Grocery shopping has come and gone for another week. This morning I also needed gas, so I checked out Gas Buddy, and found that gas was 3.26 at Samâs Club, and 3.43 at Kroger. Hubby uses the âgas pointsâ from Kroger, since he drives a truck, and he had already used up our April points. I have a small sedan, better gas milage, so I get leftover points, if there are any, or I go elsewhere. I saved 17¢ per gallon on nearly 10 gallons today (and not out of the way at all, with my morning errands.)
On the way back home, I swung into Kroger (who wants to acquire another grocery giant to âimprisonâ us even more with all of their schemes and âofferings.â) I really wish we still had a small town IGA nearby!
Anyway, I had scoured the sales flyer and downloaded any applicable electronic coupons, and got what was on my list for this week. I felt like I had a smaller list this week, only one small meat purchase, and I shopped for bargains, but the self check-out ended up with a shocking total of $150 and some change. WHAT? How can this be?! Well, I did buy some flea and tick treatment for our dog, and even though I buy the store brand, itâs still a bit pricy, and I bought some chocolates for our table guests at a fundraising gala this evening for The Chesterton Academy of St. Joseph, in Dayton Ohio (of which one on my s-i-lâs is the headmaster. Chocolate is getting very expensive, but, as the table host, I like to have some extra sweets for my guests. And beans were on sale. Iâm still eating a lot of beans for continued health improvement, so I stocked up. I bought bread, and crackers, and some cheese and the cheapest shampoo I could find, and still, $150? Yikes! As I finished packing my cart, I remembered a coupon that I had thrown away, that morning, thinking I wouldnât spend enough to use it. It was a Best customer coupon, which would have saved me $14 if I spent $150 or more. I actually went home, dug that out of the trash, smoothed it out a little, and drove back to the store (about a 5 minute drive) and went to customer service to cash that in. That made me feel just the tiniest bit betterâŚone, small âwin.â We really need help with the out-of-control inflation in this country, and our president is too busy writing off student loans. My girls paid off their student loans, so donât blame me!
And, of course, itâs not just food. Clothing, energy costs, property taxâŚoh my gosh did that ever go up this year! Luckily my husband found some information in an AARP magazine, about how seniors could lower their property taxes, and he succeeded in doing that. Clothing? My husband and I (especially my husband!) wear the same articles of clothing year after year! I sometimes add a new shirt or sweater from the thrift store (only when such items are on sale!). But hubby is all proud of himself for his patchwork repair of one of his favorite pair of pants (for which he used various colors of iron-on patches that I had purchased. It was the smallest patch assortment that I could find, and had several colors that I would never use. Now, heâs a kind of an âOld Testamentâ Joseph, with the technicolor dreamcoat, but heâs got dreampants instead, and all of the colors are inside (and the patches didnât go to waste!) Ha, ha!
And, our reluctance to buy new clothes also means that we are careful about what we eat, and how much we eat. Thereâs nothing like digging out the seasonal clothes and finding out that they still all fit me! Now, with my Intermittent fasting habit well-ingrained after a few months, I seem to be dropping pounds without even trying, so Iâm definitely sticking with that plan for good health, (and also the spiritual gifts of fasting!).
At any rate, weâre all doing whatever we can to pinch our pennies, just hoping and praying that our economy strengthens before too much longer, That costly wars and rioting doesnât push world economies to the brink, so that we can continue to afford the necessities of life, without having to dip into our retirement savings prematurely!
grandma's coffee soup 