Is Anyone Coming Up With Someway New To Save Money On Groceries?

 Thanks to the many folks out there who have been posting their very own grocery-saving-ideas on Facebook, Twitter (X), YouTube, Tik Tok, Blogger and many other platforms. I think it's fantastic that everyone has banded together and is sharing their most secret tactics to saving a dime or more at the grocery store. Unfortunately, eventually, ALL ideas and suggestions become outdated and outsmarted and the time will come when we must face the reality of high food prices: pay them or go without. Oh! We can substitute but realistically, what would you rather have....a bowl of rice and beans or a nice, grilled, medium-rare, porterhouse steak??? If you're like me, I like to have a real picee of beef at least once per month. Even though I have downsized from beef once a week, I'm finding that my once-a-month trick a bit hard to fulfill. Beef prices are soaring to a point that even I can't come up with the financial maneuvers needed to ascertain a darn good cut of beef. (Note: beef stew doesn't cut a good New York strip steak. With the bone in!!!)

Up until a few scant WEEKS ago, these items went on sale and I was able to buy NY Strip steaks for $6.99 a pound (digital coupon), a porterhouse steak for only $10.99 a pound (on sale).....well, you get the idea. Look at those prices now. Those digital coupon sales are long gone and a regular sale is unheard of in current weekly sale flyers. Other than buying my own cow, I guess my steak eating days are probably over. Yes, I know I can substitute other (cheaper) cuts of meat but just allow me to immerse myself in my own pity party. 

I very rarely pay full price for most of my beef, poultry and pork products. For decades I would raid my local grocery chain on a pre-set day of the week when I knew the store manager was drastically cutting meat/poultry prices down (50% off etc) as a means of getting the product out of the store, off the shelves, making a way for new products to be displayed. Today? Everyone and his/her brother is on to that grocery shopping tip making it harder and harder for me to find any good deals.

Once I get the discounted meats/poultry home, I'd re-wrap it for the freezer and stack them away for a future cooking date. Here's a shot of my long lost steak days. Le sigh. 

Hubby and I, and I am sure, most of you, have made whatever cutbacks you had to make in order to afford grocery prices. Hubby and I, at this time, have cut out most everything non-essential from our monthly budget. No more vacations (our RV just sits in the driveway), no more outings, friends over for dinner or parties, we've rarely gone out to restaurants anyway nor do we ever eat from fast food joints. But every once in a while we used to go down to the local coffee shop and get a bunch of pancakes or omelettes......we don't do that anymore, ever! No more occasional coffee out (my fave used to be Dunkin's pumpkin spice latte. I make it at home now.) No more random shopping sprees. Most of my clothes are purchased at Goodwill (But now that Goodwill has caught on to the upswing, they have raised their prices also. So, no more Goodwill.) 

Our monthly food budget used to be between $600 to $700 a month (for two retirees). Now in retrospect, I realize how insane that was. Today, I try to get our food budget under a $550 goal. We're eating more soups and stews (just like we all are) and we're being more creative with leftovers. Almost nothing ever gets thrown away. Most of our grocery shopping is done at Aldi. We go to ShopRite solely to buy their loss leaders (nothing more!) and once a month, when I visit my daughter, we take a look through Trader Joe's and buy some snacks. Also, once a month we buy some big deals at Sam's Club. We use a credit card that gives us 3% back on all grocery hauls and restaurant runs. At the end of the year we've earned back $322 approximately in real US money. Every little bit helps.

We also have my cancer bills to pay off. Today, I got a lingering bill left over from December 2024. Looks like I am responsible for $1,549.82. I'll need to place a call to both the hospital and my insurance company. I am on a newer drug but I am hoping that's not the reason for such a hefty co-pay. Stay tuned. 

As a side note: 40% of most Americans do NOT have $400 cash saved to pay any emergency (click here for more info). Thank God hubby and I don't believe in lifestyle creep. We continue to live the same frugal way we did back in 2002 regardless of how much money either of us brings into the fold. We like to save our money rather than spend it and we have the savings set aside to pay this one bill.

Even if it will mean, no more steaks for you!!

And Now The Scan Waiting Game (UPDATED)

 It's Day 3 after my lymph node biopsy was done. Doctor told me results would be available in three to six days. Waiting for these results has got to be the worst experience of my life. So far. It's awful not knowing if the one year of already breast cancer treatment I've undergone has done its job or was it all for nothing? Am I back to a square one? The thoughts racing through my mind has been a cross between defeatist and optimism. Will I go on living or will I be dying sooner than I wanted to?

I can't eat. I can't think. I can't reason. I can't sleep. Yet, I am keeping up a smile and a fake facade so I do not worry my family or my friends. How I wish God were a real, human-fleshed being who could pick me up in His arms and tell me everything is going to be OK. But that will never happen. It will be as God says it will be despite all these decades of blessings and good tidings. I'll say no more. I'll just keep on waiting and let y'all know just as soon as I know.

UPDATE: My surgeon just called me at 5:30EST to tell me the biopsy came back NEGATIVE!!  I do NOT have cancer. God is good. He answered my prayers. I am going to be alright! Now? Back to living my life!!!

Groceries' New Challenge: Empty Shelves

 2025 is starting out, for us, with a new grocery challenge. It's not so much affordability anymore because after we've made some lifestyle changes (limited vacations, changes in food preferences and equal substitutions) we can still put food on our table without sacrificing quality. The new challenge for us is finding the food in the first place. Each time hubby and I go grocery shopping we are encountering more and more empty shelves. And now, with the announcement of tariffs being levied against Canada, Mexico and China (click White House for more info), there may be some more additional food shortages for either the long or the short haul.

What's a retired, sorta-fixed income couple to do?

My first impulse was to stock up. With the horrific rise in egg prices (click here for more info), the next item to fall would be the chicken. As more and more poultry farmers cull their herds, in order to ward off bird flu, where are the initial male and female chickens to come from? Thankfully, hubby and I live in rural upstate New York and many of our neighbors are farmers (many of them, organic!). One of the local markets here raise their own chickens and sell them at only $2.09 a pound. For now! These local chickens come pre-cut (8 pieces per bird, we save the back bone for soups) and are delicious. So, this morning, hubby and I tracked out to the farm market and stocked up on chickens. We're not so worried about eggs as many of our neighbors raise their own egg-laying chickens and we often barter for eggs. 

Our local Aldi is currently selling a dozen eggs @$5.03. Limit two per customer.

My second impulse was to set up a vegetable garden as well as plant fruit trees. I planted one apple and one peach tree. The apple tree didn't make it but the peach tree did. We enjoy my home baked peach crumb pie as well as my canned peach preserves. I also harvest a wide array of tomatoes (beefsteak and plum tomatoes to be a bit more exact). I also harvest eggplant, peppers, cucumber, zucchini, green beans as well as celery and spring-mix leaf salad mix, basil and parsley.

Here are some of the dishes I prepare over the summer (and then freeze for the winter): New York Crumb Cake, Apple or Peach Crumb Pie, stuffed artichokes, home made hummus, roasted red peppers with olive oil and black olives over toasted Italian bread, fresh salad from my garden with tomatoes, cucumbers, red onion, feta cheese and my own greek vinaigrette dressing, linguini with my home made basil pesto sauce, fresh tomato soup with a dollop of plain Greek yogurt, fresh spinach salad with tomatoes, greek olive, feta cheese, steamed green beans, Long Island baked clams, Prince Edward steamed muscles, home made pizza dough topped with my tomatoes, spinach and red onions, home made tiramisu (one with rainbow sprinkles, the other with chocolate sprinkles)

Needless to say, hubby and I very RARELY ever go out to a restaurant. Most times, our food is way better than what a restaurant could prepare, regardless of price. In the 'before time' when I used to make my own cooking videos (which BTW, I am going to bring back! on this blog) I posted a video on how hubby and I used to make our pizzas, every Friday night, for only $2 per pie. Naturally, that price has gone up BUT so have the costs of an authentic, take-out or eat-in Italian pizza pie. It is still very cost effective to make your own pizza, starting with a crust made from scratch. Here's the video, Stay tuned for more DIY cooking videos.