March Frugals!

[rosarugosa]

Good morning! I've got a few frugals to share. First the little stuff:
A free bus ride the other night because the fare collector/card swiper was out of order
I redeemed Bing search points for a $5.00 Amazon credit
I did a Pine Cone Research survey for $3.00.
Then some bigger stuff:
We really watched our grocery spending in Feb. I've been more successful in pulling DH into the budget planning, and that is key, since he does the grocery shopping. So although we started the month with what looked like a budget deficit, we were actually able to put an extra $300. into savings, which I transferred yesterday. We didn't go to Trader Joe's at all for the month, and we skipped our monthly Costco run. I pondered whether the Costco thing was just deferred spending, but our list for March isn't unusually large, and I did actually move money into savings, so I think it was a real frugal. Skipping TJ's just eliminated some recreational grocery shopping. We still ate very well all month, which is not surprising news to anyone on this forum, I'm sure.
We went to a concert last night (Melvin Seals and the Jerry Garcia Band) at the Cabot Theater in Beverly. We had bought the tickets a few months ago, and they were pretty reasonable at under $90. for the two of us. We ate dinner at home before the show, each had only one drink at the show, and there was free parking at the venue. So we had a great night out for pretty reasonable money, compared to what we could have spent.

[Yppej]

In anticipation of losing my job I had been paring down my spending. The axe fell on February 10th and my spending for February is just under what I am receiving in unemployment benefits though it was a short month. My goal for March is to eat less and shed some extra pounds while saving on groceries.

[rosarugosa]

Welcome back, Yppej! I'm sorry to hear about the job loss (or not, if the job was that toxic). Anyway, wishing you well, glad to hear from you again, and glad your frugality is helping you manage your current circumstances.

[Yppej]

Thanks Rosa.

[Gardnr]

Our monthly average food spending is down 21%. Eating more at home and out less. Food waste from the fridge is almost nill. As I prepare more meals at home I work through the dregs in the fridge before I go buy more groceries.

Today? out of the freezer: 2 bags garden ratatouille, a bag grated zucchini, a bag of chopped bell peppers. This is ALL simmering on the stove. I added some ground beef/italian sausage precooked from the freezer. I'll cook up some Quinoa pasta later and and layer this like a lasagna with cottage cheese and mozzarella and bake off in the oven. It will be dinner tonight and lunches all week for the hubster.

Breakfast this weekend, finished up stale sourdough purchased last Saturday. As toast? It was great!

[early morning]

Nothing earth-shattering here. Since my old computer died last summer and my new one didn't come w/good software, I've not been tracking my spending. That plus supporting an unemployed depressive son has played hell with our day to day finances. I guess I need to cough up the money and buy Quicken. I've tried quite a few free online programs and either they want account info to automatically plug in charge and bank entries, or they are too unwieldy, or have too few categories of spending. Quicken isn't all that wonderful, either, but I'd found ways to make it work for me. Anyway - my main frugal is that I spent the weekend on a girls-trip to a lovely bunch of quality antique shows and didn't buy a bunch of little stuff, even though I was sorely tempted. I did buy one large piece and a few small things that are actually useful, but I'm ok with that. AND DB donated points so our hotel was free, and breakfast was included, which helped keep costs to a minimum.

[MaryHu]

Received a coupon in the mail for $10 off any $20 or more purchase at Shopko including clearance merchandise. Used it to buy a new feather duster and a set of flannel sheets for our bed. The sheets were on clearnace for 11.99 and the feather duster was 8.99. Add the tax and subtract the $10 discout and we got out of there for $11.84. Not bad for a couple of items we actually needed. Our 2 sets of flannel sheets have developed holes this winter. Our previous dusting wand, one of those long skinny polyester ones, got commandeered for cleaning out the reusable dust catcher cup in the vacuum cleaner so it lives in the garage and is pretty dirty now. I'd say we did well!

[rosarugosa]

What an amazing deal on sheets, MaryHu!
My best recent frugal is that I got my annual bonus from work and transferred most of it into savings. The only bonus splurges were a check to the local humane society and tickets to see The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time this weekend. I opted for pretty reasonably priced tickets too, I could have spent over $400 for 2 tickets and I spent about $170 instead. It looks like our seats are pretty decent, and we don't really need to be in the very front of the theater.

[Selah]

We hadn't spent one night away from home in nearly a year, which is unusual for us, as we enjoy travelling. Instead, we've been staying close to home, working hard and chipping away at our debt. However, we were given two free nights at a casino/resort down in Laughlin, Nevada, which is our go-to spot for quick and cheap getaways. We also got free tickets to see Kenny Loggins (think theme songs from "Footloose," "Top Gun," and "Caddyshack," among a zillion other hits)! Kenny was GREAT...I haven't had more fun at a concert in decades! (He's also very handsome now that he's sporting a more George Michael stubble than a Moses style beard.) We had a wonderful time, got some new shoes at a great footwear outlet store for an amazing price, and entertained ourselves by walking and admiring the scenery. Really, really great!

[early morning]

Well, won't be spending any more money at ModCloth, since they just announced they are now affiliated with/owned by the Evil Empire.