DS reimbursed me for his auto insurance I recorded on last month's spending, so my outgo this month is negative so far.
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DS reimbursed me for his auto insurance I recorded on last month's spending, so my outgo this month is negative so far.
Way to go! I am saving seeds for next year, and will repot the geraniums from my window box and bring them indoors for the winter and reuse them next summer.
Each spring and fall I do a wardrobe transition. Starting this past Friday each day I put away one summer garment and bring out one fall or winter garment. This makes me feel as if I am getting a steady stream of new clothing for a while and I am less tempted to go out and buy new pieces.
I feel like I might do better to make the clothing transition sooner than I do, because I sometimes forget about things I own, and think I need more clothes for the upcoming season, when in fact I do not. On the other hand, I don't need a bunch of fleece and wool in the front of my closet when it's still t-shirt weather. I think the ideal might be a small enough collection of clothing so that there is no major seasonal shifting around, but I don't think I'm minimalist enough to ever get there.
I have never put away seasonal clothes. If it doesn’t fit in the closet space I have it goes.
Living in the NE, you do have two sets of clothing and I don't know how to circumvent that. I still tend to like "uniforms" and I have my leggings, shirt, and LLBean hoodie as my winter wardrobe and my LLBean skort and t-shirt for my summer outfit. It's minimal enough. I've read that we only have a certain cache of decision-making capacity in our brain, and I don't want to use up any of it deciding what to wear for the day.
When I lived in Wisconsin and upstate New York I definitely needed more clothes because of big difference between seasons.
I keep a good portion of my clothes out all year (jeans, lighter sweaters, long and short sleeve tees, henleys) and keep the stuff that is clearly limited to a particular season (tank tops, heavy sweaters, summer dresses, cold weather clothing) in a big tote in another closet. Sometime in September I put away the tanks and the summer dresses and skirts and pull out the heavy sweaters, and switch the shirt positions so that the most used is front and center and most accessible. Usually in April I do the reverse because I'm just so tired of winter, not because I need to use the summer clothing that early.
My uniform is skirt/skort and tee/tank , sometimes a dress, for summer and jeans, long sleeved tee and sweater/fleece for cold weather.
We have seasons here, but they're pretty mild. I just add layers.
We have only one closet in our house, but it is pretty big. I believe I once measured it at 13' long. It's built into a sloping eave, so it's not a walk-in (unless you're a cat). There is a pole that runs the full length of the front and another in the back, so the back pole is where off-season or seldom used items go. Since making an effort to reduce our clothing inventory over the years, we now can also store off-season fans and portable A/C and heating units in there.
We dont have walk-in closets in our city house because that wasn't a fully developed trend back when we renovated this house, but we do have a LOT of storage in cubby, cabinetry, attic space, and closets. I rather expect someone who buys this house to do a major renovation of the 2nd and 3rd floor here and create different closet/bathroom configurations, as well as getting rid of the spiral staircase.
Anyway, I AM mentally adjusting to moving to a place that just has fewer closets and less storage. The closets in our Hermann house are limited. The front hall closet is the world’s tiniest coat closet, it is about 2’ wide.
Oddly, the closets in my 550 sq ft condo are extensive, all 5 of them! Tiny but mighty in closets!
Called to cash in rewards on my second credit card as a credit to my statement.
I have been bringing a lot of my lunch home each day as the boss went to BJ's and bought a bunch of snacks for us and guess whose desk they sit on tempting me all day? It's okay though.
Went to Staples yesterday for printer toner and got some notebooks for 25 cents each.
The kayak place didn't charge me because I wasn't out there that long and I am local, not a tourist. He said just come back again in the future.
That's so nice! I have wanted to try kayaking, too, but I think we will get a two person canoe instead, and this is the right time of year to grab one off Craigslist.
I have also had kayaking on my bucket list for up here for 4 years!!! I can't believe I haven't done it. And my neighbors all have kayaks and told me I could borrow theirs to see if I like it. And I live right on the lake!! What's wrong with me??
Not frugal - got two free faucets but the plumber discovered one was missing parts and he went and got another faucet. With that, labor and a smaller repair in the basement it was $600. Sometimes it is good to look a gift horse in the mouth, or check a gift faucet against the parts list. The faucets are an improvement but I was not planning on spending that much.
But, it is DONE!!!
Yes.
Went shopping and there was just nothing I wanted to buy. Have some funds on a Target gift card but their clothes were unappealing, they didn't have the blender in stock that I wanted, and the end table I wanted rang up the wrong price and the clerk was too lazy to send someone to do a price check so I walked out.
Went to Kohls and the tops were all these muted dingy colors like someone was rolling around in the mud. I am no longer a 12 or medium in pants and I didn't want to accept that reality.
Yesterday I went to DSW and they were requiring masks so I didn't go in.
So I am saving money.
DH is becoming a self-reliant Vermonter. We have practically begged people (plumbers, handymen/women) to fix leaks we have in indoor spaces and outdoor spaces. Our property manager promised he'd get here "soon" (probably meaning after all the summer people have left--mid-October.
So DH finally got under the sink, and into the outdoor shower, and over to the courtyard outdoor valve, figured out which gaskets and washers and lines he needed and fixed it all himself.
So we probably saved a couple of hundred dollars.
Oooh, I don't know. I do think people up here do-it-yourself on many things. Chances are no one will bother us about it.
ETA: I just found this online under "Vermont Plumbing Rules":
Section 11: LICENSE NOT REQUIRED
(A) All plumbing and specialty work performed in Vermont shall be performed by persons licensed under this chapter except that a license shall not be required for the following types of work:
(1) Any plumbing and specialty work performed by an owner or the owner's regular employees in the owner-occupied freestanding single family dwelling or in outbuildings accessory to the owner- occupied, single family dwelling.
So I think we're good
We fixed our washing machine! DH noticed that it wasn't agitating properly, which I might never have noticed to be honest. If it flat-out wasn't working, I probably would have called the appliance repair guy, but this felt a little bit less urgent, so I spent some time with Google and YouTube, and decided we could probably do this ourselves. We ordered parts online (agitator dogs), which cost $13. with shipping (shipping was most of the cost, parts were only about $3.50). We got the parts today and fixed the machine quite easily and it now works fine. I love this because it's a good machine that's been serving us well since 2003, and we can keep it in service, our repair guy would have cost about $185. so a definite savings, and we'll probably feel a little more empowered to at least consider tackling the next thing that comes along ourselves without automatically assuming we need to call in an expert..
Excellent Rosa!
Finished my Christmas sewing. I am not fond of gift giving but DH’s family insists. The idea is about a $25 gift and there are 13 people. I made everyone a token gift like potholders, throw pillows or placemats from a huge pile of quilt shop fabric a friend who was moving gave me. Pillow forms are ridiculously expensive so I went to my favorite thrift shop and bought a bunch of pillows that looked new and recovered them.
then I give my DIL $250 which her company matches and she donates to several animal and child charities everyone agrees are great. It is good all around and besides the donation cost me less than $25. Much better use of money I think.
Found a jeweler to reset a ring mom gave me that had a cz in it. Am changing it to a white sapphire I bought online for around a hundred dollars. Jeweler is charging 35 dollars to reset the stone, and she says the sapphire is beautiful!
Flowers: what a great way to balance the gift exchange desires of others while staying true to your own values.
Tybee: it sounds like you will end up with a great ring for a very reasonable price. Nice!
Rosa, I was just glad that this jeweler thought it was a nice stone. Mom would buy old jewelery and then put cz's in them, and I like the idea of a white sapphire. I also just bought an aquamarine from India for 15 dollars, can't wait to see how that turns out.
I hear you about pillow forms. I had to pay a ridiculous amount to get a bolster style pillow form. Most of them are long term out of stock.
For square pillows, and I will need a few of those, I can use ones from the thrift store. But bolster shape is hard to find there.
Flowerseverywhere, I love your ideas for gift giving. That is a good source for pillow filling. I am still covering forms I have collected for 20 years from all kinds of places. Even found one of those expensive bench pillows so popular now for $4. Gave a bunch to Mom so she could finish some Christmas pillows a few years ago.
Flowers - Does this mean you are all done with Christmas gifts?! I love handmade, functional gifts and yours sound wonderful.
Tybee - If I may ask, what are you having done with the aquamarine? I've recently become a little enamored of aquamarine, even though I'm not a jewelry person.
Happy, I am going to make it into a ring that I will wear for a few years, then pass on to my granddaughters, as I want to give them each a nice ring when they turn 15, like my grandmother did. Here is the setting I am using:
https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/17...g?v=1569232149
Very pretty, Tybee. I love silver!
Me too! Lots of nice silver settings from India now.