View Full Version : November Frugals
New month = new frugals thread. Can't wait to hear about everyone's frugal activities this month. Y'all keep me motivated and on task (most of the time!).
Wow, here's to everyone having a great month full of frugal sucesses!
I recieved a huge box of pecans in the mail today. I will shell them and put them in the freezer for future use. I'm getting a bit overwhelmed with having so many. If anyone has ideas on how to use them I'd like to hear it. My freezer contains about 3 -4 quart bags full of shelled nuts and today's box is going to give me at least 2 more bags full.
Well, you could make some pecan pies for where ever you might be eating for the holidays and or you can candy them and toss them into salads.
I worked hot lunch today at my sons school, new this year is for every hot lunch you work you get one hot lunch credit for your child. You also get your lunch for the day free.
Roasting a chicken today, it will become:
chicken noodle soup
stock
chicken pot pie
chicken fried rice
the stock will go towards a few different types of soups that I plan on making, a squash/apple soup and a black bean soup.
It's lovely out today, supposed to reach the high 60's. So the upstairs windows are open, airing things out. My husband is now sick and we could use some fresh air in here.
Trying a free 60 day version of Microsoft 2010. First we need to update our XP and it's giving us issues. I am going to do a small job for a friend and really need it to work!
Making my grocery list tonight, will be going on Friday. Have a coupon for an oil change on my DH car, planning on taking care of that on Friday.
Oh it is November isn't it?
I'm in an extra good mood today for some reason. This morning I purchased the September/October issue of Action Pack Magazine. (http://action-pack.com/) I considered ordering one this summer but never did. So much fun! It's $6 but it's ad free and stuffed with fun learning ideas. This issue appealed to me because it deals with both cooking and electricity. Nobody loves electricity more than Daddy and I, of course, love to cook. This afternoon the girls and I are going to make grapefruit cordial. I have some grapefruits I want to use up. Most of the ideas in the book are made from inexpensive stuff.
The girls want to make sugar scrub, bath fizzies and citrus peel for Christmas gifts this year. I think that would be a fun project.
I am really hitting a frugal groove lately. Sometimes I find it a challenge to be frugal, but right now I am perfectly happy hunkering down in the house baking, embroidering, playing games, napping, sewing, knitting and teaching most of the time. When I do want to get out of the house it's mostly to the library, church, out for a walk or to a friend's house. It's good.
For Pecans:
Banana pecan bread or muffins
Salad of mixed greens, sliced pears, a few blue cheese crumbles, and toasted or candied pecans
My frugals today consisted of combining 3 errands, going to BJs and buying only what I needed (minus the raisins, which I forgot!) and remembering to use 2 coupons, and taking along a snack to an appointment so that I wasn't tempted to eat out. We just got our power back this morning after 3.5 days without it, so I am spending the evening doing laundry and vacuuming, two fun(?) and frugal activities!
just got our power back this morning after 3.5 days
Glad you got it back. That's a long time to be without it.
Over in the Food section of the forum there are two threads where I'd love people's brainstorming help. One is a new Food Stamp challenge and the other is an even more challenging project with a food limit average of 1.50 per day. Would appreciate suggestions for both.
Glad you got it back. That's a long time to be without it.
Thanks, Amaranth. We have a generator, so we still had heat, hot water, and some electricity. But our road was closed so we couldn't go anywhere. Thankfully we had plenty of food in the house and wood for the boiler!!!
Oh it is November isn't it?
I'm in an extra good mood today for some reason. This morning I purchased the September/October issue of Action Pack Magazine. (http://action-pack.com/) f.
The girls want to make sugar scrub, bath fizzies and citrus peel for Christmas gifts this year. I think that would be a fun project.
Stella, is Action Pack good? I've been mulling it over...
Action Pack sounded so good that I had to look it up.
It seems as though some of the content in on-line. http://action-pack.com/
Now I want to make message rock and the stick structures with the grandbabies. Yay!
Tracy, yes, it was good stuff. We made some grapefruit cordial from it yesterday and Zach is gearing up to do some of the electrical projects with them next week. Some of it is simple stuff and some of it is more involved. If we do even half of it we'll have had hours worth of fun.
Juds I printed off a few of their freebies too. I hope you and your grandkids have fun!
The switch and outlet combo on my garbage disposal went out today, but Zach fixed it with a switch he had in the trunk of his car. He reminded me that it would have been a $75 fix if wasn't for him. As it was it cost $1.25.
We carved our pumpkin last minute and I baked it up the minute halloween was over, Amy D style. Tonight I am going to make pumpkin bread from it. It's come to be known as "jack-o-lantern bread" in our house because I've done this several years in a row. The pumpkin was free from a neighbor who has a hobby farm.
I also baked some sweet potatoes for Travis for baby food. They were $.69 a lb. Much cheaper than storebought baby food and he loves it. Some of the pumpkin puree will be used for baby food too. I love free stuff!
I took the girls thrift store shopping today. Cheyenne needed a sweater to go with her free Christmas dress, which she got as a hand-me-down from her 11 year old BFF. I found a nice white sweater for $4. I was saved from a misguided purchase by an accident. I was going to buy a wood Melissa and Doug Hangman game for $1.50, but my finger smudged the price, which was written in dry erase ink. They won't sell things that are mismarked, so I couldn't buy it. Later on I was thinking, "WTF Stella. You can play hangman with a notebook and pencil. Why do you need a game?"
Along those lines I was looking for travel games at Target and I wasn't having a ton of luck. They had tick-tack-toe, hangman and some little fishing game, but not much else. I guess kids use handheld gaming devices now. I'm not going that route.
Anyway, when I thought about it the girls really like playing dolls and ponies, so I decided that for their Christmas present they could get a mini-My Little Pony thing to take with in the car. The one they wanted was $17. Considering it's their only Christmas present (outside of the trip) I think that was pretty reasonable for two kids. I really can see them playing with it a lot and it will give them something they can play with at Grandma's house too. They don't get it until the morning we leave. I'm also printing out a Highway Scavenger Hunt game and a few other roadtrip games. We have Roadtrip Bingo too, and of course I'll bring a notebook and pencils for stuff like hangman and tic-tac-toe.
Another thrift store purchase was a frame backpack for one of the boys. I don't want to take up all our storage space with bulky strollers, so I'm bringing the umbrella stroller, the moby wrap and the frame backpack. The frame backpack has a little backpack attached to it too, which we can use as a diaper bag. It was $5.
We just got our power back in day six. I was very afraid of losing our freezer full of garden stuff, grass fed beef and gallons of homemade pasta sauce. A friend loaned us his generator when his power cam back on and I don't think we lost anything! House was built for staying warm and we found we could get water out of our well pump without going outside so we had water for cooking, cleaning and flushing the loo. This is the first time I could sit at our computer since Saturday! Hope all of the rest of you who were in this freaky storm and outage in New England are doing okay...
Stella, we had that Hangman for the car (I don't trust my younger one with anything he could write with in the car, LOL...we just wrote his word for him), the boys got it a couple Christmas's ago from my in' laws. Until the kids destroyed it by pulling the pieces too hard. Sigh..we do have a magnetic chess set for the car. LOVE that thing. I bought it at Barnes and Noble:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/p/toys-games-magnetic-chess-travel-game/18726578?ean=894945002003&itm=1&usri=magnetic%252bchess%252btravel%252bgame
and I see they have this http://www.barnesandnoble.com/p/toys-games-7-in-1-magnetic-travel-game-set-by-trademark-games/22572692?ean=844296089611&itm=7&usri=magnet%252bgames
and this http://www.barnesandnoble.com/p/toys-games-magnetic-checkers-travel-game/18726579?ean=894945002010&itm=1&usri=magnetic%252bcheckers
Thanks for the links! I didn't think to check out Barnes and Noble. My friend works there and they are having a Friends and Family week for employees soon so I could get a discount. I'll have to check them out!
I am planning a fun weekend. Zach is going to help the kids build a lemon powered light and an electromagnet and I am going to do some baking with them. Saturday evening we are going to a friend's house to play cards.
I have to keep busy. I posted this in the prayer thread, but my sister's cancer is back and I am not really OK at the moment unless I am not thinking about it.
fidgiegirl
11-4-11, 7:34pm
Stella, glad you will be doing some fun things, most importantly, in the company of family and friends. Now is when you really need the network you so carefully have cultivated and it's good to see that you will be able to be around people you care about right now. Thinking of you warmly and hoping the best for your sister and her family.
Here on the frugals front, we will really have to batten down the hatches. Our house closed and is ours, six months and one week after submitting our original offer. There were a million things working against us but we prevailed and are now double homeowners! (Eek!). It's time to stretch our frugal muscles. MMM is inspiring us (http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2011/09/13/domestic-outsourcing-practical-or-wussypants/), as well as our own frugal experience at stuff like simple comparison of prices. For example, I called around on dumpsters today. Two companies are comparable and the third was about $200 more. Imagine if I'd only called that third company. We are actually going to see if we can get by with a Bagster. (http://www.thebagster.com/) This is going to be some big-ticket frugality practicin' comin' up here.
I mentioned this somewhere on the boards, but our current conundrum is related to the MMM thing: hire out the bathroom or not. We don't have hard numbers yet, but a bid is on the way . . . essentially, if we do the bathroom, which we're confident we can, but will take us a while since we are working and first-timers at tiling, and thus we will have to delay renting out our current residence. If we hire it, could we move (and rent out our house) sooner, thus making up the difference or possibly coming out ahead? Not sure yet. We shall see.
I need to make myself a tasty soup. I am home alone this weekend. Hopefully DH get a deer so we can have some venison :) Actually, he almost always gets some, anyway. They split up the meat among the whole party, even if they don't get a deer.
Also, I should think of a fancy cake I can make for DH and I to celebrate our new home, but not break the bank :) Will work on that!
flowerseverywhere
11-4-11, 9:19pm
Stella, there are a ton of free things to do in the car with your older kids. Print out a map of the USA and have them find license plates then mark the states. They will be way ahead of most kids who don't know where many of the states are. Hangman, tick tack toe and word searches are great ideas. You can get away with a lot of these activities with inexpensive books or a pad and paper. You also can talk to the older kids about each state you go through. What are the main occupations, climate, where is the capital, what is the predominate religion and customs, how was the state settled and admitted into the union for example. A great thing to illustrate is when the settlers went west they pretty much walked across the country, driving across the country takes quite a bit of time, learning about our early settlers and what they went through is a great thing to know.
Another great activity is listening to books on tape or CD. Anne of Green Gables, around the world in 80 days and Swiss Family Robinson are three books my grown up kids today still talk about that we listened to on road trips. We got tapes (at the time) from the library and it was something we all enjoyed.
Back to frugals. Yesterday DH had surgery and we were at the surgery center at 8:30 and arrived home at 7:30 pm. I had packed food, but due to complications we were there so long I left the center and ran to a local grocery store instead of caving in to yucky cafeteria food. On the way home DH was so thankful he could munch on wholesome food. Way cheaper too. Thankfully he is OK.
Started to really thing about emergency preparedness with all the people posting on their experiences with power outages the last few weeks. I think we are way beyond Fema saving everyone. I decided to make up a menu of how many meals we could have with what we have in the house. I don't want to go out and buy stuff we won't eat or things that are reactionary, but I also don't want to be stuck with no power, no water and no supplies grocery stores which is what many people faced.
Looking forward to a productive, frugal weekend here. Started out by making French toast for brunch today using a loaf of bread that was stale and likely otherwise headed to the land of bread mold and then the compost pile. I haven't made French toast since I was a teenager and I always remember it being not quite as good as when my mom would make it, which is probably why I stopped trying! So I looked up some recipes online...felt a little sheepish having to do that...I mean, it's French toast, how hard can it be?!? Gleaned a few tips from different sites and then gave it a shot. Serious success! My partner is not a lover of French toast and he ate 4 slices of it without syrup!!! This from a man who drowns his pancakes and waffles in syrup and refuses to eat breakfast foods unless they are accompanied by bacon. Well, I'm a veggie, so I refuse to make bacon. He can make his own. He didn't even bother. Just ate the French toast and raved about it!!! Cooking win!!! And frugal win!!! What a way to start the weekend!!!
Next up, I think I'm going to tackle the pile of drying catnip that is currently being strewn about the house by my cats. I had it drying outside, but a few weeks ago when it was threatening to rain I brought it inside. Bad, bad plan. As it dried it became a kitty playground. This made for some highly amusing moments, but now it is just making a mess. So I think this will be a frugal day filled with cleaning and organizing projects that will help to make life slightly easier, and hopefully more frugal, going forward.
fidgiegirl
11-5-11, 7:37pm
Hi all
Well, my frugal score was the classic non-buy. Some girlfriends and I drove about an hour south to visit a college friend. It's hunting opener, so this is the classic "hunting widows" weekend. This whole little town was full of craft bazaars. I wanted some cleaning paste from Norwex that's about $30, as well as a pair of mittens for $25, but bought neither. My pans can remain a little dirtier than I would like until we're settled in the new house, and I have a pair of mittens upstairs to repair for this winter. They are wonderful chunky knitted mittens but wind blows through them so I need to line them. So much of the stuff at these bazaars was crap. I was disappointed. It will all end up in the landfill some day :(
Anyway!! Also, tomorrow my mom and aunt and dad and Grandma (poor dad :) ) are coming down to see the house. I suggested I put on some soup rather than us going out to lunch. So I will make up some chicken noodle soup and all I will need to buy will be noodles and some buns. Everything else is on hand already. Now off to clean since the whole fam is coming over to this house, too. They are not picky but I do have some child-sized balls of dog hair rolling around here. :)
rosarugosa
11-5-11, 7:59pm
Just checking in to say hello. There is pretty much nothing frugal about this weekend for us, concerts, hotel rooms, restaurants. But then again, this is why we save in other areas, so I guess you can find frugality here if you're willing to work a bit at it :)
Dinner Fri night included mushroom goatcheese struedel, and pears with blue cheese and figs, and strawberry/blueberry,rasperry salad with arugula and almonds. Scallops - shrimps - crab - yum. I think I could live on that berry salad for 3 meals a day, seven days a week, and be very happy! But dinner Fri night also cost about the grocery budget for two weeks, so we won't be doing this all the time. But we had planned and budgeted for it, so it's not like we charged it and are now trying to figure out how to pay the electric bill :)
A sort of frugal is that we just came back from an overnight & concert in Portland Maine, which is my personal shopping mecca. I do love to shop, don't ever believe it if I say otherwise, but I've scaled way back, and recreational shopping is not a big thing in my life anymore. So all told, I shopped about $40. worth in Portland, and once again, this was money I had saved (my allowance), so I'm feeling no remorse. I had a lot more cash with me to spend, but didn't want/need to, so that's a good thing. One more show to go in Amherst tomorrow night, which seems to be a dining/shopping wasteland, so I don't foresee much temptation on the horizon. Although if anyone has any Amherst dining suggestions, a nice meal before the show is always nice . . .
rosarugosa
11-5-11, 8:10pm
One more thing to add: when we have a spectacular meal somewhere, if I ask sweetly, DH generally can and will recreate it for me. So there might actually be more goatcheese/mushroom struedel in my near future. I've even gone out to lunch with my Mom, come home and described something great that I had, and DH has made it for us. So although he doesn't post here, some of the most awesome frugal accomplishments in our household are rightfully his.
He has also talked me out of many a stupid purchase. And he's cute :)
early morning
11-5-11, 10:17pm
Hung laundry out today - it was frosty but clear and lovely this morning. I put another load of couch blankets out when we got home this afternoon, and they all dried nicely and smell so fresh - thankfully the closest field was combined yesterday!! I hate dusty laundry, lol. Of course, fall harvesting always sets the mice running, so the outside kitties are supplementing their diets with more live protein. Therefore, I've cut back on their cat food for the moment. Went to a small antique show this morning, instead of going to the preview last night. Last night cost $5, while today it was $3. Saving that $6 for the 3 of us let us hit the local bakery for pastries and a cup of coffee to share. I spent less than $10 at the show, too. (I save my birthday money for mini trips and for things like this, so I don't feel too guilty!) Hit the library for more reading material. Hy - my car- started ticking- sounded like a lifter tick- so we bought an oil additive and he is much better now. The $10 for the additive was much cheaper than a trip to the mechanic.
fidgiegirl
11-6-11, 7:53am
(I save my birthday money for mini trips and for things like this, so I don't feel too guilty!)
I love that you call them mini trips! I also think of outings like that in those terms, sometimes I say "mini adventures" instead. I tend to stick too close around the house so it helps me remember that even though they are different than the norm, they are not a colossal undertaking :) And that yes, it is ok to leave the house to have a mini trip even though the kitchen is a mess and the laundry is only half done. :D
One more show to go in Amherst tomorrow night, which seems to be a dining/shopping wasteland, so I don't foresee much temptation on the horizon. Although if anyone has any Amherst dining suggestions, a nice meal before the show is always nice . . .
The Blue Heron restaurant in Sunderland, about 10 minutes north of Amherst. Best food in the Valley.
We love Amherst Chinese across the street from the black sheep deli...we call it amchi for short. We live about 45 minutes away...
A few frugals from yesterday. Baked 2 loaves of English muffin bread. One to eat this week and one for the freezer (which means it will get eaten next week!). They didn't rise as beautifully as the last time, but I suspect that is because our house is probably a few degrees colder than when I last baked bread a few weeks ago. Oh well, it still tastes great so I'm not that concerned with how it looks! Made two homemade pizzas last night as well. One was consumed for dinner and the second will be eaten today. We make the pizza dough from scratch, the pizza sauce is made from tomatoes and peppers from our garden which we roast, puree and freeze for the winter, so it's mostly just the mozzarella and the cans of artichoke hearts that are an expense. I figure it costs about $9/pizza to make and 1 pizza feeds 2 of us for 1 meal. So not the cheapest meal, but oh so good!!! And it is still less expensive than ordering a pizza, which we would have to drive 10 miles round trip to pick up anyway.
Spent several hours yesterday cleaning up the yard now that the snow has mostly melted. What a mess. But at least it kept me busy for the day, which surely prevented me from spending money in some way. Today I have to teach a class, so I will bring my own lunch, which is sometimes a challenge for me. Because I was able to set up the schedule for this class, I timed it such that I can drive from class to the gym for my Tae Kwon Do class. The gym is on my way home, therefore minimizing my driving.
Kelli, thanks for the supportive words about my sister! I think the fact that both of us have spent our adult lives cultivating strong communities will serve us in this very trying time.
Great ideas flowerseverywhere! Thanks!
So many fun frugals this weekend from all of you. I am enjoying reading them.
A friend of mine ended up coming over yesterday during the day. We went to Crafty Planet and neither of us spent anything. That's rare! I am so excited about my trip that I am not finding it hard at all not to spend money. We made Juicy Lucys for lunch (burgers with molten cheese in the center) and watched episodes of Man Vs Food on netflix from places we'll be visiting on our trips. I didn't have the energy to bake as I had planned, but it was a fun, frugal day anyway.
In the evening we had a family we are friends with over. The kids watched a movie and the adults played cards. It was the perfect set-up. The 11 and 12 year olds love taking care of the babies and are good friends with the girls. From the kitchen table we have a clear view of the living room and could keep an easy eye on everyone, but we all felt like we had our own space. We played spades. They brought beer and an appetizer. We decided that next week we'll all go to the 4:30 mass on Saturday and meet back here to play cards and eat. We'll each make some appetizers for a light dinner. It's good, inexpensive fun.
Along those lines I am happy because our lives are developing quite a nice routine. Mondays are Cleaning Day and karate. Tuesday-Thursday is schoolwork in the day. Wednesday night is Faith Formation for the kids, Thursday night is Faith Formation for the adults. Friday during the day is Field Trip Day or Library Day (alternating) and Friday night is movie night with Grandpa followed by Girl's Night out for me. Zach either plays his videogames by himself (which he loves) or has a friend over. Saturday is turning into card night and Sundays are our lazy day. Date night is flexible. In a couple of weeks Thursdays will be free again. It sets a nice pace for the week and makes it easy to be frugal because we know how to plan. Most of our activities do not involve spending money and the ones that do are planned.
We did have one planned for splurge this weekend. We replaced our broken iPod touch. We both feel that the iPod touch will be useful on our trip. We can use it for music, audiobooks, maps, internet, camera, games (yay for Bananagrams for iPhone!), finding letterboxes, facetime, school stuff and a million other things.
As I mentioned above, we are hoping to do some letterboxes on our trip. Even in our own city it's a great way to take us a bit off the beaten path and see some things we might not have otherwise seen. Plus it's free. :) The kids and I will be researching some boxes this week.
fidgiegirl
11-6-11, 11:01am
Stella, can you remind us about what letterboxing is again? I know you've talked about it a lot but I've forgotten!
I will have to run to the store in a bit for a few items for lunch. My mom and dad and Grandma and maybe my aunt are coming over. I'm going to make a huge pot of chicken noodle soup and buy some buns to go with it. Maybe I should pick up some lunch meat for little sandwiches . . . actually, on second thought, there is some in the fridge already that needs to be eaten up. Score.
We're going over to our new house to see it. I am going to bring some containers of baking soda for the stiiiiiiinky fridge!! It was turned off and closed for about three months :( We don't want to replace it yet if we don't have to, even though it is ugly.
Letterboxing is like geocaching, but with written clues instead of GPS coordinates. You follow the clues to a small hidden box with a stamp and log. You put your stamp in the box's log and their stamp in yours. It's fun!
fidgiegirl
11-6-11, 4:29pm
Letterboxing is like geocaching, but with written clues instead of GPS coordinates. You follow the clues to a small hidden box with a stamp and log. You put your stamp in the box's log and their stamp in yours. It's fun!
Do you use a website? Or do you have to find one letterbox to find another, etc.?
There's a letterboxing site where you can get clues to letterboxes in your area or places you are visiting.
http://www.letterboxing.org/
Also you can create your own for other people to find.
Stella does your library or do your friends have books on tape or videos your kids could listen to/watch on the trip? Multiple rechargable batteries could be recharged each night.
There are some books of games to play in the car. Can't remember any of the titles though.
Would the girls enjoy reading books for their siblings?
Stella, sorry to hear your sister will need more treatment, but glad you both have great friends to help get you through it.
Frugal score of the day: free plane ticket to visit my family over Christmas!!! :D Okay, okay, it wasn't entirely free in that I had to use a chunk of my airline miles for it, but still, the actual bank account was hit with only a $5.00 booking fee. Woot!!! I have been looking for plane tickets for a few weeks as I like to plan early when it comes to holiday travel. As much as I love to see my family, I absolutely hate the hassle and stress of the holidays. Fortunately, over the years we have really scaled things back. My partner and I will visit his family in NYC for Thanksgiving, driving there on Wednesday and home again on Friday. Over Christmas I will fly to Minneapolis/St. Paul to see my family and he will go to see his family in NYC. We've always done separate Christmas gatherings...it just works for us. Anyway, back to the frugal plane tickets. I wanted a non-stop flight, but there are very few options available from the airports closest to me. I found what I wanted in terms of non-stop flights, but the times are terrible: early morning departure on the way to MSP and late night arrival on my return. I'm talking, leave my house at 3am kind of early morning and arriving home at 2am kind of late night. Yuck. So I decided to consider the absolutely most non-frugal option of all...a first class ticket. At least I would fly in relative comfort. Turns out for an extra $400 I could have what I wanted. Yikes! Did I really want it THAT badly?!? Then I hit upon a brilliant plan...I've been sitting on nearly 85,000 miles, collected over years and years of travel. Why not finally use the darn things?!? So...62,500 miles + $5.00 and I've got first class plane tickets for the holidays. :cool: Considering that my possible new job would result in regular travel to Texas and California, I figure I'll make up those miles in no time. And if not, well, then I guess I'll just have to actually buy plane tickets like I always have. :)
Stella,
Since you get the Action Pack newsletter, did you see the article about making a travel game tin?
http://whipup.net/2011/10/31/guest-blogger-series-tin-of-games/
I did sign up for the newsletters, and I might sign up for the remainder. I want to see what will interest the boys from the newsletter.
Today I plan on actually getting some of the work done for my friend. I have an empty house which means NO interruptions.
Menu planning for the week, I am checking the weather first. I realize it may change but if I can get an idea, then I will plan certain meals for certain days. I think they just go over better if the food fits the weather.
Our slightly non frugal for the weekend. I got a new cell phone on Saturday:|(. My phone looked like it had been in a war zone. We do pay for the data plan, but thankfully get a discount through GM and my FIL's family plan.
I really like my new phone :).
Amaranth, I downloaded some audiobooks from Librivox for the girls. Heidi by Joanna Spyri and The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald. Good stuff! Yes, the girls love reading to the little ones and the little ones love it too. They are such good buddies.
Tracy I had missed that! Thanks for the link!
Kelli, letterboxing.org is great and so is Altas Quest. Both have a lot of good boxes.
I'm trying to keep grocery buying to a minimum in part because I don't want to leave a lot of food here when we leave. My strategy for lunch for the next week or two is to make two pots of soup and one sandwich spread with homemade bread. I'm planning dinners around using up stuff in the fridge and freezer. Tonight is hoisin chicken lettuce wraps. This weeks soups are Italian tomato bread and Senate Bean. The spread is cheddar, roasted red pepper and garlic. Breakfast this week is homemade jack-o-lantern bread, smoothies and hard boiled eggs alternated with soft boiled eggs and toast.
We're having a quiet day. Zach is cleaning the kitchen, Cheyenne is virtually dissecting a frog, Bella and James are playing "horses" and trying to get T to fetch a ball and I'm listening to music and making soup. It's a nice frugal day.
Stella, that sounds like a great day!!! I love spending an afternoon making soup and homemade bread.
A few updates on frugals here. I had a few slices of French toast leftover from Sunday morning's batch. I put them in the refrigerator hoping I would find an appropriate way to re-warm them so they would get eaten. Well, I didn't even get a chance. My partner figured out he could put them in the toaster to and he ate all of the leftover slices between yesterday and today. In fact, when they were all gone, he came to me and asked for more! This is great because we just added 5 chickens to our neighbors chicken coop, so we'll be getting "free" eggs on a regular basis now. We ate up the leftover homemade pizza for dinner last night and decided that it was so good we're making more tonight! It will end up being enough for dinner tonight and tomorrow night, which is perfect, as my partner leaves for NYC on Wednesday morning. I'm perfectly content to eat oatmeal or PB&J for dinner, but he's not okay with that, so we need to have "real" meals when he's home!
I had a hankering for something tasty for a treat so I made up a batch of applesauce-chocolate chip muffins. The batter tasted great. :|( We'll have to wait to see if they are any good when they come out of the oven.
I got a $5 rebate check in the mail from the dogs' heartworm medication. And one of my part-time jobs called and offered me some extra hours working one-on-one with a student. I am leaving this job at the end of November, but I haven't given notice yet. The extra work will end up netting me about $125, so I will just add it to the bank account. Never hurts to have a little extra kicking around.
fidgiegirl
11-7-11, 6:12pm
Excellent, all!
Here, nothing new, but have to check in, anyway. I might make cookies tonight. I have been hankering for them and we have some eggs to use up. In fact, I may hard boil some of them so DH and I can make egg sandwiches for work, or just take a plain ol' hard boiled egg. I do love me some hard boiled eggs.
We had a frugal mail day yesterday. My AFLAC check came! Mind you I probably would have gotten oh, back in April if I would have done the paperwork sooner. :|( It was for $100 more than I thought. I had planned on using the money for the new phones we bought, so this is perfect! We paid cash for my husbands and put mine on the Verizon bill. I will pay that off today. The remainder will go for Christmas gifts. We are having our library book fair this weekend at Barnes and Noble, and I may have a few more gifts that I can get there.
leslieann
11-8-11, 10:50am
Hey, hey! I saved two t-shirts, using Amy Dacyczyn's recipe. Remember that one? Hot hot water in a bucket with a tablespoon of dishwasher powder plus a little detergent? Soaked overnight, dumped out and washed and the stains on the front were GONE. It has worked before but it is really only for desperate situations (where the shirt is already ruined so a little more ruination just means the short trip to the ragbag). I must be some sort of sloppy eater/cook, because I ruin many of my shirts.
I am trying to remember that using an apron is ALSO frugal!
Happy dance.....
flowerseverywhere
11-8-11, 11:02am
Stella,
Since you get the Action Pack newsletter, did you see the article about making a travel game tin?
http://whipup.net/2011/10/31/guest-blogger-series-tin-of-games/
I did sign up for the newsletters, and I might sign up for the remainder. I want to see what will interest the boys from the newsletter.
.
I looked at the site and loved the ideas. For the checkerboard you could use a piece of cotton fabric, maybe ironed on some interfacing to make it stiff. Then you could weave red and black strips or color the black squares in with a sharpie. I bet the button pieces would not slide around nearly as much as on paper. Even less if you used something with some tooth to it, some roughness like homespun. Just an idea.
Rearranged some furniture as we really needed to think about new tables of some kind for the family room. By shifting stuff around made suitable arrangements without spending a penny. Had to clean some areas that were kind of hidden.
Made an adorable apron from my fabric stash for one of my daughter in laws. She loves to cook and I took a lot of time to make one that had piping and nice bias binding in funky colors. She is the kind of person who will wear it.
Thanks for the tip, Leslieann. I will also be making some nice aprons to use in the kitchen. I remember as a kid my mom always wore an apron to protect her clothes, as washing them was a much bigger ordeal than today (wringer washer and clothesline, then ironing).
Bastelmutti
11-8-11, 12:28pm
Stella, sorry to hear about your sister. Fidgiegirl, congrats on the house. Leslieann, thanks for the shirt tip - my DD brought a stained shirt to me just this morning.
Our latest frugal is a kind of DUH! forehead-slapper, but we took savings earning virtually nothing and knocked out our last CC debt, which was, of course, racking up interest. We'll just hit reverse and put the former monthly CC payment into savings instead to build it back up. It took a little while, but we finally realized that the risk associated with the CC debt was greater than the risk of us having 1 mo. rather than 3 mo. of emergency fund. We now own 2 cars free and clear and have no CC debt, no mortgage (we rent from family). Our only debt now is a (rather large) student loan to pay back. Hoping we can hunker down and build up savings while paying off the student loan faster than scheduled. Meanwhile, DH and I are both taking steps to increase our income to make that happen - he is getting an additional qualification, and I am taking classes toward a certificate in a new specialty. Whew!
Thanks Bastelmutti!
I had a fantastic idea for our trips, particularly the brief trip to Indiana the weekend after next. Because we are not going to have a lot of money we want to do some free stuff. There's a museum we can get into free with our passport membership from...one of the museums I have a membership to. I can't recall which off the top of my head. Anyway, I decided to an Adventure Race/Scavenger Hunt sort of thing for the day we will be wandering around exploring. We'll start with the first clue "watch the first 10 minutes of X food show on netflix. Find the website and directions to the restaurant online. Go there and order a root beer." Then onto the second clue and third. For the museum I had questions for them to find the answer to. "Indiana was the state to become a state" and "Name two sea creatures that used to live in Indiana." There are others, those are just an example. I'm trying to keep it simple since the kids are not that old, but I could see someday doing this with teams and making it more complicated with riddles and challenges that have to be completed. I think it will be fun and it's a good learning experience for the kids in finding information. I think the ability to find information when you need it is crucial to the "digital native" generations. It's also frugal because it keeps us on track doing the things we planned to do. Some of the questions will be things they can find by looking around them, some of them they may have to ask people. I may even throw in a trick question or two. :) I'm thinking this could be really fun in places like Vegas where we're mostly just going to wander around looking at stuff.
early morning
11-8-11, 8:35pm
Stella, what a great activity! In my very limited classroom we do information hunts, and often just encyclopedia hunts. Most of my students have no idea how to look up information in a book - blows my mind. High school aged kids who don't know you look up people by their LAST name first! It is important that kids learn how to get information from other places besides google! Your trips always sound like such fun. Around here I'm trying to do all the holiday stuff I like and not spend, which is difficult. I like holiday house tours, which are generally fund raisers for some cause or other, I like small village shops open houses, I like to patronize small shopkeepers - but I'm trying really hard to keep spending down. It's hard to balance my cash with my desire to support at least a few of all the groups/people/shops I want to see flourish, KWIM? I did get a raise and promotion at work, but I'm afraid it will be more than eaten up by involuntary furlough days. The court is holding an open financial meeting tomorrow (they are really good at keeping us informed) so I'll know more then. So on a frugal note, DD chose the inexpensive Chinese buffet we all love for her birthday dinner out. For her gift, we took a good chunk off the money she owes us for a recent car repair. We discussed it and that's what she wanted. I did have a couple of yard-sale treasures for her too, of course! I caved and bought several pairs of slacks for work (on sale). I spend $38 for 3 pair, and I'm taking one pair back. So - not frugal because I bought them, but on sale, so quasi-frugal? I'm claiming it, anyways:~).
I haven't been very focused on the frugals this week but have had a couple of small sucesses.
I bought 2 full-size toothpastes at Rite Aid and they paid me 58 cents to bring them home.
I one a tube of mascara on a sweeps.
Yesterday's mail inluded a free sample of toothpaste and a coupon for up to $7 in free butter.
Today we plan on picking ds up from school and going directly from there to do the weekly shopping. This saves about a gallon of gas which I bought this morning for $3.59/gal.
A salesman dropped off a very large sample of oyster crackers yesterday. 50 packets worth. They're not anything we're going to start using at work but we will make sure they don't go to waste. If nothing else, we'll eat them all ourselves little by little.
It seems like it's been ages since I last posted. It has not been a very frugal fall around here. Lots of craziness. My MIL passed away 3 weeks ago. Less than 2 months after her cancer diagnosis but she did not suffer much which is something of a blessing with lung cancer.
Gas for the cars was out of this world. We had been driving back & forth to get Ian from Ann Arbor every weekend so that he could spend time with his grandma while he could. Plus cross country meets 1 or 2 times per week. I had physical therapy on my shoulder 3 x week for 3 weeks. We ended up spending the snowblower fund on gas money. The week after my pt ended Tyler started a class at Lansing Community College. Tonight he starts segment 2 of drivers ed. Thursday we get his senior pictures taken.
Sunday we take Tyler to the Senior xc meet. His last ever high school XC event. It was a frustrating season for all of us. But at the state championships he finally pulled it together and got his best time ever. He is a state medalist, coming in 30th out of about 250 runners. His team is 4th in the state. So he ended his high school career on a high note. I'll miss it. But right now I'm glad to not to be spending the money on gas & entrance fees & food, etc.
I have been looking forward to see what is upcoming in the budget and I really need to find some kind of a job. But there has just been too much going on around here. Maybe now I will be able to start looking.
Anyway ... Congrats to Stella on the new baby! How wonderful! I am sorry to hear about your sister. Congrats to Kelli on the new house! Awesome! Merski & CDTTMM - glad to hear you finally got your power back.
Frugals (or not frugals) - Well we spent more than $2000 on repairs to my 2000 dodge van earlier this year. Then just as I pulled into town after picking Ian up in AA it started making a nasty groaning noise. I wanted to cry. It also made me mad. I did not want to spend another dime on that dang thing. So DH decided that he could pull some money out of a deferred comp (I think it is) account at work to buy something new(er). We went to see my BIL at his families used car lot. They had 2003 pontiac bonneville that fit all our needs. I wanted to try something other than a van now that Deja is in her group home & I don't drive her all that often. DH who is a large guy can get in & out of the pontiac okay and the trunk is big enough and the opening low enough that I can get Deja's wheelchair in & out when I do have her. Plus we figured out that it got 27 mpg on the last tank of gas which is much better than the van or jeep. The added bonus is that I LOVE to drive that thing. LOL
Consumers Energy had people in town passing out energy saving items worth $50. They put foam insulaters on the water heater pipes, low flow shower head and sink faucets, and gave us 5 cfl light bulbs. We had to agree to let someone come to the house to look it over for other kinds of weatherization areas but that's fine. They are coming tomorrow afternoon. I had been wanting a low flow shower head. Our water bills here are ridiculous.
We also got a $460 rebate from CE for installing our new furnace. I think it will cover almost 3 months of our energy bills. Yeah!
So far this week I have been very unfrugal with the food budget. Sunday after we dropped Ian back at school DH & I found Krazy Jim's Blimpy Burgers and stopped for lunch. It's this little tiny & beat up looking place. You have to order your burgers in a specific order. It was fun! And very busy. They are Ann Arbors oldest burger stand and have been on Diners, Drive-ins & Dives. Maybe we'll just count that as a date instead of food lol But then we stopped at Walmart and got take & bake pizzas for dinner which was not in the budget at all and pure laziness on my part.
Monday we had blueberry stuffed french toast for dinner. YUMMY! and inexpensive really. We also had the bacon that I was planning to use in something else though. So now I need to change that meal or buy more bacon.
I made dark chocolate granola. Oh so good! mmmm Tyler loved it and ate it by the handful. All gone now. I think I will try the pumpkin pie granola later today.
I found a bulk food store in Lansing. I checked it out and they have some good prices. I'm just trying to figure out how to fit it into my shopping. It is in the opposite side of town from where I usually shop. They have oat meal for $.49/lb. Lots of bulk spices. Dried cranberries for $6.99/lb. Dried cherries for $7.99/lb. I haven't done the math yet but I think those prices will end up being lots cheaper than the small packs available everywhere else.
I have been taking Tyler to LCC on Tues. & Thurs. and then I go park at the library and wait there instead of driving back home. He doesn't have anyone else to ride with this term and he doesn't have his license yet. But I am enjoying being able to use the much bigger library. I can't check books out since I'm out of district but I am making a list of books to order through inter-library loan at my local library. I also like it cause I can read through the cookbooks and copy the recipes I am interested in. Today, however, I am going to run some errands. I want to hit the bread store to get some of the bread I like for $.89/loaf. And then go to Aldi's for milk & bananas. And maybe bacon? lol
Hit and miss on the frugals here. I discovered that orange juice is cheapest at our local BJs, so I've been trying to remember to buy it there whenever I'm in the area. Unfortunately, I sent my partner there the other night because he was going to be in the area. And he came home with not only the orange juice, but also some other types of juice (the expensive ones that I try to avoid buying for him!) plus crackers and cookies. Ugh. He's really not that great at recognizing that groceries, while cheaper than eating out, are still expensive if you make poor choices! I probably shouldn't complain because in the grand scheme of things the extras at the grocery store are small in comparison to the other ways in which he could be spending frivolously. I need to just let it go, but it's hard! :|(
I remembered to bring my lunch with me to work yesterday, which was great. It probably wasn't the most well balanced meal, but I'll try to make up for it today! My un-frugal for today is that I am going to be lunch for business professionals and I am bringing a guest, so it is costing me $60 for lunch today ($25 for my ticket because I'm a member, $35 for her ticket as she is not a member). But I like to think of this as an investment in myself (the lunch speaker is from the commission on discrimination) and in the business community as a whole. But it is still an expense and I need to be sure these little monthly expenses don't spiral out of control.
Still eating up the applesauce-chocolate chip muffins I made the other day. They have lasted longer than I expected, which must mean my partner didn't love them! So I will have to find ways to modify the recipe while still keeping things on the frugal side. One of the loaves of English muffin bread and all of the homemade pizzas have been consumed at this point, so at least this is a sign that, in general, we've been eating at home more!
Starting to think about buying gifts for the holidays...one of my least favorite tasks. Fortunately, in my family, we have a $25 per person limit and it's just my mom and my 2 brothers. I will likely get each of them books or DVDs. We always just circulate a request list, so it's easy. My mom is really in to the gift exchange part of the celebration, so even though we keep it low cost we haven't been able to eliminate it completely. I think my brothers and I would all choose to ditch it in a heartbeat. As for my partner and his family, well, that is another issue entirely. I think I will, once again, try to just stay out of it. His parents always buy me little gifts and usually give me cash as well even though we ask them repeatedly not to. In return, I will likely just work on their garden again next year and my partner and I will probably pay to replace a door in their apartment that should have been replaced years ago. Neither of us has a problem spending money when we view it as an investment in their property. We both hate spending money on random junk just for the sake of gift giving, though.
rosarugosa
11-9-11, 8:26pm
Bastelmutti: Good for you! I think we had a similar epiphany when we decided to decrease saviings to get rid of our HELOC balance. So far, it continues to feel like a good move.
BKE: I think you should be giving us classes!
Stella: Hope your sister does well; sorry to hear about her recurrence.
Azure: So sorry about your MIL.
CDTTMM: We like the fancy juice too, but I just can't feel guilty about juice!
Early and CDTTMM: The gift giving thing can be a real dilemma, something I'm currently struggling with, although we have it pared down to just four people, which is pretty good. I try really hard to buy locally when I can and support small businesses and/or local artisans.
". . . hate spending money on random junk just for the sake of gift giving . . ." sums it up very nicely. I am trying to think of things to want in response to my Mom and sister's requests for suggestions. But I'm really trying to get away from wanting stuff in general, so there's an intrinsic conflict here. And they don't really want or need stuff either, but my sister is not willing to let go of the gift-giving. Imagine explaining the "trying to think of things to want" to someone who is truly needy!
We did just get back from a very spendy weekend, so I'm trying to get back on track. And I recently bought a few nice classic wardrobe pieces for work, so I cannot justify any additional discretionary spending. I want to build up my cash reserves again; I'm always pleased with myself when I can accomplish this.
we bought a hircutting shaver; can't think of the word; but anyway wee are going to do each others hair! i am so excited; what a savings that will be; and i found a way to get to my therapeutic horse back riding lessons that is so much cheaper then paying my neighbor to drive mee;
plus walked to the dolar store and got food powder; dh and my feet sweat; and tape for wrapping the few gifts we give; dh likes to buy a gift for his family; my family doesn't exchange gifts; but i thought i would copy alll of the pictures of my mom when she was young and put it in a poster frame or something like that; she is 82 and is losing her cognitive skills
My partner is out of town for a few days and I feel like I am really behind at work. Together these two things are making me feel a bit depressed and anxious, which is giving me the urge to shop. I am doing my best to stay focused and frugal!
Aside from a business lunch yesterday, I've been eating at home. Finished up a container of homemade applesauce that was in the refrigerator and ate the rest of the applesauce-chocolate chip muffins (hey, they had oatmeal in them...that means they were healthy!). :~)
Dedicated a few hours both yesterday and today to cleaning and organizing some stuff outside and in the garage. Mostly tasks that we've been putting off doing, so I feel very accomplished! I have a few more things I want to get done before my partner gets home on Saturday, so I'm going to have to maintain my focus!!!
We have this old wicker basket that holds our gloves, mittens, hats, and scarves that sits on the shelf in our coat closet. This has been the system for storing these items for almost a decade. For some reason, the basket has started falling off the shelf in the middle of the night. It has happened three times. It's very odd. But I started to convince myself that I simply needed to buy some other type of basket or container because the wicker basket doesn't really fit the space perfectly. Ummm...what?!? It's been this way for years and suddenly NOW I think I need something new and different?!? I even went to the Target website and picked out what I could buy. It would only cost about $30 and it would be pretty and would match other things in our home and... Finally, I stopped myself. I sorted through the myriad of items in the basket, took out the things we never wear and put them in the bag to be donated to the thrift store. Then I put everything else back in the basket and put it back on the shelf. I suspect it kept falling off the shelf because it was placed there haphazardly. We shall wait and see. But I least I didn't spend any money!!! :cool:
Made a couple of great scores at Goodwill last week. Sorel winter boots, perfect fit, hardly worn, $9.99; St. John's Bay cable knit sweater, hardly worn, $4.00; new with tags craft supply carrier (kind of like a suitcase that I'll take to my elder care job) $3.00; never opened can of tennis balls (high altitude for my area) $0.99 ; still in plastic wrap, pretty desk organizer with matching writing paper, calendar, address book bundled together for a gift, $3.00; Bathworks fabric covered box (in which I'll put a small candle, some bath salts, inexpensive bubble bath) which I'll turn into a "spa in a box" for a gift; $0.99. Woo hoo!
Friend of mine can't understand why I would wear somebody's "old" clothes and shoes. She proceeded to show me her Sorel suede ankle boots that were on "sale" for $75.00. Hmm.... Her purchase of one pair of boots that can't even be worn in the snow: $75. My deals on boots, sweater, tennis balls, work tool, and two gifts: $21.97. And she wonders why I can afford to travel and she can't.
Thanks for your concern about my sister everyone!
Zach has been sorting out all of the summer clothes and putting the winter stuff in people's baskets, so I made my semi-annual shopping trip to fill in wardrobe holes for the kiddos. It's almost always Cheyenne who needs things, as she is the oldest, but Bella needed a winter jacket.
I went to the consignment and thrift stores with a quick stop at Walmart for tights. For about $70 I got Cheyenne 3 pairs of pants, one khaki, one pink and one pair of black yoga pants. I got her four long sleeve shirts that coordinate with the pants I got her, a pair of long underwear, new tights to go with her Christmas dress and a pair of snow boots. Included in that $70 I got Bella a pair of long underwear, a pair of tights, a pair of snow boots, a pair of dress shoes and a like-new Columbia winter jacket in a size that should last her two years. I also got a box of 18 granola bars because I needed a snack and it was only $3, or about $.16 each. The rest of the granola bars are for the trip. I felt that was a pretty good shopping trip. I looked on Columbia's website and jackets similar to the one I got Bella were between $120 and $160, so I'll take one for $15 any day. :)
I already packed Cheyenne's new stuff for the trip to Indiana. I think I will use her new clothes for our trip to California too. They all corrdinate. The long underwear and yoga pants can double as pajamas. My grandma is getting each kid an outfit for Christmas and my mom is getting them each a hoodie. Even with that I should be able to fit all of their clothes in one school sized backpack per girl and one for the boys to share. Now I am going to go through Bella's clothes and put together a similar bunch of clothing. Bella has so many clothes. In addition to Cheyenne's hand-me-downs she also gets hand-me-downs from a friend of theirs who is Cheyenne's age who is an only child.
It really amazes me how little I spend on clothes for all of the kids. I'd estimate about $100-$120 a year for all four of them. I have friend's who have spent that on one outfit. :) I have so I get so many awesome hand-me-downs. We sorted through James' winter stuff and I could outfit an army of toddlers in blanket sleepers.
This afternoon the girls and I are going to put together some stuff to do for the car. I found word searches that use all of the first and second grade sight words, so I printed those off. I printed off and laminated a hangman, tic-tac-toe and word bingo game. I am going to use their spelling words for bingo and hangman too. I figure we might as well get some studying done while we are entertaining ourselves. I printed off a free printable checkers set and we are going to decoupage it to something sturdy. Each of them will get their own binder for school stuff and share one for the games.
It turns out that Zach's aunt and uncle paid for a hotel room for us for a full week and even got us one with a fully outfitted kitchen. We were not expecting them to pay for it at all and we were initially just going to be there for the weekend. Now we can stay through Thanksgiving since it's paid for and we have the ability to cook. I am blown away by their generosity! I looked up free and cheap stuff to do in Indianapolis and I have so many ideas I don't think we'll get to them all.
Zach's grandma has asked for photos for her birthday. We have a nice digital photo frame we aren't using so Zach loaded it with photos of us and photos his cousins are e-mailing him. It won't cost anything but it will be a nice gift. We never actually paid for it in the first place either. Zach installed a garbage disposal for one of our friends and she gave it to us as a thank-you.
I'm feeling like some kind of frugal ninja today. I am on such a roll!
Friend of mine can't understand why I would wear somebody's "old" clothes and shoes. She proceeded to show me her Sorel suede ankle boots that were on "sale" for $75.00. Hmm.... Her purchase of one pair of boots that can't even be worn in the snow: $75. My deals on boots, sweater, tennis balls, work tool, and two gifts: $21.97. And she wonders why I can afford to travel and she can't.
Nella I have had a few friends comment lately on how we can afford to travel too, especially with four kids and one on the way, me home with the kids and DH in school half the year. Frugality is fabulous!
fidgiegirl
11-10-11, 6:12pm
Wow, all, everyone is kickin' it! I'm feeling stymied with the daylight savings shift, I think. At least getting up in the morning is easier, but the evenings sure aren't very productive. I just want to sit on the couch in a blankie and eat. Plus I don't feel super the last few days. That can't be helping.
Tonight my goal is to line my mittens that need a liner because my old ones need to go in the garbage so badly. I refuse to spend money on mittens because I have a lovely knitted pair waiting to be used, they just need a liner to keep the wind from cutting right through them. With the move impending I am super motivated to save money.
We are facing some big money-related decisions and I am kind of torn about them. As I have mentioned, we plan to do work on our house ourselves. The bad part is that since we are working, we can really only work on the weekends, we've discovered. We just don't have enough juice left to do much in the evenings except research what we'll do on the weekend. Since we're going to rent out this place, that's lost rent for every month we dink around doing these repairs ourselves. I'm wondering if the money we "save" will just be eaten up in paying the mortgage on two houses, plus losing the rental income above and beyond the amount of the mortgage payment. Need to sit down and take a hard look at this very soon.
The other one is that it's open enrollment at work. We have the opportunity for the first time to use a VEBA account. You pair this account with a high-deductible plan. The district will give us $1200 each for a VEBA account that we can keep forever for medical expenses. The problem is, if we max out our out-of-pocket in a year (never has happened, even in my worst year) $1200 isn't enough. The max out of pocket on this plan is $3500, but it has a $2500 deductible. What I'm thinking though is that DH and I should go on a family plan. We never have in the past because our individual plans have been free (we have the same employer). This VEBA + high deductible plan would cost us about $70 a year, but we'd get $3000 in a VEBA instead of $1200 each. That's coming out about $500 ahead. There are other plans, too, but no VEBA involved. That's the real draw. Oh well, more number crunching.
chrissieq
11-10-11, 9:53pm
DH and I had one of those conversations about being careful with money so that we can do things that matter - I was the one saying "no, no, too much money" and he was the one saying "experiences matter". As a result, I am not going to obsess about going to a play on Friday that was written by a friend as well as going out to dinner with friends that we really enjoy and see about once a year. And we are going to go to the Lutefisk dinner at church - a fundraiser that I coordinated for 6 years and haven't been back to. Part of it is that my dad died days before the last dinner I was to coordinate so it is a bittersweet time for me - yet it was a time that I felt connected to so many people.
I struggle with spending. But I need to remember that we need to live for today - and experiences are what matters. This board is a great reminder for me - thanks to you all.
Rosemary
11-10-11, 10:52pm
Stella, I'm very sorry to hear about your sister's relapse. Wishing her a speedy return to health.
Fidgiegirl, I completely hear what you're saying about the dark, cold evenings. It's been a struggle for me to do anything after 8pm other than wrap myself in fleece and sit and read... my body wants to hibernate every night.
Frugals... a busy week, no time to spend money. Cooked at home, and stretched $3-4 of chicken to last for 4 dinners and 2 lunches.
We may have a frugal Thanksgiving, shared with various other people at our church who don't have family in the area. There will be lots of good food, lots of fun and fellowship, but it will be frugal because we won't be purchasing all of it ourselves.
I bought a pair of lightweight but really warm boots, on sale with an extra 30% off coupon, to use as winter house slippers. They are keeping me so very warm that I can stand the thermostat being substantially lower than normal comfort level. My feet tend to get icy during the winter, especially when I am writing/sitting, and these are a lot warmer than most slippers.
Count me in as another one who slows down when it gets dark so early! Fortunately, I have been able to get up before sunrise and somehow that means that by the time the sun does come up I am ready to get stuff done instead of just sit in front of my computer! I go to the gym 3-4 evenings I week, so that helps to prevent me from just parking myself on the couch every night.
I'm on a roll with eating at home...this is huge for me because I am so easily convinced to buy a quick something while I'm out. This has been helped, in part, by the fact that I have to take iron supplements 2x per day and I can't eat within an hour of taking them. So I've been having to "schedule" my meals and that has made it easier to eat at homes many times.
Got a $35 VISA gift card in the mail through a rebate offer from my contact lenses. Anybody ever used one of these? The way the fine print is worded makes it seem like I can't use it to buy anything over $35 because someone the merchant won't know that it's only good for $35. Confusing. And it seems like there may be fees associated with it for every month that it goes unused. I do not like fees. >:(
Had only a little dog food remaining in the dog food bins this morning so fed the dogs some dog treats to supplement. We rarely give them treats, but for some reason I was compelled to buy dog treats in bulk some time ago. They've just been sitting here so I figured I will use some of them up. It was like I had just given the kids sugar cereal - they were so excited! I remembered to order their prescription dog food earlier this week, so I can pick it up at the vet later today. Can't let the furry children go hungry!!!
Hopefully I'll have more good frugal things to report later today!!! Keep up the great work, everyone. You are inspiring me to stay on track!!!
fidgiegirl
11-11-11, 8:02am
Got a $35 VISA gift card in the mail through a rebate offer from my contact lenses. Anybody ever used one of these? The way the fine print is worded makes it seem like I can't use it to buy anything over $35 because someone the merchant won't know that it's only good for $35. Confusing. And it seems like there may be fees associated with it for every month that it goes unused. I do not like fees. >:(
We got one for our wedding. It is true, there is a fee if it is unused after a certain number of months. I don't believe you have to use it for exactly $35, though. If you use it on groceries or something, tell the cashier how much it is for, they will use the $35 of it because you'll tell them that's what it's for, and then you can pay for the rest with another payment method. Much like a gift card, if I remember correctly.
Kelli is right about your gift card. I had one that I needed to use after getting the bill to exactly the amount of the card. For example, if you're making a $50 purchase, give the cashier $15 cash and then use the card for the remaining $35. I promise, its not as complicated as is sounds!
Rosa, thank you for the compliment, I tend to push myself to do more and more so its nice to hear.
Yesterday was a no spending day, which is always nice.
I made a dollar buying coffee creamer on my shopping trip this week. I am thinking about using it in baking since I don't typically add anything to my coffee. If vanilla flavored soy milk is good, vanilla coffee creamer should be tasty as well.
Dh and I are starting to feel more strongly all the time that money is not going to be as important as skills and items that lead to self-sufficiency in the near future. I don't know exactly where this is leading for us, but I ordered a catalog from Lehman's last night and am going to look into using my money from surveys to purchase things that will lead to us living in a more independant manner in the future.
I signed up for a local freecycle group last night. Just another way of getting my feet wet...
Dh and I need to replace some restaurant equipment that is just getting too old and humble. New equipment would be thousands of dollars and we just don't have it. I did find one potential item on Craig's list and dh has another used equipment salesman looking for some other items. Our goal is to keep it to about $1000 total.
Kelli & bke, thanks for the info about using the pre-paid VISA. Now I just have to figure out where I want to spend it! I thought about using it to buy groceries, but that comes out of our joint account and the pre-paid VISA is a rebate for something I paid for out of my own account, so I feel like I should treat myself with it. That sounds selfish, but it's not, really, honest! We have a system for things we've labeled as joint expenses and things we've labeled as individual expenses so that we don't have to question each other's spending. Anyway...
I was planning to go to the vet today to pick up the prescription dog food, but I was so exhausted (had to get up early for work) that I ended up taking a nap and not getting up in time to go before having to go back to work. It was a good thing, though, because it turns out that our food did not come in the delivery today so I have to wait until next week. So the dogs got more treats for dinner tonight. :|( Fortunately, I have an unopened bag of the dog food we used to feed so I'm going to use that for the week. I was planning on taking it to the shelter and donating it, but I'll have to scrap that plan. Oh well.
I'm feeling very proud of myself for once again not eating out. I had to meet with a student early this morning...a very high maintenance student...and afterwards I really just wanted to treat myself to a nice lunch out. But I came home instead and made quesadillas. Then this afternoon I had a third phone interview for a part-time job. This interview was with one of the company's co-founders whom I've never met in person. So it was a bit stressful. Afterwards I had to meet with the same student from this morning for another 3 hours. By the time I was done I was totally brain fried and again really tempted to just go get myself some nice take out or something, but I resisted. Took a lot of willpower, but I prevailed so I am feeling pretty good about that!!!
As a reward, I'm getting wild and crazy and cranking up the heat in the house...to 64 degrees. For a grand total of about an hour. :D
A company associated with our energy company is doing energy audits & we decided to have it done. It costs us $350 but if we do 3 of the items on their list of improvements we will get that all back. Along with other rebates that are available. Plus we can count the new furnace as one of the 3 items so we only need to do 2.
I finally made it to the bread store Wednesday and learned that Wed. is seniors day so I got bread for $.69 instead of $.89. I bought 10 loaves for the freezer. I have mixed feelings about the senior discount thing - in my head I'm still 35 LOL But I won't say no to the savings ;)
For dinner last night I made a different kind of mac & cheese. The cheeses were mozzarella & blue cheese. It also had caramelized sweet onions & bacon. Once I stopped thinking traditional mac & cheese I really enjoyed it. DH & DS finished it off. I had some blue cheese that needed to be used up.
Tonight is card night with our friends, but I think only Zach will be attending since Bella, who is overtired from her sleepover last night, has been a total bear today and will be in bed early instead of attending card night. I am going to make spinach dip for an appetizer. It's easy and everyone likes it.
I came up with an easy, inexpensive menu for our trip to Indianapolis. $56 for the week. Having the ability to cook is going to save us a lot of money.
Yesterday was a pretty frugal day. One of the honor society's at a local college was inducting new members yesterday and I was asked to give the keynote address as I was being inducted as an honorary member. As a thank you gift, I received a goodie bag that contained 2 nice t-shirts (1 short sleeved, 1 long sleeved) and a pen. I can always use t-shirts, especially long sleeve t-shirts, so they were appreciated. There were light refreshments served at the ceremony, but I had to leave immediately after my speech as I was teaching a 5 hour class at another college. But I managed to snag a cookie on the way out and it was just enough of a sweet snack to prevent me from hitting the vending machine later on in the afternoon when I gave the students a break during class.
When I got home last night my partner had returned from NYC with an enormous box of mushrooms that he was given on a tour of a mushroom farm. So we had mushroom pizza last night. And we'll be making mushroom soup this week. They are just basic button mushrooms, but I recently bought a box of dried gourmet mushrooms, so the combination will make for excellent mushroom soup. YUM!!!
Went to ikea yesterday and all I got for me was 3 scented candles. We're kinda out of fresh food in the house. Will soak salt cod and make codfish cakes and serve with coleslaw and our own canned baked beans. BIL a Vet Nam vet died from stomach cancer (agent orange strikes again) so we will be going to calling hours and funeral with even less time to cook. They are doing their own food after the funeral, which I think is great. I'm taking frozen italian meatballs from the grocery store and amping them up by using our own frozen pasta sauce and using the crock pot to its best advantage and biscotti . Sister is doing remarkably well...she's been living with his illness for over a year. She also was in counseling because she got laid off from her job and was still going when her husband was diagnosed. I'm incredibly proud of how open and verbal she is about him throughout the ordeal and she sets a standard for us other sisters to be more open in terms of communications and feelings.
Merski I will pray for your family, especially your sister. This must be so hard on her!
Thank you Stella. We all believe he's in a better place if he couldn't get better.
Merski, so sorry to hear about your brother in law. My thoughts are with your sister.
Saturday was a no drive/spend day. I recieved a couple of nice samples in the mail including 3 organic tea bags and coffee samples that should make 4 cups of coffee.
Yesterday I went to the local store to buy the sunday paper and ended up buying a donut for everyone in the house for an extra $3.57. Definitely an impulse buy.
Last night's dinner consisted of free pasta and sauce for ds and I. I didn't particularly care for it which is probably why I was so tempted by the donuts! Ds thought it was good and will work on using up the leftovers. Dh ate leftover bbq ribs from the lunch special at work.
Dh cut my hair last night. It looks as good as any haircut. This is one thing I really hate to do anymore-drive someplace and make small talk with a stranger while they cut my hair and charge me $20 to do it. My hair is long and straight. I always tell dh just to leave enough that I can have someone else fix it if he accidentally messes it up but that has yet to happen.
flowerseverywhere
11-14-11, 2:35pm
Merski, what a very difficult time your family has faced. My thoughts are with all of you and I hope you can move forward and heal.
Finishing up some Christmas presents I have made from my stash. I am trying to get everything done to send home at Thanksgiving as I won't be seeing my family at Christmas. My DIL's spend Christmas with their own mothers so I try to have everything ready at Thanksgiving. I think I am going to make it.
We've been feeling under the weather with a cold and we have resisted the temptation to go out for food, instead making do with what we had in the house. Not nearly as nutritious as we usually have but still better for us than going out. I did take the time to go through all the ads and made a good grocery list. I went to one store this morning and will go to the other big store later this week. Stocking up on baking supplies which are all on sale right now.
Merski, I am so sorry for your loss.
DH bought a calendar from a kid going door to door. This was different than your usual fundraiser though. This 12 yr. old took photos of birds himself, wrote a few interesting facts about each bird and had the calendar printed himself. It's pretty darn awesome for a 12 yr. old and I'm more than happy to support him.
The arm on Tyler's glasses broke off. We have to wait til January for insurance purposes. When I was dropping him off at LCC I was half way to the optometrist to I ran out there. For $10 they found a different arm and managed to attach it good enough that it should last for 6 weeks or so.
I have been collecting free samples & various inexpensive items for our annual Christmas stockings at my Mom's. I was looking through them earlier & I have quite a good collection. Except for for the guys. They're a lot harder lol
Tyler actually saved us some money for a change this weekend! He didn't feel up to running in the Seniors Race on Sunday so we got to stay home and relax. And save gas money.
Merski, so sorry to hear of your loss. Thinking of you and your family during this difficult time.
Azure, brilliant save on the glasses!
Just the usual stuff to report here. Been eating at home consistently. Still haven't gotten around to making homemade granola, which is okay since we have some store bought that needs to be consumed. My partner is the one who eats it daily and he leaves for NYC again tomorrow. He should be back on Thursday, so maybe I will try to make some on Thursday morning as a little surprise for him. While he's gone I'm planning to eat up some leftovers that we have in the refrigerator along with some miscellaneous items. Should make for some interesting meals!
Tomorrow is going to be a very long day, but it should be a day of free meals! I have a fundraising breakfast to attend, followed by a faculty development meeting at lunchtime, and then I am leading a corporate training tomorrow evening and the company provides food at the training. I will be thoroughly exhausted by the time I get home, but at least I am doing all of this in one trip, so no extra driving is involved. Wednesday morning is pretty relaxed, so I don't have to worry about getting up early and being somewhere at a certain time so that is good.
I was tempted to buy a Christmas decoration that I saw online at a cost of $59. I won't provide the link as I don't want to tempt anyone else! But I realized that I could likely make the same thing for under $20. I have a gift card to Michael's with about $8 on it, so that would reduce the price even further. I'll have to think about whether it is a project I really want to commit to...
Worked out the menu details for Thanksgiving with my partner's family this morning. We're responsible for buying the turkey and deep frying it.
Other than that...I've discovered that I need to get an even better handle on our grocery spending. I haven't been following the sales at some of the supermarket chains the way I should. Considering that I drive by their stores at least 2x per week, I could easily stop to pick up some items that are on sale. I think I'm going to start making and using a price book, too. I'm usually pretty good at remember prices for things, but I think having recorded data will help me even further.
Also, I just started teaching a college course on personal finance. My students are creating daily spending journals, so I am going to return to mine as well. Gotta practice what I preach! But I also know that I had the most success in saving money when I was writing everything down, so it's time to get back to it.
We went to my great-aunt's house for lunch yesterday and brought home enough leftovers to last the rest of the week. She made a huge ham, scalloped potatoes, scalloped corn, cabbage salad, rolls, rasberry jello salad and homemade cupcakes. We brought most of the leftovers home.
We've already had two rounds of ham sandwiches and tonight I'm making ham and rice soup, which should last two meals. We're also going to have ham and cheese omelets and a batch of navy bean soup using the ham bone. I'll be ready for turkey next week after all this ham. :)
I went to the grocery store and bought most of our groceries for this week and the week we are gone for $60. I'll still need to get ground beef, lettuce and milk for next week, but I will get those in Indiana.
Stella, please tell me more about ham and rice soup. Is it a cream based soup or more of a broth base? Save some of that ham to go with the turkey and make monte cristo sandwiches!
bke, it's a broth based soup with onions, tomatoes, ham, rice and, IIRC, a bit of thyme. It's super easy and very tasty. It passed the picky toddler test and the picky middle schooler test when we were watching a friend's kid last time. I'll try to post the recipe if you want. It's from my 12 Months of Monastery Soups cookbook.
Mmmmm. I like the Monte Cristo idea! Thanks!
I am using up everything in the fridge today and I have a lot of baking to do! I have bananas, lemons, pumpkin and carrots, so I think I am going to make 2-3 batches each of banana bread, pumpkin bread, lemon bread and carrot bread and freeze them. We'll take some loaves on the Indiana trip for bread and snacks, have some the week we are home and take some on the California trip. There should be enough variety that it doesn't feel too repetetive.
Tomorrow for breakfast we will use up the waffles I froze the other day and today we will have soft boiled eggs with toast and pear slices, using up the pears. Whatever eggs we have leftover I will hard boil on Thursday to take with us. It feels good to be using up so much stuff.
The next step is to clean the house from top to bottom so we can leave Dad with things in really nice shape and come home to a clean house. I find it depressing to return from a vacation to a mess.
Stella we also love to come back to a clean house. We'll even change the sheets before we leave if there's time so we get to crash in a freshly made bed!
Rosemary
11-15-11, 11:31am
I do the same thing - cleaning and cooking before we leave. I usually prep a meal and leave it in the freezer for an easy dinner after our return, too. Just the luggage from a trip makes enough of a mess when we return!
I haven't had many specific frugals to post, but we've been eating at home and generally sticking to our budget. DD and I continue to visit our kitty friends at the shelter every few weekends, which is a great free activity for us. I made a list of free holiday activities that would be good for our family, pulling from the large list in Sunday's newspaper. There will be no shortage of free entertainment from now until Christmas.
flowerseverywhere
11-15-11, 1:04pm
Funny, I do the same thing and I consider it a frugal. You aren't tempted to run to get something to eat when you are hungry and tired upon return. And since you normally have laundry, going through mail etc when you return it gives you time to do that. I even do clean sheets on all the beds. And several complete meals in the freezer that can easily be heated up.
Made my Thanksgiving weekend list of everything I will cook so I can shop the sales and make as much as I can from on-sale items. I don't do nearly as much as most people, because it just makes us overeat but I do like to make a few special things.
Stella thanks for the soup idea. I think I get the idea without an actual recipe. We have this great ham base that we use for soups. I'm going to see if dh wants to try something like that at work one of these days thanks for the idea. Also, I'm very impressed with the way you're using everything up before your trip.
I like the magazine ALL YOU for the coupon savings. This mag more than pays for itself. I discovered a way to get a years subscription for only 9.98 whick is quite a savings off the coverprice. This is my first transaction using ebates.com. I see that I also got a $5 sign on bonus for an additional savings. I guess that makes it less than $5 for a year long subscription to a money making magazine.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who considers that strategy frugal!
Rosemary, there are definitely a lot of free fun things to do in our area this time of year. I love it!
We are kicking butt. DH has cleaned and rearranged the family room, which has basically been storage for the last couple of months. It's a room again!
I am almost done with the fridge cleaning and I made two loaves of lemon bread and four loaves of banana bread. I decided I'd make the rest tomorrow. I'd rather deal with the fridge first. Last night I got both of my soups made and separated the ham from the bone.
In cleaning out my fridge I discovered that we have a couple of packages of unopened cream cheese to use up. Cheyenne has her first reconciliation tonight, so tomorrow I'm going to make a no-bake cheesecake to celebrate.
Last night was our weekly shopping trip. Dinner with tip cost $22!
Ds's birthday is in 2 weeks. We started a new tradition 2 years ago. Well, we didn't really mean for it to be a tradition but that is how its worked out. Anyways, we let ds pick out his own gift. He asks for next to nothing. We don't spend a lot on him throughout the year and his birthday has become his biggest gift getting time of the year. For the last 2 years we've spent around $100 on a super deluxe gift of his choice. Last night we allowed him to pick out what he wanted. We got him 2 things for a total of $50. The frugal in all this is that he gets exactly what he wants and will use. Plus, he put back several more expensive things and chose a cheaper item that he would get more pleasure in owning.
While shopping I picked up a box of potatoes for free with a coupon. I don't know if we'll eat them or pass them on. I also got a large 56 load container of laundry detergent that should be free after rebate. Actually I will pay the tax out of pocket so I got it for less than a dollar.
I drank free coffee this morning while doing a few surveys. These aren't adding up as quickly as I had hoped but I keep plugging along. Every penny counts.
I've been reading the ERE forums from time to time. I am finding alot of inspiration there. I feel like those people are finding ways to get by on less and less while feeling financially secure and free to enjoy life. One guy says he eats for $20 a week! How crazy is that??! I think that what I get out of visiting there is the thought that so much of what we "need" is because we think we need it for what ever reason and not because its necessarily so. Maybe that should be my new mantra/thought/measuring stick for purchases- I'm not finding the right word here. Will this bring quality to my life or do I just think it will because of some outside influence?
Not a frugal by me, but my family won the $50 gift card our library offered at our Book Fair at Barnes and Noble for the family who brought the most extra people!
The new Sears clothing outlet by me is offering a free clothing item every Tuesday till the end of the year. You just have to be a member of their free kid vantage program. I didn't make it yesterday, but plan to next week.
In the mail yesterday I received a free item coupon for Kerrygold butter. YUM! Good for $7 off. Also on Monday received a box with Kroger brand cookies to try from Bzz agent. I'll take those to our next Saturday night event at friends, waiting on an appetizer pizza one also. I just need to review them.
Made a pot of soup for dinner with some local free-range turkey wings, which sell for $1/lb at our natural foods store. Poached the wings, removed the meat from the bones for the soup, and then started a new pot of stock with the bones.
I have dinners ready for the next 2 nights now, in the refrigerator. We have busy afternoons/evenings so there won't be time for cooking, but reheating I can always do.
Not much in the way of interesting frugals to report. Have 2 books that I requested waiting for me at the library. I didn't get there today and they are closed tomorrow, so I will have to pick them up on Friday. I will try to combine that with a variety of other errands so that there is no extra driving. Stopped at the grocery store on my way home tonight and picked up a few things on sale: orange juice, half-and-half, carrots, and mozzarella. Reserved our turkey for Thanksgiving today...nothing like waiting until the last minute! Got a 10-12 pound bird, which will be more than enough for our 7 person gathering. Got a quart of gravy, too, since we'll be deep frying the turkey.
My biggest frugal is probably the fact that I was able to reschedule my meeting from Friday to Wednesday. It's in NYC and Friday would have been a special trip, but we'll be going to NYC on Wednesday for Thanksgiving, so rescheduling the meeting just saved me a nice chunk of gas money, plus my time! Also, this frees up Friday for me to have a meeting with a potential client, a meeting for networking purposes, and a paid tutoring appointment! Woot!
Had a paid speaking engagement tonight. It went pretty well and I got 3 additional leads for possible work.
Congrats on the speaking engagement, cdttmm! I hope you get some work from it.
DH won a chance at work to buy Michigan State football tickets for only $5. So we're gonna do something we've never done before and go to a college football game. We will have to pay an outrageous amount for parking - $15 if I remember correctly. Plus if we have to ride the shuttle to the stadium, and we probably will, that will cost us. But I think we'll have fun. Just have to be sure that Ian does not wear any U/M clothing LOL
I will be going grocery shopping early this pay period. Payday (tomorrow) I will be on a college visit with Tyler for most of the day and then have to go pick Ian up in Ann Arbor for the weekend. Saturday we'll be at the football game. So I'm going to the credit union and get cash out of savings and replace it tomorrow.
We eat a lot of peanut butter around here and I am trying to find something that doesn't have sugar in it and doesn't cost a small fortune. That seems to mean a "natural" pb brand. But I really hate trying to stir the oil in and having it slop all over the edges and stuff. I tried Krema brand which was quite easy to stir in but it is pretty runny and kind of flavorless to me. So today I will buy another brand to try.
I also had some requested books come into the library but since the library is less than 1/2 mile away no special planning was necessary to pick them up.
Made french bread with minced garlic in it for dinner on Tuesday. Last night I used up the remainder by slicing it up, putting butter & a touch of garlic powder on and toasting it in the oven. Yummy
Tomorrow is trip day! I'm getting everything packed and ready.
This isn't a frugal I can control, but gas has gone down, so I did the AAA fuel cost estimator again and it looks like the gas for this trip will be about $40 less than the last time I ran the numbers. If it stays like this the CA trip will be about $150 less. That's a pretty good savings.
Mara- I recieved the butter coupn as well! Any idea which stores carry it? For the life of me, I can't remember what I did to earn it.
Also, could you fill me in about the BZZZagent thing a bit? I signed up ages ago but have never done anything with it.
Stella, I hope you have a wonderful trip with your family!
Not much to report for frugals. I'm still doing sweeps and surveys. We ate leftovers for dinner last night. I steamed a bunch of kale the other night and am adding it to my dinner on a daily basis. Last night I had leftover spaghetti with kale, and a vegan sausage from the freezer. It was actually delicious!
I didn't spend any money yesterday so I guess thats a pretty good frugal! I did look at the movies while at the library yesterday but decided not to get anything. They're cheaper than anywhere else but its still a dollar for the rental. I'm really going to start questioning myself about more and more of my purchases. "Does this really add to the quality of my life or am I buying it for some other reason?" Why spend $2 on movies to watch this weekend when I'm already paying for cable?
Azure, I buy the Meijer Naturals PB. It does have the oil on top, but once I stir it it's done. It does have to stay in the fridge, but I just get it out a bit before I need it. There are only peanuts in it. It does go on sale 3 for $5. Just not often.
bke, Kroger carries the butter. All you did was fill out a request for it, nice and easy.
Bzz agent is a site that sends you items to try out, you write about it online and pass out coupons since they normally send those or the extra samples. The more you are able to sign up for, the more they send you offers. It really is very easy. You also earn MYpoints for filling out their surveys.
I also do vocal point and House Party.
I should have called last fall or early in spring but procrastinated, but finally did it today! I called our insurance company to take a look at out roof and to see if what I see is wind damage from a storm last August or just normal wear and tear. I REALLY hope it's wind damage.
We have someone coming to look at our TV tomorrow. We NEVER buy extended warranties, but we did for our TV since we were told the screen would be replaced if my darling angels damaged it, since it was a more expensive TV we went ahead and did it (it helped that they "extra" discounted the TV the exact amount of the extra coverage ;) . We are getting odd lines and colors, the TV is only 3 years old.
frugal-one
11-17-11, 3:11pm
Called the local paper and asked for a discount. They cut it in half and reduced for the next few years as well. I heard that new subscribers were getting such ridiculous low rates that I had to call. Glad I did!
Not too many frugals to report for this month -- bought plane tickets for our Christmas visit home, so that is a big ouch! But the fares were the lowest they have been in years (under $800/person RT transpacific flight. Non-stop, too!), and I actually was able to adjust our annual vacation budget down by several notches, so that was good.
I have been doing better with the food budget this month. The stuff I stocked up on at Ikea last month (including my new breakfast splurge of smoked salmon -- yummmm!) has lasted over into this month, so that helped a lot. As the weather has turned cold I'm switching from salads to soups for lunch, and using mostly roasted veggies for the soup, so I think that will be a good frugal long term. Though this week I splurged and made clam chowder with some pretty pricey ingredients. It was tasty though, and it was my birthday the other day, so I justified it.
Our great deal on the mortgage is finally changing. Next month the interest will go up to 4.25%. It had been at 3.75%. There have been several hikes in the central Chinese bank interest rate in the past months, but somehow it never affected our mortgage. Guess that party is over. 4.25% is still a great rate, especially when you consider that our mortgage is in US$ so stays steady in terms of our earning power (which is also in US$) as the value of the $ declines relative to the RMB. So glad I made the choice to get a US$ mortgage. Given the exchange rate issues and the risk of having our entire nestegg tied up in our apartment, we will probably keep the mortgage for some time. We can only pre-pay in large lump sums, and there is a significant penalty for doing so, so that is another huge disincentive to paying it off. But I am going to refocus efforts on getting our savings up to the point where we COULD pay it off if we needed to. We could do that now, but it would take our nest egg down to $0 and would mean tapping into Roth accounts, which I don't want to do.
My biggest frugal isn't really a frugal but a bonus. In spite of tight budgets, I got a decent raise and bonus this year in recognition of my hard/good work. And now we are finally at a point where it looks like a long-discussed expansion of our work on a major program, and my role in it, is going to take place. I'm going to push for an additional raise in the context of finalizing those discussions, and I think it should come through, since I will essentially be taking over management of the entire program and have a big jump in level of responsibility. So, fingers crossed I should be looking at roughly a 10% increase in salary over last year, which will finally take me back above the level I was at my previous HSSJ. With much less stress and a lot more reward overall.
lhamo
Called the local paper and asked for a discount. They cut it in half and reduced for the next few years as well. I heard that new subscribers were getting such ridiculous low rates that I had to call. Glad I did!
You're the third person in two days I've heard mention the merits of bargaining/asking for discounts. I'm going to have to give that a whirl...
I was always a bit skeptical about using vinegar as a fabric softener, but since our laundry kept drying with an unholy mouldy smell, I decided to try it to see if it would balance out the alkalinity of detergent. And guess what - it DID! Lovely fresh smelling clothes from now on :) It's dirt cheap and you only have to use a very small amount. Excelente :D
rosarugosa
11-17-11, 7:16pm
Stella, Have a great time on your trip!
Lhamo: Congratulations on your raise and bonus!
I'm mildly annoyed with us for frittering away a bunch of money Tues on miscellaneous extra and unnecessary food :( So no frugal points for us this week, I'm afraid!
Simplicity
11-17-11, 8:36pm
I never participate in these threads, though I read them every day. So I think I should start now! :)
Yesterday was my telework day, so no driving and no spending. Today I had to go in to work and I went out for lunch with my best friend who is visiting from NC, so I did spend money on lunch. I haven't seen her in over a year, so it was really great to get together. I had to get gas on the way home so that put me back $45 and I needed milk and canned tomatoes. So not a very frugal day.
All in all, though, this week has been pretty good. I actually made a daily menu for the week and stuck to it, so neither DH nor I have bought lunches out this week (except my splurge today) AND I incorporated two meatless dinners in this week! I made the black bean burgers from the prudent homemaker blog (http://theprudenthomemaker.com/BlackBeanBurgers.aspx) last night and tomorrow is Dahl and rice (which is one of DH's favorites, even though it's meatless.)
I picked up two new clients for my freelance writing business this week, so hopefully they will work out to be on-going work. I had taken three weeks off from writing just because I wasn't really with it mentally, and just as I was getting ready to do some more advertising to get back into the groove, a regular client and two new ones emailed me! God is good! :)
I also am officially working for a new department as of yesterday. Long, ridiculous story, but essentially I still work in the exact same place, do the exact same work, and report to the same supervisor, but I am an employee of a whole new government department that is being created to supposedly save billions of dollars. I imagine it will save money in the long term, but it will cost billions to get there, so...I dunno. My logic and government logic never seem to agree.
Tomorrow should be a no spend day, I think. I do have to drive the 120 km round trip to work and back, but I don't forsee any buying. DH has to work all weekend, so I'll be home "alone" with all of the animals. Not sure what I'll do to keep myself busy, but I normally don't go anywhere on the weekend, so it should be free.
That's it for this week so far.
Not a problem;)
Our TV is being replaced due to the panel going, thank goodness for that extended warranty. Now hoping the roof has a similar result to.
Heading out soon to grocery shop, with my boys :help: They don't ask for stuff, they just really try to make it a good time. Sigh...
Frustratingly non-frugal yesterday! Didn't plan well and left the house without my travel mug. So ended up stopping at Starbucks to buy green tea to drink. Decided to make corn chowder (from the freezer) for dinner last night. Put it on the stove and turned it up too high and wasn't paying attention. So burnt the first batch. Managed to salvage about half of it and had to take out a second container in order to have enough for a meal for 2 of us. Ugh.
So far today seems like it will be better. Made a big pot of mushroom soup and will have that for dinner tonight. Should have enough to freeze several portions for consumption later this winter. Combining errands to save on gas today, too.
That's it for now! Will come back to report more if I have them!
Mighty Frugal
11-18-11, 12:06pm
dh has the bad non-frugal habit of buying his lunches at work. so the past two weeks I've been making a big batch of something (last week was chicken stir fried rice this week chicken mushroom creamy stuff with pasta) and he has been taking that each day!
Just called my insurance to see if we can get a better price on auto insurance-we pay so much!! My dh car is an old (in the 90s) Civic and it has the bare minimum for insurance and we still pay over $100 per month AND he is a top rated driver-what gives?
Dh and I are know our work days are numbered (between 3-8 months I'd say) so we are on 'lock down' which means we are trying not to spend any money but the essentials....trying to pad our savings for the famine ahead
My week's been extraordinarily and frustratingly non-frugal. Dad got admitted to the hospital Monday and as I'm the only family member currently in town it's been up to me to make sure things are going well with him. That means many hours at the hospital, hours running back and forth between his house and mine, and almost all of my meals at either the hospital or from the drive through. Figured my meal costs alone have been about $25 a day and the fact that I'm not working means I'm losing several hundred in income this week. Yikes! This really feels like one of those one step forward, twelve steps back kind of weeks.
Nella, what a stressful time for you. I hope your dad appreciates what you are doing. Call someone else in the family and tell them you need a break...just because you're the only one in town does not make you the one to do everything! On a kind note, think of the many things that your dad has done or given you and see the balance that you are giving back. Hugs to you!
early morning
11-18-11, 11:12pm
Nella, that's rough! Hope your Dad is better. I'm really stretching to have any frugals this week, and last wasn't much better. I always spend more during the holidays- I love Christmas! We don't do many gifts, we do experiences and -*gasp*- decorations. :|( We have a really old house, and I love to tart it up for fall and winter. So tonight I supported a small neighboring town and shopped a tad...but purchases were planned, and some items will be sold to DH by DD and they will become my Christmas presents. DD found quite a few vintage postcards quite cheap, and she will give them to her aunt for Christmas. I splurged on Starbucks for all of us, too, as holiday coffees were BOGO until 5PM. I had a meeting, and it ended early, so I was able to make the coffee deadline. They were quite cold when I managed to finally get home, but they microwaved nicely ;). I got my first paycheck since my promotion/small raise, and that was nice. Still not using the dryer, and the heat's not been about 63 yet, but the natives are getting quite restless. Of course, the more they move around, the warmer they get, right??
Nella, hope your Dad gets better soon!!!
Managing a few frugals around here, although I'm not sure they are off-setting all of the non-frugals! My mom, my two brothers, and I exchange Christmas gifts with a $25 limit per person (so I'll spend $75 total on gifts). I'd love to eliminate this little tradition, but that's not going to happen any time soon. To help make the process as easy as possible we always exchange wish lists with each other, which are usually lists of books or DVDs, rarely anything else. My mom requested two garden photography books, which were each ~$20. I managed to find one online through a used book store labeled "like new" for $9, including shipping. Of course, I'll still ultimately spend $25 in total because I'm sure I'll find some other stuff, but I like getting more bang for my buck whenever possible!
Finally made up a huge pot of mushroom soup yesterday. Had it for dinner last night - YUM! And there is enough left over for another 4 meals, so those will go into the freezer today. We've also been eating up a loaf of homemade bread, so will have to bake more bread at some point this weekend. I did splurge and buy some eggnog from a local dairy farm yesterday. It won't last long in this house, but I can't feel too badly as we don't buy decorations and I reuse gift wrap like it's a religion, so very little gets spent on holiday "stuff" around here.
Today I think we are going to invest in an Apple TV and eliminate our cable. In our quick calculation, we should break even on this in 2 months, and start saving money after that. Now, of course, we could just drop cable and not buy an Apple TV, but that's not going to happen in this house. I would be fine with that scenario, but my partner is not there yet. Baby steps, baby steps.
And, what I hope will be the biggest frugal of the week...I'm accepting a new job. The salary is low, but the health insurance is 100% company paid. I get to work from home, so that should cut down on my driving related expenses and eating out. I'd like to think it will cut down on clothing related expenses, too, but when I do have to travel for work it will likely be in high profile situations, so dressing a certain way will be expected, which could mean I have to spend more on clothing.
early morning
11-19-11, 9:34am
cdttmm, congrats on the new job! I am afraid I wouldn't be disciplined enough to work from home. But then I'm a teacher and I would hate not having the day to day interaction with my students, also. The clothing thing might balance out - not much spending on daily office wear, which would give you more dollars to pump into a few power suits or whatever is appropriate for your position, and maybe more time to dig around in consignment and thrifts, if you like doing that. Still struggling with cash; it's hard for me to practice frugality during the holidays, but necessary! I did finish up a tube of toothpaste this morning, after cutting it apart two weeks ago when it was too far gone to get anymore out of it in the "normal" way. I think 2 weeks on a dead tube is my record...
Thanks, early morning! I've worked from home before and I currently teach as an adjunct professor. I know what you mean about the interaction with the students, so I am keeping one of my adjunct positions as my new job is only part time for the next year or so. I love shopping for clothes in thrift stores, so now I just need to exercise discipline to buy what I need without also buying all kinds of random stuff that I just want!
Yesterday was a frugal success. I had to teach my personal strategic finance class, which is a 5 hour class. It went well and I felt I did a good job of modeling some frugal behavior as I brought tea in my travel mug, lunch, and snacks in a cooler, and water to drink. I noticed that most of my students had packed their own lunch, too! We had a great discussion and they found calculating their real hourly wages to be a very enlightening exercise. I loaned out some of my personal finance books from my home library and some of my students were definitely eager to go home and read!
We were planning to have homemade pizza for dinner last night, but my partner switched things up well I was at class. He made a trip to BJ's to get some things we needed and discovered they had big bags of tortilla chips that he deemed "restaurant quality". So we ended up eating corn chowder (from the freezer) with the tortilla chips. I have to admit...the chips were pretty good and I had to force myself to stop eating them!
We just enjoyed a quiet night at home watching DVDs and I went to bed early. Today I am going to re-pot some plants and, hopefully, plant some garlic.
fidgiegirl
11-20-11, 10:34am
Just a few minutes to catch up with all! Hopefully I'll have a chance again this afternoon, but:
Simplicity! Welcome!! I think you scored the best username of anyone :) Congrats on all your frugals. I hope we will be hearing much more from you.
cdttmm, congrats on the new job.
Nella, that's stressful. In having watched my Grammy (now passed) and my Grandma who is 83, I have a new appreciation for the person who inevitably has to take charge.
We have been working hard on our house. I hope to have our blog ready to reveal to the world before the week starts so will let you know.
Simplicity
11-20-11, 11:14am
Simplicity! Welcome!! I think you scored the best username of anyone :) Congrats on all your frugals. I hope we will be hearing much more from you.
Thanks, Kelli!
Friday was a no spend day until I broke down and got a coffee on the way home from work. I felt like I would be asleep before I got home if I didn't get some caffeine into me! So I spent $1.70 there.
Yesterday and today I have not, and will not be, leaving the house, so no spend, no drive days! Yay! Although, I did ask DH to bring home some Parmesan cheese when he comes home from work.
We have no dryer, so I hang all my laundry to dry. Did 2 loads of clothes yesterday and 2 loads of bedding today, all of which went out on the line. It is so darned windy today, I'm afraid it might all blow away! Let's hope not!
One of the clients that I think I scored last week still has not placed an order, so I'm not sure what's going on with him. I still haven't done any more advertising. I don't know what's wrong with me these days - I just have ZERO motivation!
Oh! another frugal - I think - I did an oil change and coolant flush on the tractor the other day, saving hundreds! Yes hundreds! If we had had to take that thing in for service, it would have cost a couple hundred for tow trucks, plus $75 per hour labour on the work. I know they would have charged at least two hours for a 30 minute job. Grr. We are newbie tractor owners (and newbie farmers, for that matter) and DH is afraid to try anything remotely mechanical. But my theory is if I can find instructions or a youtube video on how to fix something, I'll try it. If I totally screw it up, I'll seek a professional.
Making bread again today. I am shocked at the price of crappy old mass-produced bread at the grocery store! $3 to $5 for a loaf of bread! Sheesh! I make all of our bread here for probably 40 or 50 cents a loaf, maybe less.
Made a couple of small jars of lemon sugar scrub to give away for Christmas to the gardeners and crafters in the family. I wasn't impressed with the smell (just smells like olive oil) but it works really good. Recipe is here if anyone is interested. http://www.bystephanielynn.com/2010/05/lemon-sugar-hand-scrub-for-mom.html I found a recipe for vanilla brown sugar scrub too that sounds like it would smell really good.
fidgiegirl
11-20-11, 4:23pm
What are the sugar scrubs for, Simplicity? Hands? Face?
early morning
11-20-11, 4:56pm
No drive, no spend day (knock wood; still time for something to happen)... first one in ages! Beef in crockpot for lunches for DH and I this week, chicken on stove for dinner tonight (DD tries to avoid red meat). I think I'll stick scalloped potatoes in the oven and maybe a pan of cornbread and/or a brownie. I hate to turn on the oven for one thing! It's chilly, and I'm in a baking mood at the moment. I really should get on that right now- working moods never last, lol!
Originally posted by Simplicity.
We have no dryer, so I hang all my laundry to dry. Did 2 loads of clothes yesterday and 2 loads of bedding today, all of which went out on the line. It is so darned windy today, I'm afraid it might all blow away! Let's hope not!This made me laugh, which caused me to remember a little something I used to do on windy days when hanging diapers. (Rubber pants got double pins). Those babies would flutter and thrash so wildly, it sounded as though they were going to rip to smithereens!!! I had a few pairs take flight over the years! :laff:
Simplicity
11-20-11, 8:32pm
Kelli, they are hand scrubs. Really good for gardeners or artists/painters, etc. because your hands not only get filthy, but they dry out so bad. The sugar scrubs scrub the dirt off and the oil moisturizes beautifully!
early morning
11-21-11, 8:04pm
Spent a bit of time mending, bah! now my arthritic thumb is all painful. Double bah! Hemmed a pair of sweat pants for me to wear around the house. DH had a nice jacket he hated to wear because it rubbed his neck wrong. Cut the rolled-up hood out of the collar - he never used it anyway - and sewed the collar down. Fits fine, no rubbing - now no need to buy another! Still have a stack of mending/hemming for my mother, though...need to buy some elastic for her. Good use for a JoAnn's coupon!
Last day at one of my part time jobs today! Now just need to file all of the necessary paperwork so that I can get paid!!! Ended up spending $4 for tea and a cookie at Starbucks and $3 for parking to get through this last day, but it was money well spent, IMO. Wednesday is the negotiation meeting about my compensation for my new part time job. I attended a virtual team meeting today even though I haven't officially started yet; it was an enlightening experience and I can see many ways in which I can help to make the organization better, which is exciting!!!
Ate the last of a loaf of homemade bread as toast for breakfast, ate the leftover corn chowder for lunch, and eating leftover homemade pizza for dinner. However, I did have to compost some lettuce that went bad before I could eat it, so doing fairly well on the frugal eating, but still some room for improvement!
Picked up 2 books from the library that I requested through inter-library loan. Should keep me busy over the long weekend and help prevent me from spending money. I did go to Lowe's today and bought 2 small rugs. One is for our entryway and one is to protect our hardwood floors where we put our plants that we are overwintering indoors. I've been contemplating this expense for months and I haven't found anything less expensive that was the same quality, so I consider this a frugal purchase. It should mean that we can put off having our hardwood floors sanded and refinished for at least another 2-3 years.
fidgiegirl
11-22-11, 8:26am
Simplicity, if you wouldn't mind sharing the recipe, it sure sounds like something we can use as we're painting at the new house, and would make great gifts in stockings.
Here we are doing pretty dang well! It's amazing the new focus we have from working on the house to conserve our funds for other things. We only ate out once since buying the house, and that was on a gift card for me and DH just paid for Chinese takeout for him and his brother.
We had helpers come over last Saturday to help us paint. My mom had proposed we go out for lunch, but I said I'd provide food (mainly so we didn't have to take a break). Went to Costco and got enough to feed six people for about $20.
My parents are going to help us save a TON of money on the house. They have just about every tool ever invented and already brought about half of them over. We are trying to exercise patience when it comes to tools. For example, we need to repair a bench that goes over the top of one of our radiators. The legs fell off and it fell on my foot!! We will need those really long furniture clamps. Rather than go buy some, we will wait until the next time mom and dad come to the house and we can use theirs. Also, my dad is trained as an electrician so clearly that is an enormous savings.
We did end up hiring out the kitchen floor and bathroom demolition. We are very happy with the price we got and now when my dad comes again he and DH can fix the electrical in the bathroom properly, and we can get the walls insulated and nicely finished rather than poking holes in everything and then patching. It will feel good to do it right.
We are still working on eating up all the food in the freezer! I did take a trip to Costco for the helpers' food and also ended up picking up some staples for DH. I guess he's pretty boring in his lunch choices but it does make shopping easier :) His problem, not mine!
Have a fantastic Tuesday, all!!
P.S. We have a new blog (http://ourfairabode.wordpress.com) about the progress on the house.
Sold my first item on etsy today! Woohoo! I only have listed 13 items. Stella, I remember telling you that I'm not religious but some of the most interesting stuff that I have listed or about to list are white ceramic religious statues. By the way my shop is called Aunt Hatties Attic. I'm hoping that this and book sales and genealogical/family research will help us keep afloat in a few years if we can retire...though the economic slimate is very drear right now.
Float On
11-22-11, 11:02am
Kelli - really, REALLY, enjoyed your blog on your new BEAUTIFUL home. What a find and I hope the transformation process for you is an enjoyable one.
chrissieq
11-22-11, 10:04pm
We have agreed to keep our nephews/niece here after Thanksgiving dinner until we meet their parents on Saturday PM mid-way between our houses. I've made a list of no cost things to do (baking, play at the park near our house, go to the library, bus downtown for lights/experience, play wii with borrowed games from a co-worker) now the only stumbling block is my niece has head lice and we may not even see them for Thanksgiving!! Of course, we can do the above anytime they visit but their parents desperately need a break - keep your fingers crossed!!
Re: parent in hospital. When our Mom was in the hospital we made sure to meet the social worker who gave us more than we could use cafeteria passes for use during her stay. Bad news, I'd announce "Oh Mom it's chicken day" cause it was really sounding good to me after multiple days at her bedside. I hate to admit it but after she died I thought about going for one more meal (free) in her honor cause she would never pass on a free meal - unfortunately, I washed my jeans - and the passes! She would have been disappointed!!
Fidgiegirl. Love your new home blog!
Simplicity
11-23-11, 9:38am
Simplicity, if you wouldn't mind sharing the recipe, it sure sounds like something we can use as we're painting at the new house, and would make great gifts in stockings.
The Lemon Sugar Scrub is here: http://www.bystephanielynn.com/2010/...b-for-mom.html (http://www.bystephanielynn.com/2010/05/lemon-sugar-hand-scrub-for-mom.html)
The Brown Sugar Vanilla one is here: http://www.bystephanielynn.com/2010/05/my-favorite-vanilla-brown-sugar-body.html
Love the new blog too, by the way.
These past couple of days have been EXTREMELY non-frugal! :(
Monday I spent over $100 on groceries. Blah.
Yesterday I went out to get toothpaste that was on sale and gravol because I was sick as a dog and ended up getting two Christmas presents as well (that were on sale) so spent $80. Then I broke down and got a heated water bucket for the goat and ordered a heated waterer for the chickens. I was royally ticked to spend $60 each for them, but there's just no way to keep water from freezing in Canada unless you're home all day to keep carrying fresh water out to them.
Then it was my monthly visit with my best friend for the evening. She usually makes supper for us, but we ended up going out for supper this time. More money spent. But it was good food and we had a really nice visit so worth it, really.
Today is a no-drive, no-spend day for me, but DH went into town for an appointment and is going to buy a snowblower while he's in there. Big expense. Unfortunately, our old one died last year and needs a new motor that would cost $500 plus we would have to pay someone to fix it. So, we decided to break down and buy one. The driveway is really really long, so needs to be snow blown or plowed. Shovelling would take days.
Will the spending never end? Yuck.
It's been quiet here on the November Frugals thread. I can't imagine it's because we were all out celebrating Black Friday!!!
Thanksgiving week has been fairly frugal for me. Went to NYC on Wednesday and spent 6+ hours in negotiations for my new job. I am waiting to hear whether I get everything I asked for. The negotiations encompassed lunch, afternoon tea, and ****tail hour (I declined to drink any alcohol, though!) so that aspect of the day was frugal. I did treat myself to a quick dinner out afterwards - nothing fancy as I managed to spend under $20. Thanksgiving was pretty low key. Went to the rooftop farm where my partner works and checked on the bee hives and picked some carrots for dinner.
Enjoyed celebrating Buy Nothing Day today, although we did have to buy gas on our drive home. I did surf a few websites and contemplate future purchases, but nothing today. I don't have much in the way of Christmas shopping to do anyway as my family keeps it pretty simple. Spent the afternoon taking a nap and doing some fall clean up in the garden. The weekend is supposed to be nice weather wise so will do some more gardening over the next few days as well. Tonight will be a simple dinner with Thanksgiving leftovers and some mushroom soup I made earlier. We'll probably just use our new Apple TV to watch some movies. So far it seems like it will solve our costly cable bill issue saving us $150/month!!! Woot!!!
Merski, congratulations! I love Etsy, for shopping and for inspiration.
rosarugosa
11-25-11, 5:43pm
Kelli, the new house is gorgeous!
We had no trouble resisting the dubious appeal of BF. We really like the idea of Buy Nothing day, so although we needed bread and milk, we decided to work around it and do without, which actually was perhaps a little silly.
I potted up my amaryllis bulbs, and repotted a houseplant and potted up a cutting that's been rooting in a glass of water for months. That was a satisfying accomplishment, although I didn't get any yardwork done on this beautiful day. I guess I was a little bit lazy today.
Today we are holding a moving sale for MIL in preparation for her moving in with us. Bless her heart at 92 she's willing to part with much of her life's belongings in order to not leave it for us to discard. Moving her will be much easier also with less stuff. The weather is supposed to be abfab here in central Mass. Wish us luck!!!
Confession time: I slipped on Black Friday. I worked all day and then went to a kitchen gadget store to buy a replacement of my favorite stainless steel travel mug that I lost. On BF the store had a 20% off sale, and they are a local and independently owned store, so I figured it was a good day to buy it even though it's my traditional "buy nothing" day. They didn't have one in stock and I ended up buying a bowl cover that can be used to reheat food in the microwave. That's why I consider it a slip - 'cause I wouldn't have purchased it if I hadn't been in the store. Shame, shame on me.....
rosarugosa
11-26-11, 4:40pm
Cdttmm: Hope you get what you want in your job negotiations. Sounds like things are going well!
Merski: Good luck, that's great that your MIL is willing to let go of some stuff.
Nella: Don't be so hard on yourself. As far as slips go, that doesn't sound too bad at all. And perhaps a frugal in the long run if it saves you from using disposable paper/plastic products for that purpose?
Not much to contribute on the frugal front, except to mention a rekindled affection for oatmeal. We had it for breakfast the past two mornings, and it is great stuff - cheap, easy, healthy, and you can spice it up so many different ways. When Stella gets back, I'm going to ask her to remind me of some of her add-ins, because she could make oatmeal sound like a glamorous and exotic treat! We had ours with honey and dried blueberries. We think we might make it as a dinner course one night a week, since it's so hard to come up with quick & easy weeknight meals.
I went to the Salvation Army store with my sister today. That was more of a social thing, because she was in the area and mentioned she was going there, and I don't get to see her that often so I decided to go with her. I didn't buy anything, which was good, because there was nothing there that I wanted or needed. The store was really busy though.
I have a funny frugal to report. I have been toying with the idea of buying an ipod touch and/or an ipad, or both. The ipod touch would be to replace my ipod, which is going on 4 years old and has been showing signs of possibly giving up the ghost. The battery doesn't hold a charge like it used to, and weird things have been happening more and more frequently when I download podcasts. There are also several apps that I think I would make good use of that would help me keep on track with fitness and organization goals -- one that can adjust the pace of music to match your running pace, another that tracks your runs (distance, time and calories burned), etc. So that one I at least have a bit of justification for. The Ipad I just want :)
So, anyway, I learned yesterday that the apple online store was having a Black Friday sale. I was just about ready to order both items, but then thought I should probably discuss it with DH. I was out, on my way to a meeting, and decided it was better to discuss with him in person rather than over the phone. I did notice the "one day only" note on the sale, but thought it wasn't necessarily true. So, you guessed it, got home and discussed with DH (who is ok with me getting either or both items), went on line and found the sale was over. :( So, no apple toys for today. Amazon has a slightly smaller discount on the touch ($25 off instead of $61 off), so I may still go ahead and get that one. Or wait. Not sure. But I have pretty much decided to forego the ipad, thereby "saving" over $700.
Procrastination, works every time!
lhamo
chrissieq
11-26-11, 7:23pm
Had our weekend with our niece/nephews who are getting older (10, 9 and 7) and were great to spend time with! On Friday, another sister took them to the YWCA for family swim then we took them downtown on the bus (which was a first for them who live in relatively small town MN) to the Holidazzle parade - cost for the day $4.50 for their bus fare and $4.00 for juice boxes and popcorn ( keep reading). Today we went to the Mpls Institute of Arts (donation only), lunch out (gotta feed them) and the Muppet Movie (matinee prices ). I brought along the rest of the juice boxes and popcorn for snacks. Their parents met us in the parking lot (met about 1/3 of the way from their home). We watched netflix movies, baked cookies, played wii, played board games, answered questions like "how old to you have to be to get married" - answer "no age - just have to be mature" - love them dearly and now they are home!!
Yard sale went well at MIL's. She wanted some of the proceeds to buy cat & dog food for the local animal shelter so she had a goal. We got rid of her sleeper sofa which weighed a ton and was NOT going to come to our house. She wanted to sell more than we wanted to...she was going to sell her little kitchen dinette set until we explained she still needed somewhere to sit to eat or write out her bills. This means a lot less to pack and move and we have no storage for extras. She will bring with her a few pieces of furniture and mementos from her traveling days. I know the reason she's giving up things is because she's exhausted taking care of everything but it's still great.
BTW we came up with a great yard sale idea. We set up a huge free pile outside the bounds of the yard sale so when the early birds showed up we wouldn't let them in the yard sale but told them that the free stuff area was open to them.
Merski, sounds like the yard sale went well and it is fantastic that your MIL wanted to buy cat & dog food for the shelter. So sweet!!!
lhamo, I am a big fan of procrastination as a frugal tool as well. I wish I could use it even more frequently!!!
So, we bought an Apple TV box last week and we are reducing our cable package tomorrow to just internet. This should drop our cable bill by about $150/month, which is great. However, we spent $10 on movie rentals via the Apple TV over the past 2 days. Ummm...this does not bode well. I'm hopeful that this is just a new electronics novelty thing that will wear off quickly. I, for one, could do without about 99% of the TV/movie watching that goes on in this house. But I'm keeping the peace.
Yesterday we spent most of the day working on fall clean up in the garden and didn't drive anywhere. We ate leftovers for lunch and made homemade pizza for dinner. So all in all it was a very frugal day. I'm hoping for much of the same today, although I will drive in order to go to the gym for my Tae Kwon Do class.
The next 2 weeks are promising to be really busy as the semester wraps up and I prepare to start my new job. I'm hoping that I can stay focused, though, and not use spending money as a crutch for poor planning. Perhaps I should dedicate some time to writing out an actual plan of attack. I'm not generally very good at this exercise, but I do find that when I do it does help to some extent. I guess there is no harm in trying!
Merski, I checked out your shop and I love those statues!
Kelli, your house is beautiful! I can't wait to see your progress!
We are back from our trip and it was great! We did pretty well on spending. We visited three museums, the Madison Children's Museum, the Indiana State Museum and the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago using the ASTC Passport benefits from our Science Museum of Minnesota membership. Each of those museums would have been about $50 for our family to get into and they were free except for the $18 for parking at the Museum of Science and Industry. That's a pretty big savings. We'll be using it on the next trip for a few free museum entrances too. Considering we've used the membership to go to our science museum 3 times and got discounted tickets to the King Tut exhibit I think that membership was a good deal.
We also went to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. We got there just before 3:00PM and asked the woman at the desk whether it would be better to spend the $16 for the track tour or the $16 for the museum tour. She said to go with the track tour because when we got back it would be after the time they stop selling tickets to the museum and she could let us in for free. Both were a big hit with James, who loves cars. I don't think I would have felt like $16 was a reasonable price for one of the tours, but it was a good deal for both of them. That front desk woman was great!
We ate mostly at the hotel or other people's houses, so that saved us a bunch too. We splurged at one place, Shapiro's Deli, which was fantastic. I had corned beef with swiss and mustard on rye and matzo ball soup. Yum! Totally worth it.
Some other free/cheap things we did were a walk in White River State Park, a visit to the Garfield Park Conservatory for $1 a person (in Indianapolis, there is also one in Chicago and I have no idea how much that one costs) and crocheting lessons from Grandma. We went to Great Grandma's 90th birthday party, a big family dinner and visited a high school friend of MIL's who has kids the same ages as mine. That was a fun evening. We played cards and ate pizza. The boys showed my horse-loving girls their horses, Pumpkin and Toffee, while the little boys played with trains.
On the way there we stopped in Black River Falls Wisconsin to do a letterbox. It was a great free way to stretch our legs. On the way home we stopped at the Shrine of Christ's Passion, which was both beautiful and a good mile-long walk.
I think this was a great dry run for the trip to California in a week and a half. I think the California trip will run even smoother because we did the Indy trip.
Welcome "home" Stella! We missed you!
Thanks Merski! I missed you all too!
fidgiegirl
11-27-11, 10:48pm
Whew. Thanks all for your kind words about the house. I guess you can see it's kept me pretty busy from checking in here, though I am reading almost every day.
I do need some ideas, if you'd be so kind. With lots of people helping us on the house (an AWESOME frugal, and such a great feeling as well) we find ourselves with the need to feed all of those people. We've done so-so on doing this in frugal way. Once we did sloppy joes, that was the best at about $2 per person with the accompanying snacks. The other good thing was taco salad bar at about $3 per person, though it didn't have a lot of staying power. Not-so-hot (frugalwise) meals were ordering a Davannis pizza as well as yummy takeout burgers. Though we didn't blow the bank on either of those, really.
For future meals I was thinking meatball subs, cold-cut sandwich bar, or pulled pork BBQ sandwiches, but beyond that, I'm a little stumped. Caveats: No stove or microwave right now. Crock pot is an option and has worked well. Refrigeration is a cooler or leaving things outside in the car, which with our BEAUTIFUL weather has been hit-or-miss. Chips, etc. are fine since this crew isn't too into super healthy foods and basically I just want something in their bellies that they will actually eat and like. I can probably duplicate meals once, but since it is largely the same group of helpers, I'd like to vary it a bit.
Thank you, friends!
Hope you all had wonderful Thanksgiving holidays. I am so grateful that we had enough time this weekend to both do a LOT on the house (check out the blog if you're curious) and to relax a little, too. Wednesday was a bit of a teeny splurge out at a new-to-us restaurant with a BOGO lunch entree coupon. Twin Citians, it was Red Stag Supper Club and there is a BOGO coupon in the Chinook Book that is only good during the week. Their burger is AMAZING!! So, so, so delicious.
Kelli: Frugal crockpot meals for a crowd (add salad to everything for a meal):
baked beans (most recipes require cutting out sugar) - can add pork chops or sliced pork loin if you want meat in it
black bean soup
chili, any favorite type: black bean/butternut, green chili/chicken, traditional, etc
chicken & vegetable stew or soup
lentil dahl with carrots and coconut milk
crock-baked sweet or regular potatoes with toppings on the side, or chili as a topping
crock-roasted chicken, pork, or beef
crockpot lasagna
Rosemary mentioned what I was thinking of, chili.
How many people are you feeding? It might be a lot of food, but if you have a membership the Costco in Maplewood has pork shoulder, cut in half, about 12.5lbs for $25. You could do your pork sandwiches one day and carnitas tacos or burritos another day.
My grandma is making Italian shredded beef sandwiches in the crockpot for Christmas Eve and Beef Stew for Christmas Day.
I sometimes make chicken in the crockpot and use it for various things. One meal I like is chicken pita sandwiches with chopped tomato and cucumber and a pretty basic olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt and pepper vinaigrette. If you don't want to make the chicken you could just buy one of the already roasted chickens from the grocery store.
One more, although it's not the most frugal it's probably cheaper than Davanni's. Zach's favourite is corned beef in the crock pot.
I looked around on the web and saw crock pot recipes for meatloaf, chicken curry and roasted ham. Those might work.
OK, some actual frugals for me for today.
I baked up a bunch of sweet potatoes before they go bad and I am going to use it for baby food. Sweet potatoes are Travis' favourite.
It's cleaning day and I am kicking butt in the kitchen. I cleaned out my pots and pans cabinet and used up some leftover cork shelf liner I had from another project to line the bottom of it. It looks very nice, although it doesn't go quite all the way to the back. No matter. No one looks in the back of the cabinet anyway.
That's pretty much it for today. The goal for this week is to keep working on deep cleaning the house and the goal for the first half of next week is getting ready to leave for trip #2 on that Thursday. The goal is, as much as possible, to not spend money.
fidgiegirl
11-28-11, 6:08pm
Thanks for all the meal ideas, all!
rosarugosa
11-28-11, 7:08pm
Switched my prescription from Stop & Shop Pharmacy to Costco, and my co-pay went from $27. to $11. - that's quite a difference! I'm definitely going to check out their eyewear. Even with my vision coverage, I pay about $220. out of pocket for my progressives at Sears, and I go with inexpensive frames. I recently saw that BJ's charges $95. for progressives with lenses and frames. I'm guessing Costco might be comparable. The guy at BJ's said they don't take vision insurance, but that they are generally cheaper even without insurance. That appeared to be true to me. And I think with my plan I can pay out of pocket at an out-of-network provider, and get partial reimbursement. So this will definitely be worth checking out, something that could save me $100 - $200. per year.
Stella,
Can you please remind me of some of your oatmeal add-ins? We're on an oatmeal kick and I want to encourage us by keeping it interesting! :)
Sure. I just kind of toss things together as I think of them.
-Mango coconut
-White chocolate chips and dried cherries
-Peanut butter and chocolate chips or cocoa powder (Zach's favourite)
-Cranberry pecan
-Banana walnut
-Apple cinnamon
-Banana chocolate chip
-Cranberry white chocolate
-Cocoa powder and cinnamon
-Chocolate hazelnut
-Blueberry
-Mixed berry
-Strawberry
-Strawberry almond
-Cherry almond
-Rasberry chocolate chip
-Raspberry white chocolate chip
-Raspberry mango
-Tropical (mango, dried pineapple, coconut) -I'm going to try toasting the coconut sometime
-German Chocolate (cocoa or chocolate chips, coconut, pecans)
Pretty much anything I'll put in a muffin I'll put in oatmeal.
So happy to see your list of add-ins for oatmeal, Stella. I was feeling ambivalent about eating mine this morning, but now I'm going to try one of your combos to make it more interesting!
A fairly frugal day yesterday. I went to the gym first thing in the morning so that I could swim. Have been out of the pool and focused on other things for nearly 4 years, so it was great to get back in the water. Went to Target afterwards to pick up a few things that we needed and made my only not-so-frugal move of the day. I walked by the athletic wear section and they had this fabulous long-sleeved shirt made of the tech fabric and it was the most fabulous shade of purple I just couldn't help myself. Sigh. I've decided it was my $25 Christmas gift to myself. :D And it will get worn repeatedly and loved (as much as you can love an item of clothing) so I'm over the fact that it was technically a splurge.
Stopped by the library and picked up a book I had ordered. It's Trent Hamm's (of The Simple Dollar) second book. It's an easy read and enjoyable enough, but I'm glad I got it from the library. It isn't worth owning, IMO.
Raked some more leaves, which means I'm saving on gas as we'd normally use the leaf blower. We both hate the leaf blower, but it is far more efficient than raking. I don't care so much about the lawn, but getting the leaves out of the flower beds in the fall makes gardening in the spring much more enjoyable. But it has been too wet here to leaf blow so I've been slowing working at raking everything. It's a good workout and if the snow holds off I should be able to get it all done without having to bust out the leaf blower!
Been doing a good job of eating at home and I'm hoping to continue that today and tomorrow because we'll be going out to dinner tomorrow night to celebrate our anniversary -- 17 years!
Put off doing laundry until last night, so put a load in the washer before I went to bed and put it in the dryer this morning. I'm hoping that by creating the illusion that I've done laundry today I won't feel compelled to put another load in the washer later today. Sometimes I get a little obsessed about laundry that is waiting to be washed and I end up starting loads that aren't truly full. Same thing with the dishwasher. So I'm trying to figure out how to work with my desire for cleanliness but still being eco-friendly and frugal!
And the best in frugal news...I got my official job offer yesterday. Woot!!! The job comes with 100% employer paid health insurance, which is worth about $6000/year to me. Health insurance and property taxes are my 2 largest line items in the budget this year making up nearly a third of my spending, so eliminating the health insurance premiums is AWESOME!!! The salary is ridiculously low, but it's a start up so I am taking the risk that this all pays off in the long run. And the salary covers my expenses and then some so I won't have to go dipping into my savings and that was pretty much my criteria for agreeing to this gig. Doing a little happy dance over here!
flowerseverywhere
11-29-11, 9:17am
congratulations cdttmm! Even if the job isn't perfect it sounds like it will improve your situation.
Spent the last few days cooking leftovers- make two turkey pot pies (wow it turned out really good), one for the freezer, and one for dinner last night and tomorrow night and lunch today. Also made two pots of different types of turkey soup. All were full of vegetables and make good healthy eating. Some for the fridge and some for the freezer, but I won't be cooking for a while.
we had great pre-Thanksgiving food sales so I stocked up on a lot of stuff I use, will only need to get fresh fruit and veggies for a while.
Congratulations cdttmm! That is exciting!
I decided to make oatmeal this morning after composing that list. The kids suggested banana strawberry toasted coconut. It sounds good to me. I'm having trouble not eating the toasted coconut as I'm waiting for the oats to cook.
Today will be a stay-at-home day for me and the kids. James is sick and he is getting molars, so he's pretty miserable. Mostly I'm going to do some cleaning and laundry while he rests. I have given the kids this week off of school since they are going to have two intensive weeks of learning while other kids are off. They are writing a play, so that will keep them busy.
We're going to try harder to keep the house picked up and clean and have a few weeks to go before MIL moves in to get this good habit started. I think if a 92 year old woman can keep her dishes washed (by hand) and doesn't go to be without picking up, we should be able to do it as well. After 40 years of living alone as a childless couple, I hope it won't be too hard of an adjustment with a new housemate. She will be living in our lower level.
rosarugosa
11-29-11, 7:32pm
Stella: Thanks for takng the time to compose that list. I had oatmeal for dinner tonight with almonds, brown sugar and honey - very yummy. The cranberry pecan sounds like a winner; I'll have to get the ingredients.
Cdttmm: Great score on the health insurance. It's scary how expensive health insurance has become. I have a good plan through my employer, but I still pay @ $120. per month for me & DH.
Flowers: I want some turkey pot pie - that sounds like it would be so good homemade!
Merski: Good for you. Sounds like DMIL might be a good influence :)
Not much to report today - except the simple frugal pleasure of oatmeal for dinner!
Congrats Cdttmm!
I haven't posted in a while so here it goes...
Thanksgiving went well. We made enough from the comped gambling money to pay all our expenses for the night and put about $20 towards the cost of the room. They had a deal where if you spent $25 in the arcade, they gave you another $25 to spend. That's about our limit anyways so it was a big treat to ds to have his playing time doubled. We don't buy video games so he only gets to play them 3-4 times a year max.
Ds's b-day dinner consisted of $11.67 worth of Little Ceasar's pizza. This was his choice. I'm happy it was relatively cheap.
I did the bulk of my Christmas shopping on line monday. I spent $86 and that included 2 books for me. I may end up buying one more thing for ds but that has yet to be decided.
I have really wanted to read the Early Retirement Extreme book and am unable to get it through the library so that was one of my personal purchases. The other is the new vegan Pie in the Sky book by Isa Moskowitz and Teri Hope Romero. I pretty much love anything that comes from these ladies and since I've decided that vegan is healthiest for me, I think its a good investment.
I'm drinking free coffee this morning from an online sample I requested. Last night dh and I were able to both go and get ds from school and go directly from there to run errands. We also chose to go to the closer store since we didn't need as much this week. In total, we probably saved 4-5 gallons of gas. We also made it in time to get lunch prices on our meal out saving another $10 or so.
I don't usually make new year's resolutions but I'm working on making an exception. Its time to get down and dirty and figure out what my bottom-line needs are for quality of life. I want to center my diet around whole vegan foods, figuring out how differently my body feels and reacts to these items vs my typical diet. I want to begin to garden so that by the time we quit working I am confident about what I'm doing. I hope to be able to grow the bulk of my own food one day. I also want to work on figuring out where the rest of my money goes and why. There are people in this country and on this forum that live on next to nothing and have a very happy, content, and SECURE life. While we live much more frugally than the general population, I know there are things that I still purchase for no good reason other than its there or I saw someone else with it. IE-$3.00 packages of cookies that are nothing but garbage. One, I don't need the junk and two, I own a restaurant for goodness sake-I can make cheaper, better quality snacks it I'd only make the effort.
Can I be content to live on say, $10, 000 a year if I was debt free?
For now, I need to continue working on becoming debt free so its on to quadreader points, sweeps, and swagbucks, and freebies.
Trip to the Goodwill today:
Book on the history of John Deere tractors for my Dad for Christmas. In great shape and he'll love it!: $9
Six new, brand name, never worn tops with tags still on: $36.00
Practically new, small leather handbag. Inside is pristine and hardware only needs a little buffing. Perfect size that I've been looking for: $7
Don't 'cha love it!!
fidgiegirl
11-30-11, 6:30pm
There are people in this country and on this forum that live on next to nothing and have a very happy, content, and SECURE life. While we live much more frugally than the general population, I know there are things that I still purchase for no good reason other than its there or I saw someone else with it. IE-$3.00 packages of cookies that are nothing but garbage. One, I don't need the junk and two, I own a restaurant for goodness sake-I can make cheaper, better quality snacks it I'd only make the effort.
Can I be content to live on say, $10, 000 a year if I was debt free?
I hope you will continue to post about your progress toward this goal. Very inspiring!
early morning
11-30-11, 8:47pm
Kelli, love your new house and am enjoying your blog. I can relate - we've done a lot of work on our current home in the 22 years we've lived in it. Sadly, some things need done again (painting, floors refinished...) and we are no longer in do-it-yourself condition for most things. Ah well, reading your blog brings back lots of memories! Especially pulling wires!
Stella, glad you're back safe and sound - and hope you have lots of fun on your next trip! Wish I had more frugals to report- I feel pretty do-less at the moment. Lots happening at work and with my mom - no energy left for home. :( So far I've cut down our Christmas card list. Not buying many gifts- the kids are getting mostly cash or we will pay for some needed car repairs, etc. Friday afternoon DD, Dsis, Dsil, and I leave for a mini-trip overnight for our girl's Christmas outing, in lieu of exchanging gifts. Dsil is covering the hotel (with free breakfast!) with reward points, so only expenses will be dinner Friday, and lunch and dinner on Saturday, gas, $10 each for a play we have tickets for, and admissions to several historical sites. I'm excited!
Awesome frugal month, everyone! I'm off to start the December thread because, lo and behold, it's December!!! Come join me there with your continuing tales of frugality!!!
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