This Month's Grocery Spending 2023 – November

 

My goal before I did any new grocery shopping this month was to first use up all of the fresh produce in my refrigerator so that none of it went to waste.  By the time the November rolled around I was down to four potatoes, three carrots and a small wedge of purple cabbage.  Since I already had plans for using those three items I went ahead and did a big grocery shop at Winco with the main items being more fresh produce.

 

At the beginning of the month this was all the fresh produce I had on hand

I did use up those potatoes, carrots and purple cabbage as planned, but I also prepped the majority of the new produce as well adding more items to my freezer and doing some meal prepping.  Not only do I have lots of good produce options in my freezer right now, but I also had several delicious and healthy meals to enjoy during some of my busier weeks this month.  Even better, no produce went to waste.  Even the bunny and the chickens ended up with some goodies to gnaw on.

 

I restocked with fresh produce, cream and a couple pantry items

I went to Fred Meyer on the way home armed with paper and digital coupons to pick up some items that were on sale.  The three pound package of lean ground beef was cut in half and I used one of the halves to make a meatloaf along with the last of the potatoes and carrots plus some asparagus for a Sunday dinner.  That meal alone yielded five good sized servings.  The other half of the ground beef was cut in two, wrapped and put away in the deep freezer.  The remaining purple cabbage was finely chopped and added to some of the new green cabbage I purchased as well as items I already had in the pantry and freezer for a delicious Asian Chicken Salad.

 

My super sales items from Fred Meyer

At Fred Meyer I was able to stock up on cottage cheese, sour cream and canned pineapple for 99¢ each.  The two cans of pineapple plus the two cans of tuna I picked up at Winco replaced what I had recently used from my long term food storage.

 

I used half the ground beef to make a meatloaf
The other half I cut again, wrapped & added to the freezer

Just before Thanksgiving I did a mini shopping trip to pick up items on sale.  One item I was hoping to get on sale was potatoes.  Even though I live in Idaho, potatoes have been overpriced for quite some time.  I was hoping the Thanksgiving holiday would mean they would go on sale and fortunately they did for $1.29 for a 5# bag (last year they were on sale for 88¢ for a 5# bag) so I was able to restock in time for the holidays and some planned dinner guests.  I also got some butter on sale for $2.49 a pound (last year it was on sale for $1.88 a pound) so I picked up two.  I was hoping for a good price on ham, but that didn’t happen.  Perhaps next month?  We shall see.

 

Potatoes & butter on sale at Albertsons

I didn’t do a whole lot of food shopping because fortunately I really didn’t need much, mainly some fresh produce and some dairy items to round out my refrigerator.  I didn’t purchase any nonfood items.  My final total came in at $60.68 which I didn’t think was too bad considering the rampant rise in grocery prices this year.  I did contact Albertsons a couple weeks ago and expressed my concern not only over their increased pricing, but also their shrinking sizes on many of their products and cited several of those items as examples.  They actually contacted me about it and said they would forward my feedback onto their pricing department.

 

How did your grocery shopping go this month?  Were you able to stock up for the holidays and still stay within your budget?  Did you find you needed to do anything differently this year as a result of the higher grocery prices?

 

My Tireless Retirement - Week 86

 

After two busy weeks in a row I was ready for a vacation!  At least a staycation anyway.  I only worked last Monday and then had the remainder of the week off over the Thanksgiving holiday.  Beginning today I’m back to work though and I’m ready too.

 

Time spent in the kitchen baking always makes my heart happy

Beautiful!

I had plenty of pie crust scraps leftover so I made a little quiche

I had no concrete plans, just a few ideas of what I was doing for Thanksgiving which, as it turned out was a good thing.  My BFF had a change to his plans and ended up here on Tuesday which was a happy surprise.  We went to the movie theatre on Tuesday and out to dinner on Wednesday after I baked pies and we cleaned up a mountain of leaves in the yard.  I kept Thanksgiving dinner really simple and it was delicious.

 

While peeling potatoes I looked out the kitchen
window to find this happy little sight

Simple yet delicious with just the right amount of leftovers

We did more leaf clean up on Friday (no Black Friday shopping) and I think I’m now done for the season.  Plus we watched movies, played cards, ate too much and just did whatever the heck we felt like doing.  I felt super blessed and loved with all the “Happy Thanksgiving” messages I received via text message, facebook and on this blog.  It ended up being a really great week.  I sure hope it was a great week for you guys too.

 

All done and cooling
The house smelled absolutely amazing!

I pulled out my vintage cookbooks & used
Betty Crocker's pumpkin pie recipe this year

Now that Thanksgiving is in the books I’ll be putting away the fall décor and bringing out Christmas which I’ve actually been looking forward to this past couple of weeks.  Getting my Christmas cards ready to mail out is also on the agenda.  Then I have to start thinking about my next big grocery shopping trip so I’m well stocked for both Christmas and New Year’s entertaining.  I’m super excited for all the fun and festivities in December.  How about you?

 

Anyone else have a favorite Thanksgiving show they like to watch?

Did anyone go Black Friday shopping?  Were there any great deals to be had this year?

 

Recession Busting - How Far Can We Cut Back?

 

I thought it might be appropriate to discuss cutting back on, of all days, Black Friday.  I’ve never been much of a Black Friday shopper myself so it has never had a particular hold on me, however if I were to see a really good price on something I needed I wouldn’t be opposed to venturing out.  Fortunately for me, I am sitting in a good place in my life.  I am grateful to be able to say I have everything tangible that I need and want right at the moment.  Because of that I get to enjoy a relaxed, content and peaceful way of life.

 

Like a lot of people it hasn’t always been easy to acquire what I’ve needed to get by in life.  There have been plenty of times where I’ve lost sleep and worried over whether or not I would be able to make ends meet or even afford groceries.  But, by the grace of God, somehow I’ve always managed.  With slim budgets, some creativity and resourcefulness, and a lot prayer I have had loads of practice making it through the hard times.  Our current recession has me thinking and re-thinking about many things right now and coming up with ways to cut back and make it through, yet again.  It certainly isn’t my first rodeo.

 

My motivation is to simply protect and keep what I currently have.  Many are asking “how far can we cut back?” as they feel they may be at the end of their financial rope.  In my experience we can do far more with far less than we initially think we can.  I’ve quite often surprised myself.

 

As I head into the winter season I’m re-evaluating many things to see how I can make it through without breaking the bank.  I’m referring to it as “recession busting” because quite frankly I’ve grown a little sick and tired of it.  You’ll probably be seeing a lot more of my blog posts leaning in this direction as I march on into 2024.  Afterall, I was The Thrifty Mom In Boise and in many, many ways I still am.  Are you sick and tired of this economic situation too?  Yeah, I thought so.

 

Happy Thanksgiving

 

Wishing you all a very blessed holiday.

I am truly so grateful to all of you, my beautiful readers.

My Tireless Retirement - Week 85

 

Hello my friends.  I hope everyone is doing well and had a fabulous week.  It was another busy one for me, but in a very good way.  I’ve been working on getting the green tomatoes I brought in ahead of the frost into the bag in the freezer as they ripen plus enjoying them with my salads too.  What a great thing to still have garden fresh tomatoes in November!

 

A couple weeks ago I had brought in some rosemary and allowed it to thoroughly dry before I crumbled it into a small quarter pint sized jar for my spice cabinet.  It totally smelled like Thanksgiving while I was doing this.  I used a parmesan cheese lid I had washed and saved for this jar so I can have easy access next time I decided to use rosemary in my recipes.  I love to add rosemary to my stockpot whenever I’m making chicken or turkey broth and it also goes really well with pork.  Roasted vegetables too.  I am very happy I added a rosemary bush to my garden last spring.

 

Along with taking care of my herb and tomato harvest I was doing some preparing for the next garden season.  I winterized the garden beds, planted garlic and mulched a lot of the leaves that had fallen onto the ground.  I also planted daffodil bulbs in the flowerbeds near the bird bath.  I’ve always wanted daffodils in my yard for ages so now, come spring, I will finally have them.  I think next fall I will likely add more tulips, some more daffodils and maybe some crocus.

 

I made a really good pot of soup last week

As my age 59½ nears (March 2) I’ve been doing a lot of financial planning and working with my advisor lately to make sure I am able to make the most of those retirement dollars I’ve been squirreling away all these years.  Neither one of us was expecting or could have predicted the current rate of inflation the past two years, but fortunately it does not appear it will have too negative of an impact for me.  As he told me at our last meeting, what I have going for me is that I have no debt, my monthly expenses are very low (even in the wintertime) and I choose to live simply.  Amen brother!  The goal, according to him, is to make sure my financial needs are adequately covered so I am not feeling stressed about finances at all.  Instead I can focus on taking good care of myself and improving my health.  I like his way of thinking!

 

After filing a complaint with Albertsons about their “shrinkflation” tactics as well as several instances of what I perceive as price gouging where I gave several examples and told them I would not be shopping there anymore if this continued they actually contacted me and asked for more input.  Then they promised to turn it over to their pricing department and thanked me for contacting them.  I was shocked.  Not wanting to be someone that just sat around and complained about stuff I wanted to take action and make a stand.  Do I expect anything to change?  Not really, but you never know.  If enough of us do something, then yes, we can effect change.

 

I ended my week with a quick trip into Albertson’s for a 5# bag of potatoes and two pounds of butter they had on sale.  I also ordered more photos at Walgreens so I picked those up along the way as well.

 

It was a busy work week as I filled in for employees that called in sick and helped with the Christmas Bazaar.  It was nearly a full time work week, but I had a lot of fun so it didn’t feel like it.  This week I work today and have the next six off for the Thanksgiving holiday.  I’m not complaining about that at all.  I plan to continue working on my photo album project.  I hope you all had a great week last week and enjoy a wonderful holiday with your loved ones this week.  Take care and don’t eat too much! 😉

 

Winterizing The Garden Beds & Planting Garlic

 

Last weekend I managed to get outside and finish up the last of the work I had planned to do in garden.  A couple weeks ago I had spread a bunch of rabbit manure and all of the chicken bedding when I cleaned out the coop and got it winter ready plus all of the leaves from the catalpa tree that had fallen in the backyard.  The soil in two of the beds was pretty good but there is always room for improvement so I wanted to make sure I got plenty of good amendments added to these beds.

 

I dumped all the soil out of the flowerpots into this bed

I plan to get some new soil for the pots next spring

The soil in the third bed along the deck left a lot to be desired as it was mostly store bought crap from Home Depot so I emptied all of the soil from my flowerpots and added lots of bunny and chicken goodness.  With the fallen leaves that had landed on top of all of that I went ahead and turned it all over and raked it smooth to rest through the winter.  Come on earth worms!

 

I planted four rows of garlic here

Make me more compost ladies!

After doing the same thing in beds one and two I planted four rows of garlic where I had planted the cilantro last spring in bed one.  I had to wait a few extra weeks for the weather to cool down and we got a couple good frosts so I didn’t have my garlic sprouting ahead of time.  Now that it is planted I can sit back and wait to see it pop up sometime next spring.  Wish me luck.  This is the first time I’ve ever planted garlic.  I understand it is a heavy feeder so it should enjoy all of the good bunny manure that I added to that area.  As time goes on I’ll be adding more.

 

I planted daffodil bulbs

I feel really good getting this all checked off my list, so good in fact that I ended up planting a dozen daffodil bulbs in the big flower bed.  I can hardly wait to look out my kitchen window next spring and see them coming up.  I’ve wanted daffodils in my flowerbeds for ages and now I finally will have some.  I can hardly wait!

 

Looking pretty good back here

I don’t know about you, but I’ve already got loads of garden plans swirling around in my noggin.  I’m hoping to get a warming pad and start some seeds in March, mainly tomato and pepper plants.  I’ve already collected quite a few packets of seeds for next year and I’ve got some ideas for expanding my growing space.  Come spring I should be plenty busy outside in my yard.  I’m super excited!

 

Christmas Gifting This Year

 

As the Christmas holiday approaches I find myself entering yet another phase of life.  Many, many individual conversations have taken place in recent months, some as far back as last year, and I know within my circle of friends and family that we are all entering a new phase in our lives.

 

Right now, there are no little children to consider, we are all adults with our own homes and fortunately we’ve all been blessed to have what we need.  Most of us are finding ourselves in various degrees of downsizing or decluttering what we have in order to move into a smaller space or just to live more simply.  Some are deeply committed to Swedish Death Cleaning right now, while others just don’t need or want any more stuff in their lives.  Things are changing, we are all evolving and adapting to our current state.

 

Most of my friends and relatives are retired or working their way in that direction so they are focused on living with smaller budgets while saving and investing their money for the future.  I am right there myself.  Others are trying to live within their means so as not to incur debt while working on an education or establishing a career.  I’ve been there as well.

 

We all agree the current recession and skyrocketing prices has impacted us in one form or another and it just seems ridiculous to try to keep up the same old practices for no other reason than to just keep it up.  It isn’t the same anymore.  It isn’t fun to go out and Christmas shop when you’re emotionally or financially stressed out about it.  No one really wants to spend their hard earned cash on over inflated prices for stuff that isn’t all that important anyway.

 

Instead of giving gifts this year we just want to use what we have in our pockets to get together for a meal and enjoy each other’s company and I am thrilled with that idea.  More time spent with friends and family, playing games, watching a movie or just sitting around and visiting.  It just sounds absolutely perfect to me and I couldn’t be more excited about it.

 

I have a few people on my Christmas list that I know would benefit from a gift card to help them with their expenses and I’ll be tucking those into a few greeting cards this year.  I know someone who could use a gift card to fuel their vehicle, another one to get some groceries and one that needs a few things from Home Depot to make life a little easier.  A little something to brighten their holidays and I know they won’t feel obligated to try to return the favor because I’ve made it clear that I don’t want anything from them with the preface “I don’t need another declutter project”.  That is the truth too.

 

Every holiday season I give to the food bank as well as the high school food pantry and I do plan to continue to do that as well as adding some items to the local humane society food drive.  They have a huge need for cat food this year so I want to help out with a contribution.  Other than that I’ll be cooking a little bit, baking some things and spending time with those that are nearest and dearest.  My tree may look a little funny without anything under it (other than some gifts for my kitties), but I do think this is going to be a truly great Christmas season nonetheless.  Best of all, everyone can just breathe a sigh of relief and enjoy the holiday.

 

I Replaced My Car

 

Unlike when I sold my chest freezer and then ended up missing it I have yet to miss or have any second thoughts about selling my car.  I still feel it was the right decision for me.  With the freezer however, I really did miss having a deep freeze, especially as the freezer on my side by side refrigerator is rather small.  Last summer I ended up getting a small upright freezer and I’ve been really happy with that decision.

 

As the lone driver in my household my truck is more than adequate at this time to meet my needs.  Having a car and a truck, for the amount of actual driving I do, was overkill and although my vehicles are all paid for I still could not justify the expense of licensing, insuring, operating and maintaining that many vehicles.  I do like to have a backup vehicle if I need one and honestly, I could use my motorhome if it came to that.  Or, I could use the city bus.  Or, even better, I could ride my bike.  Or… I could invest in an e-bike.

 

I’ve been considering and looking at electric bikes since before I retired, but they are rather expensive and I was having a hard time pulling the trigger and buying one.  I was afraid I’d spend all that money and end up not liking and ultimately not using it.  I sure didn’t want to risk wasting that much money.  However, in September I was able to get one on sale for about half the price from Walmart.com.  It is a Schwinn mountain bike, I’ve never had a mountain bike before, and it is that beautiful bright lime green that I love so much.  My first impression - I love this thing!

 

I stripped down a kids bike trailer and added this wood platform

The main reason I was considering an e-bike was to use as a second source of transportation.  A after I sold the car I had the funds to spend so at the time it seemed like a no-brainer, but still, I hesitated.  I just wasn’t 100% sold on the idea.  But, the more I thought about it the more it began to make sense, especially when I began to struggle riding my current bicycle.  I’ve had my bicycle for nearly thirty years.  I bought it at a yard sale for $15 and it has been a wonderful bike.  It is a JC Penney city cruiser and is the same age as me.  It is also green.  Several years ago I converted a kid’s bike trailer into a cargo trailer so I can take it to the store and pick up groceries and supplies and it works really well.  However, as time goes on and I am getting older I haven’t been using either one much and yet, I really wanted to.

 

I then added this bin with a snap tight lid

Just before I turned twenty years old I had a stroke and my left side is weaker as a result.  I’ve worked really hard all my life to get to and stay at a point that it hasn’t affected too me overly much.  The hardest things for me to do are climb stairs (or a hill) and the one thing I’ve struggled with the most is to ride a bicycle.  That has been the hardest for me.  Since my heart attacks in 2021, it has been even harder and this year, although my strength, stamina and endurance have greatly improved, my ability to ride my bicycle has actually diminished.  At some point you just have to call it what it is and make a change so you can continue to do and enjoy the things you love.  So I pulled the trigger and bought an e-bike.

 

I am able to haul quite a bit!

I love that I can still ride a bike.  I can start out and ride like normal and when I feel like I need a little help to peddle I just turn on the peddle assist mode and I can keep going.  Before, I wouldn’t ride if it was windy at all because I couldn’t peddle very well if I had to ride head on into the wind and I was careful not go where there were any hills or steeper inclines.  The last time I rode my regular bicycle the wind picked up and I had to stop often and rest.  By the time I got home I was completely exhausted and my left leg gave out on me in my driveway.  I knew if I wanted to continue riding a bike I needed some help.

 

Both bikes fit neatly into the same space in my garage
Note the upgraded gel padded seat!

The cargo trailer hitch adapter fits on the e-bike so I can still use it too, which makes me extremely happy.  Now I can ride my bike, go more places, do more things and I can go further, even on a breezy day.  I also have that additional source of transportation which is really important to me.  My only complaint so far about this e-bike is that the seat that came in it is HARD as a rock.  I remedied that immediately by replacing the seat with a wider padded one so my fanny is much, much happier.

 

A future purchase

As time goes on I may add a headlight and taillight, although right now I do not plan to ride at night. I may had a basket onto the front or a cargo attachment to the back.  I haven’t quite decided yet if I want a speedometer, but that might be a fun addition.  It is a zippy little thing and I almost scared myself when I initially tested it out.  I do know a water bottle is high on the priority list.  One must stay hydrated.

 

I also have one of these safety jackets

As just a bicycle it is a really nice bike.  With the pedal assist as an electric bike it takes me to a whole other level.  I am absolutely thrilled.