Shaking my head

Well as of yesterday I got out of the house for acouple of hours.  Since I walked around 2 stores in total here and felt alittle better after that I now know that part of what is going on.  With that said I will be trying to get more coupons here for the one store also and the nickle pick up will help on that part also here at this time.  With alot of things here I had forgot that the one place that the whole thing is a dollar per item and they take coupons also.  With that being said at least I can go out to get some shopping done now for food and make it all work here.  Since I am trying to get cheaper here for the household anyway it is another good place to get things done here also.  Ok so the one dollar store the products are almost the rejects from other stores since they are smaller than what you get also.  I can think of worse things that could happen besides that.  So now here at least I know that some things will work better here since I will be going back at least once a month here to the one dollar store totally.  Now at this time at least part of what I got done yesterday I had coupons for both stores here along with hanging a load of laundry here for the day.  It all adds up in the end with what I do for the household totally.  Between the sales, coupons, turning things off, and streaching things out it all works in the household.  Also cooking at home instead of going out to eat cuts down on the budget for the household.  That is where part of the planning comes into play.  Granted some people do not know in how to cook at all and that is fine.  There are web sites out there to help with that part of things also.  So now here with the one dollar store you would not believe in what is in the store when you walk in.  It is a cheap way to feed the household totally at this point when you make to much for the food stamps/snap program.  What I do not believe in is the folks that have been on the system for generations.  With that said if you are 50 cents over you do not get on period.  So now with the one place I will be back to get more things when I cash in the nickles totally here.  This is why I also throw the pasta from the box into a zipper bag with bay leaves also here it makes it easy to pull out a cup of pasta to go along with other things during the week here.  This is why I will not mind going back to the one store here.  Anyway the planning will help with the budget and think on things before it all goes down in stone.  Get others involved also if they are in the household nomatter what.

Quiet start to the day

It is a very quiet start for this morning and I like it. Now I have plotted the day out and really do not mind it so much at all. Since I busted my toush yesterday on alot of the house work around here I may have 2 loads of laundery left for today. The dishes can wait untill my Husband leaves tomarrow also. Since I have another 3 weeks untill some of the family comes up it makes it abit easier on me to get the rest of the can cleaned up and on the go. Pluss one more trip up to the grocery store for everything. Yes I have planned out the meals for all month and for when folks show up around here also. Well my Niece has figured out right quick that I am very blunt to the point and walk on the cheap side of life. I have had a few ask me to shop with them also while I am at it. I am happy that I did wait on some things at the store the last time I was there. I will also have homemade sauce also while I am at it all. Now for the sauce it will be cheaper than the store bought and much better while I am at it. Well I did get a turkey baked in the crock pot this week and have been feeding off of it for the past 2 days around here. I thought some were gonna have a fit about it. It really came out good. The trick is to put a lemon in with it and baste the bird also for the crock pot. When I can sit here and say that when other folks that come over and eat I do not say where I got the food from untill dinner is over with. Now if a spouse is one of them picky people and do not like the knock off stores, hide the boxes and a few other things. What I use to do was cut one of the guides off the back of the box and throw it into a bin pluss mark what it was in the bin. It has saved me alot of space in the cabnets and alot of grief also while I was at it all. Alot of the groceries that I picked up nobody knew where I got it from unless they seen the Aldi or Save A Lot recipt. I had to laugh sometimes becuase, there were several folks who refused to eat food from the places. When I go to Aldi to shop and know I am low on cat food I pick it up. My cat is the non pickiest cat around that I know of. What can I say about it. At least I know that I have food in the place and the bills are paid. Now for alot of it I do shop with coupons out in the stores that take them and get the sales also. I will start shopping at the normal stores since they double the coupons up to 99 cents. There are some things I have to get at Walmart becuase they are cheaper. Ok folks have fun and play harder.

More cast iron cookwear

Well I am slowly replaceing my old cookwear with cast iron.  I am tired of the non stick coating of the pots and pans that I have here.  And Ultrex discontinued selling the set that I have.  So I will be switching to cast iron piece by piece around here also.  The nice thing about it is that I can put it over an open fire to cook also if need be.  So I shopped around for the best deal that I could find and Ollies did the trick for the 3rd pice that I have.  Once I get the 10% discount card in the mail I will get a couple of more pieces once again.  Pluss it helps with putting food in the Hippys truck also.  Running 2 kitchens is hard and expensive.  Another driver from the same company was complaining that it wasen't working with what is going on.  I am guessing that he is spending more than what is coming in in pay.  All the Hippy could do was shake his head.   I was laughing about it becuase, in fact I was in the middle of Ollie's when he told me about it.  Well bargan racks have always been my friend since I was in High School and I will admit to it now.  Pluss hitting the bargans is not so hard when you you get use to it and change your mind set on things.  Sometimes it is just not right in what I do for the household and it works for me.  Just like I picked up 2 5lb bags of regular whole wheat flour for 99 cents a piece.  Between the brown bread and the puppy cookies I needed it anyway.  Now I know where to get it for $1.50 less than what everyone else wants for it.  And Cherios were $1.99 also for 2 bags in one box. It is knowing the prices of most places and keeping a price book or a mental note on whats what and where.  I do not have a Sams club card anymore so I shop at the regular stores.  Pluss with coupons at most stores anyway.  The fun I have is rakeing the stores over.  There are some people that are better at it than I am still.  But, I am slowly getting back into the swing of things once again.  Haveing a ball trying to also.  I have heard some people behind me in the stores start mummbleing of course oh God she has a stack of coupons in her hand.  Untill they hear the total befor and after in the store most folks cant believe that I can go anywhere from about 5 dollars on up to 50 dollars or more in coupons depending where I am and how good the sales are.  Then I normally get the last laugh of course.  I have done well for the household and will be getting better also here shortly.  And I will be figureing out more here in what to do again.  Pluss I do not have to go shopping for another month except for the 18 wheeler.  I will need regular bread and a few other items of course and I can still walk over to Walmart.  Knowing what is needed and what not to get.  Here in January I will be hitting the Clearence racks again for jeans and other stuff.  Ok folks have fun and play even harder.

Scratch pizza on the way

Ok I never said I slacked thru the week nor the weekend here.  I made bread on Thursday and pizza from scratch tonight.  It helps when I went out to the reservation this morning.  A slami and mushroom pizza is in the oven already.  It helps with the Kitchenaid mixer and a few recipies for bread and dough for the pizza.  The Hippy likes when I do cook around the can.  It is better than the truck stop food let me tell you to say the least.  Even though it was a good turkey dinner the one year when I had to travle to Collinsville at Thanksgiveing time for a funeral.  Myself and 6 drivers were going to the same place.  Even the waitress joined in with us that day.  So I will say that when others say join in they do and it is one of the memories that will carry all the way thru.  So now for tomarrow I will be getting one of the old amish recipies out for dinner tomarrow night.  It is home cooking on the homemade and cheap side of life.  When I can save money for dinner I will find a way to do it.  The nice thing about the reservation there is no state taxes added on to the bill only federal.  So a 30 dollar bill with no state tax is maybe 28 dollars in total.  With the state and county tax it is 16% more after you get done here in NY state and the county tax also.  Well that is why I say shop around for the cheapest price and use coupons when ever possible.  Pluss when I say it takes more time for made from scratch it does.  It is well worth the trouble to go thru with questions of  what can we do to help the family.  If it is cooking from scratch and being dirt cheap go for it.  I have gottin cheaper over the years myself with good reason.  I do not keep up with the Jonses at all.  I do not need to.  Why is becuase, I have always been the type of person to watch jaws drop and show people up myself.  Pluss the cheaper I go the better off the household is in my case.  Ok folks have fun and play hard.

Still counting down

I am still counting down for everything on Tuesday.  A quiet house and a clean house to boot this should be good on me.  With a bit of work and an hour at least a room a day then I should have a pretty clean house.  I do like to deep clean every so often around here.  It works better when I am alone without tripping over anyone.  It will be a nice switch from haveing someone else here 24/7 to just myself.  Then I will miss the Hippy after awhile.  And yes I will be frugal on the cleaning also while I am at it.  Now to figure out how to cook for one person again.  That is the hardest part about the whole thing without anyone here to cook for also.  Pluss I get to make fresh bread for myself once again.  And there will be times where I just won't eat becuase there is only me in the can.  So yes the food budget will be streached to the limit again.  Then I only have to cook one piece of chicken also for now.  Unless I want left overs the next night.  It will be wierd for the first 2 weeks or so to get into the swing of things.  Nothing a person can get use to again.  Thats the nice part about some things.  I will wait to go to the grocery store for another couple of weeks here.  Just so I can get more coupons and there are better deals by the end of the month also.  The sick part about figureing everything out and how the sales go.  It was done for the people on welfare around here in NY state.  Well I can not pass up a good deal that is me.  The other part is that some people should be on food stamps but are not becuase they make 1 dollar to much here.  So to play the gam you have to use coupons and eat leftovers around this area.  Most of us rarely go out to eat.  Once you get use to the Idea of not going out to eat and over the grease attacks it all works out well.  I still laugh that I have totally cut out on the going out to get dinner.  It just ment that I had to get a deep fryer for the house for the fries and a few other things.  Once you start looking for the sales on everything and use coupons for the list that you have for the grocery store you can cut the bill into half if not more.  Now up here for most of the Grocery Chains you have a club card for the sales and double coupons.  Sometimes there are triple coupons it depends on how much of the loss the store wants with some of us going there.  Pluss I have dumpster dove for can goods becuase I was so broke at one time.  That was a ball in a half.  Sometimes I still do it depending on what mood I am in for the time.  Even though the lable is riped off doesent mean it is not good.  As long as the can is in good shape it is good to go.  There are lots of ways to save at the grocery store and other places.  There are bargin racks also at alot of the stores for like disconntinued items that they want to move quick.  I had shopped the bargin rack for years and got stuff that you wouldent think about useing a coupon for also.  Sometimes the stores would rather take the huge loss on things to make a sale or to move it out of the store.  I have left my phone number with some managers for when they are throwing things that are still good for fruit and vegies for the can.  Pluss bread that was a day over the sale price.  They can not sell it by law and nobody dident say they could give it away niether.  I had a freezer full of hamberger buns at one time from Mc Donnalds.  So there are ways of doing things on the cheap.  Even with the running of the 2 kitchens I can still get the bill for under 150 dollars a month.  Some have a hard time doing that.  Once you know what is on sale at the time of the month and go from there and some thing of getting use to also it is not hard to do.  Like in my place we all do not drink alot of soda.  Soda and chips are a treat in my house.  I hardly get soda and when I do then it will last for months.  Now with extra money coming into the house I can run to PA for the soda.  And other things while I am at it now.  There is less taxes and no bottle deposit in PA.  Yes I take the cans back from PA to the stores up here and get the nickle here in NY state.  Pluss I don't mind the 4 hour drive to see family on top of the shopping.  Anothher pluss is no tax on jeans and other clothing items.  There are several advantages on travleing also.  And a half of a tank of gas I can handle it.  So find out what you can to be cheap on alot of things.  It will pay you in the long run on alot of things.  Like unplugging everything when you can around the house.  And hanging out clean laundery also.  You will be amazed in how much you can cut the power bill and or the gas bill.  It depends on what you have on the dryer and water tank.  I use the washer on tap cold also becuase there is a bottun for it on the GE Profile washer that I have.  I have also started with useing less of everything also in the cleaning products.  Well there is only 2 people in my can and it is worth streaching out everything that you can.  Even with pets theres alot you can do to be cheap on.  Like bathing them yourself and notice in what they like to eat and turn thier noses up at.  I know with the bird I can get him the parkeete food and he is happy with it.  I buy the 10 pound bag and I do not have to worry about getting food for him for about 2 months.  Now for the scratch paper that is a differant story also.  I like the scratch paper becuase it wears down his nails instead of getting them cut once a month.  Pluss where I got him from I can get his beak clipped.  So as I say one hand washer the other and it works out well.  Ok folks have a good day and play even harder.

Almost that time again

Almost time for school around here and I can not wait till Tuesday.  Pluss the Hippy goes back to work.  I will have a very relaxing day with dead silents.  Pluss to sit around and do nothing almost all day it will be nice.  It will take some time to get use to as always with the kids gone for almost 8 hours a day.  And some of the kids need school all year round or zap collars one.  I know that is bad to say but when dad and mom are lieing to cover the kids you know it is bad around here.  Or the parents just don't care what the kids do then lie about it afterwards.  So school is one of them things that I just can't wait till it starts.  And it seems to be starting late this year.  Who knows why.  Like I care but then again the school board dosen't consiter snow days.  Oh well at least the kids won't be out till at least June 28th of next year.  One of the good things about the kids going back to school is all the sales at the stores.  And yes I did pick up note books and pens last week.  Then this way I dont feel guilt on not writeing notes of what to do for the day.  If I dont get to everything then it gets taged onto the next day.  Then I prioratize in what is more improtant.  That is how I have ran the can for so long that that habit can not be broken out of me at all.  As long as the housework gets done who cares in what order it get done in.  That's my moto for it all.  And it annoies alot of people and I just do not care.  Ok folks have a good night and play hard.