We paid all the bills that were due this week and on one we paid a little extra. Not a lot, but every little bit adds up! We don't want to get out of the habit of chipping away at our debt, we're just making the chips smaller this month.
We added to our savings this week as well. We did not reduce the amount of our savings; we just really need to get our emergency fund built back up as quickly as possible, so its amount stays the same.
We spent approximately $55 of our grocery budget this week. It's been several weeks since we've done much grocery shopping other than milk and a few basics. We both were shocked at how much prices have increased since the first of the year!
I've really started working hard at making as many things we use and consume as possible at home. This week I added making kefir cheese and yogurt back to the list of things we produce instead of buy. The ingredients to make these items are less expensive than purchasing the finished product at the store and in my book that's a savings!
Every little thing helps!
How did you do last week, I can't wait to read your comments!
One more thing, the next lesson in our ladies Bible study on the book of Esther, lesson 21, has been posted HERE.
until next time,
mrs. patsi @ A Working Pantry
She looketh well to the ways of her household … Proverbs 31:27
Sharing 44 years' experience of frugal, prudent living and pantry building
My second blog: From This Heart of Mine, where I share my love for God and His Word through my personal Bibe study. Physical preparedness is important, but not near as important as spiritual preparedness. Ladies, join me over at From This Heart of Mine and study God's Word with me.
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I wish you were my neighbor
ReplyDeleteDiana, ~smile~ thank you!
DeleteIt was about that time for Hubs to check out new hearing aids for his moderate to profound hearing loss and I asked how he would feel comparing what his audiologist suggested with Costco. He did a lot of research and we went to Costco. He got incredible hearing aids that his audiologist offered for $6400 for just $1600!! That’s a $4800 savings and the batteries are rechargeable and come with charging station! The warranty was excellent and we aren’t giving up quality.
ReplyDeleteI found 80/20 ground beef on Flashfood for $1.25/pound and bought 14 pounds! I got a 20 pound box of apple cinnamon seasoned bacon ends and pieces for $13 at a discount grocery store I go to (about 90 cents/pound). I cooked up about 15 pounds right away, froze the other 5 pounds in 5 bags and am dehydrating the 15 pounds so it will be shelf stable.
Made some money quilting and binding a new client’s quilt and then finished a large lap quilt just using 2-1/2” scraps I had with some muslin I bought years ago. I’ll make Frankenbatting and use a SA sheet for backing. https://pin.it/5F04INU3X
All in all, a good week!
Gardenpat in Ohio
Gardenpat, those are some incredible savings! It pays to do your research, doesn't it?
DeleteThat is a fabulous price for ground beef, I would have stocked up as well. We have purchased bacon ends and pieces in the past and if we could find a good price like you did, we would do so again.
I like your scrapy quilt, and the frankenbatting is a good idea. This is going to be a beautiful and economically made quilt. Just goes to show that beautiful things don't have to cost a lot of money. Great job!
I want to thank you again, Patsy, for the cheese making post. Sounds like you had a GOOD week! We did, too.
ReplyDeleteAfter a shock with the Safeway grocery ad, I went online to see ads for small, country markets in our general area. One is 1/2 hour drive up the mountain; they had a "case sale" on generic canned vegetables, fruits, tomato & pasta sauce, tuna, baking staples, peanut butter, powdered milk, etc. Well worth the drive to fill the back of the car with donations for our church's food pantry. We didn't need anything ourselves, but the market had a great price on pork butt roast, so I bought one to make more pulled pork for the freezer. A weekend sale had netted low cost b/s chicken breast and lean ground beef: Monday was spent preparing and freezing all of that.
Hubs picked up what he needs to make shelving under the backside of our kitchen island. Thank you, Patsy, for sharing what you and your husband did, as it was our inspiration! We're comfortably retired, but he had a job opportunity that we were relieved didn't come through. Why? Because he'd have no time to do things like that. I was also invited to apply for a job next month. Prayerfully considering (as Hubs did), but I'm 62 and want to save energy to save $$ by being more self-sufficient for us, and to also benefit our nearby son. Point is, it looks like companies are trying to recruit Seniors!!
Gardenpat, I looked into Flashfood; unfortunately, the nearest stores who participate are 3 hrs. away. We're very, VERY rural. Backwoods. The nearest Costco is in Flagstaff, which is 2 hrs. away. While I envy those with those options, I'm determined to find ways to get deals here and share those discoveries with locals. At the end of our street, at the corner where it meets a mountain highway, they're putting in a DG Market--Dollar General, but with only food, including fresh. Fingers crossed that can be part of our shopping rotation.
Have a safe and blessed weekend. --Elise
Elise, you're welcome. I hope your building project goes well.
DeleteIt's wise as we get older to consider our energy level and how to use it, isn't it?
We had a shock this week at the grocery stores in our area too. We came away more determined than ever to do as much with what we have as we can.
Sounds like you had a good week!
It was a big temptation, Patsy. Health insurance costs would go down or be covered. Savings could build faster. There's been a lot of prayer because--by God's grace and mercy--we can manage. Frugally. Saving up slowly. And it really would derail personal goals for the year. Age makes a difference. I'm sure there are younger people in our area who could benefit more from the employment, including those with children. Families are who I think of every time I'm shocked in the grocery store. We had a decade of teenaged boys who about ate us out of house and home; how do families feed their bottomless bellies today? That's why blogs like yours are so important. --Elise
DeletePrices here are up at some stores and down at others. Salvage stores are way up and Publix as well but Sam's Club prices are down. Lidl seems the same. Aldi prices are down a little. I am seeing more sales for staples instead of junky foods. Our grocery bill will be up this month because we seem to out of many bulk items that we buy at Sam's all in the same week. It's okay since we have been way under for the last two months.
ReplyDeleteWell Hubby was for sure hunkered down this week for two days replacing all the plumbing under our kitchen sink. It seems odd that it all went in just a few days but it did and it had to be done now. I am sure it saved at least $500 over having a plumber out for all that. He also had some parts for repairing our kitchen faucet that were sent to us by Moen. We always buy Moen because in the long run it saves us money since all we have to do is call and parts or replacements are on the way free of charge. If Hubby has trouble installing the parts they are just a phone call away for help. They have all our information in the computer so when Hubby calls they pull it up and know exactly what we have here. We cannot say enough good things about the company.
We are still on a mouse hunt. Three down and how many more? We have not had a mouse in years so this is nuts!
Lana, we did a stock up at Sam's club on some staples this week too. This was a planned stock-up and we stayed within our budget, so all is well and we're still on track.
DeleteI'm glad your hubby could do the plumbing repairs, having to call in a plumber is quite expensive!
I hope you find all the mice soon. We're just waiting for the farmers to start turning the fields around us and then we'll be on mouse watch as well.
Your week looks really good, Patsi, as you accomplished your goals. Glad that the kefir cheese was successful. I've done the same thing with yogurt and when there was a cream cheese shortage I started making my own cream cheese and ricotta cheese and still make them myself. Hunkering down has been so effective in making us more self sufficient and incredibly more creative in a lot of areas of our life . We did well this week achieving all of our goals. I hit the jackpot on marked down bananas today. We went to our new Amish market today to pick up a few fresh veggies and they had marked down their brown spotted organic bananas to 10 cents a pound. I was able to get about 7 pounds. Nothing will be going to waste as the skins will be used to make banana water for the garden. Once home I started baking gluten free banana chocolate chip muffins . My recipe uses almond flour and only 1 TBSP of honey for the sweetener. Tomorrow it's supposed to rain all day so I will continue baking and stock the freezer. Some bananas will get frozen for another time. Be blessed, Cookie
ReplyDeleteCookie, I found marked down bananas this week too!!! Those banana chocolate chip muffins sound delicious. Cream cheese and ricotta cheese are on my list of cheeses to learn how to make. We don't use a lot of either, so don't keep them on hand. It would be nice to be able to make them on demand when needed. Sounds like you had a good week!
DeleteWe had our taxes done and goodness I knew we’d owe but not this much. Total hunkering down isn’t “necessary” but it’s looking more like a possibility. Seems like one thing after another. I’m not sure we’re going to able to get our savings back to its previous amount this year. It may take until the end of 2025.
ReplyDeleteLeeAnn, I'm sorry your taxes were more than you anticipated. It hurts to see our hard earned savings to go for things like taxes, doesn't it?
DeletePatsy you did really well to pay all your bills + a bit extra all makes a difference, put your normal amount into savings and started making your own yoghurt and kefir cheese.
ReplyDeleteLike yourself we had fallen into the habit of buying bread and rolls rather than making them during a busy time when we were away from home a lot. I am pleased to say we have now begun making all our own bread again in the bread making machines and made 4 loaves this week using staples we already have in the home so that is saving quite a bit of money.
In groceries from the 27th of February to the 12th we spent $194.32 are under budget in our grocery expenditure by $105.68. As with Lana we did have to replace a lot of staples that we ran out of all at once being plain and wholemeal flours and other things too and we picked up a lot of half sale items and used gift cards to save $110.58 on usual prices.
Financially we have paid all our bills for the week. As we get paid fortnightly we have not banked any money as yet but working out the budget and commitments we should have a fair bit to bank on the 13th when I get paid.
Cheering everyone on from Australia to achieve their targets, especially Lee Ann.
Lorna.
Lorna, everything that we can produce ourselves most of the time saves money. I'm so glad that bread making is doing that for you. We are continually looking for ways to replace what we buy with something we can make. We know that we can't produce everything, but everything that we can helps.
DeleteWe've been eating out of the pantry, and I've been using leftover sock yarn scraps to make hats for gifts.
ReplyDelete