 day, so the windows are open and I am not paying for heat! Yeah!

I had a good mail day since I got a $75.00 rebate check for my refrigerator purchase in December.

Well, I am off to work on taxes.

I am trying to figure out my day tomorrow. I think I have one more movie to watch before I take all 4 of them back. I got Fahrenheit 911 just to see what all the hype was about. DH does not want to watch it, so I will probably watch it early in the morning.

After I take the movies back, I think I am going to work on our Federal and State Taxes. I think I got the last 1099 the other day. If they owe us, I will mail right away. If we owe them, they are not getting mailed till April 15th!

I also need to do some cleaning in the great room. I think dinner will be black beans and rice with sausage!

Well, I still couldn't get into the CVS site, so I sent them an e-mail and let them know. Then I headed for my CVS.

My pharmacist recommended an over the counter eardrop. It is helping a little! But I think I made out well at CVS. I went in and bought a ChapStick on sale for $.29 to get my $5.00 Extracare bucks to print on the bottom of my receipt! Then I did the rest of my shopping:

1- 260 ct. CVS Vitamins- 9.99
1- Ear Drops- $ 4.49
1-CVS Gold Emblem Cashews- $2.50

I used a $4.00 off CVS Brand coupon, $1.00 off any CVS Gold Emblem snack item and my $5.00 Extra bucks coupon. Then I had them take the balance off a CVS GC that I got free with a script, so Grand total in cash= $ 1.07! I'm happy!

I woke up this morning with what seems to feel like a fluid build up in my ear. After DH's problem, I did not want to fool around. So I called my Dr. for an appt. and the first one he had was Monday at 2:45! ARRGH! If it gets any worse, I will find an Urgent Care but I hate to do that.

I am gonna head down to CVS to see if they have some kind of drops to dry up the fluid, like you use for swimmers ear. I just went and tried to pull up the CVS Internet Site so I could print off my $5.00 Extracare Bucks to use for it and the site is down.

My day is not going well!

I ordered some fruit and goodies for DH, DS's and DIL's and my sister from Harry and Davids today at 80% off. I got really neat fruit and goodie drum baskets originally $49.99 for $9.95+ shipping and I also had a 10% off code which reduced the price further. Who cares that they say Happy Holidays instead of Happy Valentines Day! My family knows me well and knows what a bargain hunter I am! They will love them! :-)

I also have beautiful heart wine glasses for DH and I that I bought a few weeks ago with $5.00 off Meryn's coupons making them Free! So I guess I am all set!

Well, DH and I ended up relaxing and watching "Manchurian Candidate"! We loved it! It was a great way to relax this afternoon.

For dinner I made us big Chef Salads. Lettuce was on sale for $ .49 a head this past week, onions and carrots were in the fridge. I thawed some ham left from Christmas and used up some M. Jack and Colby cheese left from the stuffed peppers the other night. We added croutons and olives and we had a filling and delicious dinner. :-)

I am off to watch The Apprentice in a few minutes!

Today I had to get my hair cut. She went up on her prices- so $16.00! I will make up the difference by not going as often.

I just got back from running all my errands. I had a deposit to make at the bank of survey checks that had been piling up here.

Then I went to Home Depot to get muriatic acid for the pool and Weed B Gon concentrate. I used a GC that we were given for Christmas so no money out of pocket.

My last stop was to Blockbuster where I rented 4 recent movies and picked up a Popcorn Tub for the microwave and a 2ltr. Diet Coke. I never get popcorn and soda there but I had a coupon to get both for $2.49 so I treated us. I also had a FREE RENTAL card from the A&H Deal so 1 movie was Free. The whole thing came to $14.+, but I used a GC that DH was given for his birthday so no money out of our pocket. We have a lot of Blockbuster GC's to use up that we got for gifts and a couple that we got for doing My Points!

So except for my haircut, no money out of our pocket today and I even managed to deposit some money. I consider that a Great Day!