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Thread: September Frugals (2014)

  1. #1
    Senior Member cdttmm's Avatar
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    September Frugals (2014)

    New month, new thread. Post your frugal activities for the month of September here!
    The brain is wider than the sky. -- Emily Dickinson

  2. #2
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    Home after 4 days in DC for our son's wedding. We walked to Whole Foods the first day and stocked up on fruit, some snacks and beer (!), and 2 sandwiches so we could have things to eat when we were hungry but didn't need a full restaurant meal. Our daughter met us the second day we were there and we realized that for the wedding activities, it was cheaper to take a tax than use the metro for 3 riders - plus I didn't want to overheat in our wedding finery!

    There was so much food left from the rehearsal dinner that we had it again the day after the wedding.

    I had been setting aside $$ for purchases besides hotel and airfare and it was enough that we didn't use a credit card for any purchases.

    Our dog was cared for by friends who love having him (they had been his foster family before we adopted him) and a good friend came and visited the cat twice so no boarding fees.

    We used uber for the first time and since we had been referred by our son, we got a $10 discount and he got credit for one free ride!

    Now I want to buckle down and put aside more cash, keep up with the tomatoes, and await the glory that is fall in MN!

  3. #3
    Senior Member awakenedsoul's Avatar
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    Wow chrissie! That's fantastic! Took the bus and bike this morning to swim at the gym. I am amazed at how my hip is healing from the aqua therapy. I ran into the accupuncturist I met there and she noticed the difference, too. "Your back is straighter," she told me, nodding approvingly. I'm so glad I didn't spend money on a doctor, chiropractor, or osteopath. They tell so many dancers to get a hip replacement. Did my own Pilates class last night in my living room. Took a cold shower afterward to cool off from the 99 degree heat. Meals have been simple. I've been eating up leftover tuna and noodles, brown rice cooked in water and soy sauce, and raw veggies. Today I'll start a loaf of bread and cook up some ground turkey from my stockpile. I'll use half of it for a spaghetti and "meat" sauce, and the other half for stuffed peppers. I finished mending one of my bath towels yesterday. I sewed quilt binding by hand along the edges. I'm working on the second one now. It really extends the llfe of the towels by several years! I bought the binding with a 40% off coupon at Beverly's. Have been having coffee at home, and am still drinking half as much as I used to...it's saving me money, and I feel better. Reduced my order at the organic co op to every three weeks, and it's working out well. I may cut it back to every four weeks. I look at the weekly flyers for specials in the mail, and just buy what's on sale at Sprouts. Stopped at CVS yesterday and got three bottles of ACT on close out. They also had Closys on sale, so I picked up an extra bottle. I use those for the zellies system. It's really helped my teeth. I'm going to listen to Suze Orman's free podcast today. I look forward to that each week. Later this afternoon on I'll total my expenses for August.

  4. #4
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    We have some large expenses coming up, really need to watch this month so I'm joining in.

    Garden is exploding, canned 14 jars diced tomatoes and 15 jars green beans. (My freezer is already full)

    Than made gluten free egg rolls with cabbage and carrots from the garden! We eat them like crazy, they freeze well. My 16 yo DS is tough to keep full these days.

    I agree with you guys I am ready to dig potatoes, bring in the pumpkins and start hunkering down for fall.

  5. #5
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    I'm also in.

    After having a good stretch (2004 through 2010 or so) of living below my means and saving, saving, saving, I have fallen into being fairly careless about my money in the midst of having a baby and many other life transitions (becoming part of a blended family, buying a house, changing jobs). The result? I am now in significant credit card debt for the first time in ten years. Yuk. But I'm just going to take a bunch of deep breaths and make a plan.

    The first and most important thing I need to do is to restart tracking what I earn and spend and putting it on a chart every month so that I can see exactly what the relationship is between those two things and what adjustments need to be made. I started tracking again yesterday.

    And then, obviously, I need to start spending less. This is a little tricky right now because I have two trips coming up that are going to be expensive that I committed to before I really understood how deeply I was getting myself in debt. Ah well. In the past, I've learned how much all the little changes can add up, and I'm going to focus on those now.

    I'm going to aim for 7 no-spend days this month and see how I do with that. And I think I'll go "cash-only" for at least my personal expenses as much as I can.

    I'm so glad to have this group for support and inspiration!

  6. #6
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    ejchase: I hear you. That's the same thing that has happened to us. Some enormous life changes have suddenly caused us to head off path and incur some debt I'm not happy.

    As Dave Ramsey would say, we are lucky to have a big shovel in the form of two good salaries. However we have big expenses coming up, wood for winter, new tires for a vehicle and a propane tank fill.

    Time to tighten the belt, we can be debt free by Christmas and pay cash for our expenses but there's going to be some pennies squealing over here.

  7. #7
    Senior Member rosarugosa's Avatar
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    My frugals are kind of consumery, but here they are:
    Used sign-on bonus credit card points to order frozen salmon meat and smoked salmon. This was a "stock up" order, so it was nice to have no out of pocket cost for this purchase (about $140. worth).
    Upcoming vacation with hotel all booked with reward points (4 nights for retail of about $130 per night, credit card charges $49. annual fee but you get one "free" night, so $49. out of pocket for rooms that would go for $520)
    I'm consistently earning $10 per month from Bing and DH is earning $5, so that's $15 per month in Amazon gift cards. We've been at it for 6 months, so that's about $90. Here's a link if anyone is interested (yes, I would get points if anyone signs up and follows through, but it's not a bad way to earn a little extra for gifts, etc):
    https://www.bing.com/explore/rewards...e-f23a081bfb9b
    I think that's it for now - oh - finally starting to get some red tomatoes - latest ever, it's gotten too shady by our vegetable bed!

  8. #8
    Senior Member fidgiegirl's Avatar
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    Hi all! Not so frugal lately, though inspired by yours. I had the chance to meet Fawn in person on Saturday when she dropped off her daughter at a nearby college, and it was delightful, and it also has me thinking again about goals, etc.

    Amazon Prime = the devil. I was going to cancel after the trial (it was awesome during the newborn period, but wasn't something we felt we needed for $100 a year after that . . . ). Well, despite marking the date on my calendar, I blew it and we were charged after all. So we use it. I guess the good side is that it saves us running all over town for stuff. I am also trying to be better about doing just a few minutes of research and then ordering something, rather than days of agonizing over what to get. We are refreshing our sandwich containers for lunches, and I bought a computer bag for work as well as some new socks. Lately around here it's all about convenience. We also found a new delivery source for our dog food. We continue to use grocery delivery as well. I switched my prescriptions to delivery, too. Anything we can get delivered, we're all about it.

    Wow, chrissieq, you are right about the tomatoes!! I went and got a big ol' load from our community garden plot tonight. I plunked them all in the crock pot since a number were blemished/cracked. We will stew them down, run them through the food mill and use the sauce in a chili this week. Depending on how much is left I might freeze some, we'll see. I threw in a few leaves of volunteer kale that survived the bugs and we'll mill that all up in with the tomatoes, too. My DMiL left us her herbs to babysit while she's traveled this summer and we've taken terrible care of them, but there are some spindly lookin' basil sprigs left in there so I yanked some off and threw it in, too. Yummmmmmers.

    TMC, how do you make your GF eggrolls? I have a package of rice wrappers in the cupboard that I was thinking (inspired by cdttmm) that we need to use up, but I'm not sure how.

    We did buy a meal slicer for $10 off our local FB garage sale group and I ordered a chunk of ham and a turkey breast with our grocery order. They were like $3.99 and $2.59 a pound compared to the $7.99 or $8.99 DH had been paying for lunch meat. He is excited to slice up the meat and keep it in the freezer. He's a lunchmeat sandwich man, so more power to him. Those savings will add up quickly if we can keep up with the chore of it. Usually when DH is invested in taking something on he does an excellent job of actually doing it (unlike moi sometimes), so I am confident the slicer will get used.

    Wow! My biggest check-in in a while.
    Kelli

    My gluten free blog: Twin Cities Gluten Free
    Our house remodel blog: Our Fair Abode

  9. #9
    Senior Member awakenedsoul's Avatar
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    I just signed up for bill pay with my credit union. They'll give me $10.00. I like it. Stamps have gotten expensive, so I'll save some money on postage. Today I took two buses to my credit union to deposit my refund checks, ($471.00) from my car insurance and Auto Club. (My local branch closed.) I found a bike path that gave me a shortcut home. It's a nice area. I only had to take one bus, about half the distance. We've got great bike paths here. They're away from the traffic. The new development has really helped. I finished up the tuna and noodles and am eating the leftover fajitas for the next few days. I was going to stop at Panera for a pastry, but decided to save the money instead. I brought my cafe au lait in my thermos and had it on a park bench halfway through my trip. I found an incredible yoga class on line that builds up the inner and outer thigh muscles. (Mine have been disappearing!) The teacher is Russian, and she's excellent. Here's the link:www.sequencewiz.org. I did that yesterday, and it's a fabulous workout, for free! Found the henna I use in bulk at our local beauty supply store. I'm coloring my hair as I type. I have to leave it on for four hours to cover the grey. Auditions for Rock of the Ages are coming up, so I've got to look my best...am still eating my way through the snickerdoodle cookies that I made last week. There is still dough in the fridge. I saw a bag of gingersnaps at Sprouts, but decided to keep baking everything from scratch. It's so much cheaper! I received my gas bill for the month. It was only $15.00. Normally I pay $30.00 a month. (I used to take a hot bath every night.) Now that I'm going to the gym every other day, I've cut my usage in half. I may start going every day and see what I pay. The hot water savings pays for the membership! I love the jacuzzi, and I don't have to clean my tub as often anymore. I went to The Salvation Army yesterday and bought three pair of shorts. They were having a 50% off sale. The shorts I'm wearing are from a sale they had three years ago. Total spent: $10.75. They're really nice, too. (American Eagle and L.L. Bean.) I'm almost finished mending my towels. I've been working on them on the bus. I like being able to do something while commuting. My knitted tank top should be finished in a few days, too.

    I like reading about how everyone is cutting their expenses.

  10. #10
    Senior Member cdttmm's Avatar
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    Wow! Such a great start to the month for everyone!

    The semester started yesterday so we're off and running. I keep reminding myself it's only 15 weeks.

    In a mad scramble, I remembered to bring lunch and a bottle of water to school yesterday. I'll do the same today. Picked a whole lot of tomatoes and need to figure out what to do with them before leaving on my trip on Thursday. Picked some blackberries, too, but then it started to rain so I had to stop. I'll finish picking them later today.

    It's been very hot and humid here so I've had to use the A/C. Mostly at night because otherwise it would have been too darn uncomfortable to sleep. I hate using it, but it should be temporary as it looks like it will be cooler and less humid today.
    The brain is wider than the sky. -- Emily Dickinson

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