January 2015 frugals

[cdttmm]

When my kitchen is too cold I use an Excalibur dehydrator as a proof box; I figure that it uses a lot less energy than running my furnace.

That's a really good idea, kimberly! Thanks for sharing!

Packed a lunch and green tea for work today. Lunch was a random collection of odds and ends: a handful of dried apricots, a granola bar, and the last of the failed batch of roasted chick peas. My colleagues ordered take out from the local Chinese restaurant and I got gifted with a vegetable spring roll. Since we made all these yummy meals and froze them over the past few weeks, I'm trying to stay the course and continue eating up the random stuff that has been in our refrigerator/pantry while my dearly beloved is in NYC for work. Of course, I broke down and dinner was a lovely bowl of cabbage soup! Oh well, tomorrow's lunch will likely be another random collection of food items, so it's all good!

[danna]

Jan 05

1.…lunch was from a large pot of soup made this morning using broth,v-8 juice, corn broth (made and froze in the fall) and several pkg. of grated veggies very good and tasty and lots for tomorrows lunch.
2. …a few days ago I bought about 10 lbs of sweet potatoes on the mark down for $2.00 baked a whole tray of them rubbed with oil and sprinkled with sea salt and pepper. Very good had a large one for supper and froze the rest. Still about 5 lbs to deal with tomorrow.
3. Also, a bag of 10 bunches of green onions for $1.00 still in good condition, cleaned and cut up the white part and a bit of green for the freezer and left the ends whole to add to the soup pot.
4...Dd had to take car for an appt. but, stopped on the way home to pick up Kraft peanut butter on sale for $1.97 a large jar. The limit was 4 so I will get more when I am out tomorrow. This is the best price in years.

[lessisbest]

Jan 05

1.…lunch was from a large pot of soup made this morning using broth,v-8 juice, corn broth (made and froze in the fall) and several pkg. of grated veggies very good and tasty and lots for tomorrows lunch.
2. …a few days ago I bought about 10 lbs of sweet potatoes on the mark down for $2.00 baked a whole tray of them rubbed with oil and sprinkled with sea salt and pepper. Very good had a large one for supper and froze the rest. Still about 5 lbs to deal with tomorrow.
3. Also, a bag of 10 bunches of green onions for $1.00 still in good condition, cleaned and cut up the white part and a bit of green for the freezer and left the ends whole to add to the soup pot.
4...Dd had to take car for an appt. but, stopped on the way home to pick up Kraft peanut butter on sale for $1.97 a large jar. The limit was 4 so I will get more when I am out tomorrow. This is the best price in years.

I've never heard of Kraft Peanut Butter - that's not a brand sold around here - but our Kroger brand purchased at Dillons had PB 2/$3 recently - even their Natural variety which only contains roasted peanuts and salt (although the jar is 1-oz. smaller than the regular). As a frugal PB aside, if you use crunchy PB, you will use a lot more than if you use creamy, no matter how carefully you spread it due to the chunks of peanuts.

[rosarugosa]

Azure: There's a lot of info on the Mr Money Mustache Forum on the subject of phone service options:
http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/sha...sion-thread-1/
There are also some threads on this forum if you do a search.

[lessisbest]

No drive days yesterday and today, too darn cold.

On New Years Day, put bubblewrap on most of the windows in the house. The timing was fortuitous, as now it is very cold here.

On Sunday, put together a grocery price book like the one I had when following Amy D--now you can look online for grocery prices, when there was no on-line in those days. Already figured out some interesting things vis a vis pricing and quantities in our local stores. Am using a 5 x 8 plastic looseleaf binder and sorting items by grocery type. This led me to starting my pantry list, so hopefully, we can do a much better job this year in planning our eating--am striving to cut grocery spending radically, which is going to require planning and tracking.

Starting to try to figure out a way to get phone costs under control this year, so lots of surfing of different plans and phones.

You won't believe the difference bubble wrap makes on your windows. We've been adding it in the winter for 8-years now. http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects...bubblewrap.htm

I've been keeping a Price Book since 1993 when The Tightwad Gazette came out and am now into the 3 book (a Day Runner I found at Goodwill for $1.99). My only hint would be to use one sheet to track prices on an item, then on the next sheet track the inventory of the same item. When I add an item I'll place a slash ( / ), and when I move it from storage to the kitchen or use the item, I'll finish the slash forming an ( X ). If I need to track the use-by date (especially important with peanut butter for me) I'll add the use-by month/year (8/15), and when I use it I'll cross the whole date out.

The inventory sheet helps keep purchases in check and I'm not tempted to purchase something just because it's a good price if I already have "enough", but didn't remember exactly how many I DID have. After all, just how many bottles of mustard can we realistically use.....even at a great price. You will also see trends in shopping - when you'll find those stock-up prices (condiments, canned pork n' beans, etc., are stock-up prices during the big summer (bbq) holidays (Memorial Day, Independence Day, and Labor Day). I save a portion of grocery money after Christmas when I can find peanuts, nuts, and fresh cranberries drastically reduced and may use 1/2 of my food dollars for that week for stocking up on those items if I find a great buy. I was able to find large bags of in-shell peanuts at really low prices and bought all they had. I'll be making fresh peanut butter for awhile.

[SteveinMN]

I need to start figuring out phone costs.

Having been through that exercise a couple of times over the past few years, I'm happy to help, Azure. PM me if you want.

ObFrugals: 20 cents a cucumber in the "disco" rack at the local supermarket this morning. We like our cukes, so this is a score ... And our latest power bill (our electricity and natural gas come from the same company) shows that our monthly energy costs are half of what our neighbors are paying in smaller homes (we also pay a bit of a surcharge for windpower). I guess that insulation and non-incandescent bulbs and room heaters are paying off...

[cdttmm]

Just a few little frugals over the past few days. I've been using up free samples of shampoo that I had in my stash. Saving money and decluttering! Lunch was provided at work today so no need to eat the lunch I had packed. Went to the post office on my way home from work and mailed off 9 books that I had posted on paperbackswap.com. This will earn me 9 book credits for future free books and it freed up some space on my bookshelves. School is cancelled tomorrow due to the cold weather so I'll save money on gas since our make-up class day will be on a day that I would have had to go to campus anyway. Since I'll be home tomorrow, I'll pack up the two returns I have to mail off and will take them to the post office on my way home from work on Friday. Frugal entertainment provided by Netflix, books, internet surfing, dog petting, and cat cuddling.

How's everyone else doing?

[Blackdog Lin]

I always have the same-o same-o's to report on the frugality front. And they always focus on not spending, rather than saving.....but anyways.....

No after-Christmas sales were harmed by me this season. Just couldn't come up with anything we needed enough to get out and about to procure them. It's been too cold this week to leave the house voluntarily, so cooking out of the pantry. Chicken-and-pork fried rice yesterday (1/2 of a leftover grilled pork steak and 2 quick-store-bought leftover chicken tenders I'd thrown in the freezer), and cheddar chowder tomorrow. All made with what's in the house. Not wanting to leave the house to go to the grocery really does stimulate my menu imagining. Every day this week have been no-drive days, natch. I did do an online Penzey's order, but waited till I had enough on my list to get free shipping.

[Polliwog]

I'm with you, danna. I love using Christmas cards for tags. Pretty two.

Linda

[Stella]

I baked four loaves of bread today to have some to put in the freezer. It's crazy cold here right now, so baking seemed like a good way to spend an evening anyway. Normally Wednesday night's are Zach's dad-and-kid time and I go out and have an evening to myself, but I just really didn't want to go anywhere tonight. I made the TWG hot chocolate recipe and we all had a cup of cocoa together.

This is a really expensive month for us. My tuition, Cheyenne's guitar tuition, Bella's fencing tuition and the kids homeschool co-op fees are all due. That's an extra $700. We are trying to keep spending to a minimum.