July Frugals

[cdttmm]

New month...new thread. Share your frugal activities here!

[iforonwy]

OK you can all say that I am really mean now. Yesterday I washed 6 pairs of tights using a shampoo that I did not like but had not thrown away and then dried them on an airer in the sun-room. When they were dry I checked them over for runs, or ladders as we can them this side of the pond, and as 2 pairs had one leg that was holey I cut off those legs and I will wear 2 half pairs to make one good pair.

[cdttmm]

iforonwy -- AWESOME!

[Stella]

iforonwy that is some serious frugality! Good job!

I actually put the money we saved on Friday by not going out to eat in the savings account. Weekends are our least frugal time, but it hasn't been bad. The girls and I brainstormed ideas for Sunday family days for summer and fall and now have a schedule worked out through September. July's Family Day cost is $100 for the month, and that doubles as Isabella's birthday present. She wants to go to a waterpark. She was originally going to go horseback riding, but she wouldn't be able to go on a trail ride until she's 8, so she decided that can be next year's birthday.

August's family day cost is going to be $15 for archery. Septemeber is $150 because of the State Fair and Fall Fest at our church, but those are once a year things. By having it all planned, mostly free stuff with a few more expensive things thrown in, it will keep us within our budget and balance things out. I tried to plan outdoor stuff for the most part for summer and fall so we can save some indoor stuff for the winter. Today we are going to the beach.

[fidgiegirl]

Welcome to the boards, iforonwy. Hopefully we'll be hearing more of those kinds of powerhouse frugals

We are organizing the garage today. I am a longtime believer in organization as a form of frugality. We almost had some near-misses when DH went on his fishing trip where we had to send non-preferred stuff or even almost needed to go buy some things because we couldn't find some of his items. So in the garage, we hope to have our stuff locate-able so we don't have to go buy a thing. We have also tucked a few things away in the loft space, like the dog barrier for the car. Current dog doesn't need it anymore, he just stays in the back all on his own. But a future dog might, and they are like $100, so we put it away up there out of the way.

[rosarugosa]

Stella: I think it's great that you come up with so many low/no-cost recreational activities for your family. Some things will cost money of course, but if you exploit all the less spendy options before throwing money at the question, you will get so much more for your money - and your life.
We took another hike through Breakheart this morning; it was wonderful as always, and we were quite excited to get a good close look at a deer, see Indian Pipe toadstools, and identify the trees with the interesting leaves as Sassafras. Then we went to Lynn Woods. Anyone in our area will know that Lynn is not exactly synonymous with vast acres of unspoiled nature, so perhaps it isn't too surprising that this was our first visit although we've spent most of our lives within 5 miles of the place. Well what an amazing surprise! The park is huge asnd contains 3 reservoirs. We only saw two other people the whole time we were there, and it was much more unspoiled than Breakheart. No swimming areas or snack stands, etc. means that nature is pretty much the only attraction. Near the main entrance, there is a gorgeous rose/perennial garden with arbors, benches, wonderful stonework - and we were the only ones in the garden. It seemed like a magical secret garden in the woods - as we went up the little stone steps into the garden, I felt like a character in a fairy tale! I can't believe that I never even heard of this garden while living so close for so many years. You can be sure this was only the first of many visits, and DH and I were so happy to discover it together

[DarkStar]

I cleaned up and organized my storage closet that doubles as a pantry space. I've got enough rice, other grains, beans, and pasta so that I don't have to buy any of those staples for a long time. Now that I have a better idea of what I really have, I'm resolved to eat down the pantry before buying anything besides fresh veggies, eggs, and cheese at the Farmer's Market. And I'm going to try to eat less cheese and eggs, using them more as supplements to dishes. That should save me a lot in groceries over the next few months.

I made a scrumptious dinner of eggplant in black bean and garlic sauce and refried rice today. Reheated some for lunch.

[Rosemary]

Wow, I'm not the only one getting organized. I spent about 3 hours last night cleaning and organizing part of the kitchen and will work on it some more in the coming week. I put all the beans and grains in old pasta sauce jars that I had saved and labeled the tops. They're in deep drawers and very easy to find now, rather than having random bags in a jumble.

Otherwise -- minimal driving and no spending this weekend. It's been really hot, but the mornings have been pleasant. DD and I went for a bike ride to a park yesterday and in the afternoon we all used a movie gift card to see Brave. We hardly ever go to the theater as a family because of (a) the lack of appropriate and entertaining movies and (b) cost. But free, we can do. Today our only outing was to the library. Some friends came over to pick berries and so DD had playmates for a while.

We're making progress on emptying the freezer, too, so grocery spending has been very low. And I made 2 more batches of low-sugar jam - varied mixtures of black and red raspberries and red currants.

[cdttmm]

Wow -- awesome start to the month, everyone!

Stella: I love the MN State Fair, it is one of the things I miss most about my home state! One year I'll remember to plan far enough in advance to take a vacation specifically for the purpose of going to the Fair!

rosarugosa: You are right, I do not associate Lynn with acres of unspoiled nature! (I used to run after school tutoring programs at a number of schools in Lynn -- perhaps we should have included nature walks as part of the curriculum!) I have some friends out that way who love to do outdoor stuff, so I'm going to suggest we check out Lynn Woods next time I'm in the area.

+1 for organizing as a form of frugality! I listed some miscellaneous items on Freecycle yesterday -- no takers just yet, but I'm hoping that this stuff will soon be gone, which will make things a bit more organized around here. I also put together a stack of books to pass along to the library book sale.

Used the Gas Buddy app on my iPhone today and discovered that I would be driving by a gas station where gas was 6 cents per gallon cheaper than my usual gas station. Filled up and saved myself a little over a dollar. Stopped at CVS to get my iron supplements and got a $1.00 extra bucks coupon on my receipt. Used it immediately to buy Gatorade that was on sale for...you guessed it, $1.00! I never buy Gatorade anymore, but free Gatorade I will accept. At Whole Foods the cashier was nice enough to point out that there was a coupon in this month's coupon booklet for 50 cents off the crackers I was buying. I don't generally buy much in the way of prepared foods so I rarely remember to look for coupons, but I've been experimenting with eating gluten-free so I had picked up some gluten free crackers to have in the house. I took the rest of the coupon booklet home with me and found about 5 more coupons that I might end up using.

Dried a load of laundry on the line today -- easy since it was 95 degrees out again today.

But the biggest win -- I made it through our heat wave (and it was officially a heat wave because we had temperatures above 90 degrees for 3 days) without once turning on the A/C in the house!!! Woo-hoo!!! The house only got up to 75 degrees today so it's not only been comfortable for humans, but also comfortable for all the pets. The dogs, of course, spend much of their time lying on the tile or hardwood floors, which I'm sure help them keep a little cooler.

[danna]

July 01----Happy Canada Day 145 years old.....
Welcome iforonwy


--spreadsheets all up to date, accounts balanced, and my net worth climbs some every month..yeah
--company for supper tomorrow and I have everything in the house to make a lovely meal
--sold stuff on Kijiji today for a total of $65.00
--made fresh spring rolls with shrimp for supper all from stuff that needed to be used up and bought previously
my challenge this month is to only buy stuff I use.
--only running the A/C when needed which has been pretty good considering the temps and humidity.