November Frugals (2014)

[cdttmm]

Rabbit, rabbit!

It's a new month, everyone, so that means it's time for a new monthly frugals thread. Post 'em up here so that you can share your frugally goodness with other forum members!

[kib]

I have decided to try hot water only washing of my hair, and to go with showers instead of baths. While I have found ways to use my bathwater in the garden and for toilets, I do honestly use a lot less if I shower (and can basically still flush my toilet with the amount of water I do use). Granted the switch will only save about $4 a month, but to me, resource saving is also gratifying. I'll have to see how the hair washing goes. From what I've been reading, doing without shampoo and conditioner can also lead to not needing other styling products, which could be a good savings all around if it works. Of course if it doesn't, I'll have to do some serious investment in headscarves.:~)

[Gardenarian]

Due to rains last night, I won't need to buy candy for another year (unless dd finds it :)

[chrissieq]

Found a path along Minnehaha Creek (a few blocks from home) that is as pretty as any state park path for the dog and I to add to our regular walks (for free).

Less than 20 trick or treaters last night - extra candy into the freezer for treats somewhere down the line or baked into treats for the holidays.

I'm no longer selling at an occasional sale, thus shopping way less and risking not making $$ back. But am sewing tote/shoulder bags and Xmas stockings that the shop is carrying. I am not buying any new fabric for these - using up the stash.

DH and I made - for the first time ever - menu plans for the week. Stuck to them and ate all meals at home. Made next week's plan over tonight's dinner.

[lessisbest]

-We have two small cars and we filled them with gas this morning using our store loyalty card fuel bonus points. We used the remaining points from October and saved 30-cents per gallon by filling both cars from one pump - since there is a 35-gallon limit per filling, and our vehicles wouldn't hold that much even if both were empty. I only get gas once a month and hubby fills his car twice.

-Sister-in-law wanted to buy some knitted dish cloths from me to give as gifts to some of her friends and to take with her when she winters in AZ. She'll pay me whatever she thinks they are worth to her.

-I'm due for an oil change and I have a 10% off birthday bonus I'll use this week. I also have a $10 off birthday bonus from ACE Home Center (on a $50 purchase) and we'll use that to buy a couple Christmas gifts (our family has a $10 gift limit) and some gardening things we need. November is a shopping month (on my every other month shopping schedule), so I'll finish the few things I don't already have purchased or made for Christmas gifts by the end of the month.

CVS had BOGO sale on a couple supplements we take, so yesterday I bought enough for 6-months.

[frugal-one]

Have been using JR Liggett shampoo bars. One for me that works for color treated hair. It is very mild and does not strip the color out. Also a bar for DH that he says works well for dandruff. Bars less than $5 and last a LONG time.

[Blackdog Lin]

kib - I haven't let shampoo or conditioner touch my head since the first part of June, and feel my hair is as clean and healthy as it ever was (and my hairstylist agrees - my last haircut I asked her what she thought about my scalp and hair). I do a baking soda scrub on my scalp once a week, and vinegar/water rinses for restyling during the week. I wish you well with your no -'poo experiment.

Same-o same-o on the frugality front. Cheap homestyle meals with aggressive leftover management. Stay out of stores. Don't drive, and when we do have at least 3 errands to run or things to do. Stay home and do autumn homeowner chores to get ready for winter, instead of going out. Minimal eating out. Etc. etc. So much of my frugality anymore is just ingrained and everyday - guess I need to try more experiments like my new no-'poo thing to expand my horizons!

[cdttmm]

Pretty much the same stuff happening here, too. Did the big grocery shopping runs this weekend. One trip to BJs and one to the regular grocery store. Total: $600 between the two. Seems crazy high, but at BJs I bought $100 in iTunes gift cards discounted to $85 plus cat food and bird seed (both bought with coupons), so this wasn't strictly "grocery" shopping. Then I bought a 6 month supply of fish oil supplements at the regular grocery store plus some fancy olive oil (at my dearly beloved's request). The good news is, these big grocery shopping trips used to happen every month and now I have them scaled back to about once every three months. There are still smaller grocery trips happening in between, but I'm trying to minimize those, too. I should really do a detailed comparison from last year to this year to see the progress we've made.

Aside from grocery shopping, cooked up the last of the dried black beans in the crock pot yesterday. Should have enough black beans in the freezer to last about two months. Made some homemade trail mix, too. That will serve as my snacks for work this week.

[merince]

I am finding that my frugals are more of the avoid doing kind. I am still staying out of the grocery store - I am stretching the time between major restocking trips. I am hoping to make it until 11/15. I was going to get some fresh fruit and produce yesterday but didn't. However, we do have a Bartlett pear in the yard and the kids picked some yesterday. Even though we had a frost they are still tough. I will have to make some kind of a compote or sauce with them. They keep very well when they are not bruised.

[lessisbest]

I located the container with bread ends and broken slices (homemade gluten-free bread, but I made the same recipes when I made all my own wheat bread with freshly-milled wheat flour) in the freezer and ground them into fresh bread crumbs in my food processor and made a recipe of "Bread Crumb Brownies". I have enough crumbs left to make a 1/2 recipe of bread crumb pancakes tomorrow morning. Years ago I made a cookie recipe using bread crumbs (found in one of The Tightwad Gazette books by Amy Dacyczyn), and over the years while going through the older books in my cookbook collection, I've found a number of user-friendly recipes that incorporate bread crumbs (fresh and dried). The perfect waste not, want not recipes.

[Gardenarian]

We bought our new house - and got it for $45,000 under the asking price!

We're downsizing, and will be able to walk or bike everywhere. We'll also have more time to garden, cook, sew, etc. I'm really looking forward to seeing how low our bills will be!

We will not be getting a landline in our new house - I'll report back how that goes.

Of course we'll be using a lot of that discretionary income for travel and other adventures...

[catherine]

More and more I'm being more drawn to really basic food. I spent an hour making brown rice last Friday and I just finished it last night--absolutely delicious, with some string beans, tomatoes, onions, and slivered almonds.

Right now I'm cooking up some soup bones and am going to throw them in the crockpot and make some good beef stock I looked up some ayurvedic recipes and so I combined a beef stock base with a vegetable ayurvedic stock containing that includes a bit of ginger, turmeric, cumin. I tried it out on DH (who is a 100% plain meat and potatoes kind of guy with a deep suspicion of Indian food) and he loved it, so I'm going to make a nice lentil and kale soup with it (using the kale in our garden). Should be very healthy! And cheap!

[chrissieq]

I agree that the most frugal thing I do these days is stay home, out of stores, using what we have. Working super hard at menu planning for lunch and dinner 7 days a week. Staying on point on those!

Just put together a gathering of former co-workers to meet next weekend. The general response was let's eat out and then go shopping. No judgements (well, maybe a little). But the day that worked for 6 out of 7 of us was the one date I can't make it due to previous commitments so I can wish them well, think of them kindly and go about my non-frugal day - volunteer at a food shelf then go to a birthday party for a 95 year old friend. I knew when I threw out the 4 dates that I would not be able to make that one but wanted to offer 2 day weekends for those of us who still work traditional hours. And that is OK with me!

[rosarugosa]

Gardenarian: congratulations on the house, and on getting a deal!
Circumstances delayed our regular grocery shopping trip last week, and we realized we could really skip a week and just pick up some odds and ends, so that's what we did.

[lessisbest]

We're enjoying beautiful fall weather where we use primarily solar heat (from a solar panel) during the day. Our home is insulated well enough if I turn the solar heat thermostat up to 75°F late afternoon, there is enough residual heat to keep the house warm until morning by closing off the 3 bedrooms and making sure the drapes and blinds are closed to help prevent heat loss.

One thing we've done the past 8-years since living here is to put bubble wrap on our windows as additional insulation. You can find more information at this link:

http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/Conservation/bubblewrap.htm

In the townhouse we lived at before here I made window quilts for all the windows (lots of layers of sewing and hardware to hang them with), but the bubble wrap is less expensive (I got mine free from a furniture store), and easy to reverse. Great for anyone renting. There is also a secondary benefit, you won't have moisture collecting on your windows from cooking or running a humidifier.

I do have 2 suggestions. Make sure you use distilled or reverse-osmosis water when applying bubble wrap to your windows. Minerals in tap water (especially if you have hard water) can actually etch the window glass. Cut the bubble wrap just a tiny bit smaller than your windows. If you are too generous with the bubble wrap, it will peel off at the corners.

[Lainey]

We bought our new house - and got it for $45,000 under the asking price!

...

wow, Gardenarian, that's got to be the forum's winner of the 2014 frugal savings award!

[rosarugosa]

DH made a great dinner last night with pumpkin we had in the freezer, a mushroom medley from Trader Joe's and risotto. Delicious! We also discovered that Costco has good quality frozen cod, so that's going to be a freezer staple for us instead of tilapia, which we've been hearing isn't such a healthy option.

[chrissieq]

So we are on week 2 of menu planning and it's going great - why didn't we do this years ago? Well, better late than never, right?

I did not have a plan for tonight because I was going to eat leftovers while DH met up for a meal with a friend who then had to cancel. But, good news and lucky us, my boss today at the cafe offered us dinner - it was a slow day at work. We are having stuffed pork loin, mashed potatoes and gravy and brussell sprouts with apples - yum!! I work again tomorrow (unexpectedly) and they offered to pay for the dog's day care in addition to my pay because they are swamped with lunch meetings - although my guess is that there will be no leftovers given the #s they expect to serve. But that is OK because I have a menu planned and all the ingredients here.

[Selah]

We are settling in to our new place and are trying to resist buying too much stuff, since I shipped a lot from Israel and it will all arrive, eventually. However, we've gotten a number of great deals for the kitchen at Goodwill, including a great clock radio for $2.99 with which I can joyfully listen to NPR again while cooking. Oh, how I've missed "All Things Considered" and "Fresh Air!"

[cdttmm]

We must be coming to the holiday season and the heating season and the true end of gardening season because this monthly frugals thread has been quiet! Of course, I've not been adding my usual 2 cents because...oh, right...things have not been too frugal around here lately! GAH!!!

But today I'm making a concerted effort to get back on track. I've made a couscous dish that we'll be eating for lunch and dinner and I'm draining some tofu to make fried tofu to go along with the couscous. Perhaps an odd combination, but these are the things we have on hand so these are the things we're going to eat! I'll also got plans to make a huge pot of Spanish rice so that we can eat it with the black beans that are already made and in the freezer.

It's finally getting cold here in New England, but we're keeping the heat at 58 degrees in most zones of the house and only bringing it up to 60 degrees in the zone that we're actually using if we feel chilled. Of course, I've got the lap blankets handy and cats and dogs to cuddle with so that definitely helps.

The switch on our bathroom heater has finally died so we ordered a replacement part from the company that made the heater and we're installing it ourselves. Definitely more frugal than paying to replace the whole heater or having someone else do the work.

Seriously considering skipping the usual holiday trip to MN to visit my family. I've been there three times already this calendar year -- it's been a record-breaking travel year on that front -- so I think skipping the Christmas-time travel is probably acceptable.

[Blackdog Lin]

cdttmm: 58 degrees! I salute you. Sincerely.

I could do 65, but DH.....he simply won't dress for the weather. I've spent all this week turning the thermostat down from 71 (yes, 71!!!) to 69 - so that I don't get all sweaty since I DO dress for winter weather in the house. He's getting ridiculous, and I don't know how to solve the problem without causing huge friction that I'm not certain is worth it. :(

[SteveinMN]

I could do 65, but DH.....he simply won't dress for the weather.
Is there a way to illustrate just how much it costs to heat the house to 71? Like him handing you cash to pay that bill? Or making him pay that bill? :) We have that difference here as well, but at least DW is okay with dressing for cooler weather since she does it most months of the year anyway.

We're probably doing just the usual frugal things right now. We're eating weird meals to get stuff out of the refrigerator because on Wednesday, we're flying to Florida for a cruise vacation. At least we'll save some on heating/electricity and hot water. A cruise may not be very frugal, but I realize I don't need a vacation as much as DW and our traveling companions do, and it's what they wanted to do, so... At least it is all paid for except for some incidentals. We'll have some Internet access package, but I most likely will not be posting here for a couple of weeks.

[ApatheticNoMore]

I could do 65, but DH.....he simply won't dress for the weather. I've spent all this week turning the thermostat down from 71 (yes, 71!!!) to 69 - so that I don't get all sweaty since I DO dress for winter weather in the house. He's getting ridiculous, and I don't know how to solve the problem without causing huge friction that I'm not certain is worth it.

I don't know that it's even worth it personally to be uncomfortable anymore. Ok it was a VERY hot summer not a cold winter that got to me (which of course is more likely here anyway - and it's hard to describe how bad this summer was) but a whole irrational spending spree followed. I was physically extremely miserable so I shopped. But I might like to shop anyway? That may be, but honestly it was sparked for irrational reasons and it happened twice during the extreme heat, the heat was just nearly driving me insane. I'm still recovering from some of that foolishness (as in shopping led to further stuff obsession, led to further shopping even when I wasn't still hot because then I was stuff obsessed to get "matching" stuff for my stuff etc.). Penny wise and backfiring in retrospect, at least for me.

[kib]

DH prefers to wear tee shirts all winter, but he sits on an electric blanket when it gets chilly, a compromise that works up to a point.

[rosarugosa]

ANM: Isn't it crazy how shopping begets more shopping? My DH calls it "the loosening of the purse strings syndrome." That's one of the things I hate about holiday shopping. I end up exposing myself to additional shopping temptation. My sister wants a new wallet for Christmas. I realize that my own wallet is getting ratty. I start looking online for wallets of a certain style, and then wonder if I can find one made in USA. I end up spending over 2 hrs of precious weekend time looking at wallets online. I take out my wallet again and realize it's fine, it's got at least a couple more years left in it, get a grip!

[JaneV2.0]

Christmas shopping? I always use the "one for you, one (or more) for me" system. Fortunately, I have fewer people to buy for than in the past. :~)

[cdttmm]

cdttmm: 58 degrees! I salute you. Sincerely.


I like to think it was my hardy Midwestern upbringing that allows me to endure the cold temperatures, but I think it's probably more likely that I'm lazy. I hate having to go out and load the wood-fueled boiler so the lower the thermostat the less often I have to do that chore!

[Blackdog Lin]

cdttmm - okay, I understand perfectly now, being an essentially lazy person myself. Yes, save time, save hassle, save work, save money, and just bundle up a little more. You go girl!

This would work awesomely for me if I lived by myself. :)

[lessisbest]

Not long ago I noticed the price of a pound of butter skyrocketing and did as much stocking up at Aldi as I could squeeze out of my food budget and stored it in the freezer. The price jumped from $2.69 to $3.49 shortly after my stock-up purchase. This week Aldi has butter reduced to $2.29 (still regularly $3.49) so I squeezed even more packages into the freezer to use for Christmas Cookies. It's also a must-have on popcorn Saturday night.

[debi]

cdttm: We keep our heat (while home) at 64 or 65. At night or when we're at work, it goes down to 55 - 58 depending on how cold it is suppose to be. The house is heated with natural gas (yes, out in the country here we do have natural gas). I was surprised because most rural housing in this area has propane, oil or wood-burning stoves or outdoor wood boilers.

I haven't posted much as I am still traveling trying to help my mother out with things (since dad passed away). Trying to catch up with all of the cc debt due to the vehicle having had issues while downstate and then the dog having had pancreatitis and being vet hospitalized. SO has had fewer hours at the job, so less income for him. My sister (who is a spendthrift gave me boxes of items), so I have been selling a few items on ebay, trendsey and on FB local rummage sale site. My sister told me that she has another 18 boxes of items for me:) So I told her that whatever I sell from those, I'll give her 1/2 of the proceeds. So this is a win/win for both of us:laff:.

[Teacher Terry]

Our house has baseboard heating so we have zones. During the day I put the heat on in the LR, DR at 68. At nite I put the heat on in the bedroom & close the door and lower the other rooms to 58. We have 3 old maltese dogs that are tiny & get cold even with sweaters. Without them I would probably keep it at 65.

[Blackdog Lin]

DH prefers to wear tee shirts all winter, but he sits on an electric blanket when it gets chilly, a compromise that works up to a point.

kib - I gotta thank you for this idea. It has possibilities.....hmmm.....

[cdttmm]

Another frugal move here -- drum roll, please -- I made egg salad. Yes. I know. You're all amazing at my culinary genius. :~) Here's the thing. I've always liked egg salad, but I've never made it. But I regularly make a dozen hard boiled eggs to have as lunches or snacks throughout the week. And suddenly I realized that I could make them into egg salad -- hooray! I did have to buy mayonnaise because we don't use it for anything else so I didn't have any in the house. Oh, and I made the world's easiest version of egg salad (because I'm lazy, as noted above), so it was just eggs, mayonnaise, and mustard. Next time around I'll get fancy and add some onions or celery. :D

And that's about the extent of my frugals as of late.

[rosarugosa]

Cdttmm: I'm impressed. Every time I make hard boiled eggs I have to look online and refresh myself on the instructions! :)
I earned $6.00 doing online surveys with Pinecone Research yesterday, and DH and I each earned $5.00 with Amazon doing Bing searches last week. It isn't much, but every little bit helps. I went to the Library yesterday and got two movies and the newest Stephen King novel. I also stopped into our local consignment shop and scored a good shirt, jeans and a necklace (of course not really needs, but very affordable in the wants realm and supporting a small local business at the same time).

[lessisbest]

I found 6 skeins of linen yarn at a thrift store Friday for 50-cents per skein. I will be knitting washcloths and wash mitts for Christmas gifts with it. Maybe hubby will make some handmade soap to go along with them. ;)

[rosarugosa]

I ordered some gifts from Amazon and was able to pay for $40. of my order with Bing rewards. DH made an awesome chicken stew last night, and we froze enough for 2 more meals, so the cost per meal of something so delicious was really cheap (he used Springer Mtn chicken thighs which are sort of expensive, but still less than $5.00 for the whole batch of stew).
I miss the voice of a poster who went by Babr. I used to get a kick out of how she would talk about how much money she saved by not buying things. It made some sense the way she did it, but you could also get silly with the idea (I saved $25,000 by not buying a car today, or was it $250,000 for not buying 10 cars?) Anyway, in the past week, I did succeed in talking myself out of a cashmere sweater for 50% off at Talbot's and some new bras (Buy two and get two free from Coobies online). So you could say I saved $130 . . . or not! :)

[Teacher Terry]

I received a 20.00 gift card for taking a survey so used it when I needed something on Amazon.

[rosarugosa]

Terry: A $20.00 gift card was a nice score!
We returned three packages of cat treats that our cat hated to Pet Smart. To my surprise, they let me return the one opened package as well as the two unopened. It would have been easy to let these just go to waste, but we got a $7.00 credit instead, and we were doing an errand at that plaza, so it didn't require a special trip.