January 2015 frugals

[danna]

Jan07/15
Great to hear from you Stella Happy New Year to you, Zach and the kids, hope you are all well!

1. No spend, no drive….too darn cold to go out…lol

Not much else to report the last two days, just stayed, eat from the pantry,
Watched movies from the library, and decluttered all my files and that dreaded space under the kitchen sink....ugly

[Seven]

I cleaned up my kitchen cupboards. Now I'm trying to make as many meals as possible without buying extra ingredients (except some fresh vegetables).

[lessisbest]

Even though it's a shopping month, I've yet to find a reason to do so (other than groceries). I had a wonderful bonus today when I got groceries. I filled an empty bag with quinoa from the bulk bin (several pounds worth). When the code from the bin was put into the scale it came up with red quinoa at a considerably higher price, and I was purchasing white quinoa (they didn't even have red quinoa available in the bulk bins). It took two employees in the area to reconcile the problem; and for being a "good" customer and noticing the mistake, the quinoa was free. Patience, and being polite, paid dividends today! I hate to think how many people were over-charged for their quinoa purchase.....but failed to notice! Pays to check those little details.

[Azure]

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

Thanks, Steve, I may take you up on that. I'm not a techy person at all and all the details just overwhelm me. Too many choices! I'm gonna talk to my DH this weekend and see what he thinks.

Thanks for the link Rosa! I'll check it out.

[Stella]

Thanks Dana! I hope you are having a good new year as wel!

One of the presents we got the kids for Christmas was a savings jar that automatically calculates how much you have put in it. We wanted to encourage all of us to put our loose change and maybe couple of dollars here and there for our summer vacation. We have had it just over two weeks and we have saved $58 in it. Not too shabby. The kids scrounge around the washer and under chairs for change all the time now because they like to watch the total count up. It's like a treasure hunt. That was the best $6 I've spent on a gift in quite a while.

Cheyenne and Bella decided that they want to help me with a pantry restocking/redesign project as part of their school this month. We inventoried everything we have and made a list of what pantry staples we like to have on hand. I do much better at being frugal with food if I have a well-stocked pantry, especially now that our family is on the larger side. We made a spreadsheet and took it to the stores we shop at, writing down prices so we can compare them by unit. We calculated what the cost was of the items we needed to restock the pantry, so we can plan our purchases for the next month or so accordingly. We also made a spreadsheet where we can calculate the cost per serving of the meals we eat. I am having the girls do the calculations by hand, since this kind of thing is exactly the sort of math they learn in 4th and 5th grade. They are really enjoying the project, and it's putting math into a real life context that is helping them to avoid that "what is this stuff and why should I care?" problem that is common with kids and math.

They are also designing and building can storage to take advantage of some space behind a door that is otherwise unused. They calculated how many cans will fit in each can holder, how many can holders will fit in the space and how many can holders we will need, total. I love it when school projects are actually useful.

This weekend Zach is building us some wood baby gates. I love my kids, but they are monkeys, and smart monkeys at that. They have busted through every gate we have bought in the last decade. Charlotte is two and she can pick the lock to my bedroom. All I'm really hoping for here is that we can keep the baby out of things for a while, and I don't want to spend $100 to make that happen.

[Azure]

Did a quick grocery shopping trip today at Meijer. I had $20 in Mperks so that cut my bill back nicely. They were out of sesame oil (mmmmm sesame oil ) and I know I can get a better price on a couple of things at work on Monday. But even after shopping on Monday, I will still be well under the budgeted amount. And I should be good for just about everything for the next 2 weeks. Talked myself out of buying a few things that weren't needs. Well, except for the moose tracks ice cream. Got the menu for the next 2 weeks all set.

DH got free tickets to the Michigan State Univ. hockey game last night. I spent $4 for parking and DH bought us dinner out of his blow money afterwards. So not the most frugal over all but it was budgeted.

Bundling up instead of turning the heat up. Though, I am not as brave as those of you who keep the heat super low. I have it at 68 the hours we are home, 63 at night & 60 during week days.

Won't be driving anywhere tomorrow.

[danna]

Jan 10
1. Supper was baked potatoes with veggie chilli and cheese (6 baking potatoes on the mark down for $1.00)
all baked today and make fried potatoes tomorrow. (It was a good thing to have the gas range on today!!!!)

2. As I started to try and declutter my fabric I have began to find some great uses for what I already have by
Repurposing :
4 pair of old 100% cotton kitchen curtains make into 16 tea towels kept 8 and gave Dd 8
1 very large vintage 100% cotton tablecloth made into 28 cloth napkins gave Dd 12
1 set of queen size flannel sheets made into a Duvet cover and 2 shams given to Dgs.
All of these “New Things” are free with a little sewing …..win….win

3. Picked out 3 sets of pants and tops that I am wearing out
4. Stretching out how often I shower by 1 day.
5. Using up the ends of products.

[Stella]

We had such a nice quiet day today. My friend Mary came over to visit and brought donuts. She was at church and they were cleaning out their pantries after an event and asked her if she wanted to take some food. She brought me two packages of graham crackers, two jars of orange marmalade and two large containers of yogurt. She helped me sort through the mess I had made of my yarn while we sat and talked.

Zach hosted a card night with friends last night and it was one of those events where I wasn't sure how many people would come. I decided to make a big batch of pizza dough, so I could make enough pizza for whoever might show up. I had leftover dough today, so I made homemade pizza for lunch.

The other snack I made for the card night was fried macaroni and cheese croquettes. There is nothing nutritionally redeeming about them, but once in a while, I figure, that's OK. The macaroni is frozen into balls, and it occurred to me that I often have a little leftover macaroni when I make macaroni and cheese, which I do about once a week for lunch. I think I will freeze the leftovers into balls and keep them in a bag to use for fried macaroni for parties.

[early morning]

Went to the first garage sale of the year (at my cousin's) - actually in a garage, thankfully, since it was 7 degrees out. He lost his wife recently. She had TONS of stuff. Really. He's been selling all week, and there were still over 200 like-new sweaters, mostly cardigans, many holiday themed. Shirts, dresses, coats, pants, skirts, shoes. She had over 150 Vera Bradley purses and bags, and plenty of other purses. I bought 6 new shirts for myself and DD ($2 each), and 10 new large bottles of Philosophy lotions and soaps for a buck each. There were at least 20 more of those, and he had sold more than half of them before I got there. And case after case of jewelry. I got a few charms, $3 each. Not needed, but a nice memory. I really liked her - she was in poor health for many years but always cheerful. They have plenty of money so she did the QVC thing for entertainment, I guess, since she could shop from home. Funny, because in all other ways they are/were very simple livers. She gave away a lot of things, too, before she died. She started pricing things several months before her death, and the sale was sort of like a memorial to her. Strange, but fitting. Anyway, this should probably go under family, but I did get some great bargains and will remember her fondly when I wear the clothes or jewelry!

[cdttmm]

Pretty quiet weekend mostly spent at home. We baked bread today and I'm making homemade mac-and-cheese for dinner. We've starting re-watching the Planet of the Apes movie series since we haven't seen it in years. I've decided to try to spend 1-2 hours every day reading various beekeeping books to help me prepare for the Master Beekeeper exam, which I hope to take this summer. There are 4 parts to it and everyone says the written portion is one of the harder parts. All that studying ought to provide lots of frugal entertainment over the next 6 months!

Back to work tomorrow, but no need to let that get in the way of being frugal. I'll bring both hot tea and lunch with me to work and I'll stop at the gym on the way home.