Our 2019 No Spend Challenge

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alliesmama4
Posts: 8591
Joined: Sun Aug 30, 2015 10:10 pm
Location: Southern IL

Re: Our 2019 No Spend Challenge

Post by alliesmama4 »

I have such good neighbors. I just took some mail to their house since it was left in my box. I asked my neighbor where should I bring my trash next week. He showed me where. I told him I did not bring any last week due to the snow.. He said, " you should have called me I would have come over to pick it up." I told him that was thoughtful but you are allowing me to use your trash cans and then call you to pick it up is asking a bit much.lol


The other neighbors are going to start to talk since this neighbor is bow hunting in the woods behind my house. He will drive his truck or ATV over and park in my driveway for hours..I rarely see him due to the woods being so dense. In fact I was so worried about him one day I called his wife to ask her to call him on his cell phone to see if he was ok. She was not concerned since she said he is like that when he hunts gone for hours. She did call him but he had his phone turned off.

I finally heard from my orthopedic physician's assistant about my MRI done in Nov. I apparently fell through the cracks and they did not receive the report. Anyway I am to see a spinal specialist Dec 27th in St. Louis. I hope we can somehow avoid surgery. I have multiple areas of spinal stenosis in my lower back. I am concerned that this will affect my spring planting plans.. I have been tossing ideas around about how to keep my resident squirrel, Dennis the Menace, off of my deck this spring and summer. I plan on talking them over with my contractor when he comes to repair and paint the great room ceiling after the first of the year. I like planting things on my deck since I can sit in a chair and do the work. However I will need to find some way to get the terracotta pots and dirt on to the deck without straining my back.
Janet Alliesmama
Dgflorida
Posts: 4381
Joined: Wed Oct 07, 2015 8:10 pm

Re: Our 2019 No Spend Challenge

Post by Dgflorida »

Absolutely, I understand about the gardening and how to manage bags of soil. I am doing more with raised beds. And I understand about squirrels.

Chili yum.
alliesmama4
Posts: 8591
Joined: Sun Aug 30, 2015 10:10 pm
Location: Southern IL

Re: Our 2019 No Spend Challenge

Post by alliesmama4 »

I out did myself making chili. The recipe called for 3 lbs of ground beef but I only used 8 oz. I used canned chili beans that were in a chili flavored sauce and added about a half pound of cooked pinto beans to increase the bulk due to less meat. I had cooked the beans previously and froze them. The chili still tasted good. I had a big bowl for dinner and froze three containers in the freezer for later. I kept a big bowl out for tomorrow or the next day. I like the chili recipe and the decreased meat really did not affect the taste. I am thinking I could make another batch in the future and use lentils in place of the meat to make a vegetarian chili. I opened a large can of tomato juice but only needed 2.5 cups of juice for the chili so I will freeze the same amount to make another batch of chili. Thus saving a few nickles and dimes by not having to buy tomato juice again. Initially I had planned to drink the juice off and on for breakfast or as a snack. In fact I have all of the ingredients that I need to make another batch of chili without buying anything. One of the cans of flavored beans was BOGO so it was free and the other one was a different brand and bought on sale. I did not have enough fresh onion to use but had dehydrated onion and threw that in the pot.. I think next time I need to hydrate it before doing that. I think the tomatoes and tomato sauce slowed down the absorption.When I add them to a chicken stock base they hydrate without a problem.

I cleaned my fridge freezer out and reorganized it. While doing so made an inventory of what needs to be used up soon and for future meal planning.

I did not go to the grocery store to buy sausage today. I decided the Saturday before Christmas it would be a zoo out there. So I plan on getting up early Sunday and go to the store. Most stores are bit slower on Sunday due to the people going to church. I need baby carrots for Teddi for the coming week otherwise I would not bother. Also the sausage may not even be on sale right now. No big deal if it is not. I will just save my money for the next sale.

I have a lot of food to work with. My niece has invited me to Christmas dinner and I had been saving some ham in the freezer to eat on Christmas so will go ahead and use some of it now. I have some russet potatoes that need to be used and found a recipe that makes a ham and potato quiche. Also have a lot of eggs that need to be used up. I bought them dirt cheap a while back .58 cents a doz but really need to find recipes to use them up soon. Eggs are good at least 5 weeks past their use by or best by date. Mine are getting close to that time.

I think I will freeze the last of my tuna noodle casserole and make another batch of tuna fish salad (3 eggs), faux potato salad using a bag of frozen cauliflower from the freezer, (4 eggs), and some deviled eggs for snacking. That should use up a carton of eggs. However need to pick up some fresh yellow onions at the grocery store tomorrow.
Janet Alliesmama
alliesmama4
Posts: 8591
Joined: Sun Aug 30, 2015 10:10 pm
Location: Southern IL

Re: Our 2019 No Spend Challenge

Post by alliesmama4 »

I made out like a bandit at the grocery store this morning. I bought $39.89 worth of food for $12.69. The sausage was still on sale but the sale price had gone up from $1.99 to 2 for $5.00 still it was cheaper than the usual $3.49 a roll.Now that I know I like it I can watch for more sales.

I went to the store for sausage, baby carrots for Teddi, and fresh onions.I skipped the baby carrots they were $2.50 and I know I can get them cheaper at Ruler. I do have to run in to town tomorrow for an errand and will stop at Ruler as soon as the doors open at 9:00 AM. A quick in and out before the mad rush of holiday shopping starts.

Here are the following things I bought for free. Some items were marked down drastically so that is why they were free:

1.Large bag of gluten free pretzels. I never buy them they are too expensive but were half price and the use by date is into 2020.I plan on opening them and store them in separate canning jars and they should last a long time as a treat. Gluten free anything is really high in carbs so have to watch how many I eat.

2.Schar's gluten free bread crumbs. Also never buy them due to the cost.

3. (2) one pound rolls of pork sausage.

4. a loaf of shelf stable multi grain gluten free bread. Half price. Gluten free bread usually cost an arm and a leg. So big savings. I am going to try to keep it for back up since it is shelf stable in to 2020.

5. A 2 lb package of beef sausage similar to kielbasa but made with beef.

6. Half of a container of store brand cool whip. I bought a whole container but only half was free.

The original cost of everything was $38.89. However with mark downs I saved $12.66. I used my store rewards which was $6.00 and I decided to use all of my survey money which was a total of $9.00. So it came to around 12.69 final line. I did buy other food items but did not list them due to they were regular price and just some nice add on due to saving so much money.

I can sit back and really work at being frugal as far as food is concerned until I get my taxes paid in Feb. After they are paid I can breath a big sigh of relief. Biggest credit cards will have been paid off and will now be able to pay property taxes on time and will not have to pay a penalty for being late. I am saying this softly since you never know what can happen but 2020 money wise is looking good. First time in decades.
Last edited by alliesmama4 on Mon Dec 23, 2019 8:48 am, edited 1 time in total.
Janet Alliesmama
floridacatlover
Posts: 8060
Joined: Fri Aug 28, 2015 7:21 am

Re: Our 2019 No Spend Challenge

Post by floridacatlover »

alliesmama4 wrote: Sun Dec 22, 2019 3:29 pm I made out like a bandit at the grocery store this morning. I bought $39.89 worth of food for $12.69. The sausage was still on sale but the sale price had gone up from $1.99 to 2 for $5.00 still it was cheaper than than the usual $3.49 a roll.Now that I know I like it I can watch for more sales.

I went to the store for sausage, baby carrots for Teddi, and fresh onions.I skipped the baby carrots they were $2.50 and I know I can get them cheaper at Ruler. I do have to run in to town tomorrow for an errand and will stop at Ruler as soon as the doors open at 9:00 AM. A quick in and out before the mad rush of holiday shopping starts.

Here are the following things I bought for free. Some items were marked down drastically so that is why they were free:

1.Large bag of gluten free pretzels. I never buy them they are too expensive but were half price and the use by date is into 2020.I plan on opening them and store them in separate canning jars and they should last a long time as a treat. Gluten free anything is really high in carbs so have to watch how many I eat.

2.Schar's gluten free bread crumbs. Also never buy them due to the cost.

3. (2) one pound rolls of pork sausage.

4. a loaf of shelf stable multi grain gluten free bread. Half price. Gluten free bread usually cost an arm and a leg. So big savings. I am going to try to keep it for back up since it is shelf stable in to 2020.

5. A 2 lb package of beef sausage similar to kielbasa but made with beef.

6. Half of a container of store brand cool whip. I bought a whole container but only half was free.

The original cost of everything was $38.89. However with mark downs I saved $12.66. I used my store rewards which was $6.00 and I decided to use all of my survey money which was a total of $9.00. So it came to around 12.69 final line. I did buy other food items but did not list them due to they were regular price and just some nice add on due to saving so much money.

I can sit back and really work at being frugal as far as food is concerned until I get my taxes paid in Feb. After they are paid I can breath a big sigh of relief. Biggest credit cards will have been paid off and will now be able to pay property taxes on time and will not have to pay a penalty for being late. I am saying this softly since you never know what can happen but 2020 money wise is looking good. First time in decades.
Fantastic bargains, Janet. I’m glad that you can see the light at the end of the tunnel on finances. Congratulations. Property taxes in Ill. are so high, I know. Much higher than in Florida. I have a college friend who lives there and her taxes are outrageous, $7k.
alliesmama4
Posts: 8591
Joined: Sun Aug 30, 2015 10:10 pm
Location: Southern IL

Re: Our 2019 No Spend Challenge

Post by alliesmama4 »

floridacatlover wrote: Sun Dec 22, 2019 8:56 pm Fantastic bargains, Janet. I’m glad that you can see the light at the end of the tunnel on finances. Congratulations. Property taxes in Ill. are so high, I know. Much higher than in Florida. I have a college friend who lives there and her taxes are outrageous, $7k.
I have a friend in New Jersey and her taxes are $16,000 a year. New Jersey has the highest taxes followed by IL. I was lucky enough to have my taxes frozen when I turned 65. After I bought my house there was a big real estate slump and the the value of my house was less than what I paid for it. My brother petitioned to have my taxes lowered since the property had lost value. It was granted and then I turned 65 and was able to freeze my taxes at the lower rate. The value of my house has since gone way up and exceeds what I paid for it by a large margin. If I had not frozen them when I did I could not afford to live here the taxes would be too much. I have thought of moving but every time I find a house or condo I like the taxes are too much compared to where I live now. I do love my house but it is so far out of town it kind of isolates me.
Janet Alliesmama
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