January Frugals

[danna]

Jan 09--Jan18th
--rolled a bunch of coin and have it ready to take to the bank tomorrow not doing anything in a jar...lol
--still eating out of the fridge/pantry and freezer...I have only been buying what has been on a VERY good price or if needed
I need to learn to "Buy Only What I Eat and Eat What I Buy"---I think someone on here said that once about stockpiling.
This is the YEAR that I get over the over buying of food!
--I am not good at being cold so as much as I dress warmly in the house it is still hard to not raise the heat in the day time
I like it cold at night so hopefully I am saving some there.
--I have been cleaning out kitchen/bathroom/pantry cupboards and inventorying what I own...idea is to know so I don't buy more/doubles
--I am on a weight loss mission to lose the last 15 lbs I need to lose (I know I am said this here before...lol)
Then I can purge the clothes closets.
All for now

[Yppej]

Lately all I care about in clothing is comfort. I have decided to accept the sagging and rather than buy new bras I found a video online about removing underwires and I'm doing that myself.

I figured out by reading various medical sites online that the left breast pain I had was not indicative of any of a variety of conditions with this symptom but simply what I was wearing, so I saved on medical costs also.

[rosarugosa]

DH made wonderful beef stew in the crock pot. It is something I got several years ago, since it sounded like a frugal must have. DH was skeptical, so it has seldom been used. Beef stew was so excellent that now he has total enthusiasm!
Went thrifting and antiquing with sister yesterday, but I didn't buy anything. I saw a lot of things I liked, but nothing I needed and kept reminding myself that I need to divest more than acquire.

[Tybee]

Called and got a second opinion at a different eye doctor. This practice highly recommended by several locals who preferred this practice to one I was going to.
New doctor communicated much better and said he does not recommend surgery yet on my cataracts--said my problems were not caused by cataracts but by dry eyes and better glasses for night driving. He actually looked at my eye and let out this "Agh!" sound, saying wow, your eyes are incredibly irritated and this must hurt like hell.

He came up with suggestions I can try for a month to see if I can improve the situation without any prescription meds, and told me about taking Omega 3.

I am so happy, and saved the cost of my part of the cataract surgery, plus this year's deductible. I also did not want the surgery, so this is really happy frugality!

[Tybee]

My wonderful husband just fixed our gas stove, so knowing from the gas stove shopping that we would have purchased a stove that ended up around 700 dollars with tax, delivered, and old stove hauled away, he saved us about 595 dollars. We had to pay 105 for the new igniter. I googled the problem and figured it out and found the part, along with a video on how to install the part, and we ordered it and he installed it this morning.

So frugal, so happy!

[nswef]

Wow, Tybee, two great raves! Google has saved us several times. I wonder now how we used to research stuff, but the manuals used to be much more helpful for repairs than they are now.

[rosarugosa]

Wow, major wins there Tybee, and you deserve some of the credit on the stove, sounds like great teamwork with you and DH!

[Teacher Terry]

I dropped off a carload at the thrift store and decided unless I am looking for something in particular I am not going to just look around. WE all know what that leads too. We had been eating out a lot so put a 2 week moratorium on eating out. I also sold some dog items on Offerup. 2 of our dogs died recently (we have 3 left) so didn't need as many of certain items. They sold quickly. Interestingly I now prefer flying to a driving trip. We get there fast and we love to travel more then just locally. We still do some local travel when we take our RV. The dogs love to go in the RV.

[Yppej]

Was uncertain about getting gas as I had almost half a tank but it was 12 cents a gallon cheaper than earlier this week so I filled up.

[SteveinMN]

- Needed a pound of chicken breast for a recipe. The price of a whole chicken was just a dollar more than the 20-oz (why do they do that?) package of chicken breast -- plus the time for me to break the chicken and clean up. I bought the chicken and have "banked" a couple of meals of roast chicken legs/thighs.
- Had lots of coupons for the grocery store, too. Usually manufacturer's coupons are for stuff we don't buy anyway, but these included staples and other items I know we'll use, so it was worth it.
- Bought paint for the bathroom using a 30%-off coupon. Still seems like a lot of money, but good paint isn't cheap and this is not a job I plan to do again for a dozen years or more, so better paint makes sense. Also avoided the absolute top-of-the-line. If we had kids regularly splashing the walls, it would be a better bet. But we don't. And anyone buying this house probably will repaint anyway. Saved on primer as we already have some at home.
- Similar deal with wiper blades for DW's car. She goes through them about twice as fast as I do, even normalizing for how much each of us drives. So I got less expensive blades this time; with the expensive ones you want to use them as long as possible. This way I'll feel better about replacing them sooner. Won't feel so much like throwing away money.
- Skipping an upgrade on our financial-tracking software. It's basically the cost of repurchasing the software, with a break given to existing users. I've long thought about moving to something more open-source. The impending loss of support for the version of the software I'm using will push me to get GnuCash going.