I’ve never been one to use coupons for savings. When I lived in South Dakota, I went to the same place for car service for many years. After a few years of being a loyal customer, the service department started to apply available coupons to the work i had done, saving me the hassle of paying attention to the coupons I received in the mail. The increase in the price of automobile repairs that came with the Covid pandemic left me paying attention to auto service coupons and I now have a place on my desk where I keep them to sort through each time I schedule service for a vehicle. Often I throw away many of them because their dates have expired, but from time to time I find coupons that save me tens of dollars.

I also have started paying attention to flyers we receive in the mail each week from a local grocery store. Clipping coupons from those flyers can result in significant savings. Because the coupons in the fliers are only good for a week, I simply save the flyers and clip coupons I think I can use just before I leave for the store. I don’t keep clippings after the trip, simply look for the appropriate week’s coupons when planning a trip to the store. This week, I saved nearly $30, about 1/3 of the total receipt, on a trip to the store. Of course those savings are only on paper. The pre-coupon prices in the store may be higher than those in other stores. There are probably some items that I simply would not have purchased were it not for the coupons. We are careful not to waste food. We make good use of the things I bring home and most of the food I purchased was produce that we’ll likely eat within a week.

One of the things I got at a significant discount was lean sirloin steak tip pieces. The package had enough for about eight meals for Susan and I, so I divided the meat into two packages and froze one. The other pieces I cooked on our outdoor grill and we had half of them for dinner one night and the second half the next night with different sides each evening.

What was nice was that it was the first time in a long time that I cooked outdoors. Having some fancy cuts of meat was incentive enough for me to fire up the grill. When I retired, I assumed that I would cook outdoors more often than I did before I retired. However, what I discovered is that I’m not inclined to do so when it is dark at the time I’m preparing dinner, something that is the case in the depths of winter. However, with the help of daylight savings time there is plenty of daylight to prepare dinner and even enough to take a walk after the dinner dishes are cleaned up these days. So prime outdoor grilling time has returned for this year.

I am by no means a gourmet cook. We prefer basic meals with lots of fresh produce and ingredients that are locally sourced as much as possible. I confess that i do indulge in avocados and oranges and other foods that have traveled long distances before they make it to my plate, but our move to Washington means I also have access to abundant local apples year round and we have berries and fruit from our son’s orchard and cherries from the tree in our back yard. Our cherries from last year filled our freezer and we still have some left. Susan made cherry pies for pi day last week from frozen cherries and I often tap a few for my oatmeal in the morning.

I don’t have a fancy grill. I cooked almost exclusively with charcoal until we moved. I sold our grill on a yard sale and did not move it, so I used our camping grill for the first couple of years after we moved and now have upgraded to a larger three-burner camping grill. The one piece of equipment that I find most useful for outdoor cooking is a good meat thermometer. Because of the high temperatures of grilling, some meant thermometers have proven to be short lived. However, I have found one that has been reliable for several years now. I use it for almost every type of meat that I cook on the grill. I can grill burgers without the device, but use it for salmon (a delicacy that is available fresh from the fishers here), chicken, and most beef dishes that I grill. I also have learned to grill vegetables, including potatoes and sweet potatoes.

Writing about the return of grilling season has stirred my appetite and I am already planning a menu for tonight’s dinner. I’ve got all of the necessary ingredients in the house, but will need to remember to thaw the salmon I plan to grill. A feast is in process.

Being in my seventies means that I have to pay attention to how much I feast. One of my retirement goals was to lose weight and I’ve been successful in losing weight and keeping it off. I still want to lose a bit more, but that will come. In the meantime, paying attention to portion size is important as well as making sure that there are lots of fruits and vegetables in my diet. My retirement lifestyle allows plenty of time for movement and exercise and we have a routine of daily walking that aids with my attempts to remain healthy.

Being retired has allowed me to invest more time and energy into meal planning and preparation. Part of my struggles with being overweight for most of my working career is that my schedule was so busy that I often didn’t make time to focus my attention on thoughtful eating. I ate what I could when I could and often allowed convenience to take precedence.

So I’ll keep paying attention to those coupons when heading to the store. Who knows what bargains will end up on the menu next week.