This Month's 2025 Grocery Spending – October

 

Happy Halloween!  Fortunately my trips to the supermarket this past month were far less scary than I had initially anticipated.  Prices are definitely rising!  I started out the month with $175.74 in my grocery shopping coffers ($100 + $75.74 unspent and rolled over from previous months) to spend on food and after several months of not buying much in the way of meat I had some ideas in mind of what I hoped to buy to restock one of the shelves in my deep freezer.  I began the month with a handful of dairy and fresh produce items as well as a fairly full freezer of meal prepped items in the kitchen and only a dent in the deep freezer where I was running low, not out, of lean ground beef.

 

My first trip was to Fred Meyer to pick up three frozen pizzas at $2.99 each (yes, total junk food) and three blocks of cheese that were on sale 3/$5.  The pizzas will net four meals per pizza - two slices per meal for me on a really busy week, so they are a good value and they curb my occasional desire for something naughty.  Before leaving I checked the meat department and found that to be a complete bust.  The prices were really, really high.

 

My next trip was to Albertson’s in hopes of finding some really good deals on meat, preferably markdowns and I scored on exactly what I was looking for.  I was able to restock the shelf in my deep freezer with good quality lean ground beef, a couple small chuck roasts (perfect size for me), two packages of wagyu beef burger patties with four patties each, two packages of ground sausage and a package of sliced turkey for sandwiches - all at 50% OFF.  I was thrilled with this bounty.  I topped it off with a five pound bag of red potatoes on sale making it truly a meat and potatoes haul.  Using some rewards points I had accumulated and were about to expire for a $1 OFF digital coupon as well as a downloaded digital coupon for $5 OFF a $50 Purchase I was able to shave an additional $6 off of my overall total!  I left the store feeling tremendously blessed and fortunate.

 

A few days later I went to Winco to pick up fresh produce, a quart of cream for my coffee and a short list of items I wanted to add to my pantry as part of my winter and holiday preparations.  I was hoping to find some bell peppers at a really good price for a meal prep idea I had in mind and was very fortunate to get some at the low seasonal price I was seeking.  Onions were also at a seasonal low so I went ahead and grabbed a couple more to add to the two I already had at home.  By this point I had used up nearly all of my regular budget, but I still had plenty left, about $75.00 in rollover amounts.

 

The rest of the month I literally cherry picked the ads purchasing only items I found on sale.  At the restaurant supply store I picked up a half gallon of cream with a date well into late November.  At Albertson’s I picked up four of the organic long and skinny cucumbers for 99¢ each to use to make bread & butter pickles.  At Fred Meyer I picked up a one pound block of cheese $2.99 to add to what I had already purchased earlier in the month, a bottle of salad dressing offered for FREE (which I donated to the senior center) and a package of ground pork, they only had one, to replace some of what I had used for meal prepping.

 

Toward the end of the month I did a final grocery shop at Winco and then Trader Joes.  In just a couple of weeks I noticed a big difference in pricing once again at Winco as I picked up some more fresh produce, milk and a few pantry items.  At Trader Joes I noticed a price increase on the turkey burgers and cashews, but other than that prices seemed about the same.  I almost didn’t buy the cashews, but I could only imagine my BFF in my head telling me “get the cashews” so I did. 😆

 

I am amazed!  Even with the purchase of the cashews I did really well with my shopping and spending overall because I got A LOT of stuff!  Even more impressive is that I managed to get everything on my list including the wish and want items.  My freezers, the pantry and the LTFS are fully stocked and I am ready not only for winter ahead, but the holidays as well.

 

My list is so long I had to break it up into 2 parts this time! 

I did not do any nonfood shopping this month, I only bought food.  My total spent out of my beginning balance of $175.74 was a whopping $168.75 leaving me with a balance to rollover of $6.99.  Unbelievable!  I couldn’t be happier!  What do you think?

 

Happy Homemaking

 

In retirement I still enjoy the art of homemaking.  I love nothing more than to spend time in my kitchen preparing a healthy and nutritious meal, baking something, meal prepping and yes, even washing the dishes.  I enjoy cleaning my home, washing the laundry and vacuuming the floors.  I find joy in the mundane of everyday living.

 

I run my home much the same way one would run a small business tracking income and expenses, making appointments, making To-Do lists and planning for the future.  I project for upcoming expenses, projects and I set budgets.  I set goals and I accomplish them too.  I am careful about wastefulness and am a good steward with regard to my resources.

 

Every day I make my bed because it sets me up well for the day ahead.  I get dressed and I am ready to have a good day, which is always my expectation.  I always plan to have a good day and so far that is how they seem to turn out.  I do believe that our attitudes set the tone.  Kindness, respect, consideration of others goes a long way even if it is not returned at the moment we will reap the benefits eventually.  I believe in Karma.

 

Shopping for necessities is also something I like to do, especially food.  I love nothing more than to craft a menu plan, create a shopping list, hunt for sales and bargains, plan my route, gather up my shopping bags, head to the stores and use my cute little shopping cart.  Even lugging all the bags into the house and putting things away gives me a lot of satisfaction.

 

I am a household of one, occasionally two, and I still enjoy homemaking very much because it has value.  It has value because I am important enough to enjoy living in a clean home, wearing clean clothes and eating delicious high quality food.  I am important enough to be well cared for and loved, even if I am the one doing it.  I hope to be happily making my home for a good long time to come.

 

 

A Winter & Holiday Pantry Stock Up

 

It is that time of year again where I like to have plenty on hand so when the weather turns I am not forced to go out if I don’t want to.  Throughout the summer I worked on squirreling away pet food and supplies.  Then I worked on preparing for myself.  This year my list was rather short as I already had plenty on hand.  My main goal was to restock the upright freezer in my garage with more frozen produce.

 

I grated & put away half of the zucchini

Rhubarb from my garden

I was blessed with fresh vegetables from my co-workers this summer and I was able to grate some zucchini and add two packages to the freezer.  I also added some chopped bell peppers and chopped onions for easy meal preparations.  I have added several bags of frozen broccoli, peas and green beans to the lot as well as a huge bag of berries I picked up at Costco and divided up.  I repackaged the frozen vegetables and berries vacuum sealing them in order to stave off potential freezer burn.

 

The beauty of seasonal produce is that I am able to grow, pick and preserve quite a bit each year to add to my pantry and LTFS shelves.  This year I made three different batches of fruit preserves which will be enough for this year and the following year as well.  

 

Peach preserves

Nearly full

Lots of readymade meals & a few frozen pizzas
 have been added to the kitchen freezer

I have quite a bit of meat in the deep freezer as well as on the LTFS shelves so this time I didn’t have to stockpile much in preparation for winter.  Finding ground beef and a couple of small chuck roasts on markdown filled out the gap in the deep freezer.  I also have plenty of home canned soups, tomato products, meats, relish, preserves and fruit on the shelves.  I was able to focus most of my grocery budget on filling in with any pantry staples I was running low on.

 

My last Costco run

This great buy on meat this month filled up the freezer

Plenty of cleaning supplies & toiletries

Upstairs in the linen closet my shelves are filled with plenty of housekeeping and laundry supplies.  I also have plenty of toiletries and paper products.  I simply added a case of facial tissues from Costco to complete the restocking goals in there.  I should be all set to complete the year and begin the next year with no difficulty.

 

Holiday baking and meals are going to be based off of what I already have on hand with one exception.  I will be going to Costco next month to pick up two rotisserie chickens and placing them in the freezer to use at the holidays.  I tried this last year and it worked out really well.  At this stage of my life I don’t need to roast a great big turkey as a whole chicken is adequate.

 

After I pick up a couple of these I'll be all set for the holidays

Having a home that is well stocked with adequate food and supplies gives me great peace of mind as I head into winter time.  It will help me not only take care of my needs but free up some cash for tackling higher heating bills as the temperatures drop.  The bonus of being well stocked is the peace of knowing I won’t need to go shopping when the weather is yucky.

 

 

My Tireless Retirement - Week 186

 

If you are feeling like we are hurdling toward the holidays and the end of the year you are in good company.  I am right there with you my friends.  Time feels like it is gaining speed.  I’m ready for the holidays though so bring it on!  What little shopping I needed to do has been done and I’ve started putting together Christmas cards and supplies so I will be ready to get them sent out the first part of December.  I’ve got a good jumpstart on my groceries to make lots of delicious holiday meals and treats too.  I think this is the earliest I’ve been ready and with my shopping completely done.  Huh.  I guess practice makes perfect!

 

I woke up last Friday morning and it felt like it was time to turn on a little bit of heat so I fired up the electric fireplace for the first time this year.  I really enjoy my little fireplace and the cozy vibe it adds to my home, especially this time of year.  We are on the cusp of needing heat to take the chill off in the morning and needing it full time so for right now just using the fireplace is working out perfectly.  I’m sure that will be changing soon though.

 

I worked late Saturday morning to escort a group of seniors on a walking tour in downtown Boise about the Chinese/China Town history during the later 1800s.  Of course, at the time we originally scheduled this activity we didn’t know there would be a No Kings Rally going on at the same time.  With thousands of people heading toward the Capitol building it was a bit stressful keeping my group corralled together and not allowing anyone to get swept up in the crowd, but I managed it and no one got lost in the shuffle.  Thank goodness!  I did say a little prayer that morning that all would go well and that the rally would be peaceful, which it was.  I also prayed for an available parking space at City Hall and I got one too!  It was a good day.

 

Also, over the weekend I pulled out the slow cooker and the pressure canner for a canning project I wanted to work on.  I was down to the last two pint jars of pork verde (yikes!) while I had been waiting for a good sale on pork roasts.  I found a decent sale on pork shoulder for $1.69 per pound at Fred Meyer so I decided to start November’s grocery shopping a little early in order to pick one up, however, at the store the BFF paid for this little grocery excursion (which he tends to do anytime I let him go with me plus he talks me into getting crap I normally wouldn’t) so I got to hang onto my grocery money.

 

Once we got home we got right to work.  This ten pound roast filled up my largest slow cooker.  After letting it cook all night I removed the bone and fat, which wasn’t a lot surprisingly, and it easily fell apart.  I added a couple sliced onions and a large can of my favorite green enchilada sauce and let that cook for another hour.  I was able to can eleven pint jars of pork verde to add back to the LTFS shelf.  Crisis averted!

 

I was also getting low on canned boneless skinless chicken breast.  While picking up the pork roast we had also picked up a package “on sale” for $2.69 a pound, which is about a dollar a pound more than what the sales prices used to be (groan).  I was able to cut up the chicken and get it into the pressure canner adding five pint jars to the LTFS shelves.  Not a lot of chicken, but enough to make me feel really good about having these extra jars of meat added to my winter preparations.  We should be set with shelf stable meat options for quite a while.

 

The big bag of leftover donated bagels I brought home from work the previous week ended up in the trash.  The chickens wouldn’t eat them which I took to mean they were made out of not-so-good ingredients.  I’m glad I didn’t eat any of them either.  Chickens are smart.

 

I had replaced the toilet seats in both bathrooms not long after my youngest moved out of the house.  The one upstairs I had apparently scrubbed too much because the finish was worn off of it making it look dirty all the time.  I think it had a faulty finish to begin with because the downstairs toilet sees more action than the upstairs one and it is fine.  Nonetheless, the one upstairs didn’t look good and if you didn’t know any better you’d likely question the cleanliness so I grabbed a can of spray paint out of the garage and gave it a budget refresh.  After leaving to dry and then cure for forty eight hours it was good as new.  I am so grateful that worked.

 

Pumpkin pie has been calling to me for weeks now so I caved and made a no crust pumpkin pie as our treat for the week, which is fairly low carb since there is no crust and I used half monk fruit sweetener and half sugar.  We topped it with real whipped cream.  It was so good!  I will be making more of these in the next few months.

 

I finished out the week by working Thursday evening and took a group to dinner and then to the theater.  We saw the play Dracula, A Comedy Of Terrors and it was absolutely wonderful.  I loved it and I think my seniors did too.

 

I hope you all enjoyed a wonderful week and are having a terrific weekend as well.  Let me know, is it cooling down where you live and have you had to turn on the heat?  Also, have you started Christmas shopping yet?  How about projects around the house?

 

You Need A Lot Less Than You Think

 

For the bulk of my life I have been in an acquisition mindset.  I needed to acquire a good job, a decent car, a house to live in, money for savings, money for an emergency fund, money for retirement, food and clothing.  I needed more things to take care of myself, my children and our pets.  I needed even more things to take care of the house, the cars, the yard and everything inside of the house, the car and the yard.  I acquired stuff to help my kids with when they moved out on their own.  I even acquired stuff in preparation for retirement.

 

When I retired the majority of that need to have an acquisition mindset came to a grinding halt and when I became an empty nester, even more so.  Some have a decade between the empty nest and retirement to adjust to the new normal that comes with that, but for me it was only a few months.  I retired and three months later my last little chickadee had flown the nest and it was just me, a bunny, two kitties and some chickens.

 

It really hit me full on when back-to-school time rolled around that summer right after the 4^th of July and I realized there wasn’t a single thing I needed to do about it.  No clothes shopping, no school supplies needed (they already had all of that stuff), no registration, yearbook fees, none of that.  I was done!  My kids no longer needed me to provide for them.  They were on their own and doing it themselves (they are very independent) and I was a very proud mama.

 

Over these past few years has come the realization that I alone consume a whole lot less stuff than we did as a family.  Everything lasts longer too.  It has taken me this long to fully realize just how much I truly need and to dial it down.  I still shop in the same manner I always have, it has become a lifelong habit, but I just need much smaller quantities and it has take me a while to figure out just exactly what those quantities are.  It has also taken me this long to allow myself to feel “selfish” as I shop for only me now and I can get whatever I want.  Anyone else have that same struggle?

 

It is a true luxury to have steak, shrimp or salmon more often now than I used to and to be able to buy better quality foods now.  Organic milk and better dairy products as well as higher quality meats and produce are now the norm, which is good because as we age we need the best nutrition we can afford to help us along the way.

 

The need for much less means I don’t shop as much as I used to, therefore I don’t spend as much as I used to spend either.  I’ve also come to realize that I no longer need a three bedroom, two bathroom home to live in and maintain.  Downsizing my home is now a big goal for me.  With that venture will come even less spending and that will go a long ways in securing my financial future.

 

We need far less in our retirement years than what we realize going into this next phase of our lives and for me, it takes a bit of getting used to.  I think it is important to get used to it sooner rather than later and I think I’m just about there.

 

Turn Off The Rage Machine

 

About six weeks ago, the same week a road rage incident on our interstate ended with lethal consequences (the victim shot and killed the aggressor), I was also a victim of road rage during busy rush hour evening traffic.  A woman (yes a woman) behind me was literally losing her $h!t, blasting her horn at me and acting as though she was going to ram the back of my car with hers because I wouldn’t go.  We had a red light and from where she sat she couldn’t see the flow of oncoming traffic I was required to yield to, but she was relentless.  Had I pulled out, as she would’ve liked, I definitely would have caused an accident, undoubtedly.

 

Fortunately, once I was able to go, I was able to weave my way through a few lanes of traffic and get away from her.  I pulled into a busy supermarket parking lot with a lot of people in it and gratefully she did not follow me and I watched her continue on.  I believe she got caught up in traffic allowing me to get away.  I chose a different route home and on my way as I thought about what had just happened I was truly amazed by her behavior.  I also said a little prayer for me, for her and then I forgave her.

 

What causes someone to go off the rails and behave like that, I do not know, but I also realized I don’t know her story.  Maybe this was a one off, maybe she had an emergency and needed to get somewhere, or maybe she acts like this all the time, it’s hard to say.  What I do know is while she was out of control I was in control.  I was in control.  I chose not to react to her rage or engage.  Instead I adhered to traffic laws and then safely drove away as soon as I was able.  Luckily it ended well for me because I know all too well it doesn’t always end well for everyone.

 

We need to turn off the rage machine that seems to be the norm rather than the exception lately.  Anger and rage is steeped in fear and I know that, but most people don’t.  When you get down to the base of why someone is angry it is usually because they are fearful about something.  With that in mind I do whatever I can to keep a cool head and not get dragged into whatever drama happens to be going on.  As always, cooler heads prevail.

 

Had I reacted to the woman raging in her car behind me, like flipped her off or something stupid like that, things could’ve escalated and gone seriously wrong.  She might have actually rammed my car sending me forward into oncoming traffic.  She could’ve followed me into the parking lot and thankfully she didn’t, but she could’ve and who only knows how that might have played out.  I would’ve had to call 911, but what might have happened before they had a chance to arrive?  As it happened there was actually a deputy sheriff standing in the parking lot at the time.  That never happens!

 

So my friends, should you find yourself in a similar situation, I implore you to stay calm and do your best to diffuse the situation as much as possible.  Get away, call 911 if you need to and thank God for His protection and wisdom.  Then once you’ve thought it all over forgive that person.  We need to turn off this rage machine that seems to be consuming so many these day.  Violent and aggressive behavior is never a viable option.  We need to be better humans.