Sunday, October 6, 2019

A Little Scare, Pressure Cooker, Bargains, New Stores

It is a little past midnight, Sunday night still to me. The high was 86 today, but still warm. It really rained, not just the occasional sprinkle.

My yellow mum liked the rain and sun since I put her out from under the porch. She was getting five hours of sun, mostly afternoon sun. This afternoon when we left, the whole plant had little yellow flowers starting to open. Hopefully, the whole plant will turn yellow soon.

Today, I went to the doctor for sinus and uti. Uti is not much according to doctor. I got a prescription for the sinus problem and a cortisone shot. I started feeling better in a couple of hours but knew it was the injection.

Then, my blood sugar shot to 320 and frightened me. I chugged bottles of water, exercised, ate green stuff and nothing seemed to help much. Then, about 1 am I remembered the shot. The blood sugar is coming down slowly, too slowly for me.

About ten years ago, I bought a 6-quart stainless steel pressure cooker. I had been using the huge aluminum pressure canner to cook meals and decided I did not want to eat from aluminum. I put the canner together and about that time, the House of Usher started having problems. So, it was one of the stored things I brought here from the emptied storage unit. I had to put it together again. This is not the large, new-in-the box canner that was stolen.

Tonight, I cooked whole, peeled potatoes in it in 10 minutes. We had chicken, potatoes, and broccoli. Tomorrow, I must cook the squash we bought last Tuesday if there is any not rotten. We will have chicken, squash and tomatoes on Monday.

All the spices I have are fresh onions, head of garlic and salt. At home I had different spices for chicken. So, the chicken is rather bland, not a problem for me, but I would like to do better. Tommy's black pepper is nasty to me. He only had salt and pepper when I got here. I bought the onions and garlic.

I bought a Sunday paper here for the first time. $3 is out of my league, especially when coupon inserts were missing. As I was in Walgreen's getting a prescription, I bought two cereals for Tommy for $1.99. I got home and found a better deal in the ad of another store and a coupon. While we were out, Tommy showed me two stores, and I looked them up on the internet. I found two deals at one store, and the other does not have ads instore or online.

I should have checked online for the coupon insert guide and then gone through the paper to make sure they were all present. But, I was feeling so ill I just bought the paper. That won't happen again! I went back to the Pig on Saturday and got 5 more $0.72 cent Starkist Tuna, my favorite.

Today, on the way to the doctor, I was excited to find my favorite brand bread outlet. I asked Tommy how far we were from home--13 miles and in an area where we would not frequent. So, I will have to find another one closer. Bummer!

One store, forgot which, has Pict Sweet frozen vegetables for $1. I will stuff the freezer with those. I paid $1.17 at the Pig last week for PictSweet, or some price like that.

Do you ever kick yourself when you screw up and buy something, only to go home and find it cheaper elsewhere? What do you do to try to recoup the loss? I take the receipt and coupon and ask for the difference back. With the Pict Sweet vegetables, I am just buying more at the better price.

10 comments:

  1. I do all the grocery shopping at our house and try to economize. We live 4 miles from a Kroger in one direction and 4 miles from a Publix in the other direction. About 10 miles to an Aldi and 10 miles in a slightly different direction from an Ollie's ("Good Stuff Cheap"). We get Nature's Own Butterbread or Honey Oat Bread at the Tastee Cake Outlet in Cumming for $0.79 a loaf (it's $3.29 at Kro/Pblx). Aldi's has Duke's mayonnaise for half the cost of Kro/Pblx. We try to arrange our trips to get the most bang for the buck. Mostly we get Kroger brand canned goods which are quite a bit cheaper than the brand-name ones and taste just as good. Occasionally I buy a brand-name thing, like Bush's maple-flavored baked beans, just because I want to. We biu tje 12-oumce can of Kroger Albacore tuna packed in water for $2.49, again much less than the brand names and tastes just as good. I splurge occasionally on a seafood salad from the deli at Publix just because Mrs. RWP likes it so much.

    Every once in a while I figure out that I'm spending as much or more on gasoline to get to these various places as I save on purchases. I do favor Kroger because for every $100 spent on groceries you get 10 cents a gallon off at the gas pump. I regularly save 20 or 30 cents a gallon on gasoline there. We don't have a WalMart anywhere close.

    I'm writing a book again, sorry.

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    Replies
    1. A book is okay and interesting. My old town was small but with all the big city stores...except for Kroger! I could go to Publix, Warehouse Discount Groceries, Aldi, and Walmart and not drive over five miles. I could go to Lowe's, Auto Zone and the cheap gas place in the same trip, plus all the fast food places.

      At Publix there is some deal about getting a $50 gas card free if you buy another one and $50 worth of groceries in one trip. Sorry, I don't spend that much on groceries in a month.
      Nature's own is my favorite, too.

      On sale, Starkist tuna was $0.72 for six ounces, so $1.44 for 12 ounces.

      Kroger canned pumpkin is my favorite pumpkin for pumpkin pies and pumpkin bread.

      I never buy just what I need right now. By looking at the use-by date, I decide whether I should by 2 or 20 of an item.

      The Warehouse store gets in food close to use-by date and sells them at terrific prices. Miracle Whip was $1.50, I think. But the use by date was like a month or something soon. MW is nasty shortly after the use-by date. It is not dangerous! 48 ounce cans of name brand sliced peaches were $1.50 or $1.75, and I got a dozen or more. I will be eating them six months after the use-by date. I strategize!

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  2. What Pig do you use? Periodically my Pig has some fantastic meat/chicken bargains.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hueytown. The freezer will not hold anymore meat or anything. I am bringing up the subject of a 3 cu ft upright freezer. Hopefully, we can get that and get better and more meat deals.

      Delete
  3. Yes, occasionally I think I'm getting the best deal then find it some place cheaper. That frustrates me. We get made in the USA spices / seasonings in our Dollar Tree if you have one there you might want to check it out. Was going to get garlic in a jar there until I saw it was from China. No offense but I want to at least know my food hasn't come from a far away country like china where I'm not sure of their standards. Just a personal preference for me. I do love Winco for bulk spices because you can get just a little bit if that's all you need for pennies but not sure you have a Winco near where you live. I am in Nevada. The right seasonings do make all the difference don't they. Take care.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No Winco. I refuse to eat anything from China. They poisoned their own babies with fake milk, so why would they help keep us safe. The rural Chinese build elaborate outhouses, really fancy and clean to try to lure people to do their business there--poop. Then, they sell the waste as fertilizer. Human wste is okay for fertilizer, but it must have a year to compost. The Chinese put it on as soon as they buy it. Their standards are low. And Nestles buys raw products from China.

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  4. That was scary how your blood sugar shot up! I'm glad you knew what to do for it!

    I'm afraid I've never used a pressure cooker! My mother had one when I was a little girl, but, I've never had one and, I think, I am too afraid to use one!

    I hate it when I pay more for something and then, find out that it is cheaper, elsewhere! Depending on what it is and the price difference, I will either return the item or, just, consider it a cost of not doing my homework.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Bless, I was not too successful in bringing it down, but maybe I kept it from going higher. Around noon today, it was still well above 200. Yes, I make decisions to keep or return depending on what it is and how much I paid too much.

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    2. Bless, I meant to say, at 35 I was terrified of the pressure canner mama gave me. An 18-yr-old girl taught me how to use it. I would not even come into the kitchen because I was terrified it would explode. I heard tales from older relatives, obviously.

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