Thanks again, Andrea!!
Please stop by and link up to these amazing parties!!!
And now for a few Personal Notes...
All of Valentine's decor is now packed away from the Living Room and hauled up the attic...
I cleaned the inside of the windows and also the large mirror after taking down the Winter curtains and drapes....
I Ironed all the Spring/Summer ones and hung them up...
I also started to deep clean the room like I do every time I change the Holiday decor, which is about every 4-6 weeks...
Along with changing all the linens over to Spring/Summer ....
Today, I will start my Easter decorating in the Living Room.....
I gave myself some Grace over the weekend and took it easy which is why I skipped my regularly scheduled Saturday post........
March 8, Saturday, was the 50th Anniversary of my first date with my late husband, Joe and Sunday, March 9th, was the one year anniversary of Joe's last hockey game, the one he organized for members of our Parish to attend together...
He was not feeling well at that game, we thought it was a G I virus and we left the game early...
5 weeks later, he passed away from pancreatic cancer that spread to the liver and lymph nodes...
As part of the Community Group that I belong to at my Church, we hosted our monthly breakfast on Sunday after the 9 am Mass...
We had to cancel January's and February's due to a scheduling conflict and bad weather, so it was nice to spend some time with friends and to speak with Father Alex about the one year mark of Joe's passing coming up....
It made me feel much better and brought a smile to this face...
I have been developing a Financial Plan and Budget for myself as I am now solely in charge of my finances for almost a year now as a Widow....
My husband Joe handled all the finances and I honestly did not have a clue about it....
A huge mistake on my part ,and if I may say so, on the part of any spouse...
I believe it is imperative that both spouses know exactly what their finances look like ...
I was lucky that there was time for Joe to tell me about certain things and also that he was old school and kept a notebook where he wrote down all our monthly bills and how they were paid...
Meaning some were automatically taken out of our checking account but most of them, he mailed in....
The best advice I can give to you is to know where you money is and what bills you have and when they have to be paid....
Even if you are not the one paying them, you should at least have that knowledge...
After I changed over all accounts at my Credit Union, removing his name but adding both of my son's names to them, I also set up automatic withdrawals on all my bills....
My mother put my sister's and my name on her accounts when my Dad passed away, making it easier for us to access them if she became disabled and then when she passed way to pay her bills, which is why I put my son's names on my accounts.....
I learned the hard way, following Joe's example of mailing bills in ( I think he did so as he was a retired letter carrier) and having a check to the electric company not show up, resulting in a $25 fee to stop payment on that check...
I also set up online banking so I could check on my accounts any time I wish to...
Joe did not believe in that either as he was not computer literate....
As this 1st year as a Widow is drawing to a close, I now know when all my bills are due including bills like property taxes, HOA fees, quarterly sewer and sanitary authority bills, etc.
After realizing that most of these bills, that are not monthly, are due from October to March, in addition to the increase in my electric bill because of the use of heat in my all electric house, I knew I had to develop a plan to handle these increases during these months....
One way I decided to do so is a Winter Stock Up on Food so I would not have to be spending money weekly at the grocery store....
I started this shortly after Christmas.....
I
had been buying in bulk, on sale, stockpiling as much as I can....
And do not fret.....All expiration dates are well into the future so these will be used before that...
I continued my Stock Up Plan in anticipation of all the proposed tariffs ....
My freezer was stocked with items that I buy in bulk...
I also stocked up on paper goods...
One
of the tips that Joe gave me before he passed away was to buy paper
towels and toilet paper at Price Chopper when they have their sale of
$14.99 each when you buy 2 and you will get 600 bonus points, which turn
into cash taken off your bill...
I also stocked up on Puffs and laundry detergent....
Another thing I stocked up on was batteries as I use a lot for all my candles and other lighting...
Boscov's had packs of 20 for only $2.99 a piece with a limit of 5 each which I bought in both AA and AAA...
I
also put in an order from Sam's Club , stocking up on over the counter
medications which is also predicted to rise in price with tariffs...
I
ordered cough medicine, pain meds, nasal spray, my supplements like
calcuiim, Vit D, cranberry capsules, sinus medication, probiotics,
etc....
I bought
two 8 lb. bags of Fries and Tater Tots from
Sam's Club...Much to my surprise, they were as big as the 25 lb. bags of Ice Melt I bought!!
I barely was able to fit them in my freezer!!
I actually
opened them and split them up in separate freezer bags!!!
LOL!!
These massive bags were only $9 and $10 each....
I
did give my son Joey some of both as he received an air fryer/toaster
oven as a gift from his Boss for Christmas and he likes to use it to
make snacks in the evening for himself....
I also bought an air fryer after hearing Joey rave about his....
I think it will possibly save me some money when it comes to my
electric bill rather then firing up the oven for a half hour to make
frozen fries, tater tots or mozzarella sticks...
I buy ground beef in a 5 pound log from a local store and divide that up into 1 pound packages...
I
also bought family packs of eye roast steaks containing 6 pieces...I
divided it up into packages of 2 as I do not eat it but Joey does....3
meals out of that...
After I did this Stock Up, I was actually able to completely avoid going to the grocery store for a 3 week period of time in February!!
As Mother Hubbard's cupboard was starting to go bare again, I watched the weekly sales for 10 for $10, 4 for $5 and similar sales on pasta, rice, veggies, etc....
I also learned that buying my creamers were a lot cheaper buying them from Sam's Club....
It was time once again for me to Stock Up on meat and poultry and Price Chopper, the only grocery store that I shop at in addition of a local place called Malacari's, had an incredible sale last week!!
Most of their meat and poultry was on sale for Buy One Get One FREE!!!!!
Thinly sliced chicken breasts....
I cut them up and separated them into 4 13oz. bags......
I like to use these in casseroles like the one I made in my new crock pot the other day.....
I got this recipe from a FB reel.....
2 packages of Knorr's Chicken Rice
2 can's of Cream of Chicken Soup
Fill one can with chicken broth
1 package of frozen mixed veggies , which I omitted...
Shredded cheddar cheese
Mix together
Top with uncooked chicken cut in pieces
Season with pepper, garlic powder, onion salt, celery salt and I added paprika
Top with more cheddar cheese...
Cook for 2-3 hours on high
I did 4 hours on low and added in 2 cans of mushrooms for the last half hour..
My son Joey inhaled it!!
LOL!
I also bought 10 of the Knorr's Rice and Pasta packages for $10!!
On Thursday, I did up a 4.25 pound turkey breast that I bought shortly after Christmas....
It was the perfect size for Joey and I for dinner....
I make up a mixture of melted butter and Recipe Secret's Savory Herb and Garlic mix that I pour over it and use to baste it while cooking....
After I carve the turkey, I then use some of that mixture to put over the top of the sliced turkey to keep it moist when in the oven prior to dinner....
That was something Joe started doing....
I saved the breast bone and made a half a pot of turkey soup on Saturday....
So when I saw that Price Chopper had Shady Brook Farms turkey breasts on sale for Buy One Get One FREE, I jumped on that...
I bought a 7 pound one that will be for Easter Sunday dinner and a 5 pound one that I will make another time....
A FREE $17 turkey breast!
Joey put the 7 pound one in his freezer in case you are wondering where I put it....
I also bought 2 packages of chicken breasts at Buy One Get One FREE
Making up 4 15 oz. packages that I will use for Shake N Bake Chicken or grilled BBQ chicken on my George Foreman Grill...
I bought this beef for Joey....
And made up 3 packages for 3 meals for him as I do not care for beef...
I also bought 2 boxes of Steak Um's that I use to make cheese steak hoagies.....
Along with ground turkey that I use for meat balls....
All at Buy One Get One FREE!!
There were other savings on groceries at Buy One Get One FREE that I bought...
In total, I spent $109 but saved a total of close to $75!!!
I plan on trying not to go grocery shopping again for another 3 weeks.....
Except for maybe going to the local store, Malacari's, to buy a 5 pound log of ground beef that I will split into one pound packs and a family package of round steaks for a few dinners for Joey.....
Then my freezer will be well stocked for about 2 months or more....
Even though I started this Food Stock Up Plan for the Winter months when I have an increase in monthly expenses, I plan of doing this year round because of the amount of money I saved....
One other thing I also did after looking over my expenses for the Winter was to get on PPL Electric Company's Budget plan where I will pay the same amount monthly all year round....
Your usage is reviewed every 3 months and can be adjusted with either an increase or a decrease or stay the same....
This way, I am not hit with a large electric bill, 3 times the amount I pay in the warm months, for 4 months out of the year.....
I also did a post on my financial plan for next Christmas as I have 4 birthdays in December along with the holidays....
I now contribute monthly to a Christmas Club to use for gifts, food for all Holiday meals and baking....
I started it at $1800 but have been contributing more so that in October, $2000 will be automatically deposited into my saving account...
I will also use part of that money to pay my yearly HOA fee...
I am not an expert in any of this by any means but I wanted to pass on some of the things that I have learned over the past year as a new widow, who is now solely responsible for herself for the first time in her life...
And I HOPE you may walk away with some helpful information from this post...
In my next post on THURSDAY, I HOPE to start to share some Easter decor in my Living Room....
So I HOPE you will stop by to visit again on THURSDAY.....
Stay safe, healthy and most of all, HAPPY!!
Thanks to those who took the time out of their busy day to spend a little bit of time with me!!
If you do not have a blog, PLEASE
give me some way to reply to your comment, maybe by including your email in your comment. If I can not find a way to
reach you, I will reply on the post where you commented so please check
back......
I am linking up to these parties:
THURSDAY
Please take some time to visit these terrific hosts and all those joining in on the fun!
last
week's Share Your Style Link Party!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment
I always love to read your comments and opinions!!
I will try to respond to your comment as quickly as I can either on your Blog, through an email address or here on the posts where you commented if I cannot find any other way to contact you!!
If you are a vendor and insist upon leaving a comment with a link back to a website, it will be deleted immediately as I check my comment several times a day!!